End-Time Incrementalism
Most students of prophecy are familiar with the advancement of an end-time event following an exponential path. Jesus laid this out in his prediction that the end would come like labor pains. There is another pattern in Bible prophecy that can be best described as Incrementalism, which primarily is the result of man’s involvement in world affairs.
Incrementalism is a method of working by adding to a project using many small incremental changes instead of a few (extensively planned) large jumps. Logical incrementalism implies that the steps in the process are sensible.
Incrementalism is a term that is not compatible with scripture. God may use situations that involve incremental changes, but his will always calls for immediate action. If Satan had written a handbook guide for how he spreads deception, incrementalism would likely be covered in some chapter.
When Pharaoh attempted to use compromise, Moses would not take what was offered. Moses had faith in God and did not take the seemingly reasonable deal of the tyrant. As the plagues grew worse and worse, Pharaoh used incremental ploys to resist Moses’s call to “let my People Go.”
“So Pharaoh said, ‘I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Intercede for me’” (Exodus 8:28).
“Not so! Go now, you who are men, and serve the Lord, for that is what you desired.’ And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence” (Exodus 10:11).
“Then Pharaoh called to Moses and said, ‘Go, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be kept back. Let your little ones also go with you’” (Exodus 10:24).
Ancient Israel has a frequent problem with idolatry. As the worship of Idols would incrementally creep in with moral decay, the solution wasn’t to reverse the process. King Josiah is seen as the best example of how to reform from this sin. He did not put away some idols in order to maybe someday destroy the rest sometime later. He destroyed all idols throughout his land and established true worship.
“Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him” (2 Kings 23:25).
What makes Incrementalism troublesome to us today is that we are seeing it on so many fronts. The devil has been on such a lengthy winning streak, we’ve lost sight of how wicked the world has become. Most people don’t even realize how far we have drifted from the truth.
When I was a kid, most people praised and respected our founding fathers for giving us the greatest form of government mankind has ever devised. In recent years, the left has chipped away at America’s national heritage by dwelling on racial grievances. Lately, the attacks have degraded to pure hatred of everything related to American history.
When former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick told Nike he didn’t like a Betsy Ross’s flag on its footwear, the firm immediately pulled the shoe. The flag had nothing to do with slavery. Kaepernick spouted off because he has animosity toward all American flags. Because Trump has the slogan, “Make America Great Again,” the press has become fixated on publishing articles that seek to lower America’s standing in the world.
One of the most dangerous form of incrementalism is the attack on our freedoms. We have gone from the nation that greatly prized personal liberty to one where the needs of so-called minority group are given a higher priority. When liberals were outnumbered, they wanted special protection for their values. Now that they control large regions of society, their new motto is now “majority rules.”
When it comes to rules, there are no set guidelines. On social media, conservatives are being marginalized for offenses that leftist groups get a free pass to violate. In the past few weeks, several people on the right have been banned for insulting posts. And yet, we have groups like Antifa beating people with crowbars, and their accounts face no restrictions.
When Twitter froze actor James Woods’ account because it just didn’t like his conservative views, I gave up on the site. Woods said he is also done tweeting, saying, “Until free speech is allowed on Twitter, I will not be permitted to participate in our democracy with my voice. As long as Jack Dorsey remains the coward he seems to be, my Twitter days were in the past.” Twitter censorship just marches on. The site says it will start labeling tweets from influential government officials (President Trump) who break its rules.
It is very unlikely that we are going to see any change in the direction of incrementalism. Because we’ve been on this path for so long, the natural onset of reprobate thinking makes the chance of any U-turn a remote possibility. In the face of this madness, believers need to abide in God’s truth and wait patiently for the rapture.
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Romans 1:28).
“If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).
–Todd
Deeper Understanding of Deep State’s Doings
While the demonic activity blatantly bursts forth as the end of the age nears, there comes forth, in my view, sparks of God-revealed enlightenment. Such enlightenment flashed, I believe, in recent disclosures surrounding the 2016 presidential election.
A major reason the unveiling is so obvious is that it involves what is considered the number-one signal by most who hold to the pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy. The matter is at the heart of the so-called Deep-State machinations as the internecine battle rages in this nation and worldwide. The global agenda, as we’ve seen numerous times in these commentaries, was dealt a stunning blow by the 2016 presidential election. Reverberations from that blow continue to quiver and shake like loosely congealed Jell-O. The globalists are in a rage, desperate to regain their geopolitical equilibrium.
Bible prophecy foretells that they will, for a time, accomplish their satanically inspired goal.
Britt Gillette has written perhaps the best piece I’ve read on the globalist madness. He writes, correctly, that we are in a time of backlash against the never-ending assault on national sovereignty. However, that assault bores full-speed ahead. Gillette indicates that the fact is that the youth of today–the Millennial generation—because of luciferian education (my term) will provide the overwhelming basis for the globalists ultimately accomplishing the satanic mission.
Gillette gives the basis for his conclusion: The Millennials embrace: 1) Freedom of movement (open borders); 2) Climate change (Millennials’ greatest fear); and 3) Global government (Millennials trust in strong, central government to provide largesse, the surveys show).
Excerpts from Britt Gillette’s commentary follow.
Current voters may reject the globalist agenda, but according to several surveys, future voters don’t. Globally, the Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) outnumber both the Baby Boomers and Generation X, and they believe the concept of being a citizen of a single country is outdated. To them, global citizenship is the way of the future…
While recent political developments show a backlash against globalism, all they’ve done is slow the inevitable march toward global government.
Why All This Matters
So why should you care? You should care because we’re on the cusp of a new era. Ever since the Tower of Babel, tribes and nation states have governed the world. Nations meant well-defined borders, language, and culture. Many people dreamed of global government, but that’s all it was–a dream. Such a government would never work in reality. Local interests and values would triumph, and administering a global government would be an expensive, bureaucratic nightmare. But this generation is tearing down all the obstacles to global government. (“The Unhindered March Toward Globalism” By Britt Gillette, https://www.raptureready.com/2019/06/20/unhindered-march-toward-globalism-britt-gillette/)
As promised, we’ll look more closely at the very heart of the present insanity raging against President Donald Trump and all that seems rational. It is rage, most of all, against the God of Heaven, who mandated the founding of nations and borders in the first place, as seen, for example, in Genesis chapter 11.
Generating mischief at this black heart is the entity that has become known as the Deep State. It is both a loosely knit entity that crosses all international lines and a tightly configured cabal that festers within the most secretive places within the top echelons of America’s and Britain’s intelligence services.
The Deep State threatens the very foundation of constitutional America. These eloquently documented, written borders the Founding Fathers set up–under the guidance of Providence—must be removed in order to bring about the devil’s desired platform–the platform from which he can launch his Antichrist regime.
We get to the very nucleus of the Deep-State efforts through an excerpt of a recent news item.
The story exposed, through the American Center for Law and Justice, how the Obama administration top official laid out a basis for doing harm to the incoming administration’s ability to govern. The official, it appears, colluded with a 60 Minutes producer to set up the resistance to the Trump administration.
Newly uncovered documents show that Samantha Power, ambassador to the United Nations under Barack Obama, while submitting 260 unmasking requests seeking surveillance information about the incoming president and his campaign, was simultaneously engaged in “a move to undermine the incoming administration.”…
[Power wrote to] Bill Owens, the Executive Editor of 60 Minutes: “We’re still reeling here, as you might imagine. My mission to the UN is a cabinet agency under President Obama, but will be demoted to something very different in January. Notwithstanding this, Tuesday’s results have given us an even greater sense of urgency to get our work done in our last few months. 70 good long days left!”
The documentation shows, ACLJ said, the Obama administration “was fully engaged in attempts to do whatever they could to undermine the conservative agenda and the will of the American voters.” (“Obama’s Top U.N. Official Part of ‘Hate Trump’ Campaign” – WorldNet Daily, Thursday June 27, 2019)
The real agenda of the so-called Deep State, for the most part unwittingly, is identical to that of Satan’s agenda. It is a most profound effort by the fallen one as part of the Ephesians 6:12 struggle. At the center of that struggle–the globalist agenda—is the rabid desire to destroy God’s chosen people, the Jews–Israel. As we proclaim constantly, the Bible presents the case that Israel is the number-one sign of where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline.
The news excerpt further exposes this agenda:
[Samantha Power] also raised complaints in a email through an article headlined “Donald Trump isn’t even president yet and he’s already making waves at the U.N.”
Power complained about Trump’s opposition to a U.N. proposal that Israel be sized down to its 1967 borders.
ACLJ explained it earlier had expressed concern “the Obama administration was intentionally attempting to undermine the state of Israel through a cowardly act at the U.N. Now we know, they were at the same time displaying their utter disdain for the incoming president. (Ibid.)
The key thing to take from this commentary is that God’s primary action/purpose in seeing to it that the 2016 election came out as it did, rather than as experts predicted and hoped, was in defense of His chosen nation. It certainly is considered a miraculous turn of events by many–myself included.
Those involved within Deep-State intrigues likely haven’t a clue as to what really drives them. Perhaps I am naïve, thus underestimate Satan’s dark, deluding, power to so obviously make manifest his agenda through such a humanistic consortium. It could be there are those of the human sort who fully know what they are about on Satan’s behalf.
Regardless, all indications are that things are shaping for the moment when Christ will withdraw restraint and the diabolist globalists –both human and supernatural, will get the one world order they seek. Thankfully, it will very soon be brought to an end by the returning King of all kings and Lord of all lords.
You want to be a part of that returning heavenly army (Revelation 19:11). You don’t want to be left behind to face what is now on the immediate, end-time horizon.
Again, here’s how you can become part of that returning, heavenly army and not be among those on earth who will suffer untold horrors: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).
–Terry