Signs of the Rapture

What to Look For

USA Greenlight for Turkey to invade Syria Brings Ezekiel 38 Prophecy Closer

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The amount of concern over Pres. Trump’s decision to pull US troops out of Syria so Turkey can begin a military incursion is overwhelming. My opinion is that Trump is unlikely to be swayed by those who disagree to the point of reversing his decision. His explicit threat on Twitter to destroy Turkey’s economy if his agreement with Turkey’s Pres. Erdogan is not upheld is unsettling, to say the least. We’re at a point on God’s prophetic timeline where I find that it helps to purposely look at some of these events with neutrality, being non-partisan, not taking sides. Certain events must happen, like it or not. This is a good example of just how quickly circumstances can change.
 
In light of the ongoing Convergence of prophecy being fulfilled, this new situation does appear to be paving the way for the Ezekiel 38 invasion of Israel by a coalition thought to include Russia, Turkey, and Iran. A quick, random survey of comments in online Bible prophecy groups suggests that there is much agreement on this pending invasion amongst the ‘watchers’. The historically unprecedented coalition of these 3 countries has met 3 times in the last year to discuss and decide the fate of Syria. Putin has met with Erdogan 7 times already in 2019.
 
To summarize the Ezekiel 38 prophecy:
Persia is clearly modern-day Iran.
Cush comprises more of modern-day Sudan than Ethiopia.
Put is northern Africa or Libya.
The majority of opinions on the identification of which countries are represented by Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Gomer and Togarmah are that these are all historical regions north of Israel in Asia-Minor which include modern-day Turkey, northwest of Iran, southwest of Russia.
 
Less clear is the identification of Tarshish, a land that is implied to be far away from Israel, that is reachable by sea. Could it be Europe? America?
Have you already given thought to what these countries have in common?
 
Antisemitism is pervasive throughout Europe. The recent mass migration of millions of refugees into Europe from the Middle East certainly as not helped.
 
Antisemitism is also simmering in the United States, as evidenced by the election of radical, liberal representatives like Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar whose antisemitic public comments are becoming more common and more tolerated. This apparent trend in conjunction with the US military now being pulled out of Syria makes it easier to imagine how the US will not be coming to Israel’s defense in the event of an Ezekiel 38 invasion. This could possibly explain why the United States, the most powerful country in the history of the world, is not mentioned in Biblical prophecy.
 
The Israeli political system is still in turmoil. The fear is that the country’s democracy is at risk due to the political divisions which have so far prevented a majority coalition government from being formed.
 
Credit goes to Trump for the United States declaring that Jerusalem is the undisputed, capital of Israel, not Tel Aviv.
 
Last week the Sanhedrin sacrificed a live goat on a stone altar for a burnt offering on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the Temple Mount. In Israel, there is increasing talk of rebuilding the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount.
 
How anyone could think that these are not the Last Days spoken of in the Bible is beyond my comprehension.
 
Jesus/Yeshua commanded us to ‘Watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.”… but He wants us to WATCH, to recognize the signs leading up to His return, similar to freeway signs leading up to an exit.
 
Look up, for your Redemption draws near.
 
Maranatha!

Harpazo Horizon or Last Minute Change of Plans?

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A brief summary of today’s status on The Convergence

  • Prominent ‘Christians’ are renouncing their faith, defending the ‘ways of the world’, proclaiming homosexuality to not be a sin, and even committing suicide on September 10th, National Suicide Prevention Day.
  • Churches continue to split along lines separating traditional, literal Biblical beliefs from progressive, tolerant and inclusive beliefs.
  • Under the guise of teaching tolerance children in elementary schools are being indoctrinated with the normalization of perversions and multiple gender fluidity nonsense.
  • The chessboard of the Middle East does appear to be set up for two as of yet unfulfilled prophecies; Isaiah 18 and Ezekiel 38.
  • Damascus Syria is mostly in ruins. It wouldn’t take much more than a spark to “utterly destroy” the oldest existing city in the world.
  • Iran (Persia) continues to provide for Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon, the terrorist military arm responsible for firing rockets into Israel in the north.
  • Iran is now enriching weapons-grade uranium at an accelerated pace and continues to proclaim the impending destruction of Israel.
  • Israel has escalated their aerial bombardment of Iranian military installations in Syria and Iraq where rockets and guided missiles are being imported and manufactured.
  • Hamas continues to fire rockets into Israel from Gaza in the south.
  • ISIS is still being dealt with in Iraq.
  • An unprecedented 2nd attempt at a successful election for Prime Minister of Israel is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 17th
  • Netanyahu has promised to annex the West Bank if elected despite warnings not to from the UN, the EU, and President Putin of Russia.
  • Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has stated that the details of the ‘Deal of the Century’ Middle East Peace Plan will be revealed right after the Israeli elections.

It’s Time to Rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem

And the most eyebrow-raising news of late is that both of the leading candidates for Prime Minister, Bibi Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, are now proclaiming that it is time to rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

In recent decades, there have been a number of false starts where it appeared that at certain points in time global events were foreshadowing the imminent return of Jesus/Yeshua
to take his bride away from this sin-plagued planet which has already been sentenced and is awaiting judgment. Then at the last minute, there would seemingly be a change of plans, postponing the major event until another time in the not too distant future.

We appear to be at one of these points in time once again. Will there be a last-minute change of plans? Or will the convergence of events continue to focus on the major event, our Blessed Hope?

One of the ‘moedim’ or ‘appointed times’ from Leviticus 23 is the Feast of Trumpets, aka Rosh Hashanah, which will occur between Sept. 30th and Oct. 1, 2019

What if? What if this is it?

“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the TRUMPET will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
(1 Corinthians 15:51-53)

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the TRUMPET call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so we will be with the Lord forever.
Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

Indeed, Darkness appears to be closing in from all sides. But the darkness will flee from the Light!

Maranatha!

Stirring a Hornets Nest of Apocalyptic Islam?

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apocalyptic islam mad as hornetsLike him or hate him, President Trump has courageously stood up against a host of hostile Islamic countries and defended Israel by:
 
1. Declaring that the US recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and moving the US Embassy there.
 
2. Pulling out of the Iran nuclear treaty and reactivating sanctions against the Islamic theocracy.
 
3. Declaring that the Golan Heights belong to Israel, not Syria.
 
4. Essentially eliminating all United States financial aid to the Palestinians in Gaza since US taxpayer money was being used by Hamas to finance the rockets they fire into Israel and the tunnels they dig under the border.
 
If there ever was a better reason for apocalyptic Islamic leaders to be so mad they could spit fire I don’t know what it is. Perhaps they are as mad as a nest of hornets that have been disturbed. It is not difficult to speculate that Iran might encourage Bashar al Assad of Syria to take some foolish military action against Israel regarding the Golan Heights to try and regain stature in the Islamic world or favor in the eyes of allah. Syria has already said that they are determined to recover the area ”through all available means”.
 
Prime Minister Netanyahu has likened Trump’s declaration on the Golan Heights to a “Purim Miracle”, referring to the book of Esther where God provided and gave victory to the Jews over their enemies who wanted to destroy them.
 
Unlike almost half of the voting population in the United States, in Israel, President Trump is looked upon as a champion of the Jews and likened to King Cyrus from the Book of Ezra in the Old Testament or Tanakh. King Cyrus was the Persian ruler who 2,500 years ago decreed that the Jews should return from exile to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple.
 
Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “I want to tell you that the Jewish people have a long memory, so we remember the proclamation of the great king, Cyrus the Great, the Persian king 2,500 years ago. He proclaimed that the Jewish exiles in Babylon could come back and rebuild our Temple in Jerusalem. We remember a hundred years ago, Lord Balfour, who issued the Balfour Proclamation that recognized the rights of the Jewish people in our ancestral homeland. We remember 70 years ago, President Harry S. Truman was the first leader to recognize the Jewish state. And we remember how a few weeks ago, President Donald J. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Mr. President, this will be remembered by our people through the ages.”
 
All of these significant historical events add to the great anticipation of finally knowing what the undisclosed details are in the upcoming Peace Treaty which it is said will be revealed sometime after the Israeli elections on April 9th.
 
Our God is sovereign and only He decides when the time is right. God can always press the ‘pause button’ on the Biblical script which is being played out here. However, it doesn’t seem likely that any pause would last for long. All signs point to the soon return of Yeshua, Jesus, King of the Jews, Messiah, Savior. People look up, your Redemption draws near.

Catholicism Unites With Islam

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This moment finds me in low spirits.  I’m recovering from surgery, painkillers cause me to feel dull in mind and depressed, I hardly have enough motivation to write this, but I feel it is important.

So the Pope made history last week by meeting with Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb—the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, in the United Arab Emirates. The stated purpose was to sign a ‘Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together’ to spread the culture of tolerance.  The document “forcefully rejects any justification of violence undertaken in the name of God,” and affirms “respect for believers of different faiths, the condemnation of all discrimination, the need to protect all places of worship, and the right to religious liberty, as well as the recognition of the rights of women.”

The irony is that Sheikh Ahmed is on record as recently as June 2016 as having reiterated the Islamic belief that “Those learned in Islamic law [al-fuqaha] and the imams of the four schools of jurisprudence consider apostasy a crime and agree that the apostate must either renounce his apostasy or else be killed.”  Sheikh Ahmed cited a hadith, or tradition, of Islam’s prophet Muhammad, saying, “Whoever changes his Islamic religion, kill him” (Sahih Al-Bukharivol. 9 no.57).”

Additional irony can be found in the Sheik’s refusal to condemn the evil, horrific actions of ISIS which include filming and broadcasting the burning of people alive in cages and decapitations of countless others with knives while alive, lest we forget so soon just because YouTube has scrubbed the videos from their archives.

Many a Christian has bought into the lie from the Father of Lies that Christians and Muslims worship the same god.
According to the Koran, they can not even coexist.
Islam is a false religion. Mohammed is a false prophet. And Allah is a false god.

Koran 5:54 Oh believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends…

Koran 47:4 When you meet the unbelievers (the people of the Book…the infidel) smite their necks (cut their heads off).
Then when you have made wide slaughter among them…

Koran 5:33 The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and his messenger… will be that they will be killed or crucified… or have their hands and feet from opposite sides cut off.

These are ‘Satanic Verses’ … this is Islam. Anyone who says otherwise is either deceived, a Muslim in name only, or a liar.

These are 3 of over 120 verses that command the true Muslim to kill the Christian and the Jew.

Don’t take anyone’s word for it. Go to the source…search the scriptures and find out for yourself if what you’re being told is the truth or not.

John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

When one rejects the truth they will believe the lie, and as such, they will be condemned and perish.

The Koran specifically states in many passages that God has no son and is not incarnate in Christ.

They say: “(Allah) Most Gracious has begotten a son!” Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous! At it the skies are ready to burst, and the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin, That they should invoke a son for (Allah) Most Gracious. For it is not [worthy of] the majesty of (Allah) Most Gracious that He should beget a son.” (Sura 19:88-92)

“In blasphemy indeed are those that say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary. Say: ‘Who then hath the least power against Allah, if his will were to destroy Christ the son of Mary, his mother, and all everyone that is on the earth?’” (Sura 5:17)

Needless to say, all of this does seem to point towards the coming One-World Religion under antichrist, the man of perdition.

How the so-called leader of over 1 billion Catholics throughout the world can claim to pray to the same god with the Muslim Sheikh who defends ISIS is unconscionable.  Unless of course, they are praying to the same god, the true author of the Satanic Verses.

 

 

The Woman in Travail

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, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws nearThe Woman in Travail, which is a painful or laborious effort.

The astronomical events referred to as the Revelation 12 Sign of Sept. 23, 2017 were a depiction of a woman, a conception, a full-term pregnancy, and the birth of a male child.

Allow me to highlight these points:

  • WOMAN
  • CONCEPTION
  • PREGNANCY
  • BIRTH

There are two ways of interpreting both the scripture in Revelation 12 and the associated story ascribed to the astronomical events of Sept. 23, 2017 commonly being referred to as ‘The Revelation 12 Sign’.

The first is obvious;  the woman is the Virgin Mary who gave birth to the Messiah, Jesus/Yeshua.

However, an event which happened a little more than 2,000 years ago hardly qualifies as being prophetic, as prophecy deals with the future.  John the Revelator was given a vision of things to come, not things which already happened.

The second interpretation requires a little more insight.  The woman represents Israel and the male child is the Church.  The most common and immediate objection to this interpretation is that the Church is always referred to in the ‘female’ form as ‘the Bride of Christ’.  However, the Church is also referred to in the ‘male’ form in the following verse about the Rapture..

For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.

You are all sons of light and sons of the day.

– Thess. 5:3-5

Is the Church not the ‘body of Christ’ where He is the Head and the Church is the body?

Is Christ not the ‘first fruits’ of the dead who are raised to life?

Does the head not precede the body during natural birth?

Was Christ not ‘born again’ when He rose from the dead having put off the perishable for the imperishable? Trading His fleshly body for His eternal body?  He did not see decay…he was transformed.

A woman’s labor is like a short time of pain that will lead to joy that continues forevermore.  A 7-year period of time is quickly approaching when Israel will be persecuted like never before.

This period of time is known as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, or the Tribulation and will be a time of great pain and sorrow.

However, before this period begins, those who know that Jesus/Yeshua is the Messiah, both the dead and the living, will rise to meet Messiah in the clouds to be with Him forever. This is the Blessed Hope.

By no means is the mention of dates a suggestion that the Rapture or ‘catching away’ of Jesus/Yeshua’s Church will happen on any of those days.

PASSOVER                                                         2018               Sunday, April 1st

ASCENSION                                                       2018               Thursday, May 10th

PENTECOST                                                      2018               Sunday, May 20th

IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL                                     2018               Saturday, May 12th

ISRAEL’S 70th ANNIVERSARY                      2018               Monday, May 14th

US EMBASSY MOVING TO JERUSALEM  2018               Monday, May 14th

However, to those who are ‘awake’ and who are paying attention, it certainly does seem likely that something significant will happen soon that is tied to the events on these dates.  The convergence of Signs has only intensified these last six months as global events seem to be following Biblical prophecies of the End Times as if a script were being acted out.  For instance, the countries which are foretold to invade Israel in Ezekiel 38 never before have formed a coalition, yet this has happened and already been reaffirmed in the last couple of months. Russia, Turkey, and Iran are now formally united against Israel.  Never before has Damascus, Syria been on the verge of being totally destroyed, to the point of being uninhabitable.  Today, most of the city is destroyed, but not yet completely destroyed. The stockpiles of chemical weapons in and around the city could very easily be the cause of the city’s upcoming desolation.  It’s not hard to imagine how either the chemical weapons themselves, or nuclear retaliation for their use against innocent civilians in neighboring Israel could be the cause of the city’s pending destruction.

All the while, whether they are aware of how they are fulfilling prophecy or not, the leaders of the world are calling for ‘Peace and Safety’ or ‘Peace and Security’.

Whether one puts any stock into the validity of the astronomical event of Sept. 23, 2017 or not, global events which were prophesied about 2,000 or more years ago are accelerating right now like never before.

That being said, give thought to this… In Isaiah 66, the woman (Israel) is said to give birth to her ‘children’ BEFORE she was in labor, before her pain came.  This event is emphasized as being highly unusual by the asking of the question, “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things?”  So the question must be asked, “What if it is true that the Church is the male child?” The male child who is born BEFORE the upcoming painful, sorrowful time for Israel.

What if the use of Greek word ‘harpazo’ in Revelation 12:5 is acutely intentional and does in fact mean ‘rapture of the church’ in this context?  This interpretation can’t be ruled out.  It is possible.  And if it is possible then our time may be very short.

Be faithful witnesses and look up, for our redemption, our Blessed Hope, draws near!

Personally, I am more inclined to believe that the Rapture would coincide with the Feast of Trumpets in the Fall.  This  ‘moed’ or ‘appointed time’ is historically known as ‘the hidden day’ or ‘the day which no man knows the hour’ as it was dependent on the sighting of the new Moon.  But God is Sovereign and will come when He will come, which could be at anytime…especially in light of world events.

Share the Gospel. Share the Good News that despite our sin and having broken God’s Law, God himself paid the price for us, having humbled Himself to leave His throne in heaven to be born as a sinless human, being God in the flesh with a mission to pay the penalty for sin which required death, but in death our place.  And having died on the cross, He rose from the dead three days later having conquered death…so that those who believe and who confess their sin and their need for Jesus/Yeshua’s gift might inherit His free gift of everlasting life in His presence.

Pray out loud or silently, “Jesus/Yeshua forgive me, for I have sinned against you by breaking your law.  Please come into my life, save me.  I believe you died for my sake because you love me. I believe you rose from the dead and that you’re coming back soon.

Amen.