Are You Watching or Scoffing?

God told Noah he had 120 years to build an ark.  We can be 100% certain that the people of his day walked by Noah's place and saw him working on a massive project.

"What are you doing Noah?"

"Building a big boat to survive a catastrophic flood that God is sending."

"Ha!  That has to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard!"

Now just imagine 5 years later when the same guy comes back...and then 10 years, 20 years, 30 years...

"Holy crap Noah!  You have to be the absolute craziest man I have EVER seen!  You do realize that you are totally insane, right?

And then 50 years, 75 years, 100 years....

"Hey Noah!  You do realize that I first started scoffing at you more than 100 years ago.  And today I have brought my great, great grandson with me so I could show him personally what the biggest waste of time actually looks like!"

But Noah ignored them all and listened to God.

Genesis 7
16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.

17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. 21 Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

Today, we folks of the 21'st century have God's word printed out for us and available on every computer, i Pad and i Phone.  In His word He clearly tells us that one day a loud trumpet is going to sound, and Jesus is going to pluck the dead Christian bodies out of the grave and transform it into an eternal, glorified body.  Then in a twinkling of an eye Jesus will turn his attention to the followers of Christ who are still alive and standing on planet earth listening to the massive trumpet blast.  They will then be transformed into their glorified bodies and join Christ in the clouds.

"Dennis...that has to be one of the craziest things I have EVER heard!  You do realize that science has proved most of the stories in the Bible to be fables....right?"

What is it about Bible prophecy and end times dialogue that sets some Christian’s teeth on edge? The reason I’m asking this question is because I can’t remember a time when apathy regarding the Lord’s return has been so widespread. If we were talking about a pagan view of the last days...the previous statement wouldn’t seem so provocative. We are discussing apathy of so many in the church...that is why the matter is of deep concern.

I have defended the importance of Bible prophecy and it’s not my intention to review the subject. What I want to focus on—is a “heart'” issue. I want to make a clear distinction between those who “love His appearing” and those who couldn’t care less.

Just like some people in the 1st century church, we also have people inside the church now who are lukewarm, complacent, and slumbering. Welcome to Laodicea: Many inside of our churches today aren’t watching and waiting. Instead, they are scoffing.

Is it just me, or have you also noticed a growing disconnect between some professing believers and those of us who are longing for the Lord’s return? I know spiritual apathy has always been around, but the level and fervor of the scoffers inside the church is reaching a fever pitch. This lukewarm condition inside the church captured my full-attention after I read an article on the Christian Post that was about prophetic events and our time.

Since we live at a time when so many are scoffing at the fact that Jesus will return soon...it encourages me to be ready all the more. It makes me want to reach out to those who are stuck in the lukewarm mire right now. Some of you may be asking, “Isn’t that casting pearls...?” I would say no...unless our loving admonishment is met by a continued “unrepentant” life pattern by one claiming to be a Christian. Then it may be time to move on and lovingly warn others while continuing to pray for those with unrepentant hearts.

Jesus stands at the door and knocks. We have the truth of the Bible when we tell people with confidence: In His own words Jesus said He was coming soon, three times in Revelation 22. Nothing cuts through the mire of the heart like the Bible does.

It is a loving thing to bring a brother or sister to repentance, but repeated scoffing and hard-heartedness toward the things of God is another matter all together.

I want those of us who love His appearing to get in the practice of encouraging one another as we see the day approaching. Many in the world and inside the church don’t want to hear that Jesus is coming back for His people and that judgment will follow. Keep on faithfully proclaiming the gospel and the soon return of the Lord.

Read this entire encouraging article here;  http://www.raptureready.com/soap2/green15.html

I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say, "But Dennis...I've been hearing from people in church that Jesus is coming since I was a little boy!  I'm now (insert age) and he still isn't here!  It's a waste of time and effort to tell people to repent and get sober because Jesus is coming!  Don't get so heavenly minded that you become no earthly good!"

Friends, Israel just became a nation in 1948.  That's only 66 years ago when that major indicator of Christ's return happened.  Noah got scoffed at for 120 years...until the flood came and took all the scoffers away.

We are clearly in the days when we shouldn't be surprised if Christ returns for us.  We need to keep working to tell people about the ONLY way to salvation, snatching them from the fires of judgment before it's too late.  In an instant...the age of grace will be over.

Luke 17
26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

28 “It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

Sunnis Dividing in Iraq

For all of us folks here in America who know little to nothing about the Islamic world, we thought we were pretty smart if we understood that Sunni Muslims have a deep dislike of Shi'ite Muslims.  Well it's about to get a lot more complicated than that.

Iraq is coming apart.  ISIS is pillaging the country and they are made up of Sunni Muslims.  But what if you are a Sunni Muslim who doesn't like ISIS and what they are doing?  Can you side with the Iraqi government and fight with them against ISIS?  What is your Sunni tribe going to think?

Wow.  Talk about a mess.  Satan really has those Muslims all wrapped up in a big, Satanic nightmare that is going to turn into an even bigger bloody mess than it already is.

BAGHDAD—Islamic State’s rise is dividing Iraq’s Sunni minority, pitting tribes loyal to the militant group against those who support the government and, in some cases, cleaving tribes apart from within.

Sheikh Dhaher Bedewi, a tribal leader in Anbar province, said that while in the mid-2000s his fighters handed captured Sunni insurgents over to U.S. forces, mercy is no longer an option.

“This is a tribal issue for us right now. There’s no way to let them live,” he said during a recent trip to the capital Baghdad. “I’m not going to leave any of them alive. It’s them, their family members and all their property. We’re going to destroy them all.”

This conflict within the conflict is drawing new battle lines that could leave permanent scars. Islamic State is more competent and better armed than its predecessor, al Qaeda in Iraq, and it has demonstrated a greater readiness to carry out mass killings, a formula that has deepened the anger of its Sunni foes.

“It’s impossible now to unite the Sunni tribes,” said Sheikh Awad Saed, another tribal leader from Sunni-majority Anbar province. He threatened to deal harshly with turncoats within his own group suspected of helping Islamic State.

“Such things are impossible for the tribes to forgive and forget,” he said.

The strife within the Sunni community is stoking bloody tribal vendettas in Anbar—Iraq’s largest province—that threaten to leave it nearly ungovernable if and when the militant threat passes.

“Politics in Anbar could easily, for many years to come, be divided between who was on the side of the government and who was on the side of Islamic State,” said Nathaniel Rabkin, an expert on Sunni tribes and managing editor of Inside Iraqi Politics, a biweekly newsletter. “That will make it a hard place to do politics.”

Sheikh Bedewi’s tribe and other Anbar tribes have already begun a process of gradual punishment through killings, confiscations and disenfranchisement. Sheikh Bedewi is suing those who collaborate with Islamic State in special tribal courts, which either prescribe the death penalty or force perpetrators to pay Islamic compensation, or “diya.”

Sheikh Bedewi’s friend from a neighboring tribe, Sheikh Jabbar Al Fahdawi, said his men have already used explosives to demolish vacant family homes of 10 suspected collaborators.

Some tribal leaders said they felt sympathy for the collaborators: Many who joined Islamic State are unemployed young men who were attracted by salaries of $500 to $1,000 a month, plus gifts of cars, free medical care and even homes.

“I feel a lot of sympathy for them,” he said.

“But yes, I would still kill them.”

Here;  http://www.wsj.com/articles/fight-against-islamic-state-deepens-divides-within-iraqs-sunni-minority-1418159317

"Yes I have lots of sympathy for them...but I would still kill them."  Spoken like a true follower of Allah and his bogus prophet Muhammad!

Friends, as the saying goes...you can put a fork in Iraq, cuz she is done.

The only thing that is going to bring peace to that region is going to be when the Antichrist gets here. He will probably be able to quiet them down for a while...but not for long.

True peace won't come to Iraq until Jesus Christ returns and sets up his 1000 year reign.

But please remember, in spite of all the mess that has become the Muslim world, all the killings, rapes, gassing, beheading, all while screaming, "Allah Akbar!"...please listen to President Obama and believe him when he says, "Islam is a wonderful religion of peace!"  (insert huge dose of sarcasm here)

Rinsing Israel Out of Europe

Any regular readers of my blog will know that Antisemitism is growing all over the world.  The world is clearly getting ready to make another swipe at the Jews and try to finish the job they started during the Holocaust 70 years ago.

Does that sound extreme to you?  The Bible says it's coming and the evidence coming in from New York to Tehran foreshadows it.  1/3 were killed in the last Holocaust and the Bible says 2/3 will be killed in the next.

Zechariah 13
In the whole land,” declares the Lord,
    “two-thirds will be struck down and perish;
    yet one-third will be left in it.
9 This third I will put into the fire;
    I will refine them like silver
    and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
    and I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are my people,’
    and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

Today the Wall Street Journal has another article focusing on Israel and the rising anti-Semitism coming out of Europe.

In Nazi Germany, it was all the rage to make one’s town Judenfrei. Now a new fashion is sweeping Europe: to make one’s town or city what we might call “Zionistfrei”—free of the products and culture of the Jewish state. Across the Continent, cities and towns are declaring themselves “Israel-free zones,” insulating their citizens from Israeli produce and culture. It has ugly echoes of what happened 70 years ago.

Leicester City Council in England last month voted to boycott goods made in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. All services run by the council will be free of any product or technology made in any of the settlements. The motion “condemns the Government of Israel for its continuing illegal occupation of Palestine’s East Jerusalem and the West Bank” and resolves “to boycott any produce originating from illegal Israeli settlements.”

Leicester Mayor Peter Soulsby insists that there’s nothing anti-Semitic about this erection of an Israel-deflecting force field around the city, telling the local Leicester Mercury newspaper that it’s simply about expressing dismay with “the behavior of the Israeli state.”

But Jeffrey Kaufman, former president of Leicester’s Progressive Jewish Congregation, isn’t convinced. He wants to know why, “of all the horrible things going on in the world,” the council singled out Israel for punitive treatment. “It’s blatant anti-Semitism,” he said.

Other communities in Europe have gone further than Leicester. During this summer’s Gaza conflict, the town of Kinvara in western Ireland went completely Zionistfrei. Pro-Palestinian campaigners lobbied the town’s retailers, restaurants and cafes to expunge from their premises anything produced in Israel. All the businesses agreed, meaning Kinvara is now, in the eyes of anti-Israel agitators, morally pure. It is held up as a model town by numerous European backers of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement.

Also during the Gaza conflict, the mayor of Newry in Northern Ireland wrote to all the retailers of his district asking them to provide a list of the Israeli products they stock. He then asked them to remove these products from sale—he was backed by 21 votes to three on the Newry Council.

Where yesteryear’s creators of Judenfrei zones saw the Jewish people as a corrupting presence, today’s lobbyists for Zionistfrei territories see the Jewish state as corrupting, as a toxic entity whose fruit and technology and books must be shunned.

No, Jews aren’t being physically expelled from Europe, but they are being made to feel unwelcome. Given that most Jews feel affinity with the state of Israel, what must they think when they see parts of Europe being cleansed of all things Israeli? They must think: “My culture and my people are not wanted here.” And European Jews are voting with their feet. In the first eight months of this year, 4,566 Jews left France for Israel, more than the total number that left in 2013 (3,228). Last year a European Union survey found that 29% of Europe’s Jews had considered emigrating because they no longer feel safe.

BDS is one of the ugliest political movements of our time. It is shot through with double standards, treating Israel as more wicked than any other state. It is shrill and censorious, too. Its members boo and jeer and seek to expel from apparently civilized Europe not only Israeli military leaders and politicians but even Israeli violinists and actors. Now, the demand for Zionistfrei zones is taking BDS to its terrifying conclusion, that Israel and everyone associated with it (you know who) should be shunned by respectable communities everywhere.

Here;  http://www.wsj.com/articles/europe-goes-zionistfrei-1418070622

Incredible!  Europe is turning on them again!!

Did you catch one of the top news story from yesterday about the knife attacker in New York?  He stabbed one Jew as he merrily chanted, "I'm killing Jews!"  When the officers showed up he refused to put down the knife so they shot him once and killed him.  Uh-oh....hope the blacks don't start rioting and looting over this one...because the dude was black.

I'm guessing that the dude had a demon.  That demon simply can't help himself but to go after Jews in a joyous rampage and get his host shot in the process.

As sad as this article is about Europe getting ready to go anti-Semitic again, we all need to remember that many of the Lutheran, Methodist and now even evangelical synods right here in America have all signed letters to divest from Israel.

As for me and my house....we will stand with Israel...no matter what the world says.

Baptize Aliens If Given the Chance

We have blogged before about the head astronomer for the Catholic church.  Some years ago he came out saying that the church would baptize aliens when they show up on planet earth.

That's crazy talk!!  First off, Jesus was a human and died for the sins of Adam....the first human.  If the Pope is going to welcome some Klingons from the planet Krypton as 'friends of creation" and then ask to baptize them into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ....why would he think that Klingons would share in the same sin-nature as the descendants of Adam?  Why would he assume that Klingons are born into sin like humans are...or that Jesus bled and died on a cross for Klingons who claim to come for light years away?

Don't fret your pretty little heads about all this though...because there aren't any "aliens" running around the atmosphere of earth....nope!  They are really just demons in disguise....setting up a huge deception for the humans of planet earth and acting at the behest of their leader, Satan....aka "The father of all lies."

With Christmas just around the corner, Brother Guy Consolmagno gets a lot of questions this time of year about the Star of Bethlehem that led the Magi to Jesus in the manger.

Consolmagno is an astronomer—a planetary scientist for the Vatican observatory, in fact—who specializes in asteroids and meteorites, the very sort that may well have been the famous "star" described in the gospel of Matthew.

"It's fun speculation," Consolmagno said, smiling though a graying beard while sitting on a bench in Central Park on an unseasonably warm afternoon. "It's fascinating to realize that there actually are a couple of quite plausible things it could be.

"But what's even more interesting to me is that this story was included, of all the stories that Matthew might have included," he said, growing animated as he does when diving into his twin vocations of science and theology. "Whether it's something he heard from Mary, or whether it's something he made up, why was it included?"

If those are the sort of musings you enjoy, and a level of ambiguity you can handle, then you will like the new book that Consolmagno has written with his fellow Jesuit, the Rev. Paul Mueller, who heads the Jesuit community at Castel Gandolfo, a hilltop town near Rome where the Vatican's main telescope is located. (The other is on a mountaintop near Tucson, Arizona.)

Their book is titled Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? another question that Consolmagno is asked a lot in his many speeches and media appearances, and one that Pope Francis—a fellow Jesuit and a trained chemist—has posed as part of his focus on Catholic inclusivity.

Consolmagno's short answer is yes. But "only if she asks!"

While the longer answer is spelled out in the book, the two Jesuits are really aiming their lens at a bigger goal: to show how people of faith can also believe in science.

"God is reason. If you reject reason, you are rejecting God," Consolmagno said.

Unlike many apologists, Consolmagno isn't fixated on the so-called "New Atheists" like Richard Dawkins who wield science like a cudgel to bash religion and believers.

"I don't mind someone disagreeing with my views on religion," he said. "But I'd like to have a sense of mutual respect. If you think that what a lot of people believe is nonsense, then maybe you don't understand what it is they believe."

But such debates are mostly a sideline for Consolmagno.

"The thing that really bothers me," he said, "is the creeping fundamentalism among Catholics who don't know their own faith and who are desperately trying to do the right thing and to be faithful believers, thinking that they have to sacrifice their reason to follow God. And that is exactly the opposite of what God wants."

Here;  http://www.charismanews.com/world/46376-meet-the-pope-s-astronomer-who-says-he-d-baptize-an-alien-if-given-the-chance

Ok....I put that last paragraph in bold because I want you to see it.  You may have to read it a few times to figure out what he is saying, but let me paraphrase if I may;  He says that he is really bothered by some Catholics who are starting to believe the Bible too much (Fundamentalists).  He is concerned that if they believe the Bible and its stories about creation, fallen angels, Noah's flood, and the story of Adam and Eve that they may start to believe them so much that when scientists in turn tell them that most of the Bible is just fables, that they might not believe the scientists!!  And this is the kicker....he says this is the exact opposite of what God wants!

Ummm....Mr. Astronomer?....question please?....yes, how can you be so fundamentally sure that you know what God wants?  Did he talk to you personally?  No...he didn't?  So the fact that you are fundamentally sure that you KNOW what God wants...doesn't that make you a fundamentalist....which is the exact thing you said that bothers you in the first place?

So confusing!!....but hey!...he stands ready with his water bottle to sprinkle any "aliens" who may show up and tell him a fantastic story about light years, star ships, brothers of Jesus, one world religions, one world currency, Israel is a nasty nation that needs to go for planetary peace....you name it, he's ready to believe it!!

It's getting harder to ignore the evidence that point to the Catholic church being a part of the final ONE-WORLD RELIGION that the Bible says is coming.

Of course it's almost becoming a weekly occurrence for the Pope to come out with some statement that the atheists and pagans are pleased to hear....so he's got that popularity going for him...which should play well with the world.

Even More Rumors of War

The DOW Industrial index is near record highs, construction is taking place all over America, people are spending money and oil prices are falling which means cheaper gasoline and happy days!!  What could possibly go wrong??

The world is changing and becoming even more dangerous -- in a way we've seen before.

In the decade before World War I, the near-hundred-year European peace that had followed the fall of Napoleon was taken for granted. Yet it abruptly imploded in 1914. Prior little wars in the Balkans had seemed to predict a much larger one on the horizon -- and were ignored.

We are entering a similarly dangerous interlude. Collapsing oil prices -- a good thing for most of the world -- will make troublemakers like oil-exporting Iran and Russia take even more risks.

Terrorist groups such as the Islamic State feel that conventional military power has no effect on their agendas. The West is seen as a tired culture of Black Friday shoppers and maxed-out credit card holders.

NATO is underfunded and without strong American leadership. It can only hope that Vladimir Putin does not invade a NATO country like Estonia, rather than prepare for the likelihood that he will, and soon.

The United States has slashed its defense budget to historic lows. It sends the message abroad that friendship with America brings few rewards while hostility toward the U.S. has even fewer consequences.

The bedrock American relationships with staunch allies such as Australia, Britain, Canada, Japan and Israel are fading. Instead, we court new belligerents that don't like the United States, such as Turkey and Iran.

No one has any idea of how to convince a rising China that its turn toward military aggression will only end in disaster, in much the same fashion that a confident westernizing Imperial Japan overreached in World War II. Lecturing loudly and self-righteously while carrying a tiny stick did not work with Japanese warlords of the1930s. It won't work with the communist Chinese either.

Radical Islam is spreading in the same sort of way that postwar communism once swamped postcolonial Asia, Africa and Latin America. But this time there are only weak responses from the democratic, free-market West. Westerners despair over which is worse -- theocratic Iran, the Islamic State or Bashar al-Assad's Syria -- and seem paralyzed over where exactly the violence will spread next and when it will reach them.

What is scary in these unstable times is that a powerful United States either thinks that it is weak or believes that its past oversight of the postwar order was either wrong or too costly -- or that after Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, America is no longer a force for positive change.

A large war is looming, one that will be far more costly than the preventative vigilance that might have stopped it.

Here;  http://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2014/12/03/war-clouds-n1926942?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Jesus clearly said that they very last days will be marked by wars and rumors of war.  If you pulled out your globe and started counting all the countries of the world that have military unrest and then started counting the nations that have rumors of military unrest....you would have a pretty big list.

Now just imagine for a second if Russia starts to feel threatened by collapsing oil prices and sanctions placed on them by The West....and China continues to threaten Japan and South Korea over territorial claims....the author above says "A large war is looming..."  What might that look like if all of our modern weapons of war are put into play?

Matthew 24
6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.

Israel Strikes Damascus

OK...anytime you see Israel and Damascus in the same headline, it's time to pay attention.

Syria says Israeli airstrikes hit near Damascus

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Israeli warplanes bombed two areas near Damascus on Sunday, striking near the city's international airport as well as outside a town close to the Lebanese border, the Syrian military said.

Since Syria's conflict began in March 2011, Israel has carried out several airstrikes in Syria that have targeted sophisticated weapons systems, including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles, believed to be destined for Israel's arch foe - the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group.

Israel has never confirmed the strikes, and on Sunday the Israeli military said it does not comment on "foreign reports."

The Syrian armed forces' general command said Sunday's "flagrant attack" caused material damage, but did not provide any details on what was hit near the airport or in the town of Dimas, which is northwest of Damascus along the main highway from the capital to the Lebanese frontier.

"This aggression demonstrates Israel's direct involvement in supporting terrorism in Syria along with well-known regional and Western countries to raise the morale of terrorist groups, mainly the Nusra Front," the military said in a statement carried by SANA.

There is no evidence that Israel has provided any support to the Nusra Front, which is al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria.

Here;  http://news.yahoo.com/syria-says-israeli-airstrikes-hit-near-damascus-160358208.html

Isaiah 17
A prophecy against Damascus:

“See, Damascus will no longer be a city
    but will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted
    and left to flocks, which will lie down,
    with no one to make them afraid.
9 In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.
14 In the evening, sudden terror!
    Before the morning, they are gone!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
    the lot of those who plunder us.

And to add even more intrigue to this development, Russia is now involved and prodding the world to demand that Israel give an explanation for its "aggression" against Syria.

Can you even imagine?!  Russia who has invaded and taken parts of Ukraine are demanding to know why Israel is being so aggressive??

Here is that article about Russia;  http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Russia-wants-Israeli-explanation-for-aggressive-actions-in-Syria-383986

Up is down, down is up, good is evil and evil is good.  Another day, another crazy bunch of headlines.

Certainly the Lord is close.