Those Frustrating Jews in Israel

It seems fitting that the worst president in American history would be matched up with an equally incompetent vice president. Joe Biden has a habit of making embarrassing marks at the most inappropriate times. His latest gaffe involved the nation of Israel.

While giving a speech to J Street , a group of self-hating Jews (a favorite of the Obama Administration), Biden expressed “overwhelming frustrations” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies.

Several hours earlier in Jerusalem, a bombing of a bus injured 21 passengers. By the time Biden spoke, the Israeli police had already determined it was once-again—Palestinian terrorism.

I can only wonder if the source of Biden’s frustration was that no Israelis were killed in the attack. When it comes to diplomatic etiquette, it is standard practice to open with, “I strongly condemn…” when addressing a group that has just suffered an act of unprovoked violence.

A series of knife-wielding attacks against Jews—by Palestinians, has plagued Israel for many months. The State Department has stated there is absolutely no justification for terrorism. Secretary John Kirby said, “We continue to encourage all parties to take affirmative steps to reduce tensions and restore calm.”

The State Department’s moral equivalence here is appalling. We are not dealing with two equal parties in this situation to “reduce tensions” and “restore calm.” Palestinian terrorists have been brutally stabbing and killing Israelis. Last month, an American was one of their victims.

President Obama and other Democrats will often say, “Israel has a right to defend itself.” This remark is made whenever Israelis respond to Arab terrorism. There is nothing magnanimous about that statement because it’s like saying, a woman being raped has a right to ward off her attacker. By stating the obvious truth, the Obama Administration shows its natural bias toward the Arab aggressors.

The movement to Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) Israeli products is a pure exercise in futility and frustration. Trade with Israel is growing. Israel and China have just agreed to a multi-billion free trade deal that could double bilateral trade between the two nations. The limitation on agricultural products from a few selected areas of the “occupied territories” is not going to matter to a nation with a $300 billion GDP.

The world seems to be almost incapable of showing frustration toward the Palestinians. The citizens of Gaza have an incredible fixation with digging tunnels into Israel. The U.S. has given the Palestinians billion of dollars in aid. Much of this U.S. tax-payer money is spent on supplies and manpower to build more tunnels to infiltrate Israel.

The recent discovery of a major tunnel using new Israeli technological may mark the end of Gaza’s weapon of choice. I couldn’t find any reports in the media mentioning how Israel is clever in combating the tunnel menace. The silence can only be the result of disappointment.

There is no logical reason for Biden to harbor frustration toward Israel. In his speech, he talked about the long term goal of having a two-state solution. Biden warned that Israel needs to come up with a comprise—before the Arabs in Israel outnumber the Jews.

How you can you make peace with people who have shown no motivation to hold to any agreement? Netanyahu knows that the status quo is fine for Israel. The Palestinians need the Jewish state for jobs. The more they get walled-off for participating in terrorist acts, the deeper they slide into poverty.

It should be obvious to everyone that Israel has done nothing wrong. Yet she is increasingly seen as the villain. Last week, Mehmet Kaplan, Sweden’s housing minister was forced to resign after it was reported that he said, “Israelis treat Palestinians in a way that is very like that in which Jews were treated during Germany in the 1930s.”

Biden’s diminishing patience with Israel may be driven by the fact that Barack Obama’s term is nearing an end. In the coming months, we may see the White House openly declare Israel to be an enemy of America. Since God has already promised that those who stand against Israel will fail, I am confident that our lawless president will be met with frustration.

“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 12:3).

–Todd

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On Being Rapture Ready Part II

Note: This April 22 was the fifth-year anniversary of the Good Friday trip I was given to somewhere on the perimeter of Heaven. It remains as vivid in my every waking moment today as right after it happened. I wanted to again present the articles I wrote at the end of that year–2011–because I believe we are so very near the time of Christ’s Call to us–“Come up hither!” (Revelation 4:1).

Also, I wish to announce my just completed book which is now being prepared for publication at New Leaf Publishing Group. Rapture Ready…Or Not:15 Reasons This Is the Generation That Will Be Left Behind is scheduled for release July 1, 2016. I’m certain in the deepest regions of my spirit that this book is a major reason for the round trip to that other dimension on that Good Friday five years ago.

I’m having considerable trouble exercising patience as this book approaches its release. I just can’t wait to share it with you. Without intending to attract unto myself any aggrandizement–for the Lord of Heaven is the only pPerson deserving such–I believe I was commissioned to deliver this message. Rapture Ready…Or Not, this generation is on the brink of God’s most profound intervention into human history since the day the Great Flood of Noah’s day burst upon the world.

Here is Part II of that December 2011 Nearing Midnight article. There is no specific signal that presages the Rapture of believers in the Scriptures. That calling by Christ to those who know Him as Savior will be unannounced and instantaneous. Paul the apostle’s words inform us of that stunning event: “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

Paul says further: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

The website Todd Strandberg began in 1987, before the internet was making an impact to any extent on life in America and throughout the world, encompasses what Christ expects every born-again believer to become. Todd gave it the name raptureready.com, a nomenclature defining a spiritual condition eternally crucial to each and every living individual.

All who have died during this Church Age (Age of Grace) are now beyond getting “Rapture ready.” They are either “Rapture ready” or not. People alive at the present time, if they don’t know Christ as Savior, still have opportunity to get Rapture ready. All who are saved (know Jesus as their Savior) are Rapture ready in one sense, but might not be Rapture ready in another. We will try to clarify these matters. It is most important that we do so.

I testified in my commentary last week of instantaneously standing before a throng of heavenly witnesses (Hebrews 12:1-3) the moment my heart stopped beating. This happened three separate times. Each time my heart ceased to beat, I was somewhere in eternity. God the Holy Spirit’s assurance of where I was and who the beautiful, cheering young people were becomes more strongly burned into my own spirit by the day.

The only action I have taken in my life to warrant being instantly transported to that heavenly realm was to accept Christ as my Savior. There is no other action I could take while in this physical life to assure my instant transport into those stunning surroundings. While my near-death experience wasn’t the Rapture, of course, I believe with all that is within my spiritual understanding that it was a type of what awaits the generation of Christians alive at the time of that great event, as described by the apostle Paul’s prophetic words as given above. At that future moment of Rapture, all who have died during the Church Age, or who are living at the time, will stand not before a throng of witnesses as I did, but before the Lord Jesus, Himself! “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

All who are living today who do not know Jesus Christ as Savior stand in mortal danger. When their hearts beat the final time, they will find themselves in the same, unimaginably horrid place as the rich man described by Jesus in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (read Luke 16:19-31). Likewise, the moment Christ says at the Rapture: “Come up hither” (Revelation 4:1), the person who hasn’t accepted Christ will be left behind on earth to face a time in human history of which the Lord Jesus Himself said: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (Matthew 24:21-22a).

Being Rapture Ready

So, it is imperative to make clear what it means to be Rapture ready. Our eternal souls hang in the balance of God’s impending judgment. The Lord of Heaven must judge sin, because He cannot abide sin in His holy presence. No sin can enter the gates of Heaven. And this is where God’s magnificent love comes to the forefront of His dealing with each of us who are sinners.

He loves you and me so much that He sent His Son–God in the flesh, Jesus Christ—to come to earth to be the perfect sin-sacrifice, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, whose blood takes away the sin of the world. To be Rapture ready, you and I must be “saved” from our sins and made pure in the righteousness found only in Christ. When we believe God and accept Christ as Savior, we become Rapture ready in the eternal sense. We will go to Heaven upon our death, or will be raptured when Jesus steps out on the clouds of glory and shouts: “Come up hither!”

But, there is another meaning of being Rapture ready. Each Christian is responsible for being Rapture ready in this sense. To be Rapture ready as a child of God means we are to be living our lives in a way pleasing to God. We are to lift the name of Jesus so that men, women, and children will be drawn to Him for salvation. We are to be watching for His any-moment return in the Rapture.

Let me make it clear. I believe the Word of God tells us that every person who is saved through the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ will go to be with Him at the moment of Rapture, no matter the state of his or her fellowship with the Lord. We will ALL stand before Him, Paul tells us.

However, to be truly Rapture ready as a Christian means that we are living life in such a biblically prescribed way that when Jesus calls us we will not be ashamed to look Him in His omniscient eyes. We should desire above all else to hear Him say “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:23b).

End- times world conditions today are unmistakable. That face-to-face meeting could take place at any moment!

–Terry

The Centralization of Political Power

There is no doubt in my mind that the U.S. Constitution is a divinely inspired document. The founding fathers of America used biblical principles when they created the three branch system of government. Its core design was to protect the citizenry from any tyrants that would seek to enslave them.

The greatest warning against having a strong central ruler can be found in the book of Samuel. The Israelites thought they were at a disadvantage because they didn’t have a king like their neighbors. They didn’t think a system of judges was strong enough. God plainly warned them that a king would take advantage of them.

“So Samuel told the people what the Lord had said: ‘If you insist on having a king, he will conscript your sons and make them run before his chariots; some will be made to lead his troops into battle, while others will be slave laborers; they will be forced to plow in the royal fields and harvest his crops without pay, and make his weapons and chariot equipment.

He will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him. He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his friends. He will take a tenth of your harvest and distribute it to his favorites.

He will demand your slaves and the finest of your youth and will use your animals for his personal gain. He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. You will shed bitter tears because of this king you are demanding, but the Lord will not help you.’ But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning” (1 Sam 8:10-19 TLB).

The American people are not crying out for a king, but they might as well be by allowing our Constitutional heritage fall into neglect. In recent years, the documents that ensure our freedoms have been under heavy assault.

The actual Constitution documents rests safely under heavy bulletproof glass at the National Archives. The attacks focus on the meaning of the words in the Constitution that have been used to define our freedom.

The North Korean government proves that not all interpretations of liberty are equal to each other. The North Korea Constitution promises each citizen freedom of speech, religion, the press, assembly, demonstration, and association. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is a brutal police state because one man gets to decide what is liberty.

What causes us to lose freedom most quickly is this: Any action that results in the centralization of power.

In the past, those who wanted to implement changes had to go to the States or Congress and request to make a change (which would affect the lives of citizens). Today, federal or foreign agencies have given themselves the right to control our lives.

The Patriot Act, hastily passed forty-five days after 9/11 in the name of “national security” was a huge mistake. The act has turned various departments of the government into cancerous leeches. Their only purpose in life is to grow in their ability to monitor and control the lives of every American.

The government sets up an agency to control a problem, and eventually it becomes the problem. Last week, I read that the Drug Enforcement Administration has sent a memo to lawmakers. The DEA let Congress know that it has decided to change the federal status of marijuana “in the first half of 2016.”

Marijuana is currently listed under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it has “not currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration will likely reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug, which would put it in the same category as Ritalin, Adderal and Oxycodone. Someone wanting to get high will only need a note from his or her their doctor.

People who think marijuana is morally wrong have no say in the process. The DEA has given itself the ability to nullify laws that previously banned the use of this drug.

Another out of control agency is the Federal Reserve. This organization was conceived during a secret meeting of the nations’ top bankers, and it was voted into power during a Christmas break. The Fed has become such a dominate force in the business world, financial markets rise and fall with every statement that is made by a Fed member.

A key role of the Supreme Court is to prevent other branches of government from overstepping their boundaries of power. During the Depression years, many of President Roosevelt’s pet projects were found to be unconstitutional.

Today, the justices collectively turn a blind eye to violations. In fact, they join the lawlessness by setting their own agendas. If there was any doubt about the liberal bias in the Supreme Court, last year’s ruling on homosexual marriage put the matter to rest.

Even the United Nations is into the power grabbing game. It wants to take control of the world’s oceans. The UN has launched a far-reaching initiative that could give it sway over all the waters that lie outside national territories and economic zones.

The potential shift in power involves multi-trillion-dollar issues; such as whether large areas, (conceivably as much as 30 percent of the world’s international waters) should be designated as no-go areas to protect biological diversity.

The ultimate centralization of political power will come under the Antichrist. For a short period of time, one man will control every nation on earth. The willingness of people to surrender their freedom shows that the Beast is about to take control.

“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

–Todd

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On Being Rapture Ready Part 1

Note: This April 22 is the fifth-year anniversary of the Good Friday trip I was given to somewhere on the perimeter of Heaven. It remains as vivid in my every waking moment today as right after it happened.I wanted to again present the articles I wrote at the end of that year–2011–because I believe we are so very near the time of Christ’s Call to us– “Come up hither!” (Revelation 4:1).

Also, I wish to announce my just-completed book that is now being prepared for publication at New Leaf Publishing Group. Rapture Ready…Or Not: 15 Reasons This Is the Generation That Will Be Left Behind” is scheduled for release July 1, 2016.

I’m certain in the deepest regions of my spirit that this book is a major reason for the round trip to that other dimension on that Good Friday five years ago. I’m having considerable trouble exercising patience as this book approaches its release. I just can’t wait to share it with you.

Without intending to attract unto myself any aggrandizement–for the Lord of Heaven is the only Person deserving such–I believe I was commissioned to deliver this message. Rapture Ready…Or Not, this generation is on the brink of God’s most profound intervention into human history since the day the great Flood of Noah’s day burst upon the world. Here, then, is Part I of my thoughts in December, 2011, following that April 22, 2011, Good Friday event.

Being prepared to meet Jesus Christ face to face–as far as trying to make that my constant state of mind is concerned–has been part of my every waking moment since Good Friday of this year. Not wishing to go over it in a public forum like this one ad nauseam, nonetheless, I’ve been considering the relationship between my near-death moments of April 22, and being Rapture ready, as is the thought wrapped up in our website’s name. So, here goes yet again…

This is intended to be an exhortation for all of us who name Christ as our Lord–urging us individually and collectively to hold Him close to our spiritual hearts during this Christmas season. It is not meant to dwell upon my personal experience as an overriding point of focus. Many who read this column on a regular basis know some of the details of my heart event on Good Friday of this year. I’m often corrected by my wife, Margaret, for not calling it a heart attack. For some reason that description just doesn’t register within my aging gray matter. Others have heart attacks, not me.

I remember thinking at the time it was occurring that this wasn’t possible. The EMT working on me told the hospital dispatcher that he had a “coronary in progress.” It didn’t register then, either. There I was, however, being rushed toward Saline Memorial Hospital, gasping for breath, the pain behind my sternum feeling as if it would explode my chest at any second.

I remember arriving and the gurney being tugged toward the ER outer doors. Then, there was the computer-like blip and I was suddenly before a large heavenly throng of young, beautiful, cheering men and women. The ambience of my surroundings was dazzling, and I wanted to join them. There was no recollection whatsoever of where I had been–no memories of this planetary existence.

I was, the doctor later told Margaret, dead on arrival.

They hit me with the defibrillation paddles–yes, just like you’ve seen in the shows where they say “Clear!” and then apply the paddles, making the body nearly jump off the table.

I felt nothing, but the action did cause me to leave the place I never wanted to leave. I remembered thinking, “I want to stay here forever in this perfect place.” But, everything turned dark and I awoke in total darkness on the gurney. This is because I’m blind due to a retinal disease, as many who read the account know. The pain behind the sternum grew worse and I heard the blip twice more. Each time I was before that cheering, enthusiastic throng of vibrant, young people. The sights were astonishing, colors of every description emanating from somewhere I could neither determine, nor cared to investigate. The third time I was among them, we were all racing, or being drawn by some powerful energy toward a destination I would never know. I was again in the hospital, this time on the cardiac unit’s procedure table. I had again been hit with the paddles.

I had survived the “widow maker,” an artery-blockage that I was told only 5 percent of victims live through. I was clinically dead three times, my heart having stopped each time. I had been given a journey and return trip that few are privileged to experience–and I say that meaning it as humbly as it is possible to express the fact.

The reasons for and meanings of this experience have been confirmed and affirmed in my spiritual understanding. I’ve dealt briefly with those impressions from the Holy Spirit in a previous article, “HeavenVision.” God willing, there will be a more in-depth presentation on these matters in a book we have planned for release early in 2012, entitled HeavenVision: Glimpses of Glory.

I continue to be given insight into what it all means. As stated at the beginning of this commentary, my thoughts have been turned toward being ever ready to meet the Lord Jesus Christ face to face since that Good Friday when my heart ceased to beat those three times. One of the things constantly on my mind is that my heart could fail again at any moment.

My rehabilitation has been an absolutely amazing success story. And, in that regard, I thank so many of you whose prayers were obviously heard in the throne room of Heaven. I honestly haven’t experienced one moment’s problem, in any way, with my heart or anything else of consequence regarding my health. In fact, I was given the “Arkansas Cardiologist Association’s Patient of the Year Award for 2011” on November 18. I was asked to speak to their convention and I told them that I don’t know why I should be honored. All I did was survive. My Lord, Jesus Christ, deserves top honors, because He holds the keys to death and hell. I then said that they, the wonderful medical professionals, also deserve honors for being the ones God chose to put me back into this race.

The only problem has been cracked teeth and one crowned tooth broken completely off that resulted from being hit with the paddles those three times. Nonetheless, the thought is there that one’s last heartbeat can occur at any moment.

Each time my heart stopped, I stood not before Jesus Christ, but in front of a cheering cloud of witnesses as given in Hebrews 12:1-3. This simply means, I have been assured in my spiritual understanding, that this wasn’t really death. It was a preview I was given for reasons the Lord has determined. But, I will, when God’s timing has come to fullness for my life, stand before my Lord and Savior. It will happen just as instantaneously as did my near-death trip to the fringes of glory. I am ready for that moment, because Jesus saved my soul with His work of redemption on the cross at Calvary nearly 2,000 years ago. When my heart beats that final time, I will, in the twinkling of an eye (see 1 Corinthians 15: 52), stand before Him, and will be with Him for all of eternity.

But, my heart has not stopped for that final time. When Christ calls all believers, living and dead, to Himself, I will, if still alive, stand instantaneously before Him just as I stood instantaneously before that cheering cloud of witnesses on Good Friday, April 22, 2011.

Being Rapture ready is being ready, period. It means you are prepared to meet the Lord at any moment–at all times. Every believer has the same promise–to be present with the Lord when life on earth is over.

“We are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight): We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).

Next week we will go in-depth, examining details about what it means to be Rapture ready.

–Terry