A New Cold War

Ties between Russia and the U.S. have greatly deteriorated in the past few years. The down- turn started in 2012 when Russian General Nikolay Yegorovich Makarov said that there is a possibility of a preemptive strike on new missile defense sites in Eastern Europe. Also that year, nuclear armed Russian forces began shadowing the American border.

Relations between the two nations went into a nose dive in 2014 when Moscow annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea on the basis of a referendum. Over the next two years, six rounds of sanctions were imposed on Russia. The first three rounds targeted individuals close to Putin by freezing their assets. The other three sanctions cut off Russian corporations from Western financing.

Another strain has been a series of hacking attacks by Russian agents. In October 2014, Russian hackers exploited a software bug to spy on computers used by NATO, the European Union and Ukrainian energy companies. Hackers linked to Russian intelligence services stole and leaked 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, warned Russian not to “interfere with our democratic processes.”

Edward Snowden, the contractor for the United States government who copied and released hundreds of thousands of pages of secret government documents has added to the strain. He fled to Hong Kong and then to Russia; in July of 2013 Russia granted him political asylum

The Syrian civil war is the current source of tension between Washington and Moscow. The government of Syria receives technical, financial, military and political support from Russia, while the U.S. favors several rebel groups. The U.S. blames Russia for indiscriminate bombings that have killed civilians.

The mistrust is taking its toll on previous treaties. Last week, Putin cited Washington’s “unfriendly actions” as the reason for him ending a pact on the disposal of nuclear material. Under the agreement, Russia and the U.S. each were to destroy 34 metric tons of plutonium, enough material for about 17,000 nuclear warheads.

I find it strange that Obama would be at odds with Vladimir Putin. In his nearly eight years in office, he has made friends with nearly every dictator on the planet. He even refuses to directly condemn Islamic terrorists. I guess it is just fitting of his destructive nature that he would choose to lock horns with a guy who controls thousands of nuclear weapons.

The liberal media has given very little coverage to the souring of the relationship between the U.S. and Russia. Since the press operates under the idea that Obama is a faultless president, a return to the Cold War under his watch is unthinkable.

It should have been obvious to all that Obama and Putin hate each. They were engaged in a death stare as the two leaders met at the G-20 summit in China. Our former Cold War presidents had many meetings with their Soviet counterparts during some trying times, but I’ve never seen footage of one that looks like it was about to turn into a boxing match.

The Russian press has no delusions about the rising tension. Several news organizations in Russia have issued a chilling warning that war with the West could be imminent. Zvezda, a nationwide TV service run by the country’s Ministry of Defense, said last month, “Schizophrenics from America are sharpening nuclear weapons for Moscow.”

Obama may hate Putin, but he has avoided getting into armed conflict with him. Many members of his administration have called for action that would put Russia and the U.S. in direct conflict with each other. The New York Timesrecently published the audio of Kerry in which he says he had “lost the argument” for the use of force against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

“I think you’re looking at three people, four people in the [Obama] administration who have all argued for use of force, and I lost the argument,” Kerry said. “I’ve argued for the use of force.”

The strain between Russia and the U.S. would get even worse if Hillary Clinton were to win next month’s election. She has a much deeper hatred for Putin and she is a war hawk. When Clinton was secretary of state, she pressured Obama to take more aggressive military action in a variety of conflicts, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, and Syria.

Bible prophecy tells us that Russia will someday lead an attack against Israel. The growing hostility between the U.S. and Russia may not be the catalyst. But if Putin did have any hesitancies about upsetting America, that is clearly no longer a factor.

“After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.

Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought” (Ezekiel 38:8-10).

–Todd

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When God Promises

Every presidential election in recent times has been talked about as one of the most crucial in America’s history. This election has added to it, however, anxiety among voters the likes of which I can’t recall.

Not everyone is so concerned, of course. Those I’m referring to who are so concerned are those who truly see the nation as on a pathway of rapid decline in most every aspect of society and culture. From the issues of the debauching of morality like instituting same-sex marriage and same-sex public toilet facilities…to a presidential administration that seems to have thrown the U.S. Constitution out the window of common sensibility…to the deliberate creation of an economic morass that has built to the point that the government routinely lies, fabricating statistics to try to convince the American people that they aren’t in reality in the portentous economic predicament their circumstances plainly indicates, intensive fear is building.

There is genuine worry within the heartland of America that we have a government that is no longer recognizable as founded. And, the even greater worry is that this condition has been deliberately brought about by elected leaders whose primary concerns is feathering their own personal and political power nests.

Certainly, looking across America’s landscape of the present hour, it isn’t easy to find a glimmer of hope to offer those with these concerns. The cajoling of voters for their votes by the politicians and their great, swelling promises of the campaign stump suddenly disappear when they win elections. They join in or revert to their old Washington ways once put into or returned to office. It would be foolhardy to expect that this election will see accomplished a different result.

Tremendous pressures exerted upon newly elected members of Congress to join the insider network or else be marginalized and rendered ineffectual has been made blatantly observable over the last number of mid-term elections in particular. Once the candidates have been within the D.C. Beltway for a certain period of time, they melt into the system. They seem to disconnect from their constituency until time to get out and shore up their support at home.

The politicians’ promises, almost without exception, fade into the canyons of lost memories, the destination for which they are intended all along by the Washington power brokers. Yet to so many amongst the citizenry, the government has come to demand god-like reverence. The largess that the power brokers provide from cradle to grave has replaced reliance upon provision by the true God of Heaven in the mainstream of life in America–this swiftly taking our nation in the opposite direction intended by the founding fathers.

Each succeeding election proves again and again that the politicians’ promises were never intended to be kept. Yet we the people continue to place trust in those who, in many cases, have been in those positions of power for decades. It’s a form of insanity, I think–reprobate thinking brought on by our sinful ways and activity. Again, the definition of insanity is trying the same thing time after time to solve problems even though it fails every time.

This brought to mind for this week’s commentary the distinctly defined difference–the contrast–between those promises given by the politicians and the promises made by our God in Heaven.

Actually, it was the actions of the current president of the United States in Jerusalem attending the funeral of former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres that brought this contrast to mind. Mr. Obama’s White House publicity writers, while reporting Obama’s trip to Jerusalem for Peres’ funeral, made a faux pas that had to be quickly corrected.

Obama correctly stated in his prepared remarks while attending the funeral, “I could not be more honored to be in Jerusalem to say farewell to my friend Shimon Peres, who showed us that justice and hope are at the heart of the Zionist idea.”

However, the White House initially put in the announcement of the president’s going to the funeral that the ceremony would be in ”Jerusalem, Israel.” The embarrassed White House staff put out within six hours of the faux pas the corrected statement that indicated that in fact Jerusalem is disputed territory.

In other words, Israel, in the eyes of U.S. politicians, has no claim to Israel more valid than do those who claim possession among the Palestinians. The U.S. State Department has, in fact, refused to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, placing the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.

The same politicians who make us promises election after election and quickly forget them once they’ve been voted in office tell Israel that, in effect, God’s promise to that nation is not valid. Yet while the politicians prove election after election that it is their own promises that are not valid, the God of Heaven, through the very nation of Israel, which is at the heart of so much worldwide anger and controversy, has proven beyond any doubt that He keeps His promises.

He has said that Israel, once established in the land, will never be uprooted again. He said it would be made a nation again in a single day. He said that Israel will never stop being His people. He has kept every promise. We can know therefore, beyond any doubt that while the politicians of this nation and world almost never keep even one promise, the God of the Universe never will break a promise.

That God has said to His people Israel regarding Jerusalem, “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.” (Zechariah 2:8)

The Lord has also promised that because the politicians of this world will “divide my land,” He will bring the whole world into the Valley of Jehoshaphat–to Armageddon (Joel 3:2).

That’s why we watch Israel so closely in the observation of the unfolding of history in view of Bible prophecy. Israel is absolute proof of the veracity of God’s Word. He keeps His promises–and Israel is the proof! To apply this to the fear and trepidation that so many Christians are expressing today about the upcoming election and what lies beyond November 8, I urge that we consider our Great, Promise-Keeping God.

He has told us that we will be completely kept out of the time of the soon-to-come era of horror termed the Tribulation–out of His Judgment and Wrath (Revelation 3: 10). He will take the Bride of Christ –the Church– off this condemned planet when all of the troubling signals begin to come to pass (Luke 21: 28).

When God promises, it is as good as accomplished. This promise, I hope you will sense in your spirit as do I, is about to be kept.

–Terry

Apathy in Dealing with Infectious Diseases

The heads of several tech companies have recently pledged money to combat diseases. Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has funded a project that will bring together a group of scientists, engineers, doctors, and other experts in an attempt to “cure, prevent, or manage all diseases in our children’s lifetime.” Zuckerberg said he will devote 99 percent of his fortune to this cause.

Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, believes one day we will find a way to live forever. Ray Kurzweil, Google’s chief futurist, said in April, “We will reach a point around 2029 when medical technologies will add one additional year every year to your life expectancy.”

These goals of curing all disease and achieving immortality are pipe dreams. We have learned a great deal about the functions of living organisms, but our knowledge has not allowed us to master the codes of life. In reality, we are slowly losing the battle against infectious diseases. An entire series of bacterial pathogens have developed resistance to nearly every antibiotic.

The problem is so bad the United Nations has just declared antibiotic Resistance as a Crisis, putting it on par with Ebola and HIV. It is hoped that the classification will lead to the funding and research needed to combat, or even fully eradicate, the problem, which is currently responsible for more than 23,000 deaths per year in the U.S. alone.

The World Health Organization has warned that gonorrhea “may soon become untreatable” because of growing resistance to the antibiotic ceftriaxone, a member of the cephalosporin class.

Head lice do not cause death, but its resistance to treatment shows the problem. In 1945, the insecticide solution to treat lice known as Nix, was the most commonly used treatment and was nearly 100 percent effective against the organism. Today, only 2 percent of head lice can be treated with NIX.

Even when virus kills large numbers of people, there is no alarm by world governments. The West African Ebola epidemic of 2013 to 2016 was the most widespread epidemic of the Ebola virus disease in history. Ebola has up to a 70 percent fatality rate. Doctors that wore heavy protective gear still managed to become infected with the virus. We still don’t have any cure or specific treatment for Ebola.

At one point in 2014, the number of cases was doubling every couple weeks. We were within a month of seeing the infections rate reach the hundreds of thousands, but then the disease just suddenly stopped in its track. It was like the virus was meant to be some type of warning.

Another indication of how unprepared we are with disease is the problem with the Zika virus. For most people, the infection is similar to a very mild form of dengue fever. The horror of Zika occurs when a pregnant woman becomes infected, the virus spreads to her fetus.

This can result in microcephaly (severe brain malformations), and other birth defects. Unlike Ebola, which erupted in Africa, Zika has reached the shores of America. Florida has asked Congress for money to help with the eradication of mosquitoes that carry the virus, and lawmakers have failed to move for several months.

I have to wonder if these bugs have invaded people’s brains, reprogramming them to be apathetic. Leprosy is a disease that was once wiped out in the Western world. Because we allow infected people to freely enter our country, leprosy has re-emerged as a risk factor. When children from immigrant families turn up at school with leprosy, the media conceals the source of the infection.

If the tech giants were able to cure infectious diseases they would also greatly discredit Bible prophecy. Since plagues and pestilences are a key element of the Tribulation hour, their removal would be a huge obstacle to several prophetic passages.

The lack of concern about infectious diseases is a direct result of the moral state of the world. We have the same level of apathy about terrorism, nuclear war, and natural disasters. Because God has already determined to use plagues and pestilences to show His wrath upon a wicked world, the ultimate threat from these dangers is 100 percent. The next time we have an epidemic, it may not stop until we have toll that fits the carnage described by prophecy.

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (Matthew 24:7).

“These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will” (Revelation 11:6).

“I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God” (Revelation 15:1).

 

–Todd

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Power

Henry Kissinger once said that political power is the ultimate aphrodisiac. He should know. He was for many years at or near the very top on that political leadership chain that wields such power. Some believe he remains so today, even into his nineties.

Power is the one thing for which the global elitists lust. It has been that way since Nimrod first thought to establish one-world order on the plains of Shinar those millennia ago. The constant, incessant drive since the time God intervened and scattered the would-be globalist government architects at Babel has continued to be construction of humanistic world order under the absolute authority of a small number of power brokers.

Daniel the prophet and John the revelator both saw the same composite beast coming out of the sea of humanity at the very end of history. Each vision represented a single-governing, global entity. Daniel, in particular, saw that the monster was the composite of great world empires of the past.

Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first waslike a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. (Daniel 7:2-8)

John prophesied the following through his Patmos vision: And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. (Revelation 13: 1-2)

It is clear that the great prophets Daniel and John were given almost identical visions of the monstrous hybrid entity that will one day crush all of humanity under its massively destructive power. Representing all of the great humanistic empires of history, the satanically driven final world empire will have at its head a single mouth–that of Antichrist–the first beast of Revelation 13. That mouth will speak “great things,” meaning it will propagandize the world’s inhabitants to such an extent that they will believe a great lie that will deceive all but the very elect of God–those saved during the Tribulation era (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).

To anyone with eyes to see and especially with ears to hear, we are witness today of the development of that great power to deceive. The globalists are shouting with the all-in assistance of the world’s media and through actions that are louder than mere words. They want to transform the world into the new Babel–a neo-Nimrod platform upon that will erect, at least symbolically, a tower even more powerful and all-encompassing than that Tower of Babel of antiquity.

This, to me, is what is among the most troubling in this presidential election. There is a clear distinction between the directions the two major candidates want to go with regard to how America will be governed for the next four years.

The power struggle is immense. One candidate claims that he wants to begin returning the United States to the leadership of the world of nations, with maintenance of traditionally distinctive borders and ways of dealing internationally.

The other candidate’s driving imperative is clearly to continue taking America down the path of deconstructing national boundaries and forcing slavish adherence to more and more internationalist regulations. She is adamantly determined to bring this nation into compliance with the globalist, one-world design.

I say that to me this is especially troubling because Bible prophecy clearly presents that a beastly composite, world order will one day come to pass, if but for a short time. National autonomy and sovereignty will therefore have to at some point diminish and ultimately vanish.

Those of us who want to see America and other nations maintaining–or I should say returning–the international order to like it has been in the recent past seem on the wrong side of Bible prophecy. The globalists seem on the winning side, in that sense.

This election will supposedly determine whether we will go one direction or the other with regard to whether we will live under the U.S. Constitution or under Global Agenda 21 or 30, or whatsoever it’s called now.

Lucifer lusted after God-like power (Isaiah 14:14). All of fallen mankind since the time of the Garden of Eden has clamored for God-like power, which Satan promised through his original deception to Eve. Today, with a U.S. presidential candidacy that threatens to disrupt their one-world agenda, there is a desperate effort to hold to power in Washington, D.C., in the U.N., and in the echelons of principalities and powers in high places (Ephesians 6:12).

The die is cast, as Shakespeare would put it. The new world order is coming. It’s just a matter of when. Will it come during this presidential election cycle?

I believe the answer to that might depend upon the born again of this nation.

According to Paul’s prophecy in 2 Thessalonians, the Restrainer (the Holy Spirit resident within each individual believer in Jesus Christ) will restrain until He (the Holy Spirit) is taken out of the way. Then all-out iniquity will fill the vacuum left in the wake of His removal as Restrainer.

The Church–all born-again believers–just might have at its prayerful fingertips the power to hold back or restrain absolute evil until Christ’s Body–all born-again believers–is removed.

It is incumbent upon each of us as believers, therefore, to appropriate that Power of restraint against those who would bring about the Antichrist, globalist power base for as long as we serve as Royal Ambassadors upon this judgment-bound planet.

The power of prayer is beyond anything the finite mind can fathom. Let us use the privilege we have been given to exercise this great weapon against the ultimate evil Satan plans for humanity.

 

–Terry