Persecution of the Jews Syndrome

God declared that it is a blessing to be a member of the Jewish race. He looked down from heaven and decided to make the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob His chosen people. To see evidence of this blessing all you need to do is open a phone book and find all the lawyers, doctors and bankers with Jewish names.

Although Jews make up only 0.2 percent of the world’s population, they win an astonishing 22 percent of the Nobel Prizes. Jews constitute 11 percent of the global billionaires list, and their total wealth reaches to $812 billion.

There is no genetic explanation for why Jews stand out. Science has shown that despite being identified with certain mutations such as Tay-Sachs, Jews do not constitute a distinct genetic group; there is no “Jew” gene. The Jewish race is simply a group of people who share the same family tree.

There is a very high price that comes with being God’s chosen people. From those who are given much, much is required (Luke 12:48). Or as God said through one prophet, “You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins” (Amos 3:2).

Moses warned the Israelites that their disobedience would result in them being driven out of their land and that they would suffer tremendous persecution:

“The Lord will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve gods made of wood and stone, gods that neither you nor your ancestors have ever worshiped before. You will find no peace anywhere, no place to call your own; the Lord will overwhelm you with anxiety, hopelessness, and despair.

Your life will always be in danger. Day and night you will be filled with terror, and you will live in constant fear of death. Your hearts will pound with fear at everything you see. Every morning you will wish for evening; every evening you will wish for morning” (Deuteronomy chapter 28: 64-67).

The special relationship God has with the Jews naturally makes the devil their natural adversary. Satan knows that the destruction of Israel is the only way for him to delay his own judgment. His simple strategy has been to stir up hatred against Israel.

Problems have been handled so well in Israel that it’s hard to understand why there would be any reason to criticize the Israeli government. After suffering an endless series of terror attacks from the Palestinians, Israel finally wised-up and constructed a wall to protect herself from these savages. There has been some violence by the followers of Islam, but overall, this has been the most stabile time in the Jewish state’s history.

The enemies of Israel are not happy to see Israel so confident and strong, so they have decided that the status quo is unacceptable. They see the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, not as the natural outcome of a conflict that took place nearly 50 years ago—instead, they see these areas as an “occupied territory.”

It’s pure delusion to think the Palestinians are ready to fully manage their own affairs. The West Bank is a cesspool of corruption and brutality that is only maintained by handouts from donor nations. The last presidential elections for the “Palestinians” were held in 2005 when Mahmoud Abbas won a four year term. There wasn’t an election in 2009 because Abbas didn’t see the need for one. Abbas is a dictator who steals from his own people; giving him a hefty net worth of $100 million.

A poll taken by the Arab World for Research and Development published on Nov. 5, 2015, showed that 83 percent of Palestinians support holding legislative and presidential elections. Around 65 percent of the Palestinians want Abbas removed from post. The lack of democracy by the Palestinian government has been ignored by the West.

This anti-Israel madness has even made its way into the Democratic Party’s platform drafting committee. Three members of that body are strident Israel haters. All three were selected by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders; proven that the best Jew hater is the self-loathing variety.

The issue of Israel is a sensitive one in Democratic circles: There was a public and embarrassing flare-up over Israel in the 2012 platform when language declaring Jerusalem Israel’s capital was removed, and then reinstated into the platform after protests. At next month’s Democratic Party’s National Convention, it’s very likely that the platform for 2016 will use the word “occupation” to describe Israel’s control of “Palestinian” territories.

I am constantly coming across examples of the growing hatred of Israel. When four Jews were gunned down in a Tel Aviv restaurant, I was shocked by the number of sick anti-Semitic remarks that were posted on a video site. Financial news sites increasingly feature news content that blames Jews for the world’s economic problems. Most news sites post negative articles about Israel, but lately—they read like they were borrowed from Nazi news archives.

Because the most recent attacks of Anti-Semitism fall in line with other prophetic events, there is little doubt in my mind that what we are seeing is part of the acceleration of the last days prophecies. The coming persecution of the Jews during the Tribulation will be the worst of all time, but it will be the final persecution before she is rescued by God Himself.

“‘And it shall come to pass in all the land,’ says the LORD, ‘That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, but one–third shall be left in it: I will bring the one–third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, This is My people; and each one will say, The LORD is my God’” (Zechariah 13:8-9).
–Todd

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Perilous Times and the Selfie

This one will likely land me in trouble. The commentary might be pointing the bony finger of condemnation in a direction many will possibly insist it has no right to be poked.

However, we are at the very end of the Age of Grace (Church Age). Every signal for the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ is becoming more visible by the hour. We are, when we see these things begin to come to pass, to look up and lift up our heads, because our redemption is drawing near. These words of the Lord Jesus, as recorded in Luke 21:28, are further affirmed in Mark 37:13 where we see His command: “What I say to one, I say unto all; watch.”

Therefore, in the spirit of “watching,” we must look at what God’s prophets tell us to watch for as the end of the age comes more and more into view. The apostle Paul, in that regard, gave some quite specific things that will mark the end of the age. He did so particularly as recorded in 2 Timothy, chapter 3.

I often refer to these many prophetic indicators as the characteristics of end-times man. Paul, in describing these signals, puts them within a time-frame he calls “perilous times.” He describes many of these characteristics in this prophetic segment of his second letter to Timothy. It is the very first of these characteristics of end-times man I will touch upon here. As I said, it will be more than enough to get me in some trouble, most likely.

The reason I say that is that I believe the most popular thing in all of our culture in America today is involved directly in this condemning characteristic. The younger generation–the Millennials–are the most into exhibiting this characteristic, but they are by no means the only segment of the culture that is involved. The president of the United States, for example, has engaged in this end-times characteristic on a number of occasions as gleefully reported by his fawning press–and by that I mean most all of the mainstream news and entertainment media.

I’m talking about the phenomenon known as the selfie.

The selfie is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg in pointing out this end-times characteristic. The bulk of that iceberg is made up of the vast social networking services such as Facebook, Instagram, andTwitter. The selfie, if I really need to define it, is a self photograph taken by one’s cellphone or other device–usually from above one’s head so that it presents what, I presume, the selfie-taker believes to be the most flattering angle.

The selfie then is disseminated through the above-mentioned social network services–thus to enhance whatsoever the total self-image and desired celebrity the individual wants to present to his or her, hopefully, geometrically progressing, cyberspace world.

See, I told you I would be in trouble–probably with you the reader.

I know that my view of this is just reaching for application of the apostle Paul’s perilous-times condemnation, in the opinion of many. I still believe this is a primary indicator of where we are on God’s prophetic timeline. People are becoming increasingly “lovers of their own selves,” as Paul prophesied. It might seem like an innocuous charge–even a silly one. But, I think it is relevant much more than any of us can imagine.

In my new book, Rapture Ready…Or Not: 15 Reasons This Is the Generation That Will Be Left Behind, I point to the serious ramifications such self-love has produced and will likely further produce to a greater degree as Christ’s call to His Church in the Rapture nears. Here is an excerpt from that part of the book:

Psychologists and sociologists have for years planted in the minds of Americans that self-esteem is something that is important to making a successful life. These point to the fact that at the center of most every problem of the human condition resides the feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing.

We are told that the radical Islamists who attacked on September 11, 2001 did so because they felt inferior due to U.S. treatment that looked down upon them. The whole matter involving the attacks that took the lives of more than three thousand that day, therefore, convinced those in charge of the U.S. State Department to employ a study group designed to help determine how to make those who hate us, particularly in the Middle East, no longer hate us.

So ingrained is self-love in our nation that we in delusion covet the admiration of those who hate us with satanic rage born out of our support for Israel, not out of envy and low self-esteem on the terrorists’ part.

The terrorists, murderers, gang members, rapists, and all other of those who commit crimes these days are analyzed by the woolly-minded psychologists and sociologists based upon the premise that the perpetrators hate themselves, thus all others who they see as deserving of their victimization.

God’s Word says, “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh” (Ephesians 5:29a). In other words, self-loathing is not part of our DNA. Quite the opposite is true. The Bible says that those who have not the Holy Spirit are of their father, the Devil. Satan is the ultimate example of self-love.

The social engineers tell us the secret to ultimately producing a healthy cultural environment is high self-esteem. A sense of self- worth will make man live up to his own great expectations.

Rather than love of self, however, God’s Word tells us to love others, to esteem others more than ourselves, to humble ourselves before God. This generation is obviously doing none of these.

That we are in perilous times can’t be denied, except by the most willfully uncomprehending. I’m afraid that many of this selfie-immersed generation fits within that universe of those destined to be left behind when Christ calls the Church in the Rapture. We are very near that time. The prophetic evidence is flashing in every direction one looks today. We must lift Christ at every opportunity so many will come to Jesus for salvation when the Holy Spirit draws them to the Savior.

–Terry

Obama: The Facilitators of Islamic Terror

I’ve had an incredibly difficult time getting my mind around the Orlando gay nightclub shooting. The murder of 49 people by Omar Mateen is a historic event—surpassing the 35 people killed in 2007 in the Virginia Tech shooting. With mass murders by Muslims becoming so common, I feel like I’m describing why the sun came up again for the millionth time whenever I write about these tragic events.

It was just a few days prior to the Orlando massacre that yet another Islamic terrorist gunned down four people in Tel Aviv, Israel. Last Tuesday morning I was posting news stories, and I found three articles that detailed the evil deeds of the followers of Mohammedanism.

On Wikipedia there is a detailed list of Islamist terrorist attacks. Since 1980 there have been over a thousand attacks. In the beginning, most years had no more than three terrorist events, and there were several years where no attacks received significant press coverage. The list grows exponentially over time; 2010 had 15 entries, 2014 had 36 entries and 2015 had 118 entries. Because the attacks have become so frequent, many events now fail to receive any major press coverage.

Islam seems all the more disturbing when you look at the list for Christian and Jewish religious terrorists. Since 1980, there have been eight attacks by people claiming to be Christians, and five attacks by Jewish terrorists. On the Christian list, three attacks were carried out by one man, Eric Robert Rudolph, who was convicted of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in 1996—for attacks on an abortion clinic and a lesbian nightclub.

Despite the fact that 99.8 percent of attacks are committed by Muslims, President Obama says, “we” need to examine ourselves in regard to the actions of Omar Mateen. His absolute refusal to put any blame on Islam has him saying stupid things like this:

“We’ve reached no definitive judgment on the precise motivations of the killer … And I’ve directed that we must spare no effort to determine what—if any—inspiration or association this killer may have had with terrorist groups.”

Many of Obama’s critics are starting to openly wonder if he is a Muslim at heart because of his failure to use the words “radical Islam” whenever there is an attack. Donald Trump blasted Obama for this oversight, calling on the president to resign for not using the two words.

I have a greater complaint with Obama, and that is over his use of the word ISIL. Most people use ISIS which means the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. ISIL stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. The geographical term, Levant, refers to a multi-national region that includes Israel. This would be like Hitler deciding in 1943 to change the name of Deutschland (Germany) to something like, Europeland, to account for his newly acquired territory. Obama and his ISIS buddies can keep dreaming.

I wish it were true that Obama is really a secret Muslim mole. In that case, there would be some type of logic to his actions. Somebody could get a photo of him in the Oval Office praying to Mecca, and we could hold the fastest ever impeachment of an elected head of state.

Obama’s ideology is not found in the Koran. It comes directly from the pit of hell. He and the liberal media facilitate Islamic terror by maintaining the lie that Islam is a peaceful religion and all these attacks are from people who only have hate as their motivation unrelated to Islamic ideology.

We’ve clearly passed the point of hopeless delusion when a terrorist in the midst of slaughtering his victims calls 911 to pledge his allegiance to Islamic terror, while committing murderous acts, and government officials respond by stating they’re uncertain about the motivation for the attack. When they do acknowledge that faith was the main factor in Omar Mateen’s actions, they say he was a “self-radicalized lone wolf.” Nonsense!

With Islam as the Teflon religion, the gay community may be facing doom. This past week, I couldn’t believe all the news article that worried about Islamophobia. If Muslims are going to be free to shoot up all the gay bars in the world, the dance floors in these places are not going to be very crowded.

The fanatical drive to protect the Muslim faith from all criticism leaves little doubt that Islamic terrorism will only get worse. With these types of attacks already occurring on a daily basis, there has to be a limit to the carnage. Before we reach the point where Islamic terror strikes hour by hour, God will most likely say “enough is enough.”

–Todd

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Glorious Change Coming

Something sinister lurks just ahead within this world of darkening uncertainty. The forewarning thought simmers beneath daily life that change is coming—transformational change that will make these present hours seem like the good old days for the inhabitants of future earth. Princes and presidents, potentates and populations at large sense gnawing dread spawned by the seemingly unstoppable spread of murderous, racial/religious hatreds. Proliferation of nuclear weaponry among the most violence-prone among us appears on the brink of unleashing man’s final war.

The term “Armageddon” is regularly used to describe man’s greatest fear during hourly newscasts. To quote Shakespeare, it is becoming clear that “something wicked this way comes.”

For the believer in Jesus Christ, however, the near horizon that is a harbinger of the worst of times in man’s history presents just beyond that apocalyptic storm front a magnificent future beyond imagination.

Indeed, glorious change is coming. It will happen in a stunning moment of absolutely dazzling transformation and transport for the born-again believer. It will be a catastrophic intervention by the one and only Creator-God of heaven—so long seemingly silent to rebellious mankind.

This author’s commission is to proclaim to this generation—at this moment—that the very end of the age is at hand. Heaven is trumpeting the final siren of appeal for all to come within the shelter offered by the Savior who died and resurrected so that all who trust Him for salvation will be spared the horrors about to occur.

“Don’t spend eternity apart from the Heavenly Father” is the profoundly important message that must be disseminated and accepted. He desires above all else that everyone comes into the safe harbor of His family through His Only Begotten Son—the Lord Jesus Christ.

Whether one is Rapture Ready . . . Or Not, the disappearance of all true believers is about to occur. The thrilling time of that long-ago prophesied call of Christians to join with Christ will happen at any moment!

That, of course, is the tenet of my new book Rapture Ready…Or Not. I believe with all that is within me that I was prompted to relay the urgent message that the door to the Age of Grace (the Church Age) is on the very brink of closing to a Christ-rejecting generation.

This presents no pleasure to the author. Neither, of course, does it give pleasure to the God of Heaven who must, following the closing of that door, unleash His wrath and judgment upon planet earth. Jesus shed His last drop of blood on the cross at Calvary so that no person need spend one moment in that hellish time on earth we call the Tribulation or spend eternity in the place prepared for the devil and his fallen angelic horde. Being Rapture ready is 1) knowing Christ for Salvation through following this admonition:

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)

Once a person complies with this way (the only way) to salvation, that person becomes 2) Rapture Ready through living life according to direction given in God’s Word, the Bible.

I think one of the best verses to summarize this Rapture Readiness is found in the following.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

In this way we will hear our Lord say, “Well done, good, faithful Servant,” when we see Him face to face at the moment of Rapture. To avoid any questions about whether I am saying one has to live above sin in order to go in the Rapture, I will be absolutely clear.

Every person who truly accepts Christ is going to leave the planet at the time Jesus calls the Church (Revelation 4:1). Not a single believer, whether walking “worthily” or not, will be left behind at Rapture. But, to be truly Rapture Ready in the sense of being “worthy” (in order to receive each and every reward the Lord wants to give us at the bema–the Judgment Seat of Christ), each Christian must be walking according to God’s precepts as taught in His Holy Word.

In that glorious, twinkling-of-an-eye moment of translation–from mortal to immortal, from corruption to incorruption–we will each realize the magnificence that is our Lord and Savior: Bridegroom. We will know Him in the same way He knows each of us. We will, in that eternal moment, want to have lived righteously for Him.

The change that is coming is spectacular beyond all that our imaginations can conjure, the apostle Paul has informed us:

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

Let us do all we can in Christ’s service while opportunity is ours. Let us do all within our power to be truly Rapture Ready!

–Terry