April 26 news digest
There are a lot of smaller stories in the news today, so instead of making several shorter postings, let’s combine some of the more appropriate stories into one post.
Lebanon wants to keep strong ties with Egypt while Jordan continues to push for Palestinian statehood. Lebanon (Psalm 83:7), Egypt (Daniel 11:40), Jordan (Psalm 83:7), and a Palestinian state (Psalm 83:7) are all part of the Russian confederation that tries to eliminate Israel (Psalm 83:4-5) halfway through the Tribulation (Daniel 9:26-27; Ezekiel 38:11).
North Korea proclaims it has restarted its nuclear facilities and is said to be harvesting plutonium. North Korea is also reprocessing fuel rods at a time when three of its national companies have been blacklisted by the UN for their role in developing ballistic missile technology. North Korea will be one of the Oriental nations to join with China in a march to the Middle East (Revelation 16:12). This follows the Russian led march against Israel mentioned above. In both instances nuclear weapons will be used (Revelation 8:7, 9:18; Isaiah 13:10-13; Joel 2:3, 30; 2 Peter 3:10-12).
Great Britain has announced a plan to monitor every email and listen to every internet phone call that comes through its borders. The Antichrist, whose headquarters will apparently be in Europe (Daniel 7:20, 24; 9:26), will use similar technology to monitor and track every human on earth, but at an even deeper level (Revelation 13:16-18), enabling him to gain control over the whole earth (Daniel 7:23; Revelation 13:7). The technology exists for this now, and it is already in use in some instances.
Two Christians were executed by the Taliban for protesting Muslim graffiti that demanded they renounce Christ. There have been more Christians murdered for the faith in the last 100 years than in the previous 1900 years combined, and it will continue to get worse. During the Tribulation, millions of souls will be saved (Revelation 7:9-14) thanks to the preaching of the 144,000 converted Jews (Revelation 7:4-8). Most (not all) of these new believers will face death by beheading, just as it is done in Muslim countries today (Revelation 20:4). It is often done at the hand of one’s own parents or children (Mark 13:12-13), because they think that by obeying the Antichrist, they are doing God’s work (John 16:2), because he claims to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:4; Daniel 11:36).
Also of note, the group responsible for the murder of these Christians, the Taliban, is gaining traction in Pakistan, a nuclear power nation. They could get access to nuclear weapons and nuclear technology, helping to fulfill the above prophecies concerning the Arab states.
World leaders are looking to the United States to spark the recovery out of the current global recession. The US will still be the world’s creator of wealth into the Tribulation (Jeremiah 51:3; Revelation 18:11-15), at which time she appears to be laid desolate (Revelation 18:10) by Russia (Jeremiah 50:9).
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