The Final Countdown

While California attempts to push the gay lifestyle onto children as young as five, Christians are being harassed for holding Bible studies in the homes of believers.

A local pastor and his wife claim they were interrogated by a San Diego County official, who then threatened them with escalating fines if they continued to hold Bible studies in their home, 10News reported.

Attorney Dean Broyles of The Western Center For Law & Policy was shocked with what happened to the pastor and his wife.

Broyles said, “The county asked, ‘Do you have a regular meeting in your home?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you say amen?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you pray?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you say praise the Lord?’ ‘Yes.’”

The county employee notified the couple that the small Bible study, with an average of 15 people attending, was in violation of County regulations, according to Broyles.

Broyles said a few days later the couple received a written warning that listed “unlawful use of land” and told them to “stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit” — a process that could cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Also in California, a 75 year-old cross memorializing soldiers killed defending this country during World War I has been declared unconstitutional because an atheist “may drive by, see it, and be offended.” I kid you not, that is what the court said. Who knew atheists were such pansies? The case is likely headed to the Supreme Court.

The systematic, government sanctioned removal of God from society is one of the reasons God sends His holy judgment upon the United States, possibly depicted in Isaiah 18:2, 7; and Jeremiah 50:11, 24, 29, 31, & 32.

Update (June 4): San Diego has reversed course on the Bible study and has issued an apology to the group.

A battle is brewing in New Hampshire over the ability of churches to opt-out of participation in gay marriage. The governor wants to protect churches against lawsuits if they refuse to perform same-sex marriage on religious grounds, but he is facing opposition in the House.

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).

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).