TALK OF APOCALYPSE FROM US PRESIDENT DOWN

 

 

 

By Thomas R. Horn

February 17, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

Hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and the threat of a deadly flu pandemic: Are global events unfolding something bigger?

Several years of epic events have witnessed a growing number of the world's population wondering if something prophetic is transpiring.

First came 9/11 and the beginning of the war on terror. Then a tsunami in Asia killed approximately 250,000 people. Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma, and an earthquake In South Asia followed, which claimed tens of thousands more lives. 2006 witnessed leaders of countries referencing terms like "Apocalypse" and "Armageddon" to describe the uneasy times. 2007 has started out with record snowfalls in parts of the US, the national weather service is predicting even more blizzards, and experts warn that a deadly avian flu virus could pass over to the human population at any time in a full-blown pandemic, potentially bringing global markets to their knees.

It's enough to make anybody wonder what in the world is going on.

For many folk, these are the signs of the End Times.

Over at RaptureReady.com, an evangelical website that serves as a kind of Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity for people who believe in the �Rapture�, the "Rapture Index" is hovering at 160, a rating meant to indicate when loyal Christians will disappear from earth just before the beginning of the Great Tribulation. The website keeps tally of a wide variety of world events based on reflection to Bible prophecy, and anything above a score of 145 means "fasten your seatbelt" for departure. The website's owner, Terry James, has a new book called The Rapture Dialogues that is endorsed by Dr. Tim LaHaye, co-author of the Left Behind series of books.

Another book due out this month purports to explain current global events as the precursor to the biblical Apocalypse. Published by Anomalos Publishing, Apocalypse Soon: The Beginning of the End documents recent history in light of the books of Revelation, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and concludes that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have started their destructive ride. The book is already the subject of two made for television documentaries.

So close is the correlation between recent events and end times prophecy, that even President George W. Bush was asked last year following a speech on the War on Terror whether he believed the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism were signs of the Apocalypse. Bush said he hadn't thought of it that way, but author Bob Woodward noted in his book Bush at War, that just three days after 9/11, the president during the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance at the National Cathedral in Washington seemed to act as if he had found himself within a fantastic cosmic scheme, declaring that the nation�s responsibility to history was already clear: "to answer these attacks and rid the world of evil."[1]

By taking up the language of "good vs. evil," Woodward said, the president was "casting his vision and that of the country in the grand vision of God�s master plan."[2]

According to Woodward, the prophetic context for war in the very land associated with future Armageddon (and against Saddam Hussein, no less, the man who claimed to be the reincarnated Nebuchadnezzar) held for Bush the Manichean language necessary to play out a "divine mission" while earning him admiration from certain supporters who saw the reconstruction efforts of Babylon under Saddam Hussein -- followed by the War on Terror -- as signs pointing to the Apocalypse.

Biblical scholar Bruce Lincoln�s examination of a speech delivered by Bush to the nation on October 7, 2001, announcing the U.S. attack on Afghanistan [3] produced redundant references from Apocalyptic books of the Bible concerning the End Times. Lincoln's research supported Woodward's claims that George W. was using word craft as a strategy "of double coding" to secretly appeal to people who saw him as a devout Christian standing up to the enemies of God in an unfolding event in the Middle East, which they believed was foretold in the books of Revelation, Isaiah, et al.

Some have even gone so far as to say Bush is responsible for the general malaise and apocalyptic defeatism in the world today and that he will be held to blame for any Armageddon that develops out of it. His use of Scripture-flavored language when mirroring a dualistic worldview pitting the West against the East, the use of fear as a catalyst for spreading war many view as a new Crusade between the east and the west, and so on.

Patrick Heron believes there is more to it than that. He believes that the president was a pawn in a kind of cosmic game-play, in that somebody had to set the world stage for a �man of sin� to emerge on the world scene as a savior�the Antichrist. One of the most important and immediate accomplishments of this New World Order leader will be to broker a peace treaty between the Jews and Palestinians. He then will lead the charge in rebuilding the long awaited Jewish Temple, which is interesting given that just this month an Israeli archaeologist and Hebrew professor claimed to have pinpointed the exact location of the original Jewish Temple, a potentially important step toward the fulfillment of the Temple reconstruction prophecy.

According to the Bible, this Antichrist will appear at first to be a man of distinguished character, but will ultimately become "a king of fierce countenance" (Dan. 8:23). With imperious decree he will facilitate a one-world government, a universal religion, and global socialism. Those who refuse his New World Order will inevitably be imprisoned or destroyed, until at last he exalts himself "above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2:4).

Heron�s theories have caught the attention of some important people. Grizzly Adams Productions, a well known producer of family-friendly television shows who has created original programming for Discovery, PAX, NBC, CBS, the Learning Channel and other networks, found the insights presented in Apocalypse Soon: The Beginning of the End engaging enough that in 2006 they acquired the worldwide television and DVD rights to the work. Their first documentary based on the book was titled, "End Times: How Close Are We" and was broadcast nationwide during sweeps weeks in 2006. The show connected with viewers, and the DVD is an all-time bestseller according to WorldNetDaily.com. A second documentary based on the book -- "Apocalypse and the End Times" -- aired in October and has done equally well.

"Throughout human history, cultures from the Hopi Indians to biblical prophets have shared stories about the end of the world," notes David W. Balsiger, a producer on the "Apocalypse and the End Times" special. "We sought to examine these legends and look to modern scientific findings to get to the truth behind current events and these ancient stories."

Even the mainstream press picked up the "Apocalypse" theme in 2006. CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Times, BBC and others ran feature stories on the US presence in the Middle East, focusing on the possibility that it could manufacture the End Times Armageddon spoken of in scripture. CNN devoted several entire news segments with Paula Zahn concerning the possibility that the biblical Apocalypse might actually have arrived (Watch Media Matters Video). More recently, language of the Apocalypse was raised again when the Doomsday Clock was pushed forward at The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists by two minutes, marking 11:55 before midnight, five minutes before the figurative end of civilization.

Like Judaism and Christianity, Shiite Islam also gives credence to an end times event involving the reappearance of the Twelfth Imam. Devout believers in Iran assume the reappearance of the Twelfth Imam will occur when he emerges from a well at the Jamkaran mosque. Iran's president, Ahmadinejad gave $17 million of government funds to support the shrine and has said that the mission of the Islamic Revolution is to pave the way for the coming of the Twelfth Imam. Some believe Iran is on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons and that Ahmadinejad has little inhibition about using them to start Armageddon. President Bush has reaffirmed his commitment to keeping Iran from possessing nuclear weapons, and has not ruled out using force to accomplish this goal. Students of prophecy see this as potentially more than saber rattling between the two countries. They believe it could trigger the final Apocalypse.

As for Dr. Heron, he begins in Apocalypse Soon by focusing on scientific evidence showing a sharp increase in bizarre weather patterns including a 500 percent increase in tornadoes last year, record-setting earthquake activity, the threat of a worldwide bird flu pandemic, growing famine, disease, and the exponentially higher risk of all-out nuclear war involving lands identified in the Bible as central to End Times prophecies.

In the middle of his book, he analyzes this data and determines that it aligns perfectly with the ancient prophecies, which he believes points to the imminent appearing of the great man of sin, the Antichrist.

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Finally, Heron concludes with America and Europe in prophecy. He looks at the famous dream of the ancient king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, who saw what many believe to be the final global kingdom -- a revived Roman Empire. But "a careful examination of the prophecies relating to this future government specifically state that it will be a global confederacy," Heron says. "It is not confined to one geographic area. It will be a club of ten members ruled by ten kings who will serve the interests of the Antichrist. I have no doubt that Europe and the USA will play prominent roles in these future alignments."

PRODUCTS RELATED TO THIS STORY:

1, Apocalypse Soon: The Beginning of the End
2, End Times: How Close Are We
3, Apocalypse and the End Times
4, The Rapture Dialogues

Footnotes:

1, President's Remarks at National Day of Prayer and Remembrance, Office of the Press Secretary, September 14, 2001
2, Bob Woodward, Bush at War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), p. 67
3, Bruce Lincoln, Holy Terrors (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), pp 30-32

� 2007 Thomas R. Horn - All Rights Reserved