The Baby Formula Nightmare

I first noticed there was something odd about baby formula when Walmart installed cameras to constantly monitor the shelves holding the product. It struck me as odd that this item would be a high theft risk. About half the sales of baby formula come from government-provided funds. I learned that you should never doubt Washington’s ability to turn a simple positive plan into a disaster.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) was established as a permanent program in 1974 to safeguard the health of low-income women, infants, and children up to age 5 who are at nutritional risk. This mission is carried out by providing nutritious foods to supplement diets, nutrition education (including breastfeeding promotion and support), and referrals to health and other social services.

There is a major crisis in the feeding of America’s babies right now because parents in some areas can’t get baby formula. A few months ago, a major producer of formula – Abbott Labs – shut down its main production facilities in Sturgis, Michigan, which had been contaminated with the bacteria Cronobacter sakazakii, killing two babies and injuring two others.

If you thought the contamination at the Sturgis plant would send Abbott Labs into panic mode, you would be wrong. The CEO of Abbott Labs has only made a few general statements about the incident.

Abbott has denied its formula is to blame, with the company telling Bloomberg that “There is no evidence to link our formulas to these infant illnesses.”

“Abbott called the recall a “short-term hindrance” and said it was working closely with the regulator and has begun implementing corrective actions and enhancements to the facility.

Abbott shares rose 2.4% to $122.90 in morning trade as some analysts said the comments during the conference call allayed worries over the recall. Despite the recall and supply chain issues, Abbott beat quarterly profit and revenue estimates in the first quarter.

Abbott Labs, Mead Johnson, and Nestle produce 98% of the formula in the U.S. This monopoly is why Abbott Labs doesn’t need to worry about losing any market share. The country has been carved up where one of the three firms will dominate a region. Most states only allow women to buy baby formula from one company, though each company offers a bunch of different brands.

To save money, the government requires states to hold auctions to get the lowest price for formula. The problem is that state agencies use a complex rebating system to give the contract for the entire state to one manufacturer, and that contract can only be changed once every four years.

This rebate system distorts the entire market in a state because it’s just not worth having alternative formulas on a retail shelf if half of the buyers simply cannot purchase those formulas. As a result, the market tips to the WIC supplier, and that supplier raises prices on non-WIC recipients and does so by between 26-35%.

Abbott Labs, Mead Johnson, and Nestle use lobbyists that work with the FDA to keep out any newcomers. Even though baby formula from Europe is much cheaper, no Congress member has any incentive to change the rules.

Baby Formula made in a third-world nation may actually be safer. According to Healthy Babies Bright Futures, baby formula made by the big guys in the U.S. is full of dangerous brain-altering heavy metals. HBBF tested thirteen different baby formulas, and every single one had “detectable levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead and/or mercury,” which are all considered to be neurotoxic, interfering with brain development and “causing permanent IQ reductions in children.”

Moreover, FDA inspections of Abbott plants are obviously a disaster. Abbott had old and dirty equipment making formula, falsified records, deceived regulators, had a bad product tracing, and did not fix problems after discovery. FDA inspectors noticed problems with the plant in September but ignored them. Then, a whistleblower told the FDA of these problems in October, but regulators didn’t even bother to interview him/her until December.

What is taking place in the baby formula trade is certainly occurring in a hundred other industries. If America had a greater moral foundation, this crisis would not be taking place. It stands as one more indication of why judgment is coming to our nation.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it” (Proverbs 9:10-12).

–Todd

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The Gog Factor

Everything north of Israel is shaping into a configuration that my great, late friend, Chuck Missler, would have found interesting and, as he would put it, “provocative.”

He did a lot of research and put much study into the Ezekiel 38–39 prophecy. He would have found, well…provocative…how things in the regions above God’s chosen nation have lined up for fulfillment of Bible prophecy. He wouldn’t have been surprised, but totally fascinated, and would be stimulating us with his superbly intelligent diagnoses and prognoses of things, things that are, and things that are to come.   

Particularly of interest to him would be an in-depth look at the prophetic character known as “Gog” of the Ezekiel foretelling of the Gog-Magog invasion of Israel.

In one of his many writings on who Gog might be, without ever naming anyone in particular as a definite person he thought it would be, he wrote:

Amos 7:1 in the Greek translation reads a little differently: “The Lord hath shewn me and behold a swarm of locusts were coming, and behold one of the young devastating locusts was Gog the King.”

When I discovered this, Hal Lindsey and I dug into some research. The locusts in Revelation 9 have a king, Apollyon or Abaddon, but Proverbs 30:27 says that locusts have no king. So these locusts are not natural locusts; they are demon locusts. If that’s the case, then Gog, who is the king of the locusts, is a demon king. (“The Magog Identity,” Chuck Missler, Koinonia House)

Missler, then, it can be accurately said, helped establish among many Bible prophecy scholars and students that the term “Gog” is descriptive not of a particular human being, but of a demonic entity. Certainly the character described in God’s Word will be driven by satanic force to attack God’s chosen people. Gog is a demon spirit that indwells the leader of the force that will make that fatal plunge into the area called “over the mountains of Israel.”

A question we can ask to help us do our own look into these times is: “Do we see any indication of such demented-type thinking among leaders of key nation-states in Ezekiel’s prophecy about the Gog-Magog assault on Israel?”

It’s a good question, to be sure. We’ve seen in the past few years the development of upside-down thinking that is described precisely by God’s own words through the Apostle Paul. We cannot dismiss His diagnosis and prognosis of concerning humanity’s collective dementia, both in the spiritual realm and in the human, cognitive realm. We have lived through that development hour by hour, particularly on social media forums such as Twitter and other channels of often insane rantings.

Here is God’s condemnation of those who turn their backs on Him.

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; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 28–32)

So the question, again, in light of the fact we are in times like that of the antediluvians and of Lot’s time in Sodom, is appropriate. “Do we see any indication of such demented-type thinking among leaders of key nation-states in Ezekiel’s prophecy about the Gog-Magog assault on Israel?”

Russia is the most front and center in this matter—the question of the Gog-Magog assault prophesied by Ezekiel. Almost certainly, Russia and its leader will be at the forefront of the attack. The leader of the assault at the time of the prophecy’s fulfillment will be the leader of Russia.

Many have expressed that Russia’s current president, Vladimir Putin, will be the leader of this force. I don’t necessarily believe Putin is that man, but certainly hold that he could be, considering that the obvious nearness to the very end of the Age of Grace is upon us.

That man, whomever he is, will be indwelt by the demon spirit “Gog” at the time of the attack. Recent reports by those observing Putin have some interesting things to say about this powerful former Soviet KGB agent and now leader of Russia.

A Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin confessed to a Western colleague that Vladimir Putin is “very ill with blood cancer”, according to a report.

The billionaire, whose name has been withheld for his safety, was allegedly secretly taped in mid-March expressing his contempt for the “crazy” Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine…

“The problem is with his head. … One crazy guy can turn the world upside down.”…

Russia’s secret service is said to have circulated a memo to regional chiefs around the time of the recording ordering them to ignore rumours about Putin’s health.

Many intelligence officers reportedly interpreted the rare communication as confirmation that their president was indeed in a serious condition…

Footage emerged in April in which Putin’s hand appeared to shake uncontrollably while he firmly gripped his chair.

Earlier that month, an investigation suggested he was under near-constant supervision by a cancer surgeon and other specialist doctors who would typically monitor a cancer patient.

Speculation over the nature of his possible ailments has varied from Parkinson’s disease to cancer of the thyroid, a gland in the neck that controls heart rate and body temperature.

Paranoia, impulsive behaviour and delusions are known symptoms in patients with advanced Parkinson’s. (“Putin ‘very ill with blood cancer’ says top oligarch in secret tape,” The World News, World News Platform, Great Britain)

Reports of Putin having mental issues are becoming more frequent. Whether these are true can’t be verified. What is true is that the one who will be possessed by the Gog demon will “think an evil thought,” as Ezekiel puts it.

In the US, the reports of the American president suffering from possible cognitive issues are rampant. All we have to do to investigate these accounts is to watch his public appearances and judge for ourselves individually as to their veracity.

The demonic powers and principalities are at work; this is easy for discerning Christians to determine. The spirit of Antichrist is everywhere we look on the prophetic horizon. The “Gog factor” is something to be considered while we watch the hourly news move throughout the various platforms.

For the believer, the “Gog factor” being on the prophetic horizon means the “Rapture factor” is even more profoundly in view.

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28)

—Terry

The Supreme Court Ponders Reversing a Key Abortion Ruling

A riot-grade security fence has been set up around the Supreme Court. Someone leaked a document that showed how various justices would vote in a major ruling on Roe v. Wade. It appeared that 6 of them would vote to strike down the 1973 ruling that made abortion legal.

Roe vs. Wade should be overturned because abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution. We had many federal and state laws that said you can’t murder an unborn child, and nine men had the ability to void the rule of law. Justice Byron White dissented from the Court’s decision. White’s dissent, which was issued with Roe’s companion case, Doe v. Bolton, argued that the Court had no basis for deciding between the competing values of pregnant women and unborn children.

The supporters of abortion are a very strange group. Most of them are never going to have an abortion, but they are cheerleaders for other people to take the life of an unborn child. If there was a greater focus on planning and contraception, there would be far fewer abortions. Any child that a woman cannot care for or simply doesn’t want can be put up for adoption.

I think it is highly unlikely that Roe vs. Wade will be struck down. The Justices may have shown how they may vote in this straw poll, but when it comes to the final ruling, at least two of them will change their minds. Pressure groups, the liberal media, or Satan himself will work to make Roe vs. Wade the standard for why abortion is still legal.

I was very pleased to read that Justice Clarence Thomas had stated that government institutions can’t be “bullied” into giving people the outcome they want, multiple news outlets reported. Why it matters: Thomas didn’t directly address the leak of a draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, but he acknowledged that recent events at the Supreme Court might be one symptom of a judiciary that he views as threatened by people who are unwilling to “live with the outcomes we don’t agree with,” per the Washington Post.

Most of the leftist members of the Supreme Court have a voting record so faithful to the democratic agenda that they don’t even need to show up for oral arguments. It doesn’t matter if a law or a previous ruling was poorly written or based on false statements; they’ll vote left like a political machine.

Soon after being elected to the U.S. Senate, Joe Biden was pulled aside by a Democratic colleague who wanted to know how he was going to vote on abortion. Biden explained that while he was personally opposed to abortion and would resist federal funding for the procedure, he didn’t want to impose his view on others by overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Today, you’re not allowed to have a personal opposition to abortion. Biden chants the abortion talking point that appears on his teleprompter.

One of the clearest indications that the Supreme Court is a cult of personality that rose up around the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg: she died in 2020, and several items she once owned are now selling for big bucks. In one action, all of the auctioned items sold for well above their pre-auction estimates. A mink coat owned by Ginsburg with an estimated value of $500 to $1,000 sold for $16,000. A medal given to Ginsburg by the National Women’s Hall of Fame had an estimated value of $1,000 to $2,000. It sold for $30,000. In a January auction, items from Ginsburg’s library were sold. The auction house estimated the items would sell for a total of around $60,000. Every item sold well above its estimate, earning a total of $2.4 million.

Ginsburg was seen as a hero by the left because she was a key vote to support the abortion cause. She had many health problems in her final years, and every time she got sick, the liberal media noted how vital her vote was to abortion. Some believed that, in the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Ginsburg was waiting for candidate Hillary Clinton to beat candidate Donald Trump before retiring because Clinton would nominate a more liberal successor for her than Obama would.

It is interesting that there is no record of Ginsburg’s reaction to events. Once Trump won, her only option was to live long enough to make it through Trump’s presidency with a new president installed. She died four months too early as Amy Coney Barrett became her replacement.

I think many people need to question their own moral foundation when they place abortion on the same level as their most sacred beliefs. You aren’t protecting a basic right; you are in league with the angel of death.

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).

–Todd

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Re-Thinking Rapture Issue

The “what” in the old and trite saying, “what goes around comes around,” has again come around, and I must try to face the matters involved. I must do so honestly and with Holy Spirit insight–the source of inspiration I always strive to enlist in any writing endeavor.

A controversy of sorts has again arisen. It involves the question of what the word apostasia means in the Apostle Paul’s prophecy in 2 Thessalonians 2. I say it has again come around because I formerly held that the word apostasia meant a spiritual departure, or “falling away.” A decade or more ago, I come to believe that apostasia means a spacial departure—a removal from one place to the other.

Just recently, I have again been confronted by strong evidence that the word apostasia means “spiritual departure—a defection from the faith.” Lee Brainard’s book, The Correct Translation from the Greek Text of 2 Thessalonians 2:2–3, brought around again the question that divides highly credentialed theologians and neophytes such as myself. His is a tremendously resourced and documented study. Here is a link to his interview about his book with Mondo Gonzales, host of Prophecy Watchers TV. The interview is enlightening and quite fascinating: https://youtu.be/foieU6RkgeE

To look at a bit of context, the following is from my introduction to our book, The Departure: God’s Next Catastrophic Intervention into Earth’s History.

The ascended Jesus, through John the prophet, speaking to the true Church—the believers who will be alive at the time of His coming for them ( John 14: 1-3)—said the following:

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)

Paul prophesied the following about this very same time of God’s future “testing” the world of rebellious earth-dwellers—the time of God’s wrath. He was writing to believers—the Church.

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. (1 Thessalonians 5:9–11)

“The Departure” is the meaning of the Greek noun apostasia, which Paul used in his second letter to the Thessalonians.

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1–4)

The “falling away” term of this passage in KJV is taken from the Greek noun apostasia. Extensive studies in the Scriptures confirm for the authors of this book that this word in almost every case means  a”departure from”—a physical departure.

The Thessalonians were worried that the “day of Christ” had already come, as some were telling them, and that they and their dead loved ones who had been believers had missed Paul’s prophesied departure—the harpazo (the Greek term) or the “snatching away” that Paul had  prophesied in an earlier letter to them (read 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18).

Paul was assuring them—and, by prophecy, all believers of the Church Age—that the “day of Christ” had not come. They would, Paul assured, be gathered unto the Lord before the Tribulation and the revealing of the son of perdition, Antichrist, took place. There would first be “the Departure.”

Every spiritual weather indicator points to the Tribulation storm that is about to break upon a judgment-deserving world. Millions of believers in Jesus Christ as the one and only Savior will vanish in the twinkling of an eye—an atomos of time that can’t be divided.

Each author of this book believes the Departure is about to take place. Consider carefully their words herein given. These are true spiritual meteorologists—and, in my opinion (yours truly excepted),they are true prophets of God in this latter-day sense. Look up. Lift up your head. Your redemption is drawing near. If you belong to Him, you are about to make one giant leap!

So, with my book on the subject of 2 Thessalonians long ago set in type and on bookshelves, can I now change to accept that the word apostasia (the “falling away” in KJV) means “a departure from the Christian faith” rather than a “departure of believers—the Rapture”?

Well…yes, I can—but I won’t do so, at least not for now. There are too many things to check out and compare. And frankly, I don’t think I’ll ever have the time to go in-depth as the scholars and others I’ve looked to for understanding have done—and then compare that to the tremendous research Lee has done on his recent work.

The main thing that’s been brought to my attention by very dear friends who hold that 2 Thessalonians 2:2–3 is a spiritual rather than a spatial departure based upon the Greek term apostasia involves, they worry, whether Christians can know who Antichrist will be before the Rapture—i.e., this ability of whether to know Antichrist before the Rapture, they believe, is based upon the interpretation of apostasia.

They believe that possibly being able to recognize Antichrist wouldn’t change the Rapture from being a pre-Tribulation event. The Tribulation doesn’t start until the “prince that shall come” signs the covenant of false peace with Israel and many other nation-state entities. Therefore, there is a time when Christians can and should recognize that “man of sin” before they are raptured.

Those with this concern worry that if Christians see the Antichrist come to the prophetic stage, they will begin to believe we will go through the Tribulation. The pre-Trib Rapture would then be seen as wrong. The ramifications will be terrible, with suicides and other harmful actions and reactions. But if they see in the word apostasia that it is a spiritual, not a physical or spatial departure, they will understand that Antichrist isn’t necessarily “revealed” after the Rapture of the Church. There is still room, in their view, then, for the Church to recognize Antichrist. As a matter of fact, my friends believe the Antichrist is recognizable even now.

His identity isn’t the point of this commentary, so I’ll not divulge it here.

My own view hasn’t changed. I continue to believe it’s a physical departure. But I am willing to change if further investigation, with the Holy Spirit as guide, affirms that apostasia means a spiritual departure.

If it means a spiritual departure, we have certainly been witness to that for years. True, it is getting much more apparent in these truly wicked times. Either way, our Lord is about to call us to be with Himself as given in Revelation 4:1.

You will not want to miss that call by the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the way you can be certain that you hear Him in that glorious moment!

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