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Cover Story
BY IRVIN
I
BAXTER JR.
t’s a picture that will be forever stamped indelibly upon my brain. The 747 Jet cut into the World Trade Center like a hot knife slicing into warm butter. I’d never seen anything quite like it. The first question that sprang to my mind: “Was this an accident, or was this some kind of deliberate attack?” It wasn’t long until that question was answered. The second plane plowed into Trade Tower #2. Then came the news reports disclosing that there were at least two more airplanes under the control of hijackers…and possibly more. “What kind of madmen could purposefully fly a plane loaded with innocent individuals into a skyscraper where men and women were simply going about their daily jobs?” What in the world was going on here? That was my initial reaction to the suicide attacks of 9/11. I’m sure you remember yours. Of course, as we look back, we now know who was responsible and what their motives were.
Since the attack on America, we’ve heard it over and over. The world will never be the same. Things had changed forever. And somehow, we all sensed that it was true. A fundamental shift had taken place in our world. Governmental intrusions into our private lives that would have been absolutely intolerable previously were suddenly being accepted without so much as a whimper. We’ve now had one year to recover from the shock of 3,000 innocent victims being suddenly snuffed out by religioncrazed extremists. We are all still grappling with nagging questions. How have the events of 9/11 changed our world? What changes should we accept, and which ones should we reject? How much freedom are we willing to surrender in exchange for promises of security? Most importantly, where is God in all of this? And have the events of 9/11 accelerated the prophetic fulfillments that are leading to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ? In order to answer these questions, let’s take a look at the major prophecies that were directly impacted by 9/11. They are:
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1. The coming of World War III in which 2 billion people will die 2. An agreement between Israel and the World Community concerning the Middle East 3. The emergence of a system of world government 4. A global belief system that will teach respect for all religions 5. A cashless society where people will need a number in order to participate in the economy
One-third of mankind will die The prophecy has stared back at us from the pages of Revelation 9:13-16 for 2,000 years. Its words echo like a haunting harbinger of apocalyptic events to come. It speaks of a war that will “slay the third part of men.” We are challenged to think the unthinkable. One-third of mankind wiped out in a single war? World War I with its 8.2 million fatalities didn’t even come close. World War II and its unprecedented 52 million deaths only amounted to about 1.7% of the population of that time. The prophecy we are considering speaks of a future
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war that will kill one human being out of every three on the planet! And there are very convincing reasons to believe that the September 11, 2001 attack on America by the 19 Muslim extremists may have unleashed the forces that will soon throw mankind into the abyss of World War III with its prophesied two billion fatalities. Why should anyone think that the suicide attacks of 9/11 could have been the beginning of the prophesied war of Revelation 9?
Two major clues We are given two major clues as to the identity of the force that will trigger the horrific war that will kill one-third of mankind. Revelation 9:16 tells us that the army participating in the coming war will number 200 million. There are three powers on this earth that could field an army of 200 million. Mao Tse Tung, the late leader of China, boasted in his diary that he could field an army of 200 million—the exact number in the prophecy. China’s total population is presently at 1.3 billion. The CIA Fact
Book of 2001 states that China now has 201 million men of military age (15-49). India’s population of 1 billion is growing twice as fast as China’s. This is quickly bringing India to the point that she could possess the prophesied number of soldiers, if she doesn’t already. The last possible source of the 200 million-man army is the Muslim world. The present world population of Muslims stands at 1.2 billion, very close to the population of China. It is obvious that Muslims could supply the prophesied 200 million men for the fulfillment of the prophecy. So it seems certain that China, India or the Muslim world will be the initiator of the prophesied war that will destroy onethird of mankind. The second clue concerning the perpetrator of the coming Third World War is given in Revelation 9:14-15, “Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and
a year, for to slay the third part of men.” What does the Euphrates River have to do with the coming apocalyptic war? World Book Encyclopedia depicts the Euphrates River as beginning in Turkey, flowing through Syria, then through Iraq, and finally emptying into the Persian Gulf. Every single country through which the Euphrates flows is a Muslim country. The Euphrates River is an exclusively Muslim River! Verse 14 speaks of four angels bound in the Euphrates River. What could this mean? Hebrews 1:13-14 states that angels are spirits. We know that there are obedient angels and there are rebellious angels. Scripture teaches us that one-third of the angels of heaven joined Satan in his rebellion against God Himself. Would it then be possible that the angels of the Euphrates are evil spirits that have been held in check until the appointed time? Could these spirits be the spirits of militant Islam? As we have discussed, three powers on earth could possibly field an army of 200 million. But only one of the three can lay claim to a special relationship with the Euphrates River. If the Muslims are to supply the 200 million-man army that triggers World War III, and if the spirits symbolically locked in the Euphrates are the spirits of militant Islam, then it is very likely that the spirits were loosed from the Euphrates on 9/11 when nineteen radical Islamists hijacked four airplanes (coincides with four angels?) for the purpose of attacking America. If these things are true, then the war that will kill two billion people began on September 11, 2001. It should be noticed that nearly every conflict on earth today is being fueled by militant Muslims. In the conflict between India and Pakistan, the Muslims are the force that is stirring up the strife over Kashmir. The conflict presently brewing in the Philippines is being fueled by Muslims. In the Middle East, the Muslims are challenging Israel’s right to exist and have laid claim to the heart of Jerusalem—the Temple Mount. And of course, all 19 hijackers that perpetrated the horrendous attacks of 9/11 were Muslims. Immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks, President Bush said that the United States was declaring war on
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Cover Story AP Photo/Reggie Lewis
terrorism. He said it would be a long war, possibly lasting as long as ten years. All the talk is presently focused on the planned attack against Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Some observers believe that Saddam will draw Israel into the coming war, and that this will precipitate the entrance of other Muslim countries into the conflict against Israel and the United States. The possible scenario closely resembles the prophecy of Revelation 9:13-16. All reports are saying that the U.S. will attack Iraq within the next twelve months. If things play out as many people think they will, it is entirely possible that we could see the fulfillment of Revelation 9 within the next year.
Antichrist and world community reaches agreement with Israel On the day the Trade Towers came down and the Pentagon went up in flames, video footage of Palestinians dancing in the streets in celebration was shown around the world. But the scenes were only shown that one day. They disappeared from public sight as quickly as they had come. Why? Yasser Arafat arrested the photographers that had recorded the footage. He confiscated the video coverage in their possession and demanded that their news services discontinue showing the footage that had already been sent to them. He menacingly suggested that he could not insure the photographers’ safety if their news services did not comply. In response to his death threat, the footage was pulled. Understanding the tremendous public relations damage that these scenes could produce, Arafat quickly went to a nearby clinic to donate blood for the victims of the attack on America. This magnanimous gesture was openly recorded on video for the whole world to see. This footage was not pulled. However, the damage was done. It must be understood that Arafat’s star had been in decline for some time before September 11, 2001. In July of 2000, President Clinton had invited Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Barak to Camp David in an attempt to finally settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Barak shocked the world by offering Arafat more than anyone thought an Israeli
“Ground Zero” one year later.
Prime Minister ever would or could. He offered to re-divide Jerusalem, share the Temple Mount and create a Palestinian state. The only thing more shocking than Barak’s offer was Arafat’s reply. “We’ll take all of that, but we also must return 3 million Palestinian refugees to the heartland of Israel—to Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Slowly the realization began to dawn on President Clinton. This demand would result in the destruction of the nation of Israel. The Israeli hard-liners had been right all the time when they had said that Arafat didn’t want peace with Israel—that his ultimate goal was only the destruction of the State of Israel. This truth was further driven home in January of 2001 when a desperate Barak, facing an election he was losing, offered to totally surrender the entire Temple Mount forever to Palestinian control in exchange for a final settlement. Again, the offer was rejected by Arafat. Arafat responded to the most generous peace offer he could ever expect to receive from Israel by launching a new reign of terror. Suicide bombers began to walk onto Israeli buses, into shopping malls, into restaurants…anyplace to kill as many Israelis as possible. If women and children were killed, so much the better. The shock value and the creation of terror
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among the Israeli populace were greater with these types of victims. Slowly but surely, the negatives of Yasser Arafat began to outweigh his image as a champion of a displaced and downtrodden people. Arafat could no longer contend that he was willing to make peace. He had just turned down the best peace offer he could ever hope for— an offer that most of the world thought he should have jumped at. Arafat had contended that the terror attacks against Israel were not really terrorism. He stated that the suicide bombers were waging a war of liberation against an occupying force. However, these arguments rang hollow since he had just turned down an offer by the occupying force to withdraw if peace would result. The contention that Palestinians were not involved in terrorism and did not favor terrorism lost all credibility when President Bush saw the video of Palestinians dancing and celebrating on the day that the 19 Muslims killed 3,000 Americans. And make no mistake about it—President Bush saw the footage! The straw that broke the camel’s back occurred in January of 2002. U.S. satellites spotted an Iranian ship, near the coast of Iran, transferring armaments to another ship. That ship was tracked by the U.S. until it entered the waters of the
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Red Sea. When it became obvious that the armaments were headed for Palestinian territory, Israel was notified. Israeli commandos boarded the ship, confiscating 50 tons of illegal armaments— weapons that Arafat had agreed in the Oslo Agreement not to possess. Included in the illegal armaments was the powder used to create the suicide belts used to kill innocent women and children. The prophecy of Daniel 9:27 states that the Antichrist will confirm a covenant with Israel. Since the Antichrist will be the leader of the international community, it follows that the international community will confirm a covenant with Israel. The most prominent covenant in the Old Testament was God’s covenant with Abraham—that the land of Israel would belong to his descendants forever. So what does this have to do with 9/11? Until the Palestinian celebrations that accompanied the terrorism against America, many people thought the Palestinians were a legitimate peace partner for Israel. For some time Israel had been stating to the world community that Arafat was a terrorist. After 9/11, Israel declared loud and often that Arafat was Israel’s Osama Bin Laden. Slowly, but surely, the United States and then the world began to see that perhaps it was really true. The Palestinian terror continued through 2001 and much of 2002. Israel finally declared that she was done with Arafat. “We won’t negotiate with him. We won’t even talk to him. To us he is now irrelevant.” At first, this step seemed drastic. But as the suicide attacks became more frequent and barbaric, the United States followed Israel’s lead. President Bush openly called for the removal of Arafat and his Palestinian Authority. Finally, influential voices in the international community suggested that the Palestinians and the Israelis would never be able to make peace. They suggested that the time had come for the international community to set forward its own peace plan. It was argued that, once a comprehensive peace plan for the Middle East was endorsed by the world community, the international pressure to accept this plan would become so great that Palestinian or Israeli leaders who refused to accept it would soon be overthrown.
This thinking led U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to call for international peace negotiations led by the world’s four great powers—the United States, the European Union, the Russian Federation and the United Nations. These four powers quickly became dubbed as “the Quartet.” The prophecy indicates an agreement of some sort between the Antichrist and the international community, and Israel. It appears that the irrelevancy of the Palestinians, which has resulted from 9/11, will continue, and eventually result in peace initiatives between Israel and the international community.
Why is all this important? According to the prophecy, the confirming of the covenant between Israel and the international community will mark the beginning of a final seven-year period that culminates at the Battle of Armageddon. It is at Armageddon that Jesus returns to earth to defeat the Antichrist and the forces of the world community and to establish His promised kingdom upon earth. It appears that the internationalization of the Middle East peace process is preparing the way for this final seven years to begin.
Are we in world government yet? When the United Nations was formed in 1945, it was designed to be a system of world government. Any bona fide world government must have a court system that can enforce its laws upon the people over which it rules. As early as 1948, proposals were made to establish a world court system. However, fifty years ago, most of the world’s nations were not prepared to yield their individual sovereignties to a system of global governance. In more recent times, national sovereignty has taken the blame for many wars, and the idea of sharing sovereignty within a world community has gained popularity. The problem of global terrorism has provided impetus toward accepting more and more global governance. In 1997, President Clinton welcomed the UN General Assembly to the city of New York. In his speech, he stated that the time had come for the establishment of a world criminal court. Having received the nod from the leader of the world’s only remaining superpower, the proponents of world government moved quickly to implement a world court system. A conference was held in Rome from June 15-July 17, 1998. The result of this conference was the adoption of the
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International Criminal Court Statute of Rome. The ICC Statute was adopted by a vote of 120 nations in favor to 7 opposed. Interestingly, the United States voted against the Statute after having been its original proponent. The negotiators at Rome had extended the power of the new court much further than the U.S. had favored or could tolerate. The sovereignty of the United States, and every other nation on earth, would be superceded by this new enforcement mechanism of world government. In order for the world court system to take power, sixty national parliaments had to ratify. Many people thought the ratification process might take eight to ten years. However, the events of 9/11 seemed to accelerate the ratification process. On April 11, 2002, the required sixtieth ratification was received at the UN. The court then assumed jurisdiction on July 1, 2002. For the first time, every person on earth became subject to a world court system. The world government deceivers will tell us that we have global governance, but that we do not have world government. Anyone have a dictionary? Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines global as “worldwide.” It defines governance as “government.” Webster dares to tell the truth. Global governance is worldwide government! Anyone who tries to tell you any different is either ignorant or purposely misleading you. We now have the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Court. But the world government crowd will tell us to not listen to the right-wing wacko’s who try to say that we are entering into world government. In case you are interested, there are prophecies that specifically speak of a world government for the very near future. In the Old Testament, Daniel 7:23 speaks of the coming world government: “The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.” Revelation 13:7 in the New Testament
Photo Courtesy of Jamie Brendan
Cover Story
Bill Pace, shown here at a press conference, is the director of the umbrella group that covers 1,000 other organizations dedicated to the establishment of the International Criminal Court. Pace also directs the World Federalist Movement, which is openly dedicated to establishing a one-world government.
describes the same world government system: “And it was given unto him (the Antichrist) to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.”
Don’t all religions really worship the same God? In order for a one-world system of government to be implemented, globalists believe there must be some kind of a global belief system. They contend that most wars are caused by religious conflict; therefore, for the sake of world peace there must be some kind of global spiritual unity established. There are tremendous efforts being made at the present time to give birth to such a system. At the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 1993, a Global Ethic was published. It provided the general guidelines of thinking that all human beings should adopt in order for nations to live in peace and security. More recently, Mikhail Gorbachev and Maurice Strong have co-authored a document called the Earth Charter. This document contains guidelines for human behavior in the realm of the environment, shared spirituality and sustainable development. They hope that the World
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Summit on Sustainable Development being held in Johannesburg, South Africa, August 26-September 4, 2002, will endorse the Earth Charter. Gorbachev and Strong see this as a stepping stone to the Earth Charter’s adoption as a global belief system by the entire United Nations. When it became known that every 9/11 hijacker was a Muslim, tremendous pressure was exerted on President Bush to exonerate the Muslim community. He made the statement that the Muslim religion was a great faith (even though Muslims do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah or that Jesus is God). Muslims were invited to the White House for a dinner to observe the Muslim Feast of Ramadan. This was highly offensive to those of us who believe that Islam is a pagan religion. The one-worlders took the opportunity of 9/11 to sell the “benefits” of their envisioned global spirituality. Many contend that all religions contain common elements and that we all really worship the same God even though we call Him by different names. Therefore, one religion (or faith tradition as they like to call it) is no more right or wrong than the other. Thus everyone should treat all of the world’s religions with respect. This new
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religious inclusiveness is called Interfaithism. Prince Charles of Wales has recently founded an Interfaith movement called Respect, which embraces the above concepts. The opposite of religious inclusiveness is what the globalists believe is the world’s worst cancer—religious exclusiveness. People guilty of religious exclusiveness believe that there is absolute truth which must be embraced for salvation. They believe their religion is true and that all others, who do not worship the God of their religion, do not have salvation. Examples of religious exclusiveness would be when Jesus said, “No man cometh to the Father, but by me.” Or “Except you believe that I am He you will die in your sins.” I suppose the classic one of all times would be the teaching of Jesus on salvation: “Except a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Mikhail Gorbachev so strongly condemns religious exclusiveness that he places it in the same category as genocide or crimes against humanity. In his book Perestroika, Gorbachev’s blueprint for global peace and security, he states on page 231 of the hardback edition, “We must extirpate all genocide, apartheid and religious exclusiveness.” On June 26th, 2000, an Interfaith organization called the United Religions was born. This new effort to unite the religions of the world was born at the initiative of the United Nations, and its constitution was signed on the 55th birthday of the United Nations. The goal of the United Nations Initiative was to bring the religions of the world into unity until they might speak with a single voice in the same way the United Nations now speaks as the single voice of the world community. Since 9/11, no effort has been spared in propagating the concepts of Interfaithism and religious inclusiveness. This has all been done in the name of preventing a cultural war between Muslims and the Western Judeo-Christian world.
National ID and 666 The most ominous result of the attack on America has to be the resulting hue and cry for a foolproof system of identification for the citizens of the world. For many years, believers in total government for the total world have wanted a system
of global identification so badly they could taste it! In order to manage and control people, you must be able to identify them and track their whereabouts. The 9/11 attack by the Muslim hijackers provided the perfect rationale for the establishment of some kind of system of identification. The contention was that, if we had been able to know what the suicide hijackers were doing, we would have been able to prevent the horrible events of September 11, 2001. On December 13, 2001, a meeting on the world’s refugee problem was held at the United Nations. Mr. Pascal Smet, the head of Belgium’s independent asylum review board, presented a plan whereby every person in the world would be fingerprinted and registered under a universal identification scheme.
“There are no technical problems. It is only a question of will and investment.” In his speech, Mr. Smet said the European Union was already considering a Europe-wide system, using either fingerprints or eye scanning technology, to identify citizens. He stated that the plan could easily be extended worldwide. “There are no technical problems,” he said. “It is only a question of will and investment.” Most people would agree that the world may not yet be ready to make the big leap into a system of global identification where every human being on earth would have his own personal global identification number. However, many feel that the impetus for a national ID has been provided by the events of 9/11. President Bush proceeded quickly after 9/11 to establish a huge new department of U.S. government called Homeland Security. Neatly tucked away in the plans for Homeland Security was a provision for the establishment of a national ID for every American citizen. The plan provides for all state drivers’ licenses to be standardized. Each should contain some
type of biomorphic identification and the individual’s social security number. In spite of opposition from Congress to the National ID scheme, implementation is proceeding anyway—supposedly on a volunteer basis. By the way…would anyone like to know what Bible prophecy has to say about the emerging global ID system? “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Revelation 13:16-17). So here we stand one year later, looking back on the world changing effects of 9/11. It’s true. The world will never be the same. But through the eyes of Bible prophecy, we are not left groping blindly in the darkness. It is easy to see that major prophetic fulfillments which signal the nearness of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ were dramatically accelerated by the 9/11 tragedy. Let’s review the results of the 9/11 terror attacks one more time: ● It appears that the forces that will soon destroy one-third of mankind were unleashed. ● The prophesied internationalization of the Mideast conflict has been accomplished. ● The establishment of a world court system, the biggest advance into world government in the last 50 years, is now completed. ● The concept of a global spirituality and that all religions are interrelated has been sold to the world. ● One hundred nations now have a national ID, and the rest appear prepared to soon follow.
Since 9/11, we’ve come a long way. We sure have. As a matter of fact, we’ve come way too far. The events resulting from 9/11 are sweeping us, with breathtaking speed, straight into the arms of the Antichrist and his one-world government system. Slow down America…Slow down world…Slow down! On the other hand, I hear the words of Jesus reminding us, “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” ❏
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