Keep Looking Up!
Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. (Mt. 24:32—35)
Today I’d like to comment on something that is, for the Christian, a reason for real hope and change. The article is called It’s A Set-Up!, and though the bulk of it is on understanding how the modern world came to the sorry state it’s in, the point is that is shows how near we are to our final redemption.
Now I’ve got some bad news— although I have to say I don’t really see it as totally bad news because of my perspective on it: I am convinced we are watching the set-up for what’s known as the Tribulation.There’s a wise and popular saying for when something doesn’t add up regarding politics and government: follow the money. In the case of spirituality, we can add, “consider the mastermind”. People like to dismiss “conspiracy” as the equivalent of myth and legend, without bothering to examine any details, because they have decided a priori that such things cannot exist. That’s not maturity or enlightenment but denial, very much like the atheistic assertion that God cannot exist. Both denials are “big picture” issues; that is, they only see what’s in front of them and never what may be above or beyond. Remember that Satan is not only sneaky but a very long-range planner, and while humans do commit unspeakable evil all on their own, there is a malevolent and intelligent adversary whom we must not underestimate or ignore.Let me ask you a question: If one were to go about preparing for a world system that would be taken over by someone empowered by Satan, a system that would give this someone complete control of and loyalty from the people of the world, how would he do it? Well, we’re not going to go through all the maneuverings today, but let me give you a little taste and see if anything sounds familiar.
LAY THE FOUNDATION: The most necessary thing would be to lay a satanically inspired foundation for this structure: A broad base upon which this system would be built. Now it just so happens that a woman named Alice Bailey (1880–1949) who founded a publishing company named The Lucifer Publishing Company, communed with a demon known as “The Tibetan.” Through Alice Bailey, “The Tibetan” explained that the world must change. Specifically, he said, “The old established rhythms, inherent in the old forms of religion, of politics, and of the social order, must give place to newer ideals— and to the new order.”People read things like that and the barriers rise, because they don’t want to believe it. They believe channelling is a good thing from “ascended masters” who impart wisdom and only seek to help us. Nice story, but extremely naive. Satan and his minions have not been asleep or just sitting around waiting for God to throw them into the Lake of Fire. They have been very, very busy.In his new, critical book Grave Influence, Brannon Howse gives the background of 21 radicals who have each contributed to society’s transformation process. Of Bailey he says, “Bailey’s worldview and goals have shaped the thinking of many individuals we examine in this book. To fully grasp the worldview war raging among us, we must understand the philosophies of Alice Bailey.” Bailey and her Tibetan friend laid the foundation for this New World Order.
INVADE THE CHURCH: Two men that Brannon introduces in his book— Soren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)— “believed a person could not know truth, that we should embrace the mysticism of the world and reject absolutes.” This idea has been labeled “Existentialism”. Existentialism gave birth to post-modernism (which argues that truth and reality are created by man and not by God and that truth is situational and subjective) and post-modernism gave birth to neo-orthodoxy and, eventually, the Emergent Church. Brannon says, “The rise of the Emergent Church brings to mind the words of the late Vance Havner regarding Satan’s shrewdest strategy for getting his way in the world: ’The devil is not fighting religion; he is too smart for that. He is producing a counterfeit Christianity so much like the real one that good Christians are afraid to speak out against it.’”This invasion follows logically after the foundation that was laid. “Embracing mysticism” is exactly what the churches are doing now. The seeds for this invasion were planted long ago by the so-called Desert Fathers, and the Babylonians before them. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche watered the soil, and today’s mystical church leaders, including Brian McLaren and Rick Warren, are getting rid of the weeds and shooing away the crows (we who oppose them). And they know exactly what they’re doing, the plan they are carrying out. And just as Satan would flatly deny the truth, so would these people. There are, to be sure, many in this army who don’t know the whole plan, and that’s to Satan’s purposes. But the leaders are to be held responsible, or they wouldn’t be leaders. The social gospel is a front and a cover, a half-truth that appeals to emotion and leads people to despise truth and the teachings of the apostles.
OVERRUN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM: Get ’em while they’re young. Heard that before? John Dewey (1859-1952) is known as “the father of education.” He is less famous for the pedigree he worked so hard to establish. He was “a Fabian Socialist, signer of the Humanist Manifesto 1, founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and the president of the League for Industrial Democracy… John Dewey admitted that the purpose of school is not to create educated students but to change their values and prepare them for their place in life. Benjamin Bloom [1913–1999— Brannon covers him too] admitted that the goal of his educational philosophy is to change a student’s ’fixed beliefs.’”Public education is designed to homogenize and dumb-down the population, to make them compliant and accepting of whatever an authority says without hesitation. They are there to be spoon-fed a particular worldview and to use the Dialectic (consensus) to steer the masses to planned conclusions. This is used every bit as much in the Sunday Schools too. From pre-k to post-grad, it’s all designed to produce the ideal global citizen, which is not what we like to think. This citizen is not only compliant but already believes what the NWO wants them to believe, mocks what the NWO wants them to mock, and swallows what the NWO wants them to swallow. And every one of them would deny all this to the end. Some do escape through the cracks, but they are too few to stop the machine.Enter: Outcome-Based Education (aka Mastery Learning, aka Goals 2000, aka No Child Left Behind). Brannon says, “There is reason to believe that thought control is exactly what the educrats in Washington have in mind.” Whoa— heavy charge. But check this out: In the 1970s, a controversial social studies program called Man: A Course of Study, was introduced into many American schools. The course was designed by B. F. Skinner (1904–1990, yes, he’s covered too) with the expressed goal “to mold children’s social attitudes and beliefs along lines that set them apart and alienate them from the beliefs and moral values of their parents and local community.” I’ll just say it: The picture I got reading these sections of Brannon’s book brought pictures of Hitler Youth to mind. A New World Order requires citizens— and specifically an army— predisposed to do the bidding of the State.
DESTROY THE FINAL OBSTACLE: In last week’s e-alert Jan made this amazing deduction— among many— “We do know the biggest factor holding up the one-world order has been America.”I’m not one to try and wedge the USA into Bible prophecy, and neither does this article. What they’re saying is that America, its many Christians, and its Constitution have been a thorn in the side of the NWO. As long as we retained our core values as a nation, we were a strong and prosperous sovereignty. But sovereignty itself has to be done away with; all the world’s people must be homogenized and impoverished so they cannot rise up against the NWO. There cannot be any islands of safety or places to regroup and form a rebellion. The whole world must be controlled, and our country was the last holdout. Was.On March 16, Jack Kinsella wrote a brilliant article on the history of the Left’s desire to pass health care and intimated that the passing of health care legislation would equal the acquiring of control over the people of America…
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I’ve said it before, and I’ll doubtless say it again: It’s all coming together. If you read Brannon’s book— and I really, strongly encourage you to read it— you will see how we’re being set up. All of the building blocks needed to construct this world system have been molded for hundreds of years to bring us to this place and this time. As you see him put each of these bricks in place, a structure will form that looks amazingly like the one-world system needed to usher in the Antichrist. And folks, it looks to me like they’re ready to dedicate the building and cut the ribbon.
Now, back to the good news: Jesus is coming to get us first! I say this unabashedly. The reason the construct of the one-world system doesn’t terrify me is because I’m not planning to be around when the man of sin steps onto the scene. Actually, as I see prophecy unfolding like this, I get excited! Jesus promised He’d come and get us. And He said that we would be kept from the hour of trial that is coming on the earth. And Paul told the Thessalonians that Jesus will deliver us from the wrath to come. We’re goin’ Home!! This is our “blessed hope”! (We at Olive Tree Ministries know that not all of you share a pre-Tribulation Rapture theology, but as Dr. Gary Frazier said on Jan’s radio program last Saturday, March 27, “Let’s not have great divides over this.” This isn’t “escapist theology.” The fact is that there may be plenty of tough times that American and other Western Christians have to go through in the coming weeks, months, and years. There is a war against Christianity in America right now. But this war is coming from man’s wrath. What happens in the Tribulation Heidi is referring to is God’s wrath. Heidi refers to the “blessed hope” and many need this in these tumultuous times. We have heard from thousands who express great comfort in this.)While all other views are looking for the Antichrist, if they’re looking at all, only the pre-trib Rapture view looks for Jesus. Those of us who hold to this view are hated and scorned by many fellow believers and accused of being escapist, fearful, elitist, or uncaring for the lost. But we are all the more motivated to share the gospel because the time is short. We don’t want anyone to go through the wrath of God; the article makes an excellent point that our present sufferings, horrible as they have been in this world, are nothing to be compared with what is to come, “a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then” (Dan. 12:1b). Critics of pre-trib underestimate the wrath of God as opposed to the wrath of man or even that of Satan. And while the longer God waits means more can be saved, it also means more can be born and lost; and given the proportions that have held true throughout the church age, many more lost than saved will result. It is a double-edged sword.While we’re here, God wants us to understand what is happening around us and respond biblically. We mustn’t disengage from life. We must keep fighting for the salvation of souls up until the very last minute.
We are not presently living in the Tribulation (nor, as some actually teach, in the Millennium); the Seals have not begun to open. What we now see are the pieces of the chessboard being set in place, the actors ready for the final performance, the props set and the overture playing while the last to arrive are being seated. All the prophetic signs are converging at this point in history. This is no allegory or parable, but the real thing. Are you ready?