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Welcome to the program. Joe Hawkins here. And did you know that belief in End Times Bible prophecy makes you an extremist? Well, that's what we're going to talk about today. But before we do, just one quick announcement. Don't forget to register for the Rapture in the Rockies Prophecy Conference being held on June 4th through 7th in Colorado Springs. You can learn more about that by going to Rapture in the Rockies prophecy conference.com or go over to prophecy watchers.com and click on the the banner for the conference right there on the homepage. You'll be blessed by this. Definitely, definitely recommend it. But today I wanted to talk about a story that's not really made many headlines. It's not really out there too much. And it's really not just a political story, it's not a military story, and it's not just another headline about Iran. But but it does give us some indication of what the world thinks and how they react whenever Bible prophecy enters the public conversation. So recently members of Congress requested an investigation into alleged reports that military leaders claim that the war in Iran is part of a biblical End Times prophecy. So recently, members of Congress formally requested an investigation into reports that some military leaders were telling troops that the war in Iran was connected to biblical End Times prophecy. In this March 6 letter, led by Representative Jared Huffman, Jamie Raskin, and Chrissy Houlahan, they asked Department of Defense Inspector General to open an investigation into reports that service members have lodged anonymous complaints about military commanders invoking religious prophecy and apocalyptic theology to justify the United States military action in Iran. And here's a quote from the letter. At a time when billions of dollars and untold numbers of lives hang in the balance while Trump while the Trump administration wages a war of choice in Iran, keywords are a war of choice in Iran. The imperative of maintaining strict separation of church and state and protecting the religious freedom of our troops is especially critical. We must ensure that military operations are guided by the facts and law and not End Times prophecy and extreme religious beliefs. So they're putting the connection there together that End Times Bible prophecy are indeed extreme religious beliefs. So the members requested that the DoD investigate and report back to Congress on several matters, one of which includes whether military commanders or other officers have made statements to subordinates asserting that the US Military operations against Iran are part of a religious prophecy, divine plan, or apocalyptic religious event. And if so, were such communications originated within the chain of command? So according to the congressional release, the request for an investigation was prompted by anonymous complaints that some commanders had invoked prophecy and apocalyptic theology in relation to Iran. The letter itself says that some commanders reportedly told subordinates that American and Israeli attacks would hasten the return of Jesus Christ, cited the Book of Revelation, and described combat operations as part of God's divine plan. The lawmakers said they wanted reassurance that the officers are held accountable to the Constitution and not operating from a sectarian war worldview. So Cornell University also got involved in this, and their media office amplified the issue even further by putting out tip sheets from some of their professors. So I'm going to read just a few of the. The verbiage that's out there on the Cornell University website. You'll be able to see this on your screen here. So Landon Schnabel, who is an associate professor of sociology at Cornell University who studies religion and social change, Right. He. He says that tens of millions of American evangelicals hold some version of dispensational premillennialism, the belief that conflict in the Middle east will trigger Christ's return. So we also have Kim Haynes, Etzon Eatson, who is a professor of ancient Mediterranean religions there in Cornell, and she studies apocalyptic imagery. And as you can see on your screen, she says that the Book of Revelation was written during a time of crisis in the first century, and its message was one of hope, hope for a coming transformation of the earth. The word Armageddon appears only once in the Bible in Revelation 16:16, where Armageddon, likely a phonetic rendering of the Hebrew Har Megiddo, or Mount Megiddo, and is named as the site where the kings of the whole world gathered by demonic spirits, will be assembled for the final battle. Early Christians were deeply suspicious of Revelation's vivid symbolism and sensational visions precisely because they could be misinterpreted and lead to dangerous outcomes, including political violence. The idea that Christians can hasten the second coming of Christ through military might is a relatively new one, extending back to the apocalyptic fervor of the 16th century Protestant Reformation. So we've seen what the representatives have to say, and we've seen what Cornell has to say. Now, here's where I want us to kind of slow down and think carefully and refuse to be manipulated, because there's really two separate questions here. The first question is, should military authority use their positions to pressure people into religious ideology? Well, of course not. They shouldn't. We could agree with that. But the second question is theological. Does the Bible actually speak about the nations, the Middle East, Israel, Persia, Iran, wars, and the last days? Absolutely, it does. And those Answers can both be true at the same time. This distinction, it matters because one of the greatest mistakes in modern public discourse is that the world keeps confusing belief in Bible prophecy with an attempt to manufacture Bible prophecy. Now are there those out there that believe that they can manufacture Bible prophecy? I'm sure that there are. Are there people that think that what we do on this earth can hasten the return of Jesus Christ? Absolutely. I mean, the new Apostolic Reformation pushes that kingdom now. Theology, Dominionist theology, but Bible believing Christians, we don't need to cause prophecy to happen. We can't cause prophecy to happen. We don't need to force God's hand because we don't need bombs. We don't need balance or bureaucracies to bring in the kingdom. God will accomplish his own word in his own time. Isaiah 46 tells us that he declares the end from the beginning. Prophecy is not a human project, it's a divine revelation. So whenever critics hear Christians say Iran matters prophetically because Iran is in the Bible through Persia, they often jump immediately to the accusation that you want this war because you think that it fulfills prophecy. But that's not a fair conclusion. Watching the stage being set is not the same as trying to build the stage yourself. That distinction is very essential. But let's be honest, Iran is not some random nation. It's in scripture. Persia is a major historical and prophetic player. The Bible gives us a real framework for understanding that nations matter, alliances matter, and that Israel matters and that the Middle east matters. Christians should not be intimidated out of saying that simply because elite institutions are uncomfortable with prophecy language. And at the same time, we need to reject sloppy prophecy teaching such as what they push in the new Apostolic Reformation. And that's where discernment is so important. It's extremely important that us as Christians have proper discernment. We need to be in our scriptures daily. We need to be praying daily. Because without that, we're not going to have proper discernment to be able to understand exactly what's going on. The Sadducees and the Pharisees of Jesus Day, of course they knew what Scripture said, but they didn't have proper discernment. They didn't have discernment enough to even look at the Lord in his face and know who he was. Jesus returns according to the sovereign timetable of the Father. The tribulation unfolds according to God's decreed plan, not military ambition. Revelation doesn't need us to authorize or engineer an apocalypse as they would call it. Right? And we understand that the word. They're even using the terms wrong, right? Apocalypse. That means the revealing. It doesn't mean what they intended to mean. We see this mistake in movies and video games and television shows and so on and so forth all the time. But it reveals that what God has said will happen. And there's a major difference between prophetic expectation and prophetic manipulation. But the moment Bible prophecy appears anywhere near public life, the response is immediate. It's alarming.
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Why?
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Because Bible prophecy, it's not spiritually neutral. Bible prophecy says that history is going somewhere. Bible prophecy says that God judges nations. Bible prophecy says that Israel remains central in God's purpose. Bible prophecy says that the world will move toward deception, lawlessness, conflict, global control, the rapture, and yes, the visible return of Jesus Christ. And secular systems. They absolutely hate this message because it denies the myth of human autonomy. And it tells them that man is not in charge of history, that God is. That's why so many elites are comfortable with astrology and mysticism and pagan spirituality and UFO religion and transhumanist futurism and every other form of spiritual experimentation imaginable. But they become deeply unsettled when Christians begin to open their Bible and speak plainly about the last days. And there is an irony in all of this that shouldn't be missed. Our culture will tolerate pretty much anything except true biblical Christianity. You can talk about energies, consciousnesses, cosmic awakening, alien disclosure, which we may be getting later on this year, digital immortality, and people will call that open minded. But when you start talking about revelation, when you talk about the return of Christ, when you talk about the global systems that's being built around us, the centrality of Israel and the judgment to come, suddenly you're treated like a threat. And that should tell you something. But what does it mean for Christians? Well, it means that we should be watchful. Jesus told us to watch. He told us not to panic. He didn't force us. He didn't tell us to force an outcome. He told us to watch. And watching requires spiritual sobriety. So here's what concerns me about this story. I don't think that it's ultimately about a few alleged comments. I think it's about a wider effort to pathologize the prophetic belief itself. Right. The issue is being framed in a way to encourage the public to see End Times Bible prophecy, not as doctrinal or theological, but as a destabilizing force, as something crazy. That's exactly what I think that they're doing. And they're frame. And this framing, it's likely to increase as time progresses, as the world moves closer to the conditions that Scripture describes. Those who believe the Bible literally will be painted as dangerous, divisive, or even psychologically unfit. Why? Well, because a prophetic worldview resists the spirit of the age. It refuses to bow to utopian promises. It exposes false peace. It warns of deception. And it proclaims that Jesus Christ, not the state, not AI and not a global order, Jesus Christ is king. Now, before we leave today, I want to leave you with a little bit of homework. I want you to look up Project Megiddo and I'm going to pull it up right here and just read through a few excerpts. And some of you may remember Project Megiddo. Now, Project Megiddo was brought about in 1999 as we got ready to lead into the new millennium, 2000, right? And we're seeing some of the same language that's being pushed right now was pushed back then. And I just want to read through some of the this document, this is an FBI document. It's available out there for you to see. It's right here on your screen. And it says here that the attached analysis entitled Project Megiddo is in an FBI strategic assessment of the potential for domestic terrorism in the United States undertaken in anticipation of or response to the arrival of the new millennium. And you can see in the table of contents here you have when does the new millennium begin? Blueprint for action. The Turner Diaries is interpretations of the Bible, apocalyptic religious beliefs, the New World Order conspiracy theory and the 2000. In the year 2000, computer bug, gun control laws. We have white supremacy, Christian identity, militias, black Hebrew Israelites, apocalyptic cults, and the significance of Jerusalem. So I just want to read right here on the interpretations of the Bible section. Religiously based domestic terrorists use the New Testament's Book of Revelation, the prophecy of the end time, for the foundation of their belief in the Apocalypse. Religious extremists interpret the symbolism portrayed in the Book of Revelation and mold it to predict the end time is now and that the Apocalypse is near. To understand many religious extremists, it is crucial to know the origin of of the Book of Revelation and the meaning of its words, numbers and characters. The Book of Revelation was written by a man named John who was exiled by the Roman government to a penal colony, the island of Patmos, because of his beliefs in Christ. While on the island, he experienced a series of visions described in the Book of Revelation. The writing in the Book of Revelation is addressed to churches who were at that time experiencing or were threatened by persecution from Rome because they were not following the government. For this reason, some believe the Book of Revelation was written in code language, much of which was taken from other parts of the Bible. One interpretation describing the essence of the message contained in Revelation is that God will overcome Christianity's enemies, the Roman government and Satan, and that the persecuted communities should persevere. For right wing groups who believe that they are being persecuted by the satanic government of the United States or the Book of Revelation's message fits perfectly into their worldview. This worldview in combination with the literal interpretation of the Book of Revelation is reflected in extremist ideology, violent acts and literature. For this reason, it is imperative to know the meaning of some of the code words frequently used. And they have a list of the code words there, but they say it right there. I'm going to re read right here. This worldview in combination with a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelation is reflected in extremist ideology, violent acts and literature. So right there they tell us even back then that if you hold a literal interpretation of the Book of Revelation and that if you believe that you're being persecuted, that you're going to be persecuted by your government, which we know that we will and which we know that we have been. I mean, have we not been persecuted as Christians since this time frame? We've certainly experienced some soft persecution here in America. Some people may have even experienced a little bit more than soft persecution, but certainly persecution. And we know that it's only going to get worse as time progresses because that's what Scripture tells us because we hold a literal view of the Book of Revelation and of Scripture. So that's just a little bit of homework for you. Go check that out, see if you can find any more information on it. And look, I hope that this was a blessing to you. I just want to thank you for tuning in today. And if you don't mind, please consider liking and sharing this video. It really does help us get the information out to this lost and dying world. And look, until next time, stay awake and keep watch.
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Thank you for tuning in to today's podcast. If you'd like to find out more about Prophecy Recon, Please visit prophecy recon.com or prophecyrecon.substack.com Remember to stay awake and keep watching.