Today is kind of an off-day. I mean, I have some health concerns: a headache, numbness in my fingers, a little dizziness. But I am trying not to worry about it. I’m trying to get an appointment at the VA. Anyway, I’m just trusting the Lord in whatever happens.
Bud Grant. He was the Minnesota Vikings football coach for a long time, and he just died at 95. He was such a good coach. I recently heard that he was the only player ever to play both for the NBA and the NFL before going into coaching. And as a coach he was a real disciplinarian. He was all about doing everything right—no mistakes. I heard that he didn’t care much for celebrities. He didn’t care at all for Mohammed Ali—too much of a braggart. Grant was very stoic and a humble man. Such a good man.
What’s in the News lately. I am so fed up with President Biden. He is doing everything wrong. He is letting our country be overrun by drug pushers; He can’t shoot down a Chinese balloon; he does nothing about Russia and China getting together; he thinks ha can save the planet from climate change by shutting off our oil—and then buying it from our enemies; and he thinks his son is innocent. Thank God that a few things are being done—now that the House is run by Republicans. We will slow down a few of Biden’s mistakes. Lord come quickly!
To start this section, it is important to know that though commercial Babylon is different in that it deals not so much with religion, but with commerce, it is still linked with the old fallen religious Babylon and still has a strong foundation in its immorality and idolatry. I think we may capture this reality best by looking at what the angel said about the coming fallen Babylon in verses two and three.
And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. 3 “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”
I think John MacArthur comments well on these verses, pointing out the differences between the two Babylon’s.
Religious Babylon (chap. 17) lures the nations into spiritual drunkenness and fornication with false gods (17:2, 4); commercial Babylon (chap. 18) seduces the unbelieving world into a materialistic stupor so that the people of the world will become drunk with passion because of their relationship with Babylon.7
As for this Babylonian system of commerce; how is it run? Well, even before the Antichrist appears on the scene, the Scripture tells us that there will be ten kings with ten kingdoms. We don’t see this yet, but I think we will see it soon. And then, just as these kingdoms are put in place, a very powerful leader, who is the Antichrist, will come into power, and he will give authority to the ten kings. And with them, and with his prophet (the false prophet) leading, he will set up a government system by which no person on earth will be able to buy or sell anything unless he has a certain mark, a mark of the beast, on either his right hand or his forehead (Rev. 13:16-17). Hence, this Antichrist will control all commerce.
But even before this control system comes about, and even before the ten kingdoms are installed, we will see many global organizations come together in an effort to form a global government—and this will bring about these ten kingdoms and the Antichrist. But we don’t have to wait long. Most of these organizations are already in place and are making global plans with each other. There are probably over one-hundred of them, but here are the top seven.
1. United Nations (UN). It was established in 1945, and its mission is to ensure international peace and security.
2. United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It was established in 1945. Its mission is to promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, science, and culture.
3. World Health Organization (WHO).It weas established in 1948. It is an organization that specializes in international public health.
4. World Economic Forum (WEF). It was established in 1971. Their stated mission is to improve the status of the world by engaging commercial, governmental, intellectual, and other leaders of society to influence global, regional, and industry agendas.
5. International Monetary Fund (IMF). It was established in 1945. Its mission is to promote global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world while relying on the World Bank for resources on a periodic basis.
6. World Bank. It was established in 1944. This international agency lends and gives money to governments in low- and middle-income nations to fund capital projects.
7. World Trade Organization (WTO). It weas established in 1995. It is a multilateral organization that regulates and supports international trade.8
Most of these organizations on the surface look very good and helpful to the world’s people However, when they are used under the Antichrist system of government, they will be used for a evil.
One of the things that is progressing rather quickly is the idea of having digital currency dan a new cashless society. And it will be a currency that is programable by its leaders. In other words, we will be forced to buy and sell only the things that the Antichrist system approves of. They will control what we buy and sell.
But do not think that these things are ideas way down the road. There are actually many organizations that are presently discussing and working on these things. There is an organization called Digital Currency Governance Consortium, which is composed of 80 organizations to discuss these things. And this is all under the global organization World Economic Forum. And there are several of these groups that are promoting digital currency. Here are a few titles you should be aware of: Central Bank Digital Currency, The Digital Dollar Project, MIT Digital Currency Initiative, A New Era of Digital Money-IMF F&D. I think there is almost too many of them; too many ideas.
Big businesses will also be tied into the new Babylonian, Antichrist system. There will be nothing small anymore—no small businesses. It will be much easier to control big businesses. I’m sure that their executives will have no problem taking the mark of the beast and engaging in his evil system.
In Revelation 18:11-13 there is a list of all the “cargo” that the merchants of the earth are mourning over after Babylon falls. But that list should be updated and modernized for today. I have a list before me of one-hundred of the biggest global companies, having ten different categories (or sectors) of goods (“cargo”). Here is my revised tabulation, organized first by the ten sectors, then by the top three companies.
Sectors
Top Three Companies
Technology
Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet
Consumer Discretionary
Amazon, Tesla, Walmart
Health Care
United Health Group, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly
Energy
Saudi Aramio, Exxon Mobil, Reliance Industries
Financials
Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America
Industrials
Visa, Mastercard, Accenture
Consumer Staples
Procter & Gamble, Pepsico, Philip Morris
Telecommunications
Cisco, T-Mobile, Verizon
Basic Materials
Linde, BHP Group
Utilities
Nextera Energy
I noticed, according to verses 11-13 that this list of companies is in no way complete. There doesn’t seem to be a category for animals, vehicles, or slaves and human lives. Yes, apparently the slave trade will reappear in Antichrist’s commercial system!9
From what I have discovered from my study, there seems to be two main aspects of importune prayer: it is urgent, and it has a dogged persistence. Each of these has their own demands. Urgency is demanded because of great needs. Persistence is demanded because of the time factor—the fact that it takes time for prayer to be answered.
The Demand for Urgency
In every importune prayer there is a demand for urgency. In the parables and stories we saw that there was always a great need, which required urgency. The man who went to his friend for bread (Lu. 11:5-10) had a great need for bread. The woman in the parable in Luke 18 had a great need for justice. The Canaanite woman had a daughter who had an urgent need to be healed (Matt. 15:21-28). And the blind man had a great need to see (Lu. 18:35-43).
What was the point of the Democrats’ Jan. 6 hoax? Now that Tucker Carlson has provided abundant confirmation (with more on the way) that there was no “insurrection” on Jan. 6, 2021, and that the Democrat leadership knew full well that there wasn’t even as they went full-throttle with their narrative, the question is inevitable: why? What were Leftists hoping to accomplish? Some obvious answers are that they hoped to destroy Donald Trump as a political force once and for all and discredit and demoralize his supporters. But there was clearly a larger, more insidious goal as well: the Democrats hoped with their fabricated Jan. 6 “insurrection” to create the pretext to do nothing less than destroy their legitimate opposition, not rhetorically but in a real sense, so that America would henceforth be functionally a one-party state in which only one point of view would be allowed.
Some people are sitting in jails—even in solitary confinement—just because they went to a Trump rally, marched over to the Capital, and dared to wear a red Trump MAGA hat. Many have been sitting in there for over a year and haven’t been charged with anything yet.
Why is this happening? I think it is because they—the DOJ—wants to send a message. They want all people to know that if they side with trump this is what could happen to them too. I think this sound a little like what happened to the newly released negro slaves back in Woodrow Wilson’s time. They wanted them to be fearful of voting Republican so they sent the Ku Klux Klan after them and hung many of them.
The judges in DC are monsters who align with the corrupt DOJ and persecute and sentence innocents for crimes not committed in abusive courts.
The innocent victims of Jan 6 have been abused more than any group in recent US history. After suffering under a police barrage of flash bombs and rubber bullets, Jan 6 victims were arrested, with some sitting in jail to this date with no court dates or charges.
Judge Napolitano a year ago said that none of these individuals should be sitting in jail.
We will continue our study of Importunity in prayer with two more holy men, Elijah and Daniel.
Elijah’s Prayer, 1 Kings 18:41- 45
Now Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower.” 42 So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he crouched down on the earth, and put his face between his knees. 43 And he said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” So he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go back” seven times. 44 And it came about at the seventh time, that he said, “Behold, a cloud as small as a man’s hand is coming up from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot…
Here you see a policeman walking behind Jacob Chansley, directing him where to go in the Capitol building.
On the front-page caption of Saint Paul’s Pioneer Press it read: “Tucker Carlson uses new video to rewrite Capitol riot narrative.” NO! That is not true. That video is not new; it was just not used. Carlson is just now introducing it as part of the video that had been hidden from the public.
Now let’s go to the article. The writers of the Associated Press said that Carlson was “working to bend perceptions of the violent, grueling siege that played out for the world to see into a narrative favorable to Donald Trump.”
NO again! The video that Carlson played was in an effort to show exactly what happened—to show the truth!
The video clip I am referring to (pictured above) shows Jacob Chansley (with horns outfit) being escorted by the Capitol police into the Capitol and through the halls of the Capitol. I did not see any violent actions at all. The police were leading the way and opening the doors for him. It was like they were showing him around peacefully. The police were encouraging him to walk around; giving him a tour of the Capitol. But we didn’t see any of that on the original video—because it was all edited out, covered up!
The writers of this article quoted Democratic Rep. Bennie G. Thompson who chaired the House Jan. 6th Committee, as saying, “The speaker (McCarthy) decided it was more important to give in to a Fox host who spews lies and propaganda than to protect the Capitol.
NO! THAT IS BACKWARDS. Carlson is trying to bring out the truth of what really happened. THE JAN 6TH COMMITTEE IS GUILTY OF LIES!
In addition, it was written that “Chuck Schumer called the Monday night Fox News episode from Carlson ‘one of the most shameful hours we have ever seen on television.’” NO! Schumer is under a cloud of denial!He is one of the liars. Carlson and McCarthy are the heroes of truth! I hope and pray that all the videos are made public and that many of the innocent parties are released from prison.
Why do people Lie?
I get so sick of all the lying. What makes people lie? I think there is only two answers. They are either deceived; or they know they are lying, but they don’t care. They think lying is acceptable if they get what they want—what they think is good for the country. Chuck Schumer, Bennie Thompson, and most of the Democrats are lying. And as far as I can see, they think it is acceptable if it can take down Donald Trump. But lying is never good. If it is not dealt with it will lead to the downfall of this country. Lying is of the devil. All those who lie are like their father the devil. Jesus spoke to such people in John 8:44.
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Stephen Nielsen 