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- The Mark of the Beast
- The Increase of Wickedness on Earth
- The In-Gathering of Israel
Actually, God designed world events so that it would appear as if the end is close in each generation. Having an End Times world perspective helps people look to God and help prepare people around us for their eternal destination. But those who warn others that we are living in the End Times are often accused of using Scripture to “cry wolf”. Peter wrote about the scoffers in his first epistle:
1 Peter 3:3-10
3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
Jesus said to always be on the lookout for the signs of the end:
Luke 21:25-36
25 “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26 People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
29 He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees.30 When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
32 “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”
I. The Mark of the Beast—The Technology is Here
Revelation 13:11-18
11 Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. 13 And it performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. 14 Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. 15 The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. 16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.
Revelation 15:1-4
1 I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. 2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:
“Great and marvelous are your deeds,
Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways,
King of the nations.
4 Who will not fear you, Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
Revelation 19:17-21
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, 18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”
19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21 The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
Revelation 20:1-6
1 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3 He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.
4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
Whoever would have believed even in the 1950’s that it would be possible to microchip humans as a permanent identification that cannot be forged? Several years ago at a secular event I was seated beside a man who owned a microchip manufacturing company. I didn’t identify myself as Christian. When he mentioned the use of microchips in humans, I nonchalantly asked what the Evangelical Christian response had been to that development. His change of demeanor was electrifying! This dignified businessman suddenly exploded in an expletive-filled rant. I did not see that as the appropriate time to reveal that I was an Evangelical Christian, but I was made aware of the very real spiritual force at work behind his heated outburst. Since then microchips are beginning to be offered as an option for human identification.
Microchips are now available for employees at a Wisconsin company.
On Aug. 1, employees at Three Square Market, a technology company in Wisconsin, can choose to have a chip the size of a grain of rice injected between their thumb and index finger. Once that is done, any task involving RFID technology — swiping into the office building, paying for food in the cafeteria — can be accomplished with a wave of the hand.
The program is not mandatory, but as of Monday, more than 50 out of 80 employees at Three Square’s headquarters in River Falls, Wis., had volunteered.
“It was pretty much 100 percent yes right from the get-go for me,” said Sam Bengtson, a software engineer. “In the next five to 10 years, this is going to be something that isn’t scoffed at so much, or is more normal. So I like to jump on the bandwagon with these kind of things early, just to say that I have it.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/technology/microchips-wisconsin-company-employees.html
Swedish people embed microchips under skin to replace ID cards:
Thousands of Swedes are having microchips implanted into their bodies so that they don’t need to carry key cards, IDs, and even train tickets.
About 3,000 people in Sweden have inserted a microchip — which is as tiny as a grain of rice — under their skin over the past three years, Agence France-Presse reported . The technology was first used in the country in 2015.
The implants have already helped replace the need for a host of daily necessities. Ulrika Celsing’s microchip, which is in her hand, has replaced her gym card and office key card. When she enters her workplace, the 28-year-old simply waves her hand near a small box and types in a code before the doors open, AFP said.
Last year, the state-owned SJ rail line started scanning the hands of passengers with biometric chips to collect their train fare while on board.
Caution for Christians — Stay Away from Microchip Implants
Scripture is clear that the Mark of the Beast is some kind of mark on the forehead and the right hand:
Revelation 13:16-17
16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
The microchip is now being implanted on the forehead or the back of the hand and is being used to allow people to more conveniently buy or sell. However, according to Scripture, people are being deceived and the time will come when the microchip implants will no longer be optional. People will be killed if they choose not to take the Mark of the Beast which seems to be the microchip implants.
Revelation 20:4
4 I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
There will be no easy choice when the microchip implant becomes mandatory. Those who decide not to take the microchip will be put to death. The Bible says they will be beheaded for their refusal to take the Mark of the Beast. However, if they take the microchip, it sounds like it will not be pretty for them either, because they are choosing to side with the Beast rather than with Jesus.
II. The Increase of Wickedness on Earth
Matthew 24:3-14
3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
In my country alone, homosexuality is protected and even encouraged as one of several choices. When students attend college they are enthusiastically encouraged to try homosexual acts but they are unaware of the captivity that action brings. Even in our elementary schools alternative sexual life styles are taught as part of normal life.
Right to Life of Michigan — U.S. Abortion Statistics:
Abortion is rampant: Using the Guttmacher Institute numbers, we estimate there have been more than 58 million abortions in the United States from 1973 to 2017. According to the CDC, 44.9 percent of the women who had abortions in 2014 had obtained an abortion previously in their life.
rtl.org/prolife_issues/abortionstats_us.html
Abortion Surveillance (found on web site for CDC Center for Disease Control and Protection. The subtitle for the CDC is “24/7: Saving Lives, Protecting People”)
In 2015, 638,169 legal induced abortions were reported to CDC from 49 reporting areas. The abortion rate for 2015 was 11.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years, and the abortion ratio was 188 abortions per 1,000 live births.
Source: Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2015. MMWR Surveill Summ 2018;67(No. SS-13)
The CDC is careful to report the 2015 data citing the reduction of abortions in recent years. However, that reduction is only minimal, and the rate of 188 abortions per 1,000 live births is still almost 20% of all births.
Planned Parenthood’s Organs-For-Lamborghinis Exec Busted Again Trying To Sell Baby Body Parts
APRIL 26, 2017 By Bre Payton
The Planned Parenthood executive who in 2015 was caught on tape joking about selling baby organs to get a Lamborghini was once again caught haggling over the price of organs harvested from the bodies of aborted babies.
In a new video by the Center for Medical Progress, Dr. Mary Gatter, president of the Medical Directors Council for the nation’s largest abortion provider, is negotiating the price of organs.
“I did it in LA,” she said about harvesting organs from aborted babies bodies in exchange for money. “I’m committed to it, I think it’s a great idea.”
“What kind of volume do you need and what gestational ages?” she brusquely asks before launching into a negotiation.
“You know, you have to pay a little money to use the space,” she said, implying that the organ harvesters, not Planned Parenthood employees, would be doing all the work.
When a Center for Medical progress investigator posing as an organ buyer tells Gatter they’re looking to pay $50 per specimen, she responds that the amount offered is simply not enough.
“Yeah, fifty’s on the low end,” Gatter says. “Fifty (per specimen) was like 12 years ago.”
Under federal law, Planned Parenthood can be reimbursed for the costs of harvesting organs, but the details of this informal arrangement make it clear the abortion provider would not have any costs.
“But you would show up to do this?” she asks. “You would send somebody?”
When the CMP investigator answered affirmatively, Gatter noted Planned Parenthood clinics had a similar arrangement with another organ buyer, Novagenix.
“We had a lovely tech, Heather was her name, from Novagenix,” she said.
She went onto explain that Heather would harvest organs from babies as old as 24 weeks.
“The fact that Novogenix, StemExpress, and ABR stationed their own workers inside Planned Parenthood abortion clinics to perform the harvesting, packaging, and transport of aborted baby body parts demonstrates that Planned Parenthood had no reimbursable costs under the law,” said CMP project lead David Daleiden. “The volume-based sums that Planned Parenthood charged these businesses for baby parts are criminal trafficking and profiteering in fetal body parts.”
Bre Payton was a staff writer at The Federalist.
Our liberal media (NBC, ABC, CNN) supports abortion on demand and protects abortionists. Our liberal politicians did not even respond when Planned Parenthood was exposed for selling baby parts.
III. The In-Gathering of Israel, a Modern Miracle
Antisemitism is on the increase around the world and was clearly prophesied in Scripture. Understand, however, that although persecution of the Jewish people is foretold in the Bible, it is included in the list of evils that will happen as the end of time draws near. The maltreatment and all out attempt to annihilate the Jewish people is striking out against the very people through whom God sent us Jesus. Jesus wept over Jerusalem knowing the horrible things that would take place there against his people, as he longed for them all to come to know him as their true Messiah and put their trust in him.
Ezekiel 36:22-38
22 “Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lordsays: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. 23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.
24 “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you. 30 I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine.31 Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices. 32 I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, people of Israel!
33 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt. 34 The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it. 35 They will say, “This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited.” 36 Then the nations around you that remain will know that I the Lord have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.’
37 “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Once again I will yield to Israel’s plea and do this for them: I will make their people as numerous as sheep, 38 as numerous as the flocks for offerings at Jerusalem during her appointed festivals. So will the ruined cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
All Scripture references from: New International Version (NIV)
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