Normal World Up to the Rapture

 We know that there are different smart people who teach differently on Matthew 24.  Some say it’s a passage meant only for the Jews so there is no rapture reference there.  Others say it’s impossible for it NOT to be a rapture passage about conditions on earth right before the rapture.  They argue that the last days of the Tribulation are going to be death and destruction like the world has never seen...hardly a time to be eating, drinking and planning your wedding.  I’m in that camp and so is this guy whose article is posted below.  I don’t worry about mayhem and chaos because I don’t believe we are going to see it.

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The Lord Jesus has put it in my heart to share this to give people peace in these dark days. We read and listen to every news story and video from around the world and see the fabric of society coming undone. In the last few weeks, we have seen the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, the major unrest within Israel, inflation, the fear of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, and the Ukraine-Russia war getting ever worse, even as this article is written.

As Terry James has mentioned in his writings, the fear of World War III is present in the minds of believers. Even those who prep with haste for the coming end seem to believe the bank failures are a sign of the impending collapse of the economy. But as this fear grows, the Lord Jesus Christ has reminded me with the slightest of nudges to share something important:

“For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark” (Matthew 24:38).

When you walk or drive and visit parks, malls, stores, and theaters, do you not see how calm people are—the normal life that people continue to project around you? Every day I walk to a park called Magic Island, and I see families and children playing, barbecuing, fishing, marrying, and swimming as if tomorrow will come again. No matter if the news yells “war” or “economic crisis,” people continue on without a thought of it.

Please read Matthew 24:38 one more time:

“For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.”

It was peaceful until the end—right up until the Flood came and God rescued Noah. I know the events around us weigh heavy on our souls, but have you also seen the hand of Jesus Christ at work? No matter how earth-shaking an event may be, the world continues. Even though Silicon Bank has collapsed, the economy is once more returning to a sense of normalcy. Even though experts say Iran will have nuclear capabilities in days just ahead, and Russia and the West are close to conflict, it’s still peaceful in the minds of many. I was reminded of this Scripture:

“And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17).

The Lord Jesus’ hand holds everything together. Peace will still reign—up until the Rapture of the Church. There can be no worldwide catastrophic chaos before that glorious event. People will still be going about their routine daily life before the trumpet sounds. These are not my thoughts, but the Words of the Lord Jesus Christ telling everyone from His Holy Book, the Bible, about what is to come.

We’re almost there. These signs show us that here, at the tip of this age, normalcy continues… but the foundation that keeps this false sense of normal is almost gone.

https://www.raptureready.com/2023/03/22/normal-life-they-were-eating-and-drinking-by-zachary-everett/

Uganda Passes Most Restrictive LGBTQ Laws and Media Goes Nuts

 In some African countries they routinely kill Christians in heinous ways and the media seems to pass over those facts.  But today we read that Uganda has passed laws making it a crime to be a sexual deviant and the media puts it on front page news.

Uganda's parliament has passed some of the most sweeping anti-LGBTQ legislation in the world. Same-sex acts were already unlawful in Uganda, but on Tuesday night, lawmakers voted to ban identifying as LGBTQ+, or the so-called promotion of gay identity.

In a packed chamber, lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favor of legislation called the anti-homosexuality bill, with only two of the nearly 400 representatives voting against it.

"Congratulations," said Speaker Anita Among. "Whatever we are doing, we are doing it for the people of Uganda."

Same-sex acts have been criminal in Uganda under British colonial-era laws, but this new legislation goes much further. So-called aggravated homosexuality, which includes sex with someone who has HIV could incur the death penalty. The law would also punish anyone who identifies as gay or queer, and potentially people or rights groups seen to promote or support LGBTQ identity.

The legislation has drawn strong criticism from activists and civil rights organisations within the country.

Ugandan LGBTQ activist Richard Lusimbo told NPR "the LGBTQI community has basically been told, you can't raise your head, you can't be seen, you can't be heard"

Here;  https://www.npr.org/2023/03/22/1165317598/uganda-lgbtq-law

Uganda is most likely watching the insanity descend on the West, who can no longer differentiate between a man and woman, and saying that they won't know part of insanity.  But just watch the pressure that Western governments will put on Uganda.  The message is, "You will think EXACTLY like we do or there will be hell to pay!"

Arabic Road Signs in Germany

One of the most important factors in binding people together is common language.  If times are really hard and you run into someone who speaks your language, it's a huge relief.  In America we have millions of folks who now speak Spanish and some number of them speak no English.  So rather than encourage them to speak English we start to cater to their ignorance, "Press 1 for Espanol".  We broadcast 100 cable channels in Spanish and have now made it pretty easy to live in America but not speak our common language.  But so far we haven't chosen to make our road signs bi-lingual.

Not true in Germany.  Their immigrants are mostly Muslim and speak Arabic.  And rather than encourage them to become Germans, they are catering to their Arab immigrants which will further divide the nation AND more importantly, the Muslims will feel that they are winning in their goal to conquer European nations through immigration and birth rates.

“Bilingual road signs are a symbolic expression of social inclusion. They show that people identify with their district and diversity." Thus Samy Charchira, councilor of the Greens in Düsseldorf (very German name), where for the first time in Germany road signs in Arabic have been inaugurated - you know, such as in Cairo, Baghdad or Damascus.

"For several generations, many people, families and traders of Moroccan and North African origin have lived in the district" and "have contributed to building" Germany. "For this they deserve respect, admiration and representation", underlined the Greens. Morocco's consul Lalla Loubna Ait-Bassidi also praised the decision: "I am grateful that integration is being expressed in a way that people from 20 Arab nations can read and understand."

Multiculturalism is the end of nation state and Europe seems determined to go down that road all the way.

The parishes of Düsseldorf have decided that the traditional Christian autumn festival, that of Saint Martin which is celebrated on 11 November, be called the "festival of lights" so as not to offend migrants. Since 2020, four mosques in the city (out of a total of eight) invoke the muezzin's prayer over loudspeakers. In the city of Düren, near Düsseldorf, the Turkish Fatih mosque calls to prayer three times a day, almost like in Islamic countries.

According to the FAZ, 18.9 million people, or 23 percent of the German population, have immigrated to the country since 1950 or are children of immigrants, said the German Federal Statistical Office. It is the first time they have analyzed the country's population based on data on immigration and not only on citizenship, which is a more vague concept given that many immigrants - and especially the children of immigrants - have acquired German citizenship in recent years. The new figures presented date from 2021 and therefore do not include more than a million Ukrainians who came to Germany seeking refuge after Russia invaded their country.

Here; https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/369035

When Muslims feel they have the upper hand they will seek control.  Look at what is happening in Sweden where literally the Muslims have taken over neighborhoods where police and other Swedes are not allowed to enter.  Literally NO-GO zones in their own country!

The tolerance, equity and inclusion folks might FEEL like they are doing good for the world but in reality they are exacerbating division.  If people want to move to Germany then LET THEM embrace their host country and become Germans!  The same is true for America.

On a related note, the list of MOST HAPPY NATIONS on earth just came out.  Finland, Denmark and Iceland were ranked 1,2 and 3.  How interesting that the most un-diverse nations on earth just happen to be the happiest.  You can look them all up but I'm going to bet they are made up of 99% white people speaking the same language and sharing the same culture.

Majority of Democrats Side with Palestinians Over Israel

 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.

The Democrats of America seem to now be on the wrong side of everything.  Abortion, kids changing genders, gay marriage, limitless genders, men playing in women's sports, men in girl's locker rooms and now a majority support the terrorists in Palestine over the rights of the Jewish state to protect itself and live in peace.

A newly released Gallup survey reported that 49% of Democrats responded that "their sympathies lie with the Palestinians" as compared to 38% who favored Israel. 

This represents an increase of 11% increase in support for the Palestinians among Democrats in the past year alone. 

At the same time, the percentages sympathizing more with the Israelis (38%) and those not favoring a side (13%) have dipped to new lows.

In comparison, in 2016, 53% of Democrats said they sympathized more with the Israelis, and 23% with the Palestinians.

This trend is also apparent among independents whose support for Palestinians rose 6% to a new high of 32%. More independents (49%) still favor Israel over Palestinians.

Republicans still favor Israel by a wide margin with 78% continuing to sympathize more with the Israelis while 11% side with the Palestinians. This represents a slight shift toward Israel over the past year and a slight shift away from the Palestinians.

Overall, sympathy toward the Palestinians among US adults is at a new high of 31%. The 54% of Americans sympathizing more with the Israelis is similar to last year's 55% but is the lowest since 2005 and is the first time Israel has not enjoyed a better than 2-to-1 advantage over the Palestinians in Americans' sympathies.

Sympathy for Israel is greatest among older Americans. Net sympathy toward Israel -- the percentage sympathizing more with the Israelis than the Palestinians, is +46 with baby boomers (born from 1946 -1964) favor Israel, as compared to +32 Generation X (born 1965 -1980). 

This compares to 42 % of Millennials (born 1981-1996) who favor Palestinians and 40% who sympathize more with Israel, representing a steep drop in sympathy for Israel among Millennials in recent years.

Gallup concluded that this dramatic drop in Democratic sympathy for Israel correlates to decreasing religiosity among that demographic.

"Americans' views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict have become more polarized as Democrats increasingly commiserate with the Palestinians, while Republicans maintain their solid alignment with the Israelis The escalation of Israeli-Palestinian hostilities over the past year, resulting in a high number of Palestinians killed, could partly explain the most recent shift in Democrats' perspective. 

Democrats' waning religiosity may be a factor in the longer-term trend. Sympathy for Israel has historically been highly correlated with religion, with those attending religious services weekly being much more sympathetic to the Israelis than those who seldom or never attend".

Here;  New Gallup Poll: More Democrats Side With Palestinians Than With Israel (prophecynewswatch.com)

The divide in America will continue to grow as folks on the Left and Right realize just how far apart they have drifted.  At some point compromise will be near impossible.

Israel Could Strike Iran Within 3 Months

 The whole world knows that Iran has never stopped it's quest to have nuclear weapons.  Israel for sure knows this.  Imagine our already teetering world adding a massive war involving Israel and Iran.  Also remember that Iran and Saudi Arabia, Shiites and Sunnis, have sort of come together in some sort of peace deal.  Israel knows that Iran wants nothing more than to destroy it and Netanyahu may just be the guy willing to pull the trigger and take the offensive against Iran.

The Biden administration’s failure to present a credible military response to Iran’s expanding nuclear program has brought Israel closer than ever to launching a military strike on Tehran, according to a retired Israeli general.

Retired brigadier general Amir Avivi, who spent 30 years in the Israel Defense Forces and now serves as chairman of the Israel Defense and Security Forum think tank, predicted that Israel could launch a strike in as little as three months if the Biden administration does not unite its Middle Eastern allies around a plan to combat Iran’s march toward a nuclear weapon.

An Israeli military strike, Avivi said in a wide-ranging interview, “is bad for everybody, but this is at the moment what’s going to happen, and maybe happen in three months, in six months, maybe a year.”

Israel’s deadline for a strike is shrinking due to Iran’s relationship with Russia and support for its war in Ukraine. Moscow could provide Iran with advanced air defense systems that would make it harder for Israel to attack its nuclear sites. And without an anti-Iran coalition in the Middle East, Israel’s options are limited, Avivi said.

Israel and its Arab neighbors that fear a nuclear Iran “need the West to wake up and react to this development,” Avivi said. “At the moment, the U.S. is sitting on the fence, not deciding to lead and build a coalition that will stabilize [the region] and challenge” the Iran-Russia alliance.

The Biden administration’s failure to address these fears pushed Saudi Arabia—a nation that was warming up to Israel during the Trump administration—to ink a peace agreement with Iran that was brokered by China. The Saudi-Iran relationship has long been on the rocks due to Tehran’s regional terrorism operations, but China stepped in this month to broker a deal that restores diplomatic ties between the countries.

Here;  Israel could strike Iran in three months, retired Israeli general says | World Israel News

Wars and rumors of war.  But fear not, all these things must happen.

New Infrastructure Coming for Digital Currency

For those who hadn’t noticed, this blog site had been shut down by Google since Saturday.  A huge shout out to Joe B. from church who helped me figure out what the issue was.  It had something to do with multiple Google sign-ins and one had expired and it shut down all blogs associated with it.

Thanks to all who reached out to encourage me to keep going.

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The cashless society will come!  It seems that with every passing month there is more movement pushing us toward it.  Remember, Covid taught us that cash money is filthy and spreads disease all over the planet. The banking collapse of SVB last week has taught us that individual banks can fail and then need to be bailed out by the Fed.  Also cash is the currency that drug cartels and sex traffickers prefer so shutting it off would freeze their business.  Remember that just last week 2 Americans were murdered at the Mexico crossing by cartels.  So read on to see how another giant step is being taken.  Also remember that they need to take this slowly.  If they move too fast folks will freak out when they realize all local banks will be unnecessary once the Fed has issued CBDC’s.  Every American would end up having an account directly with the Fed!  If you don’t, you won’t be able to buy or sell anything.

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The Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced a July launch of its FedNow service, which will enable all U.S. banks to offer instant payments 24/7, and will constitute the infrastructure of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by linking each banking node directly to the Federal Reserve, according to financial experts.

FedNow “will enable all the banks — any bank in the United States, not just the big ones — to offer instantly available funds in real-time payments to their customers”, explained Fed Chair Jerome Powell before the House Financial Services Committee on March 8.

According to a Federal Reserve press release, “many early adopters” plan on using the FedNow service in July upon its launch, “including a diverse mix of financial institutions of all sizes, the largest processors, and the U.S. Treasury.”

However, FedNow program executive Ken Montgomery noted that “growing the network of participating financial institutions will be key” to greater availability of the FedNow service.

Cointelegraph pointed out that FedNow could “stand in place of a central-bank-issued digital currency.”

While Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard maintained during a House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services hearing in May that a CBDC could take five years to launch due to needed security and design features, she added that FedNow will still serve many of the same functions as a CBDC, according to the financial news outlet.

Financial advisor Joe Brown has warned that FedNow serves as the foundation, or “infrastructure” for a CBDC, bringing the country only a step away from deployment of a central bank digital currency once the FedNow system is fully functioning.

Regarding FedNow, Brown explained on his video blog, “This infrastructure bypasses a lot of the need for the current banking infrastructure, which is the purpose of a central bank digital currency.”

“Eventually, every single economic participant has an account directly with the Federal Reserve, the central bank, and then you don’t need any of the decentralized nodes of the financial system, the previously existing banks,” said Brown.

“This transforms the purpose of the entire banking system really into infrastructure for the CBDC,” he continued, noting that it would “centralize everything under one roof.”

“And once that system is built, once all the kinks are worked out of the system … then they will have the foundation in place to build the Gen 2, the Version 2 CBDC on top of it. The only thing that would be left to do would be to have everybody open an account directly with the Fed.”

Brown believes the foundational CBDC technology is being rolled out “slowly” and independently of a full CBDC so that it doesn’t “look like a power grab.”

“Otherwise everyone would reject it. Everyone in their right minds would look at this thing and say, ‘Absolutely not,’” noted Brown, adding that the gradual implementation is also needed to test its component parts in “baby steps” and make sure the CBDC doesn’t fail “flat on [its] face.”

“But make no mistake, a central bank digital currency is coming and it looks like this new FedNow service is just the launch of the infrastructure for launching the full version of the CBDC later on,” said Brown.

 https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/federal-reserve-announces-july-launch-of-central-bank-digital-currency-infrastructure/?utm_source=popular