No Way Out or One Way Up?
This time last year in the autumn
edition of Light for the Last Days, our lead article was entitled ‘New World
Disorder.’ In it we looked at some of
the forces shaking the nations and causing the world to fall apart. Now a year on we see much more evidence of
coming world crisis as prophesied in the Bible for the last days of this age.
In a
vision of the last days, the Hebrew Prophet Jeremiah wrote: ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, disaster shall go forth
from nation to nation,
and a great whirlwind (storm) shall be raised up
from
the farthest parts of the earth.’
Jeremiah 25.32. Today
disaster is going from one nation to another and preparing the way for the end
time storm that will shake all nations.
Jesus
warned of the final crisis which He described as ‘the distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves
roaring; men’s
hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are
coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’ Luke 21.25-6.
The phrase Jesus uses to describe the distress of nations is ‘with
perplexity.’ In Greek this is ‘aporia’
which means no way out. At the end of days Jesus says there will be a
crisis with no human solution coming which will push the world towards the
final period of great tribulation preceding His second coming to the earth.
In this article we list some of the
things going on in the world today, which point to this conclusion and the one
outcome, which gives us a hope for the future, the soon return of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, ‘When these
things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads for your redemption
draws near.’ Luke 21.28.
Refugees and migration.
The number of displaced people in the world reached
a record high of nearly 60 million around the world in 2014, a UN report
says. UNHCR
head Antonio Guterres told the BBC the ‘world is a mess’. He acknowledged that humanitarian agencies
cannot ‘clean up the mess. It’s no
longer possible. We have no capacities to pick up the pieces.’ In 2015 the problem has become much worse as
more and more people flee war, conflict
or persecution, mainly from Middle Eastern countries, Syria in particular.
According to EU asylum laws anyone in
the world at risk of ‘serious harm by reasons of indiscriminate violence in
situations of international or internal armed conflict’ can claim protection –
which in practice means permanent residence – in an EU country. This fine sentiment worked as long as relatively
small numbers of people were able to reach Europe and claim that
protection. But now word has got out
that border controls have collapsed in southern Europe and thousands are on the
march to leave desperate situations in countries across Africa and the Middle
East in search of a better life in Europe.
Germany exacerbated the situation by
announcing that all Syrians are welcome.
Angela Merkel announced on 7th September, ‘As long as there
are people needing safety, Germany’s doors will stay open. What we are experiencing now will keep us
busy and change our country in the coming years.’ Very busy indeed! In Syria alone there are 4.1 million who have
fled the country and 7.6 million who are internally displaced. We can add to this the people fleeing Iraq,
Afghanistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Nigeria and other countries in Africa and the
Middle East, which are now suffering, dictatorship,
poverty, Islamist violence and persecution.
We are talking about tens of millions of people.
Many of these people come with stories
of human suffering, especially those who come out of the civil war in
Syria. However numbers
like this would overwhelm Europe, undermining it economically and
politically. Greece, Macedonia, Serbia,
Croatia and Hungary, countries on the route taken by migrants heading for
Germany and northern Europe, have already been put under enormous strain
because of the numbers passing through their countries. By mid September the situation reached
crisis point, with countries closing their borders saying they could no longer
cope with the numbers coming in.
The European Commission has proposed
compulsory quotas to redistribute 160,000 refugees across the continent. However east European states are refusing
refugee quotas and there are many more than 160,000 people to be dealt with. EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood
Policy, Johannes Hahn, said: ‘There are 20 million refugees waiting at the
doorstep of Europe.’
Hungary’s Prime Minister Orban
justified the border crossings he has erected as being put there to ‘protect
our way of life’ adding that ‘Hungary is a country with a 1000 year Christian
culture. We Hungarians don’t want the
worldwide movement of people to change Hungary.’ For this he has been widely criticised and
his policies likened to Nazi deportations by Austria’s Chancellor Werner
Faymann. Orban sees the
present movement of Muslims into Europe as something invasive, a memory of the
time when the Muslim Ottoman Empire advanced into the
Balkans, Greece, Hungary and Bulgaria, as far as the gates of Vienna, where the
Turks were defeated in 1683. Right wing
Dutch politician Geert Vilders spoke of ‘an Islamic invasion of Europe … Masses
of young men in their twenties with beards are singing Allahu Akbar across
Europe. It's an invasion that threatens our prosperity, our security, our
culture and identity,"
Many years
ago, Libyan leader Ghaddafi said ‘Islam will take over Europe
without violent force within a few decades.
We have 50 million Muslims in Europe.
There are signs that Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe – without
swords, without guns, without conquests. The 50 million Muslims of Europe will
turn it into a Muslim continent within a few decades.’ Muslim Brotherhood
leader Khurram Murad encouraged mass immigration of Muslims into Europe with
the goal of changing ‘the existing society into an Islamic society based on the
Koran and the Sunna, and make Islam, which is a code for entire life, supreme
and dominant.’ (The Islamic Movement in
the West).
Most of our
media dismiss concerns about this as Islamophobia or racism, but there is a
genuine issue about the Islamisation of Europe.
Mass migration is coming
into Europe from mainly Muslim countries.
Already parts of major cities in Europe from Malmo in Sweden to Marseille
in France have become Islamised, with Muslim quarters where non Muslims are
intimidated and driven out and even the police and emergency services are
afraid to enter. A district of The Hague
in Holland is run by unofficial Sharia law, while in Belgium radical
Muslim leader Abu Islam heads a group called Sharia4Belgium. He says it is only a matter of time before
Muslims, with their high birth rate compared to the low birth rate of
Europeans, are a majority in the country.
At this point he hopes to impose Muslim Sharia law on the whole country.
Germany’s Muslim population is set to
skyrocket by more than 700,000 in 2015, pushing the total number of Muslims in
the country to nearly 6 million for the first time.
Islam is the fastest
growing religion in post-Christian Germany. This is evidenced by the fact that
an increasing number of churches in Germany are being converted into mosques,
some of which are publicly sounding calls to prayer (the adhan) from outdoor
loudspeaker systems. Islamic Sharia law is advancing rapidly throughout
Germany, with Sharia courts now operating in all of Germany’s big cities.
Radical Muslims
are allowed to openly proselytise on German streets to find new recruits and
thereby increase their numbers. In a recent recruitment initiative, Salafists
launched an unprecedented nationwide campaign, "A Koran in Every
Home," to distribute 25 million copies of the Koran, translated into the
German language, to every household in Germany, free of charge.
At the same time the media and the political
establishment are working overtime to silence critics of the rise of Islam in
Germany, accusing them of hate speech and trying to intimidate them into
silence.
Lebanese
education minister, Elias Bousaab, told David Cameron that two out of every 100
Syrian migrants are IS fighters. He said
that the extremist group is sending trained jihadists under cover to attack
targets in the West. If this is so then
thousands of jihadists could be using the cover of the refugees to enter Europe
without passports, avoiding detection.
A report by the Clarion Project
estimates that more than 8.5 million Muslims view ISIS positively, and around
42 million view them somewhat positively.
ISIS is recruiting young Muslims from Britain and other European nations
to join its fight and engage in terrorism against the countries they come from.
Many of its followers are being taught an
apocalyptic belief in an Armageddon-like scenario which they trigger and which
brings the coming of the Mahdi, the Muslim Messiah figure who is said to come
at the end of days and convert the world to Islam.
In
the present crisis our current leaders do not appear to know what to do. The
Bible prophesies that out of the crisis of the last days the Antichrist will
arise, going forth ‘conquering and to conquer’ according to Revelation 6. The Bible speaks of the spirit of antichrist
taking control of the world in the final government of the Beast who will be
empowered by Satan (Revelation 13). This
wicked system will precipitate the final conflict (Revelation 16), which will
lead to the physical return of the Lord Jesus Christ (Revelation 19). The Lord Jesus will then bring in God’s world
government, bringing peace and justice to the nations (Isaiah 2.1-4, Revelation
20).
Another financial crisis?
For the first half of 2015 news was
dominated by the negotiations to prevent a Greek default on its debt and exit
from the Euro zone. The EU had to make a
massive effort to prevent Greece from leaving
the Euro and prevent a knock on effect in other debt ridden countries. Nigel Farage said ‘If one country fails, the
whole deck of cards will come tumbling down and countries like Germany will
realise absolutely vast losses, possibly as much as €1 trillion.’
Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Belgium and France are all drowning in
debt. Of course the Euro zone problem is
far from solved and could face another round of crisis.
The world economy is far too dependent
on debt, now estimated to stand at well over £100 trillion, which is more than
twice the size of the world economy. In August China devalued its currency
sending shock waves around the economic world. Although China is the world’s second
largest economy, it has built up a massive debt of $21 trillion since 2007,
more than America’s debt which has now risen to $18 trillion. Half the global economy that showed most
growth in the past 20 years is now in trouble, including Brazil, Russia and
Malaysia. According to Bloomberg and other sources, the
International Monetary Fund is expected to announce a reserve currency
alternative to the U.S. dollar later this year, which will shake the debt
ridden US economy as the dollar loses value overnight.
In 2008 central banks injected money
into the system to save the world economy but they will not able to do this
again. Stephen King, chief economist of HSBC, the world’s third largest bank,
said, ‘We may not know what will be the cause of the next downturn but at this
stage we can categorically state that in the event we hit an iceberg, there
aren’t enough lifeboats to go round.’ He
compared the world economy to an ocean liner sinking like the Titanic, without
enough lifeboats to save its passengers.
With this in mind it is significant
that the European Commission has ordered nations within the EU to enact
‘bail-in’ legislation by the end of the summer or face legal action. Essentially a ‘bail-in’ is a mechanism
whereby the bank can seize the assets of depositors (i.e. take your money) in
the event of a bank failure, as happened in Cyprus in 2013. A senior Bank of England official has warned
that interest rates could be slashed below zero to stave off another economic
downturn. This means you would have to pay
the bank to save your cash.
In this case one problem might be that
people take their money out of the bank and hoard it as cash. Bank of England chief economist, Andy
Haldaine, said one way to stop hoarding would be to replace cash with a digital
currency that would be subject to negative interest rates. This follows a secret meeting that was held in London where Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University and
Willem Butler the chief economist at Citigroup addressed the central banks and
advocated ‘the elimination of all cash to bring to fruition the day
when you cannot buy or sell anything without government approval.’ He
also spoke about how this could give governments the ability ‘to block payments if an uppity citizen dares get
out of line’
The Daily
Telegraph (13/8/15) carried an article by Jim Leaviss, on a cashless society
and how to ‘end boom and bust’ by getting everyone to spend only by electronic
means from an account held at a government-run bank. He wrote, ‘In this futuristic world all
payments are made by contactless card, mobile phone apps or other electronic
means, while notes and coins are abolished. Your current account will no longer
be held with a bank, but with the government or the central bank. Having everyone’s account at a single,
central institution allows the authorities to either encourage or discourage
people to spend.’
Verifying a person’s ID
is vital for all cashless money transactions.
Bank cards with their pin numbers are ways in which this is done now,
but there are risks with these. One way
to ensure that a person definitely has the correct ID is to use some kind of
biometric device, which is put on their person and cannot be forged, lost or
stolen. This could be a microchip
inserted beneath the skin or a mark of some kind on the skin which verifies
their ID. For the first time in history
it has become possible to do this.
Euronews (7/9/15) reported on Europe’s largest hi tech fair in Berlin,
at which one of the items on view is the microchip for humans.
All this is anticipating
the coming Antichrist who has power over the money system and is able to
control people’s ability to buy or sell.
The famous 666 prophecy of Revelation 13 implies some kind of change in
the way the money system works, with an identification mark implanted on those
who use it. This lines up with the
details described above. ‘He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to
receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one
may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the
number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let
him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the
number of a man: His number is
666.’ Revelation 13.18.
Climate
chaos.
Back in May 2014, French Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius went to Washington to discuss a range of issues with US
Secretary of State John Kerry. He said
then, ‘There are only 500 days remaining to avoid climate chaos’. He did not specify what he meant by the ‘500
days’ but most likely he was pointing forward to the Conference on Climate
Change which France is scheduled to host in December 2015.
A number of prophecy writers say that
the whole subject of global warming is a scam invented by the people pushing
for global government. I agree that it
is being used to push for global government, but I am not convinced the whole
issue is a scam. The evidence does point
to a growing environmental problem threatening the future of humanity. The summer of 2015 has records broken for heat waves in the Middle East, Europe and
South Asia. This has caused a
growing number of wildfires destroying forests in the south of France, Spain, Italy, Croatia and Greece,
and in the west coast of America from Vancouver down to California and in
Indonesia. The number of forest fires
taking place globally has increased hugely in the past 35 years.
There is also a growing water crisis in
the world. In Africa 800 lakes have already run dry adding
to the water crisis afflicting the continent, where the population is growing
and there is less and less water. The western third of the USA is facing the greatest water crisis that
the country has ever seen after the worst drought in 1000 years. After a season
of record-breaking drought, groundwater levels have hit historic lows this year
in northeast and central parts of China where hundreds of millions of people
live. The northern states of India are
experiencing up to 60% rainfall shortage as monsoons fail to deliver. Brazil has experienced its worst drought ever
along with major droughts also recorded in South Africa, North Korea and
southern and central Europe.
More than
half of Earth’s 37 largest aquifers, vital water
reserves hidden under the earth’s surface, which are
a source of fresh water for hundreds of millions of
people, are being depleted at alarming rates according to new NASA satellite
data. Twenty one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers in India, China, North
Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the USA and France, have passed their
sustainability tipping points.
Underground aquifers supply 35% of the water used by humans
worldwide. The most overburdened aquifers are in the world’s driest areas,
where populations draw heavily on underground water. This could lead to another
round of mass migration as people leave areas where lack of water makes life
unsustainable.
There
are animals dying all over the world today in huge numbers, due to the polluted
state of the sea and air. Warming sea
waters have been linked to toxic algae, which has been described as ‘eating the West Coast alive’,
with unusual deaths up and down North America’s Pacific coast. On August 18th ENENEWS reported
thousands of millions of fish washing up dead in Alaska, while across the
Pacific region ill baby seals are being abandoned and dozens of walruses have
been found dead along with dying whales, birds and fish.
What is the cause of all this? According to the view of the environmental
movement, man made global warming caused by burning fossil fuels is the main
reason for these problems. Not everyone
agrees with this analysis and I have read many articles saying that there are
natural reasons for climate change.
However if you do agree with the environmental movement, the solution is
to replace fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy, such as
hydroelectric, sun and wind power in order to create electricity.
The problem with this is that in most
countries renewables are not able to create sufficient power to keep the power
supply going. In Britain, where coal
power stations are being phased out in order to meet environmental laws, there
are fears that the lights will start going out before 2020 and our computerised
society, which is dependent on constant supply of electricity, will break
down.
The UN is holding a ‘Sustainable
Development Summit’ on September 25th. This calls for a
‘new universal agenda’ for humanity. The
official document, which every nation is expected to approve at the conference,
commits these nations to work toward 17 ‘sustainable development goals’ and 169
specific ‘sustainable development targets’. The UN document promises that
this plan will ‘transform our world for the better by 2030.’
According to Michael Snyder of Prophecy News Watch, ‘the
2030 Agenda is taking the principles and goals laid out in the previous ‘Agenda
21’ to an entirely new level. Agenda 21 was primarily focused on the
environment, but the 2030 Agenda addresses virtually all areas of human
activity. It truly is a blueprint for global governance. Nearly every nation on the entire planet is
going to be signing up for this new agenda. The general population of the
planet is going to be told that this agenda is ‘voluntary’ and that it is all
about ‘ending poverty’ and ‘fighting climate change’, but that is not the full
story.
Michael
Snyder comments: ‘What does ‘sustainable development’ actually mean, and how
does the UN plan to ensure that it will be achieved globally? It’s clear the U.N. and its supporters see
sustainable development as more than just the way to a cleaner environment.
They see it as the vehicle for creating a long-sought new international
economic order, or ‘New World Order,’ in other words a global government that
will end in extreme tyranny.
All of this is another sign of the
storm gathering over the world and ties in with Biblical prophecies of the last
days. The Bible does speak of an
environmental crisis at the end of days.
Trees and vegetation will be burned up, waters become bitter and
undrinkable and creatures die in the sea (Revelation 8.7-11), and men are
‘scorched with great heat’ (Revelation 16.8).
Isaiah prophesies a coming apocalypse in the which the earth will be
defiled or polluted under its inhabitants:
‘The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because they have
transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance,
broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore the curse has devoured the earth,
and those who dwell in it are
desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of
the earth are burned,
and few men are
left.’ Isaiah 24.6. The Bible also prophesies the government of
antichrist which will emerge in the last days (Revelation 13).
Collapse of morality.
With so many crises around us you would
think people would be turning to God to help, but the opposite is
happening. In the western nations people
are being indoctrinated with a humanistic world view which rejects the God of
the Bible, accepts evolution rather than creation as the way we came here,
rejects the commandments of God and denies Jesus as the unique Saviour of the
world. There is constant mockery of God, Jesus Christ and Christians in the
media, while at the same time there is generally a respectful view towards
Islam and Hindu practices like yoga.
The Bible teaches that one man married
to one woman is God’s will for human sexuality, for family life and caring for
children. However governments, the
education system and the entertainment industry constantly push the idea that
there is no right and wrong when it comes to sex and you can live how you
please. As a result we have easy
divorce, multiple sex partners, teenage pregnancies, single parent families and
homosexuality. Child abuse and
prostitution have become a global phenomenon with people travelling around the
world to engage in sordid and degrading acts.
Much of our popular entertainment is low-level pornography with
hard-core porn easily available on the Internet and on cable TV. Teenagers are now looking at Internet porn
to learn ‘how to do sex’ and imitating what they see there.
Homosexual
marriage is being brought in right across the western world, changing the
nature of marriage in opposition to God’s law.
This creates a problem for those who stand up for God’s order for the
family. Teachers, social workers, reporters, marriage counsellors,
photographers and others face the possibility of being sued or losing their
jobs if they refuse to accept homosexual marriages as legitimate.
In Psalm 2 we read that ‘The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel
together, against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from
us.’ This Messianic Psalm speaks of the
last days when the world rulers ‘take counsel’ (pass laws?) which are against
the Lord and His Anointed (Messiah / Christ).
The implication is that they will be casting away the restraint on
wickedness which acceptance of God’s laws brings. Surely what we are seeing taking place in our
time. All of this is bringing God’s
judgement on the nations as we see the end time programme taking shape.
Jesus said, ‘ And because lawlessness (wickedness) will abound, the love of many
will grow cold.’ Matthew 24.12. He also said it would be like
the days of Lot (Luke 17.28-9). We read
about Lot in Genesis 19 where we find him ‘sitting in the gate of Sodom.’ Sodom was a wicked city full of sexual
immorality with homosexuality imposing itself on the city. As a result ‘Lot was oppressed by the filthy
conduct of the wicked.’ 2 Peter
2.7. Jesus also said it would be like
the days of Noah, days when there was violence on the face of the earth ‘and
every imagination of man was only evil continually.’ (Genesis 6.5-11). All of this is bringing the judgement of God
on the world, as described in the Book of Revelation.
Conclusion.
All of
these things happening in the world are a sign that the time of trouble
prophesied for the end of this age is coming upon us. Many will be afraid of what is coming, but to
those who know the salvation of the Lord Jesus, there is a glorious hope in the
midst of all this sorrow and calamity.
Jesus tell us to ‘look up and lift up our heads because your redemption
draws near.’ There is no one in
government or in any other position of power today who is able to resolve the
multiple crises which are coming on the world.
The root cause of all that is going wrong with our world is the fact
that human beings have rejected God and His plan of salvation through
repentance from sin and faith in Jesus the Messiah. He died for our sins and rose again from the
dead to give new life in the Holy Spirit to all who turn to Him. The only one capable of saving us is the Lord
Jesus who is coming again in power and glory, with all the power of God to put
right the mess that humans have made of the world. Looking up to Him we find the only way out of
the crisis that is coming upon the world.
We can remain on the sinking ship of the present world system or get
onto the lifeboat of eternal salvation through faith in Jesus.
Paul writes: ‘For the Lord Himself will
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and with the
trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ
will rise first. Then we who are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord
in the air. And thus we shall always be
with the Lord.’ 1 Thessalonians 4.16-17.
Jesus said, ‘Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour
you do not expect.’ Matthew 24. 44.
‘God
commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in
righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this
to all by raising Him from the dead.’
Acts 17.30-31.
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