America and the Gold :: By Terry James

The United States dominated much of this year’s Olympic Games in Paris. More than interesting to me is the gold the American athletes won for the apex nation of the world in relationship to another object of gold. That object is the infamous “golden cup” described in the Bible—first in Jeremiah 51:7 and second in Revelation 17:4.

My fascination centers around the wickedness surrounding the Paris Olympics. The games began and ended with blatant bookends of evil ostentation to anyone watching proceedings from the biblical Christian perspective.

More about my thoughts on all this later.

America burst forth from history’s slow-motion movement with brilliant inventiveness that would mystify if viewed from any perspective other than that of Bible prophecy. The stunning achievements within the mix of that quantum leap continue to engender awe. Human genius almost certainly had to have been infused with supernatural influence in accomplishing the exponential progress humanity has achieved within one hundred years. We have moved, within that time, from traveling at speeds horses can run to streaking at the speed of light through communications technologies.

The United States of America has been the nation at the very heart of the explosion of human technological progress. We have no peer in this regard. Just as God’s hand of providence guided the founding fathers in bringing the country to birth in 1776, so His omnipresence inspired the American genius and industry resident in the nation to achieve things essential to opening the book of end-times prophecy.

The prophet Daniel’s words resonate in our day:

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Daniel 12:4).

This ranks as perhaps the foremost signpost encapsulating our generation’s place on God’s prophetic timeline when considering the question about whether America is anywhere in Bible prophecy, even if not mentioned specifically by name.

The prophet’s words tell us:

1) There is a book that has written in it the end of all things regarding the human realm.

2) That book was purposely shut in order to not reveal details about the end.

3) The book was sealed during Daniel’s time, and no one would be able to break that seal.

4) The world would experience a great population explosion near the end.

5) The people of that future time would go at a phenomenal speed, literally to and from points all over the earth.

6) Humankind’s knowledge would increase tremendously.

Many, including myself, believe this detonation of knowledge at the very end includes an understanding about end-of-days prophecies from God’s Word, as well as human knowledge that has erupted like at no other time in history in what we now call the Information Age, which has grown out of the creation of the computer. The major implication in the first part of the prophecy is that the book of understanding end-times matters would be opened at the time of the running “to and fro” and of the exponential increase in knowledge. Therein is the validation of our claims that this generation is bumping up against the very end of the age and that the signals we are witnessing today are, indeed, signs of Jesus Christ’s soon return to the earth.

Again, the United States is inarguably the matrix out of which the geometrical progression of knowledge, thus the spectacular increase in our ability to travel to and from anywhere on earth, has grown. The unsealing and opening of the book Daniel told about by the angel might well have taken place during one specific incident about which we’ve all learned in our rudimentary studies of American history. The occurrence certainly seemed an explosive epiphany, with God reaching down to man in a spectacular fashion. More than coincidentally, I am of the firm conviction that one of America’s most famous founding fathers was the recipient of this brilliant stroke from the heavens.

Benjamin Franklin’s Shocking Experience

Benjamin Franklin, whom we know as one of the key founders of the US, in fact, appropriated through his God-inspired genius the key to the greatest discovery of humankind. His use of a key opened up new vistas dreamed of by only a very few inventive minds in previous history.

Franklin believed electricity could be harnessed from lightning. So, he tested his theory in 1752 by using a contrivance we’ve all become somewhat familiar with by way of our history books.

Mr. Franklin was knocked on the seat of his pants in a shocking discovery, as we know.

American Industriousness on Display

Of course, much groundwork was laid by others as well as Americans for the explosion of modern technological achievements. But it is American industriousness—a genius for taking groundwork laid and rocketing into the future with that foundational creativity—that makes the US unique among the nation-states of history. Electricity and its many fantastic applications have continued to power the still-surging explosion of knowledge and travel in the twenty-first century.

Like ancient Babylon, America has been a “golden cup” in the hand of God:

“Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad” (Jeremiah 51:7).

What a dichotomy! Babylon was considered a “golden cup” in God’s hand when equating the use of that cup to export wickedness on a worldwide basis, as described by the prophet!

We see that same “golden cup” next in the hand of the whore of Babylon—the false religious system—as she sits astride the Beast:

“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” (Revelation 17:4).

In both cases—the nation Babylon and the prostitute astride the Beast—God’s Word speaks to His judgment and wrath because of worldwide rebellion against His governance.

To my thinking, this absolute turning from the God of Heaven was manifest for all to see with the graphic display leading into and out of the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.

America, which sure looks similar to the Babylon mentioned by the prophets Jeremiah and John, has exported wickedness as have no other people in human history because of the tremendous technologies it has been instrumental in developing.

No such instrumentalities have made this more possible than electricity, computers, satellites, and the burgeoning artificial intelligence. And these are being used by the Ephesians 6:12 minions, both demonic and human, to make the world ready for Satan’s son of perdition, Antichrist.

America could well be pointed to as possibly being that “golden cup.” Certainly our most blessed nation in all of humankind’s history fits the description. And it looks as if the American “golden cup” of exported evil to the rest of the world will be used in God’s righteous indictment as He sits as judge to bring down the anti-godliness described by Jude:

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude 1:14-15).

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

The Liar and The Truth :: By Sean Gooding

John 8:44

“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

John 14:6

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'”

John 8:31-32

“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'”

The world we live in is binary. There are the lost and the saved; there are the right and the wrong; there are those who live in darkness and those who live in the light. Sadly, some have lived in darkness for so long that they have difficulty with the light. Also, some have lived so long in the lies that it is hard to accept the truth, and in fact, they can begin to hate the truth and those who speak it. This is the world that we live in more and more. Even many Christians have a hard time with the absolute truth.

I will offer an example: there is a group of ‘evangelicals’ that are planning to vote for Kamala Harris for the job of POTUS. These persons who claim Jesus as Savior, the same Jesus who said not to harm or offend children, will vote for someone who is openly pro-abortion. This one stance alone should be enough to sway any ‘evangelical’ toward any other candidate, but no, abortions it is. It is hard for us to come to the understanding that we have been lied to by the very people we trust way too often. They have told us that “up is down” and that “water is dry,” and for a long time, we believed them.

We trusted that welfare would help the poor and that the things they gave us would help, but now, more and more, we see that there were lies. Maybe at first, they did all with good intentions; but when they found out they were wrong, they had lied for so long that they could not go back and save face, so they kept up the lie.

Our bodies need cholesterol; our brains need cholesterol for good health. Yet, in the 1980s, they began this campaign against cholesterol; they started reducing it in our foods, taking pills to stop its production in our bodies, and with it came an epidemic of brain diseases like dementia and also other things. Cholesterol is essential in regulating our hormones, but they soon added seed oils and made things like lard and tallow (beef lard) and said it is bad for us; they are not.

They told our little girls that they could be just like men; they could work in the workforce, and they told our young people to sleep around and sow their wild oats. Then we had an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases. Children were born out of wedlock, and there was the rise of daycare, where we put strangers in charge of our kids for hours at a time. Sadly, our churches did not do much to stem the flow, and we incorporated this into our systems as well.

Our young people went off to pagan colleges and married pagan people and never came back. We, too, encouraged our kids to go and see the world rather than marry and have kids. Now, there is a serious lack of youth in many of our churches. Why? Because we accepted the lies that kids were a curse rather than a blessing from God. If we truly believed they were a blessing, we would want more and more.

Jesus has told us that Satan is a liar and the father of lies. We may hear these lies from different sources: the government, the classroom, your neighbor, or your best friend. But no matter where you have heard the lie, it is from Satan, and it is meant to trap, trip, and bind you and feed you some schemes that are contrary to Jesus’ teachings. As we get closer and closer to the end, the voice of truth will become more and more singular. Jesus is the voice of truth; His word is truth. Too many of us do not know the truth; we have not read or studied the Bible so that it is as real to us as the lies that have been put upon us.

There is no freedom without the truth. Lies are designed to enslave us and trip us up. Even well-intentioned lies can be dangerous. Only the truth frees us. Make the truth a regular part of your day. But not just Biblical truths, and there are many to learn. But seek truth in as many things as you can; go back and look at what you were told as a kid about many, many things, and it will make the truth of the scripture more and more real, powerful, and precious.

As we surmised as we began, we live in a binary world. There are only people who live in lies and those who seek and are open to truth. There are those so delusional about the lies that they will seek to quiet those who tell the truth, and eventually, they will make the truth illegal.

You may scoff, but there are people in the UK who have been arrested and tried for simply stating that there are two genders only. Just recently, a UK law enforcement person posted an invitation to Elon Musk to come to the UK so they could arrest him and try him for exercising his free speech here in North America. This will be coming to a government near you soon. Once again, the lies, let’s be tolerant, but not to Christians, not to conservative voices, not to truth-tellers. Let’s be tolerant of those that sound like us and shut down all who don’t. Satan’s minions are hard at work; remember, there are only two sides in the fight. Whether they knowingly or ignorantly speak lies, it is from Satan.

If you think we just need to find a hole and crawl into it until Jesus comes or for us all to become undercover Christians until Jesus comes and kills all the bad guys – think again; we can’t do that. We are called to be light in a dark world, we are called to be truth in a world of lies, and we are called to be love to those that hate us and our Lord. The truth will set you free, but freedom comes at a price. The price is that we have to live among the very enemies of our freedoms and try to love them as the Lord says so they can see the truth like we do.

Lastly, speak the truth at home, tell our kids the truth, read the truth, repeat the truth, and fill their ears and minds with the truth so that they can see the truth. The truth is in Jesus, John 17:17, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

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