PROPHESY NEWS WATCH

U.S. Consumers Are Doing Exactly What They Did Just Prior To The Crash Of 2008
 
We never seem to learn from our mistakes. Just before the financial markets crashed and the economy plunged into a horrifying recession in 2008, U.S. consumers went on a debt binge of epic proportions. Well, now it is happening again.
Mortgage debt, auto loan debt and credit card debt all skyrocketed, and so when the economy finally crashed all of a sudden there were millions of Americans drowning in bills that they were unable to pay.  

Well, now it is happening again.  According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, during the third quarter of 2022 household debt increased at the fastest pace that we have seen since the first quarter of 2008...
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https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5734

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5721
Sports Star Jailed 10 Months For 'Transphobic' Message Of Creation From Genesis
News Image BY BEN JOHNSON/THE WASHINGTON STAND NOVEMBER 12, 2022
One of the most legendary soccer players of his time received a jail sentence and a fine for posting "transphobic" social media messages citing the Bible's creation account.

"God created Adam and Eve," wrote retired Greek football legend Vassilis Tsiartas in the second of two Facebook posts opposing a law that would have lowered the age to legally change one's gender to 15 and removed other legal barriers.

The 49-year-old initially responded by saying, "I hope that the first sex changes will be made to the children of those who voted for this abomination." Members of Parliament may as well "legalize pedophiles and complete their crimes" against nature, he wrote.

While citing the Book of Genesis, the 18-year soccer standout explained his faith-based objection to extreme gender ideology and the redefinition of marriage. "Anyone can have his preferences whether he is a man or a woman, and I completely respect that.

For me, however, a couple is only a man and a woman, the rest are just together. I'm not going to accept all the weddings, all the parades, and anything else they do as normal," Tsiartas wrote. He said he had no time for anyone who claims "those who don't agree are racists."

Human "dignity," he said, came from a higher power than mankind. "God created Adam and Eve. The rest of gender identities were manufactured for consumption," he concluded.

Tsiartas received a 10-month suspended prison sentence and a suspended fine of 5,000 euros from the Single-Member Misdemeanor Court of Athens. The Transgender Support Association, which brought the lawsuit, called punishing his biblical views "particularly important for the transgender community." Tsiartas plans to appeal the decision.

The ruling marks at least the second time a European court has ruled that biblical values violate the human rights of transgender individuals.

In 2019, a British court ruled that "belief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in transgenderism, and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others." Genesis 1:27, often cited as the cornerstone of human rights, states: "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

"This I understand to be legalese meaning that my belief in God and the dishonesty of using transgender pronouns is akin to Nazism," wrote Dr. David Mackereth, a Reformed Baptist physician who was fired from his job with the UK's Department for Work and Pensions in 2018 for theoretically declining to refer to "any six-foot tall, bearded man" as "madam."

"The teaching of Genesis 1:27 is repeated throughout the Bible, including by Jesus Christ himself," said Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which represented Mackereth. "It is fundamental to establishing the dignity of every human person but is, in a bizarre ironic twist, being branded as incompatible with that dignity."

On June 29, the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that the lower court had erred in saying that Mackereth's "belief in Genesis 1:27 did not amount to a protected characteristic" covered by the freedom of religion secured by the UK's 2010 Equality Act. It also took aim at the lower court's contention that Mackereth's views were "likely to cause offence" to others. "The fact that a belief is likely to cause offence cannot, however, mean that it is automatically excluded from protection," ruled EAT.

But EAT ruled that Mackereth's actions stemmed from his "belief in Genesis 1:27, not the present state of information available" on transgenderism. Ultimately, EAT let his termination stand, saying that Christians have the right to practice their faith, but only if it does not conflict with the "rights" of others, such as LGBTQ provisions.

"I am grateful to the court for recognizing that a belief that we are made by God, both male and female 'in His image' is not incompatible with human dignity," said Dr. Mackereth, while he opposed its decision that religious liberty ranks below other putative rights.

Mackereth announced he will take his case to the Court of Appeal, because "my case affects everyone, not just me and Bible-believing Christians, but anyone who is concerned by compelled speech and transgender ideology being enforced on the NHS and other public services."

"As Christians, we are not trying to be unkind to people in any way. As Christians we are called to love all people with Christian love," Mackereth concluded. "But we cannot love people truly when we live and disseminate a lie."

Ironically, the controversial bill's supporters also invoked God while arguing for its passage. "What God is it that has us take decisions that push children into bullying, humiliation and suicides?" asked left-wing then-Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, promoting a bill the Greek Orthodox Church called "Satanic." Tsipras lost his position in 2019 to the more conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who opposed the measure.

U.S. President Joe Biden has also cited the Bible to argue in favor of transgender injections and surgeries for minors.

Originally published at The Washington Stand - reposted with permission.

The Clock Is Ticking - China Prepares For War
News Image BY MICHAEL SNYDER/END OF THE AMERICAN DREAM NOVEMBER 09, 2022
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https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5717
Chinese President Xi Jinping has just announced that China will be "preparing for war", and that should deeply alarm all of us. Needless to say, nobody is going to be attacking China any time soon. So why would the Chinese need to prepare for war if there is zero chance that they will be attacked?

Unfortunately, the answer is obvious. The only reason China would be engaged in a military conflict any time soon is if it chooses to invade Taiwan. The moment such an invasion is launched, the United States and China will be at war. The Chinese know this, but Chinese President Xi Jinping is going ahead with preparations for war anyway...

China will focus on preparing for war with the country's security 'increasingly unstable and uncertain', President Xi Jinping has declared.

Beijing will now comprehensively strengthen its military training and preparation for any war, Xi said today, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

This is the very first time in decades that China has been on a war footing.

Not too long ago, the Chinese were our new best friends and we were doing all that we could to deepen trading relationships with them.

Now our economy is deeply, deeply dependent on goods from China, and once a military conflict erupts that flow of goods will come to grinding halt.

So let us hope that such a war does not materialize any time soon.

Sadly, it has become exceedingly clear that Chinese President Xi Jinping is strongly considering the option of "reuniting" with Taiwan by force...

Xi's announcement that China will focus on preparing for a war will raise fears that the nation may invade the self-governing island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own.

China, which has the second-largest economy and military in the world, has repeatedly threatened to annex Taiwan by force if necessary.

A lot of people out there seem to assume that a conflict with China is not an imminent threat.

But just last month, the top ranking officer in the U.S. Navy warned that it could come "as soon as this year"...

Last month, US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday warned that China could take Washington and the world by surprise and invade Taiwan as soon as this year.

Amid the military exercises by air and sea of Taiwan's coast, Admiral Gilday said: 'It's not just what Jinping says, it's how the Chinese behave and what they do.

'What we've seen over the past 20 years is that they have delivered on every promise they've made earlier than they said they were going to deliver on it.'

Personally, I don't think that we will see war between the United States and China in 2022.

But 2023 is a very real possibility.

And it turns out that many officials in Japan also see the need to prepare for a coming conflict with China...

If China were to attack Taiwan, it wouldn't just have to face a hostile superpower. It would also likely have to confront its longstanding regional rival, Japan.

For centuries, Japan and China have vied for hegemony in East Asia; at times, they have threatened each other's survival. Today, as I found from three days of meetings with Japanese officials and analysts in Tokyo, the threat of Chinese aggression is producing a quiet revolution in Japanese statecraft -- and pushing the nation to get ready for a fight.

Tensions just continue to intensify month after month.

As I discuss in my brand new book, eventually a breaking point will be reached.

Meanwhile, North Korea and South Korea are also getting closer to war.

In recent days, North Korea has test-fired over 30 missiles, and that includes an ICBM which prompted "an evacuation alert in northern Japan"...

The North has test-fired more than 30 missiles this week, including an intercontinental ballistic missile Thursday which triggered an evacuation alert in northern Japan -- a response to an aerial military exercise between South Korea and the US.

Of course North Korea has test-fired lots of missiles before, but in this case the North Koreans are actually admitting that they just conducted "simulated strikes on South Korea"...

North Korea said on Monday that its recent missile launches were simulated strikes on South Korea and the United States as the two countries held a "dangerous war drill," while the South said it had recovered parts of a North Korean missile near its coast.

War between North Korea and South Korea is coming.

But my personal opinion is that it won't happen until China invades Taiwan first.

Speaking of missile tests, it is being reported that the Russians will soon conduct another test of the new RS-28 Sarmat...

Russia is reportedly plotting to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile for a second time. Moscow first tested the RS-28 Sarmat in April. It is capable of carrying 10 or more warheads and decoys, striking targets at 16,000mph.

Russian politician Aleksey Zhuravlyov previously threatened to use the deadly weapon as Finland and Sweden were poised to join NATO.

He said Satan-II could hit the UK in 200 seconds if fired from Russia's European province, Kaliningrad.

It has been claimed that a single RS-28 Sarmat possesses enough firepower to destroy an area the size of Texas.

The U.S. does not have anything comparable.

In fact, the aging Minuteman missiles that currently form the backbone of the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal are not scheduled to be replaced by something new until some time around 2030.

Unfortunately, the world will look completely different by 2030.

I believe that World War III has already begun, and several new conflicts are likely to erupt over the next 12 months.

In this article I haven't even talked about Israel and Iran. Personally, I think that is probably the most likely conflict to erupt next.

This truly is a time of "wars and rumors of wars", but most people out there still do not understand what is happening.

Originally published at End Of The American Dream - reposted with permission.

Biden: Afghanistan is ‘a godforsaken place. It’s a godforsaken place.’
He needn’t worry. If Trump had said this, he would be getting impeached again right now, but no one will mind when someone who is ideologically correct says something like this. “Remarks by President Biden on the CHIPS and Science Act,” WhiteHouse.gov, November 4, 2022: …You know, a lot of you here are veterans of — of […]

Read more https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/11/biden-afghanistan-is-a-godforsaken-place-its-a-godforsaken-place
2022-11-06 • Robert Spencer


UK: Migrants ‘armed with knives and various other weapons’ cause ‘disturbance’ at migrant center
“Rooms, which can cost up to £200 a night, are filled with arrivals from Afghanistan, Albania, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan.” A massive influx of young Muslim men into Britain. Who could possibly object? They couldn’t possibly cause any disturbance there, right? They’ll be too overcome with gratitude for being taken in, right? And of course […]

Read more https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/11/uk-migrants-armed-with-knives-and-various-other-weapons-cause-disturbance-at-migrant-center
2022-11-06 • Robert Spencer


Pakistan: After shooting, Imran Khan tells followers to wage jihad if prime minister, others aren’t removed
No need for concern. He means the interior spiritual struggle, doesn’t he? Doesn’t he? “Imran Khan’s ‘Jihad’ speech after attack; Pakistan army furious,” New Indian Express, November 5, 2022: The Ex-Pakistan PM alleged that incumbent Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and Major General Faisal Naseer were part of the plan to assassinate him. […]

Read more https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/11/pakistan-after-shooting-imran-khan-tells-followers-to-wage-jihad-if-prime-minister-others-arent-removed
2022-11-06 • Robert Spencer


Sweden: Five Muslim migrants rape young Swedish woman on a playground
Why does this keep happening? Yes, rapes happen all over. But Muslim migrants in Europe are committing them at a rate that is disproportionate to their numbers. Why? One reason may be because such treatment of infidel women is sanctioned in the Qur’an. In France, a Muslim quoted Qur’an while raping his victim. A survivor of a […]

Read more https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/11/sweden-five-muslim-migrants-rape-young-swedish-woman-on-a-playground
2022-11-06 • Robert Spencer

Germany: After knife attack by Somali Muslim migrant, public broadcaster fires journalist for criticizing Somalia
The latest installment in our ongoing series, “The Age of Absurdity”: “‘Somalia is a sh*thole country’ – Following deadly knife attack by migrant, Berlin public broadcaster fires journalist for criticizing Somalia,” by John Cody, ReMix News, October 23, 2022: Two Germans lost their lives at the hands of a Somali migrant in the quiet German […]

Read more https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/11/germany-after-knife-attack-by-somali-muslim-migrant-public-broadcaster-fires-journalist-for-criticizing-somalia
2022-11-06 • Robert Spencer

Islamic Republic of Iran: Youths knocking off turbans of Muslim clerics as part of anti-regime protests
This may seem at first glance to be gratuitous, rude, juvenile, etc. But it must be seen against the backdrop of 40 years of women being harassed, threatened and imprisoned for not wearing hijab. These days I’ve been receiving many videos from inside Iran where schoolgirls & boys knock turbans off clerics as part of […]

Read more https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/11/islamic-republic-of-iran-youths-knocking-off-turbans-of-muslim-clerics-as-part-of-anti-regime-protests
2022-11-06 • Robert Spencer

Islam’s Irrepressible Conflict with LGBT (Part Three)
“…with actual Muslim scholars cowed into silence, the academy yields a crop of ‘progressive’ Muslim profs who teach a deconstructed Islam for the world’s urban progressive elite,” Georgetown University professor Jonathan Brown has tweeted. The December 5, 2020, Twitter thread from this American convert to Islam who has become a leading apologist for all things […]

Read more https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/11/islams-irrepressible-conflict-with-lgbt-part-three
2022-11-06 • Andrew Harrod

Why the Jihadist Hebron Mayor Is Paying Palestinians to Kill Dogs
As Jihad Watch reported Saturday, the Mayor of Hebron, Tayseer Abu Sneineh, has hit upon a way to rid his city of stray dogs. He didn’t give a thought to a humane method of dealing with the problem, by rounding up stray dogs, putting them in kennels and offering them for adoption. Instead, he has […]

Read more https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/11/why-the-jihadist-hebron-mayor-is-paying-palestinians-to-kill-dogs
2022-11-06 • Hugh Fitzgerald


Leftist ‘historian’ claims that if Republicans win Tuesday, ‘we’re on the edge of a brutal authoritarian system’
We are on the edge of a brutal authoritarian system, but it’s quite clearly coming from the likes of Beschloss and his friends, not from those whom they relentlessly defame. “Biden’s Favorite Historian Says GOP Victory in Midterms Means ‘Our Children Will Be Arrested and Conceivably Killed,’” by Anna Allen, Washington Free Beacon, November 4, […]

Read more https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/11/leftist-historian-claims-that-if-republicans-win-tuesday-were-on-the-edge-of-a-brutal-authoritarian-system
2022-11-06 • Robert Spencer

Iran: Khamenei says U.S. not ‘untouchable,’ but ‘very vulnerable,’ no longer world’s dominant power
The entire world can see what Biden’s handlers have wrought. “U.S. Not ‘Untouchable,’ Iran Says,” by Nick Reynolds, Newsweek, November 2, 2022 (thanks to The Religion of Peace): Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday the United States should not be considered an “untouchable” power amid rising geopolitical tensions between the eastern and western […]

Read more https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/11/iran-khamenei-says-u-s-not-untouchable-but-very-vulnerable-no-longer-worlds-dominant-power
2022-11-06 • Robert Spencer


Turkish TV shows map of ‘Turkish Sphere’ in 2050, including Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Greece, Iraq, Turkmenistan, more
You know Turkish elections are around the corner when maps like this show up on tv.They claim that by 2050 the whole region and beyond will be under Turkish control.The best part of all this delirium is that a large number of Turks actually believe it, @RTErdogan relies on this pic.twitter.com/musnhCN1jj — Harry Theocharous (@TheocharousH) […]

Read more https://www.jihadwatch.org/2022/11/turkish-tv-shows-map-of-turkish-sphere-in-2050-including-arabia-egypt-libya-greece-iraq-turkmenistan-more
2022-11-06 • Robert Spencer

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5713
The Shortages Are Coming - Are You Ready?
News Image BY MICHAEL SNYDER/END OF THE AMERICAN DREAM NOVEMBER 07, 2022
Do you remember in early 2020 when they told us that the shortages that we were experiencing would just be temporary? Of course some of them were, but then more shortages just kept on erupting. That wasn't supposed to happen, and now it appears that our supply chain problems could potentially get a whole lot worse.

In just a few short months, we will be three years away from the beginning of the pandemic in the United States. But instead of a "return to normal", more shortages are on the way. And in some cases, they could even be life threatening.

Let me give you an example. We need Amoxicillin to treat some of the most common infections that our children experience. Unfortunately, the FDA is warning us that we are now facing a very serious shortage of Amoxicillin...

Ear infections and strep throat.

Both are common childhood illnesses, for which the go-to prescription is in short supply, according to a recent nationwide alert from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The warning specifically involves the powder, which pharmacists use to mix liquid Amoxicillin for childhood infections.

This is a really big deal.

According to one recent survey, close to two-thirds of all pharmacies in the nation are having difficulty getting Amoxicillin right now, and the national shortage of Adderall is even worse...

Nearly 66% of pharmacies are having challenges obtaining amoxicillin, according to a new National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) survey of 8000 pharmacy owners and managers, whereas 89% are realizing a shortage of Adderall.

Of course we are dealing with lots of other drug shortages at this moment as well.

In fact, according to the official FDA drug shortage list there are nationwide shortages of a whopping 183 different drugs in the United States right now.

We truly are in unprecedented territory.

Up in Canada, things are even worse.

If you can believe it, at this point the Canadians are facing "an acute shortage of basic painkillers"...

The Canadian healthcare system is experiencing an acute shortage of basic painkillers, particularly acetaminophen and ibuprofen, which are commonly used to relieve pain and fever in children during flu season.

Canada's Association of Medical Assistance in Dying Assessors and Providers (CAMAP) chose this perhaps awkward moment to roll out a webinar for healthcare professionals that advised them to offer assisted suicide to their suffering patients.

So why don't the Canadians have enough Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen right now?

Well, we are being told that the primary reason is "a lack of raw ingredients to make the drugs"...

CBC News quoted health officials who blamed "a lack of raw ingredients to make the drugs," "an uptick in respiratory viruses fueled by the relaxed [Chinese coronavirus] measures," and "panic buying" for the shortage of painkillers for children.

As I have covered in previous articles, most of the basic ingredients that go into our pharmaceutical drugs come from China.

So if you think that things are bad now, just wait until war with China erupts.

Once that happens, our pharmacies will get really empty and our entire healthcare system will experience a historic meltdown.

Switching gears, with Thanksgiving coming up I wanted to talk about the fact that we are now facing a nationwide shortage of turkeys...

As CNBC reports, the price of turkey is up 73% from last year, a pretty astonishing figure. Experts attribute it to the bird flu, which has devastated turkey stocks this year. Apparently, the disease normally doesn't flourish during the summer as farmers get their holiday flocks together. But, you know, the 2020s haven't been easy so naturally, the flu hit hard right in the middle of the year when it could do the most damage.

The good news, if you want to call it that, is that you will still probably be able to get a turkey if you are willing to pay enough.

The bad news is that supplies of turkey just keep getting tighter and tighter.

One business owner in San Francisco recently stated that it is "like pulling teeth trying to get turkeys from the companies" at this stage...

But it's not just the Thanksgiving bird that's at risk -- it's your lunchtime turkey sandwich, too. San Francisco delis and butchers are already feeling the effects of the shortage.

"It's like pulling teeth trying to get turkeys from the companies," said Sal Qaqundah, owner of Arguello Market, a San Francisco cult favorite for its "world famous" turkey sandwich.

Unfortunately, we are also facing a shortage of butter in the weeks ahead.

The USDA is urging consumers not to "panic buy" butter so that there will be enough to go around for everyone...

Butter is another area where the war and cost of dairy products has affected supply, as the price of the condiment and baking ingredient has gone up a dollar per pound since January of this year, per Eater. Fearing a full-blown butter shortage, the USDA has asked consumers not to rush or panic buy, but simply secure what they need at a given time, per Best Life.

Did you ever imagine that we would be talking about a butter shortage in late 2022?

Things just keep getting crazier and crazier.

And if the diesel fuel shortages eventually get as bad as some are projecting, we could soon be facing severe shortages of countless products.

Our ships, our trains and our trucks run on diesel fuel.

So if there is not enough diesel fuel, we are going to have a real problem trying to fill up our stores with enough stuff for everybody.

Even now, supplies of diesel fuel are so tight that one big player in the industry just issued a major alert...

A major fuel supply and logistics company is raising a red flag on upcoming diesel fuel shortages.

Mansfield Energy issued the alert Friday stating there was a developing diesel fuel shortage in the southeastern region of the United States. The company speculated that the shortage could be generated from "poor pipeline shipping economies" and a historically low supply of diesel reserves.

"Poor pipeline shipping economics and historically low diesel inventories are combining to cause shortages in various markets throughout the Southeast," the company said. "These have been occurring sporadically, with areas like Tennessee seeing particularly acute challenges."

There are a number of reasons why supplies of diesel fuel have gotten so tight.

But the biggest is the fact that imports from Russia have been totally cut off...

But the primary reason is the cutoff of Russian imports. Prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. was importing nearly 700,000 barrels per day (BPD) of petroleum and petroleum products. Most of those imports were finished products and refinery inputs that boosted distillate supplies in the U.S.

The loss of those Russian imports have caused problems for refineries as they struggle to fill holes in their product slates. Refineries do have a small amount of flexibility in shifting gasoline production to diesel production. But it's a relatively small amount (e.g., ~5% in a refinery I once worked in). That also means that if refiners do shift production, that also potentially creates shortages in the gasoline market.

So why don't we just produce more ourselves?

Well, thanks to our politicians, the number of refineries in the United States has actually been declining in recent years even as our population has grown.

At this point we simply do not have enough refineries, and this is a problem that is not going away any time soon.

In the months ahead, we aren't going to completely run out of diesel fuel as some people out there are suggesting.

But supplies may get so tight that it could potentially create widespread supply chain nightmares that are quite severe.

Let us hope that such a scenario does not materialize.

Because the American people are already angry enough about the economy. In fact, a brand new survey has found that it is the number one issue for U.S. voters at this moment...

The Washington Post and ABC gave Americans eight top issues they will be considering when making their decision in a poll that showed likely voters split between the Democrats and Republicans.

The economy was cited by 26 percent of likely voters as one of the most important factors, followed by abortion with 22 percent and inflation and threats to democracy each by 21 percent.

For decades, we have been able to rely on our supply chains to continuously fill our stores with mountains of cheap goods.

But now our supply chains are breaking down.

In fact, our entire economic system is breaking down and most people are completely and utterly unprepared for the difficult times that are coming.

I know that many of you have been patiently waiting for a long time for life to "return to normal".

Sadly, that isn't going to happen. The incredibly bad decisions that our leaders have been making are now catching up with us in a major way, and a great deal of pain is ahead.

Originally published at End Of The American Dream - reposted with permission.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5708
'Where Is The Promise Of His Coming?' Media Mocks Christian End Time Beliefs
News Image BY MICHAEL SNYDER/END OF THE AMERICAN DREAM NOVEMBER 05, 2022
Are we living in the days just before the return of Jesus Christ to this planet?  

Right now, there is a tremendous amount of chatter about the "end times" all over the Internet.  So many really crazy things are starting to happen all over the world, and many people correctly recognize that we were specifically warned that a lot of these crazy things would happen in the last days.  

For example, in Matthew 24 Jesus specifically told us that there would be "wars and rumors of wars", "famines" and "pestilences" just prior to His return.  As global events continue to spiral out of control, speculation that prophetic events described in the Bible are happening will only intensify even more.

Of course there are plenty of skeptics out there.  In particular, there have been quite a few articles in the mainstream media lately that portray Christians that believe that we are living in the "end times" as a bunch of nuts.

But even though they think that such Christians are crazy, mainstream pundits openly admit that there are lots and lots of people out there that are interested in learning what the Bible has to say about the "end times".  The following comes from a Slate article entitled "Why Growing Parts of the Christian Right Are Convinced It's the Apocalypse"...

If you peruse the list of recent releases in Christian publishing, you'll get the sense that "the end times" are upon us. This summer saw the release of survival guides, books about current events, and prayer manuals all oriented around a rapture, a second coming of Christ, or an otherwise cataclysmic event at the hands of God. (Subtitles included 12 Megaclues That Jesus' Return Is Nearer Than Ever; An End Times Guide to Survival; Do Current Events Point to the Antichrist and His Worldwide Empire?; and Prayer Strategies That Unlock the End-Time Armory of God.)

According to Publishers Weekly, this spate of end-times books is being printed to meet demand. It's what the readers want. (At least some of them; editors at the imprint Harvest Prophecy, which was founded last year, told Publishers Weekly they had seen "a strong surge of interest because there is so much happening in today's world that parallels End-Times signs given in the Bible.")

And survey after survey has shown that a surprisingly high percentage of the U.S. population actually believes that Jesus will come back in the relatively near future.

For instance, a survey that was conducted by the Pew Research Center discovered that 41 percent of all Americans believe that Jesus will "definitely" or "probably" return by the year 2050...

By the year 2050, 41% of Americans believe that Jesus Christ definitely (23%) or probably (18%) will have returned to earth. However, a 46%-plurality of the public does not believe Christ will return during the next 40 years. Fully 58% of white evangelical Christians say Christ will return to earth in this period, by far the highest percentage in any religious group. Only about a third of Catholics (32%) and even fewer white mainline Protestants (27%) predict Christ's return to earth by 2050. One-in-five religiously unaffiliated Americans also see Christ returning during the next four decades.

Many pastors appear to believe that Jesus is coming back soon too.

In fact, a LifeWay survey found that a whopping 56 percent of them "expect Jesus to return in my lifetime"...

According to LifeWay, nearly nine out of 10 pastors see at least some current events "matching those Jesus said would occur shortly before He returns to Earth."

According to the data, 56 percent of pastors either strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement: "I expect Jesus to return in my lifetime." Twenty-four percent said they were "not sure," while 20 percent either strongly or somewhat disagreed.

It is so important for all of us to understand the times that we are living in, because God put us here for a reason.

He could have placed us at any time throughout human history, but He deliberately chose to put us at this specific moment.

All of human history has been building up to a grand crescendo, and we get to be here for it.

And God has a specific role for you to play in this drama.

But if you don't realize what He is trying to do, you could potentially miss out on fulfilling your destiny.

Yes, the years ahead are going to be incredibly challenging.

But they can also be the greatest years of your life if you fully embrace what God is trying to do through you.

From this point forward, Bible prophecy will be the number one tool that we have to turn people to Jesus.

Once people realize that many of the things that are happening in the headlines today were foretold in the Scriptures, everything changes.

I believe that we are on the verge of the greatest move of God and the greatest harvest of souls in all of human history.

I want to be part of that.

Don't you?

We are the Book of Revelation generation, and we get the privilege of preparing the way for the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

There is no other time in all of human history that I would have rather lived than right now.

If what I am sharing is resonating with your heart, then I encourage you to help me get this message out.

There has never been a time like this before, and there will never be a time like it again.

Our world is about to go through immensely painful years, but it is when times are the darkest that the greatest heroes are needed.

And you can be one of those heroes if you understand what God is trying to do and you fully embrace it.

The "end times" are here, and nothing will ever be the same again.

So rise up and become the person that God created you to be, because now is the time for the people of God to move forward in victory.

Originally published at End Of The American Dream - reposted with permission.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5704
3 More Major Wars That Could Suddenly Erupt In 2023
News Image BY MICHAEL SNYDER/END OF THE AMERICAN DREAM NOVEMBER 04, 2022
Are we going to see more war in the months ahead?  Both sides just continue to escalate the conflict in Ukraine, but it may soon have to share top billing as more wars suddenly erupt around the globe.  
Now that it looks like Benjamin Netanyahu will be returning to power in Israel, a major confrontation with Iran is seemingly closer than ever.  Meanwhile, tensions between North Korea and South Korea have risen to the highest level in my entire lifetime.  

Most people don't realize this, but the North Koreans are poised to launch an invasion at all times.  All they need is an opportunity, and that may come when China invades Taiwan.  Chinese President Xi Jinping recently reaffirmed his commitment to "reunification" with Taiwan, and officials in the western world are warning that this could come sooner rather than later.  

As I detail in my brand new book entitled "End Times", we truly are living in a time of "wars and rumors of wars".  Let us hope that the potential wars that I just listed can be delayed for as long as possible, because the death and destruction that they would cause would be off the charts.

Personally, I am so glad that Yair Lapid has been defeated and that Benjamin Netanyahu will be the next prime minister of Israel.

But without a doubt, it also brings war between Israel and Iran much closer.

For years, Netanyahu has pledged that he will never allow Iran to develop their own nuclear weapons...

"Iran has never given up its quest for nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them," Netanyahu said. "I will never allow Iran to obtain the nuclear capability to carry out its genocidal goal of elminating Israel."

Unfortunately, the IAEA says that Iran has now reached a point where they could potentially create their own nukes.

So the clock is ticking.

One way or another, war between Israel and Iran will happen.  That is why any potential provocation should deeply alarm all of us.  For example, the following story was in the news on Wednesday...

The United States and Saudi Arabia are on high alert after Saudi intelligence shared with the U.S. indicated that Iran is expected to carry out an attack on targets in Saudi Arabia, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Officials from both countries reportedly told the Journal about the concern over coming attacks. Saudi officials said that in addition to Saudi Arabia, Iran is also looking to strike Erbil, Iraq, where U.S. troops are located. The planned attacks are said to be intended as a distraction from protests taking place in Iran against the Islamic nation's leadership.

In addition, the Biden administration is extremely upset that Iran has been sending highly advanced weapons to Russia.  In fact, it is being reported that the Iranians are about to send the Russians a whole bunch more...

Iran is preparing to send approximately 1,000 additional weapons, including surface-to-surface short-range ballistic missiles and more attack drones, to Russia to use in its war against Ukraine, officials from a Western country that closely monitors Iran's weapons program told CNN. While the precise timing of when the shipment will arrive in Russia is unclear, officials believe the weapons will definitely be delivered before the end of the year.

The Biden administration absolutely hates the current Iranian regime, and so do the Saudis.

When Israel and Iran finally start going at it, both the U.S. government and the Saudi government will be hoping that the Israelis score a resounding victory.

Speaking of sending weapons to Russia, the U.S. is also accusing North Korea of doing this...

The US is accusing North Korea of secretly supplying Russia with artillery shells for the Ukraine war by concealing where they are being transported to, according to newly declassified intelligence.

US officials believe that the surreptitious North Korean shipments - along with drones and other weaponry that Russia has acquired from Iran - are further evidence that even Moscow's conventional artillery arsenals have dwindled during eight months of combat. North Korea is trying to hide the shipments by making it appear as if the ammunition is being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa, the intelligence says.

As more and more countries get involved, the conflict in Ukraine is truly starting to become a "world war".

But the North Koreans aren't going to get too involved in Ukraine, because a potential war with South Korea is looming.

For the very first time since the Korean War, a North Korean missile has flown "over the de facto inter-Korean maritime border"...

North Korea fired 25 missiles and around 100 artillery shells over the course of about 11 hours on Wednesday, the South Korean military said.

But one North Korean ballistic missile unprecedentedly flew over the de facto inter-Korean maritime border and landed in waters south of the border for the first time since the division of the Korean Peninsula.

In response, the South Korean military fired three missiles from fighter jets toward the north of the inter-Korean maritime boundary to demonstrate its precision-strike capabilities, denouncing the missile launch as a "direct and very serious provocation."

During the Trump years, it seemed like we were making so much progress with North Korea.

But now everything has changed, and the North Koreans are openly threatening to use nuclear weapons against the United States and South Korea...

North Korea issued a veiled threat Tuesday to use nuclear weapons to get the U.S. and South Korea to "pay the most horrible price in history," an escalation of its fiery rhetoric targeting the ongoing large-scale military drills between its rivals.

However, I do not believe that North Korea would actually make a move against South Korea unless China invaded Taiwan first.

Unfortunately, that day appears to be closer than ever.

In fact, the top officer in the U.S. Navy is warning that we are looking at "a 2022 window or potentially a 2023 window" for that to happen...

China could invade Taiwan as early as this year, speeding up naval experts' predictions of a 2027 attack, the Navy's top officer said Wednesday.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said China's 20-year track record of delivering "every promise they've made earlier than they said" indicated the Communist country could try to take Taiwan by force any day now.

"It's how the Chinese behave and what they do," Gilday said during an Atlantic Council event. "So when we talk about the 2027 window, in my mind, that has to be a 2022 window or potentially a 2023 window."

Personally, I don't think that an invasion will take place during the last two months of 2022.

But 2023 is another matter entirely.

Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine continues to escalate.

The Russians have been hitting Ukrainian infrastructure night after night, and at this point much of the country could be heading into winter without any power and without any running water...

Much of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev is without electricity or water, after the latest round of major Russian airstrikes on Monday. The Russian military announced 'successful' strikes on multiple of the country's vital infrastructure facilities.

"The Russian Armed Forces continued to launch strikes with high-precision long-range air and sea-based weapons against Ukrainian military and energy facilities," the Defense Ministry said. "The goals of the strikes were successful. All assigned objects were hit." Meanwhile, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal confirmed direct hits on 18 sites - most of which were connected to the nation's energy supply. These ramped up attacks have created a growing sense of panic with temperatures plunging and winter approaching.

At the same time, western powers just continue to get even more deeply involved in the conflict.

In fact, the U.S. military is now telling us that U.S. troops are on the ground in Ukraine in a limited supporting role...

U.S. military personnel are now on the ground in Ukraine, keeping track of and inspecting weapons the U.S. has shipped to Ukrainian forces, a senior defense official announced during a Pentagon background briefing on Monday. These U.S. personnel are some of the first the Pentagon has acknowledged have entered Ukraine since Russia launched its large scale invasion of the country in February.

The senior defense official who spoke on background during an official Pentagon event, said, "U.S. personnel have recently resumed on-site inspections to assess weapon stocks in country whenever and wherever the security conditions allow." The official said "the return of our defense attaché and Office of Defense Cooperation personnel in country has allowed us to resume this critical function."

So the good news is that there are no U.S. military forces on the front lines yet.

But will that eventually happen?

None of us should want to see U.S. troops and Russian troops directly firing weapons at one another.

Because that would put us dangerously close to a nuclear conflict.

Unfortunately, leaders all over the world are being exceedingly reckless right now, and that should make all of us very nervous.

Originally published at End Of The American Dream - reposted with permission.

Will 2023 Be The End Of The Middle Class?
News Image BY MICHAEL SNYDER/ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG OCTOBER 24, 2022
https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5676
Inflation is systematically destroying our standard of living, and the middle class is shrinking a little bit more with each passing day. The Social Security Administration just released wage statistics for 2021, and the numbers that they have given us are quite stunning.

As you will see below, half of all American workers made less than $3,133 a month last year.

Once upon a time, you could live a very comfortable middle class lifestyle on $3,133 a month. But thanks to inflation, such a wage now puts you just barely above the poverty level. The decisions that our leaders have been making are absolutely eviscerating the middle class, and that should deeply trouble all of us.

You can find the new Social Security Administration wage report right here. The following are some statistics that I pulled out of the report...

-More than 30 percent of all American workers made less than $20,000 last year.

-More than 41 percent of all American workers made less than $30,000 last year.

-More than 52 percent of all American workers made less than $40,000 last year.

-More than 62 percent of all American workers made less than $50,000 last year.

These numbers tell us that most Americans are just barely scraping by, but our leaders want us to buy into the illusion that most people are "doing well" these days.

Of course that isn't even close to the truth.

According to the Social Security Administration, the median wage for 2021 was just $37,586.03...

By definition, 50 percent of wage earners had net compensation less than or equal to the median wage, which is estimated to be $37,586.03 for 2021.

If we were still living in 1980, that would be fine.

But we aren't in 1980 anymore.

In 2022, the poverty level for a household of five in the United States is $31,040.

That means that a worker in the United States making the median wage would be earning just enough to lift a family of five above the poverty line.

If you divide $37,586.03 by 12, that gives you a median monthly wage of $3,132.17.

For purposes of this article, I will round up and call it $3,133.

Half of all American workers make more than that per month, and half of all American workers make less than that per month.

And it is important to remember that this figure is before taxes are taken out.

Ouch.

Meanwhile, the cost of living continues to spiral out of control. Recently, the average rent on a single family home in the United States reached $2,495 a month...

Rent prices for single family homes swelled during the first half of 2022, hitting a national average of $2,495 a month -- a 13.4% increase compared to the same period in 2021, according to a new report from national real estate brokerage HouseCanary.

If you are only earning $3,133 a month and you have to spend $2,495 a month for rent, that leaves you next to nothing for everything else.

For example, all of us have to eat.

But these days a single shopping cart full of food will easily run you more than 300 dollars.

And that is if you are trying to be really frugal.

Gasoline has also become extremely expensive.

All the way back in 1960, a gallon of gas cost just 31 cents.

Today, gas is approaching 7 dollars a gallon in some parts of California.

I could go on and on with more examples of the rapidly rising cost of living. Heating bills are expected to soar this winter, health insurance has gotten absurdly expensive, and new vehicles cost so much that most Americans can no longer afford them.

If things are this bad already, what will conditions be like for the middle class as the economy deteriorates in 2023 and beyond?

The worst housing crash since 2008 has now started, the financial markets are on pace for their worst year since 1969, and big companies all over America are starting to lay off people in large numbers.

Alarmingly, some of the biggest layoffs are actually being conducted by the big tech companies. In fact, we just learned that Microsoft will be laying off approximately 1,000 workers...

Microsoft will lay off about 1,000 employees, the company confirmed Tuesday.

Although it is not confirmed if the layoffs are isolated in gaming divisions, employees who work for Xbox and other Microsoft-owned studios said they were being laid off, the Washington Post reported. Axios first reported the layoffs Monday evening.

At this point, almost everyone can see that a recession is coming.

Even Jeff Bezos, who is usually extraordinarily optimistic, is warning people to "batten down the hatches"...

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos warned America's to 'batten down the hatches' as he shared a tweet warning of a likely impending recession.

Bezos - who is the world's second-richest man - tweeted a video of Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon saying there was a 'good chance' of a downturn.

The Amazon founder - who has a $137 billion fortune - signaled his agreement by captioning the tweet: 'Yep, the probabilities in this economy tell you to batten down the hatches.'

When Jeff Bezos starts sounding like The Economic Collapse Blog, you know that the hour is late.

These days, our impending economic downturn has even become a very hot topic among Hollywood celebrities...

Even non-billionaire-but-still-rich person Gwyneth Paltrow is losing sleep over it.

"The economy sucks," she told the Hollywood Reporter this week. "I'm just worried about next year and how bad the recession's gonna be."

Other celebrities are weighing in, too. Last month, rapper Cardi B ranted about inflation and interest rates. "How are people surviving? I want to know."

If the middle class is steadily eroding during relatively stable times, what is going to happen once the economy really begins to unravel?

There is so much anger all over the United States right now, and the vast majority of the population is simply not prepared for what is ahead.

I have been writing about the demise of the middle class for more than a decade, and the condition of the middle class has never been worse than it is right now.

At one time America had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, and that was a wonderful thing.

But now very dark times for the middle class are here, and there doesn't appear to be much hope on the horizon.

Originally published at The Economic Collapse Blog - reposted with permission.

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12 Reasons Why It Is Impossible To Be Optimistic About The U.S. Economy
Things haven't looked this bad for the U.S. economy since 2008. We are in the midst of the worst inflation crisis in decades, the housing market has started to collapse, some of the largest companies in America have begun laying off workers, and economic activity is slowing down all around us. Of course Joe Biden is telling us that our economy is "strong as hell", but that is just because he wants his party to do well in the upcoming elections.

Ultimately, anyone that takes a truly objective view of things is forced to admit that the outlook for the months ahead is incredibly bleak. The following are 12 reasons why it is impossible for any rational person to be optimistic about the U.S. economy at this point...

#1 According to a recent Gallup survey, two-thirds of Americans believe that economic conditions are getting worse. When such a large proportion of the population starts behaving as though an economic downturn is coming, that actually makes an economic downturn even more likely. So many Americans are starting to hold on to their money more tightly, and that is having lots of ripple effects.

#2 The second largest auto lender in the United States just announced that it "saw charge-offs for retail auto loans quadruple in the third quarter". We are also seeing credit card delinquencies start to rise. We certainly aren't at 2008 levels yet, but we are moving in that direction.

#3 Cargo traffic at the Port of Los Angeles just declined to the lowest level that we have seen since the early days of the pandemic. As I noted earlier, economic activity is beginning to slow down all over the nation. One recent survey discovered that 98 percent of corporate CEOs believe that a recession is coming, and those CEOs are behaving accordingly.

#4 Major retailers such as Walmart and Target have been canceling billions of dollars in orders as they seek to cut back inventory levels. In all my years, I have never seen our largest retailers cancel so many orders just prior to the holiday season. Are they expecting the next couple of months to be a total bust?

#5 Existing home sales just fell to a 10 year low. We all knew that the housing market was going to implode once the Federal Reserve started to aggressively raise interest rates, but at this point that implosion is happening faster than most of the experts had anticipated.

#6 U.S. homebuilder sentiment has declined for 10 months in a row. That is a brand new record. I really feel sorry for you if you are a homebuilder or if you work for one. The months ahead are not going to be pleasant for you.

#7 60,000 real estate deals were called off in the month of September alone. I was stunned when I first saw that number. All over the country buyers are realizing that they agreed to pay too much and are feverishly trying to back out of deals while they still can.

#8 Mortgage demand has plunged to the lowest level in 25 years. Things never even got this bad during the downturn of 2008 and 2009. To me, this is a really troubling sign.

#9 Ian Sheperdson, the chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, is projecting that home prices could fall 20 percent over the next year. Hopefully that will not happen, but there is also a possibility that they could fall even further than that. We will just have to wait and see how rapidly this new crisis plays out.

#10 U.S. diesel inventories have fallen to the lowest level since 2008. This is something that we will want to watch very carefully, because the U.S. economy runs on diesel. Some experts are warning that we could face rationing or shortages in just a matter of weeks.

#11 The core consumer price index has just surged to "the highest level since 1982". Even though the Federal Reserve has been on an insane rate hiking spree, our inflation crisis continues to rage out of control. And as prices continue to soar, our standard of living is being absolutely eviscerated.

#12 A model created by Bloomberg economists Anna Wong and Eliza Winger indicates that there is a 100 percent chance of a recession within the next 12 months. Of course it is entirely possible that their model could be wrong. But without a doubt this is not a good sign.

Right now, even some of our society's most relentless optimists are warning that tough economic times are ahead.

For instance, in a post on Twitter Elon Musk just suggested that we could be suffering through a recession until the spring of 2024...

If Elon Musk is any type of financial prognosticator, the market and economy could be in trouble for more than a year to come.

When prompted in a Twitter thread early on Friday morning, the Tesla CEO said that he thought the current recession would last "probably until spring of '24".

Because he is such an optimist, Musk believes that economic conditions will turn around eventually.

But what if they don't?

What if the "perfect storm" that we are currently enduring ultimately results in the collapse of everything?

Are you prepared for such a scenario?

Previous generations of Americans handed us the keys to the most prosperous economy that the world has ever seen.

But instead of managing it carefully, we have piled up the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the planet, we have transformed Wall Street into the globe's largest casino, and we have systematically destroyed the reserve currency of the world.

Thanks to a very long series of incredibly foolish decisions by our leaders, we are now facing a war with Russia, a collapse of the housing market, a global food crisis, a global inflation crisis and a worldwide financial meltdown simultaneously.

The entire system is starting to crumble all around us, but most people still believe that things will "return to normal" at some point.

Personally, I would love to see things "return to normal", but unfortunately it appears that is not likely to happen any time soon.

Originally published at The Economic Collapse Blog - reposted with permission.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5645
Your Next Pain Will Be Soaring Electricity Costs As Energy Crisis Spreads
News Image BY TYLER DURDEN/ACTIVIST POST OCTOBER 11, 2022
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One central theme that comes to mind is the impact of higher natural gas prices and, by extension, power prices. 

Americans will soon see higher gasoline prices at the pump because of OPEC+ production cuts slated for next month. 

Many folks will also see their electricity bills rise this winter because NatGas generators power a large percentage of the country's grid. This is a double whammy for hundreds of millions of Americans ahead of the midterm elections in about a month -- as Democrats scramble to find solutions to tame the energy crisis.

From the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipeline system in the Baltic Sea (in NATO's backyard) to reduced Russian NatGas flows to Europe to soaring US liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Europe, NatGas markets will be very tight everywhere this winter.

"With US gas storage finishing this summer well below average levels, and lower than what we expected previously owing to strong power burns, we believe there is a mispricing of this upside risk to gas prices in the near-term," Goldman Sachs commodity analyst Samantha Dart wrote in a note to clients last month.

Dart revised her Winter 2022-2023 forecast up to $7.75/mmBtu from the previous $6.93/mmBtu on renewed tightening fears, and her view of US LNG exports will be higher. The Freeport LNG outage is expected to be resolved next month, increasing LNG exports to the EU.

Prices of NatGas are trading about 94% higher than at the start of the year and 370% higher than the 2020 lows.

This means that power generation units at utilities will be even more expensive to operate and pass along costs to end users.

"We're looking at fairly high gas prices, so all things equal, electricity prices should be higher as well," Sarah Emerson, managing principal at ESAI Energy, told Yahoo Finance. "We're going to have a pretty strong winter for prices."

A recent National Energy Assistance Directors Association forecast said the average US household heating bill is expected to increase by 17.2%.

"The rise in home energy costs this winter will put millions of lower-income families at risk of falling behind on their energy bills and having no choice but to make difficult decisions between paying for food, medicine and rent," said Mark Wolfe, executive director of NEADA.

And even before the cold season begins, there are 20 million households behind on their power bills. Now power companies are renegotiating power contracts with households, increasing the price per kilowatt substantially.

A double whammy at the gas pump and utility bill should stoke discontent with many Americans who've been battered by high inflation under the Biden administration as the Federal Reserve attempts to quell high prices with aggressive interest rate hikes that could plunge households into even more financial chaos by stoking a 2023 recession. 

What a mess the elites in Washington have caused.

Originally published at Activist Post - reposted with permission.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5640
 To Nuke Or Not To Nuke? What Will Putin Do?
News Image BY LT. GEN. (RET.) WILLIAM G. BOYKIN/THE WASHINGTON STAND OCTOBER 07, 2022
On September 30, Russia's President Vladimir Putin declared once again that he would use "all available means" to defend Russian territory. The New York Times reported:

Mr. Putin reminded the world of President Harry S. Truman's decision to drop atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 77 years ago, adding, 'By the way, they created a precedent.' On Saturday, the strongman leader of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said Mr. Putin should consider using 'low-yield nuclear weapons' in Ukraine, becoming the first prominent Russian official to openly call for such a strike.

With this latest threat in mind, it is noteworthy that days before Russia's initial invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, President Vladimir Putin was personally overseeing military exercises with Belarus -- exercises that were blatantly nuclear in nature.

On February 18, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko announced his willingness to join Vladimir Putin in strategic nuclear drills, a day after annual strategic drills of nuclear-capable missiles were to take place "under the supervision of Russian armed forces supreme commander-in-chief, Vladimir Putin."

Those well-publicized nuclear exercises happened just six days before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, launched on February 24. At the time, Putin authorized "special military operations," and Russian forces began missile and artillery attacks, striking major Ukrainian cities including Kyiv.

The earlier military exercises in Belarus -- which flaunted nuclear capabilities -- was Putin's way of psychologically preparing his enemies for the Ukraine invasion. In the weeks and months to follow, he has repeatedly employed nuclear threats and insinuations to bolster his power. Notably, he has immediately put those nuke threats to use when things aren't going his way.

Putin has continued to use such words as "escalating" and "provocative" to describe Ukraine's military operations, intentionally triggering fears of his own potentially deadly responses. And while many observers have implied that Putin is bluffing about nukes, or that he would not dare to use the weapons he has at his disposal -- both strategic and tactical -- Putin's threats should be taken seriously. 

There are three countries concerned with this conflict that have both strategic and tactical nuclear weapons: Britain, France, and the United States. If Russia employed any kind of a nuclear weapon in a NATO or EU country, or close enough to a border to cause harm, that action would activate NATO Article 5: all NATO countries are obligated to respond in unity when one is attacked. Putin knows this would instigate a nuclear response.

The only time Article 5 has been invoked was in September 2001, following the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Likewise, if Russia initiated a nuclear attack on Ukraine, due to the proximity of several NATO countries' vulnerability to radiation fallout, a collective defense would be unique and enduring. In fact, it would be the preferred course of action.

First of all, it is obvious to all concerned -- including Vladimir Putin -- that the use of a strategic nuclear weapon would lead to the destruction of Moscow, followed by an unimaginable conflict costing the lives of millions around the world. And Putin knows that nobody would win.

But what about the use of a tactical nuke? These are weapons for localized use, targeting military formations, ammunition depots or command and control centers. They would be launched by use of bombs, short-range missiles, artillery tubes, land mines, depth charges, and torpedoes equipped with nuclear warheads.

"If the Russians have it in their arsenal as a conventional weapon, you can be pretty safe in assuming it has a nuclear warhead that goes with it," said an unidentified former senior National Security Council official, who still advises U.S. Strategic Command. "Almost every single weapon the Russians have is nuclear-capable. If it's an artillery system, if it's an air-defense system, if it's a torpedo, if it's a cruise missile, it could have a nuclear warhead with it."

So, would Putin launch such an attack? And if he wanted to, would the people around him permit him to do so? They know what is at stake also and have a lot to lose in a conventional nuclear exchange. What about the oligarchs that support Putin, who are also wealthy people with interests of their own? Could they stop him?

The fact is that if Putin uses any kind of nuclear weapon -- even a tactical one -- the war is over and he will have lost. The use of tactical nuclear weapons would most likely cause the drift of radiation across borders into NATO countries. This would prompt an immediate Article 5 response. Subsequently, faced with a combined force of NATO assets -- a missile and/or drone attack along with the massive use of conventional weapons dropped from NATO aircraft -- Putin's army would be pulverized, including his army in Crimea.

Russia has 4,477 total nuke warheads. Among those thousands, we know that some 1,900 are tactical, low yield and not strategic. They could be used to attack a column of tanks, an aircraft carrier group, or many other specific targets. Meanwhile, 600-800 are strategic and could destroy entire cities. Putin clearly has weapons available to him. But is it credible that he would actually use a nuke? Or, as many hopefully imply, is he bluffing?

It is clear that in the days before he officially launched his Ukraine invasion, Putin made specific and intentional preparations to upscale his image as a nuclear player. He did so fully intending to intimidate the west with potential Russian nuclear activity. The military Belarus exercises were blatantly nuclear in nature, providing Putin with a means of bullying and otherwise threatening his foes with devastating destruction -- which he has continued to do. But again, is this just part of his propaganda campaign?

Today we know little about Putin's present state of mind or level of emotional vulnerability. How desperate might he become as he watches failure after failure of his once-vaunted army and his supposedly invincible battle plans? 

The best we can do now is continue to protect Ukraine. Because, despite his saber-rattling and nuclear warnings, it is likely Vladimir Putin would make careful calculations before taking such dire action. If not, he surely knows that he will be faced with non-stop retaliation and unimaginable destruction.

Originally published at The Washington Stand - reposted with permission.

The cost of living is going nowhere but up. Everyone has been touched by skyrocketing inflation, high fuel prices, and the availability of certain supplies. And now, we're facing a massive energy crisis. We've seen the signs for a while but theory is quickly becoming reality.
Energy prices in Europe have catapulted to dizzying heights, leaving some folks facing bills of up to $10,000. And the United States is not untouched. Prices for power are already escalating here. Anecdotally, my own utility bill for September was double the price of my bill for August, and I used less energy. This upward trend is growing more common if my inbox is any indication.
But it isn't just the price of essential utilities like heating and cooking that are going to be affected. The price and availability of food will be affected as well. We're about to get handed a food crisis.
MORE Manufacturers can't afford to produce food.
https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5636


NY Judge: The 'Time Has Arrived' To Legalize Polygamy
News Image BY TONY PERKINS/THE WASHINGTON STAND OCTOBER 05, 2022
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A funny thing happened to the Democrats' same-sex marriage bill on its trip from the House to the Senate: people actually started reading the legislation. When they did, an uncomfortable reality set in -- nothing in the text explicitly outlawed polygamy. It was just a "drafting error," the more liberal senators claimed. But it wasn't a "drafting error" when a New York judge recognized polyamory late last month. How much longer until the party who wants "love" to be the legal basis for every relationship follows suit?

The decision by trial court judge Karen May Bacdayan should have been frontpage news. After all, she essentially gave New York's blessing to polyamorous unions in her September decision, declaring that "... the problem with [previous same-sex marriage rulings] is that they recognize only two-person relationships." 
At the heart of the case was an apartment dispute, triggered when a tenant, who had a gay spouse living elsewhere, died. The landlords argued that the man he did live with didn't have a right to renew the lease because the two weren't married. When the roommate objected, arguing that he was a "non-traditional family member," the judge decided to hold a hearing on whether all three were romantically involved.
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End Of Free Speech? New Zealand Says Govt Alone To Be Single Source Of Truth
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been blasted for comparing free speech online to "weapons of war" in a recent speech to the U.N. that critics called "authoritarian."
"How do you successfully end a war if people are led to believe the reason for its existence is not only legal but noble," she said last week.
"How do you tackle climate change if people do not believe it exists? How do you ensure the human rights of others are upheld, when they are subjected to hateful and dangerous rhetoric and ideology?"
Ardern acknowledged that taking away free speech is a threat to society. But, she argued that disinformation is just as dangerous and, therefore, censorship is justifiable.
Ardern further connected free speech to war and chaos, suggesting censorship brings peace and order.
"The weapons may be different but the goals of those who perpetrate them is often the same. To cause chaos and reduce the ability of others to defend themselves. To disband communities. To collapse the collective strength of countries who work together."
Last year, Ardern said any information people seek regarding COVID-19 and vaccines should be directly from her government and no one else.
"We will continue to be your single source of truth. We will provide information frequently. Everything else you see, a grain of salt."
"Unless you hear it from us, it is not the truth," she added.
MORE https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5634


School Teaches Kids How To Keep Transgender 'Identity' A Secret From Parents
News Image BY JONATHON VAN MAREN/BRIDGEHEAD.CA OCTOBER 05, 2022
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Christopher Rufo is one of a handful of activists - along with Matt Walsh, Katy Faust, Laila Mickelwait, Libs of Tiktok, and a handful of others - who is proving that it is possible to successfully launch a movement opposed to the sexual revolution. His reporting consistently exposes how far the rot of gender ideology has spread inside the public school system, and his journalism regularly attracts attention from the authorities.

In his latest viral report, Rufo published a guidebook released by the San Francisco Unified School District "encouraging teachers to facilitate secret child transitions and to affirm students who use the gender pronoun 'it' at school - which, the district says, is the gender-identity version of the 'n-word.'"

Rufo, as usual, presents his receipts in a Twitter thread replete with screenshots that prove his allegations. "The district teaches students that they can diverge from 'vanilla sexuality' and become part of the 'bisexual umbrella,' with sexual identity options including 'fluid,' 'pansexual,' 'omnisexual,' 'homo-curious,' and 'hetero-flexible.," Rufo noted. 
MORE https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5633

Breaking News Updates - October 01, 2022
 
'Biden Bucks': The Dangers Of Digital Currency
Increased government control over the monetary system goes hand-in-glove with the social score concept famously wielded by the Chinese Community Party. Anything and everything that requires an exchange of currency can be monitored, and transactions can be denied for currently legal but politically incorrect purchases.
In Biden's vision, digital currency will "advance democracies to lift people up, not to hold them down." Naturally, digital currency is being offered as a "solution" to problems we never realized we had. It's touted as far more efficient, easy, environmentally beneficial and even more sanitary than paper currency. With digital currency, gone are the troublesome days when cash must be printed or minted. Now the government can flood the system with untold trillions of digital dollars at the push of a button. Now that's efficiency!
But despite whatever pretty words they use, there is no question digital currency is a horror show waiting to happen.
 READ MORE https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5628

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5620
 Eat Or Heat? Europeans Already Facing Previously Unthinkable Dilemmas
News Image BY CLAUDIO GRASS/ACTIVIST POST SEPTEMBER 27, 2022
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As the citizens of the European Union and the United Kingdom are increasingly struggling to make ends meet due to record levels of inflation, and as the winter draws closer, a serious cost-of-living crisis is set to spiral out of control. Skyrocketing energy costs, combined with galloping prices for food and other essential goods and services are bound to erase whatever was left of the "middle class."

Households that were once comfortable, and even had some savings aside, have been placed under severe financial duress already during the summer, and, unfortunately, the worst is yet to come. In what has been dubbed the "eat or heat" crisis, we can expect to see the situation deteriorate even further in the coming months, a development that could have critical and far-reaching implications beyond economics.

For those with unfailing memories and an attention span befitting an adult, it will not be hard to recall the assurances of politicians and central bank officials at the end of last year, that inflation was "transitory" and that anyone who said otherwise was a politically motivated alarmist. As is abundantly evident today, and has been for months, all these statements were entirely wrong; a "mistake" made either through sheer ignorance and professional incompetence, or through malicious intent and professional mendacity.

Either way, the result was the same. The public was misled, and they believed all the self-congratulatory messages about how the actions of central planners of all kinds "defeated covid," "avoided a recession" and were getting us all "back on track to economic growth and prosperity." 

So, they trusted their rulers and very few anticipated what was just around the corner; even fewer successfully prepared for it. In fact, even today, most citizens still fail to realize that it was these actions that brought them to the untenable financial position they find themselves now.

And thus, once consumer prices started picking up in earnest and consistently, most households were at a loss as to how to respond and whom to blame. Most governments reacted the same way. They directed public anger elsewhere, pointing the finger at Russia and blaming Vladimir Putin for the out-of-control increases in food prices and soaring electricity costs.

And as for "practical" solutions to the problem, with the benchmark European gas price having exploded over 550 percent over the past twelve months, central planners came up with a series of absurd policies, ranging from the inane to the comical. From imposing temperature limits on public buildings and swimming pools, to encouraging male workers to come to work without a tie in the summer months. 

The most counterproductive of all approaches, of course, was the one most European states adopted: giving cash to citizens to pay their bills. In other words, politicians have been trying to keep their favorability ratings up by making a problem worse, which is hardly surprising.

Still, the problem stubbornly remained and eventually got worse. In August, eurozone inflation hit another record high at 9.1 percent, with no sign of abating and projections growing more and more confident that it will surpass 10 percent in the coming months. In the UK, the situation is even more dire, with Goldman Sachs warning that it could exceed 22 percent in January. 

And the most worrying part of it all is that these record price jumps are only the tip of the iceberg. They are calculated using extremely biased and inaccurate formulae, heavily skewed to underestimate real inflation, the financial pain people actually feel on their daily lives. The reality on the ground is much worse.

In Germany, where inflation climbed to a forty-year high of 8.8 percent in August, nearly three million children now live in poverty, a number that soared since last spring, according to children's charity Arche. As its founder, Bernd Siggelkow, pointed out, in Europe's economic powerhouse, "more and more people are coming to us, asking for support. It seems that nobody will do anything until a child dies of hunger in Germany."

In Italy, more and more bars and restaurants are putting their gas and electricity bills on public display, to show customers the stress they have been under, and the choices they are facing between hiking their own prices or going out of business. In Greece, where inflation now stands at a twenty-nine-year high, rent has climbed to levels that already threaten many families with homelessness. 

Having seen a surge in longer-term tourists with a lot of covid money to spend on longer vacations, apartments in Athens have become unaffordable for locals. The government handouts to low-income Greeks have only made the situation worse, triggering bidding wars that fuel the rent rises.

As for what comes next, one can only imagine how dire these pressures can become once winter sets in. The energy crisis is set to escalate massively, not only because of the expected increase in demand, but also because of further supply disruptions. While it didn't create the problem, the Ukraine-Russia conflict certainly exaggerated it, and now Europe finds itself in a very unenviable position.

Serious concerns are on the rise that Russia's Gazprom, which routinely shuts down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for maintenance reasons, might simply not open it up again one day. Whether this is a credible threat or not is really beside the point, as the fear alone has proven to be more than enough to wreak havoc with the markets and send volatility to record highs.

Also, efforts to restart long-demonized nuclear power plants have been largely insufficient. After years of cutting funds and attempting a premature transition to "green energy," which couldn't begin to cover the needs of the population, politicians are slowly recognizing that power plants don't have "on/off" switches one can simply flick when they realize they made a mistake.

Businesses already have been warned they might have to halt operations in the winter because of expected shortages and households are already making daily sacrifices in food and other necessities to be able to afford heating over the coming months. These pressures appear primed to translate to political and social tensions. As we can see already from the UK leadership race, the main topic of public interest is the cost-of-living crisis.

What happens next is anyone's guess but we could experience some of the most significant change in Europe since WW2.  Will Europeans cry out for someone to save them?  Will this set the stage for the rise of Antichrist?  Stay tuned.

Originally published at Activist Post - reposted with permission.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5616
Economic Collapse Has Arrived In Germany. Will The U.S. Be Close Behind?
News Image BY MICHAEL SNYDER/ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG SEPTEMBER 24, 2022
Things are starting to get really crazy in Germany.  The Germans are dealing with the worst inflation crisis that they have seen since the days of the Weimar Republic, and meanwhile economic activity is starting to shut down all over the nation.  Of course other European countries are facing similar problems, but Germany was supposed to be the economic rock that the rest of Europe could always depend upon.  

Unfortunately, the decision by the Russians to cut off the flow of gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline is hitting Germany extremely hard.  If we could just get both sides to agree to end the war in Ukraine, that would greatly help matters, but that simply isn't going to happen.  In fact, it appears that Vladimir Putin has decided to greatly escalate matters, and the western powers will inevitably greatly escalate matters in response.  

What this means is that the economic turmoil that we are witnessing in Europe isn't going anywhere any time soon.

This week, we got some inflation numbers out of Germany that are so high that it is difficult to believe that they are actually real...

German producer prices rose in August at the fastest rate since records began in 1949, data released by the Federal Statistical Office showed today, pointing to a further increase in consumer prices.

Producer prices of industrial products rose by 45.8 percent compared to the same month of last year. Compared to July 2022, prices rose 7.9 percent.

Soaring energy prices on the back of Russia's war against the Ukraine remain the main driver behind rising prices.

If we continue to see monthly increases of around 8 percent, next year at this time we could be talking about a yearly jump of close to 100 percent.

Wow.

How bad do things have to get before we actually start using the term "hyperinflation"?

Energy prices are the biggest reason why inflation has gotten completely out of control, and the German government has been forced to nationalize a huge natural gas company in order to keep it from going under...

The German government is closing in on an agreement to nationalize gas giant Uniper SE, as Berlin moves to stave off a collapse of the country's energy sector.

A provisional agreement between the government, Uniper and its main shareholder, Finland's Fortum Oyj, has been reached, according to people familiar with the situation. While contracts haven't been signed, Berlin is aiming for an announcement later this week.

According to the CEO of Uniper, the company has been losing about 100 million euros a day during this crisis.

Needless to say, the German government cannot save everyone, and so a lot of firms won't survive this crisis at all.

For example, a manufacturer that has been making toilet paper for Germans for nearly 100 years is now headed into insolvency...

Hakle has been a German household name since 1928, but the Duesseldorf-based toilet paper manufacturer said all it took was this summer's gas price shock to drive it into insolvency.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

According to the German central bank, the nation is moving into a "broad-based and prolonged decline in economic output"...

"Economic activity may pull back somewhat this quarter and shrink markedly in the autumn and winter months," the central bank said, adding that it didn't forecast this adverse scenario in a June report.

Bundesbank continued: "There are mounting signs of a recession in the German economy in the sense of a clear, broad-based and prolonged decline in economic output." It said a contraction is expected in the third quarter with deeper declines in economic activity in the fourth.

"High inflation and uncertainty with regard to energy supply and its costs affect not only the gas and electricity-intensive industry and its export business and investments, but also private consumption and the service providers dependent on it," the central bank said.

You can refer to such a scenario as a "recession" or a "depression" if it makes you feel better.

I call it an economic collapse.

The U.S. economy will soon be experiencing immense turmoil as well.

According to billionaire Barry Sternlicht, the Fed's exceedingly foolish policies are pushing us toward a "serious recession"...

In an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday, Barry Sternlicht, the chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital, said he believes Americans are facing a major recession if the Federal Reserve proceeds with several more rate hikes as a means of curbing inflation, which is reportedly the central bank's plan.

"The economy is braking hard," Sternlicht told the financial news outlet, according to the Daily Caller. "If the Fed keeps this up, they are going to have a serious recession and people will lose their jobs."

He is right on target, but instead of saying "people will lose their jobs" he should have noted that lots of people are already being laid off.  This is something that I have been documenting on my website for quite some time, and this week we learned that Gap has decided to lay off hundreds of corporate workers...

Gap Inc. is cutting about 500 corporate jobs as the clothing retailer struggles with declining sales.

The job cuts, which include open positions, will be primarily at Gap's offices in San Francisco, New York and Asia and hit various departments, a representative for the retailer confirmed Tuesday. The moves were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Ouch.

In this environment, very few workers are truly safe.

At this point, even the entertainment industry is letting lots of people go...

The struggling TV and film industry continues to run face first into bad news. This week it was reported that Warner Bros. Discovery was firing 100 TV ad salespeople at the same time that Paramount has considered ending offering Showtime as a standalone service, Bloomberg reported.

Netflix followed suit with their own layoffs, the report says. The company has reportedly let go hundreds of employees and abandoned some of its office space. At the same time, the firm's stock price has collapsed and fallen more than 60% from its all time highs.

Back in 2008 and 2009, millions of Americans lost their jobs.

Will we see something similar in the months ahead?

And just like during "the Great Recession", the housing market is really starting to slow down.  In fact, we just learned that homebuilder confidence has now fallen for nine months in a row...

The confidence of builders of single-family houses fell again in September, the ninth month in a row of declines, "as the combination of elevated interest rates, persistent building material supply chain disruptions, and high home prices continue to take a toll on affordability," the NAHB report said.

With today's index value of 46, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index is now below where it had been in May 2006, on the way down into the Housing Bust.

This time around, it won't just be a few areas of the planet that suffer.

At this moment we are literally witnessing economic implosions all over the planet, and the stage is being set for an immensely painful 2023.

The one thing that could really turn things around would be peace.

Unfortunately, global leaders on both sides seem absolutely determined to drag us into the type of cataclysmic global conflict that I have been warning about for years.

So there isn't going to be peace, and that means that things are going to get really bad in 2023 and beyond.

But I also believe that you were put at this specific moment in history for a reason.

It is when times are the darkest that the greatest good can be done, and that is something that we will all need to remember during the very dark times in front of us.

Originally published at The Economic Collapse Blog - reposted with permission.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5612
Divine Coincidence? Red Heifers Arrive In Israel Before New Shmita Cycle Begins
News Image BY MICHAEL SNYDER/END OF THE AMERICAN DREAM SEPTEMBER 22, 2022
A major prophetic event just happened, and hardly anyone in the United States is talking about it.  

In recent years a group of western Christians known as Boneh Israel has been working with officials from the Temple Institute to search for a perfect red heifer.  A red heifer is necessary if Temple sacrifices are to be reinstituted, but one hasn't been seen in Israel for more than 2,000 years.  

This is something that I have written about a few times over the years, because it directly relates to end times prophecies.  For a long time, the search for a perfect red heifer seemed to be going nowhere, but now all of that has changed.  

On September 15th, five perfect red heifers from the United States landed at Ben Gurion Airport.  The following comes from the official website of the Temple Institute...

On Thursday, September 15, 2022, 5 PM, 5 perfect, unblemished red heifers arrived in Israel from the USA. A modest ceremony was held at the unloading bay of the cargo terminal at Ben Gurion airport, where the new arrivals were greeted and speeches were made by the incredible people who have put their hearts and souls and means into making this historic/prophetic day become a reality.

It would be difficult to overstate the prophetic importance of this event.  In Numbers 19:1-10, we read about the very first time that the ashes of a red heifer were used...

And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

2 This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:

3 And ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face:

4 And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times:

5 And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn:

6 And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.

7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even.

8 And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even.

9 And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of separation: it is a purification for sin.

10 And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even: and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever.

For ages, we have been told that the ashes of a red heifer would be required before Temple sacrifices could be resumed in Jerusalem.

And a few Jewish sources are even suggesting that some ancient practices could be resumed even before a new temple is constructed now that they have these red heifers...

According to rabbis and leaders in the Orthodox community, these heifers could be used to reinstate many of the practices of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, even before the 3rd Temple is rebuilt.

Could it be possible that a tabernacle could be set up during the time that a new temple is being built?

That is certainly something to think about.

In any event, the stage is being set for the time when the Antichrist will step in and cause sacrifices to cease halfway through the Tribulation period.

The reason why it has been so difficult to locate an acceptable red heifer until just recently is because the requirements are so strict.

First of all, an acceptable red heifer had to be unblemished.

But here in the western world, we tag the ears of calves when they are born, and the tagging creates a blemish.

Fortunately, there was a rancher in Texas that was aware of this requirement and did not tag the ears of his calves when red heifers were born.

In addition, according to Jewish tradition more than two non-red hairs would disqualify a calf.

There have been times when a calf is born 100 percent red but then develops black or white hairs as it grows older.

So that is a problem.

To determine whether a heifer is acceptable or not, a rabbi literally goes over every inch with a magnifying glass.

There are other requirements as well, but there is one in particular that I want to mention.

The red heifers that were delivered to Israel are all between five and eight months old.

But according to Jewish tradition, they must be two years and one day old to be used in a red heifer ceremony.

So they will be raised in Israel until they reach the appropriate age.

And that also means that the clock is ticking.

It will be some time in 2024 when these five red heifers reach the key age, and they must be used then or they won't be able to be used at all.

That means that it is very, very likely that we will actually see a red heifer ceremony in Israel in 2024 for the first time in more than 2,000 years.

And I think that it is very interesting that these red heifers have arrived in Israel just as Jewish leaders are preparing for the beginning of a new Shemitah cycle.

According to Jewish tradition, a new seven year Shemitah cycle will start at sundown on September 25th.  At that moment, literally the entire nation of Israel will shut down as Rosh Hashanah begins.

Will this be the Shemitah cycle when we see sacrifices in Jerusalem resume once again?

If so, will this also be the Shemitah cycle when the Antichrist steps in and puts an end to those sacrifices?

It should also be noted that we are also waiting for the discovery of the Ark of the Covenant to be announced.  This is something that I discussed in my most recent book, and I think that it is likely that such an announcement could take place on or around a major Biblical festival.

Many belive the Ark has been silently waiting under Jerusalem all these years, and once Jewish officials announce that it has been discovered that will greatly accelerate the need for either a tabernacle or a temple to house it.

Meanwhile, tensions continue to rise on the Temple Mount, and Israeli officials are anticipating that there will be more violence during the upcoming holidays...

A leading security official from Israel's National Security Council said on Thursday that the Hamas terror group, which has strengthened its foothold in Jerusalem in recent years, is attempting to spark a major conflict on the Temple Mount which could escalate into a widescale conflict.

"There are constant efforts by Hamas and other terror groups to escalate tensions and create a narrative that Al Aqsa Mosque [located on the Temple Mount] is in danger and to turn Jerusalem into an explosive detonator," Eyal Hulata, the head of the NSC, said during a conference at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) in Herzliya.

Hulata's warning comes after Israeli intelligence officials recommended that Prime Minister Yair Lapid raise the country's terror alert level to the highest tier possible ahead of the upcoming Jewish holidays.

We live in such "interesting" times, and I have a feeling that they will only get even more "interesting" in the days ahead.

I will definitely be on "high alert" during the Biblical festivals this year, and I believe that we should all be watching Israel very closely.

So much is happening all at once, and I believe that many prophecies will now start to be fulfilled in rapid succession.

Originally published at End Of The American Dream - reposted with permission.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5606
Did The Bible Predict Drone Swarm Technology?
News Image BY PNW STAFF SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
While unmanned aerial vehicles such as the multi-million dollar General Atomics MQ-1 Predator are armed with missiles, a new generation of inexpensive "kamikaze" drones is reshaping the battlefield.

The US military worries that these low-cost and deadly-effective drones could shift the global strategic balance away from the US on the modern battlefield.

To counter such emerging threats, the Army decided to conduct a field training exercise involving "a swarm of 40 quadcopters all equipped with cameras, MILES, and lethal munition," tweeted the Commanding General of the National Training Center and Fort Irwin.

The startling video (tweeted on Sunday evening) shows the quadcopters zooming by what appears to be a makeshift desert town.

"Drones will be as important in the first battle of the next war as artillery is today," the Army's Twitter account concluded.

The weaponization of such drones is even more powerful as some have been turned into suicide drones.

The Pentagon has supplied Ukraine with over 700 Switchblade "kamikaze" military drones. The future of warfare appears to be clear to the Army: small suicide drones for precision strikes will be necessary on any modern battlefield.

Several other militaries have been working on developing Artificial Intelligence that allows the drones to work together without the need for an operator.

The basic idea of a drone swarm is that its machines are able to make decisions among themselves.

The swarm continue its mission, even if loses some drones during its mission.

The machine learning system is fed with data sourced from satellites, other reconnaissance drones, and aerial vehicles, as well as intelligence collected by ground units. 

China is one of the nations leading the charge on the development of drone swarm technology.  Some reports indicate that China has successfully tested a swarm of one thousand drones. And China appears to be interested in swarm capability as a method of attacking US aircraft carriers. 

Several test simulations by the US Navy have shown that drone swarms are consistently able to get past ship defenses that are geared towards shooting down single planes. This weakness means it makes sense to attack an enemy ship with a large number of cheap drones rather than one missile costing the same. 

Ironically, the best counter to drone swarm attacks being studied is a defensive drone swarm that can intercept the offensive ones, thus creating a virtual drone swarm war.

Some prophecy watchers find it interesting that the Bible describes "locust" type creatures that play a significant role in end-time conflict.  Revelation 9 describes them this way:

"The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were something like crowns of gold, and their faces were like faces of men. They had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running to battle. They had tails like scorpions and stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men for five months. They had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek his name is Apollyon." (Revelation 9:7-11).

What on earth was the Apostle John talking about? Exactly what kind of locusts did he witness on the Isle of Patmos where he received these prophetic revelations? 

The traditional interpretation is that these locusts could be evil entities and/or demonic physical or spiritual beings that will rise up out of the bottomless pit (abyss) to torment people and assume the characteristics of locusts.

Others speculate they may be some form of grotesque variation of natural locusts as we know them today (perhaps even some form of chimeras or other DNA manipulation that scientists are now moving ahead with), or did John the Apostle perhaps see some advanced military aerial machinery that he lacked the words to describe?  Even the commentator in the video below refers to the drone swam as looking like a 'swarm of locust'.

These revelations were given to John about 2,000 years ago when there would have been no way for him properly to describe 21st-century technological inventions that would follow many centuries later. Is it possible John was describing some type of technology in our day similar to the drone swarms?  

Learn more about China's drone swarm advances and it's direct threat to the US here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q4xTkWYH6Y&t=1s

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?
Red Heifers Arrive In Israel From Texas In Anticipation Of Third Temple Service
News Image BY ADAM ELIYAHU BERKOWITZ/ISRAEL 365 NEWS SEPTEMBER 17, 2022
The Temple Institute and Boneh Israel made a huge step towards reinstating the Temple service on Thursday when five red heifers landed at Ben Gurion International Airport.

The red heifer was the main component in the Biblically mandated process of ritual purification for impurity that results from proximity or contact with a dead body.  Because the elements needed for this ceremony have been lacking since the destruction of the Second Temple, all Jews today are considered ritually impure, thereby preventing the return of the Temple service. 

The Temple Institute launched its Red Heifer program about a decade ago, led by Rabbi Azariah Ariel. But even in Temple times, an animal that fulfilled the Biblical requirements was exceedingly rare. Failing to produce a suitable candidate from ranchers in Israel, The Temple Institute began investigating alternative sources for a red heifer.

Boneh Israel, an organization that connects Christian lovers of Israel to the Holy Land, stepped in to help. Led by Byron Stinson, a native Texan, Boneh Israel understood ranchers.

"I didn't set out to do this, but right now, I am probably the best red heifer hunter in Texas," Byron quipped. "The Bible says to bring a red cow to purify Israel, and I may not understand it, but I am just doing what the Bible said."

"The prophecies came true, and the Jews are back in Israel," Byron said. "Now they need to build a Temple. But it's like buying a really nice car. If you don't have the key, you aren't going anywhere. The red heifer is the key to making the Temple work like it's supposed to."

Boneh Israel took out full-page ads in ranching magazines, explaining the situation to ranchers. They requested that any red calves be set aside.

"Several years ago, the farmer is a devout Christian who became intensely interested in the Biblical commandment," Stinson explained to Israsel365 News."He began breeding cattle for this trait. So when my team and I set out to search ranches in Texas for a red heifer, his were already better suited."

One of the major difficulties was that the government requires tagging calves right after birth. The ear tag creates a hole in the calve's ear, a blemish that disqualifies the calf for the Mitzvah. The farmer explained that because of COVID, the employee who normally puts in the tags did not come to the farm when these five calves were born.

A team of rabbis from the Temple Institute flew out to inspect the calves last year. The requirements are incredibly demanding, requiring that there be no more than two non-red hairs on the entire calf.  It must also never have been used for any labor or have been impregnated. 

The heifer must be two years and one day old to be suitable for the ceremony. Sometimes, a calf that is perfectly red when it is young develops black or white hairs as it grows older or may develop a blemish. 

Sometimes, the colored hairs fall out or disappear. Certifying the calf requires a complete and intensive inspection in which a rabbi knowledgeable in the laws goes over the entire calf with a magnifying glass.

Chanan Kupietzky, an Orthodox Jewish resident of Efrat, is the liaison between Boneh Israel and the rabbis of The Temple Institute.

"The Jews don't need to be pure to build the Temple or to bring the public sacrifices," Chanan explained. "On the other hand, purity will take it to the next level and will facilitate rebuilding the Temple and doing the service."

"Education is essential to move forward, for the Jews and non-Jews," Chanan said. "Boneh Israel is an Israeli organization whose main goal is education."

The cows were between 5-8 months old. To be suitable for the red heifer ceremony, the cow must be two years and one day old so these heifers will be raised in Israel until they reach the proper age.

Chanan pointed out that last year was 5781 in the Hebrew calendar.

"In Hebrew numerology, this is תשפא. That is an acronym for תהיה שנה פרה אדומה (it will be the year of the red heifer). The cows we are looking at now were conceived last year," Kupietzy said. "This year is תשפ,ב 5782, an acronym for תהיה שנה פרה בישראל (It will be a year for the heifer in Israel). In two weeks we will begin תשפג, 5783, the year in which the ceremony of the Red Heifer will be performed. This is an acronym for תהיה שנה פרה גאולה (It will be a year of the Red Heifer of redemption)."

Originally published at Israel 365 News - reposted with permission.


Iran And Russia Strengthening Alliance - Just As Ezekiel Predicted
News Image BY JUDITH BERGMAN/GATESTONE INSTITUTE SEPTEMBER 17, 2022
Iran and Russia have been strengthening their alliance recently, growing it gradually to such an extent that the Wall Street Journal wrote on August 27 that the two countries were "forging tighter ties than ever," as both countries face continued international isolation.
In recent months, Russia and Iran have signed a multitude of agreements, especially in trade, oil and gas, and military cooperation.
In June, an agreement on the establishment of mutual trade centers in St. Petersburg and Tehran was signed, to generate further trade between the two countries in the sectors of energy, transportation, electronics, agriculture, food, pharmaceuticals and construction, by helping Iranian and Russian businessmen establish contacts and conduct financial transactions.

In May, Russia and Iran signed agreements on settling their trade and energy payments in their national currencies instead of the US dollar. In addition, they agreed to continue talks to connect their electronic payment systems as well as their financial messaging systems. Since then, Russia and Iran have gradually begun trading in their national currencies.

In 2021, the volume of bilateral trade between Russia and Iran increased by 81% from the previous year, rising to $3.3 billion. In January, after a two-day visit to Moscow, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that the two countries would increase trade even further.

"We agreed to remove trade barriers and boost the economic exchanges between the two countries. Currently, the level of mutual trade is not acceptable, so the two countries agreed to increase trade to $10 billion a year. The two countries can take steps to break the dominance of the dollar over monetary and banking relations and trade with the national currency."

During Raisi's visit, the two countries also signed agreements to deepen energy cooperation and in July, Russia announced that it would invest $40 billion in Iran's oil industry, Russia's largest ever investment in Iran. Russia announced the investment deal as Russian President Vladimir Putin was visiting Iran for talks.

According to Iranian state news outlet IRNA, Putin and Raisi "discussed ways for expansion of bilateral relations in different areas, including energy, transit, trade exchanges and regional developments as well."

Significantly, Russia and Iran's cooperation extends to the military and space fields, with Russia recently helping Iran to launch a new satellite into space: On August 9, Russia launched Iran's new Khayyam surveillance satellite from the Baikonur space station in Kazakhstan.

The launch of the satellite is a telling example of the kind of dangers that a strengthened Russian-Iranian alliance poses to US interests.

Iran's Khayyam satellite "will greatly enhance Tehran's ability to spy on military targets across the Middle East," according to unnamed Western and Middle Eastern officials quoted by the Washington Post. The satellite's high-resolution camera apparently gives Tehran "unprecedented capabilities, including near-continuous monitoring of sensitive facilities in Israel and the Persian Gulf."

Iran will also be able to "task" the new satellite to spy on locations of its choosing, as often as it wishes, according to the officials.

"It's not the best in the world, but it's high resolution and very good for military aims," a Middle Eastern official familiar with the hardware of the satellite told the Washington Post in June 2021.

"Iran could share the imagery with pro-Iranian militia groups across the region, from the Houthi rebels battling Saudi-backed government forces in Yemen to Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon and Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria."

"This is obviously a clear and present danger to the United States and our allies in the Middle East and abroad," said Richard Goldberg, a former Iran analyst in the Trump administration's National Security Council.

"As Iran perfects its missile arsenal - from short-, medium- to longer-range missiles, alongside its growing UAV capability throughout the Middle East -being able to sync those capabilities with satellite capabilities and surveillance will only increase the lethality of the Iranian threat."

For the time being, however, the Iranian satellite is meant to be helping Russia's war effort in Ukraine, another example of the mutual benefits accruing to both Russia and Iran from their alliance.

"Russia, which has struggled to achieve its military objectives during its five-month-old assault on Ukraine, told Tehran that it plans to use the satellite for several months, or longer, to enhance its surveillance of military targets in that conflict," the Washington Post wrote.

Equally significantly, Iran is now actively helping Russia with its war effort in Ukraine, which puts on display the extremely negative effects of the new Russian-Iranian alliance.

Russia has ordered hundreds of Iranian military drones as Russia suffers from a severe lack of attack drones that are precision-capable. Russia has bought at least two kinds of drones from Iran, the Mohajer-6 and the Shahed-series drones. The first batch of drones, according to the Washington Post, was picked up by Russian cargo flights in late August. Iran reportedly has been training Russian soldiers in using them in Russia's war in Ukraine. On September 13, Ukraine said that it had shot down an Iranian-produced Shahed drone.

Iran has become a major developer and producer of drones. In October 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported the concern of defense officials from the United States, Israel and Europe that Iran's progress in developing, building and deploying drones was changing the security situation in the Middle East region.

"The drones themselves are often made with widely available components used in the ever-growing commercial drone market and by hobbyists, the officials say," the Wall Street Journal reported.

"Some mimic the designs of Israeli and American military drones... Tehran's engineers rely on imported components to create aerial vehicles that can accurately strike targets at long distance and rapidly change direction to avoid air defenses and radar, say European and Middle Eastern security officials who have studied wreckages of the drones."

Most recently, Iran claimed that it had developed a long-range suicide drone "designed to hit Israel's Tel Aviv, Haifa."

In July, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan denounced the new cooperation between Russia and Iran:

"Russia deepening an alliance with Iran to kill Ukrainians is something that the whole world should look at and see as a profound threat."

Despite this acknowledged "profound threat" emanating from the mutually beneficial alliance between Russia and Iran, the Biden administration nevertheless has been making dangerous concessions to revive the nuclear deal, which would only deepen the threat and benefit not only Iran, but also Russia.

"Several of Russia's top state-controlled nuclear companies stand to gain billions of dollars in revenue as part of a new nuclear accord with Iran that will waive sanctions on these firms so that they can build up Tehran's nuclear infrastructure," the Washington Free Beacon reported in April.

"Russia's state-controlled Rosatom energy firm and at least four of its major subsidiaries will receive sanctions waivers under a new accord so that they can complete nuclear projects in Iran worth more than $10 billion, according to the 2019 document, which details all the Russian entities involved in these projects. 

With a new nuclear accord being finalized, the Biden administration has repeatedly guaranteed Russia that it will not face sanctions for its work on Iranian nuclear sites, even as Moscow faces a barrage of international penalties for its unprovoked war in Ukraine. The Biden administration renewed a series of sanctions waivers to permit Russia's nuclear work in Iran as part of a package of concessions meant to entice both countries into signing a new accord."

Let us hope that the new "Iran nuclear deal," reportedly "off the table for the time being" is off the table for good.

Originally published at Gatestone Institute - reposted with permission.



New CA Social Media Law Expected To Further Squash Christian Views Online

The new California social media law has been marketed to the public to "protect Californians from online hate, disinformation, harassment, and extreme opinions". But the unanswered question that remains is: What are extreme opinions? What is disinformation?
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https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5596
 
Hamas
 
Who Really Harms Palestinian Kids? What The Media Fails To Report
While news media outlets and international organizations regularly blame Israel for "killing innocent children," they rarely -- if ever -- allude to the mass transformation of Palestinian children into brutal terrorists.
An HonestReporting analysis shows that the media rarely covers the recruiting of children by PIJ and Hamas, another terror group committed to the destruction of Israel.
Unfortunately, the indoctrination of hatred and violence towards Jews and Israelis is the norm in the Gaza Strip, with Hamas and PIJ propaganda glorifying child soldiers as the next generation of fighters. These messages percolate in large parts of Palestinian society, starting at elementary schools, and will impact any future possibility of peace between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza.

For instance, in 2016, children in a Gazan elementary school performed a school play where they pretended to kidnap Israeli soldiers and civilians. Another video released by ITV News that year showed a Hamas "summer camp," where teenagers performed tactical exercises and military-grade training.
Originally published at Algemeiner.com - reposted with permission.
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https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5595

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5586
Viral Video Misspeak Or Ominous Warning Over September 24th?
News Image BY MICHAEL SNYDER/END OF THE AMERICAN DREAM SEPTEMBER 13, 2022
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A video of a member of the German legislature warning that September 24th will be a day when everyone will remember "exactly where he or she was" is going viral as we quickly close in on this date.

The speech was given earlier this year on Feb 22nd and it appears the context of his speech was meant to reference events anticipated to happen on February 24th and not September 24th.  

However the misspeak and subsequent reaction in the German parliament (gasping and loud grumbling) has led to much speculation - some commenting that it may even become a self fulfilling prophecy as nothing that profound happened on February 24th.

Did this member of parliament reveal something that he wasn't supposed to reveal?  It seems like a strange thing for someone in his position to say.

At this point we don't know and some would argue that too much is being made of the misspeak.  

Needless to say, those types of days don't come along very often.  For those that were alive at the time, the death of John F. Kennedy was one of those days.  And certainly 9/11 was one of those days.  

But off the top of my head I can't really think of too many others.  I can remember what I was doing when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year was definitely a major turning point.  Beyond that, there just aren't too many days that fall into this category.

The reason why this caught my attention is because I do believe that September 25th and September 26th will be very significant.

This year, Elul 29 begins at sundown on September 24th and it runs until sundown September 25th.

As I detailed in a previous article, we witnessed the worst stock market crash in U.S. history up to that time on Elul 29 in 2001.

That record stood until it was broken precisely 7 years later on Elul 29 in 2008.

Elul 29 fell on a Sunday in 2015, and the stock market is closed on Sundays.  So no record was going to be broken then.

However, we did see a tremendous amount of financial shaking in August and September of that year.

In 2022, Elul 29 once again falls on a Sunday.  So there will be no stock market crash on that day either.

But I will be watching very closely because Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on Sunday, September 25th.

According to Jewish tradition, one seven year Shemitah cycle will end and a new one will commence once the sun goes down that evening.

Of course the truth is that we don't know for sure if Jewish authorities have calculated the Shemitah cycles correctly, and the Bible also doesn't make it completely clear on what day the Shemitah cycles are to begin.

So we can't be too dogmatic about any of this.

With that being said, without a doubt a great number of believers will be on "high alert" as we approach Rosh Hashanah

There is one more thing that I wanted to mention before I end this article.

It has been pointed out to me that "the fall" of the Queen has happened just before we get to "the fall" of this year.

And in "the fall" of this year, many are anticipating that we could see "the fall" of western civilization kick into high gear.

Perhaps this is just a huge coincidence and people are reading way too much into all of this.

That is entirely possible.

But if you had to pick just one figure that represented the entire western world, it would have been her.

And the western world is certainly on the verge of a complete and total collapse.

We are moving into times when we will see catastrophic events happen that most people never even imagined were possible.

All of human history has been building up to a grand crescendo, and we get to be here for it.

Is this month going to be particularly significant?

The appointed times in the Bible are always a time for us to gather and meet with the Lord.

And throughout history, God has often done really big things during those appointed times.

We don't know for sure that God will do anything really big this year, but without a doubt we should all be watching.

Originally published at End Of The American Dream - reposted with permission.

Breaking News Updates - September 12, 2022
 
energy crisis
 
European Energy Collapse Could Lead To Financial Crisis Across Globe
 
A few weeks like this and the European economy will just go into a full stop. Recovering from that is going to be much more complicated than intervening in gas markets today. The risk of that is de-industrialization and severe risk of fundamental social unrest.
 
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 https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5581



 
New Low: Disney Cartoon Series Domesticates Demons With Antichrist Heroine
 
I couldn't get to the remote fast enough to shield my 11-year-old from the preview, and I wonder how many other children were exposed to it -- and how many millions more will tune in to the new series, owned and marketed by Disney. The trailer included dark images of Hell, demons, and satanic imagery, and an explanation that the main character is -- the Antichrist.
 
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 https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5580


school
 
Warning To Parents - Struggling Students Being Pushed To Transition In Secret
 
Yaeli began to struggle with depression when she was in the 8th grade and was quickly funneled by personnel at her school towards the LGBTQ group. Soon, Yaeli was being led towards a "social transition," going by the name "Andrew" and increasingly presenting as a boy. All the while, she was urged to keep the details hidden from her family.
 
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 https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5579

 
 
abortion
 
Politics Of The Left - Campaigning For Abortion In Church
 
Abrams recently showed up to stump for votes at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Woodstock, Georgia. Abrams decided to use her church campaign speech to sermonize on abortion. According to Abrams, the problem with today's pro-life politicians--and pastors--is theological illiteracy.
 
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https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5578

Breaking News Updates - September 01, 2022
 
food shortage
 
U.S. Food Production Just Keeps Getting Slammed By One Disaster After Another
 
You have probably noticed that food prices just keep going up at the grocery store. Many people believe that this is just a temporary phenomenon, and those people would be wrong if you look at the 2022 grow season disaster.
 
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https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5559

 

Putin


Echo's Of Ezekiel 38: Putin Declares Partnership With Islam In New World Order
 
As Europe and America unite in sanctions against Russia, Putin is actively courting allies and trading partners. Those partners just happen to line up exactly as outlined in the prophetic passage from the Book of Ezekiel.
 
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 https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5558


Trans
 
Utterly Irresponsible: Trans Parents Turning Their Trans Children Into Activists
 
It is utterly irresponsible for parents to turn their children into public activists for causes they cannot possibly understand at their age, and we are just starting to understand the misery many of these children will endure later on as de-transitioners come forward and tell their stories.
 
read more
 https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5557

 
 
nuke
 
What Should Israel's Strategy Be For The Day After A Nuke Deal With Iran?
 
While Israel has urged the United States not to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or Iran nuclear deal, recent signs point to a revived agreement. This has shifted discussion in Israel from how to prevent a deal to what strategy to adopt the day after one is signed.
 
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https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5556

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5554
Europe's Twilight: Christianity Declines, Islam Rises
News Image BY GIULIO MEOTTI/GATESTONE INSTITUTE AUGUST 30, 2022
French writer André Malraux said it: "A civilization is everything that gathers around a religion". And when one religion declines, another takes its place.

Sarcelles, Saint-Denis, Mulhouse, Nantes, Chambéry, Strasbourg, La Rochelle... The impressive images of stadiums full of Muslim faithful, who arrived from all over France for the feast of Eid Al Kabir, seventy days after the end of Ramadan. In Saint-Denis, the city where the kings of France rest; in Nantes, the city of the Dukes of Brittany; in Strasbourg, the city of the cathedral and seat of the European Parliament, in Mulhouse, in the heart of Alsace.

"In forty years, France has become the Western European nation where the population of Muslim origin is the most important," wrote Vatican Radio. "It is not difficult to hypothesize that we are now close to Islam overtaking Catholicism." What if the overtaking has already taken place?

"France is no longer a Catholic country", writes Frederic Lenoir, editor of the magazine Le Monde des Religions. Le Figaro wondered if Islam can already be considered "the first religion in France." We are in the country where up to 5,000 churches are at risk of demolition by 2030, Le Figaro noted last month. Five thousand churches are at risk of disappearing within eight years, in a country lacking the political, religious and cultural will to keep alive a millennial heritage that represents France's deepest soul. Perhaps the imam of the Grand Mosque of Paris understood what was evolving when he suggested using abandoned churches as mosques.

German writer Martin Mosebach observed that the "the loss of religion destabilizes a country". When a society no longer knows how to give itself a reason to exist, others find one and the void left by Christianity is soon filled. Even an atheist like Richard Dawkins acknowledged that "the sound of the church bells is better than the song of the mosque muezzin".

Islam is taking over Europe's post-Christian ruins. It is estimated that today in France, for each practicing Muslim, there are three practicing Catholics. But if you dig deeper into this analysis, that relationship is about to be reversed. Comparing only the weekly frequency of Friday prayers in the mosque and Sunday Mass in the church, the future is clear: 65% of practicing Catholics are over 50 years old. By contrast, 73% of practicing Muslims are under the age of 50.

Hakim El Karoui, President Emmanuel Macron's advisor on Islam and a researcher at the Montaigne Institute, states that Islam is now the most practiced religion in France. "There are more practicing Muslims, between 2.5 and 3 million, than practicing Catholics, 1.65 million".

The same applies to the construction of new religious sites. Today, in France, there are 2,400 mosques, compared to 1,500 in 2003: "This is the most visible sign of the rapid growth of Islam in France," notes the weekly Valeurs Actuelles.

In an essay on L'Incorrect Frédéric Saint Clair, political scientist and analyst, explains that "the milestone of 10,000 mosques, at the current rate, will be reached around 2100". Will we have 10,000 full mosques and 10,000 practically empty churches?

Not only has the Catholic Church built merely 20 new churches in France in the past decade, according to research conducted by La Croix. Edouard de Lamaze, president of the Observatory of Religious Heritage in Paris, the most important organization that monitors the state of places of worship in the country, revealed:

"Although Catholic monuments are still ahead, one mosque is erected every 15 days in France, while one Christian building is destroyed at the same pace... It creates a tipping point on the territory that should be taken into account."

Annie Laurent, essayist and scholar author of several books on Islam, and whom Pope Benedict XVI wanted as an expert for the synod on the Middle East, recently said in an interview published in Boulevard Voltaire:

"Despite the repeated assurances of firmness of the state towards Islamism and its rejection of every separatism, the opposite is happening: the advance of Muslim culture in different forms. A progress that seems to find no more limits and obstacles. There is the cowardice of public authorities who give in to electoral calculations or clients, and also the complacency of a part of our elites whose militancy is steeped in progressive ideology...

"During my first trips to the Middle East, in the early 1980s, I did not see veiled women and gradually the veil spread everywhere. It is the sign of the re-Islamization of Muslim societies and, in this sense, it takes on a political and geopolitical dimension. It is part of a conquest strategy...

"France is in a state of self-dhimmitude. What is dhimmitude? It is a legal and political status applicable to non-Muslim citizens in a state governed by Islam according to a prescription of the Koran (9:29). [Dhimmis] do not enjoy equal citizenship with the 'true believers,' who are Muslims. The dhimmi can maintain his religious identity but must undergo a series of discriminatory measures that can affect all aspects of life, public, social and private. Not all Muslim states apply all of these provisions today, but they are in force in some countries. However that may be, the principle remains as it is based on a 'divine' order.

"Muslims translate 'dhimmitude' with protection, which tends to reassure us, but the most appropriate translation is 'protection-submission': in exchange for the freedoms of worship or other freedoms more or less granted to them, they may be subject to special provisions, including Sharia, with the aim of making them aware of their inferiority.

"If I speak of self-dhimmitude, it is to express the idea that France, due to a colonial complex and a sense of guilt, anticipates a legal and political situation that is not (yet) imposed on it but which could be a day in which Islam it will be a majority and therefore able to govern our country. It should also be noted that Islam lives off the weakness of the societies in which it settles".

How far will we go? "I don't know, but the situation is really worrying," concludes Laurent.

"Before it becomes dramatic, it is urgent to put an end to the concessions we are multiplying to Islamism by hiding behind our values. Because by doing so we erase our own civilization".

Just two months ago, we had seen the same scenes for the end of Ramadan. Six thousand of the faithful celebrated at the Delaune Stadium in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. "Allahu Akbar" resounded from the loudspeakers placed in the four corners of the stadium. 

The same scenes could be seen in dozens of other stadiums throughout France, and in small and medium-sized cities: in Garges; in Montpellier (10,000 of the faithful in prayer); in Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, a town of 30,000 inhabitants, 5,000 gathered in prayer at the stadium. The celebration also took place in Gennevilliers.

You can see the same advance of de-Christianization and the growth of Islam, with different intensities, everywhere in Europe.

In a dramatic article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, essayist Markus Günther explains that Christianity in Germany "seems stable, but in reality it is on the verge of collapse. Pastors and bishops, but also many actively involved lay people, see landscapes in bloom where in reality there is nothing but the desert".

"We are turning our backs on our culture" writes Volkert Resing in the latest issue of the magazine Cicero, speaking of the end of Christianity in Germany.

"In 2021, an average of 390 children were baptized every day in Germany. Ten years ago there were 800 baptisms a day. Last year, 359,338 people left the Catholic Church and 280,000 people left the Protestant Church. In both cases it is a new record. Last year 21.6 million people belonged to the Catholic Church and 19.7 million were Protestants. The number of Christians in Germany who are members of one of the two largest churches fell below the 50 percent mark for the first time. The fall of the Christian West? And who cares".

"For the first time in centuries," according to the German magazine Stern, "most of the people in Germany are no longer in the two great churches. A projection assumes that in 2060 only 30 percent will be Catholic or Protestant". For that date, all Christian denominations will have lost half of their current members. And if in 1950 one in two Catholics participated in Sunday services, notes the largest German weekly Die Zeit, today only one in ten people who say they are Christians participate in religious services.

"The importance of Islam in Germany will increase and that of Christianity will decrease, explains Detlef Pollack, professor of sociology of religion at Münster University and the country's foremost expert on religious trends, in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

"In 2022, for the first time, less than half of the Germans will belong to one of the great churches. There is a liquefaction. Muslim communities in Germany are undoubtedly vital compared to most Christian communities. By contrast Islam is a highly dynamic religion that aims at visibility".

For some time now, German public schools have been offering classes on Islam.

A Dresdner Bank study in 2007 predicted that "half of the churches in the country will close" and another that half of all Christians in the country will disappear. Within thirty years, according to the Pew Forum, there will be 17 million Muslims in Germany, compared to 22 million Christians between Catholics and Protestants, many of whom are only nominal (already today one-third of all Catholics are thinking of leaving the church) . The Muslim faithful settled in Germany will equal the total number of Catholics and Protestants.

This is a trend across the West. "Muslims, the winners of demographic change," headlined Die Welt. "US researchers predict that for the first time in history there will be more Muslims than Christians. Societies change. Even Germany's".

Between 1996 and 2016, Germany lost more than 3,000 parishes, down from 13,329 to 10,280. In Trier, Germany, where Karl Marx was born, the diocese announced an unprecedented cut in the number of parishes which, in the next few years, will be reduced from 900 to 35. 

Compared to their Christian counterparts, Islamic places of worship are growing; in the last 40 years, they went from non-existent to between 2,600 and 2,700. We realize how our world has changed only at the end of an epochal transformation.

Practically every day in the German press there are articles like this in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung:

"Generations of believers got married in the Kreuzkirche in the Lamboy area of ??Hanau, they had their children baptized and there they mourned the dead. But the days when the rows of chairs were occupied even during the classic Sunday functions are long gone. The upcoming sale is a bitter new experience for Hanau. The culprit is the continuing decline in membership. This is due to demographic change and the numerous Muslim residents no longer provide a basis for a Christian community".

538 abandoned churches and 49 newly built: this is the sad balance of Catholic churches in Germany in the last 20 years.

In Bonn, 270 churches will be abandoned, some of which can already be purchased on the diocesan online service.

"The Ruhr diocese wants to keep only 84 churches and 160 will have to be used for a new purpose... Mainz and Hildesheim want to halve their churches. Aachen has started a process of reducing buildings by 30 percent. The archdiocese of Berlin has also decided to reduce the number of churches by a quarter".

From the diocese of Münster this month:

"87 churches have been deconsecrated. In various locations, churches are used as retirement and nursing homes for the elderly. Two churches in Marl alone are used as urn burial places. Apartments are being built in the St. Mariä Himmelfahrt church in Greven. Similar projects already exist, for instance, in Dülmen, Gescher and Herten-Bertlich. The former church of Sant'Elisabetta now serves as a sports hall".

In the entire archdiocese of Munich, the hometown of former Pope Benedict XVI, there are today just 37 seminarians in the various stages of formation compared to about 1.7 million Catholics. By comparison, the American diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska currently has 49 seminarians for about 100,000 Catholics.

You can see the same disintegration happening in Spain. "Spain is the third country with the greatest abandonment of Christianity in Europe," reported Spain's major newspaper, El Pais. Cardinal Juan José Omella, archbishop of Barcelona, ??has sent to all parishes a message announcing the suppression of 160 parishes in Barcelona, so that each can make its own contribution before the plan is implemented. A headline in El Mundo reads: "Barcelona closes parishes due to the loss of faithful... The archbishopric will leave only 48 of the 208".

In 2015, there were 1,334 mosques in Spain -- 21% of the total number of all places of worship in the country. During a six months period in 2018, 46 new mosques were built, bringing the number to 1,632 mosques for that year. Mosque numbers are growing at a rate of 20 percent each year. In 2004, there were 139 mosques in Catalonia and in 2020 there were 284, or 104% more, according to the Catalonia Department of Justice.

In Andalusia the number of mosques in one decade increased from 27 to 201; in Valencia, from 15 to 201 and in Madrid, from 40 to 116. Demography is the engine of cultural change. "By 2030," according to El Pais, "the Muslim population in Spain will increase by 82 percent".

The same situation exists in Austria. According to Die Welt:

"In Austria, the Catholic faith is in decline, Islam is on the rise. There will be far fewer Catholics in the future, while the number of Muslims and non-denominational people will increase significantly, experts predict. In 2046, one in five Austrians will profess Islam. In Vienna, Islam will be the strongest religion: in 30 years, one in three Viennese will be Muslim. 

The percentage of Catholics will be only 42 percent in the country, dropping to 22 percent in Vienna". In 1971, Catholics represented 78.6% of the population of Vienna; in 2001, just over half; in 2011, 41.3% and in thirty years Catholics will be only one third of the total."

If the churches are empty, 3,000 people gather for Friday prayers in Floridsdorf, the first mosque in Vienna. The mosque was officially erected in 1979 in the presence of the then President Rudolf Kirchschläger, Chancellor Bruno Kreisky and Cardinal Franz König. Today the muezzin can call to prayer three times a day.

Christianity is no longer the first religion; Islam has taken its place. This shift should be grounds for discussion, not to say of concern -- certainly not of cheerful indifference.

L'Echo, the main Belgian economic newspaper, says: "Brussels was at the forefront of secularization before confronting an active Muslim minority. The first religion in Brussels today is Islam".

The monthly Causeur reminds us that Le Vif-L'Express (the main French-language newspaper) published a provocative front page entitled "Muslim Brussels in 2030". Belgian anthropologist Olivier Servais confirmed a Muslim presence in Brussels at 33.5 percent, predicting a majority in 2030.

In Saint-Chamond, a French town of 35,000, the town hall recently ordered the disposal of the main church of the city, Notre-Dame, built in the 19th century. Closed for worship since 2004, deprived of the crosses that proudly towered over its spiers, this church, in view of its transformation into a cultural project, has just been condemned to deconsecration. 

Meanwhile, last week, near what remains of Notre-Dame, the muezzin called over the loudspeakers for the Muslim faithful to come to prayers.

Originally published at The Gatestone Institute - reposted with permission.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5555
Why Are So Many Bad Things Happening To America In 2022?
News Image BY MICHAEL SNYDER/ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG AUGUST 30, 2022
Have you ever wondered why we just keep getting hit by one thing after another?  I grew up during a time when it seemed like America was endlessly blessed, but now everything around us seems the opposite of blessed.  
Our economy is imploding, inflation is out of control, the housing market is starting to crash, our weather patterns have gone completely nuts, the western half of the nation is enduring the worst drought in 1,200 years, we are dealing with three major pandemics simultaneously, we are losing our proxy war with Russia in Ukraine and it looks like war with China is just around the corner, and on top of everything else our political system is failing because liberals and conservatives deeply, deeply hate one another.  And if you think that there is hope on the horizon, you are going to be severely disappointed.  

The current crop of politicians in Washington is the worst that we have had in our entire history, and all of the "solutions" they give us just seem to make matters even worse.

This weekend, I came across a very intriguing article in the Jerusalem Post entitled "Is God punishing the United States of America?"

It was authored by a prominent businessman named Sherwin Pomerantz, and it really got me thinking.

Could it be possible that there is a common thread that connects all of the bad things that are constantly happening to us?

In his article, one of the points that Pomerantz makes is that America's political system is coming apart at the seams right in front of our eyes...

Politically, whether people want to admit it or not, the country is in the midst of a civil war, though for the moment, not one where both sides have taken up arms, one against the other (although that, too, could eventuate).

Sadly, he is right on target.

There is so much politically-motivated hatred in our country today.  Liberals deeply hate conservatives and conservatives deeply hate liberals.  It would seem that it is only a matter of time before the entire system shatters.

On another note, Pomerantz believes that it is no coincidence that our weather patterns have gone totally haywire and that our nation is being constantly hit by natural disaster after natural disaster...

Then there is the weather. On average, the US experiences fewer than 1,500 tornadoes a year. Through June, there have already been 940 reported tornadoes there, which means the country is on track to see 2,000 or more, a 33% increase year-on-year.

The nightly news out of the US for the past few months shows tens of millions of people under extreme weather risk every day, often in three different areas of the country simultaneously (upper Midwest, East coast and the Southeast region). 

In the west, a long period of drought has been drying up reservoirs and spawning massive forest fires. National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) statistics show that as of July 5, 34,478 fires have already burned 4,582,301 acres. This is above the 10-year average of 27,346 fires, and twice the average of 2,026,917 acres burned. The odd thing is that very little of this occurs just north of the US in Canada, or just south in Mexico. It all seems to be centered in the US.

I did find it odd that Pomerantz only briefly mentioned the drought, because it is actually a really big deal.

At this moment, the western half of the nation is in the midst of the worst multi-year megadrought that the region has experienced in 1,200 years, and this is having an absolutely devastating impact on agricultural production.

For example, we are now being warned that a very serious shortage of tomatoes could soon be coming...

As endless supply chain-related food shortages force people to adjust their grocery lists, another essential ingredient is becoming scarce. Along with avocados, cream cheese, chickpeas, and olive oil, the supply of tomatoes has started to dwindle. But this time it's California's catastrophic drought conditions denying farmers the water needed to grow the versatile vegetable that's to blame. Due to the shortage, the price of byproducts like ketchup, salsa, and spaghetti sauce has started to surge.

Speaking about the tomato shortage, Head of the California Tomato Growers Association Mike Montana said the golden state desperately needs rain. "We are getting to a point where we don't have inventory left to keep fulfilling the market demand," he told Bloomberg News. 

California, which grows a quarter of the world's tomatoes, is in the middle of a historic drought that has stoked massive wildfires while drying up reservoirs. It has also become a major threat to the agriculture industry.

When I was growing up, I never once imagined that there could ever be a shortage of tomatoes in this country.

But things have changed, and life in the U.S. will never again be like it was when I was a little boy.

Although to be honest I am having flashbacks to the 1970s with all of the inflation we are witnessing right now.

In fact, if the inflation rate was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, it would be higher than anything that we experienced during the Jimmy Carter era.

Over the past couple of years, our politicians in Washington have gone on the most dramatic borrowing and spending binge in human history, and the "experts" at the Federal Reserve pumped trillions of fresh dollars into the financial system.

Of course that was going to cause inflation, and now we have a colossal mess on our hands.

The Federal Reserve is recklessly hiking interest rates in a desperate attempt to battle inflation, but everyone knew that this would inevitably cause a housing crash.

And as I pointed out last week, a housing crash has already begun.

This July, new home sales were about 30 percent lower than they were last July...

The plunge in home sales is just stunning. Sales of new single-family houses collapsed by 12.6% in July from the already beaten-down levels in June, and by nearly 30% from July last year, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 511,000 houses, the lowest since January 2016, and well below the lockdown lows, according to data from the Census Bureau today.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

If the Fed keeps raising rates, things will get far worse.

Meanwhile, we find ourselves battling three major pandemics all at once.

Despite everything that our health authorities have done, COVID is still with us and will be with us for many years to come.

If that wasn't bad enough, a bird flu pandemic has erupted this year which has resulted in tens of millions of our chickens and turkeys being wiped out.

On top of that, a new monkeypox outbreak continues to spread at an exponential rate all over the planet.

Is it just some sort of a bizarre coincidence that we are now facing three major pestilences simultaneously?

Of course this article would not be complete unless I talked about the war.

We are now deeply involved in a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, and it is not going very well.

And if both sides continue to escalate matters, we could eventually find ourselves in a nuclear conflict with Russia which would have the potential to ultimately kill billions of people.

In addition, the warmongers in the Biden administration have also brought us to the brink of a war with China.  More U.S. politicians keep flying over to Taiwan, and at some point the Chinese are going to decide that they simply cannot take any more provocations.

Also, it is just a matter of time before Iran and Israel go to war.  And once that happens, the U.S. will inevitably decide to intervene.

In this article, I have covered war, plagues, economic collapse and natural disasters among other things.

Could it be possible that all of these things are happening at this specific moment in human history for a reason?

And could it be possible that we were warned in advance that all of these things would be coming? (Bible Prophecy)

My hope is that this article will get people thinking.

All of human history has been building up to a grand crescendo, and we get to be here for it.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the population has no idea what is ahead, and so most of them are going to be absolutely blind-sided by the cataclysmic events that are rapidly coming our way.

To learn more about Bible prophecy and what is still to come we recommend the DVD series "Decoding The Future - A Lifechanging Journey Through The Book Of Revelation" - available here.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5553
Hezbollah’s September Deadline Could Lead To War With Israel
News Image BY EVAL ZISSER/JNS.ORG  AUGUST 30, 2022
Although most Israelis fear Sept. 1 may bring with it a teachers' strike, there is another reason we should be concerned: A possible war on Israel's northern border in the wake of the most severe threats since 2006.

The very fact that Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has emerged from the bunker where he has been hiding most of the past 16 years suggests that the effect of the crushing blow he was dealt in the 2006 Second Lebanon War has somewhat faded. Nasrallah's swagger means he is convinced that the next flare-up with Israel will be very different from the one that saw him run into hiding in 2006.

Nasrallah is not the adventurous or gambling type. His many years at the helm have taught him how to spout lofty rhetoric while adopting a cautious posture. He is not going to suddenly launch a surprise missile barrage on Tel Aviv. On the other hand, he is apparently willing to play with fire, convinced he can control the blaze.

The threats he has been sounding are very clear: If Israel goes ahead with its plan to extract gas from the Karish field in the Mediterranean Sea without resolving its border dispute with Lebanon, the Shi'ite terrorist group will act to stop it, even if this means a full-scale conflagration.

To show just how serious he is, Nasrallah has sent drones towards the Karish floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO), and may very well do so again, or perhaps even escalate things by firing rockets in its general direction.

This poses a direct threat to Israel's sovereignty and strategic assets. It could entail much greater consequences than just breaching the land border or targeting soldiers on it, which usually leads to rather limited hostilities that Israel chooses to contain.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz recently warned that Israel would retaliate for any provocation, and is ready for any campaign in Lebanon should the need arise. 

Senior Israeli officials have assessed that things could evolve into "multi-day" fighting, which is another way of saying a major confrontation along the border. But if this is the conventional wisdom, it suggests Israeli policymakers have yet to learn the lessons of 2006. "Days of fighting" ultimately morph into war, something for which Israel is ill-prepared.

Those who envision a multi-day offensive that would have Nasrallah fire missile barrages at Israeli cities and strategic assets while Israel responds by just destroying a few weapon depots or assassinating a few officials are kidding themselves. 

In 2006, Israel showed mercy toward Lebanon, but this policy did not stand the test of time, because Lebanon and Hezbollah are one and the same. Israel failed to realize that by targeting the Lebanese state it would have been able to hurt the Shi'ite terrorist group.

Nevertheless, the Israeli aerial onslaught on Hezbollah's Dahiya stronghold in Beirut--despite its disorderly approach--did have an impact. 

If Nasrallah wants war, Israel should prepare to go all in. But if Israel's threats as to the catastrophic impact on Lebanon do not materialize once the war breaks out, Nasrallah will interpret it as yet another "divine victory," laying the groundwork for yet another flare-up down the road.

https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=5555
Why Are So Many Bad Things Happening To America In 2022?
News Image BY MICHAEL SNYDER/ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG AUGUST 30, 2022
Have you ever wondered why we just keep getting hit by one thing after another?  I grew up during a time when it seemed like America was endlessly blessed, but now everything around us seems the opposite of blessed.  
Our economy is imploding, inflation is out of control, the housing market is starting to crash, our weather patterns have gone completely nuts, the western half of the nation is enduring the worst drought in 1,200 years, we are dealing with three major pandemics simultaneously, we are losing our proxy war with Russia in Ukraine and it looks like war with China is just around the corner, and on top of everything else our political system is failing because liberals and conservatives deeply, deeply hate one another.  And if you think that there is hope on the horizon, you are going to be severely disappointed.  

The current crop of politicians in Washington is the worst that we have had in our entire history, and all of the "solutions" they give us just seem to make matters even worse.

This weekend, I came across a very intriguing article in the Jerusalem Post entitled "Is God punishing the United States of America?"

It was authored by a prominent businessman named Sherwin Pomerantz, and it really got me thinking.

Could it be possible that there is a common thread that connects all of the bad things that are constantly happening to us?

In his article, one of the points that Pomerantz makes is that America's political system is coming apart at the seams right in front of our eyes...

Politically, whether people want to admit it or not, the country is in the midst of a civil war, though for the moment, not one where both sides have taken up arms, one against the other (although that, too, could eventuate).

Sadly, he is right on target.

There is so much politically-motivated hatred in our country today.  Liberals deeply hate conservatives and conservatives deeply hate liberals.  It would seem that it is only a matter of time before the entire system shatters.

On another note, Pomerantz believes that it is no coincidence that our weather patterns have gone totally haywire and that our nation is being constantly hit by natural disaster after natural disaster...

Then there is the weather. On average, the US experiences fewer than 1,500 tornadoes a year. Through June, there have already been 940 reported tornadoes there, which means the country is on track to see 2,000 or more, a 33% increase year-on-year.

The nightly news out of the US for the past few months shows tens of millions of people under extreme weather risk every day, often in three different areas of the country simultaneously (upper Midwest, East coast and the Southeast region). 

In the west, a long period of drought has been drying up reservoirs and spawning massive forest fires. National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) statistics show that as of July 5, 34,478 fires have already burned 4,582,301 acres. This is above the 10-year average of 27,346 fires, and twice the average of 2,026,917 acres burned. The odd thing is that very little of this occurs just north of the US in Canada, or just south in Mexico. It all seems to be centered in the US.

I did find it odd that Pomerantz only briefly mentioned the drought, because it is actually a really big deal.

At this moment, the western half of the nation is in the midst of the worst multi-year megadrought that the region has experienced in 1,200 years, and this is having an absolutely devastating impact on agricultural production.

For example, we are now being warned that a very serious shortage of tomatoes could soon be coming...

As endless supply chain-related food shortages force people to adjust their grocery lists, another essential ingredient is becoming scarce. Along with avocados, cream cheese, chickpeas, and olive oil, the supply of tomatoes has started to dwindle. But this time it's California's catastrophic drought conditions denying farmers the water needed to grow the versatile vegetable that's to blame. Due to the shortage, the price of byproducts like ketchup, salsa, and spaghetti sauce has started to surge.

Speaking about the tomato shortage, Head of the California Tomato Growers Association Mike Montana said the golden state desperately needs rain. "We are getting to a point where we don't have inventory left to keep fulfilling the market demand," he told Bloomberg News. 

California, which grows a quarter of the world's tomatoes, is in the middle of a historic drought that has stoked massive wildfires while drying up reservoirs. It has also become a major threat to the agriculture industry.

When I was growing up, I never once imagined that there could ever be a shortage of tomatoes in this country.

But things have changed, and life in the U.S. will never again be like it was when I was a little boy.

Although to be honest I am having flashbacks to the 1970s with all of the inflation we are witnessing right now.

In fact, if the inflation rate was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, it would be higher than anything that we experienced during the Jimmy Carter era.

Over the past couple of years, our politicians in Washington have gone on the most dramatic borrowing and spending binge in human history, and the "experts" at the Federal Reserve pumped trillions of fresh dollars into the financial system.

Of course that was going to cause inflation, and now we have a colossal mess on our hands.

The Federal Reserve is recklessly hiking interest rates in a desperate attempt to battle inflation, but everyone knew that this would inevitably cause a housing crash.

And as I pointed out last week, a housing crash has already begun.

This July, new home sales were about 30 percent lower than they were last July...

The plunge in home sales is just stunning. Sales of new single-family houses collapsed by 12.6% in July from the already beaten-down levels in June, and by nearly 30% from July last year, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 511,000 houses, the lowest since January 2016, and well below the lockdown lows, according to data from the Census Bureau today.

Sadly, this is just the beginning.

If the Fed keeps raising rates, things will get far worse.

Meanwhile, we find ourselves battling three major pandemics all at once.

Despite everything that our health authorities have done, COVID is still with us and will be with us for many years to come.

If that wasn't bad enough, a bird flu pandemic has erupted this year which has resulted in tens of millions of our chickens and turkeys being wiped out.

On top of that, a new monkeypox outbreak continues to spread at an exponential rate all over the planet.

Is it just some sort of a bizarre coincidence that we are now facing three major pestilences simultaneously?

Of course this article would not be complete unless I talked about the war.

We are now deeply involved in a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, and it is not going very well.

And if both sides continue to escalate matters, we could eventually find ourselves in a nuclear conflict with Russia which would have the potential to ultimately kill billions of people.

In addition, the warmongers in the Biden administration have also brought us to the brink of a war with China.  More U.S. politicians keep flying over to Taiwan, and at some point the Chinese are going to decide that they simply cannot take any more provocations.

Also, it is just a matter of time before Iran and Israel go to war.  And once that happens, the U.S. will inevitably decide to intervene.

In this article, I have covered war, plagues, economic collapse and natural disasters among other things.

Could it be possible that all of these things are happening at this specific moment in human history for a reason?

And could it be possible that we were warned in advance that all of these things would be coming? (Bible Prophecy)

My hope is that this article will get people thinking.

All of human history has been building up to a grand crescendo, and we get to be here for it.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the population has no idea what is ahead, and so most of them are going to be absolutely blind-sided by the cataclysmic events that are rapidly coming our way.

To learn more about Bible prophecy and what is still to come we recommend the DVD series "Decoding The Future - A Lifechanging Journey Through The Book Of Revelation" - available here.