Dec 3
...And It's Putin in Landslide
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party have won a huge victory in
Sunday's election. Putin graciously thanked the Russian people for giving his party a
mandate for change.
Well, that's what I'm assuming will happen. I'm writing this article on Friday, and I see
no need to wait until the actual "election," if it can be called that.
The Russian election is one huge sham. I have not seen a more corrupt election process
since Saddam Hussein carried out a yes or no ballot on his presidency and he claimed to have received 100 percent of the vote.
What made this vote necessary is a constitutional requirement that Putin step down as
president in May. Unable to run for a third term, he set up a system that would allow him
to continue to hold power as Russia's Prime Minister.
Putin did a lot to prepare the way for this vote. First, he made changes to electoral laws, largely pushing opposition parties out of the political system.
Among the most important are:
- Increasing the minimum percentage of votes required for a party to enter parliament
from 5% to 7% and banning parties from forming coalitions in order to break through the
higher threshold.
- Increasing the minimum number of members a party must have in order to be officially
registered by the authorities, from 10,000 to 50,000.
- Banning independent candidates from running for parliament.
The next step for Putin was to take full control of every major media outlet in Russia. One by
one, television, radio, and print publications have come under state control. The three
national television networks are all Kremlin directed. Many of the remaining independent media outlets have been bought up by Gazprom, the state national gas company.
The only evidence of free press that's left is the operation of a few small-circulation
newspapers.
The final step has been fraud, intimidation and bribery in the voting process. Several
leaders of the other Russia-opposition coalition have been arrested for no valid reason.
Many Russians say they are being pressured to vote at work under the watchful eyes of
their bosses--at the risk of losing their jobs. Others say they have been promised money if they vote for Putin's party.
Former chess champion and Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov has dismissed Russia 's
parliamentary election as a farce that will push the country toward what he called a
"single-party dictatorship."
I'm deeply disappointed in how Washington has responded to this farce. President George
Bush did say he was "deeply concerned about the detention of numerous human rights activists and political leaders." Judging by the severity of Putin's actions, Bush's comment of “concern” might as well be interpreted as a ringing endorsement.
In the near future, I expect Bush to greatly regret not being more forceful with Putin. Whenever someone heads down the path towards dictatorship, it always end badly for that person and for the nation seized. Like the old saying goes, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Autocratic leaders don’t like to be static. Once they achieve victory, they are always looking for new conquests. History would warn that Eastern Europe is in danger, but I think this time around, Israel is the one that needs to be watchful.
In the past few years, Terry and I have frequently suggested that Putin could be the Gog leader that attacks Israel. If he is the man, we will probably soon find him very interested in Middle East affairs. The next confrontation between Israel and one of her Arab neighbors could draw Putin into fulfilling Bible prophecy.
"And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with
thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: And thou shalt
come up against my people of Israel , as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the
latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I
shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes" (Ezek. 38:15-16).
-- Todd
The End-Times Invasion
Part 1
These are strange times. The times are, I believe Bible prophecy tells us, scheduled to get even stranger. Yet, there resides within the portentous days in which we find ourselves excitement born of anticipation.
Jesus foretold such a time just before He again intervenes into the affairs of mankind by returning to destruction-bound Planet Earth. He said: “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man” (Lk. 17:26).
Jesus prophesied that the generation alive at the time of His Second Advent will be living in circumstances like the generation that experienced the flood of Noah’s time. The Lord went on to say that things would–on the surface of life—seem normal for the times. “They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage…” (Lk. 17:27a). But, those days –just beneath the surface of business-as-usual--hid a tsunami of cataclysmic proportions. Jesus indicated that the wickedness swelled subtly within that generation, and that the antediluvian world rocked along, “…until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all” (Lk. 17:27b).
I propose that Jesus was speaking to specific causes that set in motion that flood of Noah’s day, and deluged that generation beneath the global tsunami, when He predicted: “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” The Lord was forewarning, I’m convinced, that 1) violence like the violence that filled the whole earth will mark the generation alive just before He comes back at Armageddon; and 2) there will be an invasion of Planet Earth on a scale like that which assaulted the antediluvians. These particular characteristics will mark the end-time generation as being like it was in the days of Noah.
Scriptures attest to these ungodly characteristics of the days just before the global flood. This, despite the fact that some “theologians” go to great lengths to deny the veracity of God’s Word in reporting those times.
Actually, those two pre-flood characteristics were inextricably linked, the second being the chief cause of the first. God’s Word reports the great invasion:
“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose… There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Gen. 1-2, 4).
God’s telling of the truth of this invasion from other worlds next gives the effects and the actions necessary--caused by the fallen angels that rebelled with Lucifer, who then produced offspring with human women.
“And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them” (Gen. 6:6-7).
The terrible effects in particular that apparently filled God’s cup of wrath and made Him say, Enough is enough," are seen in the following: "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth” (Gen. 6:11-13).
God cannot lie. Jesus is God, the Creator of all things. He prophesied that it will again be like it was in the days of Noah, when the time of His return to take over the planet from earth’s rebels nears. We have only to look around--view today’s headlines—to know that we are in a time that is marked by violence. As a matter of fact, we are engaged in a “War on Terror”! The very nomenclature given the conflict shows the nature of Planet Earth’s present generation of humankind.
The Apostle Paul tells more specifically about the nature of this end-times invasion–an invasion identical to that inflicted upon the final people of antediluvian times. We are so familiar with the Scriptures that we see this alert by the great apostle as a sort of ho-hum part of Scripture. It is not so. It points to where we are today, in the middle of an all-out assault by creatures from another dimension. Paul writes: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12).
Many of you know that my first novel, The Rapture Dialogues: Dark Dimension, dealt with this eerie but most relevant topic. Although presented in a fictional setting, I believe the Lord intends to use the story to warn where we are on His prophetic timeline, and forewarn of the all-out return of the other-worldly beings far more deadly than could be any so-called extraterrestrial beings from other planets.
The tremendous fascination by media and the secular world in the sightings, apparitions, encounters, abductions, etc., are obvious by the number of hours devoted to these things on nightly TV fare. But, the real story can’t be found there. The real story is reported from the pages of God’s Word.
Now, if I may interject a bit of a commercial for my latest book. My new novel will be released Wednesday, December 12. It is a sequel to The Rapture Dialogues.
The second novel is The Nephilim Imperatives: Dark Sentences." I’m asking you to purchase the novel from amazon.com on Wednesday, December 12. You will be given $80 worth of free gifts by the publisher if you will buy The Nephilim Imperatives at amazon.com on that day.
Please make the effort to order from amazon.com on Wednesday, December 12. This will help greatly in making the book a wide-selling, well-reviewed book. I can’t thank you enough for your interest in the previous novel. I prayerfully hope and believe you will be intrigued by the continuing story.
Next week, my commentary will continue with Part 2 of "The End-Times Invasion." We will examine carefully the character called Antichrist, and where that “son of perdition” might fit within the end-times invasion of Planet Earth.
--Terry
***Terry’s new novel –more information***
Please see the brief overview of The Nephilim Imperatives: Dark Sentences at --Click here--
--Terry
