Lion of Judah Blog

Signs of the Times: July 30, 2021

July 30, 2021

“Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned.Forgive, and you will be forgiven.Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into yourbosom. Forwith the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:36-38)

Praise Reports: Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

The first International Religious Freedom Summit (IRF) held in Washington, D.C., from July 13-15. This bipartisan, civil society-led event was attended by representatives of multiple organizations and religions from all over the world. There were over 1,000 registered attendees. Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo. Director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity and former International Director of the Barnabas Fund, is an outspoken spokesman for persecuted Christian minorities around the world. Dr Sookhdeo urged that “our freedom of conscience must be safeguarded. It must be defended. It must be shared. It must be propagated. For it lies at the heart of who we are – men and women created in the imago dei.” He continued by urging those leaving the conference to “take this message to the four corners of the world. It must not be with arrogance or force, but rather with a love born of God and a humility that come from the Truth that truly sets us free.”

The Demise of America: The first was like a lion (Britain), and had eagle’s wings (America). I watched till its wings were plucked off; and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. (Daniel 7:4)

U.S. Capitol Police were ordered to start arresting visitors and staff who refuse to wear a mask on the House side of the Capitol complex starting Thursday, according to a police memo issued by new USCP Chief Thomas Manger. Police were also advised not to arrest members of Congress for failing to wear masks but to report the lawmakers’ noncompliance to the House sergeant-at-arms, the memo says. Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., called the new directive that Cammack describes as “tyrannical.” Later, the Capitol Police backed down and said in a statement that, “there is no reason it should ever come to someone being arrested. Anyone who does not follow the rule will be asked to wear a mask or leave the premises.”

This is an early forerunner of the authoritarian government to come as Covid and other ‘emergencies’ provide the excuse to establish a police state.

As the most sweeping police reform in the nation takes effect in Washington state more than a year after the death of George Floyd, law enforcement agencies outside of Seattle are arguing that new restrictions set on officers when interacting with the public may further incentivize criminal activity. The nearly a dozen bills, passed by a legislature controlled by Democrats and signed by Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee in May, took effect on July 25 and cover virtually all aspects of policing, including the background checks officers undergo before they’re hired; when they are authorized to use force and how they collect data about it; and the establishment of an entirely new state agency to review police use of deadly force.

With crime already surging in most large cities in the U.S., restraining the police will only lead to more and more crime.

Persecution: Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. (Matthew 24:9) Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10)

Afghan Christians are at huge risk. As American troops leave the country, Taliban fighters are expanding their area of control, especially in rural areas, and re-imposing their ultra-strict form of sharia as they go. By the end of August the last Americans will have gone, but in mid-July the Taliban already claimed to control 85% of the country, although others disputed this figure. What is certain is that Afghan Christians, as converts from Islam, will be even more vulnerable under Taliban rule than under the Afghan government. The Taliban has publicly announced that Christians must convert, leave or be killed.

Abortion: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. (Jeremiah 1:5)

A coalition of pro-lifers led by the niece of Martin Luther King Jr. and the president of a Hispanic Christian organization is asking the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade based in part on abortion’s ties to the eugenics movement. The submitted brief asserts that abortion has been used as a “tool of the eugenics movement” in the past and that the abortion industry continues to target minority communities today. The coalition is asking the court to uphold a Mississippi law that prohibits abortion after the 15th week of a woman’s term. The law includes exceptions for medical emergencies and fetal abnormality. Oral arguments on the Mississippi law will be heard this fall.

It’s one of the only bipartisan traditions in Congress that’s remained standing. For the last 44 years, the Hyde Amendment has protected American taxpayers from funding abortion. But the Left wants that to change. Just yesterday, Nancy Pelosi’s House passed the annual Labor-HHS appropriations bill without the Hyde Amendment for the first time in decades.

Pestilence (Covid and other diseases): For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. (Matthew 24:7)

The 14-day average of new Covid-19 Cases in the U.S. is up 151% to 71,621 new cases per day. Deaths are up just 15% because the Delta variant is less deadly and because deaths lag cases by 10-14 days. New cases in Georgia are up 214%. Every state has experienced increased Covid cases.

A leaked Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document obtained by the Washington Post suggests that the Delta variant is so contagious it’s almost like an entirely new virus itself. Just how contagious? As much as chicken pox, the document states, spreading more easily than the common cold. Perhaps most distressingly, it cites new research suggesting vaccinated people appear to spread delta just as easily as the unvaccinated. The document also shows that those who are vaccinated are three times less likely to get COVID-19 than those who are unvaccinated. Once infected, though, vaccinated people are just as contagious as the unvaccinated.

A COVID-19 outbreak in a Massachusetts county in July primarily occurred among vaccinated people. Of the 469 cases detected in Barnstable County, 74 percent occurred among the fully vaccinated, according to a new study published on Friday. Genomic sequencing of 133 patients showed most of them were infected with the Delta variant. The bulk of the infected people did not require hospital care, but among the five that did, four were fully vaccinated.

The CDC’s latest guidance says vaccinated folks should now wear masks in areas of “high transmissibility.” That caused confusion about what ‘high transmissibility’ means. Community transmissibility is calculated using two metrics: how many new cases per 100,000 persons have occurred in the last seven days, and the percentage of positive diagnostic and screening nucleic acid amplification tests in the last seven days. Counties are categorized as having low, moderate, substantial or high transmissibility. Transmissibility is considered high when there are 100 or more new cases per 100,000 in the last seven days and 10% or higher positive NAATs in that period. A high transmission designation can vary, with places like Salt Lake County in Utah at just over 100 cases per 100,000, to counties like Pulaski County in Arkansas, which has nearly 500 cases per 100,000.

The Delta variant, which continues to make up more than 80% of new infections in the U.S., is more than two times as transmissible than the original strains of COVID-19, and experts believe it could cause vaccinated people to be contagious.
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten called the new mask guidance for schools a “curveball,” before suggesting that school reopenings this fall are not a done deal.

The mask reversals continue: Nevada on Tuesday afternoon announced an emergency order, taking effect Friday in 12 of the state’s 17 counties, requiring masks in indoor public spaces regardless of vaccination status. Broadway theatergoers will need to prove they’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19 and masks will be required when theaters reopen in the coming weeks, producers announced Friday.

Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bower said Thursday she will issue a directive for people ages 2 and older to wear masks indoors regardless of their vaccination status to curb rising COVID-19 infections. The directive will go into effect at 5 a.m. Saturday

For the third straight day, Tokyo saw a record high in new COVID-19 cases as the Olympics were well underway. There were 3,865 reported new cases Thursday, up from 3,177 on Wednesday and double the numbers a week ago.

On Wednesday, England lifted quarantine restrictions for vaccinated travelers from United States and E.U., despite rise of Delta variant. Transport Minister Grant Shapps tweeted that as long as travelers from these countries provide proof they are inoculated against the coronavirus, they will not have to quarantine. Even as England is reopening, however, the United States has kept restrictions for travelers from Britain and the E.U. in place. The data suggests that antibody levels against the Delta variant in people ages 18 to 55 who receive a third dose of vaccine are greater than five-times that after receiving the second dose.

Vaccines – Harbinger of the Mark of the Beast: He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:16-17)

The Biden administration on July 29 stated that federal workers and contractors will have to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or else wear masks, engage in social distancing, and submit to regular COVID-19 testing. Along with the new federal government requirements, the White House stated that Biden would direct the Defense Department to investigate “how and when” it will require military members to take the vaccine.

President Biden on Thursday endorsed states and cities using federal money to pay newly vaccinated people $100 each in order to boost plateauing vaccination rates amid a rise in COVID-19 cases triggered by the highly infectious Delta variant. Biden announced the incentive payments Thursday along with other measures, including requiring federal employees to show they have been vaccinated or undergo regular testing,

Google on Wednesday said that all employees working on company campuses must be vaccinated against COVID-19, making it the first Big Tech company to announce such a mandate. Google CEO Sundar Pichai added that exceptions would be made for “medical or other protected reasons.” Facebook also announced a similar measure. Netflix joined them on Thursday.

The founder of Shake Shack, Danny Meyer, said his Union Square Hospitality Group will require indoor diners and drinkers at its restaurants to show that they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19. Employees will also have to get the vaccine, Meyer said.

A third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine can “strongly” boost protection against the Delta variant — beyond the protection afforded by the standard two doses, suggests new data released by Pfizer on Wednesday. The Israeli government announced it will offer a third shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to citizens over 60 years old, amid ongoing efforts to slow the spread of the more contagious Delta variant of the CCP virus.

AstraZeneca, which pledged to provide its COVID-19 vaccine at no profit for the duration of the pandemic, said Thursday that losses in the first half of the year on its vaccine shaved 4 cents off the pharmaceutical giant’s earnings per share.

Violence/Murder: When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come and see.” Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword. (Revelation 6:3-4)

Murders have increased 16% across major U.S. cities so far in 2021 compared to 2020, a new report shows. There were 259 more murders in the first half of 2021 compared to the first half of 2020, and 548 more compared to the first half of 2019 in 29 major U.S. cities, according to a Thursday update to the Council on Criminal Justice’s (CCJ) pandemic crime report.

A Washington Post analysis found that police in 2020 fatally shot 1,021 people, more than any year on record. Police in the United States fatally shot more than 6,400 people since 2015, with the shootings continuing daily despite intense scrutiny of policing.

A woman who took her dog out for a walk in Atlanta on Tuesday night ended up dead, alongside the dog. She had suffered multiple stab wounds in what police say was a “gruesome” scene. Hours later, another woman’s body was found at a park outside Atlanta. Parkgoers found her shot to death under a tree in Yellow River Park near Stone Mountain around 6:30am.

A man was charged Wednesday with hate crimes in New York City after prosecutors say he attacked Muslims and tried to forcibly remove a woman’s hijab. Naved Durrni, 30, is accused of a series of hate crimes over the course of about five weeks during which he allegedly followed Muslims in Queens before yelling anti-Muslim statements and attacking them.

Lawlessness: For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. (2Thessalonians 2;7)

As God’s hand of restraint is gradually lifting, spirits are stirring up lawlessness which will increase all the more as the end-times ramp up.

A witness captured on video a group of women running out of a San Francisco CVS Pharmacy with bags allegedly stuffed full of stolen items as a spree of retail thefts continue to plague the city. Retail thefts have been troubling major cities in recent months, forcing some stores to close their doors or limit operating hours. Multiple incidents in California have been captured on camera, including a viral video from earlier this month that shows a group of shoplifters dashing out of a Neiman Marcus department store in San Francisco and jumping into idling getaway cars. Authorities and retail officials in San Francisco have said that packs of shoplifters have regularly made off with merchandise to be resold.

Hundreds of armed men belonging to a newly-formed vigilante group called “El Machete” have abducted 21 people while burning vehicles and at least a dozen homes in Pantelho, Mexico. The group pledged to fight the incursion of drug cartels into the largely Indigenous mountain communities of Chiapas, and were going street by street in search of alleged criminals. The vigilantes, who appear to include members of the Tzotzil Indigenous group, are calling themselves a “self-defense force.”

An affordable housing project in a Detroit suburb was robbed of $80,000 in air conditioning units. Insurance does not cover the cost of securing the air conditioners. A total of 22 air conditioners were stolen from the Coolidge Place affordable housing development in Oak Park, Michigan.

Racism/Division: Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all,but rather division.For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. (Luke 12:51-52) Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. (Matthew 10:34) And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another… And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will growcold. (Matthew 24:10,12)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday condemned a shocking incident in which a swastika was carved into an elevator wall at the State Department’s main headquarters. Blinken said in a message sent to all department employees that the vandalism is a painful reminder that anti-Semitism remains an issue in the U.S. and around the world and must be combatted relentlessly. “As this painfully reminds us, anti-Semitism isn’t a relic of the past,” Blinken said in the message. “It’s still a force in the world, including close to home. And it’s abhorrent. It has no place in the United States, at the State Department, or anywhere else. And we must be relentless in standing up and rejecting it.”

Critical Race Theory: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

A handful of Minnesotans filed three lawsuits over discrimination, retaliation, and a work demotion they say they faced for speaking out against critical race theory. “Our clients are bravely confronting CRT-inspired bullying, indoctrination and retaliation,” said Doug Seaton, whose Upper Midwest Law Center is representing the plaintiffs in all three cases. In one case, a 27-year employee of the Minnesota Security Hospital, Joe Norgren, says he was forced to retire early because of his “refusal to subscribe to CRT and abandon [his] religious beliefs.”

Protests: Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. (Proverbs 31:8-9)

Dueling protests occurred outside a Baptist church in Medford, Maine Friday over a sign posted outside about “gender identity.” The New England Baptist Church’s sign reads: “Male and Female He Created Them. Gen. 5:2. Gender Identity Solved.” Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy called the sign an “anti-LGBTQ message.” “No one was demanding that the church remove the message, which is protected by the First Amendment. But members of the trans community and their allies wanted to let them know that their views weren’t welcome,” Kennedy wrote on his website.

Iranian security forces are harshly retaliating against peaceful, widespread anti-regime demonstrations—now in their second week—over water shortages and deteriorating economic conditions. The protests began in the southwestern, oil-rich province of Khuzestan earlier this month as portions of the province are without water or electricity thanks to the regime’s reckless environmental policies and the worst drought in 50 years. As many as eight people are reported to have been killed in the protests to date, according to Amnesty International. Iranian security personnel reportedly utilized tear gas, water cannons, and live fire on crowds of Iranian citizens to quell the protests.

Gender Confusion: Male and female He created them. (Genesis 5:2)

Gender confusion is being promoted because it undermines God’s ordained family structure, giving secular government more control over people, particularly our youth.

The Journal of Medical Ethics argues that parents should not have the right to interfere in their child’s decision to undergo so-called ‘gender-affirming surgeries.’ The formal paper maintains that parents should not be able to guide their children in any way other than full affirmation of the ‘gender identity,’ In fact, they proclaim that parents shouldn’t even be allowed into the conversation, that doctors should be free to treat minors without parental consent and parental influence. Breakpoint points out that, “gender-affirming surgeries is a nomenclature for surgery that actually is gender-denying, in which a surgery performed changes the body in a mutilating and permanent way… Thirteen-year-old girls in the United States of America are actually going through surgeries to remove healthy breasts.”

Insanity is running rampant and people are falling victim to Satan’s deceptions and delusions: The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie. (2Thessalonians 2:9-11)

Future Built on Lies: You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. (John 8:44)

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens took aim at Dr. Anthony Fauci Tuesday amid the Biden administration’s efforts to combat so-called coronavirus “misinformation.” “Fauci is almost certainly right on the technical merits … But the larger truth — obscured until recently by fervent efforts (including by Fauci) to dismiss the lab-leak theory for the origins of the pandemic — is that the U.S. government’s scientific establishment did support gain-of-function research that deserved far more public debate than it got,” Stephens wrote. “Also incontrovertibly true is that beneficiaries of that funding engaged in deceptive tactics and outright mendacity to shield their research from public scrutiny while denouncing their critics as conspiracy-mongers.”

Wow! Even the ultra-liberal NYT recognizes the duplicity of Dr. Fauci.

Immigration: He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:18-19)

The Biden administration on Thursday rolled out its strategies to address the root causes of migration, a step officials call a “core component” of efforts to establish a “fair, orderly, and humane immigration system.” Vice President Kamala Harris said that under the Biden Administration, she and the president have “restarted” U.S. engagement with Central American governments to create a “comprehensive” strategy to address the root causes of migration. “Unless we address all of the root causes, problems will persist,” Harris added, noting that it is the “goal” of the administration to deal with “corruption” in the region, and “mitigate the lack of economic and educational opportunities on the ground.”

Laudable goals with little likelihood of immediate impact. Even long-term, these ‘root causes’ will prove extremely difficult to eradicate given the political instability in Central America. More likely is that the U.S. will become such a cesspool that no one will want to come here in the future.

Just 13 percent of the roughly 50,000 illegal immigrants released into the U.S. without a court date — and ordered to report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement — have bothered to show up, a new report said. The illegal immigrants were given a list of addresses and contacts for ICE offices across the country and directed to report to one of them in the expectation that they would appear after reaching their destination to seek work permits, Axios reported.

The Biden administration has restarted fast-track deportation flights for Central American families. Two deportation flights operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement departed Brownsville, Tex., on Friday, but many families were abruptly removed from passenger manifests after testing positive for the coronavirus or having been exposed to an infected person, Department of Homeland Security officials said. The spread of the virus’s delta variant in Texas and along the southern U.S. border has intensified pressure on the administration to ramp up enforcement.

Economy – Depression/Shortages: When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” (Revelation 6:5-6)

The core personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, accelerated in June by the most on an annual basis in almost three decades. Core PCE, which excludes food and energy, increased 3.5% year over year in June, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Overall, the personal consumption expenditures price index rose 4% year over year. Last month, prices increased at a 3.9% annual rate, the beginning of a long-term trend.

Anxiety about inflation is high. Even as demand roars back, the world’s biggest manufacturers, from The Procter & Gamble Co. to Nestle SA, are seeing the cost of raw materials soar – which will be passed along to consumers. Unilever Plc warned of commodity and shipping costs increasing the most in a decade while pricier aluminum threatens a nasty hangover at the world’s biggest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev.

The U.S. economy grew 6.5 percent in second quarter, substantially lower than expected.. Rising vaccination rates and stimulus spending fueled economic growth that surpassed the last pre-pandemic peak set in 2019 and erased losses caused by the coronavirus crisis, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. But new uncertainty lies ahead, as coronavirus cases rise across the country along with increasing inflation, supply-chain disruptions and widespread shortages.

On Wednesday, Fed officials once again voted to continue flooding the financial system with giant mountains of fresh cash. The Federal Reserve open market committee has voted unanimously to continue the central bank’s easy money policies, again dismissing soaring inflation as ‘transitory’ and saying COVID-19 still poses risks to the economy. They will keep the federal funds rate near zero and continue flooding the market with money through massive bond purchases ‘until substantial further progress’ is made on boosting employment. On average, the Federal Reserve is pumping more than a billion dollars into our financial system every single hour which will continue to raise inflation, add to the already insurmountable federal deficit and ultimately cause a terrible inflationary depression.

Sixteen months after the coronavirus pandemic upended the economy and left millions of Americans out of work, the historic relief programs Congress put in place are set to start expiring. Even as Covid-19 cases rise once again as the Delta variant spreads, millions of Americans will soon begin losing their federal safety nets. And there’s less appetite among the Biden administration and lawmakers, including many Democrats, to extend them again. Housing protections are scheduled to end later this week, with enhanced unemployment benefits following the first weekend of September. The pause on federal student loan payments and beefed-up food stamp benefits are due to expire at the end of September.

The IRS has been rolling out special refunds in batches as it makes adjustments for early filers who paid more than they owed in taxes on their jobless benefits for 2020 during the pandemic. About 1.5 million people received an average of $1,686 this week after the IRS adjusted their federal income tax returns. Refunds by paper check will begin July 30.

Many small businesses are still struggling. More than 4 in 5 say their Paycheck Protection Program funds are poised to run out by the end of July, according to a new survey released by Goldman Sachs. And only about 1 in 4 are confident they can keep paying their workers without the extra money.

A federal ban on evictions is poised to expire on July 31, putting millions of renters at risk of being thrown out of their homes in coming weeks as state and local officials struggle to distribute $46 billion in rental assistance to tenants and landlords across the country. More than 15 million people living in the U.S. are behind on their rental payments and could face eviction. At the same time, landlords have been crushed by the moratorium; though many are no longer collecting rent, they’re still on the hook for taxes, maintenance expenses and other bills. On average, tenants owe about $3,000 in unpaid rent to landlords.

President Biden wants to see the moratorium extended and called on Congress to extend the eviction moratorium to protect such vulnerable renters and their families without delay. This only serves to push landlords into poverty, abandoning their properties – just what socialists want to happen.
As a federal ban on evictions expires Saturday, a $46.5 billion emergency fund aimed at getting rent to tenants at risk of eviction remains largely unspent. Only nine states and D.C. have some kind of emergency protections for tenants that will last into August, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

Middle East: When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. (Luke 21:20-22)

Iran’s top leader injected new doubts Wednesday into the stalled effort to save the country’s 2015 nuclear pact with major powers, accusing the United States of duplicity and chastising the outgoing Iranian president as naïve. The remarks by the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, come one week before President Hassan Rouhani — an architect of the original nuclear accord — will step down after eight years. The fate of Iran’s negotiations with the United States to revive the accord, which has been suspended for more than a month, now falls to Mr. Rouhani’s successor, Ebrahim Raisi, an arch-conservative disciple of Mr. Khamenei who takes office in a week.

Wars & Rumors of Wars: And you will hear ofwars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; forall these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. ⁷Fornation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. (Matthew 24:6-7a)

China offered a high-profile public stage to the Taliban on Wednesday, declaring that the group rapidly retaking large parts of Afghanistan would play “an important role in the process of peaceful reconciliation and reconstruction” of the country. Chinese officials began two days of talks with a delegation of Taliban leaders in Tianjin, a coastal city in northeastern China, significantly raising the group’s international stature after steady military gains that have taken advantage of the withdrawal of American and NATO combat forces from Afghanistan.

Earthquakes: And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. (Matthew 24:7b) I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. (Revelation 6:12)

Residents scrambled to higher ground or to evacuate coastal towns late Wednesday and early Thursday after a massive earthquake struck off Alaska’s coast, triggering aftershocks and now-canceled tsunami warnings. The magnitude 8.2 earthquake was the strongest in the area since the 1960’s. Wednesday’s quake hit 56 miles east southeast of Perryville, Alaska, at about 8:15 p.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The earthquake was felt throughout the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak. Two other earthquakes with preliminary magnitudes of 6.2 and 5.6 occurred in the same area within a half-hour of the first one.

Environment: And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth,for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. (Luke 21:25-26)

A Texas rancher fears that two abandoned oil wells leaking on her property are a sign of much bigger problems lurking below the surface. Experts say millions of decaying wells will pose even greater threats to our air and water.

End-Time Weather Will Continue to Grow More Severe: (Daniel 9:26b, Ezekiel 38:22, Luke 21:25, Revelation 8:7, 11:19, 16:8,11)

Severe weather damaged homes, knocked out power and prompted tornado warnings across parts of several states Thursday evening, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. There were reports of injuries from a tornado in Jefferson County, Ohio. Two destructive tornadoes tore through eastern Pennsylvania Thursday night, ripping through a mobile home park, destroying buildings at an auto dealership. Five injuries were reported in the area following the storms. About 20,000 homes and businesses were without electricity in Stafford County, Virginia. The storms were part of the same system that spawned high winds and tornadoes that damaged homes and caused more than 130,000 power outages overnight Wednesday and into early Thursday morning in Wisconsin and Illinois and also raked parts of southwest Michigan and northern Indiana.

Rain is a good thing for the drought-parched Southwest, but too much at one time is fueling worries about significant flooding beginning Friday through the weekend. Eight states in the West have flash flood watches in effect through the weekend, where monsoon rains are expected to expand outward from the desert Southwest.

A fierce cold snap prompted snowfall in southern Brazil, with snow accumulating on streets of cities where the wintry phenomenon is rarely seen. The last time a blizzard hit Brazil was in 1957.

Greenland is experiencing its most significant melting event of the year as temperatures in the Arctic surge. The amount of ice that melted on Tuesday alone would be enough to cover the entire state of Florida in two inches of water. Greenland lost more than 8.5 billion tons of surface mass on Tuesday, and 18.4 billion tons since Sunday, according to the Denmark Meteorological Institute.

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Signs of the Times Update: July 27,2021

July 27, 2021

“Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth…. I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you” (Isaiah 43:2). “For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’” (Isaiah 41:13)

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals handed a Seattle-area church a major legal victory Thursday when it ruled the congregation was harmed by a new law that forces insurance plans to cover abortion. The decision by the Ninth Circuit reversed a ruling by a district court, which had tossed the case and ruled the church did not have standing. The decision by the three-judge panel was unanimous. The law in question, the Reproductive Parity Act [SB 6219], was signed by Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee in 2018. The law requires all insurance plans covering maternity care to also cover abortion. It does not include an exemption for houses of worship.

A call to prayer for America took place Friday, July 23^rd, in Lebanon, Kansas, the very heart of the nation. It was called, “Prayer at the Heart of America.” Thousands of people from across the country will be gathering for a time of strategic prayer for God to heal our land and bring revival and restoration (2Chronicles 7:14). Doug Small of Project Pray and America’s Prayer Meeting helped to coordinate the national prayer event. “The mission is to start public prayer meetings,” Small explained. “What we’re doing here, we hope will happen all across the nation.”

Sparked by pandemic, homeschooling is surging across the U.S. The Census Bureau reported that the rate of households homeschooling their children rose to 11% by September 2020, more than doubling from 5.4% just six months earlier. But it’s not just the pandemic. Many parents are appalled at what the progressive public schools are foisting upon their children, having become secular-humanist indoctrination centers instead of sticking to the three Rs.

One-World Government: It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:7-8) The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces. (Daniel 7:23)

Senator Ted Cruz summarized succinctly what Christian conservatives stand for: “America is a force for good in the world. We should STAND for the national anthem. Police officers keep us safe. Marriage is a holy covenant before God. An unborn child is a child. Children do best when raised by a mother and a father. And there is a difference between boys and girls.” In the past, such a statement would draw only mild disagreement. In today’s world, such views are condemned as hateful and racist. This is not just an American phenomenon, it’s become worldwide as progressive secular-humanists complete their takeover of the media, education and governments all across the globe.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has created a precedent that the state of Colorado can discriminate against an artist, forcing her to violate her beliefs and provide messages she rejects, in pursuit of its “anti-discrimination” laws. The 2-1 decision sets up another opportunity for the Supreme Court to rule on the agenda pursued by many governmental units to punish Christians for refusing to promote the LGBT campaigns of various activists.

Federal law does not prohibit public agencies and private businesses from requiring COVID-19 vaccines that are under emergency use authorization, the Department of Justice concluded in an opinion. The DOJ Office of Legal Counsel says the law concerning emergency use authorizations (EUAs) “does not prohibit public or private entities from imposing vaccine requirements, even when the only vaccines available are those authorized under EUAs.”

Michigan legislators have stripped Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of the emergency powers she freely wielded during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state Senate approved the Unlock Michigan initiative on July 15. On Thursday, the Republican-controlled state House passed the measure with a 60-48 vote largely along party lines. Whitmer utilized powers granted by the Emergency Powers of Governor Act of 1945, which allowed her to enact significant health and safety restrictions in the early days of the pandemic.

A federal court on Friday ruled that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) overstepped its authority by halting evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cincinnati-based U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously agreed (pdf) with a lower court ruling that said the CDC engaged in federal overreach with the eviction moratorium, which the agency has consistently extended for months. Several weeks ago, the CDC announced it would allow the policy, which was passed into law by Congress, to expire at the end of July.

The morphing of the U.S. into an authoritative police state is temporarily being held back by the conservative judges appointed by Trump as well as by Republican-controlled legislatures. Although it will take a few years, the liberal/progressives will do everything they can, legal or not, to stack the courts and turn Red states Blue with their own people, and then ‘emergency’ governmental edicts will become a standard way of life.

Civic/Religious Freedom: Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:36)

Fifty-seven medical groups representing millions of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health workers on Monday called for mandatory vaccinations of all U.S. health personnel against the coronavirus, framing the move as a moral imperative as new infections mount sharply.

New York City will require teachers, police officers and the rest of the 340,000 city employees to get coronavirus vaccines by mid-September or face weekly coronavirus testing, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday. The plan immediately drew criticism from Henry Garrido, head of the city’s largest municipal employees union with 150,000 members, although he acknowledged that his union encourages vaccination.

The Department of Veteran Affairs has become the first federal agency to require that all its employees be vaccinated, following a recent doubling of Covid-19 cases within the VA. The policy affects 115,000 frontline health care workers. It represents a sharp departure from the Biden Administration’s previous reluctance to mandate vaccinations.

Parents in the nation’s capital are suing city officials over a new law that allows children 11 and older to get vaccinated without telling their parents. The parents said the law “substantially and unlawfully burdens the rights of parents who have lawfully objected to vaccinations on the basis of sincerely held religious beliefs.”

A high school football coach who was fired for praying after football games is taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court after losing a recent appeal. In 2015, then-coach Joseph Kennedy was suspended then fired from the Bremerton School District in Washington state for his post-game prayers. While Kennedy initially prayed alone on the field in silence, he was later joined by players.

Censorship: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth. (Romans 1:18)

A Minnesota fourth-grade student and her mother expressed concern to their local school board after her class was given an “equity survey” and students were told not to tell her parents about the activity. Equity is the new buzzword for Critical Race Theory (CRT). Fourth-grader Hayley Yasgar told “Fox & Friends” on Monday, sitting alongside her mother Kelsey, that the questions were confusing and it made her “very nervous and uncomfortable” when the students were told not to tell their parents.

CRT uses equity instead of equality, long the norm as specified in our Declaration of Independence which states that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Equity is defined by Miriam Webster as, “justice according to natural law or right; specifically, freedom from bias or favoritism.”

While Christian persecution takes many forms, it is defined as any hostility experienced as a result of identification with Jesus Christ. From Sudan to Russia, from Nigeria to North Korea, from Colombia to India, followers of Christianity are targeted for their faith. They are attacked; they are discriminated against at work and at school; they risk sexual violence, torture, arrest and much more. The 2021 World Watch List reports that over the past year there have been: Over 340 million Christians living in places where they experience high levels of persecution and discrimination; 4,761 Christians killed for their faith; 4,488 churches and other Christian buildings attacked; 4,277 believers detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned.

Abortion: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. (Jeremiah 1:5)

The Mississippi attorney general on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade when the high court agreed to hear a case involving a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks. Lower courts blocked the law, known as the Gestational Age Act, and the state is appealing. Attorney General Lynn Fitch said the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, as well as the other major ruling legalizing abortion in the U.S., 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey, were “egregiously wrong.” She said there is an “overwhelming” case to be made for overruling them

Confirmed coronavirus infections have nearly quadrupled during July, from about 13,000 cases per day at the start of the month to more than 50,000, as of 7/25. Every state saw increases in cases. The 14-day average number of new cases is up 144%, but deaths are only up 7%. While there is a lag of 2-3 weeks between new cases and deaths, it also appears that the Delta variant, while more infectious, is also less deadly.

Florida is recording more new COVID-19 cases than any other U.S. state, as hospitalizations in some areas increase at the fastest rate since the start of the pandemic.

Los Angeles County has already renewed its face covering rules for everyone indoors. Monday, a face mask mandate went into effect in St. Louis, which requires coverings for vaccinated and unvaccinated people inside and on public transit.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Tuesday that fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas with potential high viral transmission, as COVID-19 cases continue to rise and vaccination rates wane. The CDC is also expected to recommend everyone in K-12 schools wear a mask, regardless of their vaccination status

Another CDC reversal of recent guidance. Their mask guidance overall has been inconsistent and at times totally wrong.

The Olympics kicked off Thursday in Tokyo with opening ceremonies in a mostly empty $1.5 billion stadium built for the games. Only 950 VIPs were in attendance, including Jill Biden. Tokyo hit a six-month high in new COVID cases Thursday as protesters gathered outside a government building to demand that the Games be cancelled.

China said they cannot accept the World Health Organization’s plan for the second phase of a study into the origins of COVID-19, a senior Chinese health official said Thursday. Zeng Yixin, the vice minister of the National Health Commission, said he was “rather taken aback” by the call for a further investigation into the pandemic’s origins and, specifically, the theory that the virus might have leaked from a Chinese lab. He dismissed the lab-leak theory as a rumor that runs counter to common sense and science. He noted that a WHO-coordinated team of international experts who visited the lab earlier this year concluded that a lab leak was highly unlikely.

U.S. health officials said Thursday they now have evidence of an untreatable fungus spreading in two hospitals and a nursing home. The “superbug” outbreaks were reported in a Washington, D.C., nursing home and at two Dallas-area hospitals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. A handful of the patients had invasive fungal infections that were impervious to all three major classes of medications.

Health officials in Colorado on Thursday urged residents to be cautious around local wildlife after lab reports confirmed the presence of plague in animals and fleas from six counties. The warning comes after a 10-year-old resident recently died from complications of the disease, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The state’s last plague-related death was in 2015, the Denver Post reports. The fungus, Candida auris, is a harmful form of yeast that is considered dangerous to hospital and nursing home patients with serious medical problems.

The vaccines are not the mark of the beast since they do not leave a mark on the right hand or forehead and they are not preventing people from buying or selling. However, the vaccines do establish a precedent for government calling upon citizens to blindly accept the mark when it does come.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows 56.5% of Americans have gotten at least one dose, and 43.5% have not received any. Of those people, a poll by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 35% say they probably will not get the vaccine, and 45% say they definitely will not. Unvaccinated people don’t have confidence in the effectiveness of the vaccine, the survey found, with 64% saying they have little to no confidence in it, even against the highly infectious delta variant.

U.S. hospitalizations and deaths for Covid-19 are nearly all among the unvaccinated. What scientists call “breakthrough” infections in people who are fully vaccinated make up a small fraction of cases. Since the vaccines are not 100% effective, the number of breakthrough cases is consistent with test results of 90%-95% efficacy.

Officials in Massachusetts have confirmed that nearly 5,200 people have come down with COVID after being vaccinated – and so far 80 of those victims are dead. As of July 17, a total of 5,166 breakthrough cases had been reported to the state DPH. Of those, 272 people were hospitalized and survived. Of the 80 people who died, 23 died without being hospitalized; 57 died following a hospital stay.

While 5,200 seems like a big number, these are still small percentages of the total number who were vaccinated. 63% of people in Massachusetts were vaccinated, about 4.3 million people. The percent of ‘breakthrough’ cases is 0.12%, well within the predicted efficacy of the vaccinations.

Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration have asked the makers of the mRNA coronavirus vaccines to include additional children in clinical trials. A spokesman for one vaccine company, Moderna, said its trial enrollment numbers have not been finalized. Study results for children ages 5 to 11 who receive the Pfizer vaccine, meanwhile, are predicted to arrive in September.

A federal judge on Monday upheld Indiana University’s vaccine mandate which requires students, faculty, and staff to take one of the experimental COVID-19 vaccines as a condition of attending classes or maintaining employment at the institution. The Trump-appointed judge said the mandate is in the “legitimate interest of public health.”

Millions of students across the United States are waking up to the reality that getting a college education now requires them to submit to a new medical treatment that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers experimental. Some are halfway or more into their degree programs, with tens of thousands of dollars in student-loan debt amassed, only to now find out they cannot finish their degrees unless they submit to an all-new “vaccine” using mRNA gene therapy that has already caused thousands of serious adverse reactions in young people. Some classes can be taken online but not those requiring lab work or hands-on training, meaning if you don’t get the required injection, you don’t graduate.

Unprovoked violence continued to rear its ugly head this past week with a brutal beating of an elderly man in New York City and additional attacks against the elderly and Asians across the country. Former Sen. Barbara Boxer was assaulted and robbed in Oakland on Monday afternoon, but the 80-year-old was not seriously hurt. The California Democrat was in the Jack London Square neighborhood, an entertainment district on the waterfront, when she was attacked. The assailant pushed her in the back, stole her cell phone and jumped in a waiting car.

About 70 people were shot — at least 12 of whom died — in shootings in Chicago from Friday evening through Sunday, city police said Monday.

A California sheriff’s deputy was fatally shot this weekend when his SWAT team tried to rescue people held hostage inside a San Joaquin Valley home by a man armed with an AK-47-style rifle and a handgun, authorities said Monday. Four other people were also killed in the shootout, including the gunman – who had been previously arrested multiple times for domestic violence offenses

A “small gathering” in Fort Worth, Texas, ended with two people dead early Monday—one at the hands of a gunman, the other the gunman himself, who was apparently stoned to death by an angry crowd throwing landscaping bricks.

A teenage girl in India is dead over her choice of attire, authorities say. The 17-year-old reportedly returned to her village after staying with her father elsewhere for some length of time, and refused to wear traditional clothing after getting back. Instead, she wore jeans, among other modern articles of clothing, despite her relatives asking her not to do so. Wthey saw her wearing jeans again on Thursday, they brutally beat her with sticks.

An Atlanta restaurant co-owner has reportedly received death threats after posting a “no vax, no service” sign on the window of his eatery. Meanwhile, an. all-out brawl broke out at a Brooklyn pizza joint after rowdy patrons got saucy with the staff. A woman in Cleveland, Ohio, was seen on camera attacking owners of a beauty store after her card declined at the cash register.

Surveillance State: So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor. (Luke 20:20)

Private spyware allowed governments to hack cellphones of journalists and activists, carrying global implications. Here are key takeaways from the Pegasus Project. Thirty-seven targeted smartphones appeared on a list of more than 50,000 numbers that are concentrated in countries known to engage in surveillance of their citizens and also known to have been clients of NSO Group, a worldwide leader in the growing and largely unregulated private spyware industry, according to an extensive investigation by The Washington Post and 16 media partners. The report is raising outcries and calls for investigations across the globe.

Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, a top official at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, stepped down this week over alleged misconduct—but the manner of his downfall has split Catholics. Burrill resigned after Pillar, a Catholic news site, reported that data from the hookup app Grindr app showed Burrill had “visited gay bars and private residences, even while traveling on assignment for the U.S. bishops’ conference.” Catholic commentators said Burrill, a priest who had taken a vow of celibacy, had to step down, but many were uncomfortable with the use of digital surveillance to expose him. Pillar said it had obtained the cellphone data from a “data vendor” and it was authenticated by “an independent data consulting firm.”

Protests: Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. (Proverbs 31:8-9)

Anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine passport protests erupted across Europe on Saturday. Thousands of demonstrators were seen in London, Dublin, Paris, Rome, Athens, and other cities across Europe. The demonstrations in France appeared to be the tensest, with riot police firing tear gas as clashes erupted in central Paris. France’s Interior Ministry said that about 160,000 people partook in the protests on Saturday. The reason for the protest, in part, was due to pending legislation in France’s Parliament that would set up a vaccine passport system as well as a vaccination mandate for all healthcare workers. The passport bill would force people to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test result to enter restaurants and other public areas. Thousands of Italian demonstrators gathered in Rome, Naples, Verona, and Milan on Saturday. In Verona, thousands chanted, “No Green Pass,” referring to Italy’s government decision to implement a vaccine-passport-like system for people to enter local fairs, stadiums, theaters, and other gathering areas.

Also on Saturday, demonstrators in Dublin, Ireland, emphatically called on the government to rescind lockdown and mask measures. Protesters against new lockdowns in New South Wales, Australia, were labeled “anarchists” by the Police Chief – 57 were arrested and charged, while 250 were fined.

Biden administration said it plans to impose sanctions on Cuban officials following attacks on protesters. The new sanctions will be levied against a number of Cuban officials deemed directly involved in human rights abuses during a government crackdown on widespread protests earlier this month, a senior administration official said. The sanctions will initially affect a small number of individuals from Cuba’s Interior Ministry and military forces. The measures come as President Biden is under increasing pressure from Congress, activist groups and Cuban Americans to take decisive action in support of the protesters. Cuban-Americans rallied over the weekend at the White House over lack of support for the Cuban protesters.

Authorities in Texas have begun arresting illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border on trespassing charges, according to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has blamed the Biden administration for the surge in illegal immigration and has put in motion his own border security plan to crack down on illegal crossings. “Texas has begun arresting illegal immigrants who are trespassing in Texas or vandalizing property & fences. They are now being sent to this jail rather than being released like the Biden Admin. has been doing. We are adding more officers, National Guard & jails,” Abbott said Thursday.

Economy – Inflation/Depression/Shortages: When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” (Revelation 6:5-6)

Revelation 6:6 above indicates that end-time inflation and shortages will become extreme, leading to a global depression.

New unemployment claims jumped to 419,000 last week, a sudden increase that shows the labor market remains unsettled. That marked an increase of 51,000 claims from a week earlier. It comes as the White House is trying to determine how the spread of the coronavirus’s new Delta variant will impact the economy.

In the United States, a record 4 million people quit their jobs in April, including 649,000 retail workers. A recent EY survey of more than 16,200 employees globally found that more than half would consider ditching their job after the pandemic if they weren’t offered enough flexibility on where and when they work.

Gen X workers are feeling the brunt of unemployment concerns during the pandemic, according to a survey from Generation, a non-profit focused on employment. Generation X is the term typically used for people born between 1965 and 1980, preceded by the baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964. While employment concerns for those 45 and over existed before the pandemic, COVID-19 worsened them, making it harder to gain employment and keep it, the study found.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reveals that state unemployment programs overpaid jobless benefits by a whopping $12.9 billion during the first year of the pandemic. The GAO estimates that of the almost $13 billion in overpayments made by states, about $1.3 billion has already been documented as fraud. The rest was due to errors as states were overwhelmed with applications.

Teenagers have become one of the largest segments of the working population. The Associated Press reported that, in May, 33.2% of teens ages 16 to 19 were in the national workforce, the highest figure for teen workers since the Great Recession of 2008.

Some back-to-school products could be hard to find for American consumers in the coming weeks as global supply lines struggle amid virus outbreaks in the developing world.

When COVID-19 hit in early 2020 and safety programs were dispersed, they excluded undocumented immigrants. Last week, as part of the COVID-19 relief plan introduced by President Joe Biden, the majority of American families began receiving monthly payments of up to $300 per child. Deemed the “largest anti-poverty program in decades,” certain undocumented immigrants and their families will be included in this round of help. Recipients will include children who have a Social Security number, even if their parents are not U.S. citizens. To claim the child tax credit, immigrant parents must have an IRS-issued ITIN. An ITIN is a tax processing number issued by the IRS to individuals who are not eligible to obtain a Social Security number. In other words, ITINs are the IRS’s way to identify taxpayers who also happen to be undocumented immigrants.

Wars & Rumors of Wars: And you will hear ofwars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; forall these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.Fornation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. (Matthew 24:6-7a)

The United States has launched several airstrikes in support of embattled Afghan forces in recent days, U.S. officials said Friday, an escalation in U.S. involvement in Afghanistan as the Taliban seizes more territory from government forces. The airstrikes were conducted at the request of Afghan forces under attack by the Taliban or to destroy equipment stolen by the militants, including artillery and vehicles. The Taliban has made rapid territorial gains, including border crossings vital for trade, as the U.S. drawdown of troops nears completion.

President Joe Biden authorized his first airstrike in Somalia that took place on Tuesday. “The U.S. military command for Africa, in coordination with the Somali government, ‘conducted one air strike in the vicinity of Galkayo, Somalia today against al-Shabaab,’ Pentagon spokeswoman Cindi King told AFP,” the outlet reported. The location of the strike was 430 miles northeast of Mogadishu, and it targeted al-Shabaab Islamists.

Thirteen civilians were killed in clashes north of Bangui, the capital of the perennially restive Central African Republic, the UN mission in the country said Thursday. Peacekeepers found “13 dead bodies in Bongboto”, about190 miles north of Bangui, on Wednesday. CAR is the second least-developed country in the world according to the UN and suffers from the aftermath of a brutal civil conflict that erupted in 2013. The government has blamed the Coalition of Patriots for Change, created in December 2020 to try and topple President Faustin Archange Touadera, of being behind the attack.

Israel: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you. (Psalm 122:6)

Jordanian intelligence agents have thwarted a potential Islamic State attack on Israeli troops on the border the two countries share, Jordanian daily Al Ra’i reported on Tuesday. According to the report, Jordanian intelligence agents uncovered the plot in February, and after a lengthy investigation, arrested four ISIS operatives implicated in the plan. The four are suspected of planning to ambush Jordanian Border Police forces near the border, seize their vehicles and weapons, and use them to ambush Israel Defense Forces’ soldiers operating along the Israeli side of the border.

According to Hebrew and Arabic media reports, an Israeli air strike in Syria last Thursday killed a Hezbollah commander and a senior figure in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Israel has confirmed carrying out numerous strikes in Syria to prevent Iran entrenchment. However, Jerusalem rarely comments on specific operations. According to an unconfirmed report in Asharq al-Awsat, Russia “[has run] out of patience” with Israel’s strikes in Syria. The London-based paper reported that “Moscow received a confirmation that Washington does not welcome the continuous Israeli raids.”

Weakened by pro-Iran factions at home, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi will meet with President Joe Biden on Monday to discuss a possible full U.S. troop withdrawal from his country. The White House talks between the two allies come just a week after a deadly attack claimed by the Islamic State group, despite Baghdad’s contention that the extremists had been defeated over three years ago. Kadhemi is under intense pressure from pro-Iran armed factions who demand the withdrawal of 2,500 U.S. troops still deployed in Iraq. Kadhemi told Biden that his country no longer requires American combat troops to fight the Islamic State group, but a formal time frame for their redeployment will depend on the outcome of talks with U.S. officials this week.

President Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi came to an agreement to end U.S. involvement in the war in Iraq by the end of the year. It’s uncertain for now how many U.S. troops will remain.

Iran is struggling with a fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, an economy strained by American sanctions and stalled talks on rescuing a nuclear agreement that was once seen as an economic salvation. Now the country is contending with a different but easily foreseen crisis: a severe water shortage. A prolonged drought and rising temperatures combined with decades of government mismanagement of natural resources and lack of planning, have turned the water crisis into a volatile incubator of protests and violent unrest. People have been demonstrating for more than a week over the water shortages that has affected households, agriculture, livestock farming, and led to power blackouts. Three protesters have been killed.

Wildfires: The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. (Revelation 8:7)

Thousands of firefighters across the nation were combating “extreme fire behavior” Sunday as California’s largest blaze razed homes and forced thousands of residents to flee the fast-spreading flames. The Dixie Fire in Northern California was one of at least 88 major wildfires raging across 13 states, including one in Oregon that has burned through 640 square miles. More than 22,000 firefighters were battling the blazes, often struggling with rugged terrain in hot, dry conditions. Very dry conditions will continue for the northwest. The Dixie Fire, which began less than two weeks ago, had grown to about 300 square miles Sunday and had destroyed more than 20 homes and buildings. Thousands of homes were threatened, and more than 5,000 firefighters were battling the blaze. More homes burned and 10,000 others remained threatened Monday as the fast-growing Dixie wildfire merged with another blaze and swept through the Plumas County community of Indian Falls.

Eleven Type 1 (the biggest, most dangerous) and fourteen Type 2 wildfires were burning in northern California, Oregon, Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana, areas that are still in drought where little to no rain has fallen recently. In contrast, the southwest has seen a lot of rain and have no Type 1 or Type 2 fires as of Saturday, 7/24.

End-Time Weather Will Continue to Grow More Severe: (Daniel 9:26b, Ezekiel 38:22, Luke 21:25, Revelation 8:7, 11:19, 16:8,11)

Most of the nation can expect above-average temperatures in coming days as a giant heat wave is expected to spread across much of the continental U.S. beginning this week. Temperatures in the mid-100s are forecast for eastern Montana, the Upper Missouri Valley and South Dakota in the first half of the week. Heat indexes could be over 110 in urban areas such as St. Louis, with a slight cool-down possible by the end of the week in some areas. Later in the week, areas of Oregon, Idaho and Washington probably will see temperatures into the 100s.

Seasonal monsoon rains dumped on parched parts of Arizona Friday, bringing flooding and prompting water rescues. Flash flood warnings were issued in several areas as dry riverbeds filled with water and streets were covered. A daily rainfall record was set at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Video posted to social media showed water running through streets in the Phoenix area. People also had to be helped from stranded cars. In Tucson, the Santa Cruz and Rillito rivers, often a dry riverbed, filled with water, impacting roads, walkways and wildfire burn scar areas. There were several reports of intense lightning from storms on Thursday night. Earlier in the week, four people were struck by lightning at the Grand Canyon. Two were hospitalized. The storms knocked down trees and power lines in some areas. About 17,000 homes and businesses were without power Friday afternoon.

At least seven people were killed in a 20-vehicle pileup crash during a sandstorm Sunday afternoon, Utah Highway Patrol said. The crashes happened on Interstate 15 near the town of Kanosh. Several people were reportedly taken to hospitals in critical condition. Ground and air ambulances were used to transport crash victims. The pileup occurred during a period of high winds that caused a dust or sandstorm which reduced visibility.

A huge dust storm also engulfed an entire city in China over the weekend.

A woman was found dead and three other people were missing after rain triggered flooding and mudslides in an area of northern Colorado burned by a large wildfire last year, authorities said Wednesday. About an inch of rain fell on the Crown Point area in a short period of time Tuesday. That rain drained into the Black Hollow burn area and created a debris dam that burst, causing flash flooding and mudslides.

Landslides and flooding set off by heavy seasonal monsoon rains have left more than 100 people dead and prompted more than 1,000 rescues in India. At least 30 people were missing. People were rescued from rooftops and the tops of buses stranded on highways, while others were evacuated due to dam releases. “Dams and rivers are overflowing. We are forced to release water from dams, and, accordingly, we are moving people residing near the riverbanks to safer places,” officials said. A landslide Sunday in India’s Sangla Valley destroyed cars and a bridge, leaving fifty cars stranded. Nine Tourists died when their vehicle was pounded by a boulder.

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Signs of the Times – 7/21/21

July 21, 2021

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. (2Timothy 2:24-26)

A Texas county justice of the peace can open sessions with chaplain-led prayer despite anger from the Freedom From Religious Foundation (FFRF), a federal appeals court ruled. The FFRF, a group of atheists, agnostics, and free-thinkers, filed complaints and several lawsuits against Judge Wayne Mack, a justice of the peace and the county coroner in Montgomery County who is represented by First Liberty Institute. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay Friday permitting Mack to continue regularly opening his courtroom with “encouraging words” or prayer from a volunteer chaplain, a program he started. The ruling comes after District Court Judge Kenneth Hoyt’s decision in May found the practice unconstitutional.

Last week, apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis celebrated the five-year anniversary of its popular Ark Encounter and announced plans for a new Tower of Babel attraction. The Ark Encounter opened on July 7, 2016, in Williamstown, Ky., and has helped make northern Kentucky – just south of Cincinnati – a destination for families of faith. The attraction is a museum and life-size replica of Noah’s Ark. Next year, Answers in Genesis will begin fundraising for a Tower of Babel exhibit. Answers in Genesis will also add a scale model in 2022 or 2023 “of what Jerusalem may have looked like at the time of Christ.”

Would-be robbers end up being shot by the armed victim. A man with a shopping bag and two women were standing in a parking area near Melrose and Vista Street when a light-colored sedan pulled up near them. Two men got out of the car and one of them then pulled a gun. The male would-be robbery victim then drew his own weapon and opened fire while running backward.

The Biden administration has formally invited the United Nations to investigate “the scourge of racism, racial discrimination, and xenophobia” in the United States. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the invitation in a statement on Tuesday, the same day the ACLU called on the Biden administration to cooperate with the U.N. after its Human Rights Council adopted a resolution “creating an independent body to investigate systemic racism in law enforcement around the globe.”

A controversial plan by the International Monetary Fund to boost global liquidity means the days of the U.S. dollar being the undisputed king of the international monetary system may be coming to a close. Losing that status could contribute to a serious crisis for the United States involving a dramatic loss of economic purchasing power and a geopolitical realignment. The Biden administration supports the IMF proposal to issue an unprecedented $650 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of new “Special Drawing Rights” (SDRs) this year. That is more than twice the total amount of SDRs created by the IMF throughout its entire history. The SDR is a sort of proto-global currency, based on a basket of leading currencies, dubbed an “international reserve asset” by the IMF. Each government receives an amount of SDRs proportional to its stake in the international organization.

The newest version of Joe Biden’s “Big Brother” agenda, which already features intruders going door-to-door asking people about their COVID vaccinations, now has teams ready to give shots on the spot. PJMedia reported that health officials in North Carolina are using a “far-Left community organizing group” to “educate and encourage” the unvaccinated to take the experimental shots. “If someone indicates they’ll get a COVID shot, the organizers, who usually register people to vote for Democrats, call on an accompanying health department injector to administer the shot on the spot,” the report said.

Biden allied groups, including the Democratic National Committee, are planning to engage fact-checkers more aggressively and work with SMS text carriers to dispel misinformation about vaccines that is sent over social media and through text messages. The goal is to ensure that people who may have difficulty getting a vaccination because of issues like transportation see those barriers lessened or removed entirely. White House spokesperson Kevin Munoz said, “When we see deliberate efforts to spread misinformation, we view that as an impediment to the country’s public health and will not shy away from calling that out.”

These ‘fact-checkers’ conveniently leave out that the shots are experimental and already have caused reactions and death. It is a legitimate decision to forego the risks of the vaccine versus the risks of Covid-19.

Civic/Religious Freedom: Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:36)

A California appeals court has ruled that a state law requiring nursing home staff to refer to transgender residents by their preferred pronouns violates the First Amendment. The court said the pronoun provision was a “content-based restriction on speech” that runs afoul of the Constitution because it compels nursing home staff to communicate a message they may not wish to convey. However, the court upheld the part of the law that allows transgender residents to have room assignments based on their preferred gender identity.

A judge in Virginia has given his opinion that a state law that has forced churches to censor their beliefs on marriage, sexuality and gender from their own websites under the threat of huge fines is not inflicting any damage on those institutions. The churches are being forced to violate their beliefs and remove their own biblical doctrine from their websites because they are violating the Virginia Bill of Rights and the state Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Censorship: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth. (Romans 1:18)

A Facebook Oversight Board member said that free speech is not “an absolute” right and should be weighed against “other human rights” when determining if content should be censored by the tech giant. The Facebook Oversight Board, which consists of 20 members from around the world, was created last year to help corporate executives to distance themselves from decisions considered to be politically. The board previously recommended that Facebook continue its ban placed the account of former President Donald Trump, which was initially imposed following the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. Although U.S. courts have found the right to free speech isn’t absolute, the U.S. has strong legal and cultural support for the free distribution of information. Other countries have starkly different standards, some even mandating digital censorship.

Biden administration press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that the Biden administration has been “flagging” content for Facebook to remove. “We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation. We’re working with doctors and medical experts…who are popular with their audience with accurate information,” she said. “So, we’re helping get trusted content out there.”

What is “problematic” to one person may not be so to another. That’s why the U.S. constitution calls for freedom of speech, which Big Tech and the Biden administration openly admit that they are suppressing.

The mainstream media is going after a Christian men’s movement that has been around for decades. USA Today’s “race and inequality editor” called on the Dallas Cowboys and AT&T Stadium, where Promise Keepers is set to take place this weekend, to ban the Christian men’s group. Promise Keepers CEO Ken Harrison responded on the Todd Starnes Show Wednesday after USA Today’s Mike Freeman accused him of “anti-trans” hate speech. Harrison refuted Freeman’s accusations, adding that he started receiving death threats after the op-ed. “We’re going to preach God’s word, but we are not out to condemn or belittle anybody,” Harrison told host Todd Starnes.

Jesus said loving God and loving our neighbor (i.e. everyone) are the two most important commandments (Matthew 22:34-40) of how Christians are supposed to live in this fallen world. We are not ‘haters’ but ought to be lovers. However, we also must speak God’s truth – but in love (Ephesians 4:15)

An apparent ongoing anti-Christian campaign in Canada has resulted in a total of 45 churches being attacked with some of the buildings being burned to the ground. Seventeen of the 45 church buildings attacked have suffered fire damage or completely burned to the ground. As CBN News has reported, the attacks are mostly against Roman Catholic churches serving indigenous congregations. Indigenous leaders are calling for the church arsons to stop. “Burning down churches is not in solidarity with us indigenous people. As I said we do not destroy people’s places of worship,” said Jenn Allan-Riley, an assistant Pentecostal minister at Living Waters Church during a press conference last week.

Eighteen Nigerians were killed in Christian-majority southern Kaduna state when suspected Fulani Islamist militants stormed two villages in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area. A large number of gunmen swept into the village at 2 a.m. on July 9, killing nine villagers and razing houses. Nine villagers died and many others were injured. Several houses were destroyed in Makarau on Sunday, July 11, in an assault that began at around 5 p.m.

Christians in Myanmar are suffering an appalling tragedy at the hands of a dictatorial government. Under attack from the Myanmar military and with serious hunger looming, they are also wracked by Covid-19. The Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) is repeatedly launching attacks against the civilians of Christian-majority ethnic groups such as the Chin, Kachin and Karen. Many church buildings have been bombed, even while sheltering unarmed civilians, mainly women and children. Many tens of thousands have been forced from their homes. Most fled with nothing but the clothes they were wearing, even barefoot. Some are in camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), some are trying to survive in the jungle, some are living among host communities elsewhere in Myanmar, and some have made it across national borders.

Abortion: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. (Jeremiah 1:5)

Students for Life Action is calling for the removal of Dr. Anthony Fauci after his agency was caught using tax dollars to fund an experiment that involved implanting aborted babies’ scalps onto rodents. The pro-life organization has collected nearly 2,000 signatures on a petition and more than 20,000 on an email petition urging federal leaders to fire Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical officer. Fauci also is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a role he has held for nearly four decades. Find the petition here.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed another pro-life bill in Texas on Tuesday, one that would completely ban abortions as soon as the U.S. Supreme Court allows states to do so. Abbott signed the Human Life Protection Act (House Bill 1280). Sometimes referred to as a “trigger bill,” the legislation would protect unborn babies by banning abortions completely or as much as the U.S. Supreme Court allows when it overturns Roe v. Wade. The ban would go into effect 30 days after the Supreme Court rules. Exceptions would be allowed for risks to the mother’s life or a “substantial impairment of major bodily function.” Abortionists who violate the measure could face fines or prison time.

U.S. life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II. The decrease for both Black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse: three years. More than 3.3 million Americans died last year, far more than any other year in U.S. history, with COVID-19 accounting for about 11% of those deaths. For decades, U.S. life expectancy was on the upswing, until Covid-19 struck.

The more contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 now makes up 83% of new cases in the U.S., up from 50% the week of July 3. The vaccines have proven effective against the Delta variant, but more than half of the U.S. is not yet fully vaccinated – just 49%. The average number of new daily cases this week is up 66% from last week and 198% from two weeks ago. Deaths are up 44%, but tend to lag new cases by 2-3 weeks.

While The Delta variant is indeed more contagious than previous variants, preliminary data suggest it doesn’t cause more severe cases.

Arizona on Monday ranked seventh-highest among U.S. states and territories for its seven-day rate of new COVID-19 cases, behind Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, the Virgin Islands and Nevada. The flood of new COVID-19 cases in Arizona continued Wednesday as the state has seen more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases in six of the past seven days.

About 95% of Arizona’s COVID-19 cases in May and 92% of the reported cases in June were among people not fully vaccinated

Los Angeles County is requiring the use of masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status, following a jump in coronavirus cases as the delta variant spreads. The move comes after the county added more than 1,000 new cases for a seventh straight day, with the transmission rate edging close to “high” levels from “substantial.” The new policy also makes it easier for businesses to impose the use of masks especially when it’s difficult to verify vaccination status, officials said.

Residents in Provincetown, Massachusetts, are being advised to wear the face coverings indoors following a cluster of 132 cases that is believed to have stemmed from Fourth of July celebrations

The United Kingdom has recorded more than 40,000 daily Covid-19 cases for the first time since January, government figures showed Wednesday. A Scottish study at the end of June found nearly 1,300 new coronavirus cases in Scotland were linked to travel to England for Euro 2020 soccer-related events. And on July 1, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare said Covid-19 cases in Finland had nearly doubled over the space of a week, “largely due to football fans returning from Russia” after Euro 2020 Championship games. The final of Euro2020 was held at Wembley Stadium, in London, on Sunday.

About half the population of Australia is in lockdown again as the delta variant of COVID-19 surges. Australia’s lockdown is the most restrictive since the start of the pandemic. Residents must stay within 1.5 miles of home and abide by a 6 pm curfew. Anger is growing, with some directed at the government’s slow vaccine rollout. Less than 14% of the population is vaccinated. New South Wales reported 110 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday

The Tokyo Olympics will look different than any previous Games in the modern era due to the coronavirus and it will even affect how athletes interact with each other. Olympians will be barred from hugging, shaking hands and medals will be presented on a tray for winners to hang around their own necks. Olympic organizers announced last week the Games will be held without spectators as Covid-19 continues to grip parts of Japan.

Children who had recovered from COVID-19 are reportedly coming back to hospitals in India with complaints of post-COVID symptoms such as gastric issues, headaches, brain fog, breathlessness, etc.

The vaccines are not the mark of the beast since they do not leave a mark on the right hand or forehead and they are not preventing people from buying or selling. However, the vaccines do establish a precedent for government calling upon citizens to blindly accept the mark when it does come.

Roughly 48.4% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, according to the latest data from the CDC. Among those states that have fully vaccinated less than half its residents, the average Covid-19 case rate was 11 new cases per 100,000 people last week, compared to 4 per 100,000 among states that have fully vaccinated more than half its residents.

People who’ve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 have a much stronger immune system response against the new coronavirus than those who’ve previously been infected, according to a new study. “Vaccinated individuals had the highest antibody levels, nearly three times higher than that of convalescent individuals recovering from symptomatic COVID-19,” an Israeli team of researchers reported.

Attorney Thomas Renz filed a lawsuit in federal court in Alabama on July 19 that alleges a massive government cover-up of vaccination-related U.S. deaths that number “at least 45,000.” The suit, filed on behalf of America’s Frontline Doctors in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, is based on a sworn statement by a government insider under federal whistleblower protection. Renz is a partner at Renz Law, a Fremont, Ohio-based law firm that specializes in cases fighting against medical tyranny.

Mirroring data from Israel, Britain’s chief scientific adviser said Tuesday that 40% of people who have been hospitalized with CO

VID-19 are fully vaccinated. Sir Patrick Vallance told a news briefing that the figure was not surprising “because the vaccines are not 100% effective. They’re very, very effective, but not 100%.”

The CDC contends that only a small percentage of people in the United States who have been vaccinated will get COVID-19 — called “breakthrough cases” — but a leading epidemiologist. Dr. Harvey Risch of the Yale School of Medicine, argues that’s because the agency stopped counting the breakthrough cases of people who didn’t die or were not hospitalized.

In a span of one week, the number of deaths due to COVID-19 vaccines reported to the government’s database outnumbered the official count of deaths due to the virus, reports WND.com. The government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, contains voluntary, unverified reports of adverse events following immunization with U.S.-licensed vaccines. But it’s estimated that only between 1% and 10% of the adverse events that occur are reported to VAERS. The Gateway Pundit noted VAERS reported 2,043 vaccine deaths in the week prior to July 7 compared to 1,505 COVID-19 deaths.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday that all health workers will be required to be vaccinated by September 15, and mandated special COVID-19 vaccine passports for anyone who wants to go to a restaurant, shopping mall or hospital or get on a train or plane.

In Greece, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that nursing home staff will have to get vaccinated immediately, while all health workers will have to be vaccinated starting September 1. Mitsotakis also announced new measures allowing only vaccinated customers indoors in bars, cinemas, and other closed spaces.

As God’s hand of restraint is gradually lifting (2Thessalonians 2:7-8), spirits of lawlessness are stirring people up in anger, hostility and violence which will only increase all the more as the end-times ramp up.

The U.S. has averaged more than one and a half mass shootings a day so far this year. Last Monday was the 200th day of the year, and according to Wikipedia there have been 327 mass shootings up to that point in 2021. Carjackings in D.C. are up a whopping 74 percent so far this year, and the police union is admitting that the city has become a place where “violent crime permeates everything.” Portland is rapidly becoming one of America’s most violent cities, and over the weekend there was a tragic mass shooting in the city in which eight people were shot.

At least 250 murder cases and 400 sexual assault cases are among a pandemic-related backlog of more than 3,000 violent crime cases pending in the superior court of Seattle’s largest county, a local lawyer says. Criminal defense attorney Brad Meryhew says cases have been piling up since last March when the King County Superior Court paused jury trials amid the pandemic. The county is among several nationwide grappling with massive case backlogs as courthouses are reopening after months of coronavirus mitigation measures delayed or shifted hearings to be online or by phone.

Soaring crime rates in many U.S. cities is also contributing to the court backlog.

A suicide bomber killed at least 35 people and wounded dozens in a crowded market in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad on Monday, the eve of the Eid al-Adha festival, security and hospital sources said. More than 60 people were wounded, a police source said. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Nasheer news agency said on Telegram. It said one of its militants blew up his explosive vest among the crowds. Hospital sources said the death toll could rise as some of the wounded were in critical condition.

An anti-Semitic 5th-grade lesson plan in Washington state compared the treatment of Native Americans to Palestinians and their return to “sacred homelands” from “Israeli dominance,” KTTH reports. The lesson, which conservative radio host Jason Rantz compared to propaganda from terrorist organization Hamas, has been used for at least a decade. But after the Jason Rantz Show questioned the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), state officials immediately edited it out.

Critical Race Theory: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., a Black man, explains how the racially charged Critical Race Theory movement is an agenda to fundamentally change our country. “If you make it possible for young people growing up to look at our country with this disdain, to not believe in the goodness of America, which is frankly clear to anybody else across the world who is trying to get to America; If you have our young people grow up with that thought process, with that ideology that our country irreparably has no ability to better itself, it gives you the ability to fundamentally change our country from a political standpoint.”

The Biden administration apparently has noticed the parents across the nation who have declared their fierce opposition to public schools teaching their children the Critical Race Theory and revisionist history such at the 1619 Project. In April, the Department of Education proposed a new regulation under American History and Civics Education programs that would give preference to grant applications for curricula that incorporate the 1619 Project. On Friday, however, when Education Secretary Miguel Cardona opened the invitation to apply for grants under the program, the references to preferred ideas and curriculum were gone, reported PJ Media. Cardona said the program “has not, does not, and will not dictate or recommend specific curriculum be introduced or taught in classrooms.”

Protests: Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. (Proverbs 31:8-9)

“This afternoon, nine people were arrested for demonstrating in a prohibited area on Capitol Grounds,” the Capitol Police said in a statement. U.S. Representative Democrat Rep. Joyce Beatty was among nine arrested after a group of protesters stormed the Hart Senate Building to protest against the filibuster. Beatty is the head of the Congressional Black Caucus. Prior to the arrest, Rep. Beatty made the claim that she was protesting in an effort to protect voting rights for black women.

Protesters and counter-protesters descended on a Korean spa in Los Angeles that became the latest culture war flashpoint just weeks ago when a customer complained that a transgender woman allegedly disrobed in the women’s area. Antifa counter-protesters clashed with baton-wielding LAPD officers near the spa on Saturday. The LAPD arrested several dozen people and found multiple discarded weapons, including a stun gun, knives, and pepper spray. A flyer posted online by the southwest chapter of the Youth Liberation Front, which was described by the Seattle Times as “a persistent militant voice,” encouraged followers to gather at Wi Spa at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday to “SMASH TRANSPHOBIA” and “SMASH FASCISM.”

There is outrage this week after Black Lives Matter came out in defense of Cuba’s communist government as it cracks down on pro-American dissidents crying out for freedom. “Black Lives Matter condemns the U.S. federal government’s inhumane treatment of Cubans, and urges it to immediately lift the economic embargo. This cruel and inhumane policy, instituted with the explicit intention of destabilizing the country and undermining Cubans’ right to choose their own government, is at the heart of Cuba’s current crisis.”

The Biden administration being firm against Cuban asylum seekers making the 90-mile trek to Florida, but permitting them to walk across the border in Texas, Arizona, and California is a political double standard says Florida’s GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Protests are also springing up around the world. In South Africa, the currency has fallen hard as riots and looting have devasted the country ever since former South African President Jacob Zuma turned himself in to begin a 15-month sentence for contempt of court. This has sent the country into a tailspin.

In Greece, there are thousands of people protesting against the discrimination of people who have not been vaccinated and against the mandatory vaccinations and other measures imposed by the Greek government to tackle the pandemic.
In Australia, a mob stormed the government resulting in chaos on the streets of Melbourne just hours before the city entered its fifth lockdown. The protesters have marched through the Central Business District, rebelling against yet another forced lockdown.

Gender Confusion: Male and female He created them. (Genesis 5:2)

Gender confusion is being promoted because it undermines God’s ordained family structure, giving secular government more control over people, particularly our youth.

A crowd of nearly 500 parents, school board members, and concerned citizens gathered last week in Russell County, Virginia for a public hearing to denounce a new policy concerning transgender students. The school board took a 7-0 vote rejecting the transgender model policy passed down by the Virginia Department of Education. Under the new policy, transgender students would [have been] allowed to use a name or gender that relates to their preferred gender identity. They would also have access to restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. Board members emphasized that they are committed to protecting all students and that they believe the school district does comply with federal anti-discrimination laws.

On Monday, a federal judge ruled against a Christian teacher who alleged that he was forced out of his job because he refused to use the preferred names and pronouns of transgender students. John Kluge taught music for four years within the Brownsburg (Ind.) Community School Corporation but claimed he faced religious discrimination due to his religious beliefs about gender and sexuality. He was forced to resign in the spring of 2018, even though he believed he had reached a compromise to use only the last names of students.

According to UK crime statistics, crimes committed by women are surging. But offenses by men who call themselves women now are being attributed to the female sex. Offenses are being recorded by gender identity not biological sex.

Two “transgender” people represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit challenging Montana’s new law restricting the ability of “trans” people to change their birth certificates in accordance with their chosen “gender identities.”

About one in four LGBTQ youths identify as nonbinary, or someone who doesn’t identify within the traditional gender dichotomy. That’s according to a new study released ahead of International Nonbinary People’s Day this Wednesday. This follows national pride month.

Celebrating ungodliness only hastens God’s judgment: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness. (Isaiah 5:20)

Mental Instability: The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie. (2Thessalonians 2:9-11)

U.S. drug overdose deaths surged nearly 30 percent in 2020, reflecting mental and emotional toll of pandemic. A record 93,000 people died of drug overdoses last year, the CDC reported, also reflecting the continued spread of illicit fentanyl.

Election Integrity: He who walks with integrity walks securely, But he who perverts his ways will become known… The integrity of the upright will guide them, But the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them. (Proverbs 10:9,11:3)

A Wisconsin legislator on Friday said 2020 election reviews being done in the state should be expanded into a “full forensic audit” following alleged irregularities being revealed in Arizona and Georgia. An election integrity group presented ballot images this week they said show “provable fraud” occurred in the 2020 hand count audit in Fulton County, Georgia. Additionally, the county double-scanned nearly 200 ballots. An election integrity group presented ballot images this week they said show “provable fraud” occurred in the 2020 hand count audit in Fulton County, Georgia. Additionally, the county double-scanned nearly 200 ballots.

q Immigration: He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:18-19)

There were 188,829 migrant encounters at the southern border in June, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced last Friday — yet another rise in what were already sky-high border numbers, and bringing the total of encounters in fiscal year (FY) 2021 to more than 1 million. It is also a sharp rise from when President Biden took office — there were 78,442 encounters in January. Compared to 2020, the numbers are staggeringly higher. Just 33,049 migrants were encountered in June 2020.

A Texas federal judge on Friday ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama-era policy that shields certain illegal immigrants from being deported, is unlawful and blocked new applications from being filed. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen argued that the policy goes against the Constitution because Congress never provided the executive branch authorization to grant deportation reprieves to illegal immigrants in the United States. DACA, which was established in 2012 by President Barack Obama’s administration, has granted an estimated 800,000 individuals protection.

Revelation 6:6 above indicates that end-time inflation and shortages will become extreme, leading to a global depression.

U.S. wholesale prices posted the biggest 12-month increase on record. The Labor Department reported that PPI rose 7.3% for finished goods and services over the last 12 months. The producer price index measures prices paid by businesses. Any increases typically are passed onto consumers at the retail level.

Inflation is on the rise throughout the country, and independent restaurant leaders say many of their businesses will soon be forced to permanently shut down unless they receive more federal aid from Congress.

The cost of eating out increased 0.7% last month (or 8.4% annualized), a pace last seen four decades ago, in 1981. Restaurants aren’t the only place where you’ll pay more for food—grocery store prices are also up, and vending machine food set a record this month for the biggest increase in cost ever.

The way inflation is calculated has been changed literally dozens of times over the past several decades. According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1990, the official rate of inflation over the past 12 months would be about 9%. And if inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, the official rate of inflation over the past 12 months would be well into double-digits.

Senate Democrats reached an agreement Tuesday night on a $3.5 trillion budget plan that would expand Medicare, fund climate change initiatives and fulfill other parts of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda that Democrats hope to pass on top of a bipartisan infrastructure bill. Including the $600 billion in new spending Biden has proposed in a separate bipartisan infrastructure plan, the amount of new spending comes in around $4.1 trillion.

Most of the funding will come by printing more money and adding to the already bloated federal deficit, resulting in an economic collapse of epic proportions.

A nationwide foam shortage has compounded supply chain bottlenecks and delayed product deliveries in myriad industries, including furniture, mattresses, autos, boats, recreational vehicles, appliances, building construction and steelmaking,

Americans owe nearly twice as much medical debt as was previously known. New research published Tuesday in JAMA finds that collection agencies held $140 billion in unpaid medical bills last year,. An earlier study, examining debts in 2016, estimated that Americans held $81 billion in medical debt.

An estimated 1.84 million Americans turned down work to stay on the jobless bonus payroll, according to Morning Consult’s latest poll. About one-third of unemployment benefit recipients have turned down job offers during the pandemic, including 45% of those who cited the unemployment benefits as a major factor in turning down the job and 13% who said unemployment benefits were the direct reason they turned down the job.

Roughly two-thirds of California taxpayers can expect to receive a COVID-19 stimulus check from the state, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. Newsom has signed the budget proposal for a $100 billion California Comeback Plan into law, his office said Friday. The checks are part of an extension of the Golden State Stimulus program, which originally distributed $3.8 billion to low-income residents in the form of one-time payments of $600. This second set of stimulus checks will provide a one-time payment of $600 to middle-class residents earning up to $75,000, as well as a $500 check to qualifying residents with dependents.

More than 2 million people have selected an Obamacare plan since President Biden reopened the marketplace in February, the administration said Wednesday, trumpeting an “all-time high” in enrollment as it promotes supercharged subsidies that patched affordability gaps in the law. The websites, or “exchanges,” allow consumers to select private plans and qualify for income-based subsidies that slash their premiums.

Lebanon-based terrorists fired two rockets toward northern Israel early Tuesday morning. One of the rockets was intercepted by the Iron Dome Defense System and the second rocket fell in an open area inside Israel. In response, IDF artillery bombed several locations in Lebanon.

China threatened that they would nuke Japan if they so much as send a single soldier that interferes with China’s takeover of Taiwan. “We are warning Japan and informing the world that if Japan interferes militarily in our domestic affairs, including the unification of Taiwan by the mainland, nuclear weapons will surely be used against Japan and will be used continuously until its unconditional surrender.”

Some of the former Colombian servicemen arrested after last week’s assassination of Haiti’s president previously received U.S. military training, a Pentagon official told The Washington Post, raising fresh questions about the United States’ ties to Jovenel Moïse’s death.

The Biden administration on Monday blamed China for a hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software that compromised tens of thousands of computers around the world earlier this year. The Justice Department announced charges against four Chinese nationals who prosecutors said were working with the Ministry of State Security in a hacking campaign that targeted dozens of computer systems, including companies, universities, and government entities. The European Union and Britain also pointed the finger at China.

Israel: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you. (Psalm 122:6)

Continuing down the path to peace open by the historic Abraham Accords, the United Arab Emirates inaugurated its new embassy in Israel Tuesday. “This embassy is not just a hub for diplomats, but a base in our new partnership,” UAE Ambassador Mohammed Al Khajah told the crowd gathered for the historic occasion. “It marks a new paradigm for peace and a model for a new collaborative approach for conflict resolution. It is a great honor to open the embassy here.” Two weeks ago, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid celebrated the opening of Israel’s embassy in Abu Dhabi.

Several kosher grocery stores around the United States have decided to pull Ben & Jerry’s from their shelves after the company’s announcement this week that it would stop doing business with a licensee in Israel that sells ice cream in what it labels the “Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.”

With 35 U.S. states having passed various anti-BDS laws (i.e. against boycotts of Israel) in recent years, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Gilad Erdan said that he will work to pressure lawmakers to enact consequences for Ben & Jerry’s.

Thanks to a “wobble” in the moon’s orbit and rising sea levels, every coast in the United States will face rapidly increasing high tides that will start “a decade of dramatic increases in flood numbers” by the 2030s, says NASA. That conclusion has to do with the moon’s orbit, which takes 18.6 years to complete. Half of the 18.6-year lunar cycle counteracts the effect of sea-level rise on high tides, and the other half increases the effect The moon is in its tide-amplifying cycle right now. In 2019, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported more than 600 floods. By the mid-2030s, scientists expect three to four times that amount.

St. Petersburg, Florida, continues to deal with an overwhelming number of dead fish due to a devastating red tide. As of Tuesday, 614 tons of dead fish had been collected. Anywhere you look, from St. Pete to Tampa Bay, the channels, south Apollo Beach; it’s just floating dead fish, one observer noted.

About 2.5 billion metric tons of food is wasted around the world each year, roughly half of which is lost on farms, including in Europe and the United States. A report published Wednesday by the World Wildlife Fund reveals that the amount of food lost is nearly double previous estimates by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, which last conducted an analysis of total waste from farm to fork in 2011. The updated figures indicate that 40% of all food produced goes uneaten. Food lost on farms amounts to 1.2 billion metric tons, with a further 931 million metric tons wasted by retailers and consumers. The remainder is lost during transport, storage, manufacturing and processing.

More than 80 wildfires were burning through 1,157,976 acres in 13 states, battled by almost 20,000 firefighters as of Tuesday. Storms in the southwest have allowed firefighters to get a handle on most wildfires, but the still parched northwest has seen rapid growth in the number and extent of wildfires in Washington, Oregon, northern Idaho and western Montana. Through Monday, more than 33,000 fires had scorched 2 million acres across the nation, the vast majority in the west.

The effects of Western wildfires were felt across the country as cities along the East Coast saw smoky skies this week. The smoke prompted air quality alerts in much of the region as the threat of fine particulate matter increased. In New York, the air quality index reached its 2021 high on Tuesday at levels the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers unhealthy. Much of the area from Washington to Philadelphia remained under an air quality alert from the National Weather Service.

The monstrous wildfire burning in Oregon has grown to a third the size of Rhode Island and spreads miles each day, but evacuations and property losses have been minimal compared with much smaller blazes in densely populated areas of California. Oregon, which is larger than Britain, is still a largely rural state, despite being known mostly for its largest city, Portland. The 476-square-mile Bootleg Fire, Oregon’s fourth-largest in modern times, is burning 300 miles southeast of Portland in and around the Fremont-Winema National Forest, a vast expanse of old-growth forest, lakes, and wildlife refuges. Pushed by strong winds from the southwest, the fire is spreading rapidly to the north and east, advancing toward an area that’s increasingly remote. The megafire, which is 25% contained, could burn until late fall or even early winter.

Powerful storms are forecast for parts of the drought-stricken West this week, but they could actually do more harm than good as “fire clouds” and dry lightning sweep across a region already dotted with wildfires fueled by parched vegetation, heat and winds. Smoke and heat from massive wildfires create giant “fire clouds” over the blaze — dangerous columns of smoke and ash that can reach up to 6 miles in the sky and are visible from more than 100 miles away. Authorities have put these clouds at the top of the list of the extreme fire behavior they are seeing on the Bootleg Fire.

With bone-dry vegetation and record heat already stoking dozens of ferocious wildfires across the western U.S., a shortage of jet fuel could affect aircraft crucial to firefighting efforts this season. Jeff Cyphers of Stockton, California-based Humboldt Pacific LCC, which supplies jet fuel to several western states, said he’s up against a shortage of both fuel and drivers to deliver it. Most larger airports get their jet fuel via pipeline, but smaller ones – and many that serve as tanker bases – rely on trucks. More than 20 commercial flights were diverted or delayed due to a fuel shortage at Fresno’s Yosemite International Airport

End-Time Weather Will Continue to Grow More Severe: (Daniel 9:26b, Ezekiel 38:22, Luke 21:25, Revelation 8:7, 11:19, 16:8,11)

Amid the West’s historic megadrought, Utah’s Great Salt Lake has dipped to what some are calling a “historic” low. Receding waters have impacted local wildlife and sailboats have been hoisted out of the water. The exposure of additional dry lakebed could send arsenic-laced dust into the air. Huge swaths of the Utah lake look more like Death Valley. “We’re on the doorstep of a catastrophe,” says Jaimi Butler, coordinator for the Great Salt Lake Institute at Westminster College.

Lake Mead also fell to its record low last month as the Colorado River continues to shrink. Soon it will trigger a 10% reduction in how much water stakeholders can withdraw.

After weeks of scorching heat and devastating drought, Arizona cities have been inundated with flash flooding. Neighborhoods east of Flagstaff were primarily impacted with rushing waters in downstream neighborhoods as a byproduct of a burn scar from 2019’s 1,961-acre Museum fire. In the wake of the flooding, streets have been left cluttered by debris and drains have been clogged. Authorities are searching for two people Thursday who were on a river rafting trip through the Grand Canyon and went missing after a flash flood.

At least 180 people have died in Germany and Belgium and 1,300 were missing on Friday as record rainfall in western Europe caused rivers to burst their banks, swept away homes and flooded cellars. In Belgium, around 10 houses collapsed in Pepinster after the river Vesdre flooded the eastern town and residents were evacuated from more than 1,000 homes. The rain also caused severe disruption to public transport, with high-speed Thalys train services to Germany cancelled. Traffic on the river Meuse is also suspended as the major Belgian waterway threatened to breach its banks. Downstream in the Netherlands, flooding rivers damaged many houses in the southern province of Limburg, where several care homes were evacuated.

China experienced flooding said to be the heaviest in 1,000 years. The downpour is slamming Henan province and its capital of Zhengzhou, which in three days has seen as much rain as it typically does annually. The result: streets flooded neck-high; ditto subways, with deadly results. Aat least 12 people died after being trapped up to their necks in flooded subway cars as Zhengzhou was hammered by 24.5 inches of rain on Tuesday.

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Signs of the Times Update: July 13,2021

July 13, 2021

And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. (2Timothy 2:24-26)

Prison Fellowship, the nation’s leading prison ministry, has recently partnered with the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago to distribute 100,000 devotionals to inmates across the U.S. Inmates will be given one of the two 120-day handheld devotionals based on the “Moody’s Today in the Word” daily devotional. One devotional is for men, and the other is for women. Both devotionals feature readings on the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) and include Bible studies, discussion questions and a series of testimonies of former incarcerated Christians who found God during their imprisonment.

New World Order – One-World Government: It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:7-8) The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces. (Daniel 7:23)

This time last year the United Nations approved the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It introduced a new “universal agenda” for all mankind (in other words, plans to establish a one-world government). Among those who gave endorsement to the program were U.S. President Barack Obama and Pope Francis. The plan bypasses U.S. Congress and the legislatures of the world’s other 193 nations. Yet, the heads of state agreed to work toward its implementation. The UN is up front about and presents the plan in great detail on their website. Their seventeen goals include ending poverty everywhere, end hunger by achieving food security, promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, reduce inequalities within and among countries, and ensure sustainable consumption and production patters.

On the surface, these sound great. However, in order to achieve them they will have to force compliance across all nations, redistributing wealth to bring poorer countries up to a worldwide median. Such a socialistic, authoritarian one-world government is exactly what Scripture says is going to happen, with the beast (anti-Christ) as a figurehead for Satan’s goal of world domination.
The Great Reset is the name of the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, held in June 2020. It brought together high-profile business and political leaders, theme of rebuilding society and the economy in a sustainable way following the COVID-19 pandemic. It links closely to the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, using the pandemic as the pretext for establishing unconstitutional ‘emergency’ powers for government officials that will endure beyond the pandemic.

While the private sector lost 22 million jobs from February 2020 to April 2020, and state and local government cut about 1.6 million jobs in response to the pandemic, one group of people prospered during the pandemic – the federal government workforce. The federal workforce actually grew slightly during the pandemic.

The constitution was all about states’ rights at the beginning. Now a bloated federal government continues to feast on taxes and debt and will do so until it explodes, reducing America to just another woe-begotten country kowtowing to the U.N. and the one-world government.

The FBI over the weekend released a call for Americans to report “suspicious behaviors” and “signs of mobilization to violence,” in an effort to prevent “homegrown violent extremism.” The agency tweeted on Sunday: “Family members and peers are often best positioned to witness signs of mobilization to violence. Help prevent homegrown violent extremism. Visit https://go.usa.gov/x6mjf to learn how to spot suspicious behaviors and report them to the #FBI. #NatSec.” Included in the tweet is a link to an FBI document detailing “homegrown violent extremist mobilization indicators,” which “are observable behaviors that could help determine whether individuals or groups are preparing to engage in violent extremist activities, such as conducting an attack or traveling overseas to join a foreign terrorist organization.”

With the FBI asking us to report our relatives, friends and acquaintances for “suspicious behaviors” and vaccine interrogators being sent out to knock on doors, Big Brother is ramping up rapidly in the once-free America.

Religious Freedom: Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:36)

Washington state officials have ordered the Cedar Park Church to provide an insurance plan that covers abortions. This is antithetical to it’s strong pro-life beliefs, so they filed a lawsuit through Alliance Defending Freedom. It is now on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Almost no other state in the country compels churches to offer abortion coverage as part of their employee insurance plan. But Washington does so despite not only the clear directives of the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment – which says government shall not interfere needlessly in the free practice of religious faith – but also despite recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions specifically discouraging government hostility toward people of faith.

Cancel culture is attempting to eliminate all things Christian from society, even prayer. The American Center for Law and Justice is seeking to overturn a lower court’s claim that “government officials can no longer encourage citizens to pray amid a difficult time in their community, and volunteer chaplains can no longer lead those in their community in a time of prayer.” The Supreme Court has upheld government involvement in and/or association with prayer including legislative prayer, prayer in the military, prayers offered by chaplains, and calls to prayer following a crime spree or other tragic event, the ACLJ argues.

Right now the only thing standing in the way of the way of cancelled prayer and all things Christian is a Supreme Court with a 6-3 conservative majority. Hence efforts by progressives to ‘pack the court’ by changing the number of Justices from nine to fifteen. Historically, there have been several changes made to the number of Justices, usually for political purposes.

Abortion: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. (Jeremiah 1:5)

Various religious groups in Europe are speaking out against a recent European Union report that defines abortion as a human right. Church leaders from a number of denominations and religious coalitions are decrying the Matić Report, which was approved by parliament and states that “free and legal abortion” should be available everywhere in the EU, labeling “barriers in the access to abortion” as a “violation” of women rights and a perpetuation of “inequalities.” The report is not binding to EU countries, but it pressures those with pro-life laws to conform to tailor their laws to the pro-abortion majority, and contains no conscience protections for parties who object to participating in abortion.

Population control through any means necessary is key for the “Great Reset” and the authoritarian one-world government to come.

The City of Centerville, Texas just became the 33rd municipality in the United States to ban abortions by passing a Sanctuary City for the Unborn ordinance. On Wednesday, the city council unanimously approved the pro-life ordinance in a 5-0 vote. Mark Lee Dickson, director with Right to Life of East Texas and founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn initiative, said leaders of Centerville (population 892) received hundreds of petitions from residents urging them to pass the ordinance. The city’s attorney advised against it but it was found that he is married to an abortion activist and former Planned Parenthood board member.

The U.S. is averaging about 19,455 new cases over the last seven days, a 47% increase from the prior week. The 14-day average is up 94%. In 45 states, the rates of new cases this past week are at least 10% higher than the previous week. In 34 states, new cases this past week are at least 50% higher than new cases the previous week. Only three states — Maine, South Dakota and Iowa — are seeing decreases between 10% and 50%. The rates of new cases in Delaware and Arkansas are roughly the same as the previous week. More than 99% of all Covid-19 deaths in June were among unvaccinated people, and hospitalized patients are much younger than prior surges of cases. At Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, 91% of ICU patients are on ventilators and many are in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

People who have contracted COVID-19 and recovered have a very low risk for re-infection, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed records from Curative, a clinical laboratory based in San Dimas that specializes in COVID-19 testing and has been conducting routine workforce screening. None of the 254 employees who had COVID-19 and recovered became re-infected, while four of the 739 (0.5%) who were fully vaccinated contracted the disease. In contrast, 24% of employees who had not been vaccinated over this past year tested positive.

After a historically mild flu season, a resurgence of common colds and other viruses signals what might be in store for the country as pandemic restrictions continue to be eased. Increased testing to rule out COVID-19 has detected viruses that previously might have been shrugged off. And the relaxation of social-distancing requirements and reduction of mask-wearing have brought back conditions that enable viruses to flourish.

A state of emergency for Tokyo, Japan, takes effect Monday until Aug. 22 as the city experiences an uptick in COVID-19 infections ahead of the Olympics. While a state of emergency sounds dire, it does not mean Tokyo is under lockdown — bars and restaurants, as well as schools and businesses, will still remain open. Along with the emergency declaration, there will be no fans at the Olympics: Tokyo organizers and the International Olympic Committee also barred the public from Tokyo-area stadiums and arenas.

The vaccines are not the mark of the beast since they do not leave a mark on the right hand or forehead and they are not preventing people from buying or selling. However, the vaccines do establish a precedent for government calling upon citizens to blindly accept the mark when it does come.

The U.S. vaccination program against COVID-19 may have saved 279,000 lives and prevented 1.25 million hospitalizations, reports researchers at Yale and the Commonwealth Fund. They used models based on number of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths to determine the impact of the U.S. vaccination effort. Without it, the U.S. would have seen a variant-driven “spring surge” in cases resulting in about 4,500 deaths per day, the authors found. The U.S. saw a rate of 4,000 deaths per day during January, prior to vaccination efforts.

The pace of vaccinations has also dropped sharply in the past few months. About 246,000 people initiated vaccination each day over the past week, down 88% from the April peak. Across the U.S., 48% of the population is fully vaccinated, but in some states that number is much lower. Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Wyoming and Mississippi only have around 35% or less of their populations fully vaccinated and have become Covid-19 hotspots.

The Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine has been linked to a rare side effect, the immune system disorder called Guillain-Barré syndrome. Of 12.8 million J&J doses administered in the United States, there have been about 100 cases of this, according to preliminary reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Food and Drug Administration plans to add a warning about Guillain-Barré to the J&J vaccine.

Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca PLC and the University of Oxford are conducting early-stage research into whether potential modifications of their coronavirus vaccines could reduce or eliminate the risk of rare but serious blood clots. AstraZeneca hopes to update its shot by next year. AstraZeneca hopes to update its shot by next year.

If they are fully vaccinated, students should have the option to not wear masks when the school year begins, according to recommendations that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday. Those guidelines aren’t binding, and Texas and other states have already done away with mandatory face mask rules in public schools, although vaccinations haven’t been authorized for children under 12. About 1 in 4 teenagers between 12 and 15 are fully vaccinated in the U.S., as are 1 in 3 teens who are 16 or 17, as of 7/9/21.

California will force children to wear masks in schools in the fall, despite federal guidance that recommended against requiring face coverings for kids who are fully vaccinated. “Masking is a simple and effective intervention that does not interfere with offering full in-person instruction,” said California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Mark Ghaly in a statement.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has received close to 3,300 reports of unruly behavior by airline passengers this year so far, and the majority of those involve face mask rules. The sharp spike in misbehaving and even violent passengers includes 2,300 reports that passengers refused to comply with the federal requirement to wear face masks on airplanes.

As God’s hand of restraint is gradually lifting (2Thessalonians 2:7-8), spirits of lawlessness are stirring people up in anger, hostility and violence which will only increase all the more as the end-times ramp up.

A federal judge in Massachusetts has withdrawn an opinion — a first in his 35 years on the bench — that had originally backed a Boston Public Schools plan to factor ZIP code into admissions. The judge’s flip on his court opinion came after reports of anti-white texts between two school committee members against the mostly white West Roxbury neighborhood in Boston. “I hate WR,” texted one. The other replied, “”sick of westie whites.”

A study released on Tuesday revealed a staggering increase in anti-Semitic content on the social media platform TikTok, with researchers finding content hateful to Jews spiking by 912 percent. The study, carried out by Dr. Gabriel Weimann, a professor of communication at University of Haifa.

Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill Friday that prohibits the instruction of critical race theory in the state’s local governments. House Bill 2906 prevents “the state and any local governments from requiring their employees to engage in orientation, training or therapy that suggest an employee is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.” Critical Race Theory teaches that America is fundamentally racist.

Some Whites are racist, most are not. Don’t paint everyone with the same brush of blame.

Gender Confusion: Male and female He created them. (Genesis 5:2)

A federal judge temporarily blocked a new Tennessee law that would force businesses to put up warning signs if they allow customers to use restrooms that don’t match their recorded gender at birth. The ruling Friday by U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger in Nashville is an early victory for the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued on behalf of business owners who say the law is a pointless assault on transgender Tennesseans.

Gender confusion is being promoted because it undermines God’s ordained family structure, giving secular government more control over people, particularly our youth.

Prices are rising across the board, including all the essentials — food, clothing and shelter. Prices rose 5.4 percent in June compared to last year, a 13-year high. American home prices are up 20% over the past year. Prices of food eaten outside the home were up more than 4% in June over the past year, and apparel prices rose nearly 5% over the same time period. Policymakers at the Federal Reserve and White House continue to say that as the economy recovers, inflation will settle back down. Consumers are spending more than they were a year ago, when pandemic pressures continued to weigh on the economy.

Americans have witnessed some wild price hikes over the past few months. Shortages and supply chain issues across the world have sent the cost to make and move goods soaring. Before the pandemic, inflation — which the Federal Reserve would like to have around 2% — had been stuck near rock bottom for years. Now, the Fed finds itself striking an increasingly difficult balance between supporting the recovery through ample stimulus while keeping inflation in check.

Revelation 6:6 above indicates that end-time inflation and shortages will become extreme, leading to a global depression.

Many job seekers are not interested in working in the hospitality industry even though U.S. hotels and restaurants are struggling to fill open positions and offering more incentives to attract applicants, a new report found. Some 60% of job seekers said they would not consider working in a restaurant, bar, hotel or other hospitality industry position. Even 38% of these former hospitality employees said they are not even considering returning to the hospitality sector for their next position. Restaurants and bars have been upping their pay wages and dangling other incentives to attract workers. Still, over half of former hospitality employees surveyed said pay increases and other incentives would not lure them back to their old jobs. For the report, Joblist surveyed more than 30,000 job seekers nationwide over the past three months.

The Internal Revenue Service is hoping to reach millions of low-income families as it starts to roll out the massive expansion of the child tax credit this week. The payments stem from the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which beefed up the existing child tax credit, giving families up to $3,600 for each child under 6 and up to $3,000 for each one age 6 to 17 for 2021. The full enhanced credit will be available for heads of households earning $112,500 and joint filers making up to $150,000 a year, As part of the enhancement, half the credit will be sent to households in monthly installments. The payments begin July 15 and run through the end of the year.

Most parents don’t have to do anything to get the funds since the IRS already has their 2020 or 2019 returns showing they claimed the regular child tax credit, which was $2,000 for each child up to age 17 until this year. Roughly 39 million households, covering 88% of children, will start receiving the monthly payments automatically. Reaching the remaining 12% won’t be easy. The effort relies on thousands of community groups across the nation, which are trying to both educate parents about the enhanced credit and spur them to file returns or register on the IRS website.
Another worthy-sounding goal that will only serve to further increase federal debt leading to an economic implosion and collapse.

Demand for blood is up 10% in the United States, and some U.S hospitals are postponing surgeries due to shortages. Some U.S. blood centers have only a one-day supply. “The donors are not in the traditional locations anymore. We lost large corporations, religious organizations, movie theater drives, festivals that were taking place ended,” said OneBlood’s Susan Forbes.

Wars & Rumors of Wars: And you will hear ofwars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; forall these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.7Fornation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. (Matthew 24:6-7a)

U.S. troops and diplomats in Iraq and Syria were targeted in six rocket and drone attacks this week alone, including when at least 14 rockets hit a base in Iraq on Wednesday, injuring two U.S. service members. The development is the latest in an escalating back-and-forth between the U.S. and Iranian-backed militia groups, which have stepped up attacks on U.S. troops in recent months despite Biden’s stated goal of deterrence through retaliatory airstrikes.

Cyber warfare is on the rise. Hackers behind the latest ransomware attack to paralyze businesses around the world have named their price: The Russian-language group known as REvil wants $70 million in Bitcoin from software company Kaseya to make things right again for hundreds of affected businesses. Kaseya, a company that develops information technology management software, was the victim of a cyberattack Friday that hindered customer access to its VSA product, the provider said in a statement. The attack also affected hundreds of small businesses that used the services of Kaseya’s customers, such as accountants and dentists’ offices.

President Biden spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and “underscored the need for Russia to take action to disrupt ransomware groups operating in Russia,” according to the White House. Biden has warned Putin that the United States would hold Moscow responsible for cyberattacks originating from Russia even if they cannot be directly linked to the Kremlin. Biden told Putin that the U.S. will take ‘any necessary action’ after this latest massive ransomware attack.

Militants killed at least 45 people in an attack on the town of Faru in northwest Nigeria, residents and a hospital worker said on Friday. Such violence has increasingly become a part of everyday life in the region, with the Nigerian government and security forces showing little ability to stem the deterioration of law and order. The armed bandits stormed Faru town on more than 100 motorbikes, shooting sporadically on the people. Nigeria is already fighting a 12-year battle with Islamist extremists Boko Haram and Islamic State’s West African branch, a war which shows little sign of ending.”

President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States stands with the Cuban people, as thousands protest against food and medicine shortages amid the coronavirus pandemic. It is said to be the biggest anti-government protest in 30 years. The spark was a weekend of bad news in Cuba’s failing battle against COVID-19 — which included record numbers of infections and deaths. Demonstrations erupted across Florida for the second straight day to show solidarity with anti-government protesters in Cuba and call for an end to the country’s communist regime. More than 100 protesters are now missing or known to be arrested.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has deployed the country’s military to restore calm after days of violent protests and looting sparked by the imprisonment of former leader Jacob Zuma. Ramaphosa addressed the nation Monday evening, calling for calm after at least six people died in the violence and hundreds were arrested. Zuma, 79, was jailed for 15 months on June 29 for contempt of court. He had refused to appear at an anti-corruption commission to answer questions about several allegations, including bribery and fraud.

End-Time Weather Will Continue to Grow More Severe: (Daniel 9:26b, Ezekiel 38:22, Luke 21:25, Revelation 8:7, 11:19, 16:8,11)

Palm Springs in Southern California hit a record high temperature of 120 Saturday. It was the fourth time temperatures have reached 120 degrees so far this year. In California’s agricultural Central Valley, 100-degree temperatures blanketed the region, with Fresno reaching 111 degrees, just one degree short of the all-time high for the date. Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon tied the all-time high of 117. Overnight low temperatures in portions of the Desert Southwest have failed to fall below 90 degrees. The record-breaking heat across much of the West was easing somewhat Tuesday, but a “heat dome” means temperatures could remain well above average highs through rest of the week

After years of an unrelenting drought that has quickly accelerated amid record temperatures, lower snowpack melt, and reduced flow of the Colorado River, the Lake Mead reservoir is set to mark a dire turning point. Next month, the federal government expects to declare its first-ever shortage on the lake, triggering cuts to water delivered to Arizona, Nevada and Mexico on Jan. 1. If the lake, currently at 1,068 feet, drops 28 more feet by next year, the spigot of water to California will start to tighten in 2023.

The climate crisis has been thrashing the Pacific Islands, causing drought, coral reef bleaching, more powerful storms and sea level rise. At least 57 percent of the infrastructure in the Pacific Islands will be threatened by rising sea levels during this century, according to a United Nations report.

Lightning has killed at least 38 people across two Indian states over the past 24 hours, officials said Monday when the state was lashed with thunderstorms and monsoon rains. More than 2,900 people were killed by lightning in India in 2019.

Environment: Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. (Revelation 8:8)

Although this angel has not yet loosed the fiery mountain into the sea in above Scripture, we see a buildup of our own making defiling the seas in a harbinger of what is to come. From excessive heat to oil spills to coral reefs dying around the globe to whales washing up onto land in unprecedented numbers to these manatees dying off, God is giving us a preview and a warning to turn from our materialistic, wasteful, harmful ways and become the stewards over the earth that we were supposed to be (Genesis 2:15). Unfortunately, it’s not happening.

The devastating heat wave that ravaged British Columbia last week is being blamed for a massive die-off of mussels, clams and other marine animals that live on the beaches of Western Canada. With the Pacific region hitting record-setting temperatures in the last few weeks, a new study from Canada shows the heat waves’ enormous impact on marine life: An estimated 1 billion sea creatures on the coast of Vancouver have died as a result of the heat, a researcher said. The ongoing drought in the Southwest is also causing an ‘unprecedented’ dieback of juniper trees across the southwestern U.S.

Between the start of 2021 and July 2, 841 manatee deaths were recorded in Florida. Despite the fact that the year was only half over, that number set an all-time record for the state, WFLA reports. The previous high, 830 deaths, was recorded for the whole of 2013. That time around, it was due to a toxic red tide outbreak. This time, biologists believe pollution is killing the seagrass beds in the area, causing the animals, which are classified as a threatened population, to starve.

Fifty-two large fires are currently burning 748,987 acres in the western United States, with many showing very little sign of containment. The number of fires that have burned nationally by this time of year is the largest in a decade, with over 33,000 fires scorching upwards of 1.9 million acres by July 12, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

The largest, the Bootleg Fire, burned across 143,607 acres in Oregon and was 0% contained. Officials in neighboring state California asked all residents to reduce power consumption quickly after the fire knocked out interstate power lines, preventing up to 4,000 megawatts of electricity from flowing into the state. Further south, the equally formidable Beckwourth Complex Fire measured 83,926 acres and was 8% contained in California, edging along the border with Nevada. At least four wildfires were burning in southeast Washington, the largest of which was 46,352 acres, as record-breaking temperatures over the past week left the state extremely dry.

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Signs of the Times Update – 7/9/21

July 9, 2021

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1John 4:1-4)

New Season, New Format

We’ve entered a new season, moving deeper into the latter days (see New Season – New Song). Therefore, the Signs of the Times reports are going to more specifically correlate world events to Biblical end-time prophecies. This first report is large in order to catch up with recent events. Subsequent reports will be shorter and more frequent depending on the significance of unfolding events.

The United States has won international backing for its plan to overhaul the global system for taxing companies, a huge step toward simplifying a complex web of rules long exploited by big corporations. Countries including India, China and Switzerland have agreed to a broad framework for reform set out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Paris-based group said Thursday that 130 countries and jurisdictions were on board, representing more than 90% of global economic output. In a statement, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called the agreement a “historic day for economic diplomacy.” Yellen secured the support of the Group of Seven nations, including Canada, France, Japan, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, last month.

The so-called Equality Act was voted down last week as Democrats were unable to overturn filibuster regulations. This is but a temporary setback as it will eventually pass in some form because it is a key component of the New World Order that seeks to undermine and destroy anything righteous and Christian, just as the Bible prophesies in Revelation 13.
The ‘For the People Act’ was intended to vastly expand access to voting which was likely to increase fraudulent activity as orchestrated by the NWO folks. It too failed to pass, but we see how the globalist elite intend to undermine true democracy and replace it with an authoritarian/socialist government. It too will likely pass in some form down the road because the Bible says the one-world government will become a reality.

The stumbling, bumbling gaffes that litter President Biden’s public speaking these days appear to be taking their toll. Only 36%, a new poll shows, believe he is “fully in charge” and running his own administration. 56% say others are directing his policy and agenda, and that includes nearly 32% of the Democrats responding to the poll.

These ‘others’ are the New World Order folks embedded in the government who seek to end America’s role as a superpower in forging the one-world government of Revelation 13.

Mark J. Perry, a scholar with American Enterprise Institute, put out a chart on March 30, 2021 on fatherlessness in America. He compiled the statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics, and the chart compares the “percentage of U.S. births to unmarried women by race” for the year 2019. The chart notes that: 40% of births in America were to unwed mothers. Breaking it down by ethnicity shows 11.7% of Asian births were to unwed mothers, 28.2% for white mothers, 52% for Hispanics, 69% for Americans Indians, 70% for Blacks.

The demise of God’s ordained family structure is key for undermining America’s foundations.

Religious Freedom: Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:36)

Officials with the Internal Revenue Service have backtracked on their claims that a Texas organization wasn’t qualified for a tax-exempt status because the Christian ideas it pursues are associated with the Republican Party. Several members of Congress instructed the Treasury Department’s inspector general to look into the decision when controversy arose.

Ultimately, tax-emption will become a weapon the government will wield to force compliance with ungodly laws (e.g. transgender bathroom usage, gay marriage, Equality Act, etc.)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to take up an appeal from a Washington state florist who refused to make an arrangement for a same-sex couple out of religious concerns regarding same-sex marriage. The Washington state Supreme Court in June had ruled against the florist, Barronelle Stutzman, who declined to make a floral arrangement in 2013 for long-time client Robert Ingersoll’s same-sex wedding. The court said Stutzman’s refusal violated a state anti-discrimination law that bars discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. It said the law was “neutral” and served the states’ interest in eradicating discrimination in public accommodations. In a statement Friday, Stuzman’s lawyer Kristen Waggoner called the outcome of the case “tragic” and said “the critical work of protecting the First Amendment freedoms of all Americans must continue.” “No one should be forced to express a message or celebrate an event they disagree with,” she added.

The failure of the conservatives in the Supreme Court (6 out of 9) to stand up for religious freedom surprised and disappointed Christians. Is it a sign that they too have succumbed to secular globalists?

Evangelist Franklin Graham is defending Hobby Lobby after the Christian owned-company came under fire from atheists and LGBTQ activists for a Fourth of July ad. The arts and crafts store ran full-page ads in a number of newspapers around the country on Independence Day promoting the idea that this is one nation under God. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,” Hobby Lobby wrote, quoting the Bible verse, Psalm 33:12. Social media exploded Sunday, accusing Hobby Lobby of unconstitutionally mixing God and Government as well as promoting “propaganda.” And the secular legal organization Freedom from Religion Foundation made an entire website to attack the Christian-owned company.

“I hope this exposure for their ads, even though it was intended for harm, will actually allow even more people to read the message and appreciate what Hobby Lobby’s owners, the Green family stand for,” Graham wrote in a Facebook post. “I thank God for the Green family, their Christian-run business, and their strong public stand for the Word of God and biblical values.”

An announcement from the Thomas More Society has confirmed that a police officer in Kentucky will be returning to his duties after being put on leave for an investigation for praying. “We are happy for the officer that the Louisville Police Department finally did the right thing and put a good policeman back on the streets,” said Thomas More Society attorney Matt Heffron. “But it is astounding to those of us defending him – shocking actually – that the police department would treat a hardworking, loyal officer this way. They left him twisting in the wind for four months because of off-duty prayer.”

A harbinger of the near future when all things Christian will not be tolerated in all social structures.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a legal battle over the rights of transgender students, handing a victory to Gavin Grimm over the Virginia school board that denied him the right to use the restroom that aligned with his gender identity. The court did not say why it was rejecting the appeal of the Gloucester County school district. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they would have accepted the case.

Another disappointing ruling by our conservative Supreme Court Justices. Elevating LGBTQ+ rights over religious rights is a primary goal of secular humanists.

The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus has released, and then deplatformed, a new video with a threat to many American parents: “You think we’re sinful, you fight against our right, you say we all lead lives you can’t respect. But you’re just frightened, you think that we’ll corrupt your kids if our agenda goes unchecked. Fine, just this once, you’re correct,” the lyrics go.

A U.S. Army chaplain who was reprimanded for questioning the Biden administration’s transgender policy has won his case on appeal. Major Andrew Calvert, an Army chaplain with Fort Hood’s 3rd Security Force Assistance Brigade in Texas, had received a formal reprimand following a January Facebook post in which he asserted that individuals who identify as transgender are “rejecting” biology and are “mentally unfit.” Such a reprimand can be career-ending by blocking advancement. Calvert, though, appealed the decision, and on Thursday, the Army agreed not to issue a formal reprimand, according to First Liberty Institute, the legal organization that represented Calvert.

Some victories are still occurring in our justice system, but they will become less and less frequent as the end-times rolls ahead toward the one-world government under the anti-Christ.

Pestilence will continue to grow in various unpredictable ways as the end-times roll on. But true born-again Christians covered by the blood of Jesus Christ will be protected: Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence. (Psalm 91:3)

The highly contagious Delta variant now accounts for more than half of all new coronavirus infections in the United States, new government data shows. People who suffer a rare “breakthrough” coronavirus infection after getting the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine will not get as sick and, importantly, are much less likely to pass the coronavirus on to others, a new study shows.

Overall, the 14-day average of new Covid-19 cases in the U.S. is up 35%, with half of states seeing a decline or holding steady, while the other half experiencing substantial increases in new cases. Alaska and Arkansas more than doubled their number of cases in just the past week. South Carolina and Kansas are up more than 50%. In Missouri, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients jumped by nearly 30% over the Fourth of July weekend in a hard-hit area where immunization rates are low, leading to a temporary ventilator shortage and a public call for help from respiratory therapists.

Arizona’s seven-day death rate per 100,000 people ranked third among states and territories as of Wednesday 7/7, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s seven-day average for new reported COVID-19 cases was at 528 on Thursday, compared with 418 two weeks earlier. The average had reached as high as 9,800 in January.

Sydney, Australia is going through one the “scariest” times of the pandemic as a cluster of the highly contagious Delta variant infects more people, an Australian state leader said on 6/23. Australia has been one of the strictest lockdown countries, but the Delta variant (first detected in India) is more infectious and virulent. However, it appears that current vaccines work well against this variant, with mostly unvaccinated people becoming infected. But, only about 4% of Australians are fully vaccinated.

Japan has declared a new state of emergency over increasing cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant. Consequently, the Tokyo Olympics will be held starting 7/23 without spectators, Japan’s Olympics Minister Tamayo Marukawa said Thursday. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the state of emergency will go in place Monday and last through Aug. 22.

An alarming new study found that life expectancy in America plummeted dramatically during the pandemic. The new research found that between 2018 and 2020, the life expectancy of Americans plummeted approximately 1.9 years. The average decrease in life expectancy for Black Americans was 3.25 years, and for the Hispanic population, the study found that the life expectancy fell by just under 3.9 years.

The extremely hot and extremely dry conditions of the mega-drought in U.S. western states are perfect for grasshoppers, and they have been multiplying like crazy. In some areas, the swarms are so thick that “it can appear the earth is moving”, and there are times when the swarms are so large that they are actually appearing on radar. Seven states are being hit particularly hard, and the federal government is going to begin a large scale spraying campaign. The spraying may reduce the plague, but all of the experts agree that it will not stop it. Grasshoppers will continue to eat our crops on a massive scale for many months to come, and this is another factor that will be driving up food prices.

Large numbers of birds are dropping dead from a “mystery disease” throughout much of the eastern half of the country, and scientists still have absolutely no idea why this is happening. They have tested the dead birds for a whole host of known illnesses, but those tests have not revealed the cause of this plague. Most of the affected birds appear to develop neurological problems, and many of them go completely blind before they finally die. The “mystery disease” has spread to Washington D.C., Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana.

The Covid-19 vaccines are not the Mark of the Beast, but they are paving the way and conditioning the masses for future compliance with the coming ‘Mark” that will on the right hand or forehead, which will prevent unmarked people from buying or selling anywhere at any time.

Seeing signs that the effectiveness of its vaccine is fading, Pfizer said Thursday it will ask for approval to distribute a third dose to help fight new coronavirus variants. The company plans to ask the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization next month, CNN reports. Pfizer cited findings from Israeli health officials that its vaccine’s efficacy is declining as the Delta variant of the virus spreads. That syncs with the company’s analysis, it said. Pfizer has begun producing the booster shot, per the Wall Street Journal, and wants to start clinical trials in August, saying in a statement that a third shot might be need to be administered six to 12 months after a person has been fully vaccinated for maximum immunity.

In an announcement last week, the city of San Francisco told its 37,000 employees they must either be vaccinated against COVID-19 within 10 weeks of the Food and Drug Administration giving final approval to a coronavirus vaccine, or lose their jobs. More than 150 employees resigned or were fired from Houston hospital system after refusing to get vaccinated.

Vaccine ‘passports’ will become more prevalent as cruise lines, companies and governmental agencies exclude non-vaccinated people. Again, a preparatory precursor for the coming Mark of the Beast.

The Biden administration came up short of its goal to have 70 percent of all adult Americans receive at least one COVID-19 vaccination by July 4. So on Tuesday it rolled out a new plan to take vaccination “door-to-door” and hopefully bolster flagging participation. The door-to-door component of Biden’s 5-part plan quickly came under attack among congressional Republicans, who in this case largely derided the idea as a stark example of government overreach, calling it “governmental invasion of privacy.” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday it was “absolutely the government’s business” to know which Americans haven’t been vaccinated yet against the coronavirus.

Big Brother has expanded greatly during the pandemic and continues to take more ground and more freedom away from Americans.

According to the CDC, 46.1% of the total US population has been vaccinated against Covid-19. Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Wyoming are among the states with the lowest vaccination rates, with less than 35% of their population fully vaccinated. The national figure is far from the 70 to 85% of the population experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci estimated would likely need to become immune through vaccine or prior infection to control the virus’ spread — and with vaccine rates declining, some officials worry the US will not get to that threshold.

Laboratory research published Thursday in the journal Nature found that the two-shot regimen of Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines induces robust protection against the delta variant, but a single shot of those two vaccines “barely” offers any protection. Scientists said Thursday’s report and a separate study Wednesday underscore the importance of people being fully vaccinated. The number of people who fail to receive the necessary second dose of their Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is increasing. In the U.S., among those who’ve received at least one dose, about 12% have passed on the second.

The CDC has finally acknowledged the link between the COVID shots and serious heart conditions (myocarditis/pericarditis). More than 1,200 Americans, mostly under 30, have developed heart inflammation after receiving either of the shots. For young men under 16, the risk is even greater. The Israel Ministry of Health has also found a link between the Pfizer/BioNTech shot (the only one in Israel) and this potentially life-threatening heart inflammation. The study found “a probable link between receiving the second dose (of Pfizer) vaccine and the appearance of myocarditis among men aged 16 to 30.” The link was stronger among men 16 to 19 than in other age groups.

A greater number of heart inflammation cases cropped up among members of the U.S. military than expected following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, a study found, though authors emphasized the benefits of the shots exceed risks of rare adverse events. The Defense Health Agency published findings in the JAMA Cardiology journal, noting 23 otherwise healthy male patients presented with chest pain within four days after either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine. According to the study, 20 began experiencing symptoms after the second dose. While 16 patients saw symptoms resolve within a week, seven were still experiencing chest discomfort at the time the study was submitted for publication. Patients were 25 years old on average.

The latest figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal more than 4,000 people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 have died or been hospitalized from “breakthrough” infections. The CDC says the number of people who have died from COVID-19 after getting the shot is 750, with 76 percent of deaths and hospitalizations among those over the age of 65. “As of June 21, 2021, more than 150 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19,” the health agency explained, so the infectious rate is under 1%., well within the predicted efficacy rates of the various vaccines.

About 7,550 vaccinated people– out of 19.5 million fully vaccinated – Californians have been infected by COVID-19. However, these ‘breakthrough’ infections amount to just 0.039% of vaccinated Californians — or one case out of every 2,583 vaccinated people.

The WHO has also given the green light to the two Chinese vaccines made by Sinovac and Sinopharm. The two Chinese shots are “inactivated” vaccines, made with killed coronavirus, whereas the Western-made shots are made with newer technologies that target the spike protein that coats the surface of the coronavirus. In its reviews of the two Chinese vaccines, the WHO said both were found to significantly reduce the risk of hospitalizations and death, although the head of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged earlier this year that the effectiveness of its home-grown shots was low.

At least 233 people were killed and 618 people were injured by gun violence in more than 500 shootings across the country during the Fourth of July weekend. The bloody Fourth of July weekend ended with at least 150 people killed in more than 400 shootings that occurred across the country, according to data compiled throughout the weekend, with at least 118 people shot in Chicago and New York City combined, according to reports. The historically violent weekend for Chicago saw 92 shot, including at least 16 fatalities, the most violent weekend of the year thus far.

According to Chicago police, 172 children have been shot and 25 kids have been murdered so far this year as of July 1. Of course other major cities are not that much better.

School shootings surged to record levels this past spring, reports the Washington Post. there have been 14 school shootings since March — the highest total over that period during any year since at least 1999.

The California city of Oakland is in the midst of a “safety emergency” highlighted further by the violence seen over the extended holiday weekend, a local official recently said. Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong told reporters the department responded to seven shootings in the city from Sunday night to 10 a.m. Monday morning, calling the violence “12 hours of nonstop chaos.” He then asked, “Does this department need resources? Clearly, we do. We were clearly outnumbered.”

Nigerian authorities in northwest Kaduna state have closed 13 schools after more than 140 students were kidnapped Monday from a Baptist high school. The attack on Bethel Baptist High school Monday is the latest in a spate of school kidnappings for ransom and the fourth such mass kidnapping in the state in five months. Kaduna authorities said 26 people, including a woman teacher, have been rescued and that troops are searching for missing kidnap victims. The Islamist group Boko Haran has been responsible for these kinds of attacks in the past.

Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in an attack on his private residence, the country’s interim prime minister said in a statement Wednesday, calling it a “hateful, inhumane, and barbaric act.” First Lady Martine Moise was hospitalized following the overnight attack. The nation of more than 11 million people had grown increasingly unstable and disgruntled under Moise, who was 53. He had been ruling by decree for more than two years after the country failed to hold elections, which led to Parliament being dissolved. Haiti was scheduled to hold general elections later this year. Four suspects are dead and two more have been arrested. The “well-orchestrated” attack on Moise “was carried out by foreign mercenaries and professional killers” who were pretending to be U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents. Haiti was in turmoil Thursday as police hunted for additional suspects and questions swirled over who would take charge of the impoverished nation. Police in Haiti say a hit squad of foreign mercenaries—including at least 15 Colombians and two Haitian-Americans—was behind the assassination. Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph proclaimed a “state of siege” in Haiti on Thursday, which is similar to martial law, as he assumed control of the government despite questions to his claim to power. Vigilante mobs are now prowling the streets

President Joe Biden pledged Wednesday to go after illegal gun dealers and boost federal funding and support for local law enforcement as homicide rates have spiked in large cities. Republicans blasted the measures as government overreach and linked it to efforts to rein in policing.

The source of increased homicide rates and increased violence is not the availability of guns. Rather, it’s the end-time spirit of lawlessness: And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another… And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12-13)
The spirit of lawlessness has always been with us in this fallen world. However, in these latter days, the hand of God that has kept it in check is now being gradually removed to allow sin to reach its fullness as Daniel prophesied: For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. (2Thessalonians 2:7)
And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise [the anti-Christ] having fierce features, who understands sinister schemes. His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; [i.e. by Satan’s power] he shall destroy fearfully, and shall prosper and thrive;
he shall destroy the mighty, and also the holy people. (Daniel 8:23-24)

Division: Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all,but rather division.For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. (Luke 12:51-52) Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. (Matthew 10:34)

In a fiery Fourth of July Facebook post, Utah’s Black Lives Matter Chapter declared the American flag “a symbol of hatred.” “When we Black Americans see this flag we know the person flying it is not safe to be around,” the post reads. “When we see this flag we know the person flying it is a racist. When we see this flag we know that the person flying it lives in a different America than we do. When we see this flag, we question your intelligence. We know to avoid you. It is a symbol of hatred.” The group further pointed out that the KKK proudly waves the flag as they tout white supremacy.

The enemy of our souls is exploiting every sliver of division in the world in order to fan the flames of anarchy so as to usher in the police state that will enforce the dictates of the coming one-world government prophesied in Revelation 13.

The U.S. national debt is moving up toward the 29 trillion dollar mark very rapidly, and the Fed’s deficit has more than doubled over the past year. The U.S. deficit will hit $3 trillion — one of the biggest imbalances ever — then drop quickly as stimulus fades, CBO says. The Congressional Budget Office projects $6.8 trillion in spending versus $3.8 trillion in revenue this year, a reflection of the government spending blitz to shore up the economy during the pandemic.

Over the past year, our politicians in Washington have gone on the largest spending binge in U.S. history by a very wide margin, and the Federal Reserve has created the most enormous financial bubble of all time by pumping trillions upon trillions of fresh dollars into the financial markets. Of course this was going to cause very painful inflation, and prices are rising very aggressively all around us.

This mountain of debt plus hyper-inflation will cause a complete collapse of the economic system, adding fuel to the globalist agenda of establishing the one-world government of Revelation 13.

The Consumer Price Index climbed to a 13-year high in May, with prices up 5% compared to a year earlier. About one third of that increase was due solely to the price of used cars which shot up 30% from a year ago. New car prices are also up because of a major shortage of computer chips. Dealer inventory has fallen to historically low levels.

As consumer prices rise for food, energy, housing and a number of other goods and services, Americans are feeling the pinch. But lower-income families and retirees on fixed incomes will especially feel their buying power erode — not just in the short-term, but for many years to come, further widening the nation’s wealth gap, notes Dana Peterson, Chief Economist for the Conference Board.

An inflationary depression is on the horizon, worldwide, not just the U.S.

Increased demand and short supply have pushed gasoline prices above $3 per gallon. The last time gas was above $3 for more than a month was in 2014. Gas was cheap last spring because highways sat empty during the height of the pandemic. This year’s successful rollout of Covid-19 vaccines allowed people to return to the skies and roadways, lifting energy demand as a result. The problem is that supply is having a hard time catching up as OPEC debates whether to pump more oil. Last Friday, the AAA Gas Price Index pegged the national average gas price at $3.086, up from $2.171 one year ago.

There is a shortage of tanker truck drivers to transport the gasoline from storage terminals to the stations, resulting in spot outages even though gasoline supplies are more than sufficient.

When it was new, the window sticker price on a typical 2019 Toyota Tacoma SR double cab pickup was just under $29,000. Two years later, dealers are paying almost $1,000 more than that to buy the same vehicle, even though it’s used. Then they’re selling it to consumers for more than $33,000.

Home prices rose a record 14.6% year over year nationally in April, according to the national Case-Shiller index, making for the highest reading in more than 30 years of recordkeeping, as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the flight out of city centers and into the suburbs. That came after 13.2% increase in March, and was the 11th straight month that price gains accelerated.

The median existing-home price rose 23.6% in May from a year earlier to $350,300, a record high. The price of lumber, which shot up to $1,600 per thousand board feet in May from $400 early last year, is making renovations more expensive. Single-family home rents rose 5.3% in April of 2021 compared to the previous April, reports CoreLogic. That’s the largest year-over-year gain in nearly 15 years.

In an industry already short on workers before the pandemic, construction businesses will need to hire 430,000 workers this year and 1 million more over the next two years in order to keep up with red-hot housing demand. The construction industry shut down for a few months last year during the pandemic — but was quickly deemed essential, allowing paused projects to continue. But in that short time, the sector lost more than 1 million workers. Industry experts say many former construction workers are no longer interested in resuming their careers, looking to do something else with their lives.

Restaurant workers are calling it quits just as people are starting to dine out again and restaurants rush to reopen. With a high rate of employees quitting, more could follow, according to those who study labor relations, perpetuating the high rates. To keep them on board, restaurants may have to improve what they offer. In May, the rate of quits per share of employment in the accommodation and food services sector, which includes restaurants, was 5.7%, according to seasonally adjusted data released this week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure held steady from the month prior, and is higher than the quit rate across all sectors, which fell from 2.8% in April to 2.5% in May.

Despite widespread worker shortages, U.S. hiring accelerated in June as employers added 850,000 jobs amid declining COVID-19 cases, a reopening economy and increasing vaccinations. The unemployment rate, whichis calculated from a different survey of households, ticked up from 5.8% to 5.9%, the Labor Department said Friday. So far, the U.S. has recovered 15.6 million, or 70%, of the 22.4 million jobs lost last spring, leaving the nation 6.8 million jobs below its pre-pandemic level.

Of the tens of billions of dollars allotted by Congress for emergency aid, only $1.5 billion had been spent by the end of May. Weeks before an eviction moratorium put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expires on July 31, much of the federal aid meant to help tenants and landlords has not reached them. Many are not even aware that the assistance is available, or they continue to struggle with onerous and complicated application rules. Some programs run by state and local governments took months to get up and running.

More than 10 million Americans are still behind on their rent. About 800,00 (10%) of renters over the age of 65 are behind on their rent. The moratorium on evictions was extended Thursday for one more month to July 31, which the administration says will be the last such extension. Many will be evicted and/or have their rent raised.

The rental/mortgage eviction crisis is going to be a major negative jolt to the economy whenever the moratorium ends.

America’s factories are struggling with supply chain issues and material shortages. Now, that’s showing up in prices: in June, Manufacturers reported the biggest price jump in 42 years. The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing price index rose to 92.1% last month, up 4.1 percentage points and hitting its highest mark since July 1979. It was the 13th straight month of price increases in the sector.

Starting July 15, parents will be eligible to receive a new monthly payment for each child thanks to a new federal law. Called an advanced child tax credit, the monthly payments are connected to your income taxes. If eligible, parents may receive half of their annual tax credit money in the form of monthly payments. Parents will receive the other half of the credit when they file their income tax returns.

Even more deficit spending that will feed the coming economic implosion

The Labor Department reported last Thursday that jobless claims dropped by 51,000 to 364,000. Applications for unemployment benefits have fallen more or less steadily since the year began. The rollout of vaccines has sharply reduced new COVID-19 cases, giving consumers the confidence to shop, travel, eat out and attend public events as the economy recovers. Prior to the pandemic, new jobless claims averaged a little over 200,000 per week.

More than two dozen states have ended or plan to end the extra $300 in federal unemployment assistance that many out-of-work Americans received to help them weather the the COVID-19 pandemic. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in March, renewed the federal boost to jobless benefits, giving recipients the extra aid on top of the assistance received from the state. But 26 states have decided to stop the federal benefit before the official cut-off date of Sept. 6. With some business owners complaining that they’re struggling to fill jobs, some Republican lawmakers say the extra assistance is discouraging people from looking for work and slowing down the rebound of the broader economy. Some economists argue the federal benefit remains an economic lifeline, that many jobless Americans want to return to work but aren’t able to because they can’t access childcare or remain fearful of contracting COVID-19.

Ongoing claims for U.S. unemployment insurance have dipped faster in recent weeks in the 22 states that ended federal benefits this summer than in states keeping the $300 weekly supplement in place until the fall, according to government data through last week.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order aimed at increasing competition in the U.S. economy, the White House said Friday. The order includes 72 initiatives by over a dozen federal agencies that will help promote competition. That includes making it easier to change jobs and raise wages by banning or limiting non-compete agreements and occupational licensing requirements deemed unnecessary, lowering prescription drug prices, letting hearing aids be sold over the counter at drug stores, requiring upfront disclosure by airlines of add-on fees, and banning early termination fees by internet providers deemed excessive. One key area is addressing big tech firms, which include Facebook and Google’s parent company Alphabet. The order takes aim at so-called killer acquisitions, or how big tech companies buy up potential competitors, by increasing scrutiny of such purchases or mergers. The administration is also accusing big tech platforms of gathering too much personal information and is directing the Federal Trade Commission to establish rules on surveillance and data accumulation.

While Big Tech censorship needs to be addressed, this initiative will only create more and more government bureaucracy, giving the Big Brother federal government even more control over our lives. As for the censorship? The now-ruling liberals & progressives like it just fine since it muzzles conservatives and Christians.

End-Time Weather Will Continue to Grow More Severe: (Daniel 9:26b, Ezekiel 38:22, Luke 21:25, Revelation 8:7, 11:19, 16:8,11)

Another relentless heat wave is expected to grip the West this weekend. A “Very High” heat risk level (4 out of 4) has been issued across a widespread area of the Southwest. Over 30 million people are under heat alerts across the western states as temperatures are forecast to soar well into the triple digits this weekend, threatening to break daily high-temperature records. Death Valley could even reach 130°F or higher on Sunday and Monday, coming close to the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth, which was 134°F at the same location in 1913. Reservoirs are drying up as a consequence of the historic Western drought.

Sporadic rain is falling in the U.S. Southwest, but the historic drought continues, according to the U.S. drought monitor through 7/6. 100% of Utah still in severe to exceptional drought as well as 95% of California, Nevada and Arizona. 92% of North Dakota is also in severe to exceptional drought. New Mexico declined to 77% after some recent rains. Oregon rose to 86%, Washington increased to 53%, Montana is up to 65% and Wyoming rose to 73%. South Dakota registered 72%. Colorado declined to 36% while Iowa checks in at 38% while Minnesota rose to 40%. The rest of the U.S. is showing negligible to no drought at all.

The late June heat wave that scorched the Pacific Northwest with triple-digit temperatures broke records in multiple states and has been blamed for nearly 100 deaths in Oregon, according to the state’s medical examiner office. Portland, the largest city in the Beaver State, broke its all-time temperature record for three straight days, topping out at 116 degrees – significantly hotter than the average June highs in the 80s. Many homes in the region are not air-conditioned and several people trying to beat the heat drowned or had been reported missing after swimming in Pacific Northwest bodies of water. “We have never seen anything like this,” said Vince Hlavaty, Bremerton’s medical officer. “I hate to use the word unprecedented but that’s absolutely what this is.”

More than 486 “sudden and unexpected” deaths were reported in British Columbia as the blistering, record-breaking heat wave baked western Canada and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The province’s chief coroner called it an “unprecedented time.” The village of Lytton in the interior of southern British Columbia sizzled under a new all-time high temperature for Canada on Sunday, reaching just under 115 degrees Fahrenheit.

Although not as extreme as the one in the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast endured its own heat wave last week. Temperatures remained in the 90s in many big cities of the Northeast. High humidity and light winds added to the heat misery.

Tropical Storm Elsa powered its way up the East Coast on Thursday, an unrelenting weather system that already has claimed one life, injured at least 10 people and placed more than 27 million Americans under a tropical storm warning from the Carolinas to New England. About 35,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Southeast on Thursday, and flooding was a concern as isolated areas could see up to 8 inches of rain before the storm passes. Severe weather from Elsa spurred tornado warnings in Delaware and New Jersey early Friday as the system moved over the mid-Atlantic states and into the northeastern United States. Heavy thunderstorms caused a deluge of rain, flooding subway stations and roadways in New York City. The unrelenting storm has claimed one life in Florida, injured several people in Georgia and flooded parts of New York City. A tropical storm warning Friday morning stretched along parts of the East Coast from New Jersey to Massachusetts. The tropical storm was expected to cross over the Northeast by the afternoon and move over Atlantic Canada by the night and Saturday.

China is in the middle of a huge power crunch as extreme weather, surging demand for energy and strict limits on coal usage deliver a triple blow to the nation’s electricity grid. It’s a problem that could last for months, straining the country’s economic recovery and weighing on global trade.

Over ten million acres have burned so far this season in California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona as of 7/6. More than 100 fires were burning in British Columbia as of 7/2. About 50 those started in the last two days.

A small Canadian town was ravaged by an ongoing wildfire on 7/1 after enduring the country’s all-time hottest temperatures for three straight days this week. Most homes and buildings in Lytton, British Columbia, were destroyed and some of the town’s roughly 1,000 residents were unaccounted for following the wildfire that forced people to evacuate. Two known deaths were recorded. The wildfire that devastated Lytton spanned over 30 square miles — and is one of several fires burning in the region, according to the British Columbia Wildlife Service. Lytton reached a sweltering 115 degrees on Sunday, 118.2 degrees on Monday and 121.2 degrees on Tuesday — marking three consecutive days of record-high temperatures for Canada. Local officials are working to figure out where residents fled.

Fire crews in California are battling several blazes fueled by record-breaking heat and drought, combined with winds in some areas. The largest fire burning in California as of Tuesday evening was the Lava Fire, which has scorched more than 20 square miles in Siskiyou County near the Oregon border. The fire prompted evacuation orders for areas including Lake Shastina and Juniper Valley north of the town of Weed. The orders covered as many as 11,000 residents. An evacuation warning has been issued for people living near a second fire in Siskiyou County. The Tennant Fire had burned more than 2.5 square miles of land and was 5% contained as of early Tuesday afternoon. In an update, officials noted extreme heat and red flag warnings for strong winds and low humidity. The Shell Fire in Kern County had burned about 3 square miles and was 65% contained. The Peak Fire in San Bernardino County was sparked after a single vehicle car crash and then quickly spread to adjacent vegetation. At least one firefighter was sent to the hospital with injuries.

In all, 48 large fires were burning more than 1,000 square miles across 12 states as of Tuesday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 2,200 square miles have been scorched by wildfires nationwide this year, mostly in the western U.S., where the blistering heat wave broke or tied dozens of high temperatures. Much of the region is also in the grips of a historic drought.

The sixth seal earthquake is yet to come, but earthquake activity and severity has been ramping up for decades, as I reported 2019 in People Get Ready: According to Wikipedia’s list of earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater, the 15^th century had 2, the 17^th century 7, the 18^th century 13, the 19^th century 29 and the 20^th century 123. Already, the 21^st century has seen 12 (according to the British Geological Survey).

A 6.0 magnitude earthquake rattled a wide swath of California late Thursday afternoon, 7/8, bringing reports of shaking buildings and rockslides that closed at least one highway. The earthquake centered was centered south of Lake Tahoe on the state line near Smith Valley, Nevada. Thousands of people reported feeling shaking as far north as Redding, west to San Francisco and south to Delano. There were no initial reports of injury. The California Department of Transportation said a rockslide closed a portion of U.S. 395 near Bridgeport.

The U.S. military, under the direction of President Biden, has conducted airstrikes against what it said were “facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups” near the border between Iraq and Syria. Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said the militias were using the facilities to launch unmanned aerial vehicle attacks against US troops in Iraq. Subsequently, U.S.-backed Syrian fighters and American troops foiled an attack with drones on 7/7 on a base housing members of the U.S.-led coalition in eastern Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces said. In neighboring Iraq, rockets hit a base housing U.S. troops, inflicting two minor injuries. The attacks come as tension has been on the rise between U.S. troops and Iran-backed fighters after American airstrikes in eastern Syria killed four Iraqi fighters late last month in areas along the Syria-Iraq border. The Pentagon said targets attacked on June 27, were facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups to support drone strikes inside Iraq. Rockets landed in and around the heavily fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, which houses the U.S. Embassy, causing material damage early Thursday.

After nearly 20 years, the U.S. military left Bagram Airfield, the epicenter of its war to oust the Taliban and hunt down the al-Qaeda perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America. The withdrawal from Bagram Airfield is the clearest indication that the last of the 2,500-3,500 US troops have left Afghanistan or are nearing a departure, months ahead of President Biden’s promise that they would be gone by Sept. 11. Most NATO soldiers have already quietly exited as of this week. At its peak, Bagram Airfield saw more than 100,000 US troops pass through its sprawling compound. it’s the second time that an invader of Afghanistan has come and gone through Bagram. The Soviet Union built the airfield in the 1950s. When it invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to back a communist government, it turned it into its main base from which it would defend its occupation of the country. When the US and NATO inherited Bagram in 2001, they found it in ruins, a collection of crumbling buildings, gouged by rockets and shells, most of its perimeter fence wrecked.

The Taliban has proclaimed that it will take over Afghanistan now that the U.S. is leaving. It will also become home to several fringe Islamic jihad groups, a safe haven from which to launch their havoc worldwide. In recent weeks the Taliban’s offensive has resulted in it taking control of several districts. Iran has also become actively involved, filling the vacuum left by the U.S. withdrawal.

Northeast Nigeria’s conflict with Islamist insurgencies had killed nearly 350,000 people as of the end of 2020, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said on Thursday. Nigeria’s war with Islamist insurgencies Boko Haram and Islamic State’s West Africa Province as spawned one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with millions of people dependent on aid. The conflict shows little sign of ending.

While the recent Israeli-Palestinian feud has temporarily calmed down, Hamas continues to send hundred of incendiary balloons into Israel. With a hawkish newly-elected Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, it won’t take much to incite further hostilities. And, with Iran violating the nuclear accords and getting closer and closer to weaponized uranium enrichment, the coming war that will usher in the one-world government and the anti-Christ is not all that far off:

And till the end of the war desolations are determined. Then he (the anti-Christ) shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. (Daniel 9:26b-27a)
It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:7-8)

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New Season, New Song

July 1, 2021

Recent events confirm that what’s happening in our world today closely conforms to Biblical end-time prophecies. We are not yet to the 7-year Tribulation, but the Four Horseman have been loosed as I prophesied on June 25, 2021 [click here]. In addition, we see early evidence of the wrath of God to come as prophesied in Revelation with the Bowl and Trumpet plagues.

The longed-for great spiritual awakening is not going to happen as I prophesied in 2007 [click here]. Instead, there will be pockets of revival as well as the Biblically prophesied falling away which is well underway. [2Thessalonians 2:3] Not enough Christians heeded God’s directive to seek His face, repent and pray. [2Chronicles 7:14].

While this all seems very pessimistic, keep in mind that in order for Jesus to return to rule and reign on the New Earth, these things must take place – and the sooner the better! Let’s get it over with and move into the glorious Millennium to come.

Revelation 21:1-4: Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Christians must turn more and more to Jesus now in order to navigate the increasing tribulation and become the lights shining in the deep darkness that is already beginning to encompass the earth:

Isaiah 60:1-5: Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.

Do not allow the enemy of our souls to get you disappointed and discouraged by the growing darkness, or else you risk becoming part of the falling away. Instead, turn to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith more and more:

Hebrews 12:1-3: Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Focus on the things above, the pure and holy things, and let go of your hopes and attachments to the things and political events of this world:

Colossians 3:1-3: If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

We are not supposed to love the things of the world, but instead rejoice in the glory to come:

1John 2:15: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

And we must not fall victim to getting caught up in worldly ways even as we try to correct the evils of the day:

Romans 12:9-21: Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Persecution is ramping up, but this is not cause to lament, but is a time of great blessing:

Matthew 5:10-12: Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Instead, keep your eyes focused on the glory to come:

Revelation 20:4-6: And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.

And join with Heaven in singing a new song for this new season:

Revelation 5:9-10: And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelations 5:9-10)

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Stand Strong Till the Harvest

June 26, 2021

Don’t Let the Weeds Choke the Life Out of You

Matthew 13:24-30 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Matthew 13:36-43 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

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Pray For Rain in Western U.S.

May 28, 2021

Most of the U.S. Southwest is experiencing severe to exceptional drought with no relief in sight. Utah is worst at 98% of its area in severe to exceptional drought followed by New Mexico at 95%, Arizona 95%, Nevada 94%, and California 95%, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor on 5/28/21. North Dakota is also at 93%. The eastern half of the U.S. is in good shape with the Northeast and the Southeast at 0% severe to exceptional drought, the Midwest at 2% and the South at 10% (includes Texas at 20%).

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Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

May 19, 2021

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls,
prosperity within your palaces.” (Psalm 122:6-7)

God has commanded us to pray for the “peace of Jerusalem.” With the current conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza escalating, it is important for all Jews and Christians to do so because Israel’s enemies have vowed to annihilate her, “wipe Israel off the map,” say many (mostly Islamic) foes.

This is nothing new. The holocaust showed that even Caucasians can commit genocide against Jews. To some extent this is fostered by Jews calling themselves God’s “chosen people” which is something of a misnomer. God chose Abraham (or at least he was the first to respond to God’s call) who then sired the Hebrew nation eventually called Israel

Israel was named after the patriarch Jacob who was given that name by God after he wrestled with an angel, “for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” (Genesis 32:28) The Hebrew word Israel literally means ‘he will rule as God’ according to Strong’s Hebrew dictionary.

Genocide against the Jews goes all the way back to when the Assyrians conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel (also called Samaria) in 722 BC and carried them away into exile. The southern Kingdom of Judah was taken into captivity by the Babylonians in three waves beginning in 600 BC.

However, it must be noted that the reason God allowed Israel and Judah to be captured was because of their iniquity: “The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity because they acted treacherously against Me, and I hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword.” (Ezekiel 39:23) Likewise, Judah also angered God with their iniquities, turning to idols and practicing witchcraft, so “Judah was carried away into exile to Babylon for their unfaithfulness.” (1Chronicles 9:1)

Today, the Israeli government is largely secular, not being led by God who never wanted them to have a king or other form of secular leadership. Israel’s last ‘Judge’ was the prophet Samuel who served as God’s representative leader over Israel. The people asked Samuel to appoint a king. “But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also.” (1Samuel 8:6-8)

Praying for the peace of Jerusalem does not mean that we approve of how Israel has conducted itself. As history has shown, Israel seldom follows God’s lead. And so our prayers today should also include a call for Israel to seek God and to follow His guidance. Even more so, we must recognize that Israel is still operating under the old covenant with God, which has been rendered obsolete by Jesus bringing forth a new covenant. “Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”

Therefore, we must also pray that the Jews recognize that their Messiah has already come and turn to Jesus for their direction and salvation.

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Signs of the Times: Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

May 11, 2021

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

Fearsome times lie ahead of us: inflation, economic depression, shortages, famine, pestilence, cyberattacks, violence, earthquakes, volcanoes, extreme weather and war. We must learn to conquer fear in order to be the person God wants and needs us to be during this perilous time.

Oh, but we’ll be raptured out before it gets too bad, right? Wrong. This is what Scripture says will happen to the saints:

“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.Thenmany false prophets will rise up anddeceive many.And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will growcold.(Matthew 24:9-12)
It was granted to him [i.e., the beast, the anti-Christ] to make war with the saints and to overcome them. (Revelation 13:7]

Regardless of when exactly the rapture occurs, Christians will experience difficult, trying times before God graciously removes us from the true horrors to come (i.e., the trumpet and bowl plagues).

“And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” (Matthew 24:22)

The key verse for this time period we are entering is in Matthew 24:13: “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.”

This clearly states that to be saved we need to endure to the end (i.e., to when we are taken out of the world by death or by rapture)

The notion that “once saved, always saved” is just not true. Nothing and no one can take it away from us, but we can give it away or walk away from it, hence the great falling away:

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. (Timothy 4:1)

In order to endure, we must first conquer our fears, because fear leads to torment and torment leads to giving up, running away, hiding instead of basking in Jesus’ perfect love:

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. (1John 4:17-18)

The key here is understanding what “perfect love” is and how to manifest it:

The Greek word for ‘love ‘in the original text is ‘agapē’ which means ‘unconditional love’. This pure and holy love does not come naturally but only through God’s Holy Spirit.
The Greek word for ‘perfect’ is ‘teleios’ which means ‘complete.’ In being complete, perfect agapē’ love includes everyone, excluding no one.

Yes, that means true born-again Christians must love their enemies (Matthew 5:44) as well as those they disapprove of, including progressive liberals and those of the LGBTQ+ community. (Mark 12:29-31)

Of course, we don’t condone unrighteous behavior, but we are to always to “speak the truth in [agapē] love” (Ephesians 4:15). We must love first and point to sin second, because we are all sinners (Romans 3:23) saved only by God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8).

When we are filled with ‘perfect love’ there is no room for fear, because “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.” (1John 4:18a)

Since this perfect love does not come naturally, we must first receive it from God through the Holy Spirit within us.
However, we cannot just bottle it up and keep it for ourselves, because love must be expressed, it cannot exist in a vacuum. Nor can it be directed just to family and friends; it must include everyone.

Any time you find yourself thinking angrily about someone, turn it into a loving prayer for salvation.

Otherwise, your anger will open a door for Satan to torment you: “Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,nor give place to the devil.” (Ephesians 4:26)

And any time you are fearful, remember: “But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” (1John 4:18b)

Instead of trying to fight fear, turn instead to Jesus and cast your cares (fears) on Him: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1Peter 5:7, NIV)
And then ask Him to fill you with His perfect agapē love and let it flow into you and out of you to everyone you meet or think about.
Only then will you be living in this world fear-free.

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Lion of Judah Blog

Signs of the Times: July 30, 2021

Signs of the Times Update: July 27,2021

Signs of the Times – 7/21/21

Signs of the Times Update: July 13,2021

Signs of the Times Update – 7/9/21

New Season, New Format

New Season, New Song

Stand Strong Till the Harvest

Pray For Rain in Western U.S.

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

Signs of the Times: Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

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