The End Of The Age Approaches: Warning Signs - Are We Listening?

The first two articles deserve a relatively long introduction. 

First, the following passage seems appropriate today, as the world's governments continue to ignore God's word, instructions and His warnings. We are also seeing unprecedented arrogance by the various world's governments, particularly the U.S. and the EU, but also from the UN, Russia, all Middle-East governments, China, etc. In short, the vast majority of world's governments (and soon, a world-wide governance), in their arrogance, not only ignore God's word, but engage in various forms of persecution. 

This scenario brings to mind Daniel 5 and "The Writing On The Wall". Remember this? 

King Belshazzar had, in his possession the various vessels and goblets which had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem. During a party the following took place (see if any of this sounds familiar, and if there are any modern-day parallels):

"While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar, his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. 

So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lamp-stand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way.

Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled."

(Daniel 5:1-8)

[Now we turn to the conclusion of this story. Predictably, Daniel was brought in to interpret this writing in the wall]

"Then Daniel answered the king...'But you, O Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself...you have set yourself against the Lord of Heaven...You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds his hand your life and all your ways. Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription.'

'This is what these words mean:

God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. 

You have been weighted on the scales and found wanting.

Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians'"

That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of sixty-two."

(Daniel 5:22-30)

That very evening, history tells us that the army of the Medes and Persians (aka the "Medo-Persian Empire") stormed the city and killed the leaders of Babylon - including Belshazzar and his wives, concubines, including all who were engaged in drinking from the goblets stolen from Israel's temple. What an astonishing degree of arrogance - just like today's leaders. The parallels are stunning but accurate. 

As we continue to be immersed in the daily news, sometimes it is worthwhile  to take a step back and look at the big picture. That big picture tells us, in a rather dramatic way, that we are indeed at the very end of the age. Some big things are on the horizon and we may or may not see some of these things. 

Unfortunately, our world leaders are not listening. Just like Belshazzar, their arrogance and sense of power prevent that. They forget that our sovereign God watches everything and will take action at the appropriate time. The fact that He isn't intervening at this very moment, in their anti-God decisions doesn't mean that it isn't coming - and it is coming - soon. The Tribulation will be here very soon, and they don't see it coming. It is tragic, but history has revealed this pattern over and over again - and still - no one is listening. 

In this context, the article below is quite interesting and worth reading. 

This article begins by outlining a new book by Paul McGuire, a Christian author with a focus on end times prophecy and someone I occasionally read (not quoted below). As usual, I don't endorse this author, nor do I agree with every word he writes - however - as stated so many times, it is worth posting as the reader can decide for himself/herself. 

What is interesting about this article, is that it delves into some other interesting aspects which relate to where we are on the prophetic timeline and Billy Graham's final efforts - and the quotes below begin there. 

Prophecy Scholar: America At Crossroads

End of the age

In an exclusive email interview with WND, Graham said the signs of the “end of the age” are “converging now for the first time since Jesus made those predictions.” In his new book, “The Reason for My Hope: Salvation,” the famed preacher wrote he believes the Second Coming is “near” and that America “can’t go on much longer in the sea of immorality without judgment coming.”

“The United States is going to have to turn from its evil ways as God said to the children of Israel,” Graham told WND. “First, we need to repent of our sin and turn back to God; that’s the biblical admonition through the Old and New Testament. Second, we need faith to believe. And then obedience. God gave us the Ten Commandments, which we need to take seriously.”

Graham will give what could be his last message to the world the week of Nov. 7, his 95th birthday.The “My Hope” programs will be available for viewing online, including on YouTube. “The Cross,” the primary program in the “My Hope” series, will be broadcast on the Fox News Channel, TBN, Christian networks and local television stations in a number of cities.

‘Something big is about to happen’

In his new book, McGuire wrote that people sense something big is about to happen – “something that will change life as we know it forever.”

“America has received numerous wake-up calls over the last two decades, and each time it has gone back to sleep. 9/11 was the biggest wake-up call in our nation’s history, and Americans stayed awake for about three months and then they went back to sleep. None of our real problems have been fixed.

“Our economy is apparently (and temporarily) doing well because it is being pumped up by the Federal Reserve who is printing dollars backed by nothing. America is like a bunch of addicts living on crack cocaine, and when we are hit by the inevitable hyperinflation our standard of living is going to go way down.”

What most people don’t understand, McGuire wrote, is that the U.S. is just one crisis away from an economic meltdown, a transformation into an entirely new governmental and economic system or worse.

“Many historians, scholars, political scientists, economists and theologians believe that it is highly possible that America may not exist in the near future,” McGuire wrote. “For example, there are political scientists that believe that America as an independent sovereign nation will cease to exist and that it will merge with some kind of global government.”

In an interview with WND, McGuire said wealthy globalists and their network of secret societies, think tanks and quasi-government organizations such as the Bilderberg Group, Council on Foreign Relations and United Nations, are working to create a global government and economic system as predicted by the biblical prophets thousands of years ago.

“You’ll have a very tiny upper class, or as they like to say the 1 percent, and you’ll have a massive underclass, which will be unemployed or the working class,” said McGuire, who appeared on two highly-rated History Channel specials – “7 Signs of the Apocalypse” and “Countdown to Armageddon: Four Horsemen.”

Whenever people look to government as their savior, totalitarianism always rears its head and people lose their freedoms, McGuire said.

“There is, historically, a seduction that occurs,” McGuire said. “Hitler used it. The communist revolutionaries used it. Basically, the seduction goes like this: We’ll completely take care of you, we’ll protect you and provide for all your needs, but you’ll have to give up your freedoms.”

McGuire said it happens with “mathematical precision,” noting the nation is quickly transitioning into a socialistic system. Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows nearly half of all Americans now receive benefits from one or more government programs.

“If you give up your rights and freedoms to a government the outcome will be concentration camps, mass deaths and a level of brutality and cruelty we’ve never seen before in America,” McGuire said. “It happened in Nazi Germany and in communist Russia and China. People who haven’t studied history always react to that by saying, ‘Well, that sounds extreme,’ but it’s not extreme. That’s the historical precedent.”

McGuire said a “secretive elite” – a group of super-wealthy globalists and multi-national corporations – are “really in control of our nation.”

In his book, McGuire wrote that the biblical book of Revelation predicts the emergence of an end-times “one-world government ruled by 10 kings under the Antichrist in the New World Order.”

“The end game is to destroy America as an independent sovereign nation and merge it into a globalist state ruled by a United Nations Constitution,” McGuire wrote. “Currently, the world is being divided into 10 separate unions or regions like the European Union, African Union, Asian Union, North American Union, and so on. In the future, all the nations of the world may join into one big global government that the prophet Daniel called the ‘Fourth Beast.’ ”

In the book, McGuire wrote the Bible predicts a charismatic global dictator, the Antichrist, will force the “mark of the beast on all those who have not acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

“This microchip, Nano-chip, and biochip implant will allow the individual receiving it to participate in the economic system through buying and selling,” McGuire wrote. “The ‘chip’ will be the ultimate Big Brother surveillance device that can monitor your physical location and transmit your ideas, thoughts, beliefs and perceptions to some kind of ‘cloud system.’”

McGuire wrote the current devaluation of the dollar and the recent global economic crisis are “planned events.”

“We are now living in a time period when there is an unprecedented acceleration of prophetic events and a convergence of scientific, economic and social events that has never happened in all of human history,” McGuire wrote. “Biblical scholars disagree as to the exact timing of the most cataclysmic time period in the history of the world, known as the Tribulation Period. I believe that we are close … very close.”

And this article from The American Thinker gives us similar themes:

The Global  Impact Of U.S. Lies

Now, President Obama has said over and over again, Iran will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. But his recent demarche with the Mullahs' hand-picked successor to the truculent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been termed "historic" by the credulous media elites. Hasan Rouhani has previously boasted that he engaged the West in "talks" that allowed Iran to make major gains in its drive for a nuclear weapon.

In short, we have no credible way to prevent Iran from achieving its goal of nuclear weapons.

Rouhani has shown us the pea under the shell, and now proceeds to shift the shells around in the latest round of a nuclear shell game. The Obama administration is gullibly willing to play Iran's game. In 

That leaves Israel and only Israel to protect the world from nuclear weapons in the hands of the number one terrorist regime on earth. Israel cannot accept empty assurances from a discredited administration. As Mordecai said to Queen Esther in the Bible, perhaps you were born for such a time as this. The millions of Americans who have lost their health insurance can testify to the mendacity of this president's pledges. Israel must not rely on Barack Obama for its lifeinsurance.

News from the Middle East:

Netanyahu: Palestinian Denial Of Jews' Right To Statehood Is Core Of Conflict

A day after the Palestinian Authority called the Balfour Declaration "a crime against humanity" and called upon Britain to apologize for it, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the Palestinian refusal to recognize the Jewish people's right to a homeland is the root of the ongoing conflict.

The Balfour declaration, a letter written 96 years ago on November 2 by British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Baron Rothschild, called for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.

Netanyahu said that in order for there to be peace between Israel and the Palestinians, they needed to recognize the Jewish people's right to a state in its homeland. This means that in a final status agreement they will need to relinquish their so-called right of return and all other claims on Israel, he added

The Palestinian Ministry of Information's English website on Thursday wrote that  Balfour Declaration "continues to serve as the bases for a racial discrimination system forcibly inflicted on Palestine and the Palestinians putting former South Africa Apartheid regime to shame.

"To add injury to the insult," the statement continued, " many of the superpowers continue supporting the Israeli occupation to the cradle of Christianity and sacred shrines of Islam, an occupation disgraced with flagrant violations to human rights and democracy."  No mention was made of Israel's importance to Judaism.

Israel To U.S.: Syria Raid Leak 'Endangers Our National Security"

Israel conveyed a series of bitter protests to the White House and to others in the US administration over the weekend over the Obama administration’s confirmation that it was the Israeli Air Force that struck a military base near the Syrian port city of Latakia last Wednesday.

Israel has not acknowledged carrying out the strike, one of half a dozen such attacks widely ascribed to Israel in recent months, but an Obama administration official told CNN on Thursday that Israeli warplanes had indeed attacked the Syrian base, and that the target was “missiles and related equipment” set for delivery to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

This US confirmation, which was not the first case of the administration leaking word of Israeli strikes in Syria, risked causing a flare-up that could “endanger the security of Israel and the region as a whole,” Israel claimed in its protest messages to the US according to a report in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Sunday.

Israel’s fury was conveyed directly to the White House, as well as during meetings and conversations between senior Israeli officials and their US counterparts in the Pentagon, the CIA and the State Department, the report said.

Israel’s shocked complaints produced no American explanation or reaction whatsoever...

Jerusalem was said to be baffled as to why the Americans would repeatedly leak word of Israeli raids in Syria, when there were all manner of back channels by which the US could convey concern over such strikes if it wanted to do so. In fact, as far as Israel is aware, the report said, “the United States does not have complaints about such Israeli activities.”

Israel’s Channel 10 TV on Friday night quoted Israeli officials branding the American leak as “scandalous.” For Israel’s ally to act in such a way was “unthinkable,” the officials were quoted as saying.

A second TV report, on Israel’s Channel 2, said the leak “came directly from the White House,” and noted that “this is not the first time” that the administration has compromised Israel by leaking information on such Israeli Air Force raids on Syrian targets.

Channel 2′s military analyst, Roni Daniel, said the Obama administration’s behavior in leaking the information was unfathomable.

Daniel noted that by keeping silent on whether it carried out such attacks, Israel was maintaining plausible deniability, so that Syria’s President Bashar Assad did not feel pressured to respond to the attacks.

But the US leaks “are pushing Assad closer to the point where he can’t swallow these attacks, and will respond.” This in turn would inevitably draw further Israeli action, Daniel posited, and added bitterly: “Then perhaps the US will clap its hands because it will have started a very major flare-up.”

Israel 'Furious' With White House For Leak On Syria Strike

Israel is fuming with the White House for confirming that it was the Israeli Air Force that struck a military base near the Syrian port city of Latakia on Wednesday, hitting weaponry that was set to be transferred to Hezbollah.

Israel has not acknowledged carrying out the strike, one of half a dozen such attacks widely ascribed to Israel in recent months, but an Obama administration official told CNN on Thursday that Israeli warplanes had indeed attacked the Syrian base, and that the target was “missiles and related equipment” set for delivery to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Jerusalem’s reported anger with the White House over the leak coincided with efforts by the Administration to assure Israel that it is holding to a tough line on Syria and in the effort to thwart Iran’s nuclear program, and is maintaining its robust military partnership with Israel.

Iranian Supreme Leader Calls Israel 'Bastard Regime'

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Israel “a bastard regime” Sunday, while expressing skepticism over the current round of international talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

His words came two days before Iran and six world powers are set to resume talks on curbing uranium enrichment, with hopes for a rare breakthrough after years of no progress.

“The Zionist regime is an illegitimate and bastard regime,” Khamenei said via his website, according to an AFP report.

Khamenei also praised Iranian militant students who stormed the US embassy in 1979, sparking a crisis that contributed significantly to the bitterness between the two countries.

“Thirty years ago, our young people called the US Embassy a ‘den of spies’… It means our young people were 30 years ahead of their time,” he said, a reference to a series of reports of U.S. eavesdropping on foreign leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.