Discerning the Times

Two more signs or birth pains. The Indonesian volcano on the island of Sumatra erupted again yesterday. This week the volcano came to life again erupting after 400 years. This eruption was a 13 minute one.

The second sign was a major 7.1 on the scale earthquake in New Zealand that hit very near to that country’s second largest city, Christchurch. There was extensive damage, people trapped inside demolished buildings but no reports of casualties to this point. The quake hit at 2PM EST yesterday. More aftershocks are expected. There was again substantial infrastructure damage.

Keep looking up!

If things were more of a political rally centered around what Glenn Beck did over last weekend then I think it is correct for Christians to follow him. But alot of what Glenn Beck said centered around God and America turning back to it’s true faith. Has Glenn Beck become America’s default spiritual leader?

Hundreds of thousands of Americans showed up in Washington DC for his rally with themes of faith and love of country. Americans are looking for any kind of leadership as they are becoming increasingly afraid of what is going on in America and what is still to come.

Some positives were seen: honoring our military, celebrating America instead of throwing it under the bus, patriotism and conservative political values.

So what could really be so bad then? Well ,Mr. Beck is Mormon. So the God he believes in is not the same God you and I as bible believing followers of Jesus Christ believe in.

The rally had a spiritual theme throughout about turning back to God. The not so subtle theme was “many faiths, one God”.

But Glenn Beck again does not believe in the same God and Savior that we do. He even called the American Indians the chosen people which is Mormon doctrine.

So while he sounds really close sometimes to what you and I believe, he simple is not talking about the same God. Of all the prayers offered at the event none were made in the name of Jesus. So the question is this: Is America in such desperate spiritual condition that it will follow a Mormon for spiritual revival?

Mormons are a false belief, a cult if you will. They believe the following:

1. God was actually born and raised on another planet

2. God has a harem of wives

3. They produce spirit babies that are sent to earth, there they gain bodies and earn sainthood

4. Jesus is the brother of Lucifer

5. Jesus is the chosen/elected savior by a council of gods from other worlds

6. The US Constitution is as sacred as the Book of Mormon. They have a prophecy that in the latter days the US Constitution will be under siege and will be saved by Mormons. The want to build a Mormon kingdom here on earth

7. Salvation is works based and not through grace and faith

This is not the God of the Bible or the Jesus who is my Savior. The apostasy is spreading and we need to wake up before it is too late.

There is already mounting pressure in the Persian Gulf area in regard to Israel, the US and Iran and it’s development of nuclear weapons.

But is there something else happening under the surface. Could Iran be looking to conquer the Persian Gulf states and get their oil?

We know that the Persian Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates want Israel to bomb Iran soon as possible. They actually believe that all of Iran’s saber rattling is a decoy around Israel and that Iran is shifting it’s focus away from Israel and trying to conduct a full takeover of the Persian Gulf states.

Most of the Gulf states do not believe that anything could happen between Iran and Israel because of Israel’s nuclear arsenal and Iran’s proxies of Hezbollah and Hamas conducting a regional war against Israel.

Alot of Iranian citizens have immigrated to Gulf states and could in fact be sleeper agents.

An interesting premise and one that could be a part of the Ezekiel 38& 39 framework. It has lead the Saudis to purchase over $60 billion in new weapons systems from the US in August.

Only time will tell if this is true.

So in the meantime keep looking up!

Alot is taking place in DC right now around the direct peace talks between Israeli PM Netanyahu and Palestinian President Abbas.

Even in the Middle East things continue to change. In the West Bank we even see the Palestinian Authority forces arresting Hamas terrorists involved in the deaths of 4 Israelis in Hebron on Tuesday and another shooting last night.

With all of the most important players also there like Egyptian President Mubarack and Jordanian King Abduallah the potential for a lasting peace has never been so crafted.

But what is really going on. President Obama needs this peace to deflect attention from his disastrous policies and the fact the Democrats may lose the House and even the Senate in November. He needs a signed peace treaty to show his worth as President.

And although these peace talks smack of hints of the biblical false peace covenant from Daniel 9:27, the problem is this: it presents different time tables that will ultimately dismiss it from having major prophetic implications. In other words these talks will also fail.

Rumors of war in the Middle East abound as Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran are not at the negotiating table at all. Also interestingly all of these have otehr prophetic agendas to fulfill from Scripture that God says will take place in the end.

 So these failed talks could actually fulfill this prophetic implication: Psalm 83 and Isaiah17.

These failed talks could lead to the start of these wars. And let us not forget Iran’s prophetic destiny from Ezekiel 38&39.

These meetings in DC are nothing more the fodder for your garden. Middle East peace will actually come about by judgment , Ezekiel 28:24-26.  

Keep looking up!

Shas sroup leader Yishai says that lack of emphasis on God and Torah brought failure to the IDF in the 2006 Israeli-Lebanon war. Israel was defeated in the war it is believed because the people had distanced themselves from God.

For example during the 6 Day War in 1967, against all the Arab armies they were outnumbered 10,000 to 1. The Israeli victory was due to God.

Now when we look at the 2nd Lebanon war in 2006, without Syria, Jordan and Libya only 2,000 Hezbollah fighters  cause Israel shame on the world scene. So the question is how does this happen? According to Yishai because Israel ignored God and Torah is how this happened.

Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem like we are commanded to do in Psalms.

Keep looking up!

Reports are saying that Hamas not only has tried unsuccessfully to derail the peace talks with the attack in Hebron last night, but that Hamas has now completed a series of experiments that allows its newly acquired Fajar rocket to reach a range of 50 miles which puts central Israel into its reach. Hamas will now also begin to manufacture the rockets for themselves instead of having to smuggle them into the Strip.

This development does not bold well for the next few months as Hamas is against the direct peace talks under way in Washington DC tomorrow.

This coupled with a report this morning that Iran is pushing Hezbollah hard to attack Israel. Hezbollah appears to be preparing a major attack on Israel to coincide with the start of the direct talks between Netanyahu and Abbas.

A second potential start date is the Jewish New year festival of Rosh Hashana. This starts on September 8th. Large flux of armed Hezbollah units to southern Lebanon over the last few days confirms the potential in the report.

Stay tuned for immediate updates from me if this attack truly happens.

Keep looking up!

PM Netanyahu is in DC right now preparing for the peace talks with Palestinian President Abbas on Thursday. Today Netanyahu is meeting one on one with President Obama and is then scheduled to attend a formal dinner hosted by President Obama with Abbas, Egyptian President Mubarak, Jordanian King Abdullah and Tony Blair. Netanyahu will also try to meet with Mubarack, Abdullah and Blair separately as well today.

On Thursday, the direct talks get underway and will be facilitated by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Now to PM Netanyahu’s credit he is not negotiating from a position of weakness. He is looking for a real partner and is insisting on security guarantees and full recognition of Israel.  He is looking for Abbas to be his Sadat.

The talks were not deterred by the terrorist attack of 4 Israeli citizens in Hebron last night. Hamas is believed to be behind the attack.

Reports are also coming out the US President Obama may have used a tough negotiating ploy to get these talks started by telling Israel that he might not veto a UN resolution for a Palestinian state unilateral declaration if no peace treaty is completed in a year.

And just now another article has come to light quoting Israeli Defense Minister Barak saying that parts of Jerusalem in the east would be turned over to the Palestinians and also a special regime would be in place to monitor the Temple Mount and other tough areas that both parties share.

What I know the leadership of this country and shocking Israel do not realize is that God has ownership of the land and has given it to Israel. They are playing with fire right now by trying to divide the land of Israel and specifically Jerusalem. We need to pray like never before because this could lead ultimately to the false peace that comes prior to the unveiling of the Antichrist.

I can hear the footsteps of the Messiah. Keep looking up!

A volcano in western Indonesia spewed hot lava into the sky on Sunday in its first eruption in over 400 years.

They just keep coming.

Keep looking up!

Increasing speculation it may be preparing for a military assault on Iran or a regional war with Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza and Lebanon, Israel has placed its largest order for military fuel with the US on record.

Israel ordered 284 millions gallons of avaiation jet fuel, 100 million gallons of diesel fuel and 60 million gallons of unleaded gasoline.

This was at an estimated $2 billion price tag. This on the heels of the recent article in the Jerusalem post on August 20th that said that Fredrick Hoff, assistant to George Mitchell, told Lebanese Army Chief of Staff Kahwaji that Israel was ready to implement a plan to destroy within 4 hours all Lebanese military infrastructure should there be another border incident.

Iran in the meantime has keep up its aggressive military stance after starting the Bushehr plant this month by unveiling even more missiles, drones and fast attack boats.

This is all on top of direct negotiations between Netanyahu and Abbas this week.

Stay tuned this out to be an interesting month.

Keep looking up.

Jesus tells us that prior to His return to earth there would be the following signs and they would all happen at the same time and like the birth pains a mother goes through giving to birth these pains or contractions would increase in both frequency and severity. We find this relayed to us in Matthew 24, Luke 21 and Mark 13.

And even today like what Peter tells us in 2 Peter 2:3-4 that in the last days there would be scoffers who would mick the truth of the return of Christ and who would want to follow after their own selfish desires. They even will claim that things are as they have always been since the dawn of time.

This is the attitude of believers and non believers. We are told on more than one occasion in Scripture to be alert, to know what is going on around us and to look for His coming.

The implications of all this for today is that the scoffers are everywhere. Both in the Church and outside the Church.

So let us look at some of the signs to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are that generation spoken of by Jesus.

1. The Holocaust and the Re-Emergence of Israel as a Nation 

One of the most important signs is the re-emergence of Israel as a nation. As a matter of fact everything else is meaningless in light of prophecy for the last days without Israel becoming a nation again. This re-emergence was foretold by Isaiah and Ezekiel. Specifically Ezekiel 37:11-13 show Israel becoming a nation in the last days and in Isaiah 66 we are told can Israel become a nation in one day. Guess what it happened on May 14, 1948. After 2,000 years God had brought His people home. This is the clearest and most unmistakable sign in that we are living in the last days.

2. Jerusalem is a Burden to the World

This sign is another shocking one to the system. Jerusalem was all but ignored on the world scene for 2,000 years until 1917 and especially ion 1967 when Israel recaptured the eastern half of the city in the Six Day war. The prophet Zechariah foretold this in chapter 12, verses 2-3. This is now a political and diplomatic hot potato as the world tries to make peace in the Middle East out of a 4,000 year old blood feud. Jerusalem is now a burdensome stone for the whole world. Again is this how it has always been? The answer is no!

3. Dramatic Increase in Travel and Knowledge

In Daniel 1:4 the prophet is told that the last days would be known by a dramatic increase in travel and knowledge. Has this always been the case? Again the answer is a big fat NO! Up until the the early 1900s horse and buggy travel was the method of transportation for the whole world. Withinventions of the air plane and automobile and steam boat things changed and quickly. Now people can travel all over the US, all over the world and even into space. We can travel 100 miles below the ocean surface. It is unbelievable what has happened. In regard to knowledge, with the invention of computers, the Internet etc. things are exploding in this space every 2 to 4 months now. Just look at all the change in science, technology etc.

Are you still not convinced? Then let me add even more information for you to digest:

4. Increase in world population 

This is told by Christ in Matthew 24:3-8. This also means not only that there would be way more people on the face of the earth. For example during Jesus time there was perhaps 200 million people, now there is almost 7 billion. But Jesus was also talking about an increase in the frequency and severity of the birth pains as His return was near.

5. Wars

This is an easy one to prove. Just look at the following data:

15th century – 29 wars

16th century – 59 wars

17th century 75 wars

18th century - 69 wars

19th century – 294 wars

20th century – 278 wars

21st century – 55 wars to date and over 550 wars predicted for the 100 year period.

So not only the numbers have increased but the severity of the wars has increased as man’s ability to destroy each other has increased with planes, ships, tanks and even nuclear weapons.

Easy to see this one.

6. Famines 

Again this one is easy to prove also. Look at the data:

15th century – 6 famines

16th century – 10 famines

17th century – 24 famines

18th century – 28 famines

19th century – 30 famines

20th century – 44 famines

21st century – 12 famines to date and 120 famines projected over the 100 year period

In terms of severity just form the shear number of people on the earth now obviously the severity is greater as more people are impacted.

7. Earthquakes

Again a no brainer to see we are the last generation. Look at the data:

Earthquakes of 7.0 magnitude or greater:

15th century – 2 earthquakes

16th century – 3 earthquakes

17th century – 7 earthquakes

18th century – 13 eathquakes

19th century – 29 earthquakes

20th century – 123 earthquakes

21st century – shocking 144 earthquakes to date and over 1,440 projected over the 100 year period.

Hello people, really! Jesus is coming whether you like it or not and soon.

I mean really soon! As a watchman on the wall for Christ it is time to get ready!

Keep looking up! The footsteps in are in my ears now!