Nearing Midnight: Haunting Prophetic Prospects – http://www.raptureready.com/rap16.html

The hour is late in human history. Things-strange things-are manifesting, with frequency and intensity.

We’ve often discussed the birth pang-like convulsions prophesied by Jesus in His Olivet Discourse. They are front and center today on an hourly basis, and reported in a steady stream throughout the alternate cyberspace news outlets. Wars, rumors of wars, deceivers and deception, signs in the sun, moon, and stars, famines, pestilence, earthquakes in many places, the seas of both oceanic and human sorts roaring–for the student who observes the times from a Bible prophecy, futurist perspective, the signs are all there. We are nearing the moment of Christ’s return.

We are given very strong hints that something wicked this way will come as the end of the age approaches. Paul the apostle said, “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).

Jesus told the priests and others who came to seize him for His crucifixion that the time was their “hour, and power of darkness” (Luke 22:53b). At that moment that mystery of iniquity-of lawlessness–had arisen to the point that absolute evil looked as if it would overcome absolute goodness. The world would put Christ to death. The occult powers of Satan’s realm were intent on forever erasing the name of Jesus from human history.

Supernatural powers of darkness have arisen at various times down through the eons of earthly time. The crucifixion, the demonically inspired crusades undertaken in the name of Christ, the inquisitions, the Nazis and Communists…the dark powers perennially assault the only goodness to be found in this fallen world. Satan wars against God’s creation, man.

As we have looked at many times, Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus tells us: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). It seems that the more these forces of darkness intrude into the lateness of the age, the more humankind looks at them with increased fascination, as if mesmerized. It must have been like that when the first woman, Eve, gazed upon the serpent and wanted to know more.

Considering the successes of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Steven King’s Carrie, as well as myriad other beastly tomes such as JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the evidence appears to prove that there is an insatiable lust for things conjured from the evil fountains of the fallen mind. Zombies seem to be the latest from the dark muses that inhabit the minds of certain writers of fiction.

At this late hour on God’s prophetic timeline, it becomes increasingly obvious that the dark minions are in the process of breaking out of the fiction inhabiting the writers’ and readers’ psyches. The goblins and ghouls are presenting live-or would that be dead-presentations in which humans are active participants.

Two stories that make the point, I think, caught my eye this week. The first involved the Grammy Awards program, in which occult presentations took stage center, causing one Christian singer to leave the ceremonies. Natalie Grant, a 2012 Grammy winner, exited, and later said, “We left the Grammys early. I’ve many thoughts, most of which are probably better left inside my head. But I’ll say this: I’ve never been more honored to sing about Jesus and for Jesus. And I’ve never been more sure of the path I’ve chosen.”

Part of the reason for her vexation, some surmise, was the feigned same-sex marriage that was portrayed during the performance of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. One report conjectured that Grant’s primary reason for leaving was the occult part of the night’s performances.

Katy Perry… was surrounded by demons as she danced around an upside down broomstick before being encircled by fire during a performance of her song “Dark Horse.” Perry wore clothing bearing an illuminated Knights Templar cross…Even E! Online tweeted that Perry’s performance resembled “actual witchcraft.”

Christian music website BreatheCast complained that Perry’s performance was “filled with satanic imagery and witchcraft.” Viewers also expressed their shock at the occult overtones of the show. (InfoWars, “Open Witchcraft And Satanism On Display At 2014 Grammys – Now The End Begins,” Rapture Ready News 1/28/14)

The second story is what really engendered the thought to address this topic in Nearing Midnight this week. The first story above isn’t unlike the entertainment that glorifies the occult in the literary sense, as mentioned at the beginning of this article. It is performance art that feeds the lust for evil. However, art imitates life, as the saying goes, and because of the believability wrapped in the reputations of those witnessing a “live performance” of what can only be described as wickedness in high places intruding into real life, this next story seems to be a portal through which has emerged a glimpse of the uninhibited evil that is to come.

Chilling reports taken from the residents of a Gary, Ind., home recount a haunting that involved a 12-year-old girl levitating over her bed and a 9-year-old boy walking on a hospital ceiling. Astonishingly, the family’s recollections are backed by not only a local police official but also by medical personnel…

According to a report by the Department of Children Services obtained by The Star, one of the boys began cursing at Onyeukwu in a demonic voice. He and his brother then abruptly passed out and wouldn’t come to.

The police were called. When both children woke up in a hospital, the youngest began screaming and violently thrashing about. It took five men to hold the 7-year-old boy down, Campbell told The Star. (NY Daily News, “Haunting in Indiana Leads to Family’s Exorcism, Child’s Levitation,” 1/28/14]***

The story includes considerable foolishness, as well as legitimate, official, observers giving eyewitness reports. The family had exorcists, “clairvoyants,” and was told by Catholic advisors to make an altar to Mary and the baby Jesus and burn incense in the basement of the home near where they think the “hauntings” began.

That said, there is no doubt that many who clearly were reliable witnesses observed the actual demonic activities that took place in that Gary, Indiana home.

Again, the lateness of the prophetic hour means that the time is very near when the Holy Spirit’s restraining influence will remove from this rebellious world (2 Thessalonians 2:7). The vileness that will pour through that portal is something you don’t want to experience. Nor will you, if you know Christ for salvation (Romans 10: 9-10).