Comprehending the Chess Board

 

I’ve mentioned, more than once, that strategy is not my strong suit. But I do play chess, a bit, because the guys in the family enjoy it. Actually, at this point, I’m not often playing chess games; I’m playing chess puzzles, on the chess.com app. They’re set up so, if you make the right one or two moves, you can get a checkmate. And I’m pretty good at it.

Our grandson is a chess puzzles champion, in his interscholastic league. One day he showed me how to play a chess puzzles match (which I haven’t tried since). You needed to make the right moves almost instantly, which he does. I take an average of 5-7 seconds. So I guess I’m very slow.

one of the family chess matches
several years ago

Occasionally I take a free lesson, which shows you how to make good opening moves, and a bit of strategy from there—which makes sense when it’s explained to me, but otherwise I’m at a loss.

Because the chess puzzles seem so easy to me, and the situations follow patterns that come up a lot, I’ve asked my sons how a player would allow those situations to arise. But they assure me, those situations do happen in the natural course of play.

All of this is to say, common sense requires some experience, some careful observation, some understanding of the whole board, and some pattern recognition.

In our somewhat chaotic world today, is there a skilled player who understands the board, or a wild-and-wooly take-any-piece-you-can player?

Glenn Beck thinks we may have a chess champion handling the board. He says,

“If this war ends without spreading, and this theory that I'm going to lay out for you, these six things, if this is what it is, it will all have been done without the kind of global war that has defined the 20th Century. This is America reclaiming its golden age. Just smarter, stronger, and sovereign.”

Thursday’s overview (it was on radio, so you have to just imagine the chalkboard) is similar to one I wrote about a few weeks ago—also because of what Glenn Beck was saying. I don’t think we can say definitively that he’s right, but I think the evidence is building that our President Trump has a good grasp on the worldwide game board—and a plan.

To read the full article, FOLLOW LINK TO SUBSTACK.

Get Used to Living in Zion

I don’t mean for the title to be misleading. I am not referring to Zionism—the movement of Jews to a homeland of Israel. The word Zion is used in a lot of ways in our scriptures (the standard canonized scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). I’m picking out a few that will apply to what I’m writing about today: “the pure in heart,” “the cause of Zion,” and in the geographical sense somewhat, “all of North and South America.”

from the Bible Dictionary, here

To lay the groundwork: I wrote a couple of months ago (toward the bottom of this post) about the 42 months during which “the beast” reigned over the saints. And I speculated that these 42 months could coincide with the likely illegal administration of Joe Biden, or whoever was pulling the strings during his administration. As it turned out, he stepped down from the race for reelection exactly 42 months after his inauguration.

I just called the Biden administration illegal. While I'm not
writing about that today, this new graphic is additional evidence.
Found here and here.

So, in that sense, “the saints” were the good people of America who were living under the tyranny of “the beast”; i.e., the sea beast of Revelation 13, or the worldwide cabal, secret combinations, worldwide Deep State, Whore of All the Earth, or whatever symbolic name you want to apply to that entity. I posited that, with the conclusion of those 42 months, the beast would still be dangerous, in its death throes, but would be losing power. And then last week I wrote about the propaganda beast—the land beast of Revelation 13, which supports and gives the illusion of power to the sea beast—that it was losing power also.

And then we see the election. The sea beast is significantly disempowered by the election of Donald Trump to a second term.

I have been looking toward this election all year, trying to imagine what would happen going forward from the election, depending on various outcome scenarios. I couldn’t see beyond it. If the cabal won, America was essentially doomed. But I was hopeful that wouldn’t be the case—because of what I was seeing symbolically. But if Trump won, wouldn’t the sea beast and the propaganda beast stir up a lot of trouble, maybe riots or violence? I didn’t know. I couldn’t imagine that they would concede peacefully and allow the incoming administration to uncover all their secret works of darkness. I still can’t see them allowing that. And yet, at this point, two days after the historic landslide election, the results are so clear that accusations of cheating to get this result are meaningless. So protests have no basis of complaint.

In fact, the losing side, rather than self-reflection, is saying things like, “America is more fascist than we had realized.”

For those who feel sad that their team lost this election, I’m not without sympathy. I remember consoling myself with Philippians 4:8 after the 2012 election: “whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Thinking on the demise of the country was too devastating to contemplate. I was in mourning. Turning to lovely things (like Christmas music) helped me get through. Essentially, I turned to God for comfort, as I do, and life went on. I suggest the same for those mourning today, but I’m guessing that’s not their natural go-to.

It turned out reports of the demise of our constitutional republic were premature. We had some temporary improvement from 2017-2020. Then we’ve been hanging on by a thread, as it were, on limited life support. America might now be waking up from its near-death coma.

But those voters who have listened to the propaganda, that has been telling them a Trump victory was the end of life as we know it, and the beginning of fascist tyranny (which they didn’t recognize under Biden) are mourning what they think is a serious blow. In a year or two, many of them may come to realize, hey, things aren’t as bad as we were told. This may especially be the case if the propaganda beast is indeed weakening. They may start getting information from sources of truth, and that could make all the difference for them.

So what do I mean about getting used to living in Zion?

Maybe "shining city upon a hill" is another way of 
describing a Zion society, and it can be America.
Gif image found here

We are told to prepare the world for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, our Savior. We know this is coming. We don’t know precisely when. But soon—whatever soon means.

There’s so much to fear about the run-up to the Second Coming: earthquakes, fires, floods, famine, disease, wars. All of which we have seen, in case you hadn’t noticed. To those who keep saying, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” maybe what we have been seeing has been something.

I have wondered a couple of things. First, why the warnings from ancient prophets if there is no way to avoid the tribulations? And second, how are we to prepare the world for the Savior to come and live among us, if we’re too hampered by tyranny to make free choices to benefit ourselves and others?

I expect the tribulations will continue. But with each one, there will be people who turn to God for support in those times. And—this is important—they will find Zion. They will find people living in a way that shows their love for one another. People step up to help those in trouble, and to get them to more spiritually solid ground—as well as housed and fed and comforted until they can become self-sufficient again.

During the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, we saw glimpses of Zion—people stepping up to help those in need. These Zion people sometimes had to do it despite being hindered by the government.

Elon Musk provided Starlink service to people who had lost their communications. But they weren’t allowed into some areas—the areas with the most need—without names and contact information of the people they were going to see. Well, it kind of defeats the purpose of going in to reach those people who can’t tell you who they are—because they have no communications to let you know who they are!

Glenn Beck experienced frustration with FEMA and other government agencies, who were following directions, but hadn’t thought of ways to actually get food and water and supplies to the people who couldn’t get to their in-town centers—because they lost transportation, bridges, and roads, and couldn’t get to those places. People had to do the jobs that government couldn’t or wouldn’t do.

And, even without natural disasters, people are struggling to pay for groceries and gas for their cars. These things were called “malaise” under Obama (as with Carter a generation earlier), and were considered permanent. Then we found out they weren’t permanent; we just needed better policies. So we had better days under Trump—until the pandemic allowed the sea beast to exert control over the people in ways that were more frightening than the illness (which was easily treatable at home, if they hadn’t outlawed such treatments). Then things turned bad again under Biden. But now we know those things don’t have to be permanent.

It will take some work to build Zion. But I think we can actually do it.

Another way of talking about this is building civilization, which I’ve written about. On the Spherical Model website, I describe civilization this way:

The Social Sphere of the Spherical Model

What Does Civilization Look Like?

In the northern circle that is the goal—Civilization—families typically remain intact, and children are raised in loving homes, with caring parents who guide their education and training, dedicating somewhere between 18 and 25 years for that child to reach adulthood, and who then remain interested in their children’s success for the rest of their lives.

Civilized people live peaceably among their neighbors, helping rather than taking advantage of one another, abiding by laws enacted to protect property and safety—with honesty and honor. Civilized people live in peace with other civilized people; countries and cultures coexist in appreciation, without fear.

There is a thriving free-enterprise economy. Poverty is meaningless; even though there will always be a lowest earning 10% defined as poor, in a civilized society these lowest earners have comfortable shelter and adequate food and clothing—and there’s the possibility of rising, or at least for future generations to rise.

Creativity abounds; enlightening arts and literature exceed expectations. Architecture and infrastructure improve; innovation and invention are the rule.

People feel free to choose their work, their home, their family practices, their friendships and associations. And they generally self-restrain before they infringe on the rights and freedoms of others. Where there are questions about those limits, laws are in place to help clarify boundaries of civilized behavior. When someone willingly infringes on the rights or safety of another, the law functions to protect that victim as well as society from further uncivilized behavior from the offender.

America is set up to be such a civilization—to be a Zion.

The losing candidate, if you’ll recall, declared herself against Zion. It was at a rally shortly before the election. She was praising her favorite “right” of abortion, and two people in the crowd called out “Jesus is Lord” and “Christ is King.” And she went off script—one of the only times—and quipped, “You’re at the wrong rally. You must want the smaller rally down the street.” She is anti-Zion, anti-civilization—she is anti-Christ.

So how do we get to become Zion? We follow the rules for civilization. Again, this is from the Civilization article on the website. There are two rules:

1.     Not all religious societies are civilized (according to my definition), but every civilized society is a religious society. This absolutely does not mean state-sponsored religion or lack of religious freedom; in fact, the opposite is true. Freedom of religion is essential, and the flourishing of religion in general must be encouraged.

2.     The family is the basic unit of civilized society. Whatever threatens the family threatens civilization. So preserving and protecting the family is paramount in laws and social expectations in a civilized society.

 

There’s a fair amount more detail for each of these, which we won’t fully cover here today. For those of my faith, you might look at this as moving from savagery a telestial society (telestial referring to the brightness of the stars at a distance), which is a fallen world, to a civilized, terrestrial world (referring to the relative brightness of the moon, which is much brighter in the sky than a star). If we can get portions of the world—maybe even whole countries, but at least many communities—to be of that higher level, that would be a place Christ would visit. We want to eventually become celestial (comparative brightness of the sun)—where God dwells. But that can come later. Terrestrial, as I understand it, will be the nature of the world during Christ’s millennial reign.

The Ten Commandments, at
the Texas State Capitol

How do we become terrestrial—or civilized—now, while the world itself is still telestial? By living by those two rules. The kind of religion may still vary widely. But it will require being accountable to a higher being for your behavior in this life. And it will require living a certain way. We need to live by the Ten Commandments. We can summarize these with these five things: Honor God, family, life, truth, and property.

·        We honor God: We put God first, and recognize our adherence to His law will affect our afterlife beyond this life.

·        We honor family: We have family loyalty and fidelity. This requires, by the way, no sex outside of man-woman marriage—no arguments about that. Family is how civilization gets passed from generation to generation. Family, as defined by God, is the basic unit of civilization.

·        We value life: We value our own life and the lives of all others. We would take human life only in self-defense situations, which includes defensive war, and in protection of society from someone who has murdered. In a just, civilized society, those exceptions become more and more rare.

·        We value truth: We do not lie, or bear false witness; truth is sacred to us.

·        We value property: We do not steal or even covet, which means wanting what belongs to another—not just wanting something like theirs, but actually wanting to deprive them for your own satisfaction.

The only thing not specified there to love your neighbor. The Savior summarized all the law and the prophets (the sum of what became Old Testament scripture outlining the law and then the teachings of the prophets) as to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and strength, and then to love your neighbor as yourself.

His is an even higher way—which we’ll have an easier time choosing from a terrestrial (civilized) society than from a telestial (savage) society. He asks us to control even our thoughts and feelings. There are summaries of what this behavior entails in places like I Corinthians 13, where the apostle Paul describes charity, the pure love of Christ: kind, not envious, not self-important or self-aggrandizing, not unseemly, not selfish, not easily provoked, no evil thinking, no rejoicing in iniquity, but rejoicing in truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. This love never fails.

A government leader can’t make such a society happen. But such a leader can get out of the way of a free and righteous people. If we return to our Constitution, and limit government to those specified things that protect our life, liberty, and property, the rest is up to us.

Maybe this was the plan all along—to give an example of Zion to the world. Then people can self-select based on whether they love God or not. Those who choose Zion get to live a much better life—more like living in the Garden of Eden eventually—than those who choose symbolic Babylon, or the savage, telestial world.

As Trump might eventually say: “Come to Zion—but do it legally.”

There’s more celebration of the victory I’d like to write about, for the sake of history. But this will do as my first impression.

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.

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.