Sound The Midnight Cry

“Can You See It?”

Several years ago, Stereograms were sold in almost every store in malls across the country. You remember: those ‘works of art’ that looked like nothing but dots, swirls in every color imaginable (like the one with this posting --click the picture to open full).

Technically, an “autostereogram is a single-image stereogram (SIS), designed to create the visual illusion of a three-dimensional (3D) scene from a two-dimensional image in the human brain.” In other words, it is a 3D picture within a 2D picture.

You could walk through the shopping area and see dozens of people standing around trying to “see” what was hidden in the maze of colors. Over an over you could hear people say, “Do you see it?” to which many would respond, “Where? I don’t see anything.” Inevitably the other person would point at the canvas and say, “It’s right there; how can you not see it!” It was always good for a laugh or two.

The problem for most people in trying to “see” the hidden picture is that the brain must overcome the normally automatic coordination between focusing and vergence. The harder people focus, the more elusive the picture becomes. The key is to relax and focus your eyes behind (or beyond) the image. Gradually, your eyes will focus on the image and your brain will pull it together.

That’s kind of the way it is with bible prophecy. You have to begin with an understanding of prophecy throughout the bible and then see the current happenings of each day as the masking. Focusing on the events without knowledge of Scripture will cause us to never see the hidden overall plan of God.

The Apostle Paul understood this concept when writing to the Corinthian church: “the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began.”

So when I see the news reports this past week citing…

• Turkey to drop dollar in trade with Iran, China…
• Saudis Drop WTI Oil Contract…
• 20,000 Bibles seized as Malaysia minorities fear fundamentalism…
• Jerusalem must be capital of both Israel and Palestine, UN chief says…
• US making plans for Iran nuke strategy…
• France FM: Israel will strike Iran without nuke deal…

I simply look past them to see the hidden picture behind it all. That picture reveals that Jesus Christ is coming soon and that the fulfillment of prophecy is 100% totally accurate.

Now there will be those that look at these events and say, “I don’t see that at all”. I would simply respond, “It’s right there; how can you not see it!”

God’s plan hidden in plain sight!

Can you see it?

“Gobble, Gobble, Gobble”

In a few weeks, Americans will celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. The advertisements will be filled with food items including the usual centerpiece item—the turkey.

Yet, over the past ten days the newspapers and headlines have been filled references to Turkey, but this one doesn’t “gobble”. While the one on Thanksgiving may be a part of gratefulness, the Turkey in the recent news reports is of a more ominous sentiment.

Turkey announced October 9th that it was pulling out of an annual joint air force exercise with Israel, the United States, Italy and NATO. The reason: Israel used its planes in “crimes” against Gaza residents earlier this year. This is significant as Israel and Turkey not only have a peace agreement but are also military allies. Israel has provided billions of dollars of weapons to Turkey since their 1996 agreement.

Equally disturbing is that when Turkey pulled out of the joint military exercise, it held a joint military exercise with Syria. Recent events show Turkey moving closer to an Iran, Syria and Russia and pulling away from the West and especially Israel.

This shift in policy was dramatized on Turkey's state-run broadcasting network (TRT) portraying an Israeli soldier walking up to a Palestinian child and barbarically shooting her point-blank. The series portrayed Israeli soldiers murdering children and committing other atrocities against innocent Palestinians.

Since the Turkish Islamist Party first won control of the government in 2002, the country has been steadily moving away from its former pro-Western stance and closer to the radical Islam influences.

George Friedman is the CEO and founder of STRATFOR, the world's leading private intelligence and forecasting company. In his recent book, "The Next 100 Years", Friedman agrees in no uncertain terms that Turkey will soon emerge as a regional superpower. “The Islamic World is incapable of uniting voluntarily. It is, however, capable of being dominated by a Muslim power. Throughout history, Turkey has been the Muslim power most often able to create an empire out of ...the Islamic world.”

These developments are consistent with Bible prophecies found in Ezekiel 38-39 which indicate that in the “last days” Turkey [identified in the prophecies as “Gomer” and part of “Beth Togarmah”] will join a Russian-Iranian alliance against Israel. The Jewish-turned-Roman historian Flavius Josephus identified Gomer with the Galatians. "For Gomer founded those whom the Greeks now call Galatians, [Galls,] but were then called Gomerites."

Turkey’s application to the E.U. was put on “hold” and now seems to have  had unintended consequences. Turkish PM Erdogan instead has turned his attention to re-establish Turkey's historical influence in the Turkic countries…and beyond.

Turkey's shift toward an Islamic caliphate and its Russian supporter puts Turkey right where the prophet Ezekiel said it would be in the last days.

So the next time you are getting ready to “gobble” some turkey, remember this: Jesus is coming soon!

“Curtain Time”

Many times the emphasis of bible prophecy tends to point to signs that have a negative connotation. Even the signs that Jesus mentioned in Scripture “wars, pestilence, famine” lend us to believe that everything is pessimistic. However, there are other happenings that tend to look in a positive light.

A recent report told how the Jews in the town of Mitzpe Yericho are taking practical steps to prepare for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. They are preparing descendents of Cohanim (priests) and Levites for service at the Mitzpe Yericho School. There Temple priest hopefuls learn exactly how to conduct the daily Temple service and offer the required sacrifices.

They are building an exact replica of the Temple at the school. The latest addition to the replica was the area in which priests offered wine and water libations. The water offering was traditionally given on the Sukkot holiday, which was celebrated last week.

“Today is really a historical event for the Jewish people,” organizer Levi Chazan said as another part of the school was completed. “It is the beginning of the work for the Third Temple.”

The Temple Mount is recognized by the Jews as the site of the old Temple and the site where the new Temple is to one day be rebuilt. It is also the third most holy site of Muslims, where the Dome of the Rock now stands.

Recently, the holy site was shut down following calls by Muslim clerics in east Jerusalem to “come protect the Mount.” Shortly after the Mount was closed, some 150 Arabs began hurling empty bottles at police forces in the Old City. Some French tourist were injured when mistaken for Jews trying to go up to the mount to pray.

This summer, the Palestinian Authority’s chief Islamic judge, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, declared that there was no evidence that a Jewish Temple had ever existed in Jerusalem. Two years earlier, Jerusalem’s former mufti, Ikrema Sabri, had insisted that “there was never a Jewish temple on Al-Aqsa” and said of the Western Wall: “There is not a single stone with any relation at all to the history of the Hebrews.”

Interestingly, the prophet Daniel records for us that a political agreement by the Antichrist that will allow a place for Jewish worship on the Temple Mount, but its location will be shared. This is confirmed by the Apostle John in the Book of Revelations.

So the tensions continue to escalate and the school in Mitzpe Yericho continues to train for future service. The only part of the puzzle missing is the one that will bring about the peace (for a time) between the warring factions.

The stage is set and the players are in place…and it’s almost curtain time!

“Willy Nilly”

The phrase “Willy Nilly” comes from the idea of “haphazardly; in an unplanned way; whether desired or not". It’s a 17th century shortened way of the phrase, “ye willing, be ye unwilling.” In the modern vernacular, “whether you like it or don’t like it.”

It reminds me of times growing up when my parents would tell me something like, “Whether you like it or not, you are going to do it.” I specifically remember taking medicine that tasted worse than anything imaginable and being told I was going to take it…yuck!

I said all of this because of an article this week in the Jerusalem Post by Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper titled, “Like it or not, the Temple Mount is key to Israeli-Palestinian peace”. The authors stated in their summary, “…without the Arab and Muslim world acknowledging what their Holy Book and ancestors recognized as the historic link of the Jewish people to its land and its Holy sites.”

Now that won’t go over well with those that see Israel as an “occupier” of the land they live in. King Abdullah II of Jordan today issued a warning to Israel stating, “that occupied Jerusalem is a 'tinderbox' that could undermine Israel's relationship with the kingdom.” He went on to say that “the ‘problems’ in Jerusalem could ‘directly destabilize’ Israel's ties with Jordan.” The two neighbors signed a peace deal in 1994.

What amazes me is that whenever an Arab nation warns Israel about the land they are living in, they almost always fail to note (as in this case) much of the land Israel now occupies came as a result of the same Arab nations attacking Israel and losing the war. For example: Jordan controlled occupied east Jerusalem before losing it to Israel along with the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and Israel was content with that until being attacked.

They also fail to recognize that it was a 1947 United Nations Council resolution dedicating land for the re-creation of the nation of Israel (not sure that would happen today). The same land that the PA, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and other nations say Israel has not right to live in never mind even exist.

Never in all of recorded history has there been a single event more clearly prophesied and literally fulfilled than the restoration of the Jews to their homeland. God declared it to be so and we are witnesses of that declaration coming to pass.

It has been said many times but bears repeating: “Without the existence of a literal, politically viable Jewish State known as ‘Israel,’ none of the prophecies concerning the last days and the coming judgment of the nations find any historical context.”

God said it and that settles it—whether the world likes (accepts) it or not. And in the words Edith Ann (that great 20th century philosopher played by actress Lilly Tomlin), “And that’s the truth!”

“Going Down For The Count?”

Note: This is a nuclear financial strike at the heart of the U.S. dollar. If this takes place, it will surely solidify the transition to a new world order.

Exclusive report by Robert Fisk

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years. Complete Story

“Sacrifice-What Does It Mean?”

Sacrifice—it’s a word that you don’t hear used much these days. Growing up as a boy, I heard it used frequently as a part of daily living. Things like, “Sacrifice to save money” or “Sacrifice something so that we can have something we desire more” (like a vacation). Of course, living in a military family, I heard it used in the manner of those men and women “sacrificing to serve their country.”

I only mention this because I was struck by the news report of the First Lady, Michelle Obama, referring to her trip to Copenhagen to try and convince members of the IOC to choose Chicago as the site for the 2016 Olympics.

As reported by the Washington Examiner, “In her speech in Copenhagen today, First Lady Michelle Obama said her trip to Denmark, along with the travel of her ‘dear friend” and “chit-chat buddy’ Oprah Winfrey, as well as tomorrow’s visit by President Obama, is a ‘sacrifice’ on behalf of the children of Chicago and the United States.”

Now, there will be those that will immediately rebuke me saying that I’m only writing this to attack the First Family. To which I would reply, “You don’t have a clue” and I’ll gladly explain my point.

I was always taught that “making sacrifices” meant there was a cost assigned to it. To refer to being flown to Europe, at taxpayer expense (I guess there is a cost but it’s usually by the one ‘doing’ the sacrifice), and to be treated like Royalty upon arriving in Denmark demeans the whole idea of “sacrifice” and those that know what it truly means firsthand.

All across this nation, there are stories of people making “sacrifices” –family, friends and neighbors reaching out to those that have lost their job or battling a sickness.

Sacrifice? You want to talk about sacrifice?

• How about the people that are working two or more jobs just trying to provide food and the basic necessities of life for their families?
• How about the people that recently lost their homes to wildfires in the West or floods in the Southeast?
• How about the father and son from northwest Indiana who died trying to rescue a 10-year-old neighbor who'd fallen in to a rain-swollen drainage ditch? The boy survived but they received the Carnegie Medal for heroism posthumously this week.
• How about our military men and women serving around the world; many of them living in tents or make-shift housing, greatly missing their families, and are daily targets for terrorist who live to kill?
• How about the thousands that died this past week when whole villages in Samoa and Indonesia were wiped out from earthquakes and tsunamis? Or the tens of thousands that lost their lives from the storms in the Philippines?

I’m sorry—but for the First Lady (or anyone) to say that an all-expense paid trip on a luxury 757 aircraft is a sacrifice—is simply wrong. There is a price that comes with the concept of sacrifice and I fail to see one in this situation.

For those that still doubt this standard need only to turn to the Bible. Jesus tells us in Matthew 26:28, “…for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.”

That “sacrifice” cost the highest price—the Son of God nailed to a cross. The prize? Not an Olympic game and not just for the children of the U.S—but for whosoever will believe!

Now that’s better than a gold medal!