The rise of a man from Greece has been getting a lot of attention in the prophecy community recently. Terry lays out some interesting additional connections that I had not heard before. Good article…
Remember, the darker it gets, the brighter and farther our little light shines!
Maranatha, Lord come quickly!
myblessedhope
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by Terry James
My favorite philosopher, Yogi Berra, who provides the world such profundities as “If you don’t go to other people’s funerals, they won’t go to yours,” issued the most famous of all in 1961, after watching Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle hit back-to-back home runs. “It’s Deja Vu all over again!”
I’m getting a sense similar to that Yogi must have felt upon watching his teammates hit all those homers that year. Only, the feeling isn’t so exhilarating as I’m sure was Yogi’s experience. As a matter of fact, the sense is ominous–one of history repeating as the stage for the fulfilling of prophecy is being set by the grand deceiver of humankind.
My view of that earlier era, of course, is through the prism of the study of history. I wasn’t quite on the scene as yet when it took place. I’m referring to the time when Adolf Hitler was on the rise and made a pact with his nemesis to his east, Josef Stalin, the Soviet dictator. The German and Soviet tyrants signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in August, 1939. Hitler roped in his bitter enemy in convincing him to sign in order that the Fuhrer not have to worry about being opposed by the Soviets in his assault on Poland. Stalin wanted to make sure his Soviet Empire was free from war in order to build his military into the powerful war-making machine it would one day become.
The deja vu comes into the picture for our purposes in this commentary in thinking upon recent developments taking place between the new Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is a most fascinating deja vu, to be sure. And, again, it is one that is ominous.
There is being much made in recent days of the similarities between Alexis Tsipras and the Bible’s description of the person who will be Antichrist. I agree with most of the comparisons. They are striking in some instances. However, there have been many striking comparisons to world leaders throughout the centuries to what the Word of God says about that Son of Perdition.
Adolf Hitler was, as most everyone who knows anything about the Biblical description of Antichrist understands, a dictator who seemed to fill the bill as the first beast of Revelation in many ways. The German Fuhrer came and went, however, and the world yet wags on toward its fate, the last seven years of which will be ruled to great extent by the actual Antichrist.
To my way of thinking, Satan has at every pivotal moment in history had a personage prepared who might be the prophesied Man of Sin. We’ve all read of them. Antiochus Epiphanes, Nero, Napoleon Bonepart, and both Axis leaders, Benito Mussolini and Hitler. In between such powerful “candidates” have been people like Saddam Hussein and others. Franklin Roosevelt, Henry Kissinger, and even Ronald Reagan have had their names dragged through that apocalyptic mud as well.
In the case of Greek Prime Minister Tsipras–to me, at least–the fact that he has emerged so dramatically, in time of building economic crisis that could be earth-shaking to European environs, is highly significant. Likewise, he makes his appearance in Greece, the nation that in fact spawned the Roman Empire. Important, too, in my estimation, is the fact that Greece was the tenth nation to join the EU–in 1981.
All of this economic turmoil is going on, with Tsipras and Greece at its center, while even more turbulence engulfs Israel, the nucleus of all Bible prophecy, so far as the wrap-up of human history is concerned. To the point, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the world –and Bible prophecy–spotlight this week, speaking before the United States Congress about war and peace and the survival of his nation. Survival which, incidentally, is God guaranteed!
Add to this the sudden coziness that Russia’s Putin says is “a warming relationship” with Tsipras, and you have something akin to deja vu all over again.”
Tsipras is opposing his own geopolitical association, the EU, to embrace Europe’s long-standing and stated enemy, Russia. He is, ostensibly, making a pact with Putin in declaring that the EU should make no sanctions against Russia, because he agrees, in effect, with Putin’s ludicrous charge that there are neo-Nazis who are making great mischief in Ukraine. Thus, Putin has every right to meddle in Ukraine, however he thinks best.
His new pal, Vlad Putin, recently invited the new Greek prime minister to Moscow, where he gave him full moral support for Tsipras’ demand that pre-1990 Germany owes Greece Nazi war reparations of more than 162 billion euros ($183 billion). This is apparently the scheme around which he plans to begin digging Greece out of the dismal fiscal hole it has dug for itself with its welfare state. Tsipras and Putin agree that the EU is treating Greece cruelly by demanding austerity be imposed if bail-outs are to continue.
It all conjures, for the student of history and prophecy, the likes of Hitler and Stalin joining in their strange collusion, while cordite odors of some great, future conflict singe one’s spiritual nostrils.
I’m not declaring herein that we are witnessing Antichrist and Gog embracing on the end-times stage of prophetic fulfillment. I’m just saying that I’m sensing deja vu while our daily headlines continue to spell out how near we must be to Christ’s call to His church.
–Terry
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Click on the article title for a link to full original referenced article.
In Romans 10 Paul lays out how salvation is open to all, Jew and Gentile. He writes:
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” – Romans 10:4-5
What he is saying is now it is not about works or how closely to a “T” you follow the law. But that it is through God’s gift of grace through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. It is really that simple, and yet a hard step for some of us.
“That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9
Christ is the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13-14), through faith in Him you will be saved. It is the only “works” that God requires for eternal salvation.
It is The Gospel of Jesus Christ. To learn more check out the following link.
myBlessedHope 