THINGS ARE LOOKING BAD - WHAT THEN SHOULD WE DO?

The Challenges and Opportunities Ahead as We Face the "New World Order"

A number of readers have written to comment on the challenges ahead including the looming possibility of a tyrannical one world government. A biosecurity state is being harnessed against us and undoubtedly we have to be prepared for another “crisis” coming that will result in further government control. I am persuaded by, and have promoted, an understanding of a Biblical worldview which says “things are going to get worse” (lots of disasters and lots of death and martyrdom) and “then they’ll get better” (Jesus is coming back and evil will be destroyed), but it’s going to be tough in between!

This week in “Sons of Issachar News” my main focus in this long article is to present a viewpoint from the Bible about “what then should we do” as well as some practical actions to consider.

The Coming Revival and the Prophet Joel

We don’t know exactly where we are in God’s chronology but as I wrote in the last newsletter,

many of the signs are falling into place of a coming evil one world government. A “mark” will be required to be able to buy and sell and taking this mark will indicate allegiance to and worship of the antichrist.

The part that I haven’t written about relates to what the Prophet Joel said during the reign of the Israelite King Joash in the period 835 to 796 BC. Joel warned about the coming terrible Day of The Lord when God’s final judgment falls upon His enemies, but also when His Spirit  (in Hebrew רוּחַ) or literally ‘breath’, would be poured out upon those who have chosen friendship with God. I believe that this time is yet to come and will be evident, not only because of crisis on the earth, but because of great miracles and many people turning to God. This revival will be even greater than that which happened in the early 1900s in Wales, when it is estimated that more than 150,000 people gave their lives to God and Welsh society was transformed. The Welsh Revival

With the revival there will also come persecution of believers in Jesus.

Around 800 years after Joel lived, the apostle Peter stood up in the city of Jerusalem during the Feast of Pentecost and declared that the amazing signs that were being manifest on that very day of the Feast (for on that day the Holy Spirit was poured out and Jesus’ disciples spoke in languages that they did not know declaring the glory of God) were exactly the beginning of what Joel foretold when he said

“I (the Lord) will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions” (Acts 2:17-21).

The good news is that even though terrible days are coming, this will also be the greatest time in human history when God will be at work amongst His people with extraordinary signs and wonders. This hope will sustain us through some dark days ahead.

Those Who Call Upon the Name of the Lord Will Be Saved

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge in the last 2,000 years but in reality this is only a brief period in God’s timing because to Him 1,000 years is as a day (2 Peter 3:8). What we do know is that we are closer to the end than we were, and many aspects of biblical prophecy are falling into place in readiness for the appearance of the antichrist - a time when the population of the earth will be required to take a mark in their body to buy or sell. The good news is that for those who put their trust in God, there will be a mighty move of His Spirit in this time, with signs and wonders and there is a remarkable phrase at the end of Joel 2 – “whoever calls on the Name of the Lord, shall be saved.” This is an astonishing promise and good to keep up your sleeve even if you don’t understand all the challenges around you. When things get tough, call on the Name of the Lord. How do you call on the Name of the Lord? Just call out – Lord God, save me!

The Bible and The Human Condition

So, the Bible sets out in advance the challenges and promises ahead. Written between the lines of the Bible for us to discover are answers to the universal issues of humanity. The Bible helps us answer key questions about life, which include:

who am I, where am I going, do I have a purpose, and is there a God, or are we just living random and hopeless lives?

Is “life a bitch and then we die” or is life amazing and we live forever? Well – like the answer to almost every question – it depends!

Briefly, I am going to try to answer the big picture question of: ‘What then should we do?’, by examining two key passages in the Bible where this question was asked:

1) what John the Baptist said when he proclaimed the message of God in the Judean wilderness before Jesus appeared on the scene, and then;

2) around 3 years later, what the Apostle Peter said to the Jerusalem crowds after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, in response to this same question.

The Story of John the Baptist and the Question “What then Shall We Do”?

John the Baptist lived more than 2,000 years ago and was born to an elderly couple who thought that they never would have children. The angel Gabriel (who only makes appearances in 2 books of the Bible – in the Old Testament book of Daniel and in the New Testament book of Luke) turned up to tell Zacharias, an old priest in the Jerusalem temple, of the coming miraculous birth of a son John, to Zacharias’ elderly wife Elizabeth. Gabriel said that this boy, not yet conceived, would

“turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God” and would “make a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17).

John grew up in the Judean wilderness and probably in his late 20’s called God’s people to repentance (literally in Greek, to a change of mind) with baptism in the River Jordan.

In a motivational speech that would not attract big crowds in today’s world, John says to those who came out to hear him:

 “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Luke 3:7).

John tells them that right at that time the axe was being applied to the root of the trees which didn’t bear good fruit and that these trees would be “thrown into the fire”. The multitudes who came out for baptism realized that John wasn’t talking about trees but themselves, the children of Israel, God’s own people. This was confronting stuff and wouldn’t be heard in any church pulpits or synagogues today. God is a God of tough love, and it is doubtful that He would be supportive of today’s culture where every child gets a prize!

The question raised by the crowds was: “What shall we do then?” (Luke 3:10). John the Baptist’s answer was for people to turn their lives around and do good things – look after people, share possessions with the poor, act justly, be content with their wages. He said that he, John, was not the Messiah but that there was one coming who was the Messiah and that this one would clean out the house of Israel.

So for us – in this current challenging time and taking a perspective from John the Baptist – one of the first things we need to do is to examine our lives, take stock, and make sure that we are not living lives that are displeasing to God and but rather make sure that we are doing the things that we sense God would have us do. After all He is a God who desires to draw close to us (James 4:8). This is not a one-off action but a day-by-day walk of faith, which is hardest for our human flesh when we can’t see the road ahead.

Jesus Arrives to Teach and Bring the “Kingdom of God”

The 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) tell of the remarkable life of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God and His ministry in a small region of Judea, Samaria and Galilee where he healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, raised the dead and proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God. Social media wasn’t needed for such a sensation to be known throughout the country and amongst the Roman occupiers. This man who was God in the flesh eventually became too great a challenge to the Jewish authorities and so He was killed after 3 years of ministry. His disciples, a rag-tag lot of fishermen and battlers were initially frightened and fearful because of His death, but shortly after that terrible event they became emboldened by Jesus’ resurrection from death, in what judging from His disciples’ difficulty in recognizing Him, seems to have been a new form – a new humanity. This new life is promised to all who put their faith in Him.

Everything Looks Lost, but then Everything Changes at the Feast of Pentecost – Another Answer to the Question of What Then Should We Do?

The disciples now literally “on fire” for Jesus (Acts 2:3) preached to a large crowd who were in Jerusalem for the Feast of Shavuot. Shavuot or Pentecost is one of the most important times in the Jewish calendar and in those days Jewish believers traveled long distances from other countries to come to the Jerusalem temple to celebrate God giving the Law – the Torah – on Mt Sinai, which included the Ten Commandments. The apostle Peter, who just 7 weeks earlier had fled from people scared for his own life, spoke boldly and explained to the Jews gathered in Jerusalem that they had killed the Messiah but that God had raised Him from the dead and now the Holy Spirit was being poured out on those who believed. Peter said,

“God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (anointed one or Messiah)” (Acts 2:36).

The thousands present then asked

“Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). Peter’s answer was simple and relevant today:

1.     Repent (in Greek metanoéō) – meaning a change of mind or condition, change of heart towards God, turning life around;

2.     Be baptized – in effect to symbolically enter Jesus’ death and resurrection – by going into the water as into a grave and saying goodbye to the old life, and then being raised up out of it to new life – as a sign of the forgiveness of sins and the receiving of new life;

3.     Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit – this mysterious gift of God Himself was “poured out” on the disciples waiting in Jerusalem, and now was on offer for all who turned to Jesus

It was a brief but profound message because 3,000 Jews in Jerusalem that day turned to put their faith in Jesus (Acts 2:41).

So – looking to the Bible for an answer to the question “what then should we do” – we can do worse than understanding John the Baptist’s call to turn our lives around, get right with God and do good. The apostle Peter’s advice is to repent, be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. God can and will do a supernatural work in each of our lives.

What Then Should We Do – Some Ideas for Today

The human condition for each of us, is no different today than it was 2,000 years ago for the people gathered in Jerusalem. Peter’s simple answer to those crowds is still relevant. What is becoming clear is that we are not living in a cycle where there is just another pendulum swing towards socialism or perhaps totalitarianism– although there certainly is.

All the tools are in place, as many of my readers are aware, such that we can see an oppressive one world government coming, which includes a desire to fuse man and machines as well as to “play God” by altering genetic structure or “hacking the genome” as outlined by Yuval Noah Harari -

There will be an increase in lawlessness and we are seeing right before us, good declared to be evil, and evil declared as good, as outlined by the Jewish prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 5:20) around 700 years before Jesus’ birth. Isaiah also declared a time when “truth has fallen in the streets” (Isaiah 59:14). Now more than ever we are living in these times, and lawlessness and “truth falling in the streets” will accelerate until an apparent “saviour”, the antichrist, emerges.

So – what then should we do? I have outlined the Bible’s plan to “get right with God”. In addition, here is a 10 point practical plan as a starter and I would welcome further ideas:

1.     We need to get our lives in order and Peter’s admonition stands today – repent, be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. If this sounds strange, talk to a believer in Christ. Jesus came proclaiming the “Kingdom of God” and this proclamation is just as relevant today to push back darkness. Bob Dylan captured this idea in his song “Serve Somebody”

Dylan sang a great truth that is at the heart of everything today:

“You have to serve somebody – it may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you have to serve somebody”.

There has never been a better time than now to serve the Lord God, Creator of Heaven and Earth.

2.     Plan to Resist Wicked Governments – evidence of the wickedness of government can be seen from the COVID “pandemic” with elderly people being restricted and bumped off in nursing (or what the UK calls “care home”) homes. Influential characters such as Dr Zeke Emmanuel argue that people older than 75 years of age have a reduced capacity to contribute or be productive (Dr Zeke Emmanuel) and the inference is that they can be dispensed with. This philosophy now seems embedded into Western health care. Abortion right up to full-term also is becoming widely accepted. It’s not too much to argue that Western society has become a death cult with a desire to reduce the world’s population. Governments have forced an experimental injection on millions and the downstream impact will be disease and death in the millions from these injections. So – take care when “help” is offered by any government.

3.     Build Local Communities of Like-minded People who can help and support one another. We have found that when you look, there are others around you who have “understood the signs of the times”. There are skills that can be fostered and this is an opportunity to work outside the system. We need to start preparing now as it is too late when the crisis comes. I can still see in my mind the photographs of Ukrainian citizens lined up at ATMs when the Russians invaded. I doubt any of them got any cash because it was too late. The old saying “you can’t fatten a pig on market day” could be translated into a modern idiom as “it’s no good trying to buy a boat when the floods have you on the roof of your house”.

4.     Get out of Debt – debt will be a key tool for government and banks to control what we can do. It looks certain that central banks will develop digital currencies which will then be used to control us using digital ID and pre-existing “vaccine passports”. Interest rates are on the rise and there is certain to be a financial recession in the months to come. There also is likely to be a housing crash and the cost of borrowing money will increase dramatically. Debt is a key tool of control and so reviewing your financial situation is important to find ways of reducing this potential source of control.

5.     Get off Social Media – while the internet has brought much that is good, you can be tracked and used by “Big Tech” as we all have given away our rights and privacy when we sign up. I have just read a new Australian book that is much more positive about technology – The New Technologies of Freedom (Technologies of Freedom Book). These authors say that “techno-pessimism is not only misguided, but harmful”. They may be correct but I reckon that techno-optimism is even more misguided and could destroy you! However, the book is worthwhile reading because they make many important points, but in the end, technology will be harnessed against us. I see just about everyone in cafés swiping their phone across readers to pay for their food and I just know that this isn’t going to end well for us. One day when we go to swipe, we will find that the government has blocked access to our accounts. Our only option then is to be taken to government run "Wellbeing Centres" . Amazingly enough such centres are available!

6.     Resist the Internet of Things – switch off Siri, Alexa and Google – tools of Big Tech to spy on us and invade our lives. Convenience will ultimately lead to our oppression and destruction. Many years ago I bought an Amazon device – possibly one of the first in Australia – and I was amazed to be able to ask “Alexa” to do various things. My wife came home and immediately realized a threat that I was too stupid to see. She said “It’s either me or Alexa”. I hesitated for a moment but made a good choice and it wasn’t Alexa! Millions of people have “digital assistants” like “Alexa”, “Siri” or “Google” listening in right now and like the government, these digital assistants aren’t looking after our welfare.

7.     Resist the Move to “Smart Cities” – where you will become a digital resource or nuisance to be taken out. Smart Cities utilize the Internet of Things so that everything and everyone is monitored. One of the concepts is the “15 Minute City” where everything you need is available within a 15 minute walk or bike ride and everyone is pushed together, like battery hens. We have become used to swiping our phones to pay for things, buying “smart” fridges, “smart cars”, “smart energy meters” etc – all of which can be used to collect information on us and then using digital technology, control what we can do. Governments are making noises to restrict cars on the road and to force people into enclaves which will be ‘digital paradises’. Flee while you can and find an old car that can’t be controlled by computer chips, because those with computer chips, like “Big Brother”, will find the right time to move against us.

8.     Use Cash – while it is still accepted. Digital payments provide information to many people and as shown by Justin Trudeau with the truckers in Canada, can be used against us. Convenience is used as a carrot that obscures a weapon that will be used against us. I saw a jogger yesterday in a panic because he had ordered a coffee and his smart phone wouldn’t swipe. I was ready to send him for counselling but just in time he rebooted the phone and swiped it over the reader and his panic subsided. We are being trained to be “digitally compliant” and we should resist while we can.

9.     Aim for Self-Sufficiency – it is good to have some stores of staples and prepare for coming shortages which are part of the global agenda. Buy just a few extra items that have long-term storage capability, each grocery shopping expedition. There is helpful material on Ask A Prepper . Already we have seen supply chain issues in many countries and these supply chain problems will increase because they provide a further reason for us to give more control to the government to “keep us safe”.

10.  Pray! – we are coming to a time when it will be increasingly unclear what to do. The Bible has a key verse that has become increasingly important to me: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8).  Note that in this verse it tells us that we have to do the drawing near first and then God will draw near! There is good news for those who put their trust in the Lord – He will rescue us, though not necessarily in this life. This is a time when we need Godly wisdom rather than wisdom from the world. It does seem remarkable but there is a God who responds to our requests which sometimes are as simple as – GOD - HELP!

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AROUND THE WORLD

USA

I heard an interesting interview this week from The Spectator Deputy-Editor, Freddie Gray who interviewed Liz Harrington, a spokesman for President Trump (Spectator Podcast). Freddie was following up from a recent poll that showed that Trump would beat Biden by 6 points and Kamala Harris by 11 points in a Presidential match up in 2024 (Biden v Trump Poll). The interview is around 30 min and worthwhile listening to as Freddie explores issues around the last Presidential election and whether Trump will run again in 2024. The mid-term elections will be held in November this year and one of the issues raised by Liz was the amount of fraud involved in the last elections. Most of the mainstream media have avoided this topic and always refer to Trump’s “false claims” of a stolen election. However, Liz Harrington does a great and simple job of speaking about the disparities uncovered and quite properly says that if these are just swept under the carpet, then there will never again be trust in the US election system, which unlike most other countries is controlled at the individual state level.  I watched a new movie launched this week called “Rigged” - Rigged 2020 - The Movie - which is an investigation into the role played by the foundation controlled by facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in influencing key voting areas in the 2020 Presidential election. The foundation spent more than US$400 million to “buy” Democrat votes in swing states and this was possible because of lax voting laws and postal voting, due to COVID-19. The movie is worthwhile watching as it is only 40 minutes long and the evidence is very clear that the 2020 election was “rigged” to prevent Trump’s election. It is concerning that because of the success of the methodology and the reluctance of Democrat governors to tighten up voting laws, similar techniques will be used in the mid-terms and 2024 Presidential election. It is still unknown whether President Trump will run again but it is likely that he will decide after the results of the mid-terms.

A key issue that will significantly influence voting intentions is the illegal immigrant “tsunami” at the southern border (Illegal Immigrant Tsunami). The dramatic increase in illegal immigrants began immediately after Biden’s inauguration and the illegal migrant surge seems to be part of a wider Democrat plan to destabilize the US and cause economic and social chaos. There may be more than 3 million additional illegal immigrants who have entered the US since Biden took office in January 2021 and now there are plans to end Title 42 (Title 42), a law that allows the US Government to prohibit entry into the US when

“there is a serious danger to the introduction of a communicable disease into the United States”.

It is anticipated that the Biden administration’s ending of Title 42 could result in 18,000 illegal immigrants per day crossing the border, which on an annual basis is 6.5 million additional illegal immigrants coming into the US. Given that the Biden administration has promised free health care, welfare and legal services (Illegal Immigrant Handouts), the southern border is like a human magnet drawing people who want to get free “stuff”. Already there is a significant impact in US border communities related to increases in crime and drugs (Crime at the Border). We will undoubtedly hear Trump’s call again to “build the wall” in the coming months and years and it is not impossible that like Lazarus, Trump may rise from the political dead to do it!

United Kingdom and Europe

This week marked the 40th anniversary of the start of the Falklands war (40th Falklands Anniversary), which cemented Margaret Thatcher’s reputation as the “Iron Lady”. Boris Johnson is hoping that the Ukrainian conflict can have a similar result for him as he sees political advantage from going “all in” against Putin and for Ukraine. In the propaganda war, the media have become increasingly pro-Ukraine and it is difficult to sort out truth from fiction and possible “false flags”. It is hard to “read the tea leaves” about where the war in Ukraine is heading but Putin isn’t an idiot and he took a very calculated risk with the Ukraine invasion, for his own benefit. Boris may be calling Putin a war criminal (Boris Says Putin a War Criminal) but it is concerning that the West is pushing Putin until he could become like a cornered rat. Recent reports are that the UK has frozen US$350 billion in Russian assets (UK Freezes Russian Assets). It seems that Putin’s only choice is to up the ante and it is frightening to think of what the road ahead looks like. Putin holds the energy keys which supply most of Europe and while the EU has provided aid of €1 billion to Ukraine since the start of the war, the EU has transferred  €35 billion to Russia for energy purchases! Europe Spends 35x Ukrainian Aid on Russia . So – the EU is actually funding Russia in the conflict and as the price of energy increases, more European funds will flow to Russia. An interesting sidelight of the energy crisis is that Boris Johnson has gone from “green Boris” to “nuclear Boris” with a pledge to build 8 new nuclear plants by 2030.

Meanwhile, in what could have been predicted from first principles, the Scottish government has overseen a ferry construction disaster – at least a disaster for taxpayers! President Reagan said

“government doesn’t solve problems, it subsidizes them”

and the evidence for Reagan’s assertion can be seen from the ongoing ferry fiasco. Scottish islands rely on ferry services from the mainland and new ferries were commissioned by the devolved Scottish government in 2015 and the contract given to a government “mate”. The original budget was £97 million with the ferries to be operating by 2021. A couple of years into the project, the shipyard went bankrupt and so the Scottish government nationalized it in 2019 and of course the ferry budget continued to blow out. Problems continue to pile up and it was recently found that up to 939 critical cables were too short for use (Critical Ferry Cables "too short").  The estimate now is that the ferries will cost more than £250 million and won’t be complete until the end of 2023 but the budget and timeline are sure to blow out again (Scottish Ferry Cost Blowout) and could reach £500 million or more. A government report from Audit Scotland (Audit Scotland Report on Ferries) found that

“multiple failings have led to delays and cost overruns”

and the Auditor-General for Scotland reported “A lack of transparent decision-making, a lack of project oversight, and no clear understanding of what significant sums of public money have achieved.”

Of course there seem to be no consequences for any of the Scottish government bureaucrats or ministers who oversaw this disaster. In fact, Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland is so arrogant that she wants another vote for Scotland to become independent from the rest of the UK. If I was Boris, I’d say – “let them go”!

The reason I have reported on this in some detail is because it highlights the certainty of government incompetence in managing any major project because no-one has to be responsible for spending taxpayer money.

In Australia it is the same situation with the National Disability Insurance Scheme - NDIS - a taxpayer supported government scheme to support people with disabilities.  With incompetence that makes the Scottish ferries look like a kindergarten project, the NDIS budget has blown out by more than $60 billion (NDIS Blowout) – about 120 times more than the Scottish ferries current cost. Taxpayers need to be ready to vote out any government that proposes developments where the government takes control of a major project to manage the expenditure of public funds. Government management is a sure recipe for disaster because as President Reagan also said:

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, it is the problem

Russia and Ukraine

The Stream (The Stream) is a very worthwhile website and I gained some great insights into the Ukraine-Russia conflict by reading the column this week by Larry Taunton (Russian-Ukrainian History). Taunton quotes a line from Dostoevsky’s novel The Grand Inquisitor where he said that people, especially Russians, would exchange freedom for security:

“Make us your slaves, but feed us”.

This is the clever “agreement” made by many governments around the world with their electorates during the pandemic: “make us your slaves, bur keep us safe from the virus”. Taunton points out that the histories of Russia and Ukraine are entwined, and that even former USSR Presidents Khrushchev and Brezhnev were Ukrainian. Russians have always regarded Ukraine as “integral to Russian existence”. Russia and the West come from completely different traditions and experiences and so Putin’s plans have been wrongly evaluated from a Western viewpoint.  Russia will act with its own history and interests in mind and it seems likely that Ukrainian grain and energy are key strategic assets for Russia and in Russian long-term interests. Understanding what is happening in Russia and the Russian viewpoint is less likely these days as the US and UK Governments have drastically reduced the numbers of Russian speaking intelligence staff. In the West’s view of Russia: “they need just to be more like us” when “they” will always be like Russians. I have come across this Churchill quote about Russia in different places in the last week and it seems relevant to the current conflict. Russia, said Churchill, is

“a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”.

Geopolitics is complex and it is difficult to discern what is at the core of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. On the broad principle that when you see Democrats and Republicans in agreement, something is wrong – I smell a rat in the way the mainstream media is reporting!

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Zelensky has been speaking via video to gatherings around the world (I think that the current count is 16 and included an address to the Irish Parliament this week) and he even spoke to the Australian Parliament. Zelensky is clever as in his speeches he always finds a local historical point of identification that links to the Ukrainian invasion and from this he has built substantial international financial support. One wonders where the money and military supplies will end up? Somehow, this week he also addressed the UN Security Council (I can’t work out how because Russia has a veto vote) and called for Russia to be expelled (Zelensky Calls for Russian Expulsion from UN Security Council), which is never going to happen. However Russia is being suspended from the UN Human Rights Council. Fortunately countries like Cuba, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Venezuela will remain to ensure that human rights are upheld in the “new world order”.

Related and unrelated to the conflict, there will be an ongoing and disastrous impact on food and energy supplies with disruptions internationally. President Putin has said that Russia will have to carefully “monitor” food exports to “hostile countries”. I wonder what the outcome will be of Putin’s “monitoring”?

I listened to a very interesting podcast of Whitney Webb this week and it is worthwhile spending a few hours listening as Whitney is an excellent international analyst and in this podcast has a range of experts discussing “Russia and the Great Reset” (Podcast - Russia and the Great Reset). The experts had different views but one thing that is certain – more chaos is coming and then the need for further government regulation. Control of energy supplies and digital ID are two of the key tools that will increasingly be used against us.

China vs The West

A report from the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China released a report this week that indicated that China’s attack, particularly on reproductive rights of Uyghurs and other minorities constitute genocide and eugenics (Congressional Commission Report). The Commission, which included members from both sides of politics, found that China’s actions “posed a challenge to the rules-based international order”. Human rights abuses, particularly involving the Uyghurs, have been known for years but Western governments have turned a blind eye because of their commercial interests in China. Actions of Chinese authorities have seemed horrific to us in the West until we experienced our own forms of dictatorship, surveillance and censorship during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Having discovered these “tools”, Western governments are unlikely to step back and new crises will be discovered that restrict freedom and exert government control. This issue is covered well in an article by Iain Davis at the end of 2021 - UK Dictatorship

Chinese authorities have stepped up lockdowns in the last few weeks and now the entire city of Shanghai, which has a population (25 million) about the same size as the whole of Australia, is locked down because of a surge in COVID-19 cases (Shanghai Lockdown). Surely this signal will encourage Western governments, which have biosecurity legislation in place, to implement lockdowns as new coronavirus variants once again are discovered.

China and Russia have signed a friendship pact which “knows no limits” and Sergei Lavrov, the clever Russian Foreign Minister has said prior to a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, that the two countries are paving the way “towards a multi-polar, just, democratic world order” (No Limits to Friendship).  So – now we know what democracy looks like, Chinese and Russian style and I don’t think that it means that we will have a vote in their “new world order”.

To me, events are lining up with a significant bloc of countries aligned with China and Russia promoting their version of a “new world order” and the West, courtesy of the World Economic Forum, is seemingly promoting a similar “new world order”. Both “new world orders” would appear aligned and will involve further government control and tools such as the claimed “climate crisis” with supply chain disruptions and energy shortages, which will be used to bring us all into line. There is no doubt that the technocratic state is coming and in sight of 2030 as outlined in the UN’s Agenda 2030 (Agenda 2030) and Klaus Schwab’s “Great Reset” - The Great Reset  

Israel

Tens of thousands Ukrainians have fled to Israel since the conflict with Russia and the memories of pogroms against Jews in Ukraine around 100 years ago have again been highlighted. It is estimated that more than 100,000 Jews were killed between 1917 and 1921 (Ukrainian Conflict) in Ukraine. Israel assimilated more than 1 million Russian and Ukrainian Jews after the collapse of the Soviet Union and this immigration changed the face of Israel with many Russian language newspapers now available. Managing ethnic and religious differences is at the heart of government in Israel and there are new challenges with escalating violence from Muslim extremists during Ramadan (Terrorist Attacks and Violence in Israel). Terrorist attacks killed 11 people in late March and it seems that ongoing attacks are likely. Responding to these attacks and dealing with surrounding international threats will be a challenge for a complex and fragile coalition government where there are great differences in the views of the coalition parties.

Despite Israel having a tiny population of less than 9 million, it has an extraordinary defence force, many high tech companies and now an astronaut (Israeli Astronaut). Eytan Stibbe heads to the International Space Station this week via a SpaceX rocket. Israel continues to thrive and innovate despite multiple challenges geopolitically and enemies on every side. God’s favour is worth more than the many difficulties that Israel faces.

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