Articles

Bibi the Conquerer

There is a story from the time of Benjamin Netanyahu’s first turn as prime minister of Israel, and it is slightly amusing but highly symbolic of how his political rivals seem to underestimate him, even today.

In the spring of 1996, Netanyahu was an electric, 46-year-old rising star. His education and years in America had blessed him with perfect English, thus making him Israel’s most articulate ambassador abroad, rivaling perhaps the famous Abba Eban, whose erudite bearing served Israel well in the early years.

This one evening in ’96, Netanyahu found himself opposite the wily old socialist, Shimon Peres, in a fight for the premiership. The two were to debate. This came on the heels of the failed Oslo Accords. Netanyahu, schooled in his family’s home for decades on a steady diet of Zionism, was ready for the spotlight. Peres, however, thought himself too clever. He thought Bibi was a lightweight, an empty suit, not ready for the moment.

As the two made uncomfortable small talk backstage, Peres calmly and quietly pointed to Netanyahu’s tie, and told him there was a spot on it. Rattled for a nanosecond, the image-conscious Bibi fiddled with the tie while Peres quietly chuckled. Whether there was truly a stain on his tie is irrelevant. It is instructive though to realize that Peres was not above telling even a small lie in order to rattle his opponent.

In any event, Bibi had the last laugh, narrowly defeating the old political lion by around one percent of the final tally. His subsequent three-year term (before going to early elections and defeat at the hands of former military and political rival Ehud Barak) was tumultuous, as he attempted to slow-walk the Oslo insanity. This caused members of the Left to despise him.

Now, as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Netanyahu is again neck-deep in political intrigue as his rivals attempt to outmaneuver him. Once again, he seems to have outfoxed them for the moment.

Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, once full of warm hugs for each other, are each jockeying for position as the true threat to the prime minister. More than three years ago, the two combined to form “Blue and White,” a new movement that sought to outflank Likud. Such alliances are never secure though, because at this level, there are no true bonds, only pragmatic ones. As soon as one political friend has outlived his usefulness, it’s time to jettison him for someone or something else.

So it is that as the two try to split Netanyahu’s followers over the judicial reform process, they are finding out that much like Donald Trump in America, the Boss has a solid base of true believers. So the question becomes: How do we elevate ourselves in the eyes of the electorate?

On a personal courage level, neither can match Netanyahu’s combat bravery (which, admittedly, he does not shy away from retelling). The photos of a wounded Netanyahu in the aftermath of the Sabeena airline hijacking in 1972 are hard to overcome, especially for a guy like Lapid. Too, Netanyahu immediately flew home from university in America in October, 1973, as Israel faced an unexpected existential war.

Again, like Trump, Netanyahu has to constantly fight-off a corrupt Media. Notice this editorial insertion in a piece in this week’s Jerusalem Post:

“In the world of media images and pollsters, Gantz is a star on a roll, but in the real world, in which no elections are in sight, Lapid is still the leader of the opposition and of the largest party in the anti-Netanyahu bloc, bonding him and his ex-buddy to cooperate and fight together against the judicial overhaul and other menaces of Netanyahu’s extremist and fundamentalist coalition.” [emphasis added]

It’s common to say now that Netanyahu wants judicial reform because he’s on trial for corruption. I happen to believe him when he appeals to it as a clarion call to establish a just judicial community. Various judges and others in Israel’s judicial system are just as politically corrupt as they are in America. Yet his opponents paint him as an equally corrupt guy only intent on sweeping away the legal challenges to his premiership, and to his personal freedom.

The word is today that Lapid and Gantz are just the latest allied duo bent on taking-down Netanyahu…but failing ultimately.

At the moment, Gantz has built a better following (Lapid’s soggy few months as prime minister don’t exactly inspire confidence in him as a better alternative to Netanyahu). His current 12-seat coalition in the Knesset could allegedly grow to double that if new elections were held.

But no such elections are on the horizon, and in Israeli politics, five minutes is an eternity. If, say, elections are called next year, Gantz might turn out to have only a handful of seats.

In fact, it’s almost fun to see Netanyahu’s political rivals talk day and night about his imminent demise and political obituary. Because at a moment they least expect, he wriggles out of danger and ends up more popular than ever.

In the end, Benjamin Netanyahu is a once-in-a-lifetime politician. His current rivals are not.

One cannot shake the feeling that he will be the man in charge as Israel navigates a time of unprecedented trouble, predicted in the Bible. I’d feel better knowing he was in charge in Jerusalem, rather than the pretenders to the throne.

We’ll see.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

“Clear the Way for Jesus”

About four years ago, I watched an interview that transformed my view of the Muslim problem in Europe. Since Muslims have about 8 children per family, it can be assumed that in a couple of decades, they will take full control of Europe.

In the nation of Sweden, the takeover is happening now. Even though they are only 25% of the population, their aggressive nature is dominating the country. A British film crew was trying to cover the Muslim problem, and they were immediately attacked by Islamic savages. There are zones in Sweden that are so tightly collected by Muslims, they might as well be a separate nation.

About 30 years ago, I visited Great Britain as part of my time in the Air Force. I was stunned by the contrast between the youth and the older people of that nation. Generally, people in their 50s had traditional British values, and people in their 20s had a common sour look on life.

I wondered what England would be like a few decades down the road. I recently saw a video of a man who was the manifestation of Britain’s degeneration. He is a TikTok blogger that goes by the name Mizzy.

His real name is Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, and he made social media posts that show him entering people’s homes, stealing their pets, going into a library and ripping up books, and riding on top of a bus.

The most disgusting thing about this man is his supreme arrogance. Because he is black, he thinks he has a free pass to be an absolute jerk.

He was on a news program with Piers Morgan and made this remark: “Are you trying to get onto me because I’m Black?”

Piers responded: “Why would I care what color your skin is? I just think you’re an idiot for what you are doing and for playing the race card when nobody has mentioned your skin color.

I don’t care about your skin color; I care about the fact you have been terrorizing all these people for a sustained period of time.”

Mizzy has been terrorizing people for over a year and has only been arrested once. He walked into a home and recorded a woman with her children. If he had entered my house, he would leave in a body bag.

Morgan said to Mizzy: “You’re an idiot and a moron” Since this guy’s goal in life is to draw attention to himself, I think Morgan is the idiot and the moron by having him on his show. I don’t favor people being banned from social media, but in this case, I think it would be a good idea.

One day I was in London, and I ran across a homeless man who had his hand out. He said to me, “Clear the way for Jesus?” I knew of this Jesus person, but I didn’t understand the clear-the-way part. I replied by saying, “What?” He then spoke frankly with me by saying, “I’m an alcoholic?”

I did several internet searches of this phrase, and I could not find anything on it. I assume it’s a reference to John the Baptist’s quote, “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight” (Matthew 3:3, ESV).

There was certainly no logic to me giving money to a drunk so he could sustain his addiction. The phrase has lasted with me all these years. By operating Rapture Ready, I see myself as clearing the way for Jesus.

We prophecy people think that the advancement of the gospel message is the key to when Jesus will come to the church. It is also true that people like Mizzy are helping to advance the timing of the rapture. Our Lord told us that as we get closer to the tribulation hour, the world will become more wicked. We simply need to watch events like the birth pangs of childbirth.

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14).

“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows [birth pangs]” (Mt. 24:4–8).

— Todd

Pondering Pride Month

Our Sodom-like society continues to rage toward the Judgment-producing moment in which Jesus said He will be “revealed” (Luke 17: 28). There will be at that future time, the Lord foretold, things going on which will look exactly like things that were happening as the vexed Lot observed his surroundings in the doomed city of Sodom.

We won’t look again in-depth at all the other prophetic signs Jesus and the prophets foretold. Suffice it to say, as we always do, that all signs given in God’s prophetic Word are in a state of convergence. All are coming at this generation with increased frequency and intensity.

In consideration of the one signal Jesus gave, likening His future moment of Intervention into the perverted affairs of mankind to the time when Lot and his family were removed to Zoar, the similarity is, of course, striking.

I’m not certain that the people of Sodom had reached the point of parading in the streets in celebration of the homosexual lifestyle. I’m not sure they had a perennial LGBTQ-plus Pride Month. But if I were a gambling man, I would be placing my bet that these things were taking place not occasionally but in never-ending fashion. I have no doubt that it was gay pride on steroids, as is said.

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that we, as a society and culture, have been moving ever more swiftly into Sodom and Gomorrah-like configuration. Thus, despite the fact that we are told the percentage of those among our population who are part of the LGBTQ-plus lifestyle is almost infinitesimal.

Some will say that it is the wickedness of the godless, mainstream media that makes the perversion seem ubiquitous and even dominant – that it is the heads of the corporate world hungry for profits who are embracing those of the small percentage among us. It is these who employ debauched merchandising strategies, thereby pouring massive advertising dollars into media in order to lure LGBTQ-plus shoppers that make the perversion appear more rampant than it actually is.

No matter what the strategy they claim or the proposition they put forth that they are simply just going about business as usual, and considering it all merely marketing, the Luke 17:28-30 prophecy seems to be taking shape before our sorely vexed eyes and ears. These days are a match, it seems to me, for the days of Lot which Jesus forewarned those 2 millennia ago while speaking to the disciples atop the Mount of Olives.

The Lord, in fact, likened those former times in Sodom to business being conducted as usual. But we know from history that the fate which followed that business as usual was complete annihilation of the twin cities. Jesus said the same fate awaits the people of that future time when the business as usual reaches the point that God’s Cup of Wrath is full to the brim.

The first thing on God’s list of the things He hates is seen in the following scripture we’ve looked at before.

“These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him.

A proud look,
A lying tongue,
Hands that shed innocent blood,
An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations,
Feet that be swift in running to mischief,
A false witness that speaketh lies,
And he that soweth discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:16-19).

A proud look heads the list of things God hates. So it is altogether appropriate to look at this thing they have forced us to endure called Pride Month. Even if they take the first word from the title as they are using it –the word Gay— the modern-day champions of Sodom and Gomorrah-like lifestyle is the heart of the designation.

But it isn’t just the matter of pride that is wrapped up in the present Sodom-Gomorrah activity.

The second thing on God’s list: a lying tongue speaks satanic words against the God of Heaven, accusing Christians and those who oppose the corruption of culture as being phobic and evil.

Other evil that God says He hates fester within the black heart of the Sodom-like comportment.

Hands that shed innocent blood are an almost inseparable wickedness of the radical mindset harbored within the militant homosexual movement, i.e., abortion – the shedding of the blood of the most helpless among us – is championed by the LGBTQ-plus community, almost without exception.

An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations is a matter that is in our faces in increasingly despicable and demonstrable ways.

Transvestites are allowed to interact with the very youngest of children in a most sexually aggressive manner. Children in grade school are encouraged to learn the most salacious perversions imaginable by schools and teachers, many who are themselves deeply active as part of the LGBTQ-plus movement. Parents who object have been considered the criminals and have been persecuted/prosecuted by courts steeped in support of a Sodom-like lifestyle.

Governments and even some physicians now, as part of the gay pride industry, alter the bodies and minds of those below legal age, hiding such activity in many cases from the parents of the kids.

Despite growing opposition to the assault being perpetrated by those who champion June as Pride Month, such as the refusal by much of the buying public to purchase goods from Woke franchises such as Target, Kohls and others, the franchise giants aren’t giving in to any great extent.

They are putting on display at point of purchase for even the youngest of children –including infants– their apparel that is of a transsexual nature. The garments are especially designed by those pushing the LGBTQ-plus agenda at every level of society and culture.

The pride that brought complete destruction to Sodom and Gomorrah is on full display for all to witness this month of June.

The most important eyes that are watching this display of Gay Pride are, of course, the Eyes of the God Who completely erased that long-ago homosexual pride from the plains near the Dead Sea.

Jesus foretold that just such a future people will suffer the same Judgment from Heaven. When believers are Called by Christ into His Presence, that type of destruction will begin falling.

It is not our place to hate those who practice, condone, or champion Sodom and Gomorrah-type activity. We, as believers, must, in Christian Love, pray that God’s Truth will Light their sin-darkened imaginations – that they will themselves Believe and be Saved from the Eternal punishment that all unbelievers face.

Here yet again is how to come out of sin and into Christ’s Presence either at death or upon the Rapture.

“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

5 Jun 2023

5 Jun 2023