Rapture and End Times

You said to yourself:
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will set up my throne
above the stars of God.
I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly,
in the remotest parts of the North.
I will ascend above the highest clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”

(Isaiah 14:13-14)

We can see the makings of the Beast (or Antichrist) in Recep Erdogan, as the Bible shows that the Beast will be a peace maker and will be very wise in the beginning of his rule. At first the Beast will seem to solve many of the world’s problems and he will be considered great in the eyes of most in the world. Representing the Muslims, the Beast will help mediate a peace agreement in the Middle East, especially with Israel.

Hedging Bets: Turkey Courts Europe Amid Row With U.S. / The Jerusalem Post, August 18, 2018

Turkish officials say they want to engage the EU and Erdogan held a phone called with German Chancellor Angela Merkel this week and met with French President Emmanuel Macron.

As Turkey retaliates against the United States in their ongoing dispute over the detention of an American pastor, Ankara is mending ties with the European Union in an attempt to limit the damage to its economy, analysts told The Media Line.

Elmira Bayrasli, who teaches international affairs with a focus on Turkey at Bard College, said that Erdogan is improving relations with Europe to increase confidence in the Turkish market.

She explained to The Media Line that Turkey’s economic growth under Erdogan was partly predicated on the fact that investors viewed him as a stabilizing force.

“The more he can show that he’s very interested in having relationships and he is the leader who can restore that stability, the better it’s going to be,” she concluded, By retaliating against the US, Bayrasli said that Turkey will give the perception that its cutting itself off from the largest economy in the world, which will be bad for Turkey’s financial markets and growing businesses.

However, it is not just Turkey that has something to lose in this crisis. The country is a vital NATO ally, bordering Syria and Iraq.

It makes Turkey both more susceptible to instability, as well as a geopolitically valuable.

The US used a military base in southeastern Turkey to launch air strikes against ISIS.

“I think the United States has a vastly huge interest in the stability and prosperity of Turkey,” Bayrasli said.

 

Following deals with Russia, Turkey now expands military cooperation with China / Al-Monitor, August 3, 2018

As for China-Turkey relations, Chen said Erdogan had recently met with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the BRICS summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa, and that the two leaders frequently talk on the phone.

“Relations of the two countries are developing favorably. Turkey’s central corridor strategy that aims at linking Europe to Central Asia and to Afghanistan, Pakistan and China matches with China’s Belt and Road initiative,” he said.

The number of high-level meetings between the Chinese and Turkish militaries will increase in the coming months, the same sources added. According to the sources, the discussions will cover boosting cooperation in professional military education, military training, the defense industry, terrorism, intelligence sharing, robotic systems, artificial intelligence and cyberwarfare. Also, there will be some joint projects in which Turkish and Chinese engineers work together to boost defense cooperation.

According to Altay Atli, a Turkish expert on the Asia-Pacific region who is a scholar at the Istanbul Policy Center at Sabanci University in Istanbul, China should be considered among the top economic partners for Turkey.

 

 

Turkey’s Erdogan: The Making Of A Latter-Day Sultan / The Media Line, July 25, 2018

Analysts largely agree that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has done more to shape Turkey than any other leader since Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk), the legendary leader who founded the Turkish republic in 1923.

Erdogan, 64, is positioning himself as the bearer of a new Turkish identity, one more closely aligned with Turkey’s Ottoman past and Islamic heritage. It is also an identity that appears to lend to strongman rule.

The Turkish president has been consolidating political power in steady fashion ever since he became prime minister in 2003. After serving in that capacity for 11 years, he quickly transitioned into the presidency, a role he will officially retain until 2023 and perhaps beyond. In 2016, he used a failed coup to purge his opposition in the aftermath. Since then, over 100,000 public service personnel and soldiers have been dismissed from their jobs and more than 50,000 people, including many journalists, have been imprisoned, many still awaiting trial.

By extoling the glories of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish president may be trying to tighten his grip over a polarized nation by tapping into their nostalgia for past perceived glories.

Although Erdogan’s approach incorporates some historical truths, Ülgen explained, it is a glorified, sanitized and romanticized version of the Ottoman past, one that has permeated into popular Turkish culture.

“The emphasis is on all the successes of Ottoman times,” he elaborated. “Take, for example, the hit TV show ‘Payitaht’ about Sultan Abdulhamid II. During his reign, the Ottoman Empire lost three-fourths of its territory in Eastern Europe, but none of that is taken into account.

“This kind of rhetoric and symbolism about Ottoman glories resonates among Erdogan’s constituency,” Ülgen concluded, “but for the opposition, the overriding historical narrative remains anchored to Atatürk.”

“Otto-mania,” therefore, seems to be geared towards mobilizing and strengthening Erdogan’s support base. How it might be cementing his authority beyond his base is still an open question.

 

In 1517 the Ottoman Turks conquered Jerusalem and ruled the Holy City for 400 years. The Turks reigned over Jerusalem until the British General Edmund Allenby defeated them in 1917.

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Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a member of NATO.

Turkey had made great efforts to be perceived as a neutral power, a democracy with basically a secular government. They tried to be a partner in peace with the United States and have done the same with Israel.

In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the European Community. Over the past decade, it has undertaken many reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy; it began accession membership talks with the European Union in 2005.

Note from our previous messages that with fiscal and political union, we see the current European Union as the beginnings of the imperial power of a revived Roman Empire. The geographical area of Turkey was an integral part of the Roman Empire.

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The point of this history is that Turkey has always played a central role in the world, and is now in center stage in the Middle East conflict. Turkey is currently the seventeenth-largest economy in the world. Historically, when a major Islamic empire has emerged, it has been dominated by the Turks. Turkey is a stable platform in the midst of chaos. The Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Arab world to the south are all unstable. As Turkey’s power grows-and its economy and military are already the most powerful in the region-so will Turkish influence…

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him: We ask you, brothers,  not to be easily upset in mind or troubled, either by a spirit or by a message or by a letter as if from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s sanctuary, publicizing that he himself is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4)

The Christian understanding of apostasy is a willful falling away from, or rebellion against, Christian truth. What is happening here is a rebellion against Christianity by society at large. The apostasy reaches the point where the “man of lawlessness” declares himself to be God.

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me: “Come, I will show you the judgment of the notorious prostitute who sits on many waters. The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and those who live on the earth became drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality.” So he carried me away in the Spirit to a desert. I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and 10 horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She had a gold cup in her hand filled with everything vile and with the impurities of her prostitution.

On her forehead a cryptic name was written:

BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND OF THE VILE THINGS OF THE EARTH.

Then I saw that the woman was drunk on the blood of the saints and on the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.

Then the angel said to me, “Why are you astonished? I will tell you the secret meaning of the woman and of the beast, with the seven heads and the 10 horns, that carries her. The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up from the abyss and go to destruction. Those who live on the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast that was, and is not, and will be present again.

“Here is the mind with wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. They are also seven kings: Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he comes, he must remain for a little while. The beast that was and is not, is himself an eighth king, yet he belongs to the seven and is going to destruction. The 10 horns you saw are 10 kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they will receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings. Those with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”

Note: The 7 mountains can also refer to the G7, which consists of the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, Italy, France, and Canada. Also, there are 10 core members of the European Union.

Bible prophecy foretells a 10-nation military alliance that will rise out of a revived Roman Empire (the European Union) and will come under the control of the Antichrist (Daniel 7:23-24). Unknown to many Christians, a 10-nation military alliance appeared in Europe in 1995, called the Western European Union (or the Brussels Treaty Powers).

These 10 nations are members of both NATO and the European Union. What bound them together was a mutual defense obligation under Article Five of the modified Brussels Treaty, which meant that an attack against one would be an attack against all.

Yet, on March 31, 2010, the 10 nations announced that they had agreed to terminate their alliance and transfer the Western European Union’s powers to the European Union – which, under the Lisbon Treaty, has developed a mutual defense obligation that includes all the EU member states.

He also said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute was seated, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages. The 10 horns you saw, and the beast, will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, devour her flesh, and burn her up with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to carry out His plan by having one purpose and to give their kingdom[h] to the beast until God’s words are accomplished. And the woman you saw is the great city that has an empire over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17)

The 10 core members of the European Union, known as the “Berlin Group” (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain) just lost Britain. Soon, they will add Turkey as it reconciles with Israel and promotes a Middle East peace plan.

Babylon the Great is a metaphor for the pagan Roman Empire at the time it persecuted Christians. In Revelation 17:9 it is said that she sits on “seven mountains”, understood as the seven hills of Rome. The characteristics ascribed to Babylon apply to Rome rather than to any other city of that age. The Catholic Church is the great whore in prophecy as seen in Revelation 17:1, a false church.

Vatican Calls for New World Economic Order / Fox News,  October 24, 2011

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican called Monday for radical reform of the world’s financial systems, including the creation of a global political authority to manage the economy.

A proposal by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace calls for a new world economic order based on ethics and the “achievement of a universal common good.” It follows Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 economic encyclical that denounced a profit-at-all-cost mentality as responsible for the global financial meltdown.

The proposal acknowledges, however, that a “long road still needs to be traveled before arriving at the creation of a public authority with universal jurisdiction” and suggests the reform process begin with the United Nations as a point of reference.

Revelation 17:18 as a prophecy of the false church which has power over the kings of the earth. The pope is in apostasy for allowing pagan rituals, beliefs and ceremonies to come into the church, having those who pointed out its apostasy persecuted and killed and never repenting of or fully admitting the true extent of its actions. The Papacy stepped in after the Roman Empire as fulfillment of 2 Thessalonians 2:7 which says, “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.”

It all comes together when considering that the EU founders are solidifying their political union under the approval of the Pope:

Here are some excerpts of his speech:

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO THE HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
IN ITALY FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE 60th ANNIVERSARY OF THE TREATY OF ROME

Sala Regia
Friday, 24 March 2017

Distinguished Guests,

I thank you for your presence here tonight, on the eve of the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the Treaties instituting the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. I convey to each of you the affection of the Holy See for your respective countries and for Europe itself, to whose future it is, in God’s providence, inseparably linked…

Returning to Rome, sixty years later, must not simply be a remembrance of things past, but the expression of a desire to relive that event in order to appreciate its significance for the present. We need to immerse ourselves in the challenges of that time, so as to face those of today and tomorrow…

25 March 1957 was a day full of hope and expectation, enthusiasm and apprehension. Only an event of exceptional significance and historical consequences could make it unique in history. The memory of that day is linked to today’s hopes and the expectations of the people of Europe, who call for discernment in the present, so that the journey that has begun can continue with renewed enthusiasm and confidence.

This was very clear to the founding fathers and the leaders who, by signing the two Treaties, gave life to that political, economic, cultural and primarily human reality which today we call the European Union…At the origin of the idea of Europe, we find “the nature and the responsibility of the human person, with his ferment of evangelical fraternity…, with his desire for truth and justice, honed by a thousand-year-old experience”. Rome, with its vocation to universality, symbolizes that experience and was thus chosen as the place for the signing of the Treaties. For here – as the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, J. Luns, observed – “were laid the political, juridical and social foundations of our civilization”.

It was clear, then, from the outset, that the heart of the European political project could only be man himself…

Europe finds new hope when man is the centre and the heart of her institutions…

As leaders, you are called to blaze the path of a “new European humanism” made up of ideals and concrete actions. This will mean being unafraid to take practical decisions capable of meeting people’s real problems and of standing the test of time.

For my part, I readily assure you of the closeness of the Holy See and the Church to Europe as a whole, to whose growth she has, and always will, continue to contribute. Invoking upon Europe the Lord’s blessings, I ask him to protect her and grant her peace and progress. I make my own the words that Joseph Bech proclaimed on Rome’s Capitoline Hill: Ceterum censeo Europam esse aedificandam – furthermore, I believe that Europe ought to be built.

Thank you.

And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

When millions of Christians are removed, at the Rapture, the mystery of lawlessness (apostasy) increases, and the “man of sin” is revealed. This unleashes the Day of the Lord – the Tribulation.

The time is running short. We believe that this “Beast from the Middle East” will soon help broker the Israeli-Palestinian land for peace treaty, which will begin the dark 7 year period called the Tribulation. We believe that the Rapture will occur before then.

If you are not sure that you are saved, you can accept Christ into your life right now, by praying:

“Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins.  Please forgive my sins and give me the gift of eternal life.  I ask you in to my life and heart to be my Lord and Savior.”

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