The Final Countdown

Condensing the days news into one post worked well yesterday, so we are going to do it again. There is a lot of stuff going on.

***The Egyptian news weekly Al-Usbua reports (via the Jerusalem Post) that an Iranian vessel attempting to deliver weapons to Hamas was destroyed by either an Israeli or American vessel off the Sudanese coast. Along those lines, a report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute today says that arms transfers to the Mideast are up 38 percent since 2004, with many of them going to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia from the United States. All this happens while Syria and Turkey stage joint military maneuvers, a “disturbing development” according to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

It is appropriate that so many arms and military exercises are happening in the region, and all of the above nations have a part in the Russian led march on Israel (Ezekiel 38:15), but not on the same side. While Iran (Ezekiel 38:5), Syria (Isaiah 17:1, Psalm 83:8) and Turkey (Ezekiel 38:6) will join with Russia and many other Arab nations (Psalm 83:4-5), Saudi Arabia and the UAE (Ezekiel 38:13) will team with the United States to defend Israel (Isaiah 18:7).

***Israel’s population is nearing 7.5 million, with over 5.5 million of those being Jews. Yet Palestinians continue to refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will not accept eastern Jerusalem as being part of Israel, and that is critical to future events. Very soon Israel will sign a peace contract that creates a Palestinian state and divides up Jerusalem (Joel 3:2; Zechariah 14:2), but this is a contract Israel signs with “death and hell” (Isaiah 28:15) and will only last 42 months before the Russian & Arab march on Israel (Ezekiel 38:11; Daniel 9:27).

***Yesterday we wrote about the new centralized database in the works in the UK to store transcripts of all emails and phone calls that pass through the nation. British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said today that are no plans for “a central store” of data, meaning more than one computer will house information collected on the UK citizens. Smith said that all Facebook messages, texts, and web internet addresses that are visited will be recorded, as well. Another EU leader, the Antichrist (Daniel 7:24, 9:26), will attempt to monitor and track every human on the planet (Revelation 13:16-18) using ID microchips similar to the one that helped Sarah Hawley find her missing cat this weekend .

***Iceland’s prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, says she wants to join the EU “as soon as possible.” The EU will become a global organization (Daniel 7:23, Revelation 13:7), usurping authority from its member nations, such as is happening now in Britian where the EU wants to force British courts to apply Sharia law in certain cases.

***IBM announced today that it is in the final stages of completing a computer program with an astounding ability to interact with humans via artificial intelligence. A robot with with such abilities will be used by the False Prophet as the “image of the beast” (Revelation 13:12-17). People who do not worship this image will be killed, often by their own family members (Mark 13:12-13). There is already an unnatural affection among mankind, such as with Jesse Fierstine, who cut out his own father’s pacemaker. It will become much worse as people begin to believe that the Antichrist is God (2 Thessalonians 2:4).

***The swine flu scare continues to spread, with over 2,000 people hospitalized in Mexico, with confirmed cases in the US, Canada, Spain, the UK, and other nations. Reports now indicate that the virus may not only have pig and human components, but bird components as well. The swine flu won’t be as big as many fear, however future virus mutations from animals will be a source of widespread death during the Tribulation (Revelation 6:8).

***News continues to show the degradation of US society as same-sex couples have begun marrying in Iowa following a state Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage; state sanctioned atheism is on the rise;  70% of Americans who do not regularly attend church say they simply “gradually drifted away” from the faith (1 Timothy 4:1);  Nine out of ten teens view pornography online, many of them due to porn purveyors tricking the kids into going to seemingly innocent sites;  and professional educators are calling for a mimicking of the UK system where sex education is now compulsory for five year-olds. This pictures the continuing fall of America (Isaiah 18:2, 7;  Jeremiah 50:11) which leads to God sending His judgment (Revelation 18) though the vehicle of missiles fired over the north pole by Russia (Jeremiah 50:9).

***Jerome Corsi has crunched numbers in an attempt to show that the US is becoming the largest welfare state in world history. What is intriguing is how accepting the American people are over this rapid sprint to socialism. The US has long been the home to capitalism, and it will continue to provide the world with wealth into the Tribulation (Jeremiah 51:3; Revelation 18:11-15). However the readily acceptance of socialism by the US will make it easier for the Antichrist to gain power, for he uses socialism to curry the favor of many nations (Daniel 11:24).

***More Christians have been killed in faith-based violence in Iraq, where Christians are fleeing the country because of being targeted by extremists. Yesterday a woman and her daughter had their throats slit, while a father and his three sons were shot in their home. As mentioned yesterday, persecution of Christians is often overlooked, even among our churches. There have been more people killed for Christ in the last 100 years than in the previous 1900 years combined. Jews & Christians will continue to be targeted on an increasing scale as we approach the Tribulation hour, at which time mass killings of believers and Jews becomes global (Revelation 13:7, 12:13, 20:4; Matthew 24:9; Mark 13:9; Luke 21:12-17; John 16:2).

Apparently the White House doesn’t think the President should be sharing the stage with the Son of God:

Georgetown University says it covered over the monogram “IHS”–symbolizing the name of Jesus Christ—because it was inscribed on a pediment on the stage where President Obama spoke at the university on Tuesday and the White House had asked Georgetown to cover up all signs and symbols there.

“The White House wanted a simple backdrop of flags and pipe and drape for the speech, consistent with what they’ve done for other policy speeches,” she added. “Frankly, the pipe and drape wasn’t high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross above the GU seal and it seemed most respectful to have them covered so as not to be seen out of context.”

Creating a dark background is standard operating procedure for the current administration, and it certainly does not appear that they are singling out Christ to “cover up,” as the black backdrop is what is used for most of the President’s speeches. The symbols were going to get covered up, whether they were Christian in nature or not, so there was nothing sinister at play by President Obama or his staff. However, it does bring up an interesting point about the direction of America. For the first 100+ years of this nation, President’s routinely talked about God, encouraged religious growth, and gave due respect to the “Hand of Providence.” A few generations ago, the President of the United States would have demanded that a cross be found to put on stage with him. Now, having a cross or a simple IHS may offend someone who “takes it out of context.”

We will do a series on the religious heritage of America, where we have fallen to, and what it means in light of Scripture and prophecy later on. The systematic removal of God is one of the reasons He sends His judgment upon America just before Christ returns. That judgment will happen, and it might be described in Isaiah 18, Jeremiah 50-51, and Revelation 18.

In his annual Good Friday address, Pope Benedict warned that Western civilization has “drifted into a desert of godlessness.”

Jesus is humiliated in new ways even today – when things that are most  holy and profound in the faith are being trivialised, the sense of the sacred is  allowed to erode,’ he said.

‘Everything in public life risks being desacralised – persons, places,  pledges, prayers, practices, words, sacred writings, religious formulae,  symbols, ceremonies. Our life together is being increasingly  secularised.

‘Religious life grows diffident. Thus we see the most momentous matters  placed among trifles, and trivialities glorified.

‘Values and norms that held societies together and drew people to higher ideals are laughed at and thrown overboard. Jesus continues to be ridiculed.’

The Pope, who turns 82 later this month, prayed that Christians would respond to the problem by growing in faith.

‘May we never question or mock serious things in life like a cynic,’ he said.

‘Allow us not to drift into the desert of godlessness. Enable us to  perceive you in the gentle breeze, see you in street corners, love you in the  unborn child.’

While assuredly not intentional, it was interesting to hear the pope allude to how end-time western culture (America included, if not specifically) is portrayed in Isaiah 18, Jeremiah 50 & 51, and Revelation 18.

Yesterday we posted an outline of what potentially might be America from Scripture. One of the characteristics used to describe this nation is that its people drift further from God as time passes, with even the government attempting to eradicate God from the lives of its citizens (Isaiah 18:2, 7).

Almost on cue, this morning I read an article in Newsweek titled, The End of Christian America. Notice this is given as a statement of fact, not posed as a question. For note, read the following paragraphs:

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