Echoes and Origins

It is Finally Time the World Starts Asking, What is Going On?

It’s an age old question, every time some tragedy happens, people question, “Is God in Control? Why would a loving God allow this to happen?” The simple answer is this. God is not in control of the day-to-day activity in this world. Man has been given free will on this earth, and God has made an oath not to intervein in this free will. God has given this planet to man, much like a lease. One day he will reclaim the earth but for right now, this planet is under the control, not of Satan, but man. If you want someone to blame, look in the mirror.

Many people confuse daily events with divine providence. The phrase “God is in control” is an expression of the doctrine of Divine Providence, which is the belief that God has a purpose for and continuously oversees all events in the universe. In the grand scheme of things, we see Bible prophecy coming to pass on a daily basis. Wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, volcanoes, comets flying through the sky, Northern Lights, severe and unusual weather. This is a small sampling of things taking place in the world today. They are signs of the soon return of Jesus.

But there are many, many more signs than these taking place. The trouble taking place in the Middle East are literally right out of the pages of the Bible. I contend, and think I could prove it, that these days are written about almost word-for-word in the Bible. These aren’t clouded, shrouded poems like the so-called prophecies like Nostradamus; these are plain language, clearly written words of warning, written over 2,000 years ago, that clearly and plainly paint a picture of what is going on today.

The world says, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. The Bible says:

³ They make shrewd plans against Your people,
And conspire together against Your treasured ones.
⁴ They have said, “Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation,
That the name of Israel be remembered no more.” – Psalms 83:3-4 NASB

The world says, “we demand a Palestinian state!” The Bible says,

​¹ “For behold, in those days and at that time,
When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
² I will gather all the nations
And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
Then I will enter into judgment with them there
On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel,
Whom they have scattered among the nations;
And they have divided up My land. – Joel 3:1-2 NASB

The world has even gone to the extent of talking of using military force in order to to coerce Israel in giving land to Palestine. The Bible says,

¹⁴ “Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel,
And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them;
They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine,
And make gardens and eat their fruit.
¹⁵ “I will also plant them on their land,
And they will not again be rooted out from their land
Which I have given them,”
Says the LORD your God. – Amos 9:14-15 NASB

These days we are living in today have been talked about more in the Bible than even the prophecies concerning Jesus and his birth, life and death in Israel. In fact, this time we’re living in today have been prophesied more than any other event.

Antisemitism: The Ultimate Act of Hatred

Nothing proves the Bible like the existence of the Jewish people. Their lives, their struggles, their history was laid out beforehand in the Bible as a witness to its authenticity. When someone hates the Jews, they are not hating the Jewish people: They are hating God, and rebelling against the very laws and commandments he gave us. They are truly, and literally, children of their father, the devil.

I would like you to simply consider the plight of the Jewish people, even in light of just the last 100 years. Every nation they have came to, including the United States, they have been a target of hatred and bigotry. They have been hunted, killed, put in concentration camps, blamed of a whole host of misery, and now falsely accused of genocide. Now, read this next passage:

⁶⁵ And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. ⁶⁶ Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. ⁶⁷ In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see. – Deuteronomy 28:65-67 NKJV

When I tell you the history of the Jews was written beforehand, recorded in the Bible, this is not hyperbole; this is a solid fact. Even the holocaust was written beforehand.

Instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench;
Instead of a sash, a rope;
Instead of well-set hair, baldness;
Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth;
And branding instead of beauty.
²⁵ Your men shall fall by the sword,
And your mighty in the war. – Isaiah 3:24-25 NKJV

Martyrdom: Right Here in the U.S.A.

The Bible has come literally true. Christians are universally hated; what an irony! Two major religions exist within the borders of the USA. One religion believes it is acceptable to punish and degrade women for the sole pleasure of the man. They believe women shouldn’t own property, shouldn’t be allowed to choose their own husbands, but should be the property of their fathers. In two horrific circumstances, fathers have been accused of trying to kill their own daughters citing “honor killing” because the daughter had thought to have caused shame to their father. And both events took place not in some 3rd world country, but right here in America.

This religion was spread under threat of the sword. Everywhere it went, Jews were slaughtered without prejudice: other races were told to convert, or face death. It’s leader was a man of war, who was also a pedophile.

The other religion believes that you should treat your neighbor as you yourself would like to be treated. It calls on its followers to love their enemies. The weapon of war is prayer; and its leader told us if a person can’t love their brother whom they have seen, then they can’t love God whom they haven’t seen. Its leader came riding into town not on a horse of war, but a donkey. He was a man of peace and of love.

Guess which one is called ‘a religion of peace’?

Jesus told us specifically, literally and word-for-word what the attitude toward Christians would be in the last days:

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. – John 15:18-20 NKJV

Ella Cook, a young, vibrant, beautiful lady is now dead because of no known reason whatsoever. We may never know the mindset of the depraved person who was responsible for her death. But we do know this: that was not the mind of a moral person who believed in God and cherished his word. This was the mind of someone who had totally, completely rejected God. Just as the Bible says:

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. – Romans 1:28-32 NIV

But I hope her family, and the families of all people who are becoming martyrs, just as the Bible predicts, can take comfort in the fact that right now, they are wearing white robes and see the face of God:

⁹ When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. ¹⁰ They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” ¹¹ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been. – Revelation 6:9-11 NIV

Should We Be Afraid?

If you are not a Christian, you should be freaking-out terrified. The end of this world is coming upon you like darkness in the very last shades of evening. And there is nothing you can do about it, except hide your head in the sand an pretend everything is just normal as it always was. In fact, the majority of you will do just that.

³⁷ “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. ³⁸ In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. ³⁹ People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes. – Matthew 24:37-39 NLT

In fact, you might even be cynical. You might think you’ve heard this all your life. That I’m nothing but a fear monger, trying to scare people into joining this foolish notion of religion and God:

³ Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. ⁴ They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
⁵ They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. ⁶ Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. ⁷ And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed. – 2 Peter 3:3-7 NLT

And what if I were to tell you what awaits the world to come? A nuclear war? God’s ultimate judgement? You tell me.

¹² Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. – Zechariah 14:12 NASB

You Need Not Fear

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” – 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV

Right now, if you are reading this before the rapture of the church, you have an opportunity to escape God’s judgement. But it’s so much more than just an escape. It’s a relationship like nothing else. It is an inner transformation. You will feel the love of God in your heart. Your entire outlook will change, and if it is real, you will lose the fear and dread in your heart. How can you deny the obvious? This entire blog is dedicated to giving example after example, event after event, that God’s word is literally coming to pass.

God would not have put you on this earth just to be lost in judgement. He has made a way for you to escape judgement. See, the problem is, you are incapable of saving yourself from judgement. The punishment for sin is death. Not because God is such a terrible taskmaster who has intentionally set standards so high that no one can comply, but simply because evil cannot stand in the presence of God. It would be like a matter/antimatter explosion, and you would cease to exist. But God has made a way for you to enter into his presence, by letting his son, Jesus take your place for the punishment of sin. You have not only been pardoned, but your record expunged. All you have to do is accept it.

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; ¹⁰ for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. – Romans 10:9-10 NASB