12 Megaclues that Jesus’ Return is Nearer than Ever - Part 2

Twelve mega clues that Jesus' return is nearer than ever. Today is part two of that topic, right here on the Christian Worldview Radio Program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host. You are listening today because of the support of listeners like you.

Thank you for your encouragement and support. You can connect with us by calling our toll-free number 1-888-646-2233 or by visiting thechristianworldview.org. Now, before we get to the preview for today's program, most of you will have heard that a leak came out of the Supreme Court this week, that Roe v. Wade, that the justices in a majority decision have decided to overturn that law that codified abortion nationwide back in the early 1970s. And since then, 60 million babies have been murdered in this country, truly an American holocaust. Of course, this is a very major development. This news was leaked from the Supreme Court and likely meant to intimidate the justices between now and the time they actually vote on it publicly to change their mind. Not surprisingly, the left is going crazy over this because this is their greatest sacrament to be able to have the so-called right to murder children in the womb or even after they come out of the womb.

And so what would happen if this is overturned is that the states will be able to decide through voting whether each individual state would allow abortions to take place within their own state. So this is big news that Roe v. Wade may be overturned, and we will watch this closely to see what develops and then cover it at that time. But today we're going to talk about even bigger news than the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and that is the return of Jesus Christ as the Bible predicts.

So let's start with this. Fulfilled prophecy is one of the clearest evidences that Scripture is true and inspired by God. Predictions that were made hundreds of years in advance, such as how Christ would be born of a virgin in Isaiah 7.14 or his substitutionary sacrifice for sinners in Isaiah 53, those fulfilled prophecies should lead to the conclusion that biblical prophecies about the future will be fulfilled as well. The greatest future prophecy and the believer's greatest hope, and one pastor defined hope as something that is certain but not yet realized, is the return of Jesus Christ to earth to both defeat his enemies and reign with his followers for 1,000 years. Now, last week in part one of our interview with Steve Miller, the author of Foreshadows, 12 mega clues that Jesus' return is nearer than ever, we discussed the first several clues, such as the rise of globalism and the spread of all-invasive technology and surveillance that will enable the global leader known as the Antichrist to control the world before Christ returns. This week in part two, we're going to discuss more foreshadows, such as the assault on truth and hostility toward Israel and the Jewish people. Jesus said to watch, to be alert, to be ready.

So I hope you stay with us the entire program today as we look forward with expectancy to the return of the Son of God. Now, before we get to the interview with Steve Miller, I just want to play some more audio from the man we played last week before the interview, Yuval Noah Harari. He's an advisor for Klaus Schwab, who leads the World Economic Forum, which is one of the foremost organizations pushing this godless globalism so prevalent today. And what's helpful about listening to this man is understanding the worldview that will no doubt be the dominant one during the tribulation.

Harari is Jewish, he's a homosexual, he's a best-selling author, and he's a key influencer for globalists. What we have seen so far, it's corporations and governments collecting data about where we go, who we meet, what movies we watch. The next phase is the surveillance going under our skin. We now see mass surveillance systems established even in democratic countries, which previously rejected them, and we also see a change in the nature of surveillance. Previously, surveillance was mainly above the skin, now it's going under the skin.

Governments want to know not just where we go or who we meet, above all they want to know what is happening under our skin. What's our body temperature? What's our blood pressure? What is our medical condition? Now humans are developing even bigger powers than ever before. We are really acquiring divine powers of creation and destruction. We are really upgrading humans into gods.

Humans are now hackable animals. You know, the whole idea that humans have, you know, they have this soul or spirit and they have free will, and nobody knows what's happening inside me, so whatever I choose, whether in the election or whether in the supermarket, this is my free will, that's over. That's over. I mean, all this story about Jesus rising from the dead and being the son of God, this is fake news.

But it won't be fake news. When Harari bows his knee to Jesus Christ someday, as the Bible says, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Enough of the flawed wisdom of man. Let's get to our interview with Steve Miller. Just as a reminder, Steve has been deaf since his birth, and we conducted this interview via closed captioning. And he is the author of Foreshadows, which Dr. Ron Rhodes calls a prophetic tour de force, unquestionably the most important prophecy book of the year.

Here now is our conversation with Steve Miller. Last week, Steve, in part one, we went over the first four foreshadows, the first four mega clues, as you call them in your book, the rise of globalism, the transition to a one-world government, the struggle to build a united European empire, and the spread of all invasive technology and surveillance. These are mega clues that the return of Christ is nearer than ever. Now, this week in the program, we'd like to get into the remaining six.

Maybe we won't cover all of them, but we'll try to get to many of them. And they are the progression to a one-world economy, the descent into moral and spiritual corruption, the proliferation of deception, the assault on truth, the increase of Christian persecution. Number 10 is the explosion of hostility toward Israel and the Jewish people. Number 11 is the preparation for a new temple in Jerusalem.

And number 12, the forming of a coalition to destroy Israel. So let's talk about foreshadow number five, progression to a one-world economy. I'm going to read from your book on page 128, where it says, God is setting the stage. In ancient times, human rulers and events were used by Him to carry out His plans. And while today's governments are functioning in ways that, on the surface, appear to be fulfilling their own aspirations, everything that we see unfolding around us is also working toward the fulfillment of God's plans. We know from Scripture that in the last days, there will be a one-world government. That, by necessity, means there will be a one-world economy. As the ruler of the entire globe, the Antichrist will oversee everyone and everything. For this level of control to be possible, he will need to have an economic network that is able to track all business activities and financial transactions.

That, from your book, foreshadows. And you get more into this chapter of the progression to a one-world economy that there's going to be a pathway to a cashless society, to a digital currency. But not just a digital currency within nations, but transnational, international digital currency. So tell us about this pathway, Steve, and why this, the one-world economy, digital currency, is so important to force us to get to this one-world economy.

Well, if there's one way that you can control people is by controlling their wallets, controlling their finances, being able to tell them what they're able to do and what they're not able to do with their money. Now, there are a lot of different ways to carry out transactions today, but digital transactions are beginning to stand head and shoulders above all other forms of transactions. They have a lot of appeal because they're easy, they're quick, they're cost-efficient, and they offer protection from theft and fraud. And so popular are digital transactions that there are now over 10,000 different private cryptocurrencies around the world. That just shows how popular digital currencies are these days. Now, because there are so many different cryptocurrencies, governments are getting concerned.

It's almost like it's the Wild West of digital finances out there. So a lot of central banks around the world now are exploring the feasibility of creating a national digital currency. And China has already done this. They have what they call the digital yuan, and the goal is to sign every single person in China a digital wallet.

And all of their transactions have to go through the People's Bank of China. India is about to do this as well. There are eight other countries that have started up different types of digital currency, national digital currency.

And there are another 70-plus countries that are exploring this, including the United States. And in every single case, the digital currency will do two things. One, it will be created by the government, and two, it will be tracked by the government.

And this will enable these governments to surveil every transaction that people carry out, which means if you run out of the government, they can turn off your digital wallet. Now, how do we get from here to the one-world economy that's described in the book of Revelation? Well, we know that the way that the Antichrist will control his subjects is through what's called the Mark of the Beast. The Mark of the Beast will either allow people to buy and sell or not. It will allow them to either be able to make a living or not. And to get from here to there, there has to be some way of the Antichrist being able to control everyone's finances.

And it makes the most sense that this would be done digitally. Well, if the countries of the world are trying to centralize all financial transactions within those countries to one central bank in that country, and that one central bank is under government control, eventually what we have is we have a much narrower funnel of ways that people are able to carry out their financial transactions. They can only do it through their government bank. And eventually there will come a point at which these government banks could easily be merged into one major financial entity that the Antichrist can control. Just a follow-up to that, Steve. So do you recommend that Christians not get involved in digital transactions, cashless transactions, you know, don't be a part of this move toward doing everything online as far as finance? Not at all. I don't discourage them from doing that.

This is why. There's nothing inherently evil about digital currency. All of us have to carry out financial transactions in one way or another, whether it's by hard cash, by credit card, debit card, what have you. Making a living is necessary and carrying out transactions is necessary.

So again, there's nothing inherently evil about digital currency. It's how it's controlled that ultimately will lead to what we're seeing in the book of Revelation. Steve Miller with us today here on The Christian Real View, the author of Foreshadows, 12 mega clues that Jesus' return is nearer than ever. This book is our new featured resource here on The Christian Real View, and we're offering you for a donation of any amount. Just get in contact with us.

The usual ways and our contact information will be given throughout the program today. Let's skip over to this same chapter on Foreshadow number five, the progression to a one world economy. You have an extensive section in here about China and the way they are expanding around the world. Let me just read what is called the Belt and Road Initiative, BRI, the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. At the time of this writing, you say 139 countries are participants in the Belt and Road Initiative, which accounts for 63 percent of the world's population. To give some idea of just how expansive this Belt and Road Initiative reach is, 45 of those nations are in Africa, 34 are in Europe and Central Asia, 25 are in East Asia and the Pacific, and 18 are in Latin America. Lately, the Belt and Road Initiative has made inroads into more developed countries as well. For example, China recently signed a 25 year cooperation agreement with Iran pledging to invest $400 billion on infrastructure projects in the Middle Eastern nation in exchange for an ongoing supply of heavily discounted oil. This is perhaps one of the most prophetically significant Belt and Road Initiative pacts of all time.

And you go one more paragraph here. What China has done is recognize legitimate needs in many countries and offer to meet them. And in doing so, it has spread its economic and political clout.

However, none of this comes for free. All Belt and Road Initiative loan agreements contain terms that ensure China benefits from the cooperative ventures. In this way, China has created a sense of obligation and dependency from the governments and businesses that have signed on to the loans made available by state-owned Chinese banks. Explain more about this Chinese Belt and Road Initiative and how this is a stepping stone toward the end times. The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative is a very aggressive infrastructure program. What happens is Chinese banks and companies offer to do major construction projects in other countries.

These construction projects include developing seaports, highways, railroads, power plants, high-tech networks. And in this way, underdeveloped countries that have not been able to keep up with the rest of the world are able to find an opportunity to build their infrastructure. There are many countries in the world that are too poor, that are unable to get their start in keeping up with the rest of the world. And so what China has done is they created a bank system where they can go to these countries and they can say, look, we can do this for you and we will give you a very appealing payment plan by which you can do this. What these countries end up doing is they end up in an arrangement where China may seem to be benevolent by offering these loans. But what's really happening is that these countries are obligated to buy the parts, the labor to purchase equipment from China. So Chinese businesses are benefiting from these arrangements. These loans go into the Chinese banks. They pay Chinese businesses for the equipment that's brought out to those countries. And these countries end up being in debt. They're obligated to China. So there's a sense in which China is creating a foothold in many places all around the world. And there's also another sense in which they are elevating poorer countries of the world where they are more equal with others. They have the high-tech networks that they need. They have the transportation system that they need in order for a world to become more networked and become more one. So this in turn is speeding up globalization. The Belt and Road Initiative, which gives China a lot of clout in other countries, is increasing the amount of networking that our world has. And all of this networking is what will make possible the one-world economy that's necessary for the Antichrist to have his one-world government.

Okay, we need to take a brief pause. I'm David Wheaton. You're listening to The Christian Worldview. Help us sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ by becoming a Christian worldview partner.

Call 1-888-646-2233, visit thechristianworldview.org, or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. And God loves you so much, he became a human being, suffered and died on the cross to take the punishment for the sin of the world. That means you don't have to end up in hell. God can legally forgive your sins because he's the lover of your soul. And then Jesus rose from the dead and defeated death. Mario, if you give up the battle and just say, God, I'm a rebel, and you repent and trust in Christ, God will forgive every sin you've ever committed and grant your everlasting life as a free gift. Do you believe what I'm saying? Yes. It's the gospel truth.

I wouldn't lie to you. Ray Comfort is a tireless proclaimer of the gospel and a sharp defender of the faith. Did you know that Ray has written a commentary for the Evidence Study Bible, a New King James Version that is chock full of evidence for the faith and instruction on evangelism? To purchase the Evidence Study Bible, go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. And if indeed we succeed in hacking and engineering life, this will be not just the greatest revolution in the history of humanity, this will be the greatest revolution in biology since the very beginning of life four billion years ago. Science is replacing evolution by natural selection with evolution by intelligent design, not the intelligent design of some god above the clouds, but our intelligent design.

That was Yuval Noah Harari, a leading advisor to Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum. Dystopian scenarios like this will likely mark the days leading up to the return of Christ. This is why we recommend you order Steve Miller's new book, Foreshadows, 12 Mega Clues Jesus' Return is Nearer Than Ever.

You can get it for a donation of any amount. Just call 1-888-646-2233 or go to thechristianworldview.org. Welcome back to The Christian World View.

I'm David Wheaton. Visit our website, thechristianworldview.org, where you can subscribe to our free weekly email and annual print letter, order resources for adults and children, and support the ministry. Steve Miller is our guest today. He is the author of Foreshadows, 12 Mega Clues that Jesus' Return is Nearer Than Ever.

It's our new featured resource. Let's get back to the interview with Steve. Let's move to Foreshadow number six, Steve, the descent into moral and spiritual corruption.

You say this, but at the pace that culture is declining, the numbers and benchmarks would be outdated by the time you read them. Rather than note how debauched and flagrant sin has become, I believe it's more instructive for us to understand what it is that causes unbelievers to persist in their sin. Once we recognize what they are rejecting and what that rejection leads to, we come to recognize the kind of thinking we need to avoid in our own lives, lest we begin heading down the same slippery slope. So you talk about two different things in here in this chapter, that there is a great increase in the love of self, number one, and also the rejection of truth that is manifested today. So how are those two things, the love of self and the rejection of truth, how do you see this being manifested, and are they different than past times, and how does this point to the sign of Christ's return? It's helpful to view all of sin, which we know began in the Garden of Eden. It's helpful to think in terms of sin beginning with the sin of self-love. The love of self began in the Garden of Eden.

It was because Adam and Eve loved themselves more than God that they ate the forbidden fruit, which led to sin and the fall. That's how damaging self-love can be. And in 2 Timothy 3, Paul wrote that in the last days, people will be lovers of self. And what's interesting is, as you read what follows that, he lists the results of self-love, and those results are people will love money, they will be proud, arrogant, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, swollen with conceit, and more. All of these are the results of self-love. Now, on the surface, loving ourselves may seem to be a harmless thing, but ultimately, it's rooted in selfishness. It puts self-first before God and others. And James 3.16 makes this connection for us. It says that where there is selfishness, there will be evil. And so ultimately, what happens is self-love replaces God-love.

There's only two ways we can direct our love. It's either to suffer to God, and when people don't have God-love, they end up rejecting God, and by default, they will also reject his truth. This is what the Apostle Paul said that we should expect to happen in the last days, which are very similar to what we saw happen in the days of Noah. When people had a love of self, they pursued self-gratification, and God was completely out of the picture.

And Christ said that we can expect that as we get nearer to the end time, it will be like the days of Noah, when people love self and not God. Steve Miller with us today on The Christian Reelview, the author of Foreshadows, 12 Mega-Clues that Jesus Returns is Nearer Than Ever. The book is 336 pages.

Softcover retails for $17.99. It is our new featured resource. You can get a copy for a donation of any amount to The Christian Reelview. Just get in contact with us by going to our website, thechristianreelview.org, calling 1-888-646-2233, or writing to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Steve, foreshadow number eight, the assault on truth, is a mark of the end times, that truth is going to be in very short supply and be very rare in the time leading up to the return of Christ.

The Antichrist would be, of course, just a complete, inspired by Satan and a minister of falsehoods and deceive so many in the world. And you can see this is so true today. You feel that people, you hear what they say, that where can we go to actually just find out the truth about things? Things are so biased and so slanted all the time today. Now, I know you didn't just write this book this past week, Steve. It takes a while for a book to get written and edited and then published and so forth, but this couple paragraphs on page 198, it's like you're almost predicting what occurred this week in our own country.

I'll just read this. You say, totalitarian nations like China and Russia already have their own versions of the Ministry of Truth. The information that appears in the media and online is tightly regulated, but the idea of empowering a government to control the information people have access to is spreading to democracies as well. For example, in the US, there have already been calls for a government, quote unquote, truth commission that oversees internet and social media content. In relation to this, one prominent US representative of Congress said, quote, we're going to have to figure out how we reign in our media environment so you can't just spew disinformation and misinformation, unquote. Just this week, what happens here in America?

I'm going to quote from a article on Revolver. Just when you thought the globalist American empire couldn't get more Orwellian, the Department of Homeland Security is here to make it all worse. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security is creating a, quote, disinformation governance board, unquote, to combat misinformation ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. But the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security's Ministry of Disinformation wouldn't be a proper intelligence community project unless it was absurd as well as dystopian. For the absurdity, we need to look no further than Nina Jankowicz, the disinformation wizard appointed to protect the American people from dangerous speech about illegal immigration in Russia.

Here's what Nina Jankowicz said on Twitter. Since moving back from Ukraine five years ago, I've dedicated my time to building awareness about the challenges of disinformation. Again, you have to ask the question, disinformation according to whom?

Who gets to set the foundation, the basis for what truth is? Despite what my trolls might tell you, she says, Jankowicz says, since 2016, all the work I've done has been without any agenda, but furthering the truth. I believe strongly in everything I write about and advocate for.

I've forgone lucrative opportunities to make sure I could remain true to that. I have been reminded that writing about social media regulation brings all the First Amendment zealots out of the woodwork, as if those are crazy people who believe in the First Amendment, freedom of speech. And then she says this, implementing common sense transparency regulations on advertising is not a restriction on free speech. So these people, Steve, have a completely, as this article says, just Orwellian dystopian idea of what speech is allowed, especially in social media. How does this kind of thing that you write about in the book here that just came true this past week, how does this even pass today that people aren't just up in arms and just see right through this when it's so clearly against the First Amendment to the Constitution and our protected freedom of speech? David, you asked the right question.

This information according to who? Because ultimately, this is the government's way of saying we will decide what is true and what isn't. And there's three ways that this works. It's a way of silencing those who hold to a different viewpoint. It makes people afraid to speak altogether.

Instead of daring to speak and get in trouble, they just censor themselves because they don't want to get in trouble. And it allows those in power to promote narratives that they want people to believe. For example, a narrative we're hearing a lot today.

It is Putin's fault that gas prices are high when they were already high before Russia even invaded Ukraine. So that's a narrative that they want to promote. So here we have a situation where the government is saying we need to be in charge of deciding what is true and what is not. This goes back to what we were talking about in the previous chapter about the assault on truth.

This is an assault on truth. The government is saying here's what you should believe and here's what you shouldn't believe. And what's interesting is the only countries in the world that have anything like this are authoritarian governments.

You name two of them, China and Russia. It's authoritarian governments who decide what the people in their countries can believe and what they can't because they use information control. This is ultimately information control, having control over what people are allowed to know. Information control is a means of mind control and getting people to think one way, the way the government wants them to think. Now, this is at complete odds with the First Amendment or the freedom of speech. It's flat out censorship. And that's why there's been so much pushback this last week against this whole idea of a disinformation governance board. If it passes, then it will become illegal to disagree with anything that the government says.

It's really incredible. And I was thinking as you were you were giving an answer there just about how the mainstream academia government, the left has been able to convince so many Americans that you can change your gender. If you're a boy, you can become a girl or if you're a girl, you can become a boy. And if you say that on social media. Well, no, that's actually not possible.

You're either a boy or a girl and you can't change that, which is the truth. What do they do? They pull you right off Twitter and Facebook for violating their, quote unquote, community guidelines. And so you see how the regulation of speech and how the perpetuation of a lie is just so clearly front and center today and how this is a foreshadow of that Christ's return is nearer than ever when when this kind of blatant lie and suppression of speech is taking place. Steve Miller with us today here on the Christian Real View radio program.

Let's talk about foreshadow number nine. You say in this chapter on Christian persecution that in 2016, Martin Castro, the chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, stated, quote, the phrases religious liberty and, quote, religious freedom will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance. Unquote. He further said that today, as in the past, religion is being used as both a weapon and a shield by those seeking to deny equality.

Unquote. So again, Orwellian that if you have a Christian worldview and you have convictions based on the truth of the word of God and those convictions are in opposition to the prevailing unbiblical worldview of today, you're a hater, you're intolerant, you're a discriminator, you're a homophobe and on and on it goes. And you get into this chapter about this is going to become more and more common in America. Now, we know persecution is going on all over the world, but we've seen cases of it here in the country, our country as well, when standing up to the unbiblical narratives of our day, when someone has the courage and stands up and says something, they're sued, they lose their job. You get into what the biblical response should be as persecution increases as we near the return of Christ. Maybe you could just frame that as to how we should think about that, because no one wants to be persecuted.

Yes, David, you're right. No one wants to be persecuted. And I'll just start by saying this, that there's basically three stages toward Christian persecution. It all starts with marginalization. It starts with ostracizing people, silencing them, excluding them, pushing them on the outer fringes of society. And then eventually it evolves to demonization, where you vilify, you scorn, you publicly criticize, you condemn in a very public way, Christian. And then eventually it turns to criminalization, where Christian thought and Christian actions are criminalized all together. The biggest source of persecution in the world is governments that have made Christian thought and activity illegal.

It's hard to think of it that way. We tend to think of persecution like here in America. Persecution comes from people who are not believers, who are anti-Christian, who don't agree with us in some way or other. But when we look at persecution around the world, a large amount of persecution is taking place of governments against their own citizen.

Now about our response to persecution. Well, Christ set the example for us. In 1 Peter 1 21, he said, Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.

This is a very clear instruction to us that we are to follow Christ's example on how he handled persecution. And the power of his example is evident at the cross. He was willing to forgive those who crucified him. And when the skies went dark and the rocks were split and the soldiers at the foot of the cross became frightened, they said, truly, this was the Son of God. And Luke said that they praised God. Here's Christ suffering enormously in great pain with spikes through his hands and his feet on the cross, unable to breathe, dying. And he's able to forgive those who put him there.

He's able to forgive those who crucified him. This opened their eyes to the truth. All of a sudden, these soldiers realized who this was. His actions did not betray that he was a criminal or a murderer or anything was wrong with him. If anything, his actions revealed to them something different. It was a testimony to them.

And this is what we need to do. We need to realize that how we react to persecution serves as a testimony to those who are persecuting us. It's hard for us to understand this, but it's because if we receive persecution in the same way Christ does, it blows people's minds. They don't get it. In Matthew 544, Jesus told us to love our enemies.

Our enemies, the last thing they're going to expect from us is love. And that's what makes them think there's something different going on here. And that's what makes a right, Christ-like response to persecution so powerful. That is so powerfully stated, Steve. Thank you for reminding us of that, that our natural inclination is to fight back and to punch back at those who persecute us. But Christ gave a much, much different example than that.

That doesn't mean you can't stand up for the rights we have that are given to us in legal ways. But when push came to shove with Christ, he set the example of how he suffered and how we are to suffer like him. Steve Miller with us today here on The Christian Real View. He is the author of Four Shadows, 12 Mega Clues, Jesus' Return is Nearer Than Ever. It is our new featured resource here on The Christian Real View.

It's 336 pages, softcover, retails for $17.99. You can order it for a donation of any amount to The Christian Real View. Just go to our website, thechristianrealview.org, or call us toll-free, 1-888-646-2233.

Or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. All right, just a brief pause. I'm David Wheaton. You're listening to The Christian Real View. The best way to stay connected to this nonprofit ministry is to sign up for our free weekly e-mail and annual print newsletter.

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Experience the difference at Lakeside Sports and Pain Clinic. Call 952-593-0500 or visit drmarkwheaton.com. That's 952-593-0500 or drmarkwheaton.com. Pastor James Coates was arrested and sent to prison a couple of weeks ago in Canada. What did he do? He held a church service. And it isn't the government's responsibility to protect us from a virus. What's their responsibility to protect our God-given rights? Two days after that sermon, Pastor James Coates was arrested and imprisoned. He has now co-authored an important book titled God vs. Government, taking a biblical stand when Christ and compliance collide. God vs. Government is 208 pages, soft cover, and retails for $17.99. You can order a copy for a donation of any amount to the Christian Real View. Go to thechristianrealview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. That's 1-888-646-2233 or thechristianrealview.org. Thanks for joining us on the Christian Real View. I'm David Wheaton. Just a reminder that today's program and past programs are archived at our website, thechristianrealview.org.

Transcripts and short takes are also available. Now back to the interview with Steve Miller about his book, Foreshadows. Let's get to the last three foreshadows, and I'm going to combine them all together because they all have to do with Israel. Number 10 is the explosion of hostility toward Israel and the Jewish people. Number 11 is the preparations for a new temple in Jerusalem.

And number 12, foreshadow number 12, is the forming of a coalition to destroy Israel. I'm going to read page 245, the beginning of that chapter, where you say, One of the more remarkable prophecies about the end times is that a Jewish temple will once again stand on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. We know this because Scripture tells us that at the midpoint of the seven-year tribulation, the Antichrist will enter this temple and defile it. He will, quote, exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped so that he sits himself up in God's temple proclaiming himself to be God, unquote. Second Thessalonians 2, verse 4. Jesus himself made it clear that a rebuilt temple will stand on the Temple Mount during the tribulation, that the Antichrist will desecrate it. And of course, the Temple Mount right now has a Islamic mosque there.

If we're getting nearer to Jesus' return, nearer to the rapture, let's say, and then the tribulation period, how long does it take to rebuild the temple? And doesn't that say that the temple is not rebuilt, that maybe the rapture is not imminent? But the follow up to that is, you intimate in the book that the tribulation doesn't necessarily start the day after the rapture.

Explain this more. In the book, I explain that the seven-year tribulation did not start right at the rapture. Rather, in Daniel 9, verses 24 through 27, Daniel lays out what is supposed to happen at the end times. And he explained in verse 27 that at the halfway point of the tribulation, the Antichrist will desecrate the temple.

Now, it doesn't say that under those exact words. Daniel talks about the abomination of desolation, and Jesus provides further clarity on that in Matthew 24, where he talks about the Antichrist going into the temple and declaring himself to be God and desecrating the temple. Well, if that happens at the halfway point, as we read Daniel 9, we see that the Antichrist is going to sign a seven-year peace treaty with Israel. If that treaty begins a seven-year period, and the desecration of the temple takes place at the halfway point, and we know from descriptions in the book of Revelation that the tribulation will last seven years, then that makes it clear that the Antichrist's treaty with Israel is what will trigger the beginning of the tribulation. The rapture is what they call a signless event.

There isn't anything that has to happen in order for the rapture to happen. So the rapture could happen, and there could be a period of weeks or even months that go by between the rapture and the time that the Antichrist signs that seven-year treaty with Israel. Now, the scenario that I lay out in the book, a very likely scenario, one possibility for how Israel could regain possession of the Temple Mount, because as you say, there's a mosque there right now.

All Muslim buildings, Muslim structures, the third holiest site in Islam right now on the Temple Mount. So how is Israel going to build a temple there? Well, the likely scenario that I lay out is that in Ezekiel chapter 38, we read about a battle, an invasion that's supposed to happen in the latter time, near the end time. In this invasion, several countries come together as a coalition, and they invade Israel from the north. It's such an overwhelming invasion that it's clear that Israel has no chance. Israel is not going to survive this.

It's just absolutely massive and overwhelming. But then God himself intervenes and sends earthquakes and hailstones and opens up the earth to swallow up people, and all of this activity on God's part stops this invasion. And God very clearly says that he will make himself known on that day, and the nations will know that I brought an end to that invasion.

Now that invasion, most of the nations that are supposed to take a part of it are Muslim nations, and it's very possible that if that invasion is as big as it is, this is going to be such an overwhelming defeat for these Muslim nations. It's very possible they may lose control of the Temple Mount. They may ask yes to pressure from the Antichrist, give the Temple Mount to the Jewish people so that they can build their temple.

That may very well be one of the terms of the seven-year peace treaty that the Antichrist signed. And if that happens, then it will be possible to build a temple, and it won't take long to build it because the Temple Institute in Jerusalem has already built all the implements. They are already training priests to run the temple. They are already preparing a lot of different ways. The menorah, the table of shoe bread, all the equipment is there. Architectural plans have all been drawn up.

Everything's ready to go. All they need is for the Temple Mount to be cleared. And in quick time with the modern technology we have, that temple would be able to be built very quickly in time for the Antichrist to desecrate it at the middle of the tribulation. It's so amazing to consider all the incredible events that are forthcoming in the world, and then of course the greatest event, the return of Jesus Christ. Steve Miller with us today here on the Christian Real View talking about his book Foreshadows. It is our new featured resource, and you can order it for a donation of any amount to the Christian Real View.

Just get in contact with us the usual ways. Steve, the follow-up to that question is, what do you think happens to the United States? I don't see the United States specifically mentioned in Scripture. Does it become a part of this global coalition under the Antichrist? What do you think happens to us? It's hard to say, because as you point out, Scripture doesn't say anything about the United States.

My take on that is this. The United States is becoming a weaker country now. We're so preoccupied with a lot of political infighting, so many disagreements, polarization. We seem to have become so internally preoccupied and so full of problems that it's hard for us to be as global as we have been in the past. One of the big signs of the U.S.'s decline in foreign influence is the fact that we have withdrawn our troops from so many places in the Middle East.

And those withdrawals have allowed countries like Russia and Iran and terrorist organizations to fill the gaps, so to speak. But the United States is becoming so bogged down by debt, by political strife, by so many internal problems, that it appears that we are on the path to becoming weaker, and frankly, on the world stage, we'll become more irrelevant. Now, it's possible the Bible does talk about the ten-part confederacy of the European Union. It's possible that because the United States originated primarily from European immigrants, it's possible that the United States might in some way, shape, or form have some kind of agreement with one of the rulers or one of the powers in the European Union someday. We don't know, but the very fact that there's an absence of the U.S. in Scripture seems to indicate that we won't be playing any significant role in the end times.

And that's really amazing to consider. The military might of this country, the economic power of America, the influence we've had all over the world, even the spread of the gospel. So many things have come from this country, missionaries all over the world, that we are going to go to a place of either blending in or relative insignificance is really incredibly sad and tragic for what the incredible nation that God built this nation to be. Steve Miller with us today here on the Christian Real View radio program. Steve, last question here. I want to get to part three, which is the last part of your book, where it's titled, Why God Gave Us Bible Prophecy. I want to close today by reading this quote. You say, God gave us Bible prophecy to fill our hearts with hope. He knows that in our frail humanness, it's easy for us to get distracted and pulled down by the here and now. But as we read the prophetic scriptures, we are called to fix our eyes on the future and set our hearts and minds on the things of heaven.

Prophecy encourages us with the reassuring truths that God is in control, Christ will return, and we are destined for a glorious future in eternity. And you close with this great passage from Titus chapter two, where Paul writes to Titus, The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. And that's really what it's all about for believers, is living sanctified holy lives, telling others about how they can be saved, and looking for the return of Christ.

So as we close today, we've heard a lot of troubling things and all these different foreshadows of what's going on in the world. Let's ask the question, the two-part question, what should the non-believer do? And why should all this give the believer hope in the midst of all these really bad things that are going on in the world?

Let's start first with the unbeliever, a non-believer in Christ listening today, how should they respond to what you've been saying? For unbelievers, I would say this, they need to recognize that God predicted all of this. All of these foreshadows that I talk about in the book are based on prophecies about what will happen in the future. God knows the future, none of us do, no one can predict the future, but for God to be able to have literally hundreds of prophecies in the Bible, and for all of them to be fulfilled with 100% accuracy is stunning.

It makes one stop and think. If he can be this accurate hundreds or thousands of years before things happen, then this could very well be a sign that he really is God and I need to get right with him. And the same scriptures that prophesy what is happening today in our world also tell us that we are going to end up in one of two eternal destinies. Either we're going to end up in heaven or we're going to end up in hell, and we have a choice to make. And scripture pleased that we would make the right choice. Christ repeatedly encouraged people to choose heaven. In 2 Peter 3.9, we're told that God is patient, not willing that he should perish.

God repeatedly beseeches people to choose heaven over hell, but it's up to us whether we receive that or not. And the plan of salvation is very clearly laid out in scripture. Confess our sins, receive Christ as Savior and Lord, and we will be saved. Salvation comes through him alone. Ultimately, it means turning away from self-love and turning to God-love. That's what I would say to the unbeliever.

And for the believer, I look at it this way. There's a story I tell at the beginning of that chapter about a wonderful couple. The wife had a very serious lung condition, and she needed a lung transplant where she would die. But for a long time, they could not find a suitable pair of lungs for her. And she came very close to dying.

The doctors warned the family, you need to come see her because she doesn't have lung. And so when her family and friends all came to see her, they came with great sadness. They thought, we're going to lose her. This is it.

This is the end. And so they were all very despondent. But then suddenly out of the blue, the couple got a phone call, and she got a lung transplant. And that just changed her whole world. She's doing very well now.

She's perfectly healthy. You never know if she had defective lungs before. Now, had her friends and family known that she was going to get a lung transplant, they would have visited her in the hospital with joy and anticipation and with hope. It would have been a completely different outlook. Had they known what's going to happen in the future, it would have affected their behavior in the present. And this is why God gives us Bible prophecy. He wants us to know what's going to happen in the future so that it will affect our behavior in the present. So rather than get discouraged by what we see happening all around us in the world, if we would just have an eternal perspective and look ahead, you can have hope. We know that it's all going to end well. Things are not looking down.

They're looking up. God is in control. He is sovereign.

He will make it happen. Victory is already assured. And that's why prophecy is in the Bible. So well said, Steve. And thank you for ending and turning our eyes toward God's sovereignty over the affairs of this life and towards Jesus Christ as the only way that we can be made right with God. Steve Miller, thank you for this excellent book, Foreshadows. Thank you for all the hard work and Bible study you did to produce this book. And we just wish all of God's best and grace to you, your wonderful wife, Becky, and your family. Thank you, David. And thank you again for having me with your audience.

I really appreciate that. You've just heard an interview with Steve Miller, the author of Foreshadows, 12 mega clues that Jesus' return is nearer than ever. It's our new featured resource here with The Christian Worldview.

You can order it for a donation of any amount. Just go to thechristianworldview.org or call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. We are out of time for today, but thank you for joining us on The Christian Worldview.

Thanks also to you, our listeners, for funding today's program. Let's be encouraged and have hope, as Steve Miller was saying. We may live in a challenging world that is rushing headlong toward the tribulation, but Jesus Christ is going to return to defeat his enemies and reign someday.

He and his word are the same yesterday and today and forever, so until next time, think biblically, live accordingly, and stand firm. The mission of The Christian Worldview is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. We hope today's broadcast encouraged you toward that end. To hear a replay of today's program, order a transcript, or find out, What Must I Do to Be Saved, go to thechristianworldview.org or call toll-free 1-888-646-2233. The Christian Worldview is a listener-supported nonprofit radio ministry furnished by the Overcomer Foundation. To make a donation, become a Christian Worldview partner, order resources, subscribe to our free newsletter, or contact us, visit thechristianworldview.org, call 1-888-646-2233, or write to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Thanks for listening to The Christian Worldview.