Rapture and End Times

In the last post, we listed the critical End Times prophecies that are pointing to the imminent Rapture of the Church. In this post, we will examine the uptick of these 10 top factors in the latest news reports.

1. A Middle East peace plan that allows for the Temple to be rebuilt

He will make a firm covenant
with many for one week,
but in the middle of the week
he will put a stop to sacrifice and offering.
And the abomination of desolation
will be on a wing of the temple
until the decreed destruction
is poured out on the desolator.

(Daniel 9:27)

Kushner, Greenblatt to visit Mideast to seek backing for peace plan / The Times of Israel, February 8, 2019

WASHINGTON — White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and other administration officials are headed to the Middle East later this month to brief diplomats in at least five countries on the economic section of a US proposal for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Stops are confirmed in Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Other stops could be added to the trip, according to a White House official.

The plan includes an economic development proposal for Palestinians that foresees major infrastructure and industrial work, particularly in Gaza. For the plan to succeed or even pass the starting gate, it will need at least initial buy-in from both Israel and the Palestinians as well as from the Gulf Arab states, which officials say will be asked to substantially bankroll the economic portion.

Also, Kushner is to participate next Thursday in Warsaw in a discussion to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a senior White House official.

During the discussion with Borge Brende, president of the World Economic Forum, he is expected to give an update on the peace effort and what the administration hopes to accomplish in coming weeks and months.

In Warsaw, Kushner will be attending a gathering that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said will focus on Middle East stability and efforts to keep Iran from being a destabilizing influence in the region.

 

Toward a change in the old Israeli-Arab peace equation / The Times of Israel, February 5, 2019

That old strategic equation began to erode in the late 70s, after Egypt prioritized its own national interests by pursuing a peace agreement with Israel, despite the absence of Israeli-Palestinian negotiation. This pattern of Arab behavior has accelerated and expanded in recent years. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s precedent became the formal and informal policy of a large group of Arab leaders.

The roots of this dramatic change can be found in certain strategic developments underway in the Middle East over the past decade: the increasing threat of Iran in the region considered by the Sunni Arab world as the main threat, leading them to go so far as to see Israel as a potential strategic ally; the Islamic challenge from within Arab states that compelled them to focus on their own internal problems and seek Israeli assistance in order to defeat them; the rise of new young Arab leaders who feel less commitment to the Palestinian issue; growing Arab disappointment in the positions and the policy of the Palestinians and their leaders; and President Trump’s Middle East policy, which is based on an effort to strengthen relations between Israel and the Sunni Arab world.

The change in relations between Israel and the Arab world finds its expression in several arenas: formal visits of senior Israeli officials in Arab states (such as Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Oman in November 2018), and informal meetings between high ranking officials; growing cooperation between Israel and Arab states (particularly Egypt and the Gulf states); and expanding economic activity between Israeli and Arab business leaders and companies. All these developments are taking place not only in the absence of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, but at a time of deep crisis between the two sides and in the shadow of possible escalation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

 

2. Increasing “birth pains”

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth… She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. (Revelation 12:1-2,5)

A glimpse of our future? Heatwaves in the southern hemisphere is killing wildlife ‘on a biblical scale’ from record-breaking heat / The Big Wobble, February 7, 2019

We are just 38 days into 2019 and already we have had record heat in Australia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, NASA claims the last 5 years have been the warmest since modern records began.

Heatwaves in the southern hemisphere taking its toll on wildlife dramatically in 2019 already

The number of dead cattle on a remote Western Australia property is expected to double to 2,000, a peak industry group warned today, as evidence surfaced of an earlier incident at the same site.

 

Extreme Weather Is Already Breaking Records Around The World In 2019 / Huffington Post, January 30, 2019

In just a few weeks’ time, extreme temperatures have smashed records around the world this year, with parts of the Midwestern U.S. seeing the mercury drop as low as minus 38 degrees Fahrenheit as Australia endures triple-digit high temperatures, reigniting concerns about a changing planet.

Meteorologists expect Australia’s extreme heat to be part of a new trend, with minimum temperatures increasing over the last 50 years, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The bureau’s Global Temperature Report for 2018 found that Australia’s climate and its surrounding oceans have warmed by about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (or 1 degree Celsius) since 1910. Sea levels have also risen around Australia.

A review of global temperatures by the nonprofit research organization Berkeley Earth in California also determined that 2018 was likely the fourth warmest year on Earth since record-keeping began in 1850. The three warmest years recorded were in 2015, 2016 and 2017, with 2016 having been the warmest year seen.

 

3. The invasion of Israel

God, do not keep silent.
Do not be deaf, God; do not be idle.
See how Your enemies make an uproar;
those who hate You have acted arrogantly.
They devise clever schemes against Your people;
they conspire against Your treasured ones.
They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation
so that Israel’s name will no longer be remembered.”
For they have conspired with one mind;
they form an alliance against You—
the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,
Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek,
Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre.
Even Assyria has joined them;
they lend support to the sons of Lot. 

(Psalm 83:1-8)

Iran says it has put ‘guided warheads’ on missiles that can reach Israel / The Times of Israel, February 4, 2019

Iran has equipped its most advanced, longest-range missiles, which can hit Israel and US bases in the Gulf, with new precision guided warheads, state media reported Sunday.

“The new generation of missiles with guided warheads has been named Khoramshahr 2 and they can be controlled until hitting the target and are able to carry warheads weighing nearly 2 tons,” the report said.

The report comes a day after Iran said it had successfully fired a new long-range cruise missile, amid events marking 40 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

 

Russian media threatens US with 100-megaton nuclear doomsday device after key arms treaty fails / Business Insider, February 5, 2019

Russia recently said it built one of the most devastating nuclear weapons of all time in the form of an undersea torpedo with a 100-megaton nuclear warhead that’s designed to be unstoppable against all missile defenses and create tsunami-size waves, and a radioactive hellstorm that stomps out life on earth for thousands of square miles for decades.

Since they announced the weapon, they’ve already used it to threaten Europe. But now with the INF Treaty in tatters, a military expert told a Russian paper that the doomsday device could see use.

“It cannot be excluded that one of the Poseidon with a 100 megaton nuclear warhead will lay low off the US coast, becoming ‘the doomsday weapon.’ Thus an attack on Russia, will become a suicidal misadventure,” the paper said.

The missile, dubbed Hoveyzeh, was described as a high-precision weapon capable of flying at low altitudes and able to carry a significant payload up to a distance of 1,200 kilometers (840 miles.)

In December, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of testing a medium-range ballistic missile capable of “carrying multiple warheads,” which he said could strike “anywhere” in the Middle East and even parts of Europe.

 

4. The rise of the Beast

They worshiped the dragon because he gave authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to wage war against him?”

A mouth was given to him to speak boasts and blasphemies. He was also given authority to act for 42 months. He began to speak blasphemies against God: to blaspheme His name and His dwelling—those who dwell in heaven. And he was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them. He was also given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. All those who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name was not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered. (Revelation 13:4-8)

Erdogan Urges Voters to Focus on Price of ‘a Bullet,’ Not Food / Bloomberg, February 8, 2019

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the specter of enemies abroad as he sought to counter a homegrown threat to his popularity ahead of elections — rampant food inflation.

Noting complaints over prices of staples like tomatoes and potatoes, Erdogan on Friday pressed his campaign to stoke nationalist fervor, appealing for Turks to think instead about the “price of a bullet.”

“What is the cost of my soldier’s uniform and the struggle he’s giving against terrorists, think about it!” he said at a rally in the central city of Sivas. “It’s our government which is undertaking this” battle. Criticizing officials over food prices only served the interests of foreign powers aiming to undermine the country, he said, dismissively referring to them as “Hans or George.”

 

Erdogan Cancels Meeting With Bolton, As U.S. Seeks To Reassure Allies On Syria / NPR, January 8, 2019

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has apparently snubbed U.S. national security adviser John Bolton, canceling a planned meeting to discuss the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria as well as the fate of a U.S.-allied Kurdish militia fighting ISIS in Syria.

Bolton’s meeting with Erdogan was canceled moments before it was to begin, reflecting Turkish anger at Bolton’s insistence that those Kurdish forces be protected after more than 2,000 American troops exit northeastern Syria.

Bolton’s visit to Ankara comes one week after Pompeo angered the Turkish government by saying the U.S. wants to be sure “the Turks don’t slaughter the Kurds.”

Pompeo doesn’t plan to visit Turkey on his current trip. After Amman, Pompeo is slated to visit at least eight Middle East capitals, from Cairo to Riyadh and Kuwait City.

In the background of the talk about ISIS and Kurdish fighters, another spat is bubbling between the U.S. and Turkey, centering on the NATO ally’s recent arms deal with Russia.

As NPR’s Kenyon reports, “Washington is displeased with Ankara’s move to buy Russian S-400 missiles, and has recently offered to sell them Patriot missiles instead.”

 

5. The rise of the False Prophet

Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamband spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. (Revelation 13:11-18)

New method for high-speed synthesis of natural voices / Cornell University, February 5, 2019

The research team has developed the method of neural source-filter (NSF) models for high-speed, high-quality voice synthesis. This technique, which combines the recent deep-learning algorithms and a classical speech production model dated back to the 1960s, is capable not only of generating high-quality voice waveforms — closely resembling the human voice — but also of conducting stable learning via neural networks.

 

The significance of Pope Francis’ UAE visit is impossible to exaggerate / Fox News, Febuary 5, 2019

The crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed, knew exactly what he was doing when he invited Pope Francis to visit the Arabian Peninsula to inaugurate the UAE’s “Year of Tolerance.” The visit, which is underway now, represents a historic first in 1,400 years of Islamic history, and it is impossible to exaggerate its significance.

Never before has a sitting pontiff been invited by a Muslim ruler to visit the Peninsula which also plays host to Islam’s holiest sites of Mecca and Medina.

The visit is not taking place in the shadows, either. Pope Francis will deliver a public mass for more than 120,000 residents of the United Arab Emirates in the national stadium. That gathering, which will represent one of the largest public gatherings in the history of the Arab Sheikhdom, will be broadcast on live television throughout the entire Islamic world, as will the pope’s visit to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and his meetings with various religious leaders from around the world who are gathered here to commemorate his visit.

 

6. Global Persecution of Christians

Then they will hand you over for persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of My name. (Matthew 24:9)

World Watch List 2019 / Open Doors, February 1, 2019

In seven out of the top 10 World Watch List countries, the primary cause of persecution is Islamic oppression. This means, for millions of Christians—particularly those who grew up Muslim or were born into Muslim families—openly following Jesus can have painful consequences. They  can be treated as second-class citizens, discriminated against for jobs or even violently attacked.

State authoritarianism is increasing in many parts of the world, supported by the ever-spreading availability of personal digital technology, which governments can increasingly track through facial recognition, electronic chips and so on. Places like
Vietnam, Myanmar, China and North Korea all saw increases in stricter state control of religious rights.

 

CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION WORSENS AROUND THE GLOBE / Facts & Trends, January 17, 2019

In the last year, the number of Christians experiencing high levels of persecution climbed 30 million to 245 million. In total, 1 in 9 Christians experiences high levels of persecution.

 

7. Increasing Apostasy

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now.

(1 John 4:1-3)

Pope Francis under fire for claiming ‘diversity of religions’ is ‘willed by God’ / Life Site, February 5, 2019

ROME, February 5, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has incited further controversy by signing a joint statement with a Grand Imam, saying that a “pluralism and diversity” of religions is “willed by God.”

The Pope signed the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” with Ahmad el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Egypt’s al-Azhar Mosque, during an interreligious meeting in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

The Feb. 4 event was part of Pope Francis’s three-day apostolic visit to the United Arab Emirates. The historic journey marked the first time a Roman Pontiff has visited the Arabian Peninsula, and was intended to promote interreligious dialogue and support the country’s considerable Catholic minority.

 

Macron calls for inter-religious dialogue at end of Egypt visit / Al-Monitor, January 29, 2019

French President Emmanuel Macron met Tuesday with Egypt’s top clerics and called for inter-religious dialogue at the end of a three-day visit aimed at boosting ties while raising human rights concerns.

Macron and Pope Tawadros II stressed the need for “dialogue between religions” as he met with Pope Tawadros II at St. Mark’s Cathedral, seat of Egypt’s ancient Coptic Orthodox Church.

“I decided that a new conference will be held in Paris to see how to act more effectively,” he said, without giving details.

A diplomatic source said the French capital would host a forum on religious minorities in the Middle East, but without giving a date.

Macron visited the church adjacent to the cathedral that was the site of a December 2016 jihadist attack which killed 29 people.

He also met in Cairo with Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the most prestigious seat of Sunni Islamic learning in Egypt.

 

8. The Formation of a One-World Government

This is what he said: ‘The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, different from all the other kingdoms. It will devour the whole earth, trample it down, and crush it.” (Daniel 7: 23)

Angela Merkel: Nation States Must “Give Up Sovereignty” To New World Order / ZeroHedge, December 28,2018

“Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty”, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who told an audience in Berlin that sovereign nation states must not listen to the will of their citizens when it comes to questions of immigration, borders, or even sovereignty.

No this wasn’t something Adolf Hitler said many decades ago, this is what German Chancellor Angela Merkel told attendants at an event by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin. Merkel has announced she won’t seek re-election in 2021 and it is clear she is attempting to push the globalist agenda to its disturbing conclusion before she stands down.

 

France and Germany: “We Are Committed to the Emergence of a European Army” / Gatestone Institute. January 25, 2019

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have signed a new Franco-German friendship treaty aimed at reinvigorating the European Union, which has been buffeted by the European debt crisis, mass migration and Brexit — as well as innumerable conflicting interests and priorities among its 28 member states.

France and Germany, the self-appointed guardians of European integration, have said that the new treaty is a response to the growing influence of populists in Austria, Britain, France, Italy, Hungary, Poland and other European countries who are seeking to slow, and even reverse, European integration by recouping national sovereignty from the European Union and transferring those powers back to national capitals.

The continental showdown, which threatens to split the European Union down the middle between Eurosceptic nationalists and Europhile globalists, will heat up in coming weeks, ahead of elections for the European Parliament in late May 2019.

 

9. The roll-out of the Mark of the Beast

He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. (Revelation 13:11-18)

Is ‘Biochipping’ A Good Idea? / Fortune, January 8, 2019

 

The incredibly promising business behind people injecting themselves with microchips. Bye-bye keys, passwords, and tickets … they’re all on the chip.

As darkness falls on the port town of nearly 600,000 people, Jowan Österlund wanders in, wearing a baseball cap and T-shirt, to meet two new clients for his small startup, ­Biohax International. From his backpack, he pulls plastic-wrapped syringes, each containing a tiny, dark microchip that is barely visible from the outside. Inside the unassuming package is Österlund’s prized product, a window into what today is a fringe tech obsession but which, he believes, will one day be a giant industry. “You are creating an entirely new type of behavior and entirely new types of data that will be massively more valuable than what we have now,” Österlund says. “It is kind of a moonshot. But in the long run, this is what is going to happen.”

If biochipping is ever to take off, of course, it will need to become a real business. Österlund is doing what he can, starting with attempting to raise capital for Biohax. He says a Swedish investor, who remains unnamed, made a “six-figure” investment in Biohax in December. And Österlund claims that he has lined up about 100 doctors and nurses to work with Biohax to implant chips, once he has formally commercialized the business beyond its current tattoo-parlor stage.

In late November, Biohax signed a partnership deal with Verisec, an information technology security company in Stockholm, to provide an electronic-identity platform for Österlund’s biochips. That would allow Biohax chips to be used for regular electronic payments, not just for those within closed environments like a staff cafeteria, and to store documents like driver’s licenses and passports. Österlund calls the deal “the beginning of the big time.”

In the U.S., the use of implants to measure glucose, heart murmurs, and other conditions has risen steeply in the past few years, all devices that until recently were available only as external monitors. “It is a short leap to having that on a chip that’s inside you,” says Raj Denhoy, a medical technology analyst for Jefferies Financial Group in New York City, who believes the growth trajectory for biochips will be steep. “The use of clinical data to drive better treatment outcomes is something that is going to get much, much bigger,” he says. “To the extent that biosensors allow medical interventions to be better, that is undeniable.”

Little by little, biochips are going mainstream. Three Square Market, a tech company in River Falls, Wis., claims to have chipped 673 people in the U.S., including 85 of its employees, who are using the device for “personal data retention and some for door access also,” according to CEO Todd Westby, who first tested the technology on Biohax chips. “At this point, we are still developing and learning its capabilities,” he says. Last summer, reps from Japanese companies working on the Tokyo Olympics committee visited Österlund to see how they might use biochips for the smooth running of the Games.

 

10. The Time being Fulfilled

After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee, preaching the good news of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news!” (Mark 1:14-15)

What does the Bible say about the timing of the End Times?

Dear friends, don’t let this one thing escape you: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. (2 Peter 3:8)

What is the Lord telling us, through Peter? The Millennial day theory is a belief in Christian eschatology in which the Second Coming of Christ will occur 6,000 years after the creation of mankind, followed by 1,000 years of peace and harmony. The Sabbath Millennium is believed to be synonymous with the Millennial Reign of Christ that is found in Revelation 20.

The common belief and teaching was that a millennial reign would come after a literal six thousand year reign of Man.

How do we know that time?

These are some of the calculations for the time being fulfilled:

* Biblical chronology: The creation of Adam around 3,983 BC. plus 6,000 years = 2018

* The Last Generation: 70 years from 1948 (the re-birth of Israel)

* The Prophecy in the Psalms: Psalm 118 = 2018. Psalm 118 is in the middle of the Bible, and describes the Rapture and the Israel victory over the impending Russian / Iranian invasion

* The Super-Signs: 1917 – A National Home for the Jewish People, Jerusalem freed from the Ottoman Empire, 1967 – The Jews return to Jerusalem, 2017 – The Jews plan the Third Temple

* The Hallel prophetic countdown: (Psalms 113 – 118) showing the 7 year Tribulation beginning soon.

Keep in mind that the Jewish year starts on Passover, which is somewhere in our month of either March or April, so there is an overlap. Early 2019 is a strong possibility.

Summary

The top 10 factors pointing to the imminent Rapture of the Church include:

1. A Middle East peace plan that allows for the Temple to be rebuilt

2. Increasing “birth pains”

3. The invasion of Israel

4. The rise of the Beast

5. The rise of the False Prophet

6. Global Persecution of Christians

7. Increasing Apostasy

8. The Formation of a One-World Government

9. The roll-out of the Mark of the Beast

10. The Time being Fulfilled

Based upon the convergence of these 10 factors, there is a very high probability that the Rapture is imminent, and that the 7 year Tribulation starts shortly.

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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