Hal Lindsey Media Ministries - Hal Lindsey -
On this week's edition of "The Hal Lindsey Report," I address a subject that has loomed in the thinking of American Christians only as a hazy shadow in the far-off future. Well, that hazy shadow is beginning to come into sharp relief. That shadow is the specter of persecution.
Of all nations on earth, the United States of America seemed to be the last place where the persecution of Christians would be a problem. But it's no longer such a far-fetched idea.
Though religious freedom recently won a modest victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, it suffered a disturbing defeat in a Canadian Supreme Court decision. And what happens in Canada too frequently turns up in the United States!
I believe we are seeing a crescendo of events and changing attitudes -- political, cultural, spiritual, and economic -- that will soon coalesce to put evangelical Christians in the cross-hairs of our society. Many of you are already facing some of these challenges at work, at school (or your child's school), or among your neighbors or family members. "Political correctness" is even now a problem, but I don't believe it will be too long before being "politically incorrect" will land you a fine or a jail term. When that happens, we will be faced with a choice: be "politically correct" or stand boldly and speak out for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In many parts of the world, our brothers and sisters are already facing that dilemma. Some are even paying for their boldness with their lives!
This week, I want to share with you the story of a man who faced that moment and stood tall. In fact, two of the 28 chapters in the Book of Acts are dedicated to "A Man Called Stephen." His defense of the Gospel before the Sanhedrin was so brilliant, powerful, and Spirit-directed that he drove the council of learned scholars into a frenzy. They mobbed him. Then they took him out and stoned him to death.
Now, you're probably thinking that it doesn't sound like Stephen offered a very effective defense if it resulted in his death. Consider this, though. He was an ordinary Israelite who allowed himself to be so completely used by the Holy Spirit that he literally confounded the most educated religious leaders of his day.
When they finally realized they were guilty of the grievous charges with which Stephen accused them, they gnashed their teeth and killed him. Yet during the inquisition, the power of the Holy Spirit was so strong upon Stephen that "his face was like the face of an angel." And when he fell asleep, the Bible implies that Jesus Christ Himself stood in honor of Stephen's obedience!
Not only did this ordinary believer, who allowed himself to be used by the Spirit, so please Jesus that He stood to welcome him home, but his example no doubt inspired one of the young rabbis who witnessed the entire ordeal. Saul of Tarsus would later become history's greatest evangelist: Paul the Apostle.
So, don't despair that days of persecution may lie ahead. Jesus Himself promised that He would give us the words to say when that moment comes. And rather than our darkest hours, those moments will be our brightest.
Living and Learning
What is going on with the weather?
Whatever it is, the global warming crowd is thrilled. They see it as affirmation of their religion: the High Church of Climate Change.
But they obscure two distinctions. First, contrary to what the mainstream media and the politically correct crowd would have you believe, almost no one denies that earth's climate is changing. In fact, it has been in a constant state of change throughout its entire history.
What many of us deny is that it is changing because of something man is doing. We believe it is changing because of natural influences and fluctuations. Things like increased solar activity that directly affects the earth. Solar activity that has waxed and waned over the centuries. That's why history tells us that the earth has suffered through several different "ice ages."
The second distinction the global warming crowd obfuscates is the difference between "climate" and "weather." "Climate" refers to meteorological patterns over long periods of time. "Weather" refers to what is happening right now. In Texas we say that if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change.
So the global warming people seize upon the latest heat wave as proof that the "climate" is rapidly warming. So the United States should cough up $300 billion dollars (our contribution demanded by the Paris Climate Accord from which President Trump withdrew) to stop it.
Of course, if the coming winter is especially brutal, some of them will keep their mouths shut and hope you don't notice. Others will insist that the brutal cold proves that the "climate" is rapidly cooling. So the United States should cough up $300 billion dollars to stop it. Interestingly, China and India, the world's two biggest polluters, aren't required to do anything -- or pay anything -- for the next 30 years.
But I'm chasing rabbits here.
The point is that after the great flood, God made a promise to humanity: "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." (Genesis 8:17 NASB) That means that no matter what man does, or does not do, the natural order of things will not change. So save your money.
However, the Bible does address the subject of weird weather. Especially as we approach the end of this Age of Grace.
Isaiah tells of a future judgment on the earth where the world "fades and withers... The inhabitants of the earth are burned." (Isaiah 24:4,6 NASB)
That probably refers to nuclear war and the devastating, unending fires that follow. But it seems to also include weather phenomenon, because another verse in the same chapter predicts that grapevines will "wilt" (Isaiah 24:7 Complete Jewish Bible) as a result of human disobedience to God. The chapter implies drought on a planetary scale.
Then Revelation 16:8 tells about something that will happen during the Tribulation: "And the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun; and it was given it to scorch men with fire." (Revelation 16:8 NASB)
This is not talking about nuclear war, but about violent sunlight! It hasn't happened yet, but the earth seems to be getting a foretaste of it.
Jesus said and the Bible tells us that as we approach His return, we can expect to see an increase in strange weather. But the worst will not come until the time of the Tribulation. And if you are in Christ, by then, you will be gone.
A few days ago, seven former US ambassadors to the United Nations sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. They asked him to restore 100% of the funding that the US gives annually to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
Earlier this year, the US cut its contribution to UNRWA by 50%. After we have given almost $5 billion, we finally did it because UNRWA, which has been in business almost 70 years, has thus far not settled even one Palestinian refugee. Instead, they keep them confined in filthy, miserable, crowded "camps" so that they can be used as political pawns in the constant struggle to delegitimize Israel. UNRWA schools indoctrinate Palestinian children to despise Israel. They encourage terrorism by praising and honoring terrorists, Nazis, and the annihilation of the Jews. Their schools and hospitals are often used to house missiles and rocket launchers for use against Israel.
UNRWA camps are rundown and dangerous. Even pro-Palestinian organizations claim that Palestinian children are not safe there.
The refugees need to be absorbed into the societies around them. Instead, UNRWA imprisons them and keeps them dependent on the UN for food and shelter. As Caroline Glick notes, they "doom Palestinians to perpetual misery and ensure that they will never, ever accept Israel's right to exist in secure borders."
You see, in 1948, the Arab nations, who were preparing to invade the new state of Israel, convinced many of the Arabs living in Israel to flee. They warned them that the Jews would massacre them.
Of course, it was all propaganda. There were no massacres. But that fear created the ongoing Palestinian refugee crisis.
Most people, though, don't know about the other refugee crisis from that same period.
In her monumental book, From Time Immemorial, Joan Peters notes that, "For every refugee -- adult or child -- in Syria, Lebanon, or elsewhere in the Arab world... there is a Jewish refugee who fled from the Arab country of his birth. For every Arab who moved to neighboring lands, a Jew was forced to flee from a community where he and his family may have lived for 2,000 years."
To retaliate against the new state of Israel, Muslim nations made life impossible for the Jews in their midst. They lost their property, security, dignity, and basic human rights. They faced persecution and death. They were forced from the lands of their birth.
In 1948, there were more than 850,000 Jews living in the Arab world. Today, there are only around 25,000.
Unlike the Arabs who did not want to live with Jews in Israel but were never accepted as citizens in Jordan or Syria or Lebanon, the fledgling state of Israel quietly accepted and assimilated all of the Jewish refugees who fled to Israel.
In 1922, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the League of Nations gave the British a mandate to prepare a homeland in Palestine for the Jews.
Instead, the British gave 75% of that land to the Arabs for a homeland. It was a vast expanse east of the Jordan river. The country was known as Trans-Jordan.
The remaining 25% was given to "Eretz Yisrael" (Land of Israel). It included all the land from the river Jordan west to the Mediterranean Sea. That includes the areas the Jews call Judea and Samaria. The world knows it as the "West Bank" (of the Jordan river).
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Jordan took the West Bank by force.
During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel took it back.
Somehow, the world thought it was okay for Jordan to take the West Bank (given to Israel by the League of Nations) by force. But they saw it as a crime when Israel took it back 19 years later.
The original "two-state solution" was to create the nation of Jordan for the Arabs who did not want to live with the Jews in Israel. Somehow that "two-state solution" has been lost to history.
Have you noticed? Al-Qaeda is making a comeback. ISIS stole the headlines for a few years, but lately, al-Qaeda has been active around the world. Including in Cleveland where federal officials arrested an al-Qaeda supporter who planned to bomb a Fourth of July parade.
In Belgium, a husband and wife were arrested for planning to bomb a Paris meeting of an Iranian opposition group. In Austria, an Iranian diplomat was detained and expelled for assisting them.
One of Germany's top intelligence agencies released a report accusing Iran of "the illegal propagation of atomic, biological, and chemical weapons."
The Jerusalem Post noted that "German Chancellor Angela Merkel remains a strong proponent of the Iran nuclear deal.... She has not commented on the findings of her intelligence agencies that appear to contradict her views of the effectiveness [of the nuclear deal]."
An "anonymous" US intelligence official told NBC News that North Korea may be trying to deceive the US about its nuclear program.
Personally, I don't put much trust in intelligence agents who leak anonymously to the press. But what's the surprise here? The North Koreans have been deceiving the world for decades. Do we think they will stop overnight?
That's the point of intensive negotiations that include strict supervision and inspection protocols.
Even if they eventually plan to give up their weapons, the more they possess now, the more leverage they will have at the bargaining table. We still don't know how this will turn out, but at least the two sides are talking, not fighting.
Japan's Kyodo News Agency has published secret documents it has obtained from the Chinese Central Military Commission. They give us some insight into the urgency China feels to develop a military that can meet and defeat the US military.
All of this simply illustrates that it's a dangerous world, indeed. And growing more so by the day.
My goal is to impress on you how important it is for us to put our trust in God. This flimsy world system that finds itself in such deep trouble is not worthy of your hopes and dreams. It will let you down.
But God remains faithful. His promises remain true.
He promised that, "'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,' so that we confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?'" (Hebrews 13:5-6 NASB)
Romans 8:31 asks, "If God be for us, who can be against us?"
The near future may be dark, but the eternal future is gloriously bright! Do not fear, He is with us!
Don't miss this week's Report on TBN, Daystar, CPM Network, various local stations, www.hallindsey.com or www.hischannel.com. Check your local listings.
God Bless,
Hal Lindsey
When I wrote The Late Great Planet Earth, I included a section titled, "Do We Really Live and Learn?"
In some areas, we clearly do. A farmer tries a new technique. Even if it doesn't work, he has learned something useful. Learning from mistakes is one of the reasons fewer and fewer farmers feed more and more people. It's true of any successful scientific endeavor.
Sometimes we overlearn. A man drives down a quiet street and suddenly gets caught in a traffic jam. He determines never to drive down that street again. Later, his wife points out that there was a wreck on that street that day, and that it's usually quiet. But the man refuses to ever try that street again. He has overlearned.
In other areas, humanity does not learn. We're like a famous 1950s TV character - Beaver Cleaver. Many years ago, the TV Land network ran a commercial for "Leave It to Beaver" that nicely sums up the problem. "Why doesn't the Beaver ever learn his lesson?" the ad asked. "He is often taught his lesson. He promises to remember his lesson. But the next day he has forgotten his lesson. Is he deliberately ignoring his lesson? Not exactly."
The ad then showed a still close-up of Beaver's face. A graphic was added to the forehead area. It seems to show a vast empty space inside Beaver's skull. A small brain is depicted at the top of the empty space. The word "Lesson" is shown entering the head through one of Beaver's ears, then bouncing around in the almost empty chamber. The announcer says, "New evidence suggests that Beaver's lesson enters one ear, floats around his head a few seconds without any contact with his brain, then floats out the other ear." We then see the word "Lesson" floating out the opposite ear.
Too often, that's us - that's humanity. And it's not just on little things, but big issues like conflict and morality. We don't learn the lessons of past mistakes. Those lessons just float in one ear, and out the other. We keep making the same mistakes.
War makes a great example. History tells us to avoid war if we possibly can. But too many nations are quick to the trigger. History also teaches that you cannot avoid war by ignoring the possibility of it. In fact, ignoring war seems to encourage it. But nations forget that, too.
General Douglas MacArthur said, "Men since the beginning of time have sought peace... military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blots out this alternative."
Or does it?
Humanity has a long history of eventually using every weapon it invents. And today's weapons are devastating. That's true even of non-nuclear weapons, but the nukes are the worst. In just the last year, several nations openly spoke of using nuclear weapons preemptively.
It is by the grace of God that we have not yet experienced a full blown nuclear war. Since the 1950s, we know of dozens of instances when humanity was within minutes of an all-out nuclear exchange. But information on nuclear devices is highly classified by the nations that have them, or plan to have them. So, we only know some of the near misses.
The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 is the most famous close call of the nuclear era. But there have been others. For instance, in 1979, Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, received a call from NORAD headquarters. Their news was unthinkable. They said the Soviet Union had just launched 250 intercontinental ballistic missiles and they were on a trajectory for the United States. They said the time window in which we could respond was 3 to 7 minutes. Then new information came in, raising the number of incoming missiles to 2,200.
In seconds, the US prepared for a full nuclear response. Nuclear bombers prepared for takeoff. ICBM crews prepared to launch missiles. Fingers hovered near fire-buttons. But US officials held back, waiting for satellite data to confirm the attack. Six minutes later, NORAD realized it had all been a computer-generated illusion. A technician had inadvertently loaded a training program into an operational computer. The program simulated a massive Soviet attack.
There are many such stories. The world is still intact - but not because human systems are so efficient, or because human beings are so good. The world is still intact because God is so good. In situation after situation, we see that the hand of God stayed the hand of man.
But it won't always be so. Before one of the major judgments of God on humanity, the flood of Noah, the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever." (Genesis 6:3 NASB)
2 Thessalonians 2 tells about Antichrist and the coming culmination of lawlessness in the world. Verse 7 says, "For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way."
"He who now restrains" is the Holy Spirit working through God's people, the Church. At the Rapture, the Church will be taken out of this world and the Holy Spirit's ministry of restraining lawlessness will end. As bad as things seem now, they are going to get much, much worse.
If you have never turned to Christ, received His pardon and joined the family of God, now is the time.
July 13th, 2018
The heat kills 54 in southern Quebec. Temperatures in northern Siberia soar 40 degrees above normal. Africa records the highest temperature ever verified on that continent. What is going on with the weather?
Whatever it is, the global warming crowd is thrilled. They see it as affirmation of their religion: the High Church of Climate Change.
But they obscure two distinctions. First, contrary to what the mainstream media and the politically correct crowd would have you believe, almost no one denies that earth's climate is changing. In fact, it has been in a constant state of change throughout its entire history.
What many of us deny is that it is changing because of something man is doing. We believe it is changing because of natural influences and fluctuations. Things like increased solar activity that directly affects the earth. Solar activity that has waxed and waned over the centuries. That's why history tells us that the earth has suffered through several different "ice ages."
The second distinction the global warming crowd obfuscates is the difference between "climate" and "weather." "Climate" refers to meteorological patterns over long periods of time. "Weather" refers to what is happening right now. In Texas we say that if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change.
So the global warming people seize upon the latest heat wave as proof that the "climate" is rapidly warming. So the United States should cough up $300 billion dollars (our contribution demanded by the Paris Climate Accord from which President Trump withdrew) to stop it.
Of course, if the coming winter is especially brutal, some of them will keep their mouths shut and hope you don't notice. Others will insist that the brutal cold proves that the "climate" is rapidly cooling. So the United States should cough up $300 billion dollars to stop it. Interestingly, China and India, the world's two biggest polluters, aren't required to do anything -- or pay anything -- for the next 30 years.
But I'm chasing rabbits here.
The point is that after the great flood, God made a promise to humanity: "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." (Genesis 8:17 NASB) That means that no matter what man does, or does not do, the natural order of things will not change. So save your money.
However, the Bible does address the subject of weird weather. Especially as we approach the end of this Age of Grace.
Isaiah tells of a future judgment on the earth where the world "fades and withers... The inhabitants of the earth are burned." (Isaiah 24:4,6 NASB)
That probably refers to nuclear war and the devastating, unending fires that follow. But it seems to also include weather phenomenon, because another verse in the same chapter predicts that grapevines will "wilt" (Isaiah 24:7 Complete Jewish Bible) as a result of human disobedience to God. The chapter implies drought on a planetary scale.
Then Revelation 16:8 tells about something that will happen during the Tribulation: "And the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun; and it was given it to scorch men with fire." (Revelation 16:8 NASB)
This is not talking about nuclear war, but about violent sunlight! It hasn't happened yet, but the earth seems to be getting a foretaste of it.
Jesus said and the Bible tells us that as we approach His return, we can expect to see an increase in strange weather. But the worst will not come until the time of the Tribulation. And if you are in Christ, by then, you will be gone.
A few days ago, seven former US ambassadors to the United Nations sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. They asked him to restore 100% of the funding that the US gives annually to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
Earlier this year, the US cut its contribution to UNRWA by 50%. After we have given almost $5 billion, we finally did it because UNRWA, which has been in business almost 70 years, has thus far not settled even one Palestinian refugee. Instead, they keep them confined in filthy, miserable, crowded "camps" so that they can be used as political pawns in the constant struggle to delegitimize Israel. UNRWA schools indoctrinate Palestinian children to despise Israel. They encourage terrorism by praising and honoring terrorists, Nazis, and the annihilation of the Jews. Their schools and hospitals are often used to house missiles and rocket launchers for use against Israel.
UNRWA camps are rundown and dangerous. Even pro-Palestinian organizations claim that Palestinian children are not safe there.
The refugees need to be absorbed into the societies around them. Instead, UNRWA imprisons them and keeps them dependent on the UN for food and shelter. As Caroline Glick notes, they "doom Palestinians to perpetual misery and ensure that they will never, ever accept Israel's right to exist in secure borders."
You see, in 1948, the Arab nations, who were preparing to invade the new state of Israel, convinced many of the Arabs living in Israel to flee. They warned them that the Jews would massacre them.
Of course, it was all propaganda. There were no massacres. But that fear created the ongoing Palestinian refugee crisis.
Most people, though, don't know about the other refugee crisis from that same period.
In her monumental book, From Time Immemorial, Joan Peters notes that, "For every refugee -- adult or child -- in Syria, Lebanon, or elsewhere in the Arab world... there is a Jewish refugee who fled from the Arab country of his birth. For every Arab who moved to neighboring lands, a Jew was forced to flee from a community where he and his family may have lived for 2,000 years."
To retaliate against the new state of Israel, Muslim nations made life impossible for the Jews in their midst. They lost their property, security, dignity, and basic human rights. They faced persecution and death. They were forced from the lands of their birth.
In 1948, there were more than 850,000 Jews living in the Arab world. Today, there are only around 25,000.
Unlike the Arabs who did not want to live with Jews in Israel but were never accepted as citizens in Jordan or Syria or Lebanon, the fledgling state of Israel quietly accepted and assimilated all of the Jewish refugees who fled to Israel.
In 1922, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the League of Nations gave the British a mandate to prepare a homeland in Palestine for the Jews.
Instead, the British gave 75% of that land to the Arabs for a homeland. It was a vast expanse east of the Jordan river. The country was known as Trans-Jordan.
The remaining 25% was given to "Eretz Yisrael" (Land of Israel). It included all the land from the river Jordan west to the Mediterranean Sea. That includes the areas the Jews call Judea and Samaria. The world knows it as the "West Bank" (of the Jordan river).
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Jordan took the West Bank by force.
During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel took it back.
Somehow, the world thought it was okay for Jordan to take the West Bank (given to Israel by the League of Nations) by force. But they saw it as a crime when Israel took it back 19 years later.
The original "two-state solution" was to create the nation of Jordan for the Arabs who did not want to live with the Jews in Israel. Somehow that "two-state solution" has been lost to history.
Have you noticed? Al-Qaeda is making a comeback. ISIS stole the headlines for a few years, but lately, al-Qaeda has been active around the world. Including in Cleveland where federal officials arrested an al-Qaeda supporter who planned to bomb a Fourth of July parade.
In Belgium, a husband and wife were arrested for planning to bomb a Paris meeting of an Iranian opposition group. In Austria, an Iranian diplomat was detained and expelled for assisting them.
One of Germany's top intelligence agencies released a report accusing Iran of "the illegal propagation of atomic, biological, and chemical weapons."
The Jerusalem Post noted that "German Chancellor Angela Merkel remains a strong proponent of the Iran nuclear deal.... She has not commented on the findings of her intelligence agencies that appear to contradict her views of the effectiveness [of the nuclear deal]."
An "anonymous" US intelligence official told NBC News that North Korea may be trying to deceive the US about its nuclear program.
Personally, I don't put much trust in intelligence agents who leak anonymously to the press. But what's the surprise here? The North Koreans have been deceiving the world for decades. Do we think they will stop overnight?
That's the point of intensive negotiations that include strict supervision and inspection protocols.
Even if they eventually plan to give up their weapons, the more they possess now, the more leverage they will have at the bargaining table. We still don't know how this will turn out, but at least the two sides are talking, not fighting.
Japan's Kyodo News Agency has published secret documents it has obtained from the Chinese Central Military Commission. They give us some insight into the urgency China feels to develop a military that can meet and defeat the US military.
All of this simply illustrates that it's a dangerous world, indeed. And growing more so by the day.
My goal is to impress on you how important it is for us to put our trust in God. This flimsy world system that finds itself in such deep trouble is not worthy of your hopes and dreams. It will let you down.
But God remains faithful. His promises remain true.
He promised that, "'I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,' so that we confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?'" (Hebrews 13:5-6 NASB)
Romans 8:31 asks, "If God be for us, who can be against us?"
The near future may be dark, but the eternal future is gloriously bright! Do not fear, He is with us!
Don't miss this week's Report on TBN, Daystar, CPM Network, various local stations, www.hallindsey.com or www.hischannel.com. Check your local listings.
God Bless,
Hal Lindsey
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