Monday, April 20, 2009

Living in the Last Days- Watching the Signs point to...?

For those who haven't been following my blog regularly, I have been warning lately about the signs of the times. I feel we are reaching a critical mass here in this nation where each individual will have to make decisions for themselves and their families that will determine the rest of their lives, and ultimately, their eternal destination.







Now, before you go calling me a right wing conspiracy theorist (I wouldn't be too insulted by the term, but secretly flattered), let's take a look at the importance of many of these "signs" which are adding up:







Jesus said in Mark 13:37, "What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!' "







And so it is what I am saying to you and everyone: WATCH!







There will be those who will listen to what I say with a grain of salt (if not outright cynicism), but when the rubber meets the road, perhaps you will reflect on the things I warned about and be sobered up so that you may make a wise decision in time.







Last night, I saw the second half of a very touching true story. The movie was shown on a major network and it was called, "The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler" starring Anna Paquin. It was about a young Polish woman who was a social worker. She helped thousands of Jewish children escape the hands of the Nazis. Many children were pulled out of death's grip and put into orphanages and convents, complete with fake names and identities, just in the nick of time...sometimes within HOURS of the Nazi's filling the trains bound for the concentration camps. The scene which struck me to the core was the one where the Jews were just hearing about the news of a new concentration camp, Treblinka, being constructed, but without barracks. It was this kind of camp where there were to be no survivors. It was then that many of them understood the inevitable. But by then, for many, it was too late.







It was common during that time period for people to hear disturbing "news" as it mounted, evidence as to what the Nazis were planning. Many thought those that gave heed to such reports were paranoid. Many intelligent, thinking, well-educated, loving people really believed that those plans had nothing to do with them. Either that, or they thought that the war would be over soon and they would be safe.






My friend, are we making the same mistake in judgement today?







Here on this blog, I have been alluding to evidence that paints a certain future for anyone who adheres to a philosophy of life which the establishment deems threatening. It does not matter who you voted for. It does not matter if you are a conservative or a progressive. There are more stringent consequences if you do adhere to conservative values, as is evidenced by the recent report from the Department of Homeland Security. However, this should come as a warning to ANYONE who does not necessarily want to embrace what is coming down the pike.







On April 1, 2009, less than a month ago, the DHS issued a report on fusion centers. Fusion centers are local entities created for the movement of intelligence across federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. The story is they were created to share information on terrorism. However, if you have read the report of the previously mentioned DHS report about the threat of "right wing extremists", then you know that what was meant as an agency for the protection against terrorism can be used for any purpose the government deems necessary. Just like FEMA.






I have taken a little trip around youtube lately and have seen some of the footage about the internment camps and the disposable coffins. They are black plastic coffins. Tens of thousands of them, many being stored on private property throughout the midwest. They are flat on top for easy stacking. More and more reports are popping up baout them on the site because this is something that is hard to ignore. Although not reported in regular news, this story is very newsworthy. People who were interviewed about the coffins have said they were purchased by government agencies. They are indicative of the fact that the government anticipates massive loss of human life in this nation in the near future. That is obvious. But why or for what purpose is a little less clear. Local emergency response personnel have been in communication with the federal government on some of these matters. All the while you have been distracted by Anderson Cooper and his vile comments regarding the tea party protesters as well as his slanted viewpoint on the news. This infuriates me.







I knew about these internment camps 10 years ago. There is even one located within 20 miles of my then-hometown of Modesto. Although I was selective about whom I shared the informaiton with, I was even opposed by members of my family. Perhaps the info I presented did not fit in with their end-time world view? I am not sure. Nothing was ever explained to me. I am sure some of the first "watchmen" during WWII to sound the alarm were opposed by others and ridiculed too. But there was no one laughing or scoffing when peple were being carted away against their will by an insurmountable force known then as the Gestapo. Tragically, the accounts turned out to be true.



You see, not only is there a plan to eradicate the conservatives of our day, there is a global conspiracy to wipe out every Jew and Christian off the face of the earth. It's not my original idea...I wish I could be such a prolific science-fiction writer. Rather, this plan is the truth. It is made evident in the Bible. Genesis chapter 3:15. "I will put enmity between your seed and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel". This is God pronouncing judgement on the serpent (the devil). This is also the first Messianic prophecy in the Bible. The "seed" here, the "he" referred to is the Messsiah. The serpent did indeed bruise the Messiah's heel when Jesus was crucified. But the head of the serpent (the head symbolizing his authority) was crushed by the Messiah. So how does this exhibit a conspiracy theory? It exposes a demonic plan to wipe out a race of people, God's chosen people.






One may look down through time, throughout the centuries and see a pattern of attack and attempted annihilation against the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob- the Jews. They are God's chosen people, the very nation God would use to be a light to the nations, to make God and His ways known to the rest of the world. They were also the people through whom He would send the Messiah who is the living Torah. The living Word of God. Perfect in every way. The one who saves from sin and eternal damnation everyone who puts their trust in Him and forsakes his sin. Therefore, the devil sought on many occasions to wipe out the ones through which this would happen. The enslaved Hebrews in Egypt. The killing of the firstborn of every Hebrew slave. The killing of all babies under 2 years old by King Herod (around the time the Messiah Yeshua was born), the sacking of Israel's capital city, Jerusalem. More than once. The 2 captivities. The Hellenistic oppression and attempted assimilation. The pogroms of Eastern Europe. The ovens of the Nazis. The nations currently surrounding Israel and threatening them if they do not agree to a "2 state solution" thus accepting a covenant of the anti-christ, which he will break in the middle of the term. By the way, have you heard the latest threats of Javier Solana? Who?? The head of the European Union. Check out his power and paper trail at fulfilledprophecy.com.






This devilish conspiracy theory will not be over until the Messiah returns to set up His millenial reign on the earth. Judgement will be pronounced upon Lucifer, the fallen angel, or the devil, as well as on all those nations who have come against God's people Israel and those hwo have taken the mark of the beast. But by then, it will be too late. Too late to make up your mind, for the system of the beast as outlined in Revelation 13:17 will have already been in place. Each man not being able to buy or sell anything lest he have the mark of the beast or the number of his name. You will be forced to make a decision by then. The Bible says that those who take the mark (either in their hand or forehead) will be worshipping the beast aligning themselves with him (and the devil who is controlling him) forever more. The scriptures clearly state that those who do so will spend eternity in the place called Hades (hell) where there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. For those people who accepted not God's provision for the atonement of their sin, His son Jesus the Christ. There will be no repentance after that final act of taking the mark. And the Lord will then pour out His wrath on the earth and upon all those who have taken the mark of the beast. God's mercy and patience are extended until then. You may repent of your sin and accept the free gift of Messiah's blood to purchase your redemption until then. After that, it will be too late.







The warning judgements have already started. The coming shaking of everything that can be shaken is but birth pains of an extremely tumultuous time, a time uparallelled by any other time, the Bible says. The time of Jacob's trouble. The gospel is being preached to the uttermost parts of the earth. Man sees God's invisible nature and His glory in His creation (as it says in Romans chapter 1), so that man is without excuse. But our nation, America, is being handed over for judgement. God has turned us over to a reprobate mind. Just as the scriptures prophecied about these days we now live in, men do indeed call what is good "evil" and what is evil "good". And lawlessness (Torahlessness) abounds. Only those who repent now- only those who are stirred to repentance and faith, following the Lamb of God who was slain before the foundation of the world, even if it means giving up their very lives, will be saved. Exclusive? Yeah! But I didn't say it. God did. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me." (John 14:6).







Not Jesus and Buddah. Not Jesus and Mohammed. Not Jesus and your idolatry. Not Jesus and your tolernance of sin. (Remember- He is the One who said "if your eye causes you to sin, gauge it out".) Not Jesus and your ungodliness. Not Jesus and your popular world-view. Just Him. Salvation is free. But you were very expensive. And if you follow Him, you are no longer your own. For you were bought with a blood-price.











Pre-Trib, Post Trib, or Pan-Trib?








I have some friends who joke and say that they are "Pan-tribbers.....no matter what happens, it will all 'pan out in the end'". A nod to the fact that God soverignly holds all circumstances in His hand. Which is true. I myself used to hold to a "Pre-trib Rapture" theory. Until recently.






The Rapture is when the Bible describes the event of the "dead in Christ shall rise first, then those of us who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them and meet the Lord in the air and then will we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:17)






I do believe in a rapture. (I believe in one resurrection as the First covenant talks of: the righteous will be raised to everlasting life, the unrighteous to everlasting condemnation. Daniel 12:2). However, I do not any longer believe the rapture will come before "Daniel's seventieth week". There is no phrase in the bible that calls this time period "the Great Tribulation". There is the phrase "immediately after the distress of those days" (Matthew 24:29) , but it is descriptive of the events described next in the passage, not a completely separate dispensation. The teaching of the Great Tribulation of 7 years and that all those who have put their trust in Christ being raptured out of the earth before tribulation comes, I do not believe there is substantial supportive evidence to support from the Hebrew perspective.



Now, I must note that this is not really a foundational issue. It is not an issue of salvation by grace only through Yeshua which is essential Christian doctrine. Therefore, we as believers can agree to disagree and not break fellowship over it. However, for the sake of practicalities and the decisions to be made in the near future concerning believers, concerning the changing world view amongst many evangelicals today, and concerning the deception that is coming and which is indeed already here, I think it is important to note.






I used to sit in prophecy conferences and hear the scenario being described of how the saints were going to be raptured before what they termed the "Great Tribulation". I read Hal Lindsey's books. But nothing about the picture they were painting seemd to settle in an orderly, peaceful way in my spirit or my mind. Quite frankly, I was confused. Now, I know they have movies and fictional books to help paint this scenario, and I know MOST of the proponents of said theory are godly, intelligent, respectable men (I love Hal Lindsey! He is a godly man and a lover of Israel...I just don't come to the same conclusions he does). However, I disagree with the way they view scripture. Conversely, when I began studying the scriptures in the Hebrew context (in which they were given), and listening to Messianic Jewish teachers who taught on prophecy, combining scripture form Old and New testaments and rightly dividing the Word of Truth within a Hebrew context, I began sensing a peace deep within and an orderliness to the end-time scenario. Besides, the fruit I was seeing from the "pre-trib rapture" teaching was not good. I saw an arrogant attitude, whether inadvertent or not, from saints who clung tightly to this idea that we were not going to experience any judgement. God is a God of mercy and He has not appointed us unto wrath. Which I agree He has not appointed us unto wrath (all true followers), however, I believe God's judgement is His mercy, that He doesn't stop being one to be the other. Moreover, Jesus was warning His followers, His disciples of the distress that was to come in those days (Matthew 24 and 25). He warned us so that we would not fall away. Why would He need to do that if we were not going to experience any of it? He even warned His followers what to do when "you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation' spoken through the prophet Daniel....." (which is a reference to when the anti-christ will set himself up in the Temple in Jerusalem as God),...then He gives His followers instructions. (see Matthew 24:16).


A Hint In the Passover




Remember the plagues of Exodus? The plagues were not directed to the Hebrews, as was evidenced in the fact that the Egyptians suffered, and many times they were unouched by them. But they were affected by them for sure. The Nile turning to blood, for instance. Althought the Hebrews lived in the Land of Goshen, they still got their water form the Nile, the source of all water in the region. And so they did experience some inconvenience. But they did not receive the brunt of God's wrath. And they had the blood of God's Passover Lamb to protect them from death, foreshadowing the Messiah, who is the Passover Lamb and the second death, eternal damnation, respectively. And so too, I believe we will be spared much in the days to come, if we obey the Lord. But we will be inconvenienced. And it will be "as in the days of Noah...and Lot's wife". The righteous taken out of the way immediately before God's wrath is poured out.







There is not enough room to go into the immense detail of this theory here. (That and my son needs to wake up from his nap!) However, the seeker who wants to delve further may contact me personally if you would like the appropriate resources. If the Lord wills and I have the means to oblige at the time, I would be happy to do so.









There is no way that one can know ALL of the aspects of the end times or what to look out for and what to chuck away as happenstance, especially as world events quicken at a rapid pace. But I do know I have been given a glimpse into how the Lord wants us to be watchful for when He comes. Some of that watching may require action.









After all, I am sure that if the Jews of Hitler's era (may his name be blotted out!) were to act on the things they were seeing, perhaps their outcome and the outcome for their families may have been different.









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