Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Terry James: Peace And Safety Ponderings

Peace and Safety Ponderings
Terry James


Do you find it odd, at the very least, that while there are direct threats of nuclear attacks by the leader of Russia, here in the US it is pretty much business as usual? I mean by that there is nothing during this hour like the fears in America I remember as a 20-year-old back during the so-called Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hinted at the possible use of tactical nuclear weaponry to achieve victory in the war against Ukraine. Now he has announced in his recorded message that there will be a major call-up of Russian men in a draft, Russian style. They are even taking prisoners from their gulag camps to flesh out their military muscle.

Putin threatened the US directly saying the nuclear winds could “blow your way.” This, even though winds blowing this direction would not be the case if Ukraine was the focus of his assault with nuclear weapons. The “winds” would blow into Russia, because of prevailing dynamics of weather, etc.

He meant, obviously, for Americans to infer that there might be nuclear missiles coming our way if he began using them against his Ukrainian enemies and if we dared to try to intervene.

Dmitry Medvedev, former president of Russia and now a top Russian governmental official, has backed up the Russian dictator’s threat by saying they don’t rule out the use of tactical nukes, or even strategic nuclear weaponry–which includes ICBMs.

Have you noticed that there seems relatively little pushback or even significant rhetoric coming from the American State Department or this presidential administration against the Russian threats?

In 1962, the Soviet buildup and move into Cuba was met with tremendous counterthreats. President Kennedy even warned directly on television that any launch of Soviet missiles against the US or against any other nation would bring immediate retaliatory response against the Soviet Union.

Now, with Putin’s threats ratcheting up, the present occupant of the White House has gone before the UN to talk–not about possible nuclear war, but about the so-called climate crisis.

There seems no major concern within the ranks of Western diplomacy that Putin might initiate the world blowing up in nuclear conflict.

All of this started me pondering about the prophetic warning given through Paul the apostle.

“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5:1–3)

Why, I ask myself, is there no cry for peace and safety, like in the days of yore? There should be. But I find in my observations that the people of the US seem oblivious to Putin’s threats for the most part.

For those of you who were alive and old enough to remember during the Cuban Missile Crisis, you will recall how it was a nerve-wracking time. Now, such threat seems just another ho-hum news story.

My own thinking is that an all-out nuclear exchange just won’t happen this side of the Rapture of the Church. Such a scenario simply doesn’t fit God’s prophetic Word from the pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy. Such a monstrous event would certainly take the world out of the time of “business as usual” that is indicated by Jesus’ prophecy as given in Luke 17: 26–30, as I’ve often parsed in these columns.

Such a scenario does fit, however, what I believe Jesus prophesied regarding His intervention in that Luke 17 passage.

The very day that Lot went out of Sodom (taken out by God’s angels), judgment fell. Jesus said it will be just like that when He next catastrophically intervenes.

In Sodom that day, that judgment completely obliterated everything and everyone left once Lot and his family were removed. Certainly nuclear explosions would do likewise when striking cities.

There seems no concern, no cry for peace and safety regarding this threat by Putin, who certainly holds sufficient nuclear power to carry out such judgment as Jesus prophesied. And that prophecy will be fulfilled at some point.

Maybe by the time this article circulates, that cry for peace and safety will be running wild. But as of this writing, the people of America, in particular, seem relatively quiet.

Russian people, on the other hand, are at of this moment leaving Russia en masse. Their roads and airports are said to be inundated with people trying to flee. They seem to have no doubt that there are about to be major nuclear exchanges–or some such military conclusion to the war Russia is waging against Ukraine and threatening to wage against the Western world, particularly the United States.

God’s Word foretells a cry for peace and safety that brings sudden destruction from which the peoples of the world will not escape. Jesus says it will be business as usual right up until, like in Lot’s time, His Church is removed. I must conclude, therefore, that a Russian nuclear attack, at least on a massive scale, just won’t take place–for now, at least.

Such a cry for peace and safety will no doubt be forthcoming when there are such nuclear explosions taking place. As a matter of fact, there will be a great peacemaker–a false peacemaker the world will accept to the point of worship, who will make that covenant Israel will accept. It will be the covenant of death and hell described in Isaiah 28, verses 15 and 18.

He will be viewed as history’s great peacemaker. He will, in fact, be history’s most vicious tyrant, and will bring humanity to the brink of extinction.

We have recounted in these columns the many things shaping for that time of Tribulation. No need to recount them again here in detail. However, here are some in brief.


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