Armageddon

Armageddon Is a Different Kind of War

Zechariah 12: 2-3 covers the action of the war!
Armageddon is a different kind of war. All of the nations in the world will be involved. The events leading up to this battle have been predicted in the Bible – some of which have been fulfilled in this generation. In the Bible, we find a curious story replete with divine judgment.
Zechariah 12:2-3 covers the action of the war and gives in ominous tones the perennial hazards of making war on Jerusalem and Israel: “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.”
“And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zechariah 12: 2 & 3).
All those who tangle with Jerusalem will be “cut in pieces” indeed, and then some! Despite the best efforts of the world’s most capable and fanatic invaders through 4,000 years of bloody conflict, Jerusalem has survived, and it will continue to survive.
The armies of the world will come together to do their fearsome work – in the valley of Megiddo in quiet Galilee. In that valley, “called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon,” at least two hundred million soldiers, armed with the ultimate weapons of war, will stage mankind’s most effective attempt at suicide. Blood will flow, according to Revelation 14:20, “up to the bridles of the horses.”
Jerusalem, nearly 100 miles away from the combat zone, will not be spared the effects of this horrifying conflict. Zechariah 14:2 laments: “The city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity” (Zechariah 14:2).
Considering the pure numbers of the invading forces, no portion of little Israel will be safe from actual combat. And Jerusalem, God’s city, veteran of invasions, rapings, and lootings from time immemorial, will have to endure this one last catastrophe.
But in this final hour of terrible conflict, something miraculous will transpire among the people of Israel. Pressed to the wall; with their Promised Land torn apart by a vicious war; with their historic fears of national annihilation coming to reality before their eyes…
…the Jews turn to God.
They have always done this, but in this case,
they turn to their Messiah at last!
Jesus said clearly enough in John 14:6: “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”
In a time when their need for divine help is greater than ever before, the Jewish people will turn to their native Son, the Carpenter of Nazareth. Jesus will be accepted as the true Messiah of Israel.
Isaiah 53 (the conscience of the Jewish people) will be read with a new understanding in Israel.
“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not…But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.”
Whether out of the desperation of the tragic moment, or from the testimony of the Christian witnesses, or from a national realization that disaster has ever followed the Jews since the time of Christ, the Jewish nation will completely awaken to Christ. They will finally say, “Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord.”
This is the password to salvation for the Jews. Jesus told them while He was on the subject of the destruction of Jerusalem in His prophecy recorded in Matthew 23:37-39 that He would not return until they welcomed Him in the words of Psalm 118:26: “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
It will be the greatest spiritual awakening in all of history as the Jewish people come to Christ by the millions. It will be a true Day of Atonement in Israel as Zechariah 13:1 prophesies: “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness.” Also, Romans 11:26 says, “And so all Israel will be saved.”
God is practical. He promised deliverance to Israel when the nation is faithful. He demonstrated this by bringing them out of Egypt with a miraculous deliverance in the time of Moses. He will do no less in the time of the Armageddon.
The Jewish people will receive Christ. There will be no time to build a lot of churches or to ponder a lot of Scripture when Armageddon is going on in your land! The nation will be saved, as a nation, instanteously – and on the battlefield. It is as if an electric current of truth is shot through everyone at once.
God’s rewards are immediate. The tide of Armageddon will change abruptly as the Lord empowers Israel with new-found military strength. The weakest buck private in the field will fight like King David, and the generals will be like God in battle, as Zechariah 12:8-9 describes it: “In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God. “…and it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12: 8-9).
The Israelis have been tough before – in the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War, but the world hasn’t seen anything yet. The Lord Himself will come to lead His people in this final world war according to Zechariah 14: 3-4: “Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives” (Zachariah 14: 3-4).
Jesus will return to His beloved Mount of Olives, adjacent to the Jerusalem Temple site, where He used to retire in the evenings for prayer. And cataclysmic things will happen. Militarily, those who attacked Jerusalem are in for a bad time of it, to say the least. Zechariah 14:12 says: “…the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.”
John’s description in Revelation 19:11 & 14 sees a magnificent scene of Jesus arriving on a white horse at the head of a heavenly army: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war…And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.”
Revelation 19 goes on to picture fowls eating the flesh of kings, captains, and mighty men. The antichrist “and the kings of the earth, and their armies” in verse 19 attempt war with Christ and His heavenly troops with predictable outcome. John sees no scenes of lengthy battle, and Revelation goes immediately to the disposal of the antichrist and his schemes for world domination. He gets the “lake of fire” in verse 20: “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.”
The troops of the antichrist, who represent the enormous armies of the Gentile nations of the world (told of in verse 21), are “slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse…and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.”
This supernatural ending to the Battle of Armageddon is not new in biblical accounts. We may say that there are natural wars and supernatural wars in connection with Jewish history, which is the story of a people whose destiny is controlled by God. The deliverance of the Jews from Egypt showed the loss of the Egyptian forces when they tried to cross the Red Sea on the dry land used by the Jews.
David experienced a supernatural victory over Goliath in response to his faithfulness. Joshua demolished the walls of Jericho with trumpets. The Maccabees experienced the miraculous touch of God when they defeated Antiochus and rededicated the Second Temple.
Armageddon follows suit, demonstrating that God responds to true faith. When the Gentile nations first march against the Holy Land, they certainly have no fear of the little Israeli army. They plunder Jerusalem and set up their blood-letting in Galilee, indifferent to the great people whose land they desecrate.
But what a different story when the Jews turn to Christ! How shocking for the Gentiles to suddenly face an army of King Davids with Jesus Christ at the head of it!
We have heard of supernatural events in Israel’s recent wars with the Arabs, but the final conflict will be the most spectacular and supernatural war in history. On that occasion, the issue will be atheism versus faith in God, and as we have seen, God takes a hand in it. It is a picture of vicious Armageddon.
Armageddon, thankfully, is the end of every kind of war. It marks the return of Jesus to the earth for an extended stay and a new kingdom.
The great age of “peace on earth, good will toward men” will be ushered in at the climax of Armageddon, and Jesus Christ will be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords!
By J.R. Church|September 28th, 2019|Tags: Armageddon, Bible, Prophecy, War, Zechariah

September 28, 2019
Written by: J.R. Church

 

 

Jesus Is Coming

John 14:3 King James Version (KJV)
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 King James Version (KJV)
For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

There was a story of a Christian salesman, who was asked of his occupation.  His noble reply was, “I’m waiting for the Lord from heaven.  In the meantime, I’m selling buttons to pay expenses.”  -Curtis Thigpen

Christ the Lord will come again, None shall wait for Him in vain; We shall then His glory see; He who died to set us free.  -J. Swain

The United Nations Would Destroy The United States Of America

The U.N. Arms Treaty Resolution would allow the government to confiscate all weaponry from citizens of the United States of America.

Furthermore, the United Nations would like to force LGBTQ beliefs on all people, and forever take away our freedoms of religion and worship.  This is obviously a precursor to the New World Order and the Tribulation Period for those with spiritual eyes to see.  Amazingly, two of the last holdout nations with laws against sodomy, are Russia and Uganda, although pressure from the global elites is mounted against them.  Amazing.  Who would have thought?     Maranatha, Pastor Steve  <><

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By Jonathon Van Maren/Bridgehead.ca September 27, 2019

UN Expert Calls For Action Against Religions That Don’t Embrace LGBT Rights

While most of us ignore what is going on at the United Nations what gets decided at the top trickles down–and that activists with no elected power can actually effect an incredible amount of change without anyone ever hearing their names in the news or on the radio.

ARTICLE
UN Expert Calls For Action Against Religions That Don’t Embrace LGBT Rights
By Jonathon Van Maren/Bridgehead.ca September 27, 2019

Those of you who follow my weekly podcast over at LifeSiteNews will know that Austin Ruse of C-Fam is, hands-down, one of the most effective advocates for life and family on the international level.

While most of us ignore what is going on at the United Nations, Ruse made the compelling point during our interview that eventually, what gets decided at the top trickles down–and that activists with no elected power can actually effect an incredible amount of change without anyone ever hearing their names in the news or on the radio.

LGBT activists and abortion activists have been consistently making use of these opportunities, and Ruse and a handful of his colleagues have been fighting back.

With that context in mind, C-Fam’s latest report is very, very concerning:

A UN expert charged with promoting LGBT rights around the world called on governments to take action against religions that don’t embrace LGBT rights. In his latest report to the General Assembly, Victor Madrigal-Borloz said, “States should adopt decisive action when religious authorities, leaders or agents infringe on the rights of LGBT persons through violence and discrimination, including hate speech.”

Hate speech, as you know, is now a term that encompasses virtually everything that LGBT activists disagree with, including substantial portions of Holy Scripture and the religious texts of all three major monogamous religions.

“Born this way” is facing off with “ye must be born again” and our new progressive secularism is appalled that any person might be asked to refrain from any behavior by any religious tradition. And so religion must be suppressed in favor of the new rainbow dogmas–and censorship has a disturbing amount of support among Millennials. More:

In his report Madrigal-Borloz, the UN Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, equates any kind of religious or political narrative that does not endorse LGBT rights with incitement to violence. He calls on governments to respond forcefully.

“There is abundant information about the dissemination of expressions that constitute hate speech by representatives of churches and faith-based groups, and incitement often leads to actions that infringe on other rights, including the right to personal integrity,” Madrigal-Borloz says in his report.

Madrigal-Borloz adds that “incitement and actual violence is enabled or carried out by religious leaders or agents in many ways. In some contexts, it is religion that is used as an explanation for the imposition of penalties that include the death penalty for homosexuality.”

The report highlights only one case of what it characterizes as religious incitement to violence against individuals who identify as LGBT. An LGBT pride event was prevented from taking place in Tiblisi, Georgia in 2013 after the Orthodox Patriarch asked authorities to block it.

When the government would not cancel the event, thousands of protesters took to the streets to stop it. The UN report blames the Orthodox Church for the confrontations that ensued at that event, and that resulted in injuries to 17 people, including three police officers and two journalists.

Madrigal-Borloz’s report also laments cultural expressions “that can lead to increased psychological distress for LGBT persons” like Jamaican dancehall music because it “often speaks of beating and shooting gay men” and “appears to play a role in promoting anti-gay violence.”

The report’s overall theme is social inclusion. It calls on states to adopt a panoply of laws and policies to prevent discrimination against individuals who identify as LGBT in a variety of contexts including education, health-care, humanitarian interventions, disabilities, and aging.

The report recommends including gender-neutral bathrooms in humanitarian camps. It recommends the adoption of “comprehensive sexuality education” that calls for kids to learn about masturbation and homosexuality.

The report also calls for the legal recognition of same-sex couples in contexts such as housing an employment. And it calls for reparations for past “pathologization, criminalization or any other stigmatizing processes.”

The creation of Madrigal-Borloz’s mandate three years ago resulted in a contentious vote in the General Assembly that nearly abolished it. “Sexual orientation” and “gender identity” have never been protected categories in international law. The establishment of the mandate is a stepping stone to make that a reality.

The mandate was renewed this summer for another three years despite another contentious vote. But resistance to the mandate has waned since 2016. It is unclear if the mandate will be challenged again in the General Assembly as it was three years ago when it was first created.

Now, obviously, there are many nations around the world that actually engage in genuine persecution against people who identify as LGBT. Iran is one prominent example, and there are thirteen countries where engaging in homosexual behavior is punishable by death, an appalling state of affairs (and one that almost always gets ignored at the UN in favor of more condemnations of the State of Israel.)

World leaders should absolutely be speaking up and condemning such behavior, and the Trump Administration has taken a firm stance on the global stage against such practices.

But LGBT activists want far more than a condemnation of genuine persecution, which, interestingly, is rarely brought up by activists in the West–in fact, they are more likely to side with Palestinian groups who despise them than they are with Israeli groups who support them (the Left’s contradictions are both bewildering and never-ending.)

This is a very typical strategy on their part: Bring up legitimate persecution to appear reasonable, and then insert a host of poison pills that allow them to shut down their critics.

They specifically want Christian pastors and leaders to be silenced, Christian adoption agencies shut down, and Christians driven out of the public square.

They are using the UN to accomplish this goal, and we should be watching the work of Austin Ruse and C-Fam very carefully. Often, he is the only one pushing back against the tide.

Originally published at The Bridgehead – reposted with permission.

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=3500#iod9ag2FqP9fVaIO.99

A Military Game Changer With Apocalyptic Implications

Breaking News Updates – September 16, 2019

Drone Warfare/Terrorism Only Just Beginning

By PNW Staff September 16, 2019

Drone Warfare/Terrorism Only Just Beginning

The vulnerability of infrastructure to drone terrorism was just laid bare this week as ten drones launched by Iran-backed militants sparked a huge fire at the world’s largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia resulting in a 50% cut to oil production.

The vulnerability of infrastructure to drone terrorism was just laid bare this week as ten drones launched by Iran-backed militants sparked a huge fire at the world’s largest oil processing facility and a major oilfield in Saudi Arabia where over 5 percent of the world’s daily supply is produced.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels, considered an Iranian proxy force in the region, have claimed responsibility for the attacks at Abqaiq in Buqayq, which contains the world’s largest oil processing plant, and Khurais, which contains the country’s second largest oilfield.

The fires have now been brought under control but the disruption is still expected to have an impact on oil prices around the world as the flow of oil is disrupted with some estimates suggesting 50% of Saudi output could be temporarily affected.

Last week Hamas militants used a drone to drop a bomb on the Israeli side of the Gaza-Israel perimeter fence hitting a military vehicle, marking the first time an attack occurred with a drone piloted from Gaza.

During the same time period Hezbollah shot down an Israeli drone performing reconnaissance over Lebanon and last month Iran shot down a US drone flying over the Strait of Hormuz, almost sparking a larger conflict.

Drone and anti-drone conflict is on the rise worldwide and many experts fear the use of weaponized drones by lone individuals or small groups–some acting as proxies of nation-states, on US soil is only a matter of time.

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have declared unmanned aerial systems, or drones, as one of the greatest national security threats to America — rating it as severe a concern as cybersecurity hacks, critical infrastructure attacks, and terrorism.

Civilian drones pose a “steadily escalating threat,” as the devices are likely to be used by terrorists, criminal groups or drug cartels to carry out attacks in the U.S., FBI Director Christopher Wray previously told a Senate committee.

“The FBI assesses that, given their retail availability, lack of verified identification requirement to procure, general ease of use, and prior use overseas,” drones will be used in an attack in the U.S. including “a mass gathering,” Wray said.

One nightmare scenario universally feared by law enforcement and security services is the use of a small drone to deliver chemical or biological agents in an attack. It is already well-established that al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups have long sought to engineer a spectacular attack in the West using weapons of mass destruction.

The possibility that drones could be used to disperse deadly agents or viruses over public gatherings is a harrowing prospect. Even if a drone attack fails to result in large numbers of fatalities, the attempt could still achieve an attacker’s goal of perpetuating the psychological dimension of terrorism.

Sporting events are undoubtedly one of the top targets for a drone attack. Upwards of 100,000 people attend college football games. Open air stadiums used for football, soccer, baseball and other events such as music concerts are more vulnerable than domed stadiums as the crowd, players and coaches are not protected by a shield above.

Drones are already used by transnational criminal syndicates and drug cartels. On the U.S.-Mexico border, drones are being used to spy on federal law enforcement operations and smuggle contraband through the sky. The first drug smuggling incident via drone was documented in Nov. 2015. Now, it’s a daily occurrence in some regions of the southern border, but it’s rarely reported because they are unable to seize the devices and arrests are rare.

Many countries are now using armed drones in combat–Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey have recently done so–the chances for sophisticated drone technology getting into the wrong hands increases exponentially.

If a terrorist group can steal or purchase a drone from a rogue state or corrupt military or intelligence officials, then they could rely on the myriad online videos posted that essentially demonstrate how these unmanned systems could be used to conduct an attack.

In Syria, the Islamic State has successfully used drones to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance in addition to carrying out offensive actions like dropping explosives on an adversary’s military base.

The most well known drone attack was the attempt last year to assassinate Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. That the drones were able to get so close to the leader at a public outdoor event in Caracas, Venezuela, speaks to how easy drones are to use–and how difficult they are to defend against.

The most recent attack in Saudi Arabia was only 10 drones. More advanced militaries in China and Russia have already shown that drone swarms of 100 or more controlled by AI are possible and how they can defeat almost any defensive measure currently available.

It is clear that a new era of warfare (& terrorism) is just getting started and we should expect more drone related conflicts in the days ahead

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=3471#KGRiJ7ISk6BIx7w5.99

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Imagine this scenario:  Hundreds or even thousands of drones laced with missiles and even atomic power, flying in unison like locusts towards an aircraft carrier.  What will stop them from destroying the vessel?  Only some of the drones could be destroyed, and they could not all possibly be shot down.  Praise the Lord for the unseen and “off the radar” military vessel – the submarine.  Their crews are not even privy to their destinations prior to departure.  Their locations are classified, and they are inaccessible to drones.  Blessings, Pastor Steve  <><

Any Christian Truly Born From Above, Will Suffer Persecution

2 Timothy 3:12 New King James Version (NKJV)
Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

Paul and the early church believed that commitment to Christ meant enmity from the world.  Early in the history of the church, the full might of the Roman Empire was exerted in state-sponsored persecution of Christians.  The experience of many believers (then and through the ages) is that living in a godly manner does not bring reward but abuse.  Today Christianity is the most widely persecuted faith in the world and yet the church of God is growing at a fast rate.  Let us always be ready to lay down our lives for the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.   -Paul Young

There is a name I love to hear, I love to sing its worth; It sounds like music in mine ear, The sweetest name on earth.   -Frederick Whitfield

Many Professing Christians Are Headed For Hell

Real Salvation = Ye Must Be Born Again (John 3:3)  /  Repentance  /  Turn  /  Die To Yourself

Nowhere in the Bible will one find the “Sinner’s Prayer” as the path to salvation.  Responding to a mere altar call followed by no change in your life, indicates that you are probably still are lost.

Pastor Steve  <><

2 Corinthians 5:17 New King James Version (NKJV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Many Christians are headed to hell – Francis Chan (a true man of God)

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Why Francis Chan Left His Megachurch

The Sword Of The Lord ~ Dr. Shelton, Editor ~ August 23, 2019

Judges 7:20 King James Version (KJV)
And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

An Independent Christian Publication, Standing for the Verbal Inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, His Blood Atonement, Salvation by Faith, New Testament Soul Winning and the Premillennial Return of Christ; Opposing Modernism (Liberalism), Worldliness and Formalism.

The Amen Corner

Worship is no longer worship when it reflects the culture around us more than the Christ within us.  -A. W. Tozer

It is a poor sermon that gives no offense, that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher.  -George Whitefield

Liberty has never come from the government: it has always come from the subjects of it.  The history of liberty is a history of limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.  -Woodrow Wilson

No man is fitted for a pulpit ministration of the Word merely because he is physically in fine fettle and mentally equipped.  Preaching demands body and mind, but still more, an attuned spirit.  -W. B. Riley

Live near to God and so all things will appear to you little in comparison with eternal realities.  -Robert M. M’Cheyne

Better faithful than famous; honor before prominence.  -Theodore Roosevelt

The bank note without a signature at the bottom is nothing but a worthless piece of paper.  The stroke of a pen confers on it all its value.  The prayer of a poor child of Adam is a feeble thing in itself; but once endorsed by the hand of the Lord Jesus, it availeth much.  -J. C. Ryle

A returning penitent, though formerly bad as the worst of men, may by grace become as good as the best.  -John Bunyan

You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals.  -Booker T. Washington

Learning does not necessarily better men morally.  Satan knows more than any of us, yet he is not improved by all he knows.  An educated villain has all the more tools at his command with which to do evil.  -Charles Spurgeon

The highest earthly enjoyments are but a shadow of the joy I find in reading God’s Word.  -Lady Jane Grey

There are two words with which we may comfort ourselves and one another in reference to the mismanagement of power among men: one is ‘hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth’; the other is  “surely I come quickly.”  -Matthew Henry

Louisiana Public Schools Will Display ‘In God We Trust’ Beginning This School Year

Louisiana Public Schools Will Display ‘In God We Trust’ Beginning This School Year
August 16, 2019

Public school students in Louisiana will see the motto “In God We Trust” when they return to class this year.
A bill signed into law by Governor John Bel Edwards in May 2018 will require the state’s public schools to display the motto “in each building it uses and in each school under its jurisdiction” by the 2019-2020 school year.
The law, first introduced in March 2018 as Senate Bill 224 by Democratic State Senator Regina Ashford Barrow, said that the way the motto was displayed would be “determined by each governing authority” but needed to be at least a paper sign.
The law also included a requirement that students be educated about the U.S. flag and “patriotic customs” by fifth grade, as part of their social studies curriculum. Instruction about “In God We Trust” would be included with the patriotic customs.
“This is our national motto. It’s also on our currency. So I think it’s really important that we ensure that young people understand the patriotic history of our country and how it was founded and its purpose,” Barrow said while discussing the bill in the Louisiana Senate chamber in April of 2018.
Passage of the bill was approved by a 33-0 vote in the Senate, and a 93-0 vote in the House before it was signed by the governor.
Louisiana is not the only state where public schools will be required to display the motto this year.
Public school students in South Dakota will also see the motto in their schools after a bill signed by the state’s governor, Kristi Noem, took effect in July.
Kentucky will also require public elementary and secondary schools to display the motto “in a prominent location in the school,” according to a bill signed into law by Gov. Matt Bevin in March.
The motto was first placed on U.S. coins “largely because of the increased religious sentiment existing during the Civil War,” and appeared for the first time on the 1864 two-cent coin, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. A law passed in July 1956 declared “In God We Trust” the national motto of the U.S.
Source: ABC News
By Prophecy in the News|August 16th, 2019|Tags: Bible Prophecy, Christian News, Governor John Bel Edwards, In God We Trust, Louisiana Public Schools, Prophecy News, Prophetic News, Religious Freedom

Charles Dickens

Thought for the day…

 

This Is What Social Media Is Doing To Us

By Michael Snyder/Economic Collapse Blog September 16, 2019

Scientific study after scientific study is showing that too much time on social media can be extremely harmful both mentally and physically. But even though most of us know this, very few of us actually alter our behavior in a meaningful way.

When Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and other major social media platforms first emerged, we welcomed them with open arms. They were a lot of fun and they allowed us to interact with family, friends and society as a whole in ways that we had never been able to do before.

But they were also extremely addictive, and they rapidly became transformed into dumping grounds for just about everything toxic, negative and malevolent that you can possibly imagine. Today, many of us spend far more time on social media than we do with real people, and as you will see below, that has enormous implications for our future.

A growing body of scientific research clearly indicates that spending too much time on social media can be very bad for us. For example, just consider what a long-term study that was conducted by Gallup over a period of two years ultimately concluded…

Holly Shakya, assistant professor at UC San Diego, and Yale professor Nicholas Christakis spent two years following 5,208 adults who are part of a Gallup long-term study. After asking permission, they monitored these subjects’ Facebook use directly from Facebook, rather than asking subjects to report their own use. (People often don’t realize how much time they spend on the social network.)

And they checked in with subjects on their emotional and physical well-being, as well as their body-mass index (BMI), three times over the course of two years.

“Overall, our results showed that, while real-world social networks were positively associated with overall well-being, the use of Facebook was negatively associated with overall well-being,” the researchers wrote in a Harvard Business Review article. “These results were particularly strong for mental health; most measures of Facebook use in one year predicted a decrease in mental health in a later year.”

That doesn’t sound good at all.

If you knew that something was going to consistently degrade both your mental and physical well-being, would you engage in that activity every single day?

And yet most of us simply cannot go 24 hours without checking our social media accounts.

One way that social media is affecting our mental health is that it is making all of us a whole lot more impatient. Just check out what a survey of 2,000 British adults found…

Patience is a virtue, but it’s becoming an exceedingly rare quality in modern society. According to a new survey of 2,000 British adults, all of the luxuries of modern life have made most people incredibly impatient — across pretty much every aspect of their lives. Three quarters of those surveyed said they believe the dominance of digital technology, such as smartphones and on-demand TVs, are to blame for this ever growing lack of patience.

Respondents reported becoming frustrated after just 16 seconds of waiting for a web page to load, and after 25 seconds of waiting for a traffic light to change.

When I read those paragraphs, I found myself nodding my head in agreement.

These days, I have a hard time waiting for anything, and I always feel like I am in a hurry.

Can you identify with that?

I have a feeling that many of you can.

Another study that focused on teens found that “emotional investment in social media was strongly correlated with higher levels of anxiety”…

A study of more than 450 youth aged 11 to 17 found that 97 percent of participants indicated that they used social media. Thirty-five percent of participants were categorized as poor sleepers.

Forty-seven percent of participants were identified as anxious. Also (and here’s the kicker), higher emotional investment in social media was strongly correlated with higher levels of anxiety.

Do we really want our young people to be bundles of nerves? Anxiety continues to be a growing problem in our society, and it appears that social media is playing a major role.

In addition, yet another study that was conducted not too long ago discovered a direct link between social media use and increased levels of depression and loneliness…

A new study concludes that there is in fact a causal link between the use of social media and negative effects on well-being, primarily depression and loneliness. The study was published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.

“What we found overall is that if you use less social media, you are actually less depressed and less lonely, meaning that the decreased social media use is what causes that qualitative shift in your well-being,” said Jordyn Young, a co-author of the paper and a senior at the University of Pennsylvania.

Today, Americans take more anti-depressants than anyone else on the entire planet. “Deaths of despair” have hit an all-time record high in our nation, and all around us people seem so incredibly unhappy.

One of the biggest reasons for all of this unhappiness is the fact that we are all so isolated. According to a recent YouGov poll, over 20% of American Millennials say “that they don’t have a single friend”…

More than 20% of millennials surveyed in a YouGov poll released this week claimed that they don’t have a single friend. And less than a third of millennials said they have double-digit friends, according to the data, culled online in early July.

Even if younger Americans are overstating their isolation, the jarring numbers reflect long-term rising trends in loneliness. Studies have indicated that loneliness has myriad negative mental and physical health effects.

Of course if we all weren’t staring at screens all day long we would have much more time to make real friends in the real world.

But instead we find much more value in the online world that we have created, and at this point the average adult in the U.S. spends six hours and 43 minutes a day staring at a screen…

Perhaps it’s no surprise then that Americans spend nearly half of their waking hours looking at screens, according to a survey of 2,000 adults.

More specifically, the survey found that 42% of the time Americans are awake, their eyes are fixated on a television, smartphone, computer, tablet, or other device. Supposing the average American slept eight hours a night (not even close to the case for most adults), the researchers calculated that people spend about six hours and 43 minutes a day staring at a screen. Over a typical lifespan, that’s 7,956 days.

Another survey discovered that 45 percent of teens say that they are online “almost constantly”. We have decided that it is the online world that really matters, but that is not true at all. Life is supposed to be an adventure, but we will never live life to the fullest if we are all staring at screens endlessly day after day.

Sadly, the truth is that social media is not going anywhere. The big social media companies are going to just keep coming up with more ways to make their products addicting, and most of us will be sucked into the vortex without any resistance whatsoever.

But hopefully the awakening regarding the harmful effects of social media will continue to grow, and hopefully more Americans will start choosing to make healthier choices regarding how they use their time.

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=3470#z6EebGMexhoLM7tI.99