Tony Pearce examines some of the
SIGNS FOR 2023
What is happening now is setting the scene for the final period of world history. The Covid crisis, the global warming scare, war in Ukraine, increasing natural disasters, shortages, the threat of famine and the focus on globalism all show that man has no solution
Wherever you look in the world today, you see nations in a state of discontent, frustration and unrest. Whatever society you look at, whether it is a dictatorship or a democracy, left wing or right wing, it’s in a bad place. Most people are alienated from government and those in authority.
In fact, Jesus speaks of “the distress of nations with perplexity”. The word for ‘with perplexity’ in the original Greek is ‘aporia’ which literally means ‘no exit / no way out’.
Today we see a global crisis taking shape with no way out and no one able to resolve it, causing people to be afraid of what is coming on the world.
In Britain we have growing unrest over the cost of living, prices going up, strikes, shortages and rising taxes. Many people are now in poverty with not enough money to buy food and heat their homes in the winter. We have lawlessness, random acts of violence, family breakdown and racial tensions causing many to fear for their safety in the places where they live. We have a migration situation which is out of control and causing growing social friction.
If it’s bad from the point of view of a developed Western nation, it is much worse in most of the rest of the world. Dictatorships like Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are crushing the freedom of their own people and threatening their neighbours with war and weapons of mass destruction. Countries in Africa and the Middle East are suffering from poverty, famine, war and oppression – often with the scourge of terrorism blighting lives. There is also an increase in natural disasters, droughts, floods and extreme heat and cold.
Ukraine catastrophe
Russia has deliberately destroyed Ukraine’s infrastructure, leaving many with no electricity or running water, and little food. Some fear the crisis could develop into an open conflict between Russia and NATO, with the possible use of nuclear weapons. Spin-offs from the war are affecting food and energy supplies around the world.
World leaders come together in organisations like the World Economic Forum (WEF), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the G20 and the United Nations (UN). They put forward plans to sort out the world’s problems and create a ‘new world order’ with their ‘Great Reset’, ‘Agenda 21’ and ‘Agenda 30’.
On present progress they may manage to bring an end to Western capitalism, but what they will replace it with looks very much worse.
Russia, NATO and world order politics
Vladimir Putin gave a speech in Moscow on 27 October in which he said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will “accelerate” the inauguration of a “new world order based on law and justice” in which economic and political gains will justify the losses sustained thus far. As reported in the Washington Examiner, he said, “We’re facing a historic milestone. Ahead of us is possibly the most dangerous, unpredictable, and, at the same time, crucial decade since the end of the Second World War.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will “accelerate” the inauguration of “a new world order” – Vladimir Putin
The idea that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will bring a new world order based on law and justice sounds bizarre. Far from creating a law-abiding, justly governed future, Russia’s army has been exposed as undisciplined, badly led and ill-equipped, committing war crimes against civilians.
Having failed to win on the battlefield, Putin is now using missiles and drones purchased from the Islamic Republic of Iran to destroy Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country, while many of those who remain face the harsh winter. So it’s the opposite of a “new world order based on law and justice”.
Where does Putin get his idea of a “new world order” from? One of his aims is to restore Russia as a great power equal to the USA as it was in the days of the Soviet Union. Therefore he has to bring Ukraine back to Moscow’s sphere of influence as it was in the days of the Soviet Union, and pr event it from moving into the Western sphere of influence through membership of NATO and the EU.
Russia’s fear was that the Western alliance intended to use Ukraine as a spring oard to break up Russia and absorb it into the Western-based globalist order. This was not actually a baseless fear (although nothing justifies Putin’s invasion of Ukraine).
There is evidence that US-based globalists have been trying to weaken Russia with the aim of absorbing it into their ‘World Order’ programme. There was a plan set out in a document called the Grand Chessboard by Zbigniew Brzezinski, former US national security adviser and founder of the globalist Trilateral Commission and Council on Foreign Relations.
His plan specifically involved bringing Ukraine into the Western/NATO/EU orbit first, then using it as a base from which to destabilise and take down Russia. Russia would be split into six separate regions, none of which would be able to resist American/NATO/EU domination. Putin saw the 2014 Orange revolution which kicked out the pro-Russian Ukrainian government and brought in a pro-Western government (with the EU’s backing) as evidence of this plot.
Many in Russia’s power elite believe that NATO continues to work for the destruction of Russia by its support for Ukraine. Retired General Ben Hodges, former commander of the US Army Europe, told London’s Times Radio that the debacle in Ukraine could have grave implications for Russia itself: “We were not prepared for the collapse of the Soviet Union. We need to be prepared for the collapse of Russia.”
The Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, said that a nuclear holocaust would be the end result of NATO bringing Ukraine into its orbit.
Russia and China
Russia is building up its partnership with its BRICS allies – Brazil, (Russia), India, China and South Africa. At the Beijing Winter Olympics in January 2022, Putin and China’s lifelong President Xi shared their vision for a new world order.
“The world is going through momentous changes,” their joint statement said, noting the “transformation of the global governance architecture and world order.”
This was followed by a meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia and China, Ser ei Lavrov and Wang Yi, at which Lavrov said that the two countries intend to move forward towards “a multipolar, fair, and democratic world order.”
At the present time this is not going too well, as China is less than enthusiastic about Russia’s war in Ukraine, especially as Russia loses ground, but it remains in alliance with Russia. The multipolar world order they are looking at currently sees three major power blocs emerging: the Western NATO alliance, Russia and allies in Eurasia, and China in east Asia.
Iran and Israel – the Russia connection
Iran has openly stated its intention to eliminate the state of Israel. Israel is already engaged in behind-the-scenes sabotage inside Iran, using cyber warfare and attacks on its infrastructure, and threatens to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel is also involved in a proxy war with Iran, hitting targets inside Syria where Iran has bases.
Russia has naval bases in Syria at Latakia and Tartus and an air base at Khmeimim. In February 2022 the Russian military deployed long-range, nuclear-capable bombers and fighter jets carrying state-of-the-art hypersonic missiles to Syria for massive naval drills in the region. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in Syria to oversee the drills and met with Syrian President Bashar Assad to discuss plans for further military-technical co-operation.
As Russia becomes ever deeper involved with Israel’s main enemy in the Middle East, it has become more hostile to Israel. It has shut down the Jewish Agency in Russia, which defends Jewish interests in Russia and helps Russian Jews emigrate to Israel. Moscow has issued a severe warning to Israel not to get involved in the Ukraine conflict and not to supply any weapons to Ukraine.
Eyal Hulata, Israel’s national security adviser, has warned that since Iran has begun supplying ballistic missiles to the Russians for their ongoing invasion of Ukraine, “Israel will start supplying high-precision missiles to Ukraine,” in order to shoot them down.
“We were not prepared for the collapse of the Soviet Union. We need to be prepared for the collapse of Russia”
Iran has broken the agreement made with the international community over its nuclear programme by shutting down cameras monitoring its nuclear sites, in defiance of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA also warned that Iran is in the process of installing hundreds of new IR-6 centrifuges at its underground Natanz uranium enrichment plant. This new activity will bring Iran even faster to the so-called ‘breakout capacity,’ and from there it’s only a matter of time before the Islamic Republic will be able to produce a nuclear warhead that it can mount on one of its long-range missiles.
Israel had hoped the international community would resolve the Iran problem through diplomatic channels by bringing the issue to the UN Security Council. However, since this is unlikely to happen, the government in Jerusalem reserves the right to end Iran’s nuclear programme through its own direct action.
The EU may emerge as a dominant power, in conjunction with the UN and the WEF
With Benjamin Netanyahu currently returned to power as Israel’s prime minister, Iran will not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, as the mullahs’ prime target would be Tel Aviv. The Jerusalem Post says it will take Iran another two years to develop a nuclear device and delivery system. Israel has carried out trial runs for an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites.
Israel’s F-35s are prepared for an attack on Iran, having succeeded in designing a system that eliminates the need to refuel its F-35 Adir stealth fighter jet mid-mission. Israeli Air Force (IAF) engineers have also succeeded in placing a 1,000 kg bomb in the body of the 36 F-35s available to the IAF. Israel has also found a way to make the F-35s invisible on the radar during a future bombardment of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In November 2022, the IAF conducted its largest joint aerial drills with the US Air Force in years, involving a mock mission to take out Iranian nuclear sites. Aerial refuelers from both sides assisted, in addition to fighter jets.
The US and Israel have lately pledged closer military and intelligence co-operation, with Washington vowing to assist the Jewish state with missile defence if it ever came under attack.
Iran’s response to such an attack (if it happens) could involve strikes on Israel from Iran’s proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and could potentially even drag Russia into the fray. With Russia already indebted to Iran for its supply of drones, an Israeli-US attack on Iran could lead to Russia coming in to help Iran in its fight against Israel.
Israel is developing a very powerful and effective missile defence system and also hi-tech missiles of its own capable of pinpoint accuracy in locating and destroying enemy targets. If a target is in the dining room of an apartment on the fourth floor of a ten-storey building, Israel can put a missile through the window of the room. This enables Israel to isolate and inflict mortal blows only to terror infrastructure. This was used to great effect in the recent campaign against Islamic Jihad in Gaza in September.
Sooner or later these developments could precipitate the biblical war of Gog and Magog, in which an alliance of nations comes against Israel and is supernaturally destroyed by God’s intervention on Israel’s behalf. This army will be led by a power coming from the uttermost north in alliance with many anti-Israel nations, including Persia/Iran. It will meet its doom on the mountains of Israel.
In this case Russia’s power will be broken, possibly the US’s too, since the prophecy speaks of fire falling on Magog (Russia) and the coastlands of the sea (a way of describing distant lands whose names were unknown in the days of the Bible). In this case the EU may emerge as a dominant power, in conjunction with the UN and the WEF.
Out of this the Antichrist emerges and makes a peace covenant with Israel, setting off the final seven-year period of the tribulation before the return of the Messiah.
Where is it all heading?
It seems the world is moving towards global dictatorship, but this is, of course, prophesied in the Bible. Jesus told the disciples what would happen at the end of this age, in the days before his return. He prepared them – and us – by telling them 2,000 years ago that the world will be plagued by wars and conflict in the last days of this age, which will threaten humanity with final destruction. Only Jesus’s Second Coming will save us from this fate (see Matthew 24, Revelation 6).
If you have not put your full trust in Jesus the Messiah and Saviour of mankind yet, please do not delay.
This article is extracted from the January 2023 edition of Light for the Last Days by Tony Pearce.
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Russians get Gospel help
Russians fleeing to Serbia to escape the conflict are being given copies of ‘10 Signs of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ’ by Tony Pearce, translated into Russian and Ukrainian.
Tony Pearce says: “We pray that many of them will seek God for salvation at this time and read their Bibles and find the true way to God.” His team are also contacting Russians online and pointing them to the booklet at https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/publications/booklets/10-признаков-второго-пришествия-иисуса/