With, arguably, the most critical election in America’s history just days away (or hours away) our current President, Barack Obama, may be on the verge of a test like few other world leaders have ever known. In fact, it may have already begun.

Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin shocked the world when he sent a naval task force toward Syria — through the English Channel! It was an obvious show of strength and belligerence against the West.

Seven Russian warships escorted Russia’s only aircraft carrier right through the famous Strait of Dover, within sight of the storied white cliffs.

By sending the carrier group to Syria, Putin is strengthening his presence in the Middle East. The Russian and American militaries are both active in Syria, but make no mistake, Russia is in charge.

The Russian task force joins warships from Russia’s Black Sea fleet that have been dispatched to the Mediterranean carrying nuclear-capable missiles.

Russia has also sent nuclear-capable Iskander-M missiles to the region bordering Poland and hundreds of paratroopers for military exercises in Egypt. They have suspended three separate nuclear agreements with the United States.

Last summer, President Putin warned journalists that “the world is being pulled in an irreversible direction.”

The Russians have also just completed a “nuclear war drill” that involved 40 million people practicing ways to survive atomic war.

Is Putin actually preparing for war with the United States? Is he sending a message to President Obama? How will the President handle increasing Russian aggression in the waning days of his administration?

That’s his big test.

But there’s an even bigger question. Why? Why is Putin testing Obama and why now?

Although President Obama is already considered a “lame duck” President — since he cannot serve another term — after Tuesday’s election, his lame duck status grows even more acute.

Is Putin testing Obama to see if he will wilt under the pressure of a nuclear ultimatum? And if Putin decides he will, then Obama and the United States may get a nuclear ultimatum, and probably before the end of the year.

It will be disguised as something else, but it will be real.

With this President, Putin may see an opportunity for a world-changing moment. He seems to be testing Obama’s resolve right now. If he fails the test, it may invite nuclear blackmail or even World War III.

In 1962, God used a profane, deceptive, and womanizing President to save civilization as we know it. His name was John F. Kennedy.

That moment of truth became known as the “Cuban Missile Crisis.”

At the time, most Americans understood that the U.S. and the Soviet Union were on the brink of nuclear war. We now know that they were closer than anyone at the time realized.

Information discovered after the collapse of the Soviet Union revealed that the commanders on the ground in Cuba already had battlefield nuclear weapons and were authorized to use them if necessary.

Some of Kennedy’s top military advisers encouraged him to make an all-out assault on the nascent Soviet military sites on the island. Had he done so, it would have triggered the use of those weapons and the nuclear dominoes would have fallen fast all over the world.

But for the hand of God in that crisis, you and I would probably not be here today.

We now know that the choices President Kennedy made in that critical time were influenced by a book called The Guns of August. It was Barbara Tuchman’s examination of the events and decisions that triggered World War I.

We also now know that Ms. Tuchman’s historical assertions were largely incorrect in that book, based on new information about Germany discovered in recent years.

However, even though her history was wrong, the lessons she taught were perfect for President Kennedy in 1962.

There was tremendous danger in showing weakness, so the President couldn’t let the Soviets establish nuclear launch platforms in Cuba. But in resisting the Soviets, he couldn’t let a mistake trigger a sequence of events that would have caused the world to descend into nuclear chaos.

So he took a middle ground and imposed a naval blockade of Cuba. Long story short, it worked.

God used an imperfect man and a history book with a flawed thesis to prevent a war that would have devastated the planet.

In the early 60s, Americans understood the nuclear threat and Christians prayed for Kennedy on a regular basis. When that book fell into his hands, it was an answer to prayer.

Even if you think a President — or other leader — is wrong on every issue, the Bible admonishes us to pray for that person. There is powerful evidence, both Biblical and historical, that God’s intention is for us to pray for our leaders so that we may lead “a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” (I Timothy 2:2 NASB)

In a few days, we will be given the opportunity to choose our next group of national, state, and local leaders. In our time, when the alternative to peace is so unthinkable, our incentive to pray doubles.

The Bible doesn’t say you have to approve of the leaders’ policies. It says, unequivocally, to pray for them. Pray that they will see the light where they are wrong and repent. Pray they will be given wisdom and good judgment. Don’t pray for the success of wrong or sinful policies, but do pray for the men and women who lead us.

Pray for the upcoming election. Pray that those elected will have an awareness of God; and that they will find good advisers with godly morals. Pray that God will send His Word into all their lives — now more than ever.

We have entered one of the most dangerous periods in world history. So vote! And pray!

Here is another report from CBN showing the growing war of words between Russia and the West.

© Copyright 2016, Hallindsey.com

Frederick Bastiat in his powerful book, The Law called it the “vicious circle of socialism: the idea of passive mankind and the power of the law being used to propel people by “forced conformity and molding them through dictatorial arrogance and philanthropic tyranny.”

He describes how the law has been perverted by the influence of two entirely different causes: stupid greed and false philanthropy, which is the “fatal tendency of mankind.”

In the West today, most especially in America, to quote Voltaire, “criminals are punished for their crimes, unless when they commit them to the sounds of trumpets.”

Author and Economic Collapse Blogger, Michael Snyder says on his website, he just lost faith in the deeply corrupt legal system and in the Rule of Law in the United States:

I don’t know how any American is going to be able to have faith in our system of justice after this.  We truly do live in a lawless nation, and if the American people elect Hillary Clinton they are willingly choosing lawlessness……

As a law student and then later as an attorney working in Washington D.C., I got to see just how deeply corrupt our legal system has become. But after today, I don’t see how any American can ever have faith in the rule of law again.

If the law does not apply equally to all persons at all times and in all circumstances, we might as well not even have a legal system.

It is indeed impossible to imagine at the very heart of a society a more astounding fact than this: the law has come to be an instrument of injustice. And if this fact brings terrible consequences to the United States, what about in other parts of Africa and Europe where the perversion of law is a principle or a system?

For instance, one of the most dangerous weapons if controlled by members of the power elite is the media. The big five main global media corporations have become major players in altering the politics of almost any country.

They’ve also been able to promote legislations that increase their corporate domination, giving them the power to restrict or abolish regulations that restrain their control.

This gives each of the five corporations and their leaders more communications power than was exercised by any despot or dictatorship in history. They have had the power that no media in past history has ever had, which has been created by new technology and the near uniformity of their political goals.

No imperial ruler in past history had multiple media channels, including television and satellite channels that could permeate entire societies with controlled sights and sounds.

Now what do we do when we are living in a corporate fascist tyranny and big power global elites control the government and write the laws? When will it stop? Anthony C. Sutton in his book, Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler has an answer for us to consider:

It will not stop until we act upon one simple axiom: that the power system continues only so long as individuals want it to continue, and it will continue only so long as individuals try to get something for nothing. The day when a majority of individuals declares or acts as if it wants nothing from the government, declares it will look after its own welfare and interests, then on that day power elites are doomed.

The attraction to “go along” with power elites is the attraction of something for nothing. That is the bait. The Establishment always offers something for nothing; but the something is taken from someone else, as taxes or plunder, and awarded elsewhere in exchange for political support.

We entrust men to make laws with the sanction of the majority, and as result, we have allowed the law to be the instrument of injustice, plunder and lawlessness so that people are further pulled away from God’s laws without any sense of being accountable for any sin or give some thought to the rule of law.

What is Lawlessness?

The dictionary describes Lawlessness as being without law; uncontrolled by a law; unbridled; unruly; unrestrained. It means to be without regard for the principles and regulations governed by a governing authority.

In a biblical and spiritual sense lawlessness is a disregard for God’s laws and established order. This mystery of lawlessness and the antichrist is already at work in America and subsequently around the world. There is greed, evil, corruption; injustice, lawlessness, and a desire to rule over others–all represented at the very highest levels of governments.

Continuing with His sense of progression in His Olivet Discourse, regarding the end of the age, Jesus says, because of false prophets, there will be a turning away from the faith which brings us to the love of the great body of Christ growing cold due to multiplied lawlessness and iniquity. (See Matthew 24:11-12)

Who is to Blame?

It’s the Church of Jesus Christ. The church has lost its prophetic voice and watered down the gospel of Jesus Christ and that’s why the powers of darkness have multiplied and invaded the hearts and minds of all people.

The error that lies at the foundation of this lawlessness of both individual and public moral conscience according to Revivalist Charles Finney, originates, no doubt, in the pulpit. Finney wrote in Decay of Conscience:

If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in Biblical Christianity or religion, the pulpit is responsible for it.

If Satan rules in the halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation.

Since there is little teaching on the cross, sin, judgement, hell and heaven, the true prophetic church is being persecuted by the apostate and lukewarm church. As Paul reminds us:

For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, And will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions. (2 Timothy 4:3-4 AMP)

Inevitably, the kind of preaching that tickles men’s ears will result in lawlessness, disobedience and the love of the great body of Christ will grow cold.

For the mystery of lawlessness (that hidden principle of rebellion against constituted authority) is already at work in the world, [but it is] restrained only until he who restrains is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one (the antichrist) will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by His appearing at His coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 AMP)

Who is the restraining power Paul is speaking of here? It is the personal presence of the Holy Spirit within the church. Therefore, the only hope for America, Britain and the world in general is another Great Spiritual Awakening and true Holy Spirit inspired revival of religion which will bring a renewed conviction of sin and repentance, followed by an intense desire to live in obedience to God.