March 2011 Letters
From Michigan:
Dear Brooks: I’m almost scared to read the newspapers these days. Everything seems to be falling apart in the world and lately we have seen so many countries lining up against my country or expressing their hate of us. Our political people don’t seem to care about the huge debt that is now being paid by the American people and the health care plan is going to take more of our money. It almost seems to me that the last few years have been disastrous.
Under a gold standard, paper notes were convertible into pre-set, fixed quantities of gold.
Hi Michigan:
I am afraid it goes beyond the last few years. It’s really sad to look back over the past half-century and see how far we have actually fallen and how dramatically all the True Israel nations have changed. In your country, you can probably look back on the promise of your 1976 Bicentennial celebrations and fondly recall the esteem America was held throughout the world. By the same token, you took pride in your vast wealth and Americans were basically happy and enjoyed prosperous lives. Yet, almost to reflect John 6:7, “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is NOT SUFFICIENT for them”, the 200th birthday of America also smacked of insufficiency as the rot was already setting in. Remember, just three years earlier, then President Nixon oversaw the disconnection of gold to currency and along with the corporate world’s push for oil price increases, the massive transfer of wealth began that robbed the middle class, created poverty on a grand scale and propelled America’s status from the greatest creditor nation in the world to the greatest debtor nation. Is it any wonder why it became imperative that both spouses had to work just to keep the household going? The Bible tells us that “the borrower is servant to the lender.” So, American children, without parental supervision, and overworked spouses lost the will to stop either the stampeding excesses or the Christian denigration and promotion of evil values perpetrated upon them by outside forces. Then came 911 and no matter what your view as to the cause, it very likely represented a dual fulfillment of Amos 1:1, that is, a two year warning of judgment, and the Iraq mess, which was initiated in 2003, certainly qualifies as judgment. Of course, since 911, Americans have been robbed of a huge percentage of their wealth; money, at your expense, has been simply handed to the financial industry and large corporations and much more is planned to relieve Americans of more of their wealth, the Obamacare is a good example. And, of course, at the same time, your freedoms are being impeded at a shocking rate.
Federal Judge Roger Vinson ruled that the “individual mandate” portion of Obama’s health care reform was unconstitutional
Don’t think you are alone. It is happening in all the Israel nations. The British, for example, are probably even in worse shape. A half-century ago they were still a powerful commonwealth of nations but today the Falkland Islands is their largest possession and they are losing their nation to a group of internationalists determined to merge it further into the EU and change the population makeup. Like the Americans, they too got immersed in the Iraq war and have seen the hatred grow toward them from peoples around the world as well. Sadly, whether in America, Britain, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, Israelites are no longer masters of their own destinies and can only watch as their freedoms are eroded, their wealth confiscated, their jobs exported and their futures bleak.
Ironically, as one looks at the situation from a fifty year perspective, it is easy to see that as Christian values and a love of Jesus Christ declined, so did the greatness of all the Israel nations.
Many times in the past, I have pointed to prophecies which seem to culminate in the early twenty-first century and in an accompanying article, I suggest that 2011 and 2012 will be years when the pangs of judgment may be the most severe.
Yet, if this so, then the prophet Isaiah’s warning that we keep alert is critical. And the responsibility of those of us who have been blessed with the truth has never been more important. Keep Luke 12:48 in mind, “…Much will be asked of the man to whom much has been given; more will be expected of him, because he was entrusted with more.” (Knox Version) Well, because we have had our sight restored and know the Israel Truth, God expects much more from us. We must not get disheartened because the seeds we sow do not produce results. The important thing is that we continue to spread the truth, along with the Gospel of the Kingdom, to our brethren, because one day soon, the Light will come back into the world. I like the way late Bible scholar Mr. Richmond Stuart worded it, “Each passing day will disclose its own significance until the darkness is at last dispelled by the dawning of the new day …..”
From Vancouver:
Dear Brooks, You often quote Isaiah 5:20 but do you really think it is a prophecy of today. It appears you and some of your writers throw a meaning of some of these passages around expecting them to be believed. I talked about this one with my church minister and he thinks it was simply a situation that was in Isaiah’s day and not a fulfillment in the world today. How should I respond to him?
Thanks Vancouver:
While I was reviewing Isaiah 5: 20, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil….,” I decided to study the entire chapter to determine in my own mind if the total content represented both a prophecy for the time it was uttered (as it surely was), as well as a double fulfillment (as I think it is). In pursuit of the answer, I viewed, among other reference material, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, and was not surprised to see the parallel between the Judgment and Exile in store for Israel at the time of Isaiah’s writing and the conditions existing today. The first of three sections of the chapter begins, “Evil Yield of the Lord’s Vineyard” and goes on to describe Israel as the vineyard. Certainly, when we look at the Israel nations today, the unmistakable stench of evil, often wrapped up in the guise of goodness, is easily spotted. This is certainly the first clue to Isaiah 5 being a dual prophetic fulfillment.
The second section deals with the seven counts of transgression and while the circumstances behind each charge may differ slightly, think of the decline of your Israel nation, particularly over the past fifty years, and ask yourself how you would vote as a jury member, if this was a court case. You might even add to the charges, for example, to the 5th charge how our modern society denigrates Jesus Christ or drug use to the sixth.
- Guilty of selfish greed.
- Guilty of frivolous pleasure-seeking and vicious dissipation.
- Guilty of cynical materialism.
- Guilty of reversing the standards of morality.
- Guilty of intellectual pride and self-sufficiency.
- Guilty of alcoholic indulgence.
- Guilty of corruption.
God’s sentence in the first fulfillment was “Defeat and Devastation by a Foreign Foe.” Israel is described in a most appropriate way, “As a withered plant, rotten at the root, suddenly crumbles away in a breeze, or as dry stubble roars up in sudden flame at the slightest spark, so quickly would Israel fall. Her spiritual dry rot stemmed from her contemptuous rejection of God’s Word.” God used Assyria or Babylon to administer the punishment the first time around as they dispatched Israel into exile. Isaiah suggested their attack would be spectacularly sudden. While there is nowhere left to exile today’s Israel nations, it is interesting that in reading Ezekiel 38, God identifies the nations that will attack True Israel in the final days and it seems very likely that the two prophesied attacks will indeed be sudden. The first from the north could well be against Israel fighting forces in the Mid-East and the second will surely be against the land of the unwalled villages, that is, North America, as Gog comes up across the North Pole swooping down on an unsuspecting people.
“I am the vine, ye are the btanches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” John 15:5
The defeat and devastation and the resulting exile of the first fulfillment led to the movement of the Israel peoples to the appointed lands. In the second fulfillment there will also be defeat and devastation (otherwise there would be no need of the Lord returning) but His return will lead to great joy in the Kingdom lands and a return of those lands in the mid-east promised to Abraham almost twenty centuries ago. Perhaps this may appear as a reward for contemptuous behaviour but it must be remembered that at some point in the time of the end, as recorded in Daniel 12, True Israel gave over her dominion to Esau and as sheep, have been easily led ever since.
I’m sure you agree that the rot in True Israel lands has brought forth an evil yield. Our nations are guilty on all accounts and the world is poised as never before for the final reckoning. Our power has been scattered and God’s Law has been all but abandoned. The only question in doubt is about the actual timing of the sneak attacks. We can but wait and see!
Guilty on all seven counts
To conclude, imagine yourself as part of a defendant group in a courtroom and the judge exclaims “Guilty on all seven counts!” We’ve all watched it on television or through coverage of a real live case but unless we are actually the defendants, we don’t really experience the sinking feeling. Yet, the cold hard fact is that all of us are a part of the defendant nations of Israel and the Great Judge has already determined our national guilt.
We have been convicted and we are now awaiting final sentence. Some citizens who have followed Him closely will be spared the severity of the punishment but notwithstanding; we are all going to be affected to some degree, as the judgments laid out centuries ago are imposed. Let’s not kid ourselves, Laodicea is a real church period and our great hope is that we accept the advice Jesus Christ sets out in Revelation 3:18.