CLOSER THAN YOU KNOW

Predictions have swirled for years. Distant hooves galloping towards us with warnings, almost too surreal to be believed. Though mocked as “sensationalists” and “extremists,” the watchmen nonetheless can’t un-see the approaching dust clouds.

Early in his nightmarish Night, Eli Wiesel introduces his trusted teacher and philosophical mentor, Moshe the Beadle. “I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the right questions,” Moshe tutors, but when he later miraculously escapes Nazi deportation, returns to his Hungarian village, and recounts the horrors he has seen, neither his questions nor his answers are welcome. So when evil kicks through their door of denial, they are unprepared and unprotected. Doomed.

And how do we face the unfathomable? Selling broken babies and stolen children for profit in the U.S., throwing Christian refugees overboard in the waters between Libya and Sicily, raping before discarding young girls in the Islamic State – how do we face that? And what what is the warning implied?

The watchmen see a kaleidoscopic move of brazen barbarianism in “civilized” societies, failing national economies, increasing natural disasters, diseases, distresses – a world spinning out of control, as a new picture emerges into focus.

Old prophecies collide with current events, and it seems this September might be the crash site. Among the voices sounding the alarm, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn urges us to consider the prior years of the Biblical Shemitah (2008: Stock market crash, and 2001: 9/11) – and that this is the year of Jubilee, as well. Mark Biltz alerted us to the historical tetrad phenomena, where blood moons and solar eclipses correspond with Jewish holidays, and Geoffrey Grider has compiled a list of significant world events taking place in the space of 15 days in September. (See below)

It looks as a perfect storm.

When tragedy transformed Moshe the Beadle from teacher to tale-bearer, even the right questions were no longer enough. Though no one would listen to what he had seen, he could never un-see the atrocities burned into his soul. Though he yearned for sleep, even death, the sights and sounds penetrated every fiber of his existence, and he could not be silent.

“Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14)

We hear the approaching thunder, and we see the signs in the news. We feel the chill, as the night casts deeper shadows, and our hairs stand up, as we realize: it’s almost here.

We, the people of the King, are not to hide in His palace, but to shine His light into this darkness, a beacon inviting as many as possible inside, while there’s yet time.

We have come for such a time as this!

This is not the end. A new day is rising with healing in its wings for anyone who leaps from this evil furnace into the arms of Goodness Himself. He is light the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that sparkles in life.

“The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.” (Isaiah 30:26)

“Don’t turn away from Me
For My love won’t be undone
Don’t hide your face from Me
For My light has surely come
Surely Come surely come

Lift up your eyes and see
Heaven is closer than you know
Lift up your voice and sing
Know that My love won’t let you go
And I won’t forsake you”
-Hillsong United

Geoffrey Grider’s list:

“September 11th – This year will be the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center. There is a very good likelihood that somewhere either in America or where American interests are concerned that a Muslim terror attack will occur.

September 14th – Rosh Hashanah (with partial solar eclipse)

September 15th – The Jade Helm military exercises are scheduled to end.

September 15th – The 70th session of the UN General Assembly begins on this date. It has been widely reported that France plans to introduce a resolution which will give formal UN Security Council recognition to a Palestinian state shortly after the new session begins.

September 17th – Congress has until this date to vote for or against adopting our Nuclear Treaty with Iran.

September 20th to September 26th – The “World Week For Peace in Palestine Israel” sponsored by the World Council of Churches.

September 21st – The UN International Day Of Peace. Could this be the day when the UN Security Council resolution establishing a Palestinian state is actually adopted?

September 23rd – Yom Kippur

September 23rd – Pope Francis arrives at the White House to meet with Barack Obama. Some have suggested that the timing of this event is highly unusual. Francis is the 266th pope, who will be meeting with President Obama on the 266th day of the year, leading one Internet preacher to wonder if “something is being birthed” on that day, since 266 days is the typical human gestation period from conception to birth.

September 24th – The Pope addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

September 25th to September 27th – The United Nations is going to launch a brand new sustainable development agenda called “The 2030 Agenda“ in New York City. The Pope is actually traveling to New York to deliver an address which will kick off this conference. Unlike Agenda 21, which primarily focused on the environment, the 2030 Agenda is truly a template for governing the entire planet. In addition to addressing climate change, it also sets ambitious goals for areas such as economics, health, energy, education, agriculture, gender equality and a whole host of other issues. This global initiative is being billed as a “new universal Agenda” for humanity.

September 28th – This is the date when the Feast of Tabernacles begins. It is also the date for the last of the four blood moons that fall on Biblical festival dates during 2014 and 2015. This blood moon falls on the very first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, it will be a “supermoon”, and it will be clearly visible from the city of Jerusalem.”