“FOOTNOTE ON AMERICA AND ISRAEL IN 2026: LAST DAYS JOURNEY FROM LIGHTS TO THE NATIONS TO TWIN SHIPS OF FOOLS.” – WITH VIDEO

1. THEOLOGY

“THE [EMPTY-HEADED] FOOL HAS SAID IN HIS HEART, ‘THERE IS NO GOD!’ They are corrupt, they have done abominable deeds; there is none that does good or right. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any who understood, dealt wisely, and sought after God, inquiring for and of Him and requiring Him [of vital necessity].

They are all gone aside, they have all together become FILTHY; there is none that does good or right, no, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up My people as they eat bread and who do not call on the Lord?

There they shall be in great FEAR [literally—dreading, a dread], for God is [ONLY] with the generation of the [uncompromisingly] righteous (those upright and in right standing with Him). You [evildoers] would put to shame and confound the plans of the poor and patient, but the Lord is his safe REFUGE.

Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord shall restore the fortunes of His people, then Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad.” – PSALM 14:1-7, AMPC

KEY TERMS

• “FILTHY.” ‘Alach’ [נֶ֫אֱלָ֥חוּ]: From a primitive term, “To muddle, turn, or corrupt; to go or walk [away].” NOTE: “This rare verb portrays the ‘Progression’ from internal impurity to outward acts of corruption. It speaks less of ceremonial uncleanness and more of ‘Ethical Pollution’—‘a Willful Descent into Moral Filth that aligns the sinner against the Holiness of God.’”

• “FEAR.” ‘Pachad [פָּ֣חֲדוּ]: From a primitive root, “To be startled by a sudden alarm; to dread or be in fearful awe.” NOTE: “פָחַד (‘pāchad’) portrays Visceral Dread—an intense, often paralyzing awareness of danger or overwhelming power. The term spans the spectrum from crippling terror that accompanies guilt and judgment to the quivering awe that attends the recognition of God’s majesty and goodness.”

• “REFUGE.” ‘Machaseh’ [מַחְסֵֽהוּ׃]: “A shelter, a hope or trust.” NOTE: “מַחֲסֶה portrays a Place or condition of Safety, Security, or Shelter. ‘It is used of literal Hideaways from weather and enemies, but far more often of the Lord Himself as the Sure Refuge for His people.’”

QUOTATION. “‘These Religious Types were the FANS [or ‘fanatic, enthusiast, mere admirer’] that Jesus seems to have the most trouble with.’

‘Fans,’ who will walk into a restaurant and bow their heads to pray before a meal just in case someone is watching. Fans who won’t go to R-rated movies at the theater, but have a number of them saved on their DVR at home. Fans who may feed the hungry and help the needy, and then they make sure they work it into every conversation for the next two weeks. Fans who make sure people see them put in their offering at church, but they haven’t considered reaching out to their neighbor who lost a job and can’t pay the bills. Fans who like seeing other people fail because in their minds it makes them look better. Fans whose primary concern in raising their children is what other people think. Fans who are reading this and assuming I’m describing someone else.

‘Fans who have worn The Mask for so long they have fooled even themselves.’” – KYLE IDLEMAN, Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus, 2011; edited

PROPHECY. “For there is nothing hidden that will not become EVIDENT [‘phaneros,’ φανερὸν – ‘shining upon, exposing publicly], nor anything secret that will not be known and come out into the open.” – JESUS OF NAZARETH, Luke 8:17, Amplified

COMMENTARY. “‘A description of the Depravity of Human Nature, and the deplorable Corruption of a great part of Mankind [and the Church!].’ – ‘THE FOOL [‘nabal,’ נָבָ֣ל – ‘stupid, wicked, impious’] hath said in his heart, “There is no God!’” The sinner here described is an Atheist, one that saith there is no Judge or Governor of the world, no Providence ruling over the affairs of men. He says this in his heart. He cannot satisfy himself that there is none, but wishes there were none, and pleases himself that it is possible there may be none; he is willing to think there is none.

‘This sinner is a fool. He is simple and unwise, and this is evidence of it: he is wicked and profane, and this is the cause.’ The Word of God is a Discerner of these thoughts. No man will say, ‘There is no God,’ till he is so hardened in sin, that it is become his interest that there should be none to call him to an account. The Disease of Sin has infected the whole race of Mankind.‘They are all gone aside, there is none that doeth good, no, not one.’ Whatever good is in any of the children of men, or is done by them, it is not of themselves, it is God’s work in them. They are gone aside from the Right Way of their Duty, the way that leads to happiness, and are turned into the Paths of The Destroyer.

‘Let us lament the Corruption of our Nature, and see what need we have of the Grace of God.’ Let us not marvel that we are told we must be Born Again. And we must not rest in any thing short of Union with Christ, and a New Creation to Holiness by his Spirit. The Psalmist endeavours to convince sinners of the evil and danger of their way, while they think themselves very wise, and good, and safe. ‘Their WICKEDNESS is described. Those that CARE NOT for God’s people, for God’s poor, care not for God Himself!’ People run into all manner of Wickedness, because they do not call upon God for His Grace. What good can be expected from those that live without prayer? But those that will not fear God, may be made to fear at the shaking of a leaf. ‘All our knowledge of the Depravity of Human Nature should endear to us Salvation out of Zion.’

‘But in Heaven Alone shall the whole company of the Redeemed rejoice fully, and forevermore. For the World is bad!’ Oh, that the Messiah would come and change its character! There is Universal Corruption; Oh, for the Times of Reformation! The triumphs of Zion’s King will be the joys of Zion’s children. ‘The SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, finally to do away the Dominion of Sin and Satan, will be the Completing of this Salvation, which is the Hope, and will be the Joy of every Israelite [and Christian] indeed!’ With this Assurance we should comfort ourselves and one another, under the sins of sinners and sufferings of saints.” – MATTHEW HENRY, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

II. BACKGROUND

“And the love of the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity … [And] wicked men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and leading astray others and being deceived and led astray themselves.” – MATTHEW 24:12; 2 TIMOTHY 3:13, AMPC

What follows in this Commentary is for me one of the most difficult critical assessments, or ‘THREE COGNITIVE RESETS,’ more properly, that I have ever had to make in my 45 years of following Christ. This is because I am first and foremost called to be a Teacher of the Law, and second, I do so as both a Christian and a Sephardic Jew (on my mother’s ‘Rodriguez’ side). Please let me explain.

FROM FOOL TO FAITHFUL. When Christ rescued me on the existential morning of Tuesday October 30, 1979, around 10:00 am, as I recall, something quietly exploded in my core that would change me literally forever. It would take place in Three Stages as I reflect on it today.

1. NEW BIRTH. As one who holds a Ph.D. degree in the related fields of Philosophy and Social Theory (governing how human beings interact with one another), I was required to master vast theoretical landscapes by most ‘Secular Intellectuals.’ To this day I am still grateful for that learning, since it taught me well how ‘The World Thinks,’ an invaluable asset today as I distinguish The Lie from The Truth at the ground level. But a necessary Process of Intellectual Sanctification was ignited in me that would revolutionize my understanding of those “philosophies of men” (Colossians 2:8), showing me their strengths and their flaws.
2. NEW CULTURE. ‘For the next 30 or more years, I would become literally immersed in the non-variegated American View of the Christian Faith.’ I would in that span ingest mountains of Christian books, television broadcasts, Church sermons, commentaries, news reports, eschatological treatises, and especially political analysis from the American Christian View of things. In that time I was also deeply schooled at Regent University (VA: 1983-2000) for 17 years in what we now recognized as the Dominion Models ofthe Faith, even engaging in writing an occasional essay on how we needed to ‘infiltrate’ the various ‘Spheres of Cultural Sovereignty’ to make them more ‘Christian’ by becoming their leaders and influencers (cf. the Calvinism of politician and journalist, Abraham Kuyper). The Spheres to be conquered included: Education, Worship, Civil Justice, Agriculture, Economy and Labor, Marriage and Family, Artistic Expression, and Historical Development. Editors, Wikipedia, Oct. 3, 2025; edited).
3. NEW EYES. While plying my academic wares at Liberty University (VA: 2006-2016), I was essentially on Spiritual Cruise Control, believing that I had mastered the Christian Worldview, albeit through the lens of what I now derisively call ‘The American Gospel,’ by then so uniformly honored at such places as Regent, Focus on the Family, Liberty and virtually ALL leading Christian educational institutions. Then something happened that would come to literally shatter all my Former Illusions about my Faith, Christian Leadership in general, and the History of our Nation forever. DONALD JOHN TRUMP was elected President of the United States of America in 2016. I immediately began writing a few columns against this obvious Mega-Fool, and was, in rapid succession: Fired from Liberty University; Denied fulltime employment at the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews; and fired from the European Mission International (America) – largely for the same reason. ‘Thus were my EYES RIPPED OPEN, beloved.’ Slowly at first, and then in leaps and great bounds over the next ten years, as I increasingly took on the historical, transcultural, Orthodox View of the Faith by voraciously swimming in the Biblical Reality every day since then, which for 10 Years I once calculated at about 2,000 hours of deep structure Bible Study that revolutionized my life – and my theology. Selah.

THE NEW YEAR: 2026. Without going into great detail, out of this torrid, years-long venture from the American Gospel and Canon to a much more authentic one back to a much  more ‘Biblical Christianity,’ I was inspired to found the CIRCUIT RIDE MISSION (March 2020).   Um, and because as a Christian Pariah, I was unemployable! Lots of delicious Backstory there, but it would in turn lead to the generation of what we came to call the Peloton Confessing Fellowship, in honor of Deitrich Bonhoffer and his faithful Confessing Church in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany of a century ago.

We started with a handful of faithful Never-Trumps, a dozen or so, and today number nearly 9,000 godly conscripts, for lack of a better term. And to Almighty God be the glory for all of it, every single bit.

With all of that as necessary backdrop to where we are today in this Epochal Year, inarguably, “The Year of the Beast,” we now march forward with fresh eyes indeed to Reexamine what both the American Church and State have become since the Rise of PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP. This unique man who I shall continue to unapologetically argue is the Biblical “Man of Sin,” the “Lawless One” (2 Thessalonians 2:3&8). That is to say:

The American Antichrist (Revelation 6:1-2).

Thus at this important juncture in some homage to the mythical Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the Starship Enterprise (I almost early on named this mission, Enterprise Ministries, but, thank God, did not), we move to a somewhat severe ‘Reconsideration of both AMERICA AND ISRAEL who today, I propose, are ‘Behaving as Fools!’ –and inexcusably brutal ones at that.

III. TEACHING

During my one time visit to Jerusalem in May 1996, I arrived at my hotel on the eve of Benjamin Netanyahu’s first rise to the office of Prime Minister. I recall sitting in a large hot tub to relax that evening, being surrounded by a number of elderly Jews, and the exchange went something like this.

“So, are you an American?” [the assumption also being that I was also Jewish]. “Yes,” I responded Several affirming but still skeptical headnods. “First time in Israel?” I replied, “My first time.” Long pause about here, then this: “So, who do you like in the election?” My instant reply: “Bibi!” Followed by raucous laughter and welcoming handshakes and backslaps all around.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU. “Born in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu was raised in West Jerusalem and the United States. He returned to Israel in 1967 to join the Israel Defense Forces and served in the Sayeret Matkal Special Forces. In 1972, he returned to the US, and after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Netanyahu worked for the Boston Consulting Group. He moved back to Israel in 1978 and founded the Yonatan Netanyahu Anti-Terror Institute. Between 1984 and 1988, Netanyahu was Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations. Netanyahu rose to prominence after his election as chair of Likud in 1993, becoming Leader of the Opposition.

In the 1996 General Election, Netanyahu became the first Israeli Prime Minister elected directly by popular vote. Netanyahu was defeated in the 1999 Election and entered the private sector. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Finance, initiating economic reforms, before resigning over the Gaza Disengagement Plan. [In 2005, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip by dismantling all 21 Israeli settlements housing 8,475 Jewish settlers there. This effectively gave self-governance over to Hamas, with Isreal strictly controlling the borders of Gaza for security purposes].” – EDITORS, Wikipedia, Dec. 31, 2025; edited

BRUTAL PRAGMATISM. “For years, the various governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu took an approach that divided power between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — bringing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to his knees while making moves that propped up the Hamas terror group.

The idea was to prevent Abbas — or anyone else in the Palestinian Authority’s West Bank government — from advancing toward the establishment of a Palestinian State. Thus, amid this bid to impair Abbas, Hamas was upgraded from a mere terror group to an organization with which Israel held indirect negotiations via Egypt, and one that was allowed to receive infusions of cash from abroad.” – TAL SCHNEIDER, “For Years, Netanyahu Propped Up Hamas,” Times of Israel, Oct. 8, 2023; edited

THE LAST STRAW. “‘[Under Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government], a growing number of experts, including those commissioned by a U.N. body, have said Israel’s offensive in the GAZA STRIP amounts to Genocide, deepening Israel’s isolation and risking untold damage to the country’s standing even among allies.’ The accusation is vehemently denied by Israel, which was established in part as a Refuge for Jews after the Holocaust. Others have rejected it or said only a court can make that determination.

Even so, global outrage over Israel’s wartime conduct has mounted in recent months, as images of starving children emerged, adding to the humanitarian catastrophe of a 23-month war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and laid waste to much of Gaza. A current offensive in the territory’s largest city further raised concern, with some of Israel’s European allies condemning it. But the genocide accusation goes further, raising the question of whether a state forged in the aftermath of the crime is now committing it …

Israeli leaders brand the argument as veiled antisemitism, saying the country abides by international law and urges Gaza’s civilians to evacuate ahead of major military operations. They say Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war was itself a genocidal act. In that attack, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. Forty-eight hostages remain in Gaza, around 20 of whom Israel believes are alive.

Israel’s ensuing operation has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and led to famine in parts. Israeli leaders have also expressed support for the mass relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, a move Palestinians and others say would amount to forcible expulsion. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 65,000 Palestinians have been killed. The ministry — part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals — doesn’t say how many were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half.” – MIKE CORDER & MOLLY QUELL, “More Experts Say Israel’s Offensive in Gaza Constitutes Genocide,” PBS, Sep. 23, 2025, edited

GENOCIDE. “Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or more simply, The Genocide Convention (Feb. 12, 1951) defines Genocide as: ‘Any of the following acts committed with intent to Destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:’ (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” – EDITORS, Wikipedia, Jan. 2, 2026; edited

IV. THE ABRAHAM ACCORDS

The Abraham Accords are modern normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab nations (UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco), while “The Covenant with Many” refers to a specific biblical prophecy in Daniel 9:27, suggesting a future seven-year peace treaty confirmed by a powerful figure (often interpreted as the Antichrist) that will eventually be broken, leading to significant end-times events. Some religious interpretations link the contemporary Accords to this prophecy, seeing them as a precursor or partial fulfillment of the predicted “covenant with many,” though others view them as distinct from the prophetic event. 

THE ACCORDS

• What it is: A series of normalization agreements signed in 2020 between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco.

• Purpose: To foster peace, economic cooperation, and cultural exchange, breaking decades of Arab-Israeli hostility.

• Significance: A major diplomatic shift in the Middle East, creating new regional alliances and economic opportunities, particularly in technology and innovation. 

“THE COVENANT”

• Source: Daniel 9:27 (often called the “Seventy Weeks” prophecy).

• Description: A future leader (the Antichrist) will make a firm, seven-year agreement (covenant) with many nations, which he will later violate, ending sacrifices and bringing desolation.

• Interpretation: This prophecy is central to Christian and Jewish eschatology (end-times beliefs), often seen as heralding the Tribulation period.

POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS

• Link: The Abraham Accords’ broad scope and involvement of multiple nations lead some to see them as a potential fulfillment or foreshadowing of the Daniel prophecy, suggesting they might be the beginning of the “covenant with many” mentioned in scripture.

• Debate: The key difference in interpretation lies in whether the Accords are the prophetic covenant or simply a modern geopolitical event that aligns with prophetic timelines, with many theologians distinguishing the Accords from the specific, religiously-focused covenant described in Daniel. 

THE ALLIANCE. “‘On 29 December, 2025, in front of reporters and the general public, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump praised each other fulsomely and made a display of their mutual affection and of Israeli–American solidarity.’ Trump publicly endorsed Israel’s firm stance against Iran, giving the Israelis a green light to attack Iranian sites if the Islamic Republic renewed its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. But off-stage, the deep divisions between the American and Israeli positions over the future of Gaza and other areas in the Middle East have only been papered over and remain in great measure unresolved.

Initially, Netanyahu requested that the implementation of Phase 2 of Trump’s Twenty-Point Gaza Peace Plan be delayed until Hamas release the remains of Ran Gvili, the lone Israeli hostage from the 7 October 2023 Hamas assault on southern Israel whose corpse remains in Palestinian hands. When they accepted the Peace Plan last October, Hamas agreed to hand over all the remaining hostages, both alive and dead, in exchange for several thousand Palestinian prisoners and for Israel’s agreement to a ceasefire. The Ceasefire went into effect but Hamas has failed to hand over Gvili’s remains, arguing that it cannot locate them. Whether or not Trump believes this statement is untrue, he ruled that this should not delay the start of Phase 2—despite Netanyahu’s stratagem of bringing Gvili’s parents with him to Mar a Lago to meet the president in the hope that they might influence his decision …

Lastly, it appears that at their meetings, Trump urged Netanyahu to clamp down on Israeli settlers’ attacks on Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Settler violence has risen several notches since 7 October 2023, claiming dozens of Palestinian lives and forcing many small Palestinian communities to flee their homes, especially along the southern and eastern flanks of the West Bank. Netanyahu appears to have agreed to a clamp-down, but most Israeli observers doubt that he will actually order the IDF or the police to do anything, as this might imperil his coalition government, which is propped up by extreme right-wing ministers, including the police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who support the settlers’ assaults on the Palestinian farmers and shepherds as furthering their strategic goal of ultimately annexing the West Bank. The United States has traditionally opposed such an annexation.

All in all, the Trump–Netanyahu partnership appears to be holding—though the Middle East is so volatile that significant challenges to their unity could arise from any of the region’s hotspots at any moment.” – DR. BENNY MORRIS, Israeli professor and ‘New Historian,’ “A Fragile Alliance,” Quillette, Jan. 3, 2026; edited

SLEEPINIG WITH THE ENEMY. On the basis of this solid block of evidence, in addition to my own ten years of deep structure research on the subject of President Donald Trump filling the role of the Biblical Antichrist, I therefore propose, for the very first time in my own political and theological calculations, the following THESIS.

• PREMISE 1. Donald Trump is the American Antichrist by the full reckoning of at least 46 Biblical Markers chronicled in the research of Brother Paul and Dr. Cliff Kelly over the last five years.

• PREMISE 2. The Alliance between the American President Trump and the Israeli Prime Minister Bemjamin Netanyahu constitutes the foundation of the Abraham Accords that very probably emerge as the fulfillment of Daniel 9:27’s “Covenant of Many.”

• PREMISE 3. America’s Christian support for Netanyahu’s Israel under Netanyahu’s corrupted Israel constitutes a Betrayal of Christ in support of the Antichrist’s insidious “False Treaty with Many.” This shall result in a severe Judgment on Houses of Fools, America and Israel, in the comparatively near future.

“And in all the land, says the Lord, two-thirds shall be cut off and perish, but one-third shall be left alive. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined and will test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will hear and answer them. I will say, ‘It is My people;’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God’ …

[But] Alas, alas for the great city that was robed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, bedecked and glittering with gold, with precious stones, and with pearls! Because in one [single] hour all the vast wealth has been destroyed (wiped out). And all ship captains and pilots, navigators and all who live by seafaring, the crews and all who ply their trade on the sea, stood a long way off, And exclaimed as they watched the smoke of her burning, ‘What city could be compared to the great city!’” – ZECHARIAH 13:8-9; REVELATION 18:15-18, AMPC

CODA. These then, beloved, are among the many ‘Last Great Things’awaiting the two most consequential nations on the earth in the final hours of human history. Therefore, beloved, we must remain EVER FAITHFUL!

And, utterly devoted to the Messiah’s Final Instructions to us all:

“But the one who ENDURES and bears up [under suffering] to the end will be saved.” – MATTHEW 24:13, AMP

Selah. Selah.