Trending Towards the Tribulation

If you're watching Headlines, you know we are trending towards the Tribulation. Join popular pastors about theological issues in the news. If you have noticed that all nations have distress with perplexity, perhaps you are wondering what is behind this phenomenon.

We'll talk about it this hour. The Bible lists hundreds of signs regarding the last days, and we are watching these signs. They are alerting us. Watch and be ready, lest you be caught unaware as if a thief had come. Listen, watch. Jesus says, I will bless those who watch and also bless those who are ready. They prepared themselves.

They are excited to see the Lord, and they are looking forward to that time they are going to see the Lord. Listen, God used, as Damon Duck said, God used Obama, Biden, Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum, and others to reveal the deep state plans to the world. America's deep state and the globalist deep state are working together to carry out the two transformation plans. And then this article is just fantastic, goes on. You can get the article at HopeOurTimes.com.

Just go there, click on featured articles, you'll get it. It's absolutely free. But folks, when you start putting all of this together, you look, you go, okay, there's something spiritual behind this. There is. Listen, God is sovereign. God told us it was going to be this way. And no matter what the plans are of man, a global deep state, a new world order, Antichrist, whatever, it doesn't matter.

It's not going to work. Jesus is coming and Jesus wins. And the kingdom of Antichrist is very short lived. But the kingdom of Jesus Christ is forever and ever and ever and ever. And I hope that encourages you.

I'm glad you can join me today for Understanding the Times Radio. Is the world experiencing distress with perplexity? And that's a reference in Luke 21 to a last days scenario, more specifically, a time known as the tribulation.

Well, we're in a run up to that now. And everywhere we look, creation groans, the earth is experiencing unsolvable problems and many are longing for a savior to deliver them. Problem is they're longing for the wrong savior, the one that's coming before Jesus Christ. He won't deliver them from anything. He'll deliver them into huge problems. He's known as the Antichrist. Well, we'll talk about that and much more this hour. What's with the warning of the Catholic archbishop that there is a deep church just as dangerous as the deep state?

He's referring to the Pope Francis administration. And we're having another Understanding the Times evening coming up Thursday, February the 10th. And this will be our fourth presentation here in Minneapolis, but live stream to the world. And our guest will be Pastor Tom Hughes. You just heard a soundbite from Pastor Tom Hughes.

Many of you watch him online. He is pastor of 412 Church in San Jacinto, California, where I was privileged to minister two years ago, almost to the day. He has Hope for Our Times, which is a prophecy outreach that I follow regularly. In studio with me is the host of the Understanding the Times event that we host every other month. And that would be Pastor Mark Henry.

He's pastor of Revive Church in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, northwest suburb of Minneapolis. We'll say more about this February 10th event throughout the hour. It will be live streamed at markhenryministries.com 7 p.m. Central time on February the 10th. And you can access things electronically about 15 minutes early.

But the church doors open at 6 p.m. That's all central time, and there's no cost for either attending or the streaming. Gentlemen, thank you both for joining me today. You bet, Jan. This is fantastic.

I always love being with you. Yeah, well, you're coming in the middle of February, which is not palm tree weather. I hate to inform you. I'm a little bit concerned. You should be. I don't know why I said yes.

When it's below 60 degrees, I start to freeze. So I don't know what I was thinking. Well, your friend here, Pastor Mark Henry, is responsible, not me. I wouldn't have done that to you, Tom. Well, Jan is my friend.

It's the only guy I could get to come to Minnesota that time of year. OK, well, you're taking it for the team, Tom. Thank you. We're going to talk this hour about the stages being set for the Kingdom of the Antichrist. I think all three of us would agree on that. Would we not, Mark? You agree on that?

Absolutely. And, Tom, you're talking about frequently this distress with perplexity comes out of Luke 21. That's obviously the tribulation. We're in a run up to the tribulation. And if anybody has a problem with that, I think, well, I have a problem with them having a problem with the fact that we're in a run up to the tribulation.

But just some bullet points here and let's talk about them. So the things that would indicate to me we're in a run up to the tribulation, obviously, wars are happening every day and many more are imminent. We have a pandemic we've dealt with for two years.

We have the vaccine quandary. We have natural disasters. We have the spirit of the Antichrist being alive and well.

We have people depending more and more on government. I want to say a little bit about that later. We have people looking for a savior, which I already talked about, so things can return to normal. We have churches that are going woke. So let's talk about a few of these things for the next few minutes. Tom, what jumps out at you?

I'm going to start with this one. You said churches going woke. I look at this and the reality of it is, well, we can see what's happening, right? But the Bible prophesied this is the direction the world was going to go. The church was going to go in the last days. The Bible doesn't use the word woke, but the Bible does talk about doctrines of demons being taught in the pulpit. That's 1 Timothy chapter 4.

The Bible also talks about Paul writing in 2 Timothy that the church would have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof or the people would. And these are people, I'm spiritual, I know the Lord, but it's like the prophet Hosea who's preaching. And he's preaching to the ancient kingdom of Israel, the northern kingdom. And he says, you say you know God, but you don't know him. And then God even says through Hosea, you've dealt treacherously with me. You bring your sins before my face and yet you say you know me, you don't know me. And this is the same type of spiritual environment that's happening now. Well, I know God.

No. Is Jesus Christ who the Bible says he is or is he not? And this whole woke culture has infected the church.

And quite frankly, this is me, Jan. I don't even think that the world would be in the condition that it is right now if the church had not departed from the faith decades ago. And we saw this turning. And just like the Old Testament prophets calling out the prophets and the priests, I believe if the church had continued to press forward preaching the truth of the gospel, the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ, not removing the Old Testament, not removing the prophetic books of the Old Testament to the second coming of Christ, I don't believe we'd be where we are. But we're here because the church departed from the faith quite some time ago.

Mark Henry, please weigh into this. You're a pastor. And not only that, you tell me you have people visiting who are saying I'm from such and such a church and things are kind of falling apart there. So you're hearing from people who are discouraged over wokeness in other places.

Absolutely. And let's be more specific there when you think about Marxism and specifically critical theory being applied in Western culture. You remember Davos has told us that the end of Western values, remember on the eight points that they have, the end of Western values is their ambition. Well, what are the Western values?

They're rooted in Christianity, the nuclear family, a Protestant work ethic, submission to authority, the rule of law. These are biblical concepts. And now as this is being torn apart, I would suggest to you those who are genuine followers of Jesus are gathering together and those that profess to know God but have denied his power, as it says in Titus, or even as Jesus said, remember Jesus said, many will stand before me and they say, Lord, Lord, did we not do this? Did we not do that? And he will say, depart from me.

I never knew you. I think these things are becoming clearer within every local church around the United States. Here's what I'm noticing that troubles me a lot, and that is people are depending, trusting government more and more. Government's going to keep them safe. Government's going to keep them well. If we just listen to what government says, we're going to be okay. I say that's paving the way for a man with a plan, a Mr. Fix-It, who's going to come along. Church will be gone, but nonetheless, those left behind will follow in lockstep quite easily, won't they?

Oh, yeah. I look at this, Jan, and I think this is amazing, but there's a plan behind what we are watching. We have these world leaders that are in agreement. It's not just the United States of America that's printing up trillions of dollars. Other countries are following very similar economic policies, and these policies are causing people to not go to work, to look to the government for handouts. Then we go back decades, and you start realizing the different policies here in America, the welfare policies that have created a generation of people dependent on the government for finances. Now the borders are open, and we have a government that says, come across the border, we'll give you health care, we'll pay your bills, school's going to be free. And it's worked into a very selfish generation.

Because people are self-centered and selfish, they're not thinking about God. They just want their peace, they want their safety, they want their comfort, and government. Big Brother says, I'll take care of you. This is demonic what's happening, and there's a plan behind it to shift people to look to the government, to not look to God. But it's setting the stage, correct? It's setting the stage for a man with a plan. Mark, would you agree?

Absolutely. Look through the Bible. Individual responsibility is everywhere. I can't believe in Jesus for you, you can't believe in Jesus for me, salvation is individual. Christians are going to stand individually before the Lord, and there's this dependence we're supposed to have on God. And when Marxism comes into play, they say that the state is God.

It can meet all your needs, it can take care of you. And this promise has spread since the 1960s, and now it's a global pandemic, if you will. I'm playing a little bit here in our conversation off a recent message given by Pastor Tom Hughes. Again, he'll be our guest the evening of February the 10th here in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Live stream to the whole world. A little bit off of a message, distress with perplexity. Again, that's out of Luke 21, and that's a tribulation reference, but we're in a run-up to that. And I want to play a three-minute clip of this message, because here Pastor Tom is outlining what some countries, not just countries, but even some continents like Australia, are going through right now. Every nation around the world is going through some kind of dilemma. Jesus said, Luke 21, verse 25, there will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, man's hearts failing them from the fear and expectation of the things that are coming on the planet, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Again, Jesus is talking about the second half of the tribulation period, and we are watching these events happen now. This is a setup. This is the trajectory of the direction everything is going. This is truly amazing. I want you to think of this.

John from New York, he wrote this, and he says, he emailed me. He said, in five gallons of oil we used this week, they came from emergency reserves, and that is not sustainable. In a few weeks, no trucks or trains will run in Australia.

Come March, they will not run here. There is no fertilizer to plant crops, and the biggest producers, Russia and China, have embargoes on exports. Because trucks, trains, and other diesel equipment cannot run without urea, they shut down.

When this happens, and the power is out, and nothing moves, it will be like trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again. Then he wrote this, I urgently pray that you will not enter the new year of sleep. And then he included this article, some of you probably saw it, I even posted it on my website, and the article is titled, here's how the energy crisis turns into hunger and then war.

Then he writes this, in the article the author did. Here's an article about an Australian farmer who warns the urea supply crisis could halt normal life within weeks. Here's what it says, not only will we not be able to grow cattle, but we will not be able to grow food, and we will not be able to grow grain or anything like that, but even if we could, we can't move it because we can't turn a wheel in a truck because we have no add blue.

And in the parentheses, add blue is needed for diesel vehicles. Half of all trucks on Australian roads run on diesel. As of February, we might not have a truck on the road in Australia. We might not have a train on the tracks. So quite literally, the whole country comes to a standstill as of February. Again, the words of Jesus.

Think of those words. Now listen to this. By now, pretty much everybody has heard about what's going on with Evergrande over in China, threatening to collapse the Chinese economy, but even the entire global economy. This article came out way back in September, but now we're starting to see the fruit of it, right? Here's what the article said. Evergrande threatens to collapse the everything bubble.

Now we fast forward to where we are, 2022. Listen to this. Just reported the other day, China panic hoards half of the world's grain supply amid threats of collapse. I mean, we look at everything that's going on.

This is amazing. And then here's this other article, China on the edge of collapse, that is talking about a financial collapse. Listen, what we are talking about is affecting the whole globe. So again, Jesus said the stress of nations with perplexity, looking, there's no way out. We're in a quandary.

We've got ourselves backed up a corner, the world leaders say. Tom, you summarize that so well in three minutes. Did you ever think you'd see the day where you'd firsthand witnessed the world in such a mess? It's an interesting question because I was thinking about that just this morning. And I thought, no, I really didn't think I would witness it this bad. And it's happened so fast. And at the same time, I've also thought about the many people that will tell people like us, hey, you need to stop talking about all of these things. They're frightening.

Well, I'll ask them, did you think two years ago that you would be here? We need to be warning people. Jesus lets us know we need to watch. We need to be warning. We need to be sober minded. Paul wrote, we need to not be asleep about these things. We need to be paying attention because all of these things, although they're bad news in and of themselves, these are signs and they point to the great news.

That's why Jesus was able to say, look up and lift up your head because your redemption draws near. You're listening to Understanding the Times Radio. I'm Jan Markell.

I have on the line from sunny California. Pastor Tom Hughes from 412 Church in San Jacinto, California, part of the Calvary Chapel stream. In studio with me is Pastor Mark Henry, Revived Church, Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. The address for your church, Mark, is?

7849 West Broadway, Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. That used to be called Brooklyn Park E-Free Church. And you've changed the name and you've been here, I think, now six years, Mark. Six years and the Lord's blessing and what great gifts we have in you, Jan. We're thankful that you're here. Well, thank you. We're going to be featuring Pastor Hughes on the evening of February the 10th, 7 p.m. Central. You can live stream that at MarkHenryMinistries.com, MarkHenryMinistries.com. We're going to talk about some of the things we're teasing with here for this hour. Mark, I got a headline in front of me and it's about the globalists because the World Economic Forum met a couple of weeks ago, mainly met online.

I believe they're going to meet in person by spring or summer. By their own admission, they kind of like another crisis, even though the pandemic has been very effective for a global crisis. I can't imagine a more effective crisis than a health crisis. Another crisis, though, climate lockdown, financial catastrophe, another health crisis.

What do you think could be in their mind? Well, just listening to Davos this last week because they had this video conference because of the pandemic. So they're going to be meeting May 22nd. But in that introduction, Schwab came on and said, we need to continue to fight this global pandemic.

And he was very emphatic. So I would suggest to you there's going to be tremendous movement to keep this ball rolling. And many of our listeners, I'm sure, heard about the Rasmussen report where it talks about their 55 percent of Democrats want to find those who are unvaccinated.

So the Democratic Party split over this issue and 59 percent want to confine those who haven't followed the mandates to their own homes. This hasn't gone away. This isn't going to go away.

I would suggest to you the push is going to continue to be there. But don't worry, there's other crises coming. The inflation of the U.S. dollar. And we're going to lose reserve status here in our currency pretty soon. And it's going to be brutal when that happens. Tom Hughes, you want to weigh into this as far as the crises that the globalists don't want to go to waste? Where do you think that's going in 2022?

I don't think it's going to look good. I do think there's a possibility we could get some relief, but it's going to be fake. I think of the recent video that most of the world has seen with Boris Johnson saying, hey, we're going to lift the mask mandate. I think what's happening is we're being shifted to this place where people are going to start to think that wasn't so bad, but the threat is going to be this. Listen, more lockdowns are coming. As long as you're all good boys and girls, everything's going to go the right direction and we're going to be able to return to normal. I think the goalposts are all going to be moving. We're all going to be able to return to normal if, but we are.

I totally agree with Mark. It's going to be one crisis after another. And if it's not going to be a smallpox crisis, we're going to have a war crisis.

We're going to have an economic crisis. So these things are going to continue. And in 2016, the first book I wrote was about America. And in that I highlighted Agenda 2030 and what it spells out back then. And I said, this is the direction that's going to go.

The climate laws are in there. They wrote these things already. So as Mark's referring to Davos, listen, this has been a plan. Behind this plan is the devil himself. But we have world leaders that seem to have one voice. They have one mind, just like the Bible said they would. And they're all going this particular direction.

I do not see these globalists saying, let's just let everything return to the way it was in 2019. No, they've moved this train so far down the track, there's no way they're going to let this thing go. They're going to move it. They're going to press it. They have a goal. And they're going to make people think that they love them.

Going back to government handouts, getting people to think how wonderful the government is. They're going to play game with people's heads. And there's going to be many people that are going to be deceived and believe them.

But this thing is going this direction and we need to be prepared. One of the statements I heard that came out of Davos, I believe this was mid-January. I keep hearing talk now about a climate lockdown that's coming and a statement that came out of Davos.

I don't have the name of the gentleman quote, though. You have to reduce your carbon footprint or you cannot buy or sell. And of course, they tried climate change, global warming, etc. That wasn't real effective as far as the crisis that they didn't want to go to waste. But I don't think they're finished with it.

Am I wrong here? You're spot on. There's no way they're going to let off on the climate issue. I don't think so.

No, they won't. All the green talk that is happening worldwide. And people on the right are talking about the green policies, we need to do this. It's like every restaurant now has their plant-based foods. By the way, they're chemical plant-based foods.

We have places that are growing meat in labs. I mean, I'm thinking the things that are happening, cars becoming electric by 2030. I believe the projection is 30 percent of the world's vehicles are going to be electric vehicles.

Listen, anybody who pays attention to this knows that it takes a lot more fossil fuel energy to make these electric cars work than it does for what fossil fuel cars actually burn. The whole thing is a lie. But they're able to manipulate the masses through the fear tactics and people thinking, let's all get along. And here's something else. Romans Chapter 1 told us about a time that would be when the people would worship the creation rather than the creator. And right now the creation is being lifted up. It's Mother Earth and we've got to do all that we can to protect this God that we're going to cause the world to bow down and worship. And there's going to be laws that are coming. And Jan, this might sound like I'm totally out there, but I think Satan is a copycat and it wouldn't surprise me at all if we have 10 commandments of climate change.

Mother Earth or something like that. I think it's coming. They're not going to let up on it.

It's the perfect vehicle when you read about what they want to do to get the world into submission. And it's your fault if you're not going along with the program. You're going to destroy the world for everybody.

So we're going to have to get rid of you. We are talking this hour about the setup. It is a setup for the tribulation.

The time spoken of in the Book of Revelation from which the church is absent and we are enjoying heaven, unfortunately, while the earth and those left behind are experiencing the wrath of God. I just want to play a quick clip because here Tom talks about the coming setup, mastermind, by the devil himself working through his various minions. We can see everything is being set up for this kingdom of Antichrist that is coming behind the mastermind behind all of this is the devil himself. And he's working through his minions here on earth. And we are watching the entire beast system form right before our very eyes.

Listen, I can't encourage you enough as we watch all of this develop, understand what's really going on. What Satan wants to do is confuse us. He's like a magician. He's saying, look over here at this hand while back here he's really developing his master plan. His plan is to defeat you. His plan is to bring down humanity. His plan is total deception. He is the deceiver and he wants to thwart the plan of God.

It will not work. Jesus is coming again. The evidence is in the Bible itself. The prophecies of the first coming of Christ, Jesus came the first time just as the Bible said he would.

And he's going to come again. And we can see the events, the signs, including the lawlessness abounding and the love of many growing cold. We can see their shadow being cast into the tribulation period.

Well, Kendra, you want to comment on anything? You know, Jan Dabos and the emphasis to, again, trust in government rather than God. And I would just suggest all the things that Tom has just shared should be compelling us and moving us to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. It needs to be pushing us to greater devotion and surrender to him.

It needs to be pushing us so that we don't love this world because this world is passing away and its lusts and its desires. Love the Lord Jesus through these days. Pastor Mark Henry, Pastors Revived Church, Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

That's the northwest suburb of Minneapolis. And that's where we've been holding some of these events we call Understanding the Times. We have a good in-person attendance, but then we are live streaming this to the whole world. Pastor Mark, we have had literally hundreds of thousands tap into these presentations over the last months, which I'm sure is an encouragement to you as well. Yeah, it's interesting.

The Internet is used for so many evil things. And here, Jan, you're able to leverage it. Tom's able to leverage it and many of our other friends for the sake of the gospel. And that's exactly what we're seeing. Well, while we can, that could certainly change. But that's why we just got to keep pushing forward in Jesus' name and being a blessing to as many as we can and calling people to trust in Christ.

Tom Hughes, you are doing that very effectively. Again, hope for ourtimes.com. But you have been presenting prophecy videos for how long now? Has it been, what, five, six years? On YouTube, it's been five, six years.

I've been teaching prophecy for a long time. Yes, you have. But the videos, yeah, about that long.

In fact, I just went the other day and looked back when the first video was I posted. It was about then. Jan, the rapidity that things are happening now, it is just unbelievable.

Exactly. But we live in exciting times. We live in times, I think of Daniel, when he wanted to understand the times.

And the angel told him, Daniel, this isn't for you. This is for those that are living in that time. Shut up and feel the words of the book until the time of the end. And I look at what we are able to look at now and how fast things are going. It is just incredible when you have the right perspective to think that God has chosen us to live in this day. I agree. To be able to use the different abilities through media outlets, to be able to get the truth out there, because there's many people that are coming to faith in Christ now that weren't interested before. They know that something's wrong, and it's exciting to be living now.

I couldn't agree more. Prophets of old long to live in our generation. We have the privilege to be here. Privilege and a challenge to be born for such a time as this.

Here's where I want to go when we come into part two of my programming. Pastor Tom Hughes has a background as a Catholic. Obviously, he's an evangelical Christian at this point in time. But he has some very interesting insights and message, two or three or four, because I've heard some of them, on Pope Francis. I call Pope Francis the vicar of the New World Order. Pastor Tom brought an article to my attention as watching a prophecy update of his recently. It was a title of an article, Pope Francis may be a pope in search of a partner.

That leaps right out of the Bible as well. We're going to talk about that and more when I get back in just a minute or two. Don't go away. We hope you'll stay in touch with us online through OliveTreeViews.org. You can call us, Central Time, at 763-559-4444. That's 763-559-4444. Write us through the mail at Olive Tree Ministries in Jan Markell, Post Office Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311. That's Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311.

All gifts are tax-deductible. In an age of fake news and false teaching, thank you for trusting Understanding the Times Radio and Olive Tree Ministries. Are there enemies within the church? That is the statement of a new film Olive Tree Ministry carries, the film Enemies Within the Church, heralds a clarion call for Christians to turn away from popular yet errant beliefs held in contradiction to the Bible. This incredible DVD examines the evidence and exposes the false teachers behind many of the false movements in the church today. The leftist agenda hit mainline Protestant churches 100 years ago and infiltrated evangelical schools and churches 30 years ago.

Today it is doing enormous damage to the Gospel and it is leading Christians into dangerous territory. You can order Enemies Within the Church in our online store at OliveTreeViews.org. That's OliveTreeViews.org. Call our office Central Time at 763-559-4444. Or just send $12 to Olive Tree Ministries, Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311.

That's Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311. That's the shipping cost in the U.S. Let's contend for the faith as the Bible exhorts us to do while we still have time and let's occupy until He comes. When I heard these things, my inward parts, they trembled. My lips quivered and my bones felt like they were coming apart. You may be feeling that way right now, but remember this, I knew exactly what Habakkuk did. He said, even if the fig tree doesn't blossom and the vines don't produce anything and the olive trees have no fruit and the fields produce nothing, the flocks don't have any offspring, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord is my strength.

Keep pursuing Christ and exalting Him. We know you can't always be by our radio, so catch Understanding the Times Radio at your convenience online. Watch the video version of the program and listen to the audio at OliveTreeViews.org then to complete archives on YouTube, on Rumble, on Light Source, and on his channel, Christian TV.

Now let's wrap up today's conversation with Jan Markell, Pastor Mark Henry, and Pastor Tom Hughes. So how close are we to this false prophet? Is the false prophet here?

We're a lot closer than we think. By the way, here it doesn't call him the false prophet. However, in Revelation chapter 16 verse 13 it does, Revelation chapter 19 verse 20, Revelation chapter 20 verse 10. Okay, let's look at a little bit of the characteristics of the false prophet.

What do we have? He has lamb's horns, Christian appearance, evil words, requires submission to a political and economic system. He uses religion as the vehicle to unite man in this global pursuit. So this is what we get just from Revelation chapter 13 about this religious leader, just those things.

Look at it again. He's going to be very Christian in appearance, lamb's horns. He's going to have very evil words.

In fact, they're going to be the words of the devil himself, requiring submission to a political and economic system and using religion as the vehicle to unite man in this global pursuit. We see this happening now. So there it is. Check out this guy. There he is.

He's the pope. Listen to this. This article.

Get this. This article is from a year ago. Washington Examiner. Title of the article. Red Francis Uses Coronavirus to Spout Off About Global Warming, Income Equality, and Rising Seas because nothing about the virus is about rising sea levels. Listen to these words. Pope Francis said that the pandemic reveals that the world's wealth is controlled by a few rich people, which is an injustice that cries out to heaven.

In other words, there's a few rich people that are controlling everything. Hello? He's in bed with them. I mean, look at this. You go, wait a minute. We got Gates. We got all these people at the top. You got Zuckerberg. You got all these people at the top and he's complained about. No, there's something else going on here. He says it's controlled by a few rich people.

He's part of this whole thing, which is an injustice that cries out to heaven. We must say it simply, the economy is sick. This is a quote. It has become ill.

It is sick. It is the fruit of unequal economic growth. This is the illness, the fruit of unequal economic growth that disregards fundamental human values. He emphasized the injustice that a small group of people possess more than all the rest of humanity. Listen, these are the people he hangs out with. These are the people he runs with. These are the people he makes political agreements with. This guy's a liar. It's said that economic inequality, get this, you ready for this, is inextricably tied to the damage inflicted, I want you to listen to these words, damage inflicted on our common home, the earth.

Welcome back. You are listening to Understanding the Times Radio and we are all over social media. Olive Tree Ministries is. We're on Telegram, Facebook, Gab, Instagram, Rumble, YouTube, Twitter. A heads up here as to YouTube. There are hundreds of fake Olive Tree videos on YouTube making fun of us. So would you watch for that and maybe not listen to them? I don't know why they've decided to do hundreds of fake videos. There are videos, but they're doctored. So you need to be careful.

That's all I'm saying. Look for the genuine postings. The best way to listen is on my website where we post audio and video every Friday morning of our programming. I have on the line from Southern California, Pastor Tom Hughes, 412 Church in San Jacinto, California. In studio with me is Pastor Mark Henry. He is pastor of Revived Church in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, northwest suburb of Minneapolis. Pastor Mark Henry and I have been presenting some Understanding the Times events every other month since last summer.

And we are now on the fourth occasion that we have done this. Pastor Tom Hughes will be our guest on Thursday, February the 10th. Thursday, February the 10th, 7 p.m. Central Time. Come on out to the church in Brooklyn Park. No tickets required. You can live stream it, Pastor Mark. Live stream us. Join us.

7 p.m. Central Time. MarkHenryMinistries.com. MarkHenryMinistries.com. And we've had a wonderful outreach, Pastor Mark, and I think Tom will carry on with the tradition that we have set here. Tom, I just played a clip of you, and you're talking about Pope Francis here.

He just turned 85 years old. I find it difficult, and that's a suggestion by a lot of people is, and we need to be careful. We don't know who the Antichrist nor the false prophet would be, but it's certainly interesting to speculate. And you present a case, very often I've heard you, for a pope becoming the false prophet.

And I think you suggested that perhaps a younger man will come along in the near future that will fulfill that role. You take it from there, because I consider you an expert here. An expert?

I don't know what I'm an expert at, but let me give it a whirl. Just looking at the Bible and praise God that he gives us his word so we can have insight and understanding. That's why he gives it to us. When you look at this current pope, he's really old. But if I look at him, the decisions he makes, the things he says, I've been following him since he first became the pope. You listen to these things, and I'm telling you, he appears to be Christian to those who do not understand. So there's people that are Catholics that are deceived by him and Protestants that are deceived by him. What's amazing at the same time, Jan, there's Catholics that are saying, wait a minute, something's wrong with this guy. What's really disturbing is how many Protestants are saying, this guy's wonderful. He has two horns like a lamb, so he appears to be Christian, but he speaks like the devil. He speaks like a dragon is what Revelation chapter 13 says of the false prophet.

I look at him, he's 85 years old, recently he was sick. The way I see the false prophet, he's going to be existing during the entire tribulation period. If the rapture were to take place right now, there's probably a gap period before the tribulation itself begins.

It may only be a gap of a week, it might be a gap that's longer than that, but we've had at least seven years. I don't think this pope can last seven years personally, but God can do miraculous things and keep him alive. But what he's definitely done, he has paved the way for the false prophet. He's got world religious leaders, including Protestants, to agree with his nonsense that he's bringing out there. Also, his climate thing, he is probably the most instrumental person on the planet to bring in the worship of Mother Earth and to tell us it's all our duty, and he brings it into this narrative that it's religious, it's spiritual, it's wrapped up in that feel. If you're right with God, then this is what you're going to do. This stuff is demonic that's happening. If he's not the false prophet, this is what I believe, and I don't believe he is, but I do believe he's auditioning for the position.

He should be hired, but I think it's probably somebody else that's going to be coming along who has to last until the time of Armageddon when Jesus throws both Antichrist and false prophet into the lake of fire. Pastor Mark Henry, I know you have some thoughts on this. You were sharing with me about liberation theology. This is huge because back in the 80s when I heard the gospel and trusted Christ and John Paul was the pope then, and he was from Poland, and he saw what communism did, so he fought with Ronald Reagan against communism in Eastern Europe. What happened is in the 60s, critical theory, different elements in the Catholic Church in Latin America and South America embraced, they called it liberation theology, but it's all of the same talking points that we're hearing today. I was trained as a missionary. We had friends, people that led me to Christ, for example, all of them were serving in South America, Latin America, different countries down there, and all of them were facing this Marxist liberation theology.

Many of them, their lives were threatened. The Catholic priests, one of my friends gave a bunch of liquor to some of the locals there, gave them guns and said, now go kill those evangelicals over there. Very Marxist, very evil things happened. Well, what's so unique in our time is now there's a pope who has brought liberation theology to the Vatican. So it moved from the 60s in Latin America and South America, now it's in the Vatican, and the cardinals and other leaders that are being positioned who are going to choose the next pope, they're going to be embracing one that holds to liberation theology. Marxism, critical theory. Tom, the headline that startled me, you gave it in one of your presentations.

Pope Francis may be a pope in search of a partner. That's a five-year-old headline nonetheless. Wow, that just leaped out at me. It's so real. Yeah, that's an old headline.

But this is the direction they're going. I find this interesting with everything that Mark said. There was a Jesuit, his name was Father Malachi Martin. He wrote a book, I think it was called The Keys to His Blood. And in that, he talks about how corrupt, regardless of what you think about Malachi Martin or the Jesuits, regardless of that, he brings up some interesting points. And one of them was the spiritual corruption within the Vatican, and he's talking about when he was still alive, and the direction it was going, and the popes that would be elected.

So when you look at the pope looking for a partner, it just sits with everything that's being warned. Carlo Vignano, the Archbishop, who's been sounding the alarm all over the place about this. Allow me to read, I'm just reading a few paragraphs from an article. It's written by William Kirkpatrick, David Horowitz's front page mag, and we're going to refer here to Archbishop Vignano.

Let me read just a few paragraphs here. The title of the article, Pope Francis, A Wolf in Shepherd's Clothing, reads, You've heard of the deep state. Archbishop Vignano maintains that there is also a deep church, a network of progressive prelates who, together with Francis, plan to change the face of the church beyond recognition. Moreover, the deep state and the deep church reinforce each other.

A couple more paragraphs here. The deep church and deep state are nothing other than two parallel tracks which run in the same direction and have as their final destination the New World Order with its religion and its prophet. Vignano points out that although Francis is universally considered as the head of the church, he is at the same time a liquidator of the church.

A few more sentences here. The author, William Kirkpatrick, goes on to say, His dual role as pope and liquidator of the Catholic Church allows him, on the one hand, to demolish it with decrees and acts of governance, and on the other hand, to use the prestige that his office entails to establish and spread the new religion over the rubble of the old one. And then lastly, and I'm shortening the article, the new religion which Francis hopes to usher in is, according to Vignano, is a humanist and a progressive one, the religion of mankind, an ecumenical and ecological one.

This new religion will also result in the legitimization of evil and the persecution of good people. Lastly, Vignano wants to wake up the sheep, and so it seems quite fitting that he uses the strong language of the Bible to arouse people from slumber. The author concludes, while other bishops babble on about inclusivity, dialogue, and open-mindedness, it's somehow reassuring that at least one bishop, meaning Vignano, points to the very disturbing signs of the times. Tom Hughes, this archbishop Vignano, is a very intriguing guy. He is. He still has some of that Catholic theology.

Yes, he does. But what he's bringing out is insight and understanding that people need to be aware of. What I find fascinating is what he says coming from the inside is exactly what we are suspecting of the pope, what we are suspecting going on with the Vatican. And he coined the phrase, deep church.

Yes. It's so spot on for the reality of what's happening, whereas at the same time we are watching the American Protestant Church getting in lockstep with the Vatican and the pope, and you're looking, going, why are you doing this? Why are you in agreement with him?

It's because there's a spirit of deception that's here. Honestly, Jim, you go back to the apostate church, where we are right now, and this is all trending to only get worse down this path. So we're watching it all tied together, but the archbishop, he puts it into words that only he could. It took somebody like that from the inside to be able to say, this is what's going on and we're all able to see, yes, thank you for understanding and agreeing with us what we see and confirming our own understanding. Tom, right there, I'm taken back by what he said because there's two things that are really important that I see. One is the pope is speaking like he belongs in Davos, and I think there's two specific reasons why. One is he's rebuilding the church with a younger generation. This is the message that the younger generation wants to hear in America and around the world. We preach Jesus, we're going to preach something that appeals to the crowd.

That's number one. Number two is the Catholic pope and the Catholic Church has often, since the Reformation, been tied to the Antichrist, whether the pope is the Antichrist or whether he is the false prophet, for the last 550 years. And I've been attacked by different individuals over the years. How could you say something like that? Well, understand the Catholic Church has always seen itself as the one who's supposed to be over top of all of the governance of the world. I would suggest that this language that we hear the pope using, just like he was speaking at Davos, one is to appeal to the younger generation, and number two, this is the message of state leaders and he wants to lead in the state governance. We've seen it all through history.

I think we're seeing it again. You're listening to Understanding the Times Radio. I'm Jan Markell in studio with me, Pastor Mark Henry, Revived Church, Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Mark, your services are what time?

Nine, ten, and eleven. And you're senior pastor, correct? I've been the lead pastor there for six years now. Pastor Tom Hughes, 412 Church, San Jacinto, California, part of the Calvary Chapel stream. Tom will be here in Minneapolis Thursday, February 10th, 7 p.m. at Revived Church, formerly Brooklyn Park Evangelical Free Church, wonderful church. Tom will be with us on February 10th, 7 p.m., live stream it. markhenryministries.com You can tune in a little bit before 7 p.m. Central and we have some preliminary things that we show ahead of time.

Program starts at 7 p.m. I want to transition just a little bit here into the topic of deception. We'll just spend a few minutes because we're talking about signs of the times. I don't know what is more prominent right now than all the deception in the church, in the government. There's deception that even concerns the pandemic. It's possibly fulfilled to the essence in the tribulation.

But again, we're in a run up to that. I just want to play a quick clip. Pastor J.D. Farag, I'm trying to get him back on air here and he's been so busy.

Best I can do is to play a clip of J.D. as it concerns the issue of deception. And I think in exactly two minutes he sums up the dilemma that we are in as it concerns all the deception of our day. And oftentimes overlooked prophecy in the Bible is that of the demonic deception in the last days that we're told will blanket the entire earth and all the nations on earth. The Savior Himself lists deception and lies first and foremost when answering the disciples questions about the end of the age. It's in Matthew 24, a passage, a chapter familiar to most. I want to draw your attention to verses three and four.

We're told that as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. Tell us, they said, when will this happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? It's actually a twofold question.

But really, if you look at it closely, they're actually asking three questions. When will this happen? One. What will be the sign of your coming? Two. And what will be the sign of the end of the age?

Three. And then Jesus goes on to answer their questions. And we're told, verse four, Jesus answered, watch out that no one deceives you.

Right out of the shoe. First thing, deception. Okay, you guys, you want to know what's going to mark the last days? The first and foremost sign that will indicate that it's the time of the end, the end of the age and my coming. First thing, deception.

Tom Hughes, you talk about, both of you pastors talk about this frequently. The stage is being set today. The ultimate of this will be the deception of the Antichrist and the false prophet, which we've talked about here for almost an hour. And they are going to govern with total deception. But again, oh, my, how the stage is being set. Satan is called the father of lives. It's not surprising that everything he's doing in the last days is filled with deception and lies. And throughout the scriptures, four times we're told as Christians not to be deceived, not to be deceived. So we need to be alert, filled with the Spirit of God, walking in the truth, holding on the word of God and seeking God's face. Go ahead, Tom.

I look at it. Satan, he's the master deceiver, father of lies, as Mark said. I would say he's the master magician. And what's happening right now is people are being distracted by everything. It's really difficult to tell what's fake news, what's real news. The deception is only going to increase to the point, 2 Thessalonians, God says, I will send strong delusion among the people because they would not receive the love of the truth that they will believe the lie. So the deception is only going to increase as we move forward. But Satan is working behind the scenes to develop his beast system to install his person, the Antichrist. They are being deceived by everything. The master magician is saying, look at all of these things. So the fears are here, the deception is here, and the world is moving right along with it. And I'll tell you this, without God's word, 2 Peter 1, verse 19, the prophetic word shines a light in the dark place. Without God's word instructing us that these days were coming and what we should be doing right now, you wouldn't be able to tell what was fake and what was real. And so great will this deception continue to increase that Jesus says, if it's possible, even the elect would be deceived. I think this is the topic of the hour.

I really do. We referenced the Woke Church when we came into the program. But everywhere we look, as I said, in the government, in the church, in the world, in business, everywhere, it's deception, deception, deception. Mark Henry, what do you think will be the deception?

We're new in 2022 of this new year. We're going to hear more of the same, but I just want to give you an illustration of deception. I was talking with a friend who's a follower of Jesus. She's an Israeli guide.

And we were traveling around Israel and talking. She was born in Moscow, grew up under communism, grew up under Marxism. And she said, you know, the real success of the communist movement is their propaganda, their deception. She said we were told over and over, we're the most loving society, we're the most loving society. And it was just the very opposite. And you think about whether it's Pope Francis or someone at Davos, we talk about income discrepancies and narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor.

And yet these are the very same people when they say that and they sound so embracing. The truth is the pandemic has increased that gap. The middle class is being destroyed.

It's the exact opposite. The very top, the billionaires, their position financially has increased 24% through the pandemic. That is not true of the middle class. It's not true of the poor. More people have been pushed into poverty and it's only going to increase. This is what I tell people. When you hear someone who is not following Jesus, who doesn't love the Lord Jesus, who's talking all of these sound bites that we're hearing over and over and over again, the opposite is true of what they're telling you.

We are down to about five minutes, but I'd like us to go out of the program encouraging people because headlines are dark. People are losing employment. Families are divided.

Churches are divided. Jesus is coming. We don't know when. So we have to hang on a bit longer. How can we do this without losing hope? And we've talked about signs of the times this hour.

We've talked about all these nations of the world where things are going sideways and haywire. Tom, how would you wrap up this hour with hope? We need to remember what the signs do, what all signs do. Really, when Jesus was answering the question that JD was talking about, what's the sign of your coming, they're events.

So we are all experiencing the same events and your perspective is going to determine how you do, how well you do or how well you don't do. With that, it's understanding that the Lord gave us these signs so that we would know, not so we'd be discouraged, not so we'd be beat up. We're told repeatedly in the Bible, do not be afraid.

But Satan and manipulative people will use the fears to manipulate us and then we can pray to the deceit and we end up going in a really bad direction. But if we understand, well, wait a minute, these are signs, just like a stop sign tells me to stop, a sign that says, hey, bridge out ahead. The signs tell you what's coming and the signs also tell us what to do.

So that's what the signs do. And they tell us Jesus is coming, let's press forward and live for him. And in his own words, look up and lift up your heads because your redemption draws near. So we look up, we know that the Lord is in heaven. We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. But where Jesus also said, lift up your head, that's with excitement, with joy, because signs like all signs point to something else.

And sometimes the signs tell us, hey, we need to make adjustments. And if our perspective is wrong, we need to get the perspective on the Lord himself and we will be encouraged. One more thing I want to say also is nowhere in the Bible does it elude to in the smallest way that when you see these things begin to take place, hey, just don't do anything, don't get involved, don't go outside of your house, don't tell others about Jesus, just wait.

Coat leaders tell people to do stuff like that, just put on a robe and wait. But it's actually the opposite in the Bible. The Apostle Paul used the analogy of running in a race. And when you're running in a race, when you see the finish line, you run as if you're going to get the prize. Any Olympic runner, when they see the finish line, every single one of them, they're going faster than they were the entire rest of the race. They're trying to finish well.

Same way with the Christian. We're not told, hey, when you see these things start to take place, kick back, sit in the chair, don't go outside. Oh no, you press harder and faster than you ever did before. Folks, we can see the finish line. Jesus is going to be calling us home.

This is exciting. Now is the time to be involved in the race, going full speed ahead, our redemption draws near. Pastor Mark Henry, you've got a minute or so, wrap it up. Janice, I think about these events, I feel like Habakkuk. When you read that book, he was wondering, God, there's so many evil things. Then God tells him the Babylonians are coming and they're going to deal with the wickedness on the earth and the wickedness in Israel and Judah. And he's like, how can this be? And it says in the last chapter in chapter 16, it says, when I heard these things, my inward parts, they trembled. My lips quivered and my bones felt like they were coming apart.

You may be feeling that way right now. But remember this, do exactly what Habakkuk did. He said, even if the fig tree doesn't blossom and the vines don't produce anything and the olive trees have no fruit and the fields produce nothing, the flocks don't have any offspring, I will exalt the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord is my strength and do exactly what we've heard here today.

Keep pursuing Christ and exalting him. Want to contact my two guests? Do so at Hope For Our Times dot com. That's where you'll find Pastor Tom Hughes. Hope For Our Times dot com. Pastor Mark Henry, Revive Brooklyn Park dot org or Mark Henry Ministries dot com.

I want to go out of the program. I use this very often and some of you have it memorized. When the time was right, the sea part of the walls fell down. The sun stood still.

The waves were calm. The stone was rolled away. The clouds were parted. The Lord ascended. And when the time is right, the King of Kings will return. God is never early. He's never late.

He's always right on time. His plan for you is good. I want to thank you all for listening. We will talk to you again next week. We'll see you next week. Thank you. Thank you.