The Rise Of Gog

Vladimir Putin: The Spirit of Stalin

The ancient Hebrew prophet Ezekiel, who lived about 2,500 years ago, prophesied that in the end times, a powerful nation he described as Gog will lead a massive invasion of Israel along with several other nations before the Lord will supernaturally intervene and destroy these nations before they destroy the Jewish nation.

Who is Gog? According to Ezekiel, Gog is another name for an ancient Caucasian tribe that was also known as Rosh that lived in a land far to the north. If the name Rosh sounds familiar, that’s because Rosh was an ancient moniker for modern Russia. Thus, many of today’s Russians are the descendants of the ancient tribe of Gog or Rosh.

Here are the words that the God of Israel spoke to Ezekiel concerning Gog’s future invasion of Israel: “Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: In that day, when my people Israel are living in safety, will you not take notice of it? You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding horses, a great horde, a mighty army. You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, O Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.’” (Ezekiel 38: 14-16)

Though there are those today who argue that Gog isn’t Russia, keep in mind that the Bible’s geographical map always places Israel at its center. Furthermore, Russia is the furthest nation that exists directly north of Israel. It doesn’t take a biblical scholar with several advanced degrees in theology to figure out the identity of the nation that Ezekiel was referring to. And given Russia’s rapid ascent again in the world politically and militarily after it was considered dead 20 years ago with the collapse of the old Soviet Union, it’s becoming clear that Ezekiel’s prophecy is going to be fulfilled.

But when? Given the current events that are happening throughout the world, Ezekiel’s prophecy is now on the prophetic horizon, albeit a distant one. Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a diplomatic stop in Israel to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While Putin’s visit was barely noticed by the world media, it was crucially important for two reasons because (1) it came at the behest of Netanyahu who feels increasingly betrayed by the Obama Administration that has been coddling favor with Islamic extremists in the Middle East and (2) because Putin wants Russia to replace the United States as the dominant political influence in the Middle East and throughout the entire world.

Here’s where Putin’s visit to Israel was important prophetically; because biblical prophecy clearly reveals that at some point in the future, Israel will be allowed to rebuild her coveted Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. We know this is going to happen because biblical prophecy reveals that the coming Antichrist will enter that temple to defile it by declaring himself as God to the world. (Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15, 2Thessalonians 2:4) Given Islam’s overwhelming influence throughout the Middle East and its current stranglehold over the Temple Mount where its third holiest site, the Dome of the Rock currently exists, only an extremely powerful world leader will have the authority to allow the construction of the Jewish Temple. If the Israelis tried to rebuild the Temple without that authority, it would inflame entire the Islamic world and lead to a bloody, violent war with millions of casualties.

According the ancient Hebrew prophet Daniel, the Antichrist is going to come from Russia. (Daniel 11) And he won’t be Islamic as some so-called prophecy experts are claiming. Rather, he will be a counterfeit Jesus Christ who will rise to power on a combination of clever sophistry, brute force and supernatural miracles that science won’t be able to explain away. And while Vladimir Putin certainly isn’t that man, he and his government are paving the way for a transformation that will see global power shift from the western world to the eastern world that will be dominated by Russia. As the United States and the nations of Western Europe continue to decline economically, NATO will deteriorate militarily which will allow nations such as Russia and China to become the new prophetic economic and military superpowers on earth as Daniel revealed 2,600 years ago.

The Russians will build the foundation for their new political superpower on fossil energy, a commodity that much of the western world has pledged to do away with and replace with Green solar and wind energy. But Green energy is doomed to fail and when it does, the Russians will be in position to control much of the world’s fossil energy supply. In fact, Russia is currently the largest supplier of crude oil, coal and natural gas to Eastern Europe. And not coincidently, the Russians have become close friends in recent years with such oil producing nations as Venezuela and Syria. And in 2010, they signed an economic agreement with Cuba to begin drilling for oil off of Cuba’s shores in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Russians also befriended Libya’s Moamar Ghadafi and signed economic agreements with the dictator to help build new roads and highways throughout Libya before Ghadafi was toppled by the so-called Arab Spring revolution. Why did Russia’s budding relationship with Libya pose a danger to the world? Because Libya is the largest supplier of crude oil to Western Europe. Had Russia established a firm diplomatic relationship with Libya, the Russians could have positioned themselves to gain control of Libya’s oil fields and eventually the entire energy supply of the continent of Europe. And coupled with America’s growing monstrous debt and dependence on foreign oil, the Russians could acquire a strategic economic weapon through control of the world’s fossil energy supply and be in position to ruin the United States economically. Very likely, the so-called Arab Spring revolution that toppled Ghadafi may have been orchestrated by the U.S. and its western allies to prevent Russia from gaining an economic foothold in Libya.

But for now, the Russians are content to spread their influence throughout the Middle East where plenty of oil exists. And with America’s abandonment of its closest ally Israel, Russia is more than willing to become the Jewish state’s new muscle in a violent and hostile region where Israel finds herself increasingly isolated and threatened. Said Putin during his recent visit to Israel: “The region in which Israel sits greatly influences the feelings of the entire international community. Russia has a national interest in assuring peace and tranquility in Israel.”  And, delivering a direct insult aimed at the United States and the Obama Administration, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said this after Putin’s visit: “With Putin as President of Russia, the world is safer and more stable. In Israel, we will exert all efforts to strengthen our relations with Russia. Putin is a model leader.”

Israel’s new ally has already developed plans with the Jewish state to develop two large offshore fields it recently discovered that contain an estimated 24 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Russia’s state-owned Gazprom, the world’s largest extractor of natural gas, plans to help Israel extract that gas. And the Russians have also pledged to help Israel drill for an estimated 1.7 billion barrels of oil discovered in the offshore Levant Basin as well as 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and five billion barrels of natural gas liquids. And you can bet that Israel’s newfound energy will be protected from terrorist attacks by Russia’s powerful military presence that is sure be noticeable soon in the Jewish state.

Russia’s growing influence in Israel isn’t a coincidence--it’s the fulfillment of ancient biblical prophecy. And as that influence continues to grow, you can expect the eventual construction of a new Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, compliments of a nation that was referred to in the ancient times as Gog.

Renegade Jew

The Most Magnificent Jew

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." (Colossians 1:15)

Only someone with a non-functioning brain could examine all the historic, prophetic evidence concerning the Jewish Messiah that's contained in the Bible's Old Testament and not conclude that Jesus Christ is the one that Israel's ancient prophets wrote of. Over 300 specific prophecies that are recorded in the Old Testament speak of Christ and no one else.

For example, Christ's virgin birth was foretold by the ancient Hebrew prophet Isaiah over 700 years before Christ appeared. (Isaiah 7:14) Christ's Bethlehem birthplace was foretold by the prophet Micah over 500 years before Christ was born (Micah 5:2) and Christ's appearance in Jerusalem and his subsequent crucifixion was foretold by the prophet Daniel over 500 years before Christ appeared. (Daniel 9)

How then, did the Jews not recognize Christ when he appeared? Because they weren't looking for him. Why then, did the Jews adamantly refuse to even consider Christ as their messiah despite the incredible miracles he performed throughout ancient Israel? Because they were warned by the Pharisees, their corrupt religious leaders, not to follow him. What then, happened to those Jews who turned against their religious leaders to follow and worship Christ as their messiah? They were maligned, mocked and ostracized by their leaders as ignorant fools and enemies of God for choosing the itinerant preacher from Galilee over them.

Sadly, modern Jews who choose to believe that Jesus Christ is the Jewish Messiah are treated similarly to their ancestors who put their faith in Him. They are insulted, marginalized, ostracized, mocked, persecuted and sometimes even beaten physically for choosing to believe their prophets over the rabbis. They are labeled as renegade Jews; rebels from Judaism who are considered lower than horse dung for choosing Christ over the religion of the rabbis.

But evidence never lies and the evidence loudly proclaims Jesus Christ as the Jewish Messiah who entered the world 2,000 years ago as a man who subsequently died a violent death on a Roman cross to pay the ultimate price for the sins of mankind that no one else or any religious system could pay for. The prophet Isaiah wrote: "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)

Indeed. Jesus Christ may be the ultimate renegade Jew to the millions of Jews who still dwell in spiritual darkness. But to those who have considered the evidence and chosen God's truth over religious falsehood, Jesus Christ is the most magnificent Prince of Peace, Lion of Judah, Son of God, Rose of Sharon and the one and only Jewish Messiah who has blessed them with eternal life. Thankfully, many Jews are finally coming to that conclusion and embracing Christ for who he really is--the Jewish Messiah.

And there's something about the faith of a Jewish believer in Christ that's simply incredible. Richard Wurmbrand, a Jew who was one of Christianity's greatest ambassadors to the world during the 20th century, said this when he was asked to express his love for Christ: "I would rather be the poorest man on earth and know Jesus Christ than be the richest man on earth and be going to hell." Now, that's faith--renegade Jewish faith.

The Modern Days of Noah

When moral bankruptcy reigns

When Jesus Christ spoke of what the world will look like in the days directly preceding his return, he revealed that the end-time world will resemble an ancient time: "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be with the coming of the Son of Man." (Matthew 24:37)

What was the ancient world of Noah like that directly preceded the global flood that destroyed all life on earth? Those days were extremely wicked; so wicked that the Lord lamented: "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and the birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them." (Genesis 6:7-8) After the Lord commissioned Noah to build an ark that was large enough to house two of every animal that existed on the ancient earth, he kept his word and destroyed the world with a flood that lasted 40 days and 40 nights.

The Lord destroyed that ancient world because its people were utterly reprobate and beyond any hope of repentance and redemption. Wickedness prevailed in the form of every imaginable evil--murder, violence, witchcraft, sexual perversion, idolatry etc. Of all the people that existed in that ancient world, only Noah and his family were judged by God to be righteous. Though that ancient world certainly didn't have the population the modern world has, it's still mind-boggling to try to imagine an entire world that was as morally depraved as that ancient world was.

And so, when Christ likened the end-time world to that ancient world just before the flood, he was hardly exaggerating. As the Son of God, Jesus prophesied an end-time world that will be utterly depraved and completely blind to its iniquity. Tragically, evil people rarely consider themselves to be wicked and depraved unless they open their hearts to God and allow His word to convict their consciences of sin. Without that conviction, there can be no repentance, change of lifestyle and certainly no redemption through Christ's death on Calvary's Cross for their sins. 

And certainly, there's always a cause for wickedness and the inevitable effect that it has upon people and the world. Much of the blame for that cause can be traced to Christendom's abandonment of the biblical gospel in the 18th century for Universalism and Ecumenism that reduced Christianity to just another world religion and Jesus Christ to an ancient Gandhi. The Christian Church failed to heed the apostle Jude's words to "contend for the faith" (Jude 1:3) by remaining loyal to the gospel and confronting the monstrous lies of Darwinism. If the Church could no longer convince the world that Jesus Christ was the only exclusive path to  God and eternal life (John 14:6) then it could no longer provide a strong moral foundation that would instill love for God and fear of his divine judgment.

A weak Church has become an irrelevant Church that has effected wickedness and depravity throughout the western world. Murder, violence, witchcraft, idolatry, sexual perversion etc. prevail because fewer people today believe that they are morally accountable to a Holy God for their thoughts and actions. And even more tragically, the Church has become an accessory to evil by promoting it in the form of sexual perversion, witchcraft, idolatry and greed behind the facade of love and tolerance.

Here's the apostle Paul's description of what the last days on earth will look like and his description isn't pretty: "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--having a form of godliness but denying its power." (2Timothy 3:1-5)

That sounds just like the ancient days of Noah. The question that needs to be asked is this: If we are living in modern days that rival the ancient wicked days of Noah, then what kind of global judgment does God have planned? And just who is going to be destroyed in that judgment? Stay tuned.

Bad Times For Christians

The Prophetic Persecution of Christians

Chicago alderman and political hack Proco Joe Moreno wants to deny the restaurant chain Chick-fil-A a zoning permit to build a new store in Chicago's gentrifying Logan Square neighborhood. What's Moreno's beef with Chick-fil-A? The chain is owned by a bible-believing Christian named Dan Cathy who opposes gay marriage and believes that marriage is a God-ordained institution that must be limited strictly to a man and a woman.

That displeases Moreno whose 1st Ward has a growing Gay, Lesbian and Transgender population. Moreno stated: "If you are discriminating against a segment of the community, I don't want you in the 1st Ward...Because of this man's ignorance, I will now be denying Chick-fil-A's permit to open a restaurant in the 1st Ward." As a Chicago alderman, Moreno doesn't have the authority to approve or deny zoning permits--that authority belongs to the city's Zoning Department. But Moreno certainly doesn't need any authority to shoot off his big mouth which he did in order to score political points with his GLT constituency in the 1st Ward.

David Smith, the executive director of the Illinois Family Institute not only labeled Moreno a hypocrite for calling Cathy a "homophobic bigot" because that's the same language the alderman condemns when it's used against gays, but he also claimed that if Dan Cathy was a Muslim, Moreno wouldn't have uttered a word of protest. Smith stated: "Here's the alderman turning around and being intolerant and discriminatory because somebody has a different view than he does. Would he do that to a Muslim company?"

No he wouldn't because Moreno knows very well what would happen if he did. But since Christians have been taught to turn the other cheek and not fight back, they've become convenient targets for this kind of abuse and so much more. There's also a prophetic precedent for the escalating amount of persecution that Christians are now facing all over the world. It was Jesus Christ himself who warned believers that the end times will be bad times for Christians: "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me." (Matthew 24:9) The apostle Paul warned: "In fact, anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." (2Timothy 3:12)

In his apocalyptic vision that he recorded as the Revelation, the Bible's final book, the apostle John revealed that when the Antichrist eventually assumes power over a world government, he will make the persecution of Christians one of his highest priorities: "He (Antichrist) was given power to make war against the saints (Christians) and to conquer them." (Revelation 13:7) And the ancient Hebrew prophet Daniel, who lived nearly 2,600 years ago, also prophesied that this wicked global ruler will persecute God's people in the last days: "He will speak against the Most High (God) and oppress the saints and try to change the set times and laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time." (Daniel 7:25)

The times are getting bad for Christians and they are going to get even worse. Since most of the world lives in spiritual darkness, including many who believe they are Christians, the world is under the power and authority of Satan, who the Bible calls "the god of this age". (2Corinthians 4:4) As such, these people willingly allow Satan to work through them to accomplish his diabolical will; to pervert the knowledge of God and deny the redemption He provided mankind through His Son Jesus Christ who willingly died on the Cross for the sins of the world. The devil's will also includes denying God's transcendent moral laws and commandments that condemn sins such as homosexuality. (Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, 1Corinthians 6:9-11) 

Without repentance, that's a sin that brings eternal damnation. Proco Joe Moreno needs to think about that and he also needs to think about another sin called slander that brings eternal punishment in the fire of hell. Certainly, Christ provided atonement for these sins on Calvary's Cross, but only for those who willingly repent of them. For those who don't, they remain condemned in their sins, no matter how often they attend church and claim to follow Christ.

Is it Evil or Insanity?

Some notorious mass murderers

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is a radio-TV personality who also happens to be an ordained Christian minister. Since he's from the south, it's a good bet that Huckabee's worldview has always been shaped by the Bible rather than by secularism. Nevertheless, after the recent tragedy that occurred in a North Aurora, Colorado theater where a 24-year-old man named James Holmes shot 12 people to death and wounded 59 others, Huckabee didn't sound like someone with a biblical worldview.

Instead, on his most recent TV program, Huckabee interviewed two psychiatrists who tried to psychoanalyze Holmes and uncover a motive for his violent behavior. Labels such as psychopath, paranoid schizophrenic and clinical depression were tossed at Holmes. One psychiatrist even suggested that Holmes "snapped" which seems farfetched when it turns out that Holmes spent several months preparing for his massacre by purchasing thousands of rounds of ammunition in addition to handguns, assault weapons and explosive chemicals.

One label that has seldom been used so far to describe Holmes and his behavior is evil. It seems that in our over-psychoanalyzed and morally blind society, evil has been shelved as some medieval concept that primitive people with simple minds used to explain away deviant behavior. Today, however, it seems that every type of action considered outside the margin of normal behavior is suspected to be rooted in some emotional malady or "mental illness." And there are labels for everything from excessive-compulsive eating disorder (gluttony) to chronic alcohol-fixation disorder (drunkenness) to sexual addictions, (lust, fornication) gambling addictions (greed) and acute-chronic self-absorption disorder. (narcissism)

During an encounter one day with some self-righteous Pharisees who accused his disciples of violating Jewish law by not washing their hands before they ate, Jesus blasted the blind religious leaders by reminding them that eating with dirty hands doesn't make a man spiritually unclean. Rather, he stated: "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man unclean; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean." (Matthew 15:17-20) 

With that rebuke of Israel's corrupt religious leaders, Christ revealed that all deviant and evil behavior emanates from the human heart. Certainly, there is precedent for insanity in the Bible. Ancient Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar was struck with madness by God for believing that he alone rather than the Lord was responsible for his ascension to the throne of Babylon. (Daniel 4) And madness was one of the curses that the Lord pronounced against the ancient Israelites for their rebellion against his laws and commandments. (Deuteronomy 28:28-29) 

But nowhere in the Bible do we find insanity as a valid excuse for immoral, violent and evil behavior. Rather, the Bible declares evil behavior to be the product of personal moral choice rather than the result of emotional disturbances or "mental illness." Thus, James Holmes is an evil person who made the moral choice to commit mass murder in a suburban Denver theater. And certainly, there may be a plethora of reasons why Holmes chose evil, such as atheism, involvement in the occult, hallucinogenic drugs or Eastern religions that may have resulted in demon possession. But ultimately, whatever the reason was that motivated Holmes to commit murder, that reason was evil rather than insanity. 

If society truly wants to stop the increasing carnage caused by people such as James Holmes, then it needs to understand that evil is real and it provides the true motivation for violent behavior rather than man-made psychological excuses that sound convincing but accomplish nothing. But then again, evil is a moral choice while insanity opens the door to psychological prognoses that excuse away moral choices and terrible behavior.

Liars and Deceivers

Brian Ross ABC

"Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech." (1Peter 3:10)

Predictably, just hours after a 24-year-old man named James Holmes was identified as the shooter who committed mass murder in a suburban Denver movie theater, far-left politicians and their media lackeys tried to connect Holmes to conservative groups such as the Tea Party. ABC's Brian Ross even dug up a man named James Holmes who belonged to a Denver chapter of the Tea Party and speculated that he might be the same James Holmes who had just shot up the movie theater in North Aurora, Colorado.

As it turns out, he wasn't the same James Holmes. The James Holmes that Ross discovered was a middle-aged man who wasn't related to the much younger shooter. Ross later "apologized" for his mistake, but the damage was done; the ABC news anchor had ignited a fire that would explode into an inferno of suspicion that Holmes was some extreme right wing militia gun nut jihadist who took it upon himself to rid society of those he found repugnant. 

Brian Ross didn't make an innocent mistake--he's a veteran newsman who knows how to get information and how to check out the sources of that information to determine whether or not they are credible. He deliberately promoted a rumor knowing full well that the rumor was unfounded. He and his staff could have easily checked out the Tea Party member named James Holmes to determine whether or not he was the same man who committed mass murder. But Ross didn't because he probably suspected that the Tea Party member wasn't the same man. Subsequently, Ross committed a sin that college journalism students and news interns are taught never to commit--he promoted something as truth before he had any facts to prove it.

Liars and deceivers have always existed since the dawn of history. When the Lord confronted Cain who had just murdered his brother Abel, he denied knowing his brother's whereabouts. (Genesis 4:9-10) When the apostle Peter confronted a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira about how much money they had earned from land they sold, they lied to him and were immediately struck dead by the Lord.(Acts 4:1-11) When Peter was recognized as one of Jesus' disciples after Christ was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, he denied he ever knew Christ. (Luke 22:54-60) Sadly, lying is a malady that's part of mankind's fallen sinful nature, but it is still unacceptable to God in any form. In fact, the Bible declares that "all men are liars." (Psalm 116:11)

The apostle Paul prophesied that the end-time world will see a proliferation of liars, many of whom will persecute God's true people: "In fact, anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." (2Timothy 3:13) Brian Ross is but one of those deceivers. He may truly believe that there are no eternal ramifications for his deception. But there are. Some will argue that he sincerely apologized for his recent "mistake." But only time will tell us whether that's really true or not.

Prophetic Last Days II

James Holmes

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." (Romans 1:21)

Here's what we know about James Holmes, the man who allegedly shot up a suburban Denver theater and murdered at least 13 people while wounding 50 others: He was recently pursuing a doctorate in neuroscience at the University of Colorado-Denver before withdrawing from the program. According to reports, Holmes used to live in San Diego before he moved to the Denver area in 2011.

Typically, before all the bodies of the victims that Holmes gunned down were in the morgue, the "experts" and anyone else who could offer an opinion on the shooter were claiming that he was "mentally ill" or deeply disturbed emotionally. And they tossed all the usual labels at him that pseudo-experts usually do; psychopath, paranoid schizophrenic, Bipolar I, Bipolar II,  Trichotillomania, Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia, blah blah blah, ad infinitum ad nauseum. 

Holmes isn't mentally ill or emotionally disturbed--he's evil. And it's irrelevant how or why Holmes became evil or what he exposed himself to that motivated him to become a mass murderer. He didn't catch some pathological disease that rewired his brain and caused him to become a murderer. Nor can he or anyone else blame his parents, childhood deprivation, early life experiences etc. for his actions because that just provides convenient cop-outs for terrible behavior. Holmes made a moral choice to do what he did and he knew exactly what he did and why he did it.

Unfortunately, our modern world simply refuses to believe in moral absolutes and the presence of evil. Certainly, some religious quacks will claim that Holmes was demon possessed, and maybe he was. Demon possession still exists and it often affects those who have exposed themselves to Satan and a dark spiritual realm through drugs, Eastern Mysticism and the occult. We don't know yet whether Holmes was involved in any of that.  What's truly tragic however, is that so much of Christendom has forgotten about that dark spiritual realm to pursue solutions for evil through psychological counseling and psychiatric treatment.

James Holmes will be examined by court-appointed psychiatrists who will try to determine whether or not he was legally insane when he went on his shooting rampage. Certainly, Holmes' attorneys will try to have him declared insane because capital punishment is legal in Colorado even though that state hasn't executed anyone since 1997. Eventually, like most tragedies such as this one, it will fade from memory and be forgotten until it happens again. And when it does, we'll probably get the same reactions. 

What's the antidote to evil? The apostle James wrote: "Submit yourselves, then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double-minded. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." (James 4:7-10)

The Prophetic Last Days

The scene outside a North Aurora Col. theater where a gunman killed at least 12 people and wounded 50

"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days." (2Timothy 3:1)

Biblical prophecy is clear concerning the end times that directly precede the return of Jesus Christ: The last days on earth will be exceedingly wicked. Last night, we saw yet another fulfillment of that prophecy when a lone gunman walked into a crowded theater in the Denver suburb of North Aurora and opened fire on moviegoers during the showing of "The Dark Knight Rises." So far, at least 12 people have been confirmed dead and 50 others wounded by the shooter who was identified as a 24-year-old man named James Holmes. According to police, Holmes willingly gave himself up after the shooting and was arrested without incident.

No doubt, there will be those who will try to politicize this tragedy as they almost always do. Some will try to tie Holmes in with the Tea Party or some right wing militia group. Others will try to play the class warfare game by blaming conservative media personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and Sean Hannity for provoking Holmes to go out and vent his hatred against the Obama Administration by committing mass murder. And still others will use Holmes' shooting spree to call for even tougher gun laws and new restrictions on the Second Amendment.

While the North Aurora shooting incident has gotten most of the media attention, two more people were gunned down last night on Chicago's violent streets. The two were identified as 16-year-old boys who were the latest victims of Chicago's ongoing gang wars where violent street gangs are vying for control of the lucrative narcotics trade. What's so significant about these two latest murders? Chicago has banned handguns for many years and yet has one of the highest handgun homicide rates of any city in the United States. It needs to be repeated yet again: Gun laws don't work, haven't worked and will never work. And you can't legislate morality, despite the protests of many Evangelicals who too often seek political solutions to moral and spiritual problems.

Those moral and spiritual problems motivate evil people such as James Holmes to go out and commit mass murder rather than conservative radio-TV hosts; lax gun laws, "mental illness" or hatred of socialist-liberal politicians. I can guarantee you that James Holmes not only has no fear of God, he probably doesn't believe in God either. As such, he has no respect for human life, which he just demonstrated, and he has no concern for the eternal punishment that his deeds deserve. Had Holmes believed in God and respected his authority, he wouldn't have committed mass murder in a suburban Denver theater.

James Holmes is a symptom of a far greater problem in our modern times: A world that no longer acknowledges, honors or respects God and no longer believes that it is accountable to his commandments and transcendent moral laws. You can blame that on secularism, liberalism, Darwinism, hackneyed religion or just plain apathy, but a world that no longer believes in God no longer lives by his decrees. And the evidence for that is both obvious and tragic. Nearly 2,000 years ago, the apostle Paul explained what happens to people who reject God and what their world inevitably becomes. (Romans 1:21-32) Yesterday, we saw yet another example of that.

The Religion of Peace

"The Jews are the heirs of Hell...They will spare no pains to corrupt you. They desire nothing but your ruin. Their hatred is clear from what they say...when evil befalls you they rejoice." (Surah IV, v. 46)


Shortly before he went to the cross to die for the sins of mankind, Jesus Christ revealed this prophecy to his disciples concerning the future: "In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the (Heavenly) Father or me. I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you." (John 16:2-4)


Certainly, countless people have been murdered in the name of religion throughout history. The Roman Catholic Church murdered  hundreds of thousands of people during the Crusades and the Inquisitions. Who was targeted by the Catholic Church? Both Jews and non-Catholic Christians who refused to convert to Catholicism and swear allegiance to the Roman Pontiff. In fact, from its inception in the Fourth Century A.D., the Roman Catholic Church became the leading purveyor of global anti-Semitism by issuing numerous papal decrees and canon laws throughout the centuries that denounced the Jews as the enemies of God and murderers of Christ. Adolf Hitler himself attributed much of his hatred of the Jews to what he learned in the Catholic Church during his childhood.


But in our modern world, Islam has become the most intolerant, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian religion on earth. It is a religion that allows no other religion, political system or worldview alongside it. Unlike true biblical Christianity which is promoted by peace, Islam must maintain itself and be promoted by violence. Though Islam's apologists frequently claim that Islam is a religion that promotes peace and decries violence, nothing could be further from the truth. Islam's founding prophet Muhammad himself was a violent man who advocated jihad as the integral means to spread his new religion across the world. 


Just why did Muhammad revile the Jews and call for their destruction? Because the Jews considered Islam's founding prophet to be a fraud who took al-ilah, a moon god who was one of 300 pagan deities worshiped by the ancient Arabs and reinvented him as Allah, the alleged God of the Universe. After the Jews rejected him, Muhammad recorded several curses against the Jews that later became codified into the Qu'ran. Curses such as this one: "Allah hath cursed the Jews for their disbelief." (Surah IV, v. 46) 


And the Hadith (Sayings of Muhammad) contains the ultimate call for Muslims to destroy the Jews: "The last hour will not come until the Muslims fight against the Jews and the Muslims will kill them until the Jews hide themselves behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say Muslim; the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him." (Sahih Muslim, 5203) It is this recording in the Hadith that Islamic nations such as Iran use to justify their crusade to destroy Israel and exterminate all Jewish life from the earth. In fact, the Iranian Mullahs claim that Islam's messiah, the Imam Mahdi, cannot appear on earth and establish his global caliphate until Israel is destroyed and all the Jews are gone.


Islam is not a religion of peace. It is not a religion that has been hijacked by a few radicals and extremists who have tarnished its sterling reputation. It is a religion that glorifies violence and death, and honors those as martyrs who murder infidels (Jews, Christians, apostates etc.) in the name of Allah. The recent terrorist attack on a busload of young Israelis in Bulgaria (7/18/2012) that killed at least six, again underscores how desperately wicked and malignantly violent Islam is. If the western world wants to survive, then it will either have to confront this nemesis and defeat it or be conquered by it and lose its freedom forever.  

America's Coming Doom

"In her heart she boasts, 'I sit as a queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.' Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her." (Revelation 18:7-8)


 I received a troubling vision recently where I saw the Statue of Liberty at night in all her enormous glory suddenly begin leaning to her left before she fell into the New York Bay and sank underwater. I believe that this vision is a warning from God to the United States of America that unless our nation repents of its multiplying sins, it will soon fall from its glory as the greatest, most prosperous and free nation on earth.

Certainly, there are those who will blame much of America's current woes on President Barack Obama who will likely be considered as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history, assuming that future generations will be around to study history. Though Obama's sins are legion and his ineptitude is alarming, he isn't responsible for America's moral collapse--her people are. Since the end of World War II, America has been traveling down the endless road of moral and spiritual depravity. Nearly every major statistic underscores America's moral decline since the late 1940s from the explosion of violent crime in her cities to skyrocketing out-of-wedlock births, rising divorce rates, rising rates of sexually-transmitted diseases, rising high school dropout rates and declining academic test scores and literacy rates.

And then there are the moral sins of abortion, sexual perversion, persecution of Christians and endless forms of witchcraft and idolatry. Since the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, over 40 million unborn babies have been slaughtered. And certainly, abortion is legal in many other nations throughout the world. But for a nation that is still considered by many to be a Christian nation, that is an abomination in the sight of a Holy God. And if you don't believe that God is going to judge that sin, you're either delusional or living in denial.

Since the mid-1970s, homosexuality has been transformed in America from a forbidden lifestyle condemned by the Bible and declared an emotional disorder by the American Psychiatric Association to "an alternative lifestyle." And since that time, even many Christian churches have ignored their own scriptures to embrace that lifestyle by marrying homosexuals and ordaining them into their clergies. Those who resist the Gay lifestyle on biblical grounds are frequently ostracized, impugned, marginalized and even threatened with incarceration.

America's moral slide coincides with her abandonment of God and His Son Jesus Christ. Though America has more churches than any other nation on earth, her churches have become religious mausoleums where form supersedes function and the biblical gospel has been shelved for an empty social gospel that has no influence on human hearts and consciences. For proof of that, travel through any major inner-city in America where you'll see an abundance of churches surrounded by gangbangers, pimps, prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics and drug dealers. For the most part, America's churches are dead and the nation reflects that reality.

And so, America desperately needs to repent of her many sins and quickly. If not, she is doomed. Listen to the words that the Lord spoke to the ancient prophet Ezekiel; words that apply to modern America: "Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit." (Ezekiel 18:30-31)

The Eternal Destiny of Liars

According to the Bible, few politicians are going to make it into the Kingdom of Heaven. That's because those who traffic in lies and deceit will be spending eternity in a place called Hades. This is what Jesus Christ revealed to the apostle John concerning those who would be allowed into Heaven and those who would be denied: "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates (of Heaven) into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice the magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood." (Revelation 22:14-15)

Sadly, many politicians lie and even more sadly, many people choose to ignore their lies and continue to embrace these fallen men. Certainly, politicians aren't the only people who lie, but they are among the most visible liars in the world since they have access to the mass media. Their lies have one specific purpose; to encourage people to vote for them and to support their agendas.

Tragically, lies never deliver on their lofty promises and they not only destroy the credibility of those who speak them but they contaminate those who don't. Have you ever heard someone complain that all politicians lie? Not all of them lie, but many of them do and those who don't lie often get lumped together with those that do. Thus, habitual liars turn people cynical causing them to become apathetic and indifferent to the political process. As a result, many people refuse to vote which usually benefits mendacious politicians whose supporters not only expect them to lie but aren't concerned when they do.

This isn't merely an indictment of President Barack Obama and his staff members such as Senior Political Adviser David Axelrod who is an arch-liar. The political world is full of liars, cheats, fornicators, adulterers, thieves, swindlers etc. and Obama and Axelrod are but two of them. Rather, this is an indictment of a world that has turned its back on God and no longer believes that it is accountable to His laws, statutes and commands. Corrupt and mendacious politicians are a reflection of the cultures they come from. If the President of the United States and his staff members are vicious liars, then that's because they grew up in a world that encouraged falsehood as a necessary means to gain success, fame, power and wealth.

That might benefit them in this world, but it will condemn them for eternity in the world to come. As he did with the apostle John in about 90 A.D., the Lord revealed this to the Hebrew prophet Isaiah (800 B.C.) concerning the eternal destiny of liars and sinners: "And they (the righteous) will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind." (Isaiah 66:24)

So Many Churches and So Much Crime

One of the striking contradictions that you can't avoid when you travel through a typical inner-city neighborhood is the abundance of churches and the proliferation of crime. In the past, the church usually provided a strong moral influence within its community that translated into low crime rates, low school dropout rates, strong families and a dearth of lasciviousness and depravity.

Unfortunately, that influence no longer exists in many inner-city neighborhoods where churches and criminals often share the same real estate. Travel down any major Chicago inner-city street and you'll see gangbangers, drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, drunks and drug addicts hanging out in front of churches. Many of these people attend these churches which reveals an extremely serious problem that the pastors and ministers of these churches are reluctant to admit; that their churches are providing absolutely no moral influence at all to the surrounding community.

That's because the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ, that the apostle Paul stated "is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16) has been replaced by a toothless social gospel that looks to the government instead of God for answers to moral and spiritual problems that only Christ can solve. For example, when a local minister who pastors an inner-city Chicago church was recently asked what he believed was causing the abundance of crime and violence in his community, he claimed it was the availability of guns.

While that's the politically correct answer that most inner-city church leaders will typically offer, that's the wrong answer. Guns are merely a symptom of a far greater problem rather than the cause. The real problem has been the breakdown of the family because the of the eroding Judeo-Christian influence throughout the western world that can be seen particularly in big cities such as Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Washington D.C. The breakdown of families has resulted in skyrocketing divorce rates, low marriage rates and numerous children that are born outside of wedlock that often leads to juvenile delinquency, academic failure, dropping out of school, drug and alcohol addictions, prison incarceration and the increased odds of suffering an early death.

While some church leaders like to blame utopian government welfare programs for the collapse of families, the blame lies squarely on their shoulders. Had these ministers and pastors continued to "contend for the faith" as the apostle Jude exhorted the early church to do (Jude 1:3) these problems wouldn't exist. Instead, what passes for Christianity within many inner-city neighborhoods has morphed into cultural-Christianity where Jesus Christ has been forgotten and replaced by carnal celebrations and pagan festivals not unlike a religious Mardi Gras.

And sadly, these powerless, counterfeit churches have become a fulfillment of end-time prophecy. According  to the apostle Paul, the last days will be extremely wicked and feature a world that possesses "a form of godliness but denying its power." (2Timothy 3:5) Judging by the typical inner-city Christian church, we are now living in those days.

The Synagogue of Satan

During a conversation he had one day with a group of Jews who steadfastly refused to believe that he was the Son of God despite the numerous miracles he had performed, Jesus said something very provocative; that these Jews and many others were worshiping the devil instead of God. Christ said this: "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire." (John 8:42-44)

What was the devil's desire? To be worshiped by the world as God by convincing the world he was God. And he convinced many ancient Jews to worship him by encouraging them to disregard their scriptures that contained the irrefutable evidence in over 300 specific ancient prophecies that pointed directly to Jesus Christ as Israel's promised messiah. If Satan could cast doubt upon the authenticity of God's word revealed by God to Israel's ancient prophets hundreds and thousands of years before Christ appeared in the world to become the everlasting atonement for sin, then he could lead them astray to worship a different god.

And, according to Isaiah who was one of Israel's major prophets, that different god was Satan himself: "You have said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.'" (Isaiah 14:13-14) Though the devil is the god of all world religions, he passionately desires the worship of Jews and Christians who are either ignorant of the Bible or no longer believe the Bible to relevant in today's world.

Satan began deceiving the Jews long before Christ appeared with an abomination called the Oral Tradition or the Mishnah that was later recorded into the Talmud. The Mishnah was a secret, heavily coded oral law allegedly revealed to Moses by God that Moses was forbidden from recording. According to Jewish tradition, the Oral Law could only be understood by a group of elite, enlightened religious scholars who were responsible for passing the law to each succeeding generation. Of course, this Oral Law frequently contradicted the written law recorded in the Bible and was and still is considered by Israel's religious leaders to be the ultimate religious authority over the Jews. Thus, when anyone has attempted to convince the Jews through the Bible that Jesus Christ is their Messiah, they have usually been rebutted by the oral tradition that cancels the Bible's authority whenever it contradicts the oral tradition.

Most Jews certainly don't purposely worship the devil. In fact, many don't even believe he exists. But throughout history, they have been led away from the true God of the universe and His Son Jesus Christ by a counterfeit religious system encouraged and promoted by the devil. The Bible contains God's true word that proves beyond all doubt that Jesus Christ is the Jewish Messiah and the Lord of all. And when Jews and Gentiles confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and believe that He died on the cross for their sins and was raised by God the Father from the dead, they gain eternal life.

That's a message that Satan doesn't want anyone to read or believe. That's why he works relentlessly to deceive the world and keep billions under the death sentence their sins bring them. Thankfully, many Jews are now rejecting Rabbinic Judaism for the fraud that it is because they realize that it's a counterfeit religious system that was set up by a counterfeit god who wants to take them to hell with him. And they are leaving the Synagogue of Satan for the true Church of Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Strange Gospel

Richard Wurmbrand, who was one of Christianity's greatest missionaries of the 20th Century, once was asked whether he'd ever consider renouncing Jesus Christ for unlimited riches and material wealth. This was his response: "I would rather be the poorest man on earth and know Jesus Christ than be the richest man on earth and be going to hell."

Sadly, Wurmbrand wouldn't be welcome in many churches today where Christ has been dethroned for lucre and materialism. And sadly, neither would the apostle Paul be welcome in many modern churches because he warned that "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and have pierced themselves with many griefs." (1Timothy 6:10)

When we study the decay and decline of Christendom that began in the 19th Century, we can trace much of that decline to the false gospel of wealth that transformed Jesus Christ from the Son of God who entered the world to die for the sins of mankind into a celestial sugar-daddy who allegedly came to reveal the heavenly secrets of acquiring vast wealth. Suddenly, salvation through Christ's crucifixion on the cross and the subsequent eternal life that his death brought to every person that confessed their sins to Jesus took a back seat to money, materialism and power. This strange new gospel, that is commonly called the Health and Wealth Gospel or the Name It and Claim It Gospel, became the central message of such preachers as E.W. Kenyon, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Robert Tilton, Fred K.C. Price and Creflo Dollar just to name a few.

The prosperity gospel not only isn't biblical, it's another gospel that promotes a different Jesus Christ that can't save anyone. Paul continued: "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction." (1Timothy 6:9) And it was Christ himself who stated: "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." (Matthew 6:24)

How then did the false prosperity gospel become so entrenched in the modern Church? Because of this quote by Christ that was taken completely out of context: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (Matthew 7:7-8) Prosperity preachers use that scripture to claim that Christ taught us how to gain wealth by faith when in fact, he did no such thing. Christ taught us how to accomplish God's will through persistent faithful prayer rather than using faith as a spiritual tool to become rich.

Sadly, many Christians are biblically illiterate and don't have the ability to test false teachers who promote phony gospels such as the prosperity gospel. If they studied the Bible, they would quickly understand that the love of money is just another form of idolatry. And tragically, the false prosperity gospel has produced damaging guilt in multitudes who doubted their faith because they failed to acquire wealth and become rich. And yet true faith comes from believing every word that Jesus Christ spoke rather than the lies of false teachers and sleazy preachers who use the prosperity gospel to line their pockets at the expense of their gullible followers.

The Religion of Hope or Fear?

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims that homosexuality doesn't exist in his nation and there's a good reason for that--those who are merely suspected of being homosexuals in Iran are arrested and hauled before a religious kangaroo court where they are condemned to be executed by hanging.

Thus, both Islam and Christianity condemn homosexuality as an abomination before God but they deal very differently with those who practice that lifestyle. True Biblical Christianity offers homosexuals a way out of that lifestyle and the eternal condemnation it brings through the cross where Jesus Christ willingly died for the sins of the world while Islam offers only capital punishment for those who are caught practicing that lifestyle. Thus, Islam's method for preventing homosexuality involves the threat of death while Christianity's method is to offer God's grace through Christ's atonement on Calvary's Cross for those who truly confess the sin of homosexuality and repent of that lifestyle. Of course, those who refuse to repent of the homosexual lifestyle will never enter the kingdom of heaven, (1Corinthians 6:9-10) even if they claim to follow Jesus Christ as Lord.

So the question that some will ask is this: Who deals with moral depravity more effectively? Muslims will tell you that Islam deals with depravity more effectively by allowing for zero tolerance through Shariah Law. In nations such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, thieves who get caught stealing lose their right hands; women suspected of being unfaithful to their husbands are stoned to death and homosexuals are hanged.

While the fear of dismemberment and death may certainly provide a strong deterrent against crime and moral depravity, it doesn't change human hearts. The brutal oppression of the old Soviet Union kept crime and decadence in check throughout that political empire for nearly 70 years until it finally collapsed about 20 years ago. Then, crime, corruption and violence exploded across much of Eastern Europe because multitudes that were ignorant of God and had previously been restrained only by brute force were suddenly set free.

And so, Christianity restrains through one's recognition of a Holy God and his subsequent fear of God's supreme authority. Solomon wrote: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." (Proverbs 1:7) Thus, true restraint begins with one's recognition that one can only be absolved of sin through repentance, confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and an honest pledge to turn away from sin and live a holy life dedicated to honoring God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son.

Under Islam, moral restraint comes only by fear of death rather than the hope of eternal life through Christ. And that is a hope that neither Islam nor any world religion can provide.

The Death of Christianity

All that's preventing the Episcopal Church from allowing transgender men and women the right to become ministers in its churches is approval by the church's House of Deputies. According to Reuters: "The Episcopalian Church's House of Bishops voted Saturday (July 7, 2012) to include gender identity and expression in its non-discrimination canons, meaning sexual orientation, including that of people who have undergone sex-change operations, cannot be used to exclude candidates to ministry."

The Episcopal Church, which long ago abandoned the Bible as its spiritual inspiration for a universal gospel, has fulfilled end-time biblical prophecy concerning a great apostasy (falling away from biblical truth) within Christendom through its growing acceptance of multiple paths to God offered by world religions and its latest push to embrace "alternative lifestyles," i.e. homosexuality, lesbianism and transgenderism under the banner of inclusiveness. Episcopal bishops defend their embrace of alternative lifestyles by invoking the biblical command to love others unconditionally.

But according to the Bible, unconditional love doesn't mean tolerating and embracing sin, no matter what the circumstances. Certainly, human sexuality is a powerful emotion that often dictates the attitudes and lifestyles of human beings, sometimes even into the bondage of addiction. But then again, hunger, greed, hatred, jealousy, foolishness, depression and rage are also powerful emotions that left unfettered, can lead to destructive behavior and disastrous consequences. That's why three of the main themes stressed in the Bible are repentance of bad behavior, self-control and separating from bad influences. Even more important than these is the need for each and every person to be born again into eternal life by faith in Jesus Christ's death on the cross for their sins and his resurrection from the dead. The power of Christ to deliver repentant sinners from the death grip of sin simply cannot be diminished. And that power comes by faith in Christ, not through psychology or any of its myriad of 12-step programs that often fail, leaving its adherents feeling confused, guilty and hopeless.

If the apostle Paul was alive today, he would be banned from many churches because of writings such as this: "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1Corinthians 6:9-10) Paul wasn't some philosopher who delighted in airing his opinions--he wrote his epistles through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who lived in him. Therefore, those who choose to dismiss Paul's writings as religious commentary are blaspheming God as a liar because God inspired Paul to write that.

The Episcopal Church used to believe what Paul wrote. But that was a long time ago. Now, the Episcopal Church, like many lapsed churches and denominations, believes that it can do God's work without obeying His word. It can't and the logical result of the Episcopal Church's abandonment of God's word has been the loss of His presence and power that can be seen in the millions who have left that church since the 1970s. Thus, the more the Episcopal Church tries to attract new members by selling out Christ for sin, the more ground it loses. If this keeps up, eventually there will be no more Episcopal Church, which is just as well.

The Historical African-American Gospel

From the Rev. Bill Owens, a spokesman for the Coalition of African-American Pastors: "We have requested a meeting with President Obama and until he meets with us, we are going to ask black Christians to withhold their support until he personally hears our concerns."

According to Rev. Owens, one of the Coalition's greatest concerns is Obama's recently professed support for gay marriage. There are other concerns as well--Obama's support for unfettered abortions and his expansion of government power that proposes to eliminate the proverbial wall of separation between secular government and religion. Owens continued: "More than anything, this is an issue of biblical principles and President Obama is carrying our nation down a dangerous road. Many African-Americans were once proud of our president but now many are ashamed of his actions."

Rev. Owens doesn't get much attention from the secular media because his message is starkly at odds with the prevailing message you usually hear today from African-American church leaders. Owens' message is the message that was preached by the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and it's a message that used to be the prevailing message preached in the pulpits of African-American churches until King was assassinated in 1968. That message was based upon the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ; that all men and women are created equal and loved by God regardless of race, creed or ethnic background, and that God sent His One and only Son Jesus Christ into the world to die for the sins of African-Americans and all human beings.

Dr. King preached that African-Americans were human beings created in the image of a Holy God and therefore deserved to be treated with the same dignity and respect as all other human beings and enjoy the same rights as all other human beings. Dr. King never demanded special rights for African-Americans nor reparations for the myriad of crimes committed against blacks during slavery or the oppressive years of Jim Crow segregation. Dr. King wanted the barriers of segregation and Jim Crow laws removed so that blacks could compete on a level playing field with everyone else in academics, politics, sports and business.

Unfortunately, after Dr. King was assassinated, some of his successors who took over the pulpits in black churches began preaching a social gospel with a heavy emphasis on grievance-mongering. Politics--particularly the kind promoted by the Democratic Party--became the conduit to government entitlement programs such as welfare that enslaved millions of blacks into generational dependency upon government and subsequently destroyed the very soul and spirit of a people that had flourished morally and spiritually under Jim Crow because they were solidly grounded by faith in biblical Christianity. One statistic speaks volumes: In the early 1960s when Dr. King and his message influenced African-Americans, only five percent of black babies were born out of wedlock; today nearly 79 percent of black babies are born out of wedlock.

And so, it isn't Barack Obama who needs to listen to Rev. Bill Owens and the Coalition of African-American Pastors, but rather the entire African-American community in the United States. Rev. Owens' message is Dr. King's message rather than the message of pseudo-Christian race-hustlers such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson or racist preachers such as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. If African-Americans would start listening to Owens and study the historical message preached by Dr. King, they would reject the social gospel as the moral cancer that has murdered their souls and rotted their communities for nearly half a century. And they would put their faith, hope and trust in Jesus Christ as their true Messiah rather than in phony, man-made saviors such as Barack Obama.

Still the Greatest Nation

About the only hint of the United States in the Bible is a prophecy recorded 2,600 years ago by the ancient Hebrew prophet Daniel where the prophet (Daniel 8) allegorically referred to a western nation he described as "The King of Greece" that he revealed will destroy a wicked kingdom located in the Middle East that is now known as Iran. The allegorical King of Greece is actually the United States and we have dealt with this topic in Iran's Prophetic Doom.


That's the only mention of America in the scriptures. While some prophecy experts believe that the ancient Hebrew prophet Isaiah mentioned the United States in a specific prophecy regarding the last days, (Isaiah 9:10) that's highly unlikely because God clearly addressed only Israel through that prophecy and not some other nation either directly or indirectly. Therefore, the United States is found nowhere else in the Bible, other than in Daniel's ancient recording.

Nevertheless, the United States has played a unique role in modern history and has been greatly blessed by God since its inception in the 18th century. Unlike other nations, America's government was founded upon the biblical worldview that man is a fallen, sinful creature who cannot be trusted with absolute power. America's founding fathers established a government (Executive, Legislative, Judicial) that protected her people against the rise of bloodthirsty tyrants, power-hungry dictators and religious fanatics that claimed to be sent by God to establish his kingdom on earth. For well over 200 years, that government has provided a special blessing to millions who were fortunate to escape tyrannical nations under the demonic rule of fascists, communists, Marxists and Socialists. The United States has fulfilled the ultimate dream of providing freedom and prosperity for millions of immigrants who escaped totalitarian regimes run by the worst of human beings.

Unfortunately, there are those who hate America and actively seek her demise. Ironically, some of these people, such as the corpulent filmmaker Michael Moore, despise America's economic system and yet have become wealthy because of it. Some of these people, such as terrorist Bill Ayers, despise America's freedom and yet have been allowed to insult and lambaste America because their speech is protected by the First Amendment. And some of these people, such as the snotty, repulsive and arrogant Jane Fonda, despise America's military, and yet have enjoyed the political freedom that tens of thousands of American soldiers shed their blood and sacrificed their lives to protect.

And so, here's a recommendation: If you hate America and believe her to be an evil, oppressive regime, then find another country and get lost. If you truly believe that Marxism-Socialism-Communism is superior to democracy and independence, then why not consider Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, North Korea, China, Laos or Zimbabwe? Go ahead--make sure your visa is current and go visit one of these nations and apply for asylum. And take your Occupy Wall Street friends with you and go occupy someone else's country. We don't need you here; we don't want you here and we hope you never come back.

God Bless the U.S.A. and Happy Birthday America!

The Obamachrist

When Jesus Christ stood before Pontius Pilate shortly before Pilate condemned him to crucifixion, the arrogant Roman procurator informed Jesus that he had the authority to either set him free or crucify him. Christ then responded: "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above." (John 19:11)

With that statement, Christ revealed that Pilate was given his position and authority from God--although not directly. And if God ultimately placed Pilate in his position as the Roman procurator of Judea, then he places world leaders in their positions today as well. The proverbial $64 dollar question that begs to be asked is this: Why does God choose wicked and mendacious leaders who lie to their people while crushing their spirits and ruining their lives? The answer is simple: Because the people deserve these leaders.

When we examine the past 60 years in America, we see a steady erosion of morals and ethics, beginning in the late 1940s through today. For example, in the 1950s, nearly 80 percent of American households contained married couples, while today that figure is barely 50 percent. Fewer marriages mean more children are being raised in single-parent homes which often means serious trouble when fathers aren't around to help raise and discipline their children. Children from single-parent homes often struggle in school, reject authority and experience chronic failure throughout their lifetimes.

In the 1950s, most Americans feared and believed in God and attended church at least occasionally. Today, fewer Americans believe in God and many never go to church, even during Christmas or Easter. In the 1950s, homosexuality, lesbianism and transgenderism were considered an abomination by most Americans and an emotional disorder by the American Psychiatric Association. Today, these behaviors are considered normal lifestyles and those who object--especially on biblical grounds--are labeled as morons, religious fanatics, racists, bigots and haters.

And in the 1950s, violent crime was a fraction of what it is today because people respected authority and understood that they were morally accountable to a Holy God for their thoughts, actions and words. Today, God has become an outdated historical artifact to many who believe that human beings are nothing more than the end product of billions of years of random evolutionary forces. And of course, in the 1950s, abortion was illegal while the presence of the 10 Commandments was allowed in public schools. Today, the 10 Commandments are gone from schools while abortion has murdered over 40 million unborn babies since Roe v. Wade in 1973.

And so, the American people suffer economically and spiritually under President Barack Obama because they have earned him. And, Barack Obama has become the reflection of a morally and spiritually bankrupt nation that mocks God, defecates on his laws and persecutes both Israel and true born-again Christians. Like all human idols that have existed throughout history, Barack Obama is just another charismatic false messiah who has failed to deliver on his lofty promises.

Certainly, there's an election coming up on November 6, but if the American people believe that getting rid of Obama will solve their problems, they're mistaken. Remember that God chooses leaders. If the American people want good leaders instead of bad ones like Obama, then they need to heed God's own words spoken to Solomon in the ancient times: "If my people, who are called by name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (2Chronicles 7:14)

Climate Change or Divine Judgment?

Of course, there are those who will blame the recent spate of violent weather that struck the United States on "Global Warming" or "Climate Change." Severe thunderstorms, triggered by an intense heatwave that has boiled much of the U.S. in recent days, resulted in widespread destruction that killed at least 13 people, knocked out electrical power to millions of residents and caused extensive damage to roads, bridges, homes and businesses that could total billions of dollars in losses.

A significant portion of the Washington D.C. area still remains powerless after the deadly storms and that spells big trouble for that area's residents because that means no air-conditioning in the dangerous, boiling heat. No electricity also means no running water in many places; no telephone, emergency 911 or internet service, no lights and no cellphone service for tens of thousands of people. And according to some electrical engineers, the damage is so extensive to various parts of the electrical grid in the hardest hit areas such as Washington D.C. and Virginia that it could take weeks for the utility companies to repair the damage and restore all the power.

It seems that over the past several years, the U.S. has been hit increasingly hard with these types of weather patterns, from monstrous hurricanes to searing droughts to damaging floods to killer F-4 tornadoes to crippling ice-storms and blizzards. And of course, Colorado has been hit hard recently with out-of-control wildfires that have destroyed thousands of homes and burned thousands of acres of vegetation. The question that begs to be asked is this: Is this extreme weather just part of a cyclical pattern that occurs periodically in time or is it indeed caused by "Global Warming" or "Climate Change"?

Or, could it be divine judgment handed down from God upon a rebellious and wicked nation? Few people want to believe that because (1) it sounds incredulous, unscientific and the sort of stuff that comes from religious nuts and (2) it places the blame for natural destruction squarely upon the behavior of the people. But stop and think: If God brought judgment upon ancient cities, (Sodom and Gomorrah) nations (Babylon) and even the world (the flood of Noah's time) for rebellious and aberrant behavior, then why wouldn't he do that today? Remember Hurricane Katrina that struck the city of New Orleans in 2005? That came just days after the Bush Administration coerced Israel into giving away some of its land (Gaza) to the Palestinians in a futile land for peace swap. That land was given to Israel by God (Genesis 17:8) and it was taken away by the Bush Administration which brought a curse upon America. Was Katrina divine judgment? You can decide.

If the current violent weather is divine judgment upon the U.S., then what has caused it? There are a myriad of reasons but we could start with the Obama Administration's recent betrayal of Israel by leaking the Jewish nation's top-secret mission to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. Not only did that alert the hostile Islamic nation to Israel's military intentions, but it inflamed the entire Islamic world. Since that classified mission was leaked, Israel has been bombarded with a series of rocket attacks.

And not surprisingly, since that leak the storms have begun hitting the U.S. and hard. Is it any coincidence that Washington D.C. got hit the hardest? Just wait--this is only the beginning.

Iran's Prophetic Doom

One of the reasons why Barack Obama seems unlikely to be reelected to a second term as president of the United States can be found in an obscure prophecy recorded by the ancient Hebrew prophet Daniel who lived about 2,600 years ago. The prophet received an incredible revelation from the Archangel Gabriel concerning an end-time invasion of a formidable Middle-Eastern nation by a powerful nation that came from the distant western world. (Daniel 8)

What does that have to do with Barack Obama's reelection chances?  Because the powerful western nation that Gabriel revealed will invade and conquer the Middle-Eastern nation will most likely be the United States.  It is highly unlikely that under Obama, the United States would lead a military invasion against any nation, no matter how serious a threat that nation posed to America, its allies or the world. Barack Obama is an antiwar president who was heavily supported by far left, antiwar activists during his successful 2008 presidential campaign. Obama truly believes that the power of his lofty rhetoric can convince even the most hardened radicals and warmongers to lay down their arms and give peace a chance. Considering that some of the rogue nations in the world believe peace talks to be a sign of weakness, Obama's faith in his ability to simply convince nations to give up their military plans for global peace is delusional and dangerous.

Who is the Middle-Eastern nation that Gabriel revealed to Daniel? Gabriel used an allegory to describe this nation as one of two nations that comprise a "two-horned ram" (Daniel 8:20) and the conquering western nation as a "shaggy goat" that featured a prominent horn between its eyes. Gabriel then revealed that the two-horned ram represented the kings of Media and Persia while the one-horned shaggy goat represented the king of Greece. Ancient Persia is now Iran. But who would be modern Media? Gabriel revealed that the horns on the ram represented two kings and one horn was initially longer (more powerful) until the other horn "grew up later". (Daniel 8:3) The longer horn (Media) represented Iraq's Saddam Hussein until he was removed from power in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its military coalition. The horn that grew up later is Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that has threatened to wipe Israel off of the world map. And the ram that the horns are attached to represents Islam that has aspirations of establishing a global caliphate.

But did Gabriel really mean that Greece will be the nation that will invade and overthrow Iran? Gabriel used the king of Greece as a metaphor for a powerful western nation. The modern nation of Greece is economically bankrupt, militarily impotent and poses no threat to anyone. So why did Gabriel refer to this conquering western nation as Greece? Because Greece was the most prominent gentile nation in the ancient world and the gentiles were often referred to as Greeks. Plus, Daniel revealed that this nation "came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground". (Daniel 8:5) Literal Greece exists just northwest of Iran and wouldn't have to travel a vast distance to invade that nation.

The nation that Daniel most likely referred to is the United States. The U.S. is still the world's greatest superpower and the Lord is going to use America to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities before the Iranians attempt to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons. But Daniel also revealed that once Iran has been defeated, the prominent western nation will be "broken off" (Daniel 8:8) and replaced by four new world powers. Why will the United States be broken off? Because America abandoned Israel when the Jewish state needed her protection the most. Besides leaking Israel's military plans to attack Iran, the Obama Administration also allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to take control of Egypt after Mubarak's demise and allow a dangerous enemy on Israel's southern doorstep. And because of that, the United States has been judged.