The Final Countdown

It is time once again to play, Does this mixture of headlines make any sense? As you read the following news items, remember that the embracing of sin (Jeremiah 50:14) coupled with the systematic removal of God (Jeremiah 50:29) will lead to catastrophic judgment upon the Western world (Jeremiah 50:28), including the United States (read Isaiah 18, Jeremiah 50-51, & Revelation 18 for an in-depth picture).

Group one–pro sin:

• Obama plans to fund D.C. abortions
• (UK) Parents will have “no say” over sex education in schools
• Surgeon General nominee wants to train new doctors on abortions
• Obama wants to rescind regulations enforcing “conscience-clause laws”
• National Health Service tells pupils they have a “right to good sex”
• Schoolchildren given sex lessons on what is available at local brothel
• ObamaCare to provide taxpayer funded abortion on demand
• Police officers who practice witchcraft get Pagan Police Association, own holidays
• 25% of abortions are done by pill (abortions increase because of ease)
• Abortion funds, marijuana in house health bill
• ‘Sex play’ for teens promoted in cartoon
• Gov’t drive fails to cut teen pregnancies
• Obama science czar called for forced abortions
• Obama science czar says, “years after birth, (a fetus) will ultimately develop into a human being”
• Gov’t insurance would allow coverage for abortion
• Stimulus Bill funds go to art houses showing “pervert” revues, pornography
• Same-sex couples granted legal status in Wisconsin
• US House funds needle exchange programs

Group two–anti-God:

• IRS tells pro-lifers to give up 1st Amendment
• Jail removes Bible verses from letters to inmate
• Catholic nurse ‘forced’ to help in late-term abortion
• City rejects ‘In God We Trust’ logo
• Sotomayor supported censoring Biblical verse
• National Institutes of Health head opposed as “nutty” after Christian conversion
• Church faces fine after town bans Sunday afternoon services
• Christian doctor axed for failing to back gay adoption
• Program to curb AIDS questioned after Bible verses used to promote abstinence
• Gov’t funded art exhibit encourages people to deface the Bible
• Prayers at Chesapeake council meetings stir debate
• Public library bans Sunday School posters because they promote religion
• UN shuts out Christian NGO after China objects
• Hall-of-Fame coach canned after student accepts Christ
• American arrested for talking about Jesus in Norway

Group three–just to think about:

• Fetuses found to have memories
• Parents cradle “dead” baby, who comes back to life
• Baby born at 23 weeks survives
• Grieving father finds ‘dead’ baby alive in coffin

A quick look at some news from the realm of state-sponsored and promoted “alternative lifestyles” in the United States and UK:

• In the UK, taxpayers are paying for government employees to participate in a homosexual parade. The goal is to increase attendance to lend more credibility to the homosexual movement in Britain.
• The number of government-funded sex change operations in the UK has tripled after the government health body declared the procedure to be a “right” belonging to all persons.
• New York Governor David Paterson said he will “make sure” the State Senate votes on same-sex marriage before the summer recess.
• Also in New York, a “Folsom Street Festival” is ongoing, complete with public sex acts and sodomy from both heterosexuals and homosexuals. These sex-fests are common place in San Francisco, where lewd promotional posters are displayed in areas frequented by children.
• Back in the UK, a government official has apologized on behalf of the government and his party for legislation that banned the promotion of homosexuality in school. That is right, the law did not ban the teaching of homosexuality, which the UK starts pushing on kids at the tender age of 5. This law simply put an end to encouraging homosexuality, and the government felt the need to apologize for it.
• US Attorney General Eric Holder said that proposed “hate crimes” legislation would give special protections to homosexuals who were attacked by religious people, but would not protect Christians who were attacked by homosexuals.

This last story provides a good jumping off point to see how Christianity is being treated by these same governments. In addition to the aforementioned snub in the so-called “hate crimes” laws, these stories also come from the UK and USA:

• Doctors in the UK face disciplinary sanctions for praying with patients, even when done at the patients request.
• The US Navy has ordered a support group for moms of sailors to drop “Christian” from its official title.
• The government run BBC is under fire for supporting and promoting Islam while attacking Christianity.
• A Judge has barred Christians from passing out tracts on public land in Dearborn, Michigan, a city with over 30,000 Muslim residents.
• The New York City Council has passed a resolution calling for Muslim holidays to be observed by government schools. This would include days off from school and teaching on what the holidays represent to the Muslim community. Of course, it is “illegal” to teach what Christian holidays mean.
• In California, administrators from government run schools have banned pro-life T-shirts that depict growing fetuses in the womb. The same pictures on the shirt appear in the textbooks, just not linked to life.
• For the first time in 40 years, the Air Force has denied a flyover request by the God and Country Family Festival, held in Nampa, Idaho. It is now deemed “too religious.”

The government promotion of sin (Jeremiah 50:14, 29; 51:24) and removal of Christianity (Jeremiah 50:11, 24, 29-32) are the two reasons given by Scripture for the coming catastrophic judgment against the West (Jeremiah 50:13, 26, 32; 51:8, 9, 29, 43; Revelation 18:8-10, 15-19).

The Obama administration, in a cost cutting measure, is moving to scale back some of the database creating measures of the Real ID Act.

The new plan keeps elements of Real ID, such as requiring a digital photograph, signature and machine-readable features such as a bar code. States also will still need to verify applicants’ identities and legal status by checking federal immigration, Social Security and State Department databases.

But it eliminates demands for new databases — linked through a national data hub — that would allow all states to store and cross-check such information, and a requirement that motor vehicle departments verify birth certificates with originating agencies, a bid to fight identity theft.

The monitoring of citizens on a worldwide scale is key to the creation of a global government and to the ability of the Antichrist to track humans across the globe (see Revelation 13 & 14). While the proposed changes to the Real ID Act seem to take a step back from building a global watchdog database that includes Americans, the newly planned Pentagon cybercommand does the opposite. When created, the cyberdefense initiative will have the ability to monitor and log e-mails, instant message conversations, and web browsing history. While presumably the privacy of American’s will be safe unless they are talking to suspected terrorists (even though earlier this week the NSA admitted to intercepting more calls and e-mails of Americans than previously thought), the infrastructure will be in place to monitor and log all Internet and telephone communications with the flip of a switch.

Lest you doubt the goals, they are already implementing these plans in Britain, where everything from e-mails to Facebook messages are to be cataloged. Further, a system that is able to monitor all forms of communication worldwide (including cell phone and satellite usage) is already in existence (do a search on ECHELON after reading this post).

Meanwhile, the US State Department is sponsoring a conference on globalization. It is coming, and it is coming soon.

A sampling of news items written in the last week from America’s mother, who is “ashamed and confused” (Jeremiah 50:12).

• Boys as young as 12 are being issued ‘Condom Cards’ that entitle them to free condoms, no question asked. No wonder teen pregnancy and abortion rates are off the charts in Britain.
• The number of young people (aged 13-24) seeking drug and alcohol treatment in the UK has risen by 12% in the last year, with a 44% increase since 2006.
• On the playground, Ring Around the Rosy and Row Your Boat have been replaced by songs about sex. The new racy lyrics are being imported from movies and songs that are marketed to young people.
• A new study indicates that 7% of women under the age of 25 are users of cocaine. This is being blamed on increased alcohol use and the “social acceptance” of chronic drug abusers such as Kate Moss and Amy Winehouse.
• Speaking of alcohol, 49% of Brits say they are drinking more alcohol during the day, mostly due to fears over the economy.

From the Washington Post:

When anti-narcotics agents first heard that drug cartels were building an armada of submarines to transport cocaine, they thought it was a joke.

Now U.S. law enforcement officials say that more than a third of the cocaine smuggled into the United States from Colombia travels in submersibles.

An experimental oddity just two years ago, these strange semi-submarines are the cutting edge of drug trafficking today. They ferry hundreds of tons of cocaine for powerful Mexican cartels that are taking over the Pacific Ocean route for most northbound shipments, according to the Colombian navy.

The sub-builders are even trying to develop a remote-controlled model, officials say.

“That means no crew. That means just cocaine, or whatever, inside the boat,” said Michael Braun, a former chief of operations at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The subs are powered by ordinary diesel engines and built of simple fiberglass in clandestine shipyards in the Colombian jungle. U.S. officials expect 70 or more to be launched this year with a potential cargo capacity of 380 tons of cocaine, worth billions of dollars in the United States.

“This is definitely the next generation of smuggling conveyance,” said Joseph Ruddy, an assistant U.S. attorney in Tampa who prosecutes narco-mariners.

The submersibles are equipped with technologies that make them difficult to intercept, even though U.S. forces use state-of-the-art submarine warfare strategies against them. Authorities say most slip through their net.

“You try finding a floating log in the middle of the Pacific,” one DEA agent said.

U.S. officials and their Colombian counterparts have detected evidence of more than 115 submersible voyages since 2006. They have apprehended the crews of more than 22 submersibles at sea since 2007. Six crews have been arrested this year. The Colombian navy has intercepted or discovered 33 subs since 1993.

U.S. officials fear that the rogue vessels could be used by terrorists intent on reaching the United States with deadly cargos.

Yesterday, ten men in Britain were jailed for attempting to smuggle 12.5 British tons of cannabis into the country.

There are four verses in particular that speak of drugs in Revelation. Most English versions of the book use the words sorcery, sorceries, and sorcerer, but these are not accurate translations. Let’s look at the four verses briefly, using the New King James Version and a Greek dictionary.

Revelation 9:21: And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries.

Revelation 18:23: For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.

In both of the above verses, the Greek word rendered as sorcery/sorceries is pharmakeia, and means “medication store.” This is where we get our English word “pharmacy” from.  A pharmacy is a place where you go to get drugs.

Revelation 21:8: But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.

The word sorcerers in this verse is the Greek word pharmakeus, and it literally means “druggists.” This where we get our English word “pharmacists” from.  A pharmacist is a person who sells drugs.

Revelation 22:15: But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.

In this verse, sorcerers is actually the Greek word pharmakos, and it is essentially an earlier form of the pharmakeus of Revelation 21:8. It means someone who is addicted to drugs, and gives us the English word “pharmacology,” or the practice of looking to drugs for an answer.

As an interesting side note, this pharmakos actually became a term for a pagan religion where a human scapegoat would be expelled from the city in time of crisis, in an effort to bring relief upon the land. Today, many people look to mind and emotion altering drugs to escape from the pressures of life.