Israel's Enemies Continue To Unite - With A Central Target In Mind

Right on schedule: 

We've seen Hamas and the PA/Fatah uniting with a common goal in mind (the destruction of Israel) - which involves a gathering of forces in the West Bank and Gaza. We've seen the early stages of Jordan meeting with the these same groups due to internal pressure from radical Islam, and now this. The prophetic significance of these alliances are profound, as we continue to watch Israel's enemies - those same enemies who will gather together in order to participate in the coming wars which are intended to destroy Israel:

Egypt To Pursue Relationship With Hezbollah

In a dramatic policy shift, Egypt will seek to forge "tight" relations with Hezbollah, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Hamdy revealed in a candid interview published Saturday in Lebanon's Daily Star.

“You cannot discuss politics in Lebanon without having a relationship with Hezbollah," Hamdy was quoting as saying, before describing the terror group as a "real force on the ground" with "big political and military influence."

In this respect, Hamdy announced that Muslim-Brotherhood-dominated Egypt would begin “stretching [its] hand out in the proper, balanced way to all regional powers," including Hezbollah, in order to forge "tight" contacts with Lebanon's rulers.

"Resistance in the sense of defending Lebanese territory...[is] their primary role. We...think that as a resistance movement they have done a good job to keep on defending Lebanese territory and trying to regain land occupied by Israel is legal and legitimate,” he continued.

Egypt's Envoy To Lebanon: Cairo Will Work With Hezbollah, 'A Real Political And Military Force'

Egypt’s ambassador to Lebanon said his country will pursue a relationship with Hezbollah, a “real political and military force,” The Daily Star reported Saturday. If implemented, the decision would constitute a dramatic policy shift from that of the former Hosni Mubarak administration.

Egypt’s relations with Hezbollah, a Shi’ite Islamic group that is considered a terror organization by the United States, have been strained, in large part, by Cairo’s 1979 peace accord with Israel. The ambassador’s comments on the possible Hezbollah-Egyptian rapprochement came on the heels of the passage of the controversial Muslim Brotherhood-backed constitution by President Mohammed Morsi.

“In discussions we said we want Hezbollah to remain as a political force in Lebanon acting in the interests of the Lebanese first and not others,” Hamdy continued. “Resistance in the sense of defending Lebanese territory … That’s their primary role. We … think that as a resistance movement they have done a good job defending Lebanese territory, and trying to regain land occupied by Israel is legal and legitimate.”

Also see:

Yaalon: U.S. Preparing To Intervene In Syria

In an interview with Israel Radio, government minister Moshe Yaalon said that the U.S. was preparing to intervene in Syria. A final decision on intervention will come if and when the Syrian army begins using chemical weapons against its own citizens, Yaalon said.

Despite appearances, Yaalon said, the U.S. was aware of everything going on in Syria and was “very concerned” about the implications for the Syrian civil war on the region. Israeli officials were in close touch with American officials about the latest events in the country, he said. 

The Fiscal Cliff Is Just A Diversion

Albedo changes in the Arctic

How global warming and feedbacks are causing huge albedo changes in the Arctic.

Snow cover decline

Decline of the snow cover on land in the northern hemisphere is accelerating, as illustrated by the image below and the image underneath on the right. (1)

Image credit: Rutgers University

Fresh snow can have an albedo as high as 0.85, meaning that up to 85% of the sunlight falling on snow can get reflected back into space. As the snow melts, its structure changes making it less reflective, i.e. its albedo will go down, to as low as 40%. (2)

As a result, more sunlight gets absorbed, accelerating the melting process. Eventually, where snow melts away, spots of bare soil become exposed, and dark wet soil has a very low albedo, reflecting only between 5% and 15% of the sunlight. Thus, even more sunlight gets absorbed and the soil's temperature increases, causing more of the remaining snow to melt. (2)

Changes in vegetation can further accelerate this process. Russia's boreal forest - the largest continuous expanse of forest in the world - has seen a transformation in recent years from larch to conifer trees. Larch trees drop their needles in the fall, allowing the vast, snow-covered ground in winter to reflect sunlight and heat back into space and helping to keep temperatures in the region very cold. But conifers such as spruce and fir retain their needles, which absorb sunlight and increase the forest's ground-level heat retention. (3)

Albedo, from Wikipedia

A conversion from larch to evergreen stands in low-diversity regions of southern Siberia would generate a local positive radiative forcing of 5.1±2.6 W m−2. This radiative heating would reinforce the warming projected to occur in the area under climate change. (4)

Tundra in the Arctic used to be covered by a white blanket of snow most of the year. However, as the landscape is warming up, more trees and shrubs appear. Scientists who studied part of the Eurasian Arctic, found that willow and alder shrubs, once stunted by harsh weather, have been growing upward to the height of trees in recent decades. They now rise above the snowfall, presenting a dark, light-absorbing surface. This increased absorption of the Sun's radiation, combined with microclimates created by forested areas, adds to global warming, making an already-warming climate warm even more rapidly. (5 & 6)

Furthermore, encroachment of trees onto Arctic tundra caused by the warming may cause large release of carbon to the atmosphere, concludes a recent study. This is because tundra soil contains a lot of stored organic matter, due to slow decomposition, but the trees stimulate the decomposition of this material. (7)


Sea ice decline

In the Arctic, sea ice volume has fallen dramatically over the years, as illustrated by the image on the right. The trend points at 2014 as the year when Arctic sea ice will first reach zero volume for some time during that year. (8)

The Arctic Ocean looks set to be ice-free for a period of at least three months in 2015 (August, September and October), and for a period of at least 6 months from the year 2020 (June through to November). (9)

Decline of the Arctic sea ice is accelerating, due to numerous feedbacks. As the Arctic atmosphere warms up, any snow cover on top of the ice will melt away ever quickly, decreasing the surface albedo and thus reinforcing the warm-up. As melt ponds appear on top of the ice, the albedo will drop even further.

Sam Carana's Diagram of Doom pictures ten feedbacks that jointly work to accelerate sea ice decline. (10)

The image below shows the three areas where albedo change will be felt most in the Arctic, i.e. sea ice loss, decline of albedo in Greenland and more early and extensive retreat of snow and ice cover in other areas in the Arctic. (8)

Big changes in the Arctic within years, by Sam Carana

References

1. Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover Anomalies 1967-2012 June, Rutgers University
climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/chart_anom.php?ui_set=1&ui_region=nhland&ui_month=6

2. Albedo, Albedo Change blog
albedochange.blogspot.com/2009/02/albedo-change.html

3. Shift in Northern Forests Could Increase Global Warming, Scientific American, March 28, 2011
scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=shift-northern-forests-increase-global-warming

4. Sensitivity of Siberian larch forests to climate change, Shuman et al., April 5, 2011, Wiley.com
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02417.x/abstract

5. Warming turns tundra to forest
ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2012/120604.html

6. Eurasian Arctic greening reveals teleconnections and the potential for structurally novel ecosystems, Macias-Fauria et al., 2012
nature.com/nclimate/journal/v2/n8/full/nclimate1558.html

7. Expansion of forests in the European Arctic could result in the release of carbon dioxide, University of Exeter news, June 18, 2012
exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_214902_en.html

8. Big changes in the Arctic within years, Sam Carana, October 26, 2012, Arctic-News blog
arctic-news.blogspot.com/2012/10/big-changes-in-arctic-within-years.html

9. Getting the Picture, Sam Carana, August 2012, Arctic-News blog
arctic-news.blogspot.com/2012/08/getting-the-picture.html

10. Diagram of Doom, Sam Carana, August 2012, Arctic-News blog
arctic-news.blogspot.com/2012/08/diagram-of-doom.html


Further reading

- Albedo change in the Arctic
arctic-news.blogspot.com/2012/07/albedo-change-in-arctic.html

- Greenland is melting at incredible rate
arctic-news.blogspot.com/2012/07/greenland-is-melting-at-incredible-rate.html

- Albedo change in the Arctic threatens to cause runaway global warming
arctic-news.blogspot.com/2012/10/albedo-change-in-the-arctic-threatens-to-cause-runaway-global-warming.html

"Global Governance" Now Acceptable Terminology

It's interesting how the news seems to be concentrated on certain themes on certain days and today is no exception. More and more publications are becoming aware of what seems to be a big push towards a global form of "governance" (more on this term later) from the EU, the U.S., the UN and now Russia. 

Just a few years ago, such talk would have been considered as "conspiracy theory" - and that is a term that deserves some discussion. Be very very careful of falling into that trap. One thing I find interesting is the idea that many of the individuals and web-sites who have been calling attention to this movement towards "global governance" should be dismissed and considered as "wacko conspiracy people" - to be completely ignored. If you go back and look at what such people have been saying for decades now - those who were labeled as such (who is passing out these "labels" anyway?) - they have been uncannily accurate as we watch the evolution of the movement to a world government transpire before our very eyes. 

Labeling those who closely follow the news - especially the "stories behind the MSM version" - as "conspiracy nuts" is actually a form of censorship. Obviously there are some crazy people and sites out there, but we must be very careful to lump a large group into the conspiracy category and then dismiss what they are drawing attention to. 

Having said that - consider the news today in light of biblical prophecy and the coming Tribulation (the quotes from these articles are extensive, but this information is important):

EU Leader Van Rompuy Calls For 'Global Governance'

While much of the Christian and post-Christian worlds were busy rushing about in last-minute preparations for Christmas celebrations, an important event took place in Brussels, Belgium, that went largely unnoticed and unreported. Leaders of the European Union and Russia met in Brussels on December 20 and 21 for the 30th EU-Russia Summit, continuing a process of convergence and interdependence that is leading toward political, economic, and social merger.

In his remarks at the conclusion of the summit, Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, made repeated reference to progress toward the goal of “global governance,” which has always been code in globalist circles for world government. Van Rompuy stated: 

By working together, the EU and Russia can make a decisive contribution to global governance and regional conflict resolution, to global economic governance in the G 8 and G 20, and to a broad range of international and regional issues. I would like to congratulate President Putin for taking over the presidency of G 20. 

As we have reported in this magazine many times, the term “global governance” is an intentionally deceptive term, used by political ruling elites because it is more vague and mushy and sounds less threatening than “global government” or “world government.”  Hence, there will be less political opposition mounted to “global governance” than “world government.”

“Global governance” came into vogue in the late 1990s, following the publication in 1995 of Our Global Neighborhood, a report of the UN-appointed Commission on Global Governance. That report attempted emphatically to assure readers that they had nothing to fear; they were not proposing world government. It claimed: 

Global governance is not global government. No misunderstanding should arise from the similarity of the terms. We are not proposing movement towards world government.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan practiced the same semantic sleight-of-hand and false assurance at the UN Millennium Summit in New York City in 2000. In his report We the Peoples: The Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century, Annan called for “new forms of global governance,” “a new ethic of global stewardship,” “global norms,” and “global rules” — all of which assume a role for the UN as global legislator.

Many of the political elites who formerly dismissed concerns that “global governance” is a ruse for “global government,” now matter-of-factly admit that they are one and the same. Jacques Attali, an ardent globalist and an adviser to former President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, for instance, has said: “Global governance is just a euphemism for global government.”

This is how Denis Healey described a Bilderberg person to me: "To say we were striving for a one-world government is exaggerated, but not wholly unfair. Those of us in Bilderberg felt we couldn't go on forever fighting one another for nothing and killing people and rendering millions homeless. So we felt that a single community throughout the world would be a good thing."

He said, "Bilderberg is a way of bringing together politicians, industrialists, financiers and journalists. Politics should involve people who aren't politicians. We make a point of getting along younger politicians who are obviously rising, to bring them together with financiers and industrialists who offer them wise words.

 It increases the chance of having a sensible global policy." 

David Rockefeller, a longtime leader at Bilderberg conclaves, was even more explicit when addressing the 1991 meeting of the Bilderberg group. Rockefeller stated: 

We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. 

But the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.

 What seemed outlandish to many people at the time, and was frequently dismissed as kooky "conspiracy theory," is being confirmed daily in unfolding events — and admissions from those who are causing the events to happen.

New World Order

The world is changing dramatically, and the 'world order' is therefore changing too. The western powers of the United States and Europe are in decline, whilst China and Asia in general are on the rise. Many 'developing' countries, such as the BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China, are becoming more wealthy and more powerful than the established 'developed' economies of the west. Whereas the old international order saw the vast majority of power wielded by western powers, with America as the undisputed global superpower, a new multi-polar world is now emerging, with Asia as its power centre. This new order will indeed see the importance of international organisations increase. The imposition of Western rules and systems will be replaced by negotiated solutions reflecting the needs and desires of a much wider range of countries. Led by countries such as China, which has always opposed western interventionism, this new way is likely to emphasise national sovereignty and non-interference in other country's affairs. There is one group who has the most to lose from this change – the corporate and banking elite. – World News Curator

There is, from our perspective, an effort to create global governance and the only sensible conclusion to reach is that those who control central banks are behind it. Creating such a scenario demands not just consensus but the manufacturing of consensus on a worldwide level. That takes unfathomable financial resources.

The methodology is what we call directed history and like you we have been successful at predicting certain evolutions because we apply our understanding of current events to the evolution of power elite trends.

The development and application of such insights is useful in terms of understanding the world around us and also for practical purposes such as investment. Once one understands the central banking economy all sorts of possibilities emerge

Another prediction we made for a long time was that the Muslim Brotherhood was being deliberately empowered in the Middle East in order to create religious tension between East and West. This then allows for the further implementation of anti-terrorist legislation that is extremely invasive and drains freedom from the West. That's happening, too.

The idea is to generate increasing levels of control throughout society. The mechanism is mercantilism, which allows those at the very top to gain and keep virtually unlimited power, as they are exempt from the laws and regulations being inflicted on everyone else.

Another meme that the article promotes is that China and the BRICs generally are rising up and diminishing Western power. But this is by design, in our view.

Europe and the US, from what we can tell, are being brought down while Asia and certain developing countries like Brazil are being raised up. The tool in use is the central bank that can create both booms and busts almost at will.

The West's topmost elites, the ones that control central banking, are as firmly entrenched as ever, in our view. Those who will be inconvenienced by the efflorescence of global government will be a secondary tier of political, banking, military and industrial types – those who may believe they are among the "untouchables" but actually are not. They may find this out over time to their dismay.

As for the emergence of China and other powers to challenge Western "dominance" ... well, this also seems perfectly predictable and we don't believe that such an emergence is in any way an unforeseen or untoward development.

It is all part of what may be called directed history. 

The creation of global governance demands all sorts of stresses and strains. Only from fear and chaos can a new global society emerge. Enemies are necessary. The Soviet Union is no more, so new enemies have to be identified.

Terrorists are one such enemy. The war on terror is very useful because it is an amorphous one that can be used in any of a number of ways.

A terrorist, after all, is someone who has been branded as such by government officials. In the 21st century, many people who believe in freer, smaller societies will be labeled (ironically) as terrorists. And many bankers and industrialists will be labeled as part of the world's controlling "elite."

The Day Freedom Died In America

Gun Confiscation: Part Of The Plan

The link above is actually a long video/audio clip from Infowars/Prison Planet and it is worth listening to. It is highly consistent with everything we are reading from other wide-spread sources. 

Congressman Blasts U.S. Decision To "Arm" Extremists

Why is our administration arming Israel's enemies? 

Congressman Ted Poe, R-Texas, says it is irresponsible for Barack Obama to be “arming” a country that may be aiming for the destruction of Israel with a shipment of 20 F-16 fighter jets.

“It is reckless and unwise for the U.S. to give F-16s to Egypt and its new president/dictator, controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood,” he told WND. “This extremist group is notoriously anti-American and anti-Israel. The United States should not be arming a country ruled by a group that has the destruction of Israel in its charter.”

Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan said, “American tax dollars must not be used to aid and abet any dictatorial regime that stands with terrorists,” and Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said, “We should also be cautious about the arms we provide.”

Obama is proceeding with his plan to gift Egypt with 20 brand new F-16 fighter jets as part of a $450 million aid package promised to Egypt in 2010 when it was led by the U.S.-friendly Hosni Mubarak regime.

Now Egypt is governed by the openly hostile Muslim Brotherhood, which has called for the destruction of America and Israel. The new President Mohammed Morsi, head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, recently joined in a public prayer to the effect of “Oh Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, disperse them, rend them asunder.”

There are also the more philosophical issues that are thought by some to represent an inherent anti-American default position on the part of the president. The Muslim Prayer Day in 2009 is one such example.

Imams were permitted by Obama to hold a Muslim Prayer Day near White House premises in 2009, the same year Obama prohibited a similar Christian “Day of Prayer” despite the longstanding precedent for such gatherings. One of the speakers at the event is on record saying, “We are going to the White House, so that Islam will be victorious, Allah willing, and the White House will become … Muslim house.”

The Hypocrisy Of Government Gun Confiscation Schemes

The hypocrisy of it all is stunning. While screaming, “GUNS ARE BAD!” to American farmers, ranchers and citizens, the government is buying up billions of dollars worth of guns and ammo itself. This isn’t ammo to be used in a foreign theater of war, by the way, it’s ammo that can only be used domestically, against the American people. (The hollow point ammo violates international war treaties and so cannot be used in international war actions.)

To help us all visualize the hypocrisy in the government’s gun control schemes, I came up with our latest Counterthink cartoon.

In addition to purchasing 450 million rounds of hollow point .40 caliber ammo, the U.S. government has also purchased:

• Over one million rounds of hollow-point .223 rifle ammo
• Over half a million rounds of non-hollow-point .223 rifle ammo
• 220,000 rounds of 12 gauge shotgun #7 ammo (target ammo)
• Over 200,000 rounds of 12 gauge shotgun #00 buckshot ammo (tactical anti-personnel ammo)
• 66,000 rounds of 12 gauge shotgun slugs (tactical anti-personnel, anti-vehicle rounds)
• Over two million rounds of hollow-point .357 Sig JPH (hollow-point) pistol ammo (anti-personnel)
• Over four million rounds of .40 S&W JPH (hollow-point) pistol ammo (anti-personnel)
• Over 60,000 rounds of .308 match grade anti-personnel sniper rounds (BTHP)
• Plus, hundreds of thousands of additional rounds of .38 special, .45 auto, 9mm, 7.62×39 (AK rifle) ammo, and others.

Proposed Legislation On Guns In The U.S.

'Fiscal Cliff' Distracts As 'Fiscal Abyss' In Japan, UK and U.S. Cometh

The political and media side show that is the so-called “fiscal cliff” will soon be overshadowed by the appalling and rapidly deteriorating situation regarding the U.S. national debt. 

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has alerted Congress that the nation will once again hit the debt ceiling on Monday, but that his department can take “extraordinary measures” to keep paying the bills for another few months.

Incredibly, the debt ceiling was raised from $14.294 trillion in August 2011, to its current level of $16.394 trillion. Thus in the span of only sixteen months, the Obama administration has added a whopping $2.1 trillion to the national debt.

U.S. unfunded liabilities are now estimated at between $50 trillion and $100 trillion and by the end of the decade (in less than just 7 years), runaway entitlement spending will require shutting down the military or crippling many other vital domestic spending programs to head off massive deficits that will likely lead to a dollar crisis and significant inflation.

No matter what deal is eventually agreed, whether before or after the new year, it will at best nibble at the edges of the trillion dollar annual deficits that are being piled up.

After The Disaster: American Rebirth Or Interment

The question we face in this era is: Will America be a nation essentially organized around traditional families, largely free of government restraint, where individuals generally seek to order their lives according to the inalterable moral norms of the Judeo-Christian tradition? Or will it be a nation where the traditional family is essentially extinct, where people are largely dependent on government for some of their most basic needs and where the inalterable moral norms of the Judeo-Christian tradition are generally flouted and sometimes even criminalized?

Whether that crisis results in America descending deeper into socialism and moral decay or a rebirth of traditional morality and limited government will depend greatly on whether there now emerge national leaders who understand what has happened to us and have the moral courage to speak it plainly.

We have to end today's news on a positive note:

A Light In Dark Times

Here it is, in full - couldn't have said it better myself:

Every year the week before Christmas, St. Peter's Church in Purcellville, VA hosts a "Blue Christmas" service.  The aim is to offer a message of hope and comfort to those who might not be feeling so holly jolly during the holidays.

Heaven knows, there are many reasons to feel blue this Christmas.  From the senseless, tragic loss of innocent life in New Town, CT, to the seemingly intractable political divide paralyzing our nation's capital, to the escalating tensions in the Middle East.  It would be easy to give in to feelings of hopelessness, to let the long and dark December nights lull us into a mood of depression and despair.

Joseph and Mary no doubt felt this way as they found themselves preparing for the birth of their son in a cold barn on the road to Jerusalem.  Those were dark days.  But with the birth of one tiny child, hope was restored to a broken world.

Fr. Tom Simmons, rector of St. Peter's, explained why the birth of Jesus changed everything on a cold winter's night two millennia ago, and why it changes everything for us today:

"Jesus was in Isaiah's words, 'despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.'  We cannot gather at the manger with the grimy shepherds and see this tiny baby without acknowledging that over Jesus' manger lies the shadow of the cross.

It's NOT the most wonderful time of the year in all the ways we measure wonderful, and yet in a strange way it is!  It is the most wonderful time of the year not because you have to be cheery and happy and merry, but because you don't.

You can have heavy hearts, and shattered dreams, broken spirits and deep wounds.  And that's right where God comes to meet you.  To comfort you, to restore you, to strengthen you, to give you peace.  To die for you.  To walk out of the grave for you, to hold you in the communion of the saints with those you have loved and lost.  To offer you life that lasts forever.  It's the most wonderful time of the year, for Christ is born!  Light and love have come.  God is with us!"

Immanuel, the Lord is with us indeed.  No matter what life throws at us, God's love is unfailing and never-changing.  So to all who are in danger, sorrow, or any kind of trouble this Christmas season, to the sick, the friendless, and the needy, may the peace of the Lord be always with you.  Amen.

Prophecy Watching: Good News And Bad News

Being a prophecy watcher is very difficult at times. Sometimes I actually envy those who can live in blissful ignorance. I believe the difficulties involved account for some of the reasons we "watchers" are recognized and rewarded:

  "Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing." 
(2 Timothy 4:8).

 Of course it is a deep love of Jesus and a deep longing to be with Him and to be in His presence that propels us to study prophecy and to watch for the signs, but there are many hardships along the way as well.

To watch prophecy is to be in a dark place much of the time, as we see the increasing signs around us - signs that are growing in magnitude like the birth pains that Jesus described. The evil and darkness that will characterize the Tribulation is already beginning and to watch prophecy, one has no choice but to  become immersed in this dark world,s as we focus on these signs that we have been given. 

There are both good news and bad news which are associated with being a prophecy watcher. Thankfully, the bottom line for a believer is the simple fact that the good news far outweighs any bad news associated with being a prophecy watcher:

Good News:

Many people share their personal feelings regarding “end times” prophecy, their views of various current events and where the world seems to be heading. It is encouraging that more and more people seem interested in prophecy recently, especially over the last 3-6 months as certain events in the world seem to be converging, creating a general sense of fear or unease. This also creates an opportunity to witness for Christ in the context of the abundant signs around us and the vast parallels with the prophetic scriptures. 

Bad News

Even people who don’t normally pay attention to world news or current events are becoming aware that there is growing talk of economic collapse, not only in the U.S. but worldwide. Similarly, it seems that many people are becoming more aware of the Middle East powder-keg, for the first time, as the situations in Syria, Egypt, Gaza, West Bank, and Jerusalem, are part of the daily news cycle and WMDs (including chemical and nuclear weapons) are prominent in many of these news stories. 

These are just two examples of what seems to be driving people’s fears – there are many more that could be discussed. Earthquakes, tsunamis, super volcanoes, murder, robbery, gang violence, growing radical Islam, totalitarianism, oppression, hyperinflation, health-care, tax burdens, persecution, war, chemical warfare, kidnappings, food shortages/famine, forced incarceration, disease, and on and on that list goes. Its no wonder people are fearful these days. Similar to what happened in the aftermath of 9-11, it seems that a palpable and significant fear – fear of the future - combined with a general sense of unease is growing in many people around this country.

Good News

As stated many times before, it’s hard to imagine being in this world at this time without having biblical prophecy to lean on. It reminds me of what a loving God we have – a God that loves us enough to give us biblical prophecy so we would know what would happen and why – in advance. This was meant to be comforting to us - the knowledge that God is fully in control and the fact that everything we see around us is part of God's overall plan. As the apostle Peter reminded us in 2 Peter 1:19, prophecy is like “a light shining in a dark place”. Indeed it is. As the darkness of the coming Tribulation approaches, with all of the things we see happening around us, we can look to the words of prophecy and gain complete peace and comfort.

It reminds me of a particularly fearful child who was going to face a hospital admission and subsequent surgery. As a way of comforting him, several people on this hospital staff did a “dry run” with the child – showing him where he would first enter the hospital, where his room would be and what it looked like, where the nurses would be – where the post-op recovery would be and what it would look like when he awakened from anesthesia, etc. Familiarity with the people he would encounter and knowledge of what he was facing helped ease his fears dramatically. Imagine a loving God – knowing what His children would be facing in these last days – a God who loves us enough that He would actually give us the future in great detail in His written word and put there for anyone to read.

Knowing what we would be facing in these last days, Jesus began His Olivet Discourse by telling us to fear not – to not be “alarmed” when we begin to see these things. In Luke’s version, Jesus informed us to “look up” when we see the signs around us, because His coming and our "redemption" is drawing near. In this context, the apostle Paul took it one step further when he actually said that we should congregate and give each other “hope and encouragement” in these days -  as he spoke of the “gathering up” of the Church Saints prior to the Tribulation.

It is such a paradox that while being in the midst of such a growing darkness, that we have this “light” of biblical prophecy and the promises of Jesus’ return for His bride and that knowledge alone should fill us with great anticipation and hope – certainly not fear – in fact, quite the opposite.

Bad News

In light of the above, this isn’t really bad news but has to be categorized as such. Here it is: a strict interpretation of biblical prophecy indicates that things aren’t going to get any better on this planet before the Second Coming of Christ Jesus.

Jesus informed us that the generational signs preceding His coming would be like birth pains. We all know what that means (isn’t it interesting that Jesus chose an illustration that every human could understand?). Labor contractions increase in frequency and intensity, particularly during the last phases before birth. Once started, we know that labor pains don't suddenly decrease or reverse course. Once started, the pains continue to worsen until the actual birth. 

We also know that the signs that we were given were all negative signs (earthquakes, famine, pestilence, warfare, deaths, persecution, growing world totalitarianism, financial collapse, suffering, hardships, etc…), including the profile of humanity as given by the apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3 (ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, brutal, not lovers of the good, etc…). We also know about the coming wars from Ezekiel 38-39 and Isaiah 17 – not to mention the devastating wars that will occur during the Tribulation.

We shouldn’t have any expectations that any of these descriptions will improve while we’re still around. Whatever we are seeing around us today is not destined to improve in fact they will continually worsen. The very things that are inclined to give us a spirit of fear will increase in the near future.

We need to understand this fact and brace for what could be coming. Everything mentioned above is destined to worsen as we approach the Tribulation (and will dramatically worsen during the Tribulation).  Any expectation that things will suddenly turn around and change course for the better is unrealistic in view of biblical prophecy.

Keeping the bible handy, staying in prayer constantly, and looking up towards Jesus will be necessary in these coming days.  We have been specifically instructed to not have a spirit of fear but to be focused on Christ’s return (Luke 21:28-31).

Good News:

The same biblical prophecies which have been proven correct throughout the centuries inform us that Jesus will gather up His bride before the wrath of the coming Tribulation and that simply cannot be too far away.  1 Thessalonians 1:10, 4:16-18, 5: 4-9, Revelation 3:10, the fact that the Church isn’t mentioned at all in Revelation 6-18 (tribulation period), the fact that the Church is seen in Heaven in Revelation 19, before the Second Coming, the fact that Jesus took God’s wrath on the cross for all believers, thus necessitating the exclusion of the Church on earth during that period of God’s wrath (aka the Tribulation), the fact that Daniel was told that this designated period of time (including the Tribulation) was for “his people”, namely the Jews, the apostle John's ascension to Heaven in a manner paralleling the Rapture, just before the beginning of the Tribulation as described in Revelation 6-18, etc., etc.  – all point to a pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church.  

The signs that we see around us now – the same ones that are so ominous and dark – also tell us that Jesus is preparing to gather up His bride.  Remember His words of comfort and instruction in John 14:1-3:

Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Trust in God; trust also in me.

In my Father’s house are many rooms (dwelling places);

if it were not so I would have told you.

I am going there to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come back and take you to be with me

that you may also be where I am.

Note the following:

1. Fear: Once again, we see an immediate reference to fear: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” How many times does He have to tell us?

2. Trust Him:  Not this world or the things of this world. Trust in Him - exclusively. Remember - He will never leave you nor forsake you (Joshua 1:5).

3.  Our permanent dwelling place (aka New Jerusalem) is in our Father’s house: Just like the Jewish bridegroom prepared a place for his bride at his father’s house, Jesus prepares a place for His bride – the Church – in His Father’s house.

4. Emphasis and certainty: “…if it were not so, I would have told you.” Jesus isn’t allowing a shred of ambiguity is He? How much more emphasis could Jesus put on this statement? He certainly isn’t a liar is He? He is making perhaps the most definitive statement He could possibly make here. In other words, He is telling us in this passage that His coming will happen. Period.

5. The Mission: “I will come back”: Could Jesus have been more clear?

6. The Purpose: to “take you to be with me that you may also be where I am.”

That last sentence is so important. Note that in this description Jesus isn’t coming here to hang around on earth with us. Jesus said explicitly that His purpose is to take us to where He is. He is in heaven preparing that place. He isn’t on earth preparing that place. When He comes for His bride, He is clearly taking His bride - to this place that He is preparing - a fact that draws an immediate distinction with the Second Coming, where He does come to earth to reign for 1,000 years. The apostle John is giving us a vivid description of the process of the "gathering up" of the Church Saints here in this passage - a reference to the Rapture of the Church, not the Second Coming (one of the many distinct differences in contrasting the Rapture and the Second Coming). 

Jesus has made this promise and He made it emphatically.

In these coming days or weeks ahead we need to follow the instructions that we have been given. We can’t give in to fear or a spirit of fear. We should be focused on Christ and His promise of returning for His bride. We need to trust in Him exclusively. We should be looking up as directed. His coming is imminent and that is nothing but good news.

Maranatha!