Prophetic Headlines

For someone who has been following and tracking the escalating "signs" (aka "birthpains") of a generation, it is truly amazing that we have reached a stage in development where, in a single day we can see so many prophetically related headlines in the news.

Just take a look at a single day's worth of news stories and the prophetic significance of each. Only a few brief years ago, it would have taken several months to accumulate such stories:

1. The Epicenter

Palestinian UN statehood bid a "huge mistake"

Home front defense minister says security establishment preparing for wide-range of scenarios that could erupt after PA's declaration at the UN; Lieberman: Their will be "severe" consequences to unilateral move.

Earlier, a senior defense official said that current IDF assessments were that demonstrations and disturbances that erupt following the PA's declaration at the UN will likely last a number of months.

Fatah stoking false expectations and rage

Palestinian leaders have announced that "the world is about to witness the birth of a Palestinian state" as a result of their bid for the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) by the United Nations. As the United Nations does not have the authority to endow statehood and cannot "create" a state, and as the U.S. has promised to veto any such move, what is the purpose of raising false hopes, which must surely be dashed?

It is precisely the false hopes and resulting frustration which are the unstated but clear agenda for the Palestinian gambit.

Palestinian leadership is using the language of war, not diplomacy. What else do they mean by calling for a state of "general alarm?" Fatah is urging Palestinians to turn September 21 into a day of "national struggle," a phrase which translates in Arabic as "jihad," and go to the streets for mass marches. It is cynical incitement at its worst urging thousands of Palestinians to gather in masses awaiting the "birth" of a state, only to find out that their hopes were stillborn.

The question is why a leadership would set up its population for severe disappointment and rage. The answer is that the Palestinian Authority exists only because it maintains a state of rage against Israel. Should that rage abate, Palestinians would look to their own government and really get angry.

The Roots of Israel's Crisis

Israel is under siege, facing what many people believe is the most serious crisis facing it since the day it first existed, over sixty years ago. Today, two op-eds were published that address this issue.

The first is by Bret Stephens, and appears in The Wall Street Journal. It just might be the single most important column he has written. He starts stating the obvious, and then listing precisely what Israel’s predicament is:

It is surrounded on nearly all sides by enemies who are aggressively committed to its destruction. And too many people who call themselves its friends are only ambivalently committed to its security.

Doesn't this sound like it was lifted directly from the pages of Zechariah's prophecies?

In an interview with Stern appearing today at Frontpagemag.com, Stern himself tells us what he out to prove in his article:

My broadside shows how the Palestinian campaign for statehood is based on a historical big lie. The lie is that the Palestinian people were dispossessed by the new state of Israel in 1948 and that the current Israeli government is still preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. I show that from the beginning of the conflict almost a century ago it was the Jews who were willing to compromise, to accept the so called “two state” solution, while the Palestinian leadership refused to even consider a sovereign Jewish state in the Muslim Middle East.

Growing Concern in Israel Over Jordan

The situation in Jordan is becoming “delicate” say Israeli officials who are monitoring events in the Hashemite Kingdom. Sources in Jerusalem say the government of King Abdullah II may be headed for a major shakeup.

Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, recently tightened security around the Israeli Embassy in Amman following heavy violence that resulted in the evacuation of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo.

Liberman Warns PA of 'Grave Consequences' over UN Bid

Israel left Lebanon and Gaza for peace and received war, warns Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who predicted on Wednesday there will “grave consequences” if the Palestinian Authority asks the United Nations for recognition.

Israel’s “concessions have not brought peace," he told the Second Agricultural Conference in Kibbutz Revivim in the western Negev.

Lieberman also warned that Hamas’ strength is increasing in Judea and Samaria. Military and intelligence officials have warned that the establishment of the Palestinian Authority as an independent entity and without any measures ensuring security for Israelis could leave Israel all but surrounded by Hamas, Hizbullah and Muslim Brotherhood regimes.

2. The Revived Roman Empire:

Euro zone crisis sparks growing international alarm

International alarm over Europe's debt crisis reached new heights on Tuesday, with U.S. President Barack Obama pressing the bloc's big countries to show leadership as talk of a Greek default escalated and markets heaped pressure on Italy.

"We face a completely new challenge, one that has no historic precedent," she said. "We want our currency to succeed. Germany is absolutely committed to this currency."

In the article below we see the renewed calls for the EU to have "one voice" and "someone in control of the situation" - something that we prophecy watchers know will happen. A leader will most definitely emerge probably sooner rather than later:

Euro's Crisis of Confidence: System May 'Go off the Rails'

"Markets want to see decisive action and they want to see someone in control of the situation," said Marc Ostwald, an analyst at Monument Securities in London.

"Nothing that we've had, be it at a domestic level in Italy, be it at a pan-euro zone level, or above all from Germany, indicates that anyone really is getting to grips with presenting euro zone policy with one voice," he said.

Greece Is Potential Epicenter of a Global Economic Earthquake

Here's brief explanation of what has the markets so spooked: Greece is the "potential epicenter of an earthquake that could really upset the global economy." That's the summary of the current state of affairs from Brian Dolan, the Chief Currency Strategist at Forex.com.

3. Global Persecution Growing

Killer Words: Death Threats to Christians

Muslim extremists are using a relatively new tool in their attempt to intimidate and bully Christians, with death threats sent by text-messaging to Christian church leaders, a new report confirms.

The report comes from Compass Direct, which monitors and reports on Christian issues around the globe.

Muslim extremists from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh arrive every few weeks for training in secret camps before they are dispatched on various "missions" around Sudan to destroy Christians and their churches, according to sources inside Sudan.

It elaborated with plans to carry out a series of church destruction missions.

A letter in Arabic was circulated to churches in Khartoum, just as a Lutheran Evangelical Church of the Sudan building was destroyed by flames.

A church response said, "The Muslims are targeting our church in fear that many Muslims will leave Islam for Christianity."

4. The Decline of the U.S.:

Poverty In America: A Special Report

America is getting poorer. The U.S. government has just released a bunch of new statistics about poverty in America, and once again this year the news is not good. According to a special report from the U.S. Census Bureau, 46.2 million Americans are now living in poverty.

The number of those living in poverty in America has grown by 2.6 million in just the last 12 months, and that is the largest increase that we have ever seen since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures back in 1959.

It is undeniable that America is getting poorer. Poverty is spreading and hopelessness and despair are rising. There is a reason why the economy is the number one political issue right now.

If we continue on this path, poverty in America is going to continue to get a lot worse. Millions of families will be torn apart and millions of lives will be destroyed.

5. In the World:

Turkey positions itself as heart of the Arab world

Turkey's prime minister planted himself at the heart of the Arab world's turbulent politics on Tuesday, when he declared himself a champion of the Palestinian cause during a speech at the headquarters of the League of Arab States.

"Our Palestinian brothers should declare an independent state," Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced to an assembly of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.

"Now is the time to have the Palestinian flag in Gaza, and the Palestinian flag should go to the United Nations," Erdogan said to applause from the audience. "Let us hoist the Palestinian flag to the sky, and this should be a symbol of justice and peace in the Middle East."

Erdogan put an end to decades of relative Turkish isolation from the Arab world. During a speech that sought to highlight shared history, values and faith, he frequently referred to Arabs as "brothers."

The Next 9/11 - A Nuclear One?

The Sept. 11 commission stated that our biggest failure was one of imagination. Imagine an Iranian nuclear device detonating high over the American heartland. They're working on it.

On the same day the 9/11 Commission issued its report, another commission issued a report on a threat that could change our world and way of life in ways we can scarcely imagine. It is a real and credible threat, and it is largely being ignored.

The threat is a phenomenon known as electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, and demonstrates why the issue of homeland security extends beyond the need for body scanners or taking our shoes off at the airport. It's why ignoring Iran is dangerous and why a robust national missile defense should be of the highest priority.

We've seen this discussion before. More below:

It is a scenario worthy of Hollywood, but it is a frighteningly real possibility. A solitary ballistic missile, perhaps an ICBM launched by a decaying North Korean regime or an Iranian mullah, or a terrorist Scud launched from a ship off the Atlantic Coast carrying the first Islamic nuke, detonates its warhead 25 to 300 miles above the U.S. mainland.

Nobody is harmed or killed immediately by the blast. But life in America, the world's only superpower and largest economy, comes to a screeching halt as a country dependent on 21st-century technology regresses almost a century instantaneously.

The radiation from such a high-altitude nuclear blast would interact with air molecules to produce high-energy electrons that would race along the earth's magnetic field in a pulse strong enough to disrupt power grids, electronic systems and communications.

And that's just for starters.

Millions could die as hospital systems shut down and rail and air traffic control systems collapse. Farmers wouldn't be able to harvest crops, and distributors couldn't get goods to market.

Energy production would cease. Computers and PCs would become large paperweights. Telephones, even cellphones, wouldn't work. Electronic records would be inaccessible, if they survived.

And just remember - all of the stories above represent one morning of world news.

The birth pains which Jesus went to great lengths to describe - are happening right before our eyes, and the increasing frequency and severity of these birth pains is progressing exactly as one would predict.

This age is rapidly coming to a close and the events that reveal this are literally all around us. They cannot be ignored.

Jesus told us to be prepared for these days. But the preparation that He described did not involve preparing for the carnage that is to come. No. Jesus wanted us to be prepared for our meeting with Him - the meeting that He described in 1 Thessalonians 4:16:

"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an 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."

Interestingly, the apostle Paul had just given some earlier instructions in this regard, found just a few verses earlier in 1 Thessalonians 1:10:

"...and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead - Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath."

It couldn't be more clear.

We are instructed to prepare - for a meeting with Jesus.

Maranatha!