AMERICA IN CRISIS: 9.12.20 - The "Sudden Destruction" Prophetic Reference

The "Sudden Destruction" Prophetic Reference - Terry James - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ It seems that every interview I've heard lately contains words along the lines of: "We just want peace in our neighborhood/city. We want to be safe when we go from our homes. We want securitythat is afforded by the police-not chaos and danger to our family, to our children." The cry for "peace and safety" at this present hour might not be the same as we've traditionally thought as being centered around potential Mideast war threats or even world peace. The termhas nonetheless leaped to the forefront of life in America (I realize I'm perhaps being too America-centric again in my analysis). However, it's most relevant to examine in prophetic terms considering the many significant signs of these last days that haveconverged and are proliferating. Each news cycle brings about worries as expressed in interviews with those who have just experienced threats from Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and other violent anarchist organizations. Someof the threats are terrifying. A number of such interviews came following the wrap-up of the Republican National Convention August 27. Many people, when they were leaving the White House grounds that evening after PresidentTrump's acceptance speech as his party's nominee for president, were threatened by large mobs of rioters. Senator Rand Paul, for instance, told in several interviews how he, his wife, and a couple of friends were all but physically assaulted. As I understand,Paul has even begun legal movement to get the FBI involved in going after those who hurled the nastiest kind of invective-threats to kill-at himself and those with him. Another Fox News pundit-a former police officer and secret service agent-said that he and his wife were also verbally assaulted and threatened when they left the grounds following the speech.The mob threatened to rape and kill them, according to the officer, as well as to do the same to others who were leaving at the same time. Yet another man told in a studio interview that he and his neighborhood had to face-down a mob of threatening anarchists who shouted that they were out of the cities and now were intent ondestroying "your communities and places you live." He called for increased "security" in the suburbs now, because the rioters promise to "disturb the peace" at every opportunity. There is a call for "peace and safety" unlike at any time that I've known in the nation. As I mentioned previously, with the converging signals that this generation is nearing the end of theage, the cry almost certainly has dramatic prophetic overtones. I have no doubt that it is crucial to consider it as a key indicator of just how near we are to the end of this Church Age (Age of Grace). As the title of this piece implies, we're considering the time of "sudden destruction" that God's prophetic Word indicates will mark the dénouement of this dispensation. Let's look at two key prophetic Scripture passages that explain my point. The first is the apostle Paul's warning in his letter to the Thessalonians: For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upona woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3) Recently, we posted my article, "Thief in the Night," which, of course, is a reference to the Rapture of the Church. The "day of the Lord" comes with the disappearance of those millions ofbelievers. The Church Age or Age of Grace ends and the Day of the Lord begins, and prophecy unfolds all the way to the end of this period, which reaches its consummation with the remaking of the heavensand the earth following the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. The "thief-in-the-night" break-in upon the generation living on earth comes while there is a call for "peace and safety." Paul says that when this happens, "sudden destruction cometh uponthem, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." The apostle distinguishes between "we and us" and "them and they" to specify the saved from the lost (those who will be left behind at the Rapture). The pronoun "them," in this case, refersto those who don't know Christ for salvation. Those left behind will, Paul warns, face "sudden destruction," and they won't be able to escape it, as those who were taken in the Rapture. The second passage we'll examine validates what Paul has just written, I'm convinced. They are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself: Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstonefrom heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17: 28-30) Jesus, like Paul, said that it will be just like the time when Lot was taken out of Sodom to safety. Judgment followed that very day. "Sudden destruction" will occur when He is next revealed,and that will be at the Rapture. A key indicator prevalent at that time of Christ's call to His church, according to Paul, will be a great cry among earth dwellers for "peace and safety." The Police Are Switching to Soft Targets - Todd Strandberg - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ The left's war on law enforcement is driving our nation closer to the point of total civil disorder. For months, they have cheered violent rioters,called for the dismantling of police departments, and demanded the nation's citizens bend their knees to their agenda. They portray law enforcement members as instigators of violence, and praise hoodlums as defenders of justice. The Black Lives Matter crowd has become so hateful of the police that routine traffic stops often result in violence. A black guy was being ticketedfor parking in front of a fire hydrant, and he began to punch two officers. The police officers didn't draw their guns because they didn't want to be the center of another media circus. The recent FBI alert said, "...pact [was] made by People Nation Gang factions to 'shoot on sight' any police officer with a weapon drawn." These animalsare going to the homes of cops to taunt them and their family. An aggressive mindset on the part of criminals has resulted in cops being shot at in record numbers. Two officers were shot, and the suspected gunmanwas wounded by police in Chicago. The event was ignored by nearly all major media outlets. We are now seeing what I predicted six years ago. The police are backing away from the areas that are controlled by BLM and liberal mayors. We've comefull circle from the days of the KKK. In the early part of the 20th century, the police didn't go after the KKK because it could get you a conviction. Even in cases where several witnesses identified Klan members that publicly attacked black people, all whitejuries would refuse to find them guilty. Since the police need to justify their reasons for still getting a paycheck, they are now going after soft targets. An easy one is people who standout on social media. In June, Jake Paul was charged with criminal trespass and unlawful assembly after a video showed him at a Scottsdale, Arizona, mall as it was being looted. In a Twitter post, Paul denied that he and anyone else he was with was engagedin looting or vandalism. Jake Paul has propelled to fame as a brash social media villain. He has earned a fortune by living the life of a hedonist and filming his various stunts.Some of these include lighting fires in his backyard, filling pools with cereal, draining pools and lighting a fires in them, hosting parties on his roof, installing a trampoline on his roof, and making holes in the interior walls of the subject's property. When I read that FBI agents had executed a federal search warrant at Paul's Calabasas, California, home, I could only think about how mixed up we haveour priorities. Paul has had so much law enforcement focus on him that he said he is quitting YouTube. This is an announcement he has made in the past. TikTok stars, Blake Gray and Bryce Hall, seem to have a division of the Los Angeles police focused on their web activity. They have been the subjectof several low-level criminal complaints. LA city attorney Mike Feuer held a press conference to announce charges against the pair. Blake Gray and Bryce Hall were charged with misdemeanors after holding two large house parties in defiance of local health orders.The pair could face up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000, according to Feuer. I watched aerial footage of 30,000 BLM protesters gathered together, and there was zero health concern, but if Gray and Hall have a house party, it'stime to call out the riot squad. The police have become so timid that they go after two guys who just need to grow up. The softest target I'm most worried about is the Body of Christ. Since the police have so much free time, they found the need to start criminalizingworshipers. The LA county police went after John MacArthur's church, saying it didn't have a right to hold worship services. The city even said that MacArthur was in violation of a court order and was being fined several thousand dollars per worship service.A judge said there was no court order, so the city had lied or did not know what it was talking about. What is clearly happening is that God-hating liberals are using the COVID-19 virus scare to target Christians. It would be a stunning leap into a totalitarian state if we came to realize that a workable vaccine is decades away. Clearly, we are seeing a precursorto the tribulation hour with this move to outlaw Church services. Since Christians have become so weak in their faith, I fear an increasingly evil world will view them as easy prey. "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many beoffended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another" (Matthew 24:9-10, KJV). Jihad in Our Streets Today is the nineteenth anniversary of what we now call just "9/11." Islamic terrorists hijacked four planes in the early morning of September 11, 2001, and flew two of them into New York City's World Trade Center Twin Towers, while anotherhit the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and a fourth crashed into the hills of Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Around 3,000 people lost their lives that morning, and a nation grieved and soon retaliated in war. Even nearly twenty years on, the bruise is still tender for many Americans, especially those who lost loved ones in the attacks. Yet, we are seeing signs of it beginning to fade in the American consciousness. This year's ceremonies and tributesare muted, shortened, and subdued�because of COVID-19, of course�but also because the country is painfully distracted by perhaps more destructive issues in its streets. The Islamists who flew the planes into symbols of American strength and pride longed to bring "the Great Satan" to its knees. They cried, "Allahu ackbar!" ("Godis greatest!") as they met their self-inflicted ends, but close to their hearts was another phrase, "Death to America!" which Islamists still shout across the Middle East, especially in places like Palestine and Iran. Today, "Death to America!" can be heard coming from the mouths of protesting�rioting�Americans, many of them young, white liberals, as they self-righteously trash the nation of their birth for its supposed historical and present-day systemicinequalities. The spirit of jihad has jumped its bounds, eagerly infecting a generation of deluded, mis-educated American youth to take to the streets in the rebellious rage, vandalism, and violence of what they view as a holy war. Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and their ilk would probably never openly call what they are doing "jihad" or "holy war"�these terms are far too religious for these mostly atheist and secular progressives�but their actions belie their irreligiousfa�ade. Their holy words come from Karl Marx, Saul Alinsky, Derrick Bell, and the 1619 Project. The universities are their mosques, and far-left professors are their imams. Deviation from political orthodoxy is tantamount to heresy and results in shaming, shunning, excommunication, and persecution, also known as "cancel culture." Front and center in their movement is what is known as "virtue signaling." Its definition on Dictionary.com will suffice: "the sharing of one's point of view on a social or political issue, often on social media, in order to garner praise oracknowledgment of one's righteousness from others who share that point of view, or to passively rebuke those who do not." Adherents, then, must show their "faith"in certain ways to be considered orthodox. Recently�in places like Rochester, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Washington, DC; among others�rioters have begun demanding that bystanders signal their solidarity with them. They have taken to the tactic of accosting diners as theyeat, crowding them and shouting obscenities at them to repeat certain slogans or to raise their fists in salute to their cause. They have trashed businesses�many of them restaurants, some of them minority-owned�when management or customers have resisted theirintimidation tactics. Such scenes are becoming all too common in urban America in 2020. On January 27, 1838, a young Abraham Lincoln spoke before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois. Denouncing mob violence and the chaos and potential tyranny it breeds, he said: At what point then is the approach of danger [to America and its way of life] to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its authorand finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. He would probably be appalled to see his words coming to pass in our day. Jesuswarns in Matthew 24:6-7: "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." Our translations tend to be essentially literal, and sometimes they hide more specific meanings. These verses, for instance, warn us, not just about national wars, but about revolutions, coups, and ethnic violence as well. The sense is thatwe will hear a great deal about war in its many forms as time marches toward Christ's return. It is, sadly, a significant part of the sinful human condition, so conflict will be a constant factor. Left unsaid but undoubtedly underlying this teaching is the realization that we must learn to deal with such tensions. A few verses later, after mentioning famine, disease, natural disasters, persecution, betrayal, hatred, deception, lawlessness,and spiritual decline, Jesus instructs, "But he who endures to the end shall be saved" (Matthew24:13). In saying so, He suggests that we can do little about it: It will happen, and it will affect us, but we will not be able to solve it. The only thing left to us is to endure it, our faith in Him intact, no matter what happens. This instruction goes against the grain of many of us. We want to help! We want to provide answers! We want to make things right! We want to restore our nation to greatness! We want to bring peace! These are noble intentions. But Jesus mentions none of them in the context of the increasing difficulties of the end time. In the entire passage of this "signs of the times" prophecy (Matthew24:3-31), He gives only five general instructions to follow in response to these days of distress: 1."Take heed that no one deceives you" (Matthew24:4; see also verses 23, 26); 2."See that you are not troubled," that is, do not worry excessively or panic (Matthew24:6); 3."[E]ndure to the end," that is, keep the faith, stay the course (Matthew24:13); 4."[F]lee" without hesitation when danger comes too close (Matthew24:16-18); and 5."[P]ray" that circumstances do not cause excessive hardship or hinder true worship of God (Matthew24:20). So, while political jihad storms down our city streets, the elect of God must face the times with thoughtful, calm, faithful endurance, praying for God's intervention and mercy. We must put on the mind of Christ, as this is how He faced Hisown "end time," and now He sits in glory. We have the promise that we will, too, if we follow His lead in everything (see Colossians 3:1-4). - Richard T. Ritenbaugh VISIT: PROPHECY WATCHER WEEKLY NEWS: HTTP://PROPHECY-WATCHER-WEEKLY-NEWS.BLOGSPOT.COM