[dana.acker]

I think our battle will be “protracted and weary with many casualties” no matter what. We in the US have been given many passes, and I fear those days are drawing to a end. We know that evil will “seem” to prevail before the Day of the LORD, long foretold by the Prophets and Apostles. Paul wrote, “ …Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your STEADFASTNESS and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are ENDURING. This is the evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He comes ON THAT DAY to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at among all who believed, because our testimony to you was believed.” 1st Thessalonians 1: 4–10. Another factor in which we find comfort is that Daniel and Ezekiel were both written while the Hebrews were in exile, in the captivity of the evil Babylonians. No matter what befalls our nation, or us, God will make a way for His faithful people. Remember Daniel 3, when threatened with being burned alive for not bowing to Nebuchadnezzar’s statue, the three Hebrew children answered, “…our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” Daniel 3: 17–18. That must be our stance. Remember too, when Nebuchadnezzar looked in the furnace in which he threw the three, he saw four in the furnace. v. 25.