April 10

The 2006 Tulsa Prophecy Conference

After a three-year absence from the Tulsa Prophecy Conference hosted by Thy Kingdom Come, I finally was able to attend this year’s meeting. My obligations with the Air Force had caused me to miss the 2004 and 2005 conferences.

Because of all the trouble I have had in getting to the conference during the past few years, I became a bit gun-shy about heavily promoting the event on the main site. I felt I would lose credibility with visitors if I promised to show up and then got jerked away at the last minute.

Most of the people who came to this year's gathering were from the RR message board. Because it’s a tight-knit group, my absence would not be as much of a disruption.

Unless there is some major conflict in the world that extends my commitment to Uncle Same, at the end of this year, I no longer will have to worry about some last-minute deployment getting in the way. My plans for 2007 include ventures to some of the conferences out on the West Coast.

The conference was a huge success. I’m very concerned about apathy in the last days, so I was very surprised to see the main hall at near capacity during most speaking sessions.

At each prophecy conference there is normally a single subject that stands out as the primary concern of prophecy watchers. This year, Iran was clearly at the top of the list.

Randall Price did a very good job of describing the strange and ominous beliefs of Iran's hard-line leader, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. On several occasions the Iranian president has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." His nuclear ambitions have been widely reported in the news. Everyone was in general agreement that time will only tell what path this looming conflict will take.

I stayed busy with a video and still camera. By the end of the four-day meeting, I had over 150 photos. They’ll be used to create a new Photorama page. The videos will be part of our first baby steps into adding video files to the site. We’ve created several short video segments of the speakers telling the public about their ministries.

In the late '90s we started to use prophecy conferences as a vehicle for fans of Rapture Ready to meet together. For several years, we met at the International Prophecy Conference in Tampa, Florida. In 2001, when we found Tulsa, Oklahoma to be a more cost friendly location, we moved the RR meeting place to the conference in that state.

I doubt RR will ever host its own prophecy conference. It is very difficult to put on one of these events. Because of the high cost, any ministry that tries to put a conference together is taking a huge financial risk. I remember in 2001, Sherlock Bally had a prophecy conference in Branson, Missouri that was very successful event-wise, but monetarily, it was a disaster.

I’ve attended several prophecy meetings, and I’ve never seen another group pitch in to help pay for the cost of a meeting. In every example I’ve observed, all the money raised through the sale of goods has gone directly into the pocket of the person selling the items.

I am very proud of all the Rapture Ready folks who helped prove for the fourth year the old Christian virtue that is better to give than to receive. Several people pitched in to help last week’s effort. There are so many names involved it would be impossible to list them all. We had people supply articles, soap, books, pens, candy, music tapes, videos, items for the baskets, money to buy stuff, and a wide variety of witnessing material.

Becky deserves special praise for being the ringmaster of the basket raffle. She worked with people on the board to gather the baskets, she put some of them together herself, she kept track of the money, and she did most of the PR on stage. We raised more than $1,300 for the conference.

Several people stopped at the hotel or emailed us to say how impressed they were with our effort. I understand the reason for the praise, but I see this as something all Christians should be doing.

If anyone reading this article has had a hand in this year's event, I guarantee that you will be greatly rewarded someday by the Lord Jesus himself for your generosity in helping spread the end-time message. If you missed out this year, make plans to become involved next year.
-- Todd

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China’s End-time Energy

The dragon has awakened, and it is thirsty. This dragon is prophesied to be energized by another serpent, also called ”the great red dragon,” “Satan,” and “the devil.” This energizing of China in the prophetic future, by the ancient foe of God, is found, I’m convinced, primarily in two places in the Book of Revelation. The first of the relevant passages is found in the 9th chapter:

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And 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. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them (Rev. 9:13-16).

The prophet John, through the prophecy given him by God, expanded upon the prophecy in chapter 16:

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And 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. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty(Rev. 16:12-14).

The king of the kings of the east –unless something very dramatic happens to change the configuration of things east of the Euphrates, has to be China. It could, by itself, have manned a 200-million soldier army even as far back as the 1970s. Today, with the other nations of Asia and their massive populations, the 200 million figure presents no problem at all so far as potential for fulfillment of the prophecy is concerned. And, certainly, China exerts hegemony over all of the other nations of its oriental sphere. Many within secular news media are beginning to recognize the same things those who watch Bible prophecy and current events have been recognizing for some time. China indeed looks like a major influence on factors that might bring nations into a conflict the size, the Bible prophesies, foretells of Armageddon.

My apologies for using such a large block of directly quoted material, but I feel it is most important to understand the juxtaposition of China, oil, and the Middle East, in relationship to the US and the rest of the world. The following secular news excerpt encapsulates the matter:

China is moving quickly to secure its energy ties with Persian Gulf states, signing an oil deal with Saudi Arabia and offering its king red-carpet treatment. Saudi Arabia, China’s top foreign oil source, supplies 14 percent of China’s oil imports. China is increasingly at loggerheads with Washington on Middle East politics as its soaring appetite for crude oil draws it deeper into the region. King Abdullah’s visit overlapped in Beijing with the arrival of Robert B. Zoellick, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, who cautioned that China might find its future energy security in peril by supporting Iran. Zoellick, who met with Premier Wen said the Iran nuclear issue is "obviously a very important part of our work in China right now." Iran supplies China with about 12 percent of its oil imports. Chinese companies have major oil investments in Iran, and Beijing has offered diplomatic protection in return, forestalling efforts to consider U.N. sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. Since the beginning of the decade, China has signed hundreds of investment deals with Persian Gulf states and pushed its companies to set up in the region. Many Arab oil emirates look kindly on China’s growing energy appetite, viewing economic relations with Beijing as less cumbersome than those with Washington. "China is not in favor of democracy being pushed down the throats of countries in the region," said N. Janardhan, a political analyst at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Philadelphia Inquirer, January 25, 2006).

Increasingly, then, it looks like it will be the substance called “oil” that will bring all of the nations into the valley of Jezreel for the showdown at Armageddon. It is as if sin, itself, which invaded humankind when man disobeyed in the Garden of Eden, has to come to its full recompense at this future date of human destiny. The fall caused all of the Garden-like Earth, particularly that area where the Garden of Eden was located, to begin a deadly degeneration for all plant and animal life. The second law of thermodynamics –entropy--dictates that all things continue to deteriorate. All physical matter is to turn to dust –or, apparently, to oil. Scientists believe the great oil deposits of Planet Earth are where massive amounts of vegetable and animal matter have been buried, then compressed under pressure of the eons, to produce fossil fuels that we now burn in record amounts every year.

Now, the “dragon” of the orient –China—is thirsty for its share of the black, incendiary liquid. And, its thirst is potentially beyond even that of the industrialized world of the west. There is a showdown coming, looks like.

Sin has brought mankind to this point. It started in the region of Mesopotamia and the Euphrates River, where the occidental world meets the oriental. Prophecy says that demarcation line will be breached –supernaturally, I believe—with the drying of the Euphrates, so demon-possessed masses of military forces from the Orient can easily troop to the valley of Jehoshaphat for man’s final war before Christ’s triumphant return.

Keep your eyes and ears of discernment upon China in these days ahead, while we move toward the glorious coming of Christ for His saints in the air. --Terry