This Commentary page contains all entries for the year 2018. Commentary entries are posted weekly (normally Tuesday in Taiwan) and briefly discuss recent news events. Although any news story that catches my attention is fair game, I make no bones about the fact that these entries tend to lean toward news events that might be of interest to believers who, like me, have an interest in end-time prophecy and its fulfillment.

You can use the text links provided at the beginning of each month if you want to move around the page, and the menu below will take you to similar pages for previous years.

*Entries normally include a link to an external article. It's always
possible that any such article may have been moved or deleted.

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1/1/2018 — From the "Forget Palestine!" Department...

Something noteworthy got started about three or four days ago, and it has to do with protests in Iran. It seems that what started out several days ago as localized protests about economic conditions within the country quickly metastasized into full-blown anti-government protests with a capital PRO.

With over a dozen dead, the violence has Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei quietly (and nervously) meeting with top political leaders to determine how best to clamp down on the protests. For starters, they have been quick to blame America and Israel for fomenting such anti-government sentiment.

One of the anti-government themes that has emerged is the people's anger and frustration with the country's staunch support of the Palestinian cause via Hamas and Hezbollah, anti-Israel puppets that the Iranian government is lavishly spending the country's money on to prop up and weaponize in its satanically inspired hatred for Israel.

Ayatollah Khamenei and other leaders are busily staging pro-government counter-protests in many cities around the country, complete with the usual anti-Zionist trappings people have come to expect from Iran: chants of "Death to America, death to Israel" and placards saying "Down with Israel," etc.

Unfortunately, these are unable to drown out the chants of "Forget Palestine!"

The bottom line is that the people of Iran have a message for the Ayatollah:

"H-e-l-l-o...hating Israel doesn't put food on the table, and weaponizing groups to threaten and attack them doesn't give us jobs."

From a prophetic standpoint, it will be interesting to see if these protests and the Iranian government's ham-fisted attempts to stop them result in an increase in the country's demonization of Israel (if that's possible) in order to lend strength to its anti-Zionist rhetoric and tactics, and if it will goad Iran into pulling the trigger sooner rather than later on its ill-fated plans to destroy the Jewish state.

But any way you look at it, it's a story to watch.

1/8/2018 — From the "One State or Two?" Department...

Although the Trump team has yet to announce the details of their proposed peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, the buzz on the street is increasingly leaning in the direction of a one-state solution in place of the usual two-state idea.

The concept of a one-state solution has been out there for a long time; but since all roads have seemingly led to the two-state version for the past several decades, it has never really come to the fore.

Until December 6, 2017.

That was the day President Trump announced America's official recognition of Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel, a political bombshell whose ramifications are still reverberating throughout both the political and religious worlds. To top it off, he also announced the United States' intention to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

From the viewpoint of the Palestinians, this could be translated as:

(a) Insert dagger. (b) Twist.

Since then, the Palestinians have been bawling and squalling and holding their breath until they turned blue, and have basically divorced themselves from the United States and any role they might play in future negotiations. Other regional Arab countries have done their best to pacify them with lollipops, but with marginal effect to date.

What is interesting from a prophetic standpoint, however, is that the type of one-state deal being whispered about behind closed doors would be a state that combines Israel and the Palestinians into, well, one single state. According to an article in the New York Times, those espousing the idea see it something like this:

"Palestinian supporters envision one state with equal rights for Palestinians and Jews. Palestinians would have proportionate political power and, given demographic trends, would before long be a majority, spelling the end of the Zionist project."

One state for both the Jews and the Palestinians, together. How nice.

One problem, scripturally speaking, is that it would effectively spell the end of Israel as a Jewish state. Perhaps not all at once, but over time, yes. Straight up—that will never happen.

A second problem is that the Bible says the land of Israel will be divided by a negotiated treaty in the last days, and this will lead to the judgments of the Tribulation. Joel 3:2, Isaiah 28:15, and other verses speak of this, and two things about this treaty are reasonably clear from Scripture: (a) It will be a negotiated treaty (not something shoved down Israel's throat by the UN), and (b) it will divide the land of Israel.

Divide...not combine.

Many faithful prophecy watchers (this writer included) have long seen the deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians as The Treaty of Daniel 9:27, and we know that the Rapture occurs before its implementation.

But in my humble opinion, if some kind of one-state solution that does not divide Israel is proposed, it cannot be the The Treaty. I just don't see how it could be.

Logically, that means that either (a) it won't happen and a two-state solution that does divide Israel is still in the prophetic pipeline, or (b) the treaty of Daniel 9:27 could be further off than we believe.

I pray it's the first one.

1/15/2018 — From the "Same Old Song and Dance" Department...

...a-n-d jerk goes the knee.

To the surprise of no one, PA President Mahmoud Abbas is taking the Palestinian Statehood Dog and Pony Show on the road, hoping to find a more receptive and sympathetic audience in Europe.

Later this month, Abbas will visit the headquarters of the European Union in Brussels and intends to reach into his bag of tricks and pull out three demands that he hopes will bring the house down:

1. Support for Palestinian membership in the United Nations.

After President Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last month, a UN Security Council resolution condemning such recognition was introduced and was supported by all member states of the EU, although it was vetoed by the United States. (A similar resolution went before the UN General Assembly, where five countries abstained.)

Abbas hopes to persuade these EU countries that were so quick to condemn Trump's recognition of the Israeli capital to turn their sentiments into substantive political action by supporting Palestine's membership in the UN.

2. More financial aid.

The United States has been the largest donor of financial aid to the Palestinians since the Oslo Accords in 1994, and currently forks over about $600 million annually. Since Trump's recognition of Jerusalem on December 6, however, the Palestinians have cursed the ground he walks on and have snidely dismissed the United States as a peace-broker (bite...hand...feeds).

Not only that, but they are all but openly advertising the fact that they will not hesitate to turn their noses up at whatever plans the Trump administration has to offer for any species of Israeli-Palestinian agreement from here on out.

Hence the road trip to Brussels.

In response, Trump has threatened to either dramatically reduce or cut off that financial aid, and he seems to have gotten it through to Abbas that he is the kind of man who is just unpredictable enough to do exactly what he says. Just to drive the point home, Trump recently tweeted:

"We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect."

Exmphasis his. So, when Mahmoud Abbas stands before the EU, it will be with his hand out because he knows Trump just might follow through on his intimations that the United States has better things to do with its taxpayers' money.

3. Recognition of a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders.

The showstopper. Abbas wants the EU to recognize Palestine according to the Israeli borders that existed prior to the Six Day War in June of 1967, along with East Jerusalem as its capital. Abbas no doubt hopes that such recognition by the EU will be contagious enough to infect the UN.

Same old song and dance.

I said last week that some are entertaining the notion of a one-state solution; but as you can see, all—at least most—roads still lead to the two-state solution. It doesn't matter how much sense a one-state solution might make. It makes no difference how sensible or practical it might be in the minds of many people.

I believe the Bible calls for a two-state solution—one that divides Israel.

And if the actions of the Palestinians are any indication, that's still what we'll see when it's time for the curtain to come up for the final act.

1/22/2018 — From the "Dangerous" Department...

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is in Israel this week, and his presence has caused no small amount of turmoil among Arab members of the Knesset. Joint (Arab) List Leader Ayman Odeh (leader of Arab lawmakers in the Israeli government) called for a boycott of Pence's speech, purely out of a fit of pique over President Trump's December 6 announcement of America's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Rumor has it they're also miffed over Trump's suggestion that water flows downhill.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the Arab boycott as "a disgrace," and stated:

"We will all be there, and will give the Vice President the honor due to him."

Arab MKs boycotting an American leader's speech following Trump's recognition of Jerusalem is not exactly earth-shattering news, with the Palestinians still in full hissy-fit mode after Trump's announcement and still refusing to acknowledge America's role in any negotiations. It was the way Ayman Odeh characterized the vice president, however, that struck me:

"[Pence] is a dangerous man with a messianic vision that includes the destruction of the entire region."

Dangerous...destruction of the entire region. Whew...that's scary stuff. Of course, I can only speculate as to what Odeh's eschatological proclivities may be, if any, but this almost made me laugh.

And messianic. Calling Mike Pence (who is refreshingly forthright about being a born-again believer) "messianic" is a bit like calling the Palestinians "anti-Semitic." Ya think? To say otherwise is almost a contradiction in terms. But what about this idea of being "dangerous" and having a "messianic vision that includes the destruction of the entire region"?

OK, let me see if I've got this straight:

Mike Pence believes that following a period of purging and judgment, Jesus Christ will return to earth to establish a thousand-year period of virtual heaven on earth often referred to as the Millennial Kingdom, with Israel, rather than being destroyed, serving as the pre-eminent nation on earth and home to the King of kings and Lord of lords Himself.

On the other hand...

Since Ayman Odeh is a Muslim, I must assume he believes that it is the sacred duty of Islam to start a global conflagration focused on destroying Israel in order to usher in the Islamic "savior" known as the Mahdi, who will personally help finish the task of slaughtering all the Jews.

Conclusion: It's obvious, isn't it? Mike Pence is a dangerous man.

1/29/2018 — From the "The End Is Near" Department...

Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke made an earth-shattering statement recently, tentatively positing an astounding possibility that is no doubt blowing the hair back of legions of the Catholic faithful:

Perhaps we have arrived at the end times.

Huh, imagine that.

The  e-n-d  t-i-m-e-s! The end is near! Woooooo! (Cue spooky music)

When my laughter finally subsided after reading the headline, the only thing I could say in response was:

"What was your first clue, Cardinal Holmes?"

Now, I admit that I've never made it a priority to study the eschatological beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church (not unlike most Catholics, as far as I can tell), but I'm reasonably certain they do not include the Rapture (of the biblical Church, not the RCC), followed by the seven-year Tribulation to purge out a believing remnant of Israel and judge the nations of the world for persecuting His people and rejecting His grace and mercy, followed by the return of Christ to the earth to establish the literal 1000-year Millennial Kingdom on earth (and I say "establish" because it's not here yet).

As far as I know, Roman Catholic dogma on eschatology is a porous hodgepodge of quasi-scriptural notions revolving around the fact that (a) the Roman Catholic Church is the New Israel (so who needs the Old Israel, right?), (b) Christians will go through some vaguely defined period of testing at some point in the future, (c) the kingdom is already here and we're supposed to be building it, (d) when we get the kingdom whipped into shape, Christ will return, and when He does, (e) Christians will do a glorified trampoline jump to meet Him in the clouds so they can properly welcome Him the rest of the way back down to good old terra firma.

Beyond that grand-sounding yet comfortingly vague scenario, Catholics don't talk much about the end times (because they don't know much about the end times). Well, except for the fact that they know dispensational teaching about the Rapture, the Millennial Kingdom, etc. is just, you know, wrong...because it disagrees with 1,500-year-old Roman Catholic dogma, you see.

But I confess that the joke was on me this time, because by the time I finished reading some of Cardinal Burke's comments, I wasn't laughing:

"In the present moment there is confusion and error about the most fundamental teachings of the Church, for example with regard to marriage and the family. For instance, the idea that people who are living in an irregular union [adultery] could receive the sacraments is a violation of the truth with regard both to the indissolubility of marriage and to the sanctity of the *Eucharist."

*That would be Communion, except Protestants don't believe the crackers and grape juice magically turn into the literal flesh and blood of Christ the moment we swallow them (or when the priest holds them over his head or whatever). Oh, and I fundamentally agree with what he said.

"St. Paul tells us in his First Letter to the Corinthians that before we approach to receive the Body of Christ, we have to examine ourselves, or we eat our condemnation by receiving the Eucharist in an unworthy way. Now the confusion in the Church is going even further than that, because there is today confusion as to whether there are acts which are intrinsically evil [such as homosexuality] and this, of course, is the foundation of the moral law. When this foundation begins to be questioned within the Church, then the whole order of human life and the order of the Church itself are endangered."

Hmm...I'm starting to like the way this guy thinks.

"So there is a feeling that in today’s world that is based on secularism with a completely anthropocentric approach, by which we think we can create our own meaning of life and meaning of the family and so on, the Church itself seems to be confused."

Yeah, preach it, brother...er, Father.

"In that sense one may have the feeling that the Church gives the appearance of being unwilling to obey the mandates of Our Lord. Then perhaps we have arrived at the End Times." (emphasis added)

Amen and amen. Glory to Jesus. All I can say is that when I hear a Catholic cardinal say stuff that makes this much biblical sense, I know the end is near.

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2/5/2018 — From the "It Was Just a Matter of Time" Department...

I guess it was just a matter of time.

In one of the latest applications of a relatively new but rapidly growing field of technology, California-based Pastor D.J. Soto wants to invite you to the Virtual Reality Church.

Well, I suppose parking isn't a problem. The church's Facebook page boldly proclaims:

"Attend a real church in virtual reality."

Soto, who has been professionally involved in film production and virtual reality for a number of years, left his position as a pastor at a branch of a mega-church in Reading, Pennsylvania several years ago in order to get his idea off the ground and attract interest from others within the Church—interest that has apparently been slow in coming:

"It has been abysmal, to be honest, just trying to connect."

Soto openly wonders at times whether this was the biggest mistake of his life, having already sold his home and moved his family into a 30-foot trailer. Soto opined:

"We haven't stopped trying to connect with churches, but we are wondering if that type of support is further down the road. Maybe we need to do a radical tactical shift to support from outside the church and church planting organizations."

When I first read about this, part of me instinctively wanted to criticize it. Then part of me wanted to accept it. Then I read that according to Soto, virtual churches can significantly increase church attendance, especially among young people who are turned off by real churches. Wired.com added that...

"His VR mega-church is even attracting atheists."

Then part of me wanted to criticize it again.

Don't misunderstand me—I don't think there is anything wrong with incorporating various types of technology into the work of the Church. But when the technology replaces the Church? Hmmm...

Call me a stick in the mud, but somehow I have a difficult time imagining that this was what Paul had in mind when he wrote:

Not only that, but if it is the Virtual Reality Church itself that is attracting atheists, it is not the Holy Spirit who is drawing them in response to the conviction of their sin, which is how it's supposed to work last time I checked.

That's all the Church needs—new toys to attract ever larger numbers of people who are looking for something novel and entertaining. Oh, and don't forget socially relevant.

And for the last time, since when is the primary goal to "increase church attendance"? I thought it was to train, edify, and equip the saints to...

This, as a rule, does not tend to attract atheists.

2/12/2018 — From the "New Trends in Tolerance" Department...

It would appear they have added some new courses to the curricula of state-supported universities since I was a college student. Now it seems you can sign up for some of the following classes at a university near you:

• Course name: "New Trends in Tolerance"
Description: Covers topics on why anything outside the parameters of the liberal left agenda must not be tolerated.

• Course name: "Amending the First Amendment"
Description: Introduction to the new free speech, and why it must agree with the left's free speech.

• Course name: "Right Wing Delusions"
Description: Survey of ways America has strayed from the shining liberal path (and why it's all Trump's fault).

• Course name: "The Ascendancy of the LGBT"
Description: An in-depth look at gay rights, and why they must be allowed to strip away everyone else's rights.

• Course name: "The Kooks of Kreationism"
Description: A study of the pathology of creationism. Course includes a lab section where brain scans of prominent creationists are studied to analyze their neural abnormalities.

(I'm kidding, but just barely.)

Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis and founder of the Ark Encounter and its associated Creation Museum, was formally invited to speak at the University of Central Oklahoma this coming March, and the topic he was planning to speak on was "Genesis and the State of the Culture."

But a vocal group of LGBT activists (read "bullies") had other ideas.

The university recently hosted a drag queen show and a "safe sex carnival" that featured fun games for the whole family, such as throwing dildos through holes in cardboard targets designed to look like vaginas. But a creationist?!

You mean to tell me they're actually going to expose innocent young minds to the dangerously loopy idea that God created the heavens and the earth in six days, just as the Bible teaches?! What is this world coming to?

After said LGBT activists sufficiently threatened and browbeat the president of the student government association, he made the decision to disinvite Mr. Ham and in effect tear up his signed contract to speak.

According to local pastor Paul Blair:

"I think this young man was bullied and intimidated. I think he succumbed to the bullying that these LGBTQ groups are known for. Those that scream out and demand tolerance are in actuality the least tolerant group of individuals on the planet."

A spokesperson for the University of Central Oklahoma released the following boilerplate:

"The UCO community is an inclusive environment that encourages the civil expression of diverse thoughts and ideas, while also keeping the safety of our students a top priority."

(Yeah, the safety of the president of the student government association who very nearly allowed a (gasp) creationist to speak at the campus!)

This is one of those times when there is scarcely any need for me to say anything more. Scripture says it all:

2/19/2018 — From the "Recognize This?" Department...

I have to hand it to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—the man has a wonderful sense of theater.

Netanyahu gave a speech at the Munich Security Conference a couple of days ago, and in this writer's humble opinion it was worthy of an Oscar nod.

As you may be aware, on February 10 Iran sent a drone into Israeli airspace. The IDF tracked it, and when they were confident it wasn't American (apparently it was a copy of an American-made drone Iran slapped together), they dispatched an Apache helicopter that unceremoniously blew it to smithereens over Israeli territory. Then they dispatched several F-16s to take out the Iranian control station in Syria from where the drone had been launched.

This might have been yet another military mini-confrontation that we never hear about on the mainstream media except for one small detail: Unfortunately, Syrian anti-aircraft missiles succeeded in hitting one of the Israeli fighter jets, which managed to make it back into Israeli airspace before crashing (both pilots survived). Israel responded immediately by sending more F-16s to wipe out roughly half of Syria's anti-aircraft capabilities.

And now it's a major story...and a major escalation in the proxy war Iran is waging in Syria with their Russian pals.

Israel's immediate and rather stinging response took Iran by surprise, according to some reports. Of course, Iran is playing dumb and denying everything, and it was their flat denial that set the stage for Netanyahu's remarks. As he spoke, the Israeli Prime Minister held a piece of the destroyed drone aloft for the whole world to see:

"Iran denies that it committed an act of aggression against Israel last week, that it sent a drone into our airspace to threaten our people. Well, here's a piece of that Iranian drone, or what's left of it after we shot it down. I brought it here so you could see for yourself."

Netanyahu directed his remarks to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif:

"Mr. Zarif, do you recognize this? You should. It's yours. You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran: Do not test Israel's resolve."

Netanyahu made it clear that Israel was quite prepared to take the fight directly to the big dog on the block, and not just the pups it sends out to nip at Israel's heels.

"Israel will not allow Iran's regime to put a noose of terror around our neck. We will act if necessary, not just against Iran's proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself."

This is actually a big story, because it would seem to indicate a very real and very serious escalation in Iran's efforts to mount an offensive against Israel (along with their Russian BFFs), coupled with Israel's resolve to deal with the threat head on. While it's too soon to tell what will come of this, prophetically this rhymes with Ezekiel 38–39. Stay tuned.

2/26/2018 — From the "Just As I Am" Department...

You are no doubt aware that evangelist Billy Graham passed away on February 21 at the age of 99. As I would expect, widely divergent opinions came from every quarter on Graham's life and legacy.

Of course, many eulogized him in the highest terms, terms reserved for one of the greatest men of God of the twentieth century. Others came out with guns blazing, denouncing him as a charlatan who trafficked in political posturing and quasi-religious flim-flam.

First off, let me completely clear and upfront: I'm with the first group. I have always respected Billy Graham as one of the greatest evangelists of the twentieth century, and I don't care who knows it.

On the other hand, I understand some of the criticisms. He was not a perfect man—he did have his flaws. You could say he courted those in power to an excessive degree. You could say there were times when he flirted with a few ideas that ran counter to what many perceive as fundamental biblical doctrine. There's no doubt that he made a few mistakes.

I get it.

But few men alive preached the unvarnished gospel of Jesus Christ like Billy Graham, or can be credited with leading as many people to a saving faith in that gospel.

And that's all anyone needs to know or remember about William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918–February 21, 2018).

In 1947, the UN mandated a homeland for the Jewish people in one of the greatest fulfillments of Bible prophecy in modern times. That was effectively the prophetic starting gun for the last of the last days, and it also signaled the beginning of Graham's ministry. He took off like a rocket, preaching the gospel of salvation in Christ in crusade after crusade, country after country, continent after continent.

And his messages would invariably end with his trademark closing song "Just As I Am":

"Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!"

And come they would, and I have no doubt that millions of those people will in the kingdom as a result.

So to those who carp and criticize and find fault, your words are falling on deaf ears. I never met the man—but at the rate prophecy is being fulfilled, I believe I will soon enough. And when I do, I hope there are a few angels gathered around to sing that old refrain once more:

"Just as I am..."

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3/5/2018 — From the "I Cannot Tell a Lie" Department...

Every American knows this story about George Washington...at least they did when I was little. You know, the story about how a six-year-old George Washington received a small hatchet as a gift, and then proceeded to hack into one of his father's prized cherry trees. Later, when confronted by his angry father, our little Georgie decided to man up and come clean, just like the little future president that he was:

"Father, I cannot tell a lie. 'Twas I who cut the cherry tree."

Incidentally, and I hope I don't burst too many bubbles out there, but this heartwarming bit of fiction was invented by Washington biographer Mason Locke Weems, and first appeared in the fifth edition of The Life of Washington in 1806, seven years after Washington's death.

Oh well, who cares...it's a great story anyway.

The reason I'm writing this, however, is not to reminisce about our chief Founding Father. It's to report an intriguing (and potentially disturbing, depending on your point of view) coincidence that occurred several days ago in Mount Vernon, Virginia, the home of our first president.

On Friday, March 2, a powerful nor'easter blew through New England, causing widespread damage and blowing down a number of trees in the Washington, D.C. area. But it blew down one particular tree in Mount Vernon that got people's attention.

On the grounds of Washington's estate in Mount Vernon, there is a 227-year-old Canadian Hemlock tree that was planted in 1791 by George Washington himself, and that tree was blown down in the storm—snapped clean off, leaving nothing but a jagged stump roughly the height of a man. Not only that, but a Virginia Cedar that overlooked Washington's grave was also blown down in the storm.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and try to blow your hair back with tales about how this is a harbinger of doom for our once-great country. I'm not going to pump this up to apocalyptic proportions and start speculating on time frames for the Rapture, the Tribulation, the Second Coming, the battle of Gog Magog, the stock market crash to end all stock market crashes, an EMP attack, the outbreak of nuclear war, the assassination of President Trump, the unmasking of the Antichrist, or the cancellation of "Dancing with the Stars."

I'm not going to do that. But if you're anything like me, you have a drawer for striking little tidbits like this, and so feel free to stick this in that drawer along with things like the dreams people have had since 2013 about the Rapture coming shortly after the death of Billy Graham, the fact that two solar eclipses will mark a big 'X' on the United States in 2017 and 2024, seven years apart, and the fact that it just so happens that a plan to divide Israel is about to be made public in the year that marks the 70th anniversary of the re-gathered Jewish nation.

In reality, even if some of these things really are more than mere coincidences, all they do is remind us of what we already know by studying the Word:

It's God who is stirring the pot—so things aren't spiraling out of control, they're spiraling under control. And as they do, the prophetic picture is coming into sharper and sharper focus.

I cannot tell a lie—it's almost show time.

3/12/2018 — From the "What Great City?" Department...

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt have been applying pressure to PA President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians to accept whatever they are offered by Trump's yet-to-be-announced peace deal. Although little more than unsubstantiated rumors of its contents have emerged, Trump's plan is already being widely dissed by some as just a variation on the same tired two-state theme that's been kicked around for years. But we'll see soon enough.

Meanwhile, however, bin Salman has been busy with his jaw-dropping vision of a sprawling megacity at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba, where the countries of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia all come within a veritable stone's throw of each other. The planned city, called Neom (also referred to as the NEOM project), will cover 26,500 square kilometers (the size of Belgium), and will be located primarily in territory belonging to Saudi Arabia, but will also ultimately extend into both Jordan and Egypt (the latter via a planned bridge across the Gulf of Aqaba). Israel is said to be prepared to assist in the development of hydro-agriculture projects in Neom.

Initially unveiled by bin Salman in October of last year, Neom is envisioned as a huge transnational city and economic zone, and is part of an effort spearheaded by Saudi Arabia's 32-year-old Crown Prince to boldly lead the Arab states away from a dependence on oil. If the NEOM project—referred to by bin Salman as a "Red Sea Riviera"—lives up to a fraction of the hype, it will become nothing less than the sparkling economic jewel of the Middle East—if not the world.

The real reason this story about Neom caught my eye, however, is an enigmatic passage in the book of Revelation that refers to the destruction of "the great city":

Students of the Bible have struggled for many centuries to definitively pin down what "great city" this passage refers to. Some say it's New York. Some it's say Rome. Some say it's Jerusalem. Some say it's a literal, rebuilt Babylon in Iraq. All of these theories have their respective strengths and weaknesses.

And, of course, many allegorize it into oatmeal.

The point is that it's really not that easy to make a lock-down, iron-clad argument for any of the above, or any other city for that matter. Which begs the following rank, wild-eyed spitballing question:

What if the reason no one can agree on the identity of this "great city" in Revelation 18 is because it's a city that doesn't exist yet?

3/19/2018 — From the "Somebody Had to Say It" Department...

According to a recent article at the Times of Israel website, the Palestinians believe the United States is delaying the announcement of their peace plan for the region until a stubbornly antagonistic PA President Mahmoud Abbas is no longer in power. In other words, they think the U.S. is looking forward to the post-Abbas era. When I saw that headline, I mumbled to myself:

Somebody had to say it.

Trump and his team already know that Abbas will stridently denounce whatever they propose—he has openly stated as much and there is little reason to doubt it. He came right out and stated recently that making peace with Israel is "treason," and in keeping with that sentiment, added...

"I have said in the past—and afterward—that I will not end my life as a traitor."

So much for the "partner for peace" idea.

In February, Abbas—who turns 83 later this month—was in the United States to speak at the UN, and was taken to a Baltimore hospital for undisclosed treatment. According to Abbas' aides, the tests were "routine" and the results were "positive and reassuring." However, unconfirmed reports coming from various Arab media sources paint a somewhat more less rosy picture.

According to these sources, Abbas' condition has taken a major turn for the worse. He was operated on for prostate cancer 20 years ago, and some believe he now suffers from cancer of the digestive system. He has cut down his work load recently, and according to sources close to him, has been increasingly showing signs of mental and emotional strain.

If you have been following developments in the push toward an Israeli-Palestinian settlement over the last few months, you know that Abbas has essentially isolated himself as the single biggest roadblock to a deal of any kind, particularly since Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel back in December of 2017. Ever since, he has sat in the corner and sulked and pouted like a spoiled child, and has made it abundantly clear that he will refuse to cooperate with the U.S. negotiating team in any way.

Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner has visited both Saudi Arabia and Egypt in a dash of shuttle diplomacy to get both countries to try to persuade Abbas to come down off his high horse and take what is offered—because whatever is about to offered is likely to be about as good as it's going to get for him and the Palestinians. To date, however, there are no indications that their efforts have made a dent.

So, yeah. There are those who are beginning to come to the inevitable conclusion that a deal between Israel and the Palestinians could possibly remain on hold until Abbas is out of the picture, and that could very well mean until he dies.

The recent death of Billy Graham got a number of people stirred up because there had been individuals who had dreams that the Rapture would follow shortly, but I take those kinds of things with a large grain of salt. But if anyone's death would set a few prophetic wheels in motion like few things I can think of, it would be that of Mahmoud Abbas.

In the opinion of many, it has become clear that no matter how ready to make a deal other regional players may be, there will never be a settlement as long as Abbas is around.

And I think it's interesting that somebody finally said it.

3/26/2018 — From the "Poking the Bear" Department...

On 4 March, former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury, England. Both had been poisoned with what turned out to be a Russian-made chemical weapon that had been smuggled into and deployed on the soil of a foreign country. Both currently remain hospitalized in Salisbury where they are listed in critical condition.

Since then, the British government under Prime Minister Theresa May—with considerable help from Germany's Angela Merkel—has been marshaling support from EU allies for a strong, united response to what is seen as an egregious violation of British sovereignty.

As is their habit, the Russian government has dodged the issue through a mixture of denial, misdirection, and blame-shifting. They're playing dumb and insisting that they have no knowledge of the incident. They claim the chemical (although known to have been developed by the Russians in Russia) could have been concocted by anyone in the world with an Internet connection. They insinuate that this is merely another incidence of the West crying wolf over WMD just as it did in the run-up to George Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq. They protest that adequate samples for "testing" have not been forthcoming. Blah blah blah, yada yada yada.

It wasn't us! You can't prove it was us! Neener neener neener.

But in a refreshing albeit rare display of unity and solidarity, other EU nations, together with the United States, are siding with the British on this one, and appropriate responses are being discussed. The only question is how hard they can hit without causing Putin to lose any remaining vestige of restraint. In other words:

The West is contemplating how hard to poke the bear.

Now, in the midst of this current round of honk-if-you-hate-the-Russkies saber-rattling, Donald Trump has reprised his "You're fired!" line in regard to his national security advisor H.R. McMaster, and has appointed überhawk John Bolton to the post. Bolton is widely known to be virulently anti-Russian and singularly distrustful of Vladimir Putin, and the fact and the timing of his appointment sends an unmistakable message:

You crossed the line, Vlad, and you're gonna pay this time.

The reason this got my attention is the fact that this burgeoning repudiation of Russia by the West plays perfectly into the Ezekiel 38–39 scenario, and is coming at the right time in conjunction with other geopolitical machinations. When the time comes for Russia and Iran to jointly attack Israel—which they will at some point according to God's Word—it seems highly unlikely that it would come at a time that could be characterized by friendship and cooperation between Russia and the West.

It is much more likely to come at some point after the West has poked the bear, and poked it hard.

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4/2/2018 — From the "Happy 70th Anniversary" Department...

For some days now, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been rioting and staging violent demonstrations and protests at a half-dozen points along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, and it shows no signs of abating.

At last count, 15 Gazans have been killed and 1,100 wounded by the Israeli Defense Force, as Israel struggles to protect the security of its border with Gaza. According to Israeli sources, many of the casualties were individuals attempting to plant explosive devices at key spots along the security fence that divides the two regions.

Many fear that the scope and severity of the problem will escalate in coming weeks and months, however, and part of the reason has to do with the fact that Israel will celebrate its 70th anniversary on May 14, 2018. What many forget is that in the minds of the Palestinians, this date, which is sure to be a major celebration in Israel, marks the 70th anniversary of the day they lost "their" country.

And the Palestinians want the world to know they want it back.

One of the demands that the Palestinians have always insisted on is known as the "right of return." This basically means that all original, surviving Palestinian refugees and their descendants be given the blanket right to return to live in Israel (i.e., "Palestine") as Palestinians (not as Israeli citizens).

For the record, no Israeli government in its right mind will ever willingly agree to this, since it would greatly damage and likely ultimately destroy Israel's identity as a Jewish state. But it is this right of return that has emerged as the central issue in these protests along Israel's border. According to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh:

"We are here to declare today that our people will not agree to keep the right of return only as a slogan."

Similarly, Khaled al-Batsh, leader of the Iran-backed terror group Islamic Jihad, said the protesters were calling for the right to return to what he referred to as "our country":

"Seventy years ago we left and today we have decided to return to our country."

According to Israeli authorities, however, examination of all pertinent UN treaties and covenants clearly reveal that there is no legal basis or justification for such a right of return for Palestinian refugees. In fact, case studies of other similar incidents indicate that the attempted large-scale reintegration of different peoples long divided by hatred and violence is doomed to failure.

So, May 14th will be "Happy 70th Anniversary" for Israel, and "Not-So-Happy 70th Anniversary" for the Palestinians. As a result, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot more candles got blown out.

4/9/2018 — From the "Get Back in the Game" Department...

In the first indication that efforts by Saudi Arabia and Egypt may be starting to have some effect on Mahmoud Abbas (not to rule out a possible rare, fleeting glimmer of lucidity on his part), the Palestinian Authority leader announced recently that he would be willing to listen to President Trump's proposed solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if certain "conditions" were met. (This, after several months of pouting like a two-year-old who had his lollipop taken away and refusing to even speak to the American negotiating team.)

Oh, the conditions? Well, let's see...Trump's plan must:

1. Delineate a two-state solution.
2. Give the Palestinians East Jerusalem as their capital.

According to Abbas:

"If that happens, we can talk about rest of the issues remaining on the table."

That's all...just a hefty slice of Israel's land for our state and half of Jerusalem (including the Temple Mount) for our capital. Nothing much.

This is a well-worn page from the Palestinian playbook:

First, give us everything we want—then we will "negotiate" with you.

Classic...and at least in this case prophetically noteworthy.

Why? Because it was beginning to look very much as if the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (from which will spring the treaty of Daniel 9:27 that inaugurates the Tribulation) was at an impasse until Abbas was no longer in power. Apparently, however, neither Saudi Arabia nor Egypt is particularly interested in waiting around that long, because their goal is to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict post-haste and then sweet-talk Israel (with their powerful, nuclear-equipped armed forces) into helping them with The Big Problem: Iran.

All this suggests that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt may well have made Mahmoud Abbas an offer he couldn't refuse—and perhaps in the process gently reminded him of how few friends he and the Palestinians have these days. As a result, they may have convinced Abbas it was in his best interest to shut up, quit crying, and get back in the game.

The bottom line, simply put:

Without Abbas in the game, a deal could realistically be a couple of years away.

With Abbas in the game, a deal could realistically be a couple of months away.

And that makes this something to keep an eye on.

4/16/2018 — From the "While We Were Sleeping" Department...

Here's a recent headline that you might say grabbed my attention:

While we were sleeping, Russia, Iran
and Turkey made an ominous deal

It barely registered as a ripple in the mainstream media in the United States, but something occurred in the Middle East a few days ago that is of disturbing significance.

Prophetic significance, that is.

Earlier this month, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Hassan Rouhani of Iran, and Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey met, and according to an article at the McClatchy website, the three regional kingpins...

"...completed a successful summit in Ankara by announcing their new partnership to establish a ceasefire in Syria and to start rebuilding the war-ravaged land that is ravaged in large part by their own forces.

So that's Russia, Iran and Turkey's plan for Syria:

(a) Move three-quarters of the way in to "support" it.
(b) In the process, destroy it.
(c) Move all the way in to "rebuild" it.
(d) Use it as a staging area/launching pad for a war against Israel.

By the way, in case you didn't know, Putin is building a $20 billion nuclear reactor in Turkey (slated for completion in 2023, but reportedly facing delays), and has recently agreed to sell them $2.5 billion worth of the newest S-400 anti-aircraft missiles (due for delivery in early 2020).

This is how one makes friends in the Middle East...and heaven knows Vladimir Putin is short of friends in the West these days.

Here's a translation of the above from a prophetic perspective:

While we were sleeping, two of the three major players in the attack on Israel outlined in Ezekiel 38–39, who are already busy setting up shop on Israel's doorstep, have just shaken hands on an agreement with the third to join them.

For the world, it's hit the snooze button and go back to sleep.

For the Church, it's reveille.

4/23/2018 — From the "Sententious" Department...

I had to laugh out loud when I read this article, and couldn't pass up the chance to share it with you. But first, some background info from Wikipedia:

GQ (formerly Gentlemen's Quarterly) is an international monthly men's magazine based in New York City and founded in 1931. The publication focuses on fashion, style, and culture for men, though articles on food, movies, fitness, sex, music, sports, technology, and books are also featured.

Whew...I'm sure glad I checked Wikipedia, because I've never actually opened an issue of GQ and was under the impression it was little more than soft porn for metrosexual men. Glad I got that cleared up.

So anyway, it appears the editors down at this magazine that is so much more than soft porn for metrosexual men recently published an article titled "21 Books You Don't Have to Read," and no. 12 on that list of books we don't have to read is none other than the Bible. Here are a few choice words from the powers that be at GQ:

"The Holy Bible is rated very highly by all the people who supposedly live by it but who in actuality have not read it. Those who have read it know there are some good parts, but overall it is certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced. It is repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned."

The word "sententious" brought a smile to my face: given to moralizing in a pompous or affected manner. So...turn the other cheek? Love your enemies? Let your light shine before men? Yep. All blatant examples of pompous, affected moralizing.

The "self-contradictory" thing always gets me, too. Talk of all those so-called "contradictions" in the Bible are grist for the mill for those who refuse to acknowledge the existence of God and who make a hobby of mocking His Word. My usual response to such people is a bit on the terse side:

Name one.

For the record, I'm still waiting for a substantive response.

Of course, the "foolish" business I understand completely:

Franklin Graham had this to say in response to the article:

"I guess they can't explain why the Bible is the best-selling and most widely distributed book in the world."

I guess they can't. As a matter of fact, I'm guessing the editors of GQ can't explain a lot of things, such as why this repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned book that we don't have to read has a 100 percent track record so far in terms of fulfilled prophecy, with over 300 Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in the genealogy, birth, life, ministry, miracles, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And for those misinformed cynics "freethinkers" who scream about how the New Testament is contrived fiction dummied up many decades after the fact to "foolfill" those prophecies, scores more have been fulfilled in modern times by the nation of Israel that are a bit less susceptible to such smoke-and-mirror-ology.

And for the information of the editors of GQ, that can only mean one thing:

When they mockingly declare that the Bible "is certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced," they display the depth of their ignorance and height of their intellectual dishonesty: The above inconvenient truths make it quite reasonable to assume that the Bible wasn't produced by man, and is in fact precisely what it repeatedly and emphatically declares itself to be:

The Word of living God.

Ooh, I sure hope that didn't sound too sententious or anything...

4/30/2018 — From the "Remember Me Now?" Department...

I never tire of reading the results of polls about religion taken by the Pew Research Center, and I thought one such poll taken a few months ago revealed some thought-provoking tidbits.

For example, the poll noted that 99 percent of American Christians believe in God. Wow! Go team! Oh, it gets better. A whopping 80 percent believe in the biblical God. Outstanding!

I'm sorry, but sarcasm is the only eloquent response to this. Let this sink in for a moment:

That means that one out of five people in America who self-identify as Christian do not believe in the God of the Bible.

So...let me see if I've got this straight: They claim to believe that God sent His Son Jesus Christ (hence the term "Christian") into the world to die to pay the penalty for their sin—just as clearly spelled out in the pages of the Bible, but they don't believe in the God of the Bible.

Which begs the question: Do these Americans believe there exists a country called the United States of America?

(And don't get me started about the one percent who apparently don't believe in God at all.)

Perhaps a more appropriate question would be:

Do these people who self-identify as Christian have the faintest idea what the word "Christian" even means in the first place?

The answer, of course, being tragically self-evident.

Also according to the poll, 89 percent of American Jews believe in God, but only 33 percent believe in the God of the Bible. That would be the God who miraculously delivered their ancestors out of bondage in Egypt, just to be clear. According to the poll, a majority of Jews believe in "some other higher power of spiritual force in the universe."

Just not the God who parted the Red Sea and all that.

Moses must be spinning in his grave like a turbine:

Personally, I believe this passage of Scripture will find its ultimate fulfillment in the Great Tribulation, a time when a significant portion of Israel will perish. And as He unleashes His judgment on His people who have spurned Him, I can just imagine God saying:

"Remember me now?"

They will perish precisely because they have forgotten and won't listen to the voice of Yahweh their God.

You know, the one who parted the Red Sea and all that.

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5/7/2018 — From the "Witches' Brew" Department...

Start with a broth made of the fact that next week is the 70th anniversary of the nation of Israel. Add to that the United States' decision to officially open their embassy in Jerusalem, timed to coincide with this huge celebration in the Jewish state. Then mix in a cup of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, or the "catastrophe" when the Palestinians claim they had their land stolen from them by the evil Zionist occupiers.

Add to that already volatile mix a dash of anticipation of Trump himself traveling to Israel for the event on May 14, rather than merely sending his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Then add a spoonful of Iran's reaction to Trump's near certain trashing of the Iran nuclear deal on May 12, and a pinch of six weeks of protests along the Gaza border by Palestinian rioters who are being egged on by Hamas and who are determined to penetrate into Israeli territory.

Finally, season to taste with the fact that open military conflict between Israel and Iran is steadily getting ratcheted up with each passing day.

Mix thoroughly and bring to a boil, and in the words of Ilan Goldenberg, a member of the United States negotiating team during the 2013–2014 Israeli-Palestinian talks, you have...

"A toxic witches' brew of political instability and further potential violence..."

So, it's all eyes on Israel next week, because this witches' brew is being concocted in the city God put His seal of ownership on:

And unless I miss my guess, this witches' brew is likely to set a few people reeling:

And now...now it is being revealed that Trump is set to ask the Israelis to give up four Jerusalem neighborhoods for a Palestinian "capital." Translation: "Hey, why don't we divide God's city? Yeah, let's do that." If this is true, the United States may be setting itself up to throw back a shot of that brew.

And I hear it's got a real kick.

5/14/2018 — From the "Prince of Peace and Security" Department...

A few days ago, Iranian forces in Syria fired a barrage of 20 rockets in the general direction of Israel. According to reports, 16 of those rockets never made it across the Israeli border and accomplished little more than making 16 smoking holes in Syrian soil. (It appears the Iranians were lucky they didn't come right back down on their heads.) The remaining four that at least succeeded in entering Israeli airspace were promptly shot down by the Iron Dome missile defense system.

I think the phrase I'm looking for is "epic fail."

In response, according to Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the IDF struck nearly all of Iran's military infrastructure in Syria.

I think the phrase I'm looking for is "In your face!"

In the words of Lieberman:

"If Iran hits us with rain—we will hit them with a deluge. If Iran hits us with a drizzle here, we will hit them with a downpour there."

What got my attention, however, was an additional remark Lieberman made:

"Peace in the Middle East will come with the coming of the Messiah."

Ah, yes...the Messiah. The mortal man who will burst on the scene very soon and save Israel from her enemies. The mortal man who will bring peace and security to Israel and to the world. The mortal man who will build Israel's Third Temple. The mortal man who will fill the world with the knowledge of the Torah and of Yahweh their God. The mortal man who will bring Israel's final redemption.

The Meshiach.

You know, whenever I hear an Israeli leader make a statement like that, it almost makes me a little bit jealous. I can only imagine how the liberal mainstream media in America would react if a high-ranking U.S. government leader made such a statement about the return of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. The guy would probably be in a straitjacket by sundown.

The reality of the situation, however, is that according to Scripture Israel is not looking for the Prince of Peace.

Israel is looking for the Prince of Peace and Security.

And that's what they will mistakenly believe this mortal man has brought them—peace and security. But they will soon realize that it's a lie.

That's the bad news. The good news is that this is a necessary part of God's preparation of Israel for their final redemption.

So, Avigdor Lieberman and many others in Israel are righter than they realize—it's just not going to go down the way they expect.

Israel's redemption will not come under their Prince of Peace and Security. Far from it. It won't come until they implore that other Prince—their real Meshiach—to save them from his efforts to annihilate them.

5/21/2018 — From the "Jerusalem Derangement Syndrome" Department...

A recent article in the Jerusalem Post quoted Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who made the following impassioned, blustery announcement:

"We will never allow Jerusalem to be stolen by Israel."

After my laughter subsided, my only response was:

"Excuse me, Mr. Erdogan, but what color is the sky in your world?"

I think I'm going to coin a new term, and it's inspired by those in the United States whose reaction to President Trump saying "Good morning" conjures up images of Linda Blair's vomit-soaked writhings in The Exorcist. Fox News, bless their hearts, refers to it as Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).

I give you Jerusalem Derangement Syndrome.

(Incidentally, for an insightful take on TDS, see Marc Thiessen's recent article at Fox News.)

In addition to the above gem concerning the eternal capital of Israel, President Erdogan had some other timely, thought-provoking remarks to share:

"If Israel's bullying is met with more silence, the world will rapidly be dragged into a chaos where thuggery prevails."

Bullying? Chaos? Thuggery? Pot, kettle, black.

"Even if the whole world shuts their eyes, we will not allow Israeli cruelty. We will continue to be with our Palestinian siblings not only with our hearts, but with all our resources."

And with all our missiles...aimed directly at a nation that is only trying to defend itself from...oh, what's the word...ah, yes—thuggery. Thank you.

On the plus side, of course, is the fact that biblically knowledgeable people know this is a direct fulfillment of prophecy and yet another sign that the Rapture and all the ensuing end-time events are looming ever closer:

Hmm...on second thought, maybe I should call it Cup o' Trembling Syndrome.

Nah, just doesn't have the same ring to it.

5/28/2018 — From the "Photo Bomb" Department...

Last week, United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman was visiting the Israeli city of Bnei Brak, home of the headquarters of the NGO Achiya, an ultra-orthodox organization that helps children with special needs. At one point during the tour, however, someone snapped a photo of Friedman just as someone else thrust a large picture of the city of Jerusalem in front of him.

No big deal...just another photo op, right?

Except this was no ordinary photo op.

This incident lent a whole new meaning to the words "photo bomb." The picture was a large, panoramic view of the Temple Mount area. You know, that place with the huge golden dome that stands out in any photo of...

Oops...no golden dome.

In this Photoshopped image of Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock had been removed and in its place stood...you guessed it: the Third Temple.

The photo immediately went viral and Friedman's staff immediately went into damage control mode, insisting that the Ambassador had been duped and was the victim of a "cheap political stunt," as it was called by members of Achiya who apologized for the incident. An embassy spokesperson emphatically reiterated that the United States officially supports the status quo in regard to Haram al-Sharif, or the Temple Mount, and that nothing had changed.

Of course, some Arab media outlets are using this as cannon fodder for their attacks on Israel and her fellow Zionist thugs who seek to steal Jerusalem from the Palestinians and desecrate their holy Haram al-Sharif, which has no historical connection whatsoever to the sons of monkeys and pigs who make the laughable claim that their so-called "temple" once stood there.

One reason this little incident caught my attention is because it seems as if there is more and more "stirring of the pot" going on lately, and some of it has to do with inflaming the anger of the Palestinians and their Arab cohorts.

For example, now there is inflammatory rhetoric spewing from President Erdogan of Turkey, who last week convened a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) in Istanbul. The growing chant is for Muslim nations to unite to condemn and punish Israel for the deaths of several dozen Palestinian protesters who either breached or attempted to breach and/or damage portions of the security fence along the Gaza border in recent demonstrations.

And now this photo bomb, just to toss a little more fuel on the fire.

This has the distinct aroma of Magog stew, and God is turning up the heat.

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6/4/2018 — From the "Thundering Silence" Department...

There has been a recent development in the situation involving Russia and Iran in Syria that warrants attention, especially for those who (like me) see the machinations in Syria as preparatory for the battle of Gog Magog.

Russia has recently announced a new policy that states that "all foreign forces" (read "the Iranians and their sock puppets") should stand down and vacate the southernmost provinces of Syria that border Israel ASAP. As the Syrian war is apparently winding down and Putin is ostensibly seeking a diplomatic end to a conflict that brought Russia and Iran together in the first place, it seems that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has succeeded in making the Russians see that it is not in their best interest to allow the Iranians to run wild in southern Syria and threaten Israel like the deranged hooligans that they continue to prove themselves to be.

For their part, the Iranians are sulking and denying Putin was referring to them, claiming that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asked the Iranians for their assistance and invited them to enter Syria.

Oh, and that nobody tells Iran what to do. So there.

For example, on May 10 Israel struck Iranian infrastructure deeper inside Syrian territory than ever before, and Russia's response?

Thundering silence. Missiles? Not so much as a memo.

It appears that Netanyahu has finally succeeded in persuading Putin to take a hands-off approach in regard to what Israel sees fit to do to protect itself from the Iranian threat.

It is unclear how this will play out in the near term, but for the moment it would appear that Israel has successfully created some daylight between Russia and Iran in their unholy alliance, and in so doing, dare I say, perhaps knocked the Gog-ometer down a tick or two.

If so, then so be it. But knowing God, we could be in for some surprises.

I say that because the actions of men have no bearing on whether or not God's Word is fulfilled to the last jot and tittle; but it does make me wonder exactly what He's up to right now in Syria.

Rather than do a cannonball into the Sea of Speculation, however, I'm content to leave it here for the moment because I'm certain I will have more to say on this situation as it plays out.

So stay tuned.

6/11/2018 — From the "Leave or Die" Department...

Last Friday (the last Friday of Ramadan) was Al Quds Day (Jerusalem Day), a holiday instituted by Iran in 1979 for the express purpose of showing support for the Palestinians, opposing Zionism, and decrying the continued existence of Israel.

In keeping with the festive nature of the day, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made a televised speech in Lebanon in which he said, surprisingly enough, that he did not want to kill Jews:

"We do not want to destroy or kill or throw anyone into the sea. Get on your planes and boats and go back to the countries you came from."

Whew...that's a relief. Hezbollah doesn't want to kill Jews—they just want them to pack up and leave Israel so the Palestinians can move in and take all their land. That's all.

Well, not quite all. He also made an ominous threat to Israel that reflects the feelings of other Muslim nations in the region:

"[But] if you insist on the occupation, the day of the great war is coming, the day we will all pray in Jerusalem."

Translation: Leave or die.

Oh, and he's absolutely right when he says "the day of the great war is coming," because it is.

Nasrallah just doesn't realize that the "great war" he speaks of will see him and his people and all other nations surrounding Israel that seek her destruction themselves destroyed by the hand of God.

The God of Israel, that is.

The world may snarl at Israel and say:

Leave or die!

But it matters not a whit, because the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob said something to His people that countermands it:

Stay and live!

6/18/2018 — From the "We Stand With Israel" Department...

I wrote a Commentary entry last week about Iran celebrating Al Quds Day, a fun-filled event that openly calls for the destruction of Israel.

This week, however, in an article at the Times of Israel website, I learned of a different movement that is afoot in Iran, one born as a response to Al Quds Day. And I must say it touched my spirit as much as it took me by surprise. It goes by the hashtag (are you ready for this?):

#WeStandWithIsrael

Yes, Iranians. As in people who live in Iran, the nation whose leadership threatens to wipe Israel off the map on a daily basis.

The article mentioned that before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran had been a close ally of Israel. But the Ayatollahs changed all that. What many people in the world today—especially in the West—don't realize, however, is that the majority of ordinary citizens in Iran do not support the regime of the Ayatollahs. According to an Israeli Foreign Ministry official involved with digital media in the Farsi language:

"Most of the Iranian people oppose the regime and its policies towards Israel, and Iranians are always writing to us that they love Israel, that they don't want their regime to use their money to support Hamas and Hezbollah."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the occasion to offer Israel's help to the Iranian people in terms of dealing with chronic water shortages, a problem that has plagued Iran for decades under the Ayatollahs:

"The Iranian people are victims of a cruel and tyrannical regime that denies them vital water. Israel stands with the people of Iran. [...] Millions of Iranian children are suffering due to mismanagement, to incompetence, and the theft of vital resources by the Iranian regime. Now, Israel also has water challenges. We've developed cutting edge technologies to address them. Israel has the know-how to prevent environmental catastrophe in Iran. I want to share this information with the people of Iran."

What touched me about this news item is that it brought home a fundamental idea that is so easy to forget, with all the political posturing, military maneuvering, and anti-Israel saber-rattling going on in the world today:

God loves the Iranian people—He loves them enough to send His Son to die for their sins so they could be saved by grace through faith, the same as He did for the people of any other nation.

Benjamin Netanyahu summed it up quite eloquently:

"The Iranian regime shouts, 'Death to Israel!' In response, Israel shouts, 'Life to the Iranian people!'"

May it be on our hearts as born-again believers to shout "Eternal life to the Iranian people!"

6/25/2018 — From the "Man With a Plan" Department...

In Chatham Middle School, part of the Chatham, New Jersey school district, seventh-graders were shown a five-minute video that introduced them to Islam in the most soothing, glowing terms imaginable (I managed to endure the whole five minutes—trust me, it's pretty slick).

Well, it seems that didn't sit well with two particular Chatham mothers, Nancy Gayer and Libby Hilsenrath, who filed a lawsuit against the school district. In response, the school district sought to have the case summarily dismissed.

And they lost.

So, let the legal fireworks begin. Kate Oliveri, attorney for Mrs. Hilsenrath, had some choice words for school district officials and their attempts to have the case tossed:

"The motion to dismiss was a further attempt by the school district to bully and silence Mrs. Hilsenrath. The school district ignored the legal standard and ignored the facts, attempting instead to fool the judge with a poor attempt at sophistry."

Ouch. The professionally produced video entrances the viewer with beautiful, soul-stirring background music in Arabic (presumably extolling the virtues of Allah and and his "prophet" Muhammed), and does a stunning job of making Islam come across like the ultimate answer to the deeply held desire of mankind for truth, beauty, and peace.

Incidentally, my quotation marks around the word "prophet" are not mere snark—they are meant to communicate something in a precise and accurate manner, and that is the simple fact that Muhammed was not a prophet, regardless of what 1.8 billion Muslims have been indoctrinated to believe.

Muhammed was about as much a prophet as the man in the moon. (Get it? Moon...moon god. Oh, never mind.) Why? Because a prophet by definition is someone who communicates to people the message given to him directly by God, and we know it's God speaking through that prophet because the things he says will happen actually happen with 100 percent accuracy. If they don't, he's a false prophet. Muhammed did that exactly zero times, and the reason is self-evident: Muhammed not only wasn't a prophet, he had no more knowledge of God than any other unregenerate sinner spiritually separated from Him. Muhammed not only didn't know God, he invented a god of his own and used violence and bloodshed to force others to submit to it and glorify him as that god's "prophet."

And fourteen centuries later, the world continues to suffer from the presence of this malignant satanic tumor.

The video doesn't pull any punches, and wastes no time in not pulling them. We are asked the following question and given the desired answer:

What is Islam?
Faith of divine guidance for Humanity, based on
peace, spirituality and the oneness of God.

Ah yes, the religion of peace—I'd almost forgotten. Sounds great, right? OK, next question and its desired answer:

Who is Allah?
Allah is the one God who created the heavens
and the earth, who has no equal and is all powerful.

Translation: Allah is the same as the God of the Bible, silly. So, first they go after God the Father. Then they go after God the Son with a verse from the Qur'an...er, I mean, the noble Qur'an:

"Say: He is Allah (God), the One and Only,
Allah, the Eternal, Absolute,
He begetteth not, nor is He begotten,
And there is none like unto Him."

Badda-bim, badda-boom...Allah is really the God of the Bible, and Jesus is just a second-string prophet—Muhammed's right-hand man.

The video also extols the (partially fantasized) contributions to world culture by Muslims, and they start off with...

Islamic Art and Architecture

And you'll never guess what picture they chose as the lead-in to this section of the video:

The Dome of the Rock.

A Muslim shrine that desecrates the site of the Jews' first two temples on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem—temples Muslims deny ever existed.

Oh, by the way, remember that beautiful, soul-stirring music I alluded to? According to the article:

"A musical version of an Arabic poem plays in the background throughout the video. The lyrics describe Christians and Jews as infidels and praises Muhammed for slaughtering them...'their white shining swords red with the blood of infidels...until they looked like meat on the butcher's block.'"

Satan may be evil, but he's no slacker. He's a man with a plan:

• First, he goes after God the Father.
• Then he goes after His Son.
• Then he goes after His city.
• Then he goes after His family.

One reason I love news stories like this is because they serve to expose Satan's grand plan to anyone with ears to hear. And I can only hope that more God-fearing parents out there have the sand to do what these two New Jersey mothers did—may God bless and strengthen them in their efforts to protect their children and honor His holy name.

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7/2/2018 — From the "Deal of the Century" Department...

At this point I almost feel guilty for commenting on this situation, because it's not really "news" in the strict sense of the word. A better name might be "more of the same." But just so you know, the Palestinians are planning to stage protests against President Trump's yet-to-be-announced "deal of the century," which continues to be dismissed as the "slap of the century" by Palestinian leadership.

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is determined to show that he still enjoys the support of the Palestinian people, and is pulling every string available to him to get the Palestinian population out in the streets in large numbers to show their outrage at the deal. According to Abbas:

"[Trump's plan] is aimed at liquidating our national rights and the entire Palestinian cause."

Tough talk, to be sure. Of course, the actual details of the plan don't matter, and the reason is simple:

The only possible deal Mahmoud Abbas will ever accept is a deal that stipulates that every Jew in Israel (a) formally apologize for stealing Palestinian land and (b) proceed to jump into the Mediterranean Sea, and that every square inch of Israeli territory be handed over to the Palestinians as their state with a Jew-free Jerusalem as its capital.

Oh, and that the name of Israel be remembered no more.

About the only aspect of this situation that is still interesting is how other Arab leaders, chiefly Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and President Abdel el-Sisi of Egypt will push forward with a deal for a two-state solution for the Palestinian people while their so-called "leader" pouts all alone in the corner like a four-year-old who has been refused a lollipop. Both bin Salman and el-Sisi and other regional Arab leaders have publicly made it crystal clear they are fed up with Abbas and his childish recalcitrance and are fully prepared to act on behalf of the Palestinian people without him.

Tough talk, to be sure. But how that would play out in real-world terms is not quite so crystal clear.

In my humble opinion, however, Trump has done one thing right, and it was no small task: He has successfully guided the situation to a point where Mahmoud "The Roadblock of Ramallah" Abbas has been rendered sufficiently irrelevant in regional affairs that a peace plan has a chance to proceed without Abbas on board.

Donald Trump may have his flaws, but Ｉ will say this: He knows his enemy.

All the left-wing liberals screamed that Trump was insane when he recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December of last year. They cursed his name and howled at the moon when he decided to relocate the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But to me it's pretty clear: Besides the fact that it was simply the right thing to do, Trump's strategy was to goad the eminently goadable Abbas and then sit back and watch him boo-hoo his way into oblivion. And it seems to be working.

In my estimation, that deserves consideration as the deal of the century.

7/9/2018 — From the "Pontifical Pearls of Wisdom" Department...

Pope Francis, aka the leading candidate for False Prophet-to-be, held a summit of Christian leaders the other day in Bari, Italy, the city where St. Nicholas (the real Santa Claus) is buried. The purpose of the summit was to discuss how to promote peace in the Middle East, and the pope had some pithy remarks to share with the world that I felt compelled to comment on.

In his pontifical pearls of wisdom, the pope stressed that (a) walls, (b) occupation of territories, and (c) religious fanaticism would not resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. OK, let's take these one at a time.

(a) The "wall" the pope was referring to was the security fence/wall that Israel built along the West Bank to protect themselves from repeated attacks by Palestinians. According to the Palestinians, it was a land grab designed to steal their future state from them.

The pope may as well come right out and say that Israel has no right to defend itself from attacks by its enemies, because doing so is not conducive to peace. (But evidently launching missiles at innocent Israeli citizens is.)

(b) I wish someone would explain to me how living in your own land, land that has belonged to your people for thousands of years, constitutes "occupying" something.

Nobody is "occupying" Palestinian territory because there is no Palestinian territory to occupy!

Unless, that is, you count land that never belonged to them in any way, shape, or form that has been handed over to them in futile, ill-fated attempts at appeasing them.

The "Palestinians" are an invented people, and they were invented for the sole purpose of being manipulated as a tool to advance the goal of wiping Israel off the map and wiping out the Jews as a race. Thus it should surprise no one that according to their national charter, their concept of "peace with Israel" literally means "peace with no Israel." (Don't believe me? Read it some time.)

But back to the pope. Now, are we to believe the pope doesn't know these things? Are we to believe the pope is so profoundly ignorant of history that he actually buys into the Palestinian claims? Personally, I do not believe the pope is that ignorant, because the only people in the world who are would be the talking heads of the liberal mainstream media and those naive enough to believe them when they spew the Palestinian narrative.

Consider: The pope is the leader of a major world religious system that flatly denies the significance of Israel as God's Chosen People and erroneously believes the Church has taken over that title from them. As a result, he believes the Church has inherited all the spiritual blessings and promises that God's Word expressly promises to Israel, and sees no validity in any of God's promises to the Jews. Thus he sees no validity in any claim made by the Jews in regard to their land.

The point is that his talk of "peace" rings exceedingly hollow, and I cannot believe he seeks any kind of lasting peace that involves the Jewish people. In fact, I believe he envisions a world with no Israel—just like the Palestinians for whom he so ardently claims to seek peace.

(c) Ah, yes...fanaticism. Religious extremism. Fundamentalism. Here's one of those pearls of wisdom I mentioned:

"[The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been fueled by] forms of fundamentalism and fanaticism that, under the guise of religion, have profaned God's name, which is peace, and persecuted age-old neighbors."

It should be noted with care that the pope's definition of "fundamentalism" includes all born-again believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ who believe the Bible is God's inspired, inerrant Word, and that in His Word God says what He means and means what He says. According to the pope, this means you are "profaning God's name."

I'm sorry, Your Holiness, but you got that wrong. Claiming, as you did, that the Qur'an is on an equal theological footing with God's Word is "profaning God's name." Just wanted to clear that up.

And in regard to Israel, God says (and means) this:

• Is the sun still giving light by day? Check.
• Are the moon and stars still giving light by night? Check.
• Are the waves of the sea still roaring? Check.

So the world's largest apostate religious organization on earth is being run by a liar and an enemy of God's people. I suppose that shouldn't surprise anyone, though. After all...

He takes after his boss.

7/16/2018 — From the "Earthquake Preparedness" Department...

According to many experts in Israel, the greatest current threat to the safety and security of the Jewish nation is not attacks from Hamas. It's not the Palestinians. It's not anti-Semitism abroad.

It's not even Iran.

It's something you're much more likely to hear about in regard to California or Japan, rather than Israel:

Earthquakes.

Recently, five tremors ranging from 3.1 to 4.3 hit northern Israel in the space of two days, and it has the seismic community buzzing and some government leaders scrambling to take action.

According to reports, Israel's earthquake preparedness is sorely lacking in many areas, and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has revealed a new plan to increase Israel's overall level of preparedness that will go before lawmakers later this month. Pressure for such steps is mounting, as scientists in Israel are openly warning the public that the chances of a major quake occurring in the near future are quite high, and that this poses the most serious threat to the nation at present.

Of course, anyone who studies Scripture knows the scientists are spot on in their predictions:

Note with care the nature of this split on the Mount of Olives: The fissure will run from east to west, as half the mountain goes north and half goes south. Surprisingly enough (or maybe not so surprisingly, depending on your view of Scripture), this matches exactly the geological facts on the ground, so to speak.

The entire length of the Jordan Valley lies in what is known as the Dead Sea Transform (or the Dead Sea Rift), and it represents the boundary between two of earth's tectonic plates: the Arabian Plate to the east and the African Plate to the west. Not only that, but geologists have determined the Arabian Plate on the east side is pushing north at a faster rate than is the African Plate, which means that should major quake strike that area, a split running from east to west would tend to form, with the northern side pulling away from the southern side.

Oh yeah, and a fault was discovered along the Mount of Olives in 1964, a fault that runs from east to west.

All of which jives perfectly with what Zechariah wrote in the sixth century BC.

So, how's your earthquake preparedness?

7/23/2018 — From the "Watch Me Work" Department...

As Israeli warplanes pound dozens of military targets in Gaza for the second time within the past week in response to attacks orchestrated by Hamas, the increasing cycle of violence has many believing yet another war with Gaza is inevitable.

Hamas has been conducting a "kitchen sink" war with Israel over the last few months, sending a steady stream of cheap incendiary kites and balloons into Israeli territory where they crash into and burn buildings and the homes of civilians. Israel has responded with force, and has also imposed additional economic sanctions on an already impoverished Gaza in a desperate effort to force Hamas leaders to come to their senses and cease their pointless attacks on Israeli citizens.

And in the midst of this stand Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, point men for the Trump administration's Israeli-Palestinian negotiation team, who must be wondering if the time will ever be right to roll out their peace plan—which the Palestinians have already publicly spurned sight unseen.

It is apparent to the Israelis and to most clear-minded people that the leaders of Hamas are little more than corrupt and hateful bullies who invariably place harming Israel ahead of the basic welfare of their own people. That much is about as clear as it can be. Hamas leaders insist they are out to defend the people of Gaza. I'll let you come to your own conclusions.

The question on my mind, however, is how another Gaza war would affect the push for a two-state solution. Is it possible that another war between Israel and Hamas (and/or the Palestinians) could put the "deal of the century" on ice for the foreseeable future? Sure. After all, it's not easy to see the deal getting done as long as Hamas continues escalating its efforts to provoke Israel to fight.

I really don't have any grand, penetrating insights into the current situation with the Israelis and the Palestinians or how it will play out that you probably haven't already heard through the grapevine, but I would like to share one thought with you that the Lord seems to be emphasizing to me these days. It can be summarized in three words:

Watch me work.

In other words:

You may not understand exactly where things are going at the moment. Things may happen that run counter to your expectations, or contrary to what I know you're looking forward to—even contrary to things that you know will happen because I've told you they will in my Word. That's OK...all I want you to do is pay attention, do your job, and watch me work.

So let the analysts analyze. Let the prognosticators prognosticate. Let the pundits pundit.

I'm content to just watch my Father work.

7/30/2018 — From the "Whose Side Are You On?" Department...

In recent months, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has made overtures that seem to indicate that he is leaning toward the side of Israel and the United States in regard to the Trump administration's yet-to-be-unveiled Mideast peace plan. In the process, he has made some rather un-Arab-like statements, such as the fact that Israel has the right to exist and live peacefully in their own land, and that the Palestinians should quit bawling, negotiate like grownups, and gratefully accept what they're offered by the big dogs on the block.

But the fact remains that the crown prince is not the king. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is the son of King Salman, who is still very much alive and kicking, and very much still king—a king who recently expressed his solid support for PA leader Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian cause.

King Salman recently met privately with Mahmoud Abbas and reassured him that Saudi Arabia was on their side, and would not support any U.S. peace plan that did not (a) give them East Jerusalem as their capital and (b) guarantee the right of return for millions of descendants of Palestinians who were made refugees in 1948 and 1967.

Both of which are essentially non-starters for Israel, last time I checked.

In other words, the king is increasingly seen as counteracting the perception that Saudi Arabia's positions were shifting to a more pro-Israel, pro-United States stance under his son. This, in turn, is making many regional experts wonder whether Saudi Arabia can generate sufficiently broad Arab support to end the festering Israeli-Palestinian problem, with the goal of focusing collective Arab attention on what is widely seen as the real problem: Iran.

This adds to the growing sense that despite earlier optimism, any efforts by the U.S. to broker the "deal of the century" between Israel and the Palestinians is just as doomed to failure as all previous attempts, and for the same old reasons. This reinforces the growing perception that nothing has changed and perhaps never will, at least not any time soon.

Same old song and dance.

However, I don't go by what I read in the news. I don't go by the crowing and posturing of men who have been raised up and placed in positions of power by a sovereign God for the express purpose of carrying out His will and perfect plan.

I know at some point a deal will be made to divide the land of Israel, and that this will be a pivotal event in the unfolding of end-time prophecy—we have God's Word on it.

And I'm on His side.

Whose side are you on?

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8/6/2018 — From the "Let It Rain" Department...

If you've been keeping up with the news, you know that the world's weather is getting wilder and wackier all the time. Several countries around the world have been experiencing record-breaking heat and the problems associated with major heat waves, such as drought, wildfires, etc. For example, major wildfires are again exploding in California, Japan just experienced the hottest July on record, Eastern Australia is currently experiencing the worst drought in living memory, and so on and so forth.

The following item struck me as a bit weird, though. On July 24, the world's hottest rain fell in Imperial, California. According to an article at the Newsweek website, the rain was 119 degrees Fahrenheit, breaking the old record of 118 degrees set in Needles, California on August 13, 2012.

If I were in the mood, I'd write a song:

"A hot rain's gonna fall..."

According to a meteorologist quoted in the article, this points to the fact that the world is not only getting hotter, it's getting more humid. Not sure what you do with that, but that's what the guy said.

Of course, for believers who are tuned in to the ongoing development of the prophetic scenario, this shouldn't come as a big shock. It's like I always say:

The world isn't spiraling out of control, it's spiraling under control.

And we know who's doing the controlling.

As the world looks on in fear and bewilderment at what is happening and what is coming, we are called to be its salt:

...and its light:

May we be so focused on doing exactly that—on living lives that radiate the peace and love of Jesus and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and leading those last few precious sheep to the cross of Christ—that we don't mind the weather, so to speak.

If I were in the mood, I'd write another song:

"Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain..."

8/13/2018 — From the "Keeping Us on Our Toes" Department...

Sometimes there are stories in the news I would almost rather not comment on, because on the surface things don't seem to be moving in the direction I had hoped they would. But that's what's happening, so...

Like many prophetically aware believers who are anxiously watching events unfold in the Middle East, I see the ultimate agreement to divide Israel in some type of two-state solution as a fulfillment of prophecy and a key piece of the prophetic puzzle, because it is the implementation of just such a deal that I and many others believe is the treaty spoken of not only in Daniel 9:27, but also Isaiah 28:15–18 and Joel 3:1–2, a "covenant with death" and an "agreement with hell" that officially launches Daniel's 70th Week.

And as the posturing and maneuvering of some of the key players has clearly been gyrating in that general direction over the last year or two, the excitement and anticipation has been getting progressively ramped up. A lot of Rapture-watchers are shifting into ADN mode again (Any Day Now).

But God is keeping us honest. He's keeping us on our toes and paying attention, because just when you think it looks as if that deal is on the horizon, something happens to make you think it's not going to come anytime in the immediate future. News comes out that makes you think it's all going to fall apart.

Again.

Just like the last time, and the time before that, with this recent article in the Washington Times being a salient example.

According to the article, Egypt's enthusiasm to partner with the Trump administration to forge a two-state deal with the Palestinians has "dimmed" in recent days due to a "lack of concrete progress." Not only that, but "the pessimism is spreading" to other regional Arab countries who are key players in this deal.

Apparently President el-Sissi of Egypt is beginning to feel that the Trump team is ignoring (or at least taking for granted) his country's concerns and priorities in all the "pre-negotiation negotiations" that have been going on. According to the article, Mr. el-Sissi is not happy with the Trump team's suggestion that Egypt open up its Sinai territory to Palestinians from Gaza. Egypt feels as if they are being taken advantage of, and that future negotiations are liable to proceed at their expense.

So while tensions between Israel and Hamas are heating up, regional enthusiasm for the possibility of a two-state deal in the near-term seems to be cooling down.

But I still know such a deal will be made, at some point, somehow.

It's like I always say: I think God just wants to keep us on our toes.

8/20/2018 — From the "Take a Knee" Department...

It figures. Now we've got elementary school students taking a knee for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Mariana Taylor, an 11-year-old sixth-grader in Catonsville, Maryland, decided to take a knee for her class's recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance recently. According to reports, her teacher reprimanded her (as well she should have), basically telling young Mariana that she was showing disrespect to the country.

Oh, horror of horrors!

I mean the reprimand, not the kneeling.

Next thing you know, the Maryland ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) was involved to protect and support our budding young politically correct protestor. And since President Trump has recently taken aim at NFL players who opt to take a knee for the national anthem, 2016 presidential campaign loser Hillary Clinton couldn't pass up the opportunity to take to Twitter and chip in her two cents (which is an overstatement of their value, in my estimation):

"It takes courage to exercise your right to protest injustice, especially when you're 11! Keep up the good work Mariana."

"Keep up the good work"?! OK, wait...back up. Let's review the words of the Pledge of Allegiance just for reference:

I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.

Like most Americans my age, I know it by heart—but I copied this from Wikipedia anyway just to make sure I got it letter-perfect. So, when you recite the Pledge of Allegiance, you—as a citizen of the United States—are simply affirming your loyalty to the flag, to the country it stands for, and to the principle that it is a country united under God which is committed to providing freedom and justice to all its citizens.

Hope I didn't lose anybody. Now, I ask you:

Q. How does refusing to stand and state that you are loyal to a country that is committed in principle to providing justice for its citizens constitute "protesting injustice"?

And the follow-up question:

Q. How does refusing to do so not make you disrespectful of the very commitment to justice your country is founded on?

In other words, does injustice exist in America? Yes, it does. It exists everywhere on earth because of man's fallen, sinful nature—not to mention the fact that it is under the control of the god of this world, Satan. But is America committed in principle to providing justice for its citizens to the greatest extent within its power, even though we admittedly fail in various situations at various times? Yes, it is.

So, to anyone—from impressionable 11-year-olds who don't know any better to politically washed-up 70-year-olds who should—who is inclined to disrespect our flag, our country, and the principles upon which it is founded, I say this:

Don't take a knee...take a jour-ney. Move to Iran. Or Afghanistan. Or Saudi Arabia. And after you've lived there for awhile, be sure to send us a post card about how much better their brand of "justice" is than anything you experienced in America.

We'll be waiting to hear from you.

8/27/2018 — From the "Poisoning the Pot" Department...

The Trump administration is at it again. Not long ago, President Trump seemed to indicate that the status of Jerusalem is off the table in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations—he intimated that his "deal of the century" would not give the Palestinians East Jerusalem (which includes the Temple Mount) as their capital. Now, Trump is hinting that the so-called "right of return" is off the table as well. In other words, he appears to be poisoning the pot.

For the uninitiated, the right of return would give approximately five million Palestinians (i.e. all of them) a free ticket to move to Israel. This would soon lead to Israel no longer being a Jewish majority state, which would soon lead to the end of Israel.

Trump has recently suggested he might be willing to allow approximately one-tenth of that number to be included in the right of return, a decision that revolves around how one defines a "Palestinian refugee." Donald Trump and Mahmoud Abbas clearly disagree on this point.

Of course, the right of return (the full five-million version) and East Jerusalem as their capital are two absolute rock-solid, iron-clad demands of the Palestinians. Mahmoud Abbas, in typical Palestinian style, routinely spouts off about how without these two conditions being met, there won't even be any negotiations with Israel, and has long ago promised to reject any deal offered by the Americans, no matter what it entails.

When I read news like this, I am often tempted to say "Things are going nowhere."

But I don't believe that. I don't believe things are going nowhere—I believe things are going somewhere, but I'm just not sure where. But I admit they do not appear to be headed toward a two-state agreement in its current incarnation anytime in the immediate future—they appear to be headed toward an impasse. Or a war.

President Trump and his negotiating team, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, President el-Sisi of Egypt, and King Hussein of Jordan are not fools in the habit of wasting their precious time. This is going somewhere, and if it's not an agreement and in the not-too-distant future, then it could just possibly be that these countries are willing to watch the Palestinians and Hamas stupidly provoke Israel into an attack, and then sit back and let Israel solve the Palestinian problem militarily. Why? Perhaps because they already know it can never be solved through negotiations with the current Palestinian leadership.

Rank speculation on my part, of course...but this is the story to watch.

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9/3/2018 — From the "Twists and Turns" Department...

The wheels are turning and the gears are grinding behind the scenes in the run-up to the United Nations General Assembly, which runs from September 18 to October 5. According to reports, President Trump is eyeing the UN General Assembly as his moment to unveil his deal of the century, and all sorts of last minute twists and turns are in the offing as The Big Moment approaches.

Arguably the biggest twist of late is Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas expressing support for some type of three-way "confederation" among the Palestinians, Israel, and Jordan. This is a significant break from Abbas' long-standing insistence on a two-state solution creating a separate, sovereign Palestinian state, although Abbas still concedes that is what he actually prefers, as expressed in a recent statement:

"The Palestinian side's hand is always extended to achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on legitimate international resolutions and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital."

What makes this so startling is the simple fact that it demonstrates that Abbas is capable of something that he has shown little predilection for in his tenure as PA president: flexibility...or something vaguely resembling it.

On the other hand, in regard to this so-called confederation with the Palestinians, Jordan's reaction has essentially been...

"What?! A 'confederation'? What are you talking about?! Not just NO, but H-E-double-hockey-sticks NO! What kind of drugs are you people taking, anyway?"

Abbas and others are talking as if this confederation idea has been discussed behind the scenes for years, but Jordan is acting as if they'd never heard of such an outrageous idea. So, it's hard to know what to make of it, and harder to know what such a deal would look like or how it would be implemented.

But whatever happens, there will no doubt be many more twists and turns on the road to any type of Israeli-Palestinian agreement, so stay tuned.

By the way, a quick note to all those out there who are foaming at the mouth about the Rapture happening this month because they think the treaty of Daniel 9:27 is imminent:

Think again. I can guarantee you that no agreement of any kind is actually going to be signed this month, or for some number of months in all likelihood. Not only that, but it will likely be even more months after that before whatever is signed is actually implemented. Bottom line: The "strengthening" of the treaty of Daniel 9:27 could easily be many months, conceivably even a couple of years away. So chill out. Yes, watch the signs God is revealing, but more importantly watch your spiritual life and stay in fellowship with the Lord. I know these are exciting times, but please remember that trying to hurry God up does nothing but lead to frustration and disappointment.

9/10/2018 — From the "Reality 101" Department...

According to an article at the Times of Israel website, it looks like President Trump is playing a little country hardball with the Palestinians in the run-up to the U.N. General Assembly starting September 18. He told Jewish leaders last week that he won't give the Palestinians any more aid until they make a deal with Israel, and is backing it up with drastic cuts in their funding.

"You'll get money, but we're not paying until you make a deal. If you don't make a deal, we're not paying."

As expected, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is caterwauling about "political blackmail" and doing his utmost to cast the United States in its role as the Great Satan for refusing to pass out free lunches to people who despise them and spit on everything they stand for, and for generously and unquestioningly providing many millions of dollars of "aid" that ends up being funneled to the families of terrorists who heroically murder innocent Israeli citizens.

I can only hope that the moves made by President Trump and others are enough to wake the Palestinians up to the fact that they are rapidly running out of friends and are bargaining from a position of weakness, and as a result aren't in a position to stand up on their hind legs and make big demands that they expect others to cave in to.

Reality 101 tells us it doesn't work that way.

Unfortunately, the Palestinians and their leader Mahmoud Abbas have been living in their own private reality for quite some time, so this is all coming as quite a shock for them.

It appears that the Palestinians are going to be forced to the negotiating table one way or another, because other major players are making them an offer they can't refuse. And unless I miss my guess, come they will.

What remains to be seen is whether or not they can ultimately be pressured into accepting a deal that doesn't give them every single thing they demand, or will they break off the talks (as per normal) and quite possibly plunge the region into a military conflict that could drag on for months and end up placing the Palestinians in a far worse position than they are in now.

Reality 101 tells us this is stupid and self-defeating.

But Reality 101 isn't the reality of the Palestinians.

9/17/2018 — From the "Pre-Launch Phase" Department...

Well, this is it. This is The Big Moment for Trump's Middle East peace plan, set to be announced in the next few days at the United Nations General Assembly. According to one senior administration official:

"We are in the 'pre-launch' phase of the plan and still need to put the finishing touches on it, although that can happen very quickly. And, in an ideal world, we want to put forth a plan at a time that gives it the best chances of achieving success."

Trump's team, however, has no illusions about the struggle ahead. With PA leader Mahmoud Abbas refusing to even meet with U.S. officials, it's going to be a hard slog. According to an article in the Jerusalem Post, depending on how the Palestinians carry on in the weeks and months ahead, Trump's team may ultimately be forced to recommend to the president that he proceed without the cooperation of the Palestinians.

On the bright side, however, if indeed there is one, U.S. officials say the plan has enough flexibility to still allow the Palestinians to negotiate a comprehensive settlement that would be satisfactory to them.

Abbas is still fuming over Trump's cutting of aid to the Palestinians, which is widely seen as a tactic to pressure the Palestinians to come to the table and work out a deal. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley recently denied this, saying the cuts were the result of rhetoric from the Palestinian side that was critical of the United States:

"Our job is not to take the beatings that you give us, saying we're not kind to Palestinians and then turn around pay for them."

Rhetoric aside, however, and in spite of whatever road bumps the Palestinians create, I am of the opinion that this is going to be something that will ultimately lead to an Israeli-Palestinian deal that will divide Israel and fulfill Daniel 9:27. It will no doubt take some number of months to negotiate and even more to implement, but I think the announcement of this plan by the U.S. really does represent the pre-launch phase of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. With all the other events going on and signs being revealed by God in the backdrop to all this, I sincerely believe it's finally time for The Treaty to begin to come into view.

And you know what that means—that means the multitudes of signs pointing to the nearness of the Rapture are compellingly spot on, and not spurious coincidences.

In fact, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to call this the pre-launch phase of the Church. After all, this means it won't be long before the dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.

"We are go for launch..."

9/24/2018 — From the "Dog and Pony Show" Department...

I might have known. According to an article at the Times of Israel website, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has scheduled a UN event on the sidelines of the General Assembly for Wednesday the 26th, one day after Trump's highly anticipated address on Tuesday the 25th. Under the high-sounding title of "Salvaging the Two-State Solution—Defending the International Rules-Based System," the goal of the event is a self-evident open secret: Discuss ways to destroy Trump's Israeli-Palestinian peace plan—regardless of what it entails.

Why am I not surprised. According to the article, over 40 countries and international organizations have been invited to attend (not including the United States and Israel, obviously).

According to a document released by the Palestinians and distributed to those invited to the event, the meeting will focus on ways to counter threats to the two-state solution posed by Israel's illegal expansion in the West Bank, safeguarding the flow of free money into Palestinian coffers via UN fronts...er, I mean "agencies" like the UNRWA (that was recently defunded by that nasty old despot Trump), and steps toward re-starting talks aimed at pinning down the elusive two-state solution.

It has been reported that Israel is working behind the scenes to undermine this Palestinian-sponsored event, contacting many of the countries and organizations invited to attend and trying to persuade them to either send lower-ranking officials to the conference or to skip it entirely to demonstrate the fact they regard this event as exactly what it is:

Another Palestinian dog and pony show.

It is also being reported that according to Abbas, this appeal for a conference to jumpstart talks aimed at a two-state solution would be his final effort to salvage the Israeli-Palestinian peace process before he is forced to make "difficult decisions," a nice way to say revoking their recognition of Israel, annulling previous accords (specifically the Oslo Accord), and officially declaring the parts of Israel the Palestinians are dreaming of and drooling over to be "a Palestinian state under occupation."

Oooh...mighty big talk from the man single-handedly responsible for torpedoing every single effort to reach an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians in the last dozen years or so.

The only takeaway we as the body of Christ require from this is the following fact: Someday, somehow, a two-state solution will be reached that divides the land of Israel. You have God's Word on it.

And it doesn't matter how many dog and pony shows it takes.

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10/1/2018 — From the "Hurry Up and Wait" Department...

Up until last week, many had expected President Trump to use the United Nations General Assembly as the perfect platform to unveil his deal of the century for peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

The reality turned out to be somewhat different, however, leaving many to ask:

Where's the beef?

It seems the Trump administration thought better of the idea of unveiling the plan at the UNGA, and afterwards Trump announced that the plan will be announced in "two, three, four months."

Maybe.

On the plus side, it sounded like a definite maybe.

Some had been excitedly speculating that (a) the Rapture would occur, (b) the treaty fulfilling Daniel 9:27 would burst on the scene at the UNGA in late September, and (c) this would launch the Tribulation before you could say "Trick or treat!"

Bada bim, bada boom. So that's officially a no-go at this point, and effectively puts us back to the place we were at before the UNGA:

Hurry up and wait.

The UNGA wasn't a total bust, however. We did learn one thing: Trump supports the two state solution! Surprise, surprise. Trump publicly voiced his support for a two-state solution for the first time, and so the U.S. is pressing Israel to warm up to the idea as well.

On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees something less as a possible answer. In an article published on the National Public Radio website, Netanyahu stressed that Israel must be in complete control of its own security, no matter what ultimately happens with the Palestinians:

"My view of a potential agreement is that the Palestinians have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten us. The key power that must, must not be in their hands is the question of security...I don't want them either as citizens of Israel or subjects of Israel."

Although Trump and Netanyahu both continue to emphasize the close and mutually supportive relationship between themselves personally as well as between the United States and Israel, it's clear that issues do remain for whatever peace deal is ultimately hammered out...in two, three, four months, or whatever.

So we wait.

10/8/2018 — From the "Unhinged" Department...

I have no doubt you are aware of the goings on surrounding the confirmation process of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court over the course of the past couple of months, and I couldn't help but give you my take on what I have seen transpire.

As you probably know, I live and work in Taiwan—but as you probably don't know, I normally watch almost no television and get all my news online (at actual news sites, not slopmongers like CNN.com). So, I was aware of the ongoing situation, but I was fortunate enough not to have every digusting, excruciating nuance of it played out in front of my face for hours a day on a daily basis. But I've been visiting my family in the U.S. for the past week, so I have been exposed to American TV on and off throughout each day and evening.

And I've seen enough.

Look, I know the liberal left hates Trump. I get it. I know the Democrats have been in a blind rage for the past two years because the power they accrued under Barack Obama and their resulting sense of superiority and entitlement have been shattered by a president who doesn't play by their rules. I know they will stop at nothing to destroy Trump, everything he does or attempts to do whether good or bad, and everyone who supports him. I get all that.

But this. This stood out.

So the Democrats and their vicious, highly orchestrated smear campaign against an eminently well-qualified judge came up short. OK. So they wanted yet another week to desperately dig up something to throw at Kavanaugh. OK. So the FBI still didn't find any corroborating evidence (because there was no additional corroborating evidence to find). OK. So obviously the FBI is involved in a cover-up, don't you see, and is guilty of a "whitewash." Obviously. OK.

And now that Kavanaugh has been confirmed to the Supreme Court (and rightly so), they're not finished. Oh no. Now Democrats are determined to re-work the few scraps of innuendo they were able to dredge up in an effort to impeach sitting Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh. And they say it as if it were a threat of some kind.

The liberal left is coming completely unhinged.

With midterm elections just under a month away, the majority of ordinary Americans have had their fill of the Trump-loathing lunacy of the liberal left, as they writhe and whine, so utterly detached from political reality that it begs for a new clinical term, although TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) has served reasonably well in that regard. And to the surprise of no one except the Demented-ocrats, a number of Republican candidates around the country are beginning to surge in polls and the Republican party is consolidating in ways not seen in years.

And now the Democrats want to blindly pursue the same despicable (and failed) tactics that have so clearly exposed them as the deranged sociopaths they are? Really?

Hey, that's a great idea! Run with it, baby! Pull out all the stops...oh, and don't forget the evidence that Kavanaugh is a UFO baby and quite possibly the Antichrist. Yeah, that'll show 'em. That'll sway voters.

Of course, the verse that leaps to mind in all this is the same verse that is leaping to many of your minds:

So, is this the "strong delusion"? No, it isn't. I don't believe that will manifest itself until the Tribulation is underway. But it does give us a bit of insight into how easily Satan can influence mass numbers of people to think, feel, and act in ways that serve his purposes. So, you might say it's a little foretaste of what is in store for the world when Satan's man comes to power.

The people of the world are going to come completely unhinged.

But unlike this Kavanaugh slimefest that has disgraced the U.S. Senate like few things in living memory, I won't be here to watch it paraded before me on TV.

I trust you won't, either.

10/22/2018 — From the "Mission Implausible" Department...

I'm sure you are all aware of the recent incident involving the death of Saudi journalist and columnist for the Washington Post Jamal Khashoggi, who was apparently killed by Saudi Arabian operatives in the nation's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey recently. I won't take the time to guide you step by step through the twisted, tortuous trail of lies and fabrications that has taken center stage in this affair, but I have a funny feeling Hollywood screenwriters are eating it up and taking notes.

Details continue to emerge that paint a picture of a highly choreographed hit that was the stuff of Mission Impossible, and it is rapidly leaving all concerned parties with precious little room to spin things. For example, just today video was released of a Saudi man approximately the size and build of Khashoggi entering the consulate, then leaving through a back exit wearing Khoshiggi's slacks, shirt, and blazer, and later entering a public restroom to change back into his own clothes and discreetly dumping a mysterious bundle—presumably Khashoggi's clothing—into a handy trash bin. This, of course, was to intended to provide evidence to support the Saudis' initial claim that Khashoggi left the consulate alive.

All that's missing is the tape-recorded message that self-destructs in five seconds.

Denials aside, it's virtually impossible to believe that this hit was conducted without the knowledge of Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman (MBS). Make no mistake: This is MBS's worst nightmare. Khashoggi, who had been an outspoken critic of MBS and his warming ties with Israel, left Saudi Arabia for the United States about a year ago for fear of reprisals from a government that has essentially zero tolerance for dissidents. Obviously, the plan was to "disappear" Khashoggi without a trace, and in a way that would leave MBS and the Saudi government blameless.

Well, so much for that idea.

Of course, Jamal Khashoggi was a man who needed Christ, just like all the rest of us...so I don't mean this to sound insensitive. But I for one won't lose a great deal of sleep over the death of an anti-Semitic journalist who scorned his country's attempts at rapprochement with Israel. The pressing question for those with an eye for Bible prophecy, however, has to do with how this incident may impact the push for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

To hear some tell it, this incident may turn the drive toward an Israeli-Palestinian deal into Mission Implausible, at least for the time being. According to an article in the Times of Israel, this incident has the potential to put the Israeli-Palestinian settlement "into a deep freeze," because MBS was to be a "linchpin of the plan, providing diplomatic cover to both sides."

In other words, with MBS now wading through mounting credibility issues, new doubts are being cast on the possibility of a deal being reached any time soon. Dan Shapiro, United States Ambassador to Israel under Barack Obama, had this to say about MBS's role as a partner to both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian deal:

"That Saudi partner needs to be predictable, needs to be reliable, needs to be responsible. What this incident tells us is that that's not the Saudi partner we have right now. None of them are likely to sit with MBS anytime soon to strategize on regional matters and he will be seen as a pariah."

Yeah, well that's the Saudi partner you're going to have for the foreseeable future. Deal with it, Dan.

On the other hand, what may be seen as a setback by many may actually press all concerned to push all the harder to reach a deal—to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak. Much of the feigned and politically motivated indignation that is gushing forth over this incident may lift like an early morning fog, and the focus may return to more important issues more quickly than many suspect.

10/29/2018 — From the "Taking Every Thought Captive" Department...

According to an article on the ABC News website, the Trump administration is considering a policy that would "narrow" the definition of gender, "restricting" it to either male or female based on the sexual anatomy present at birth.

The barbarians!

("Narrow" the definition? I'm sorry, but isn't two already pretty narrow?)

As one would expect, the LGBT community is in full hissy fit mode, and squealing about the horrific effects this will have on the mental and physical health of the 0.4 percent of the population that identifies as transgender or "gender diverse."

That's zero point four percent, as in four out of every 1,000 people. And that's a mighty small segment of the population to be forcing its perversion on the other 996 out of that 1,000 of us, in my humble estimation.

The LGBT community is up at arms because they see Trump as some sort of unenlightened ogre who is out to redefine their sexual identity. Uh, no. Let's get one thing straight (no pun intended, but I'll take it):

Trump isn't "redefining" anything—it is the LGBT community that has attempted to redefine things, and in a way that is completely and utterly contrary to God's laws and designs.

No surprise there, since that has long been Satan's modus operandi.

Let's get another thing straight:

This is a spiritual battle, being waged in the spiritual realm. I believe there is a spirit of homosexuality or of sexual perversion (call it what you like) that Satan has loosed upon the world, and the battle is intensifying. It seeks to (a) induce inappropriate feelings of lust in individuals who are spiritually defenseless against such things, and (b) spur them to not only act on those feelings, but to embrace and celebrate them as being normative and as result demand special "rights" and flaunt their aberrant behavior in the face of others who want nothing to do with it.

So, I figure I'm not going to be winning any awards for political correctness any time soon, but so be it.

Notice I said "individuals who are spiritually defenseless against such things," and the reason I said that is simple:

We are not spiritually defenseless against such things:

Plus, we have the whole armor of God at our disposal: truth to gird our loins, the breastplate of righteousness, the footwear of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:14–17).

One other verse that leaps to mind here is one that often gets glossed over, but to me it is one of the most amazing verses in all the epistles:

Take every thought captive, and make it obey Christ—make it obey the Word. Wow...when's the last time you heard a sermon based on that?

But that's what we are commanded to do, and yeah, it's hard to do. But that's the simplest way to defeat everything Satan can throw at you. This is vital, because God knows something about human nature that we often forget:

If you don't take your thoughts captive,
your thoughts will take you captive.

If you don't believe me, all you have to do is take one look at the world.

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11/5/2018 — From the "Election Night PTSD" Department...

Well, they're finally here...the highly anticipated (or dreaded, depending on your point of view) midterm elections. And from most indications, what appeared to be a "blue wave" several months ago has shrunk to a "blue whimper" heading into election night. Although many pundits are still predicting the House of Representatives will come out with a narrow Democratic majority, it's reached the point where it's too close to call—it's time to forget the polls and let the voters have their say.

For many Democrats, this first election since the Disaster of 2016 is leaving them feeling the effects of PTSD. Most remember all too clearly the sickening horror of seeing Donald Trump crush their dreams of a Hillary Clinton victory, which still seemed like a pretty sure thing going into election night. So, in the words of Yogi Berra, for many left-wing liberals this is "déjà vu all over again."

According to Democratic pollster John Anzalone (a veteran of Clinton's election-night war room):

"We're kind of just in the bed-wetting phase now."

In the bigger picture, many would agree that a Democratic majority in the House would somewhat weaken Trump's chances of re-election in 2020. To hear the Democrats tell it, of course, it would be a glorious slap-down and thundering repudiation of everything Donald Trump has ever said, done, and stands for, and would repair the torn fabric of the space-time continuum.

Luckily, there is no need for born-again believers to get quite that bent out of shape over the results of any election, regardless of which party they happen to support, because God's Word reminds us who's calling the shots:

I look at it this way. I have no doubt that God raised up Donald Trump to assume the presidency in 2016. Why? Not because Trump's such a swell guy, because he's not such a swell guy. God raised up Donald Trump to the presidency because He knew that Trump's strong support of Israel was just what was needed to shift the drive toward the fulfillment of Daniel 9:27 into high gear. I can literally think of no other reason. In other words, He wanted to use Trump to advance His will and fulfill His Word for His people Israel.

Now, the question is, will the drive toward a treaty between Israel and the surrounding nations come in Trump's first term, or will it extend into the 2020–2024 time frame? I do not know, but it seems unlikely to me that if this treaty doesn't get done in the next two years, and then Trump loses to a Democrat in 2020, that it would bode well for such an agreement anytime in the near future. I believe America's strong support for Israel is essential for the success of this process, and I don't see that coming from any species of Democrat.

The bottom line in my opinion is that Democratic success in the midterms just might put more pressure on Trump to see an Israeli-Palestinian deal get done in the next two years. On the other hand, Republican success in the midterms may allow a validated and confident Trump to look to a possible second term for such a deal.

Just my two shekels.

So if you're a Democrat, don't let those election night PTSD blues get you down. If you're a Republican, don't get too comfortable. But whatever you are, VOTE!

11/12/2018 — From the "War and Peace" Department...

I routinely get email links to a number of websites in my Gmail account that are created by Jewish people and geared toward end-time events and prophecy, and I normally just glance at the headlines and delete them. On occasion, I will look the lead story for a few seconds to see if there is anything of value, but 95 percent get deleted without opening. And the reason is simple:

The Jewish people who put these things out may be wonderful people, but they are clueless about end-time prophecy.

In all fairness, some of the things they put out actually line up with Scripture, but often in a convoluted, misguided sort of way. I received one such email link the other day that caught my attention; and even though in many ways it is extremely typical, it prompted me to say a few words on the subject.

The headline is as follows:

Message from Autistic Child in Jerusalem:
Messiah is About to Be Revealed

Many such links are related to the appearance of the Messiah, and often speak of doing teshuvah (repentance) in order to prepare oneself for His arrival, which is imminent! Many also speak of a period of suffering the Jews must endure before the Messiah arrives.

(Imminent...hmm, where have I heard that word before?)

You know, in some ways it kills me, in some ways it breaks my heart, and in some ways it excites me to see these kinds of things.

It kills me in the sense that it makes me want to beat my head against the wall when I see good, sincere people who are so serious about God and about end-time prophecy and about the Messiah, but have it so completely, fundamentally wrong. They quote scholarly rabbinical sources and tout the wisdom of Jewish sages from the past two thousand years; but like I said, it just kills me for one simple reason:

Reading the Old Testament and missing the
fact that it points squarely to Christ as the
Messiah is like reading War and Peace
and missing the fact that it's about Russia.

*BAM*...*BAM*...*BAM*

It breaks my heart because I know the Jewish people are getting all lathered up only to be deceived by an impostor, who will ultimately turn on them and slaughter them like cattle before a remnant of them turn to God with all their hearts and embrace their real Messiah, who will come at the climax of the Great Tribulation.

And it excites me because they are seeing some of the same things we are seeing, only we are seeing these things through the lens of the Word of the living God (all of it), not the wisdom of men that has been elevated to the level of Scripture.

So, yeah, the Messiah is coming soon. The Jews will do teshuvah, at least a remnant of them. The Jews will endure a period of suffering before their Messiah comes.

And we sure don't need an autistic child to tell us any of that—all we need is a plain sense understanding of God's Word.

A level of plain sense understanding sufficient to grasp that War and Peace really is about Russia.

11/19/2018 — From the "Has the Time Passed?" Department...

According to a rather gloomy article in the Jerusalem Post, recent talks of snap elections in Israel have thrown "yet another wrench" in the rollout of the Trump administration's Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.

The author of the article says that Trump's continued postponement of the plan's announcement reveals its inherent delicacy, and also betrays the fear of many senior officials that the deal of the century will arrive DOA if rolled out under less than optimal circumstances.

It's true that the Palestinians have essentially cut off any meaningful contact with the U.S. since Trump's affirmation of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the relocating of the American embassy to said capital. That appeared to be a blow for the yet-to-be-announced peace plan, but it was a risk worth taking in the view of some (and personally I agree). Some believe that in spite of the caterwauling from the Palestinians, at the end of the day they have nowhere else to go for a deal...dry your eyes and deal with it. Meanwhile, the U.S. takes the moral high ground and negotiates from a position of strength.

But forget the Palestinians for the moment—they'll come around or they'll get nothing (and they know it.) For the last two years, the Trump plan has been groomed and tweaked under the warm blanket of two auspicious factors: (a) the keen interest of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in seeing it succeed, and (b) a relatively stable government in Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu. Yet for various reasons the Trump administration has delayed the announcement, and has contented itself with leaking teasers to test reactions.

And we wait.

But according to the author of the article, the recent murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Turkey (a brutal hit that U.S. intelligence has traced right to bin Salman's doorstep), has tarnished the Crown Prince's image as a benevolent, open-minded moderate. As a result, he may never have the same level of influence or political capital he had mere months ago.

And now...now there is political infighting in Israel over responses to the terrorist attacks of Hamas, infighting which threatens Netanyahu's grip on the government. According to the article, snap elections that could conceivably oust Netanyahu loom as a possibility. (Note: As of this moment, those elections have effectively been put off for the time being.)

So, according to the author, the prospects for the Trump administration's peace deal have gone from bad to worse over the course of the past year. Thus, the author muses...

"If the timing was ever ripe for their plan, it may have already passed."

I understand the argument, but with all due respect there are a couple of things that people like the author do not understand.

First of all, there will be a deal between Israel and the surrounding Arab nations. God said so. That means it doesn't depend on Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas, Mohammed bin Salman, or anyone else.

Second, the deal will come in God's perfect time—not a day sooner or a day later. If the deal doesn't turn out to be what Trump rolls out...whenever he rolls it out, then it will be something similar rolled later by someone else.

And that's where it should end for born-again believers. There is no reason for us to read such gloomy assessments of the situation and feel down in the mouth. Unlike the author of the article, we know what's coming—we know how it turns out.

We know the time is not quite ripe; we know time has not passed.

11/26/2018 — From the "Kind of Cool" Department...

I love stuff like this. According to new genetic research that has come out, all human beings alive today descended from a single couple living between 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

Even more surprisingly, lead researchers Mark Stoeckle at Rockefeller University and David Thaler at the University of Basel also concluded that not only did all living humans descend from a single couple, but so did about 90 percent of all living species in the world today—and all around the same time.

Needless to say, these findings fly in the face of current evolutionary thinking theorizing, which has species slowly evolving into new species over millions of years (which is a r-e-a-l-l-y long time, which neatly explains why we can't reproduce the mechanism or see any compelling evidence of such a mechanism in nature). What struck me as especially telling, however, was a remark by lead researcher David Thaler:

"This conclusion is very surprising, and I fought against it as hard as I could."

Uhm, excuse me? Wait a second...you fought against it as hard as you could?! What are you talking about?! I mean, you're a scientist, aren't you? In science, you follow the evidence where it leads, don't you? At least that's the way science worked the last time I checked.

Oooh, wait...I get it. This science has to do with the ultimate sacred cow:

\o/ \o/ The   T  H  E  O  R  Y   of   E  V  O  L  U  T  I  O  N \o/ \o/

And don't look now, but it crushes it to its very core.

Oh good Lord, we can't have that, no no no! That might lend a sliver of support to those laughable kreationist kooks who believe those absurd myths from the Bible! Say it ain't so! We've got to fight against this as hard as we can!

O. I. C.

Various scientists around the world are coming out against the research, which should surprise no one. Circle the wagons, boys! The Kreationists are coming! And the reason is obvious, because not only do these findings cut the legs out from under the theory of evolution, but what's worse is that it actually agrees with the Bible in two fundamental ways:

1. It supports the idea that all humans and nearly all animals on earth "arose from a recent and profound creation event, orchestrated by some unknown mechanism."

2. The DNA bar codes the researchers studied show that species are "quantized." In other words, there isn't this lengthy continuum of species spanning millions of years, as there would be if the theory of evolution were true. Instead, it shows that nearly all species fall into "very distinct, widely separated populations."

That is, exactly like what the Bible describes as "kinds":

Kind of cool, huh?

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12/3/2018 — From the "We're on the Right Course" Department...

And the beat goes on...

The UN General Assembly announced six anti-Israel resolutions last week, and among them were two that denied any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and one that disavowed Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem.

The last comes as Israel is attempting to beef up support for its claims on Jerusalem as its eternal, undivided capital, a claim bolstered by the United States' recognition of Jerusalem as such about this time last year.

The august world body decided that Israel has no sovereignty over Jerusalem by a vote of 148–11 with 14 abstentions. And just to give that knife a little extra twist, the resolutions referred to the Temple Mount exclusively by its Arabic name, al-Haram al-Sharif.

A couple of things seem reasonably certain. First, the Palestinians will never agree to a two-state solution that fails to allow them to have East Jerusalem as its capital. Second, they will never agree to allow the Israelis to have sovereignty over the Temple Mount...er, I mean al-Haram al-Sharif.

It strikes me that when President Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel last year, all it did was galvanize the entire world in a concentrated effort to utterly obliterate such recognition. The world continues careening down a course of denying history, and now the pope is putting his muscle behind it. It seems nothing can stop the momentum of the world's effort to steal from Israel what God has given to them, and I believe that in the end Israel will have little choice but to make a deal with the devil (and I don't necessarily mean that as a figure of speech).

Which says to me that we're right on course.

The treaty that fulfills Daniel 9:27 will be a treaty that denies history. It will be a treaty that divides God's land (God's land, not just Israel's), and will desecrate the holiest site in all of Judaism—the site of both previous Jewish temples.

Which is why I say that we're right on course. It's worth reminding ourselves, however, that this treaty will not last very long. In fact, it will only last seven years, because God Himself is going to revoke it. Just like what the world is attempting to do to His people's sovereignty over what He has given them, God is going to utterly obliterate that treaty...but not before purging Israel for their disobedience:

Only then will He restore them to their land and ultimately bless them with their promised kingdom.

And I can't wait.

12/10/2018 — From the "Spirit or Flesh?" Department...

I couldn't help but comment on this news item for two reasons. One, it struck me as comical. Two, it reveals a telling dichotomy between the big "G" God of the Bible and the small "g" god of the Qur'an.

On November 14, a 17-year-old Palestinian boy named Abdul Rahman Abu Jamal climbed a fence and entered a police station in East Jerusalem, where he attacked three policemen with a knife. The three were lightly injured in the scuffle, and a fourth sustained minor injuries from shrapnel when one or more officers shot at Abu Jamal, who was critically injured and died in an Israeli hospital a few days later.

After his death, like many Palestinians who commit acts of terror, particularly against innocent Jewish citizens, he was eulogized on the Palestinian Authority's official television channel. Female news anchor Dana Abu Shamsiya praised Abu Jamal to the heavens, and her comments included the following hormone-laced flight of fancy:

"When the drums of war are beaten, I harvest souls in the battlefield. I am the guard of the Al-Aqsa [Mosque] and of the [Dome of the] Rock. I never close my eyes or bow my head. I am a Palestinian lion cub and I am feared by the armies of betrayal. I am desired by the black-eyed virgins [of Paradise].

I am desired by the black-eyed virgins of Paradise. (As thousands of teenaged Palestinian boys with little hope for a future say to themselves "Where do I sign up for that?")

Like I said, my immediate reaction was mild amusement. But my amusement was short-lived as the spiritual realities of the situation began to sink in. It occurred to me that this presented a question that cut to the bone for those who naively believe that we all worship the same God, and that the God of the Bible and Allah of the Qur'an are one and the same.

Consider: According to the Bible, when believers die and enter heaven, they will no longer have sexual relations and bear children. For example, in Matthew 22, the Sadducees (who didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead) came to Jesus with a question meant to test Him, and hopefully trick Him into saying something they could use to attack His teaching. They asked about a hypothetical woman who was successively married to seven brothers, all leaving no children. They wanted to know whose wife she would be in the resurrection, since they had all been married to her. As usual, Jesus puts them to silence:

So, on the one hand we have Allah, who promises men who murder innocent Jewish citizens a bevy of beautiful perpetual virgins to avail themselves of in Paradise—black-eyed babes who will apparently be sizzling with a special desire for those who stab Israeli policemen.

On the other hand, when we enter into the presence of the God of the Bible for eternity, we will do so in glorified bodies that transcend the flesh in ways we cannot even imagine. No sex? Hey, what we will experience in our glorified bodies in heaven will make earthly sex about as appealing as changing a tire on a pickup truck.

In other words, the god of the Qur'an appeals to the lust of the flesh. He lures men to commit horrific acts with the promise of having their fleshly desires satisfied for eternity.

The God of the Bible appeals to us through the Spirit, and the flesh doesn't enter into it. In fact, we are told to crucify the flesh, and that its desires will be thoroughly expunged from us in heaven.

So which is it, all you God-and-Allah-are-the-same types?

Spirit or flesh?

12/17/2018 — From the "Thanks for Nothing" Department...

That's nice...the Australian government recently announced its recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Well, sort of.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a few days ago that Australia officially recognized western Jerusalem as Israel's capital, neatly excluding East Jerusalem. You know, the part that includes the Temple Mount and that the Palestinians are dreaming of making their capital some fine day in the near future.

Morrison also stated, however, that his country would not be moving their embassy to western Jerusalem until an Israeli-Palestinian agreement had been worked out.

Of course, the Israeli government graciously expressed their appreciation for the announcement, but it was understandably subdued. Under the surface, it was no doubt flavored with a pinch of "Thanks for nothing."

What I found slightly surprising at first blush, however, was the reaction of the Palestinians to what amounted to a move by a major country that essentially bends over backwards to play into their fictional, misguided narrative.

They are outraged.

That's right—outraged. Now, one might have expected the Palestinian leadership to gushingly thank the Prime Minister of Australia, congratulating him on his sagacious insight into the plight of the poor, oppressed Palestinian people who are simply trying to get back a piece of what rightfully belongs to them from the evil Zionist regime that occupies their land, and that history would laud his noble efforts for a thousand generations. And then name a major street in Gaza after him.

And is that how the Palestinian leadership reacted? Uhm...not so much.

Instead, PA cabinet spokesman Yusuf al-Mahmoud unleashed a torrent of vintage Palestinian vitriol and insisted that any country that recognizes any part of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and dared to move its embassy anywhere within the city limits of Jerusalem was violating international law and effectively mounting an attack against the Palestinian people, as well as the Arab and Islamic nation. He also stated that such moves by any country showed an "incorrect understanding of the political reality and decisions of the international institutions on Jerusalem since 1947."

So there you have it, and it's really not all that surprising:

It's pre-1967 borders or bust.

And I'm guessing "Morrison Boulevard" is a no-go.

12/24/2018 — From the "Back Burner to the Freezer" Department...

If you were anxiously awaiting the release of the Trump administration's Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, you can relax. It now appears that it won't see the light of day before the summer of 2019 (if then).

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition has fallen apart at this point, and snap elections have been called and scheduled for April 9, 2019. Assuming Netanyahu gets reelected in April, it will take at least a month or more for him to re-form a working coalition and for a new government to be sworn in. And if he doesn't get reelected, well...

All bets are off.

One thing, however, shines through the mist like a beacon:

There is a greater chance of Mahmoud Abbas inviting Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt, and David Friedman over for barbecued pork chops than of Trump releasing his peace plan before mid-2019.

Back burner? That peace plan just got put in a ziplock bag and placed in the freezer next to a stack of TV dinners.

It is also becoming increasingly clear that Trump's plan will call for things that many in Israel will have a difficult time ever agreeing to, as more details of the plan work their way out into the open. For example, Israeli diplomatic analyst Dana Weiss, who reported that the U.S. had agreed to Netanyahu's request to hold off on the release of the plan until after the elections in April, tweeted:

"The US would like to see Bibi [Netanyahu] reelected and understands that the plan, which calls for the division of Jerusalem, would be ammunition for [Jewish Home party chair and Netanyahu rival] Naftali Bennett to attack the PM."

The division of Jerusalem. Think that wouldn't get a chunk ripped out Bibi's behind in the run-up to the April election? Ouch. Guess again. It is obvious that Trump doesn't want to see his peace plan reduced to fodder for anti-Netanyahu cannons, so waiting until the smoke blows over from this coming election to release it is a political no-brainer.

On a side note, all of this tends to add to my gut feeling that since it sometimes seems as if the time will never be right for the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan the way things are now, maybe it will take a major event that shakes people up to help create the conditions under which such a deal could be agreed to and established.

Or perhaps I should say an event that takes people up.

12/31/2018 — From the "Bah, Humbug" Department...

An atheist group in Colorado put up a billboard over the Christmas holiday expressing their desire to take Christmas back from those darn Christians and Trump supporters.

During Christmas, the Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers erected a large billboard near Grand Junction, Colorado that says:

Make Christmas Great Again...Skip Church!

Talk about Bah, humbug! The billboard even featured a red background, just to make sure you didn't miss the not-so-subtle reference to a red MAGA hat worn by Trump supporters. According to the group:

"Christmas time, the focus should not be on organized religion, because organized religion has proven problematic lately. We'd rather the focus be on humanity, ethics, and respect for others."

Ah, yes. Respect. Sadly, it seems they don't mean "respect" as in respecting the beliefs of millions of people who have cherished the Christmas holiday for centuries as a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

In reality (and as usual) the atheists and "freethinkers" completely miss the point. By launching an attack on Christians in general and Trump supporters in particular, they once again reveal the depth of the biased ignorance.

Even though millions of Christians have chosen to celebrate Christmas for centuries as a day to honor the birth of Christ, the simple truth is that for the world Christmas has always been a secular celebration involving gifts and merrymaking, and promoting a spirit of warmth and goodwill toward one's fellow man. This and nothing more. In other words, the secular world has had a lock on Christmas for as long as Christians have celebrated it as the birth of Christ.

The truth is that the secular world has long had Christmas in its back pocket (and likely didn't even realize it out of sheer ignorance). It's not the day Christ was born and everyone knows it, and the traditional Christmas narrative—with jolly old St. Nick who brings everyone presents and helpless little baby Jesus asleep in a manger—paints precisely the picture that Satan wants the world to see at the Christmas season:

The traditional Christmas narrative
gives us a God who doesn't judge
and a Jesus who cannot save.

Game, set, match.

For more, see "The Reason for the Season?"

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