Will USA be around at the end?

This is from an interview conducted by David Reagan, who says, "I recently interviewed Bible prophecy expert Terry James, author of The American Apocalypse: Is the United States in Bible Prophecy? Below are some of the insights he shared with me."

Q) Why is the United States not specifically mentioned in end-time Bible prophecy?

A) That is a strange thing because certainly the United States is the most powerful nation that's every existed on the face of the earth. It is the most blessed materially and certainly one of the most blessed spiritually that's ever existed. But, I think it's not mentioned for specific reasons.

It has deserted its mission, which was basically two-fold in my view. The first was to get the technology that would eventually get the Bible to the whole world. And that we have done and we continue to do, and maybe that's one of our saving graces up to this point considering how far we've fallen in so many areas.

The second thing I think is to be the protector. Now, God doesn't need anybody to protect Israel. But in the human sense, I think that the United States has been used as a mighty weapon to keep other nations from completely overrunning Israel.

So America has had those two primary missions and I think we're still in the process of doing the first one and that is to bring the Gospel message to the whole world through the technology we develop. But the second, we are beginning to stray from dealing with Israel. We know that Genesis 12:3 says that, "God says I will bless those who bless three, curse those who curse thee."

Q) What is the evidence that we have really strayed from that and that God's judgment may be upon us at this time?

A) America has begun to stray in a major way with dealing with Israel as we have put pressure on Israel to give up land for peace. What is particularly troubling is they've been pressured to give up part of east Jerusalem to a new Palestinian state — a "Two State Solution" they call it. And this, I can tell you, from God's Word flies in the face of the Lord. Anybody who touches Jerusalem touches the apple of His eye according to God and that's exactly what has happened. Joel 3:2 says that "I'll bring all the nations of the world into the valley of Jehoshaphat for dealing unjustly with my people Israel" — and that's exactly what's happened!

But, there are so many other things, too. Paul's perilous time of 2 Timothy 3 just runs rampant throughout America, from the proud boasts we see in all the political process and in every strata of American life, all the way through to people who become fierce, who become lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God — all these things. Particularly, I find a problem is the verse about "without natural affection." Paul says this and it's particularly applicable to abortion. More than fifty million babies have been murdered in their wombs since Roe v. Wade in 1973.

Secondly, the homosexual issue and the gay rights issue that is just pandemic. Every major empire that's ever crashed has had at the very end of its lifespan homosexuality, from Lot's time onward.

Q) I have found that many people, including Christians, believe that God's sitting on his throne wrapped in an American flag and that He would never ever touch the United States of America. Is that true?

A) Well, of course we both know that's just foolishness. Israel, who God calls "His chosen people," He has certainly taken them to the woodshed on many occasions. That in itself tells you how that America or no other entity is above God and His ways.

Q) What do you think will be the result of the chaos that would occur [in the end times]?

A) I think the European Union is the answer now. I believe at that time America and its leadership, which will have been devastated, is going to look for a strong way to restore equilibrium. The United States, with its great power and technology, is going to be accepted into the European Union and become a part of it.

Michael Pearl Weighs In

Here's an old geezer that Adam and I just LOVE. His website is No Greater Joy, and they put out a dynamite book called To Train Up A Child. Anyhow, here's what Michael says...

I clearly remember every administration since Dwight Eisenhower, and I never heard a prominent official suggest that we could be on the verge of another Great Depression. But I am hearing it now. Sure, from time to time Christian alarmists come out with dire predictions, but not until now have political leaders dared suggest a possible return to the 1930s. My father told of collecting potato peelings out of garbage cans to make soup. Of course it is possible, but how probable? No one really knows.

For believers, there are bad times and then there are BAD times. A recession is not a bad time; it is an inconvenience. A bad time, with a little “b”, is a great depression when we are forced to eat “Gypsy Soup” in order to survive (see Debi's article). A bad time can be a good time for the spiritual life of the nation, can bring out the best in the church and the family, and can create strength of character and enduring spirits.

A truly BAD time for us believers is when the state becomes hostile toward the Christian family and denies us the liberties to rear our children in a godly manner. That’s a BAD time. A BAD time is when the Department of Education forcibly assumes the role of overseeing the curriculum of homeschoolers, policing what parents teach their children in private. A BAD time is when the church is policed as to what it can say, the Thought Police arresting preachers for declaring the whole counsel of God regarding sin and righteousness. (In Europe, preachers have been arrested for preaching that sodomy is a depravity contrary to nature.) A BAD time is when ministers are silenced on pain of arrest for the crime of causing mental harm and guilt to children. A BAD time is when the State forbids parents from teaching their children the Word of God and encourages children to tattle on their parents as they did under the Communist rule during the fifties and sixties.

Bad times (with a little ‘b’) may come within the year—I said “may.” Who knows? And I don’t much care one way or the other. Families with small children should consider the Ant (Proverbs 6). But BAD times as described above are coming to America. There is already a famine for the Word of God—not the state’s fault—but there will be a time in the USA when the Word of God is openly forbidden, being labeled as “mentally unhealthy”.

When will this occur? I don’t know. But we can all see the trend. If you make a projection based on the present drift, it most certainly brings us to the BAD times in about ten to twenty years—maybe longer if there is a revival in the church. However, if the country is torn apart by extreme poverty and personal suffering, if violence so disrupts society that societal restructuring and social engineering are adopted, then Christians could be made the scapegoat as were the Jews in Hitler’s Europe. A nation that suffers greatly and sees no way out can be aroused to a hostile Nationalist spirit that is willing to believe the propaganda that the enemy within must be crushed for prosperity and stability to return. If a socialist or nationalist government were to publish propaganda that blames believers and the Bible for upsetting the country’s stability and prosperity, persecution could arise in one to five years.

The world is not going to get better. No political party is going to save us. Satan is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4)..

Our judges have neutered the Constitution insofar as it expresses Biblical principles and justice. That will not change, no matter who is in office. We just had an election between the bad and the very bad. This time, the very bad won. I think that God sometimes laughs as we choose our own form of judgment. Would it not be just for ten men and women to fall for every child the AMA digs out of the womb? You can be certain that abortion will continue, and with you, the taxpayer, footing the bill.

The USA leads the world in both the production and consumption of child pornography, with over one fourth of it depicting violence toward children. Judgment is surely at our door.

We will have socialized medicine to match the socialized schools and socialized culture now being engineered through the public schools and the digital entertainment industry.

The world stumbles around blindly, drunk on entertainment, while many Christians are planting “faith seeds” deep in the soil of avarice. The “emergent” church is emerging with a new christ, a gentle, tolerant, understanding christ who teaches us to love ourselves and lay down our narrow convictions for the greater good of a guiltless body of unified worshipers, swaying and swooning in a mega-Church and listening to light sermons from a New International Perversion. When the hymnbooks are closed, over half of the Christless-christian men hurry home to their computers to seek stimulation through pornography.

I am embarrassed to be called a “Christian preacher” and so be identified with the TV and radio charlatans hawking their latest key to a prosperous and fulfilled life. When people ask me what church I belong to, as part of the greater church I sometimes answer, “Laodicea,” which means “rights of the people”, defined in Scripture as the “lukewarm” church. It was the church that Jesus promised to spew out of his mouth (Revelation 3:14-20). He characterized it as a church that left him on the outside, knocking to get into the worship service. They were having a good time without him.

There will come a time when the state will threaten to take your children. It may not occur until after you have raised your now-young ones. It may be later when your children are raising their families, but it is coming—unless there is a revival in the church equal to the Great Awakening that saved England from the bloody revolutions sweeping Europe. Get passports for everyone in the family and keep them handy.

The only sign I see that indicates a revival is possible is the stone-cold deadness of the church and the empty psycho-savior doctrines of the modern apostate church. My hope is that as the church departs further and further from the truth, going to bed with the psychologists while dating the politicians, and “Christians” depart further and further from judgment, completely merging with the world, it will leave the overcomers standing alone to be recognized as the true historical representatives of the Biblical Jesus Christ—not the redesigned christ of the twenty-first century.

I am praying for a true revival, a deep down purity-in-the-inmost-being revival, a loving the Lord Jesus Christ, forsaking all, walking after the Spirit, telling your neighbor the good news revival, a taking the gospel to the whole world revival.

It may be that it will take suffering for us to get serious with God. I think so. And for that reason I am not in a panic to stay the reaping process that is surely coming. Let the fire burn away the chaff and lethargy of the structured church. Let the deprivation drive us to prayer. Let the world’s wholesale indulgence in sin actually cause us to hate it in our own souls so much that we would gladly take up our cross and follow him who died to save us FROM our sin.

When was the last time you sat with a house full of people, some weeping while singing “Tell me the old, old story”, or “Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life”, and they all meant it? I so long for the days of purity in the inward parts.

There will assuredly be persecution, unless there is a revival from God of major proportions. But then, the church is not yet ready for a revival, wouldn’t even welcome it. What will it take to get our attention? BAD times are coming.

In the meantime, I am not going to stop being joyful, and I will continue to live in and enjoy the blessings of God, sharing the same “blessed hope” that has been an anchor to saints for 2000 years. I will bless my children and help raise my fourteen plus grandkids, expecting good things to come our way...

Gentlemen, Plant Your Gardens!

Get ready to grow your own food.

I mean, I don't know that it's THAT imminent, or that we ALL have to grow gardens. But this I do know:

1) My pal Joe started a garden about 8 years ago and is quitting his job next year to be a full time farmer. He's legit, and this is his farm. Check it out. Awesome. This is good because, if the Great Economic Collapse hits (as you can read in the David Wilkerson piece below), I know how to get to Joe's house. (He lives in Missouri. I'm not telling you any more than that. There's not enough food for all of us.)

2) City farming/urban farming is ON THE RISE. Why is that? Hmmm. Good question. We're all talking "green" living these days (there are soooo many articles about this sort of thing lately), but the day may be soon coming when it's not really an option: we'll ALL be living green, baby. All I know is that this article just came out today in the Cincinnati Post. It's intriguing. Why is this stuff happening now? What does this tell me about the days I live in? Jesus got all over those Pharisees for not being more savvy about the times they lived in. Hm.

3) God has specifically told several of my friends to start gardens, which they have. This doesn't seem like a bad idea, to get these skills in place, because...

4) The aforementioned The End of Suburbia tells us that something like 1% of Americans are directly involved in food production, and that number's about to jump to around 45%. That means us ignoramuses can either get a slow, easy education or a sudden, painful one. I prefer easy.

And there you have it. Today's Sign of the Apocalypse is the urban garden. GET DIGGING!