More Rumors of War

Jesus told us that the wars and rumors of war would increase on planet earth as His return grew near. Today we can read about some more big rumors and tensions that are percolating.

India vs. China, North Korea vs. South Korea, Israel vs. Turkey

And yes, all of these potential wars would have a very good chance that the USA would be drawn into them.

As if we didn't have enough already going on in 2020, now we are facing the possibility that several regional wars may erupt.  China and India had both been pouring troops into a disputed border region, and now there has been an incident where they were actually killing each other.  

On the Korean peninsula, North Korea just blew up "a joint liaison office" that it had used for talks with the South Korean government.  

And in the Middle East, Turkey is warning of grave consequences if Israel goes ahead with a plan to annex portions of Judea and Samaria.  

If a major regional war erupts at even one of these flashpoints, it will be another devastating blow for a global economy that is already imploding, and there is a very strong probability that the U.S. and other major western powers could be drawn into the conflict.

Right now, most Americans are focused on our internal problems, and so they are paying very little attention to the growing crisis on the border between China and India.

Both nations had sent substantial contingents of troops to an area of the border that has long been disputed, and a meeting that was supposed to defuse tensions actually resulted in soldiers killing one another...

Chinese state media described the incident Monday night in the Galwan River valley where both countries have deployed troops in recent weeks as "the most serious clash between Chinese and Indian soldiers so far," confirming casualties but offering no further details about them. Indian government sources speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Times of India that 20 Indian army personnel had died in the fighting.

American intelligence believes 35 Chinese troops died, including one senior officer, a source familiar with that assessment tells U.S. News. The incident took place during a meeting in the mountainous region between the two sides - both of which had agreed to disarm - to determine how the two militaries would safely withdraw their presences from the region.

This is the very first time in decades that Chinese and Indian troops have killed each other, and apparently very little shooting was involved...

The meeting grew tense and resulted in a physical confrontation between the troops. According to the assessment, all of the casualties were from the use of batons and knives and from falls from the steep topography, the source says.

That sounds like a scene from an overly gory Hollywood war movie, but reportedly this actually happened.

Hopefully the leaders of the two nations will be able to cool tensions for a while, but the Chinese have a very long history of very bitter border disputes with their neighbors, and without a doubt China will continue to make attempts to exercise sovereignty over this area.

Meanwhile, tensions on the Korean peninsula have risen to a level that we haven't seen in many, many years.  On Tuesday, North Korea actually blew up a building that had been used for negotiations with South Korea...

North Korea has blown up a joint liaison office used for talks between itself and South Korea, the latest sign that ties between the two longtime adversaries are rapidly deteriorating.

North Korean state media reported that the four-story building, which is located in the town of Kaesong just north of the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas, was "completely destroyed by a "terrific explosion" at 2:50 p.m. local time.

That is certainly one way to make a statement.

And this comes just days after Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, had issued a very ominous warning...

In a cryptic statement late Saturday, Kim Yo Jong vowed her country would "soon take a next action" against South Korea -- a move she suggested would be carried out by the country's military.

"By exercising my power authorized by the Supreme Leader, our Party and the state, I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with enemy to decisively carry out the next action," Kim said in the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

All of a sudden, North Korea's approach to relations with South Korea has dramatically shifted, and that shift has coincided with Kim Yo Jong taking a much more prominent role in national affairs.

I believe that there is much more going on in North Korea than we are being told, and Kim Yo Jong appears to favor a much more militant approach than what we have become accustomed to in recent years.

Here;  https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4120

Of course the building tension between Israel and Turkey has even more prophetic meaning as Ezekiel 38 continues to come into focus.

Very interesting times!  2020 is turning out to be a real page turner!  Even so, Come Lord Jesus!

The Reason for the Rapture

For some reason there are lots of people who call themselves Christians yet are angry at and critical of any other Christians who believe 1 Thessalonians 4.  This is the passage that speaks of Christ coming for all believers and snatching them, with force, off this hell-bent planet.

It may be because of the great apostasy that Jesus warned us about?  Maybe some of these angry folks aren't followers of Christ at all?  Maybe they are the scoffers that 2 Peter warns us to watch for?

I must admit that it is a fantastic thing to think about!!  A loud trumpet coming from the sky. The graves break open and the dead believers get their new ETERNAL bodies first and then those of us who are left and alive, get our MORTAL bodies transformed into IMMORTAL bodies in the twinkling of an eye.  Fantastic!!

If God can create the world and all the life upon it, then destroy most of it with a flood, He can certainly do something so fantastic as to give us similar bodies to what Christ has right now.  He IS the example of what kind of bodies we will all get at the rapture.

Each day brings us closer to the day of resurrection … the rapture of the Church. Certainly, there is nothing new about this, except for the accumulation of critical indicators. Mystery Babylon is poised to rise again, national Israel becomes daily more resolute and the Middle East is positioning itself along the lines of biblical prophecy. Russia and Iran (old Persia) are at the forefront of agitation. Most especially, the world is increasingly characterized by raging apostasy. Our reason for excitement is much greater than in past generations. 

Since the days of the Apostles, Christians have watched for the return of the Lord with great expectancy. Paul even wrote to the Thessalonians, warning them against misguided agitators, who were spreading false information that God’s judgment (the Tribulation) had already begun! Essentially, these foolish “authorities” were throwing cold water on the greatest hope given to the Church. 

And this was around AD 51! It would be well over ten years before Paul finished and circulated his complete teaching about the life and destiny of the Body of Christ, the Church. We should never forget that from the very beginning of the Church Age, believers have been frustrated, confused and puzzled about the order of prophetic events. 

It is the business of Satan and his minions to sow the seeds of confusion. Furthermore, there are many “church authorities,” who present themselves as eschatological experts, and are quite bombastic about naming particular dates or windows of time for the rapture. 

In the past, the subject of the rapture has waned almost to the level of being forgotten for a little while. Then, for a variety of reasons, interest in it rises again. Occasionally, it escalates to the point that it becomes a vital issue, with accompanying emotion and vitriolic disagreement. At each peak, several competing camps weigh in upon the matter, bombarding each other with proof texts and theoretical challenges. 

We seem to have reached such a peak again, when many have established prophetic proofs, measured by a number of standards, which we shall discuss later in this article. 

Something we often recall is the year 1988, when a variety of “proofs” were published. This was the year that brought us the ubiquitous little white booklet (3.2 million copies), with its distinctive red-letter title, offering “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988.” 

This particular year also happened to be a year of great excitement among Christians. About two decades before, in 1967, Israel had won a war that allowed them to reclaim the Temple Mount, if only briefly. Then, in 1973, fighting against astronomical odds, Israel had won the “Yom Kippur” war. To prophetic observers, it seemed that Israel was favored by the Lord, and poised to take charge and reclaim the land grant that God promised Abraham. The mechanism of this process is clearly described by the Old Testament prophets. 

In 1988, excitement rose to fever pitch. It had been forty years since Israel’s statehood in 1948 – forty years, the number of testing! Many of the faithful expected the Lord’s return in that year … soon! 

Why is there such disagreement upon a subject that seems so clearly laid out? Paul writes, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Th. 5:9). The “salvation” mentioned here is not the initial receiving of Christ by the believer, but the act of being removed from the earth before the Tribulation. Still, there is a great misunderstanding of the rapture. And His wrath begins with the opening of the first seal. 

Add to these the unprecedented famines and plagues that wrack the entire globe, and you have some idea of the Day of the Lord. The Church will be taken out of the way precisely because it is the Spirit-filled body of Christ, and must be removed in order that the program of God can proceed as prophesied. That program will establish Israel – not the Church – as head of the nations. And that is the clear and unequivocal reason for the rapture! 

Read entire article here;  https://prophecywatchers.com/the-reason-for-the-rapture/

As we look around at the stupidity unfolding around us, the lies, the filth, the perversion, the scoffing and godlessness, it gets very exciting to think about a loud trumpet blowing today, tomorrow, next week, next month or next year and Jesus coming to claim us and take us to the place He has been these past 2000 years...just as He promised!

John 14
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

The words from a hymn have run through my mind quite a bit these past 10+ years we have been blogging.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

The Monument Mobs Hate America

You have seen how the mobs are pulling down statues of Columbus and Civil War officers? Do you have any idea where this vandalism might stop?  Do the angry mobs have any idea what they are doing or is their hatred of America so great that they are blinded by it?
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Angry mobs are tearing down and defacing monuments across America. They make no distinction between Confederate and Union, abolitionist and pro-slavery, 15th-century figures and 20th. They don’t care when a monument was erected, who built it, or why. They have not come to debate or persuade their fellow citizens to relocate these statues to museums or private property. They believe the debate is over and that they have won.

The Confederacy Isn’t the Target

Their target is not the Confederacy. It is the United States. They mean to destroy symbols of American history writ large, because to them all of American history is racist and genocidal. Their goal is not to cleanse a nation they love of monuments to Confederate traitors who tried to secede, but to cleanse their consciences of ever having loved such an evil and irredeemably racist country in the first place.

That is why you see mobs defacing statues of abolitionists like Matthias Baldwin and Union war heroes like Adm. David Farragut and Gen. George Thomas. That is why the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution in Philadelphia was vandalized this past weekend with the words “committed genocide.” That is why statues of Christopher Columbus were torn down or beheaded in three cities last week. That is why officials in Dallas recently removed a Texas Ranger statue from Love Field Airport. That is why a mob of college students toppled two statues of American pioneers on the University of Oregon campus. That is why Black Lives Matter protesters in San Antonio, Texas, are threatening to march on the Alamo.

To suppose this has anything to do with the Confederacy or the Civil War is to misunderstand completely the nature of what is happening right now in America. The people who are pulling down monuments, defacing statues, and demanding U.S. military bases be renamed do not have a limiting principle. They don’t distinguish between those who fought for freedom against the British Empire and those who fought for union against the slave states of the South. To them, the Union itself was a crime against humanity long before the South seceded. What kind of moral monster would ever fight to preserve it?

https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/15/the-monument-destroying-mobs-dont-hate-the-confederacy-they-hate-america/#.Xuhe3cvozkk.twitter

80% of Americans Think "Things in America Are Out of Control"

The 'secret power of lawlessness" that Apostle Paul spoke of seems to be very evident as we watch the news coming from America.  The looting and burning that we have witnessed in some large cities last week on top of the insanity that the COVID virus has given us these past few months make a lot of us wonder if America has started to spiral out of control.

It turns out lots of Americans are feeling the same thing.

Do you feel like America is spinning out of control? That chaos and disorder seem to be the new order of the day? That you have no idea what tomorrow might bring? That those in leadership of our nation, from the president to law enforcement and from medical specialists to local mayors, are in over their heads? 

If so, you are not alone. A new poll indicates that, "80 percent of voters say things are out of control in the U.S."

As reported by Mark Murray on NBC News, "Eight out of 10 voters believe that things are out of control in the United States, with majorities still concerned about the spread of the coronavirus, pessimistic about the economy's returning to normal before next year and down on President Donald Trump's ability to unite the nation."

To quote Murray's article again, "'Out of control -- that's America in 2020,' said Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates, who helped conduct the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff and his GOP colleagues at Public Opinion Strategies."

It's true that the poll was conducted from May 28-June 2, so, before last "Friday's surprising jobs report, which found the unemployment rate declining to 13.3 percent and the economy adding 2.5 million jobs in May."

But I seriously doubt that one positive economic report put a major dent in the overall feeling of uncertainty and chaos which has gripped the country.

Think about it for a moment. Do you have much confidence in what medical experts are telling us? Do you feel sure that they know what is best? It seems like not even hindsight is 20-20 these days.

How about the shutdown? Was it justified? An overreaction? Or were there more sinister plans behind it?

What about decisions being made by state and city officials, including governors and mayors? Do you feel like they are in over their heads?

What about the riots? Will they subside in the coming days, or will they come to your own neighborhood?

Here;  https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4111

As followers of Christ we should NOT have an attitude of fear or hopelessness.  We know that "all these things MUST happen" before the end of the age comes.  We are all called to be salt and light until Jesus comes for us in the rapture or we leave these earth-bound bodies of mortal flesh.

I must admit that it's hard to watch as the LGBTQ agenda continues to wash over us and we see entire blocks of cities looted and burned with impunity.

I heard a good word picture given by Pastor Robert Jeffress yesterday that may give us a better way to think about what we are witnessing.  I'll try and repeat it the best I can.  Let's say that you are a person who hates winter and cold weather.  Your boss knows this about you so as winter approaches he calls you into his office and says, "I know you hate winter and cold so I'm going to make a deal with you.  Keep working your job as best you can and when the temperature hits 32 degrees for 7 days in a row, I will send you and your entire family to Hawaii for the rest of the winter.  All expenses paid!"  So with that knowledge you keep watching the winter approach and you start watching the temperature.  You are now almost eager for the cold weather to come because you know what is awaiting you.  You may even find yourself cursing the sun as it comes out following 4 days of 32 degrees.  You know that a week of cold weather is coming but you don't know exactly the week when it is coming, but you happily go about your business because you know what is in store for you.

Don't know if that helps anyone but it's kind of cool to think about.

Winter is coming.  We know America isn't in prophecy, but we don't know if it's going to fall now or 10 years from now.  We know Jesus is coming but we don't know if it's going to be today or next month or 10 years from now.  But we are commanded by our Master to work while we still have daylight.  So use your spiritual gifts as best you can!  Make as many relationships as you possibly can!  And be ready to give a reason for the hope that YOU have in Jesus Christ.

Maranatha!

Deer in New Jersey Offended by Black Lives Matter so Attacks Crowd and Injures 3

This bit of news is kind of funny.  Take it for what it is.

An elderly woman was sent to the hospital and two others were injured when a deer slammed into protesters participating in a Black Lives Matter march in New Jersey.

The South Brunswick Police Department tweeted Friday that the South Brunswick March for Justice “drew hundreds of people to the rally and march,” during which “3 people were injured when a deer ran from the high school property into the marchers.”

“Officers working the event immediately provided medical aid until EMS arrived,” the SBPD added.

In another tweet, the SBPD reported that a “69 year old woman received a serious head injury and was take to an area hospital. She was in intensive care late Friday night,” while “Two others were treated on scene.”

The New York Post reported that the incident happened around 5 p.m. on Friday along County Route 533 “as part of the town’s “March for Justice” in the wake of George Floyd’s police custody death, with a police escort leading the demonstrators.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/deer-injures-3-protesters-during-black-lives-matter-march-in-new-jersey

Hat tip to Dave G.

Black Man Shot Dead by Police in Atlanta

A black man was drunk in Atlanta at a Wendy’s drive thru. Two white officers responded. The black man breath tested and failed. Police went to arrest him. He struggled with police, wrestled one to the ground, stole his taser and ran. The other officer ran after him. The black man then turned back and fired the taser at the pursuing officer. The officer shot him dead. Protesters quickly gathered and burned down the Wendy’s. The police officer was instantly fired, the female police chief of Atlanta resigned. Can you see how this could be the first battles of a coming Civil War in America?
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(CNN)Just days after George Floyd was buried in Houston and nationwide demonstrations against racism and police brutality continued, another black man was killed by police -- this time in Atlanta.

Rayshard Brooks, 27, was shot twice in the back, the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office said. His death was ruled a homicide.

Hours after the killing, Atlanta's police chief stepped down, the officer who shot Brooks was fired and a second officer placed on administrative duty -- but Brooks' death has rekindled large protests in the city, with more expected throughout Atlanta this week.

"Rayshard Brooks is everybody. Just like George is everybody. We are all the people, we are all God's children," Brooks' wife, Tomika Miller, told CBS This Morning. "We should feel the pain of those who lost their life to senselessness over authority being taken way overboard."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/15/us/rayshard-brooks-atlanta-shooting-monday/index.html

Ummmmm....no, Rayshard is not everybody. He tackled a police officer and stole a weapon while drunk. Note to readers; if you don’t want to be shot by police don’t punch them and run away with a stolen taser.

Take Your Vaccine, Or Else!

We know that Revelation 13 says that one day everyone on earth will require a mark in order to buy or sell anything. While we don’t believe the Covid vaccine will be THE mark, it is certainly paving the way. Teamed up with technology, it’s possible that you won’t be let into a sporting event, shopping mall or any public space with other people unless you prove you have your vaccine. Probably the proof will at first come through your iPhone.
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"Some Americans may push back on the COVID-19 vaccination for religious, philosophical or personal reasons,” says the report released on Thursday by the NYSBA, but, it says, “for the sake of public health, mandatory vaccinations for COVID-19 should be required in the United States as soon as it is available.”

Citing a robust collection of federal and state case law, a New York State Bar Association task-force group on Thursday said it should be mandatory for all Americans to have a COVID-19 vaccination, when one is available, including those who won’t want it for “religious, philosophical or personal reasons.”

https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2020/05/28/state-bar-calls-for-mandatory-covid-19-vaccinations-regardless-of-objections/?cmp_share=share_facebook&fbclid=IwAR08U5jUEADsLvsnOiQrw1B733v9goo3K1g8TXvlhkZKHVGyjD3MK4-Ajec&slreturn=20200514083128