With freedom more and more of an issue

In 2002, my publishing company (Reed Elsevier) moved our offices from 350 Hudson Street in Greenwich Village, NYC to 230 Park Avenue. Many times I walked past the block where the Blackstone office shootings took place the other day.

Here’s some analysis I found on the news event:

The gunman this week on Park Avenue went to the 33^rd floor. They said the Air India plane was up in the skies for 33 seconds before it crashed. The number 33 is, of course, the highest number you can achieve in the Freemasons.

This is where they learn more of the teachings of Albert Pike (who laid out the Three World Wars manifesto). They become enlightened to who they believe is the one true god, Lucifer, using the Luciferian gospel. They believe 33 represents one third of the angels who were cast out of heaven.

They are showing us who runs the show; who runs these news stories and a lot of these news stories are just fake. If they are real, they are not playing out on TV the way they actually happened.

News and media want us to believe that a man had an issue with CTE back when he played football in high school, so he drove across to the other side of the country to NYC to target the NFL building, but the person who happened to lose her life was the CEO of a major company. Think of the health insurance CEO gunned down earlier this year in NYC.

These news stories are becoming more and more outrageous and unbelievable and we’re being flooded with them. As AI progresses, it’s only going to get worse.

What happened in NYC is a lot bigger than people believe, because if they can feed us these fake stories, or stories that happen in ways that are different than news and media are presenting them to us, then what does that say to much bigger news stories coming in the future?

It seems the so-called “powers that be” are constantly testing the intelligence of the public to see what they can make us believe. Again, this will all play into much bigger news stories that may encompass the entire world.

*****

From news today: “Meta has ramped up its AI ambitions over recent months, poaching top talent from rivals and acquiring AI startups as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s drive to develop what he terms ‘superintelligence.’

“Now, Zuckerberg says in a statement titled ‘Personal Superintelligence’ that ‘developing superintelligence is now in sight.’ The company has been building out its superintelligence labs team with engineers from competitors including Apple and GitHub, while investing heavily in the infrastructure needed to support such ambitious projects.”

Here’s some insights from a Christian YouTuber who explores such subjects:

Mark Zuckerberg wants to jump over Artificial Intelligence to Super Intelligence. He doesn’t want to replace humans. Facebook makes a commodity of our attention. We are what Facebook sells.

Zuckerberg doesn’t want to replace you and me; he wants to replace God over you. He wants a super intelligent AI system, or SI system, that can guide you and do your thinking for you.

He calls it a “personal super intelligence.” It will tell you to do things, as opposed to the AI where you tell it to do stuff. You know, “Write me a paper.” The personal super intelligence will look at you and say, “You know what, you need to lose some weight. You need to stop eating X, Y and Z.”

AI has always been bound by this idea that it should do what you tell it to and not more. It should be restrained and focused on accomplishing tasks that you give it. SI comes up with tasks and gives them to you.

Instead of adapting itself to your wishes, it wants to adapt you to its wishes. Let’s be honest, a lot of people don’t have critical judgment; they don’t have understanding. They hear something and say, “Oh, that must be true.”

I get exposed to all kinds of people, and I get emails from people and they can be so off-base. It’s like an alternate reality; the person is living in an alternate reality. I can’t even get what they’re saying and I can’t imagine how you could get there where you’re seeing things from that lens.

Imagine SI intelligences that are embedded into devices, whether it’s your smartphone, or your computer, or your home, or your car, and this personal SI knows better for you than you know for yourself.

AI is like, “Let’s replace a driver in a vehicle with a computer in a vehicle.” But when we talk about SI, we’re talking about computers thinking and doing things that we cannot do. It’s not just writing the novel, but it’s determining what novels ought to be written.

It’s not about helping you achieve your fitness goals; it’s about coming up with the fitness goals for you and telling you how to abide by them and telling you “No.”

What happens when your self-control gets replaced by a machine that knows better than you do?

Isn’t there like a moral spiritual thing about that where we are replacing what rules our lives from our spirits within us to a machine around us? Isn’t self-determination and freedom kind of something important?

Now, I understand you have to turn your control over to these machines, but these SIs are what they’re working on. Facebook is dumping billions of dollars into this. They don’t just want to replace human workers with machines. They want to replace the control of the people with machines. One must ask very simply, “Who controls the machines that control the people?”

SI is not meant to be your worker, your slave. It’s meant to be your master, and that’s the world we’re going to see more and more trouble with. Where you have SIs meddling with your life--with or without your consent--we’re going to see freedom become more and more of an issue.

Do you have the right to do things that may negatively impact other people? What happens when you get told you’re not allowed to drive anymore? That you can’t get on the road unless an AI is driving your car? The SI is the one telling you you can’t drive the car by yourself.

Is it going to be the drones that replace us or the drone masters that rule us?

Satan's dirty work: 'I'll come do it myself!'

Only a few times in Scripture do you read about Satan’s direct assault on a person. In the crucifixion of Christ, Satan got personally involved by “entering” Judas. 

In the Book of Job, Satan asks God for permission to attack Job. 

In the Book of Acts, Satan assaults the Little Flock and by the book’s end he attacks Paul directly.

Satan was personally involved in getting his human thugs to go to Thessalonica and stop Paul’s preaching just as the Apostle to the Gentiles was seeing “a great multitude” of pagans turn from their idols to worship God.

*****

As Luke reports on the wild scene that unfolded around a Jewish synagogue, “And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
[5] But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.”

“When it talks about ‘lewd fellows of the baser sort,’ there was a criminal underworld. ‘Lewd’ is their character, and ‘baser sort’ is their reputation," explains Richard Jordan.

"When it says they had ‘taken security’ against Paul, that means they took out a kind of peace bond. When people are fighting and someone’s being threatened, you go to court and get a bond on that person, where if they come within 100 yards of you or whatever, and that’s why Paul says, ‘Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.’

“The way Satan hindered him is he got the unbelievers to get the authorities involved and there was a court injunction then against Paul as the government turned against him.

“So Satan literally used the powers of the government at Thessalonica (actually the Roman government because he’s talking about accusing him of things against Caesar—an appeal to a higher authority) to stop Paul from coming back. Paul understood what was going on and he understood who was behind it. It was the Adversary.”

*****

When Jesus Christ arrives on the scene and says to John the Baptist, "I need to be baptized," and then goes down through the water and out into the wilderness where He’s tempted by the devil, He is, in essence, repeating the history of Israel.

“Israel goes into the water at the Red Sea and then out into the wilderness where they are tempted but they fail. Christ comes and says, ‘I’m the true vine; I’m the true nation.’ Satan offers Him all the kingdoms of this world if He’ll just follow him and what does Christ do? He doesn’t go for it.

“So Satan goes back and now there’s a contest in the land between Christ and Satan. Christ gets up from there and goes into the cities, and Matthew 4 says He heals the sick, cleanses the leper, throws out the demons, raises the dead, and that the fame of Him went out throughout the land. He shows and preaches, ‘The kingdom is here.’ He says, ‘If I, by the Spirit of God, cast out the devils, then the kingdom of God is come.’

“First it was just the temptation. Then there’s a WAR that begins to rumble in the land. Luke 11 says, [21] When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:
[22] But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.

“You see how it describes what Satan is here? He’s a strongman who calls in all his armor; all the unclean spirits and demonic activity. He’s got all these demons from all over the planet and he calls them all back in and says, ‘Hey guys, let’s get all the forces back here because HERE’S where the battle is!’

*****

“I showed you how there were more demons in the land of Palestine then there were Jews to fill. Mary Magdalene had seven in her! That Maniac of Gadara had legions. A Roman legion is 2,000. I mean, ‘Gee whiz, no wonder the guy was buggy!’

“If you study the things that Maniac of Gadara did in Mark 5 and compare it with the comparative passages in Isaiah, you’ll see that all the things he was doing—living in the mountains, living among the tombs, cutting himself—were the activity of Baal worship; of the devils. He was up there worshipping, controlling, doing the will of the Adversary.

“So Christ came along and now there’s a bigger threat. Finally, Satan says, ‘If I have to, if my minions won’t do it for me, I’ll come and do it myself!’

“What does it say about Judas? Satan himself entered into Judas. Satan says, ‘All right, I’ll go do it myself!’

*****

“There’s this building of the contest and the fury builds and finally there’s that power of the hour of darkness at Calvary where Christ literally provokes, ‘Where are you?! I thought you wanted to argue about this?! C’mon! Come stand near. Pour it on!’

“Christ provokes the Adversary to a frenzy of bloodlust rage in which, blinded by the rage of self-serving, of sin, he does the very thing that turns out to be his undoing.

“Christ bruised the heel of His Adversary and literally, in the prophetic Scripture, the picture is of Satan laying prostrate on the ground at the feet of Christ and Christ going, ‘Stomp! You’re dead, sucker!’

“That’s why Christ can say in Matthew 28, ‘All power in heaven and in earth is given unto me.’ In Luke 4, Satan claimed all that for himself and Christ didn’t argue about it. But after the resurrection, He says, ‘It’s mine. I won the right to it.’

“He goes away as a royal exile ready to come back and take up the reigns, pouring out His wrath. The execution of the prophetic program, or of what we’re a part of, destroys the plan in all its intricacies and it’s all done because of the strategic victory that was won at Calvary when He becomes the Redeemer."

Rated R for shock value

(new article this evening)

If you had an R-rated chapter in the Bible, Ezekiel 16 is it. The translators try to soften the language and be delicate in their translation of the things going on so they wouldn't be offensive and obscene, but if you are a Hebrew reading the Hebrew, there are things in this chapter we would call pornography.

"There's very offensive terminology describing what Israel's doing, not for the offensive value but for the shock value of it," explains Richard Jordan.

"I've heard all my life there are passages in the Bible that weren't meant for public consumption or public preaching. If there's a chapter like that, this is the chapter.

"I'm grateful that some of the translators translated this stuff delicately and sensitively, but without a doubt this is the most sexually explicit chapter in all the Bible.

"There's a tone to it where He's describing the things taking place in Israel in her apostasy and using it to cast Israel as a harlot. Not just a harlot, but an insatiable nympho--someone who is just insatiably driven.

"It's why the judgment's going to come upon them, but when you get to the latter part of the chapter you see in spite of it all God's amazing ability to forgive them and still, even with all of their failures, claim them as His own. In the backdrop of that is all the abominations that are there.

"He starts out, as the Bible often does, with a reminder of who they are. The chapter begins: [1] Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

[2] Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
[3] And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

Verse 15: [15] But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.

"That's the summary of the indictment that He's going to fill in through the rest of the chapter. From here on, if you read the Hebrew text, He's going to use some rather indelicate terminology to describe the wickedness, the crudeness, the vileness of what they're doing. Understand, when the Hebrew reads it, he understands.

"Literally, what He's going to talk about following turns into a live porn show and they're out there literally selling themselves and eventually not even selling themselves but paying others to come. Sin can get that bad with life.

"They trusted in their own beauty; that's where the rebellion came from. Their own self; arrogant trust in themselves.

"Verse 49, when it talks about Sodom: [49] Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 

"They thought, 'We've got it made in the shade. We've got all these blessings. Look how blessed we are,' and they took credit for it all and became arrogant, haughty. The abominations that that passage talks about, if you go back to Exodus 19 and read about it, it was homosexual aggressiveness. It started in that captivation with their own beauty.

"The rebellion found its place in worshipping the creature, not the Creator, as per Romans 1:25. When He says, 'Thou pourest out thy fornications upon everyone that passeth by,' if you go to verse 26: [26] Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.

Verse 36: [36] Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;

"All those things they did, each one worse than the one before, it just literally pours out of them. It's a completely insatiable experience.

[25] Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms. 

[27] Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.
[28] Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.
[29] Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.
[30] How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;
[31] In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire;

"The high place is where they worship Baal, but now they're building these high places out on every street corner. One of the things they did in Baal worship was the fornication; the sex worship. 

[23] And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;)
[24] That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.

"That phrase in verse 25 about 'to every one that passed by,' is the thing there. They've literally set up public porn shows, live events, for everyone who goes by to come participate in, to lure people in.

"They're so desperate to be satisfied with the worship of other gods that never satisfy. Sin never satiates. You do a little bit to get the stimulation and next time it takes a little bit more, etc. It gets worse and worse and worse and worse.

"He's using the sexual part of it to describe the spiritual corruption. How vile this looks physically, this is how God looks at their following other gods, and they're worshipping the other gods in doing this.

[16] And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.

[17] Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
[18] And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
[19] My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.
[20] Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,
[21] That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

"They're just making a big show of all of this. Literally, when it says they have made images of men, it's talking about a phallic symbol and the way people talk today, they're talking about a sex toy and they're using it to gratify themselves and they're committing whoredoms with these idols.

"It's gotten that vile and they're doing it in public live on the street. They didn't have film; they didn't have TV or internet. They're not doing it just to be down in the brothel; they're doing it to worship in Baal worship, worshipping their gods."

Education course in intelligence, not 'course of this world'

At the Bible conference last week in Chicago, preacher Alex Kurz closed his message on “walking intelligently” with this prayer: “May we take to heart the danger in walking like other Gentiles walk as they are participating and perpetuating the Adversary’s policy of evil, the spiritual ignorance, having their understanding darkened. May it not be so with us. May we certainly find all meaning and relevance and purpose in life through the Lord Jesus Christ. May we be living images of that one true image of our Savior.”

Here’s how Frankfort, Kentucky preacher Greg Resor, a high school math teacher by trade, began his message at the conference:

Religion pushes forth this issue of glorying in the flesh and this system, in Ephesians 2:2, that we used to walk in teaches us how to walk in a manner that would be pleasing to the flesh: “Look at what I’ve done. Look at what I’m able to do. Look how good I am.”

Ephesians 2: [2] Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
[3] Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

There’s an education that’s taking place based upon a corrupted wisdom and we were a part of that class our entire lives until we came to know Jesus Christ. We were taught how to be selfish from a young age.

There’s a teaching, a curriculum that goes along with this. Who created it? Satan, "the prince of the power of the air." He’s designed this curriculum and set it forth and he doesn’t have to do anything. He just says, “Have at it.” And we just followed along with that because that’s what we were taught we were supposed to do. Taught by the TV and the movies and all those things we spent our time with.

Everything we see in this world outside of the Word of God is to promote that education. I spent 14 years as a part of public education and I’ve always told folks, “However bad you think the education system is, it’s way worse.” I’ll just be honest with you.

I Corinthians 2: [1] And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
[2] For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
[3] And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
[4] And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
[5] That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
[6] Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
[7] But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

Here you see both those wisdoms showing up. One of them, Paul says, “I’m not coming to you in man’s wisdom; I’m coming to you with something greater than that—something that’s not corrupted. In fact, cannot be corrupted.”

How is that we know we’re falling back into Satan’s wisdom? If it’s all about flesh, me glorying in me.

I’ve thought about this before. As an unsaved person did you ever think, “How can I glorify God?” Now that you’re saved how often do you think, “How can I not glorify Satan?” We have to constantly remind ourselves of who we are in Christ so that we don’t fall back into that glorying in ourselves and living after the flesh.

*****

Here’s an outtake from Kurz’ sermon:

II Cor. 5:17: [17] Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Paul never uses the language “born again.” He never uses the language “a new birth.” A new birth and a new creature are two different things. When a mother gives birth to a child what does that do? It perpetuates the human species. When a cow gives birth to a calf, what’s going on? It perpetuates the species.

We’re a genuine, one-of-a-kind species. You see the difference? We are in Christ a new order of species; an exclusive race, unique. It’s the “church the body of Christ” and we do have this relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 3:10: [10] And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

To walk intelligently today is to recognize that there is this new creature, the church the body of Christ. He is the living head; we are its membership. We are genetically related to this new creature.

This new creature is given the privilege of representing the Lord Jesus Christ while we’re here. The verse says to “redeem the time for the days are evil.”

Listen, the Adversary understands who we are and he understands that if he can get the body of Christ to do what the nation of Israel did in the past—“Hey, why don’t you walk like the Gentiles walk?”

He understands that if we start walking like those Gentiles, alienated from the life of God, having their understanding darkened, we will be rendered irrelevant. We’re going to be neutralized. We will be made vain, and not only that, we’ll start to lose purpose and meaning in life: “What’s the point?”

Then, instead of being the mirror reflection of OUR image in Christ . . . You know what those rulers of darkness, that spiritual wickedness in high places . . . You know what the principalities and powers desire most? The same thing they desired in the past: worship, admiration, participation.

If the Adversary can get the body of Christ . . . instead of being the reflection of the image of Jesus Christ (“Put on that new man”), he would rather we start reflecting the image of those small “g” gods out there, where we begin to reflect the value system of the course of this world. We begin to think like the course of this world. We begin to prioritize our lives according to “the prince of the power of the air.”

II Corinthians 3: [17] Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
[18] But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

To behold is to contemplate, reflect. Paul says, “Consider, hear, understand.” To behold is to spend time “beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.”

An intelligent faith is living a life based upon an understanding of God’s Word rightly divided, and by doing so we’re “changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

'It's a bird . . . it's a plane . . . it's an alien demon'

You never know what you’re going to do when you go out of town on a whirlwind vacation and no one was more surprised than me when, due to being out and about in the Chicago suburbs and wanting to kill time after my friend lost a tooth filling (not worth going into), we decided to take in the matinee at a really old locally owned movie theatre The Pickwick.

I had not been to the movies in at least eight years and going there in the early afternoon--not able to halfway entertain the idea of eating a bucket of super-buttered popcorn at such an hour--we sat snackless and sodaless and watched, of all things, the latest Superman movie.

Outside of reading a few superhero comic books in my youth, even saving them for a time thinking someday they might be worth money, I have never had ANY interest in ANYTHING superhero related. Needless to say, this was the first superhero movie I ever watched in a theatre and I don’t ever remember watching one with a TV set either.

I found the movie to be pretty lame with poorly written dialogue (including bad language) and endless sound effects. My friend actually fell asleep through part of it. When I came back to Ohio and told my mom about this outing, she said, “Oh, yeah, I heard it’s a really ‘woke’ movie.”

A King James Bible Believer I sometimes remember to go to on YouTube to see what he’s talking about had this analysis:

“They’re ‘fun and entertaining’ movies that capture the hearts and minds of a generation, but what is going on here? What is a superhero? Well, according to James Gunn, who is the writer and director of this latest installment of the Superman franchise, Superman is the ‘first ever superhero, created in the 1930s.’

“I would say there’s nothing new about superheroes—they’re just the repackaged gods of polytheism and if you think about it, culture is religious. There’s a religion baked into every culture. Certain mythologies, certain values, certain concepts and ideas, a certain worldview just by living in a particular place at a certain time. Today, the superheroes are the modern-day pantheon; we live in a polytheistic culture.

“Gunn says he was introduced to Superman and this magical world, a world with giants or giant monsters and robots and sorcery and “magic so extreme that it seemed like sorcery.”

“So the Superman movie is about sorcery, according to the writer of the movie, which is about an alien who has a human girlfriend.

*****

“Milly Alcock plays ‘Supergirl the Woman of Tomorrow,” so evolution includes not only a fictional history of humanity, but the possibility of an alternate future of humanity because, according to the doctrine of evolution, we’re always evolving.

“So the transhumanist agenda needs this concept of a history of evolution so that we can continue to evolve in the future just like Alcock has evolved into the woman of tomorrow, and the demons are using the mass media to try to influence us and lead us astray and things may not be what they appear to be on the surface.

“Once again, we have these same elements as in all these other movies with aliens and demons, laboratories, inter-dimensional beings, alien parasites, fecal matter, cloning, hybrids, androgynes . . .

“Now with this latest Superman movie we’ve got the ‘butt babies’ and this is all part of their canon and part of their so-called bible. It’s an alternative religion; Superman is like a god in our culture. People look to Superman to get hope.

“Superman’s a demon, all right? Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Superman came here to colonize the world and to enslave and exterminate humanity.

“Certain directors seem to have certain themes in most of their movies and James Gunn is really into these superheroes which are called Metahumans, by the way (think of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta). Gunn also made a movie about alien parasites inhabiting a human host called “Slither.”

“Gunn has said he was created in a lab and grown in a petri dish to make these movies, such as Guardians of the Galaxy, which is another movie about the pantheon.”

Crazier, wackier, dumber--ready to worship the beast

Here’s an outtake from the first night of the Bible conference that took its theme from Ephesians 5:16: "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil."

“It’s the not the case that the end of the dispensation of grace is revival and the church takes hold of the levers of power. It just doesn’t happen that way. What happens is degradation,” says Columbus, OH preacher David Reid (who is a lawyer by trade).

“The days are evil because we’re living on a 'present evil world.' In fact, the condition of the world is just as bad today spiritually as it was in Acts 8 when the next items on the prophetic calendar were going to be the 70^th Week, the mark of the beast and the worship of the beast and all those things.

“We should discern our circumstances for what they are, not what we wish them to be. You should accept reality for what it is.

“I’ll say this, the earth is nuts and you have surely seen this, right? And it gets crazier and wackier and dumber every day.

*****

“What you see through time is Satan has victories with Israel where he’s able to lead them into disobedience.

“Let me make this observation: Israel goes into Egypt. They’re in Egypt for a period of time. They come out and send scouts into the land and what do they find? Giants.

“They find the Canaanites and all these people put into the land. Why are those folks in the land? While Israel is in Egypt, Satan is well aware God has purposes He’s going to accomplish.

“Satan knows that God wants to give that land to Israel, but Satan says, “I’ve got time. I’m going to put my people there.” In fact, the scriptural phrase is “fortified cities.”

“Satan’s people are entrenched with fortified cities and what do they also have? Giants. Where did giants come from? Fallen angels produced them.

“By the way, how many times do you see giants preaching the Word of God? You don’t see it because their paternal influence is not a good one. Right? Their paternal influence is a devil. When you see giants in the Scripture they’re doing devilish things.

“What you see is Satan will have these victories where he puts his people in the land and Solomon’s problem is he had many “strange wives.” Satan has these constant temptations tor bring Israel into idolatry.

“Revelation 12 calls Satan “the accuser of the brethren.” He does two things: He tempts and tempts and tempts Israel, and he has his people there and they exist there to lead Israel into disobedience because Satan believes Leviticus 26.

“He understands, “If I can just get Israel to violate Leviticus 26 then God, due to His faithfulness, honesty and justice, must impose these punishments.

“Satan gets Israel into disobedience and says, ‘Aha!’ In other words, he’s like that guy in school who tempts people to do things they shouldn’t and says, ‘Hey, did you see that?!’ That’s exactly what he does.

“Satan will have those temporary victories, but in the end he will be destroyed.

“Fast forward to Acts 2:5: 5] And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

“What does the phrase “out of every nation under heaven” tell you? Israel, at that point obviously, had reached a sufficient level of disobedience that under the Level 5 judgment, they were kicked out of their own land and where did they end up?

“Everywhere on the earth because they were scattered as a result of their disobedience. So, the folks in Acts 2 that come back for Pentecost, good for them, they’re responding in faith, but where is Israel as a whole?

“Scattered all around the earth because of their disobedience. Acts 2: [16] But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
[17] And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God,I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
[18] And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
[19] And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
[20] The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:

“He’s talking about all these things that are going to be fulfilled from Joel, including the sun turned into darkness and the moon into blood.

Revelation 6: [12] And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
[13] And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
[14] And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
[15] And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
[16] And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
[17] For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

“That’s exactly Acts 2:20 and that’s Joel 2:30-31: [30] And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
[31] The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

“Let me ask you this question. As of early Acts, what is the spiritual condition of the earth? Well, how long have Gentiles been in apostasy? Since at least Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel.

“Gentiles are doing so great—how’s Israel doing in early Acts? They’ve gone through all five levels of judgment. They’ve been kicked out of the land, they’re scattered among the nations of the earth and, in fact, they’re at the point where what is about to happen to them, according to Peter?

“They’re going to have the time of Jacob’s trouble. They’re going to go through the Great Tribulation. In other words, in the early Acts what is the spiritual condition of humanity? It’s so bad that they’ve reached that level of judgment where the world needs to be cast into Jacob’s trouble.

“Revelation 13: [3] And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
[4] And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

“The spiritual condition of man in early Acts is such that what were they ready to do? They’re ready to worship the beast.”

sun god--and new post late this evening

getting my thoughts together and new post this evening

Job 31:26: [26] If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;

[27] And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:
[28] This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

"What's Job talking about? Job, the oldest book in the Bible, and he already knows the power and the influence--how insidious, how cunning the satanic policy of evil . . .

"Where's Job from? The Land of Shinar and in his day he sees the prevailing system of sun and moon worship.

"Obviously he can see the sun shining and the moon walking in brightness, a full moon, and 'my heart hath been secretly enticed.' Enticed to do what? To worship that. You see the power of this system in that region?" says Alex Kurz.

"People say, 'Well, who today worships the sun and the moon and the star?' You better believe this worship goes on. It may not be a direct act before the sun god, but there are subtle ways of worshipping that ultimately is directed to Baal.

"We won't call it the s-u-n. We won't call it the moon. What if we just switch names? By the way, at the Tower of Babel all the languages were confounded. Just because over here they call it the sun and the moon--well, over here they call it something else but it's still the principal deity. You see the corrupted master genius of this creature, Mystery Babylon?

II Kings 23:5: [5] And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.

"By the way, when you study Baal worship there's always the issue of the high places. What did we read in Genesis 11? A tower whose top may reach unto heaven. This fascination with the high places.

"How often, over and over, does God warn Israel and you know what the sad part is? Israel falls victim to all of this.

Jeremiah 8: [1] At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
[2] And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
[3] And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.

Jeremiah 10: [1] Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
[2] Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

"If you're involved in the astrological, astronomical movements and activities, what would cause a heathen to be dismayed? In the Babylonian tradition--heathenism, paganism--why did they worship the sun, the moon and all?

"What type of season might cause a heathen to be dismayed at the sign up there in heaven? Historically, guess what happens when the days are getting shorter and shorter? The heathen says, 'Wait a minute, we can't let the sun god die!' 

"So how do you appease the sun god? Wow, you should learn some things about the Aztecs. Do you know how they would appease the sun god? They would sacrifice their enemies. They would take the heart of the victim and give it to god. Have you ever heard anybody say, 'Give your heart to Jesus.' Don't give your heart to Jesus; that's what the pagans did.

"The pagans will rip your heart out and offer it up to the sun god because 'Hey, we want the days to get long again.'

"Now, how will the heathen react to the shortening of days? Verses 3-5: [3] For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

[4] They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

[5] They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

"What heathenistic response happens because they're dismayed by the shortening of the day? A tree, which represents life . . .  

"We find there are these customs of the heathen to appease and to satisfy; all of the astrological phenomenon going on out there.

"What if we moved the moon over and the star over, what do you get? A crescent moon. You see why we're focusing in Revelation 17 on where?

"The moon, Ashtaroth, is called the face of Baal; she's called the Lady of Baal. It's fascinating that if we study the Babylonian tradition, their infatuation with sun and moon and the movements, etc.

"Listen, there's a symbol today called the crescent of the moon. You've heard of a solar eclipse. That's when the moon eclipses the sun. The moon becomes more important than the sun. You see, she's a mother."

Zombie lifestyles in Bible

(sorry for delay--I thought I was just going to rest my eyes a while ago and fell sound asleep. I guess the humidity and heat from the last few days, along with the long hours and shortened sleep, finally caught up with me. Will start posting tomorrow for sure.)

Everything people involve themselves with out in the world comes from a spiritual source. People recognize there’s a spiritual being behind the symbols they’re worshipping, and they’re doing it in a graveyard, by the way,” explains Richard Jordan.

Jeremiah 8 reveals: [1] At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
[2] And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
[3] And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.

“Zephaniah 1 talks about ‘them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops.’ In the passage there are two different branches, or denominations, of Baal worship: the Chemarims and Malcham. Baal worship has a lot of facets but the fundamental issue in it is that issue of worshipping ‘the host of heaven.’

"There’s a satanic policy of evil that fills up the universe with darkness, and no matter what manifestation, or what stage of the darkness you’re in, that’s the system.

“In Zechariah 13, a passage about the kingdom Jesus Christ sets up when He comes back, verse 2 says, ‘And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.

“God says, ‘When I set up my kingdom, I’m going to throw out all that satanic stuff and fill my kingdom with light.’ Darkness and all of its source, all of its manifestations—all the forms of Baal worship and idolatry will be eliminated.

“You know, it’s interesting that just like the name Jehovah has a lot of compounds to it, Baal has a lot of compound names, too. There are actually more compound names of Baal in the Bible than there are for Jehovah. That’s how pervasive this stuff is. It’s everywhere.

*****

“When the Lord Jesus Christ returns, there are two great marks of His kingdom. No. 1, He’ll take away the physical bondage of sin and disease, the curse, and No.2, He’ll do what that verse in Zechariah 13 said: He’ll throw out all the darkness; throw out all the devils and unclean spirits out of the land.

“So when Jesus Christ came to earth He did two things: He healed the sick and cast out demons. In Luke 8: 1-2, for example, it says ‘he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him,
[2] And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils.’

“Christ didn’t just preach it; He SHOWED them. He gave them a foretaste of the powers of the world to come. One of the things He does, if you go down to verse 26, is He goes to the coast of the Gadarenes, north of the Sea of Galilee, and meets the maniac of Gadara, who has a whole bunch of devils’ names in him. You go down the passage and see Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ Why’d He ask him that? Zechariah 13 says He’s going to throw out all the names.

“Verse 27 says, [27] And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.

“This maniac guy, he doesn’t have on any clothes and doesn’t dwell in any house; he lives among the tombs. Remember, in Jeremiah 8 we saw how they got all the bones of the people out of the graves and stood there and worshipped.

“What this maniac of Gadara’s doing is practicing an outward, overt form of Baal worship. He’s a picture of the nation Israel captivated by that satanic religious system.

“As Mark 5 reports, [2] And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
[3] Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains.

“Now, that’s what a devil is; it’s an unclean spirit. You have THE devil and then you devils plural. They’re never called demons in the Bible; that’s a carelessness on our part. They’re called devils so you understand these are the guys carrying on the devil’s work. Did you notice that word ‘devil’ is d-EVIL?

“It says he ‘had his dwelling among the tombs.’ Do you remember how he said he didn’t have a house? Where’s he dwelling? Among the tombs. In Proverbs 21:16 is the commentary on that: [16] The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead.

“When you rebel, you run away from life. God is life. Where do you run to? A place where there’s no life. All that’s left is death. Death rules by fear, by insecurity. Hebrew 2 says, ‘And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.’

“This man’s in bondage to the fear. You see, death motivates and rules by fear, by insecurity. You know, if you’re around dead people they make you feel alive. Dead people don’t threaten you, they don’t reject you, they don’t bawl you out, they don’t correct you, criticize you, condemn you. They can’t do much for you, but they don’t do a lot against you. So people find comfort, but when you live around dead people, you’re really living in an alternate reality and that’s what the darkness produces.

“This guy had a dysfunctional family life and we’ll see that after he gets right, he goes home. The first thing Jesus said was, ‘GO HOME!’ The man had a home but he couldn’t function there.

“When darkness fills a life, one of the first things that goes is home. What’s the second institution God created for the stability of mankind? First is volition, second’s marriage and third’s family.

"You see, what this darkness does is it reaches down to destroy the very basic foundation of life the way God designed it to work. People say, ‘We’ve got something better!’ but it doesn’t produce better; it produces death, and you wind up dwelling among the dead. No order, just confusion.”

Demonic locust nation ahead

Returned from Chicago at 3 a.m. Ohio time! I visited a close friend and her husband near the lakefront in the city and there was a major storm that rolled in off the lake with serious winds and heavy rain.

No working air-conditioning for my 2005 Nissan so it was a humidity-filled all-windows-open drive that included lots of noise from semis and construction delays in Indiana (mostly semis) even after midnight!

Had a delicious big bowl of beef brisket Pho at Tanks on Argyle Street (which is filled with mix of Vietnamese, Thai and Chinese restaurants) so that was my only Asian meal for the trip sadly.

I had been fantasizing about having all kind of dishes while in Chi-Town but at least I got my seafood fix at RoccoVino's where I ordered their Misto alla Griglia with balsamic-marinated and grilled octopus, calamari and shrimp. 

I will post conference notes, etc., starting this evening. My week vacation from work ends Sunday, so I have to savor every hour now even though the 90-plus degree heat dome is now fully over southern Ohio.

*****

Joel 1:4 says, “That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.”

“Every time you read a commentary about the Book of Joel, they look at this insect infestation as a historical event, but nobody knows when that took place," says Richard Jordan. "There’s no record of it in Scripture outside of this passage.

“You can believe anything you want about it, but my own personal, private, subject, individual impression is that he’s not talking about an infestation in the past because he’s not talking about the past here; he’s talking about the future.

“It’s an infestation in the future that’s going to wind up with the destruction of the land and, in chapter 2, it’s going to be immediately followed by the battle of Armageddon. That takes place in the last half of the 70th week and at the end of it in the ‘day of the Lord.’

"So verse 15 says, ‘Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.’

“Really, what he’s describing here is a prophetic picture. If you want to say, as the commentaries all do, that it’s historically rooted in the past and Joel’s doing what Hosea said, using a similitude—‘Here’s a historic event and an illustration out of it’--I think you lose something if that’s all you get out of it.

*****

“You see how he says in verse 3, ‘Here’s what the old men are to do’: ‘Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.’

“Here’s something you need to pass on to your kids and make sure they understand it so they can pass it to their kids and let everybody remember this.

“Whenever you have someone in Israel telling them to remind their children about things, over and over again the context of what they’re reminding them about is going to be the restoration of Israel at the end of the time of Jacob’s trouble.

“How often have we looked at how many events in Israel’s past are really dress rehearsals for things coming in their future.

“Come with me to Psalm 78. You see how it says a ‘Maschil of Asaph.’ That word Maschil is a Hebrew title for a psalm designed to teach doctrine. This is not a devotional psalm; this is an instruction psalm designed to produce edification in its hearers. It’s by Asaph, David’s choir director, so to speak.

“But he was more than that. Matthew 13: 34-35 says, ‘All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: 35] That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.’

“If you’ve got a Scofield Bible, it tells you where it’s a quote from. It’s from Psalm 78:2. Notice what Matthew calls the writer of Psalm 78. He doesn’t call him the psalmist, or the writer, or the devotional expositor. He calls him the prophet.

“So what do you expect to read in Psalm 78? Prophecy. Why? Because Matthew 13:35 said a prophet wrote it.

“I know I get way out on a limb some time and people think, ‘Brother Rick’s just nuts,’ but when you read these things, and you believe what you read and put them together, you begin to say, ‘Wow, this stuff is kind of fascinating!’

*****

“Here’s what the prophet says to them in Psalm 78: ‘1] Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
[2] I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
[3] Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
[4] We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
[5] For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
[6] That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
[7] That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

“That’s saying, ‘I’m going to tell you history like you learned our history, but our history is really a parable. Our history is a dress rehearsal about things taking place in the future.' It’s not just, 'I wonder what happened today; let’s turn on the news.’

“If you go on down through the chapter, and there’s 72 verses to it, he starts with the Exodus and goes all the way down to I Samuel 8 with David and goes through Israel’s history. He’ll do it in Psalm 105 and 106. The psalms do this over and over again.

“Each psalm has a particular doctrinal emphasis to it and they’ll pick out the history of Israel and lay it out and the psalmist will say, ‘You see what God did back there? He’s going to do the same thing over there.’

"Look at verses 43-45: 43] How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
[44] And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
[45] He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

*****

“You remember all the plagues Moses put on Egypt? The Book of Numbers says he was judging the gods of Egypt. Each one of those plagues represented an attack on some of the pagan gods the Egyptians trusted and he bested them.

“In fact, after the one in Exodus 10 about the locusts, Pharaoh’s men come in and say, ‘Pharaoh, would you just get rid of this guy because we’re beat; he’s already beaten us.’

“Verse 46 says, ‘He gave also their increase unto the caterpiller, and their labour unto the locust.’  Verse 49 says, ‘He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.’

“So what happened back in Egypt is a prophecy against what God’s going to do against the world. By the way, Isaiah calls the pharaoh that held Israel captive the Assyrian.

"The Antichrist who’s going to hold Israel captive in the tribulation is called the Assyrian. So the spiritual force behind the captivity of Israel in Exodus is the same satanic policy holding them captive in the tribulation.

“If you go to Joel 1:4, he actually has four categories for the plague of the locust (Exodus 10). Commentaries usually say those are four different stages of the life of a locust. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s fascinating to me that one bug can only eat so much so when he leaves, the next bug eats more and by the time you get to the end, there ain’t nothing left.

*****

“There’s a destruction coming in the land that Joel is prophesying about and, as we read the rest of the chapter, he’s going to describe how thorough the destruction is.

“There’s people who say that’s four different Gentile nations and they try to interpret it and so forth, but my own view is it’s a literal destruction of the land, only it’s looking to the future and that’s why he tells them to remember it.

“Joel 1: 19-20 says, 19] O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
[20] The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

“Fire, flame, devouring--that’s not what locusts do. There’s something more than just bugs infesting, so when you keep reading in Joel 1 you begin to say, ‘Hmm.’

“Verses 5-6 say, ‘Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
[6] For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.’

“Now, wait a minute, the locusts turn out to be a nation that’s come up upon the land, strong and without number, and they’ve got teeth like a great lion and they devour.

“Lions aren’t going to eat the grass. You go on down through here and you see they eat the grass, the trees, the apple trees, the pomegranate trees, the vine tree.

*****

“There’s something more than just literal locusts because now, in connection with that, there’s a nation. When it says they have teeth like the teeth of a lion, and have cheek teeth of a great lion, there’s a fascinating comparison there.

“In essence, what Joel is doing is announcing the judgment of that Fifth Course on Israel. The day of the Lord’s wrath is what that Fifth Course of captivity is and what Joel is saying is, ‘That Fifth Course is coming!’

“In all the other courses, He’ll destroy the land and let the Gentiles come in and take them, but God doesn’t clean wipe them out. But when you get down to that Fifth Course, you’re going to be down to the place where you’re so starved and your resources are so gone you’re going to start eating each other.

“Now, if you go back into Kings, you’ll see that historically. I know you and I, all fat and sassy, have never been that hungry. It’s easy for you to say what you wouldn’t do, but if you’re put in the exact same circumstances they’re in, then tell me you wouldn’t do it. That’s how desperate they’re going to be.

*****

“Deuteronomy 28, where it’s describing the outworking of these five courses of judgment, verse 38 says, ‘Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.’

“One of the judgments of God against Israel is the harvest of their land being consumed by pestilence; by plagues of insects, specifically locusts.

“Verses 40-43 says, [40] Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.
[41] Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.
[42] All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.

“God’s going to stop the natural production of the fruit of the trees. In verse 49 (‘The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand’) is the nation in Joel 1:6.

*****

“It’s a nation of locusts. Proverbs 30:27 says, ‘The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.’

“If a locust has no king, would you properly describe him as a nation? Doesn’t a nation need a head? So it would be odd to call a band of locusts a nation if they didn’t have a king, but what if you had locusts who had a king?

“In Revelation 9 are some locusts. Where’d they come from? The bottomless pit. Well, obviously they weren’t insects. They are some kind of spirit creatures. They would be some of those evil angels like over in psalms.

“Revelation 9:3 says, ‘And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.’

“Along with the insect infestation that’s physically destroying the land, eating it down so it produces absolutely nothing of consumable value, now there’s a group of demonic in the spirit world coming.

“Verse 4 says, ‘And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.’

“So this locust is going to attack people who are lost. Revelation 9:5 says, ‘And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. ‘

“They don’t kill you, they just torment you. It says they’ll want to die and they can’t. Verse 6 says, ‘And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.’

“The passage goes on, ‘7] And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
[8] And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
[9] And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
[10] And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
[11] And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
[12] One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

“If that’s the first woe, think how bad the next two are going to be! And that first woe is what Joel is seeing. Not only is there just going to be the physical destruction of the land, the picture in Joel is that in the tribulation, there’s going to be this swarm of locusts.

“Revelation 11:3 says, ‘And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.’

“Those two witnesses are Moses and Elijah and they’re going to do something. Remember verse 6? Would that be a little bit difficult? You read in Joel about the rivers drying up and everything being parched.

“One of the plagues Moses smote Egypt with was locusts. In that second half of that 70^th week in the tribulation, literally the land’s going to be smitten with swarms of locusts that just take the form of the plagues out of Egypt.

“They cover the land, go in the houses and just infest everything, eat everything, decimate the land. Then you’re going to have on top of that these demonic locusts from Revelation 9 that come on the land as a nation whose teeth are like lions. All of that is going to be followed in chapter 2 of Joel with the battle of Armageddon.”