Alarm Signals of Our Authoritarian Age

When I was very young, I wondered what it would be like to live in an authoritarian society that was like Hitler’s Germany or the Soviet Union. There is no need to wonder anymore because my worst nightmare has largely come true. We are now in an age where censorship and control is the primary goal of various groups.

People who own smartphones are increasingly having fewer options when it comes to the repair of their devices. Apple has designed their iPhones so that they will stop working if you try to fix a camera or replace a bad microchip. You are now basically renting your smartphones from the manufacturer.

Yahoo news was once my favorite source for world news. I hardly go to the site now because most of what is posted is propaganda. For many years, Yahoo News allowed people to post comments about various news items. About two years ago, they started shadow banning people who post comments that contradict the liberal agenda. In the early part of this year, Yahoo removed all comments from their site.

The once powerful conservative-leaning news aggregate Drudge Report has been taken over by some shadowy leftist organization. There are rumors that Matt Drudge had a mental breakdown and sold the site to a tech giant. The traffic for Drudge Report has crashed, and I don’t think the people running it care. They probably consider their investment to be valuable in having the opportunity to brainwash conservative readers.

President Trump likes to bash CNN for its ratings fall. The left doesn’t care about traffic flow, earnings or the reputation of their news outlets. Their only fixation is power. If they can turn America into a dictatorship, there will be no Fox News. Everyone will have no choice but to get their news from CNN or one of its clones.

Another site that is pointless to visit is Twitter. There were a few conservative voices on this social media site that I liked, but they have been largely shut down. Actor James Woods posted last week about how bad it has gotten on Twitter: “Evidently you can’t even have an opinion on Twitter anymore. ‘Open forums’ by definition allow the free exchange of opinions. ‘Publications’ editorialize and suppress.”

I watched the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, testify before a Senate subcommittee about censorship. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz absolutely tore into him for blocking a New York Post article on Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

“Let’s be clear: The New York Post isn’t just some random guy tweeting. The New York Post has the fourth-highest circulation of any newspaper in America. The New York Post is 200 years old. The New York Post was founded by Alexander Hamilton,” he scolded Dorsey.

“And your position is that you can sit in Silicon Valley and that you can tell them what stories they can publish, and you can tell the American people what reporting they can hear; is that right?”

It was chilling to listen to Dorsey’s response because Dorsey had no emotional reaction to Cruz attacking his company. When it comes to censoring information that benefits people on the right, any lie or action is valid.

Glenn Greenwald is a rare liberal who cares about truthful reporting in the news. A couple weeks ago, he resigned from a publication he founded due to censorship. Again, I don’t think Greenwald’s colleges have any clue of the irony in what they did. These people have a mind of Satan and will do anything their master asks of them.

Prophecy scholars made a huge mistake on the timing of the rise of authoritarianism in the last days. Some people thought the Antichrist would be the one to set up a Nazi-like society. The reality is that it is here now. When the Beast of Revelation is revealed, there will be very little for him to establish. His job will be to implement the technology that is ready to go.

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six” (Rev 13:16-18).

–Todd

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Biden, Israel, and Peace Prospects 

Prefacing this with the fact that the election is far from settled, with the possibility of the Supreme Court having to weigh in, I wanted to look for a moment at what a Joe Biden administration would portend. Particularly, how the relationship between Israel and the United States would be changed is an issue that bears serious consideration.

First to think on is that, according to Mr. Biden’s own words over a number of months during the campaign, America will immediately rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. That means that the nation would again be brought into the drive for globalist control. The US Treasury and other assets would be again available for the internationalists to plunder at will.

With the House of Representatives controlling much of the money outlay and with a president who believes in the new world order objectives, there would be few safeguards against the imposition of a global tax against US citizens. We would pay for our “excessive” carbon emissions and other infractions of the PCA.

Our temperatures in our homes would eventually be governed by our would-be global masters. Fuel prices for our cars—and for all forms of transportation—would skyrocket. At the same time, America would become totally dependent on other nations for any fossil fuel imports.

All that is disconcerting to anyone who loves our nation and its independence from confiscatory influences from outside our borders. Added to the controls by the new world order forces would be the influx of millions of immigrants, mostly illegal, whom Mr. Biden’s political party would use to create a voter base that can never be overcome by any opposition.

Imposition of a one-payer health insurance, government run, would mean that the citizens would eventually lose private insurance coverage and would instead pay heavy duties in premiums in order to pay for the government programs that would first serve those same illegals and their needs. We would be put on waiting lists that would make today’s waits in doctors’ offices seem but a few minutes in length.

We could look at dozens of ways our lives might change under uncontrolled impositions by a Biden administration. But to look at all of this from the Bible prophecy perspective, we only have to consider how America’s relationship with Israel would change.

We remember how the Obama-Biden administration dealt with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Recall how, when Netanyahu came to call at the White House, upon Obama’s request, the president had him enter from the rear portions of the White House. Then, after only a few minutes of talking with the Prime Minister, Obama abruptly left, saying he was going to dinner upstairs with family.

It was a snub of the first order—a thing unheard of in civil diplomatic interaction.

So with that track record, and one that is much more egregious in some cases, can we expect anything better from a President Biden?

But the real worry in regard to a Biden administration will be the dangers to which Israel will almost certainly be exposed.

Again, Mr. Biden has stated on numerous occasions that he will return to old ways in the matter of America and Israel. Of specific worry are his statements that we will return to the “Iran Deal,” which President Trump immediately exited once coming into office.

Remember the reported $150 billion in cash that Obama sent to a runway concourse in Iran, to the Ayatollahs’ anti-Israel regime. It was stated that it was money that was wrongfully kept that had belonged to Iran during the Bush years. This allegation has never been fully explained or proven.

Mr. Biden wants to bring America again into the “nuclear deal” between Iran and much of the Western world, which once included the US. The following news excerpt tells how this has our strongest ally in a great deal of consternation.

Democratic candidate for president Joe Biden’s position on the Iran Deal could lead to war between Israel and Iran, Settlements Minister Teach Hanegbi warned on Wednesday night.

“Biden has said openly for a long time that he will go back to the nuclear agreement,” Hanegbi said. “I see that as something that will lead to a confrontation between Israel and Iran.”

The minister told Channel 13 News that he, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and most Israelis saw the Iran Deal signed by the Obama administration in 2015 as “mistaken—and that’s an understatement.”

“If Biden stays with that policy, there will, in the end, be a violent confrontation between Israel and Iran,” he stated…

[Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Zvi] Hauser argued that “today, everyone understands the agreement wasn’t enough to prevent” Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and “countries of the free world know this is their test” – to stop Tehran from doing so.

A nuclear Iran would trigger an arms race, in which Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt would develop their own nuclear weapons, Hauser warned.

“No one sees Iran’s behavior, creating instability in the Middle East, and thinks its right to let them win,” he added. “Neither the Americans nor Israel will allow a nuclear Iran.” (“Israeli Minister Warns of War if Biden Returns to Iran Deal:

‘If Biden stays with that policy, there will, in the end, be a violent confrontation between Israel and Iran,’” Lahav Harkov, Jerusalem Post, Israel News, November 5, 2020)

However things shape with regard to the election outcomes, one thing is certain. God’s hand is in all of it. We can’t help worrying as human beings concerned with the well-being of our families and our nation. But as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we know the ultimate outcome is glorious beyond all imagination.

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)  

–Terry

Packing The Supreme Court – A Zipline to Dictatorship

The confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court has given the highest court in America a 6-3 conservative majority. The Left is hopping mad over what this prospect means for their political priorities. They’re also angered by the GOP’s unwillingness to hold off on filling late liberal stalwart Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat during an election year.

Several top congressional Democrats have openly called for “packing the court.” They want to rewrite the rules to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court so they can add more like-minded judges and tip its balance to the left.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the most idiotic members of Congress. She said in response to the Barrett vote, “Today will go down as one of the darkest days in American history. God have mercy on our country. We must move full steam ahead to expand the courts and protect the will and the rights of the people.” She later added, “Expand the court.”

Ilhan Omar is a member of the Islamic faith, and she wishes to impose the same political thinking that dominated the Muslim world. She said, “Remember that Republicans have lost 6 of the last 7 popular votes, but have appointed 6 of the last 9 justices. By expanding the court, we fix this broken system and have the court better represent the values of the American people.”

Rashida Tlaib is also a Muslim, and she shares the same mindset. She said, “We are going to take back the White House & Senate next week with a resounding mandate from the people to fight back against Trump’s illegitimately stacked judiciary. We must expand the Court if we’re serious about the transformational change the people are crying out for.”

Unfortunately, the number of justices on the Supreme Court is not set in the Constitution itself. So, Congress could pass a law expanding the number of judges on the court, and a president could sign it into law without technically violating the Constitution. This would then give that same president and Congress, presumably of the same party, the opportunity to add judges they know agree with them and will uphold their agenda.

While doing so would technically be within the letter of the Constitution, the number of justices has remained at nine since 1869. Changing this would be a shredding of norms and rewriting of the rules for political gain. It would have grave consequences for our basic liberties.

This isn’t the first time that someone suggested an expansion of the Supreme Court. President Franklin Roosevelt floated the idea in order to get around the justices that were blocking his New Deal projects. Roosevelt had to drop the idea when the public had a massive negative reaction to the plan.

Court-packing undermines the checks and balances that have helped keep us free from government oppression and violations of our rights. As James Madison famously warned us, “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.”

The greatest check against Congress abusing its power is that the president can veto legislation that goes too far. Conversely, Congress can impeach a president who abuses his power. Meanwhile, both are kept in check by the judicial branch, which ensures laws are properly followed. The judiciary is, in turn, checked by Congress’s ability to impeach judges who abuse their power, and define judicial jurisdictions.

“If the Democrats pack the court, the GOP will respond in kind as soon as they get the chance,” George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin has written. “The predictable result will not only be a loss of ‘credibility’ for the Supreme Court, but also the elimination of judicial review as an effective check on the other branches of government.”

“If the president can pack the court any time his or her party controls both houses of Congress, they can prevent the court from making decisions that curb unconstitutional policies they may wish to enact,” Somin continued. “It is no accident that court-packing is a standard tool of authoritarian populists seeking to undermine liberal democracy, recently used in such countries as Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela.”

The Founding Fathers purposefully enshrined the separation of powers into our system of governance. They knew that if one branch or official wields too much power, nothing prevents the slide into dictatorship. In reaching this conclusion, the founders were heavily influenced by the work of French philosopher Charles-Louis de Secondat.

“There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person,” Montesquieu theorized. “Were the power of judging joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary power, for the judge would then be the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with all the violence of an oppressor.”

The election is a couple of days away from the posting of this article. I hope the Democrats don’t win full control of Congress and the White House. Because we’ve lost three generations to the leftist agenda, it’s only a matter of time before all political power is consolidated under a tyrannical ruler.

“Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire— they all conspire together” (Micah 7:3, NIV).

–Todd

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Voting Booth Bible Boundaries

Perhaps it is a bit late in presenting a commentary such as this. The article will be posted the Sunday before Tuesday November 3, Election Day in America. But Christians –true, born again believers in Jesus Christ—should pray and think on this crucial time spent in the voting booth.

Most who study God’s Word from the pre-trib perspective of prophecy yet future are in near consensus. The many things being witnessed in culture and society, in geopolitics and government, in religion and even in science represent convergence of signals that point to the very end of the Church Age (Age of Grace).

In societal and cultural areas there is a break-down of morality that can be viewed as much like the descriptives of Sodom and Gomorrah. –And before that, the descriptives of antediluvian times found in Genesis chapter 6 when violence reigned throughout the earth.

We have witnessed the satanically-spawned erosion of education from k through graduate school levels. For example, children at the kindergarten levels are in some cases being read stories by transvestites, promoting that lifestyle. Children in grade school are being taught that one can be the gender they wish to be, not necessarily the one on their birth certificates. High school through upper-level universities teaches that America is at fault in the wrongs that afflict the world. We were, many professors speciously declare, founded upon white supremacy that relied on Biblical biases and prejudices aimed at enslaving the dark races for economic and pleasurable/leisurely pursuits.

In geopolitics there is an insane enragement spreading throughout America and the world that calls all back to Babel. Minions, both human and demonic are in the stratospherics of globalist elitism –the high places of Ephesians 6: 12— demanding that one-world government be formed. God must be eliminated as the Lord Accuses in Psalms chapter 2. They want to break Heaven’s bands asunder, so that the new world order rulers can construct their Utopian dream-world. Nationalism and patriotism to one’s country must be destroyed so that a Marxist-type social order can divide the wealth and distribute it to the have-nots so the elitists can establish and maintain the power bases they demand.

In religion, we have endured the breakdown of fundamentalist, evangelical churches who have given into the political correctness of the times. The preachers and other clergy now, in a growing number of cases, embrace the GLBT and other homosexuality-oriented lifestyles that are demanded be accepted. The Catholic pope just issued his endorsement in a documentary, approving civil union marriages of same-sex couples. The same pope declares that even atheists will eventually make it to Heaven, and that there are many ways to achieve Redemption, not just through Jesus Christ.

In science we have seen phenomenal developments in every possible area. Daniel’s prophecy that knowledge would increase at the time of the end (Daniel 12: 4,) has come to be in this time in human history.

Like Daniel was told by God’s angel, we are traveling to and fro at phenomenal speeds and to far places even in space. Computer technologies are exploding, with new and faster speeds and to applications that are dazzling to behold.

There has developed satellite and computing interconnections that make possible the marks and numbering system of Revelation 13: 16-18. World economics have gotten so out of control, with the explosion of deficits and the proliferation of greed to the point that a reset, according to economists, will certainly have to be put in place to make corrections. That reset, we believe, will be Antichrist’s 666 systems given in Revelation chapter 13.

So we have witnessed the stage-setting for the fulfillment of Bible prophecy yet the future comes alive in our time.

Rage in our streets, with burning, looting and near-complete anarchy should alert every Christian –that is, those truly born again of the Holy Spirit—that something big is up. Something is about to cleave this world –removing the righteous from the rebellious.

This is to remind us of these things as we step into the voting booths of America on November 3, or mail-in ballots, or howsoever we vote.

There is one political party that opposes the tearing down of society, culture, and national sovereignty. There is one party, and its president, that opposes the defunding of police and the destruction of law and order. There is one party –and president—that defends the exercise of free speech and religious right to worship.

There is another party that has verbally moved to kick God from their platform. That political party, at least a major part of those with influence within that party, are offended by Biblical constraints and restraints. They are speech police, and demand compliance with political correctness that meets their standards, which in many cases are totally counter to those found in God’s Word.

These embrace homosexuality, the murder of babies in their mother’s wombs –and even after birth in some instances. They champion dark values that tear families apart. They covet the change of America into a Marxist-type socialism that will, if they have their way, bring this nation into a configuration, not unlike that of the old Soviet Union.

For the Christian, the choice is clear when you step into the voting booth, or fill out your ballot at home. Prayer, too, is the duty of everyone who is born again, as this election unfolds. And, yes, the following scripture is meant not just for Israel, but for ALL of God’s people throughout the ages.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chron 7: 14)

–Terry