How Tomorrow’s Prophecies Foreshadow Today’s Problems by David Jeremiah
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: A Cultural Prophecy – Socialism
Chapter 2: An International Prophecy – Globalism
Chapter 3. A Biological Prophecy – Pandemic
Chapter 4: A Financial Prophecy – Economic Chaos
Chapter 5: A Theological Prophecy – The Falling Away
Chapter 6: A Biological Prophecy – End Times People
Chapter 7: A Political Prophecy – Cancel Culture
Chapter 8: A Spiritual Prophecy – Spiritual Famine
Chapter 9: A geographical Prophecy – Jerusalem
Chapter 10: The Final Prophecy – The Triumph of the Gospel
Chapter 1: A Cultural Prophecy – Socialism
But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” MATTHEW 24: 37
Under the cover of darkness, a middle-aged man inched out the window of his seventh-story apartment, then silently repelled seventy-five feet to the ground. A pair of bolt cutters snipped off his ankle monitor, and the man jumped into a waiting car. This was no movie. After fifteen years of imprisonment on bogus charges, Iván Simonovis was escaping Venezuela.
Simonovis had once been a Venezuelan hero. As a key member of an important SWAT team, he ended a seven-hour hostage situation, all of it captured on national television. That propelled him to celebrity status. After being appointed safety officer for Caracas, he dedicated himself to fighting crime and removing the corruption that had defined the capital’s police force for years.
Things changed when Simonovis ran afoul of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s Marxist president and emerging dictator. Chávez viewed the decorated safety officer as a potential rival and accused him of crimes against humanity. The charges were false, and the trial was a sham. In the blink of an eye, Iván was behind bars with no hope for reprieve. For stretches of time, he was allowed to see sunlight for only ten minutes a day.
In 2014, Iván was moved to house arrest to seek treatment for nineteen chronic health conditions, many of them caused by his imprisonment. Knowing this was his only chance, he arranged his daring escape. After speeding off in a car, he spent three weeks evading security in a cat-and-mouse pursuit. A fourteen-hour ride in a small fishing boat got him to a Caribbean island, from which he flew to the United States. 1
Iván could recall when Venezuela was the wealthiest nation in South America. The per capita income of its citizens was greater than those of China and Japan, almost rivaling the income of US citizens. The people of Iván’s generation enjoyed religious liberty, political freedom, personal dignity, and economic opportunity. 2
But when oil prices crashed in the 1980s, and then again in the 1990s, the Venezuelan economy experienced a dip. That dip became a dive in 1998 when the Venezuelan people elected Chávez as their president. Once in power Chávez relentlessly implemented the socialist playbook formulated by the Soviet Union, Cuba, China, and other nations. His first task was to rewrite the Venezuelan constitution, guaranteeing citizens the so-called free rights of government-provided health care, college education, and social justice. When the Supreme Court ruled against Chávez on several important issues, he responded by stacking the court with twelve new justices, all loyal to him.
Socialism totally engulfed the country when Chávez was reelected in 2006. Fully in control of the courts and the legislature, he moved quickly to nationalize the media, removing voices of dissent. Then he authorized government agencies to seize privately owned wealth and property from Venezuela’s citizens—all in the name of “fairness” and “equality.” Chávez took control of the nation’s oil industry, expelling foreign investors and influence. He nationalized power companies, farms, mines, banks, and grocery stores. His final step was to eliminate term limits for elected officials, setting himself up to rule for the rest of his life in the style of Russia’s Stalin and Cuba’s Castro. 3
Not even Chávez could evade the last enemy. He died from cancer in 2013. But his hand-picked successor, Nicolás Maduro, continued to implement Chávez’s agenda—even going further in some areas to force a Marxist agenda on the Venezuelan people. Today Venezuela is descending into anarchy, and record numbers of Venezuelan migrants are fleeing northward, trying to reach the border into the United States.”
Right now, you might be wondering what all of this has to do with you. If Venezuela has proven that socialism is a bad idea, why should anyone care? You should care because socialist visions and policies are invading the United States.
You’ll hear them discussed under four different names: socialism, communism, Marxism, and cultural Marxism. From my studies, it seems many people consider these terms nearly synonymous. As you read the rest of this chapter, these four titles will show up, but they all refer to the same invasive ideology, one that seems to deceive people with unusual ease.
Consider this: Hugo Chávez had plenty of cheerleaders in the United States during his rise, including Hollywood stars like Sean Penn, Michael Moore, Oliver Stone, and Danny Glover. Socialism seems to hold an almost hypnotic power over many thinkers, and it’s spilling into the common culture. A 2020 poll showed that 40 percent of Americans had a favorable view of socialism. That was up from 36 percent in 2019. Even more frightening, 47 percent of Millennials and 49 percent of Generation Z viewed socialism favorably. 4 Indeed, one 2019 poll in AXIOS found that 61 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 have a positive reaction to socialism. 5
And then there is this: In 2020, Bernie Sanders nearly won the Democratic Party’s nomination for president of the United States. This is the same senator from Vermont who declared, “I am a socialist and everyone knows it.” 6
In addition to Sanders, recent elections have seen record numbers of socialist candidates win roles as representatives both in state legislatures and in Congress. Notable among them is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In 2018, she became the youngest congresswoman in history.
Ocasio-Cortez is an avowed member of the Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist organization in the United States. Given her young age and massive following, many believe she’ll run for president of the United States one day. That’s a sobering thought given her stated goals of ending capitalism and implementing the same socialist agenda that failed so spectacularly in Venezuela.
I’ve come to the conviction that this ideology represents a real and present danger to the freedom and prosperity that has defined America and other Western nations for centuries. As I’ve researched this book, one verse keeps coming to mind: 2 Timothy 3: 1. Here it is in the Amplified Bible: “But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear].”
Jesus said it like this, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matt. 24: 37–39).
What were those “days of Noah” like? Genesis 6: 5 describes them this way: “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
The people of Noah’s day ignored and ridiculed his warnings. Noah built and preached for 120 years, and not one single individual outside his immediate family believed him. The people were so indifferent that they didn’t understand what was happening until it was too late.
The heedlessness of the people in Noah’s day will be duplicated in the last days of our world’s history. It will be a day much like ours, a day when ideologies like socialism can sneak in without much attention.
Ask anyone under communism and they’ll probably agree: socialism is an invasive weed planted by Karl Marx. Despite its catastrophic failures, it keeps spreading over the earth like kudzu. Will this be the dominant political philosophy on earth when the tribulation begins? Yes, that seems likely. Socialism is tailor-made for the Antichrist’s appearance. It creates global conditions that bring great stress and trouble, difficult days that will be hard to bear. And it demands a one-world system of government, which Scripture says will be established before the end of history.
Revelation 13 describes the Antichrist as a beast having vast power and authority. “The whole world marveled . . . and gave allegiance to the beast . . . And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast” (Rev. 13: 3, 7–8 NLT).
This beast, or Antichrist, will be empowered by Satan, “who deceives the whole world” (12: 9), and aided by the false prophet, who “deceives those who dwell on the earth” (13: 14). The Lord warned us against this kind of deception: “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2: 8).
Tomorrow will be Part II: What Is Socialism? 1.) The Roots of Socialism; 2.) Marxism Is Anti-God; 3.) Marxism is Totalitarian; 4.) Marxism is Divisive; 5.) Marxism is Deadly
You might ask “Why Merlin are you promoting this book so strongly? Because time is late and I unequivocally believe every Christ Follower should buy and read this book to help remove our cultural blinders. We are being blindsided. If convicted as I, you will then buy several copies and loan them to friends to read for further discussions. ThriftBooks tonight has 19 hardcover for $7.19; new is $26.99. Three used for one new! Invest your loose change this month in books and change lives. Living & Building the Kingdom of God TODAY!