Our Rapidly Depraving and Godless Culture

 It wasn’t too long ago that Senator Joe Biden ridiculed the idea that the senate was going to have to debate what marriage was.  He said loudly that everyone knows what marriage is!  It’s between a man and a woman!  Now as President a few years later he has seemingly changed his mind and will sign the legislation forever enshrining the right for gay marriage to be the law of the land.  When you take God out of the equation, there is no truth, and no good or no bad.  Men simply do whatever they see fit.  Read Franklin Graham comments on this.

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Just a few weeks ago, Congress passed legislation that codified same-sex marriage as the law of the land, certifying the 2015 Supreme Court ruling Obergefell v. Hodges that had already sanctioned same-sex marriages. Joining the Democrats in the Senate were 12 so-called conservative Republican senators whose votes gave the bill the 60 it needed to move it to the House, where it was easily passed by the Democratic majority. 

This is a watershed moment in the moral state of our rapidly depraving and godless culture. To satisfy the incessant, sinful cries of the incredibly powerful LGBTQ lobby, the halls of Congress gave their endorsement to an immoral and degenerate lifestyle that not so many decades ago was a criminal act.

The deceptively and deceitfully named Respect for Marriage Act is anything but that. The senators rejected an amendment proposed by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah that used stronger language to protect the religious liberty of people of faith. As the law is written, it could threaten churches, Christian institutions and individuals who hold to the traditional, Biblical view of marriage between one man and one woman.

As this calamity unfolded, the once-solid bastion of traditional family entertainment Walt Disney was unveiling an animated movie featuring gay characters, and this on the heels of another popular animation that featured a gay kiss that was originally cut from the movie, but then restored after pressure from the LGBTQ lobby.

As I write, the case for a young website designer in Colorado who does not want to be compelled to design custom websites for same-sex weddings is being argued before the Supreme Court by Alliance Defending Freedom, which has done yeoman’s work in protecting religious freedoms in our nation for a number of decades. Lower courts have already ruled against her, much like they did against our good friend, baker Jack Phillips, who continues to be harassed by hateful activists.

How far and how rapidly we have fallen in our country!

Sins that were unthinkable when I was a young adult are now heartily approved, endorsed and ratified by virtually every segment of our society. The slippery slope of moral compromise that we warned about for so long has now become a free fall into debauchery and dissolution.

Where is it all headed? I don’t know. The pressure on Christians from ungodly leaders and a depraved culture will only continue to increase. Remember what Christ said, “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). For millennia, followers of Jesus Christ around the world have been oppressed by wicked governments, false religions and secular cultures that don’t want to hear the truth of the Gospel.

https://harbingersdaily.com/a-watershed-moment-in-the-moral-state-of-our-rapidly-depraving-and-godless-culture/

Watchman on the Wall

 The folks at Rapture Ready turned me on to this guy.  He’s just a dude that has his eyes opened and drives down by the River in his car and makes a video about current events and explains why he thinks the rapture is so close.  As he says in this video and repeats what we have said, “It’s in incredible time to be alive!”.

Check his videos out here and subscribe to his YouTube channel https://youtu.be/7nG2OrPVuJA

Happy New Year! Is the Party Really Over?

 We have said it for 15 years...what we did during the collapse of 2007-2009 really didn't fix anything.  It just papered over the problems.  And even though I didn't think it was possible, interest rates were lowered to 0% and our leaders decided to print trillions of dollars to "fix" the problem.  But of course printing money might feel good in the short term but it doesn't really solve anything.  If it could solve things then every government in the world would just print money until all their citizens had enough!  And even a 5th grader knows that won't work in the long term.

We have no clue if the party is really over.  Only God knows how long He will continue to keep America floating on "faith and confidence" in the US Government.  Maybe it will continue until the rapture finally wipes us out?  We simply can't know.  But we continue to believe that "marrying, giving in marriage, eating, drinking, planting and building" will continue up until the time that that the world is plunged in the Great Tribulation.  This time will be so devastating that no flesh would survive anywhere on earth if God didn't come and put an end to those days Himself with the supernatural return of Jesus at Armageddon.

But this one dude from a prophecy site says that it's time to "turn out the lights, because the party is over."  And maybe 2023 will be that year!  We continue to be pessimistic for the outlook of the world but optimistic for those who believe in the Words of Jesus Christ.

Normally, the beginning of a calendar year is a time for optimism.  As we look forward to a completely clean slate, it can be easy to forget the difficulties of the previous 12 months.

But this year things seem completely different.

On some level, just about everyone can feel that very challenging times are ahead of us.

Decades of very foolish decisions are starting to catch up with us in a major way.

Our leaders tried very hard to keep the party going for as long as possible, and to a certain extent they were quite successful in doing so.

Our politicians in Washington kept borrowing and spending trillions upon trillions of dollars that we did not have, and that definitely delayed our day of reckoning.

And the Federal Reserve kept the financial markets artificially propped up for years by endlessly pumping giant mountains of fresh cash into the system.

But such foolish measures only made our long-term problems even worse, and now our leaders are losing control.

All of the "mega-bubbles" are starting to burst, and the system is beginning to fall apart all around us.

It is time to turn out the lights, because the party is over.

We all had a lot of fun while it lasted, but now the bill is due and an extraordinary amount of pain is ahead.

Here;  11 Ominous Predictions For 2023 (prophecynewswatch.com)

Temple Mount Still a Flashpoint of Racist Hatred

A Jew went on the Temple Mount for 15 minutes yesterday and everyone is having a hissy fit. How strange that in today’s vocabulary where everything is “racist” that the world doesn’t condemn the fact that Jews can’t go to their most holy site?  How racist can you be?  And yet the world seems to approve of Muslims continuing to say “no Jews here!”

Of course Bible readers understand that the Temple Mount will continue to be a flashpoint until the Antichrist makes some sort of agreement that will allow Jews to visit there again. And yes, at some point, maybe soon, a Third Temple will be built for the Jews.

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Netanyahu on Monday discussed with Ben Gvir the latter’s stated intention to visit the site. The content of the conversation was not made public. A statement issued by Ben Gvir’s office after their talks had said he would visit the Temple Mount “in the upcoming weeks.”

The visit by Ben Gvir, whose ministry is in charge of the police force, was held after an assessment with security and police officials, his office said in a statement.

“Our government will not surrender to threats from Hamas,” Ben Gvir said at the conclusion of his visit, which reportedly lasted some 15 minutes and passed without immediate incident.

“The Temple Mount is the most important place for the people of Israel. We maintain freedom of movement for Muslims and Christians, but Jews also go up to the site, and those who make threats must be dealt with, with an iron fist,” he said.

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/jordan-accuses-ben-gvir-of-storming-al-aqsa-by-visiting-temple-mount/

The West is Using Ukraine to Destroy Russia

A few things to ponder here.  #1-we are closer to a nuclear war than we ever have been.  Some might argue who were around during the Kennedy Missile Crisis of 1963.  And they would have a point, but we have more nuclear players now than then and we have more big nukes and more ways to deliver them which leads to more chances of an accidental launch.

#2- Is Zelensky really the awesome freedom fighter that so many Democrats and Republicans actually claim?  It makes me pretty nervous to back anybody that Nancy Pelosi is so excited about.  Maybe there are Nazi and Muslim brigades in Ukraine terrorizing Russians?  Maybe they are a super corrupt nation that  is hiding secrets that someone in American power doesn’t want revealed?  We simply can’t and won’t know what is the truth of what, why, where when and how.

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 Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday his country would never give in to the West's attempts to use Ukraine as a tool to destroy Russia.

In a New Year's video message broadcast on Russian state TV, Putin said Russia was fighting in Ukraine to protect its "motherland" and to secure "true independence" for its people.

In a nine-minute message - the longest New Year's address of his two-decade rule - Putin accused the West of lying to Russia and of provoking Moscow to launch what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine.

"For years, Western elites hypocritically assured us of their peaceful intentions," he said in a speech filmed in front of Russian service personnel at the headquarters of Russia's southern military district.

"In fact, in every possible way they were encouraging neo-Nazis who conducted open terrorism against civilians in the Donbas," Putin said in an uncharacteristically combative New Year's speech, usually dedicated to well-wishes for the year ahead.

"The West lied about peace," Putin said. "It was preparing for aggression ... and now they are cynically using Ukraine and its people to weaken and split Russia.

"We have never allowed this, and will never allow anybody to do this to us," Russian state-run news agencies quoted Putin as saying in the clip, which was broadcast at midnight in Russia's far east.

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-726278

That Day Has Arrived Where Evil is Called Good

These folks aren’t acting.  They truly believe that they are the light in the darkness.  Why?  Because they promise to be the state where babies will always be killed and hide it behind “women’s rights”.  Lord have mercy.  The 100 pound hailstones of Revelation can’t be too far off.

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The lawlessness so glaringly apparent in many 21st-century children is not just a recent issue. Having said this, we do now live in a time where evil is celebrated and promoted while godliness, holiness and goodness are treated with contempt. In times past it seemed that people preferred to doevil, but it was often under cover of darkness. They were not so brazen and open about their sin: today sin is championed and praised.

That is a pretty bleak commentary on the condition of sinful mankind that rejects God. The Apostle Paul has a number of commentaries pertaining to evil that he highlights, one of which is found in 2 Timothy 3:1-4: “The wicked freely parade and prance about while evil is praised throughout the land”. The essence of these texts is this: people not only sin and do evil, but they take great pride in doing so and like to promote – and parade – their wickedness.

That certainly seems to accurately describe the situation in which we find ourselves today. Indeed, as the perfect example of this, simply take any pride march or protest by the secular left, be it a pro-death event or a pro-sexual immorality march. It is all about an in-your-face showcasing of debauchery, perversion and evil. They love to spit in God’s face as they celebrate their preferred lifestyles. The pro-death crowd certainly provides plenty of examples. Imagine seeing a young woman holding a placard on which are the words “I’d rather be a murderer than a mother” –and parading it with such pride and with a perverse grin on her face. This is a level of sickness that needs more than a natural explanation. There is surely some very real demonic influence here.

One must wonder how some people can be so filled with such hatred andbitterness. Most of them don’t understand reason and are not interested in having a polite discussion with you. Most of them are out to serve as the devil’s shock troopers, spewing hideously evil and vile things as they mock God whilst hating His people. We must pray for them and put on thewhole armour of God as we seek to interact with them. Simply trying to be’nice’ and smiling a lot is not a successful solution. This is full-on spiritual warfare. Jesus did not cast out demons by trying to be winsome and nuanced. He knew what he was up against and took steps accordingly, and as the days become darker and darker we can expect more of this sort of evil being displayed around us. We can expect more such ugly confrontations. We can expect more people to parade their sin like Sodom, such as the ones quoted in the following paragraphs. That is the world Scripture has told us to expect. 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul – a Democrat who succeeded scandal-plagued Andrew Cuomo in 2021 – has announced the awarding of $13.4 million in state grants to 37 New York abortion providers during a news conference held at Judson Memorial Church near Washington Square Park in Manhattan. The October 12 conference received light press, and even fewer news outlets reported her quotes about God being on the side of abortion or the fact the conference was held in a church. She congratulated “everyone involved in this congregation for inspiring us andletting us know that God is out there on our side as we continue to make sure that women have the rights that are God-given rights” according to a report in the Albany Update, an electronic newsletter from New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms. “Light does prevail over darkness” Hochul said. “And while there has been a dark pall cast over our nation in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, let that light continue to shine right here in the State of New York.”

Standing behind a podium with a placard that read “We Are NY: A Safe Harbour for All” and “Protecting Abortion Rights,” Hochul called access to legal abortion a moral responsibility. “We’ll fight like hell to make sure thatno one ever touches these rights right here. And we’ll be that beacon of hope. We’ll be that safe harbour for women all across this nation”. This is the second time since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June that the state of New York has released money from the newly-formed Abortion Provider Support Fund.

 https://harbingersdaily.com/that-day-has-arrived-the-world-declares-that-good-is-evil-and-evil-is-good/