Prophecy Update Newsletter
IN TODAY'S NEWSLETTER...
A Serious Look at Matt 24 & Rev 6 in Parallel: Part 2 - By Ron Ferguson - https://www.raptureready.com/2020/07/14/a-serious-look-at-matt-24-rev-6-in-parallel-part-2-by-ron-ferguson/
Here is the link to part one for those who have not read it. https://www.raptureready.com/2020/07/07/a-serious-look-at-matt-24-rev-6-in-parallel-part-1-of-2-ron-ferguson/ SIGN NUMBER 6: The purpose of the 6th seal is to stamp the signature of God on the whole period. What has happened on the earth so far could be excused by the sceptics' arguments, but now we see the direct intervention of God in the affairs of men and what a dread it gives. What torment men of the age will have! They will know once and for all that the great day of His wrath has come, and no one can stand. Rev. 6:12-17, "I looked when He broke the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place (and all the mountains and islands were moved out of their places). The kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'" Matthew 24 no longer traces a chronology of events that parallels the rest of Revelation, but keeps its focus on the tribulation saints, and then on the coming of the Lord in Glory. Matt 24:27, "For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." This coming is dealt with in some detail, and it matches the Rev 19 passage. Part of Matt 24 can also be matched with Revelation such as Matt 24:14 and Rev chapter 7. The disciples had asked about signs of His coming, and Matt 24:29-31 gives those. "But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other." These are the obvious signs of His coming that the Tribulation saints will recognize at the time. The "elect" are the Jewish Tribulation saints. The signs have nothing to do with the Rapture, and those who say Israel is now the Church are dishonoring God, who has set out all the future restoration of Israel. In fact, I go as far as to say that it is following the devil's line to do that, because Satan has always sought the destruction of God's chosen earthly people. It is sad that some promote this teaching. In verses 27-30 of Matthew 24, the cosmic signs of the Lord's Second Coming are given and replicate many of the Old Testament signs for The Day of the Lord. Straight after verse 31 of Matt 24, we have these remarkable verses: Matt 24:32-33, "Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. Even so you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door." The disciples had been asking about the signs of the Lord's coming, and He gave those in verses 4-14 (the beginning ones) and in v 29-31. Now He follows that by the parable, which in its context, has to be understood as belonging to the period immediately before the Second coming. What Jesus is saying is that when you begin to see those cosmic signs mentioned in Matt 24:29-31 (and also in the Old Testament Prophets such as Joel), then it is like the fig tree which heralds summer when the tender branches and leaves are showing. Summer will be His Second Coming outlined in this chapter, and in the Old Testament passages and Rev 19. I know this passage (v 32-33) is used for the Rapture sometimes, but it does not fit there and is wrong to do so because it drags the Rapture into Matt 24; and there is NO rapture or Church in Matt 24. (Look back at the Introduction.) Perhaps we could say that currently the fig tree (Israel) is budding, because the fig tree is a type of Israel. SIGN NUMBER 7: Well, the 7th seal in Rev 6 opens into the Trumpet and Bowl judgments, and Matthew does not touch on the details of this severe time of wrath, but covers, as we have seen, the "beginning of sorrows" or "the beginning of the birth pains." [D]. THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM: Matt 24:14 Matt 24:13-14, "But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come." All right, now we must consider this Gospel of the Kingdom to see what it is. This is essential as there is much confusion over it. The term "Gospel of the Kingdom" is exclusive to Matthew, the Jewish Gospel, and has to be understood as the Kingdom to be set up in Israel over which the Lord is the King-Messiah. Remember, neither the Church nor the gospel of grace is in Matt 24. John the Baptist came preaching that Gospel of the Kingdom: Matt 3:1-2, "Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" His message was that the Messiah-King was about to come to set up the Kingdom. Repentance and confession in the waters of baptism meant entry into that Kingdom. John could only have referred to the Kingdom as known in the Old Testament as he is in a sense, the last of the Old Testament prophets. He preached that the kingdom was at hand. That kingdom could only come through a national repentance and acceptance of the rightful King, and that is what John the Baptist preached. There was no way would he be preaching "the Christian gospel." Jesus began His ministry the same way: Matt 4:23, "And Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people." He preached this very same Gospel that John preached - that of repentance and entry into the Kingdom. Here it is mentioned again: Matt 9:35, "And Jesus was going about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness." The next mention of the gospel of the kingdom, oddly, does not occur again until Matt 24. Why is this? Why did Jesus stop preaching it? What had happened? Well, the Bible is clear on that point also when we look into it. This is the very crucial changing point: Matt 12:1-4, "At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath through the grain fields, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat, but when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, 'Behold, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.' But He said to them, 'Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions - how he entered the house of God and they ate the consecrated bread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone?'" Okay, what does that have to do with it? When you read the passage in context, you find that the rightful king of Israel, David, is fleeing for His life in REJECTION FROM HIS THRONE, pursued by Absalom, I think it was. Because the nation had rejected the Law and the rightful king, then he could eat what was not allowed to be eaten, as the nation had set the Law aside and made it invalid. OR, to put it another way, the fact that the holy bread was eaten meant that the rightful king was in rejection and could eat blamelessly. What Jesus is doing is carefully paralleling Himself and David. He was now in rejection, so it is quite okay for Him to eat as He did of the grain. Except for a few faithful ones, the nation had rejected His message. No more would the nation hear the Gospel of the kingdom until the days of the Great Tribulation. Not long after this incident, we now read these very crucial words: Matt 16:21, "From that time Jesus Christ began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day." There we see the complete change in His ministry and direction, because His own people rejected their rightful King. John 1:11, "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him." Because of the fall of Israel, salvation has gone out to the whole Gentile world. Let us look further at this gospel of the kingdom as it will be preached in the Tribulation: God has assigned 144,000 selected Jews to be sealed to preach this gospel (Rev chp 7). They will naturally all be Jews and will be like the powerful Apostle Paul as he hinted in this great statement: 1Cor 15:7-8, "Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also." ("Untimely born" means "born before his time.") The method of Paul's salvation will be similar to the way God will take up those 144,000 as the Church is no longer on the earth. Every one (or many) of these will be killed for his faithful preaching: Rev 6:11, "And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed also." But that preaching is so successful - this gospel of the kingdom preaching - that the kingdom of God (Messianic) is at hand and about to be established on the earth - it is so successful that many are saved, and these are the ones who will enter into His kingdom (which is what Matthew 25 is about). This is the record of those saved through that preaching: Rev 7:9, "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands." [E]. INSTRUCTIONS TO THE JEWISH TRIBULATION SAINTS: Matthew 24:15-26. The Lord gives instructions, spoken to His immediate disciples in Matt 24, but actually addressing His Tribulation believers, the Jewish saints, especially those in Jerusalem, who must flee at the appropriate time. But I will not now expand on that for the sake of length, except for this important section: Matt 24:21-22, "For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall. And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short." Note the description - there is no doubt exactly where we are there in history. The timing is indisputable. This is the Great Tribulation like no other. That needs to be vitally understood. This is right bang in the Tribulation. It cannot be transferred to the Church. It cannot be set in the Church age. Matthew 24 has nothing to do with the Church, for it is Jewish. The elect are Jews in this chapter. [F]. THE SECOND COMING. Matthew 24:29-44 In the next few verses right up to verse 28, we see the activity of false messiahs as the Second Coming gets closer. I will not expand that part either. Then we very quickly come to the Second Coming itself; but note so carefully exactly how the verse begins: Matt 24:29-30, "But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory." The Lord mentions "After the tribulation of those days." As the 7 years draw to a close, then activity will happen just before His coming - After the downfall of religious and commercial Babylon (Rev 17 and 18), false christs, cosmic and stellar signs. There will be no doubting then that the Messiah's Second Coming is so close. See Revelation 19:1-11 for His coming, but the Old Testament prophets give many references. A section to look at: Matt 24:36, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." The Jewish disciples awaiting His coming at the end of the Tribulation are told that no one knows the exact day or hour. Yes, we know it is 7 years after the rapture, but those 7 years, I suspect, won't start straight away after the Rapture, but very soon after it, and begin with the treaty of peace the World Leader draws up with Israel for 7 years as well as breaking the first seal. These are literal days and hours. Yes, no one can exactly pinpoint it apart from 7 years. Now another matter that is misunderstood. It is this passage: Matt 24:37-42, "The coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah, for as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away - so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Then there shall be two men in the field - one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill - one will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming." I will say most clearly that this does not mean the Rapture. IT IS NOT the Rapture but is the Second Coming. To apply it to the Rapture is to misapply these verses. Let us look at this to see why. Firstly, the chapter is set in the Tribulation and develops point after point, relating to the world THEN, and to the Jews THEN, and we are given this passage. To apply it to the Rapture is totally out of place with the context. It is likened to Noah's day. The usual interpretation many give to explain those verses is that it is the Rapture and that the Lord comes to take the saved and leaves behind the unsaved. He takes the "Christian" at the mill and in the field and leaves behind the others. In fact, the exact opposite is the truth, and the error comes from making it fit the Rapture which it is not meant to do. Let me ask, "In the time of Noah, who were left behind for the inheritance? Who were taken away in judgment?" Why, even Jesus used this exact term here, "the flood came and took them all away." Who were taken away? Why, the unbelievers of course, and the righteous were left behind to inherit a new earth (Noah's family). Can you see how clear that is? And just to be absolutely sure, the Lord adds the words, "so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." There you have it - the unrighteous will be taken away in judgment, and the righteous saints are left to inherit the Kingdom Christ sets up on earth, the Millennial Kingdom. The Rapture is the opposite when the righteous are taken and the unrighteous left behind. Matthew 25 follows on with illustrative parables. Matthew 24 is set in the Tribulation, and once that is understood, then everything in it flows naturally in understanding. The Rapture and the Second Coming cannot be mixed and confused. I hope that was clear, or mostly so. Ron Ferguson [email protected] Erdoğan: Hagia Sophia 'resurrection' harbinger for Al-Aqsa 'liberation' - https://www.jns.org/erdogan-hagia-sophia-resurrection-a-harbinger-for-al-aqsa-liberation/ The Turkish president, who often invokes the mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to rally the Islamic world, has aroused ire for his conversion of Istanbul's ancient church into a Muslim house of worship. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed on Friday that the "resurrection" of the ancient Hagia Sophia church in Istanbul as a mosque bodes well for the "liberation" of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. He made the declaration during an event in Istanbul marking the official conversion of Hagia Sophia into a Muslim house of worship. Hagia Sophia, a major tourist attraction listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site, was built as a church in 537 C.E. during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian and became the seat of the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople until the Ottoman invasion in 1453, when it was converted into a mosque. Then, following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Turkey's secular leader, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, converted the church-turned-mosque into a museum. Erdoğan's Islamist government has been planning to reverse the status of Hagia Sophia since 2013. According to the pro-government Turkish daily, Yeni Şafak, Erdoğan said during the ceremony that the "resurrection of Hagia Sophia was the harbinger of the liberation of Masjid al-Aqsa [Al-Aqsa Mosque] and footsteps of Muslims' will to leave hard days behind." Erdoğan announced at the event that the mosque will be open for Friday prayers on July 24. His decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia into a mosque has been condemned by UNESCO, the United States, the European Union and the World Council of Churches. Erdoğan frequently invokes the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to rally support in the Muslim world. In a video message on social media on May 25, he said, "We will not allow Palestinian lands to be offered to anyone." In the video, which was addressed to American Muslims in honor of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of Ramadan, Erdoğan said, "I would like to reiterate that al Quds as-Sharif [the Temple Mount], the holy place of the three religions ... is a red line for all Muslims in the world," he said. The appeal appeared to be an effort by Erdoğan to mobilize the American Muslim against the U.S. government's decision to allow Israel to apply its law to the Jordan Valley, and parts of Judea and Samaria, in accordance with U.S. President Donald Trump's "Peace to Prosperity" plan. Nearing Midnight: Lawlessness Is Setting the Stage for the Antichrist - Todd Strandberg - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ The effort to defund the police has had an immediate impact on violent crime numbers. City after city is reporting a huge spike in the murder rate. In Chicago, at least 89 people were shot over the Fourth of July weekend, with 17 of them dying, including seven-year-old Natalie Wallace in Austin, a suburb of Chicago. The child was playing outside her grandparent's home when three suspects got out of a white van and fired around 20 shots, with the seven-year-old getting caught up in the incident. She suffered a gunshot wound to the forehead and was pronounced dead later that day. During a press conference, the child's father, Nathan Wallace, said: "It is sad you hear this on the news every day a child getting killed, somebody getting killed, but you don't think about it until it's your own." Chicago has seen a shocking rise in gun violence over the last month, and on 31 May, the city recorded its most violent day since in six decades; 25 people were killed and 85 were wounded by gunfire. This year, at least 350 people have been killed in the city, and since 20 June, nine children have died after being caught up in shootings. The leftist Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, has done everything he can to weaken and demoralize the city's Police Department. De Blasio promised to strip away a billion dollars from the police budget, and he disbanded a plainclothes unit of approximately 600 officers. In the last few weeks, the number of shootings was about three times greater than during the same time period in 2019. The lack of manpower on the street level makes it much harder to tackle rising felony crimes, and the growing number of illegal guns pouring into the neighborhoods adds to the problem. Commissioner Dermot Shea, during a recent interview, was asked about the reason for high crime levels. "It's bail reform. It's COVID. It's emptying out prisons," he said, noting that "one of the most frustrating pieces right now is a criminal justice system that is just not working. And I'm calling on Albany to fix it. Fix it now." "I met with the five district attorneys of New York City last week on this issue. We have thousands and thousands of cases backlogged," said Shea. The liberal media have been instrumental in degrading the effectiveness of law enforcement. Any mistakes the police make are highlighted by this cabal of evil. It amazes me that the American people have allowed this madness to reach a point where the press is cheering on lawless thugs that seek to destroy our nation. CNN's Chris Cuomo sided with the mob during a contentious interview with Mark McCloskey, the man who went viral for brandishing a gun alongside his wife as the couple protected their home from protesters. The couple told police the protesters broke a gate to get onto the private street in St. Louis, and the pair say they only retrieved their firearms when they spotted "multiple" people who were already armed. Cuomo began the interview by asking McCloskey what it feels like to have become the "face of political resistance to the Black Lives Matter movement." McCloskey shot back that it was a "completely ridiculous" statement and said he was simply protecting his home. "I'm not the face of anything opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement; I was a person scared for my life," he said. "I was a victim of a mob that came through the gate; I didn't care what color they were." If the so-called Black Lives Matter protesters had murdered the McCloskeys, it's unlikely that CNN would have reported their deaths. Just like the black people who get murdered every day in our major cities, the only deaths that matter are those that fit the liberal agenda. The left welcomes the lawlessness because they see it as helping the Democratic ticket in the upcoming election. Being an appeaser to this type of mob is like someone who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last. The McCloskeys were for Black Lives Matter until its followers invaded their property. This climate of lawlessness is the perfect setting for the rise of the antichrist. To have someone who will appear to be the ultimate savior of mankind, you need a problem for him to solve. ".... And power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:7-8). Record Temps, Long Lines & Increasing Scarcity Will Test Americans Patience - By Michael Snyder/Economic Collapse - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4170 This is going to be a long, hot summer that none of us is likely to forget any time soon. Coming into this year, we knew that societal tensions would be running high because 2020 is an election year. Many are convinced that this is the most important election in modern American history, and I expect for there to be some extremely shocking surprises as we draw closer to November. Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 continues to surge to new heights, and the restrictions that authorities have instituted to fight this pandemic have created a huge backlash. So many people have such extreme emotions about COVID-19, and unfortunately it appears that this crisis is not going away any time soon. Of course the civil unrest that erupted in the aftermath of the tragic death of George Floyd took societal tensions to an entirely new level that we have never seen before. There was rioting, looting and violence all over the nation, and more chaos could literally break out at any moment. So to say that our national mood is "fragile" right now would be a major understatement. I have never seen so much anger and frustration in this country in my entire lifetime, tens of millions of Americans have already lost their jobs, and a lot of people are not even able to pay their most basic bills at this point. In fact, one recent survey found that nearly a third of all Americans have not even made "their full housing payments for July"... As the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic continues, almost one-third of U.S. households, 32%, have not made their full housing payments for July yet, according to a survey by Apartment List, an online rental platform. And now, on top of everything else, here comes the heat. On Sunday, high temperatures were above 100 degrees all over the western half of the country... Unfortunately, Sunday is just the beginning. A "heat dome" has formed over the middle of the country, and that is likely to mean high temperatures of 90 degrees or greater for approximately 80 percent of the nation "for the next few weeks"... A PERFECT STORM of crises is forming across the United States. Above our heads, a "heat dome" of high pressure could blast 80 percent of the continental US with temperatures over 90 degrees for the next few weeks. This coming in a summer when the Covid-19 lockdown has trapped people indoors, many without air-conditioning--and mass unemployment may mean that residents with AC units can't afford to run them. Needless to say, this is not coming at a good time. Crime rates are absolutely soaring and the streets of many of our major cities already resemble war zones. And during these very hot summer months, many Americans will have to wait in exceedingly long lines for one reason or another. I have written numerous articles about the massive lines that we have seen at food banks around the country, and lines at COVID-19 testing sites have gotten extremely long as well... Food banks in Vermont and Arizona have miles-long queues of cars. At testing sites in Florida, motorists show up with full gas tanks to keep air conditioning pumping all day. Travel to Europe is off, with America waiting behind other nations to re-enter someday. Even the electronic realm is tied up: Amid 11% unemployment, people applying for benefits report frozen computer screens and abrupt phone disconnections. Sometimes, the reward waiting at the end is simply a chance to try again tomorrow. I couldn't imagine waiting "all day" to get tested for COVID-19, but apparently there are a lot of people that are so desperate to get tested that they are willing to do this. On top of everything else, a wide variety of products are becoming increasingly scarce at our local grocery stores. This isn't a major national crisis yet, but you may have noticed that your local grocery store is having a much more difficult time keeping certain products in stock than usual. This is happening because COVID-19 and the accompanying economic slowdown have created serious problems for many key supply chains. Tony Koretz is the host of "A Minute To Midnite", and he is also a really good guy that I know personally. Just a few days ago he received an email from "a supply chain analyst for a large grocery chain", and what this supply chain analyst had to share was extremely chilling. The following is a short excerpt from that email... -- the meeting of store demand -- which is a proxy for actual consumer demand -- from company-owned central warehouses has steadily declined over the last 4 months; from a 98% pre-COVID fulfillment rate to 58% as of yesterday. Key point: STEADY decline; yes some blips upward from time to time, but overall steady decline to be sure -- what this impacts is the presentation on the shelves; for example: do we have some or no toilet paper, tomato paste, rice and noodles, etc., etc.; you will also see new and unknown brands coming in to substitute for a product, but that is only going to be a temporary stop-gap as these are from 2nd and 3rd tier vendors who may not carry as much clout in getting their own raw-material supply chains filled...these too will dry up and go away over the next 3-6 months (not to mention the effect of absenteeism in their own ranks, leading to an inability to produce said 2nd/3rd tier products)... -- there is also a trend to see less variations on products; for example, we only have 3 variations on tomato paste to put on shelves as-opposed to the 15 we had pre-COVID -- to the folks in the industry, this is known as the presentation and the service level at the shelf in the store; service levels on some harder-hit commodities are near 10% at-best, averaging in the 70% level on an aggregate across all stores/commodities when you carve-out bath tissue, paper towels, baby wipes, disinfectant wipes; comparatively during pre-COVID service levels were in the very high 90's for all products... -- Additional contributing factors: in addition to waning vendor fulfilment, we are also seeing more-and-more absenteeism in our warehouses due to COVID cases, fear, exhaustion. Of course none of this information should surprise us, because it is obvious that grocery stores are having a very difficult time keeping their shelves stocked. But getting this sort of inside information does help us to understand exactly why it is happening. If you are anticipating that the end of this year and the beginning of next year will be chaotic, the next couple of months will be your best chance to get stocked up. My suggestion would be to take advantage of this window of opportunity while we have it. America has entered a time of great upheaval, and much of the country is simply not going to be able to handle the major national nightmares that are ahead of us. Daily Jot: The prophetic implications of COVID 19 resurgence - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com The news media is pumping out so many various claims about COVID 19 that it is difficult to discern what to believe. Masks help; masks don't help. Vaccine will help; vaccine will not help. Cases are increasing, but testing is not accurate. The virus can be transmitted from various surfaces; the virus can't live on various surfaces. There are so many conflicting stories that confusion and fear continue to build. This "pandemic," real or imagined or somewhere in between, is a prophetic type and shadow of how fear and confusion will be leveraged to deceive those into believing in an antiChrist figure and surrendering freedom and salvation for small assurances-like trading your birthright for a bowl of stew. Matthew 24 speaks of wars, earthquakes, pestilences and famine as precursors to the "beginning of sorrows." There have been events such as COVID-19 in the past. In 2005, I documented in my book "Warshod" that in the previous 100 years, small pox killed 300 million people, and influenza millions. In 1918, for example, a worldwide flu epidemic attacked about 20% of the global population, leaving some 50 million dead, 675,000 deaths in the US. Do you not think that those who were alive then believed the end times were upon them? In a 14-year period from 1991-2005, earthquake frequency had increased 88%, and in the 1900s, 165 wars and tyrannies contributed to 180 million deaths-100 million attributed to communism. This was a 125% increase in war-related deaths over the previous century. Famine follows war. Many have tried to make the case that COVID 19 is one of the bowl judgments in Revelation. It is not. The bowl judgments come AFTER the beast (antichrist) has taken control in the last 3 ½ years of Jacobs Troubles, commonly referred to as the Tribulation. We have not seen such a figure as yet. We can, however, through this virus example, see how the entire world can be impacted by a single event and how a leader might arise. Our response-First, as Christ said, do not be deceived. Second, this is an opportunity. Show the love of Christ to others. Bond together. Help one another. Pray for one another. Have empathy. COVID-19 is showing us just how quickly the world can be locked down in response to a crisis, and how fear can impact normalcy. As we look at this prophetically, watch carefully for leaders arising out of the Middle East, especially from Turkey and Iran. Study Daniel 8, Ezekiel 38-39, and Matthew 24. Don't get caught up in the wild-eyed claims and conspiracy theories-they are only there to deceive. Be wise. Take care. Show the love of Christ as your testimony. Remember, you are still here and you will be until the Lord decides to remove you. As Christ said in Matthew 24:13, "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." You have been given a spirit of power, love and a sound mind. Do not fear. Daily Devotion: A Different Kind of Peacemaker - by Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. -Matthew 5:9 In the past four thousand years on our planet, there have been less than 300 years without a major war somewhere. Someone has even described peace as "that glorious moment in history when everyone stops to reload." We're a people in constant conflict. James wrote, "Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?" (James 4:1 NKJV). Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9 NKJV). This is something that most everyone would applaud. "Yes, blessed are the peacemakers," we say. "Let's work for peace. Let's march for peace." However, Jesus wasn't really talking about world peace here, though we all want world peace. In context this verse primarily means, "Blessed are those who have seen themselves as they really are: Sinners without a Savior, humble and meek, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Blessed are those who have a single focus on God and want others to come into the same relationship with Him because they're bringing the message of the Prince of Peace." The Bible says, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!" (Romans 10:15 NKJV). Yet know this: peacemakers are often troublemakers. For example, maybe you're the only Christian in your family. But then one day you became a Christian and wrecked it all. You ruined everything. Your family was in a dark place, you just turned on the light, and everyone noticed it. Just hang in there and keep following the Lord. Pretty soon another family member will come to Christ and then another. And before you know it, you'll be a Christian family because Christ intervened. A happy or blessed person will be a peacemaker. 
FROM THE HEART
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