RAPTURE READY

By Todd Strandberg
 
 
Highway 666

Route 666 runs through a portion of the western U.S. The number, however, was recently changed to Rt. 491, when Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico supported efforts to get the number changed because the 666 numerical designation was, he maintained, impairing the economic vitality of the towns along its route.

Politicians of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah, states through which the road runs, petitioned the federal agency that handles such things. They argued that the New Testament's association of 666 with Satan was creating hardships on businesses along the route, which had been Rt. 666 for 77 years.

Numerous reports of strange happenings along the highway have been recorded into the lore of phenomena not yet explained, much like reports surrounding the Bermuda Triangle. Route 666, as a matter of fact, has often been called “the Devil’s Highway,” just as the Bermuda Triangle has been termed “the Devil’s Triangle.”

There is now developing another highway that could have satanic implications. The development is much more subtle than the phenomenal aspects supposedly wrapped up in legend and lore of Route 666. It is all being done in the name of humanity and industry. It is thought of as a creation that will advance the human condition, particularly within the western hemisphere. But it will, when in place, have substantial influence on the rest of the world as well.

A superhighway, termed the NAFTA Highway, is proposed to run between Mexico and Canada--through the U.S. It will go a long way toward tying the nations together in an international trading bloc, somewhat like the economic trading arrangement created by the nations of the European Union, and its predecessor agglomerate, the Common Market. An additional –and perhaps even more important--part of the arrangement will be the security it supposedly will provide for the continent.

One article about the proposed superhighway states: “It is touted as an arrangement to increase security and enhance prosperity through greater cooperation and information sharing… The program was supposedly launched in March of 2005. The U.S. Department of Commerce describes it as a ‘White House-driven initiative’ and goes on to claim ‘The SPP [Security and Prosperity Partnership] recognizes that our three great nations are bound by a shared belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic institutions” (www.amerocurrency.com, Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America,The New North American Union, 10/13/06).

Sounds great, doesn’t it? So, what makes this continental unification initiative potentially a devil’s highway even more dangerous than the infamous Route 666 was purported to be?

Those who look at international arrangements and rearrangements through the prism of bible prophecy have long viewed the ten toes of the man-statue Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream/vision (Daniel, chapter 2) as the toes representing 10 nations within the endtime revived Roman Empire. I was of like mind until about a decade ago. It became apparent that the world would likely be divided into economic trading powers, the World Trade Organization (WTO) being the nucleus body to govern, or at least act as catalyst for, the trading bloc powers to organize.

Trading blocs, rather than 10 nations out of Europe, made more prophetic and practical sense, when considering world developments in economic matters, and Revelation 17: 12-13: “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.”

The 10 horns conform with the 10 toes of Daniel, chapter 2, and comport well with the beast seen both by Daniel in the book of Daniel chapter 7, and John in Revelation 13, as it raises out of the sea of people and eventually enslaves the world with economic bondage (Rev. 13:16-18). This 10 toes/horn agglomerate kingdom is the world Babylonian system of economic enslavement that is judged in Revelation, chapter 18.

Could the new superhighway be the beginning of America’s forming –with Canada and Mexico­one of the 10 kingdoms that will give power and authority to the beast –Antichrist, and his devilish regime?

I’m convinced that the process has been underway in earnest for some time, with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) serving as the nucleus around which layer after layer of the North American toe of the 10 trading bloc kingdoms is growing. This generation seems well along the way down Highway 666.

--Terry