Nov 20

The Birth Pang Timeline

Over the years, Rapture Ready has received a steady flow of mail from people wanting to know if certain events are signs of the end times. We have always maintained that it’s a big mistake to point to a single event as being an indicator of the rapture or of the tribulation’s nearness.

Jesus said we will not know the exact time He will come for the Church. Since we are barred from knowing the timing of the rapture, any date speculation is folly.

Although we are restricted from knowing the day and hour, we are encouraged by the Lord Jesus to understand the general time frame of His return. Jesus foretold of conditions that will be in place just before His second coming.

In Matthew 24:8 we are told the last days will be the tail end of an exponential curve of activity. Jesus mentioned a great variety of signs — spiritual, natural, societal, and world political — and then He said these signs will be like "birth pangs."

As the birth of a baby approaches, the birth pangs increase two ways. They increase in frequency and intensity. Thus, Jesus was saying that the closer we get to the time of His return, the more frequent and intense the signs will become. There will be more earthquakes and more intense ones. Likewise, things like famine, pestilence and war will increase in frequency and intensity.

Over the past several decades, I have noticed an increase in calamities; however, the past few years have been particular interesting. The dawn of the new millennium is the beginning of what we believe to be major birth pangs. These are events that stand out:

Sep 2001 - Suicide bombings proliferated like never before.

Sep 2001 - The 9/11 attacks occurred in the U.S.

Mar 2003 - The second war in Iraq began.

Mar 2004 - Ten terrorist bombs exploded in Madrid, Spain, killing 202.

Dec 2004 - A magnitude 9.0 earthquake spawned a tsunami that killed 250,000 people.

Jul 2005 - Four explosions rocked London.

Aug 2005 - Hurricane Katrina inflicted $200 billion in damage.

Oct 2005 - Hurricane Wilma was the most intense hurricane recorded in the Atlantic basin.

Oct 2005 - An earthquake in Kashmir, Pakistan, killed 55,000 people.

Mar 2006 - Cyclone Larry, the strongest storm since 1974, struck Australia.

Jul 2006 - Typhoon Saomai was the strongest storm to hit China since 1956.

Jul 2006 - Israel launched a 34-day war with Hezbollah.

Oct 2006 - North Korea exploded an atomic bomb.

Nov 2006 - Japan was hit by the strongest tornado on record.

Nov 2006 - Australia sweltered under the worst drought in 1,000 years.

There is no way one can say these are just common events. This past week, we had a massive earthquake in the Kurl Islands that triggered a global tsunami warning. Because it only produced a small tsunami, I don't regard this event as a birth-pang worthy event. We are at the point that an end-time watcher has the luxury of sighting occurrences that come with labels such as "historic," "worst," or "record."

I have noticed that people seem to have a problem keeping these calamities in an end-time perspective. They have become so common, we lose track of their significance. To combat complacency, we've decide to soon add a "Birth Pang" timeline to the site.

It will be very interesting to see if 2007 follows the pattern of exponential end-time activity. Clearly, we are at a point at which the rate of increase cannot go on much longer.

-- Todd

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Encapsulating the Reality of Our Time

Rarely have I found a work that so profoundly encapsulates the reality of these troubling though exciting times in which we live. Goodbye America, Goodbye Britain by Alan and Pat Franklin makes truth for the end of days leap from the pages of the Bible, and tells in plain, shoe-leather language exactly what’s up with regard to Europe and America in the drive for global unification. I’ve never found a book that explains more thoroughly or more simply the likely course geopolitics and global socio-economics might take from this point forward on God’s prophetic timeline.

But, we have posted an in-depth review of the book and the Franklins' work in another section "Goodbye America, Goodbye Britain" so we won’t present a review here.

The current issues and events, under the microscope of God’s prophetic Word, do warrant review, however. America’s movement toward the emerging new world order took on new and dynamic meanings, in my view, with the Bush Administration seeming this past week to move somewhat away from close military ties with our staunch ally, Israel. The revelation that former Secretary of State James Baker is heading a commission to try to negotiate in the formerly nonnegotiable matters of nuclear proliferation and other things with Iran and Syria is the key to this –again in my view—dangerous course of diplomatic travel.

Baker has always been and is now a one-world order builder, or at least one who is a champion of globalism. It seems to me that George H.W. Bush 41 has now, with his chief new world order architect, taken the lead in shaping foreign policy in these days since the mid-term elections. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I sadly must say that it seems to me the current president has become somewhat irrelevant as we move toward the presidential politics of 2008.

Tony Blair, the British prime minister, and others of the European Union sort are making similar noises to those of the Baker types within the George W. Bush Administration. Israel and its security are secondary; securing the goodwill of the likes of Bashar el-Assad of Syria and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad now takes front and center. The oil, it seems, must continue to flow at all costs.

As a bit of leverage, the build-up in the Persian Gulf of U.S. warships seems aimed at convincing the dictators Assad and Ahmadinejad to see the wisdom of cooperating with the western powers that be.

Since the Republican’s removal from majority status in both the House and the Senate, the Baker-types of the Administration apparently now intend to put the pressure on while there is time. The drive toward globalism is at the forefront of priorities. A new administration with new thoughts and motives might not be so quick to grasp the benefits of forcing America and the rest of the western world into the unification mold.

And, this brings us back to the Franklin’s book, Goodbye America, Goodbye Britain.

Alan Franklin has written about his observations of the power shifts and maneuverings within Europe and in America for decades. Believe me, he has a firm grasp of what has happened, what is presently going on, and what the prognosis is for this generation. He is soundly steeped in Bible prophecy, as well as in local, regional and global governments and politics. If there is one journalist with a solid foundation in truth from God’s Word, it is Alan. He, as well as anyone I know, understands the significance of the prophecy proclaimed by the psalmist on behalf of the Lord God of all Creation:

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion (Psalm 2:1-6).

Jesus Christ will sit upon the millennial throne in the Temple atop Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem. Make no mistake about that prophetic truth. And, that is the bottom line of the Franklins' book. It is, ultimately, an active, ongoing story of things setting up for that glorious period ahead, when Jesus will make all things the way God meant them to be upon this presently downward-spiraling planet.

Go to the review article "Goodbye America, Goodbye Britain". You will want to get this book. It is a premier work for these pre-Tribulation times.

--Terry