The Phillip Medhurst Picture Torah 310. The plague of frogs. Exodus cap 8 vv 1-7. Mortier
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has divided our world into two camps: the West, led by the USA, and the East, led by China. Both sides are nuclear armed. What does bible prophecy have to say about this very dangerous--in fact existential--confrontation?
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east.13 And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs.14 For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”)16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. - Revelation 16:12-16, English Standard Version
The dragon is Satan, who along with his demonic army, rules earth but knows his time is short (John 12:31; Rev 12:7-12). The beast is the beast of Revelation 13:1-10--initially the Papacy--but which has now morphed into the EU in our time (both represent Rome). The False Prophet is linked to the Lamb Beast of Revelation 13:16-17 : the Anglo-American power, with the USA predominant in our time (Britain was predominant prior to the end of WWII, but they continue in a partnership).
The Lamb Beast: 16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. - Rev 13:16-17
The False Prophet: 20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. - Rev 19:20
Notice that the False Prophet "deceived those who had received the mark of the beast." The mark is given to individuals by the Beast, the political power, and the False Prophet deceives them further.
The phrase "no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark" refers to sanctions, which only the USA has the power to impose on the rest of the world, since it controls most of the world's financial systems. There are also plans for a digital currency, whereby the government can cut off your ability to buy and sell by flipping a software switch on a computer. Those that the State deems undesirable could be cut off from economic activity in the near future; or only allowed to buy and sell government approved products and services. The "mark of the beast" refers to slavery: those that willingly sell themselves to the beast and support its propaganda and objectives. Think of American professed Christians who openly support America's forever wars and its abuse of other countries.
But "false prophet" implies a liar claiming to speak the words of God, and suggests a religious entity. The USA has positioned itself as ideological leader of the West, and continues to lie about 'freedom and democracy,' 'American exceptionalism,' 'a city on a hill,' and other nonsense, when in fact, the goal of the USA is world rulership at the expense of every other country. Since the False Prophet is tied to the Lamb Beast, Anglo-America, we can ask, Which corrupt religious entity fully supports America as if it were a special, holy nation, while ignoring its abuse of its own citizens as well as other countries? It is nationalistic, conservative Christians. They have created an idol out of American nationalism. My commentary on Joel suggests a progressive popular uprising against Babylon is coming--the partnership of harlot churches, corrupt government, and corrupt business, that combine to oppress, deceive, and control the people. In case there is any doubt about America's real goals, here is the proof:
It should be obvious that America is not the world's policeman as it claims, but the world's gangster. Countries that don't follow America's orders can have their governments overthrown by American CIA machinations. In fact, Win/Gallup International, in 2013, asked which country is the greatest threat to peace. The overwhelming answer, from the global community, was America. And conservative Christians are happy to cheer it on, as it creates more misery, suffering and death across the globe.
The Euphrates is a reference to the conquering of Babylon by Cyrus the Persian in 539 BCE. He diverted this river, his armies marched in, and Babylon fell in one night. Modern Babylon, as described in the Book of Revelation Chapter 17, is Western culture, according to Dr. Gordon Fee, the preeminent exegete, in the last course he taught on that apocryphal work. In Babylon, we have a harlot church--corrupt Christian nationalism, sitting upon the ten horned beast, which is modern Rome (EU led by USA-Britain). There are merchants--corrupt business-- and 'kings'--corrupt political leaders and oligarchs, hiding in fear as the harlot church is burned (Rev 18:9-10). The Euphrates is drying up: the 'waters'--various peoples--are withdrawing their support, leaving Babylon vulnerable to attack. The "kings from the east" likely refer to the growing list of BRICS countries, which are bypassing US sanctions and the US dollar ("no one could buy or sell" - Rev 13:17) , causing the dollar to drop in value. BRICS economies now equal or surpass the West's and far surpass it in population. They recently had 19 applications from other countries to join. BRICS will grow in power as the West declines, and rapidly I think. The world is now clearly divided between the West, led by America, and the East, led by China. A new cold war has begun.
4 But news from the east and the north shall alarm him, and he shall go out with great fury to destroy and devote many to destruction.45 And he shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him.
- Daniel 11:44-45
To the east of Israel lies Iran and China. To the north is Russia. The US, as leader of the West, is realizing its goal of world hegemony, through threats and violence, is slipping away. Its leadership knows that China, India, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, and increasingly more countries, like Iran and Saudi Arabia--who recently signed a peace agreement brokered by China--will no longer be bullied by the US. They are forming partnerships and creating institutions in order to resist American empire. And when the US dollar loses its value, the end of empire follows. It costs enormous sums to keep 800 or so world-wide military bases equipped and running. The money just won't be there, and increasingly, host countries will want the US out of theirs. The collapse of empire will be swift I think. Look at Great Britain. What is left of its empire? Nothing really. It's been reduced to an island in the North Atlantic. And it was the greatest empire in history.
And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs.14 For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. - Revelation 16:13-14
The frogs are a reference to the frog plague in Egypt. The frogs were everywhere--in the homes, in your clothing, on the streets, in the walkways. I believe these frogs represent a whole new level of propaganda. Frogs are mindless croakers, like propaganda: that is repeated over and over on our mainstream media platforms. Here is one of many examples.
A few days after Russia invaded Ukraine, I was having my morning coffee and surfing through the news channels on cable. I watch Canadian news, as well as CNN, PBS, and occasionally MSN, FOX or NewsMax in the US. But I get most of my news from places like Substack, Democracy Now! and other progressive alternative news sources. This one morning I went to Russia Today, which I was subscribed to on cable, to see what the Russians were saying about the Ukraine war. I wanted to see if there were other explanations besides the righteous drumbeat of war in our mainstream media. To me, it is very important to listen to all sides and make up my own mind. This is the essence of a free society: where we respect each others' views and debate civilly, and each can make up their own mind and vote accordingly, if the issue is political. But instead of Russia Today, I got a message saying the Government of Canada has removed this cable channel from all platforms--supposedly because it was "Russian propaganda."
I was quite shocked. Certainly no one in their right mind would support the invasion of one country by another. But in a free society are we not allowed to read what we want and make our own decisions on an issue? Apparently not. And this situation is being replicated throughout the West. Mainstream media throughout the West are in lockstep with Washington's talking points: USA is good and godly; Putin is evil and must be stopped at all costs. And it is getting worse. Brazil, for example, has just proposed legislation allowing the government to decide what is propaganda and what is not, and punish the government labeled propagandists with severe penalties in court. I understand that Lula, the President of Brazil, is very concerned about rising Christo-fascism in Latin America, especially among the former President's followers, but he should realize that the next government may be very authoritarian and he's paved the way to eliminate any political opposition by simply labelling their rhetoric as propaganda. We read of Israeli spies working for Facebook, Google and Microsoft; and government interference with Twitter. The control is pretty much complete now. You won't find one in ten people, I bet, that know the US was involved in the overthrow of an elected government in Ukraine in 2014. Or that they intentionally provoked Russia by offering Ukraine NATO membership, knowing fully well it was a redline that Russia would not allow. That, along with Georgia next perhaps, would encircle Russia with NATO countries, bases, weaponry, and servicemen. But the US offered it anyway, and predictably, Russia invaded. The goal was to, in the words of Lloyd Austin, Pentagon Chief, to "weaken Russia" and destroy its economy with sanctions; but it backfired: the EU is now in economic distress and Russia and China, along with the other BRICS nations and their friends, have united against America and the West in general in order to bypass sanctions. The BRICS are currently developing their own reserve currency to replace the US dollar. America's arrogant abusiveness has resulted in a major confederation of powerful countries aligned against it. But American arrogance is not willing to admit to mistakes--consider the Iraq War travesty--and so it continues down this path towards its own destruction.
And so, we are fed this narrative, repeatedly, like masses of croaking frogs, that Putin is evil and the West, led by the valiant United States, are the good guys. We are told we must resist authoritarian evil for the cause of freedom and democracy. And to ice the cake, Biden, according to Seymour Hersh, had the NordStream pipelines bombed, which were providing cheap Russian gas, and offered Europe American gas instead at markup prices. The Inflation Reduction Act Biden signed, allows America to entice European companies, who are now saddled with huge energy costs, to move to America and set up shop there. Who needs enemies with friends like these?
45 And he shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious holy mountain. [Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem in 2018]. Yet he shall come to his end, with none to help him." - Dan 11:45
None to help? I wonder why that is.
The croaking of the frogs will continue. Western rhetoric is still pushing the Ukraine war, which has devastated that country and refuses to consider options for peace. Biden continues to send massive amounts of weaponry, to the glee of weapons manufacturers, their shareholders, and security state warmongers. And now, the US is provoking China over Taiwan. Despite the croaking of the frogs about 'freedom' and 'democracy', we know the real reason: America's oligarchs do not want to share world power with any other country and Taiwan supplies two-thirds of the world's computer chips--technology power that the US does not want China to have. We know how this ends:
17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God,18 to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.”19 And I saw the beast [the West: EU and others, led by America] and the kings of the earth [oligarchs and political leaders] with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet [corrupt, conservative Christians] who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image [i.e. State Protestantism]. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.21 And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
- Rev 19:17-21
The West, led by America, will meet its end. The other powers will be dealt with afterwards. Why does God judge the West so harshly? Because it had it all: freedom of religion, vast resources and land, excellent education, relatively good government, and hardworking people. But its leadership chose to use their power to oppress other nations and peoples and steal their resources. It chose forever wars over peacemaking. It chose lies over truth. It chose money and power over people and their well-being. It used Christianity for appearances rather than actually practicing it. For these things and more, it will meet the judgement of God.
So what should Christians of good conscience do? Get out of Babylon--unless you want to partake of her punishments (Rev 18:4). This means separating oneself spiritually and mentally. It means deprogramming ourselves from the croaking frogs of imperial propaganda. If we belong to a church that has ties to corrupt politicians, or to one particular political party, leave that church. If we think our country is righteous and Christian and others not, learn the history of your country--don't be fooled. If you think war is something Christians should be involved in, read my piece here. Don't listen to mainstream media. All you get is the unified mindless croaking of frogs. Choose news sites that inform you. Here are some suggestions which I use daily. Vote only for peacemakers, not warmongers. And pray. Pray not to be deceived. Pray for those that are. Pray for God's Kingdom to come, and His will be done on earth as in heaven (Matt 6:9-13).