I am just about to the end of the book I've been reading, Glimpses of Glory, by Carl Gallups.  Every morning I read two or three chapters aloud to John over our first sips of hot coffee. The book is transporting us to places in Scripture where the veil is lifted, and human beings, such as the Apostles John and Paul, are taken into another dimension, a heavenly realm, where they are given incredible teaching and understanding.  This morning the text actually seemed to me to be describing this very day, this very time.  Even though it was all about the Apostle John in his final, elderly days, banished to the island of Patmos, it resonated with me as words that our own generation must take hold of to find strength and courage for our own time of testing. 

I'm going to take a few quotes again from this book, and I would ask you to sit with the words and meditate upon them, as I have.  You may recall the verse in Ecclesiastes 3:15, which says, "Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account." That is what I see here. We are being told about ancient events that happened over two thousand years ago; and yet, they are completely relevant (or soon will be) in our time.  What will be has been before! Please note that my own words/thoughts are in parentheses and some phrases I wanted to emphasized are underlined.

Gallups writes, "John, the acclaimed gospel preacher of Ephesus, had been accused of being an anti-emporer worship activist. He had been specifially targeted by the authorities. Earlier, for months, and unbeknownst to John and his congregations, government-appointed spies had been dispatched to Ephesus. John's arrest had been ordered directly from the Emporer's throne. They had decided that this disrespectful throng of disgusting Christians had to be stopped. The worst punishment reserved for criminals who were not sentenced to death was to strip them of their civil rights and banish them to some remote or isolated corner of the empire (or FEMA camp).  John had been accused of refusing to sacrifice a pig (or refusing to eat bugs) and obstinately declining to lay a worship tax of gold coins (or carbon tax) upon the altar of the imperial cult (or the altar of Gaia Mother Earth worship). To refuse to participate in the forced pagan ritual was a capital crime, punishable by death or exile.  The Emporer Titus Flavius Caesar Domitianus Augustus saw himself as the new Caesar Augustus, an enlightened autocrat  predestined to direct the Roman Empire into a new era of civilized luminosity (the enlightened ones who will save the planet?)  Many Jews and Christians had simply succumbed to this; the fact is, a large number of Christians had flatly compromised. Furthermore, they had actually grown quite comfortable in their conciliation. John had tried to awaken them (the WOKE ones) from their spiritual slumber. "

​Is it just me or does this resonate also with you as a pretty close and accurate description of what is going on right now, and what Believers are going to face in the near future?  Persecution is knocking at the door of the Church in America.  How many will compromise their faith and deny the Lord and Savior, Yeshua?  And for those who make the unwavering decision to follow Him, even if it does mean persecution, exile, torture or even martyrdom, how will we prepare for this?

I want to share with you how I am trying to prepare. I am endeavoring to spend time studying the accounts of those who did go through these things and I am discovering how powerfully and faithfully our God saw them through it. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down and worship the fierce, pagan king, Nebuchadnezzar, and they were thrown into the fiery furnace. They escaped without a hair singed on their bodies and "one like a Son of God" was seen in that fire with them! (Read Daniel 3:12-28).  Stephen was in the process of enduring a cruel, torturous stoning, when he saw Heaven opened and Yeshua and His Angels waiting to receive him there (Acts 7:54-60).  The Apostle John was indeed banished to the island of Patmos, where he was sentenced to hard labor in the copper mines, though he was a very old man.  But Yeshua paid him an astonishing, earth-shaking visit there, and he saw the Lord of all the earth in the brilliant, blinding splendor of His heavenly glory! Gallups imagines the elderly disciple exhorting us with these words: "At once I was in the Spirit. I felt somehow transported. Exactly how, I know not. But I can tell you where. I stepped through a thin, billowing veil of earthly atmosphere - as though it were a mere curtain - blown open by the Breath of God Himself.  I have seen the future! I have been in the throne room of God. I am utterly overwhelmed by what I have experienced. It was not a dream; it was not even a mere vision. I was there. It was at that time that the Scroll of the Ages was opened in my presence. I saw disease, famine, and pestilence of pandemic proportions. These plagues swept the earth at blinding speed, invoking fear among all the nations. Lawlessness began to prevail. Truth was thrown to the ground and God's people, those who followed the Lamb of God, were persecuted, belittled and despised all over the earth. It's all in the scroll. You'll understand as the Spirit of God gives you wisdom."

I feel like that's the bottom line for us. We need to train ourselves to continually ask for wisdom from the Spirit of God - in all our situations! We need to stop before we speak or make decisions, and inquire of the Spirit to get the mind of Messiah and receive His instructions. Disease, famines, earthquakes and pestilence are indeed taking place at break-neck speed right now, and Matthew Chapter 24 is in our daily news. Wars and rumors of wars are breaking out all over the world and the possibiity of using nuclear weapons again looms large upon the horizon. Lawlessness has indeed begun to prevail, and the Truth of the Bible is not only being thrown to the ground, but completely blasphemed, perverted, and re-written by those who advocate for baby-murder, transgenderism, trans-humanism, and same-sex marriage.  I could be censored or threatened even for writing this blog in this day and age. Will I take a stand for my Lord?  Will I someday write as John wrote, "I write what I have received from our Lord Jesus Christ while suffering for my unflinching stand on behalf of our Lord and His Holy Word"?

O Lord, please visit us in our times of trial, as you did for your faithful long ago. Give us strength. Fill us with the power of your Holy Spirit, so that we might have the courage to renounce evil and take an unflinching stand on behalf of You and Your Word. We acknowledge that no political party is going to save us, no man is going to make everything great again in this world that is fading away.  Focus us, Adonai, on Your glorious promise of Eternity for those who hold to the Testimony of Yeshua and keep His commands.  Remind us of Your faithfulness to Your followers over the ages, who have experienced Your presence in such glorious ways in the midst of their suffering! May we too be willing to suffer for the sake of Your Gospel, knowing and believing that You will never leave or forsake us.  Amen.

 My friends, I would ask that before you read this post you would fasten your seat belt - and then sincerely pray that the Holy Spirit would open your heart to comprehend what He wants you to see and learn.  By now you all know that I feel I have the call of a watchman, and a watchman is bound to sound the alarm and  warn the people (Ezekiel 33:6).  What I am about to share with you is so crazy that some of you may decide I've lost my mind and unsubscribe from this blog - but I hope not. I hope you will stick with me, because what I'm sharing is not from me, but from an actual organization known as the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (a part of the United Nations). It is an announcement of an Interfaith Gathering on Mount Sinai, which is taking place right now, this very week. And it has spiritual implications far beyond what I could ever have imagined I would witness. I will leave links for you at the end of this blog so that you can research it out for yourself.

First, I want to confess that I've paid little attention to all the recent speeches and carrying on about something called "climate change." From Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" to AOC's ranting about "climate change," I've shrugged it off and moved on.  I will not be shrugging it off anymore.  The title of this article is "In Sinai - a Prophetic Call for Climate Justice and Ceremony of Repentance."  According to the article, "the world's premier religious leaders, from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, are gathering in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on Mount Sinai, where they intend to put forth a prophetic interreligious call to action: Ten Universal Principles for Climate Justice. "  The article further states, "Religious leaders will call for a re-examination of deep-seated attitudes and for identifying ways to transform these attitudes for the wellbeing of Earth, our common home. Mount Sinai is a mountain whose memory and meaning loom large as a place of revelation in the collective consciousness of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and others. As an ancient sacred space, it was the site of prophetic experience, and receiving God’s message, for the prophets Moses and Elijah in all three Abrahamic traditions, and the prophet Muhammed in the Muslim tradition. COP 27 taking place in Sinai can remind humanity of our sacred responsibility to care for God’s creation."

Do you see and hear all the biblical language woven into their New Age Mystic religion they are calling "Climate Justice"?  Can you not discern the voice of the Deceiver as he twists the real message of Moses and Elijah?  Neither of those great prophets of God sought to include all pagan worshipers and foreign cultures into one big Earth-Worshiping Family! Elijah battled the false gods of Ba'al and Moses brought forth the commandment to have no other god but YHVH, the one true God!  In fact, I am having my own personal little chuckle that these "religious leaders" are meeting on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, where they apparently believe the original ten commands were given, even as very plausible discoveries of the REAL MOUNT SINAI in Jabal al Lawz in Saudi Arabia are being revealed! Isn't it just like our God to be one step ahead of Satan as he tries to deceive entire generations and nations into believing the lie? Romans 1:25: They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

They say they are there to "repent" for sinning against the planet.  Who are they repenting to?  Is it Gaia, the Earth Goddess or "Mother Earth?" It certainly is not the God we know and worship, since this new "Green Religion of Climate Justice" does not believe that He created the earth.  In looking up Gaia worship, I read this: "Gaia is a revival of Paganism that rejects Christianity, considers Christianity its biggest enemy, and views the Christian faith as its only obstacle to a global religion centered on Gaia worship and the uniting of all life forms around the goddess of "Mother Earth."  It is basically a rehashed, modernized version of the paganism condemned by God in the Bible.  Science, evolution theory, and a space age mentality have given it a new face, and made it sound more credible to a modern world, but it is the same paganism in all of its evils.  There have been other religious movements that have presented similar revelations about the deity of a living earth, but Gaia has succeeded in uniting the environmental movement, the new age movement, Eastern religions, and even the leaders of many Christian denominations. "

I have to tell you this all takes my breath away. I feel like my eyes just got fully opened to the vehicle that Satan will use to deceive the people of the earth into abandoning God, and Jesus Christ, His Son, and following a new, global religion that will have its own "ten commandments" and ultimately its own Religious Ruler, whom the Bible calls the False Prophet (see Revelation 11:13-15).  This new, global religion could very well fulfill the role of the woman who rides the beast in Revelation 17:3-5:
Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.  The name written on her forehead was a mystery:
BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH

As I continued to ponder all this, completely overwhelmed by the fact that it is occurring RIGHT NOW, November 14-16, 2022, I thought to myself, "Why are they repenting for sin against the planet, such as too much carbon? Why are they not repenting for sin against God's perfect design of marriage and procreation? Why do they not see the evil in teaching children they can change the sex God created them to be? Why are they replacing God's perfect Law for righteous living with their own pagan rules and rituals? And one more question: Why are they obsessed with the need to save the earth when 2 Peter 3:10 tells us, "... the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare."

They are worshiping the earth rather than the Creator of the Earth. And in the end, as our Messiah Yeshua says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." (Mattew 24:35). We MUST take this to heart. This is our Lord's admonition to us to stay in His Word and not stray from it, or twist it, or add to it or take away from it! Our Father says, "See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it (Deut. 12:32).

Be aware that these so-called religious faith leaders have already done this. Their "groundbreaking new ECO Bible has just been published and Publishers Weekly called the book an “insightful analysis,” which will inspire contemplation on how to live in harmony with nature and the power of conservation. Ecologically minded readers interested in the Hebrew Bible will love this.”
And so, Beloved, if this turns out to be a big "nothing-burger," then I apologize. But since we have been told by our Master Yeshua to "watch that we are not deceived" (Matthew 24:4), then I believe we should monitor this story and pay close attention. I believe this false religion is already seducing a great number of young people who are ripe for something "new and mystical" or something backed up by "science"; and I believe it could be the beginning of the "Great Falling Away" or rebellion we are told to expect in these last days (2 Thess. 2:3). If we are watching - and securing our faith on the Rock of our Salvation - we will not be one of those who fall. And if this pagan culture, which hates believers in Yeshua/Jesus above all else, becomes the source of our persecution, then we will have been warned and will be strong in the Lord and in His Mighty Power, taking a stand against the devil's schemes (Ephesians 6:10).

Note: The link below includes a schedule of this COP 27 Conference in Egypt, and the schedule indicates that on Monday, November 14 at 10:30 a.m. (Egypt time) these faith leaders will share their "Ten Universal Principles for Climate Justice." 

Links:
https://interfaithsustain.com/returning-to-mt-sinai/​
http://www.environment.gen.tr/religion-and-ecology/276-gaia-worship-the-new-pagan-religion.pdf