The Aftermath of New Zealand Massacre

It has now been five times in the past four years that I have reported on a massacre that is regarded to be the worst ever of its kind in a nation’s history. Since the last one was in November, with the mass murder of Jews in the US., the killing of 50 Muslims in New Zealand comes as no great surprise.

Normally, the killer of a Muslim is another Muslim. Because those stories occur so often, they disappear from the top of newsfeed like the morning fog vanishes under a blazing July sun. With the attacker being a xenophobic white supremacist, the press will eagerly feed on this tragic event for weeks to come.

The first news flash promised immediate changes to gun laws. There was no talk of debate. The legislative process in New Zealand quickly moved to restrict people’s ability to own several types of guns.

The next thing I noticed was an embargo on the video of the shooting that Australian Brenton Tarrant has streamed on Facebook as he carried out his deadly crime. The video was 16 minutes in length, and it mostly shows him driving around the city. The part where he shoots people is very grainy and only lasts a couple minutes. I think the video is important because it shows how quickly a determined terrorist with the right weapons can kill large numbers of people.

Even though the video has been viewed by millions, the New Zealand government has decided that they have the power to block access to this information. In this dangerous power grab, government officials are saying that social media giants don’t deserve their freedom as an open format. For too long, terrorists have used them with impunity, so it is time for counterterrorism specialists to move in to heavily regulate these social media sites.

If you are a New Zealand citizen and are found with a copy of the massacre video, you can face up to 14 years in jail and a $200,000 fine. An 18-year-old man was denied bail at a court in New Zealand after he was charged with distributing a live stream of the shooting, the New Zealand Herald reported. The teen was initially charged with publishing material insulting other races and ethnicities, but that charge was withdrawn and replaced by the two new charges.

I think it should be up to an individual to decide if they want to watch a gory video. When governments and activists step in to decide what should be censored, you end with total suppression of negative information. If New Zealand telecom had been primary news sources for the past 100 years, the attack on Pearl Harbor; the assassination of president John F. Kennedy; and the second plane hitting the World Trade Center would be judged too shocking for the public to view.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has the crazy idea that the killer was only out for fame, and she is determined to block his main goal by blotting his name from history.

“I implore you: Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them,” she told the gathering in the city of Wellington. “He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless,” she said.

President Tayyip Erdogan described the New Zealand attack as part of a wider attack on Turkey and threatened to send back “in caskets” anyone who tried to take the battle to Istanbul. Erdogan’s remarks earned a rebuke from New Zealand’s foreign minister who said it could endanger New Zealanders abroad. I’ve long considered Erdogan to be a political lunatic but think, in this case, he has a better grasp on reality than his New Zealand counterparts.

If the name Brenton Tarrant is going to be forgotten, it will be because there were so many other terrorists in history that his name gets lost in the crowd.

Years ago, an event like the New Zealand Massacre would trigger a spiritual revival in society. Today, an act of insanity just causes people to respond with more insanity. The level of lunacy that I’ve witnessed indicates to me that the end must be very near.

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:1-4 ESV).

–Todd

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The Age of Accountability Question

Some time ago I received an email in which the correspondent expressed his adamant belief that there is no such thing as the “age of accountability–i.e., he declared that those under such a fictitious age will not automatically be transported into Heaven by Christ’s shout at the time of Rapture.

I replied that he had touched on a topic that is a hot issue with yours truly. On this, I give no quarter, whatsoever. But, through experience in dealing with the issue, I am fully aware that no matter what evidence I offer to the contrary, those who accept 1 Corinthians 7:14 as dealing with children and the Rapture consider it a verse that stands alone as proving their point that only children with at least one saved parent will go to Jesus in the Rapture. And, most won’t change on that.

Here is that Scripture: “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy.”

Even the great Dr. John Walvoord believed this Scripture indicates that only the child below the age of accountability who has at least one “saved” parent will go to Christ when He calls the Church to Himself.

I’m name-dropping, I guess, but I asked my good friend, Dr Walvoord (he wrote  a number of chapters for my books and we were indeed good friends and talked by phone and in person on occasion), if he could give any other Scriptures that backed up the contention that this verse indicated as he believed.

He thought for a moment and shook his head no. “No, I can’t,” he said somberly.

I no longer debate the matter when given a contrary opinion, but respond one time and one only.

This is a salvation matter between Jesus Christ and the child (an eternal matter–not a matter dealing with physical life and death). It is not a matter of earthly relationship (child to parent) and religion (to church affiliation) or morality (to personal conduct).

Children who have died physically and children who will be taken in the Rapture have in common the fact that they were/will be instantly with the Lord. This is because they are seen in God’s merciful economy as innocents, considering the factors as dealt with in this treatment of the subject.

Most importantly, it is an INDIVIDUAL matter–God dealing one on one, not collectively or corporately with the salvation issue.

Acceptance of Christ is based upon a decision to accept or reject. If a person doesn’t have–and has never had–the ability to accept or reject because he or she doesn’t have the mental capacity to understand, they cannot accept or reject.

The Bible says that those who know to do good and do it not–to them it is sin. Conversely, I believe that the whole body of Scripture presents the case that if one doesn’t know they are lost because of sin, they are not condemned. But, when maturity that brings understanding comes (and the Holy Spirit draws them, convicting them of sin), they must accept God’s offer of reconciliation.

The very character of God, as presented throughout the entire Word of God, is at stake. All in Christ will go at the Rapture. Paul says “all will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” What does this mean–“all” that are “in” Christ? It refers to the fact that all who are redeemed by the shed blood of Christ are a part of the Body of Christ–the Church.  The child–even though born into sin because of Adam’s disobedience–is “in” Christ before he/she is able to comprehend God’s salvation provision. None who are in Christ will have to face the wrath of God during the coming Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week).

One area of Scripture regarding the wrath of God that addresses the position of all in Christ–thus the Rapture–is found here in 1 Thessalonians: “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” (2 Thessalonians 5:9-10). During this Age of Grace (Church Age), all who are born and have not reached the age of understanding–thus accountability–will go to Christ when they die. This is totally in keeping with God’s character, again, as plainly laid out in God’s holy love letter to mankind.

All of the children who have died–before maturing to the point of being able to make decisions regarding salvation–are now with Christ. To God’s holy praise, that includes every one of the millions upon millions of babies this evil world system has aborted and continues to murder. This number of “innocents” includes every child who has been slain in wars throughout history or who have died due to other causes.

The Scripture that talks about the name being blotted out of the Lamb’s Book of Life deals with this, I’m convinced. The names of all who are born are in that book, I believe. Once the child reaches the age he/she realizes Christ is the way to salvation, but rejects God’s way (John 14:6) have their names blotted out. They are written back in when salvation does occur in the only way God prescribes.

And, I’m convinced that not one child born after the Rapture into that horrendous, seven-year era will ever reach that age. Thus, all children born following that event will go to be with the Lord–either upon their deaths, or during the sheep/goats judgments following the triumphant return of the Lord Jesus. As a matter of fact, read Jesus’ words here: “And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!” (Matthew 24:19).

Jesus is talking here about the Tribulation era–the last seven years of human history before His Second Advent. The Lord mentions two age classifications: 1) children who are in the womb, and 2) those who are so young that they are still at the mothers’ breasts.

There is no mention even of toddlers–i.e., these children have been conceived or born during the Tribulation period. And Jesus is talking here about halfway through the seven-year period.

All children below the age of being able to make decisions on the salvation matter will go to be with Jesus–I have absolutely no doubt, after studying the matter for forty-plus years.

I respect thoughts and beliefs of others on the matter. But as ol’ Dr. J. Vernon McGee used to say with a chuckle, “You have room to disagree, but if you want to be right, I’m sure you’ll want to come along with me.”  ( I say this, even though Dr. McGee, like Dr. Walvoord, most likely held to the generally accepted seminary line that 1 Corinthians 7:14 indicates contrary to my position. I don’t recall Dr. McGee’s belief on this issue.)

We will see the truth of it when we stand before Christ. I believe that time is not far distant.

–Terry

Modern Monetary Theory

During the past several years, the Federal Reserve has been managing our growing national debt by using a series of financial terms. The shell game started with the Fed taking on the role of our rich uncle and did Quantitative Easing. The Fed reinflated the stock market by loaning the Treasury $3.5 trillion.

Then came Operation Twist in 2011 where the Fed sold short-term Treasury securities and bought long-term Treasuries. By selling a two-year bond and buying a 30-year bond, the Fed was giving Washington 28 years to balance its financial books.

Next came Quantitative Tightening where the Fed would sell off the bond it had on its balance sheet. When Wall Street had a negative reaction to the actual unloading of bonds, the Fed said our credit is so good, it would end the program and hold onto the bonds forever.

The new term that is becoming popular in Washington is Modern Monetary Theory. The core teaching of MMT is that a nation with the ability to print its own money can never go bankrupt. It can always fund its spending by printing more money. The nation’s deficit can be managed by simply printing money to pay for the shortfall.

MMT can trace its origins back over 100 years, but it has gained renewed popularity in recent months thanks to freshman Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and economist Stephanie Kelton. When people add the cost of her proposed Green New Deal to an insane $22 trillion-dollar national debt, AOC said we can use MMT to pay for her program.

Some would argue that the Federal Reserve would never fall for MMT, but former head Ben Bernanke has already laid out the framework for how MMT could work. Bernanke traveled to Tokyo in July 2016 and suggested a way to stimulate the Japanese economy. He said the Ministry of Finance, Japan’s equivalent to our Treasury, should issue non-marketable perpetual bonds with a zero-coupon that the Bank of Japan would buy with printed money. The Japanese government could then use the money from these bond sales to pay its bills.

A perpetual zero-coupon bond means the principal never has to be repaid, and no interest payment is ever due. Bernanke was basically suggesting the issuance of a new form of currency. Cash never matures, and you do not have to pay interest for holding it. He should have just said that Japan should print vast amounts of yen.

Abraham Lincoln once posed the question: “If you call a dog’s tail a leg, how many legs does it have?” and then answered his own query: “Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.” Abe would have felt lonely on Wall Street. MMT is simply the printing of money for the purposes of funding government spending. It has been tried hundreds of times and has always led to massive inflation.

The Treasury Department is currently using “extraordinary measures” to prevent the US from breaching the debt ceiling. As of the 9th of March, the US officially hit the debt ceiling, capping the national debt at just over $22 trillion. The Treasury can fund the government until late September or early October by using an array of bookkeeping tricks.

The US is not the only nation that is allying MMT to its government spending. Last month, China unleashed a massive credit expansion. In what was dubbed the Shanghai Accord 2.0, the People’s Bank of China announced it had flooded the economy with a gargantuan 4.64 trillion yuan in various new forms of debt. Injecting nearly $700 billion in credit in one month was more than the GDP of Saudi Arabia. In the past 40 years, Beijing has increased the money supply by an amazing 10,000-fold.

Since assuming the premiership in 2013, President Xi Jinping has been a consistent critic of the large-scale stimulus that their predecessors launched in response to the 2008 financial crisis. It is dumbfounding to traders that Xi complains about the dangerous increase in debt by others, and then does the same thing himself.

In a normal world, any attempt to implement MMT would mean instant financial disaster. The same basic financial rule has worked for thousands of years. If you print too much of your own currency, its value will collapse.

The ability of the world’s central banks to throw all cares to the wind is not the result of some new economic miracle. I am convinced that the rapture is the reason why such reckless spending is going unpunished. Everything is to remain calm right up to the moment the Church is removed. To reach the irrational level of MMT spending, it tells us that the end must be very near.

“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Mat. 24:44).

–Todd

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Third Temple and Trump

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. (Isaiah 50:10-11) 

God has spoken the precise consummation of history. His Word about these matters will come to pass. The world’s global elite might not like it; the diplomats of the world might resent it. God’s word about the wind-up of history, however, cannot–will not–be changed.

In filming documentaries on prophecy, whether it’s about Bible prophecy, or prophecy by the Nostradamuses of their times throughout history, the documentarians make sure a certain statement is made in summation: “These prophecies are given as a warning. They are given so we can alter things we as human beings do in order that these terrible things not come to pass. Man can change the outcome if he only strives to do so.”

The Lord of all Creation says: “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” His Word says further: “yea, let God be true, but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4).

God’s prophetic Word will come to pass–100 percent, even if it comes to pass in ways and through people, places, and things we don’t necessarily foresee or understand.

Developments of a profound nature seem in the making. some who observe things going on behind the scenes in Israel believe those developments are farther along than might be suspected by those of us who are most diligent in observing and reporting on the prophetic weather. I must admit that I don’t particularly like the way things are shaping–that is, I don’t like to have dissolved my neat, little order of how I perceive prophecy unfolding.

The Lord doesn’t always proceed in neat, little ways in order to get things done. Looks like I would have figured that out in 76-plus years of living. He, as often as not, uses the good, bad, and the ugly to work in fulfilling His ultimate will.

While not a sure thing, it looks to some as if He might be allowing the unfolding of a couple of prophecies, using all three ingredients to bring about stage-setting for the Tribulation and Armageddon.

Movement toward the building of the Third Temple in Jerusalem is almost certainly and swiftly racing forward. My friend, Tom Horn, CEO of SkyWatch TV is, in my estimation, among those leading in the examination of developments in Jerusalem concerning building of the Third Temple. Recent developments indicate just how near the Tribulation era might be, based upon apparent Temple planning.

Horn states on his ministry website that developments in the plans for the Third Temple “are, in fact, earth-shattering, and will accomplish nothing less than altering the course of history. What is about to unfold could set in motion arrival of Antichrist and Armageddon, followed by the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.”

Regarding intrigues in Temple planning, he writes further, “It’s happening right now behind the scenes in clandestine negotiations between global powers and religious leaders.” Horn and others observe that some of the Jewish clerical hierarchy are convinced that American President Donald Trump equates to the reincarnation of a Cyrus-like figure. Cyrus was a king whom some rabbis believe the God of Israel raised up to initiate the Messianic era and construction of the Third Temple.

On a more cautious note, I’ll report that Tom Horn offers that Saudi Arabia, Jewish religious leaders, and Donald Trump are negotiating behind the scenes to transfer control of Israel’s holy sites—including the Temple Mount—to the Saudis, to complete a “peace covenant” that could result in, among other things, the building of the Third Temple. This unverifiable conjecture–as I view it at this point–has yet to be seen, but it is worthy of consideration because of other developments of significance.

A Jerusalem Post article reports the following:

A senior reporter for the Al Riyadh, one of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent newspapers, claimed that the US President Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century” will divide Jerusalem.

The reporter Hadeel Oueis wrote on her twitter account that “The Old City of Jerusalem will be divided in half: the Arab and Christian quarters will go to the PA [Palestinian Authority], while the Jewish and Armenian quarters will fall under Israeli control.”…

Oueis further tweeted that “Arab areas adjacent to Palestinian Area A and B will go to a future Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.”

Saudi Arabia has been in touch with the US administration regarding the peace initiative, as it was rumored that the deal will include recognition of Israel by surrounding Arab countries. (“The U.S. Peace Plan Will Divide Jerusalem,” Hadeel Oueis [@hadeelOueiss] March 5, 2019])

It is quite disconcerting to yours truly that this president could be complicit in developing plans that God’s Word says will leave to His bringing all nations into the Valley of Jehosephat and the killing fields of Armageddon. However, the Lord’s prophetic Word will be accomplished, regardless of the people, places, and things involved in its fulfillment.

You and I need not be a part of that history-ending conflict and all the carnage leading up to that bloodiest of all wars. Simply and genuinely believe that Jesus Christ died to redeem you from the dread sway of sin. Then confess with your mouth that God has raised Him from death, and you will be saved. You will go to be with Christ instantaneously when your heart beats its last beat, or at that glorious moment of Rapture when the living and dead are called into His presence forever.

–Terry