Chicago Goes from Bad to Worse

The City of Chicago is the most populous city in Illinois, as well as the third most populous city in the United States. It is also a financial train wreck, with a debt so large it is set to replace Detroit as the city with the worst debt load. Chicago has billions in unfunded pension promises.

A recent analysis of the top 75 most populous U.S. cities by “Truth in Accounting’s Financial State” gave Chicago a grade of “F” in its financial health and ranked it at the bottom of the list. The report said Chicago’s debt burden was $40.5 billion, which would equate to about $45,000 for every Chicago taxpayer.

Chicago is also a basket case for racial strife. There is record black-on-black murder, but white cops are seen as the problem. The Jussie Smollett scandal made the racial discord only worse. The next time there is a real hate crime in Chicago, it’s going to be impossible to know truth from fiction.

The city has just had an election to select a new mayor. The winner was former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot, who defeated Toni Preckwinkle in a runoff. She swept all 50 wards in the city’s mayoral race. Lightfoot will be the first openly gay person and first black woman to lead the city.

Rahm Emanuel, who has been mayor since 2011, made the race possible by announcing in September that he would not seek a third term. When a city’s problems become so profound that even a powerful Democrat known as “the Godfather” decides to jump ship, you know that difficult days are ahead.

Lightfoot came in first in an election that saw a record 14 candidates vying to succeed Emanuel. Although a nonpartisan election, the candidates in the February main election were all attached in varying degrees to the Democratic Party. The Republican Party has virtually disappeared from the city, which is shocking for a city with so many problems.

In her acceptance speech, Lightfoot said that as mayor she would focus on investing in neighborhoods on the West and South Sides and bring transparency and accountability to City Hall. She also said she wants to end City Hall corruption and restore people’s faith in government.

“Out there tonight a lot of little girls and boys are watching. They’re watching us, and they’re seeing the beginning of something, well, a little bit different,” Lightfoot told a jubilant crowd at a downtown hotel. “They’re seeing a city reborn.”

I find it amazing that the citizens of Chicago could be so foolish as to elect someone who will obviously make the city’s problems worse. She wants to give money to poor areas that have already put Chicago into a massive financial mess. The “transparency” is about removing the rule of law in the black regions of the city. Going forward, the crime rate can only soar. With Lightfoot fixated on any perceived offenses by law enforcement, the blood is going to run like rivers in the streets of the Windy City.

This growing pattern of wickedness and lawlessness that is so evident in Chicago is a warning of more to come. By rejecting God’s Word as the ultimate authority in their lives, people are setting the stage for the downfall of our nation.

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:24-32).

–Todd

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End-of-World Mindset?

There is, according to some observers, a developing mindset among people in general that something wicked this way comes, as William Shakespeare put it. This developing mindset is particularly pronounced among the Millennials.

We can see this growing angst reflected in the words of U.S. House of Representatives Congresswoman Alexandria Ocassio Cortez (29, I think she is) and others of her politically ideological ilk. They are so concerned about the coming destruction of planet Earth–within twelve years, Cortez says–that they offer insane fixes to prevent the earth’s demise.

She and some others have declared they will work to do away with all airplane travel. They are determined to stop, or curtail at least, the eating of meat. We need, they believe, fewer cattle on the planet because of the cows’ …ahem… flatulence, which, they believe, adds to the methane buildup and other things destroying the breathability of air. Their plans, if they were possible to accomplish and were implemented, would cost upwards of $100 trillion. This amount is considered woefully low in estimation by many who study such things.

The doing away with airplane travel, travel by automobile, and many other brilliant such stratagem for saving the planet are just the tip of the supposedly melting iceberg in their plans to change the way life is conducted on earth. Worries of future, worldwide, catastrophe isn’t confined to Ms Cortez and her lot. A recent news item tells of a growing anxiety that something wicked this way comes.

In what may be seen as an ominous case of synchronicity, earthquake and tsunami drills were held all over the world in the last month.

On Wednesday, tens of thousands of residents of Oakland, California were shocked when their cell phones buzzed with a message: there had been no earthquake. Though intended to reassure them that the earthquake warning system was operational, many took it is an ominous reminder that they lived in a region with a history of seismic catastrophes… Earthquake drills were also held in other places around the U.S including Connecticut and Colorado.

On Tuesday, sections of the East Coast, including New Jersey and the Virgin Islands, held tsunami drills. Over the last month, a major drill preparing for earthquakes and tsunamis was held throughout the Philippines for the first time. Over the last two months, drills were held in Indonesia, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, and several other nations.

Israel was also part of this informal global seismic drill. Two weeks ago, the Home Front Command held a tsunami exercise in schools throughout the country for the first time. (“End-of-Days Expert: Disaster Drills, Sign ‘Governments Know Something Big is Coming’” by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Breaking Israel News, March 29, 2019)

The growing alarm among those in Israel as well as among the people of the world at large was brought to the attention  of journalists by Yuval Ovadia. He is an Israeli writer/researcher who has produced films on feared disasters that might be in prospect for the planet. Ovadia has been tracking such drills and government preparations as part of his research into the subject of the pre-Messiah astronomical event.

Ovadia commented, “Everyone, secular and religious, from every country, is talking about the end-of-days. It is clear that there is some knowledge out there driving this. So many governments are preparing for a global crisis, something unprecedented. The governments making these drills know that something big is coming.”

“It is understandable to hold hurricane drills or the like in a specific season,” Ovadia emphasized. “But there is no season for earthquakes. It is remarkable that so many countries decided to hold earthquake drills at the same time.”

While Ms. Cortez and her millennial brothers and sisters are looking for a coming calamity upon the planet within twelve years and the nations are expecting earthquakes and tsunamis of prodigious proportions, there seems no such mindset among–of all people–the people who call Jesus Christ their Savior and Lord.

I’m not talking about the fact that these people simply are not worried because they know they are safely within His wonderful arms. No. I’m saying here that these don’t seem to have even a clue–nor do they seem to think deeply enough on the matters to care–that there is in fact coming upon this planet a catastrophe so enormous that only a few creatures of flesh and blood will survive.

In America, the ignorance seems willful. It starts in the pulpits, with preachers who won’t touch Bible prophecy. Or, if they do touch on it, it isn’t even near the truth about what God’s Word has pronounced on this rebellious, judgment-bound world.

Of course, it is equally the fault of Christians who prefer to not think about the things we are supposed to be discerning, especially as the day of Christ’s return is appearing on the near horizon. Such things are gloom and doom–a downer. Best to just go about life ignoring such things. What will be, will be…

The end-of-the-world mindset held by those who are totally of the world–not Christ’s–is right, that something wicked this way comes. There is coming upon the earth the terrors they are expecting–and much worse.

But it will not be a tsunami that crashes across the upper east coast of the U.S. and destroys their precious New York City. It won’t be the man-made, climate-change, rising sea level that chokes the life out of them and all that is upon the earth. And it is not necessarily due twelve years from now. The catastrophe that is coming is from above. It is the harpazo–the snatching away of millions of Christians in the Rapture.

Jesus said that the very moment it happens, God’s judgment will fall–just like in the days of Noah and Lot’s day in Sodom.

Thankfully, God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. May all of those with the end-of-the-world mindset look to Christ, for He is the only salvation available to them. May the Church begin to truly watch for their Lord, who could call them to Himself, literally, at any moment. And may we who belong to Christ begin living life accordingly.

–Terry

The Great Flood of 2019

There has been massive flooding in the central region of the U.S. I lived in Nebraska from 1987 to 2009, so I’m very familiar with the state’s flood history. A few days ago, I was shocked to read reports of record flooding on the three largest rivers in the state.

According to a press release from the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, or NEMA, the Missouri River crested between 30 and 47.5 feet in different areas throughout the state, breaking previous records by 1 to 4 feet. The Platte River in Louisville crested at 14.3 feet, breaking its 1960 record by 1.9 feet, NEMA said. The Elkhorn River at Waterloo crested at 24.6 feet, breaking its 1962 record by 5.5 feet.

I was stationed at Offutt Air force Base in Bellevue, Nebraska, and I was shocked to see the building where I first worked under several feet of water. The worst I’ve ever witnessed was water creeping up to the back gate of the base. In this flood about one-third of the base was under water, including 3,000 feet of runway, the 55th Wing headquarters building, and about 60 other structures. If this flood happened during the Cold War, it would be a national crisis to have the Strategic Air Command flooded out.

It is very strange to have so much water this early in the year. Most of the previous record floods were the result of massive spring or summer thunderstorms. The trigger for this flood was a historic winter storm called a “bomb cyclone.” This storm had hurricane force winds that dumped record amounts of rain and snow over a vast area.

This flooding has done a huge amount of damage to farmland. Over 200 miles of levees have been breached and several dams have been destroyed. It may take months for millions of acres to dry out. Cropland that has had water rushing over it may require years to recover from the buildup of sand and the removal of top soil.

The National Weather Service is warning that there may be worse to come in this apocalyptic Midwest flood. Thanks to a very snowy winter, a massive amount of snow is going to melt during the next several weeks. There are still 20 inches of snow in North Dakota, and Minnesota.

On top of all of that melting snow, forecasters are telling us that it will be a very rainy spring. During the next three months, the Weather Channel is warning that there will be “above-average precipitation across much of the Lower 48.”

The American farmer has always had to deal with good and bad years. Lately, the worst-case scenario has been the norm: a cold planting season and a wet harvest had corn yields edging lower for the past two years, drought thinned cattle herds in many Western states and pathogens have killed millions of chickens, turkeys and piglets. Farms filing for Chapter 12 bankruptcy protection rose by 19 percent last year across the Midwest, the highest level in a decade, according to data compiled by the American Farm Bureau.

In this year’s flood, farmers have lost a large amount of their 2018 crops and livestock. Millions upon millions of bushels of wheat, corn and soybeans have been washed away from ground-level storage bins and containers. It’s hard to get numbers on livestock deaths because ranchers are reluctant to acknowledge the death of their animals and blame themselves when it happens. The wind and icy water are a deadly combination. Many farms lost 10-20% of their calves during the flood. The recent decline in cattle future prices is seen as an indication that farmers are being forced to liquidate their herds because of heavy losses from winter kill.

I don’t expect to see a massive food shortage ahead of the rapture. Because it normally takes several years for a famine to develop, we may get a glimpse of worst to come from seeing a sudden decline in global food production. Unless the weather pattern suddenly turns around, this year may forewarn what could be the start of the predicted end-time famine.

“And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny…” (Rev 6:5-6).

–Todd

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Nearing Midnight

Our weekly commentaries on raptureready.com are written under the heading “Nearing Midnight.” There can be no better column title for Bible prophecy, in my view, in consideration of the gush of issues and events flooding upon this generation of Planet Earth’s inhabitants.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ “Doomsday Clock,” although an often-specious mélange spewed at us in order to persuade the world to accept globalist sophistry, is on the mark unknowingly. The minute hand is indeed nearing the midnight hour, according to issues and events moving forward under the template of Bible prophecy.

All we must do to see the nearness of midnight is to skim over headline matters appearing simultaneously at this very hour.

Time Ticks On Culturally and Socially

The Apostle Paul’s “perilous times” foretelling stares us in the face every time we watch the news. The prophecies contained within 2 Timothy 3 cannot be missed by those spiritually attuned to the apostle’s forewarnings.

As a society, we have become a people steeped deeply in self love. We are turned inward more and more, lost in our devices with the selfies and all other things that draw us into our inner sanctums. America’s divorce rate–most often with selfishness at its heart–stands at the center of the problems involving this indicator the Apostle Paul gave as that which will characterize mankind at the end of the age.

All that’s necessary to see that we are a generation ripe with those who are covetous, boasters, and proud is to consider the political process and those involved. And, yes, this cuts across all political ideologies and parties.

One party in particular, however, exhibits a specific indicator Paul gives in characterizing end-time man. Blasphemy has been made the very benchmark of this political party. We remember that, during the lead-up to the 2016 presidential nominating process, the Democrat Party gave a voice vote to remove the mention of God from their political platform. The politically wise moderator ignored the “yea” voice votes of the raucous attendees who wanted to throw God out and declared the much less vocal “nays” had won the vote.

Despite that politically expedient vote obfuscation, this party has become the champion of same-sex marriage, homosexual and transgender causes, and the murder of babies, even after infants have survived the abortion process. They are a people devoted to blasphemous ideology and exhibit that they are without natural affection by advocating the killing of the most innocent among us while in the mothers’ wombs. These are indeed unthankful and unholy in their comportment.

Their mantras fly in the face of the Creator. What God declares to be the natural order, they turn upside down in practically every instance. They are more and more manifesting the degeneration into the reprobate mindset forewarned Romans 1.

Time Ticks On Geopolitically

Observers of these times in light of Bible prophecy have pointed time after time to the nearness of the midnight hour. They might not use the term “nearing Midnight,” but the observation is there. They consistently blow the siren of alarm. Every signal is front and center that Christ is about to call the Church to Himself.

The things we harp on most stringently are things involving the geopolitical world of issues and events. The American political process has been a most fertile ground for analytically plowing through these issues that are flooding every news cycle.

Again, the Apostle Paul gave what most believe were prophetic utterances for this specific hour. His declaration includes that men will be truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those who are good, traitors, heady, and high-minded. The last two years have brought to the forefront each of these characteristics, at least in my view.

Despite all of these nefarious intrigues by those trying to bring down a presidency, nothing significant enough to do so was found. This shows the evil and insidious nature of those who seem to possess “perilous times” traits.

The Lord–again in my view–has been the restraining influence in preventing things from going the way of the globalists elite. The prayers of His saints, imploring His intervention, is key, I have no doubt. The Lord of Heaven has continued to intervene to prevent the collapse of America for His own purposes. This is important because the rest of the world is intricately linked to this nation. A collapse of the US economy would surely bring about world collapse. I am convinced God’s purposes for preventing collapse at this time have at their center the desire to bring as many to salvation as will come to Christ.

When the Church–all born-again believers–go to be with Christ, the Restrainer will remove from that supernatural office and all will come crashing down.

Time Ticks On Economically

And, make no mistake, this nation and world will suffer a colossal crash once the Church leaves this world. None will be more catastrophic than that of the economic realm.

Economic experts are baffled as to why the level of debt and other unprecedented, existential fiscal factors haven’t already collapsed the financial order because of the great weight involved. With America’s national debt at more than $21.1 trillion and its extrapolated debt at more than $150 trillion, normal, monetary principles should have long ago kicked in, causing catastrophic collapse. Again, the experts can’t understand what is holding things in place. That is because God is never figured into the equation for the inexplicable holding pattern this world is experiencing.

Time Ticks On Religiously

We witness daily the defection of even some evangelical Christians from scriptural truth. They seem to want to follow Pope Francis into the abyss of Laodicean apostasy.

Most illustrative of this defection is the betrayal of Israel. Many have become almost anti-Semitic in their anti-Israel biases. They sign onto the effort to treat the Jewish state as anathema in matters of international commerce, despite the fact that Israel is one of the most vibrant economies on the planet in every respect.

There is a religious fervor against the Jews developing in practically every nation on earth. The United Nations is almost completely comprised of Jew-hating nations. In America, the many Democrat Party presidential candidates refused to attend the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPC) meetings. This is because the Democrat base is now made up of young people who almost as one champion the Palestinian causes and see Israel as responsible for all the problems in the Middle East.

Thankfully, this president is a strong supporter of Israel and defends its right to the Golan Heights, recently declaring that militarily essential, elevated, territory to belong to the Jewish state. This has set the Muslim world and most of the diplomatic world into frenzy. While the stated frenzy is based upon political anger, the actual root of it all is religious. Satan hates Israel…the world hates Israel.

This is how God’s prophetic Word said it would be at exactly this time so near the midnight hour of the age.

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)

Nearing Midnight… A most apropos title for a Bible prophecy column, don’t you think?

–Terry