We Are Losing the Cyberwar to Enemy Hackers

I’ve always thought it was a bad idea for America to have an open internet with enemy nations like China, Russia, and North Korea. They contribute hardly anything to the net, and they use their access to steal from us. I can’t recall the last time I visited a website that was in one of these countries.

We spend a quarter of a trillion dollars in developing a new fighter jet. A few years later, the Russians and Chinese have one that looks similar to ours. They are able to copy our jets by hacking into the computer files of our military contractors. Since we store so much of our data online, it has become much easier for spies to steal our intellectual property.

SolarWinds is a major US information technology firm, and it was the subject of a cyberattack last year that compromised much of its clients’ data. Foreign hackers, who some top U.S. officials believe are from Russia, were able to use the hack to spy on private companies like the elite cybersecurity firm FireEye and the upper echelons of the U.S. Government, including the Department of Homeland Security and Treasury Department.

Most software providers regularly send out updates to their systems, whether it’s fixing a bug or adding new features. SolarWinds is no exception. Beginning as early as March of 2020, SolarWinds unwittingly sent out software updates to its customers that included the hacked code.

The code created a backdoor to customers’ information technology systems, which hackers then used to install even more malware that helped them spy on companies and organizations.

We are still trying to figure out how much damage was inflicted by the SolarWinds breach. By having access to one computer system, hackers can gain logon information for other programs.

We just saw the most dangerous hacking attack on a U.S. firm. The hacking of Colonial Pipeline by Russians has shut down the biggest U.S. gasoline pipeline in the nation. On May 7, the hackers began their blitz against the company, stealing a large amount of data before locking computers with ransomware and demanding payment, according to people familiar with the matter.

Ransomware is a type of malicious software (malware) that threatens to publish or block access to data or a computer system, usually by encrypting it, until the victim pays a ransom fee to the attacker.

Bloomberg reports that the intruders are part of a cybercrime gang called Darkside. They took nearly 100 gigabytes of data out of the Alpharetta, Georgia-based company’s network in just two hours, two people involved in Colonial’s investigation said.

Darkside claims to only be interested in money, but it is very likely that they have some connection to the Russian government. Since the attack has crippled a fuel supply line that provides 45% of the Northeast’s gasoline needs, it is very likely that Putin has some connection to the incident. You don’t hear about Russian firms being the victim of Ransomware.

As a Christian website that is interested in sharing the gospel message with the whole world, you probably think I would be opposed to blocking any nation. I’m all for blocking them because there is little chance of citizens in these nations accessing a site like R.R. North Korea has no access to private citizens. China and Russia have access, but key Western sites are heavily censored.

The “Great Firewall” is a colloquial term for mainland China’s internet censorship system. It’s part of the Golden Shield project, also called the National Public Security Work Informational Project. The person staying at a hotel in Beijing may have no trouble accessing American sites. The average Chinese citizen is increasingly only able to access sites that the government wants people to see.

If we blocked these nations from accessing the web ten years ago for bad behavior, they’d have long cried uncle by now. They know access to the western world is essential to their economic growth. Instead of policing the internet for the common good of all, we have turned control over to third-world nations.

We are losing the war against cybercriminals because we are in the run-up to the tribulation hour. Mankind will only increasingly become more wicked with each passing day.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

— Todd

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Quartet Flirting With Rupture

Our title for this commentary could have just as easily been something like “Quartet Sips on Poison.” Either title would be appropriate. This is because the powers that be in world geopolitics are involved in tampering with things that are guaranteed to injure them and the entire world of nation-states.

This we know from the very Word of God, who does not slumber or sleep when it comes to His chosen nation, Israel:

The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. (Zechariah 12:1–3)

This should be no surprise to Bible prophecy students. Israel is the key to understanding the lateness of the hour, as has been pointed out many times.

Many who study from the pre-Trib perspective of prophecy believe that the rebirth of Israel (often represented as the fig tree) on May 14, 1948, unleashed the prophecy Jesus gave as recorded in the book of Matthew.

Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. (Matthew 24: 32–34)

If this prophecy is indeed about the reforming of Israel in 1948 for the wind-up of this Age of Grace (Church Age), then we are very late into that prophecy. There should be some proof when observing our times and season, if there is any validity to this proposition by those who hold to this scriptural passage as relating to this generation.

I believe we might just be witness to that prophecy proving just how late we are into the final stage of human history immediately preceding Christ’s call to His Church in the Rapture, based upon the world beginning in earnest to “burden” itself with God’s chosen nation.

In this regard, I refer to the large power bloc that represents the nation-state epicenter of global influence—the so-called Quartet. This group has designated themselves as the nucleus of geopolitical power. They’re making known that they intend to assert that power by doing some heavy lifting in making God’s chosen nation-state comply with their version of how things ought to be. The following illustrates this assertion of this group’s powerful influence in the matter of Israel and its blood-vowed enemies.

Canada and the Middle East Quartet (the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia) condemned on Sunday the violence that took place on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and called on Israel to halt eviction plans for Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood as violence rises in the country’s capital.

The EU and the US also issued a statement against the violence and the pending Sheikh Jarrah evictions, as did Jordan, Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Individual European countries, as well as South African, have spoken out as well…

Tensions were heightened as thousands of Muslim worshippers flocked to the Temple Mount – al-Haram al Sharif in Arabic – to pray there on Islam’s holy night of Laylat al-Qadr (Night of Power).

Further violence is expected on Sunday night as Israelis celebrate Jerusalem Day, which marks the day that the IDF captured the eastern part of the city from Jordan during the Six Day War…The Quartet also issued a joint statement. While it has [been] largely dormant during the final years of the Trump administration, it has since been revived now that US President Joe Biden is in office.

“The Envoys express deep concern over the daily clashes and violence in east Jerusalem, in particular last night’s confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli security forces at Haram Al-Sharif/Temple Mount,” the Quartet stated…

“We call upon [the] Israeli authorities to exercise restraint and to avoid measures that would further escalate the situation during this period of Muslim Holy Days,” the Quartet stated.

“We call on all sides to uphold and respect the status quo at the holy sites. All leaders have a responsibility to act against extremists and to speak out against all acts of violence and incitement.” (“Canada, Quartet Slam Jerusalem Violence, Int’l Pressure Grows on Israel,” by Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post, May 9, 2021)

If God’s Word is true—and it is—then we should witness the ramping up of this global power against this nation, chosen by God as a prototype nation in His dealing with all of his creation called man. Satan fuels the hatred that is scheduled to develop—already is developing—to energize the human powers and principalities as they sip from that “trembling cup” and try to lift that “burdensome stone” the prophet Zechariah was directed to foretell.

It all means that our redemption is drawing very near indeed! (Luke 21: 28)

–Terry

Washington Post Sees No Reason to Fact-Check Biden’s Lies

Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler drew fierce criticism last week after saying he did not plan to maintain a “database” for President Biden’s falsehoods beyond his first 100 days in office. “I have learned my lesson,” Kessler tweeted. “‘Learned my lesson’ means who knows what the next four years will bring.”

Kessler compares Biden’s (67 false or misleading claims) to Trump’s first 100 days (511 claims.) In the last 100 days before the 2020 election, he counted 8,859 claims made by Trump. Being as it’s a leftist reporter determining if Trump had lied, the numbers don’t mean anything.

The reason why Kessler is shutting down his database is because he’s not doing his job. President Biden’s senile mind hardly knows fact from fiction. He naturally presents false information because of his age.

A person on Twitter reminded Kessler that fact-checking is part of his job:

“DO A DATABASE. This is your job. A database for every single president and politician. It is YOUR job to fact-check them & keep them handy for everyone. Come on, man. But go ahead and enjoy your 4-year vacation. Thanks for confirming your bias.”

The Washington Post appears to be quite selective when it comes to the urgency of its “fact-checks” of certain prominent politicians. Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., was the subject of a lengthy hit piece by Mr fact-checker, Glenn Kessler. He went after Scott because he was chosen to give the Republican response to Biden’s address to Congress. Also, because he’s black, and liberals hate it when an African American leaves the Democratic plantation.

Tim Scott often talks about being the descendant of slaves. Scott has said his grandfather dropped out of elementary school to pick cotton, so the liberal newspaper enlisted its fact-checker to get to the bottom of the claim.

Kessler declared he “dug into the South Carolina census records” to “close this gap in Scott’s narrative” despite admitting “census data is historically questionable at best — and at times unreliable.”

Despite the fact that Kessler does not have any solid evidence to counter Scott’s claim, he argued that the senator was creating a narrative of Scott moving up from humble circumstances to reach a position of political power in the U.S. Senate. But Scott separately has acknowledged that his great-great-grandfather, Lawrence Ware, once owned 900 acres in South Carolina. Because wealth can come and go, it’s understandable that Scott’s grandfather could have fallen on hard times.

However, the Washington Post has yet to look into the “tale” from Vice President Harris, which has been accused of outright lies. Harris has repeatedly boasted of her parents’ involvement in the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

In an Elle magazine interview that was published in October, she recalled accompanying them to marches as a toddler in a stroller. The left doesn’t care at all if some of Harris’ claims are not historically possible. She could say she was the first Black woman to land on the moon.

The problem with the Biden administration being able to do as it pleases without any check by the liberal media is that it will lead to corruption. The saying, “I’m from the government, and I’m near to help,” is a sure sign of danger because the government causes more problems than it solves.

Ratings for CNN have declined because everyone knows that the network is just a lapdog for the Democratic party. People don’t need to watch this network because they can just assume what type of coverage it will air about Biden.

The only hope we have to avoid America turning into a banana republic is a blowback during the 2022 elections. The Democrats will win in the next election cycle because they will offer people more free money to buy their votes. When the system starts to break down and the value of money becomes nearly worthless, people will vote Democratic just to have a free meal.

If more people put their faith in God, our nation would return to its glory days of prosperity. Because most people trust the government, darker days are in America’s future.

“He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he” (Proverbs 16:20).

–Todd

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Genesis 6 Genetics

Jesus’ forewarning of how things will be at the moment of His next catastrophic intervention into the evil affairs of mankind should reverberate within our ears.

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:26–30)

God’s prophetic Word speaks to our generation. Jesus’ description of times at the very instant of His coming for believers in the Rapture begins with the “days of Noah” reference.

Things will be like they were then when He is next revealed to the entire world, the Lord is saying—although He doesn’t say that all the world will recognize Him.

How do we know it is the Rapture He is referring to in this passage, and not the Second Coming (Second Advent) as given in Revelation 19:11? Because of the context of His prophecy.

Jesus, after the “days of Noah” reference, says that it will also be like when Lot was taken out of Sodom. The moment Lot was removed, God’s judgment fell upon the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

In the Second Coming, God’s judgment and wrath will have been deluging planet earth since the confirming of the covenant by “prince that shall come” (Antichrist) as given in Daniel 9:26–27. Jesus, we must conclude, therefore, was likening the time of His next intervention to an earlier time than the Second Advent at the end of the Armageddon conflict.

His coming to remove Lot and his family, whom God considered just, or righteous, because of their belief, was at a time that life—as far as societal and cultural matters, buying, selling, planting, marrying, etc., was concerned—was going on at a normal pace. It is true that there was wickedness in those places probably equal to the wickedness of Noah’s day just prior to the Flood. But society and culture proceeded along that evil-norm-for-the-times trajectory until the angel of God snatched Lot and his family out of Sodom and took them to Zoar.

We can also know that the Lord was speaking of the Rapture because He says (in Matthew chapter 24, just before He mentions the “days of Noah”), that no person or angel knows the exact time this intervention will take place. Only the Heavenly Father knows. We’ve seen before in these commentaries that the exact time of Christ’s Second Coming can be known by counting the days the Bible gives, following the midpoint of the seven-year Tribulation. Jesus certainly must be foretelling the Rapture in these “days of Noah, days of Lot” references.

So let’s look at those days briefly. Here is God reporting what those days were like.

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6: 1–4)

The Lord continues the disturbing report.

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. (Genesis 6: 11–12)

The key thing to consider is that the earth had been corrupted. This indicates it had gone far beyond the sin Adam committed, dragging all of his progeny into a direction opposite of the Creator’s plan for mankind. This is saying that the corruption by the outside influence of fallen angels had completely spiritually and physically changed the order of mankind. The Lord, therefore, appears to be sorry for creating man. But I don’t really believe this is what is meant by He “repented” that He had made man. I really don’t think any of us with mere finite ability to cogitate can know all that’s entailed in His words in the matter.

But this description of Noah’s day does make it clear that we are in a similar time. Satan’s attempt to corrupt the very nature—including the physiology—of man is obvious. The “sons of God,” the bene elohim,  had mixed their seed with that of mankind. The whole earth, with the exception of Noah and his eight family members, had become corrupt—and that means genetically, it is clear.

In that regard, we see stark evidence that the very genetic structure of the human creation is being assaulted. This time it isn’t by sexual intercourse between fallen angels and human women that is Satan’s tact. The assault comes in the form of science—which, under the guise of purporting to benefit us, is wickedness that attempts to replace the Creator God and produce things that God ultimately will not tolerate.

The following demonstrates this surreptitious act of trying to produce God-like benevolence, which will prove to be, in effect, malevolent wickedness.

Scientists have figured out how to modify CRISPR’s basic architecture to extend its reach beyond the genome and into what’s known as the epigenome—proteins and small molecules that latch onto DNA and control when and where genes are switched on or off.

In a paper published April 9, 2021, in the journal Cell, researchers at UC San Francisco and the Whitehead Institute describe a novel CRISPR-based tool called “CRISPRoff,” which allows scientists to switch off almost any gene in human cells without making a single edit to the genetic code. The researchers also show that once a gene is switched off, it remains inert in the cell’s descendants for hundreds of generations, unless it is switched back on with a complementary tool called CRISPRon, also described in the paper…

When CRISPRoff silences a gene, not only does the gene remain off in the treated cell, it also stays off in the descendants of the cell as it divides, for as many as 450 generations. (“New CRISPR technology offers unrivaled control of epigenetic inheritance,” ScienceDaily, University of California, San Francisco, April 16, 2021, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210416131923.htm)

Despite assurances that man’s basic DNA won’t be changed, we should question genetic engineering. Make no mistake, the devil has not altered his evil intentions. His tactics have changed to some extent it seems. But the corruption and ultimate destruction of mankind continues to be his goal.

This is one reason it can be argued that demands to take a vaccine that is unapproved by significant testing, as have most all previous such vaccines, should be viewed under wary, even highly skeptical examination.

We are, I’m convinced, in “days of Noah” prophesied by the greatest of all prophets. That’s reason enough to be on the lookout for Lucifer’s never ending evil.

—Terry

 

–Terry