Greetings from Tyler,
Many of you have just returned home from one of several Feast sites across the United States and overseas. Those at each of the sites were as positive and as inspired as we’ve ever seen. For any who didn’t make it to the Feast this year, we missed you. But more importantly, you missed out on an opportunity to participate in a remembrance of Israel’s forty years in the wilderness prior to being granted access into the promised land, and also a looking forward to the time when God’s Kingdom will be established on this earth.
Presumably there will be all kinds of photos posted on the ICG website, along with people’s descriptions. Given the state of world affairs, none of us knows how many more opportunities we’ll be afforded and sure should take advantage of every one of them.
Our new issue of 21st Century WATCH was on display and available for handout at every site. We noticed that many were picked up after hours (particularly at Panama City Beach), and given the cover and the content of the latest issue it’s not surprising that total strangers would take an interest. If you are able to distribute copies to reading areas, waiting rooms etc., we would love to supply additional copies for that purpose. A number of letters have come in already from people who saw the magazine somewhere and asked to receive it regularly.
Even though there is a certain amount of anticipation or maybe indigestion in these final days of the presidential election, take heart. God will look after those who are faithful to him regardless of the many possibilities people are prone to panic about. Certainly our commission will not change at all. We’ve been doing the work of witness and warning since long before the current candidates emerged onto the scene, and will continue to do so as long as it is possible. Though you’d never know it from the breathless day to day campaign coverage, the world is not standing still.
The war in Syria seems to have the current administration completely stumped. There have been reported close calls between Russian and U. S. aircraft, and one false move (or accident for that matter) could lead to open hostility between the two superpowers. In case you didn’t notice over the recent week or two, relations have largely broken down diplomatically as Russia provokes and America and the rest of the west cowers in fear of what Putin might do next. It doesn’t help much that Russia is holding drills said to involve some 40 million people, in practice and preparation for the survival of a nuclear exchange. So the Russians have suits, masks and bunkers to which they can retreat in the event of nuclear war, and their practicing like it was a fire drill at a high school. As near as we can tell, no such contingency plans exist anywhere in the west.
But it is obvious that some of the most backward, borderline insane regimes on earth are in the business of developing and flaunting nuclear prowess. It was temporarily reassuring to see North Korea’s ICBM test launch crash and burn the other day. But, with Iran’s help, it is only a matter of time until both bad actors begin to boast of their ability to incinerate whole cities and defeat great nations.
Our leadership already made Iran fabulously wealthy to the tune of $1.5 billion, and since then they’ve done nothing but continue to threaten the United States, promise to eradicate Israel, not to mention firing upon U. S. warships in international waters. In spite of the patriotism and laudable intentions of our military people, it’s hard to conclude that the United States has not already lost the “pride of our power” by our weak and confusing posture in every crisis to have come along in recent years, and they are many.
Europe is edging ever closer to an implosion of the European Union, socially and economically. Angela Merkel cannot make an appearance anywhere without hundreds or thousands showing up to protest the destruction of their whole culture. The Muslim presence numbers in the tens of millions now, spread across Europe and the clash of civilizations has come to many a formerly quiet and orderly neighborhood.
As was mentioned at various Feast sites, one of the architects of the euro currency and the European Central Bank has recently warned again that a collapse of the current EU system is inevitable.
Jerusalem has again become the focus of the United Nations, which overwhelmingly “voted” to say that Israel has no historical claim to the holy sites. Of course that is an abject denial of Biblical history and a great deal of archeological evidence that is proven beyond all doubt.
So what’s new? When do those who purport to lead us (or in this case, the world) not lie to our faces, knowing that we already know how dishonest their proclamations actually are? We’re actually seeing a lot of that now on a daily basis. There just is no such thing as “truth” any more. The whole concept is obsolete in the political realm, and in the diplomatic realm.
We beg to differ. God is the Author of Truth, and those who take advantage of people’s distraction and naiveté to deceive the masses might as well enjoy their lofty positions while they can. Pride cometh before a fall, and we’re going to see some weeping and gnashing of teeth before the end of the age. Every prophet in the Bible says so, and so did Jesus Christ Himself. That’s where our trust must remain if we are to remain calm and fulfill the commission before us.
Mark Armstrong
