The Dying Light of the Day
The Dying Light of the Day
By Pete Garcia
“The people of the great nations of the past seem normally to have imagined that their pre-eminence would last forever. Rome appeared to its citizens to be destined to be for all time the mistress of the world. The Abbasid Khalifs of Baghdad declared that God had appointed them to rule mankind until the day of judgement. Seventy years ago, many people in Britain believed that the empire would endure forever. Although Hitler failed to achieve his objective, he declared that Germany would rule the world for a thousand years. That sentiments like these could be publicly expressed without evoking derision shows that, in all ages, the regular rise and fall of great nations has passed unperceived.” – Sir John Glubb, The Fate of Empires (p.17)
As America gets ready to celebrate her 244nd birthday this as a nation, we should take a moment and pause to wonder what became of this once mighty nation. Is it so far-fetched to believe that our nation will not last forever? Or even last another decade intact? Would we recognize her 10-20 years from now? Would the Founders of this once great nation even recognize her today?
Most likely not.
Looking around today, it seems almost inconceivable that 400 years ago, our nation was once forged by Pilgrims who were fleeing an oppressive, monarchical Europe, seeking only religious liberty in the New World. These were men, women, and children, who braved the perilous voyage, carrying with them, only their hopes, dreams, and faith that God would bless their endeavor. Even harder to believe that out of that meager Plymouth effort, 150 years later, a nation would be born; baptized in blood and in the righteous indignation that at the very least, taxation should equal representation. This spurred such men as John Hancock, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, Thomas Jefferson, and fifty others to risk their livelihood and their lives, by signing their Declaration of Independence against the imperial superpower of the day, Great Britain.
Almost a hundred years and a lifetime of westward expansion later, the nation was at another boiling point over the issue of slavery and states’ rights. The spark that ignited the fire was the creation and election of the Republican Party and its first presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln ran on an anti-slavery platform. His election and subsequent commitment to both anti-slavery, and these United States, was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back of the Democrat South. They seceded and formed what we now know as the Confederacy, after which, 750,000 Americans died fighting.
After the War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by Democrat John Wilkes Booth, the nation was subjected to a prolonged period of grieving. This is really where the idea of the democratic shadow government first began to form. However, this shadow government needed a militant arm to give teeth to their poisonous ideas, hence, the creation of the Ku Klux Klan. Don’t ever believe the modernist spin that somehow the two parties flipped. Republican’s did move south, from the high-tax north, to follow jobs in low-tax, business friendly southern states…in the 1970s and onward…not because they mysteriously turned racist overnight. Remember, the Democrat (LBJ) Civil Rights Act in 1964 was similar to the Republican Civil Rights Act they vetoed in 1957.
However, out of the grievous racial tensions that followed the Civil War, came a new and burgeoning class of American citizens who have contributed tremendously to the history of this great nation. Men and women like William H. Carney, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, and George Washington Carver, began the long and industrious history that modern Americans would continue emulate. In the 20th-century, some of the greatest philosophical, judicial, and intellectual heavyweights come forth from black community and continued to help shape, heal, and steer this nation into its status as a superpower. People like Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, Shelby Steele, Walter E. Williams, Condoleezza Rice, and Ben Carson to name a few.
Despite it all, our nation’s often turbulent, but magically cohesive structure, was only cohesive because it centered around two central themes- that all men are created equal, and that our rights and freedoms come from our Creator, not government. And now, 244 years into this American-experiment, our nation has seemed to be entering into the twilight of its years that Alexander Tytler had spoke about so long ago:
From bondage:
~To spiritual faith
~To courage
~To liberty
~To abundance
~ To selfishness
~ To complacency
~ To apathy
~ To dependence
Then starting over with Bondage.
As of 2020, we are a nation who has screamed past apathy back into the arms of dependence. Although, we shouldn’t be surprised should we? Every nation, empire, and kingdom prior to us, rarely lasted more than 200 years. Rome, being the exception as to her unnatural longevity; even she underwent a massive transition from a Republic, to a dictatorship near the turn of the first century. From 27BC to 476AD, Rome remained under the control of one emperor after another. However, once the power, prestige, and position of Emperor came into being, that authority, was never relinquished willingly. Wealth and comfort ultimately gave birth to corruption and decline, and after 1200 years (as both a republic and monarchy), the Western Roman Empire collapsed and was consumed by barbarians.
“Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again.” – President Ronald Reagan
But America was a rarity. She was the best of all possible human governments, rolled into one, and then capped off by both a Judaeo-Christian moral foundation, and a Greco-Roman form of government (pre-Julius Caesar). The founders had the foresight to take the best forms of government, and then put enough checks and balances so that not any one part of it, could get too powerful. The American form of government was designed to have gridlock. Serious changes to the Constitution’s Bill of Right’s could be changed, but only through a slow, deliberate process from all parties involved.
Fast forward to today. To quote Thomas Sowell’s timeless wisdom, each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late, for which we have failed. After nearly a century of progressive indoctrination and propaganda that once great shining city on a hill, now, lay smoldering in the ashes of her own, uncompleted suicide. Lawless bands of criminal opportunists and anarchists, claim victory over the ash heap as if they achieved something so grand as to destroy the very vehicle that afforded them the ability to act in their basest nature.
And because the invasion came from within, we have only two recourse’s. The first, is to either completely take back the mediums and narrative for which this nation was founded upon through spiritual revival, or secondly, face another bloody civil war. Except this new civil war will not be between north and south, but between left and right. And given the dividedness of our nation, and even within the Church, revival seems unlikely. Also, Scripture has forewarned us that in the last days that not only would things would go from bad to worse, but there is no nation like the United States listed. (Luke 21:34-36; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; 2 Peter 3)
Did we think as a nation, we could write into law, the systemic, government-sanctioned infanticide and not draw the wrath of an angry God? Do we think that even if the Democrats win, and the nation burns, that God has not already foreseen it? He has. He has already told us by our very conspicuous absence in Scripture that we are not the final superpower in the world of the last days.
However, that does not mean we go down without a fight. Without question, we know the Lord will return for His Church and will take us up in the Rapture. We know that the Lord has unfinished business with both the nation of Israel, and the Christ rejecting world (Jer. 30:7-11). The only problem is, we don’t know when this is going to take place. He could return today, tomorrow, or twenty-years from now. So in the meantime, we must occupy until He comes.
While we are instructed to keep our gaze upwards, we must not neglect the needs of those in front of us. Jesus said, behold the fields are white for harvest (John 4:34-36). We must hold fast and become salt and light to a nation whose light is quickly being drowned out by the darkness of our age. Jesus said that He would build His Church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. When the Church is pulled up, the world will come apart rather quickly. In the time being, we must do our best to make our nation, a safe place for our children to live as untainted by sin, corruption, apostasy, and violence for as long as we can. We must stand, for as long as we can, even though we have little strength (Rev. 3:8). We must not roll over and let the world become what its master, Satan, wants it to become (1 John 5:19). While I do not know how apropos it is to quote Dylan Thomas here, however, I can resonate with the sentiment that in our final moments on earth, the Church should not roll over and give in. We must stand.
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light…
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
– Dylan Thomas
Antichrist Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist: the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time.
“By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” – 1 John 4:2-3
Why did God wait 430 years to free the Israelites from their sojourning, affliction, and ultimately, Egyptian bondage? Was it just because He enjoyed watching them suffer? Perhaps it was because God loved the Amorites more than the Israelites?
The answer, unsurprisingly, is no to both. According to Genesis 15, we know that God was allowing a certain level of iniquity (wickedness) to come to its full measure, before He meted out His just-punishment upon the wicked Amorites.
“But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” – Genesis 15:16
However, there is also another consideration I would like to throw into the mix that might be overlooked. Perhaps, God was timing this for just the right Pharaoh to come along as well (Exodus 2:23). We know, according to Genesis, that both Abraham and Joseph had previous interactions with earlier Pharaohs, and in both scenarios, things worked out well for both Abraham and Joseph. In Abraham’s case, the Pharaoh was justifiably afraid of the God that Abraham served. As for Joseph, once he interpreted the dreams that were plaguing Pharaoh, Joseph was elevated to the number two spot in all the land. After Joseph’s ascension, his family stayed on there in Egypt and began to flourish greatly after much time had passed. It was here, that we pick up the opening verses in the book of Exodus.
And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.”
“Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.” – Exodus 1:6-14
We see that the Israelites who came to live under Joseph’s protection, grew comfortable in Egypt and flourished. However, Egypt was not the land that God had given them. He allowed them to get comfortable, but after much time had passed (roughly 64 years), a certain pharaoh arose who escalated that level of misery and rigor he put upon the Israelites, and began making them suffer even more.
In their affliction, would be an increasing desire to depart from that place. Isn’t that like God though, to allow His own to not get comfortable too comfortable this world, because this world is not our home. He allows Satan a certain measure of “free leash” to persecute believers in this world, to a point. God does this because He does not want us planting our roots too deeply in this world, because this world has a rendezvous with judgment and destruction.
Make no mistake, Satan knows Bible prophecy. When Satan misquoted the Psalms (Psalm 91:11-12; Luke 4:10) to Jesus during His Wilderness Temptation, he demonstrated a certain level of proficiency and knowledge of the scriptures. The reason Satan hates the Jews with a supernatural passion, is because they are a central theme to God’s plan of the redemption, not just for the Jewish people, but of all mankind. Therefore, if he could destroy the Jews and / or Israel, he could theoretically break prophetic promises of a last-days restoration of the Jewish nation, thus nullifying the word of God.
However, I would add, even more so that Satan has a special place in his heart for breaking bible prophecy. Why is that you ask? Well, since he cannot travel back in time, and much of bible prophecy has not yet been fulfilled, that is all he has left. His hope is that he can break one line/ one verse/ one eventuality from actually coming to fruition. Theoretically, if he could break bible prophecy, then he could nullify the word of God as being errant…and thus, God a liar. And if one verse of bible prophecy could be broken, then it would invalidate the other 30,999 verses. You see, the entirety of the book of Revelation sits in the middle as a fulcrum between the whole weight of Scripture and the whole foundation of Scripture- all 31,000 verses. Everything has to come to pass in Revelation, or it could invalidate the entirety of the rest of the Bible.
From a strategic standpoint, and playing devil’s advocate here (no pun intended), if I were Satan, the last candidate I would want to fill the role of Mr. Antichrist, would be someone from the boundaries of the old Roman Empire (Dan. 9:26). He may have used Europeans in the past (Nero, Charlemagne, Napoleon, Hitler, etc.), but since Israel has been restored as a nation, he KNOWS he is running out of time. Satan has even used Jews in the past (Rothschild’s, Adam Weishaupt, Karl Marx, etc.) to bring hatred and fear upon the Jewish people. If I were Satan, I would use someone who comes as far away from that place (the Mediterranean region) as possible. Which makes an American Antichrist an interesting candidate. Albeit, we are a nation of immigrants. [I am not saying the Antichrist will be American-this is just wargaming]
Nevertheless, what Satan wants, and what Satan gets, are often two, very different things. His goal is to break Bible prophecy…but God. God gets the final say. God is not bound by time like Satan nor the rest of Creation are. God already knows who the final gentile, world ruler, will be, which brings us full circle back to where we are today.
Let’s say that Satan wanted to use a man like Barak Obama to become the final world ruler. Obama has the credentials (former two-term president of the United States). He’s a globalist/internationalist, and completely comfortable with the idea of the United Nations running the world. He’s an apostate Christian (if he ever was one), who was raised on a steady diet of Marxism, Human Secularism, the Social Justice Gospel, and Islam. Obama loathes Israel’s very existence. He’s popular with the left, the media, and most international leaders around the world. He is an eloquent speaker, and charismatic to the core. He’s corrupt, completely at peace with the destruction of traditional norms, values, and is pro-abortion (infanticide). So for all intents and purposes, he would SEEM like the perfect candidate to be Mr. Antichrist.
Let’s run with this hypothetical scenario for a minute.
IF Satan had his way, he would continue to destroy and demoralize the Trump presidency with this faux-global pandemic, racial tensions, and general lawlessness at all levels, so that the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden (and Obama’s former Vice President) could win in November. It is also becoming blatantly obvious, that Biden is suffering from an aggressive form of dementia (or some form of cognitive regression). This is why his campaign team have been hiding him these past few months. He has difficulty stringing sentences and thoughts together, and often times, doesn’t remember where he is or what he’s talking about. Regardless, even if Biden did win, he would not be the one in charge of the United States…his vice president would.
Now, the Obama’s decided to maintain a residency in Washington D.C. after their presidency ended in 2016. They did so under the pretenses that their daughters could finish out their education at the elite private school, Sidwell Friends. The last president to remain in D.C. after their presidency ended was Woodrow Wilson (1912-1921), and he only did so because had suffered a stroke in 1919 and was incapacitated until he eventually died in 1924. Additionally, Barak Obama has maintained a low-key, but ever-present, shadow government that has been covertly fomenting a secret coup d’état against the current Trump Administration.
Consequently, if Biden did manage to win (i.e., voter fraud, crisis, etc.) he would undoubtedly be declared medically (or mentally) incompetent within a matter of months of his inauguration. Either a democratically controlled congress or senate, or both, would call for an emergency session to declare Biden unfit to serve and would be forced to retire. His VP (perhaps Michelle Obama) would be made President, and Barak would come in and serve as the Vice President or at the least, an advisor. While this seems too wildly fantastical to even consider with a straight face, stranger things have happened. If I were a leftist/socialist, this scenario would be the best possible outcome I could hope for. Given the Obama’s history in office and continued popularity, I don’t see it as an impossibility (should Biden actually win).
So how does that potentiality serve Bible Prophecy? How does that serve Satan’s agenda? Again, what Satan wants, and what Satan gets, are two different things. To the latter part, Satan would have no issue dismantling the US Constitution from the inside out and morphing our nation into some type of United Nations on steroids. Satan would try to install his man (Obama) into this new office of a global regime, and thus, break Bible prophecy.
But God.
Daniel 9:26 is very clear in stating that this final world ruler, will come from within the boundaries of the old Roman Empire. That would be from somewhere within the boundaries of North Africa, the Near East, Southern Europe, and up to the United Kingdom, France, or Germany. Here is what the Angel Gabriel told Daniel-
“And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined” – Daniel 9:26
The people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. According to historical fact, those people, were the Romans under General Titus who came and destroyed Jerusalem in AD70. From Daniel’s time, fast forward 600 years (circa AD95) and the Apostle John is shown that the future last kingdom would be like a dragon coming out of the sea with ten horns, seven heads, and ten crowns (Rev. 13:1-3). One of the heads seems to have a fatal head wound, but it is healed. Bouncing back to what the Prophet Daniel had written centuries earlier, we see the correlation between the head, horns, and crowns- that that beast was dreadful and terrible, and it was a combination of the previously mentioned chimeras, and it had ten horns, and that a little horn rose up from amongst them, and plucked out three of the other horns to gain control over all the rest (Daniel 7:7-8).
Two of my favorite teachers disagreed slightly as to the interpretation of these heads, horns, and crowns. Jack Kelley, the late, great teacher from Grace Thru Faith, believed the numbers to signify the completeness of this beast’s awful power and authority over the earth. Jack Kinsella, the late, great bible prophecy teacher and founder of The Omega Letter, once wrote in his article “And Then There Were Ten” that these were actual countries whose leaders would be supplanted by the little horn. I’m like the character Delmar O’Donnell in O’ Brother, Where Art Thou, when caught in the middle as the deciding vote between George Clooney’s character and John Turturro’s as to who should lead their gang he says…“I’m with you fellas.” But where there was zero disagreement on, was where this leader came from. This Mr. Antichrist must come from within the boundaries of the old Roman Empire.
I don’t want to speak out of turn, but Satan does not want his man of sin / antichrist person, to come from the boundaries of the old Roman Empire. However, this little horn clearly rises, and is able to pluck up three other horns, and thus gains the majority over the rest of the ten horns. Perhaps Obama does come to power over the “Americas” (North, Central, and South) once again and rules through the United Nations somehow. But he is not The Antichrist. He might be an antichrist (little a) but whoever this man of sin ends up being, he will, as the British are fond of saying, have to come from across the pond.
Conclusion
It is of much interest that we are now in several overlapping stages of humanity. On a philosophical level, we are in the post-modern era. This means that our present zeitgeist believes that all truth is relative. On an economic/technological level, we are at Industrial Revolution 2.0. This means that we are in what is known as, the cyber-physical age. This means that everything has, or is in the process of getting, a digital footprint. On a political level, we are at the fourth turning point. We went from hyper-nationalism pre-WWII, to globalism, and now back to a hybrid mix between globalism and nationalism. These ebbs and flows are precipitated by the cyclic nature of global affairs- high, awakening, unraveling, and crisis. We are in crisis on numerous levels.
The age we live in is known as the Age of Information. With the development of computers, and later, the Internet, has rushed us into an ever increasing dependency on digital technology. As mentioned in previous briefs, if the great race in the 20th-century was over nuclear supremacy, the great race in the 21st will be over artificial intelligence. But given that we are still in the longest war ever waged (the war on truth), we should really call this the Age of Disinformation. Fake news, yellow journalism, deep fakes, misinformation, and the increasing polarization of political, religious, and philosophical views, are forcing us into positions we will not be able to deescalate. Is it any wonder that deception was the one sign Jesus repeatedly warned us of when was asked about what the last days.
It is also interesting that since World War II, the United States has taken on a protectorate role over Europe. This has allowed for them to spend the money they normally would have spent on defense, to spend on infrastructure and technology. It has also allowed them the luxury to experiment with varying forms of economic and political unions. They have since formed into a federation of states we now know as the European Union. As of 2020, their latest formation (27 nations and counting) has proven troublesome, and it is my opinion that they will ultimately be forced to go back to the ten-nation configuration.
Perhaps the only reason God is preserving us now, is because He is also waiting for the right geopolitical conditions to be set. This includes the right antichrist character to come along. When that man is in position, along with the timing of perhaps a fall feast, a specific number of believers come into the Body of Christ (as mentioned in my previous brief), as well as hitting some minimum threshold (like Abraham’s bargaining over Sodom), God pulls the trigger and the Rapture occurs, throwing the world into a tailspin. This is, in my estimation, why the Rapture has to happen before the 70th Week of Daniel; it has to be a surprise.
Granted, Satan likely already knows who all his antichrist candidates are now. He also likely knows our calendars even better than we ever could, since he was there throughout it all. So he presumably has “high-watch” dates for a potential Rapture on his calendar. The fact that we are still here and given the meteoric rise of wickedness and lawlessness, probably has him wondering when as well. If we can draw a parallel back to Noah’s day, we remember two things. First, Enoch was taken up mysteriously some 669 years before the Flood. Some argue that has no connection to the flood given the length of time, but when men routinely lived up and beyond 900 years, it’s still within the realm of an antediluvian lifetime. Second, once Noah, his family, and the animals were on the ark, God shut the doors for seven days before the first rain drop fell. (Genesis 7:4-10)
As crazy as it sounds, this latest global pandemic has likely been used by the powers that be, as a test run for the Rapture itself. Satan knows a Rapture is coming, he just does not know when. When it does happen, the world will be thrown into chaos. He will not have the luxury of time to get all of his players in place. He needed to see if something like a Chinese Coronavirus could force the nations into a) conditioning, b) compliance (mask, social distancing, shutting down), and c) acceptance (of the narrative).
Evil and wicked men will use crisis to grab control like kids fighting over candy under a broken piñata. But out of that chaos, will arise one man (The Antichrist) who will assume control. How exactly he does that is anyone’s guess. Paul was clear when stating we (the Church) will not be here when he is revealed, so it’s pointless to speculate with any attempted authority. Satan at that point, will have no other alternative but to use, and he puts all power and authority (Luke 4:5-6) behind him to carry out his satanic plans.
In closing, I have presented much information about a variety of topics to think and ponder upon, however, let me tie this up and leave you with two thoughts. First, is that the United States was a surprise to Satan. Even still, he was able to chip away at the greatest nation in the history of the world with poisonous ideology, and get us to willingly succumb to lawlessness and wickedness. That once great shining city on the hill, has lost her light. The day is almost done, and darkness is falling across our land. It is unlikely that a revival will come to our shores again. Second, even though that might be the case, we (the Church) must remain those small beacons of light (candles) in the dark, and fight for as long as we can, to preserve what’s left of that which is good, while we can.
“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. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.” – 2 Thess. 2:7-8