The Fall of the American Babylon, Part III

The Fall of the American Babylon, Part III

Is America really worse than other nations?

Before that can be answered, two principles of judgment that God uses must be understood.

–Luke 12:47-48

And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. 

–1 Peter 4:17

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

If we’ve put ‘In God we Trust’ on our money, have had religious freedom to publish the message of the Messiah to the world for more than 200 years, and we are the richest country in history, then we better make good on it. But instead our Churches, followed soon thereafter by our Nation began to spew our self-glorifying filth into the world and abort babies by the millions.

Other nations do the same sorts of things. However, no other nation in history has committed itself from its foundation to God like America has done, nor had the freedoms this people has experienced, or the received blessings of God in such abundance, save one: Israel.

This is why ancient Israel was judged and virtually eradicated from remembrance until 1948. Israel was accountable for receiving God's instructions, knowing them and doing them. A nation that has committed itself to Jesus and His Father from its foundation and then turns its back on Jesus and His Father should expect to receive the same, or worse, for ancient Israel was not gifted with the Revelation of Jesus—and we have been so gifted.

As the Church Goes, So Goes the Nation.
The fact that most American homes have a copy of the Bible carries a responsibility. Americans alone have the full scriptures, free time, and prosperity to study them and practice them--yet do not. Most American Christians don't even know when God is judging their Nation, even though Scripture is clear. For example, we are not to pray against Homosexuality and fight publically to keep homosexuality out of our culture. Doing so is in direct contradiction to God's Judgment on this nation. Don't believe me? Have you even read Romans chapters 1 and 2?

Christians should be repenting for those things that they have allowed into their churches, the compromising the Truth, that has led to the culture turning from God.

Here's a hint: Christians are not to be Purpose Driven, Power of Positive Thinking, Emerging (into what?), or Prosperity minded, but rather, Bible Reading, Bible Believing and Holy Spirit Guided.

What specifically should believers be repenting for? Along with 1 Peter 4:17, this passage from Romans 1: 29-32 is your answer:

"They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them."

Perhaps, if enough believers get on their knees now, it will not be too late for this formerly great nation to reclaim a measure of its spiritual greatness as a beacon of light in this lost and dying world and the USA. In fact, with enough prayer and repentance the Greatest Generation may in fact be yet in front of us.

The Fall of The American Babylon, Part I

Getting started

Lately, people have been asking me to speak a lot to the issue of End Times Bible events. There have been so many natural disasters in recent days that even non-religious people have taken an interest in the topic. With the recent earthquake and tidal wave in Japan, followed by nuclear meltdown in several power plant reactors, making their problems on par with or greater than the Three-Mile Island incident in the USA many years ago, is there any wonder people are concerned?

First, it needs to be noted that Jesus taught that one can look to various signs in nature as indicators regarding the changing of seasons, and we should also look at specific signs regarding  the prophetic seasons and the coming time of redemption for ourselves and our planet.

Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

–Luke 17:29-31

When evening comes, you say, "It will be fair weather, for the sky is red," and in the morning, "Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast." You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

–Matthew 16:1-3

Elsewhere, Jesus told us that among the signs of his return would be earthquakes. But the primary analogy that Jesus used to describe the last days earthquakes were birth contractions, which we all know are universally characterized by a progressive increase in both frequency and intensity:

There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

–Matthew 24:7-8

And once more, the ultimate result of the return of Jesus will be a massive earthquake that literally transforms the topography of Jerusalem and devastates the whole earth:

On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.

–Zechariah 14:4

Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.

–Revelation 16:18

With this in mind, it is fascinating to take note of some statistics that were brought to my attention recently from the U.S. Geological Survey. Analyzing records of ancient earthquakes as well as every earthquake occurring in modern times registering a 7.0 or higher on the Richter scale, the picture that emerges is very interesting.

Ø  From 1 A.D. to 1800 there were 11 major earthquakes recorded in history. This results in an average of one major earthquake approximately every 100 years.

Ø  From 1900 to 2000 there were 10 major earthquakes 7.0 or higher. This results in an average of one major earthquake every 10 years.

This brings us to recent times. One of the most notable major earthquakes was in Bam, Iran, on Dec. 26, 2003. Exactly one year later, Dec. 26, 2004, Sumatra, Indonesia, experienced another massive earthquake and a subsequent devastating tsunami. Between these two earthquakes, more than 330,000 lives were lost.

Ø  From 2003 to 2007, there were 29 major earthquakes 7.0 or higher. Resulting in

an average of one major earthquake every 49 days.

Ø  In 2008, there were 12 major earthquakes 7.0 or higher. This results in

an average of one major earthquake every 37 days.

Ø  In 2009, there were 16 major earthquakes 7.0 or higher. This results in

an average of one major earthquake every 22 days.

Ø  In 2010, there were 24 major earthquakes 7.0 or higher. This results in

an average of one major earthquake every 15 days.

I have no doubt that there will be scoffers, but the numbers don't lie. In fact, based on the undeniable patterns, on March 4, six days before the earthquake in Japan, several people I am aware of began predicting the following:

The longest amount of time last year that the earth went without a major (7.0 or greater) earthquake was 57 days. We haven't had a major earthquake since January 18th of this year. As of today, we stand at 45 days without a major quake. I am predicting a major (7.0 or greater) earthquake BEFORE Wednesday, March 17th…there will be a major earthquake sometime within the next week!

Sadly, even within the church, there will be those who claim that this information means absolutely nothing and that Christians should pay no attention. Thankfully, for the majority of believers who are paying attention, who take Jesus' words at face value, who are watching the specific signs that Jesus spoke of, the evidence is all there. The contractions are increasing in both intensity and frequency. I believe there is a birth on the way.

Now what?

There have been several such portents in the last 40 years that have led many to conclude that we are already experiencing the events described by the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation. For example, Chernobyl (meaning Wormwood or bitterness), is discussed in Revelation 8:10-11, it is a town in the Ukraine where in 1986 they experienced the greatest nuclear disaster in history. In Revelation it says that one third of the Rivers would become "wormwood" or bitter. What many may not know is that the radiation from that event has in fact contaminated all the major rivers in the area, affecting Europe to the West and Asia to the South and East. Have one third of the rivers been affected yet? Perhaps not, but there is no way to stop the creeping contamination and it won't be long before that much of the word's drinking water is contaminated.

The destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, NY is another example that many point toward as a fulfillment of events in Revelation, specifically chapters Revelation 14:8 and 18:2.

Some people have been writing in the days after the September 11th event about the question of whether the event fulfills Revelation 18's pronouncement of judgment on Mystery Babylon. Others deny that the Mystery Babylon of Revelation 18 is even speaking about America (and some inexplicably deny that the USA, the greatest nation in history, is even mentioned in prophecy). While it is true that Revelation 18 is not referring merely to the destruction of the World Trade Center, it is clear to me that the final destruction of the United States of America is mainly what Revelation 18 is about—at least economically. 

Revelation Tells Us Exactly When Mystery Babylon (America) As an Economic Power Will Fall

It is true that Babylon is a ruling system of commerce that has been with us since Nimrod (Genesis 10). It is the system behind every empire in history. But it also must be a nation, otherwise how can it fall before the Great Tribulation comes? Revelation 14 tells us it will:

–Revelation 14:6-9

And I saw another angel [#1]fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters [this message is out now, the same I share with people, for which they label me a nut, out of touch with reality]  And there followed another angel [#2], saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication[1].  And the third angel [#3] followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand

From this sequence of three angels delivering three different messages at the appropriate time we can learn the timing of the fall of Mystery Babylon. Since the second angel announces Mystery Babylon's fall before the third angel warns everyone not to take the mark of the Beast, then logically the Babylon that the Beast represents according to Isaiah 13/Revelation 18 is not the same Babylon that falls before the mark is decreed.

---

[1] This message is clearly about America and her sensual culture which you find exported to nearly every country in the world through Media, Movies, Television and Advertising. See also: Jeremiah 50:28; 51:10

Salt Lake City goes wallet-free with Isis

Salt Lake City goes wallet-free with Isis 
 Article: Technology For Global Monetary System 

Operator consortium Isis has selected Salt Lake City as its flagship deployment to show the rest of the USA what NFC can do for them.The plan will see Salt Lake City's public transport system accepting pay-by-wave from a mobile phone by the middle of next year. Retailers have also been encouraged to adopt Near Field Communications technology at the point of sale, as Salt Lake City strives to become The Place You Can Leave Your Wallet At Home.
Isis was set up less than six months ago: a consortium of US network operators including AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon. The consortium is dedicated to ensuring that electronic payments based on NFC keep their secure element in the SIM - under the control of the network operator, not the handset manufacturer or bank-card supplier - by promoting the technology and business models associated with it.
In Salt Lake City, that involves working with the Utah Transit Authority to convert all the buses and trains to accept NFC payments, as well as flooding the area with NFC handsets and SIM chips.
"I would like to express our excitement that the Salt Lake City area has been chosen to lead the roll-out of Isis mobile payments," said Mayor Ralph Becker's canned statement, though looking a little closer it becomes obvious why Salt Lake was chosen to lead the US into contactless payments.
But the transition to electronic payments isn't going to happen overnight, and it's good to see Isis doing something practical, and with a reasonably aggressive timetable. It will be interesting to see how the locals take to paying by wave.

Read Full Article .... 

April 12 - US Police Increasingly Peeping at E-mail, Instant Messages   Artcle: One World Government  Law enforcement organizations are making tens of thousands of requests for private electronic information from companies such as Sprint, Facebook and AOL, but few detailed statistics are available, according to a privacy researcher. Police and other agencies have "enthusiastically embraced" asking for e-mail, instant messages and mobile-phone location data, but there's no U.S. federal law that requires the reporting of requests for stored communications data, wrote Christopher Soghoian, a doctoral candidate at the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University, in a newly published paper. "Unfortunately, there are no reporting requirements for the modern surveillance methods that make up the majority of law enforcement requests to service providers and telephone companies," Soghoian wrote. "As such, this surveillance largely occurs off the books, with no way for Congress or the general public to know the true scale of such activities." Soghoian found through his research that law enforcement agencies requested more than 30,000 wiretaps between 1987 and 2009. But the scale of requests for stored communications appears to be much greater. Citing a New York Times story from 2006, Soghoian wrote that AOL was receiving 1,000 requests per month. In 2009, Facebook told the news magazine Newsweek that it received 10 to 20 requests from police per day. Sprint received so many requests from law enforcement for mobile-phone location information that it overwhelmed its 110-person electronic surveillance team. It then set up a Web interface to give police direct access to users' location data, which was used more than 8 million times in one year, Soghoian wrote, citing a U.S. Court of Appeals judge. Those sample figures indicate the real total number of requests is likely much, much higher, since U.S. law does not require reporting and companies are reluctant to voluntarily release the data. "The reason for this widespread secrecy appears to be a fear that such information may scare users and give them reason to fear that their private information is not safe,"Soghoian wrote. Read Full Article ....

April 16 - 20 Reasons to Be Prepared for a Global Food Crisis   Article: Signs Of The Last Times  Comment from Understand the Times:   Maybe it is time for many to make a course adjustment and to wake up with regards to where we are headed. Are all food shortages weather related or can they be manipulated? Will the governments of the world continue to be controlled by the New World Order? If so, what else will be controlled? What about buying and selling? Will that come under global control too? In case you haven't noticed, the world is on the verge of a horrific global food crisis. At some point, this crisis will affect you and your family. It may not be today, and it may not be tomorrow, but it is going to happen. Crazy weather and horrifying natural disasters have played havoc with agricultural production in many areas of the globe over the past couple of years. Meanwhile, the price of oil has begun to skyrocket. The entire global economy is predicated on the ability to use massive amounts of inexpensive oil to cheaply produce food and other goods and transport them over vast distances. Without cheap oil, the whole game changes. Topsoil is being depleted at a staggering rate and key aquifers all over the world are being drained at an alarming pace. Global food prices are already at an all-time high and they continue to move up aggressively. So what is going to happen to our world when hundreds of millions more people cannot afford to feed themselves? Read Full Article ....

April 18 - Many Born-Again Christians Hold Universalist Views, Barna Finds   Article: Unbiblical Christianity  One in four born-again Christians hold universalist thoughts when it comes to salvation, according to a new Barna analysis of trend data.   Twenty-five percent of born-again Christians said all people are eventually saved or accepted by God. A similar proportion, 26 percent, said a person's religion does not matter because all faiths teach the same lessons.And an even higher proportion,40 percent, of born-again Christians said they believe Christians and Muslims worship the same God. According to the Barna analysis,43 percent of Americans in general agreed with the statement "It doesn't matter what religious faith you follow because they all teach the same lessons," while 54 percent disagreed. For many evangelicals, the idea of Christians holding universalist ideas is particularly disturbing because it nullifies the need for Christ to die on the cross and the message of Jesus that he is the only way, truth and life. While universalism is nothing new, some believe cultural trends are placing pressure on Christians and their beliefs. Don Carson, research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, said at The Gospel Coalition's national conference last week that many are feeling pressure from the culture "to find universalism attractive." "There are pressures in our culture to reduce the truth content of Scripture and then simply dismiss people by saying that they're intolerant or narrow-minded ... or bigoted without actually engaging the truth question at all. And that is really sad and in the long haul, horribly dangerous." Read Full Article ....

April 18 - World Bank head warns of threat from food crisis   Article: Signs Of The Last Times  World Bank president Robert Zoellick has warned the world is 'one shock away from a full blown crisis' and cited soaring food prices as a major threat to the global economy. He said poorer nations risked 'losing a generation' because of food price inflation. Speaking in Washington after meetings between the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, Zoellick said support from the bank would be vital to stability in the Middle East. 'The crisis in the Middle East and North Africa underscores howwe need to put the conclusions from our latest world development report into practice. The report highlighted the importance of citizen security, justice and jobs,' he said. 'Waiting for the situation to stabilise will mean lost opportunities.In revolutionary moments the status quo is not a winning hand.' 'It is probably too much to say that it's a jobless recovery, but it's certainly a recovery with not enough jobs,' he said. 'Especially because of youth unemployment there is now a risk that this will be turned into a life sentence and that there is a possibility of a lost generation.' Read Full Article ....

April 20 - Apple Users, Beware: iPhones Secretly Tracking Location, Experts Warn   Article: Technology For Global Montary System  Comment from Understand the Times:   Get ready for Big Brother. Most people are attached to their cell phones. Wherever they go, their cell phone goes. This may be fine, except it is the perfect tool for those who have set the New World Order who one day will be headed by the Antichrist. Two programmers have discovered that the latest operating system powering the iPhone and iPad keeps a log of everywhere you go, recording both the location and time you were there.  The feature has been around since June 2010, meaning some iPhones have nearly a year of location history recorded in a single file -- every step, trip to the park, family vacation and more. And that, said Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, who uncovered the file, poses serious problems. "It became clear that there was a scary amount of detail on our movements [in the iPhone]," they noted in a post on their website. "By passively logging your location without your permission, Apple has made it possible for anyone from a jealous spouse to a private investigator to get a detailed picture of your movements." Apple did not respond to calls or e-mails for comment from FoxNews.com. But the iPhone feature could be good news for police. According to the ACLU, Michigan police are currently using a device called the Cellebrite UFED during traffic pull-overs. It can grab all the data out of a phone within minutes. The company's website goes on to note: "Easy to use in both the field and in lab environments, UFED extracts vital data such as phonebook, pictures, videos, text messages, call logs . it then gathers the data into reports for research and evidence." But the ACLU argues that the use of the device by police officers during traffic stops would be illegal, and is attempting to obtain Internal records on exactly how the department uses the devices. "[The devices] allow them to extract information from cell phones without a warrant," Kary Moss, Executive Director of the Michigan ACLU, said. But to the matter at hand: What can you do if you want to ensure your data is safe? Ahearn says the simplest method is just not to use a fancy phone. As of now there is no known way to stop an iPhone with OS 4 from logging locations. Read Full Article ....

April 15 - Right Wing Politics Drive Believers to Emerging Church Movement   Article: Emerging Church  Comment from Understand the Times:   The emerging church can best be defined as apostasy. When one reinvents Christianity by redefining Christianity, you no longer have Christianity. This is exactly what we would expect from a biblical perspective as the harlot develops in the last days.   Gathering in cafes and coffee shops, younger believers who are sick and tired of right wing politics injected into megachurches are part of the "Emerging Church" movement.   In the Emerging Church movement, no one is told what to believe.  Questions are welcome, even if they are about the basic tenets of the Christian faith.   In such an Emergent Church in Virginia, members of the "Common Table" gather at a corner cafe under the guidance of a woman named Amy Moffitt, who says,  "When I think of the politicization of this church, I think of the political structure of the institutional church that inevitably leads to power struggles and issues around money. And what's really important to me in the Emergent Church is that we avoid that."  Moffitt had grown up in Christian evangelism at about the time when it was overtaken over by the Christian right and its politics.   Experts say that the Emerging Church movement has the potential to split the Evangelical church but it also has the potential to appeal to the increasing number of disaffected young people who claim no religion. Read Full Article ....

April 22 - Evangelicals are making liturgical traditions their own   Article: Emerging Church  Certain Holy Week observances long affiliated with more liturgical traditions are being re-purposed and incorporated into evangelical congregations, home to increasing numbers of former Catholics and mainline Protestants.Leading up to the children's egg hunts and contemporary worship services this Easter, it was not unlikely to see Lenten reflections, Maundy Thursday meals or even Stations of the Cross at a Baptist church. "I've been asked a few times, 'What is this Maundy Thursday?' It is a foreign idea for some, but once you explain it to them, they see it's scriptural and it makes sense," he said. "There are a lot of good things that Roman Catholics do that I think everybody should be open to.     It's not a Catholic thing or a Baptist thing, it's a biblical thing." "There's a renewed interest in the liturgical calendar. They may not call it 'Ash Wednesday' or 'Maundy Thursday,' but it's reformatted in a new way," said Dave Travis, the director of the Dallas-based Leadership Network, a megachurch consulting group. "So much of their constituency is former Catholics, so it has become very natural to identify with." "Eventually, all these churches go back to a common source," said the Rev. Ron Robers on, associate director of ecumenical and interreligious affairs for the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops. "Principally, we don't see it as a problem.     It can be a good thing for us to share common liturgical services as long as they are not designed to take Catholics away from the church." The church invited congregants to prayerfully walk through the events of Jesus' betrayal and death, symbolized by replicas of artifacts from Jesus' crucifixion, like the crown of thorns and the nails that held him to the cross. The eight-station display is their church's take on the well-known Catholic tradition.  "The first two people who walked through said, 'This really appeals to me because I grew up with the Stations of the Cross in the Catholic Church,' " said Moore, "and while it's not the same tradition, it still displays the suffering of Christ." Read Full Article ....