As I sit in my not-quite-cozy, snow drift bound office and muse about the world and other sundry items that flash through the portals of my mind, I cannot help but consider an important question that keeps popping up. Will the RAPTURE of the Church take place this year? This seems to be the great interrogative on many believer's lips...yet how can I answer, other than to say a hardy "I hope so?" Really, no man knows the day or the hour. We are only given the warning of "STAY ALERT" or "Be Watchful." The Lord was kind enough to give us a picture of the season in which he would call for his Bride, but beyond that.....no concrete signal or countdown.
However, my Pastor of student ministries and I were bouncing the question around and I believe I may have stumbled on a plausible answer. The Rapture will PROBABLY happen in 2011. Why, you might ask? Well, here is my new theory. (And please leave the rocks in place on the ground, for I am not proclaiming myself a prophet:)
First....it all has to do with Football.
You see, it appears that 2010 will usher in an uncapped free agency in the NFL because the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between players and owners is being challenged. That means owners are going to spend like crazy to try and get their teams to the Superbowl in February 2011.
Then, because the CBA will not have been negotiated by the start of the 2011 season, the owners will initiate a lock-out and the 2011 season will not happen.
The Result?
The MEN of America, particularly the Christian Men of America, will be forced to go to church and actually keep their minds on the Word being preached and the Worship being offered. History says that whenever men get excited and passionate about God....REVIVAL takes place! As we see events shaping up in the Middle East, and because I believe a Latter Rain Revival will be poured out on the Church before the Rapture, then this coming lockout in 2011 would surely be the trigger event!
Second....the interpreters of the Mayan Calendar tell us the world will end in 2012. Therefore, Jesus will have to hurry up his own time schedule before calamity strikes.
Please, please, please, do not pass this information along....and DEFINITELY do not use my name if you do.
Now, some real news concerning the Iranian nuclear situation and what the US might be thinking militarily.
US preparing for possible Iran conflict
By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
The US does not want to see confrontation with Iran but is still preparing its military for that possibility, America's top uniformed officer said Thursday.
"We've looked to do all we can to ensure that conflict doesn't break out there, while at the same time preparing forces, as we do for many contingencies that we understand might occur," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during an appearance at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Mullen had been asked whether the US military was stretched too thin to take further action in trouble spots beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We're very hard-pressed right now" because of the two wars, he noted, but added that it is primarily ground troops that have been deployed, and "the likelihood that our ground forces would have to go somewhere in these kinds of numbers in some other part of the world, or even in the same region, I think is pretty low."
Many experts assess that any American military engagement with Iran would most likely rely on air and naval power. Mullen was even more definitive when asked to assess whether Teheran was seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.
"I believe that they're on a path that has a strategic intent to develop nuclear weapons and have been for some time," he said.
Mullen's words were echoed by a report in The New York Times this week that US President Barack Obama's top advisers say "they no longer believe the much disputed National Intelligence Estimate" from 2007, which assessed that Iranian scientists ended all work on designing a nuclear warhead in 2003.
Israel had long objected to that finding, and questioned the intelligence evaluation behind it. Mullen's comments and those of other US officials bring the two countries more in line.
"I think the Obama administration now fully acknowledges that Iran intends to conduct a nuclear weapons capability program," Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday. "We agree with the administration on the intent of the Iranian regime to acquire nuclear military capability."
The Times also reported that technical challenges and potential Western sabotage have significantly hurt Iran's production of low enriched uranium, a necessary component for a nuclear bomb. That has set back the American estimated timeline for production of a weapon, according to the Times.
Oren indicated that Israel remains focused on the low enriched uranium still being produced.
"In spite of some reported breakdown in centrifuges, Iran still has something in the vicinity of 4,000 centrifuges that are operating and they are churning out significant quantities of LEU," he said.
Mullen called any attainment of a nuclear weapon by Iran "incredibly destabilizing," particularly because it could set off an arms race in the region and because of Teheran's support for terrorism.
"On the other hand," he added, "striking Iran, that also has a very, very destabilizing outcome. What I worry about in most of the cases are the unintended consequences."
The US does not want to see confrontation with Iran but is still preparing its military for that possibility, America's top uniformed officer said Thursday.
"We've looked to do all we can to ensure that conflict doesn't break out there, while at the same time preparing forces, as we do for many contingencies that we understand might occur," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during an appearance at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Mullen had been asked whether the US military was stretched too thin to take further action in trouble spots beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We're very hard-pressed right now" because of the two wars, he noted, but added that it is primarily ground troops that have been deployed, and "the likelihood that our ground forces would have to go somewhere in these kinds of numbers in some other part of the world, or even in the same region, I think is pretty low."
Many experts assess that any American military engagement with Iran would most likely rely on air and naval power. Mullen was even more definitive when asked to assess whether Teheran was seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.
"I believe that they're on a path that has a strategic intent to develop nuclear weapons and have been for some time," he said.
Mullen's words were echoed by a report in The New York Times this week that US President Barack Obama's top advisers say "they no longer believe the much disputed National Intelligence Estimate" from 2007, which assessed that Iranian scientists ended all work on designing a nuclear warhead in 2003.
Israel had long objected to that finding, and questioned the intelligence evaluation behind it. Mullen's comments and those of other US officials bring the two countries more in line.
"I think the Obama administration now fully acknowledges that Iran intends to conduct a nuclear weapons capability program," Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday. "We agree with the administration on the intent of the Iranian regime to acquire nuclear military capability."
The Times also reported that technical challenges and potential Western sabotage have significantly hurt Iran's production of low enriched uranium, a necessary component for a nuclear bomb. That has set back the American estimated timeline for production of a weapon, according to the Times.
Oren indicated that Israel remains focused on the low enriched uranium still being produced.
"In spite of some reported breakdown in centrifuges, Iran still has something in the vicinity of 4,000 centrifuges that are operating and they are churning out significant quantities of LEU," he said.
Mullen called any attainment of a nuclear weapon by Iran "incredibly destabilizing," particularly because it could set off an arms race in the region and because of Teheran's support for terrorism.
"On the other hand," he added, "striking Iran, that also has a very, very destabilizing outcome. What I worry about in most of the cases are the unintended consequences."
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Jimmy Root Jr
Author: Distant Thunder Book One of the Lightning ChroniclesA Gathering Storm Book Two of the Lightning Chronicles (Coming Soon)
Gog and Magog, Israel, Iran, Radical Islam, Ezekiel 38 and 39, Jimmy Root Jr, Rapture, Nuclear Weapons, Bible Prophecy, Russia, European Union, Lightning Chronicles, Terrorism,
So is the football scenario settled science then? Sounds as good as any
ReplyDeleteother theory out there!
Rock on!