9-20-17 The World that Was
In early 1914, though, it seemed almost impossible that Britain and France would go to war with Germany to defend Russia against Austria-Hungary over a dispute with Serbia. Yet by June 28, war moved straight from impossible to inevitable - without ever passing through improbable. Four years later, 10 million people had died. (From World War One: First war was impossible, then inevitable; Anatole Kaletsky)
Although I've used this quote in the past, I've found myself drawn to it again due to its precise accuracy describing the seemingly incredible and often unpredictable nature of geopolitics. Prior to World War I, who would have believed it? Yet after it was over, the warning signs of impending trouble were so obvious that most couldn't believe they had missed it. Although unforeseen, the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand became the right crisis at the right time by the old powers to set the world afire. World War I itself then became a forcing function by which the old world still attempted to stubbornly cling to the dying vestiges of the world as it was. But change came nonetheless and no one could stop it.
Juxtaposed to the seemingly unpredictable (and unbelievable) nature of global geopolitics, is the inevitable march towards a future, one-world system. We can see early efforts for this in moves like the League of Nations and later, the United Nations (UN). The UN, along with its cornucopia of bureaucratic offshoots, continue to try to gain global influence and power through treaty and peer pressure. What it lacks at present is a military force capable of enforcing either of these.
Furthermore, the combined globalist efforts in the financial, informational, and military sectors are solely concentrating on consolidating more and more power into fewer and fewer hands. These globalist advancements are only made possible by the snowball-effect of the technological advancements in the 20th century. In fact, so much innovation has transpired over the past century alone, has all but eclipsed the progress of the previous six thousand years of human history combined. Unfortunately, our dependence on modern technology has all but ensured that a centralized power controlling everyone and everything is nothing more than a foregone conclusion.
When asked about the last days, Jesus told His disciples that the end of the age would be recognizable because of the many signs those days would present themselves. Although these signs in and of themselves were not unique (as signs are meant to point to something further down the road), what would be unique was the manner of their manifestation. Jesus likened these signs to 'birth pangs' a woman goes through leading up to the birth of a child. In pregnancy, the first and second trimesters have few (if any) contractions (pangs). But as a woman enters into the third (final) trimester, the pangs first come sporadically but soon come in rapid-fire regularity finally reaching a crescendo both in frequency and intensity to the point where the child is coming and she must seek immediate care for delivery. So too would the generation that enters into this final "trimester" of human history be witness to the delivery of 'the child.'
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. Romans 8:20-23
Assessment
Just as Rome's founding was many centuries before it became a world power, the same is true for the United States. The US was founded in 1776 but did not become a world power until the end of World War II. For a brief period following WWII, the US remained the world's lone super-power. It was here in this tiny window of time, that she became instrumental in providing the global and political clout the newly formed nation of Israel would need to survive as an island of democracy in a sea of tumultuous Islamic theocracies.
But like everything else, the world's corruptive and persistent influence has/is forcing the United States to concede to its demand to divide Israel. This is primarily due to our dependence on oil from said Islamic theocracies. Inevitably, our betrayal equates to a "ratcheting-up" of seemingly insolvable problems due to the Abrahamic Covenant effect, which God both promises and warns that I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. We view this covenant in a global sense, (since God was speaking to the nation who would come from Abraham) as the prophetic fulfillment we know simply as the convergence. In other words, the more the world turns against Israel, the more problems the world is going to have.
"For behold, in those days and at that time,
When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will also gather all nations,
And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
And I will enter into judgment with them there
On account of My people, My heritage Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations;
They have also divided up My land. Joel 3:1-2
The convergence then is simply the visible escalation and divine approval of natural calamities and man-caused problems since 1977. This was the year that the "land for peace" agenda began between Egypt, Israel, and the United States with the Camp David Accords. Since then, there has been an ever increasing series of tragic and horrific events overwhelming the entire world. For those watching, the rapid uptick has been startling. For the rest of the world, the normalcy bias has set in and the world has been lulled back to its slumber.
Presumably, Satan learned his lesson post-Calvary (1 Cor. 2:6-7) and now understands (Rev. 12:12) that his time is running out. The conflict we then see in the world is one in which the world that is currently controlled by Satan (Luke 4:5-6) is trying to stay the way it is, rather than allow God to press forward with His divine timeline. This then results in wars and rumors of wars, which inevitably allows for rapid innovation. Man's technological, financial, and political progress careens forward then because crisis demands action and solutions. In other words, Satan can't stop God's agenda no matter what he tries.
The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. Luke 16:16
So in the macro-sense, the world continues to press forward in all aspects, and the drama involving all its nation-states seems to be ever-fluid and unpredictable. The issues of death, eternity, the kingdom of God, heaven, hell, God, the angels, etc., all seem to be distant things no one wants to talk or even think about, yet it will not go away. Inarguably, there have been moments in time where mankind's mortality (in the collective sense) has been so shaken, that it unintentionally makes the world wake up, even if only for the briefest of moments. Such has been the case with 9/11 or the 2011 Japanese Tsunami. But even then, a little time passes and said-event passes into mankind's short-term memory.
Conclusion
The election of Donald J. Trump was in a sense, the last gasp of a free American people. Here is a man who by all accounts (at least according to every expert and think tank on the planet) should not have won the election. His election was as unthinkable and as impossible, as the scenario found in the start of World War I. Yet, win he did, and he did so with as Steve Bannon called it, the island of misfit toys team. It wasn't so much that he ran against the Democratic-socialist agenda, but against an entrenched establishment (the political class) who were nestled snuggly in the Washington D.C. swamplands.
For eight years, both Christians and conservatives had been force-fed the incessant mantra of the big three lies by the Obama administration. It was done with an intensity and zealotry that was shocking to anyone who had an ounce of common sense. For brevity's sake, the big three whoppers were: Man-made climate change, aggressive historical revision (whitewashing or rewriting historical facts), and that all cultures and religions are equal. It was piped through all the Sunday news shows and by all the academic panels with their "experts." These were they who all created the perfect echo chamber to make sure this message was beaten into our heads day after day.
By the time 2016 rolled around, the last vestiges of American common sense found itself electing a man who was so far removed from the mainstream political fray out of sense of rebellion against having to endure another four years of the democrat propaganda machine.
But elections have consequences and the lies that were pumped via airwaves and Wi-Fi for eight years have unfortunately stuck in Western culture. This has us Christians looking around the world today and finding ourselves increasingly at odds with the mainstream narrative. Even worse, is that the past eight years expedited the already growing rift within Christendom over the issues of gay marriage, transgenderism, abortion on demand, illegal immigration, cultural relativism, etc. On one side, there are more and more churches bending the knee to popular consensus. On the other, is the dwindling remnant of those who still hold to and believe in a Biblical world-view. Pretty soon, those not bending the knee to popular consensus will be as popular and numerous as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were on the plain of Dura (Daniel 3).
But are Christians today just as guilty as those in the Pre-WWI colonial world of the same type of wishful thinking? Do we believe that we can keep the world as it was by Making America Great Again? Like every other significant empire and nation who came before us, we too, shall watch the sun set on this great and final experiment in human governance.
The Bible does not predict any great Christian revival in the last days leading up to the Tribulation (i.e., the 70th Week of Daniel). America is far too diverse today to ever make that an eventuality. I don't mean ethnically diverse, but politically, religiously, and ideologically. Ten people in a room couldn't agree on where the moon was in relation to the earth. Furthermore, President Trump is finding out the hard way that the swamp doesn't want to be drained, and will do everything in its power to prevent it.
The same could be said for our brothers and sisters across the pond in Great Britain with BREXIT. I don't believe it ever will happen because the EU and British swamps can't let that happen. The world's brief flirtation again with nationalism and populism is going to be crushed under the boot-heel of the coming singular global system ran by the Antichrist.
My intent is not to be Mr. Doom and Gloom, but to simply make one point. The reason that the born-again Christian is finding themselves increasingly at odds with the world, is that the world is the swamp, and is in the process of giving itself over to a strong delusion. Just as there are increasing measures of birth-pangs, so too are the increasing stages of unrighteousness. These progress in as much as God gives nations them over to their own delusions and subsequent judgment (Romans 1:16-32; Jeremiah 30:7-11).
But God is not going to drain this swamp, He is going to purge it with judgment and fire before He makes the planet great again. But before He does any of that, He is going to remove His people (true born again believers) by way of the Harpazo (i.e., the catching up or the Rapture). Then the world will be forcibly cast headlong into the final week of years. So fellow believer, don't get too sentimental on the world as it is, or was, or what it's becoming. Because it is all about to change.
For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:16-17
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