Apostasy and Perdition

"Now we beseech you, brothers, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together to him, That you be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember you not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?"
(2 Thessalonians 2:1-5)

Christ's second coming and our gathering together to him will not occur until after a "falling away" and the revealing of the "son of perdition". This “man of sin” won't declare himself to be deity until after a "falling away" (646 apostasia); a defection from truth, an apostasy. The word is used one other time in Acts 21:21 to "forsake" Moses. It is akin to 647 apostasion, a separation or divorce. This refers to Christians abandoning their love and faith in Christ (1 Timothy 4:1). Though several denominations have ordained homosexual leaders in recent decades, I think churches who recently removed their crosses and embraced Chrislam have fulfilled “falling away”, since they have accepted a false god, Allah, as being equal to Yahweh who gave us His Son Yeshua. Allah has no son. Islam denies the Father and the Son, and is antichirst (I John 2:22-23). Paul is very clear that “the son of perdition” is revealed after the “falling away” and before “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
One of the reasons the pre-trib rapture theory came into being was because people kept calling the pope the son of perdition or the antichrist. The new doctrine placed the revealing of the son of perdition after Christians had been raptured away, and so the pope could be as corrupt as he desired without constant accusation. Though Catholics hold to some unbiblical doctrines, they have not denied the Father and His Son Jesus, so they are not antichrist.
Judas is the other person called a “son of perdition” (John 17:12), though he was one of the Twelve. So a “son of perdition” is a professed follower of Jesus who then denies Christ. To be an “antichrist” he will follow a religion that denies the Father and the Son, like Islam. He will exalt himself as God in a shrine/naos of God/theos (which could mean magistrate), not the Hebrew Temple (so it doesn't have to be rebuilt before Christ's return); possibly the White House. Yes, I'm alluding to President Obama.
I consider President Obama to be the “son of perdition” here and the “little horn” of Daniel 7.

Daniel 7:8 “. . . there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” Beasts are empires, and horns are kings."

Daniel 7:24-26 “And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it to the end.”

President Obama applauded the Tunisian vendor who set himself on fire to contest his government. The Tunisian president was a peacemaker who protected Jews in his country and held talks with Israel. One horn down. Obama's administration worked behind the scenes and openly in Egypt to bring down its president who upheld his country's treaty with Israel. Two horns down. Obama used his power to start a war with Libya through the UN, and has continued to do so in violation of the U.S. Constitution. This third horn is not going down as easily.

II Thessalonians 2:8-12 “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all delusion of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

I think the “strong delusions” came in the 1800's with uniformitarianism denying Noah's flood (II Peter 3:2-7) and the age of humanity on earth, and evolution which denied Elohim created man in His image (Romans 1:18-32), and then the pre-tribulation rapture theory gained ground in America to lull Christ's church to sleep. Lastly, from the 1880 to 1914, several thousand Muslims immigrated to the United States from the Ottoman Empire, and from parts of South Asia.

Revelation 20:4 “And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark on their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

The Muslims have been beheading people and making the videos available. They have been slaughtering Christians, Jews, and 'unworthy' Muslims by the thousands throughout the Middle East the last two decades. Their soldiers wear berets and armbands with the blasphemous name of Allah.

Revelation 18:22-23 “. . . for your merchants were the great men of the earth; for by your sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain on the earth.” All the nations have been deceived that Islam was a 'religion of peace'.

Revelation 16:6 “For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.”

Revelation 17:6 “And on her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said to me, Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns.”

Obama is not the 8th head of the beast, which will be the last caliphate of Islam. The beast is the empire of moon worship, which began in Babylon with Nimrod, and “is[was] not” while John wrote. The leader of the 8th head is the Mahdi, who is likely Muqtada al-Sadr, who will revive the Ottoman empire which was the 7th head which received a mortal would at the end of WWI. And the “son of perdition” and the beast of Islam will go into perdition.

Revelation 17:11 “And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goes into perdition.”

Revelation 20:11 “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”

Sixth Trumpet and Vial

6th Trumpet and South Sudan's new Colors

“13And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. 15And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. 16And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. 17And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. 18By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. 19For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like to serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. 20And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.” (Revelation 9:13-21)

The last verse surely depicts much of this last generation: “murders” (both of the born and the unborn), sorceries (pharmakaeia – drugs to enhance communication with demons), “fornication” (porneia) , and “thefts”, especially now with 'flash robs'. They love their wicked deeds and will not “repent” (metanoeo – think differently, come to their senses or amend their ways). Verse 15 is where I get 391 days for this war until the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” comes to end it on feast of trumpets in 2012, which gives a start date of August 23, 2011.

The breastplates of the soldiers on the “horses” are fire, jacinth, and brimstone. Fire is red or red-orange. Jacinth is a semi-precious stone and flower that is also known as hyacinth. The flower is blue. The stone jacinth is a lustrous orange-yellow, orange-red, yellow, or yellow-brown; but when it's cut and polished it is blue-white. Brimstone is equated with sulfur. In its natural state, sulfur is yellow; when it's melted, it turns blood red. Sulphur produces a blue flame when it's burned. In 2009 I looked for a flag or uniform with the colors red, blue and yellow; and except for the Olympic flag, did not find one. . . .

Until today, July 9, 2011, when South Sudan declared their independence with their new flag. Sudan means 'black' in Arabic, so the black stripe is on top. Mohammed declared green to be the color of Islam. Red, white, black and green are called pan-Arab colors. But with the addition of the blue triangle and yellow star; it is unique among the nations. When Sudan gained independence from Egypt and Britain on January 1, 1956, they adopted a blue, yellow and green horizontal striped flag; and this may be related. Sudan is the only country I know to have predominant portions of their flag colored red, blue and yellow; and I accept it as a sign that the sixth trumpet is about to sound.

The four angels of destruction are loosed from the Euphrates to slay 1/3 of mankind, but their slaughter may not necessarily be contained within the Middle East, though that and Israel will be the focus. The “horses” had heads like “lions”, fierce and swift in battle (1 Chron. 12:8), and “their mouths [stoma – front edge of weapon] issued [exporeuomai - discharged] fire [pur - lightning] and smoke and brimstone [theion – flashing, like divinity].” This sounds like an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to me.

“The next shoe dropped in 1998, when Iran tested missiles fired from a barge in the Caspian that exploded a hundred miles above the surface. The Iranians knew about EMP too, and were making plans to menace any nation they could reach from a cargo ship as soon as they had the necessary nuclear warheads. Concerned at last, Congress established a commission in 2001 to examine the potential damage to the United States from an EMP attack. The final report was published in 2008, and the news was not good. Attacked by EMP weapons, the United States infrastructure would suffer catastrophic and irreversible damage—unless defensive preparations were made. The cost for hardening vulnerable things such as electrical power transmission lines, communications, and computer-controlled systems like refineries and water supplies would cost billions of dollars. Speeches were made, but expensive action was left to disappear from congressional agendas.” by Chet Nagle on March 29, 2010 at
http://warsclerotic.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/emp-israels-solution-to-the-iran-nuclear-threat/

But if that doesn't do it, Iran should have a nuclear bomb by 2012. Iran has possibly bought whatever it wanted from Russia and North Korea already. And don't forget that Pakistan has nukes and doesn't like the US very much anymore. Pakistan is also a kingdom of the east.

“Official American and Israeli estimates suggest Iran would not be able to produce a bomb until 2012, or more likely several years after that. In June, Iran declared that it aimed to triple production of nuclear fuel and increase enrichment to 20 percent, a level that would indicate technological progress that experts say would make the weapons-grade level of 90 percent enrichment much closer.” July 9, 2011, updated from June 8, 2011 in The New York Times http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/iran/nuclear_program/index.html

There is also the tails of the "horses" in verse 19 "For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like to serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt." As with the tails of the scorpions who "hurt" men for five months, these horses' tails also "hurt" (adikeo) men for a particular time period. Adikeo is "to be unjust, that is, (actively) do wrong (morally, socially or physically): - hurt, injure, be an offender, be unjust, (do, suffer, take) wrong." These horses' tails were like "serpents"/Ophis, "figuratively (as a type of sly cunning) an artful malicious person, like Satan." These horses' tails were like serpents with heads, which brings to mind the picture of a sperm; so these bombs may carry biological weapons as well. The other serpent with heads in Revelation refers to Satan.

6th Vial

“12And the sixth angel poured out his vial on the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. 13And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. 15Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. 16And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.” (Revelation 16:12-16)

Turkey demonstrated in 2008-2009 that it can use its dams to withhold water in the Euphrates from reaching Iraq. Turkey is also controlling how much electricity they supply Iraq. See http://onedinar.forumotion.net/t31767-minister-of-electricity-an-agreement-on-the-semi-final-import-200-mw-from-turkey-with-the-increase-in-the-euphrates-river
Turkey led the Ottoman Empire, and I think it will also lead the last caliphate.

Messiah's inclusion of a warning of His coming in the midst of the sixth vial assures me that there is only one coming of King Jesus/Yeshua, and that it is after the 391 days of this Armageddon War to which the “whole world” will be enticed. One enticement may be the next Gaza Flotilla. Christ's warning also leads me to think a false messiah will be “working miracles” during the 391 days to entice people to follow Islam or Chrislam. “Miracles” is semeion, from a root for 'mark', meaning “that by which a person or a thing is distinguished from others and is known” according to Thayer.

The only Biblical time-table for the declaration of diety by the “son of perdition” is that it is after the apostasy of “falling away” of many and prior to “that day” of Messiah's return. I speculate that God has given us a pattern of earthquakes in order to prepare us for one on the west coast in the last half of September this year. It may be of such large magnitude that it sets off the supervolcano in Yellowstone (this may be part of the “smoke” which kills people) as well as the New Madrid Fault. (It may be a kindness that the Mississippi was flooded and people had to move away from this fault.) If any of these major disasters take place, the president would initiate martial law. During Katrina they sent in military men to disarm the citizens 'to keep peace'.

I speculate the Mahdi is Muqtada al-Sadr, and that he will reveal himself openly before the end of 2011. After the Mahdi does so, I speculate President Obama will do obeisance to him and declare himself to be Jesus and call people to accept Allah as god either blatantly or subtlely. It may be that unless you accept Allah you will not be able to do banking or be able to receive government assistance. Those who resist will be imprisoned or killed as has been happening in Muslims countries for decades, but moreso the last five months of locusts.

We as followers of our LORD Jesus Christ, are to keep vigilant in our faith and our expectation of His “blessed appearing” and to keep doing whatever good works He tells us to do as we shine His light in the darkness.