Nearing Orwell’s Nightmare
Back to when I could see to read –now more than 30 years ago—I had 3 versions of George Orwell’s 1984 in my library. As a matter of fact, I believe those volumes are still here in the book shelves — somewhere.
I had read all three versions years before, during college years and afterward in subsequent re-readings. I believe I reread the book even during the actual year of 1984.
Of course, my interest in Orwell’s work involved more than merely an interest in dystopian literature. The book smacked of the Tribulation era described in the Bible. Its chief character, not the protagonist Winston Smith, but Big Brother, reminded of how Antichrist will control most of the world during that 7-year period known as Daniel’s seventieth week.
Now, because of blindness, I must have everything read to me through a computer voice synthesis program called Jobs Accessible Word System or JAWS as is its acronym.
Books –or any other text—must be presented in a text document form for JAWS to read them. So I now must have books in computer text to read books like Orwell’s novel. If I had such a document, I would certainly be reading 1984 at the present time. It seems that Mr. Orwell’s fictional cogitations were almost prescient – thus, the title of the commentary: Nearing Orwell’s Nightmare.
Orwell’s book sparked my interest in writing a novel along the lines of 1984 but Bible-centered in its scope. The novel’s title is Jacob’s Trouble – 666, which is inclusive of Jeremiah 30:7, the entirety of the books of Revelation, and some of the book of Daniel.
I believe my own effort at such a work of fiction was prompted by the Holy Spirit, but being the fallible human writer I am, I fell far short of capturing the nuance of developments that have now eventuated in movement toward the seven-year era that will constitute the Tribulation. And what a ride it has been upon the heaving waves of satanic tumult toward that horrendous time of which the ascended Lord Jesus forewarned through His beloved disciple John.
News of the hour the past week caught my attention with regard to indicating just how near this generation is to the dystopian world John foretold, Orwell described, and that I tried to capture in my fiction. And such news has been compiling day by day –sometimes hour by hour, as I indicate. Mostly, in mainstream venues, the words are, in most every case, constructed in such a way as to push into the reader’s mind the leftist ideological rants of the moment.
Orwell’s novel presented a completely changed way of covering news –and every other kind of communication. It was called News Speak. A governmental organization devoted every working moment to changing the way people heard news and even how they were influenced to think about what they heard. This brainwashing was called Double Think.
Here is an excerpt from 1984:
“Just the man I was looking for,” said a voice at Winston’s back.
He turned round. It was his friend Syme, who worked in the Research Department. Perhaps ‘friend’ was not exactly the right word. You did not have friends nowadays; you had comrades, but there were some comrades whose society was pleasanter than that of others. Syme was a philologist, a specialist in Newspeak…
“How is the Dictionary getting on?” said Winston, raising his voice to overcome the noise.
“Slowly,” said Syme. “I’m on the adjectives. It’s fascinating.” […] “The Eleventh Edition is the definitive edition,” he said. “We’re getting the language into its final shape – the shape it’s going to have when nobody speaks anything else. When we’ve finished with it, people like you will have to learn it all over again. You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We’re destroying words – scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We’re cutting the language down to the bone. The Eleventh Edition won’t contain a single word that will become obsolete before the year 2050.”…
It was B. B.’s idea originally, of course,” he added as an afterthought.
A sort of vapid eagerness flitted across Winston’s face at the mention of Big Brother…
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end, we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we’re not far from that point. But the process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year, fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there’s no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It’s merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control. But in the end there won’t be any need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.
[Source: 1984 by George Orwell, Part 1, Chapter 5, 1949]
So, Thoughtcrime” was prosecuted in Orwell’s 1984. They were in the process of doing away with this form of crime. They were simply in the process of changing everything in the way of communication so no one could go against the state –the governmental dictates.
Reminds of wokeness and cancel Culture, doesn’t it?
The Tribulation’s Big Brother will no doubt use every satanically-inspired technology to do exactly what Orwell’s B.B. was doing during that fictional dystopian era.
Antichrist will doubtless use the most highly advanced AI to institute Satan’s drive to enslave every human on earth. Certainly, we are witnessing efforts to bring that enslavement into being even at this moment, just prior to the Rapture.
Speaking of which, you don’t want to be here when Big Brother of the Tribulation comes on the scene. Rather, you want to go to Jesus when He Calls from the Clouds of Glory, where there will be Great Joy and Grand Reunion at the same time Antichrist turns the planet into something worse than portrayed in 1984.
Here is how to go to Christ when the Rapture happens.
“That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).
–Terry
————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
The Prophesied Regathering of Israel
The Bible tells us that in the last days, the Lord will regather His people from all over the world back into the Land that He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Today, many tell us that this covenant no longer applies, but Psalm 105:7-11 reveals that it’s an “everlasting covenant.” God has not rejected His people (Romans 11:1-2).
Because the Land still belongs to the descendants of Jacob, we know that the rebirth of Israel in 1948 and the flow of the Jewish people to the nation is not a fluke but the fulfillment of prophecy.
Ezekiel wrote about the reemergence of Israel as a nation in the last days and, in doing so, predicted God’s regathering of His people to the Land He promised to them. The Lord spoke these words to the prophet concerning this pledge.
“I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24).
In the same context, He later spoke these words of reassurance concerning Israel’s future:
“My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever” (Ezekiel 37:24-25).
God has not yet fulfilled His specific promises of restoration. Nothing since the time of Ezekiel even comes close to what he wrote concerning Israel’s future in chapters 36-37.
However, as with so many other Bible prophecies concerning the last days, we see the beginnings of their future fulfillment. Israel is a nation again, and even amid much warfare and terrorism, the Lord is bringing the Jewish people back to the Land He promised to them. Most remain in unbelief concerning the true identity of their Messiah, but someday that will change.
His Methods Are Not What We Would Expect
Even though what we see today doesn’t represent the complete fulfillment of Bible prophecy, we surely see God’s sovereignty in Israel’s existence as a nation, His protection of her, and the beginning of His regathering of the Jews back to their homeland.
We live in biblical times.
To accomplish His purposes in repopulating the Land, the Lord’s methods so far differ widely from what we might expect. He used the rise of anti-Semitism across Europe to cause a great many Jews to migrate to the Promised Land. At its start, the Russian invasion of Ukraine became another impetus for many Jews to flee from the region to Israel.
He has allowed their current environment to become so hostile that they feel safer in a country that continues to fight off enemies that seek to destroy them. As unlikely as this scenario seems, it continues to play out before our eyes. Is this happening in America, too?
What’s Next?
According to a Times of Israel report from the Fall of 2023, the total worldwide population of Jews is 15.7 million, with 46% of the world Jewish population now living in Israel.
Though estimates vary, one website places the total Jewish population of the U.S. at almost 7.4 million and breaks down that total by state. New York alone has almost 1.8 million, with California and Florida also having significant numbers.
With the most sizable number of Jewish people outside of Israel now residing in America, it begs the question as to what might lead to their exodus from here to the Promised Land.
The rise of anti-Semitism in the U.S. in recent years is far beyond anything I thought possible in my lifetime. The recent incidents at Columbia University in New York and at Yale highlight the accelerating trends of violence toward Jewish students. If one does an Internet search on “anti-Semitic incidents in NY,” one sees numerous reports pointing to the dramatic increase in their number.
I believe the exodus of American Jews to Israel will mostly happen after the Rapture, even though it could start very soon as the result of current hostilities. I say this for a couple of reasons.
First, life in the U.S. will rapidly deteriorate after Jesus removes His Church. The economy will completely collapse while lawlessness and violence, already at obscenely elevated levels, will become far worse. God’s judgments via war and famine will add to the widespread devastation of the nation, which I believe will make many places uninhabitable.
Second, the Tribulation period will begin with a seven-year peace covenant that the antichrist will make with Israel, which he will break at the midpoint.
Why will he wait for three and half years before turning against the Israelites with deadly rage? Could this initial time of peace for the nation be a lure to bring Jews from other lands back to the Land? Those who might hesitate now because of the warfare might change their minds after a powerful force guarantees the end of attacks against Israel.
I’m speculating here, of course, but I believe it’s quite possible that God will use the horrific conditions that will prevail in America soon after the Rapture, along with the antichrist’s guarantees for peace to continue the regathering of His people back to the Land.
I’m greatly troubled by the open displays of ravenous hatred for the Jewish people on the streets of America. I know, however, that the Lord will keep His promises to Israel, which include the continued regathering of His people.
-Jonathan