Hal Lindsey Report (june 17, 2011) - Media Hypocrisy & U.S. War Involvement

When many people think of prophecy, particularly prophecy concerning the last days of this Age, they often think of it in terms of predicted events such as catastrophes, wars, weather, and cataclysms of nature. But the Apostles' writings about these days also contained specific references to the characteristics of the societies and individuals during these times.

I think the Apostle Paul may have unwittingly gotten even more specific. In particular, he seems to have written a pointed description of today's American politicians and, specifically, the American mainstream media. In his first letter to Timothy, I noted a spot-on reference to those groups. Paul said that in the "latter days," there will be those "speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron."

Wow. It sounds as if Paul had just read a recent edition of The New York Times or caught a telecast of one of the network evening news programs.

Can you think of a more apt description of today's popular media -- and many of the public figures they cover -- than "speaking lies in hypocrisy?" You don't have to work very hard or look very far to find two perfect examples. I'm speaking of the recent Sarah Palin e-mail media frenzy and the Congressman Anthony Weiner sexting outrage.

Now, I'm pretty sure you're sick to death of hearing about these two situations. Frankly, though, I couldn't have scripted a more graphic scenario to illustrate the duplicity and dishonesty of the American media and the American Left. And adding insult to injury, they're doing it while claiming the protection of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

On her television program, Judge Judy once said to the mother of a plaintiff, "Do you know how you can tell your teenager is lying? Her lips are moving!" (My apologies to all you honest teenagers out there.) Well, I'm starting to think that description applies to most of the Mainstream Media and many of the nation's political figures, as well. But then, Paul predicted these exact conditions would be present in the days just before the return of Christ for His church.

I was thinking the other day about how we numbered our world wars. I suppose they had to be called "World War I and II" because there were so many nations involved it would have been unwieldy to name them all each time one referred to the conflict. We have a different problem today that might benefit from a numbering system. This time, the United States is involved in so many wars at the same time that we should probably number them just for simplicity's sake. America is currently engaged in four conflicts: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen. You probably didn't know we had boots on the ground in Yemen, did you? Most of us didn't because it's been a covert war since 2009.

So I think it would be easier just to refer to them as War One (Afghanistan), War Two (Iraq), War Three (Libya), and War Four (Yemen). Technically, though, War Three should be Yemen since we've been active there since 2009. However, almost no one knew about that one until just recently and Libya has been in the news for almost three months, so we'll just leave Libya at Number Three.

Of course, we're about to have a showdown between the Congress and the President over Libya. He got the approval of the UN and the Arab League to enter the fray in Libya. The problem is he failed to consult Congress and has, so far, completely ignored the War Powers Resolution. That resolution -- roundly passed over Nixon's veto in 1973 -- allows the President to send US troops into military action for only 60 days without either Congressional approval or a declaration of war. It also allows him an additional 30 days to disengage those troops. Since we've been active with NATO in Libya since late March, President Obama is now approaching the end of that 90 day period. By the way, for all you Code Pink-types and Anti-war protesters out there (who have mysteriously disappeared the last couple of years), President Bush secured the overwhelming approval of Congress before entering both Afghanistan and Iraq.

But that begs another question. If we're already involved in four conflicts, why not a fifth? The situation in Syria is far past the threshold the Administration used as justification to jump in against Libya. And there's absolutely no comparison between what was happening in Egypt when we piled on Hosni Mubarak and what's happening in Syria today. Some observers estimate that Syrian security forces have murdered more than 1,500 protesters in Bashar al-Assad's brutal crackdown. But why the silence from the Administration? Sure, there are trite platitudes about how Assad either needs to assist in reform or get out of the way, but, so far, nothing substantial. It sounds and feels eerily like the US response to the squashed Iranian "student uprising" in 2009. Of course, I probably shouldn't be surprised. Iran is Syria's closest ally. And Syria is one of Israel's deadliest enemies. I wonder if there's any connection?

Finally, the question I'm most often asked is, "Where is America in Bible Prophecy?" The hypocrisy, political correctness, and overt duplicity that seems to be the theme running through this week's Report may give us a clue. In times past, the kinds of catastrophic events we've witnessed in the United States lately have usually signaled God's judgment on a sinful or errant nation. When you add to that Paul's description of the characteristics of nonbelievers in the last days found in his second letter to Timothy, it paints a chilling picture of today's America. Cast it all against an unflattering picture of Christianity in the last days -- Jesus said that many would be "lukewarm," and, in some cases, apostate -- and you have a sort of trifecta of doom.

All of this means only one thing. It's time to get ready to get out of here! There's nothing standing in His way. Jesus could return for His church at any moment. Make sure you've accepted the free gift of pardon for your sins that He died to purchase for you.

Don't miss this week's Report on TBN, Daystar, Inspiration (one more Monday night), CPM Network, various local stations, www.hallindsey.com or www.hischannel.com. Check your local listings.

God Bless,
Hal Lindsey

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