Nearly five months ago a dear prophetic brother shared with me an extremely sobering word. The Lord had showed him that America was on the verge of a perfect storm. America’s cup of judgment is full, even overflowing (see Isaiah 59:4-8). The blood of nearly 50 million unborn children is crying out from the ground (see Genesis 4:10). The international pornography industry is centered in the USA, covering the earth with uncleanness (see Isaiah 24:5-6). Only two things have held back judgment from America – the love of the poor (see Isaiah 58:7), and standing with the nation of Israel (see Genesis 12:3; Zechariah 2:8).
For how secular media are presently using this concept of a ‘perfect storm’, see “Zakaria: Perfect storm hitting U.S. economy”
(http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/07/10/zakaria.useconomy/index.html); “Zuckerman Says U.S. Economy May Face ‘Perfect Storm” (www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=anevAV5cN_hU&refer=home), etc.
What say you?
Bible believers do not always believe the Bible. Adherents of the prophetic do not always cleave to the prophetic word. To paraphrase Irving Berlin’s famous song, “It ain’t necessarily so” that Bible believers know and accept the things that they’re liable to read in the Bible.
Let’s consider two foundational bedrock questions:
1. Is the God of the New Testament the same God as the God of the Old Testament? Does He have the same passions, the same intellectual brilliance, the same strategic abilities? Would He do the same things today as He did in the Hebrew Scriptures – things like the Flood, the destruction of Sodom, the invasion of Canaan, etc?
2. Does God have a covenantal priority with Israel and does He deal with the nations based on their treatment of Israel?
The answers to these two questions will determine how well one will grasp current events and shakings. To a large extent your two answers will also determine the solidity of your prophetic foundation and the clarity and accuracy of your prophetic perspective.
Briefly stated, Malachi 3:6 says “For I YHVH do not change. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed”. Hebrews 13:8 says that Messiah Yeshua is the same yesterday and today and forever. Isaiah 45:23 and Philippians 2:10 affirm that YHVH is Messiah Yeshua – that They are the same Deity. Revelation 4 and 5 teach that the worship due to YHVH is the same worship which is given to Yeshua. Since God is the same and He does not change, we need to be raising our expectations about what this God can and will do on this planet, especially in the days immediately preceding His return!
In the Hebrew Scriptures God judged superpowers (usually unfavorably) based on their treatment of Israel. Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans all learned firsthand that one does not ‘mess with’ the God of Israel, with His people – or with His land. The two scriptures which most clearly depict the return of the Messiah (Zechariah 14:1-3 and Joel 3:1-3) stress that Yeshua returns with great anger and judgment toward the superpowers of the world – because of their dividing up of the land of Israel and of Jerusalem, and due to their forcibly removing Jewish people from portions of their promised land of Israel.
Summertime soldiers
Most of us intuitively grasp that it is unfashionable and ‘politically incorrect’ to interpret modern events in light of this above biblical worldview. Even many believers get cold feet when they need to take a stand on these bedrock biblical truths. It may be helpful to remember the words that Thomas Paine penned in his tract ‘The Crisis’ (published in 1776),
“These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from…service…; but he that stands…deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value”.
If I had a bell, I’d ring out a warning
Beginning in May 2001 (and due to Saudi oil threats against the USA), America changed its longstanding position and has become an advocate of dividing the land of Israel. Put in other words, the setting up of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River means a dividing up of the biblical land of Israel. As detailed in these newsletters (and also in Bill Koenig’s book “Eye to Eye”, as well as in the Washington Post) the foundational agreement between the Saudis and the US government to push for a division of the land of Israel was completed on September 10 2001. The ink was barely dry before 19 Saudi citizens rammed their hijacked jets into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Due to the terror attacks, the US declaration was understandably postponed until June 2002.
In previous years we have described how continuing US pressure on PM Ariel Sharon led to Israel’s one-sided disengagement from the Gaza Strip, the election victory of Al Qaeda’s spiritual cousins Hamas in Gaza, and the firing of over 7,500 rockets into Israeli cities, kibbutzim and farms. The day after the Gaza disengagement ended in August 2005, Hurricane Katrina began churning its way to New Orleans. To paraphrase John 11:26, do you believe this? Do you believe that the God of Israel means what He says in His word, that He is sifting and judging the nations based on their treatment of Israel the people and Israel the land? Is this God whom you serve, the same One who is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored?
It’s a hard rain’s gonna fall
America has continued (through State Department moves and White House declarations) to push for a decisive ‘shelf’ program by December 2008 which will later used to hold Israel to a comprehensive withdrawal from significant portions of both the biblical land of Israel and much of the city of Jerusalem. Though these efforts may be well meaning, or based on the desire to leave a ‘legacy of peace’, they are leading to a direct conflict with the heart and strategies of the God of the Bible. Hence the prophetic word given to my prophetic friend.
The past 5 months have seen major shakings in the West. Hurricanes and tropical storms have battered the southeastern USA four times in a row. The last episode, Ike (short for Isaac) has caused an estimated 6 billion dollars of damage to date. A mass exodus of more than a million people resulted, and four and a half million Americans were without power for a significant period of time. Over ten oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were damaged. Tropical storms Gustav (Scandinavian for ‘staff of God’) and Ike were heading straight for New Orleans and Houston, where 25% of US oil is processed and distributed. God is trying to get someone’s attention. Has He got yours?
Storms have hit the shores of the continental USA. This ripple effect is rocking the oil industry. The American economy (e.g., Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch etc) is also trembling and trying to catch its balance. What is needed is not ultimately an economic bailout, but a spiritual infusion of repentance.
These shakings in the natural are not over. We have yet to see the zenith of this current process.
God is speaking to America first, not because it is more corrupt or prideful than Europe, Asia, Russia or the Middle East – but because it it the front runner of all nations at this point – the world’s foremost superpower, the ‘point man’ in the world jungle, to use military terminology. In the same way that God uses Israel (a relatively tiny country) with worldwide consequences, in this case God is speaking to the world’s biggest superpower – but other countries had better be listening too!
In 1962 Bob Dylan sang a prophetic song which says,
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’,
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’,
Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’,
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’,
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
Keep hanging on in prayer!
On May 29 2008 we sent out a newsletter asking for increased prayer for America. This cry for intercession still stands! Here is a quote from that e-letter:
In those days the political advisors to Pharaoh did not recognize the finger of God until it was too late. If the leadership of Israel and the USA continue to push for the re-division of Jerusalem, there will be war in the Middle East and great shakings in America. The time is urgent. Pray for the leadership of the USA and Israel to hear God’s voice and to pull back from needless war and destruction. This is ‘a severe storm warning.’
Keep praying for America, that the leadership would not be led into temptation regarding pressure to divide the land of Israel, and that whoever is chosen as the new President will receive God’s heart for Israel and God’s strategies for the Middle East.
Also, on April 6 2008 we asked you to pray and ask God to blunt the Islamist attempts to make Islamic Shari’a law the religion of the land in the West, especially in England. Here is a quote from that e-letter:
This new Islamist attempt to censor free religious expression is the shape of things to come for the West, and it is what the West should expect if Islam and Shari’a become the religion and law of the land. Pray!
This past week the British government has given powers under the Arbitration Acts to Shari’a courts to enforce their decisions.
Keep praying for Britain, that the light of God’s truth would shine on her, that believers would become bolder in their witness, and that a new Great Awakening would take place in that country!
And keep praying for Israel, that the leadership of God’s choosing would come to pass; that the gospel of Yeshua would make significant inroads in the country; and that God’s strategies for preserving life and defeating Israel’s enemies would be amply given to those who need to make such decisions.
In Messiah Yeshua’s bonds,
Avner Boskey
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