11 Apr 2022

Vegetarianism Has Become an End-Time Religion

It has become clear to me that vegetarianism has transformed into a religion for millions of people. They live the vegan lifestyle, and they are more than happy to share their diet with everyone. Just as Christians seek to convert the lost by bringing them to the cross, vegetarians seek to create a works-based salvation. The new Mayor was recently giving a news conference, and he proclaims, “I eat plant-based centered life.”

The powers that be are on track to repeat the energy disaster that led to the current massive shortfall of fossil fuels. If the government sets goals on when we will stop eating meat, the likely result will be a shortage in protein. The left would cheer a no-meat-by-2035 deadline. Because of the disinvestment in animal farming, people would be starving by 2027.

Vegans can be so hateful to omnivores, their actions are often cultic. They have the moral high ground, and everyone needs to hear them. Here are three statements from people who posted online:

“I haven’t personally met every vegan on Earth, but every vegan I’ve ever met has tried to force their beliefs on others. Some of them have just said outrageously terrible things to me, others have started an online mob campaign against me, and others have tried to get me fired from my job. So there is definitely a varying degree in the intensity of the attacks, but I have never once met a vegan who could just live their life and let me live mine.”

“I’ve lost count of the number of so-called ‘friends’ who became vegan and then almost immediately fell out with me simply because I’m not vegan.”

“I am probably one of the most un-vegan people in existence (meaning my entire diet revolves around meat and animal products) simply because I don’t agree with the ideology behind it. Namely, I don’t agree that not eating meat or animal products will end animal suffering, which seems to be one of the main reasons for somebody becoming vegan.”

In 2019 an Australian woman sued her neighbors because the smell of BBQ was drifting into her yard. Claiming they were doing it on purpose, Cilla Carden told a TV reporter, “All I can smell is fish. I can’t enjoy my backyard.”

She feels that if she can’t enjoy her backyard without the aroma of meat and fish cooking on the barbie, her neighbors shouldn’t be able to enjoy their backyard either.

So far, it seems the courts are taking a dim view of her contentions. Her complaint was tossed out of court last year. She filed an appeal, but the Supreme Court of Western Australia rejected it as well. She reportedly has vowed to keep fighting.

The end result may be just the beginning of Cilla’s troubles. It seems that in response to her legal challenges, her neighbors are organizing a neighborhood cookout outside her home. According to a Facebook page, the event is being called “Community BBQ for Cilla Carden.”

“Don’t let Cilla destroy a good old Aussie tradition; join us for a community BBQ, and help Cilla Carden get some pork for her fork,” the event description reads. The event never took place because Facebook blocked the page.

It is rather remarkable that most, not some, of the worst genocidal maniacs were vegans. Genghis Kahn, who terrorized most of Asia, killed 1,780,000 people in just one hour. Pol Pot, who murdered 2 million Cambodians, or one-quarter of his fellow countrymen, was also an avowed vegan. The same is true of Joseph Stalin, who mostly ate walnuts, garlic, plums and pomegranates. He also drank copious amounts of wine.

There is no question that Charles Manson was a confirmed vegetarian, and he was also very vocal about animal rights. I guess it’s okay to kill people, but you’d better not be killing any puppy dogs! A more recent vegan gone mad was Adam Lanza, the nut job who killed 20 innocent kids in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newton, Conn.

Joseph Goebbels, who was Hitler’s propaganda minister, developed this whole media campaign around the idea that Hitler loved animals so much that he couldn’t eat them, and this proved that he could never have any people killed. Needless to say, it was not the most successful propaganda campaign in history, if you know what I mean? Hitler was also said to be an ardent opponent of torture and the dissection of animals. I guess it didn’t bother him that his Nazi underlings chopped up and gassed millions of humans before burying most of them in mass graves. But you’d better not be kicking any cats around!

Hitler often had meetings with his top Nazis and always tried to dissuade his colleagues from eating any meat. Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s Deputy Fuhrer, was so vegan that he brought his own veggie meals to these dinners. At the end of his life, Hitler mostly ate beans and mashed potatoes. No wonder he suffered terrible bouts of flatulence.

The Apostle Paul, in the book of Timothy, predicted that vegetarianism would be a sign of the latter days. Mankind is always looking for some way to find salvation. By abstaining from eating meat, even people like Hitler can view themselves as good moral beings. The only way to true salvation is to be washed in the blood of Christ; anything else is just a distraction.

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving” (1 Timothy 4:1-4).

–Todd


Prophesied Power-Bloc Players Appear

Such a great many end times stage-setting issues and events are inundating our hourly news that it is as if they are wearing camouflage, blinding the prophecy observer to things actually transpiring. In some cases, we don’t see developments in their actual, dynamic context; they’ve become so prolific that we’re desensitized to their importance.

This has, to this point, definitely been the case of developing geopolitical power blocs foretold by the prophetic Scriptures for the rollout of the end of human history. While the Second Advent approaches, the alignments of nations should become increasingly observable.

We’ve gone over a number of times the developing one-world order. We’ve examined, in general terms, the European Union and its likelihood for being the nucleus out of which the Antichrist kingdom will form. We’ve explored the fact that three major players that will make up the Gog-Magog coalition force of Ezekiel 38–39 have formed north of Israel.

We have looked—again, in general terms—at China and it becoming the king of the “kings of the east” found in the prophecies of Revelation chapters 9 and 16. However, there’s now appeared a definite formulation of end-times geopolitical entities that insinuate at least a degree of demarcation, so far as final arrangements for the abrupt end of this Age of Grace and the beginning of the Tribulation era are concerned.

I believe three distinct power blocs that are important to the playing-out of prophetic fulfillment have just emerged with the recent coming together of two primary nation-spheres. And by “spheres,” I mean to imply those two nations and the vast regions that now or will soon come under their hegemony.

Before we look at those, I want to mention the nations of the Western alliance, as it is generally configured.

The United States, for the most part, is still at the helm of this bloc. Europe is a growing influence, with guys like Emmanuel Macron of France and others making a lot of noise in attempts to shape how Western culture and geopolitics will control the masses from here forward. This group almost certainly is destined to shape things to come.

So, I believe we are looking at the Antichrist empire in its gestation period. These, in addition to some Arab states in the Middle East, will likely comprise the group of countries that will send the note of protest when the Gog-Magog attack occurs. It is more than merely conceivable that Antichrist will anticipate that carnage, and will march in to claim his place in prophetic history despite that the Lord God of Israel clearly will have won the day.

Now to the most recent development that has piqued my interest.

The lead-in to the following news more or less depicts the matter. I’ll let it speak to the developing situation.

Lavrov: Russia, China Moving Towards Multipolar “Fair World Order”

Lavrov and Yi were seen on Chinese state TV in face masks bumping elbows in front of their national flags shortly before the meetings – which Lavrov will attend – to discuss ways to help Afghanistan….

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov affirmed Thursday his country’s keenness on the steady and continuous development of relations with China, noting that the two countries intend to move forward towards “a multipolar, fair, and democratic world order.”

Lavrov has arrived in the Chinese city of Tunxi to participate in the third Meeting of Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan’s Neighboring Countries.

At a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, the Russian minister expressed that Moscow is “interested in our relations with China developing steadily and consistently, our leaders – President [of Russia Vladimir] Putin and President [of China] Xi Jinping agreed upon this.”

He indicated that “Today, as you have said, we will consider concrete steps to ensure that all those agreements are consistently implemented.”

For his part, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Russian-Chinese relations “have withstood new tests by changes in the international situation, maintained the right direction, and demonstrated a solid development trend.”

Wang pointed out that “The desire of the two sides to develop bilateral relations has become even stronger, so did the confidence to promote cooperation in various directions.”

In a joint statement issued following the meeting, the two ministers “stated that in light of the challenging international situation, Russia and China continue to strengthen their strategic partnership and speak with a unified voice in global affairs.”

“It was agreed to further bolster foreign policy coordination, enhance cooperation on the bilateral track as well as in various multilateral formats,” the statement read. (“Lavrov: Russia, China intend to move towards ‘multipolar’ world order,” By Al Mayadeen, Net Source: Agencies, March 13, 2022)

As I view it, with this declaration by Russia and China to claim their part of the multipolar world order, the three major power blocs of final prophetic fulfillment are now brightly lighting up God’s radar scope. The Antichrist system, with all of the so-called Deep-State intrigues and COVID-type manipulations; the Russian system that will influence a confluence of nations to attack Israel, as given by Ezekiel; and China, the growing power of the regions east of the Euphrates set to dominate all within their sphere…all is in readiness. Can the Rapture of the Church be far off?

For when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption draws near. (Luke 21: 28)

—Terry

4 Apr 2022

Constant Crisis Mode

One of the most active features of our domain has been the Rapture Index. It has been the subject of a plethora of articles by the secular media. When I started it in 1987, my simple interest was focused on the activity of end-time events. There have been times when not much was going on in relation to Bible prophecy.

When I was in the Air Force, there was a time when I could be sent on a 45-day deployment to the Middle East and leave the site on hold the whole time. Today, if I forget to update something on a daily basis, I get calls from friends worried about my health.

A couple of years ago, I realized that the Rapture Index had lost its importance, primarily due to the fact that it is constantly stuck at high levels. The index has not been below 170 in 20 years. It is amazing that the index had a low of 58 in 1993. What keeps the RI high is that we are in Constant Crisis Mode. There is always something going on that keeps prophecy-related events in the news.

One of my favorite drought sites is the US drought monitor: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu. It is run by the University of Nebraska, and they track areas of the US that have received below-average amounts of rainfall.

The site has records that go all the way back to the year 2000. I looked at them and noticed that in most years, the average level of droughts was less than 30% of the whole US. Right now, the percentage of the US in drought condition is 60%, which is the highest reading in the history of the site.

Because most western states receive their rainfall during the winter months, there was much hope that this season would end the Californian drought. The first couple months of winter looked good, with California receiving large amounts of rainfall, but the rain suddenly stopped. Since very little rainfall occurs in the summer months, California is back in the red zone for drought.

California has been in the drought category for four years straight. I was amazed at the state record of having the largest wildfires each year. I didn’t think there was anything left to burn in California from the 2018 to 2020 fire seasons. Somehow California had the misfortune of having 2021 as the fresh record for the most areas burnt.

Normally when winter comes, the recorded numbers of wildfires significantly decrease because of the reduced average temperature and the increased moisture levels. A week ago, I saw a map that had at least a dozen fires burning over the state of Texas.

What makes the current fire season odd is that I’ve been tracking them for several years and noticed the few odd years. In 2018 we had a generally wet year. It was odd because the moisture levels made it unproductive for growing anything.

I’ve been monitoring wildfires for 37 years, and I don’t ever recall so many fires during the spring in the Midwest. There was one report of fires in the Smoky Mountains. The Smoky Mountains are named so because of the natural configuration of clouds. To have an abundance of moisture is very odd and dangerous.

The funny thing is not that we are entering into a season that is prone to fire hazards; we are approaching a season that is the kingpin of fire dangers. I know we quickly become complacent to end-time views but are at a point where we don’t understand the current reality.

The reason why we are experiencing constant crisis is that we are very near to the cause of these end-time events. Once we realize that God is in control of events, we can make sense of the progression of events.

“And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?'” (Revelation 5:1-2, NKJV).

__ Todd


 

Author’s note: This week’s Nearing Midnight article is one written some time ago. Never, however, has its subject been more time-appropriate than at this moment. With issues and events moving at accelerating swiftness, and in ever greater proliferation, we who name the Name of Christ must be constantly aware of the glorious fact that we could at any moment meet Him face to Face. –Terry

Thief in the Night

By

Terry James

No scriptural proof-text in God’s Word more clearly points to the first of the two phases of Jesus Christ’s second coming than does the following: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:2).

We who hold to the pre-trib rapture viewpoint are often accused of being deceivers. We are condemned by our detractors as leading astray Christians alive now –if they live to see it–  who will be required to endure the tribulation, thus to wash their robes clean in preparation for inheriting God’s Kingdom.

We are castigated for foisting upon innocent, gullible believers a “secret rapture” that will somehow lead these Christians to take the mark of the beast (Rev. 13:16-18).

I’m not precisely sure of their “reasoning,” but I think they claim this because they are convinced that the ones who fall for the rapture viewpoint won’t be able to recognize Antichrist when he comes to power. We who teach the pre-trib rapture, so the accusation goes, would have falsely led these people to think the Church would not be here when Antichrist is on the world scene.

Almost all who are antagonistic to the pre-trib rapture doctrine teach that the “elect” will have to endure part or all of the seven-year tribulation era.

Those who hold to a post-tribulation rapture, or a no-rapture position, believe that Christ will come back at the end of the tribulation, at Armageddon.

They hold to the notion that that is His only return in the second coming. There are other views of the second coming that have Christ returning when the earth is perfected and made ready, but we won’t go there in this essay.

Let us look at only the pre-trib rapture and the post-trib rapture positions for the purpose of exploring what is meant by the “thief in the night” references in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 and 2 Peter 3:10.

These two viewpoints–the pre-trib, and the post-trib–offer the greatest contrast to examine in consideration of the second advent of Jesus Christ, within the overall belief that rapture will, according to Bible prophecy, happen before Christ’s foot actually touches down on Planet Earth.

The pre-trib view of rapture says that Christ’s second coming is in two phases, separated by at least seven years. The post-trib rapture view says that the rapture and Christ’s coming back to the Mount of Olives will occur almost simultaneously–certainly with no more than a matter of days separating the two events. The post-trib position says there is no “secret” rapture. Christ’s coming again will be fully seen in the heavens by all, including Christians who will be watching for Him to break through the darkness of that hour.

We agree that the rapture of the Church (all born-again believers in Jesus Christ for salvation since the Church Age began at Pentecost) will be anything but a “secret”. The world will instantly go into cataclysmic chaos at the moment that stunning event takes place. The imagination is hard-pressed to fathom the ramifications of what will happen when millions suddenly vanish. Every child below the age of accountability will be gone in that mind-boggling instant of time. I am convinced that all babies (including those in the wombs of their mothers) will be instantly in the presence of Christ in the clouds of glory. Every corpse of every dead Christian will be raised to join with his or her soul to meet Christ in the air in that atomos of time.

The rapture will be mystifying, and to some an inexplicable phenomenon, but it will not be a secret. It will happen before the eyes of a stupefied planet of left-behind earth-dwellers. This declaration that Jesus will call His Church to be with Him seems audacious to many. But, it didn’t seem so to the Apostle Paul. He was quite confident–even adamant—in his prophecy concerning the “mystery” he had been given by the Holy Spirit to instruct all believers down through the Age of Grace (Church Age).

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51-52).

He explains what will take place next, in that stupendous fraction of a second: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:15-17).

Jesus himself told of this “mystery” Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 15:51. The Lord explains what happens after believers –both the bodies of the dead and those who are living– are caught up in the air to be with Him: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (Jn. 14:1-3).

So, the rapture will take place. Believers and the bodies of those who died during the Church Age will be “caught up” in one single moment of time. “ALL,” not “some,” will go instantly to be with Jesus, who will then take them into heaven, where He has been preparing their dwelling places since He ascended from the Mount of Olives.

Again, the pre-trib position on this joyous event is that it is imminent (could happen at any moment), and will happen before the tribulation period begins.

The post-trib position says that it happens at the end of the most terrible time in human history, just as Jesus Christ is returning from heaven at Armageddon.

The pre-trib view holds that it will occur at an unknown time. It will be a stunning, sudden, and unannounced-to-the-world-at-large break-in upon business as usual on Planet Earth. The post-trib proclaims that it will occur following all of the horrors of the judgments outlined in Revelation.

The pre-trib view says that the world at large (left-behind earth-dwellers) won’t see it coming. The rapture will cause all left on earth to wonder what has happened. The post-trib view says that all eyes will behold Christ’s coming again to a hellish planet, and the living and dead saints will then be gathered to Christ.

The defining thing to consider in thinking on the two diametrically different views of the rapture and second coming is wrapped up in the term “thief in the night”. The Apostle Peter again uses this mysterious term, first used by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:2: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Pet. 3:10).

Peter is saying here that the day of the Lord–that time when God and His Christ, His Son, takes over this fallen planet—will begin like a thief in the night.

It will be a sudden, catastrophic break-in upon a world doing business as usual. (Read Luke 17:26-29 to understand how things will be going along as usual when Christ comes back.)

This description hardly fits the post-trib view, or any other view that says Christ will rapture His Church during a time of unprecedented trouble (Jer. 30:7; Matt. 24:21). This indicates that it will be a total surprise, because a thief in the night doesn’t announce his coming with great, cataclysmic fanfare.

The break-in is swift, stealthy–a totally unexpected event.

Peter foretells in these passages that the “day of the Lord” will then run its course, until the remaking of the heavens and the earth. The rapture will begin this “day of the Lord,” which will then run at least 1,007 years.

This is the first phase of Christ’s second coming. The rapture occurs like a “thief in the night”. The second advent, when Jesus’ foot touches down on the Mount of Olives, is the second phase of His second coming.

There are those who say with vehemence that it is blasphemous to equate Christ’s coming again as being like the break-in of a thief in the night. How dare we liken their Lord to a “thief”!

Really? Here’s what Jesus, the Creator of all things, said about this matter:

“But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.

Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matt. 24:43-44).

Looks like a pretty good case for the Lord’s sudden intervention into the nefarious affairs of this increasingly wicked world, does it not? That thief-in-the-night

moment could happen, literally, at any moment. Certainly, signals of the tribulation are beginning to come to pass.

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

—Terry