PTNews
P r o p h e c y T o d a y N e w s
February 2021
Published monthly
(Examining Current Events in the Light of Bible Prophecy)
P.O. Box 13006, Roanoke, VA 24030-3006
America – at War with God
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3
By Mike Wingfield
America is at war! This is not war with an evil nation. This is a spiritual war that is being waged on American soil. If we look at America today through the lens of the Bible, it is clear that our beloved nation is at war with God. And, this war is aimed at destroying the foundation of America – our founding documents. These documents – the Declaration of Independence, our constitution and the Bill of Rights – are anchored in the truth that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” It has been this biblical truth that has provided a sure foundation for the United States of America for more than two centuries.
The freedoms and respect that Christians have enjoyed in America are built upon this very foundation. However, now we have a people and a government that are openly calling for the destruction of these founding documents. These people hate America and all that is good. At the center of their target of hate are the church and Christians. In essence, this effort is a war against God and the eternal Word of God. If these enemies of America are successful in their efforts, it will radically alter the life of the church and true believers in Jesus Christ. Friends, I am convinced we are about to witness a dangerous backlash of hate and persecution that has not existed on the shores of this nation in its entire history.
What must we do? What can we do? Where can we go? How are we to respond? These are questions that many of us are beginning to ask. In recent days, as I have thought about these questions, I have been directed by the Holy Spirit to Psalms 9-14. I encourage you to read and study these Psalms and let the Holy Spirit give you godly wisdom for living in these days. The parallels of the historical background of these psalms and our day are amazing!
These six psalms were written by King David when he was the public enemy of some of his own people in the nation of Israel. The pursuit of David to kill him was directed by wicked King Saul. King Saul wanted to kill David because he considered him to be a threat to his rule over the people of Israel.
David’s response was to run and hide from King Saul. He wrote, “In the LORD put I my trust: how say you to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may [secretly] shoot at the upright in heart” (Psalm 11:1-2).
Christians in America have become the enemy of the liberal left. Today, the American left is aligned with the Democrat Party. They have many voices in our current government and they are engaged in a war against Christianity. They view the commitment of Christ’s followers to the moral values of the Bible as being narrow minded, bigoted, and stupid. We are a threat to their sexual freedom, lawlessness, and power. At the foundation of their flawed view of life and truth is a blasphemous view of the character of God. Many of these people are atheists. The result is that these people think and live like fools. That is why David wrote, “The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God” (Psalm 14:1). The Hebrew word “fool” does not speak of an intellectual foolishness, but of a moral insanity. This word speaks of a person who lacks moral understanding. This is a person who is a rebel and is disobedient to the law of God. In Psalm 14, David gives two evidences of their foolish opposition to God. They are morally “corrupt” and “are all together become filthy” (Psalm 14:1, 3) Furthermore, their rebellion against God is revealed in their attack upon His people. They are people “who eat up my people as they eat bread” (Psalm 14:4).
Many left-wing Americans believe it is time to silence the voice of Christianity. They are blind to all of the positive influences that Christianity has had in America since its founding. Shockingly, they embrace the godless political philosophies of Communism and the violent jihadist practices of Islam. Both of these political systems greatly restrict personal freedoms and create a society of slaves. These two systems are also responsible for murdering millions of people who rejected their control. The blindness to these facts demonstrates just how deceived the followers of the political left are.
The motivating element behind all of this is hate. Hard core socialists and Muslims hate Christians and call for their death. Look at the current examples in our world. China has declared war on Christians. Since the beginning of communism in China, millions of Christians have been tortured, imprisoned, and martyred for the cause of Christ. Last year 340,000 Christians were persecuted in our world. Most of the extreme persecution has come at the hands of Muslim countries, including Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen, Iran, Nigeria, Iraq, and Syria. “Every day around the world 13 Christians are killed for their faith; 12 are illegally arrested or imprisoned, 5 are abducted; and 12 churches or other Christian buildings are attacked (Raymond Ibrahim, www.gatestoneinstitute.org, January 17, 2021).
Just like David’s time, this is all happening while the foundations of society are crumbling. David wrote, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3) The Hebrew word for “foundations” speaks of “the settled order of things.” The foundation of society is the biblical application of law and order, and justice and truth. When these are redefined in a culture of wickedness, it destroys the very foundation of truth, which the righteous use to rescue those perishing in their sin. The sad truth is that we are living in a culture where most people have been given up by God (Romans 1:18-32). In our godless American culture, the people have a blasphemous distorted image of God. They look with disdain upon the Christian community. And, they have no respect for the Word of God. When believers live in a godless culture like this, “what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3).
The answer is – we take refuge in God. At times, we might feel like David and want to run away and hide. However, the real answer is found in having peace of mind as we take refuge in our Lord. “The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble” (Psalm 9:9).
As we watch the foundations of America collapse around us, we need to take refuge in the person and promises of God. Read Psalm 91.
1. God is the final judge.
As we see all of the injustice, hatred, and oppression of the righteous, we need to remember that the righteous Judge is coming. David thought about this when he wrote, “But the LORD shall endure for ever; he hath prepared his throne for judgment. And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness” (Psalm 9:7-8). Here, David looked forward to the coming earthly kingdom of God. Then, God’s Messiah – the Lord Jesus – will be judge over all the earth. Finally, justice will prevail. He has declared, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay” (Romans 12:19). When earth’s history is complete, all of the wicked will have their day in God’s courtroom. God will open His books, and they will all be judged “according to their works” (Revelation 20:12, 13). The Lord has declared, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17).
2. God’s retribution upon the wicked
The nations are plotting to overthrow God (Psalm 2:1-3). However, the Lord has planned a period of time when He will pour out His wrath upon the wicked nations. In their foolishness they have dug their own graves. Speaking of the Tribulation Period, David said, “The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The LORD is known by the judgment which he [executes]: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands” (Psalm 9:15-16). The nature of God’s retribution against the wicked nations that rebel against Him is clearly stated, “Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup” (Psalm 11:6). The fury and wrath of God that will be poured out from the holy Lord in heaven during the Tribulation is too much for the human mind to fathom.
I think about this very often. God has given me the assignment to proclaim the truth of the horrific judgments of God in the future. He wants me to warn all who will listen of the approaching wrath of God. I know this is not what people want to think about. There is a certain sense in which the human mind does not want to entertain the graphic details of the deadly and destructive judgments of this unique period of time. I can only image what Noah must have experienced. For 120 years he told his neighbors, and anyone else who would listen, that God was going to send a massive flood and kill everyone that was not on the giant boat he was instructed to build. The people must have mused, “What kind of God would do that?” For them, it was too harsh and unbelievable. After all, times were good. “They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark” (Matthew 24:38).
3. God will give the nations the leader they deserve
The Bible tells us that God is the One who removes kings and puts them in positions of authority (Daniel 2:21). There has never been a ruler over a nation that has not been put there by Almighty God. This includes some of the most vile, wicked, and murderous leaders of the past, present, and future. We cannot begin to understand this. But, that does not matter. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, each one of the leaders of the world has been put in place by the ruler of the creation. God is orchestrating the events and governments of this planet to its final conclusion as determined by Him.
Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, each one of the leaders of the world has been put in place by the ruler of the creation. God is orchestrating the events and governments of this planet to its final conclusion as determined by Him.In some cases, God gives a nation the ruler they deserve. That will be the case when the end of this age approaches. The Bible tells us that the people of the world will reject the God of the Bible and clamor for a ruler that will set them free from the binding moral laws of God (Psalm 2:1-3). These people refuse to believe God’s truth, but thrive on lies and deception (2 Thessalonians 2:10). As a result, God will “send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:11). These spiritually blind people are in love with themselves and their sinful pleasures (2 Thessalonians 2:12). Therefore, they seek to have a government that will be lawless. Above everything else, they seek sexual freedom. They want to tear down the foundations of human dignity of the image of God, the sanctity of marriage, and the God ordained and created standard of individual gender. The rejection of these sovereign foundations of God’s creation of mankind is an offense to our holy God.
Their ultimate dream will be fulfilled in the coming of the Antichrist. He will be everything they have wanted because he is just like them – godless, lawless, deceptive, immoral, blasphemous, and filled with violence and destruction. The late John Phillips, a former professor at Moody Bible Institute and Bible conference speaker, in his excellent commentary on Psalms, states, “In Psalms 9 and 10, David looks at the end times. Seven times in these two psalms he makes reference to “the lawless one” (9:5, 16; 10:2, 3, 4, 13, 15), the same as described by Daniel and by Paul – the man of sin, the beast, the devil’s messiah” (John Phillips, Exploring the Psalms, Vol. 1, p. 71).
As one reads these psalms and looks at our day, it is no question that our world is inviting the Antichrist to come and rule over them.
In Psalm 10 John Phillips finds 26 things about the character and career of the Antichrist. Verse 2 states that “in his pride [he will] persecute the poor.” He will bless those who have a “covetous” spirit (verse 3). The Hebrew word for covetous speaks of appropriating people’s property by violence and injustice. Clearly, this speaks of the aims of socialism and communism. A growing segment of our government is promoting this covetous spirit at this very moment [See page 7.] While calling themselves “progressives” these socialists are masquerading as those who care for the poor. The histories of both socialism and Islam prove that the leaders of these philosophies do not care about the poor, but rob people of their possessions to make themselves rich.
In these Psalms, we are reminded that the Antichrist will be filled with a boastful pride (Psalm 10:2, 3, 4). He will have no respect for man or God. He hates the poor and plots their destruction (Psalm 10:8-10). He defies God in every way imaginable. Psalm 10:4, 6 says, “The wicked [one] through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God, God is not in all his thoughts. … He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.”
Furthermore, in his defiance against God, “His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity” (Psalm 10:7). Hundreds of years later, the prophet Daniel wrote about the Antichrist, “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak [monstrous] things against the God of gods” (Daniel 11:36). Today, we see a defiant arrogance in the liberal left establishment. If you do not agree with them, then they demonize you and all that you stand for. In their mind, there is no room for those who disagree with them. Instead, they have created the so-called Cancel Culture, plotting our demise to remove us from society. This is the very nature, and character of the coming Antichrist and his global administration.
The psalmist reminds us that the lawless one, the Anti-christ, will act like his father the devil, who is a destroyer (Revelation 9:11). He will wreak havoc upon the civi-lized world, bringing about destruction of cities across the globe (Psalm 9:6). Compare this with Isaiah 14:16, 17 and Daniel 7:23. As we watch the riots across America destroy parts of our cities, we are simply witnessing a warning to what is coming. While this was happening, the liberal establishment in Washington did little more than make excuses for these lawless rebels who are clamoring for more lawless permissiveness. Their goal is to bring our nation to ruin.
A dark cloud of rebellion against all that is good and lawful is moving across the political landscape of America. Those who have bought into the deception of our day are tearing down the statues and images of public figures that we held in high esteem only a few decades ago, including the statue of our first president, George Washington.
What has happened? How has this come to pass? For decades, our culture has bought into the deception and lies about America. The plotters of our demise have been sowing lies about the history of America. They are using identity politics to enrage a segment of the American society. They are using lies about race, marriage, our sexuality, and the God-ordained roles of parents to create the idea that American society is oppressive. They are calling for a revolution to be set free from what they view as restrictive laws that have been a part of the biblical foundation that has allowed God to bless America for more than 200 years. These laws are not just a part of an American tradition. They are more than that. They are laws that are supported and promoted by the eternal and changeless Word of God. These foolish revolutionists may not know it, but they are at war with God. The real problem in America is the wickedness of the human heart. Only Jesus Christ can set them free from the slavery of sin (John 8:34, 36).
Finally, Psalm 9:5, 6 speaks of the end of the Antichrist. He will be destroyed by the Lord (Psalm 9:6). Centuries later, the Apostle Paul would proclaim that the Lord will consume the wicked one “with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8). With the blinding light of His glorious appearance at His revelation, Christ will simply speak the word and the Antichrist and his armies will drop dead on the mountains of Israel (Revelation 19:15-21).
With the defeat of the Antichrist and his one-world government, the reign of terror, death, and war that have marched across the face of the earth will once and forever disappear. The righteous King of Kings and Lord of Lords will establish His kingdom of truth, justice, peace, and prosperity across the globe. The psalmist declared, “O thou enemy, destruction are come to a perpetual end … But the LORD shall endure for ever: He hath prepared his throne for judgment. And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness” (Psalm 9:6-8). No wonder Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10).
America’s war with God is part of a satanic plot to unite the world against God for the final conflict between heaven and hell during the 7-year Tribulation Period. When the end comes, Satan will have successfully deceived all nations to join his rebellion. In Revelation 13, Satan is pictured as a dragon who gives power to the beastly leader of the world, the Antichrist. Revelation 13:6-7 declares that the Antichrist will open “his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.”
God is not surprised by the global opposition against Him. He is in full control and is allowing the Antichrist and all of the wicked to be “snared in the work of [their] own hands” (Psalm 9:16). Like Haman in the book of Esther, they are building their own gallows to hang themselves. When the time has come, the Lord will speak to the Antichrist and command him to “come” (Revelation 6:1). Seven years later, the Lord will gather all nations to Israel for their defeat by the sword of the Lord at Armageddon (Zechariah 14:2-3). Sadly, America is being deceived to turn away from the Lord. Our beloved nation will join hands with the wicked forces of hell that will be destroyed at Armageddon.
As American believers in Jesus Christ, it is very painful for us to watch all of this develop. If the coming of our Lord is not soon, then we will join many of our brethren around the world to face the daily persecution and hardships of those who are living in a culture that is at war with God. Modern Americans have had it easy for all of their lives. We have lived in a nation that has provided us with freedom, substance for living, and security. We have enjoyed freedom of religion and freedom of speech. All of this is about to radically change.
As we endure the hardships that are coming, we must remember that our Lord has promised us, “In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The Bible declares, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall [grow] worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:12, 13). We can take great comfort that those who suffer persecution and those who escape persecution are both in His sovereign hands. During the time of great persecution of the Christians in the first century, the Apostle Peter proclaimed, “The Lord [knows] how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (2 Peter 2:9). Shortly after Peter wrote these words, he was hung on a cross upside down to die for his Lord.
We have lived in a nation that has provided us with freedom, substance for living, and security. We have enjoyed freedom of religion and freedom of speech. All of this is about to radically change.Brethren, as American believers, we need to cry out to the Lord for Jesus to come. If in His sovereign will He does not come soon, the American church has some very difficult days ahead. It will be the greatest and most severe test that the believers in America have ever faced. We must prepare for this time by anchoring our souls in the Word of God. We have not been saved so He can bless us. We have been saved so we can bless Him in life and death. Our highest goal should be to glorify our Lord.
Our Lord has warned us that this day would come when the world would hate us. To a degree, American Christians have been somewhat insulated from this hatred because of our biblical foundation and freedom. But now, the time has come when we are about to experience what Jesus said to His disciples in John 15:18-25. Jesus warned us that because we represent Him and are becom-ing like Him, the world would hate us. Like our Lord, they do not need a reason to hate us. As Jesus said, “They hated me without a cause” (John 15:25). Furthermore, if they hate us, Jesus said they will also persecute us (John 15:20).
This is a real threat to the American church. Many pastors and believers in the American church have already made many doctrinal compromises to please and appease the world. If you or your church have made any compromises of God’s truth, then beware. Only those who are firmly anchored in the Word of God and are deeply committed to Jesus Christ at any cost will pass the test that is coming. It has been relatively easy to call yourself a Christian in America. That is about to change. If Jesus does not come soon, we will all pay a great price to belong to Jesus and the household of faith.
Many of us have been praying for a revival in America. It very well may be that the Lord will use the approaching persecution and hardships in America to bring about that revival. The purest form of Christianity and dedication of believers to their Lord is found today in the countries where Christians are being persecuted and killed for their Lord. In these countries, believers risk their lives to attend church. They treasure the Word of God. They faithfully witness to unbelievers, knowing that it may cost them their lives. This kind of faith is rare in America.
Whether we face persecutions, or are soon taken in the rapture, that is God’s sovereign choice. It is time to fall our faces before God and to seek His presence and power in our lives. At this time of great spiritual darkness, we can best glorify our Lord by letting the light of our testimony shine brightly for Him. Read 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11.
The following words by the apostle Paul seem to be so applicable for today, “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the [armor] of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in [partying] and drunkenness, not in [sexual promiscuity] and [immorality], not in strife and envying. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:11-14)
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Socialism is Growing in America
Statistical data indicates that socialism is becoming more popular in America. It is being deceptively promoted by the media, Hollywood, educators, and many voices within the political establishment in America. An article by Michael Haverluck in One News Now, states, “According to a report conducted by the Heartland Institute and StoppingSocialism.com, the unprecedented 239 far-left candidates running for House, Senate and state legislative seats and endorsed by socialist organizations defeated their conservative Republican rivals in 266 contests – far exceeding their 40% success rate in 2018, when a much lower number (86) of socialists defeated their challengers.
“The three socialist groups supporting these ultra-progressive Democrats are: 1) the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), whose leading member is self-proclaimed socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), 2) Our Revolution, which supports self-professed socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and 3) Progressive Democrats of America, which has vowed to transform the Democratic Party to administer its socialist agenda” (Michael Haverluck, One News Now, December 15, 2020).