March 21, 2005
Mother Nature Strikes Again
Last month, I reported on the record amount of rainfall California had
received. In my commentary, I noted how a series of unusual natural
disasters had been occurring in rapid succession. I particularly pointed to
the record number of hurricanes and typhoons that have occurred in
Florida and Japan during the last season.
Three weeks after the California deluge, yet another unusual weather
event has occurred in a corner of the globe. This time, Australia was
the victim of Mother Nature's wrath as a tropical cyclone struck its
coast.
In case you folks were wondering: a hurricane, typhoon, and cyclone are
all the same type of storm. The different names come from the regions
they strike.
Cyclone Ingrid menaced three thinly populated areas of Australia's
northern territories for more than a week. At one point, it had
strengthened into one of the most powerful storms to threaten Australia in
a generation.
It became a top Category Five storm over the Pacific Ocean, then it crossed
over Cape York Peninsula. Ingrid then reintensified as it moved west
across the Gulf of Carpentaria, then battered the Tiwi islands north
of Darwin. The cyclone exited by moving out into the Timor Sea.
Ingrid wrought the most damage in the aboriginal reserve of
Kalumburu, about 310 miles southwest of the Northern Territory capital
of Darwin. Winds packing 162 mph gusts devastated the exclusive
Faraway Bay resort.
Ingrid was the most powerful cyclone to strike Australia since the
early 1970s. Cyclone Tracy killed 66 people when it hit Darwin on
December 24, 1974.
What makes Ingrid all the more unusual is that Australia does not have
many cyclones. Because the storm ventured over sparsely populated
areas, its destructive power did not get much attention by the world
media.
Ingrid, by itself, is not a greatly significant event, but by factoring
in all the other weather occurrences that have transpired in the past
year, we get an indication that something unusual is afoot. The
mathematical compounding of possibilities is creating a strong
likelihood that prophecy might be the cause of all these disasters.
Under normal conditions, disasters measured as 30-year, 100-year, and
record events should not occur every few weeks. They should be taking
many years to occur. It's strange that I made this observation about three weeks ago,
and now I find myself making it yet again.
I'm amazed that the tropical storms have not caused global warming
environmentalists to sound alarms. Many leaders within the field of prophecy have
also failed to grasp the significance of these recent weather events. I
guess we are living in a time when our watchdogs have fallen
asleep.
Show Me Your Drugs
In the early days of Rapture Ready's existence, I received a lot of
input from visitors. As time passed, the level of
input drastically dropped off. One possible reason for this lack of
participation could be that newness of the internet has worn off.
My suspicion is that the Holy Spirit has allowed for this period of
prolonged prophetic malaise to continue in order to fulfill end-time
prophecy. Jesus said the time of the end would be marked by a think-not
hour (Mat. 25:13). What's bad for prophecy in general is good for the
timing of the rapture.
I keep pressing ahead because I know the site's glory days are still
ahead. When all has been said and done, the left behind visitors to the
site will probably vastly outnumber the people who visit RR before the
rapture.
I am working on a website the deals with spiritual problems
Christians suffer. To list the problem area, I plan to use a format
similar to the article, "End Time Ailments and Conditions." The titles are
humorous, but the symptoms and treatments are based on biblical truths.
The new article will describe fictitious drugs that can cure these spiritual
problems. Here are a few examples of some we have in the works:
Prayagra - take least once a day
Repenticillin - helpful to chronic suffers of diealitis
Jackasspirin - the headache remedy that goes to the source
Sudafast - The weight loss drug that benefits the soul
Beengay - treats sexual orientation dysfunction
Praiselox - For those times when you don't feel like praising the Lord
Whoremongoriang Therapy - treatment for over-active libido
Lust-X over the counter - mild remedy for lustful thoughts.
We are looking for people to send us ideas for other drugs that have an
amusing name, but that can be used to dispense a bit of biblical wisdom. If
you think of any, send them to Terry or myself at:
Terry James – wtjames1@swbell.net
Todd Strandberg – todd.strandberg@adab.centaf.af.mil
Snapshot of Satan’s Daughter?
Children are beautiful. Their innocence makes them especially so. Caught on film early on, it seems only goodness and happiness can come from the promise the new life presents.
The child grows in an environment uniquely his or her own, however, and promise all too often turns to disappointment, even tragedy.
God’s Word gives us an end-time portrait of a symbolic woman whose end exhibits the wanton life of a murderous, blood-thirsty prostitute. Her photograph is described to us as follows:
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration (Rev. 17:4-6).
Certainly this Revelation 17 portrait is of Satan’s daughter, all grown up. She has become Antichrist’s mistress, and rides that last tyrant’s power and government while murdering the saints of God. She lives sumptuously, and has the attentions of the kings and merchants of Planet Earth.
This woman is portrayed as the beast’s consort. She is Satan’s counterfeit of Israel, the wife of Jehovah and the Church, the Bride of Jesus Christ.
She represents all the religions of the world, come together to do the bidding of the false prophet of Revelation 13. She fulfills Jesus' prophetic forewarning that false prophets and false teachers will come on the scene in great numbers and will deceive the world into believing that one other than Jesus is the long-awaited savior of the world.
The world religions have for decades been meeting in great ecumenical enclaves at various places around the world. The fetus of one-world religion has thus been long gestating in the womb of the godless religion called humanism. The case might be made that now we have a portrait of Antichrist’s future mistress, the infant daughter of Satan to look at. She, in the form of false Christianity, is presently being proudly exhibited by American media.
She comes with the right birth certificate. A likeness of Christ is at the center of her handprint and footprint. She will be easily taken as the authentic representation of all that is good–and acceptable—within Christianity.
New York, 11 March (ENI)--A long-discussed grouping bringing together a wide range of US churches and church bodies will be officially launched in June.
The new organization, Christian Churches Together in the USA (CCT-USA), will officially inaugurate its work on 1 to 3 June at a Jesuit retreat centre in Los Altos, California…CCT is being formed to "widen and enlarge the table" of ecumenical action, cooperation and dialogue in the United States and is not expected, at least for now, to supplant the already existing National Council of Churches (USA)…
The latest US denomination to declare itself a founding member of the CCT is the Episcopal Church. The denomination's executive council committed the church to the new grouping during an 11 to 14 February meeting in Austin, Texas, the Episcopal News Service reported.
Bishop Christopher Epting, the denomination's chief ecumenical officer, told the news service that CCT-USA could "have the potential of moving beyond the old, institutional structures and bureaucracies of the ecumenical movement and tap into the new energies of a spiritual ecumenism."
ENS reported that in addition to the Episcopal Church and the US Catholic bishops, full members include the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Church of God, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the United Methodist Church, several Orthodox bodies, the Salvation Army, the United Church of Christ, Open Bible Churches, International Pentecostal Holiness Church, the advocacy group Evangelicals for Social Action, and the humanitarian organization World Vision… (Chris Herlinger, "New US grouping bringing more churches together set for June launch," Ecumenical News International, Daily News Service, 11 March 2005).
As stated above, the supposed Christ-centered pedigree is in their official jargon. It reads, in part:
The purpose of Christian Churches Together in the USA is to enable churches and national Christian organizations to grow closer together in Christ in order to strengthen Christian witness in the world. CCT welcomes churches, Christian communities and national Christian organizations that: believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior according to the Scriptures; worship and serve the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; seek ways to work together in order to present a more credible Christian witness in and to the world…
Sounds great, doesn’t it? The neutralizing antidote to the true message of the Bible, however, is hidden in the fine print:
Several bishops expressed concern whether there are sufficient safeguards in the organizational structure of the CCT to protect the Catholic Church from being associated with statements that contradict Catholic beliefs. Bishop Blaire said such safeguards are in place. He explained that the CCT will be able to take positions or issue statements as a body only if all its members agree: A single 'no' vote is sufficient to block a statement. He also explained that if a member church neither supports nor opposes a statement, it could 'stand aside,' neither voting for the statement nor blocking it. There is also provision for issuing statements with separate majority and minority positions attached for those aspects of a subject on which agreement cannot be reached, he said…
Paul’s forewarning resonates across the centuries of history: “Know this also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall…[have] a form of godliness, but [deny] the power thereof…” (2 Tim. 3:1-2, 5).
And again we hear the apostle’s words echoing down God’s great prophetic hallway of time: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Tim. 4:3-4).
The false church of the Tribulation won’t appear at first to be a pagan body that strays far from biblical truth. The deception, however, is already observable within the doctrinal statements of most of those denominations given as future members of the CCT. These, in almost every case, give the message that salvation is through Christ. But, they, again almost in every case, have a very different view of what needs saving and what salvation means.
In most cases, the environment of Mother Earth needs rescue and guardianship. The poor need fed. The homeless need shelter. The porpoises and baby seals need saved from extinction. These are all admirable things, to be sure. But it is not the Gospel message, nor truth from God’s Word about the matter of salvation or Jesus Christ and who He is and why He came to earth as both God and man.
To understand more precisely what types of issues this organization is about, I suggest you follow this link to the news item: Link .
Again, Paul the apostle speaks to the heart of the problem with regard to the forming apostate church: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8-9).
The picture we are seeing develop of the church that will become mistress to the man of sin is but one more signal of just how near we must be to the rapture of the true church.
--Terry
