No Rapture Coming

Many of you have heard the name, Brian McLaren. He is an author and pastor and also a leader of the emerging church movement. It appears that Mr. McLaren has a drastically different idea of what biblical prophesy says....which leads him to a VERY different world view and biblical view than most readers of this blog would understand.

Check out what McLaren has to say about people who believe as we do;

2. The need to confront the terrible, deadly, distorted, yet popular theologies associated with Christian Zionism and deterministic dispensationalism. These systems of belief — so common among my fellow evangelical Christians — too often lead people to act as if Jewish people have God-given rights but Palestinians do not. They use a discredited hermeneutic (way of interpreting the Bible) to imply that God shows favoritism — that God is concerned for justice for one group of people and not for others. They create bigotry and prejudice against Muslims in general … and in particular against Palestinians, many of whom are Muslim but many of whom are Christian too. These doctrinal formulations often use a bogus end-of-the-world scenario to create a kind of death-wish for World War III, which — unless it is confronted more robustly by the rest of us — could too easily create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It seems that McLaren is advocating confronting Christians like us who believe that the Jews are part of God's eternal plan or believe Peter when he said the earth and the heavens will be destroyed by fire.

Read the full article here and see if you can decipher the world view of McLaren and how it may drastically differ from yours; http://blog.sojo.net/2009/04/16/four-points-toward-peace-in-the-middle-east/

Obviously, McLaren does NOT believe that Christ is going to come and take his bride before the earth falls into great turmoil. It seems that McLaren may believe we are supposed to make this world a fantastic place....full of justice, fairness, peace, recycling, and carbon free emissions....and only then will Christ come back to reward us for the great job we did in restoring and caring for planet earth.

This understanding pretty much stands in DIRECT CONTRAST to what most watchers would understand is coming. Personally, I would separate from a brother like this as I would have serious doubts he would cover my back in the spiritual battle that is currently raging....probably because he wouldn't even recognize that we are in a battle.

Trainwreck Coming

Most of us are familiar with bestselling author, Joel Rosenberg. He has some grave concerns about where Obama is taking the U.S. regarding it's relationship with Israel.

"Only 34 percent of Israelis see President Obama as a friend, as an ally; whereas more than 85 percent saw President Bush as a friend and ally," Rosenberg points out. "There are deep concerns in Israel about where President Obama is taking the U.S.-Israel relationship." Rosenberg says many Americans, including himself, share those concerns.

Read article here; http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=584644

Many watchers believe that the U.S. was blessed and made powerful for a few reasons...to be a light of Christ to the world AND to be the country that helped to incubate Israel after the holocaust. If we forget where our blessings come from and begin to turn out backs on Israel, our "greatness" could fade pretty darn fast.

Also, many believe that when the U.S. liberated Iraq, it set in motion the environment necessary to usher in the Last Days prophecies regarding Iraq....where Babylon is already beginning to emerge from the ashes. Read the book of Revelation and see what the word of God has to say about Babylon.

California Issuing I.O.U.'s

I can't help but think California just might be giving the rest of the states a foretaste of what may be on the horizon for many of the others.

The notes would mark the first time in 17 years the most populous U.S. state's government would have to resort to the unusual and dramatic measure -- and would follow warnings by Wall Street that the state's credit ratings may be lowered, which would increase its borrowing costs.

Read it here; http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5601F220090701

Ask yourselves a simple question; if the U.S. financial situation is almost tipping over currently....and that assumes a 4% interest rate on all of our debt....what happens if we lose our credit rating and now owe all the principal but owe interest at 10%??? It seems to be a common sense question, but common sense disappeared quite some time ago.

Iran to Break Monopoly

The "victory" of Ahmadinejad in Iran my embolden him to speak and act with more bravado than he did even during his first term.

June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he wants to interact with the world using an “approach of change” to “break the monopoly of global powers,” the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
“The nature of the Islamic Republic is to break the bipolar exclusivity of the world,” Ahmadinejad said in an address at the Intelligence Ministry in Tehran today, including the “influence of the military powers in political dealings.”

Read full article here; http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aVdBYw1rvU0k

Let's remember that the main game played by the world's nations is "King of the Hill". It should come as no surprise that other nations are trying to push the U.S. off the hill....after all, we have been there for quite some time, standing all alone since the Soviet collapse.

Iran is in the news everyday, which should not surprise regular readers of Ezekiel 38. The coalition continues to build....along with the rumors of war.

Hat tip to Dave G.

Gold Confiscation Act

Have you continued to notice all the advertisements on TV and radio for buying gold? Do you see any similarities to the ads of the late 1990's touting day-trading in tech stocks? How about all the, "Become a real estate tycoon with no money down!", TV infomercials?

We all know that history repeats itself. With that being true, let's revisit again what happened in 1933...the last time that the financial system almost collapsed.

Read the 1933 Government act that seized all U.S. citizen's gold;
http://www.the-privateer.com/1933-gold-confiscation.html

So what would the government be willing to pay for this gold if they are going to take it?....they will exchange it for some form of paper. Would you be a happy investor if you had just paid $1000 per ounce for gold bullion and the government forced you to give it to Fort Knox in exchange for paper I.O.U.'s?

What if U.S. Collapses?

As we have discussed, all civilizations collapse at some point...it is a fact. Witness the Roman Empire 2000 years ago, Grecian empire, the Ottoman empire, the Soviet Union, the British empire. How about the United States? What set of events will lead to our demise?

Interestingly enough, this Russian professor has given this topic considerable thought and was an eyewitness to the events of the Soviet collapse. He wrote this talk, with a corresponding slide show, back in 2006 that focuses on the similarities and differences of the Soviet Union's collapse with what will transpire for the U.S.

There is a ton of information in this article so I won't try and summarize it here, but I will say that when he speaks of, "Delusions of grandeur prevent honest discussion of problems" as a characteristic that pre-collapse societies share....it really struck a chord with me. Simply put, the citizens of the society simply REFUSE to believe that their lifestyles will ever change. Why?....no logical reason....they simply refuse to entertain the thought. So the unsolvable problems simply compound and the unsustainable spending continues to grow exponentially...until one day a trigger happens....and the entire things snowballs out of control. When that happens, it happens really fast....like a flood.

I hope and pray that the Lord will return for His bride before we witness these events, but certainly there is no guarantee of that. It may be the best tool for the harvest of souls that there is. After all, it's only when we are stripped away of every comfortable thing that we will finally look to God for His care.

You can read this presentation here; http://madconomist.com/what-if-us-collapses-soviet-collapse-lessons-every-american-needs-to-know

Continue to pray for our country that a revival of the Holy Spirit would break out and that we will seek His face...so He can heal our land. Also continue to pray that Jesus will return soon to take us to our real home.

More Threats From Syria

We have talked about the Golan Heights and how Israel took this strategic piece of land from Syria in the defensive war Israel fought with them in 1967. Syria has never forgotten this chunk of land and it has always been their main point of contention in any "peace" talks with Israel. Personally, I don't believe Israel will ever give it back and I don't think they should...considering the attacks that Syria launched from this high point against the Jews.

During a ceremony Saturday inaugurating a new communications center in Kuneitra, the Syrian town closest to the border with Israel, the Syrian Committee for the Liberation of the Golan threatened to take practical measures to return the Golan to Syrian control, adding that Israel was not showing any willingness to negotiate the return of the territory in peace talks.

Read full article here; http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1245924943807&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Remember Isaiah 17 says a day is coming when Damascus will be laid into rubble and will never be inhabited again. The bible seems clear that this result will be at the hands of Israel. Could this day be coming soon?