I want to explore this morning the subject of peace, hestilence, and prayer. We live in amazing times. And tonight, I am going to establish, I believe, without question, in my mind, for sure, from the word of God, that we are living in the end times. The key to that being the birth of the nation of Israel in 1948. So we are living in presently what I refer to, what the ministry is referred to, and we always have a column in the back of our magazine. It's called Shadows of the Tribulation. Great events cast their shadows before them. There's no greater event than the second coming of Jesus Christ when he comes in the clouds and back to planet Earth and establishes his kingdom. But prior to that there are seven years of trial, of tribulation. And we are seeing the stage being set, I believe, for that seven year period, that tribulation period, Daniel's 70th week. The key again with Israel as a nation again among the nations of the world. Now the last two years We have just seen not only the United States, but the world turned upside down with COVID-19, with this virus that has infected and affected our entire life throughout our country and, again, the world. Paranoia. I'm amazed at the paranoia. It's gripped politicians, it's gripped business leaders, it's gripped the media, it's gripped the average person. And unfortunately, there are too many Bible-believing Christians that have just wallowed, I would submit to you, in paranoia over this virus. Now, at the beginning of the pandemic, Many postulated we'd see mutant variations in the months ahead. Well, that is exactly what has happened. We're familiar with the Delta variant. Now we have the new variant, the Omicron variant that has arrived on the scene. And people have died from COVID-19. There's no question about that. I am not sure that the numbers are exactly what we are being told by the press. I think more people die with COVID-19 as opposed to from COVID-19. But with this new variant, Omnicron, Angelique Coetzee, who was the doctor who discovered it in South Africa. And some of this you might be familiar with. It's come out lately. She's the chair of the South African Medical Association. On December 2nd, she wrote this. I have been stunned at the response to her announcing the finding of this new variant. I have been stunned at the response. No one here in South Africa is known to have been hospitalized with the Omicron variant, nor has anyone here believed to have fallen seriously ill with it, yet Britain and other European nations have reacted with heavy travel restrictions on flights from across Southern Africa as well as imposing tighter rules at home on mask wearing, fines and extended quarantines. She says the simple truth is we don't know yet anywhere near enough about Omicron to make such judgments or to impose such policies. Now, I believe what is happening in this area and other areas of development in the world, whether it's in Israel and the peace process through building the temple or the economy worldwide or whatever, are shadows of the tribulation. I think God is setting the stage. He is the director, He is the producer, The script has been written, the word of God, but he is now putting the actors, the actresses, getting the sets built, in these years since the establishment of the nation of Israel, for this seven-year drama to unfold. And again, I'm waiting for that final act, because I'm in it. If you're saved, you're in it too. I don't have a big part, I just ride a white horse and come back with Jesus, he's the lead. but I'm really looking forward to that final act. But I think the world stage is being set and all that we see happening around us is getting us ready, I believe, for this coming seven year tribulation period. And over this pandemic the world is being divided. I mean it's amazing, I have so many quotes I could give you. The former Premier of New South Wales for example, Bob Carr, He's called on the Australian government to follow Singapore's decision to discontinue free COVID-19 treatment for unvaccinated patients. If you're vaccinated, you're in. If you're unvaccinated, you're out in the world's viewpoint. He said it was time unvaccinated Australians should be forced to pay with your willful stupidity. It's his quote, not mine. Howard Stern, you're familiar with him. I'm really of mind to say, look, if you didn't get vaccinated and you got COVID, you don't get into a hospital. And the MSNBC host, Mendi Hassan, supports segregating the unvaccinated and denying them access to basic goods and services. Wow. That's a lot. Noam Chomsky, who's very liberal, says this, said that the unvaccinated should be pushed into isolation. When asked how the unvaccinated would then be able to get food, Chomsky responded, how can we get food to them? Well, that's actually their problem. They're isolated. They can't go out. How do they get food? Tough. That's your problem if you don't get vaccinated. Leanna Wen, a visiting professor of health policy at George Washington University, A Washington Post columnist, medical analyst for CNN, that tells you a lot right there, said this. We need to start looking at the choice to remain unvaccinated the same as we look at driving while intoxicated. You have the option to not get vaccinated if you want, but then you can't go out in public. We'll put you in a camp or whatever. It was reported on November 23 of this year New York Assemblyman Pat Burke proposing a bill to allow insurance to deny COVID treatment and the coverage for unvaccinated people. The World News reported November 30, a German euthanasia group has said clients must be vaccinated against COVID-19 before they can undergo assisted suicide. So let me get this straight. Or have we become crazy? Okay, you want to kill yourself? Get vaccinated then we'll kill you. We have lost our mind. The world. In Australia, it was reported on December 6th by Nine News. The anchor starts out this, we start with breaking news out of Darwin where three people have escaped from the Howard Springs COVID quarantine facility. Talia Sarov is there for us. Talia, good morning. There's a search underway right now. The reporter says, yes, that's right, Davina. Good morning to you. We've been told they scaled the fence in the early hours of this morning. Police are saying reports around 4.40 AM. Now major police checkpoints have been set up around Howard Springs for the past several hours. As you can see in these pictures, they've been conducting thorough searches in cars, checking vehicles, registrations, cars, and buses alike, all because they weren't vaccinated, put in a camp. They escaped. And you've got this great lookout. This is happening throughout the world. In Austria, authorities have stopped people on the street demanding to see COVID papers in Canada. unvaccinated citizens who've been banned from planes or trains in their own country, not because they've tested positive for COVID, not because they're infecting people, but simply because they haven't taken the injection that the prime minister demands they take. Doesn't matter whether they are naturally immune from having the COVID virus, that's irrelevant. The world wants a vaccine passport. Several countries already have created some form of a COVID-19 passport. European Union, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Israel, China, Bahrain. Now this is fascinating because we know that there is a time coming, middle of the tribulation period, that no man will be able to buy or sell unless he had the mark of the beast. And the world is being prepared. If you're in, you'll do what we say. Right now, it's vaccination. Down the road, most likely a vaccination passport. Further down the road for that, well, we need a better way to identify people. So we're going to have to get a mark of the beast. And if you don't go along with our plan, you can't buy or sell. The media want to do this. The politicians want to do this. And the Word of God tells us this will come to pass. We'll be gone if you're a child of God. If you're born again, the rapture is pre-tribulational, but this will happen in the middle of the tribulation period. The world's being set. The stage is being prepared. The curtain is about to go up on that seven-year drama. the great tribulation period, the 70th week of Daniel. Consider peace, peace. You know, we are told in Daniel chapter nine in verse 27, which is the last seven year period of that 490 year period that Daniel spoke of starting in verse 24. That last seven-year period is the tribulation period. Verse 27 of Daniel 9, and he shall confirm the covenant for one week, one seven-year period. In the middle of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. Well, if there's a sacrifice and there's an oblation in the middle of the week and it will cease, that tells us that the temple has to be standing by the middle of the tribulation period. It goes on, and for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. He is speaking of the Antichrist. He shall confirm that one week, that seven year covenantal agreement between Israel and her enemies. He will orchestrate it. Now that covenant, which is ostensibly a covenant of peace, as he promises to deliver the world from all of its ills and all of its troubles, is actually a covenant of death and a covenant from hell. I think in Isaiah 28 it describes this very covenant in verses 15 through 18. Listen to what it says. Because you have said, we have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come on to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. We're gonna be okay, we've got this agreement with this powerful individual. And when the problems come, we will be protected. Verse 16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believes shall not make haste. That foundation stone is Jesus. Judgment also will I lay to the line, righteousness to the plummet, and hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, the water shall overflow the hiding place. Judgment, the plumb line, and the plummet of righteousness, all based on Jesus Christ. And if you're not with Jesus Christ, you are against Jesus Christ, you're with the enemy, and all the lies and all of the untruths, if you want to put it in a nicer way, will be swept away by Jesus. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell, I believe that's the covenant, of Daniel 9.27. And your covenant with hell shall not stand, overflowing scourge shall pass through, then shall you be trodden down by it. The Antichrist will orchestrate a covenant between Israel and her enemies, which will start that seven-year tribulation period. Now, when Donald Trump was president, up until the time he became president. The nations of the world, the politicians of the world, the US, the UN, the European Union, they all tried to bring peace to Israel through what you can refer to as an inside-outside methodology. Now, what that means is that if we focus on the Palestinians and the Palestinian issue, and if we can get peace between Israel and the Palestinians, all of the other Arab nations will then follow in that peace and then we'll have peace in the Middle East. Donald Trump came into office and said, that's wrong. Now, I think, firstly, that came from two of his advisors, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Orthodox Jew, and David Friedman, who was the ambassador at the time to Israel, Orthodox Jew. And if you know the history of the Middle East conflict, I got a DVD on that back there. Anyway, this is not an advertisement. I believe they are the ones that convinced him. The inside-outside will never work. It's based on lies. So Donald Trump, his administration implemented an outside inside paradigm for bringing peace to the Middle East. In other words, you won't get peace with the Palestinians. So let's focus on the Arab world. And if we can get peace with the Arab world, the Palestinians will have no recourse other than to follow along. So he introduced the Abraham Accords. And in the Abraham Accords, you have a number of Arab nations who came on board and had made peace with Israel. This is amazing. I mean you had Egypt and Jordan in the past. But then you had UAE, and you had Bahrain, and Sudan, and Morocco. And if Donald Trump would have continued in office, more than likely states such as Oman, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, others would have come on board as well. Now, what's important about the outside-inside methodology? And I understand Biden is trying to take it back to the old Paradigm. Israel doesn't want to. That is the paradigm, I believe, that is laid out in the word of God that there's gonna be peace with the Arab world and Israel, not with the Palestinians and bringing, setting the stage, I believe, for the peace treaty, covenant of death, actually, of Daniel 9.27. The world is being set for this coming leader. And what's happening, not only in America, but throughout the world, there's an ideological alignment. It's pushing America, for example, towards totalitarianism. There was a fascinating article earlier this year by Peter Svob, Ideological Alignment Pushing America Towards Totalitarianism, experts warn, I'm not going to read all of it to you. It says this, while many have warned about the rise of fascism or socialism in the land of the free, the ideas have largely been vague or fragmented, focusing on individual events or actors. Recent events, however, indicate that seemingly unconnected pieces of the oppression puzzle are fitting together to form a comprehensive system according to Michael Rechtenwald, a retired liberal arts professor at NYU. But many Americans, it appears, have been caught off guard or aren't even aware of the newly forming regime as the idea of elected officials, government bureaucrats, large corporations, the establishment academia, think tanks and non-profits, the legacy media, and even seemingly grassroots movements all working in concert towards some evil purpose. Seems preposterous. Is a large portion, the writer asks, of the country in on a conspiracy? Short answer is no. He says the reality now emerges that no massive conspiracy was in fact needed. Now that goes against the grain of a lot of Christian thought, unfortunately, in my opinion, that they think this. He says, what was merely needed was an ideological alignment and some informal coordination. Despite the lack of formal overarching organization, the American socialist regime is indeed totalitarian, as the root of its ideology requires politically motivated coercion The power of the regime isn't yet absolute, but it's becoming increasingly effective as it erodes the values, checks, and balances against tyranny established by the traditional beliefs and enshrined in the American founding. The effects can be seen throughout society. Americans, regardless of their income, demographics, or social stature, are being fired from jobs, getting stripped of access to basic services such as banking and social media, or having their businesses crippled for voicing political opinions and belonging to a designated political underclass. Access to sources of information unsanctioned by the regime is becoming increasingly difficult. Some figures of power and influence are sketching the next step, labeling large segments of society as extremists and political terrorists who need to be deprogrammed. And the roadmap Schwab says are four points, and he believes we're at point number four and five, which is people who resist persuasion need to be re-educated even against their will. People who won't accept the plan, no matter what, need to be removed from society. That's not just here, it's worldwide. This is shadows of the tribulation. This is setting the stage for exactly what the Antichrist will do, when there's going to be this ideological divide. And ultimately that divide is between saved and unsaved, we know that. And the mark of the beast comes to its forefront. The world is being set for all of this to happen, for a peace treaty to be orchestrated by the Antichrist. Interestingly, At the very beginning of the pandemic, there was a professor, Dr. Heiner Rinderman, who is the professor of psychology at the Hemnitz University of Technology in Germany. He made this comment in April of 2020 in an article that the distorted perception of the danger from the coronavirus can lead to a health dictatorship. Now this is April 2020. The article is titled, The Coronavirus and its Social Consequences. He makes this point. The distorted perception of the danger from a newly emerging infectious disease threatens to pave the way to a health dictatorship in which almost everything that stands for freedom and pleasure is prohibited. Shades of the Tribulation period, shades of the Antichrist, Yes, he's going to bring peace to the Middle East and the Arab nations, but is it going to be on the back of the pestilence that we see now, when people are more than willing to give up liberty for security? I've got so much to share. Both the Muslim and the Jewish world have fascinating prophecies, I don't believe they're inspired, but fascinating prophecies about the end days and the pandemic and a pestilence coming. In the Muslim world, a Shiite-Iraqi Islamic scholar, Hadi al-Mutarassi, based in Iran, said, February 28th of last year, that the spread of coronavirus is undoubtedly an act of Allah's divine punishment against China for their disrespect towards Muslim and Islam. He said this, quote, it is obvious that the spread of this virus is an act of Allah. How do we know that the spread of the coronavirus began in China, an ancient vast country, the population which makes up one seventh of humanity? The authorities in that country laid siege to more than a million Muslims. Allah sent a disease upon them and this disease laid siege to 40 million Chinese. There you have it. This disease and the spread has scared humanity in its entirety. There's a fascinating article from the Jewish world in March 10th of 2020. Are there Jewish prophecies about the spread of coronavirus? In the shadow of tragedy and fear, prophecies, conspiracy theories and urban legends come to the life and get plenty of traction. But there are not a few prophecies in Jewish circles that are almost too specific in their details to completely ignore. Is it possible that the current outbreak of coronavirus was foreseen and warned about many years ago? Amatul Shabtai, a psychiatrist, the daughter of famed Israeli author Yaakov Shabtai, wrote a fictional script in 1986 and 1987 about a virus that would cause the deaths of thousands of people around the world. In 1994, her script was published in a 600-page book. In small, compressed letters, the year 2020, was set by Shabtai at the time the world would suffer this plague. At the same time, it seemed like the distant future. The author sought to relieve her readers that the virus will attack, but 2020 is a long way. Now, this is back in 94. In the book, she writes that the world will be divided into two, healthy people and sick, at-risk people. There will be a list of those who are at risk or already sick and they will be contained and kept in isolation. Shabtai further describes in her book how the world will be run by a totalitarian system, a global health dictatorship. People will have to be examined daily in schools, kindergartens, supermarkets, businesses, everywhere. This is 20, what, seven years ago. Entry in all public places will be through biometric doors. If people come up blue on the screen, they will be immediately transferred to lockdown isolation centers. This also predicts that people do not shake hands, that any touching or human contact can cause death. There will also be a World Health Treaty requiring everyone to abide by its laws. I believe what we have happening in the world today is Satan is preparing his people for his ruler, the Antichrist, using such things as pestilence. Now, this is not a God-given prophecy to this Jewish writer. But Satan certainly can put thoughts into the mind of a person, and that person can write it down. And then Satan, years later, can do things to bring that to pass. That's not true prophecy. That's manipulation. Pestilence. Pestilence. There are four judgments of God that are regularly used when God judges a nation or nations, Israel, Judah, whatever. There are four specific judgments that God uses. Now, sometimes all four of those judgments are mentioned in a verse or a passage of scripture. Sometimes it might be only three of them. But those judgments are war or the sword, famine, wild beasts, pestilence. Now, there's lots and lots of scripture around this. Pestilence is used some 46 times in the Old Testament. Plague is used some 80 times in the Old Testament. But consider the judgments of Leviticus 26, 22 through 26. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your cattle, and make you few in number, and your highways shall be desolate. And you will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me. Then I will also walk contrary unto you, he's speaking to Israel, to the Jewish people, then I will also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins, and I will bring a sword I will bring a sword upon you That shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant That's the Mosaic covenant that will avenge the quarrel of my covenant when you are to gather together within your cities I will send the pestilence among you and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy and When I have broken the staff of your bread famine Ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied. Famine. Wild beasts, the sword, pestilence, and famine. In Ezekiel 14.21, it's also referenced in Ezekiel 5.12 and 17, For thus saith the Lord God, how more, how much more, when I send my four judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, the famine, the noisome beast, and pestilence, to cut it off from man and beast. That was upon Jerusalem. In Revelation, Chapter six, in verse eight, in the seal judgments. These are the first set of judgments in the tribulation. You have the seal judgments, the trumpet judgments, the bowl judgments. And in Revelation 6, eight, we are told this. And I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. and power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth. One quarter of humanity will die in this one particular seal judgment. Now the seal judgments are the least of all the judgments. They get worse with the trumpet and they reach their pinnacle with the bowl of the vial judgments. Power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with the sword, with hunger, famine, with death, pestilence, and the beasts of the earth. So in the tribulation period, God judges the world and he uses his four judgments of famine and sword and pestilence and the beasts of the earth. Now, you see in Matthew 24 in the Olivet Discourse in verses 5 through 8, which parallels the sealed judgments, it mentions three of these judgments. It says this, For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And you shall hear wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, wars, kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines, famine, and pestilences and earthquakes in different places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. of the judgments of the tribulation. Wars, famines, pestilence. God throughout history has used pestilence as his judgment upon humanity when they deserve it. Whether it's Jerusalem or Judah or Israel or nations of the world or the coming tribulation period, He has used pestilence. Is COVID-19 a judgment of God upon the world? I don't believe so. What I believe it is, like many other things in the world today, it's a shadow of the tribulation period. It's wake up! Sit up and notice. You have no control over your destiny, ultimately. You might die from war, or famine, or disease, or pestilence. So prepare to meet thy God. I think this is a warning to the world, that there's a worse time coming. It's that seven-year tribulation period when God does pour his tribulational judgments out upon the nations of the world, the humanity of the world, and it includes war. It includes famine. It includes wild beasts. And it includes pestilence. I kind of believe that Heston's will get worse in the days ahead. Although I think it's overblown. Because I think Satan is moving his chess pieces, if you will, into place. That ultimately his man of sin, the Antichrist, arrives as perhaps the health dictator to bring security to an insecure world. Prayer. Peace, excellence, prayer. Very quickly, two thoughts. Number one, finally brethren, 2 Thessalonians 3.1, finally brethren pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you. We need to pray one for another. But the word of God, the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ will have free course in this world. Now, Facebook will try to shut it down. Twitter will try to shut it down. Google will try to shut it down. All those other social media sites will try to shut it down. But God has commissioned you and me and every child of God to go into all the world and preach the gospel. So let's pray that God enables us to have his word to have free course in the world, our world, the people we come into contact with. And then finally, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That's the command, that's not an option. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee. When you're praying for the peace of Jerusalem, you're really praying for a couple of things. You're praying for Jewish people to be saved, and you're praying for the return of Jesus Christ, because both those things go together. Jesus returns, all Israel is saved, all the remaining Jews at the end of the tribulation. So pray for the free flow of the gospel, the word of God. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I believe this pandemic is in fact setting the stage for the Antichrist to come onto the world as the world's savior. This pestilence is not the finger of God. The event I believe is a shadow of the tribulation, period. It doesn't matter what happens with COVID-19 and its variants for a believer. We are secure in the Lord. I wanna close with two things. First is a comment from Our Daily Bread from, oh, a number of years ago. I'm not sure how long ago it was. It's called Paranoia in Reverse. And it says this, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment, 1 John 4.18. And the writer says, I remember watching television news reports in 1991 as the non-violent revolution took place in the streets of Moscow. Russians who had grown up in totalitarianism suddenly declared, we will act as if we are free, taking to the streets and staring down tanks. The contrast between the faces of the leaders inside and the masses outside showed who was really afraid. and who was really free. Watching the newsreels from Red Square on Finnish television, I came up with a new definition of faith, paranoia in reverse. A truly paranoid person organizes his or life around a common perspective of fear. Anything that happens feeds that fear. Wear a mask, stay indoors, isolate, Don't shake hands, stay away from people. Faith works in reverse. A faithful person organizes his or her life around a common perspective of trust, not fear. Despite the apparent chaos of the present moment, God does reign. Regardless of how I may feel, I truly matter to a God of love. What could happen if we in God's kingdom truly acted as if the words of the Apostle John were literally true? What if we really started living as if the most repeated prayer in Christendom has actually been answered, that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven? Paranoia in reverse. Trust God. He is your Savior. He is your Lord. He is your victor. In Hebrews 2, 14 and 15, I close with this, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, that's us, we're partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself, Jesus, likewise, took part of the same. He took on flesh and blood, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death all of their lifetime. Unsafe people are afraid of dying. You should not be afraid of dying. Brother Bill and his wife and Cheryl and myself, when you get to be our age, one of the main topics you have is your health, right? And I think Pastor said, young people, 20s, think, what are you, crazy? All you do is talk about ailments and medicine? Well, we're a lot closer to a death, it's a reality ultimately for everybody, than they are. But the unsaved have an unhealthy fear of death. Christians should not, believers should not. And deliver, Jesus would deliver them who through death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. If you've been delivered from the penalty of sin by putting your trust in Jesus, as your Savior and Lord. You have been delivered from the fear of death. You should have no fear of COVID. You should have no fear of the leftists in our society. You should have no fear of the Chinese. You should have no fear of anything. Because we have been delivered from that. Because our hope is in the Lord. And our destiny is heaven. And it is secure. And he is coming for his saints one day. And if you are a child of God, if you're born again, you have nothing to fear. And if you're not a child of God, we're gonna have an invitation. You need to come. Pastor will be here momentarily. Someone can sit with you and take the word of God. You need to get this settled. Maybe you're afraid of COVID. There's nothing to be afraid of if you're a child of God. The stage is being set. Jesus is coming. I'm looking forward to it because I'm his child. Let's pray. Father, we are grateful and thankful for your goodness and love and what a day we live in. What a time. Lord, it's not a time to fear. It's a time to rejoice. I believe the stage is being set. But not only that, those who live outside of us, there's so many who live in fear. They're just gripped. in the bondage of fear. We have the answer. We have the hope. We have the deliverance from the bondage of fear. And Lord, help us, provoke us, push us to share Jesus with those people. So Father, we thank you in Jesus' name, amen. If you would like to know more about the Lord Jesus Christ, you may contact us at the church website, gospelbaptistchurch.com, or you can go to Facebook and type in Gospel Baptist Church Bonita Springs, Florida. Also, you could call the church office at 239-947-1285. Thank you and God bless.