jgr said in post #33:
Is that the definition of "contradiction"?
No, for while Putin's allies are spread across the world, they are still few in number compared with the U.S.'s allies.
And for good reason.
jgr said in post #33:
RT is a dwarf in comparison to the surfeit of combined outpourings of the ABC, CNN, NBC, CBS, PBS, et al, presstitutes.
And yet RT gets millions of views on Youtube, while some Iranian social media accounts were recently banned which got only a few thousand views.
RT should not be banned, just as no speech should ever be banned.
For any false speech should always be able to be countered with true speech.
That is the whole beauty of free speech, enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
And yet companies like Youtube still ban content with miniscule views, while allowing RT's vast "influence operation" to thrive.
Why is that?
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Also, regarding your reference to "presstitutes", note that RT is the presstitute of Putin.
It's Putin's presstitute, no differernt than Stalin's pravda.
And who with any knowledge can even listen to it? It's like trying to listen to
North Korea's news agency.
jgr said in post #33:
Syria and Belarus are the only Russian bases in the list.
Not quite "his allies across the world".
An ally doesn't have to provide a base.
jgr said in post #33:
So why pray to impede the prereq's to the Second Coming? A futurist should be praying just the opposite.
No, for we must pray to be delivered from evil (Matthew 6:13), not that it be brought upon us.
jgr said in post #33:
Let futurism prove itself.
Note that Revelation chapters 6 to 22 are still future to us, because they are about "things which must be hereafter" (Revelation 4:1b). And just as Jesus' Christ's Second Coming in Revelation 19:7 to 20:3 has never been fulfilled, for nowhere in history books do we find its fulfillment, so the highly-detailed events of the preceding Tribulation in Revelation chapters 6 to 18 have never been fulfilled, for nowhere in history books do we find their fulfillment. Similarly, even this Tribulation as it is described in Matthew 24 cannot have happened yet, because Jesus' Second Coming must occur
immediately after this Tribulation (Matthew 24:29-31).
The future Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24 will begin with a horrible war, which, with its aftermath of famines and epidemics, will end up killing one-fourth of the world (Revelation 6:4-8). The "great sword" of this war (Revelation 6:4) could be Israel's nuclear weapons. After this war, there will be a terrible series of natural disasters historically unprecedented in their magnitude, such as a gigantic volcanic eruption (Revelation 6:12-14), possibly of the Yellowstone Caldera, and then the collapse into the ocean of another erupting volcano (Revelation 8:8-9), possibly one of the Canary Islands, the collapse of which could create a huge tsunami which could destroy the eastern seaboard of the U.S.
If such a tsunami occurs, it could also cause a string of awful, Fukushima-type, nuclear-meltdown radiation disasters in the nuclear power plants and their nuclear-waste storage facilities all along the eastern seaboard of the U.S. (These facilities, all together, are holding tens of thousands of tons of highly-radioactive nuclear waste. Nuclear power was one of the worst ideas ever, as Germany has now wisely realized.) Also, if the tsunami breaks open the germ-containment structures on Plum Island, just off the coast of Connecticut, especially-deadly viruses and bacteria could be washed inland and spread across the U.S. and Canada as they infect animals and people.
After the volcanic activity and possible tsunami, a comet will strike the earth (Revelation 8:10-11), possibly in the U.S. and Canadian Great Lakes region. As the comet falls from the sky, it will look like a great star, or like a burning lamp in the sky (Revelation 8:10). It will strike a region of the earth which contains one-third of the world's fresh surface water (Revelation 8:10b); and it will contain some poisonous element which will poison that water so that many who drink from it will die (Revelation 8:11b).
Sometime after that, weird locust-like beings will swarm up from the Bottomless Pit of the earth to torment mankind with excruciating stings for five months (Revelation 9:2-10). The world could see them as "aliens" who had been hibernating for thousands of years in a cavern deep underground. The locust-like beings will not kill anyone, but they will make those they sting want to die, the pain will be so bad (Revelation 9:5-6).
After that, an army of 200 million weird horse-like beings and their (possibly unclean spirit) riders will come upon the earth (Revelation 9:16-19). If they descend from the sky in spaceships, the world could see them as "aliens". But they and the future Antichrist (the individual-man aspect of Revelation's "beast") could (falsely) say that they are YHWH God's main army. In fact, they could be loyal to Lucifer (Satan, the dragon, Revelation 12:9). The four fallen angels now bound at the Euphrates who will lead this army (Revelation 9:14-16) could employ it to make mankind completely desperate before its takeover by Lucifer and the Antichrist mid-tribulation (Revelation 12:9 to 13:18). For when this army starts killing one-third of mankind (Revelation 9:16-19), then could also begin one of the biggest deceptions ever wrought upon humanity. For the Antichrist -- who by that time could have managed to have been elected as the President of a Mediterranean Union formed by the joining of the European Union with an Arab Union stretching from Oman to Morocco -- could announce to the world that he has sent a mental distress call to (what he could call)
"My Father, our Lord Lucifer, to come with his legions of angels and rescue mankind from this murderous army of YHWH".
(And all of this will be part of only the first half of the future Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24.)
It is at this point that Lucifer and his fallen angels could be cast down out of heaven to the earth permanently, after losing a mid-tribulation war in heaven (Revelation 12:7-9). But instead of coming down as a defeated force, they could descend for all the world to see in gigantic, magnificent golden spaceships onto the "Champ de Mars", Mars being the same as Marduk the dragon, the chief god of ancient Babylon. (The "Champ de Mars" is the large open area in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.) After landing there, Lucifer, a literal, seven-headed, red dragon (Revelation 12:3,9), could emerge in great splendor and command his angels to capture the army of 200 million weird horse-like beings and their (possibly unclean spirit) riders, who could then pretend to defect from serving YHWH to serving Lucifer. Lucifer could then confirm that he came to rescue mankind because the Antichrist, whom he could say is his only-begotten Son, called upon him (like in an Antichrist counterfeit of Matthew 26:53). Lucifer and the Antichrist could then be received wholeheartedly by the non-Christian world as the saviors of mankind. And the non-Christian world could be left thinking (mistakenly) that Lucifer and his angels were more powerful than even YHWH's main army.
Lucifer and the Antichrist, along with the Antichrist's miracle-working False Prophet, will then deceive the world into actually worshipping Lucifer and the Antichrist, and a speaking (possibly an android) image of the Antichrist (Revelation 13:4-16, Revelation 19:20; 2 Thessalonians 2:4, Daniel 11:36). And everyone will be made to receive a (possibly scarification) mark of the Antichrist on either their right hand or forehead, consisting of either the Antichrist's name or some representation of the gematrial number of his name (666) (Revelation 13:16-18). After Lucifer and the Antichrist have ruled the world for 3.5 literal years (Revelation 13:4-18), YHWH will send seven vials of wrath against the non-Christian world (Revelation 16).
Near the end of these seven vials, unclean spirits like frogs will come out of the mouths of Lucifer, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet (Revelation 16:13). And these unclean spirits like frogs will go forth and perform amazing miracles to convince the world's armies to gather together at Armageddon (Har Megiddo: Mount Megiddo in northern Israel) (Revelation 16:16) to battle against YHWH Himself (Revelation 16:14, Revelation 19:19). After gathering together at Armageddon as a staging area, the world's armies will travel south and pillage Jerusalem, right before Jesus Christ (who is YHWH: John 10:30) returns from heaven and defeats them completely (Revelation 19:11 to 20:6, Zechariah 14:2-21).
When Jesus Christ returns, immediately after the future Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24 (Revelation 19:7-21, Matthew 24:29-31), He will descend physically from heaven on a white horse (Revelation 19:7-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, Zechariah 14:3-4, Acts 1:11-12), with all of the holy angels (Matthew 25:31; 2 Thessalonians 1:7), for all of the world to see (Matthew 24:27,30, Revelation 1:7). Then the Church (of all times) will be physically resurrected (if dead) or changed (if alive) into immortal physical bodies (1 Corinthians 15:21-23,51-53; 1 Thessalonians 4:16, Revelation 20:4-6), and caught up together/gathered together (raptured) (Matthew 24:31; 2 Thessalonians 2:1) as high as the clouds of the sky to hold a meeting in the air with Jesus (1 Thessalonians 4:17).
At that meeting, Jesus Christ will judge the Church (Psalms 50:3-5, cf. Mark 13:27; 2 Corinthians 5:10, Luke 12:45-48), and marry its obedient part (Revelation 19:7-8, Matthew 25:1-12), in the clouds, before it mounts white horses and comes back down from sky (the first heaven) with Jesus (Revelation 19:14), as He defeats the world's armies (Revelation 19:19,21), and the Antichrist and False Prophet (Revelation 19:20), and has Lucifer (Satan) bound in the Bottomless Pit for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:1-3), a time period commonly called the Millennium.
At Jesus Christ's return, He will also make the marriage supper of Revelation 19:9 for the obedient part of the Church in the earthly Jerusalem (Isaiah 25:6-9; 1 Corinthians 15:54), while the birds will feast on the corpses of the world's defeated armies (Revelation 19:17-18). Then Jesus and the obedient part of the Church (of all times) will rule the surviving nations with a rod of iron during the Millennium (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29, Psalms 2). After the Millennium, Lucifer will be released from the Bottomless Pit and bring about the Gog/Magog rebellion, only to be defeated for the last time (Revelation 20:7-10, Ezekiel chapters 38-39).
At least seven years after that defeat (Ezekiel 39:9b), the Great White Throne Judgment will occur, in which all people (of all times) who had not been resurrected and judged at Jesus Christ's return will be resurrected and judged (Revelation 20:11-15). Then God will create a New Heaven (a new first heaven: a new sky/atmosphere for the earth), and a New Earth (a new surface for the earth) (Revelation 21:1; 2 Peter 3:10b,13). Then God the Father will descend from the third heaven in the literal city of New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2), the Father's house (John 14:2, Revelation 21:3), and He will dwell on the earth with Jesus and the Church (Revelation 21:3).
In one area outside the walls of New Jerusalem, on the New Earth, will be the lake of fire (Revelation 22:15, Revelation 21:8), in which all non-Christians (of all times) will suffer forever in fire and brimstone with Lucifer (Satan) and his fallen angels (Revelation 20:10,15, Matthew 25:41,46).