Right now there is a major court case dealing with religious liberty and freedom of speech in Toronto, Canada. On June 4, 2019, David Lynn of Christ’s Forgiveness Ministries was arrested for preaching the gospel publicly in Toronto, Canada.
Jesus tells us that in the last days persecution of Christians will escalate. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.” Matthew 24:9-10
In both Canada and the United States, we are seeing a constant increase of the silencing of Christians’ rights to free speech. Every day, it is becoming clearer that we are living in a post-Christian, Western culture.
This court case is a serious case to be aware of. Many Christians in Western countries do not believe that there will come a time when the freedoms that we presently have and can exercise will be taken away from us right before our eyes. We already have seen lots of instances of the government coming against bakers, photographers and others who were unwilling to participate in gay weddings with extremely high fines and even greater threats of further punishments if there was no compliance. Likewise, we have seen the media demonize Christians for holding to fundamental biblical views.
Interview with Pastor David Lynn
Do people have a right to free speech in Canada?
Yes, legally.
Were you in violation of any laws that day?
No. The laws allow us to preach on the streets.
Do you believe that there is an anti-Christian bias in Toronto?
Yes. Many Christians are being discriminated against for simply being Christian and exercising their Christian faith.
Are there more restraints placed on Christians in Canada than in the past couple of years?
Yes. One example is that Justin Trudeau, our prime minister, limited youth summer program funds only to charities that affirm abortion rights. Because of this, it excluded Bible-believing Christians who run summer programs from receiving funding. There is not a change of “legal rights” or rights according to the law. But there is a widespread crackdown on Christians, using a bogus application of the law to try to silence us. There are hate speech laws and laws that pertain to disturbing the peace. Even if we are not being hateful or doing something to disturb the peace, these laws get applied to us, wrongfully. What happens is that authorities use questionable grey area laws like, “Disturbing the peace” or “Mischief” in an attempt to silence us as Christians. So “by the books” we have a right to free speech, but in practicality, we are being silenced. When other groups do the same things we do, or things of a much more radical nature, they are praised by government officials and the media and no one gets arrested. When they actually have hate-speech in their messages or disturb the peace, everyone turns a blind eye.
As the Turkish military pushes deeper into northeast Syria forcing thousands to flee for their lives, U.S. Pastor Andrew Brunson reveals a chilling prophetic dream he had while he was falsely imprisoned in Turkey.
Andrew Brunson (YouTube)
Brunson said, “my goal is about declaring who Jesus is and not getting involved in politics, but this is the dream God gave me, and I think it’s relevant to what’s happening now.”
While sitting in a Turkish prison cell in December 2016, Brunson said he dreamed of an evil pact brewing in the Middle East.
“In the dream, Turkey, Iran and Russia began to move together in a very dark alliance,” he explained.
Brunson woke up from the dream drenched in sweat and barely able to speak. At the time, Turkey (Sunni) and Iran (Shia) had been enemies for years so he knew something drastic was about to happen.
Turkey’s dependence upon both the west and Russia demonstrates the tightrope Turkey is walking at the present time. It is interesting to consider this scenario in the light of Erdogan’s plans to reestablish Turkey’s dominance/leadership of Islam, to reestablish an Ottoman Empire if you will,
The recent downing of the Russian SU-24 by a Turkish F-16 on Nov. 24, 2015 that violated Turkish airspace for more than 17 seconds resulted in Russia taking unilateral steps to cut its ties with Turkey in revenge for the downing of the jet.
Hence, NATO deterrence and its nuclear umbrella is still indispensable for Turkey in the face of an ever-aggressive Russia, which is geographically closer to Turkey than many other Western countries. Thus, Turkey must apply conciliatory methods to alleviate and eliminate ongoing problems with its traditional Western allies, increasing Turkey’s indispensability to both the West and Russia. Thus, Turkey must continue implementing a multi-vector and balancing foreign policy between the clashing blocs. To achieve this, Turkish policymakers must refrain from depending on Russia, while attempting to reduce the country’s economic, military and industrial dependence on the West.
Biblical prophecy, Daniel 8, tells us that eventually the Goat (Turkey/Sunni) will eventually defeat the Ram (Iran/Shia). The Ram’s attempt to establish its dominance of Islam is short lived. We can assume the West will not countenance Turkey reestablishing a revived Ottoman Empire because biblical prophecy tells us the region is broken up into four (four horns) out of which emerges the Antichrist (little horn).
We are moving ever closer to the last seven years before Jesus second coming (Daniel’s 70th week} when the Antichrist bursts onto the scene as depicted in the opening of the first seal of Revelation and the rider (Antichrist) of the white horse “went out conquering and to conquer.” Revelation 6:2
Saudi oil facilities were attacked, in the latest oil-related skirmish in the Middle East — leading some observers to fear that this could escalate dangerously. Initially, Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed credit for the attack. Since then, the Trump administration accused Iran of conducting the attacks, and the Saudi government stated Iranian weapons were involved — all of which Tehran denies. This politically explosive blame game could end in war.
Saudi oil facilities ablaze due to drone strikes
Iran and Saudi Arabia have been at odds for quite some time, but this latest saga in the ever-growing tension between the two has led me again to the passages of Ezekiel chapters 37, 38 and 39. There we find a 2,500-year-old prophecy that’s quite specific. Ezekiel tells us that there will be a coming war. On one side of that war is Persia. Students of history will remember that Persia is the ancient name for the land now occupied by modern-day Iran. On the other side of that conflict, where God Himself will intervene, is what is referred to as Sheba and Dedan, which is now ruled by – you guessed it – Saudi Arabia.
So as you can imagine, Biblical scholars around the world are paying close attention to this. Are we living in the days when those ancient prophecies from Ezekiel are about to be fulfilled? Current events certainly seem to be a pattern heading in that direction. We don’t need to fear, when it occurs prophecy is being fulfilled. Instead, we can look to these events as the reason to be hopeful.
Oftentimes prophecy can seem confusing, unclear, and even scary. Yet there are moments when I see that what we were told thousands of years ago is aligning with events in the present day. I say I’m hopeful, not crippled by fear, because these moments serve as a reminder that God and His Word can indeed be trusted. And when I think about what the final days in this world mean for my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, I’m filled with joy at the thought of Jesus return to rule and reign with us at His side.
“When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near,” Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Luke. So we do not fear that day. We look forward to the completion of our redemption with great anticipation. We pray as the early Church did, “Maranatha!” which means as a declaration, “The Lord is coming!” and also as a prayer, “Oh Lord, come!”
Today, December 16th, the NJ legislature is voting for mandatory vaccines without parental consent (including flu vaccines!) for students of all schools, even for college students, eliminating the religious right of exemption from the current law. They will also break federal law.
Our God-given rights as parents are vanishing quickly in the eyes of lawmakers in New Jersey. It is part and parcel of a sign of wicked things coming quickly and further evidence we are in the biblical prophesied “end times”
It will not stop there, as totalitarians will not stop until they have complete control of your lives and behaviour. They have plans to link up the Real Drivers License that you will be required to have with all of your information (medical, etc). And you will not be able to function normally in society without it (sound familiar?) For example, you will not be able to fly on an aeroplane if you are not “up to date on your vaccines,” etc, etc. It’s all a tip of the iceberg of what is happening quickly nationally and globally.
A great Christian book from the Foreign Correspondent of The Australian Newspaper, Greg Sheridan. Reaction to the book is surprising. Overall it has been good. Atheists response predictable – How dare you promote Christianity.
The fact western civilisation was shaped by Christianity has been wiped from our consciousness in universities and schools. Cultural crisis is rampant. culture is fluid, it rejects a grand narrative. a coherent narrative and rejects truth, your truth is not my truth.
The only cause for hope is God exists, He loves us and He is in control. Moreover, He has provided us with an account of true history from the beginning to the end, in His Word.
Listen to a great interview: John Anderson, Former Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia interviewing Greg.
This article is from Creation 41(4):44–47, October 2019. Since 1837, when Louis Agassiz (1801–1873) first presented evidence for the Ice Age, secular scientists have been mystified. Why did it start? What caused it to stop? Over the years, creation scientists have realised that the unusual conditions created on the earth by the global Flood described in Genesis caused the Ice Age. And they have developed a powerful model that answers questions surrounding it.1 Table 1 presents the three requirements that must be met before an ice age can develop. These conditions existed immediately after the global Flood.
The cooler summers needed were caused by abundant volcanism and meteorite impacts during the Flood, which filled the stratosphere with very small particles that reflected some of the sunlight back to space. This volcanism has left evidence in the geological record. Secular scientists have estimated the effect of small particles high in the stratosphere by studying an impact in southern Mexico. They found it cooled global mean temperatures by more than 27°C (49°F) for about 30 years,2,3 and this was just one large impact. The net result of volcanism during the Flood would be a quick start to the Ice Age immediately after the Flood, especially in susceptible areas such as central Canada, and in high mountains of the mid and high latitudes. As the quantity of snow built up, the geographical area covered by the ice increased. The ice sheets did not have to physically move from the higher latitudes.
Ongoingvolcanism prolongs cooling With time, these small volcanic particles would slowly sink out of the stratosphere. However, copious post-Flood volcanism would replenish them, allowing the cooler summers to persist for many years. Ice Age expert J.K. Charlesworth writes: “…signs of Pleistocene [Ice Age] volcanicity and earth movements are visible in all parts of the world.”4
The Ice Age portion of Greenland ice cores shows evidence of 1,927 volcanic events recorded in the ice sheet.5 There are 700 stratovolcanoes on Earth (figure 2), and these cones would mostly represent post-Flood volcanism.
Data from eruptions during the past 2,000 years reveals that a single eruption can cause global and/or regional cooling of around 0.5 to 2.5°C (1 to 4.5°F) for several years. Some eruptions during the post-Flood Ice Age were much larger than eruptions in historical times. The great Toba, Sumatra, eruption is believed to have cooled global climate 3.5°C (6.3°F) for 9 to 10 years,6 with some estimates much greater.
As a result of these eruptions the land would have cooled much faster than the oceans, especially lowering the mean temperature of the summers. The oceans would lose their heat mainly through evaporation. This heat loss would occur much more slowly than that of the atmosphere. The cool land and warm oceans would create the ideal conditions for a rapid ice age.
Warm oceans supply the moisture The warm ocean provided the abundant moisture essential for the Ice Age. Evaporation is linked to sea surface temperature. After the global Flood, ocean temperatures would have been much warmer than they are today mainly due to the enormous volcanism during the Flood, when “all the fountains of the great deep burst forth” (Genesis 7:11). This is consistent with much super heated underground water as well as lava from the enormous volcanism pouring into the ocean, as seen in the geologic record.
The greatest warming compared with today’s oceans would have been at the mid and high latitudes. The Arctic Ocean would have been warm and ice-free with strong evaporation, generating high rates of precipitation. Snowstorm after snowstorm would have dropped their loads on land where eventually large ice sheets developed. The lower latitudes also had a higher rate of precipitation during this time, expressed as much higher rainfall, including in areas that are now extremely dry.
The Ice Age would persist until the oceans cooled and the post-Flood volcanism decreased, after which it would wane. The Ice Age was roughly 700 years long, taking some 500 years to build and 200 years to wane—40,000 or 100,000 years are not needed for an ice age.
Short timescale—key to mystery Concerning volcanism, secular scientists recognise that large volcanoes cool the climate for several years. If these Ice Age volcanoes were spread out over tens of thousands or more years, each volcanic eruption would have an insignificant effect on long-term cooling. However, if we telescope all these volcanic eruptions into several hundred years, volcanism provides the powerful cooling mechanism for the Ice Age. The short timescale the Bible sets out is not a side issue, but key to solving what to secular scientists has remained a mystery for the past 200 years—the cause of even one ice age.
The creationist post-Flood Ice Age differs greatly from the ice age envisioned by secular scientists. They postulate very cold, dry winters, but in the biblical model the winters would be much warmer and wetter than today, especially during the early- and mid-part of the Ice Age. This warmth would come from two processes unique to the climate effects of the Flood. The first is the heating of oceanic air by contact with the warmer ocean. This warmer air would produce a warm onshore air flow, especially in western North America and western Europe. Onshore flow today is the reason why western Washington, USA, is much warmer in winter than the interior of the United States at the same latitude. As a result of this onshore air flow, the Ice Age would be delayed in western North America and western Europe, except for the high mountains.
Second, when water vapour condenses and precipitates, it releases much heat to the atmosphere. This would be especially significant in storms, which would be strongest in winter at mid and high latitudes. This winter heat would spread all over the earth. Warmer, wetter, winters would produce much more rain and snow, since the warmer the air, the more moisture it can hold (figure 3).
Solving Ice Age mysteriesThe unique biblical Ice Age model solves the stubborn mysteries of earth science that secular scientists have been wrestling with for some 200 years. The Genesis Flood explains why the Ice Age began, why it stopped, and how it took only hundreds of years, not hundreds of thousands. The Ice Age model solves other mysteries such as the life and death of the woolly mammoth in Siberia, Alaska, and Canada’s Yukon Territory; the end-Ice-Age mass extinction of animals; the mix of warm and cold-climate animals and plants; and why today’s dry areas (e.g. the Sahara, Central Australia) were once well-watered. These will be dealt with in later articles.
What about the other Ice Ages? Secular scientists say that the first ice age began more than two billion years ago and envisage there were five main ice age periods (see table). Each of these are thought to have lasted from a few million to hundreds of millions of years. The last major ice age period is called the Pleistocene and is currently divided into 50 glaciations of variable intensities, each of which are said to have cycled every 40,000 or 100,000 years in the past 2.6 million years.1 These numerous glacial/interglacial cycles are deductions from the astronomical or Milankovitch theory of the ice ages. Creationist scientists generally maintain that the theory is incapable of explaining even one ice age. They agree with secular scientists, however, that the last of the Pleistocene ice ages is real.2 The claimed earlier 49 ‘ice ages’, which creation scientists maintain did not happen, are mainly based on speculative interpretations of oscillations of certain variables in deep-sea sediment cores.
Not ancient ‘ice ages’ but huge landslides during the Flood Secularists infer the four oldest alleged ice age periods (‘ancient ice ages’ to distinguish them from the recent Ice Age that followed Noah’s Flood) from features in sedimentary rocks similar to those in glaciated areas. One problem is that these sorts of features are not always caused by glaciers. Another major flaw in this ‘glacial’ interpretation is that the rocks are found near the equator, and more disastrously, they were formed below sea level. So, secular scientists are forced to postulate that Earth was totally glaciated at least twice! This so-called ‘snowball Earth’ hypothesis4 is scientifically implausible because it would be almost impossible to melt the ice and snow because of the reflection of the sunlight back to space. An alternative, more logical explanation is that the features are from widespread underwater landslides, which would have been common during the Flood.5,6
No sacred book of any other world religion reveals future events as does the Bible. It is unique in this regard. God’s prophets predict with amazing accuracy and descriptive detail – events of history many centuries before they took place and future events up to the end of this age.
“For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done,” Isaiah 56:9-10
The ability to predict history with such accuracy implies the ability to control history. In fact, God the creator, the one who sustains the cosmos can say without contradiction, “My purposes will stand.”
One of the major themes of biblical prophecy is the destiny of Israel. From the birth of Israel as a nation to the final consummation of their destiny, every major stage has been predicted by its prophets. At least 80 percent of these prophecies have been already fulfilled, so it is reasonable to presume that the other 20 percent will be fulfilled with equal accuracy.
Interwoven with Israel’s history is the destiny of another people the church of Jesus Christ. The church had its origin within Israel and all the early Christians were Jews.
Jesus was Israel’s long awaited Messiah, but sadly the Pharisees and Sadducee’s rejected Him, and the Jews were cast out of their homeland and scattered across the world exactly as prophesied. However, the Bible tells us that God would gather them from all the nations and bring them back to their homeland at the appointed time. This extraordinary event happened in 1948, and it signalled one of the major signs Jesus gave us of His second coming.
Slide from Prophesied Restoration of Israel – Prior to Jesus Second Coming
One of the most exciting features of the period in which we live is that the destinies of Israel and the church are beginning to converge. Berean Christians recognise from the prophecies that Israel’s regathering to their homeland is one of the signs preparatory to Jesus second coming.
Is your church preparing its members for the tribulation that is prophesied prior to Jesus return? Is your church actively engaged in bringing in the “end times” harvest? If not, get into prayer to determine what it is God would have you do at this critical time in earths history.
If you want to see how God has controlled history in the present and spread the Good News then download the Power Point Presentation “Prophesied Restoration of the Land to Israel – Prior to Jesus Second Coming. It is based on Jonathan Cahn’s book The Oracle. Contact me to request a copy.
After the suicides of two young pastors of Megachurches, one in 2018 and one this year, Rev. Howard-John Wesley, senior pastor of the historic Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, surprised his congregation earlier this month with an announcement that he is stepping away from his ministry for a season because he feels far from God, tired in his soul and needed to recuperate mentally and physically.
“From January 1 (2020) to April 1. I am walking away from every responsibility I have as pastor,” Wesley announced in his sermon on Dec. 1.
“You can’t pour out of an empty cup. It is very dangerous for your pastor to be on empty,” he told congregants. “I need to take care of me.”
In a sermon entitled “Selah” on the value of rest, Wesley noted how common pastoral sabbaticals are in white churches while pointing out how rare it was in black churches. He argued that many black pastors don’t take sabbaticals because they are afraid attendance might dipand affect the bottom line or the church may just function just fine without them.
The journey of Francis Chan from a Megachurch in California to starting a successful House church movement and more recently to a ministry in Hong Kong demonstrates God is taking His church back. The end times church will be like the church described in the Book of Acts. Take a look at my recent post Thailand – Free in Jesus Christ to see the Book of Acts church in action.
In 2018, Free in Jesus Christ Church (FJCCA), Thailand brought in new Christians in numbers that would confound most projections, statisticians, and historical trends. In January, 2019 the group baptised 520 new Christians in an outdoor service in Chon Daen. It was the largest baptism national church leaders had ever seen, crowds waded chest-deep in a public reservoir with lush hills behind them.
In village after village, Thai people who had never before heard the name Jesus responded by the dozens to follow him. In a single day last December, 309 people began following Christ as FJCCA teams visited four villages for the first time.
It’s the fastest-growing church movement in the country’s history.
Founding pastor Somsak Rinnasak, a motorcycle mechanic and garage owner, has no seminary background or formal theological training. FJCCA converts start house churches in as little as six months and go on to plant “mother churches” in as little as a year.
When the house church planters were asked: “Who taught you how to do this?” They didn’t understand the question. After a pause, Khun Rajirot, Rinnasak’s wife, responded, “We just read what Jesus and Paul did in the Gospels and Acts and do the same thing.”
The FJCCA’s church planting movement in Thailand represents a success story amid a shifting approach to global missions as Christians rely less on evangelism led by Western missionaries and instead trust the Spirit’s work among their own people.
Put simply, “Thailand will be reached by the Thai.” FJCCA now plants more churches in two weeks than more than 300 evangelical missionaries with the Evangelical Fellowship of Thailand do in an entire year.
Post taken from article in Christianity Today by Kate Shellnutt: Making Missions Count: How a Major Database Tracked Thailand’s Church-Planting Revival
Rabbi Eric Tokajer says the Good News of Jesus is beginning to spread throughout Israel, and it’s important for Christians to continue to support that effort.
The founder of Brit Ahm Messianic Synagogue in Pensacola, Florida, and the publisher of The Messianic Times, Tokajer, who conducts tours in the Holy Land, says the growth of Messianic ministries in Israel proves God’s hand indeed is upon that land
“Years ago, when I became a Jewish believer, there were only a handful of Jewish believers in Israel,” Tokajer told Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of Greenelines on the Charisma Podcast Network. “Now there are thousands, probably somewhere around 10,000 that are Jewish believers born in Israel. There are others that came from outside that live there, but when I became a believer, there were almost none.
“Now, there are hundreds of groups that meet together around the land that are sharing the Good News, which is part of end-times prophecy being fulfilled as God is re-grafting the natural branches into the olive tree.
“A lot of the Christian world never hears those stories. But if they go to Israel, they will actually see what’s happening where the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear and people are preached to in prison.
The Jewish people are discovering the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of Yeshua. And by the power of God the Good News will continue to spread in Israel.”
