Newsletter 135 Spring 2020
Click here to download as a pdf file, TrumpetSounds135 – 1
“Babylon is fallen, is fallen that great city, because she has made the nations drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication”. Revelation 14: 8.
The winter edition of Trumpet Sounds, number 134, anticipates two catastrophic events which will take place in this coming decade. One will be a global war, the other the fall of Babylon. That edition of Trumpet Sounds was written in January. At the time there was no hint of the mayhem in the global economy which would follow within a couple of months. The winter edition went on to explain a prophecy, found in the book of Daniel, which points to this decade, the 2020’s, being significant for the fulfilment of end time events.
Right on cue, within a few weeks of writing, Babylon, the kingdom of this world was engulfed in a major crisis. In response to a virus, nation after nation has shut down its economy. Governments in taking this action live in the hope that after the crisis their national economies will bounce back, debts will be minimised and tax revenues recover quickly.
In this edition
A Vain Hope
A Troublesome Virus
Corona Virus a Message to Mankind from the Creator
Christ the Victor
A Prophecy
After Covid-19
Together for the Nation
Extremist Jew Mourns Death of Arab Leader from Covid-19
Watch
A Vain Hope
Maybe the economy will bounce back as the government hopes. Maybe tax revenues will quickly recover allowing the pay back of debts. Maybe the world will return to normal and the memory of this pandemic will soon fade. Maybe, but due to the lateness of the hour it is unlikely. The timing of this crisis, at the start of this decade, points to another outcome. For the current world system, symbolised by Babylon, it will prove terminal.
This coronavirus pandemic will to some extent pass, but its legacy will last. Nations will be left heavily in debt, with weakened economies and reduced tax revenue. The globalist and their institutions such as the IMF will be looked to, to bail the nations out, but the bailouts will come at a heavy cost. Population reduction being one of the globalist’s primary goals, we can expect to see governments giving in to pressure for easier abortions, euthanasia, childless same sex relationships and other measures to cull the population. In many countries due to overstretched health services, choices have had to be made regarding who will be treated for coronavirus. With shortage of money to pay for healthcare, rationing of treatment will become more commonplace. Under the cover of the present pandemic DIY abortions have been brought in by the UK, Germany and a growing number of countries. Presented as a necessary response to the crisis, it is unlikely that the measures will be repealed.
The Politician’s nightmare.
Politicians want to please the electorate. They are always looking ahead to the next election when their jobs will be on the line. In coming years they will face the dilemma of heavy debts and falling tax revenue set against increased demands on the public purse. The economy will be ruined with small businesses ceasing to trade, supply chains disrupted, major industries from airlines to department stores bankrupted, demand for goods from those businesses which are left will be in sharp decline.
Even the globalists will run out of money. The scale of the debt and the competition between nations to borrow funds will be immense.
How are governments going to be able to meet the insatiable demand for healthcare, schools, policing and the social services, when swamped by high unemployment and poverty. Another round of even more stringent austerity, will not be deemed acceptable. Before the pandemic the government of the United Kingdom had just announced an easing of the spending rules.
Ten kings
The Bible foresees that at the end of the age there will be a group of 10 nations which will be instrumental in the final overthrow and destruction of Babylon. These nations will step into the gap the globalist can no longer fill. They will not charge interest on the loans. Instead their lending will be secured against national assets. When the impoverished nations can no longer pay back the loans the assets will transfer to the lender.
These nations hate Babylon. They will, like wolves singling out the injured prey, see the weakness of the west and pounce for the kill.
By stripping the assets of the nations the 10 kingdoms will grow even richer. It will fulfil the prophecy “And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their heart to fulfil His purpose, to be of one mind, and give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. ” Revelation 17: 16 – 17.
The burning with fire will come about through the social unrest. The debt burden on nations will be so immense that they will no longer be able to afford to borrow. Money will run out for the services which their citizens have taken for granted, Schools, Hospitals, Social Services and the police will no longer be affordable. There will be civil unrest as the public demand for these services goes unsatisfied. The social unrest will be spearheaded by the sympathiser of the 10 nations who are living in Babylon.
A Troublesome Virus
The common perception of a virus is of a nasty little thing which lurks around doing very little until suddenly it bursts out to infect us with some wretched disease. Why did God created these pathogenic organisms whose sole function is to cause suffering?
Viruses are good
The following quote comes from Creation.com, 6th February 2020.
“It comes as a shock to many people when they hear it, but most viruses are good for you. Have you heard that there are as many bacteria in and on your body as there are cells in your body? That is true. But it is also true that you have more viruses in your gut than you have bacteria! In fact, the viral population (called the ‘virome’) plays an important role in regulating the number and types of bacteria in your body. Without them, we might be rapidly consumed by the hungry little bacteria that live in our intestines.”
“Have you ever gone swimming in a lake? Then you were swimming in a soup of bacteria and viruses. Did that lake have ducks, swans, or geese swimming about? Then you were swimming among influenza viruses. In fact, aquatic waterfowl carry all possible types of the influenza virus, including the ones that do not infect humans. These viruses get introduced to the water as the birds defecate. But the presence of the virus usually does not produce disease in these birds, or in you, even though you are getting them in your eyes, ears, and mouth.”
The same website also carries this quote: “For sheer numbers, no other ocean beings can match viruses. Thousands, sometimes even millions of these molecular parasites inhabit every drop of surface seawater, outnumbering even bacteria by 10 to 1 … evidence that suggests that viruses are a powerful force in the sea, and one that determines how many plankton and ultimately how many fish, and even humans, an ocean ecosystem can support … viruses must have a profound influence on the entire oceanic ecosystem.”
Holmes, B., Who Rules the Waves? New Scientist 152(2054):8–9, supp, 1996.
Coronavirus a message to mankind from the Creator.
Life is a miracle. It is so finely tuned that if even the smallest element is out of tune it has devastating effects on the whole. There are a multitude of factors which if just one was slightly different life would not exist. That life can be upset by minor changes to something as miniscule as a virus is a reminder that God is Creator. He made an amazing world for us to live in. Until mankind sinned everything, including the humble virus, worked in perfect harmony.
The first angelic warning of coming wrath, which is found in Revelation chapter 14, is the call to worship God as Creator. Corona virus challenges us to acknowledge that all life is sustained in and through Him. As we turn away from God, He turns away from us. The harmony which He maintains is broken and we become subject to the consequence of a world gone wrong. Restoration comes when we “worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.” (Revelation 14:7)
Christ the Victor
Revelation 19: 1 – 20: 3
Continuing with our studies from the book of Revelation we come to a time when Babylon the Great, the kingdom of this world, has fallen. The fall is described in Revelation chapter 18. How are we to respond to the economic chaos and persecution which follows? Revelation 18: 20 calls on us to rejoice! Those whose treasure is stored in heaven will not have suffered loss. They will rejoice because the kingdom of this world has received its long deserved judgment.
We will rejoice for Jesus has assured us that, “when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads because your redemption draws near.” Men’s hearts will fail from fear of what is coming on the earth. In contrast those who know their God will be confident that soon they will see their King.
God hates the kingdom of this world. It is He who causes her destruction. As admitted in the last Trumpet Sounds, it is a kingdom in which we are very comfortable. Today, it offers us comforts and opportunities undreamed of in previous generations. As it falls will we celebrate or mourn? The merchants of the earth will weep and wail over her. The Christian is asked to remember that “friendship with the world is enmity with God.” James 4: 4.
Celebrations and triumph.
The rejoicing is taken up in heaven with a fourfold Alleluia. Alleluia is from two Hebrew words meaning ‘Praise the Lord’. First, the multitude cry out, “Alleluia, Salvation and glory and honour and power belong to the Lord our God”. Revelation 19:1. It is the same salvation theme that the vast multitude of the saved sing when standing before the throne after the sixth seal is opened. (Revelation 7: 12). God is praised for the justice of His judgment which has avenged the blood His servants.
Again the multitude cry Alleluia in response to the judgment which has fallen on Babylon. Her smoke rises for ever. Never again will there be a kingdom of this world in opposition to God.
The elders and Living creatures echo this praise with the words “Amen! Alleluia!” Amen means truth. All that the multitude say is true. The Lord our God is worthy.
The praise concludes with “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” Omnipotent means all powerful. He is truly King of kings and Lord of lords.
The prayer of the martyrs (Revelation 6: 10) has been answered. With the harlot destroyed, the battle between two kingdoms is over.
The wedding feast
Babylon has fallen, ‘the marriage supper of the Lamb’, is soon to follow. We are told that the bride has made herself ready and been granted to be arrayed in fine linen. In the customs of the Jewish wedding, after the betrothal ceremony, there would be a period, usually a year, before the wedding took place. In that year the bride would spend her time preparing the wedding garment.
This would be a linen garment, which she would embroider, to make it as beautiful as possible, in readiness for the great day when the bridegroom would return to take her to the marriage feast. In Revelation the garments are not made beautiful by embroidery but by the righteous acts of the saints, (Revelation 19: 8).
The verse is careful to say, “granted to her”, to wear the fine linen. These righteous acts are not of our own doing but the work of the Holy Spirit living in us. It should be the supreme desire of all of us who are born again of the Holy Spirit, to allow Him to work in our lives so that the way we live is pleasing to our Lord. We will then have beautiful garments to wear on that great day.
Who is the Bride?
There will be a wedding feast, but who is the bride? If you put that question to a Christian the most likely answer is ‘the church’.
Jesus set much of His ministry into the context of the customs surrounding the Jewish wedding. He spoke of guests invited to a wedding feast, (Matthew 22: 1 – 14). As a bridegroom He would come and take us to the place He had prepared for us, (John 14: 3). He likened His followers to 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom, (Matthew 25: 1 – 13). He referred to Himself as the Bridegroom, (Matthew 9:15, Mark 2: 19).
Paul saw himself in the role of a matchmaker presenting the Church at Corinth to Christ, (2 Corinthians 11: 2) and the relationship between husbands and wives should be a picture of Christ and His church, (Ephesians 5: 25 – 27).
If our studies were based solely on the New Testament it would be reasonable to conclude that the Church was the Bride of Christ.
The Bridegroom
The Bible for John the Baptist was the Old Testament. In John 3: 29 we read that he called Jesus the Bridegroom. In John’s mind there would have been no doubt as to the identity of the bride. The Lord [Jehovah] already had a wife, “Return, O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you.” Jeremiah 3: 14.
This is a theme picked up in Jeremiah 31: 31, 32. The prophet Jeremiah understood the covenant made at Sinai as a betrothal. At that time, God committed Himself to Israel, as a husband commits himself to a wife. After the Lord called Israel out of Egypt, under the canopy of cloud that covered the mountain, He gave Israel His marriage contract, the Mosaic Law.
Israel broke her side of the contract. Despite Israel’s adultery the Lord cannot break His side of the agreement for He hates divorce, (Malachi 2: 16). One day God will renew the marriage contract. “For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercy I will gather you”. Isaiah 54: 7. The time is coming when the Lord, as a husband, will show everlasting kindness to Israel, (Isaiah 54: 4 – 8). The story of Hosea and Gomer graphically depicts the heartbreak that the Lord experienced over Israel’s unfaithfulness. It also contains the promise of renewal. The Lord will betroth Israel to Himself for ever, (Hosea 2: 16, 19, 20).
By declaring Jesus to be the Bridegroom, John the Baptist was not voicing a new revelation. He was stating that Jesus the bridegroom was Jehovah the Lord God of Israel.
If Israel is the bride, what about the church?
The church is grafted into the rootstock from which Israel the natural branches were broken off, (Romans 11: 24 – 29). We inherit the promises given to Israel by becoming part of Israel. When Jesus commissioned the disciples to go into all nations, He was declaring that the Gentiles could also be joined with Israel in His Bride. There is one Bride and one Bridegroom for both Jew and Gentile.
The feast will take place on earth, for it is to the earth that Jesus and His followers have returned and it is on the earth that renewed Israel is to be found. The betrothal of Israel to the Lord took place at Sinai under the canopy of cloud, (Deuteronomy 4: 11-13). The consummation of the marriage will also take place under a covering spread by God. There will be a canopy over mount Zion, (Isaiah 4: 5). The word used here for covering is chuppah, which is also used for the wedding canopy. It is on Mount Zion that the Lord will make a feast for all peoples, (Isaiah 25: 6 – 9).
The penultimate battle
The raptured church is to return with Christ, as the armies of heaven, to Jerusalem. When the first of the seals was broken it revealed a rider on a white horse. This rider represented man’s efforts to rule this earth independently from God culminating in the Antichrist.
Jesus Christ, is now revealed as the Son of Man who will bring the rule of God to the whole earth. He is the only man who can hold the reins of world power and ensure peace, justice and blessing for all mankind.
His names portray His character, integrity and authority. In contrast to all the lies and deceit of the Beast and the false prophet, He is faithful to His promises, never failing those who trust Him. He is the truth, which evil men have denied, choosing the lies of Satan in its place.
A name no one can know. It is a secret between Him and His Father, hidden from men and angels. There is an unsearchable intimacy in the deity which none of His creation can understand or share. Word of God, is used by John in his gospel and first letter. It is the energising Word of power that spoke worlds into being and healed the blind and lame.
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. He is Lord of heaven and earth. He comes not in meekness but power. Once he entered Jerusalem, on a donkey, and was rejected by His own people. Now He comes as conqueror, riding on a white horse, to be accepted as King.
A garment dipped in blood. Isaiah 63:3 speaks of the day of vengeance of our God. “I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing”. Jesus shed His own blood to purchase men from out of this world. He alone brought salvation and he alone will bring retribution.
The rod of Iron. The one who had compassion for the sheep when he saw that they were without a shepherd will shepherd the nations with a rod of iron [Ps 2: 9]. His will be a firm but just rule.
The Feast of Creation
A grim terrible picture follows, which may offend. The natural world, which has suffered so long from man’s sin, is invited to celebrate its being rid of those who have caused so much destruction. It is a reference back to Ezekiel 39:17 – 20 where it is called a sacrificial meal.
The battle over, the beast and false prophet are the first to be consigned to the lake of fire. Satan will not yet suffer that fate. He is imprisoned for a thousand years. God will use him one last time, which we will look at in the next edition.
A Prophecy
“Shortly also I will begin more serious judgment on the Western nations. I will bring them to nothing; I will turn them upside down; I will grind them to powder. They will not know what has hit them. It will seem as if there is nothing left of what once I worked in those nations; especially that Superpower. I will bring it to weakness; she will no longer be super, but a pity of the nations.”
Lance Lambert, April 2011
After Covid-19
After Covid-19 there will be many changes.
Four decades ago, I was introduced to the concept of government by crisis. Governments use crisis to bring in measures which before the crisis were unimaginable. They use the crisis to present the measures as inevitable. The crisis may be either natural or created for a purpose. I first witnessed this in the education crisis of the 80’s. There were those who predicted that in most western nations there would be a deliberate collapse in standards which governments would use to bring in a standardised curriculum leading to centralised control.
That this frame of mind exists and continues was openly testified to by Rahm Emanuel, [Obama’s Chief of Staff] in 2008: “You never want a serious crisis go to waste. But what I mean by that, it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”
Covid 19, without denying that for many it is a very nasty disease, will prove a useful cover for bringing in controls which would not have been accepted at the beginning of this year.
Surveillance
The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has said that a major increase in state surveillance is a ‘price worth paying’ to beat Covid-19. The Institute argues that the public must accept a level of intrusion that would normally be out of the question in liberal democracies. Reported by the BBC 24th April 2020.
It is proposed that the fastest way to end lockdown is the installation of a smartphone app. The app would record all the people with whom a person had been in contact. If in due course one of those people was tested Covid-19 positive the person would be notified on their smartphone. Having been notified they would have to immediately go into self-isolation.
China, Hong Kong, Russia and Singapore already have apps in use. The US and Europe are working on their own versions to be released very soon.
In China it is compulsory to download the app which uses a QR code. Citizens are required to scan their QR code when entering shops, subways and other public buildings. The app then sends the user’s location and identifying number to a central server. The Chinese system has three status: red, yellow and green. Green allows travel, while red and yellow restrict any movement. A QR code is good for snooping on the population but of little help in detecting if someone has been in close contact with an infected person.
In Europe the proposed system uses Bluetooth. It is promoted by Google and Apple as the best method for tracking and tracing. Bluetooth uses short-wave UHF radio waves to transmit data over short distances. The smartphone will constantly transmit a Bluetooth identifier that allows other phones to connect to it. This function will keep a record of every other Bluetooth device the phone has had contact with. If someone is diagnosed with Covid-19 they can self-declare which will contact all the devices they have been near over the previous 14 days. This system would be voluntary. The incentive to adopt the app will be an early release from lockdown for the users.
This app may well only last as long as the present pandemic poses a widespread threat. The longer term affect will be to condition users that surveillance is for the public good.
The end of Money
For years prophecy commentators have warned that a cashless society would be the forerunner of the mark of the beast. Suddenly, with us hardly realising it and without a whimper of protest, we have gone cashless. Many businesses now require contactless payment to avoid close contact with customers and to avoid the need to handle cash as this is perceived as harbouring germs. The trend against cash has been gaining ground for some years. The removal of thousands of ATM’s being a testament to the decline in its use. Cash will take time to die but its demise is in sight.
It seems so easy to make a contactless payment. Just tap your card on the reader and the payment has been made. None of the fumbling in a wallet or purse to find the right bank notes or coin and no need to check the change. Coupled with online banking where transactions can be checked it appears to be the way ahead.
Despite the fumbling in your purse a cash payment is very simple. Payment is completed on the spot and leaves no paper trail. Something we rarely think about, there is no need to get anyone’s permission to make the transaction. That is not the case with cashless payments, which fronts a very complex system with potential for breakdown and even the opportunity to be blocked
The greatest risk with virtual transactions is that they can be monitored. A paper trail is created which leads back to every citizen. It becomes the perfect companion to the surveillance state.
Acquiescence to the state.
During this current pandemic we have dutifully complied with the government requirement to stay at home. We have not made unnecessary journeys, met up with family or assembled together at church. We have complied because the government has convinced us that if we do not it will put others at risk.
If we were living in a police state in which to meet as Christians would make us liable to arrest, our response would be different. We would find ways to defy the government and continue meeting.
We can learn from this a way in which Christians will become ostracized form society at the end of the age.
In the past Christians have been persecuted because they were considered subversive. They were accused by those in power of not upholding the values of the rulers. From the time when they were required to bow down to Caesar as god, to the present day when the thoughts of Chairman Xi are to supplant the Ten Commandments, governments have seen Christians as a threat. They are a threat to the kingdom of this world when they live by the standards of the kingdom of Heaven.
But what if Christians are perceived as enemies of the public good? The intolerance surrounding the visit to this country by Franklin Graham is a current example. Venue after venue was cancelled on the grounds that he might say something detrimental to community cohesion. It was feared that he might promote homophobic views. A number of clergy such as the Bishop of Sheffield opposed Graham’s visit on these grounds.
Ostracised
David Robertson of Evangelical focus comments, “Many of our civic institutions have been taken over by an ideology which is fundamentally anti-democratic, anti-factual and intolerant – in the name of tolerance. The State, having replaced God, has become the source of all morality and values. If you don’t agree with those values you are not one of ‘the people’. You are ‘untermenschen’. You are out.”
Together for the Nation has a new youtube channel. The ‘worried’ video has now been updated with a reference to coronavirus. Please have another look at the video at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsYFt9qRHldKu2lV48CAw_w/. also Pastor John a member of the coalition has prepared a 10 minute video on what God did at Dunkirk this can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/a8vyfp0aVHk
In the last days our beliefs as Christians will be represented as destructive to the peace, harmony and future wellbeing of the world.
‘Extremist’ Jew Mourns After Arab Leader Dies of COVID-19
The following is taken from the Israel Today website:
“Mukhtar Ahmed Nama was Israel’s 200th victim of the coronavirus pandemic. Ahmed Nama had a choice to make. Like all local Arab leaders in the Holy Land, he could either identify with the “Palestinian cause,” or he could make his peace with Israel. He chose the latter, and for decades the small Galilee Arab town of Deir el-Asad has lived in harmony with its Jewish neighbors.
“On Sunday, Nama became the 200th Israeli to die of COVID-19. Among his mourners was Yehudah Glick.
“Yehudah Glick is a former Member of Knesset. But he’s best known as an activist for Jewish religious freedom atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. In the eyes of the international community, that makes Glick an “extremist.”
“According to the mainstream media’s portrayal of the Middle East, neither of these men should exist. A proud Arab mukhtar (village leader) who seeks coexistence and integration with the Jewish state? A nationalist Jew who publicly mourns the death of an Arab whom he called “friend”?
“Ahmed Nama and Yehudah Glick do not represent an exception. They represent the norm. But their reality is too often ignored by the media. Most Jews and most Arabs coexist peacefully in Israel. Most Arabs have no problem living as citizens of the Jewish state, where they enjoy far more freedom and success than their people in neighboring countries. Most Jews are not racists, and though they advance the interests of the Jewish state, they know that the Arab minority is an integral part of Israel’s future.
But that’s a less sensational story than conflict. Nor does it mesh with the carefully-cultivated narrative that Jews hate Arabs, and that Arabs can never forgive the Jews for “stealing their land.” That’s why you’ve never heard of Glick’s work with Nama to promote tolerance, coexistence and cultural exchange between the Jewish and Arab communities. Glick has also been active in efforts by the Israeli government to close the income gap between the Jewish and Arab sectors.
The truth is that I’d also never heard of these particular initiatives. But not because I was unaware that Jews and Arabs coexist peacefully. Rather, coexistence is so commonplace that this was but one example among hundreds, if not thousands.
The true extremists are those who seek to perpetuate a conflict that most of the people on the ground want no part of by highlighting only the very worst of what happens in the Holy Land.”
Ryan Jones, Israel Today, 28th April 2020
Watch
This edition of Trumpet Sounds has focused on the fallout from the Coronavirus. It sets current events within a prophetic framework. The proof of whether that framework is correct will come through fulfilment.
Whatever your conclusions regarding what has been shared there is a widespread concurrence that the time is short. Now is the time to prepare for the coming of the Lord. We prepare so that on the glorious day when our Saviour returns we will be commended as good and faithful servants.
The most successful booklet prepared by Trumpet Sounds has been the one with the title ‘Watch – preparing for the unexpected’. Many thousands have been distributed both in the UK and abroad. ‘Watch’ remains the key message for the times in which we live. Watch is the word which repeatedly comes to the fore when the New Testament looks forward to the return of Jesus Christ.
The chapter headings used in the booklet which summarise our watching are, anticipation, alert, awake, apart, aware, alive, adorned.
Remember the question which Jesus posed, “However when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18: 8 NASB.
Will He find a Church which has recognised that in its own strength it will fail like Peter? Will He find a church which has listened to the warnings and drawn from Him the strength to stand? Will He find a church that has recognised that His ways are not our ways?
HE WILL IF WE OBEY HIS CALL TO WATCH.
Watch can be downloaded free of charge as a pdf from this website.
It is also available as a booklet by contacting the email address below. A donation of £2.50 per paper copy is appreciated.
Web Site: www.trumpetsounds.net
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