Do you think there are too many church denominations? There's coming a single global religion, and it's on the horizon.
You must understand that in order to get the people to be one, in order to accept one government, one world leader, and it's all about bringing the whole world one, you also must create a global one-world religious system because only religion brings about almost utmost or complete control of people. Welcome to Understanding the Times Radio with Jan Markell and Olive Tree Ministries. Today, Jan's guest is Pastor Tom Hughes, who has contributed a compelling chapter in Terry James' newest book, Discerners, analyzing converging prophetic trends for the end of days.
They consider how we are seeing foreshadows of the coming one-world religion even today. We think you will find this a fascinating hour. Here is Jan Markell. Welcome to the program.
I'm so glad you can join me for the hour. I have a very interesting guest, and I'm going to be playing off the book that you may recall. I introduced, this is now a couple of weeks ago, and that's the new book by Terry James titled Discerners, analyzing converging prophetic signs for the end of days.
It's in my store. I came across a chapter after I finished talking to Terry James, and obviously I went through the entire book. And I came across a chapter that just jumped out at me by Pastor Tom Hughes, Harlot's System, a Stride, a Satanic Steed.
Now, let me just give a couple of quotes here by Tom, and then I want to get right to him, kind of dissect some of the things he's talking about. He says, talking about Mystery Babylon, and we're going to be talking about the one-world religion here, at least in the opening parts of this hour. And he says, the groundwork for Mystery Babylon is being laid, the ideas are being sown, the lessons are being taught, and the brainwashing has begun. It's happening now. The harlot is forming.
Her seductions are taking hold. Okay, I read that, and he totally had my attention. And then he says a little bit later, today the greatest enemy to the church is the church.
And I think many of you would identify with that statement that I just made. Again, the title of his chapter is Harlot's System, a Stride, a Satanic Steed. Pastor Tom Hughes, welcome back to the program. Hey, thank you, Jan.
Always great being here. Help us understand even your title, Harlot's System, a Stride, a Satanic Steed. Yes, kind of a long title. Though we know from the Book of Revelation that we have the harlot who rides with the beast, the false religious system. So that's really what this is about. And we can see the satanic seed, it was planted a long, long, long time ago. But we're watching, I believe we are watching this seed develop.
The plant is here, the tree is here, whatever you want to call it. We're watching it affect every single area of society and culture. But the worst part is it's affected the church, and the church seems to be the vehicle that is really driving this, which is most unfortunate yet we have the warnings in the Bible about what the last days will be like. Well, again, the statement you made here today, the greatest enemy to the church is the church. Expound on that for a minute, please.
I think a lot of your listeners will totally get this. There's a remnant of believers that seems to be out there to have the gospel preached, the truth of the gospel preached anymore. The Bible talks about sin and the need for salvation and the forgiveness and the reason why Jesus came. But churches have drifted so far from that that sin isn't really a subject they want to talk about anymore. They don't want to talk about heaven, don't want to talk about hell, don't want to talk about judgment. And the focus seems to be, well, we need to keep people. We want them to feel good when they come to church.
They want a church that's marketable. Because of this, it's just opened up the door that anything goes, so you can't call homosexuality a sin. Pretty soon you won't be able to call pedophilia a sin.
And that's the direction everything is going. So why did Jesus even come then, if there's no sin? And so we have a Laodicean church that is the perfect ground to grow a system like this. Your chapter in this book talks heavily again about a coming global religion. And like you say, religion plays a key role in the seven-year tribulation. And again, the church is absent. Tom, if the church is absent from the tribulation, then I think we need to clarify your statement that religion is going to play the key role in the tribulation. The church is gone. How can religion play this key role? A Christless church.
That's right. So we look at the church in the Western world right now. I think it's different from what is being experienced in Iran and China, where you have genuine believers that are gathering underground. What's happening in church in America, it's Christless. And yet Paul warned of that.
He said, in the last days, perilous times will come. And one of those signs was that people have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. So you have people who will gather in a church, but they don't know Christ. And here's the other thing is people who go to, let's say, a Christian church, they get religion confused with a relationship with Christ.
Man is great at doing religion. But the problem is it's religion based on man's terms. So the religion of the last days is going to be something that's going to be based on humanistic philosophies. I firmly believe social justice is going to be one of the keys that's going to drive this thing.
Even when we look at today and we think of the things that we hear through the media or through schools is social justice. So social justice has now become more important than worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ. But this is the gospel of really the last days. I wouldn't even call it the gospel of Judas. When you look at it, Judas was all about social, or he pretended to be about social justice, but he's really about the money. And when you look at the gospel of John, Mary annoys Jesus when Jesus comes to their house for the thank you dinner after he had raised Lazarus, their brother, from the dead. Mary annoys him with that costly oil, a year's wage of oil, and Judas says, what a waste it is. This could have been sold and given to the poor. That's where we are right now. What a waste it is to worship Jesus.
Wait a minute, wait a minute. We need to take care of the social justice thing. That's the world we've entered into. Well, Tom, there are two religions of the tribulation. Again, talking to Pastor Tom Hughes based on chapter that he's written in Terry James' book, Discerners. Pastor Tom, there are two religions of the tribulation, and you write about them. And the first one is going to be the actual worship of the Antichrist. And then there's going to be Mystery Babylon, another form of religion. But eventually the Antichrist is going to bump off the false prophet and any kind of a spiritual leader he might be so that he can be solely worshiped.
We read a lot about a great harlot who sits on many waters. I want to ask you about that in just a minute. But what I want to do, and you do some tremendous prophecy updates online, and folks, you can learn a lot more at Hope for Our Times, hopeforourtimes.com.
I want to play a clip of you, and it's one of your updates. You just referenced a minute ago the new humanism, the new world without God. And I want to play this, and then I want to come back and talk about it. But there's more.
Listen to this. The pope urges world leaders to sign global pact for new humanism. The Daily Wire reports on a plan in which the pope is inviting representatives of multiple religions, international groups, and others to sign a global pact of education. The Vatican said just days ago, the pope confirmed in a video message, and quoting, a global educational pact is needed to educate us in universal solidarity and a new humanism. Universal solidarity, this global movement. We've got to live as one, and humanism, a world without God.
LifeSiteNews reported Vatican, and this is a quote, Vatican-backed website launched to promote the pact added, educating young people in fraternity and learning to overcome divisions and conflicts, promote hospitality, justice, and peace. And then this went on to say, still quoting, this will result in men and women who are open, responsible, prepared to listen, dialogue, and reflect with others, and capable of weaving relationships with families between generations and with civil society, and thus create a new humanism. This went on to say, what is really going on?
We can see the direction. It is creating a world void of God where man is at the top. This is exactly what the Bible says, how things are going to develop in the last days. Climate change laws, a one-world religion coming under the umbrella, ultimately humanism.
Damon Duck, listen to this, he made a recent observation and noted this. He noted that there is a UN goal of world government by 2030. That's the UN agenda 2030.
I've talked about that before. I even have it in my book. He also noted a UN goal of world religion by 2030. Unify all religions by 2030, a planetary uniting of religions for peace. Can you see which direction all of this is going? He went on and said, the Bible teaches that world government and world religion, the antichrist and false prophet, will be on the earth at the same time.
I agree with him. Multitudes know that no one knows the day or the hour of the Lord's return, but he says Christians can see the day approaching. Indeed folks, we can see this day approaching. He continues and cited that in late August, just a couple of weeks back, approximately 1,000 people assembled in Germany to promote a UN approved one-world religion by 2030. Look, you can see the direction all of this is going just by looking at the news and knowing your Bible. It is obvious that the God of these religious groups is not the God of the Bible and their so-called master plan for humanity. Even the Pope is saying, hey, this is about humanism. We have these climate change laws that are coming into effect and closing schools in New York City to protest against these.
This is just crazy. Continuing, Duck said, what they are proposing for the common good of the world could very well turn into Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth. He said it seems obvious that we now have a UN goal of world government by 2030, UN agenda 2030, a UN goal of world religion by 2030, and a Bible that teaches that the world government and world religion, the anti-Christ and false prophet, will all be on the earth at the same time. Why does all of this matter?
Because the Bible told us this is the way things are going to be so that we can know that Jesus is coming. You're listening to Understanding the Time to Radio. Jan Markell here. I just played a clip from Pastor Tom Hughes. He is my guest for the hour, playing off of his chapter in the new book, Discerners, Analyzing Converging Prophetic Signs for the End of Days. He's got a fascinating chapter in there talking about a number of things, but heavily the coming global religion. Pastor Tom Hughes, world government and religion by 2030.
Frankly, it might be sooner, but that seems to be a UN goal is 2030. Talk to me a little bit here about Mystery Babylon, the great harlot who sits on many waters. Look, a lot of people read this. They have no idea what this all means. Help us understand. If you read your Bible, Revelation chapter 17 speaks of Mystery Babylon as the great harlot, and it's a religious system, and it's going to appear.
All you have to do is look at the word harlot, prostitute, what's that? It's going to be very enticing. It's going to be engaging to a world that doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ. It's going to be highly deceptive, but it's going to be this religious system that is going to be necessary in order to get the world to go along in one direction, something that the devil knows and men are figuring out that as long as you have these different religions, especially with Christianity, you have a problem with getting the world to go one direction and be submissive to a world government. Religion is necessary in order for the Antichrist or this global system to be able to come about and have the power over the people that it needs to have. So when you see the last days as harlot religious system, it's going to have a form of godliness.
In fact, when you look at Revelation chapter 13 and you look at the false prophet, the false prophet has two horns like a lamb. So this religious system will appear very Christian, but it will actually speak like a dragon. It's going to be anything but Christian in the dogma that's coming forth from it. Everything will be accepted. It's going to be a religious system that is going to claim tolerance and inclusiveness.
That's right. And it will be tolerant and inclusive toward anything but true Christianity. Well, you feel that it will be a religious system that will embrace Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, cults, et cetera, embrace everything. As a matter of fact, in a minute here, I'm going to play a clip of a conference where they're embracing all of these various religions. You do feel that this is truly going to be a global religion.
Yeah, it will be. It's going to be very appealing because when you look at those religions that you just mentioned, all of them have social justice as a key. You've got to be good to one another, live by the golden rule and so forth. Listen, those are all good things to do, but we know as Christians you must keep Christ first and then you do those good things because Christ is first. But this turns it on its head. This says, no, the good things are God or they're the way to God, but you must eliminate this worshiping Christ first stuff. All right. So it's going to be very appealing to anybody that is religious and even to people who are atheists. It's going to be appealing to them.
That's right. Let me just slip in here. Another question I want to throw in here is how do you feel, let's just be honest here, and how do you feel the Vatican and Catholicism might fit in? Now again, you and I, we get frustrated because I know of Catholics who are upset with Pope Francis and yet we also know of Protestants who are enamored with Pope Francis and I can't quite make this compute, so help us understand this.
Let's see if I can help. So when I look at it, Jan, I think, you know, this might come from a very Catholic family. I was an altar boy. I have an aunt that's still a nun. She's even appalled by the things that she sees coming out of this Vatican. The rest of my family is no longer Catholic and I'm not either, but when I look at this progression, the Catholic Church has a lot of influence, but what is just absolutely unbelievable is watching the current pope. He's in there and there's atheists that love him. You have the humanists that love him, the agnostics that love him. There's a good sized group of Catholics that do not. The things that he is promoting are really anti-Catholic teaching for centuries now and he's promoting these things, whether it be gay marriage or all roads lead to heaven or whatever it is you want to call it. He even talks about how the blood of Christ, and I have a quote, the blood of Christ will forgive anybody even those who don't even receive Christ.
And so you look at that. But the most challenging thing in my mind to wrap my mind around is the amount of Protestants that just believe this pope is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I've watched this and it's infected the church and you know what it is Jen? Again, it's social justice and everybody just getting along and this pope just all roads lead to heaven. How did this get into the Protestant Church?
Then let me ask this. How did this, and this is a part of the pope's agenda, how did environmentalism become front and center of all the church? Religious left, religious right, Catholicism, you name it, environmentalism.
Let me just comment here about that. I want your perspective as well. The religion of climate change. Is this a part of the global religious emphasis?
I believe it is. I'm sure you're aware, Tom, of this Swedish teenager, Greta Thunberg, and she was crowned the queen of climate change and she gave a very impassioned, angry speech at the UN. This was back in September, late September and the world, parts of it anyway, fell in love with her. The Church of Sweden declared her to be the successor to Jesus Christ. Again, this is all because of this fictitious climate change agenda.
She hollered at those present at the UN. Environmentalism, Tom, to me, seems to be the new world religion and let me just quote from Jonathan Brentner. He's an online writer. He says, quote, Climate change has become the pathway to the new world order. The book of Revelation tells us that during the Tribulation, the Antichrist will exert worldwide control through a totalitarian world order. What will cause the nations of the world to give up their sovereignty and rights to such a socialistic regime? I believe he will convince them that their only hope of survival is to join together against the threat of worldwide devastation via global warming and climate change.
And then he says, We already see this at work. According to a September 1, 2019, writers, Pope Francis challenged governments to take drastic measures to combat global warming and reduce fossil fuels, saying we're a climate emergency. And the Pope went on to say, We have caused a climate emergency that gravely threatens nature and life itself, including our own. And then this author concludes on at least 12 different occasions, Pope Francis has advocated a one world government as the solution to the dire threat of climate change. So am I wrong here that environmentalism could at least be a part of the new world religion?
I think you are 100% on the money. In fact, I wrote about this in one of my other books on America. With the Pope, he has said some things that really ought to have the attention of every single person. And if you're a Bible believer, you've got to look at what he says regarding climate. He even talks about the climate laws. He talked about there needs to be an entity that oversees the enforcement of all the laws.
It's all about sustainability of the planet. And Jan, this is what Romans Chapter 1 tells us also. There's a generation that's going to worship the creation rather than the creator.
What happens? I look at that. I believe we've entered into that place. I believe we are that generation and God warns about it. So you have several different signs that are involved in the worship of the creation rather than the creator. But again, these climate laws, in fact, when you look at the UN's agenda 2030 and you look at the climate laws, it's about controlling where people can work. It's about controlling what people can even eat.
It's about controlling what people buy and sell. Doesn't that sound an awful lot like the Book of Revelation, the warning of Revelation Chapter 13? But I'm convinced that climate laws are going to be the tool that's going to be used to force people into subjection of this new world order, this coming global government. If you don't go along with it, how evil of a person you are, you're a hater, you don't love the environment, you need to be locked up in jail, there will be laws to lock you up in jail over that. That's the direction we are going. But I do believe climate laws are going to be used to enforce the religious aspect of what is coming regarding this whole mystery Babylon and there's a religious system that the false prophet will oversee until it switches to the Antichrist. Well, we've even got seminary students in New York praying, confessing sins to plants.
I saw that. This is how extreme it's gotten in this genre here of environmentalism and climate. Anyway, it's gone to such an extreme that I never thought I'd see the day. Okay, let me go back and let's talk for just a minute. I think we both feel that a pope could be the false prophet, perhaps the current pope, possibly be certainly a successor of his, be the false prophet of Revelation. We're talking this hour about the coming global religion because it's part of Tom's chapter again in the book Discerners, the new book edited by Terry James. Go ahead, talk to me a little bit about the false prophet and perhaps a pope play that role? Perhaps a pope, perhaps this pope. I'm not going to go online and say he's not this pope. I'm not going to say he is this pope.
I don't know. I can tell you this much when I see this pope. In fact, Jan, I think you said it a couple of years back, not ready to play pin the tail on the donkey yet with the pope or something like that. However, there's so many things that point to this religious system of the last days that he promotes.
He has two horns like a lamb, but he speaks like a dragon. That's kind of what we see from this pope. I look at him as being the preview of coming attractions. If it's not this pope, man, he's setting up the world for everything that is coming.
It's like every time he opens up his mouth, I think, wait a minute, that's very biblical warning to what is coming in the last days. So could it be this pope? It could be this pope. Could it be the next pope? Could be the next pope.
Jan, you're familiar with a book by Father Malachi Martin, who was a Jesuit priest who passed away some years ago. But he warned that in the Vatican, this is several years ago, the Vatican was completely apostate. The people who were leading in the Vatican were not believers that Christ is the way to salvation and just on down the list.
And he warned that what is coming out of the Vatican was going to be something that is exactly what we're seeing with this pope. Totally not believers in the truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to say this again real quick, Jan, if I can, about the Catholic Church. I was raised Catholic. I was an altar boy. But I was taught that I had to believe in Jesus. Now, I didn't know what the full meaning of that was until I got older and got saved. But there was the gospel somewhere in there.
Sure. In the midst of the saints and Mary and all that. And now it's removing the truth of the gospel completely from what the teaching is. Could it be this pope? I believe very well it could be this pope. He's pretty old. Yeah, he's aging.
He's not tomorrow. Yeah, exactly. But the system is there. I think we could easily agree on that. The system is there and the leaders of religion right now, Protestant and Catholic, are going that direction and they all seem to be in line with the atheists and the agnostics.
Everything is going that direction. I want to play a clip and then I've got to go into my break and then we'll head into the second half of the program. I want to play a clip here. It's just over two minutes. The World Alliance of Religions Peace Summit.
This goes back to 2016. You're only going to hear them introducing the leaders of a few religions. It goes on for nine minutes. They introduced dozens of religions. You'll hear just a few but, folks, all we're saying is the stage is being set. World peace, we the youth believe, can only be achieved when all aspects, when all people come together as one. And in the past three days you have seen that the youth, we have done what we can within our capacity. But we are looking upon the leaders right now, the leaders of the international community, the politicians, the lawmakers, and the religious leaders to help us fulfill this goal. Signing this agreement, it may not bring peace immediately, ladies and gentlemen, but what I'd like to say is that it is a step in the right direction and the youth need your help. So now we will proceed with the signing ceremony of the Unity of Religion Agreement.
The Unity of Religion Agreement is a groundbreaking promise of religions to unite unconditionally and without discrimination to achieve true peace. I would like to call upon the following religious leaders to come up to the stage and join us for the signing of the ceremony of the Unity of Religion Agreement. First Archbishop Martin de Jesus Barahona to please come up to the stage. Also a representative of holiness Shadoqeti Panditak Hariawari Aswamswati Sri Bhattaraka to come to the stage. Also from the Islam Shia faith El-Sharif Muhammad Hassan El-Armini to come to the stage.
From the Hinduism faith His Holiness Swami Shidadanda Saraswatiji Maharaj the guru of India. From the faith of Buddhism representative Dr. Ashin Nyanisara founder of the Siddhaku Buddha Vihara would you please make your way to the stage. 2016 World Alliance of Religions Peace Summit.
That clip went on for nine minutes. That's how many different faiths they brought up to the platform to sign some sort of a treaty. All we're saying folks is that the stage is being set and that's kind of what we're talking about at least for the first part of this program.
I guess it's Pastor Tom Hughes 412 Church San Jacinto California part of the Calvary Chapel stream. We're going to continue our discussion in just a minute or two. Then we're going to change direction for a few minutes anyway because we need to talk about some very very current events. We're taking our first part of the discussion again from Terry James new book Discerners Analyzing Converging Prophetic Signs for the End of Days and Pastor Tom Hughes has a chapter in that book and I've already referred to it.
The title is Harlot's System of Striety Satanic Steed Wreck in just a couple of minutes. Don't go away. Many of you listen to Understanding the Times radio on one of our hundreds of radio stations. Others listen at your convenience electronically on our website OliveTreeViews.org at oneplace.com using the oneplace.com mobile app or on our YouTube channel where we insert images and video for those who relate visually. We will return with Pastor Tom Hughes from 412 Church in San Jacinto California and Jan in just a moment. It's important for us to see that what he says he will do so we can follow him with every step that we take. The Christian in Europe and in Switzerland they are sleeping.
They are really in a very deep sleep and they they need good food good food from for example here from that conference from Jan from all the speakers here. We will have CDs and DVDs available from our fall conference held September 21st near Minneapolis by late October at Understanding the Times 2019 our speakers included Dr. Robert Jeffress, Amir Sarfati, Pastor J.D. Farag, Pastor Jack Hibbs, Jan Markell and Laurie Cardoza Moore. We are offering six messages on CD for $30 plus $6 shipping in the U.S. We also have six messages on DVD for $35 plus $6 shipping in the U.S. You can order safely online at OliveTreeViews.org. That's OliveTreeViews.org or call us Central Time at 763-559-4444. That's 763-559-4444. The products are professionally packaged and suitable for gift giving.
The DVDs are in high-definition. They will help you understand the times and become watchmen on the wall. The worst part of all God has been removed from the pulpits has been and is continuing to be removed from pulpits because churches want to appeal to the flesh to give people to come to their church. When you appeal to the flesh you have to keep them there by things of the flesh.
So that's what's happening. So you can't give the truth anymore. Listen, preach the truth. I believe people want to hear the truth. They're still a remnant of people that want the truth. They do.
Absolutely. We appreciate all friendly feedback. Write us through our website at OliveTreeViews.org. That's OliveTreeViews.org. Call us Central Time at 763-559-4444. That's 763-559-4444. Or write to Jan Markell and Olive Tree Ministries, Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311.
That's Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311. All correspondence is read by our staff. Here's Jan Markell and Pastor Tom Hughes to conclude today's programming. Say welcome back. Many of you know that some weeks ago now we're just kind of off of Understanding the Times 2019.
I do hope you'll look into CDs and DVDs and they make an excellent gift. Folks, we had six messages that day. Well, I can't get into a review of what happened back on September 21st. CDs and DVDs are being shipped out.
Dr. Robert Jeffress, J.D. Farag, Amir Sarfati, Meers Truly, which had a number of speakers, Laurie Cardoza Moore, Pastor Jack Hibbs. Check out our store, OliveTreeViews.org, views as in viewpoint, OliveTreeViews.org. We have many, many products there. I'm facing my discussion of the hour on another product that I have in the store. And you heard me interview Terry James. This is several weeks ago now when we introduced his new book, Discerners, Analyzing Converging Prophetic Signs for the End of Days. And when I do this, there's always the critics out there who say, well, Jan, this is just an hour with a big commercial to sell products.
Not really. I really don't care whether you buy this or not, but I do care that you have the information contained in it because who, as a thinking Christian, as a discerning Christian, doesn't want to analyze converging prophetic signs for the end of days? Terry has assembled a lot of speakers, Jeff Kinley, Nathan Jones, Todd Strandberg, Damon Duck, Tom Hughes, my guest today, Philip Goodman, Grant Phillips, Jim Fletcher, Bill Salas, Pete Garcia, Gary Stearman, Ryan Patterson, Yours Truly, Dr. Dave Reagan, Larry Spergermino and others who have written chapters in the book Discerners. It's a sequel to his book Deceivers.
Find it at OliveTreeViews.org. And for some reason, Tom Hughes' chapter jumped out at me because I'm so interested in, well, I'm interested in the book of Revelation. Revelation 13, 17 talks about a coming one world system.
And the one world system will have a one world ruler, will have a one world religious system. So we've been looking at that for the first part of the program. But Tom, in your chapter, you make a reference kind of caught me off guard to the burning of the cathedral in Paris. This was some time ago now.
This was a year or more ago. You made some interesting observations about what happened, the Cathedral of Notre Dame. And you kind of suggested that this kind of represents not just the crumbling of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, but possibly society and the church.
Explain what you mean here. Yeah, I have some different quotes that I put in the book in that chapter regarding what Notre Dame represents. On the one hand, Christianity, on another hand, it's represented civilization. When you and I look at it from the prophetic standpoint, it almost appears like a sign from God that Christianity is just completely collapsed and what it once was it no longer is.
Civilization is certainly the same thing. In fact, it's really Christianity that has lifted up civilization. Christianity lifted up women's rights. Christianity lifted up human beings. Where you don't have Christ preached, you actually have the Great Oppression that comes in. When we look at Notre Dame, there's an article in the Wall Street Journal that said that because of decades of neglect that Notre Dame burnt to the ground, decades of neglect. So when we look at Christianity, we can see it's been more than just decades of neglect in the pulpit. So what we have in the pulpit now has been decades of neglect of the truth of Christ, the truth of the Bible. Jan, I'm a pastor.
I've been a pastor for many years. Let me equate it to being a doctor. If a doctor didn't tell the patient the truth, hey, you've got cancer, we've got to treat this. If the doctor just said, oh, everything's going to be great. The patient went home feeling wonderful and then they died. There'd be malpractice in the pulpit.
I believe there's many pastors that are going to stand before God. It's malpractice. They neglected the truth.
They wouldn't tell people, you have cancer, the worst cancer in the entire world. It's called sin. You need to be forgiven. This is why Christ came. To not teach that is an affront to Jesus and the cross. This is why he came. Yet pastors don't want people to go to their church to feel bad.
Well, wait a minute. This is why Jesus came. And not only that, Jan, we live in a generation where the people are demanding that they have teachers who itch their ears. That's prophetic too. The people are getting what they want. Pastors are giving the people what they want. And the truth is absolutely neglected, has been neglected.
I just call it a sign regarding a Notre Dame. I have more of it in the chapter, but you look at it, you know, that's the direction that we are. We have malpractice happening within the pulpit.
Right. And then they kind of aren't talking about some topics too that are so significant, including issues related to eschatology and God's chosen people, et cetera. Actually, that was my message at my conference I gave back on September 21st.
Satan's subtle scheme to silence eschatology and things related to Israel as well. You can learn more about Pastor Tom Hughes at his website, Hope for Our Times, HopeforOurTimes.com. You can get his weekly prophecy update. He's pastor of 412 Church San Jacinto, California. Some of you who are listening were at his prophecy conference last June, end of June in Palm Springs, right outside of Palm Springs. Correct, Tom?
Yes. Log on to his prophecy updates that he has each week. Tom, just a couple more things here about this coming global religion. And again, you have emphasized that it's going to consume all faiths.
Like you say, it's going to consume Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, cults, et cetera. And then you go on to talk about the Restrainer in the tribulation. The Restrainer is the Holy Spirit, and he's going to not really be removed, which a lot of people think that the Restrainer is removed, but he's really just taken out of the way. Therefore, some of this chaos we're talking about can happen.
Why don't you expand on that for just a minute? When we look at the rapture of the church, I believe the Restrainer is the Holy Spirit working through the church right now. In fact, when you look at this world, what else could possibly be holding back all of the evil? God is restraining this world from, whether it be financial collapse or wars. I mean, we have wars and rumors of wars. We have pestilence threats, all of these end times things right now. But there's a restraining force against evil. I'm convinced, Jan, that this world at large would love to get rid of Christians because we're a problem for them.
Evangelical, Bible-believing Christians. The Holy Spirit is working through us right now, restraining back all of the evil from taking place. So the rapture of the church takes place. The Holy Spirit is still here. God is omnipresent. The Holy Spirit is still here, but not working through the church the same way that he is currently now. And that's going to create this incredible void for all of the spiritual darkness to take over and deception. Jan, I also want to say this. I believe that it is the restrainer working through the evangelical church that is keeping anti-Semitism from becoming full-blown, which it will during the tribulation also.
We know that. As we see, as you even talked about your conference, what's going to come to the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. I believe even the restrainers working through genuine evangelical Christians to hold that tide back.
So the whole religious system is going to be real easy to come into place as soon as the rapture happens. Very interesting indeed. I think what I'd like to do, Tom Hughes, is morph just a little bit into a little bit different topic for some moments that we do have left.
And again, folks, Tom's chapter in the book deals almost exclusively with the coming global religion. If we have time, we may go back to that. But because this is the first program I've had the opportunity to address some of the situation going on in Middle East, I do know that there's been an appeal for President Donald Trump to reverse his decision in northern Syria about pulling American troops out. And of course, his position is American troops didn't belong there in the first place. So he's not about to go back on his decision now several weeks ago to pull American troops out and put at great risk. And indeed carnage has happened since his decision, and it's broken the hearts of many.
And many on both sides of the aisle have indeed tried to get him to, as I said, reverse that position. What I'd like to do is I'd like to play a real short clip, and it happens to be Amir Sarfati sort of commenting on this, but putting it into a Bible prophecy perspective. And I think I often say headlines are a herald of his coming, and I think in this case, it's been here recently in the last couple of weeks indeed would be a herald of his coming because it says in Ezekiel 38.13 that there's coming a day, there's going to be a war in Israel, Gog and Magog, and not one nation will get involved, not even America. They're going to stand back and they're going to say, oh, my, what are you doing? Turkey, Iran, Russia, and others who are going to, what are you doing? But they're not going to get involved.
And we're seeing a little shadow of that as we play this clip, and then Pastor Tom Hughes and I will come back and discuss it. America officially announced that it will not intervene militarily in the situation in the Middle East. If that's not an explanation to why America is not going to militarily help Israel in Ezekiel 38, then I don't know what. This is a declaration of a U.S. president of the official American policy. We will let Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Russia figure the situation out.
This is phenomenal. Think about it, ladies and gentlemen. It's not like America is abandoning Israel right now. It's not like America is abandoning anyone.
America is declaring America's policy ever since Trump was elected, basically. And by the way, make sure he didn't say Israel here, by the way. He didn't say I'm going to let Israel figure things out. He's super committed to Israel's security and safety. But he basically announced I am not intending to intervene militarily in this region, which caused immediately Benjamin Netanyahu to say Israel will have to take care of Israel and to also ask the Israeli government to approve new and increased budget to Israel's Ministry of Defense and military. So I needed you to understand, folks, this is not America is abandoning Israel or the Kurds. This is a clear and in a way smart understanding of an American president that is running for election who promised to bring back the troops home, who promised to take care of the American economy, who promised that once he fights ISIS, which he did, he's not going to stay there.
So you cannot expect U.S. soldiers to stand with guns and to guard and to chaperone thousands of ISIS captured terrorists over there. I can understand that. I can see that. And I can understand how it plays an amazing, an amazing way how it plays into the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Within the Israeli society, there is a mindset of renewing our ways with God. Listen, you probably saw a picture that I posted of the night before Yom Kippur at the Wailing Wall. A record number of 100,000 Jews showed up because they know something big is about to happen. They can feel that there is a great danger around the corner. They can see that as a nation they will have to rely on God and on God alone. There has never been such a great gathering of Jewish people at the Wailing Wall at the day before Yom Kippur as we saw now.
And I saw it and tears came to my eyes. Be sure to subscribe to Amir's YouTube updates, which are usually weekly, and find them under Behold Israel. And let me add just a word here about YouTube and you need to subscribe to ours as well. YouTube buried the Michelle Bachmann interview a couple weeks ago. We normally might get 50,000 people listening to a program with Michelle, but it was buried and lost.
And if you subscribe to our channel, which is under Jan Markell and Olive Tree Ministries, you will still be notified, though others will not find the posted program if YouTube is unhappy with the content. So Tom, that was Amir Sarfati. He's one of my speakers. He spoke this past September 21st along with the others I named. An interesting perspective on the whole Syrian situation. But again, he is highlighting Ezekiel 38, 13. You've even done a prophecy update, I believe, on the same issue.
Yes, I did. I look at it, Jan. We live in truly remarkable days. And in that prophecy regarding the Gog Magog Wars, as most prophecy people know it from Ezekiel 38 and 39, we have that there's countries that are going to protest when Russia, Iran and Turkey invade Israel from the north, yet the Sudan and other nations coming from the south. But nobody is going to intervene on behalf of Israel. So I've been saying as long as Trump up until recently, as long as Trump is president, I don't see this developing because if anybody comes against Israel, Trump is going to get involved. We already have troops over there in the area to protect not just Israel, but also we know with the Kurds and everything going on in Syria and the ISIS situation, but now with the troops being pulled out of Syria and Turkey, immediately Turkey came in and from everything I've read, they just started wiping out the Kurds. And we're watching this and it looks to me, you know, Trump doesn't want to be involved.
He is saying he doesn't want to be involved. Will he come to the aid of Israel if that's what it comes down to, to support them or will the United States just become a protester? Trump said he doesn't want to be involved in the Mideast anymore with those things. I look at Israel. I have a lot of concerns regarding Israel and this.
However, God doesn't give us the word. This is just not one of the signs. This is the way it will be in the last days. I just didn't think I'd be seeing this during the time of Trump. I think that's the shocker is during the administration of President Donald J. Trump, the most pro-Israel president ever in the history of Israel's modern day existence. And yet here we are.
It's stunning. Yeah. And I do understand some of the things coming out of Israel. I've read some reports where people are saying, well, this is good because now he's not going to be trying to force a peace plan upon Israel. It sounds like he doesn't want to even go that direction anymore.
That may be the case. Personally I felt a peace plan to divide Jerusalem is a really bad idea. Oh, yeah. Joel chapter three verse two. Oh, absolutely.
Judgment will come upon any nation that divides my land. So to have Trump not do that is good. But I'd like to think that Trump is still going to support Israel. But this is kind of a shock to my thinking. I thought not until Trump is gone.
Right. We race towards the 2020 elections. Boy, this world is so rapidly going the direction that the Bible tells us it's going to go in the last days. Just a couple of headlines here from Israeli Press. One headline here Netanyahu prepares for day when Trump abandons Israel to and says Netanyahu compared the events of that time meeting Ezekiel 38 time to today saying we always remember and apply the basic principle that guides us Israel will defend itself by itself against any threat. This statement was a clear reaction to what many perceived to be Donald Trump's abandonment of the Kurds also a close U.S. ally to Erdogan's war machine reading between the lines.
It appears as though Netanyahu is preparing for the day when Trump abandons him too. Let's see that would of course again be Ezekiel 38 13 all nations they just stand on the sidelines and complain about Gog and Magog they do nothing about Jerusalem Post headline after Trump abandons Kurds Israel knows it can't rely on anyone and then the article don't let the lack of any formal Israeli response to U.S. President Donald Trump's dramatic reversal of policy and decision to remove U.S. troops from northern Syria fool you Jerusalem is deeply deeply I'm just reading the article deeply deeply concerned about this step not because it will suddenly impact Israel's ability to take action in Syria when it desires to halt Iranian attempts to entrench itself there though it could make that marginally more difficult but because it drives home the idea that Israel really can only rely on itself and again Tom Hughes that is the sentiment in Ezekiel 38 particularly verse 13 the nations of the world stand on the sidelines and say to Russia Turkey Iran and others involved in the Gog what are you doing but they do nothing about it nothing about it do nothing about it again Trump says I'm going to pull out of there I'm not going to involve myself in these wars so I mean I look at it and boy it really is quite puzzling but at the same time it's a sign and we also know this God said Israel is going to stand alone because God wants to get the glory God doesn't want America to get the glory God doesn't want Trump to get the glory God wants the glory when you get to Ezekiel 39 guess who gets the glory if the Lord comes to rescue Israel when it looks like Israel is going to be absolutely annihilated I know it's troubling but at the same time all these things point to Jesus coming again. Absolutely when you see headlines as a herald of his coming it certainly helps but I think we have some folks not quite able to know how to interpret things partly again let's go back to what we've brought up twice now this is the third time and that is our pulpits are somewhat silent on some important issues so folks don't know how to interpret things that are going on. Yeah this is why you have this program to help people rightly interpret what in the world is going on.
This is encouraging to me. Last week I spoke to a group of 100 high schoolers and the subject was the mark of the beast and they want to hear about it and I thought this is interesting maybe there's hope and I told them this is just one of the many signs. So when we look at these signs the signs in and of themselves are frightening and discouraging can be disheartening. This coming false religious system that's coming you look at persecution against Christianity that will only increase up until the rapture. It's just going to continue that way we watch there's pestilence the increase of that the increase of wars and rumors of wars and boy do we live in that time now. These things are all bad news in and of themselves but Jesus said these things will happen.
These things will happen. Well how about the rush to globalism the one world system you even got a book out about that about the rush to this one world system and a single ruler we've talked about a single religion here but we're going to have a single ruler and he's going to be ruling a globalist one world system. This is interesting Jan even if you don't know the Bible at all if you just logically look at this why is it that it seems like 75% of the world maybe more I don't know all seem to be going with this one narrative. It's the exact same narrative whether it be coming out of Hollywood or out of our Congress or coming from the UN coming out of Europe whatever it is. It's all the same narrative. It's about climate control the things that the Pope says and it's all pointing towards globalism with needing to have a global system eliminating God and putting this New World Order with certain leaders at the top of it and then what we really need is a leader to rule over the whole thing.
The whole narrative is going this way and if you speak against this narrative you're a hater you're a bigot you're an awful person but isn't it strange that the narrative is going that way. I look at it I think the only reason I can think that so many in the world are thinking along the exact same lines is because Satan is behind this whole thing. You call it a conspiracy well Satan is the one who seems to be operating all that we have going on and there's some things that are going on that quite frankly seem a little bit demonic too. Speaking of that Tom and this program is airing quite frankly right before Halloween and I've not done any programming on that topic this year but since you just brought this up and I believe one of the signs of the times is this incredible rise of evil that we've seen in the last 20 years or so and even more so in the last few years and we have Halloween here up in the next few days. If you're a believer avoid Halloween at all costs won't you. It's the devil's holiday.
It is evil through and through. It is a day of darkness literally around the globe. If you do anything spend part of the day fasting and praying against all the evil that is going on on that day. Pastor Tom Hughes I'd like you as a pastor and take a couple minutes if you'd like just to sound a warning exactly why churches Christians should be avoiding this whole topic and I know there are churches right now who are planning massive events for Halloween and it just breaks my heart.
Yeah you look at the whole subject matter. Why would you want to do something that celebrates something evil, evil spirits, demonology and on down these things like getting your kids involved in this type of thing and really preparing the hearts and minds of them to receive these types of things. Just the whole celebration of it. I totally understand a church replacing that day with something that's good but when you don't replace it with what's good and you just go along with the same narrative you're really only feeding it and you're saying Jesus endorses this. Well why would Jesus endorse anything that's evil or something that just has the appearance of evil. When you think about it people say well it's really good these kids have a whole lot of fun and there's candy and there's nothing wrong with candy. Candy is an inanimate object but you look at what's behind it.
This is Satan appears as an angel of light. So when you start talking about whether it's a day like this or anything at all all these things play on our feelings but it's these feelings that are directing this world spiritual system right now. Again you speak against that.
It becomes a problem. I prefer to replace Halloween with the things that represent Christ and say look let's remember who's on the throne. I'm not interested in raising my children and celebrating demons and wearing demonic costumes. I think it's very problematic when we just go along with it and say yeah well we want them to fit in or whatever. You don't have to celebrate that.
Enjoy the candy but you certainly don't want to partake of the celebration. Yeah and I've seen some things online of churches. They got dancing skeletons for their worship service. I mean it's just shocking and again I think this goes back to the death of discernment and some of the churches feeling this is really okay that they're just kind of going along with the culture which again then we go back to the collapse of the church and then we wonder why.
Should be obvious. Yeah listen we've removed God from everything everything in this country from the courts from the schools from Washington D.C. definitely from Hollywood from Sacramento. We've removed God from everything. So what naturally is going to happen. We have this void that's going to be fulfilled the worst part of all God is being removed from the pulpits has been and is continuing to be removed from pulpits because churches want to appeal to the flesh to get people to come to their church when you appeal to the flesh you have to keep them there by things of the flesh.
So that's what's happening. So you can't give the truth anymore. Listen preach the truth. I believe people want to hear the truth. There's still a remnant of people that want the truth.
They do. Absolutely. Preach the truth. People will get saved.
Your reward will be in heaven. Other than that it's just appalling. I think churches and the direction they've gone is what is the biggest problem in America.
I would agree and it's why we're sinking culturally we're sinking as a nation. It's because some not all some of our pulpits have been sinking for many decades now. Pastor Tom Hughes and this 412 church in San Jacinto California folks learn more at HopeForOurTimes.com HopeForOurTimes.com. The book again we've been talking about because Pastor Tom Hughes has a chapter in it. So do I. So do about 14 other authors Discerners Analyzing Converging Prophetic Signs for the End of Days. You can find it in my store OliveTreeViews.org OliveTreeViews.org.
You can find conference products as well CDs and DVDs from back on September the 21st. Let me go out of the program and Tom Hughes thank you so much for giving up time today. I'm not just reading a little saying here by Roy Lesson. I actually wrote Roy Lesson's book a number of years ago and he says this and I hope it encourages you as we have talked about some troubling things this particular hour but we've also talked about signs that are a herald of his coming and that should be encouraging to you.
But Roy writes just think you're not born by chance but by God's choosing. He made you the unique person you are and compares you to no one else. You lack nothing that His grace can't give you. He has allowed you to be here at this time in history to fulfill His special purpose for this generation. I want to thank you for listening folks.
We'll talk to you again next week. You are the healer. Jesus Redeemer.
My need to save. Thank you for your support of Olive Tree Ministries and Understanding the Times Radio Jan Markell and all of our staff. Call us central time at 763-559-4444 at 763-559-4444 to order the book reference today. If you would like to consider a year end gift you can send it to Olive Tree Ministries Box 1452 Maple Grove Minnesota 55311. That's Box 1452 Maple Grove Minnesota 55311.
All gifts are tax deductible. Consult our website and how to text to give. The world offers little hope. We will always tell you the inconvenient truth but also remind you that we have a blessed hope and that eternal life through Jesus Christ is available to everyone who calls upon His name. Won't you do that today as tomorrow may be two lengths. Jesus is coming again perhaps even today.
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