by Mary Danielsen

“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.” Proverbs 25:2.

A critique of Jonathan Cahn’s bestselling The Harbinger by Dave James of the Alliance for Biblical Integrity opens with a Proverb he feels is suited for his take on the currently best selling book of 2012.  It is, “The first to plead his cause seems right, until his neighbor comes and examines him,” (Proverbs18:17), somehow suggesting, I guess, that the second person to chime in on an issue or as witness to a legal case probably has a better claim on truth, which of course is nonsense and has no relation to justice. In fact, I could apply it myself for my own purposes today. But for those who know what they believe and are lovers of truth, thoughtful analysis and critical thinking need not be subject to which direction the wind is blowing at any given time. I am barely into the review and already I sense a tone or mind set.

Well, I too have a Proverb for just such an occasion as this and as different as our chosen Proverbs are, so are the differences in our perspectives on Rabbi Cahn’s book. Out of the chute, even though Mr. James claims to have done a thorough “search of the matter”, I suggest he has not and that there is a reason for this.

Not only are our perspectives miles apart, so are our “credentials”. While Mr. James, via his ministry site, puts considerable emphasis and value on his accomplishments of a scholarly and seminarian nature, evidenced by those who make up and endorse his ministry, his own statement of purpose, and the tone of his critique and recent audio interview among himself, Jimmy DeYoung, and Rabbi Cahn,  I would hope I am stating the obvious by saying that the Bible clearly teaches that the Spirit-led, biblically literate believer with discernable gifts that the Lord gives as He wills is all the qualification needed to reason, persuade, and exhort the believer on any number of doctrinal issues. (2Timothy 3). Studying to show oneself approved is not the sole property of those who choose to have an extensive education. While there is nothing wrong in the least with a theological education, it has the tendency to puff up, whereas the more excellent gift of love edifies the body (1Cor 8:1). Proof is in being doers, not merely hearers or thinkers.

The church is gift-based, not “degree” based, and as such, any biblically literate child of God is capable of discerning truth from lies and testing the Spirits, and nowhere will we read that multiple theological degrees are the making of a man or woman of God. Likewise I also believe that the average believer is able to read and process Rabbi Cahn’s book and decide for themselves if his research has both merit and a message. Mr. James states in his review that, “many of the author’s views and ideas as presented in The Harbinger are misguided, having both significant exegetical and theological problems. Additionally, the book could well leave its readers with serious misunderstandings about how to appropriately interpret and apply the Word of God.”  I would like to suggest here that not only are we being set up intentionally to take Mr. James’ word for that, but he greatly underestimates the readership of The Harbinger, because I am pretty sure there are a couple books out there already directionally aimed to educate on theology if that is what a person is seeking. This speculation on what might happen if people read the book is contrived. Not only is this just the first example of Mr. James missing the forest for the trees, but his warning strikes me as not so thinly veiled condescension. It almost seems as if he is actually fearful of the book and its impact. Shields up. Red alert.

Getting back to Proverbs 25:2 – and I am going somewhere with this – there are 2 schools of thought on what it means, and I like both of them. The first one teaches that it is the glory of God to cover, or conceal, the sin of mankind. It is His nature, His reputation, and it represents grace.  Alternately, it is the glory of a King, or earthly ruler, to thoroughly search out a matter in order to render justice and protect the innocent, and this represents the Law. The words “glory” and “honor” in the verse are the exact same words, and both represent a holy God correctly; there is one glory that is God’s alone, another glory that we, being made in the image of God, can represent the moral code and both enforce and obey His ordinances to our own benefit and that of society.

The 2^nd school of thought involves the nature of our God to conceal things – in parables, metaphors, typologies, examples, and prophecy, and concerning the latter, for example, Daniel tells us that in the time of the end things will become clearer and “unveiled” or “revealed” as a certain generation moves closer to His return; our understanding of prophecy will deepen and we will see His plan more clearly. As Spurgeon so eloquently put it, “when history becomes the commentary upon the prophecy, we shall wonder that we did not see it.” Spurgeon was not devoted to preaching last days things, and his understanding of them was naturally limited, and yet this is so insightful for his time. This is the foundation I wish to build up on to respond to Dave James.

There is no denying that The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn has made an impact on the church. Initial reaction from where I am sitting is overwhelmingly positive among both pastors and laymen, and it is no mystery as to why. Rabbi Cahn, a Messianic believer, has done considerable research into the events  of the last decade, a ten year span  that Time Magazine has called, “The Worst Decade Ever’

(http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1942749_2005112,00.html),

– calling the events of 9/11 “The defining moment of the decade…(which)redefined global politics for at least a generation and caused Americans to collectively question the continental security they had, until then, rarely worried about.” Ch-ch-ch-changes, to quote a 70s tune. We frogs in the wee pot don’t even realize how profound the changes are anymore, but Time actually called the ‘00s “The Decade from Hell”.

Is Time magazine, the leftist rag of the century, over-stating? Redefined global politics? Questioning continental security? Of course not, anyone can see that this is accurate. And Rabbi Cahn is overstating his case, as James suggests?

Even the average man on the street not only knows that because of that moment, our lives have forever changed in multiple ways, and so he or she has to honestly question how the new global thug – the uneducated and unsophisticated fury-driven dime store terrorist – could take such a shot at the ruler of the free world with no warning or protection. Is it because we put our trust in horses? Well God surely dismantled that ideology because that ship has sailed and we are vulnerable. Breached, baby. The genie is not going back in the bottle. You can’t unring that bell.

Believing as we do in a sovereign God then, and noting the nature of the event(s) of the last decade in hindsight, is claiming that there was a breach in our national protection that we have formerly taken for granted such a stretch? Is this really about semantics, petty criticism for it’s own sake, or trying to read God’s mind as James suggests, or is there a supernatural mystery at work? God works supernaturally, naturally.

The day of 9/11, a day that every single coherent American can relate to anyone who asks them what they were doing when they heard and saw the news, (which was not possible when Pearl Harbor was attacked as news was slow to circle the globe), was no ordinary day, nor was God caught off guard even if we were. Could it be that the day was just what it appears to be: an instantaneous warning that all is not well in the Western Hemisphere in His eyes?  It’s not rocket science unless someone wants to make it such, for whatever reason. And if God is speaking, we had better be listening. I don’t want to be on the wrong end of a supernatural event, the scoffing end, that is.

But being as we have free will and all, we are free to ignore that event or countless others going on behind the scenes that the media does not report, lulling us further into slumber; we can whistle hopefully in the dark until the Lord reminds us again with feeling that we are not listening; there is that shaking sound again. Is it all the earthquakes around the world, the severity of the weather, that periodic call for a global economy from the very people orchestrating it right under our noses?

That which can be shaken, is being shaken, not stirred. And not listening to His warnings is rebellion, period. We are without excuse. The bible itself is full of warnings, we are full of excuses; but more specifically, Mr. James would have us believe that our desire to rebuild at that moment was an honest one, simply a shout out to our enemies, a nose-thumbing if you will, to let them know any further breaches are off the table. But what followed in the first couple weeks afterward was just more status quo: meeting whatever God we serve in our own private way on the path of least resistance. Well, until football season starts up and we have other things to do. And the rotten fruit of ignoring Him – rebellion – just continues to ramp up 11 years after the fact. Want proof that rebellion is at the heart of the matter? This will be easy:

Tell me, is there any fear of God in our government, in the current administration? Are our churches so full of godly souls we can barely contain them all?  Are so-called ministers teaching hard truth, or tickling ears with seeker sensitive feel – good platitudes that have a form of godliness but deny the power?

By sheer inference, the lack of any spiritual fruit on the fruited plain and the continued downward spiral in our moral state is really ample proof that rebellion against God is indeed hiding in plain sight and growing ever stronger by the year in the fertile soil of the human heart.

Since 9/11, has our quality of life improved, or even maintained, economically or morally? When God judges, will there ever be any doubt that it is warranted and that iniquity is full?

Is it at all possible that 9/11 could be a symbolic judgment on our wicked financial system in which we appear to lack for no good thing but steal from our citizens to build a government state to enslave and impoverish, benefitting the arrogant ruling class and devaluing human life to little higher than the grass of the field?

Are we being pushed, pulled and dragged into a global socialist state in preparation for a brutal dictatorship that the bible says must take place?

Have we not gotten the administration we deserve and requested

Has the church not gotten it’s hearts desire, ie, Rob Bell’s deceitful universalism, The Shack, Joel Osteen’s best-life-now-blab-and-grab heresy, emergents and red letter heretics Brian McLaren, Tony Campolo, and a host of others leading the next generation down the all-roads-lead-to God Oprah-zation of both men and women? Shane Claiborne’s elevation of mass murderer Che Guevara and Bono’s devil worship deserve a serious look, but hey, Rabbi Cahn is out on a limb with his warnings that we are on the wrong side of wrong.

Seriously? Talk about shooting the messenger, James’ misplaced criticism seems to have a motive I don’t quite comprehend. Again, I see an attitude in his review that is completely unwarranted. Waking up and smelling the coffee is, however. How much more evidence is needed on the most basic level that we deserve what we get when God raises up an enemy like Islam, swarming the globe like a humming, furious cloud of killer bees. The Philistines have landed!  Wicked Assyrians all of them. And God is just and righteous through it all.

Believers in the West who worship a sovereign God and have their eyes on the kingdom should seek to hear God’s heartbeat underlying such momentous events as 9/11. I believe that is what Rabbi Cahn has sought to do and as a fellow-dot connector who has spent hundreds – no, thousands – of  hours researching the times, and “watching the skies” as Jesus commands, I believe the result of his research is nothing less than stunning, yet the reviewer seems oddly unfazed by any of it, as though it isn’t even significant to the narrative.

Even if he had not written the book with it’s fictional format, and simply delivered his amazing message in a church service, I would have been left in stunned silence at the tapestry he wove, being forced to consider his claims.  I suggest that the book is not the critical piece here, but rather the heart and soul of the message is the amazing series of events regarding the bricks, the Sycamore trees, the beginnings of Wall Street, the cedar tree, the hewn stone and the Ground Zero location of the swearing in of our first president at the launch of a formerly great nation. You can’t make this stuff up, you simply cannot. I have found that to be true in all my research, at the times I have most seen His hand.

The  reviewer goes in the ditch over the strangest things like the clay seals, worried that people will not understand if they really exist or not. Believe me, no one I know has stumbled over that, but the average reader really does get the big picture. Another “forest for the trees moment” for the reviewer. Mr. James does not address at all what we all feel when we read the book – the phenomenal “coincidences” documented in the book that leave one searching for words. I keep asking myself why that is, and again, all I can come up with is that the review is for the benefit of the reviewer, not the reader, for some reason I just can’t pin down.

In addition, in addressing one of Mr. James’ main criticisms about the book, that Isaiah 9:10 has nothing to do with anything or anyone beyond the events of the captivity of the Northern Kingdom, let me quote 1Corinthians 10:11 – “Now all  these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”; and Romans 15:4 – “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

Tell me, Mr. James, what pastor worth their salt doesn’t teach week in and week out that everything in the Old Testament has eternal value in the discipling and instruction of God’s people, both in guiding and in warning them? It must do both.  In light of the above verses, is the entire Old Testament not a template, or pattern then, for our learning, from Genesis to Malachi? And what exactly are we learning, only things that fit our preconceived notion of what “for our learning” means? Are we an exegetical people or an eisegetical people? We see through a glass darkly, to be sure, but seeing through denominational lenses, reform lenses, amillennial lenses, ad nauseam, serves no one, yet these lenses often overrule our senses and only God can remove the blinders in His perfect timing and by His Spirit, renewing our minds if we remain teachable. But reading into the Scriptures what we want it to say is a slippery slope indeed, and our hearts are deceitfully wicked.

If we do not keep in mind the above verses, we are in danger of reducing the Old Testament to a mere history lesson with no real value to successive generations, a thorough waste of time and study. A helpful platitude here might be, “the old in the new contained, the new in the old explained.” I truly believe Mr. Cahn has this correct, and there is no replacement theology or worship of America in sight in his book. That America has had a special place in God’s economy, I really can’t dispute. I believe she is a picture of every tribe, tongue and nation in the kingdom, and the light she has been given has been glorious in retrospect as the time of the Gentiles and the age draws to a dramatic close. God will use whomever He wills, and if America was to be a late comer to world history that once mirrored back His grace to the nations, I would be more than comfortable with that. America was founded according to His will. We may never, until the kingdom comes, realize all we were called to, but I believe more than ever that the sun is setting on her shores. America is not specifically in prophecy, and The Harbinger is just one voice that lends itself to serve as a reminder to work while we still can.

Another point of contention for the reviewer is the connections made by the Rabbi to the Shemitah, which originates in the heart and nature of God to benefit the people, and yet it also carries with it an element of obedience and this is very important to God, as we will see. For the sake of the reader here, hundreds of years before Daniel was even born, God had commanded Israel to set aside the seventh year of each agricultural cycle in order for the land to receive a Sabbath rest (Lev. 25). The same way man was to receive the seventh day as a day off, known as the Sabbath, the land was to receive the seventh year off, known as a Sabbath Year or a Sabbath to the Lord. God warns Israel in general about the punishments that will follow if this commandment is not obeyed (Leviticus 26). Israel’s lack of the proper spiritual response was disobediece and as a result for 490 consecutive years Israel never let the land have a Sabbath Year’s rest. This came to a total of 70 missed Sabbath Years of rest for the land, and God allowed Israel to be taken captive for a period of 70 years (2 Chronicles 36) – one year of captivity for each of the Sabbath Year’s rest the land missed out on.

The 490 years, also known as 70 weeks of 7 years, would be used to accomplish certain objectives ordained by God found in Daniel 9:24.  (Isaac Newton calls the amazing 70 week prophecy foundational to Christianity.) At the end of the 69^th week, on a precise day, Jesus was declared King for the first time and shortly thereafter cut off, or executed, for the sins of the people. The church age began after the resurrection until such time as God would resume dealing with an unbelieving Israel, and for the dispensationalist, the prophetic time clock was put on pause for 2 millennia while the believer awaits the commencement of Daniel’s 70^th week, or the time of Jacob’s Trouble, or the Tribulation period which is expanded upon in great detail in the book of Revelation. What is my point, you say? The antichrist will initiate the final Shemitta cycle of 7 years with a peace covenant between Israel and her enemies. Yes, it is a Shemitta for the Jew; yet the whole world will be drawn in as God’s judgment is poured out on unbelievers during that time. Is it not reasonable to conclude, then, that the Shemitta cycle is there for our learning, and since we are aware of the timing of them at this juncture, what can we learn already? Will this last cycle not encompass the whole world and be evident to all how God uses such cycles and patterns?

The 7 feasts of Israel are also critical for our learning, a picture of Messianic fulfillment. Were they given to Israel? Of course. Do they provide light and truth to all? Yes indeed. The first 4, Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and the Feast of Weeks, were all fulfilled in Jesus at His first coming and this can be clearly taught to the church so that Gentiles can learn His order and the symbolic significance of such things.  They are a pattern or template, for us to be mindful of the work of Jesus Christ.

The final 3, Trumpets, Tabernacles, and Atonement, are not written about in the New Testament as having been fulfilled. Why are they left out? Do they not have dual fulfillments as well?

Many bible students believe that His 2^nd coming will take care of that detail, and their fulfillment will reverberate throughout the world and touch every human, Jew and Gentile. We have no reason not to believe that the same pattern will hold at the end of the age.  There is much to learn here, and the precedence of the Shemittah and the feasts being binding on the world is coming soon to a planet near you. The Feasts of God are divine appointments for all mankind!

The final Shemitta will touch every man, woman and child, they that “dwell upon the earth.” What the Rabbi has done for me through his placing of the most recent Shemitta cycles within our current era is remind me of the supernatural aspect of these cycles, and the feasts – that He is a God of order who keeps his Word down to the dotting of the “i” and the crossing of the “t”; and that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is still on the throne. I found much comfort in all this.

There are some contradictions in James’s review, but I do not wish to stoop to the nit-picking level that he does over and over. I have no problem seeing and comprehending with my own eyes a judgement beginning on our money system. I found the book’s chapter on salvation to be excellent, but again, more nit-picking that is unwarranted is offered by the reviewer. He chooses to forget the style of the book at this point, instead criticizing the wording of the salvation chapter and contending that it is missing critical and clearly communicated elements, as if there is only a finite combination of wording to express the atonement. He complains that because of this, the complete message then will be unclear and difficult to comprehend for those who have no exposure to Christianity.

Well, in America, with all the denominations and our history of church-going right up until this generation at least,  I think it is a very small minority of people who have had “no exposure to Christianity” in America. The gospel of salvation, in the hands of centuries of missionary outreaches, dozens of bible translations in our nation alone, countless books and media outlets, churches on every corner, and the work of the Holy Spirit to point the world to the cross ensures that the truth will never be obscure or obliterated. One heart at a time has always been His modus operandi and there is nothing is too difficult for Him. When I read the book, I was at first holding my breath in his call to “return to God”, thinking, which god will he point people to? The unnamed pluralistic god of this Laodicean age, or Jesus, the One and only Way, our Redeemer and Savior? I was very pleased with the lovely way he drew the reader in, in keeping with the style of the book.

At this point as I wind this down, I would like to ask the reviewer what he thinks of Pilgrims’ Progress, the style and language it is written in, with the potential therein to make people actually think about what is being presented. Granted, today the literacy of the average person has sunk way below the era of this work, but it too is a novel, is it not? Yet it is true to God’s nature; a faithful account of a testimony if there ever was one. A classic for all generations. How would he review that bit of fiction? Not presented clearly enough?

Now, “Christian” fiction today is often nothing more than an exercise in remaking God in our own image, containing hidden heresy and blatant misrepresentation, such as found in The Shack by many alert believers who are true contenders for the faith and not mere critics. There is a vast difference. Jonathan Cahn is no heretic and this book is faithful to His nature in my opinion. If the god therein was a false god, a different Jesus, I know of many that would perceive this and respond accordingly. Jonathan’s love for this nation and the church sends a clarion call to repent while there is still time – what side of that sentiment do you want to be found on? He gave his reason for writing as he did.  Mr James did not even give the core of the message any time or meaningful acknowledgement. Again, if you heard the message in a church, sans fictional style, would it have touched you supernaturally? Or is the book just target practice? Style must not be the issue here, but substance. Another forest-for-the-trees moment of silence, please.

I have been around a long time. I have listened, studied, taught, analyzed and contended with all my heart. I have gotten a lot of mileage out of just a Catholic High School diploma, which I tossed away the minute I picked up a bible. That way God gets the glory for it all because I have feet of clay from time to time. I have seen with my own eyes what were once merely words on the pages of prophecy become, as Spurgeon indicated, a historical commentary on God’s sovereignty and pudding-proof that we serve a God who knows the end from the beginning, unlike any god the world has to offer. The Word tells us that he tells his servants the prophets what will take place (Amos 3). He conceals, and He reveals, we search out the matter faithfully and keep our own agendas out of it.

Fully believing that the Lord directed his steps in his research, Mr Cahn sought to get the obvious warning of that series of events out to as many as would listen, and I am convinced it is one of the loudest wake-up calls I have ever heard. And yet, the multitudes who have snooze alarms on their smoke detectors live as though there is nothing unique about our time. But God is active in the lives of men and bringing about His purposes for both Jew and Gentile beginning in 1948 with the regathering of the nation of Israel and the formation of the current EU, barely within weeks of each other; the stage is being set right now for Ezekiel’s coming war between Israel and her enemies; the building of a global technological, digital infrastructure will soon enable the monitoring of all buying and selling as prophesied in Revelation 13; and the rampant apostasy in the church, dovetailing with a global spirituality of social justice and earth worship, all define a season that will soon be upon the earth in which one man will claim to be god and have the answers to all mankind’s problems but in reality will be the son of perdition.

And we have been warning of these things for decades, beginning with Hal Lindsey’s (a Dallas Theo graduate) classic work, “The Late Great Planet Earth.” So if we see a global government come into being, or a global economic order, (nearly upon us as America’s money system comes online with the rest of the world), and warn people of the lateness of the hour based on our observations, are we adding to what God hath said? Of course not, it is already said. If a godly man writes a message clearly showing what he has SEEN take place, such as the depth of apostasy (and its attendant imposters) or undeniable events like 9/11that are clearly related and researchable, and if a watchman does not warn the people, isn’t he not really a watchman at all?  Again, is America in prophecy then specifically? No. Something must happen that is quite apocalyptic for America. Perhaps we who have eyes to see and ears to hear will see it coming – ARE seeing it coming. Some will consider it with soberness of mind, and others will scoff and condescend. But the freight train will not be stopped, and it will engulf the entire world as we move from the kingdom of man to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. Expect turbulence.

As for my opening Proverb, I don’t think Dave James really searched out the matter of the 9 harbingers. I think he got so hung up on the style he completely missed the point of the book. He spun his wheels at the fact that Daschle added another line to his speech that Cahn left out. But Dave, did you catch the fact that out of tens of thousands of potential “comforting” verses that an American politician could have spoken in relation to 9/11, he chose Isaiah 9:10? As did Edwards?  Didn’t that strike you the least bit odd?  I have to ask what thought process took you to the critics corner yet again to focus on that missing verse and – have I said this yet – miss the forest for the giant redwood staring down at you?  And I suspect you did not do a historical search to see if these events really took place as documented, at least you do not say you did or did not. I did, and they did. That is the least effort you could have gone to out of respect for the author of this amazing book. How do you manage to dance around the obvious applications?

Ray Stedman says this about Proverbs 25:2 – “If you want to have a royal experience I suggest you start searching out things that God has concealed in his Word. That is the glory of kings—to find what God has hidden.

And a final word to those who do not search this out for themselves but will simply take Dave James’ review on face value, I have only this to say: “He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him.” Proverbs 18:13. Translation: read the book for yourself, and then decide for yourself if this work is for such a time as this – and live your life accordingly.

The Harbinger: Fact or Fiction?

This question was asked to a Baptist preacher named Voddie Baucham. I like it.

Q. Why do you place so much emphasis on who leads worship at the events in which you participate?

A. I have a very high view of the role of the worship leader. I view leading worship as a sort of pastoral responsibility to which one must be called, and for which one must be equipped. Unfortunately, we live in a time when every kid who knows five chords and ten songs thinks God has called him or her to be a worship leader. Hence, there is a flood of young, inexperienced, untrained, and often biblically illiterate worship leaders who have done nothing more than learn the top songs off of a few worship CD’s. This is a travesty!

These guys go on to steal songs from men and women whom God has anointed and gifted to write songs, and use them to make CD’s of their own. All of this is done in the name of having “product” to sell on the road, or to promote ones self as a worship leader. Imagine John Mayer going into the studio and saying, “forget the hard work of producing an original album, lets just take the top ten songs from last year and put them all on my new CD this year.” That would be unthinkable! Nevertheless, that is what is happening every day with so-called worship leaders in this current generation; and they think that paying someone a few cents per copy makes it ok. I would rather not be a party to that.

I also do not think it is a good idea to work with people with whom I do not share a ministry philosophy, or theology of worship. I do not think that a worship leader and a preacher should just be thrown into the mix together because they are both “good at what they do,” and they both “love God.” That’s like putting a wishbone quarterback on a run-n-shoot team and expecting him to do well because he has great athletic ability!

A good voice and a love for God is not the sum total of a worship leader’s qualifications. Nor is it the ability to “move a crowd.” There is the question of the depth of one’s theology and how that depth is communicated in the songs one chooses to use, and how one chooses to use them. There is the ability to choose songs that are appropriate for the given audience and occasion. There is the ability to sense where God is leading and moving during a service, or a series of services (I.e. choosing response songs that suit the manner in which God is calling people to respond to what they’ve heard).

These are just a few things that must be taken into consideration. Unfortunately, they rarely enter into the decision of whom one will invite to lead worship. Often, the only questions asked are, “does he do the songs our people like?” and “does he sing well?” That is the type of shallow, carnal approach to ministry I try to avoid.

Every Saturday night growing up in the ’60s, my family watched “Get Smart”. Ever since then I have been a sucker for a good spy yarn and particularly those with the latest gadget and cutting edge weapons to foil the arch-enemy.  While Maxwell Smart seemed pretty stupid at times, he knew the enemy and how to vanquish him. Same with the remake of “The Saint”, one of my favorite movies; same theme. Know thy enemy and what the plan is to route him.

I have had a Smart Car, I have a Smart Phone, and the ring tone if you call me is, of course, the theme from “Get Smart”.  Today when my phone rang while I was out in my garden,  I thought about the church at large, I think it is time for her to, well, “Get Smart”. About deception. About apostasy. About end times themes, particularly one called, “the blessed hope”.  Why should we care, you say, I have no job, I have no money, my child is wild and bill collectors are at my door. That is just why you must care, because regardless of what you are going through, Jesus is coming. That is a constant, a promise, a golden thread throughout the bible.  Old Testament theme: the coming Messiah. New Testament theme: the coming Messiah. How hard is that? Commit to a systematic study f the bible and you will see that theme too, and that hope will rise up in you, far above the bills, the pressures, the kids. It might be today. It might be tomorrow, but we are commanded to watch. And watch we must.

The church desperately needs to Get Smart, about how the enemy is trying to steal, kill and destroy our blessed hope. False teaching does that, so does the deceitful call for globalism in the disguise of Dominion Theology and Replacement Theology,  both of which will put the church in the ditch, unable to understand God’s plan for both Jew and Gentile.

The bible says we are not to be ignorant of the times, the seasons, and the apostasy. No, it doesn’t say “Get Smart”. But it sure could read that way. Maranatha!

“Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth

I tell you of them.”

(Isaiah 42:9)

“Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,

And I will do all My pleasure’.”

(Isaiah 46:9-10)

“Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass,

you may believe that I am He.”

(John 13:19)

The future is coming. Profound, isn’t it? Because you’ll no sooner read that, but it’s here. We are barreling headlong into it every minute of every day. The current moment doesn’t even exist, really, in as much as each minute merely slips through our fingers like warm sand on a sunny day, and before you know it you have more days in your past than in your future. We can’t see one minute ahead, and yet we make our plans, watch the seasons come and go, and then marvel at how fast it all flies by. “Where did the time go?” is a common lament in these fast-paced times. Truth is, no one gets out of here alive, and the minutes tick by, days drip off the page.

And yet I will say something even more profound: some day, maybe not too long from now, I won’t even be able to say that “the future is coming”, because from our perspective on this side of eternity, time as we know it will have wound down. And for those we love who have passed on, their future is already sealed. It’s only the living, really, who can even consider boasting in some sort of “future” as we understand it in the time domain. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Now, that elusive “future”, as we normally define it, is or has been very important to every human. Whether you plan for it, as every sensible human should to some degree, or whether you take absolutely no thought for it whatsoever, everything you do, and a lot of what you say and feel will affect it for better or worse. If you live foolishly and disregard health, safety, and even the law, your future might turn out pretty sour and full of regret. If you live wisely and try to avoid the big stupid stuff, you will probably reap the benefits of your level head, which, while being a good thing for you and all those around you, reality being what it is, you might get hit by a bus in the fog tomorrow morning. Ah, the late, great you.

So what’s my point? It’s this: we all know tomorrow matters. Even for those who have convinced themselves to be atheists or existentialists so they can take the spiritually lazy route, deep down they know tomorrow matters. Reality check: if there were no such thing as God and faith, the self-proclaimed atheist/agnostic wouldn’t even have a religion in the first place. Atheism is the “anti-faith” religion, the polar opposite of truth – which does exist, and can be known. The adherents of such “beliefs” are simply being rebellious, not original or independent in their thinking as they like to believe.

There is no alternate, or opposite belief system that exists independent of truth, in the same way that Satan is not an opposing force to God, but a rebel fully against Him (the “Father of Lies”). Think of it this way: why do vegetarians eat patties that look like hamburgers? It’s because this ideology is not so much “for” something so much as “against”, and I am referring to those who have politicized or spiritualized their food choices either because of radical environmentalism or New Age beliefs. They are not pro-veggie, but anti-meat. The atheist then, is opposing God, period, no intellectualizing needed, check your brain at the door on this one,  and pass the A-1 sauce, please.

Now, the bible has a lot to say about numbering our days and making provision for eternity. It also contains a lot of warnings so that we can have some idea of where this old world is heading. Again, we have choices to make: take the Bible seriously for all things pertaining to life and eternity

(you WILL live forever – somewhere), or  just go on whistling in the dark and hope it all comes out OK in the end. One of these things is wise, the other eternally and regretfully  foolish.  As that old Sesame Street song goes, “one of these things just doesn’t belong here…”

Most people today think the Bible is full of dusty old sayings uttered by dusty old people in goat sandals who really don’t communicate well, and are so intellectually lame they can’t seem to get their point across to a generation that just wants some drive-through spirituality, hold the guilt please. The truth is, the Bible is a very unique set of writings, and in order for the honest seeker to take prophecy seriously, the subject of this article, I have to take a moment to establish that the nuts and bolts of what we call bible prophecy is even worth taking seriously. Without that, we might as well be talking about “Moby Dick”. But who quotes chapter and verse of Moby Dick anyway?

Inspiration or Perspiration?

First, the Bible is not just one single book, it is actually a collection of 66 books, the “canon of Scriptures”. These 66 books cover history, poetry, prophecy, wisdom, literature and letters, convey the future, teach essential doctrines, and outline the redemptive plan of salvation for every human who ever lived and curiously and courageously peered into its pages looking for the answer to the eternal question, “why am I here?”
These 66 books were written by 40 different authors who came from a variety of backgrounds: shepherds, fishermen, doctors, kings, prophets. And most of these never even met one another; consider further that they had no way of communicating with each other in the  pre-technology age. So, no earthly collaboration would have been possible, as these 66 books were also written over a period of 1500 years.
Furthermore, they were written in 3 different languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. And finally, these 66 books were written on 3 different continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe. This shows the varied historical and cultural circumstances and experiences of God’s people, with different gifts and callings, and people everywhere who have been a part of His plan for mankind.

With me so far? 66 books, written by 40 different authors, over 1500 years, in 3 different languages, on 3 different continents. They contain no contradictions, no historical or scientific errors. They contain a common theme, a scarlet thread, if you will, of God’s great love and a salvation available to all who repent of their sins and receive forgiveness thanks to the once-for-all finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness…” (2Timothy 3:16). God’s Word is truth, it is infallible, and is living and active and able to pierce the human heart with bare truth, driving right on down through our very marrow, discerning the thoughts and intents of our innermost being. Which is precisely why people tend to stay away from it, you think?  Written by  humans? I don’t think that self-possessed and self-glorifying humans would dare admit to having hearts that are “deceitfully and desperately wicked above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9) and go on to write a best-seller about it.

And if that is not enough, these books are woven throughout with prophetic forth-telling, events described that have yet to take place, various events that were future for most generations in one scope or another. Christianity is based on the infallibility of the Scriptures, and is the only “religion” that a) addresses the sin issue, and b) depends on the literal fulfillment of events. If God’s prophets are not 100% correct, then the Bible is not true. Therefore it is very important that every believer understand what the prophets have said, what has been fulfilled, and what has yet to be fulfilled or in the process of being fulfilled. These things we can study and understand. And for those who have not yielded their hearts and wills to Christ, prophecy should serve as a dire warning to be heeded in all seriousness.

Maybe you’re one of those who likes to see the numbers, and not just take my word for it. That’s OK. So, for the scientist and mathematician in you, here is something to chew on.

The number of prophecies in the Scriptures about Jesus of Nazareth being the fulfillment of all that God has promised in the Messiah is about 300, those being made before he was even born. What is the mathematical possibility of just one man accidentally fulfilling, or maybe even purposefully manipulating over 300 predictions written hundreds of years before his birth? If it’s either accidental or manipulative, you have lost me already and there is no reason to be a Christian. Hey, I’m not gullible. God gave us brains, and He expects us to use them.  But neither is true, and truth is what we are in pursuit of here.

Professor Peter Stoner (1888-1980) was Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College, and Chairman of the Science Division of Westmont College from 1953 to 1957. This man calculated the probability of one man fulfilling only a handful of the over 300 Messianic prophecies. In 1944, he published his research results in Science Speaks: Scientific Proof of the Accuracy of Prophecy and the Bible.  Stoner concluded that the probability of one person fulfilling just eight of the prophecies was one chance in 10¹⁷ (one, followed by 17 zeros). How about one person fulfilling just 48 of the over 300 prophecies? Stoner calculated these odds at one chance in 10¹⁵⁷ — a statistical impossibility, I’m thinking.

Stoner presents an illustration that should drive it all home – take 10¹⁷ silver dollars (10,000,000,000,000,000) and lay them on the face of Texas, covering all of the state two feet deep. He says,  “Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man.”

Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says, “we find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10¹⁵⁷, or  -

1 in

100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

This is something every person who thinks believing in the God of the Bible as revealed through Jesus Christ is nothing more than blind faith must consider.

Now, why do I begin here? It’s simple. In all my years of walking with Jesus, I have frequently found myself trying to communicate the necessity of the new birth and walking by faith to someone, only to find an iron curtain come down in my face right about the time that I present the truth as it is found in the Bible. All of a sudden the person I am speaking to is an expert on a Book he or she has never even read, and their objections generally sound something like this: “Too many people have had a hand writing this book to make it God’s Word. Too many people interpret it any way they want. Too many people don’t believe in it, and they can’t all be wrong.” Yes, and too many people parrot these lame excuses for not picking up the bible for themselves, and continue to compare themselves with one other, instead of comparing themselves with the only perfect and holy One, the only One whose opinion really matters.

This is the heart of it: when a Christian’s testimony gets a bit too close for comfort to a non-believer’s heart, that place that all too often has a ‘do not disturb’ sign hung on it, all they have to do is say, “but I don’t believe that the Bible is the Word of God” — invariably and conveniently ending any discussion on the need to heed the words of Jesus that, “you must be born again.” Because, if He did not really say that, or if it’s open to multiple interpretations, you’re off the hook and you can go back to whatever it was you were doing that tends to resemble Christianity Lite, with one-third less conviction, and their self-contained spiritual commitment-free zone.

Now, I am not in the arm-twisting business, and neither is the Lord. I’m just trying to bring some reason to the matter – so you can of course still believe what you want, you have a free will; but that doesn’t mean the Bible isn’t true nonetheless, and again, you are whistling in the dark on that. So likewise, this article is going to go merrily on, with or without you, but if you shut the door now to God’s Word and it’s power to change you utterly from the inside out, you will never really understand bible prophecy and those things which ARE coming on the earth, ready or not.  Remember the title of this article?  “Are You Ready for the Future? Well, it’s Ready For You”.

So, beg or borrow a bible, (stealing is a sin!), and finish this with me, you won’t be sorry. I hope you can do that much, your eternity depends on it. Better a little anguish now while you have your wits about you and a comfy couch, than a lot of anguish and regret later in a very hot place. This is our jumping off point, an understanding that Jesus Christ is not some random figure who twisted things to fit an agenda, but the One who came the first time as a suffering servant and atonement for sin, fulfilling hundreds of prophecies – and will return again in glory to judge the living and the dead, bringing planet earth to it’s knees over the issues of sin and holiness. I hope you stay with me. It won’t hurt near as much as dying unprepared to meet your Maker.

No Shallow End in This Pool.

As I indicated earlier, when Jesus came the first time, the Old Testament Scriptures yielded plenty of information to the reader about just who they were to expect as their Messiah. And we should not be surprised at this if we even remotely comprehend how powerful and omniscient God really is. Prophecy is the proof text for the Scriptures. Only a God who knows the end from the beginning is able to tell us how it will all come out. It’s a bit like being in an airplane and watching a parade down below. From that vantage point, there really is no time constraint on that parade, because you would be in a position to see both the beginning and the end, all at once. From your lawn chair on the curb, you have to await each segment. God is not bound by time, yet His creation is. Another way to look at the difference is to consider the mechanics of writing a book.

Suppose I am writing a novel. I write this in my novel:

“Mary laid down her work. The next moment, there came a knock on her door.” Mary lives in the time domain of the story I am writing about her. She did one thing, then the next thing took place, and to the reader it is a smooth, flowing series of events.  Now, she cannot get out of that time domain, I put her there and she is a limited creature bound by my novel’s universe and it’s laws.  But I, who am Mary’s maker, do not live in that imaginary time at all. Between writing the first half of that sentence and the second half, I might sit down and think about Mary for 3 hours or so, or however long I want to. I can think about her as if she were the only character in the book for as long as I want, because I have all eternity to do it. But that time I spent thinking about her does not appear in my book. I wrote half the sentence, and then got back to finishing it much later. Days, weeks, months, millennia, it matters not.  But anyone reading about Mary would never know that. In the same way, God has infinite attention to spare each of us, He is not bound by time, and this is borne out in Scripture as it says that His thoughts toward us are as the sands of the sea.

So if you think that bible prophecy is the imaginings of created humans, let me ask you this: is the God (author) of the universe so limited He is unable to communicate His plans with lowly humanity? If He wishes to tell His creation of His plans beforehand in a manner they can understand, who can stay His hand? This great gift to us has come in the form of the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation.  And somewhere in the middle, in the book of Daniel, we have one of the most phenomenal prophecies of all, and again, for those who want some concrete numbers, there is no mistaking that God definitely does math, even though I do not.

The Book of Daniel was written 500 years before the birth of Jesus. Many try to discredit the time of writing of Daniel, and in light of the importance of this prophecy, this is understandable, spiritually speaking.  In Chapter 9, Daniel predicts the very day that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem and allow Himself to be worshiped for the first time. The prophecy states that 69 weeks of years (69 “7s”, or 69×7 = 483 years) would pass from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem until the coming of the Messiah. Since Daniel was written in Babylon during the Jewish captivity after the fall of Jerusalem, this prophecy was based on the Babylonian 360-day calendar. Thus, 483 years x 360 days = 173,880 days.

According to records found in the Shushan Palace, and confirmed in Nehemiah 2:1, the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was issued by the Persian king, Artaxerxes Longimanus, on March 5, 444 BC. Remarkably, 173,880 days later (adjusting for leap years), on March 30, 33 AD, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey (fulfilling Zechariah 9:9). Five days later, Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross just outside Jerusalem. (crucifixion as a form execution did not even exist when His last words were foretold hundreds of years earlier in Psalm 22, but the Romans would later adopt it.) Three days later, the New Testament declares that Jesus rose from the dead, fulfilling many other prophecies too numerous to mention here. But the majority of humans alive at that time, and even those who saw Him with their own eyes, missed it. And so one must wonder why few if any actually were watching and waiting for His first coming – a clue as to what the days would be like leading up to His 2^nd coming? Perhaps so.

This next point may sound like the most obvious thing in the world, but just so we are all on the same page: the #1 focal point of all of future prophecy is the  second coming of Jesus Christ. This is the centerpiece of prophecy in this age, this is what we watch, wait, and look for eagerly. Prophecy students are caricatured as loony toons carrying signs that say, “The End is Near!”, but this is nothing more than a cynical misrepresentation and not even true on a ”technicality”.

Jesus is coming, yes. This will usher in the end of this present order, but really is only a beginning. If our claims, observations of the times, and teachings are not centered on Jesus’ return, it is not the real deal. In other words, if someone claims to understand future events but they do not focus on the return of Jesus, it is not biblical prophecy, but a counterfeit. A good example here would be Nostradamus. I don’t care how poetic he is in his prognostications, it’s not going to be 100% reliable and so he fails the truth test. The bible warns that in the last days that many false prophets will arise and deceive many, (Matt. 24:24) but if you understand the real deal, the counterfeit will be easily detected. It is ALL about His return. Nostradamus may provide some clues if he had some sort of prophetic gift, but the Bible predicts the truth. Big difference.

But how do we know this coming will take place at all?

The book of Acts, the gateway book into the church age, begins with His ascension into heaven. When Jesus was taken up bodily, the people watched Him ascend into the clouds and out of sight. Two angels appeared in their company and said this: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This SAME JESUS, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11). Here is a promise we can believe in, and so true believers have been watching the skies ever since, keeping in mind the Bible’s track record of fulfilled prophecies up to this point, and studying numerous other passages that shed considerable light on this promise. Considering how precise God was with Daniel 9, how much can we understand about coming #2? Glad you asked, and this leads me right up to the present day and age.

Having studied prophecy for nearly 3 decades, I can say confidently and without any hesitation, that we are indeed living in the times of the signs, and one must seriously consider the odds of all the following signs coming together in one generation all the while being painfully aware of how many missed coming #1. Once you consider these, you will be hard pressed to deny that Jesus must surely be coming soon, and if you are not His, time is running out for you. Can you be fully persuaded that the God of beginnings and ends loves you and has provided for your eternity through Jesus, the One who is to come?

Global “Warning”.

The next thing on the agenda, factoring in a time of some possible and random world-wide upheaval in the area of politics, financial crises, various pestilences and like perils (the Bible calls these “birth pangs” as the world moves from the kingdom of man to the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour) is the Rapture of the Church. This is an event in which Jesus snatches up the true believer (having become His through the new birth, out of every tribe and nation), meeting them in the clouds and taking them to heaven for the duration of a 7-year season that will come on the earth to judge a thoroughly wicked generation. This time period  is commonly referred to as the Tribulation, or Time of Jacob’s Trouble. There are various views out there about the timing of the rapture, but the Bible teaches that since this is a time of God’s wrath, and Christ took our wrath on the cross, those who have trusted in His finished work will not be judged a second time for any reason; God does not judge the righteous with the wicked. There are no events or signs that must be in place for this to take place, and it will come upon the world without warning; it is a sign-less event. (Matthew 25; Luke 21:26; 1Cor. 15:52; 1Thess 1:10; 1Thess 4; 1Thess. 5)

And since Bible prophecy focuses on God’s plans for the nation of Israel primarily, we understand that the season of time for these events is directly related to the time frame on earth that sees a re-gathered Israel in the ancient land of her fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They missed coming #1, but since they are still His chosen ones, He will once again present them with the opportunity to see that He was, all along, their Messiah. May 14, 1948 was the date of one of the most amazing fulfillments of prophecy ever, and we look to Israel today as God’s timepiece for both Jew and Gentile alike. (Zechariah 12:10; Revelation 1:7; Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 24)

In addition, in your history books, you will find that at the precise time that God was reestablishing the modern state of Israel, prophecy was being fulfilled in another very important way. The key Gentile kingdom  of the last times, a revived form of the Roman Empire, was being framed out, beginning in 1948 and continuing today through layers of treaties, which will be the fertile ground from which the final world ruler/despot/dictator will arise, the one the bible calls “the Antichrist”. The book of Daniel, once again, provides multiple reasons as to why a European Superstate (growing into a great economic power as I write) will be the seat of final world government when Jesus returns. The 4 major world kingdoms  that God deems important to the prophetic timeline were/are: Babylon, which was conquered by the Medo/Persian empire, which in turn was swallowed up by the Greeks, which in due season gave up the ghost to the Romans. This account is found in Daniel 2 -  and while there is much that could be said here to further verify this exciting layout of world history that was written centuries before it took place, prophecy students can surely see “the handwriting on the wall” as the EU takes center stage in many critical areas of fulfillment both economically and politically.

Once the rapture of the church takes place, the world will immediately turn to survival mode and life as it has been will be radically altered, as people do their best to attend to the necessities of life in the area of buying and selling, health and well-being, and protecting their loved ones. And yet, with the world headed into a season about which the bible has more to say than any other, if we are considering the following scenario honestly, how can we not find ourselves becoming sober-minded about the future of planet earth, foregoing trivialities and focusing on what is really important?

Bible prophecy is a huge subject, but I trust that by simply outlining a portion of what is to come as I wrap this up, it will encourage you to do your own homework on these things.

Here is a summary of the top signs of the times with Bible references:

The Jews would begin to regather in Israel (Isaiah 11:11-12; Ezekiel 37:21-22; 38:8); The nation Israel would be born in one day – this was fulfilled literally on May 14, 1948 (Isaiah 66:8) Over five million Jews have returned to Israel in recent times, coming from the north, south, east, and west (Isaiah 43:5-6; Jeremiah 31:7-10). Nearly a million Jews have emigrated from Russia in the north. This continues on today.

Israel, once a desolate desert during the Diaspora, would blossom in the last days and export produce to the whole world (Isaiah 27:6; 35:1-2; Ezekiel 36:34-36). Advanced irrigation technology has caused the land to blossom. They currently export over 800 million dollars worth of fresh produce each year including over 200 million in flowers.

The Hebrew language would be restored (Zephaniah 3:9). The end of the 19th century brought about the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language. In 1948, Hebrew became an official tongue of the modern state of Israel. The son of Elieazer Ben  Yehuda was the first child in Israel in modern times to be fluent in Hebrew, fulfilling this prophecy.

False Bible teachers will arise and introduce heretical teachings, have many willing followers, and cause others to reject God’s Word (2 Peter 2:1-2) There will be a great falling away from the true faith (2Thess.2, 1Timothy 4, 2Peter 2). Spiritual deception will be on the rise. Every major cult in the world today has appeared on the scene within the last 125 year or so, and the New Age movement continues to build and grow, taking many unforeseen forms such as the Emergent Church and a growing arm of liberal theology. Instant spiritual gratification through contemplative and mystical  practices is now accepted in orthodox Christianity, much to the dismay of biblical Christians.

The rise of technology and a global communication infrastructure (Revelation 11:9-10; 17:8). The Bible says that the whole world will see certain events unfold, and “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”  (Daniel 12:4). The doubling of human knowledge, once occurring only every several decades, now happens every 18 months. The sum of human knowledge is now accessible via home computer; the entire Library of Congress could exist on one hard drive.

The Antichrist will arise as a peacemaker with answers to all the world’s problems but in reality will present a false peace to destroy many (Daniel 8:23-25). With all the problems facing mankind, multitudes are looking for a savior, from many faiths and religions; this one powerful man will usher in peace and prosperity and deceive many, often with false signs and wonders. In the last days, possibly coinciding with the Rapture of the church, Israel will sign a peace treaty with her neighbors that the Antichrist will confirm for 7 years up front, but eventually break (Daniel 9:27). Currently the world’s governments are striving over an Israeli peace treaty. Many have tried – The EU, the US, Russia, etc.- but in God’s timing, this will happen and the floodgates to prophecy fulfillment will blow open with incredible and swift force.

Another event whose fulfillment is yet to come is a massive invasion of tiny Israel by a coalition of nations, mostly Muslim, and headed up by the Russian federation. This invasion could take place any time, and the book of Ezekiel gives amazing ( and alarming!) detail as to the who, what, and wheres of a war in which God shows Himself strong on behalf of Israel, as He has many times before, putting her enemies down on the mountains of Israel. What this might do to the cultural and ethnic make-up of the Middle East during the climactic 7 year period, we cannot say at this time, but how can the peoples of the earth not sit up and take notice of God intervening in the affairs of men at that time? (Ezekiel 36- 39)

There will be a global government (Daniel 2:40-44; 7:23; Revelation 13:7-8) The world will be subdivided either into 10 governing regions or the EU will have 10 kings. This has been the subject of great interest to prophecy students for many years, due to the “10 toes” prophecy in Daniel 2, part of the “Metallic Man” image that King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about when he was over Babylon.

A global economic system will exist (Revelation 13:16-17). This was unthinkable in the days of the early church. Yet today, globalists in every level of government are seeking to unite the world to solve current economic failings. Connecting the world monetarily is crucial to their goal, and the bible says that one man will see to it that no one buys and sells without pledging allegiance to him spiritually. Everyone has heard of 666, but only in our time has the technology existed to make it a reality. The current digital payment systems that exist around the globe are part of a huge technological framework/infrastructure that has been building since the days of the old IBM punchcards, the precursor to today’s computers.

There is currently a move to put an RFID chip into every single thing manufactured in the world, to enable each human to be tracked in every move they make every minute. In fact, RFID (radio-frequency identification) can be utilized in a chip as tiny as the period at the end of this sentence. Or it can be made into powder and tattoed on the hand or forehead, visibly or invisibly. This was predicted before any human knew what a “computer chip” was. Imagine that!

In addition, talk of a global currency has moved to action since the G20 summit this past April. Something to watch.

Famines would be common (Luke 21:11; Revelation 6:5-8)

Wars and rumors of war (Mark 13:7-8). This includes ethnic disputes (Matthew 24) Pestilences and earthquakes would be common in diverse places. Can you say, “swine flu”?

Jerusalem will be a cup of trembling to all surrounding peoples and a burdensome stone (Zech 12:2,3). This is in the news every day, all eyes are on that city and it’s inhabitants – and why?  The only thing they have to offer the world is that it is the center of the universe (Ezekiel 5:5) and claims to be the home of the world’s 3 largest religions. Look for this prophecy to continue to be fulfilled in ways we perhaps do not even understand at this point.

Humans will be utterly obsessed with self and self fulfillment; acting in ways that are not natural both physically and soulishly, brutal, unloving, disobedient and increasingly rebellious (2Tim.3). Of all prophecies, this is perhaps the most vexing and troublesome as we interact with one another on a daily basis. A world that is in deep trouble in every way now faces out of control human behavior without natural affection for one another. Consider these final verses as defining this future season: “ Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21;26); and, “unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.” (Matt. 24:22)

Yes, this is heavy. No, I don’t want to soft-pedal it or make it go down easier. Americans, it would seem, prefer everything with a spoonful of sugar, but spiritual sugar is bad for you, just like the other kind. If someone had not been brutally honest with me about my lost condition, I would not be writing this today.

The good news? Jesus died for you. All you need to do is come to him in humility, in full knowledge that you have broken His laws. Romans 3:23 tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Not some, but all. Humans are all in the same drifting and sinking boat, and if it were not for Jesus, we would all perish. Our hearts may condemn us, but Romans 3 goes on to say, “…being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  Is there better news than that? Repentance, forgiveness, new life in Christ. It really is that simple. Even more so, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3)

He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus!

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (Revelation 22:21,22)

And so ends the Book.

Mary Danielsen

Calvary Chapel of Appleton

www.ccappleton.org

cchapel@ccappleton.org

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011  |  Email This Post |

Posted by John under: Famines and Troubles

Creepy Biometric IDs to Be Forced Onto India’s 1.2 Billion Inhabitants

By Ranjit Devraj, IPS News
Posted on September 6, 2010, Printed on September 7, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/148097/

Fears about loss of privacy are being voiced as India gears up to launch an ambitious scheme to biometrically identify and number each of its 1.2 billion inhabitants.

In September, officials from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), armed with fingerprinting machines, iris scanners and cameras hooked to laptops, will fan out across the towns and villages of southern Andhra Pradesh state in the first phase of the project whose aim is to give every Indian a lifelong Unique ID (UID) number.

“The UID is soft infrastructure, much like mobile telephony, important to connect individuals to the broader economy,” explains Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the UIDAI and listed in 2009 by Time magazine as among the world’s 100 most influential people.

Nilekani is a co-founder of the influential National Association of Software and Services Companies and, before this assignment, chief of Infosys Technologies, flagship of India’s information technology (IT) sector.

According to Nilekani, the UID will most benefit India’s poor who, because they lack identity documentation, are ignored by service providers.

“The UID number, with its ‘anytime, anywhere’ biometric authentication, addresses the problem of trust,” argues Nilekani.

But a group of prominent civil society organizations are running a Campaign For No-UID, explaining that it is a “deeply undemocratic and expensive exercise” that is “fraught with unforeseen consequences.”

Participants in the campaign include well-known human rights organizations such as the Alternative Law Forum, Citizen Action Forum, People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Indian Social Action Forum, and the Center for Internet and Society.

A meeting was organized by the campaigners in New Delhi on Aug. 25 where speakers ridiculed the idea of a 12-digit number, and said it is unlikely to rectify, for example, the massive corruption in the public distribution system that is supposed to provide food to poor families.

J.T. D’Souza, an IT expert, asserted at the meeting that the use of biometrics on such a massive scale has never been attempted before and is bound to be riddled with costly glitches.

Other speakers raised issues of security and the possibility of hackers getting at databases and passing on information to commercial outfits, intelligence agencies or even criminal gangs.

In talks and television interviews, Nilekani has maintained that the benefits of the UID project far outweigh its risks. “It’s worth taking on the project and trying to mitigate the risks so that we get the outcomes we want,” he told the CNN-IBN television channel in an interview.

But the possibility of religious profiling by state governments or misuse by caste lobbies is real. This is because the central government has decided to include caste as a category in the UID questionnaire to be filled out by applicants.

Because identity is already a potent issue and the trigger for frequent identity-related conflict – such as the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat that left 2,000 people dead – any exercise that enhances identification is fraught.

Usha Ramanathan, a prominent legal expert who is attached to the Center for the Study of Developing Societies in the national capital, does not buy the UIDAI’s assurances.

At the Aug. 25 meeting, Ramanthan said that while enrolling with the UIDAI may be voluntary, other agencies and service providers might require a UID number in order to transact business. Indeed, the UIDAI has already signed agreements with banks, state governments and hospital chains which will allow them to ask customers for UIDs.

Ramanathan said that, taken to its logical limit, the UID project will make it impossible, in a couple of years, for an ordinary citizen to undertake a simple task such as traveling within the country without a UID number.

The UIDAI will work with the National Population Register (NPR) which draws its powers from the Citizenship Rules of 2003 and provides for penalties if information is withheld.

And as a government website says: “Certain information collected under the NPR will be published in the local areas for public scrutiny and invitation of objections.” Seeking to allay privacy fears, the website goes on to explain that this is merely “in the nature of the electoral roll or the telephone directory.”

But things begin to look ominous when seen in the context of the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), the setting up of which home minister P. Chidambaram announced in February as part of his response to a major terrorist attack.

Chidambaram said NATGRID would tap into 21 sets of databases that will be networked to achieve “quick, seamless and secure access to desired information for intelligence and enforcement agencies.”

He added that NATGRID will “identify those who must be watched, investigated, disabled and neutralized.”

“Internationally only a few countries have provided national ID cards because of the unsettled debate on privacy and civil liberties,” says Prof. R. Ramakumar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. He added that several countries have had to withdraw ID card schemes or drop biometric aspects because of public opposition.

Nilekani maintains that the main purpose of the UID project is to empower the vast numbers of excluded Indians. “For the poor this is a huge benefit because they have no identities, no birth certificates, degree certificates, driver’s licences, passports or even addresses.”

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