William Terry James

Daniel's Last-Days flood
By William T. James

Planet Earth wobbles toward a foreboding future under the fearfilled eyes of nervous world-watchers. However, the portentous events filling today's headlines thrillingly echo Daniel the prophet's words within spiritually attuned ears: "... and the end thereof shall be with a flood... " (Daniel 9:26).
The book of final prophecies that Daniel was told to "... shut up... and seal ... even to the time of the end" seems to now be open, its contents spilling across our newspapers' front pages and our television screens (see Daniel 12:4). No previous generation has experienced the number, frequency and intensity of signals so similar to things prophesied to be witnessed by the generation alive at the consummation of human history. Daniel's last-days flood indeed seems to be deluging the planet while the prophet's words in Daniel 12 resound hourly. Knowledge now doubles every two years. With the advent of the Internet and other communication technologies, that pace continues to increase at a rate impossible to comprehend or harness. We run to and fro at breakneck speed. We do so literally through travel that enables us to cover millions of miles of space in just a matter of days. We do so electronically, our communications running like lightning in a fraction of a second to every point on earth-and even to distant worlds. Jesus' words about the signs of the times just before His return at the time of Armageddon are becoming reality before our eyes as we move through our daily lives. False christs, false prophets, wars and rumors of wars and all the other signals our Lord said will be happening concurrently in birth-pang fashion convulse our world with continuing regularity. Israel, pressured from all sides to accept absurd demands in a satanically inspired pseudo-peace process; Russia and its neighbors positioned precisely as Ezekiel 38 and 39 prophesy; China gaining strength and exerting increasing hegemony over the Rising Sun regions from which the "kings of the cast" will come; the European Union poised to become the colossus that will produce the "ten kings" power base of Revelation 17:12,13, from which the Antichrist will launch his drive for world conquest: The nations of prophecy appear ready to play out the final, violent scenes of this Earth Age. Mankind grows worse and worse, just as the apostle Paul prophesied. Perilous times are here as the fierce, heady, high-minded lovers of pleasure more and more dominate societies and cultures. Current ecumenical movements to bring all religious systems together into one configuration prove Paul's prediction that endtime man will have a "form of godliness, but [deny] the power thereof" (2 Timothy 3:5). Man's intellect continues to produce technology that Antichrist will no doubt use to subdue, control and ultimately force all people to worship him or be killed. Foreshadows of Wrath and Redemption examines in-depth the signs that Jesus and the prophets foretold would prevail during the seven-year tribulation period (see Revelation 6-19). Moreover, the vast body of evidence herein presented points to the stunning fact that many signals foreshadowing the coming wrath of God are observable today! Last Days Deluge No matter which way we look on earth's horizon, we see thunderheads of the approaching end-time storm. Despite rosy predictions by politicians, scientists, religionists and philosophers that earth's Golden Age lies just over the next hill or just around the next bend, we hear rumblings and see the lightning that signal ominous things to come. While it is true that an infinitely magnificent golden future lies just beyond earth's stormy horizon, such a future will not be produced by fallen mankind, but by Jesus Christ upon His return to put down satanic rebellion and establish His kingdom. Human beings will never produce heaven on earth. A brief examination of the direction the humanistic flood is sweeping this generation documents that we are gushing down a sin-darkened ravine toward apocalypse. False Christs, False Prophets, Great Deception Proof abounds that we live in a time marked by false christs, false prophets and deception. Deceived victims number in the thousands. For example, consider the Jim Jones Guyana massacre, the David Koresh Waco debacle and the deluded cult members who thought they could hitch a ride on a spacecraft hidden behind the Hale-Bopp comet. Benjamin Creme still proclaims Lord Matreya to be the coming christ. Dozens of lesser-known false christs and their false prophets deceive growing numbers of people who seek to fill the void only the true Christ can fill. These luciferically empowered death cults, most of which claim apocalyptic prophecies as their foundational doctrines, are making shocking headlines more and more. If there is any question about the fact that many people are already deeply involved in the end-time deception, consider the billions of dollars spent on the psychic hotlines. Modern-day soothsaying has produced an industry that currently generates more than $5 billion annually. Hollywood and music industry celebrities glowingly report personal encounters with demon forces through psychic counselors who introduce them to spirit guides, personal angels or other benign- sounding-but evil-spiritual entities. Far more troubling than these devilish activities, however, is the subtle evil that deludes and corrupts ever-increasing numbers of people, including many within the body of Christ. The ravening wolves in sheep's clothing of Matthew 7:15, like Satan himself, stalk about the earth-even among Christ's fold-seeking whom they may devour. They preach and teach a feel-good message that promises anything and everything the deluded, spiritually ignorant who listen with "itching ears" desire. The false teachers feed their flocks the garbage that they are good people who deserve only the best despite the fact that God's Word plainly teaches that "there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Romans 3:12). Those who sit under such abominable false teaching have their egos stroked to the point they themselves become as God in their own minds. The gospel they hunger for and are given is not the Christ-centered gospel of blood atonement for the sin that separates them from God the Father, but a gospel that evicts God's Son, Jesus Christ, so they can sit upon the throne of their own lives. The true joy and peace these deluded flocks yearn for eludes them because they overtly or unwittingly believe they can achieve tranquility through self- effort. Like the geopolitical world that time after time fails at making peace, people under the influence of false teachers can never find lasting inner peace because they reject the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, for whom and by whom all things were made. Unity is the catchword of the hour for the ecumenical movement taking place in America and around the world. Therein lies what looks to be the heart that pulses within the growing beast known as apostasy. Disagreement and division equates to intolerance, bigotry and hate in today's world where we must all strive to get along. Of course, this attempt to make peace is pure sophistry. Those who propose unity that fits within the world system's definition of the word exclude biblical Christianity that demands moral account ability to the true God of heaven through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said He came not to bring peace, but division (see Luke 12:51). He said this not because His journey through physical life was to be lived as a troublemaker, but because He knew the prideful, sinful hearts of the creation called man. Christ came to earth in the flesh as both God and man to seek and to save that which was lost (all mankind). Many people would believe and accept Christ as God's Way of salvation; unfortunately, many more would not believe and would march down the broad way to destruction. Humanism, the instrument used by Satan to enslave fallen mankind, calls for a unity that appeals to fallen man's arrogance and pride. The devil's seducing words, "You shall be as gods," echo and reverberate today with ecumenists' promises that man, through his own effort, can build an earthly utopia. Tragically, the body of Christ, the church, is being drawn into this luciferic quagmire. Movements are afoot under the guise of bringing Christ's body together that have at their cores the vile heresy that instructs Christians to not allow form of worship to separate them. This sort of theology claims that all Christians must unite so God's work can go on and God's kingdom can be produced here on earth as it is in heaven. Such high-sounding phraseology and heady appeal sounds wonderfully irrefutable and, indeed, is to many irresistible. But form of worship becomes the irreconcilable problem when compromise of the gospel of Jesus Christ must be entertained for the purpose of achieving unity. The world religious system from which springs the ecumenical avalanche currently crashing down upon Christianity demands that we all just get along and that we accept all belief systems within Christianity as equally true and acceptable in the eyes of God. But the Scripture says, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). Nothing and no one satisfies the holiness of God in the matter of forgiveness of sin. Jesus Himself said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). True unity in the sense that God accepts unity comes only through His Son Jesus. Manmade systems, even high-sounding manmade religious systems, do not meet the Almighty's specifications-or even come close to meeting them. The current call for unity among all believers that comes from the ecumenical movements of our time are antithesis to the true unity demanded by God the Father as witnessed by God the Son's prayer found in John 17. Consider those words of Jesus to those who believe in Him, then ask yourself: Is this the same Jesus claimed by the ecumenists who say God accepts all belief systems?
These words spoke Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him [verses 1,21.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do [verses 3,4].
And now, 0 Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men who thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word [verses 5,61].
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me [verses 7,81].
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are [verses 9-11].
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves [verses 12,131.
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world [verses 14-16].
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word [verses 17-20].
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one [verses 21,22]:
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world [verses 23,24].
0 righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou has sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them [verses 25,26].
Jesus Christ is the dividing line of truth versus falsehood. An individual human being is either for Him or against Him, the Scripture says. The world system, because it is fallen from man's rebellion in the Garden of Eden, opposes God and His Son, Jesus Christ. True unification or, better stated, "reunification," with the true God of heaven comes only through His beloved Son who died on Calvary's cross, the Lord Jesus Christ. Unity of any other sort is unacceptable in God's perfect eternal economy.
Today's talk of unity is anti-Christ at its black, festering core. This end-time onslaught of false teaching and false prophecies is rapidly moving this generation through great delusion toward the prophesied apostasy of 2 Thessalonians 2:3. It foreshadows the coming wrath of God.
Wars and Rumors of Wars
War has been a continuing plague within human interaction since the day Cain slew Abel. Rumors of wars are always with us because, as James wrote, "From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?" (James 4: 1).
The world's concept of peace is never true peace, but merely a lull between episodes of warfare. When so-called peace is enforced, threats of wars and murmurings of hostilities bubble just below the surface of civility. Jesus, in His Olivet Discourse on final prophecies, however, was talking about warfare that will come with greater frequency and ferocity the closer the end of this earth age comes. Wars, followed by rumors of wars, will come much like contractions increase for a woman who is about to give birth.
We do not have to go back very far in the historical record to document that we live in an age of such convulsive activity. Wars on a global scale are the ultimate manifestations of man's fallen nature, which cannot find peace apart from Christ's atonement. Natural man harbors violence capable of producing great destruction. One-on-one violence, families warring against each other, gang warfare in our cities, ethnic group against ethnic group-all these confirm that ours is a generation witnessing one of the key final prophecies foretold by Jesus Christ.
The frightening fact that mankind now possesses, through nuclear weaponry, the capability to destroy all life on earth is proof that God's prophetic Word is truth (see Mark 13:20). Recent resumption of nuclear testing, first by India, then, in retaliation, by Pakistan, foreshadows things to come. Diabolical regimes, particularly those in the Middle East, threaten devastation upon the whole world as their technology improves and progresses toward the point when missile delivery systems will be capable of hitting their nearest neighbors and every continent on earth. Not only do these tyrant-led governments seek nuclear capabilities, but they already possess warheads that can contain biological agents such as anthrax and other virulent, life-threatening microentitics; nerve agents of great destructive potential; and other agents even more deadly that could be unleashed at any moment. Only the staying hand of God has thus far prevented wars of world-ending proportions. There is coming a time when God will remove His restraining hand and mankind's love affair with war and killing will bring the human race and all other flesh to the point of extinction. Remember, Jesus said that if He did not return, "no flesh should be saved" (Mark 13:20).
Thankfully, God Almighty will not permit His creation to be utterly destroyed by man. The Lord Jesus Christ will intervene and put an end to the violence. All who harbor murderous, warring intentions within their hearts will be locked forever in outer darkness when Christ judges and rules. True peace will at last permeate the planet as the Lord of lords and King of kings sits upon the throne of the millennial earth.
Famines, Pestilences, Earthquakes
Reports from around the world indicate that earthquakes, famines, pestilence and other phenomena are noticeably on the increase. Planet Earth seems to be suffering from labor contractions through geophysical and environmental upheavals of many sorts. Earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, droughts, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones and tidal waves have, of course, always been an integral part of life on this planet. Instantaneous reporting of natural disasters also plays a part in adding to the perception that such phenomena are coming with greater frequency and intensity. Statistical studies by seismologists and other scientists show marked increases and troubling trends just within the past several decades. (See chapter 3 for a more in-depth look.) Documentation and research data tell the story that we live in an era of highly unusual geophysical turbulence.
To add to the turmoil are the discoveries of new viruses and bacteria, such as ebola and eboli, that threaten entire populations around the world. Pestilences of many sorts are on the rise. AIDS and other diseases also point to the probability that we live in a time in which the final prophecies of God's Word are beginning to unfold.
God's Word tells us that the Pharisees scolded Jesus while He rode the little donkey into Jerusalem, ordering Him to make the people stop praising Him as their Messiah. Jesus answered the Phan isees, saying that if the people remained silent, the very stones would cry out. Could it be that the more rebellious people become in our day, and the more this generation denies Jesus Christ, the more we are seeing all creation cry out I His praise?
Signs in the Sun, Moon and Stars
When gigantic comet fragments slammed into Jupiter a few years ago and the resulting planetary carnage was recorded by earth's most powerful telescopes for all to see, concerns began to rise. What if such a thing happened to this planet? God's Word seems to indicate that something similar will happen when a mountainous flaming object crashes into one of earth's oceans. Jesus apparently was speaking about that future event and others equally catastrophic when He said in Luke 21:26 that men's hearts will fail them with fear for things they see coming upon the earth.
Since that Jupiter event, Hollywood has created a number of productions dealing with comets and meteors striking the earth. Science fiction has made the leap to reality with governments now jointly working on plans to use nuclear weapons to intercept such potentially catastrophic visitors while they are still far out in space.
Another "heavenly" phenomenon is on the rise. UFO sightings have become commonplace. Roswell, New Mexico, has become a household name because a puzzling crash of something took place in 1947. Quasi- documentaries and full-blown news reports direct our attention to the stars almost nightly. A recent report from Arizona said that hundreds of people, including airline pilots, saw gigantic UFOs, which then left the area at a high rate of speed when pursued by Air Force jets.
We have for many years been entertained by aliens, extraterrestrials and so forth. People report being buzzed, beeped, burned, abducted and probed by strange, small, gray creatures with large heads and big eyes. On a more logical level-and one more documentable-we view scenes on a daily basis that would have, until the late 1960s, been considered spectacular. Now space shuttles taking off and returning to earth, people in space suits walking on the outside of space stations and mechanical rovers moving about the surface of a planet more than 100 million miles away have become almost routine. We have, as a generation, indeed witnessed fearful signs in the sun, moon and stars.
Jesus, however, prophesied occurrences that will truly stagger those people alive on earth when the final prophecies about the sun, moon and stars come to pass. The book of Revelation has much to say about this. For example, the sun is prophesied to become as dark as sackcloth, the moon is predicted to turn blood red. The stars are prophesied to fall and the powers of heaven will be shaken.
It is not far-fetched to consider whether the many unusual things transpiring in our night skies (and even during daylight hours) might be the foreshadows of a great delusion that will come upon earth dwellers as prophesied in 2 Thessalonians: "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie" (2:11).
When the rapture of the church occurs, might the Antichrist and his system of propaganda proclaim that extraterrestrials or some great cosmic force has abducted those who disappeared-for the betterment of earth? While many who study prophecy feel it to be a bit too speculative to conjecture on such matters, we must conclude that because we are seeing strange signs in the sun, moon and stars, including weird sightings, the idea that Antichrist forces might offer such an explanation is within the realm of possibility.
In that vein, it seems likewise within the realm of possibility that the Lord's words, "as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man," include fallen angels or demonic beings once again interacting with humanity like when, some biblical students believe, the "sons of god" took as wives the "daughters of men" (see Genesis 1-4).
Although much of the reporting of abductions and alien contact are mere Hollywood hype to generate interest in movies about aliens and extraterrestrials, it is still prudent to ask: Could such hyperbole help set up end-time mankind for the great satanic lie that will delude a large multitude of people during the time of apocalypse?
Distress of Nations with Perplexities
Economic factors plague nations of today's world, causing stresses and distresses for governments and citizenries alike. Technologies needed to compete in the growing global marketplace separate the "have" nations from the "have-not" nations as never before. Those who can afford the technologies continue to widen the gap between themselves and the poorer nations. Conflicts stem from such problems and grow to fully blossomed resentments and hatreds. Such economically depressed regions become ripe for the plucking by wicked regimes who use the seething discontent to build power bases, promising not only relief from poverty but, ultimately, great prosperity.
Great masses of people today are in poverty. China, India, most of Africa, South America, Central America, Mexico, vast areas of Russia and the former USSR eastern-bloc nations all harbor great populations of extreme deprivation. Most of these regions call upon the United States for assistance. For example, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected by the world community to fund Russia's failing economy with "loans" amounting to billions of dollars. The world stock markets went wild in August 1998 when Russia's economy went into free-fall with the ruble losing most of its value. When that nation's leaders demanded billions to prop up Russia's economy, they were refused. This set in motion fears that the communists in the Duma might have a vehicle for moving toward a return to controlling power.
The ultimate fear, of course, revolves around the 22,000 nuclear warheads in Russia's arsenal. It is feared that the individual bosses controlling provincial power spheres might begin selling these weapons-or at least the enriched uranium from them-to tyrant states such as Iraq and Iran in order to gain funds to build their own provincial militaries.
What is not often revealed to the American public is the fact that the IMF is funded for the most part by the United States. America, however, is in bankruptcy for all practical purposes because of national debt that, despite what the economic planners say, is impossible to ever pay off. A smaller and smaller core of productive workers more and more support a welfare class that pays no taxes but to whom the government insanely contemplates giving tax breaks in the form of monetary rebates out of "fairness."
Revelation 13:14 tells the results of nations gone mad with distresses. The one called Antichrist will come to power offering peace and prosperity through brilliant stratagems that will restore order, particularly economic order. Obviously, the number and mark system of electronic funds transfer through computers will be part of this system for control purposes. That control will quickly turn into enslavement.
We are seeing in our day foreshadows of the distress and perplexity of nations that will befall mankind during the time of God's wrath.
Israel
World attention focuses on Israel today while most earthly powers seem to be arrayed against that nation. Despite the fact that Israel is infinitesimally small compared to the vast Middle East region, not just the PLO and Arab leaders such as Syria's Assad, but all leaders of all nations seem to be insisting that this tiny state give up even more land in the false peace process. Prophetic Scriptures state that conditions will become increasingly worse for Israel until the one called Antichrist, indwelt by Satan himself, perpetrates unparalleled persecution upon the Jews who are alive at the time the final prophecies come to pass.
America travels a dangerous path through the current administration's insistence that Israel give up more land to further a peace agenda. Economic pressures and threats of discontinuance of support in other areas is a dangerous game. More dangerous for America than for Israel, however. God says in His Word: "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee" (Genesis 12:3). America's longevity as a powerful influential nation could well be linked to its treatment of Israel during these critical days ahead. Although the United States was instrumental in helping modern Israel come to birth in 1948, God gave that nation its new life just as the prophet Ezekiel foretold in the Ezekiel 37 account of the "valley of dry bones." God Almighty needs no help in protecting and sustaining those He chooses to protect and sustain.
America's leadership-at least the leadership within the current administration- seems to be of the opinion that American dollars should speak the final word on the Mideast peace process. The U.S. economy swells pridefully in a bubble of prosperity that apparently makes some feel this is a nation impervious to the economic destitution that afflicts much of the rest of the world. But the Lord hates a proud look (see Proverbs 6:16,17), and those who entertain such delusional notions should heed the words of George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." All we have to do is recall that one day in 1929 instantly changed the way of life for millions of people in America.
Israel is God's prophetic timepiece. It behooves us to keep close watch on that nation's intricate movements within the geopolitical mix. Each day Israel's interaction with the other nations of earth seems to move this generation one tick closer to that moment when Israel signs the "covenant with death and hell" (Isaiah 28:18). To be part of those exerting pressure that will ultimately force Israel into the deadly pseudo-peace pact with Antichrist (see Daniel 9:27) is to risk the direct wrath of a righteously jealous God. Israel's increasingly troubled interaction within the turbulent world of geopolitics is proof that foreshadows of God's wrath continue to boil ominously.
Russia
Post-Soviet Russia is more unstable than ever, harboring potential for military action that most expert observers of foreign affairs refuse to acknowledge. The Russian army continues to suffer collective depression since its fall from being the most powerful military machine on earth. Russian officers long for a return to those glory days. But the problem is bigger than that. Reliable sources report that Russian generals are barely in control of their troops, many of whom are alcoholics or drink heavily to forget their terrible plight. Most troops live at the poverty level or below, and their families often go without adequate food, clothing and housing. A number of Russian officers have committed suicide because their situations are no better than those of the troops under them.
Ezk 38 and 39 indicates a horde led by Gog, the chief prince of Rosh (Russia), will storm over the mountains of Israel to take great spoil. The attack will take place in the latter times and will be opposed only by a note of protest from a Western power bloc of unknown composition.
Alliances formed between Russia and the pan-Islamic union seem to fit the pattern of the prophesied Gog-Magog force that God Himself will bring into the Middle East toward Israel. The one the Scriptures call Gog will no doubt conceive the "evil thought" when he considers the vast oil and mineral riches as well as the warm water ports of that region. It is interesting that at present there is great anticipation in some quarters of major oil strikes near the southeast end of the Dead Sea. The current situation points to the fact that the whole region to the extreme north of Israel is a tinderbox that could kindle a fire of aggression at any moment. This could spark one of the major prophecies given in God's Word (read the Gog-Magog references in Ezekiel 38 and 39).
While Russia appears to be struggling to be a responsible world citizen and to achieve status equal to its position when it led the USSR, it nonetheless throws fuel on the fire of raging hostilities in the Middle East and elsewhere by selling weapons-including nuclear arms-to even the worst of tyrants in power today. Russia's membership in the G-8 and NATO cannot disguise the fact that much of its leadership continues to think like those who harshly ran the Soviet empire. Neither should America's leaders be deceived into thinking Russian missiles, both land-based and submarine-based, are pointed in directions other than toward the United States. Russia is a very hungry bear upon which the wise should keep a wary eye.
Rising Sun Nations
China and the other nations of the Orient have always seemed mysterious, even unknowable, to most of us in the Occidental world. Not so as of late. China in particular seems to be aggressively pursuing contact with the West for the obvious purposes of obtaining Western technology and gaining Western markets. At the same time, China is building a military of superpower class. No other nation in the region more aptly fits the description implied within the biblically prophetic term "kings of the east."
Controversy abounds about the possibility of problematic activities by foreign governments and citizens at the very highest levels of American government. The troubling questions range from influence-peddling through political contributions to overt espionage involving such nations as China and Indonesia, as well as others. At the very moment President Bill Clinton met with Chinese Communist leaders in Tiananmen Square, where hundreds of student protestors were murdered in prodemocracy demonstrations a few years ago, evidence was building at home in the United States that administration-approved sales of military-applicable missile and satellite technologies to China pose a direct threat to America's security. These serious allegations, if true, might hasten the formation of the military force scheduled to storm out of that vast Oriental region of the world to do battle at Armageddon.
European Union
With the implementation of the Maastricht Treaty January 1, 1999, which marked Europe's coming together as a single economic power, a major final prophecy seems to be on the brink of fulfillment. Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the huge metallic man statue and Daniel's interpretation of the king's dream could soon take on tremendous significance for our generation. (See Daniel 2.)
The European Union (EU) in one day became a stupendous economic power. And because money rules this world, the EU also became the world's greatest power. Experts predict that Europe will now control approximately 46 percent of the world's bond market, with America controlling about 32 percent. Certainly the changes and restructuring taking place throughout the world are staggering. The reviving Roman Empire is in evidence everywhere in the world today. The "ten kings" power base, which Antichrist will enjoy according to Revelation 17:12,13, might be very near completion by the time the euro, Europe's single monetary unit, is instituted.
Whether these ten kings are ten nations out of the revived Roman Empire, ten gigantic world trading blocs or something else, the Maastricht factor will cause dynamic rearrangement in global economic power spheres. Whether those rearrangements bring about stability or chaos remains to be seen. It is fascinating to consider these world- shaking matters in light of Revelation 13 and the fact that planet Earth is on the brink of a new millennium. We can see the foreshadowing of those ten kings who will give their power and authority to the beast. (See Revelation 17:12,13.)
Present-day power brokers make decisions from their elevated positions in the economic stratosphere of world finance. At the risk of being dubbed a conspiracy nut, I believe it is reasonable to give credit where credit is due. Those who are behind the world bank are the same globalist elite who are in the highest echelon of the Tri-Lateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Monetary Fund and so on. These organizations and people control the forward motion of earth's money movement. They speed it up, they throttle it back. They manipulate and cajole. Most likely it is from this strata that the ten kings of Revelation 17:12,13 will come. They no doubt will believe they have almost a divine right to control finance because they alone have the intellectual. power as well as the economic power to act in the best interest of mankind. These people, whoever they are at the time the prophecies of Revelation 13 are played out, will no doubt be in complete agreement with the man they believe to be the greatest world leader ever to appear on the scene-the beast of Revelation. They will give all their economic power and governmental authority to him.
More and more, it appears that now might be the time in human history when Antichrist's platform of power is being constructed. From that power base, he will speak great prideful words that promise peace and prosperity to a desperate and chaotic generation of earth dwellers. Developments within New Europe and the world economic power circles in general might well be contributing to what is looking like the last-days flood predicted by Daniel the prophet.
Perilous Times
In 2 Timothy 3, Paul makes predictions characterizing individuals who will populate the world during an era he describes as "perilous times." He paints a bleak picture indeed. Those people are predicted to, according to Paul's writing, grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. While we might have trouble believing that mankind can get much worse based upon the horror stories coming out of the world news sources, Jesus foretold that the last seven years of man's history just before His return will be more terrible than any time ever known on earth. Our daily newspapers and nightly newscasts report murders, rapes, thefts and every other type of crime, but what we are seeing today is but a precursor of a truly savage era.
Vast documentation could easily be accessed to prove that this present generation of earth dwellers has among its numbers those who are lovers of self, proud, boasters, blasphemers, undisciplined, fierce, heady, high-minded, without natural affection, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. We are already experiencing in this day the types of heinous behavior God's Word says will dominate during the time of apocalypse.
Man's inhumanity to man makes mockery of the much ballyhooed theory of evolution, which is almost a religious system worshiped by the pseudo-intellectuals of our time. People are not getting better and better, as the evolutional model projects, but are growing worse and worse just as God's Word prophesied. We did not come from an amoebic-type spot of slime that crawled out of a primordial swamp. Man has not metamorphosed from a single cell and evolved through all these various stages of evolution to the point we are now-allegedly-the highest order destined to progress toward godhood and perfection. We were created perfectly by the Creator of all things, Jesus Christ preincarnate, but since the rebellious act of disobedience and the fall in the Garden of Eden, humanity is becoming more and more debased.
Sin-induced insanity is evident everywhere. Southern Sudan, for example, has become so bad that, according to reliable sources, hundreds of thousands of people, particularly Christians, have been murdered for their faith. Such things as crucifixions, live burials, and children being murdered so that the killers can harvest, then sell, their organs around the world are apparently part of everyday life in that region. The United Nations and even America seem to be turning a blind eye. Apparently it has become so bad that refugees from Sudan have fled to Ethiopia for relief.
Again, Jesus foretold that times worse than any ever experienced in our history will occur during the great tribulation. This is an awesome prediction when considered against the background of the historical record that reveals the horrors of millions of martyrs falling in the time of the Dark Ages, Hitler's regime, Stalin's purges, and Mao's genocide.
Developing Antichrist Technologies
All we have to do in order to realize the swiftness with which technology is advancing is to consider that the computer we buy today for our home or business is well on its way to being obsolete by the time we learn how to use it. It is hard to imagine how computers and collateral technologies can advance much beyond their current sophistication, but that is what people have said throughout the ages about every revolutionary invention. Revelation 13 clearly prophesied the use of computers and other devices for controlling people that will be advanced far beyond even the amazing current technology. Those rapidly advancing technologies foreshadow troubling times ahead for earth's inhabitants. For example, triangulation tracking through computers and low-orbit global positioning satellites, ostensibly for assisting police in their work to fight crime, can locate objects, animals or people with astounding accuracy. Biochip sensors are already being used by implanting transponders beneath the skin to keep tabs on fish, birds and other wild as well as domestic animals. It's even possible that some parents have had such devices implanted in their children to thwart possible kidnapping attempts. Implanting microchips that contain complete financial, medical and personal information dossiers is already within the realm of possibility.
Antichrist's system of such intrusion will be infinitely greater in scope, according to Revelation 13. The beast's control technology is one of the major prophecies destined to contribute to the perilous times predicted by Paul. (Read chapter 13 for an in-depth look at where that developing technology stands at present.)
Although God promised mankind that He would never again destroy the world by a water flood (Genesis 9:12-17), Jesus nonetheless said of the very end of human history: "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24:37). Daniel the prophet said, "... and the end thereof shall be with a flood... " (Daniel 9:26), equating the deluge of events that would bombard end-time man symbolically to a literal flood. Those prophesied terrors of judgment are scheduled to cascade like a horrendous avalanche upon this anti-God, anti-Christ world of unbelievers during the last seven years that will consummate human history.
All authors in this book truly believe we are presently at a critical moment in God's prophetic timeline. Our collective desire is to hold God's magnifying glass over the issues and events of our day, exposing them to the light of God's unerring truth and His Holy Word, the Bible, so that many people will be drawn by God's Holy Spirit to Jesus Christ-the only true source of salvation. Jesus said, "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh" (Luke 21:28).
Each person who accepts Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, whether he or she has died during this Church Age or is living when Christ calls us to meet Him in the air at the rapture, will escape God's terrible judgment during the seven-year tribulation period. For if you "confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and ... believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Romans 10:9)-saved from the wrath to come (see 1 Thessalonians 5:9).
Accept Christ this moment-then you need not fear the stormy end-time events flooding this generation. Jesus will bring peace to your heart that will dissipate those foreshadows of wrath and highlight the foreshadows of redemption-injecting your soul with a taste of heaven, your joyous, eternal destination.