I see, so Jesus is to blame for you character flaws, and by extension, so it anyone who puts forth the proposition that prophecy maybe being fulfilled.
Gotchya.
Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 06/12/2010 7:47:19 AM PDT by GiovannaNicoletta
Over the last few weeks and months I have found myself truly astonished at the speed of which Bible prophecy appears to be unfolding on the world scene. If one looks back towards the election and inauguration of President Barack Obama, one will notice that around the same time things started to change for Israel and the Middle East in general. With the inauguration of President Obama looming in early 2009, Israel was pressured into ending the war with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas during Operation Cast Lead. This pressure resulted in Israel not finishing their objective of wiping out Hamas and their military infrastructure. Instead, Israel prematurely ended the war in order to appease the incoming U.S. administration who did not want to enter office with the Middle East in outright war mode. This turned out to be a huge mistake for Israel and has set in motion the current situation where Israel finds itself in an even worse situation than before and after Operation Cast Lead. Not only have the terrorist organizations on the borders with Israel gotten stronger, they have also gotten the bigger players in the region such as Iran, Turkey, Russia and Syria to increase and amplify their anti-semitic propaganda and threats.
Looking around the news scene today I was astonished to see the names of Turkey, Russia, and Iran dominating the headlines. As students of Bible prophecy we know that these countries will make up three of the major players in the coming Gog and Magog war spoken about in Ezekiel 38-39. Let's look at today's news and take a look at the rumblings coming from the Middle East and from the "Unholy Trinity" of Ezekiel 38-39. The New York Times is reporting:
"Leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran convened at a security summit meeting in Istanbul on Tuesday in a display of regional power that appeared to be calculated to test the United States just one day before a scheduled American-backed debate in the United Nations Security Council on imposing tighter sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program."
"In remarks at the gathering of regional leaders, the third of its kind dedicated to increasing cooperation and security in Asia, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran said a nuclear agreement brokered by Turkey and Brazil last month was a one-time opportunity and other countries had called to express their support for it."
“We’ve seen a lot of support from the international arena,” he said, according to the Turkey’s official Anatolian News Agency. “This is the voice of everyone’s heart.” Mr. Ahmadinejad also maintained a defiant posture toward the United States."
I find it very interesting that the NY Times article mentions the meeting between Iran, Turkey, and Russia as a "test" of the United States. The reason I find this interesting is that in Ezekiel 38-39 the prophet mentions that the far away countries simply throw a "mild protest" as the future Gog and Magog allies head down towards Israel for their ill-fated date with destiny in the mountains of Israel. With U.S. President Obama at the helm of the U.S. military, it would appear to me that the Gog and Magog allies are "licking at the chops" at the possibility of making a move on Israel given the recent outbreak of violence over the Gaza flotilla crisis. Even if the recent Gaza flotilla crisis hadn't occurred, it appears that the world has sensed a radical change in U.S. foreign policy under the Obama administration. Gone are the tough and determined ways of the George Bush era, in is the Islamic appeasing ways of the current administration. For me, this just seems to have emboldened our enemies and given them more motivation and determination to try to wrestle world control away from the West and more towards the East. As a result, the door has swung wide open for the arrival of the "Unholy Trinity" of Ezekiel 38-39. Eventually the leader of this conflict, Gog, will devise an evil thought and try to make a move on Israel in another effort to destroy the Jewish state. Only through the supernatural intervention of God does this plan fail and Israel is spared.
Another article that got my attention was one coming from Israel National News where it was being reported that Iran's offer to send two military ships to escort Gaza blockade ships was rebuffed, not only by Israel but Hamas as well. The INN article reports:
"The Iranian Revolutionary Guard said it would send two warships to the Mediterranean to escort ships headed for Gaza in defiance of Israel’s blockade. Israel, as expected, warned against the move, and even Hamas turned down the offer. “We do not want any military intervention,” Hamas senior figure Jamal Al-Hadri told the London-based A-Sharq al-Awsat. Israel said it would not allow Iranian warships to approach Israel or Gaza, just as it did 18 months ago by blocking access to Gaza. "The Iranian regime has called for Israel to be wiped off the map," an Israeli official has been quoted as saying, "and has a proven track record of supplying dangerous weapons to Hamas and Hizbullah... We cannot take a chance that there is weaponry on the ships… If we didn’t let an Irish ship reach Gaza, we are certainly not going to let Iranian ships pass.”
On the surface it would appear that Hamas would want to welcome Iran's intervention in the Gaza flotilla situation but, strangely enough, that doesn't appear to be the case according to the report. I would suspect that Hamas is very wary about an increased Iranian presence in the Gaza enclave should they send naval ships to Gaza. This sort of situation could erode Hamas' power in the strip and increase the influence of Iran. And Hamas certainly doesn't want that to happen. Despite Hamas being funded in a large part by Iran, the leaders of Hamas know that it is best to keep the Iranians at arms length and for good reason.
Another article from the Jerusalem Post shows that Turkey and Russia are making threats that they will not provide natural gas exports to Israel as a result of recent hostilities in the Middle East. The Jerusalem Post article reports:
"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that they don’t plan to export natural gas to Israel via a new pipeline to Turkey. “There is no such thing on our agenda,” Erdogan said at a news conference with Putin in Istanbul when asked about the gas. Russia has held talks on shipping fuel to Israel from a pipeline under the Black Sea. OAO Gazprom, Russia’s natural-gas export monopoly, is negotiating supplying the fuel, Gazprom chairman Viktor Zubkov said on March 22."
This increased rhetoric aimed at Israel is just more of the same anti-semitic propganda that regularly makes its way to the airwaves. Despite the joint Turkish and Russian announcement, the article noted that due to Israel's recent natural gas find they may not need the Turkish or Russian gas anyway. The Jerusalem Post article went on to further state:
"Israel may not need the extra gas, which could be transported to Syria or Lebanon instead via the planned Blue Stream-2 pipe, Putin said. “The Blue Stream gas may not go to Israel because of economic considerations,” Putin said. “I don’t think Israel needs the gas because they found a reserve recently.” Turkey has said it’s considering paring economic and military ties with Israel and has recalled its ambassador to the country after nine Turks were killed on an aid flotilla headed for Gaza and intercepted by Israeli commandos last week."
What's interesting to me is that Turkey has been very "two-faced" lately towards Israel. One day you will find them on their soapbox making all sorts of demands and threats towards Israel and the next day you will find them trying to wedge themselves into the Middle East peace process as a "mediator". This ridiculous behavior shows that the Turks simply can't be trusted and should be removed from any serious Middle East peacemaking efforts. The truth is the Turks are sounding more and more like the Iranians with each passing day and this does not bode well for Israel as it is just a further sign that the conflict foretold in Ezekiel 38-39 is getting closer and closer with each passing day. While the actual conflict may be a little way off (Psalm 83 and Isaiah 17 may need to occur first), we can certainly see that the "Unholy Trinity" of Ezekiel 38-39 is definitely making moves on the world stage and heading towards their prophetic destiny. As we see this "Unholy Trinity" making their moves, we students of Bible prophecy need to be looking up, for the Bible tells us that when we see the signs of the end times around us, our redemption is drawing nigh!
God bless.
They are lining up and they do not know why..
Bad theology is a harsh taskmaster. Parents with a faulty doctrine of faith healing have watched their children die in diabetic comas. Injecting insulin would have sabotaged the faith they were trying to exert to heal their beloved son or daughter, you see.
Fortune-telling is bad theology, as is evident from its fruits. The cults, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, use fortune telling to make new recruits, and keep current members paralyzed with paranoia and dread of the future.[1] Gypsy fortune tellers know better than to have their own fortunes told. These professionals know, from contact with their customers, that the lust to peek into the future cripples the personality and life of the curious. The fortune-teller's customers are fatalistic, fearful, and impotent -- rather like the fundamentalist Christians who abandoned their God-given assignments (to serve as salt, light, and yeast) in order to push their heads up their fundaments, and play head-games of "pin the name on the Antichrist."
Do you have any idea what harm it does to the credibility of the gospel when we start pontificating about the future, making one bizarre, wild, prediction after another, that never comes to pass? One of the most prominent practitioners of Christian divination has a simple solution -- he recycles his books as each is overcome by time. Same story, but new faces, new places. He also recycles his marriages, perhaps for the same reason. God knows, I don't. But at last count, this "Christian teacher" and "prophecy expert" was on wife #4.
OK, so you think "prophecy teaching" is the exciting new kid on the block, the "relevant" application of God's Word that fits the times. Son, you ain't seen nuthin'. The "Jesus Movement" of 1970 was a genuine act of divine grace that was destroyed by its lust for "prophecy teaching." So, too, were the vocations of thousands of young people who took the apocalyptic hysteria seriously enough to act upon it. Until you drop out of college, drop out of the job market, bum around the country "living by faith" as a "full-time Christian minister" because "time is short" -- do not tell me the wonderful benefits of "prophecy" teaching. In some ways, 35 years later, I am still trying to catch up with a missed five-year window of opportunity. As I approach my 59th birthday, I still wrestle every day with a crippled work ethic and a penchant for short cuts, character defects that were deeply imprinted back then.
However, grace abounds in the neediest places. In 1980, a guy I'd led to Christ in 1970 returned the favor by giving me back my life in Christ, the sense of God's hand and favor and purpose upon me. Jimmie gave me a stack of books by the ArmEnian Calvinist, Rousas John Rushdoony. I discovered, to my surprise, that an uncompromising commitment to God's Word could coexist with optimism. After all, if God be for us, who can be against us? My life, family, vocation, and education have all been transformed by this new perspective on time. When I was 21, I was unable to think more than a week or two ahead. Next week, I am scheduled to defend a proposal for a dissertation that will, I hope, bring Turks to Jesus. The week after that, I just might celebrate my 59th birthday with a 59 mile bike ride. I've set my hand to a project that will, I believe, keep me fruitfully occupied for the next 30 years. Starting a new career, when my younger siblings are talking retirement ...
Your life is shaped by your expectations. If you expect God to hand over the whole world to the forces of evil, if you think global failure is God's will -- then it's hard to trust Him for personal victory. Trust me -- walking in victory is a LOT more fun!
AND you get to insult the fortune-tellers! Heaven knows, they need it! Especially when you think of what they have done to God's dear children.
I agree. In the last few years things are moving way too fast not to see that something has been set in motion.
As a young Christian in the 1970’s I got caught up reading all of those end-times books in the Bible Book stores. The book captivating me the most, being Hal Lindsey’s book “The late great Planet Earth”. The books were fascinating at the time, I could hardly put them down - but the prophecy and predictions seemed too far out in the future. Yea, it could all happen, but it would take a hundred years or more. Or so I thought.
The Cashless Society has become a reality.
Obama has shown how easily the AntiChrist can enter the World Stage.
Not saying Obama is the One, because I don’t think he is, (the AC won’t need a teleprompter) but with Obama coming out of nowhere in just a few months to become almost a Godhead to hundreds of millions of his Koolaid drinking followers all over the World. I can say now, that this mystery of how this could happen has been solved.
You can throw as many parts of God's word in the trash as you like- you'll be the one who answers for it, not anybody else- but it really is personally offensive to me to see puny little human beings putting themselves on God's level and deciding for themselves and trying to decide for others what parts of Scripture are true and which are fairy tales.
Can you just do me that one favor please? Save your contempt for Scripture for other threads.
Thank you.
Well you had that happen 70 years ago or so...in Germany.
The Cashless Society has become a reality.
Have you seen this?
We're here!
Not sure why you are linking cults and twisted theology to the study of Bible prophecy. If you are a Christian and I assume you are then you truly are in the minority if you ignore the 1845 biblical references to the Second Coming, including 318 in the New Testament.
Jesus himself referred to His return twenty-one times and was asked many times what would be the sign of his return.
Did he say its none of your business? NO. He said “LOOK for these things to happen,.........
Ping!
Ping!
I don’t think anybody is calling for a date. THAT would be fortune telling. If we read the WHOLE bible we are instructed to watch and be ready. Why would the prophecies be in the Bible anyway?
The part about faith healers is out of place too, I don’t recall anybody saying anything about that. Don’t lump all evangelical Bible believing Christians together and make assumptions.
The great mystery is how will it be enforced. Now I believe in the pre-Tribulation rapture, so that mystery is easier to contemplate. Take tens or hundreds of million people that vanish and you have a global crisis on a scale we could not imagine. There will be a great need to regain control of the panic. The old “don't let a disaster go to waste”. Where have we heard that before?
I see, so Jesus is to blame for you character flaws, and by extension, so it anyone who puts forth the proposition that prophecy maybe being fulfilled.
Gotchya.
you = your
INDEED. THX.
What in The World Is Going On? by: Dr David Jeremiah
10 Prophetic clues you cannot afford to ignore
http://www.amazon.com/What-World-Going-Prophetic-Cannot/dp/078522887X
Great reading for our times
Prophetically if this is not the ‘it’ of alliances being formed, and the ‘it’ has a long way to go yet...it is what it will look like as we see nations lining up. We have seen this before in years past....but as was stated, things are more fine tuned as it moves along, so very interesting to watch.
All this really means for Christians is we'll be going home and is actually what we're looking for... But the Lord has been known to slow events down and years can pass between times of escalation as we are seeing now. There is still much that needs positioning before the time of Ezk. events.
Still it is very interesting to see things move in our time as they are doing. I think Russia and China's cozy relationship now speaks volumes, though the news speaks little about it. Also the huge constructions going on in the Krykastans etc. just below Russia...hugely modern buildings being built with a “universal” bent on religion. You tube has some interesting videos of these and quite remarkable in design and purpose..... And many of the newer religious centers worldwide, of most all faiths, are taking on a “universal” theme and approach to religion. This is also very interesting to observe as the NEW AGE movement infiltrates many religions now, though rarely identified as that by most.
THX for your always excellent posts.
LUBBRO
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