The False Prophet of the Great and Abominable Church

Greg Matson, of CWIC Media, had a conversation with Dan Ellsworth, who has written a book defining Marxism so that Church members can recognize it for what it is: Marxism: A Latter-day Saint Perspective. While this is aimed at a Latter-day Saint audience, I think most of it would be fully applicable to other Christian readers as well. Ellsworth has been frustrated with Church members (few, but still too many) who, for whatever twisted reasoning, espouse and support Marxist ideas—some knowing the roots of their ideas, but also many not knowing. He wanted a way to give them the knowledge they needed, so he wrote a book to make that information dump in the simplest way.

Greg Matson (left) and Dan Ellsworth talk about Marxism,
screenshot from here

About fifteen minutes into the video, there’s a two-minute segment I want to share, and then we’ll talk:

Dan Ellsworth: Antonio Gramsci, he was he was an Italian socialist activist after Marx, who just fell in love with Marx's theories, also traveled to Russia and saw what Vladimir Lenin was doing with the Russian Revolution and you know the Bolshevik Party and stuff. And he thought a lot about, you know, what is really going on. OK. Marx offered—he functioned kind of like a prophet, like, you know, foretelling the future of the world and society.

 

And so, after he died, you know, you have people like Gramsci who had come to follow his teachings. They're sitting there saying, “Wait a minute.” OK. “This is not all happening the way he envisioned. So how do we make sense of this?” Right? And he looked to Russia, to what they were doing, what Vladimir Lenin was doing, and he saw that there was a contradiction between how Vladimir Lenin was doing Marxism versus how Marx taught Marxism.

 

And here's what Antonio Gramsci said; he was talking about the Russians, and he said, “They are not Marxists. That's what it comes down to. They have not used the Master's works.”

 

OK, I'm gonna stop right there. He calls him the master.

 

Greg Matson: Yeah.

 

DE: So let that sink in. Right? To draw up a superficial interpretation, dictatorial statements which cannot be disputed. Now pay attention to what he says here: “They live out Marxist thought, the one which will never die. The continuation of idealist Italian and German thought and that in Marx had been corrupted by the emptiness of positivism and naturalism.” So Gramsci is saying Marxist thought didn't originate with Marx, will never die. It's going to keep going after Marx, did not originate with him either. And in Marx, he said, it had actually been corrupted by some of his biases.

 

So Gramsci saw that there's this pure kind of current of thought that is actually the real Marxism. OK? That's amazing for a Marxist to admit, right? Because, when you understand what Gramsci is saying there, then the word Marxism, like the real meaning, starts to become clear. It's not, you know, it's not Karl Marx's economic theories about communism. Those are part of how he envisioned, you know, this Marxism playing out in kind of the economic sphere. But Marxism is something different. It's a whole— It's kind of a formula that predates Marx and will always exist.

 

GM: Yeah, that's interesting, because—and we've had this discussion before—going back into, you know, let's call it gospel history, scriptural history. I think we've talked about Cain and Abel before. I can't remember.

 

DE: Yeah, we might have.

 

GM: Yeah. And then, of course, the war in heaven.

 

DE: Yes.

 

GM: And what you have there. And I've got, you know, some interesting thoughts there also. But it's almost as if, as you say, you're—when you talk about Marx's interest and veneration of—honestly, veneration of Satan—then and you get this idea with the restored Gospel of, well, he's kind of in tune with him, right, in a sense of how—what is the philosophy of Satan.

 

DE: Yeah.

 

GM: Right? And what does he want. It's, if you parse out, if you critically think about the war in heaven and the plans that are presented there, it's hard not to draw a conclusion that this, as you're describing, this undercurrent that Gramsci is speaking of, is way— You know, it existed way before we even had the Earth.

 

DE: Yeah. Absolutely. That's what becomes clear when you dive into this stuff.

Karl Marx didn’t invent Marxism? No. Karl Marx was an admirer, a disciple, you might say, of Satan. He wasn’t an atheist; he knew God existed but supported Satan’s intention to thwart God.

This seems insane, and you could probably argue that he was. But there are things in his society that Marx used to develop his own sense of justice. Ellsworth talks about how, during the 1800s, during the Industrial Revolution, conditions were pretty ugly:

DE: You have a lot of families being broken up to work in factories. You have child labor. You have a lot of actual, like, real exploitative business practices going on in Europe and other places. And so—I think it's important for us to recognize that people like Karl Marx saw those things in the world and hated that unfairness.

Ellsworth points out that, you can’t go thinking Marx was this benevolent guy trying to make humanity better. His personal life shows a mean, vicious, often vindictive person. With all his notoriety, only a dozen or so people were willing to show up at his funeral.

Karl Marx in 1975, image from Wikipedia

But for many people, they’re drawn to Marxism still, not because they’re outright satanists, but they are drawn to Marxism as a possible solution to terrible conditions. For most of us, working conditions have improved since the early Industrial Revolution, but people still react to what they view as unfairness. People in poverty-stricken countries are often susceptible to a Marxist regime coming in and promising a better world. Mao did that in China, for example. Then, of course, because Marxism isn’t just a proposed economic system, because it’s actually satanist, the revolutionary force turns on itself. The disciples who dedicated their lives to the cause are tortured and killed. You might say, that’s not a bug; it’s a feature. Marxism ends in misery and massive death. Always. Because it is actually an evil thing. It just disguises itself as caring, to lure people in.

Today, people who’ve been indoctrinated with Marxism in college think it’s new, edgy, and cool. And they say things like those former Marxists just didn’t do it right. Just like Gramsci said of Marx himself.

What caught my attention in the conversation was that the idea we call Marxism is older than Marx, older even than our world. Ellsworth supposes that, during the War in Heaven, which Satan waged and lost, causing him to be cast out of heaven for his rebellion, that even then Satan (he was called Lucifer then) used the benevolent lure: “I’ll make sure no soul is lost” and then under his breath, by taking away their ability to choose and replacing it with coercion; and “I’ll make everyone equal,” no matter whether they do work or do nothing. For some reason that appealed to a third part of the spirits in Heaven, who chose Satan even when they had lived in God’s presence. And maybe even then they told themselves they were the good guys.

"Paradise Lost" by Gustave Dore,
I previously used this in a post called "Agency"

Ellsworth boldly calls Marxism the Great and Abominable Church. This is a term used in the Book of Mormon [1 Nephi 13:6]. I think it can be used interchangeably with other terms for the same thing: the Whore of All the Earth [1 Nephi 14:10], the Revelation 13 beast rising out of the sea, the beast from Daniel’s dream [Daniel 7:7] with the ten crowns, secret combinations [Ether 8:24]—along with more modern terms such as the worldwide cabal, or the Deep State. (I wrote about the Rev. 13 sea beast here, as well as a couple of times this year.)

While Marxism may be only a part and not the whole of this beast, I think these all refer to the same thing. In Revelation 13, the sea beast has one head that is mortally wounded, and yet the beast revives. This is symbolic, and there are various theories as to the meaning. But I have speculated that we thought we had given a death blow to Marxism in World War II; the Nazis were defeated, along with Axis powers of Italy and Japan; communism was an enemy to the free world and utterly shamed in pretty much all social circles; the Soviet Union eventually collapsed and released its various states from its total domination; even China entered into trade with the world. And then, in this century, it has revived. Emphases and forms are slightly different, but Marxism is fully alive again. 

So it might be useful to look at what qualifies Marxism as a church that is Great and Abominable. You may have noticed that Satan is a counterfeiter. If Christ’s gospel is the true Church, Satan’s church is going to have parallels. Wherever Christ builds and grows, Satan’s way will tear down and destroy. 

We’ll do a side-by-side comparison in a bit, but first, Ellsworth explains the Marxist process. Marx started with property: some people had it and some people were oppressed, obviously by those who had property. He wanted to do away with property, to flatten everything, not of course really understanding that humans have a God-given right to the fruits of their labors; to steal the fruits of their labors is to steal the portion of their lives spent building up that surplus over their subsistence. But Marx hated that some people could gain property while other could not or would not gain as much.

The pattern is to find something and tear it down. Ellsworth outlines the formula:

Marx had a formula. He said there's property—and in his case he was talking about capital and private property ownership. That's this thing that is kind of exclusive. And then society builds this thing called a superstructure—that is, you know, all of our customs and traditions, and our ideas about economics and law and religion and those things. And we protect the ownership of private property, right, through this ideology, this system called capitalism that “maintains oppression of ordinary people.”

So the formula is to take the thing that seems to benefit some and then call those that have it the oppressors. Gramsci suggested, instead of just property, use culture. Out of this comes the Frankfurt School. Ellsworth continues:

And then you have it branching into these fruits of Critical Race Theory and Queer and Gender Theory, where now the property is being normal in the case of Queer Theory. Queer Theory hates the idea that anything is considered normal, and so they have this ideology of, okay you know, “They're trying to protect normal, which is a thing that only some people have access to through an ideology called heteronormativity,” right. And with Critical Race Theory, “They're trying to protect racial privilege using white supremacy,” right. So it's this formula that Marx established, he kind of synthesized, that is now applied to all of these different other things. And in the case of feminism, well, what is the property? It's male privilege or male power or things like that, and the ideology is patriarchy. It's the Marxist formula.

So the purpose of Marxism is to tear down whatever can be considered an inequality, so that those with whatever it is are oppressors of those without that thing—and the only cure is to tear down the society that has these inequities.

Now, for the comparisons (based mainly on their conversation, with a few things I may have added):

 

Christ’s Church—the Real Church	Satan’s/Marx’s Church—the Counterfeit
Conversion—an awakening, coming to know it’s true.	Conversion—an awakening, “wokeness” to awareness of patriarchy or heteronormativity or whatever.
Rituals: baptism, sacrament, temple covenants of obedience, sacrifice, purity, consecration—showing dedication as a disciple.	Praxis (action oriented toward changing society): Pride parades, for example, or displaying BLM stickers, pride flags, and symbols. Abortion—child sacrifice—is considered a sacrament; live children can also be sacrificed to the ideology (transgender surgeries, for example).
Confess and repent of sin; become a better person.	Denying power greater than self, denying authority beyond self—However, there must be submission to the ideology. Sin is to be the oppressor, as defined by the ideology, from which there is no repentance, but there must be continual confession of this sin with accompanying expressions of guilt.
Love one’s neighbor.	Attack and criticize relentlessly in the service of Marxist ideology.
Love God with devotion.	Love the Party and specific authoritarian figures with full devotion.
Spread the gospel; share the gospel, the tenets of the religion; invite others to come unto Christ.	Spread the new Godless covenant of relentless political activism. Inculcate the tenets of the religion through all forms of communication and education/indoctrination—and shut down (censor) all opposing words.

Ellsworth wrote the book for Latter-day Saints that have been seduced by this counterfeit religion—to give them a better view of what’s happening, and maybe change their minds, to re-convert to Christ. Marxism—in any of its forms—is completely incompatible with the Gospel of Christ. It is anti-Christ.

Ellsworth mentions a talk at a recent conference by Faith Matters, their Restore Conference 2024, intended, as they say “to inspire and nourish faith.” I’ve heard the occasional podcast and think they’re probably sincere. Anyway, one of their speakers, Neylan McBaine, he says “takes a feminist approach to the gospel and talks about patriarchy.” He says,

 

You know, I read her talk. And I don’t know if the people who heard her talk understand that they were being invited on the Marxist covenant path in that setting.

Marxism tears down; if they are saying Church leaders are patriarchal oppressors, they are saying the Church—the restored Church of Jesus Christ—should be torn down. That is the end point; there is no other eventual conclusion.

Greg Matson mentions a professor who was invited to speak at BYU (he’d done a podcast on this some time ago) who took the Book of Mormon and suggested that the word iniquity should be interchanged with the word inequity; the implication is that only inequity is a sin, and all else who could do wrong doesn't matter. Matson says, “I just want to pull my hair out, that this is being taught to these 18-22-year-old students.” Parents do not spend their savings to send their kids to the Church’s flagship school to have them indoctrinated into the Marxist covenant path. That absolutely must not happen.

Three years ago, Jeffrey R. Holland talked to the BYU faculty about the need to teach clearly the prophetic truths in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World.” I heard his words and recognized truth and love. But he got way too much pushback from those who have entered that Marxist covenant path and probably don’t even recognize that they have been seduced by lies.

If you think that socialism, communism, Marxism, Critical Race Theory, the LGBTQ agenda, DEI, abortion, feminism, or any other branch of this Great and Abominable Church is too political for you to deign to discuss, you may want to rethink that. Politics is just one place where it plays out. But it is the War in Heaven continued right here. And you really don’t want to be on the wrong side of that war; we know Christ wins, and we want to be on His side. Sitting on the sidelines is not an option; you must declare your team, and be a player on that team. At the very least speak up and cheer for the winning side.

Cataclysmic and Calamitous Times

Lately, every time I set out to write about something deeper and principle-based, I get distracted by the crazy news. I’ll try to tie this into something eternal in the end.

The cataclysmic news this week includes—well, let’s start with a massive hurricane.

Hurricane Helene, image from here

 

Hurricane Helene

Hurricane Helene, which hit the Florida panhandle as a category 4 storm a week ago, caused widespread devastation across 10-12 states. Some areas had 30 inches of rain—much of it before the storm actually arrived, so mudslides were a common outcome. The death toll is still unknown; compared to catastrophes in some third-world countries, deaths are low, but there are still a lot of missing people, maybe thousands. This may be the most devastating storm since Katrina. (I believe Hurricane Harvey was as devasting, with more than 50 inches of rain, as the storm stalled over Houston for days, but it was milder once it moved on to other areas.)

A bridge out near Ashville, North Carolina,
photo from here.

Communications, roads, water, and electricity are out—some of this may be long-term. Pack mules are being used to bring in supplies, which I thought was fascinating. If we ever get stuck in a pre-industrial situation, there are pack mules. This was probably common a century and a half ago, but now I see it as a rare and inventive solution.

Pack mule teams to the rescue,
image found here.

Churches (here’s one story; here’s another) and individuals are working together to bring relief. Glenn Beck talks about the Hillbilly Airforce (similar to the Cajun Navy, citizen volunteers from Louisiana that helped us out in Houston with Hurricane Harvey), in this story:

·        "What Glenn saw while helping hurricane victims in Asheville SHOCKED him” October 4, 2024.

He was there helping organize airlifting people in need. Government tried to shut them down. The people, who had organized themselves and found people with helicopters to come and volunteer, told the government guys, since they weren’t there to help, to get out of the way: “Get off our land!”

Glenn saw one FEMA truck, behind a building. The US Rep. he was with went with him to talk to them. It was a communications truck. The workers were sitting around playing cards or something, doing nothing. Glenn said almost nothing, to avoid lighting into them. There are government resources at military bases as close as North Carolina. Meanwhile, Kamala continues fundraising and avoiding media appearances, while the so-called president “commands forces” from a beach in Delaware.

FEMA has instituted a priority system, based on DEI dogma. A poor white Appalachian child cannot be prioritized over a suburban black, because of, you know, privilege.

Chris Martenson of Peak Prosperity starts off a brief video with, “Welcome to the quickening.” Maybe that refers to how fast news is coming at us, or maybe it’s an end times reference. But he, as I am doing, will talk about several big news stories: the hurricane and lack of response, the port strike (which I mention below), and the unrest on the Israel/Lebanon border. This 10-minute segment is limited to the hurricane and response:

·      “Hurricane Helene and Government Inaction, Israel Invades, and Free Speech Under Attack” Chris Martenson, Peak Prosperity, October 2, 2024.       

In the absence of true reporting and government distrust, there are some conspiracy theories about attempts at weather control—that either went awry or went as planned, not sure. I have no idea what may be true. I mention it, but I’ll need more information to become a believer. But I know enough not to put it past this current government regime.

Anyone who still trusts government—and turns to government as their substitute for God—may need an experience like this to wake up. Some note that, besides helping one another, the only place to turn is to God, and that is happening.

There’s another named storm, Kirk, out in the Atlantic. A fearmongering press suggested it might take the same trajectory as Helene. But my weather app shows it much further east (Helene came up from the Gulf in the south) and heading eastward; it may be possible that it will hit the UK or France, but it’s definitely not going to hit the east coast of the US. Still, it is not a storm you’d want to meet out on the waters.

 

Iran Attack on Israel

On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, Israel’s new year and high holy days season—which starts on a new moon, and also happened to coincide with an annular eclipse—Iran attacked Israel with a barrage of 180 missiles. (Iran claims it was over 200.) Most of the missiles were intercepted. A few hit in central Israel. Mostly administrative buildings were damaged, and some homes received shrapnel damage.

There were no deaths. A few people were treated with shrapnel wounds, mostly minor. Whatever else you might say, that outcome seems miraculous. As in biblically miraculous. There’s the prophecy of the two prophets raised up to Israel in the last days, who, according to Revelation 11:4-5:

“they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days [1260 days, or 3 ½ years] clothed in sackcloth….and if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.”

I don’t yet see the two witnesses. But it sure looks like someone is protecting Israel, so, if it’s them, we’re probably somewhere within those 1260 days.

Basic info is in this BBC News piece:

·       “What we know about Iran's missile attack on Israel” David Gritten, Matt Murphy, and Patrick Jackson, BBC News, October 3, 2024. 

 

Earthquake in Tonga

There was a 6.8 earthquake in Tonga on October 2. I’ve seen very little news concerning it. (There is a story here.) I’m remembering the 6.8 earthquake that hit San Francisco in 1989, just two months after we moved away from there. The Bay Bridge collapsed. Roads and rails were torn up, and there was widespread devastation. That’s a very big quake.

image from here

Fortunately, this quake in the island nation of Tonga was about 6 miles deep and did not cause a tsunami. The nearby islands felt the shock but did not suffer a great deal of damage.

But if you want to worry some more about earthquakes, there’s this story:

·       “Record spike in earthquakes around Washington's 'high threat' volcano” Ellyn Lapointe, Daily Mail, October 4, 2024. 

 

Vice Presidential Debate

There was a vice-presidential debate Tuesday night, October 1. “Catastrophe” is a word you might use, depending on which side you were on. J. D. Vance comported himself well, looked presidential and in control—dispelling the media lies about him being “weird” or unreasonable and angry. Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota, looked like a wild-eyed and/or befuddled Elmer Fudd. Take just about any screenshot the entire debate. 

J.D. Vance and Tim Walz, VP debate,
random screenshot taken from a clip shown by Dan Bongino 

He badly fumbled such questions as why he claimed to be in Tiananmen Square during the riots when he was not there until months later—adding that to the list of stolen valor-type lies. He said something to the effect that his people know and understand him, and he’s sometimes a knucklehead. That’s really doesn’t explain why you would invent a story to give yourself credit for some particular experience that you didn’t have. The whole rest of the world has not gone, “Tiananmen Square, now was I there at that time when the government mowed down civilians in the street? I can’t quite remember.” Tim Walz is unique. In a bad way.

Another fumble—and this was a misspeak he didn’t seem to be aware of—was trying to explain his change from supporting the 2^nd Amendment to wanting gun control. He intended, I think, to refer to a conversation he had with parents of Sandy Hook victims, but he said he changed after talking to the shooters. Oops.

He was in the unenviable position of trying to explain why Kamala Harris would suddenly do everything right once elected—and be an agent of change—when she’s had the power to effect those changes for three and a half years so far. So, for him, and that side of the ballot, you could call the night memorably catastrophic.

 

Port Workers Strike

The hurricane aftermath, with roads wiped out and bridges collapsed, is going to cause some shipping problems. Quartz and lithium mines, necessary for making computer chips, are inaccessible for the foreseeable future. And people are going to prioritize getting food, water, and fuel. So the timing could hardly be better for a longshoreman strike all along the east coast, and even including the Port of Houston here. As I was writing, word came that they had settled for a sizable pay increase, or maybe have paused the strike until January.

Ports under threat of closure,
image found on Facebook.

Even with only a few days of buildup in the ports, the ripple effect could still take weeks to work back toward normal. The big concern for the overall economy was, if it lasted for as long as a couple of weeks, we could be feeling the effects on through Christmas, with even early orders not making it in time. This would have had a substantial impact on businesses, many of which plan on making a large percentage of their annual sales during the Christmas holiday season.

 

Avoiding Prophesied Calamities

A prophetic scripture came to mind: Doctrine & Covenants 88:87-91: 

87 For not many days hence and the earth shall tremble and reel to and fro as a drunken man; and the sun shall hide his face, and shall refuse to give light; and the moon shall be bathed in blood; and the stars shall become exceedingly angry, and shall cast themselves down as a fig that falleth from off a fig tree.

88 And after your testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the people.

89 For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand.

90 And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds.

91 And all things shall be in commotion; and surely, men’s hearts shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people.

 Brigham Young put it this way: 

When the testimony of the Elders ceases to be given, and the Lord says to them, “Come home; I will now preach my own sermons to the nations of the earth,” all you now know can scarcely be called a preface to the sermon that will be preached with fire and sword, tempests, earthquakes, hail, rain, thunders and lightnings, and fearful destruction. What matters the destruction of a few railway cars? You will hear of magnificent cities, now idolized by the people, sinking in the earth, entombing the inhabitants. The sea will heave itself beyond its bounds, engulfing mighty cities. Famine will spread over the nations and nation will rise up against nation, kingdom against kingdom and states against states, in our own country and in foreign lands; and they will destroy each other, caring not for the blood and lives of their neighbors, of their families, or for their own lives (Discourses of Brigham Young, 111–12).

Dan Bongino has a T-shirt he sells that says, “Is it bad enough yet?” Some people read about apocalyptic times and think it is all going to be much worse than what we have seen, as if to say, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” And, granted, the book of Revelation, among others, looks pretty scary in places. But for people in North Carolina and Tennessee right now, without roads, electricity, food supply, or communications, seeing entire cities wiped out by flood and mud, unable to reach loved ones to find out if one another has survived—for these people this is probably bad enough.

In Houston in 2017, with biblical downpours of rain, watching boats go up and down the water-filled streets to rescue people, we thought that was probably bad enough.

People in war-torn countries probably think what they’re facing is bad enough. People caught in human trafficking (more human slavery now than at any time when it was considered legal and acceptable, which included most of human history) probably think this is bad enough.

I thought things were bad enough in the 1990s, but then I was surprised by the 2000s. I was certain things were bad enough in the 2010s. Then 2020 came, when we began playing apocalypse bingo as we read the news.

A meme I saw in May 2020; I don't know the original source.

While it’s true we are often blessed in our personal lives, going on with things—as they did in the days of Noah, right up until it began to rain—that doesn’t mean the prophesied pouring out of desolations isn’t happening somewhere else in the world. And, because of our communications, we’re likely to hear about these things, wherever they happen.

Another prophecy warning outcome caught my attention this week. This is the next-to-last paragraph of The Family: A Proclamation to the World:

We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.

There is a way to forfend the foretold calamities; it is to strengthen personal families, and to strengthen the concept of Family within our communities. We should “promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society” (final paragraph of the Family Proclamation).

This is not to say that all those negatively affected by the hurricane and other catastrophes in the news have failed to support their families and Family in general. Some of the outpouring of desolations will rain down upon the just and the unjust. But, as God “preaches His own sermons to the nations of the earth,” He is saying, “Turn to Me.” If government has been your god, you can see what a puny, powerless god it is in such times. If you’ve been depending on your own strength and control, that doesn’t stand up well to the power of nature and Nature’s God.

A starting place is to honor family, to keep commitments to those we are closest to in love. And we support that for others as well. This may lead to the essential place: honoring God, through His Son Jesus Christ.

I recommend a couple of video conversations from this week, toward this end:

·       “General Relief Society President - Family Proclamation, 'Family Is The Doctrine Of Christ'” September 29, 2024  Greg Matson, CWIC Media, September 29, 2024. He repeats the point from of former general Relief Society President: to be anti-family is to be anti-Christ.

·        Stu Does America, September 26, 2024. Stu Burgiere talks with Ryan T. Anderson about the post Dobbs world of abortion. Anderson, with the benefit of much research on top of seeking moral ways of living, points out that people in general favor abortion in just three circumstances: when the life of the mother is at stake, as a result of rape or incest—and when it’s their personal situation (their own or their child’s). It’s that last one that is the problem. We need a people moral enough to prevent such circumstances whenever possible, and to face them when they show up even after all you could do.     

So, the way to avoid prophesied calamities is simple, if not easy: Turn to Christ, and share Him—by example and word—with your immediate family. And then share Him with your extended family, friends, and community. People who do that will get through these times. People who don’t have no such promise.

 

Concerning News

These are concerning stories I’m watching. Mostly just waiting to see what happens next. I’m not going to write a full piece here today about each of them, just some headings and links, with the occasional quote and comment, and maybe a final summary.

 

UN Pact for the Future

On Sunday the United Nations took just five minutes to vote to take over the world. This was the UN Pact for the Future. They called it a consensus, but at least seven nations were opposed, because it did not include amendments they wanted. These included Russia, Iran, North Korea, Belarus, Syria and Nicaragua. Argentina’s President Milei spoke against the pact and excoriated the UN (see below), but Argentina isn’t on the opposition list. The vote was silent; if a nation didn’t speak in opposition in a given moment, their “silence” was considered consent.

While this pact is similar to other UN documents—lofty goals without much accountability—there is an underlying intent with this one to move the UN from an international cooperative body to an international governing body. And it intends to use businesses to assert pressure for them.

·       “World leaders adopt pivotal UN Pact for the Future” UN News, September 22, 2024. 

·       The UN document 

from p 44 of the Pact for the Future

·       “Argentina's 'chainsaw' president tells the UN to shove its 'socialist' 'Pact for the Future'” Joseph Mackinnon, The Blaze, September 26, 2024.   Argentina’s President Milei spoke against the Pact at the UN. He described it as “an attempt to build a totalitarian system of conformity across the business sector.” He said that Argentina would have nothing to do with centralizing world government and taking away sovereignty and human rights. This phrase also caught my eye: the UN “has transformed into a multi-headed leviathan that seeks to decide not only what each nation-state should do but also how all the citizens of the world should live.” I highlighted the phrase, which refers to the Revelation 13 sea beast—the worldwide cabal, the powers of darkness spreading across the nations of the earth. I don’t think the UN contains all of that beast; but I do think that beast includes the UN as presently constituted.

Argentina's President Javier Milei speaks at
the UN General Assembly, image from here

·       “The Most Important Event That No One is Talking About!” The Happy Lady, September 27, 2024.  The Happy Lady podcast is Latter-day Saint interest, with a lot of connecting dots in things in the news; she sees “pay attention numbers” all over the place, and she definitely thinks the Second Coming is soon. Between her and Christian Fire Poppy (who looks at signs in the heavens, and uses Stellarium.com as an astronomy resource far better than I have figured out how to do on my own) and Allie Duzett (who looks at the energy of the planets, a sort of different way of approaching astrology), I see more than my share of odd connections being made—enough to feel like the crazy guy in A Beautiful Mind. Nevertheless, I often find them interesting. The Happy Lady had this in her description box for this video: “America was just given into bondage by our administration as the world system of the beast was officially put into place while world leaders cheered. We're headed into a month of Hebrew feasts, worldwide prophetic revelation, jubilees, judgments, prophecy fulfillment, darkness, while celebrating the Light of the World and preparing for our Savior's return.” So President Milei (above) wasn’t the only one calling the UN the beast from Revelation 13.

·       “The U.S. Must Oppose the U.N. Pact for the Future” Brett Schaefer, The Heritage Foundation, September 16, 2024.  This was ahead of the vote by several days. Unfortunately, the current US administration is gung-ho in favor of worldwide centralized governance.

 

War in Israel

War is escalating in Israel. Last week there was the innovative targeted attack via pagers (see below), and then walkie-talkies. This week Israel attacked headquarters of Hezbollah. Headquarters were hidden beneath neighborhoods in Lebanon. Israel gave warning to residents to evacuate—as they usually do. It appears a major Hezbollah leader was killed in the attack, Hassan Nasrallah. While I wouldn’t call this Armageddon just yet, escalation has continued steadily for nearly a year now, since the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, supported by Hezbollah, Iran, and other anti-Israel sources. In other words, Armageddon is more likely to result from this continuation than from an interim peace before some future war.

air strike in town of Habbouch in southern Lebanon,
AP image from here

·       “Israeli strikes kill 492 in Lebanon’s deadliest day of conflict since 2006” by Melanie Lidman, Bassem Mroue, and Bassam Hatoum, for AP, September 24, 2024. 

·       “Israel Did Not Intercept Hezbollah Pagers That Exploded—It Made Them” The Daily Wire, September 19, 2023. 

exploded pager, AFP via Getty Images, found here

·       “IDF announces name of military offensive against Hezbollah: Northern Arrows” The Times of Israel, September 23, 2024.  I don’t know whether we’ll figure out some symbolic meaning for this name; for now I’m just noting that there is a name.

·       “Israel-Hezbollah live updates: Israel says strike in Beirut targeted Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah” NBC News, September 27, 2024. 

·       “Israel Targets Leader Of Hezbollah In Strike On Terror Group’s HQ” Ryan Saavedra, The Daily Wire, September 27, 2024. 

 

 

Assassination Attempts on Donald Trump

Initial Findings Report p. 1

This week a J13 (i.e., July 13, 2024) Initial Findings Report came out, of the investigation into the Secret Service and other government security lapses. I believe this comes from the Senate investigation so far. There are two versions: short and long. There also continues to be more information about the September 15 assassination attempt:

·       Initial Findings Report (2 pages) 

·       Full report (133 pages)  

·       “Man charged in apparent Trump plot wrote 'This was an assassination attempt,' court filing shows” by Marlene Lenthang, Jesse Kirsch, and Maria Piñero, for NBC News, September 23, 2024. 

 

 

J6 and Other Plots

Two pieces of information came out this week. One is a record showing that President Trump made a direct order to the military to use National Guard or active duty military—whatever it would take to maintain safety when so many people would be at the capitol.

Trump post about this news,
image is screenshot from here

·       “Bombshell transcripts: Trump urged use of troops to protect Capitol on Jan. 6 , but was rebuffed” John Solomon, Just the News, September 23, 2024.  Since the prosecution of Donald Trump for inciting violence on J6 requires a guilty mind, the prosecutors have hidden this information, which shows Trump’s priority was safety at the capitol; he wanted no violence. It should mean the charges are dropped.

The other piece of information relates to the media-forgotten story about the pipe bomber at the DNC on J6. After four years, officials still have not identified the person who planted the bomb. The security footage they released was grainy—in a way that current technology is not—and would not provide enough clarity, they said. This week Revolver News released testimony from a whistleblower—an investigator from a different government organization—who saw the actual security footage, which was clear, included both camera angles, and might possibly have provided identifiers (markings on clothing, facial recognition). He saw this at the DNC, not provided by the FBI. It appears FBI officials do not want the person identified. I (and plenty of others—see Dan Bongino) speculate that this was a plot to make it look like the soon-to-be-sworn-in VP Kamala Harris had an assassination attempt against her, but when adequate rioting broke out at the capitol building, they decided to push that insurrection narrative instead. We still don’t have an explanation for why Harris was at the DNC that historic day, when she was about to be named the first woman VP (and first Asian VP, and first black VP). We know she was at the DNC; her security entourage/vehicles are there. But she now claims she was afraid for her life at the capitol, with other senators supposedly under attack.

·       "BREAKING: Government Source Confirms FBI Dirty Tricks with Key Jan 6 Pipe Bomb Footage as Cover-Up Unravels” Revolver, September 25, 2024. 

Original footage, in video included in this Revolver story

One more Trump lawfare-related bonus item. Robert Gouveia had a conversation with Joe Sweeney, a former CIA lawyer specializing in classified document protection in legal cases, about his book Dangerous Injustice: How Democrats Weaponized DOJ to Protect Biden and Persecute Trump.  He details the many things wrong with the case against President Trump and the raid at Mar-a-Lago.

·       “Ex-CIA Lawyer Reveals TRUTH about Trump Raid and MORE” Joe Sweeney is on with Robert Gouveia, September 27, 2024. 

 

P Diddy Arrest

I do not know much about this performer. I would not recognize any of his music and would have to have any photo of him labeled to recognize him. However, this looks a lot like the Jeffrey Epstein case, in which a very rich person is surrounded by elites, and rumors abound that he has video of them in compromising situations, for blackmail or control purposes. While I heard it brought up on a number of podcasts, a quick online search for stories is bare of the conspiracy angle.

·       “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs arrest and indictment: A timeline of key events” AP, September 18, 2024.

·       “The Reason P. Diddy's Famous Friends Have Likely Remained Silent Following His Arrest, According To A PR Expert” Erick Swann, CinemaBlend, September 28, 2024. 

 

Hurricane Helene

Water on Guy Ford Road bridge in Sugar Grove, North Carolina,
image from Jonathan Drake/Reuters, from here

This storm hit landfall near Tampa, Florida, as a category 4 hurricane. As the storm moved north and inland, six states have declared emergencies: Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. Warnings went out to 60 million people in 12 states. Many people remain without power, water, or cell service.

·       “September 26, 2024 news on Hurricane Helene” CNN Weather, September 26, 2024. Other stories from subsequent days also appear on this page. 

·       “‘It’s shocking’: Asheville devastated after historic floods from Helene” Angeli Gabriel, Fox Weather, September 28, 2024. This story showing damage from up to 30 inches of rain in North Carolina exemplifies the type of damage the storm has wrought over a large area. This story includes video. 

 

Conclusions

It was a big news week. And these stories may seem random. Maybe they are. But maybe we can look at them as signs of the times. The UN story and the various stories related to the Deep State in the US relate to the Revelation 13 sea beast, helped along by the other beast—the false speaker or propaganda beast. The P Diddy story may be part of that sea beast. Maybe not, but it definitely exemplifies evil.

Then there’s war in Israel, which might be a precursor to Armageddon. We’ll wait and see, and hope for mercy.

And the seas surge beyond their bounds, with catastrophes spreading across many states. Just a normal hurricane season? Maybe. Or maybe it’s an example of the bad stuff—the tribulations—of the last days. At some point, if I’m understanding scriptures accurately (a very iffy if), then other plagues or catastrophes will come that will be aimed mainly at the wicked, rather than anyone in the way. That means the ones we’re seeing now are a wake-up call: repent now; there’s not much time left. In scripture, blessing prophecies are always certain, but warning prophecies can be averted by repentance. And, at the very least, there is protection for the repentant.

The woman in the sky constellation, with asteroids, on the day of Hurricane Helene,
screenshot from here

There are interesting signs in the heavens. Christian Fire Poppy showed what was in the skies when the hurricane hit Florida.  As is typical, the signs in the heavens—often aptly named asteroids or comes or other heavenly bodies—show up around the constellation Virgo, or woman in the sky described in Revelation 12. We’re also about to see the coinciding of Rosh Hashanah, an annular eclipse, and probably more I’m not remembering in about a week. That also happens to be the weekend of the Worldwide General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’ll definitely be watching to hear from our 100-year-old prophet and other wise leaders, in case they have something to tell us on how to navigate these crazy times we’re in.

So, it’s just another week of concerning news, typical of the very last days foretold in prophecy.