Oct 1, 2012
The Red Line's Connection to Bible Prophecy
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in several interviews that the world faces a red line in stopping Iran before it can build a nuclear bomb. To drive his point home, he flashed a diagram of a cartoon-like bomb in a speech he made before the UN General Assembly. He used the crude diagram to show the progress Iran has made, and where Israeli would likely be forced to act.
Netanyahu focused on the two stages that Iran has reached in the purification of uranium. The first stage is the 70-percent level, which they have achieved. The second stage is the 90-percent level, which is the purity rate needed to make a nuclear bomb. The Israeli prime minister said this is a stage that Iran cannot be allowed to cross, because once they have bomb-grade uranium it would impossible to stop them from assembling a bomb.
"By next spring, at most by next summer at current enrichment rates, they will have finished the medium enrichment and move on to the final stage," he said. "From there, it's only a few months, possibly a few weeks before they get enough enriched uranium for the first bomb."
One quote from Benjamin Netanyahu that leaped out at me was his claim, "I started speaking about the Iranian threat 16 years ago." The concern over Iran's nuclear program has been so prolonged, it's hard to stay mindful of the danger. The average Israeli citizen has become immune to Iran's calls for Israel's annihilation. Even Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, talking about his invisible doomsday friend, "the 12th Imam," hardly rises an eyebrow these days.
The Iranian threat is not going to go away if you stop thinking about it. I remember the days when we wondered if Iran would have an atomic bomb in three to five years. The timeline eventually shortened to one to two years. Now, we are only speculating about how many months it will before Iran goes nuclear.
The standoff with the Iranian nuclear program is not the only red line the world faces. Every major financial system on earth seems to be marching towards a point where they will be engulfed by an economic meltdown. Since the crisis started in 2008, central banks have been putting one band-aid after another on a system that only becomes more perilous.
Another situation facing a red line is global food production. For the past several years, I've noticed a relentless assault on world grain reserves by a series of negative weather events. The drought of 2012 in the U.S. has put us dangerously close to a level where food will have to be rationed.
Terry and I have noticed a common theme with world events: We are constantly teetering at the point where we could plunge into chaos. What makes these observations all the more fascinating is that the threat never goes away; it only grows larger in scope.
We are at the point where the only conclusion we can make is that the rapture is a common factor preventing us from going past the point of no return. Either events are on hold until the rapture takes place, or the occurrence of something like the bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities will target a countdown that will lead to the rapture.
The rapture is certainly a red line when it comes to the tribulation hour. The church will not be around to see the Antichrist sign the peace treaty with Israel that starts the Tribulation.
The Bible's restriction against there being a clear sign that the rapture is about to take place would seem to imply that the church's removal from planet earth will happen well in advance of a point where the game plan of end-time event becomes obvious.
It seems to me that we have long since stepped over that red line. The world has become so wicked that every Christian needs to adopt an end-time mindset. It is a very valid question to ask yourself: What would you be doing today, if the Lord Jesus was coming tomorrow--because someday tomorrow will be today?
"And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?" (Luke 12:54-56).
--Todd