Sunday, July 26, 2015

Pope Francis and the Big Lie – Another End-Times Deception

This year Pope Francis proclaimed his support for three of the world’s big lies. The first was the recognition of the Palestinian state, the second was the support of carbon as the cause of global warming, and the third was the acceptance of the communist belief after receiving a "Communist crucifix" from the president of Bolivia. All three contribute to the end-time world system and apostasy of the Church.

The Pope is no friend of Israel and indeed has never been. Israel is experiencing increased pressure by the Muslims, the old-line organized church, and the world, to give in to the terrorist organization Hamas and give up more land – even Jerusalem!  In 2005, Israel completed the forced evacuation of 21 Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip.  As Elliot Jager of the Friend of Israel reports, “This summer will mark 10 years since Israel ‘disengaged’ from Gaza, pulling out all military forces, dismantling its 21 communities – known collectively as Gush Katif- and uprooting the 8,600 civilians for whom Gaza has been home.” Now the pressure is on for Israel to give up even more land for peace as land in the West Bank and east Jerusalem are demanded for peace (sounds like extortion).

What has happened in the last 10 years in Gush-Katif? The land which once produced 10 percent of Israel’s agricultural output and 65 percent of its greenhouse vegetables, is now largely desolate. As the New York Times reported in 2006, “with few exceptions, most of the former settlements were transformed [by the Palestinians] into a post-apocalyptic landscape baking in the unforgiving sun.” (Elliot Jager, Israel, My Glory, July/August 2015, p. 25).  

On May 24, 2015, as the Pope visited Palestinian controlled Bethlehem, after endorsing new peace talks, proclaimed the land part of the “State of Palestine.” Then he  visited the wall that separates Israel from Bethlehem and “he prayed and touched his head against the graffiti-covered wall.” An insult to the Jews who, though control Jerusalem, are refused access to the Temple; so they pray with their heads against the outside wall known as the wailing wall. The Pope even called the Palestinian leader, Abbas, “an angel of peace.”  Abbas, an angel? Maybe, an angel of darkness! He, after all, is said to be the financier to the 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre that left  11 Israeli athletes murdered (Breaking Israel News, May 22, 2015).

This, even as the mass exodus of Christians from Bethlehem continues as the Palestinian authority continues to treat them poorly.  As the New York Post wrote, “Yes, ever since the PA took control of the West Bank in the early ’90s, its leaders have taken care to show the world an idealized picture of Muslim-Christian solidarity. But it’s a facade — a way to score anti-Israeli political points.” (nypost.com/2009/12/23/bethlehems-exodus/)  Clearly, the Pope is promoting their lie, as he carries on the Roman Catholic tradition of anti-Semitism, even at the expense of the Christian population in Bethlehem.

The New York Post reports, “Back to the exodus: Fifty years ago, Christians made up 70 percent of Bethlehem’s population; today, about 15 percent. Indeed, the Christian population of the entire West Bank — mostly Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic, with Copts, Russian Orthodox, Armenians and others — is dwindling.  But, again, the story’s the same in Egypt, Iraq and elsewhere in the Mideast. Practically the only place in the region where the Christian population is growing is in Israel.  In Bethlehem, Christians now feel besieged. Growing numbers of rural southern West Bankers from the Hebron area have moved north to Bethlehem in recent years. Many see the land as Waqf — belonging to the Muslim nation. They increasingly buy or confiscate land — and talk of laws to ban Christian landownership.”

With regard to the Pope’s proclamation that man-made carbon is the cause of global warming. This proclamation is made even as many climate scientists have disputed the big lie. The evidence should rule the discussion, but today, the truth is not as important as the message.  One cannot let the truth get in the way of a good story!

As I have pointed out before, using the historical CO2 data verses global average temperature, one finds no direct correlation between the two. The basic graph at points correlate, but at others they do not – they even move in opposite directions at points.  A direct correlation means that the two parameters under investigation must have a direct relationship, not mostly! If they do not directly correlate always, then one cannot claim a direct correlation at all. This is a big lie – bring in some mathematical model to “show” they correlate. Throw away the true historical data, make your model say what the people want it so say and you have job security; big Oil is taxed and the global governmental bodies reap the rewards with a big payoff, and the world gets a new global tax to help bring us all collectively together with one voice (cf. Gen. 11: the tower of Babel).

Finally, the third lie promoted by Pope Francis is the socialist/communist ideal. The Church has always strongly condemned the teaching of socialism, so why does this Pope promote it? Is Pope Francis showing his true belief in the South American developed theology called  liberation theology – a theology condemned by the Roman Catholic Church! Liberation theology arose within the South American Roman Catholic Church in the 1950s. It was popularized by the Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutierrez in his book “A Theology of Liberation” published in 1971. Liberation theology, simply put, removes the gospel of Christ: His death, burial, and resurrection to pay for price for sin, with the false gospel of communism’s ungodly envy and materialism. Liberation theology is, after all, the lie that is promoted today by president Obama.  Just tax, tax, tax, give everybody a “living wage” and we will live without crime, without hate, without want. A man-made kingdom on earth.

The pope is promoting these end-time philosophies today. As an amillennialist, he does not believe in a literal millennial theocratic kingdom run by King Jesus on earth. He believes we are in the kingdom age now, where the church is supreme and man can live the kingdom life today. That is why the idealism of the kingdom, where no crime, no hunger, and no hate is present in the church. This philosophy removes the large volume of prophecy relating to the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) concerning a land, seed, and peace in the Messianic Kingdom centered in His holy city, Jerusalem. For Rome, the holy city is Rome not Jerusalem; the savior is the Church with the Pope as Christ’s spokesman – the vicar (“instead of”) of Christ.          

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Is the prophetic battle of Gog and Magog in Revelation 20 the same as Ezekiel 38?

The battle that occurs in Revelation 20 is the final battle in the Millennium between the satanically inspired nations of the earth that come against “the beloved city” (Rev. 20:7-9). The text reads:

Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison  and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.  They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.  The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.  Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.  (Rev 20:7-11)

 This is not the same battle that is spoken of in Ezekiel 38-39. Why? Because in Ezekiel, the nations are from the north, and there are a limited number of nations not, as Revelation says, “the nations in the four corners of the earth” (Ezek. 38:15; Rev. 20:7).

The reference to Gog (“the prince“) and Magog (“the people“)  in Revelation 20 is metaphoric. How can one tell when something is used metaphoric? When the thing spoken of cannot be the literal, then the author seeks to relate some attribute of the literal to the thing spoken of. What is the characteristic that is brought out in both Ezekiel 38-39 and Revelation 20 concerning Gog and Magog? The literal Gog is from the Hebrew meaning “mountain,” and in Ezekiel 38 the prince of Gog is the great rebel who gathers the people together against Israel. In the Old Testament a “mountain” is synonymous with a kingdom.  In Daniel 2:45, the great stone cut out of the mountain (the stone or rock is Christ) destroys the statue (the future world empires). The mountain of the Lord represents the Messiah’s millennial kingdom. Thus, in Ezekiel and Revelation, the end-times ruler desires to be exalted above the Lord’s kingdom. The metaphor of Gog (the mountain)  and Magog (his people) has to do with world power and control over the whole world!   

As the great Dr. J. Vernon McGee writes, “Because the rebellion is labeled ‘Gog and Magog,” many Bible students identify it with the Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 38-39. This is not possible at all, for the conflicts described are not parallel as to time, place, or participants – only the names are the same. The invasion from the north by Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38-39 breaks the false peace of the Antichrist and causes him to show his hand in the midst of the Great Tribulation. That rebellion of the godless forces from the north will have made such an impression on mankind that after one thousand years, that last rebellion of man bears the same label –Gog and Magog.”  (J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible) 

Dr. Couch writes concerning Ezekiel 38-39 and Revelation 20, “Though some of the participants are the same (Gog and Magog), the time frame is not. The invasion of Israel mentioned in Ezekiel 38-39 seems to come at the beginning of the tribulation. There, for a short time, the Jews appear to be victorious, and the world is stunned by the defeat of the great northern power and its alliance. By contrast, the battle in Revelation 20:7-9 comes at the end of the kingdom period.” (Mal Couch, Revelation, in Tim Lahaye & Ed Hindson gen. ed., The Popular Bible Prophesy Commentary)

Gog and Magog then, is metaphor for the last days attitude that the devil of old possess concerning his desire to rule the world. The battles are satanically driven in order to rule the whole world and to bring everything under his control in a last attempt to usurp the world wide millennial rule of Messiah Jesus. Since the fall, Satan has been the ruler of this world, but with God's people and Word present his rule is limited. With these last days battles to rid the world of God's people and Word he hopes to gain total dictorial control of a Satanic kingdom. The antichrist is his instrument, just like the serpent was his instrument in the fall. Gog ("the prince of the mountain") and Magog ("the people of the prince") will fail as it is written, but even knowing that he will fail, self-deception and pride rules Satan but that does not get in the way of his desire to be the prince of the world controlling the people of the world.