Arming Up for Armageddon

We live in a time of great conflict between perception and reality. The general view in the media is that of peace and safety. While we have this carefree attitude in America, the rest of the world is in the midst of an arms race.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is working on strengthening Russia’s nuclear potential. His goal for Russia is to fortify the nation’s military nuclear capabilities and develop missiles that can penetrate any missile-defense system. He also seeks to develop precision weapons across various branches of the armed forces as well as electronic warfare systems.

“We must carefully monitor any changes in the balance of power and in the political-military situation in the world, especially along Russian borders, and quickly adapt plans for neutralizing threats to our country,” said Putin.

Despite heavy sanctions from the West over the annexation of the Crimea region, Putin has been successful in modernizing his military. He said that about 60 percent of modern armaments are currently in the Russian nuclear forces.

A Russian missile design company recently unveiled the first image of a new weapon in Russia’s arsenal: the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, nicknamed “Satan 2.”

The rocket “is capable of wiping out parts of the earth the size of Texas or France,” claimed Russian state news outlet Sputnik. The missile can carry up to 15 separate warheads with a combined explosive power of 50 million tons of TNT.

India has just tested its longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Agni-5, which is capable of striking targets in Asia. Heralded as the “weapon of peace.” the missile has a striking range of up to 5,000kms. Sometimes dubbed as the “China killer,” the missile can carry a one ton warhead and is capable of reaching almost all of Asia including India’s key rivals—China and Pakistan. India’s foes will likely respond by improving the range and carrying loads of their missiles.

The evolving threat of North Korea’s nuclear program has come about primarily because of the neglect of western nations giving them too much leeway—by dismissing their ongoing threats. We kept hoping that this little dictatorship would collapse under the weight of its massive military spending. With an endless supply of slave labor and radical ideology, North Korea has built up a growing arsenal of nuclear weapons. It will soon be able to fire them from missiles putting Japan and the Western U.S. at risk.

China has been very aggressive in expanding its military. This year, China’s fleet commissioned its first aircraft carriers. The Chinese government could potentially build a number of additional aircraft carriers within the next 15 years. The willingness of Beijing to demonstrate its military power in the Western Pacific has made the region a favorite stop for the world’s arms merchants.

There is growing concern that Japan is on a plan toward re-militarization. In the face of growing threats from China, the Japanese government has moved away from its historical pacifism, passing bills to bolster its military presence. A new, hotly contested package of 11 security bills gave the Japanese military the option to engage in battle to protect their allies, including the United States, even if there is no direct threat to Japan or its people.

Last week, the Japanese government said it will spend $44 billion to confront China. The money will be used to bolster its coast guard capabilities to defend disputed islands in the East China Sea.

The greatest threat from a militarized Japan would be its huge cache of weapons-usable plutonium. Since WWII, Japan has banned the production of nuclear weapons. With more than 47 metric tons of plutonium, Japan has enough to make nearly 6,000 warheads like the one that flattened Nagasaki.

The U.S. has the largest nuclear force on the planet, but it’s a very old arsenal. The U.S. Air Force maintains a fleet of 450 Minuteman III ICBM missiles. A key leg of the nuclear triad, the Minuteman III missiles went into service in the 1970s. The Air Force has 76 B-52 strategic bombers that have been flying since the 1960s. The Navy has 14 Ohio Class ballistic missile submarine fleet that first went into service in the 1980s.

Donald Trump has frequently talked about upgrading our nuclear arms. He recently tweeted that the United States “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” Asked to clarify his comments, MSNBC reported that Trump had said: “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.”

Trump’s words may be mostly bluster, but after 8 years of neglect under Obama, he may need to accelerate the development of arms just to keep up with the growing capability of our enemies.

This latest arms race has “prophecy” written all over it. Political leaders may talk about the need for peace, but very little has been done to prevent the world from sliding into the abyss. The military hardware being developed today will eventually find its way onto the battlefields of the Tribulation hour.

“Proclaim this among the nations: ‘Prepare for war!’ Stir up the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong’” (Joel 3:9-10).

–Todd

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Israel’s 100-Year Storm

These days, it seems, we are more and more frequently given reports that a 100- year storm has occurred. These are happening about every other year, and many prophecy watchers believe that these great storms have biblically prophetic overtones.

Certainly, I have to admit that there appears to be some relevance, these storms to how Israel is treated. White House correspondent Bill Koening is one Bible prophecy student who writes on these kind of weather and other occurrences with regard to, particularly, America’s dealing with Israel. John McTernin is another writer on these matters that I find fascinating.

We remember Hurricane Katrina, for example, when the Bush administration had pressured the Jewish state to move Jewish Israelis in order that so-called Palestinians could move in. Katrina entered the Gulf of Mexico during this time and the results was that thousands of Americans along the Gulf Coast and beyond were forced to leave their homes. The storm was one of the worst in U.S. history.

With major tornadoes in many areas and flooding along U.S. rivers having seemed to increase over the past number of years, some have attributed the virulent weather to climate change or global warming. Others have seen the significance of these 100-year-type storms as relating directly to the treatment the Obama administration has given Israel over the past eight years.

We remember that close to the very first thing the president did was to snub the Israeli prime minister, leaving him after a few minutes of their meeting in the White House to go to the family’s private dining quarters. Mr. Obama has continued with his coolness to Benjamin Netanyahu since that very first meeting. At the same time, Obama has made nice at every opportunity with the leaders of the Muslim world, while giving lip service to support for the Jewish state. As a matter of fact, Obama is on record as saying right up front of his eight years in office that he intended to “put space” between America and Israel. This, ostensibly, to develop better relationship with the Arab states so that there could develop a greater chance for establishing peace in the region.

It was the old George W. Bush effort revived–trying to show the Muslims and the world that we were really their friends. The question to ask, of course, is: Have relations improved? No, they have grown worse.

The 100 year storm to which I refer as given in this commentary’s title is the international, diplomatic storm in which Israel currently finds itself. The first such storm it faced happened almost a half century before it became a nation in 1948. Israel was promised territory for establishing a nation in the region of its traditional homeland when the British issued the Balfour Declaration, written by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour and issued by the government led by Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

That promise read:

Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917. Dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

While there is little doubt that there was a genuine desire to establish a Zionist safe haven with the declaration, it is even more certain that the action was primarily taken–in the view of most historians–to give the British access to the Suez territory for hegemonic purposes.

When British General Edward Allenby entered Jerusalem, there was relative peace for a time. The Arabs of the region began to create strife against the Jews shortly thereafter, determined to not allow the British to put their geopolitical plans into action.

British General Louis Bols, put in charge of Jerusalem, disliked Zionism and rather than see to it the Balfour Declaration accomplished establishment of a Jewish homeland and protected the Jews, looked the other way at the Arab atrocities. The betrayal by the British instigated a regional conflict–an ethnic storm that is raging today. And now, one hundred years later to the year, there has been set in motion another storm, instigated by Britain–and sadly–by the United States of America.

The Palestinian Authority has since 2015 pushed to change the language by which UNESCO speaks of Jerusalem and the holy sites, so that they are referred to almost exclusively by their Muslim names. The U.N. and its Israel-hating membership has done all within that body’s power to de-legitimize Israel as having any historical ties to the Temple Mount, or to the region, for that matter.

And now the Security Council resolution condemning settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, unopposed by Israel’s allies, America, and Britain is a betrayal of the worst sort.

Secretary of State John Kerry said on December 28 that the only chance for Israel to live in peace in the future is to accept a two-state solution. Implicit within his words is condemnation of Israel as the sticking point to peace in the region. Also, I infer, he is, along with his boss Barack Obama, threatening to abandon Israel altogether if Netanyahu refuses to give land for peace.

This last-ditch effort of the Obama administration to intimidate Israel comes as too little, too late, for their nefarious plans. Donald Trump has reassured Netanyahu and the Jewish people that the betrayal will not stand. Maybe, for a time at least, there is to be a ray of sunshine beyond this 100-year storm.

—Terry

The Democratic Party Is Already Planning to Lose 2020

We are still weeks away from the day that Donald Trump takes office and the Democratic Party has already done everything possibly to ensure they lose the next presidential election. Since November 8th, disaffected Democrats have failed twice to undo the 2016 presidential election.

First, there was the failed recount effort launched by Jill Stein, an obvious front for the Clinton campaign—in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Embarrassingly, that effort actually resulted in a wider margin of victory for Trump, but not before Stein wasted $7 million raised from devastated Hillary supporters.

The second failure was an effort to convince Electoral College voters to become so-called faithless electors by deciding to cast their votes for someone other than the Republican nominee. When the vote was cast last Monday, five electors chose not to back Clinton while only two decided not to vote for Donald Trump. I guess threatening the life of electors was not the way to go.

Their next strategy will be to impeach Trump, more or less from the moment he is sworn in. Trump has already committed a long list of high crimes, according to liberal lawyers that are going over the Constitution with a microscope. Since Republicans control both houses of Congress, the Democrats’ dreams of impeachment are going to be out of luck.

Let us return to reality.

Right after this massive election defeat, the Democrats decide to reelect Nancy Pelosi as minority leader of the House of Representatives. Pelosi has headed the Democratic caucus for 14 years. During her term they have lost more seats in Congress and state legislatures than the entire history of the party.

When asked how she could bring new ideas to the party, Pelosi said, “I don’t think Democrats want a new direction.” This is like saying people don’t want cars that get better gas mileage or computers that have faster processors.

Pelosi has been so ineffective as a leader, Republicans were mockingly advocating for her to win the leadership election. “I’m rooting for Nancy!,” GOP Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, “She may have more support in our conference than her own conference.”

The worst decision by the Democratic Party is the plan to make Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress the head the Democratic National Committee. The vote will take place in February, and so far, Ellison is the only major contender for the job.

I think it is a serious mistake to make a Muslim the head of any political organization. Ellison may wave the American flag, and claim he’s become a new man since the day he praised anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan in the 1990s. But Ellison proves his own anti-Semitic stance by being chummy with a host of anti-Israel groups—like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas.

Ellison also failed to disclose that a group founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood paid for him to make a pilgrimage to the Islamic holy site of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The voting record of Keith Ellison should disqualify him from heading the Democratic Party. He is one of only eight members of Congress who refused to vote to help Israel fund its Iron Dome anti-missile program that was critical in protecting civilians from the rocket barrage launched by Hamas in 2007 and 2008.

In 2009 Ellison was one of only two dozen Congressmen to vote “present” rather than vote for a non-binding resolution “recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself against attacks from, reaffirming the United States’ strong support for Israel, and supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.”

The dumbest thing about having Keith Ellison as the DNC head is the money he is going to cost the Democratic Party. The number of Jews in America is only 4 percent, but they are major donors to leftist causes. I’m sure by 2020 Ellison will move the Democratic platform from pro-Israel to pro-Palestinian. This could be the breaking point where a sizable number of Jews will turn to the Republican Party.

You would think that Hillary Clinton’s political career is over. News reports say she intends to keep her campaign organization together for the next four years to keep open the possibility of running again for president in 2020.

“She’s convinced that, sooner than later, the voters will come to their senses and realize they made a horrible mistake by putting [Donald] Trump in the White House,” a source close to Hillary told Ed Klein Confidential. “She’s sure the voters will beg her to get in the race and she says, ‘I’m going to run again in 2020.’”

Clinton has made few public statements about the election, but it’s clear that she accepts zero responsibility for her loss. She is convinced that FBI Director James Comey cost her the election by the October announcement that he was reopening his investigation of her emails. There’s no doubt that Clinton thinks that Russian President Vladimir Putin was working with Trump.

In telephone conversations with Donald Trump, FBI Director James Comey assured the president-elect there was no credible evidence that Russia influenced the outcome of the recent U.S. presidential election by hacking the Democratic National Committee and the emails of John Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

What’s more, Comey told Trump that James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, agreed with this FBI assessment. The only member of the U.S. intelligence community who was ready to assert that the Russians sanctioned the hacking was John Brennan, the director of the CIA, according to sources who were briefed on Comey’s conversations with Trump.

“And Brennan takes his marching orders from President Obama,” the sources quoted Comey as saying. In Comey’s view, the leaks to The New York Times and The Washington Post alleging that the Russians tried—and perhaps even succeeded—in tilting the election to Trump were a Democratic Party effort to delegitimize Trump’s victory.

The bar has been set so low for president-elect Trump, it’s going to be very hard for him to fail. When electors for Pennsylvania delegation voted for him, some woman screamed, “You just elected Adolf Hitler.” If Trump is able to resist annexing Austria or invading Poland, we’ll be able to call his first term a success.

There is always the possibility of a massive recession putting the Democrats back in power in 2020. The mistakes that they are making on a daily basis makes this a hard goal to reach. The only other option for a Democratic sweep is the Rapture. Since God is the one who determines the course of world events, the loony left may be set to retake the White House because of the Lord of heaven planning on handing them the ultimate hollow victory.

“He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision” (Psalm 2:4).

–Todd

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Jerusalem Move Prophetic?

One can sense prophetic movement afoot within this presidential election cycle. The globalist agenda, as mentioned a number of times in these commentaries, seems to have been put on hold, or at least slowed.

That is not to say that the forces wanting to set the stage for Antichrist’s rise to power–unwittingly no doubt in most cases–have by any means given up on their agenda. But, in America, for the moment, the people’s decision to put this particular man in the most powerful office on earth appears to have erected a wall of opposition.

It is God, Himself, who in actuality has put Trump in the office of U.S. president, just as He allows any potentate, prince, or president to come to power.

With this in mind, it is most interesting to consider developments as offshoots of this particular election–thus in light of the coalescing of prophetic indicators the issues and events of these times have wrought.

One such indicator I’ve written about previously that has potential prophetic overtones in my estimation is the possibility of a coming economic boom. This is the trend in every direction one looks in consideration of the financial markets of late. Most every indicator leading up to this election year pointed to dire outcomes in America and the world regarding economic prospects. Europe and much of the rest of the world continue to be steeped in dire such predictions. The United States prospects, however, are looking brighter and brighter as the inauguration of Donald J. Trump approaches.

I’m not deluded–nor should you be–that all is well. It isn’t. But, a boom, I believe, was prophesied by the Lord Jesus Himself. It will be a time of buying, selling, building, marrying, planting, and doing all the things that say good times are here again.

Jesus said as recorded in Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17:26-30 that times will be booming economically at the time judgment will fall. Anytime the Lord prophesied–such as in His Olivet Discourse foretelling–the things He foretold announced an especially accelerated or more pronounced state than normal circumstance would indicate. When He said people will be buying, selling, building, etc., “like in the days of Lot,” He was, I’m convinced, predicting a boom in wealth, etc.–i.e., economic circumstance well beyond business as usual.

We see, at this present hour, a movement into economic boom times for this nation. Trump is an acknowledged business whiz, and the financial markets almost without exception give indication they have confidence he will “make America great again”–at least economically speaking.

This optimism of the money changers of Wall Street and other echelons of fiscal power inspired me to meander a bit through the Revelation chapter 18 prophecy in which the entity known as Babylon the Great is described. The ruminating in my mind raises the question, despite the longstanding seminary declaration that this entity will rise from the geographical area of ancient Babylon. Is it possible the prophecy might involve the United States of America?

I’m not saying it will be thus–just that it is legitimate to raise the question. I’m aware that great theologically prophetic minds–some belonging to dear friends–say there is no such possibility.

Another such prophetic indicator flowing from this presidential election–the subject of this essay–is the matter of the president-elect’s promise to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Actually, candidate Trump long ago made this declaration during many stump speeches. It is more than noteworthy, therefore, that his selection to be ambassador to Israel has at the center of his thinking the move of the American embassy from where it now sits in Tel Aviv to–you guessed it–Jerusalem.

Trump’s choice, David Friedman, an orthodox Jew, has stated that he looks forward to serving as ambassador to Israel at “the US embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.”

Former Republican National Committee chairman and now President-Elect Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, was told in an interview on the December 18, 2016 FOX News Sunday program by Chris Wallace, the show’s host, that Freidman has said he is against the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This, Wallace indicated, is against the international community’s determination to make such a “solution” part of a peace deal. The upshot of Wallace’s thought was that this is going to be a highly controversial stand by Friedman and Trump. This, it was implied, will prevent the peace from eventuating, which the globalists want to impose upon Israel and the region.

Zechariah’s prophecy might here come into play as we look forward to the coming months of the Trump presidency. The establishment of America’s embassy in Jerusalem, thus making recognition of that most controversial city on earth as Israel’s capital ironclad, will almost certainly both drive the Arab-Islamists of the region into a frenzy and cause massive diplomatic headaches for the globalist, international community sort.

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)

Like in the prophecy involving Jesus’ days of Noah, days of Lot foretelling, Zechariah’s prophecy regarding Jerusalem looks to be forming. Stay tuned…

–Terry