Well, we now have confirmation it really is the end of the world. The Cubs won the World Series, and on top of that Donald Trump was elected president of the United States.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at an election rally in New York City, November 9, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar

On a more serious note, I have come to believe the election of Trump was a significant event in two major ways.

(Before getting started, one of the reasons this post was delayed was I needed some time to think after the election. It also didn’t help that I had to travel on business last week to a remote location and I could not access the internet. But there I was in the Nevada desert, wondering who would win the election as I watched the news, and wondering if there was a chance getting home would be made a herculean effort due to protests and martial law (one never knows!). Whether Hillary or Trump won, I was mentally bracing for some sort of trouble. Maybe this whole experience was good for me because God was showing me He is in control and He’ll make sure I get home safely, which I did. Anyway, my apologies.)

So Trump won?!? My first fleshly reaction was “praise the Lord!” because that awful, awful woman will not be going to the White House in January. If I had no knowledge of the coming Signposts, I might even be giddy for the first time since the years of the Reagan administration, since the possibilities of what the first Republican trifecta (white house-senate-house) since the 1920’s might accomplish. And yet, I believe all we may have done is simply change the path that we take to the Second Signpost and America’s own judgment.

The Fourth Turning

Remember the Fourth Turning? I wrote about it in this post (I recommend you check it out). It may not be biblical, but it is a proven secular theory of history that makes general predictions about the cycles in history and society and so far they are coming true. Every Fourth Turning, every eighty years, sees a reset of society. It occurs due to a disconnect between what people want and the way society is going.

There are typically four great events within a Fourth Turning. The first is some great occurrence that belies the fact that there is a disconnect – something very wrong. That was the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. That made 2008 the start date of the current Winter (Fourth Turning), and that it would likely continue to 2028, since these Turnings are fairly consistently twenty years long.

The second event within the Fourth Turning is a breakout of some major action that will settle the disconnect. I believe we may have just seen our second event, with the election of Trump. Just as Lincoln was elected in November 1860 and a great part of American society shunned him and seceded from the Union, we are seeing something similar to this right now, with the protests and so many liberals simply freaking out, unable to handle the idea that half of America might just have a good reason to elect Trump.

Echoes of the Election of 1860

Lincoln’s election was the second event of the Civil War Fourth Turning. Some might say today’s protests cannot be compared to the southern states seceding. But as Howe says in The Fourth Turning, it’s all about the moods of the majorities and minorities of people. Consider Bertram Wyatt-Brown in Yankee Saints and Southern Sinners who wrote that southerners could no longer tolerate northern attitudes that regarded slave ownership as a great sin and Northern politicians who insisted on stopping the spread of slavery.

What if we applied the logic of the southerners of 1860 to today? Using the same words, we could easily say liberals can no longer tolerate conservative attitudes that regard abortion and homosexuality as great sins, and conservative politicians who insist on the stopping or growth of welfare programs and government encroachment in people’s lives. Scary how similar 1860 is to today, isn’t it? History does indeed repeat itself.

In 1860, there were those who were deceived into calling good evil, and evil good, and they could not bear to be part of the same nation in which others believed slavery was a great sin. Likewise, we are seeing people who are deceived into thinking that collectivism is better than individualism, and abortion is not the murder of another human being, and they are not able to bear Trump’s election.

The southerners of 1860 could not accept the election and therefore the law of the US constitution, and so caused a split. Today, protestors to Trump’s election are acting the same way. Will we see a similar major split in the weeks and years ahead? If the protests grow, or if the electors of some states become “faithless electors” and elect Hillary causing the silent majority in the middle of America to fight back, or if any of a number of things occur from this election, we may indeed see things get worse.

A protest by liberals in New York City.  Ironically, it was Hillary that would have accelerated America’s slide into fascism.

In fact, there are already moves in California and Oregon to secede from the Union. This news story reports a secessionist leader named Trejbal who said, “Oregonian values are no longer the values held by the rest of the United States.” He also said the values Oregonians held are, “Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness…plus equality.” Of course that fourth value is socialist and not in the US constitution. That is an obvious clue that indeed his mindset is not the same as those who elected Trump.  Besides, how can you have equality and liberty?  It’s one or the other, you cannot have both.  Socialist governments have proven that over and over.

A protest by liberals in Seattle.  Ironically, it was the Obama administration that fostered racism.

It seems that just as slavery-minded Americans wanted to split with other Americans when the government was not supporting their views and so they rebelled, we are now seeing hints of the same thing where liberals with their own values are voicing rebellion against the government.

A protest by liberals in Chicago. So many upset people. This is an act of rebellion against the United States, even if only in people’s minds.  I didn’t see conservatives take to the streets in protest after the one-man-wrecking-ball also known as Obama, got elected.

It seems only one major difference with 1860 is that instead of North vs. South, its Urban vs. Rural.  Look at all those counties, one row after the other in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio, colored red.  This map essentially shows us where America’s cities are.  Where the region of North and South set the stage for a war between two landmasses, this time it is different.  If there were infrastructure disruptions – gasoline, electricity – it seems to me those in the blue counties, with mostly urban populations, would be more vulnerable to the effects of the Second Signpost then would the red counties.

The 2016 presidential election map by county.  I haven’t seen this much red since the Reagan years.

Also, of the four Fourth Turnings America has experienced (Revolutionary War, Civil War, Depression/WW2, and the current one), there also seems to be an alternating pattern. The first and third were against outside forces. The second and now apparently the fourth are internal conflicts.

The Second Signpost and the End Times

If Hillary had won, we could say the path to the Second Signpost seemed obvious: Hillary would continue Obama’s disastrous foreign policies and Iran would at some point start its invasion, then causing economic chaos here with the loss of the petrodollar, and the skyrocketing price of oil.

But now with Trump being the winner, the path is more clouded and perhaps chaotic. Perhaps that’s what God wants – He wants us to be closer to Him, in communion with Him, and listening to his Word. Daniel 8:4 says Iran will do what it wants. This strongly suggests the US will not have the means or the will to stop Iran – regardless of who is the president

What is the path to the Second Signpost now? It could be any of a large number of things. Maybe Trump does tear up the nuclear deal and places sanctions back on Iran, triggering a move from Iran. Maybe this, maybe that. I once did a thought experiment, of what would I, Mark Davidson, do as president? Would I try to stop the Second Signpost or try to kindle it since it was God’s will? I soon realized it didn’t matter what I or anyone would do, and whether anyone was conscious of the Second Signpost or not. God’s Word has it written that the Persian ram will run out. Period.  Therefore nothing can be done to stop it. God’s Word does not tell us how it starts – just that it does. Like George W. Bush, stumbling with his intelligence sources that were broken, and so causing the First Signpost, Trump could easily do something against Iran and it backfire. Only God literally knows.

We know that Daniel 8:4 stands. God is telling us to trust in Him, and that Iran’s invasion of the Middle East is all we need to watch for as that is next before Christ’s coming.

The Signposts and the Fourth Turning

It is my belief that while America is dragged more and more into the dark days that are the current Fourth Turning, as it unfolds, the Signposts will roll by. With no possibility of America interfering, Iran and Turkey will do what the Bible says they will do, and the Antichrist will emerge in the Fourth Signpost.

What makes me come to this conclusion? First, Jesus said in Matthew 24, all these things would be accomplished in one lifetime – the First Signpost to the Second Coming. So we are limited to all these things ending in 2030-2040, theoretically. Second, Fourth Turnings always last twenty years – so America’s internal struggle, whatever the future holds, will last theoretically until 2028. So if Christ tarries until the 2030’s, who knows, maybe America might reemerge on the other side of the Fourth Turning, at the end of the Fourth Signpost, judged, punished and repented, all ready to face the Rapture or Tribulation if Christ should tarry.

Conclusion

The election of Trump as the next president has muddied the waters. But that’s alright because God’s Word still stands, telling us what is really significant.  Iran’s invasion is the significant event.

Trump’s election seems to be the second event after the 2008 Crisis, confirming America is in a Fourth Turning, which will continue to cause America to descend temporarily into disarray. We may see an echo, albeit of a different flavor, of the 1860’s.

The Second Signpost will still happen causing the other Signposts to come one after the other. And just as I take great comfort in His staff blocking one of two roads at a fork in my own personal life, knowing He is there guiding me, I will also take great comfort in the Second Signpost, seeing and knowing He has set his staff down to the entire world, guiding its events to the return of his Son.

Continue in Him. Be a light to everyone around you while all these things unfold. Praise Him for being the great God of heaven and King of the universe who is in complete control of the storm raging around you.

Categories: America in the End Times, In The News, Signpost #2: Iran

Tags: Fourth Turning, Second Signpost, Trump, US Election