The World Has Lost Respect for the U.S.

The world’s opinion of the United States as a serious world power has eroded markedly under the Obama Administration. America’s overall image around the world remains largely positive. But when it comes to political and economic might, more people rank Russia and China ahead of the U.S.

Obama acts like America is some type of giant candy store. He thinks if he gives out enough free lollipops to all the other nations, they will repay his generosity with respect. This appeasement approach always fails because it never satisfies aggressor nations.

Last year, the White House headed a deal that gave Iran $100 billion in economic sanctions relief. A few months ago, the U.S. gave payments to Iran, totaling $1.3 billion. The money was said to be for the settlement of old deals from the 70s, but anyone with common sense knows it was for the release of five hostages.

All this money has not turned the mullah’s of Iran into our friends. It has given them more impetus to flex their collective muscles. Currently they are working to capture a fresh batch of hostages. They are also harassing our ships in the Persian Gulf; four such incidents have been reported in less than a month.

In the most recent incident, the USS Firebolt was shadowed by seven Iranian vessels. Three of the vessels came within 500 yards and shadowed Firebolt for eight minutes. Then one of the Iranian vessels broke off and raced in front of Firebolt and “came to a stop directly in front of the ship” at a range of 100 yards, according to the official.

The most embarrassing encounter we’ve had with Iran is the January detainment of our American sailors. One of our ship’s boats inadvertently entered Iranian waters due to navigational errors. The Obama Administration tried to claim that when Iran detained American sailors to just help them out.

A most precarious and demeaning situation emerged when the Iranians forced the sailors—at gun point, to make statements on camera which violated articles 13 and 17 of the Geneva Convention. The Iranians think this was such memorable event that they are building a statue of American sailors groveling on their knees.

The Russians have also been harassing our military forces. Last week a Russian fighter jet carried out an intercept of U.S. spy plane flying over the Black Sea. A U.S. Defense official said that there were multiple interactions between the two aircraft, and called the intercept by the Russian jet “unsafe and unprofessional.” The incident lasted about 19 minutes and the Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighter came within 10 feet of the US Navy P-8 surveillance plane.

While Russian jets are doing barrel rolls over our recon jets, we have the Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter nagging Moscow; telling them to not “interfere with our democratic processes.” This was a reference to the FBI investigation into allegations that Russia hacked into computer systems of the Democratic National Committee. Russian President Vladimir Putin knows that it’s difficult to be absolute about hacking so he has been able to mockingly deny that his government had any involvement in the hacks. In one interview Putin said, “It’s important” the contents of the DNC emails were made public.

The level of disrespect for America has risen to the point that Obama himself is having to deal with it. On his trip to the Group of 20 summit, Obama had a very awkward start to the meeting. The Chinese would not allow a staircase to be driven to the main doorway on Air Force One, forcing him to exit from a door in the plane’s belly.

White House officials attributed the dispute to inexperienced, overzealous security officials rather than any premeditated effort to humiliate Mr. Obama. But the images of Chinese guards shouting at reporters and hassling the president’s national security adviser, Susan E. Rice, are hard to explain away.

The chaotic arrival ceremony in China was a minor blip when compared to the verbal abuse Obama received from Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines’ president, Duterte, said Obama was the “son of a whore”—when he learned that the American president was going to asking him about the killing of drug dealers. The ugly personal outburst forced Obama to cancel the meeting.

The status of America has fallen so far that people don’t even realize the greatness of our past. After World War II, the U.S. had an economy that was larger than all other nations combined. Even though Bible prophecy made no clear mention of the U.S., many end-time writers find the need to include Uncle Sam in prophecy.

Thanks partly to Obama, there is no need to wonder about America’s prophetic role. After the Rapture, the president will have the well-earned privilege of standing with those left behind to experience hell on earth. He can then stand in the front row of a group photo op at a future Group of 20 (G20) meeting, and own all of what he has purchased when he sold out America.

“Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein; and he that rolleth a stone, it shall return upon him. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Prov. 26:27; Gal. 6:7).

–Todd

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Doomsday: The Truth

Doomsday talk is on the rise. It brings to mind the 1964 movie filmed in stark black and white on the topic of nuclear war, entitled Dr. Strangelove. This was a darkly humorous film that captured the fearful times at the height of the Cold War involving America and the Soviet Union.

A U.S. general, in this fictional account, went a bit nutso and ordered a strike on the Soviet Union by the B-52 bombers under his command. (Yes, Hollywood was liberal and saw the U.S. as more evil than the Communist world in those days, too.)

The president, played by Peter Sellers–who also played Dr. Strangelove, the former Nazi scientist in the employ of the U.S. Department of Defense–did all he could to direct the Soviets to bring down the final B-52 as it began its assault. But, alas, the bomber, although crippled by a nearby anti-aircraft missile strike, managed to unleash a multi-megaton hydrogen bomb.

This strike set in motion all-out nuclear war because the Soviets had developed a doomsday machine nobody within the U.S. Defense Department knew about. It became at that point a final war that could not be controlled or stopped.

Back to reality… President Ronald Reagan’s peaceful defeat of Soviet designs for world domination was believed to bring the Cold War to an end. Immediately the cries by the “progressives” went up to convert all of the Cold War military spending to social, do-good causes.

This call for ever-decreasing spending in America’s military roared during the Clinton years and again during the Obama administrations so that the U.S. military, in many of its aspects is now said to be at pre-World War II levels.

But, it is obvious to those who view things through the lens of reality that America’s old, Cold War foes–Russia and China–are building military war-making machinery. They are doing so technologically, if not in war-capable hardware, and now are reaching out to achieve super-power status. Other diabolist states are doing their best to establish their niches in the world’s nuclear power structure.

We know all about Iran wanting to develop nuclear weaponry and the missile capability to deliver them. The Ayatollahs have even forewarned time after time just who these weapons when completed will be used against. North Korea makes no bones about wanting to hit any target they can when they achieve the capability to accurately launch them.

All of this has brought the world to renewed fears of the world possibly meeting its end in fiery, nuclear doom within a decade or sooner.

European doomsday worry-warts are ginning up ultra-Cold War fears by warning citizens to prepare for disaster. With the prospect of the influx of millions of hostile militants migrating to Europe, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as I reported last week, said, “We must give priority to security, so let’s start setting up a joint European army.”

The German government has instructed its people to prepare for disaster by stockpiling ten days’ worth of food and five days’ worth of water. Berlin is also considering re-instituting conscription (a military draft) in view of the tremendous surge of Muslims entering Europe.

One thing we haven’t heard much about in this volatile political season is that President Obama is also speaking in such terms. In June he said that Americans must be “prepared “–by having an evacuation plan,” as well as “having a fully-stocked disaster supply kit.”

All of this comes with increasing alarm by some military analysts who report that Russia is developing and testing new “hyper-weapons.” Russian TU-22M3 long-range Backfire bomber aircraft will now be armed with the new Russian Kh-32 cruise missile. The capabilities of this missile are astounding: It can fly at speeds of up to 600 mph to an altitude of almost 25 miles, and when it reaches the proximity of its target, fly downward at a speed of almost 3,000 mph with a total range of almost 600 miles.

There are unsubstantiated reports within some fear-forewarning supposition that “doomsday bunkers” have been prepared for Russian citizenry. Some of the fearful postulation is that many within Russian officialdom are taking to the especially prepared doomsday bunkers in the Yamantau Mountain complex that has been constructed.

Add to this increasing reporting that Russian President Vladimir Putin is in the process of purging all upper-echelon officers within his military that oppose future war with Europe and the U.S. Turkey is said to be making tremendous changes within its military planning, in conjunction with Putin’s own maneuverings, as preparations for an eventual war in the Middle East and beyond are becoming more manifest.

Chinese leaders are all but declaring war on China’s neighbors in creating islands in the South China Sea–which it now claims for the most part to belong to China. The Chinese navy consistently challenges any commercial and other ships that want to pass through what the world still considers international waters.

China, like Russia, is believed to have produced weapons of a defensive nature that are designed to thwart nuclear missile strikes in retaliation for their own offensive assaults–thus in violation of longstanding agreements against such military technological development.

So, it looks like the old Dr. Strangelove Cold War fears are back. Despite the hyperbole and conspiracy theories, there is enough reality-based concern to be alert to the worries wrought by all this doomsday speculation.

All that said, the bottom line is that the God of Heaven will have the final say about the fate of nations–of planet earth. As a matter of fact, He has already given us all we need to know about that which this generation is now facing so far as the likelihood of doomsday is concerned. This world is not at its end. It won’t be at its end until at a minimum 1007 years from now–and that is if the Rapture occurred within the next fifteen minutes.

“Doomsday” is a matter that must be viewed in terms of degree. It is true, biblically, that earth’s total obliteration will never take place by human use of the hydrogen bomb or any other device or doomsday machine. It is equally true, prophetically speaking, that earth as we know it will one day be done away with, then remade. That will perhaps take place through nuclear fission or some other phenomenon of natural physics. However it is done, it will be God who remakes the heavens and the earth.

To most all of those who will be left behind and live through the Tribulation era following the Rapture of the Church it will be the time of doom. Most believers (those who accept Christ after the Rapture) will be martyred. Theirs will not be “doom” but severe persecution–and, in most cases, death. But, those who die will go instantly to an eternity of bliss beyond all imagination.

To the reader: You don’t have to concern yourself with “Doomsday.” Jesus Christ died on the cross at Calvary two thousand years ago to assure that your place of heavenly safety is forever secured. Again, the following is the way God has provided for you to escape the terrors the doomed unbelievers of the ages must face:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10: 9-10).

–Terry

Pope Francis and the One-World Religion

The Roman Catholic Church has led the global Ecumenical Movement since soon after its inception. By heading the largest religious organization on the planet (which consists of 1.27 billion people), the Pope has a huge advantage in winning a contest for the leader of all religions.

Protestant denominations have more than 900 million adherents, but they are fractured into thousands of organizations. The Southern Baptist Convention is the world’s largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States. But it only has 15 million members.

Pope John Paul II did much to bring unity to world religions. But his efforts were limited because he believed that Catholicism is superior to other faiths. John Paul II’s successor, Pope Benedict XVI was a set back the Ecumenical Movement. He started off by correctly condemning Islam for its evil traits. Benedict said in one speech:

“Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” Pope Benedict later apologized for any offense he had caused and made a point of visiting Turkey and praying in its Blue Mosque.

The surprise resignation of Pope Benedict resulted in the rise of Pope Francis. With this new pope, the ecumenical bandwagon was back on track. Pope Francis has reached out to the heads of nearly every major religion.

Just this year alone, he has met with the Patriarch Kirill of Russia for the first time since the 1054 East-West schism. He met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Archbishop of Constantinople. Also in May, Francis met with Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque, who is considered the head of Sunni Islam.

Pope Francis has been able to become chummy with all these other religions because he has capitulated to the spirit of the age. He is the one who said “Who am I to judge?” when asked about his view on homosexuality.

Pope Francis has also said “Even the atheists” can go to heaven. It is a total compromise for a Christian leader to go into a mosque and offer prayers to the god of Islam.

The pontiff has been so active in fitting the role of the False Prophet, rumors have been making the rounds in the conspiracy theory blogosphere. One source claims Pope Francis will soon make a UFO and alien disclosure that will end with a call for a global religion. Another site says that next month, “POPE FRANCIS to PROCLAIM LUCIFER as God of One World Religion” at an ecumenical gathering of the world’s three monotheist faiths that will take place September 4-23, 2016, in Jerusalem.

I think the strongest indication that we are in the home stretch of the creation of the one-world religion is the Pope’s reaction to all the terror acts in Europe. When the 86-year-old Father Jacques Hamel had his throat slit at a church altar by Muslim attackers, Pope Francis said this on a trip to Poland: “When I speak of war I speak of wars over interests, money, resources, not religion. All religions want peace, it’s the others who want war.

In any other time period, all these atrocities carried out in the name of Allah would cause people to hit the pause button. Pope Francis sees dialogue as the solution to Islamic terror. It seems the more blood that is shed, the more eager he is to embrace the enemy.

I recently watched a documentary about Madame Helena Petrova Blavatsky. She was a Russian occultist who is widely seen as the grandmother of the New Age movement. Blavatsky taught that most faiths of mankind are derived from a universal religion.

She said that Islam, Catholicism, and the Eastern religions had redeemable values, but she thought that Protestant Christian faiths were too corrupted to be of any good. This is no surprise coming from someone who received much of her doctrinal views from a demon guide. We can consider this quite a compliment when we consider the source.

It is possible that Pope Francis could be the False Prophet who will cause the world to worship the Antichrist. If the Tribulation is near, he will likely get the job. Since Putin has decided to be the perpetual leader of Russia, death is the only thing that would prevent him from being the head of the Ezekiel 38 and 39 invasion.

It is well enough to see warning signs in nature as an indication of the Rapture’s close proximity. When you see actors who will be part of the Tribulation starting to assemble just off stage, you really know time is short.

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).

–Todd

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War with the Beast

A time is coming, according to Bible prophecy, when the world will experience the most powerful leader to have ever lived upon the planet. He will far surpass in military capability any president of the United States of America who has yet held the reins of power.

The people of planet earth will literally become awestruck as they witness his exploits. The prophecy regarding the amazement over this future military man-marvel is seen in the following:

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? (Revelation 13: 4)

We have looked many times at this future tyrant John calls through Holy Spirit Inspiration “the beast.”

He is the first of two beasts that John, through his Revelation vision, sees coming into world history. This beast will make his appearance during the period Daniel the prophet indicated will be the seventieth week that will wrap up premillennial human history. That will be the last seven years leading up to the return of Christ at Armageddon (Revelation 19:11). We know him better, perhaps, as Antichrist.

It is good to think for a bit on that Scripture about this man-beast. The Bible says the question will be asked by the populations of the world–who will actually worship him: Who is able to make war with him?”

In other words, it will look to everyone who witnesses Antichrist’s military exploits and other miraculous accomplishments that he is a god. It will appear, the prophecy says immediately preceding the question, that he is killed by a wound in his head and comes back to life. This is obviously, from our understanding and perspective today, a false resurrection. However, the world at that time of great delusion won’t see it that way.

The question “Who can make war with him?” will be one asked with mesmerized stares of eyes more glazed and glistening than were those as recorded on the black-and-white films of Hitler’s worshipers during the 1930s.

There is no such leader with that kind of power anywhere in view today. There are many, many military leaders and their armies who can and do make war with anyone and everyone in this present geopolitical climate. That future beast will be indeed an animal of unprecedented military capability and authority.

Besides the United States military–still the most feared on the planet despite the current president’s efforts to, in my view, greatly diminish its strength–Russia and China continue to build tremendous war-making machines. Iran, Turkey, and others constantly aspire to more powerful militaries. There will have to occur massive changes in the military power structures of the world to bring about this singular most monstrous war-making leader, against whom no one is thought to be able to fight.

We often conjecture about what happens to the United States. Why isn’t it in Bible prophecy? If there, it certainly is in a greatly changed configuration, because its military is nowhere in sight, prophetically speaking. We believe that the militaries of Russia, China, and many others, such as Iran and Turkey, are in prophetic view. We believe we see many of these within the Gog-Magog assault into the Middle East toward Israel as given in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39.

Our own view within the pre-Trib camp concerning the Rapture holds that the great changes needed to reconfigure things in alignment with end times Bible prophecy will unfold during the post-Rapture era. At least, that is my understanding at this point in time.

After that great Rapture event, the United States might fit into being aligned with those nation-entities that stand on the sideline as the Gog-Magog attack begins and simply make a diplomatic protest.

Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? Have you come to take a great spoil? (Ezekiel 38:13)

At any rate, the coalition that assaults into the Holy Land environs will be powerful, and unopposed–by human agencies, that is. God, of course, will completely destroy all but one-sixth of that Gog-Magog army in that future attack. After that destruction, only the great “kings of the East” juggernaut will remain as a force with which to be reckoned.

So, how does the great beast of Revelation 13 accumulate such awesome strength as to have the whole world ask: “Who is able to make war with him?”

In my own cogitations upon the matter–and it is supposition to be sure–there is somehow a dividing line set between the occidental and oriental worlds. This is true to this point in history, I think. But, in that day there seems to be a supernatural demarcation–the Euphrates River or thereabouts. When it is “dried up” as given in Revelation chapter 16, the kings of the East–led no doubt by China–will invade at the time of Armageddon, it seems. At that time the demons appointed especially for that moment will be released from their holding places and will supernaturally indwell those hordes from the orient. These will kill one-third of earth’s inhabitants, the prophecy tells us. However, all of this will happen later, at the very end of the Tribulation–Daniel’s seventieth week.

At that earlier time of the Gog-Magog attack, I believe that Antichrist, resident within the nations who will send a note of protest (Ezekiel 38:13), will understand Bible prophecy to the point that he will think slyly to let the Gog-Magog forces go to their destruction by the God of Heaven. He will then move into the military power vacuum and build his mighty army–an army supernaturally enhanced by the dark powers of Satan. Again, it is the view of most who hold to the pre-Trib view of the Rapture and to pre-Millennialism that this beast–Antichrist–is to come out of the geographical area now known as the European Union. He will come from the people who were at the heart of the ancient Roman Empire -the people who destroyed Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple in AD 70. I do not believe the beast will be a Muslim, although I do believe his ethnic make-up will be from the area of ancient Assyria. He will, nonetheless, I’m convinced, have been born and raised in the area of Europe, likely somewhere near Rome.

Today there is movement toward beginning a military establishment in that very region. The following excerpt is interesting in that regard.

The leaders of the Czech Republic and Hungary say a “joint European army” is needed to bolster security in the EU. They were speaking ahead of talks in Warsaw with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They dislike her welcome for Muslim migrants from outside the EU. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said “we must give priority to security, so let’s start setting up a joint European army”. The UK government has strongly opposed any such moves outside Nato’s scope. The Czech, Hungarian, Polish and Slovak leaders are coordinating their foreign policy as the “Visegrad Group.” (“Czechs and Hungarians call for EU army amid security worries,” BBC News, 8/27/16)

With the UK (Britain, possibly “the merchants of Tarsish”) leaving the EU in the so-called Brexit, the way might be clear to generate great interest in such a powerful military–absent NATO–as the beast can one day build upon. One thing sure, such a military monster will one day be constructed.

It will take the Lord Himself, returning from Heaven with the saints of glory, to bring Antichrist’s ability to make war to an end. Thankfully, Jesus Christ will do so. I believe our Lord will end the beast’s war-making capability with the same words He used that day on the stormy Sea of Galilee.”Peace. Be still.”

Even so, come Lord Jesus.

–Terry