Countdown 2 Eternity

Guest (Male): Welcome once again to Countdown to Eternity with Pastors James Kaddis and Tom Hughes, a weekly radio ministry from Calvary Chapel Signal Hill. Together, Tom and James examine current events and connect what's going on in our world to Bible prophecy. Let's lean in and listen.

James Kaddis: Well hello my dear brothers and sisters, I want to welcome you to another episode of Countdown to Eternity. You can tell probably by the look of what you are seeing, if that makes any kind of sense, why I am so fired up, even though I'm tired. Because I got the great Tom Hughes with me. It's been a minute, bro. I missed you.

Tom Hughes: This is great. Everywhere I go, because I'll send you pictures, what people say they love the most is when I get James wound up, more than anything. Today's easy. I mean, look at what's there not to talk about. Look at this stuff that is happening. It is so hard to look at everything that's taking place right now and try to say everything we are watching just happens to be coincidental. It's just kind of a coincidence that everything is lining up with the way the Bible said things were going to go.

I am telling you, the stuff going on with the Strait of Hormuz and Trump and Trumpalooza, whatever, and Iran and Israel. We are watching the geopolitical alignment that is taking place that must take place for the last days' events to happen. Behind the curtain, because that is a big curtain right now, Iran. That's a big curtain. There is so much insanity that is taking place.

James, you and I in 2020 were talking about things and we were trying to tell people what is really going on with that thing that people used to get. We were telling people, "This is what's really going on." That was six years ago. Guess what? Behind the curtain of Trump and Iran, there's stuff that's taking place, but we have to talk about what is going on with the Strait of Hormuz because it's big time and there's a lot of different stuff happening.

James Kaddis: In the midst of it, we've got the demons, like literally coming out in all of these insane podcasters that are self-proclaimed subject matter experts that want to— the one that surprised me more than anybody recently is Russell Brand now beginning to hang out with Tucker.

Tom Hughes: That is no stinking way.

James Kaddis: He's selling his book exclusively through Tucker. You know what that's going to mean? That's going to mean within a month he's going to start hating Israel.

Tom Hughes: Oh yeah, that's bad. That's very bad because you just met with Russell Brand not too long ago and had a great conversation with him.

James Kaddis: Yes, a phenomenal conversation. I'm very sad to hear. But guilty by association, sometimes maybe not. Russell's a good guy. Hopefully he can be a light.

Tom Hughes: Well, we'll see what happens there, but I'll tell you when you look at Tucker Carlson, I'm sure most of your viewers caught on to this by now. He's questioning whether or not the book of Esther should even be in the Bible because it's Persian genocide. Are you insane? That was his tension.

That one doesn't even fire me up anymore because it's just so incredibly hilarious. It's completely obscene. I think most people can see through the hatred that that man has in his heart towards the Jewish people. It's very obvious.

James Kaddis: I for one was kind of entertained by the last post that the President put out where he basically talked about all those guys. I thought that was pretty funny. Definitely a long time coming. He said they're all low IQ.

But I keep wondering this. Why in the world won't those guys get me on their show? Let's have a real conversation. Let's do some conversating.

Tom Hughes: Here's a fact, Jack. Pretty much they all promote themselves as being a theologian. They don't know— they might know one or two Bible verses. They know nothing about the Bible itself. They don't understand doctrine. They don't understand theology. They are clueless on the nation of Israel. All they know is, "Here's my talking point. Israel is bad. Jews are bad. Therefore, everything points back to how bad the Jews are." That's all they can do.

And unfortunately, look how many people are believing them. Listen, that theology of the whole post-millennial theology, not to mention preterism. You look at these different types of doctrine that are there. They all will point to Israel is the problem. In order for us to have peace on this planet, we're going to have to eliminate Israel. So that type of doctrine has to go that way.

And what do they do? They blast us because we are pre-millennial dispensational because they can't comprehend that God actually has a plan for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. They can't comprehend it.

James Kaddis: Those guys are theologians about as much as I am a fitness expert. Matter of fact, I'm probably more of a fitness expert than they are a theologian.

Tom Hughes: You're a pizza expert, I'll tell you that much.

James Kaddis: Look at these guns.

Tom Hughes: You're a pizza expert. Remember when you used to get that pizza when you come to the church?

James Kaddis: Bro, it's the best thing about going to the ghetto, San Diego. It's the best part, Stadium Pizza. I'm telling you that right now. Last time I went over to Doc Craig, I just went over there.

Tom Hughes: Next time you come to see Doc Craig, I need you to come by here and we're going to film. You got to clear your schedule.

James Kaddis: It's a plan.

Tom Hughes: Okay, so we got to talk about this, bro. The Strait of Hormuz. Negotiations have broken down. We expected that to happen. We knew it would take place. I actually give credit to the President and his team for holding it out as long as they did. I think that needed to happen.

The current state of affairs right now is we've got three major carrier strike groups that are in the Middle East. The USS Abraham Lincoln, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and then the USS George H.W. You got to say H.W., right? H.W. Bush. H.W. was old man, right?

James Kaddis: Yes. But what is interesting about all of this is that the War Department just announced that they are fully restocked. So they used this little talk time ceasefire to go back and restock all of the carrier groups including the warplanes. So U.S. Central Command has begun officially preparing aircraft for active operations.

And by the way, they made it clear. They said including nighttime missions. So we know that we've got a blockade now on the Strait of Hormuz. The blockade is interesting, by the way. Let me just talk about the conditions of the blockade for just a second because it's relevant to our discussion.

There's three major portions of this blockade that are really, really important. Number one, they are interdicting vessels that are entering or exiting the strait. Now that's important to understand because part of that interdiction is the second thing that they're doing and that is they are targeting ships that comply with Iranian toll demands. Iran has the nerve to want to charge people entry in or exit for toll and France and other people are paying it.

So the President is putting a stop on it, which by the way I think is a play out of Jefferson's book with what happened on the Barbary Coast. God bless our former president in 1801 who did that. I think that was a wise move. And the other thing is that they obviously want to remove all of these naval mines that they say are in there. But it's a pretty amazing situation considering we're looking at a pretty strategic flashpoint here.

Tom Hughes: I'm going to get back to that in a second, but I got to ask you a favor. On our next program when we come back in a week or two, let's talk about Thomas Jefferson and the Barbary Coast because it'll be a lot of fun and it'll be a great education on Islam for all of your viewers. It's going to be great.

As we look at this whole thing going on, here's the problem you still have in the strait. What is it, 16 million barrels a day now are not coming out of the Strait of Hormuz, correct?

James Kaddis: Easily. The estimate that's costing Iran— Iran is paying $13 billion a month as long as the Strait of Hormuz is closed.

Tom Hughes: Okay, so we have that dynamic, but that also does affect the world, the nations that depend on that. So that puts pressure on the Trump administration too, however much of that is France and the UK, correct? So they've got their own Muslim problem, their hate on the US, their hate on Israel problem. But you see people in the UK that are rising up like Tommy Robinson and others, Gary McKibben, these other guys that are saying, "Wait a minute, they're not going along with it." You're watching that take place in Italy. Italy's a different dynamic. They have some good people in Italy that are running things, but they still have problems.

But I want to come back to that in a minute, what's going to happen as the oil continues to get more and more costly in those nations. But let me ask you this because you've dealt with drones a lot. In the Strait of Hormuz we have the issue of the mines. Let's go— I want to ask you about the mines and then I want to go to the drones and the missiles. Is the US going to send ships into the strait, past the Strait of Hormuz? Are they going to try and get— because they become sitting ducks as they're turning through that area. So do you think they're going to go further in the Strait of Hormuz or they're going to station just outside of it?

James Kaddis: I think they're going to go as far as the islands. I think they have to do that. They have to be able to go into the islands that are on the inside of the Persian Gulf in order to be able to secure it. And by the way, it's interesting because every single person who says we're in bigger and bigger trouble because of the cost of oil going up, the single greatest beneficiaries of the cost of oil going up isn't OPEC, it's not BRICS, it's not any of them, it's the United States of America.

Tom Hughes: I agree. People keep asking me about energy shutdowns. If there's an energy shutdown in your community, it's probably because you have a lousy local government that's causing problems. Because the US is not energy dependent, the US is energy independent. So the US is in good shape.

But after we get through, I've got to get through the mines and the other things first. So how much of a problem are the mines? And then I want to come back to the other question because I think the nations that are dependent upon oil will attempt to put more and more pressure on the Trump administration too.

James Kaddis: Yeah, but that's why I wanted to mention that because I don't think that they're going to have the guts to put pressure on the Trump administration because right now they know their only play is to buy oil from America. And there are hundreds if not thousands of heavy crude tankers that are in a mad dash across the Atlantic and in some cases across the Pacific to buy oil from the United States of America.

As a matter of fact, we also have some of these big massive tankers that are docking in Venezuela who are paying the United States of America to load that oil onto their boats to go back to Europe, which is in the single greatest crisis that it's ever been energy-wise and they're all saying, "Well, we should have listened to President Trump." They won't say it out loud, but it gets very complicated.

Because one of the other complications that we have in Europe right now may be the single greatest complication to what we know will happen with the ten kings, and that is Viktor Orbán. And we've got to talk about that because he lost his election. And he lost his election by a massive amount, which is shocking. It is the single greatest shocking thing that's happened in Europe right now, especially because Hungary used to be the gatekeepers.

So now you've got a person who's coming in that is bad. It's a bad situation. So these ten kings that we know are around the corner, this discussion that we read about in Daniel chapter 7, I'm telling you right now, it's becoming far more obvious because of it.

Now, going back to the Strait of Hormuz with respect to the mines. That is a complicated operation, but it's complicated in the sense that it requires a certain level of coordination to maintain the interdictions that are happening right now. But it isn't difficult or complicated in the sense that it's difficult. It's something that I think there is a massive amount of technology that's being utilized to be able to neutralize these mines.

But the United States of America has a very sincerely held belief that so few mines have actually been laid because of the way that they dealt with the naval army. Now this is another interesting thing that a lot of people don't know about, but the War Department went out of their way to make sure that they destroyed those boats that dropped those mines right over the minefield that they were trying to create.

And in doing so, the explosions that were being created actually helped to neutralize many of the mines because of the concussion effect that it had with the explosions that were purposely created underwater. So there's a lot of very interesting stuff that's going on there. The complication that may erupt as a result of it may have nothing to do with the ability of the United States of America to clear the mines, rather it may have a lot to do with the coordination of what that would end up looking like while this mechanism of interdiction is taking place.

And this is very, very important because the escalation policy from the United States is very, very clear. They want to expand naval enforcement operations. They're already doing it. I think perhaps one of the most consequential aspects of what they're trying to do is involve what they call allied nations. So you're talking about NATO, which NATO now is coming back and begging to be able to do that.

But the problem with that is you have to interface that with what the President is trying to juggle when it comes to China and the threat of tariffs that he just issued as a result of this rumor that China is actually supplying Iran. So there's a lot here, but it all relates to America's escalation policy in the strait. And so I think the President is smart in doing this. They have talked about their readiness and Israel's readiness. The IDF chief just made an announcement that they're ready. They've been ready, give me a break. So we're watching some things happen that are going to be very, very consequential in the next few days.

Tom Hughes: So let's go to the mines for a minute. If Iran had mined it the way that many people are saying, how could the ships have gone through the Strait of Hormuz anyway? They wouldn't be able to navigate through there. That's one thing.

The other, if there is any significant number of mines, well you already basically said it, you could drop bombs that would go off underwater and it would, through the concussions alone, it would take out that problem of the mines. So when I look at it from that perspective, I can't think the mines are as big of a problem as a lot of people are saying they are.

James Kaddis: Yeah, but there are some precautionary mechanisms that have to be considered and that's the fact if one mine goes off, you have a problem. And that's the issue, it's a confidence issue. So this is why naval assets are being deployed the way that they are in order to find these things.

We also have what we would call expendable underwater drones that are being utilized right now on some exploratory missions that have the ability through sonar to be able to tell whether or not mines are present in the immediate area. And they do very, very well, admittedly, but it's not like a foolproof thing. You may hit one of these mines every now and then.

Their capability of being able to affect some of our assets is very minimum in that we have ships that are built to withstand those when they go off. So there's a couple of these frigate boats that can do that right now. There's a few of them that can actually do it quite well. But the reality of it is we have to sweep them. They got to be gone. And you can't even have one. If you have one, you have a big problem.

Tom Hughes: So what about the drone issue? Because Iran still has drones. So the drones are still a problem and Iran can still fire missiles that would effectively put the ships in a very precarious position.

James Kaddis: Certainly, that's the problem. See, the problem with the Persian Gulf right now is the coast. That is by far the biggest problem. But what we're not talking about because it's technology that isn't quite known, even though it's slipped a few times in a few press conferences, is that the War Department is choosing effectively and quite significantly to deploy laser technology.

And that's why these drones now are beginning to blow up in the sky without the appearance of them having been intercepted. You'll see them flying around and all of a sudden you'll just see it blow up. Well that's not because we're jamming anything, it's not because we've planted explosives, it's because lasers are touching those things and just completely destroying them. So we're getting better at it, but we're not foolproof.

Tom Hughes: Okay, so as we look at this dynamic, you also throw in IMEC, the India-Middle East-Europe trade deal, which to me is a big deal. When you look at that because it effectively closes out China and Russia and it deals a significant blow to BRICS. So if you look at that from a political movement, we are watching a clash of civilizations. China, Russia, Iran, and whoever else aligns up with them versus the West.

And the Strait of Hormuz is probably the most significant part of moving forward with the IMEC deal for the success because the IMEC deal also includes the Gulf states, the Gulf Arab states. So that is a huge deal. And so as you look at that, to me, James, it looks more like this is what's really going on. Who's going to be at the top of this? Do we want Russia and China to be at the top with Iran? Well, of course not. But not much is being said about this to the public.

James Kaddis: It's because it's a Catch-22. Not much is being said to the public because these are the types of things that you can't really have a public discussion over. And that's what makes this very, very difficult. And I think there's a lot of people who are very much self-proclaimed in their assertions with respect to what is happening, but they're making the situation worse because they're not giving an accurate assessment as to what's happening and we're seeing it taking place right now.

Tom Hughes: All right, so let's shift over here for a few minutes. We have a few more minutes left. You and I have talked about the rise of the ten kings. We look at Daniel chapter 7. Daniel chapter 7 is very clear and people are— well, let's dispel this first of all. There's all kinds of people out there right now that are saying this is about the Ezekiel 38 war. It is not. James, how many years have we been saying no, we're not at the Ezekiel 38 war yet? We're not there yet. Totally not there.

And with Turkey saying, "Hey, we want to get into the battle," they're saying, "Look, Turkey's—" no, this has nothing— we are nowhere near Ezekiel 38 yet. So listen folks, we're not there.

With that, also you have the other dynamic where now all over the internet people are saying, "The seals have been opened of Revelation chapter 6." Hey, you wrote your book on that! You wrote your book on that and I'm thinking the absurdity of these things.

Okay, so on the one hand you have the Candace Owens and the Tucker Carlsons claim to be theologians which they're not. On the flip side, in the prophecy world it's been infiltrated with these people who claim to know Bible prophecy because of a thought that they have that's driven by a news article that's way out of context. And some of these people are thought to be prophecy experts that claim Ezekiel 38 is about ready to happen, which it's not. And then the seals of the book of Revelation. It's just total absurdity. But this stuff is everywhere.

James Kaddis: I don't know with the seals especially, I don't know how in the world anybody can come to that conclusion. The very first seal is the rider of the white horse, that's the appearance of the Antichrist. You've got 2nd Thessalonians that tells us the Antichrist can't even make an appearance until the church is actually raptured. So I don't even understand how anybody can come to that conclusion unless somehow they're pre-wrath. You've got to have some weird view on that and I don't get it.

Tom Hughes: Right, but even if you're pre-wrath, how on earth do you arrive at the seals have been broken? I 100% agree with you regardless of what your position is on the timing of the rapture. I just advise people, let's stop listening to these.

It's like that guy that's been saying, he's all over and now people believe him, "Euphrates River is drying up. Therefore, book of Revelation judgment has been fulfilled." Chinese army's coming, 200 million men. Fortunately, your book straightens out all that stuff, right?

James Kaddis: Oh yeah, are you kidding me? Do you actually know how many people have actually emailed me or dropped comments alone on the 200 million man army issue? Like where they just said, "You cleared up so much for me. I've never looked at it that way." All you've got to do is just open up the pages of the Bible and go, "Hey, these don't match." It's the plain reading of the text. It's a very plain reading of the text that makes total sense if you actually read it instead of listening to someone that's just doing a video.

Tom Hughes: All right, we've cleared up that. By the way, this Sunday night at your church, prophecy conference, bro. It's James Kaddis, David Tall, and you. It's going to be a blowout. And by the way, I don't think I've ever done a prophecy conference with you at my church. I've never even spoken there.

James Kaddis: Oh baloney! I've invited you, you've just been busy.

Tom Hughes: I'm going to say this on the record. I'm going to make myself very, very clear. There are people in ministry that any man who serves at one point or another can look at and say they owe a debt of gratitude to. There's people like that. The number one in my life would be my dad and my grandfather. I think Pastor Jeff would be one of those guys, Pastor Jeff Johnson.

I'm going to tell you this right now, Tom Hughes is definitely at the top of that list. Because what you guys might not be able to see is I very likely would not have a presence online like I have if it wasn't for Tom Hughes. That's a long story, we don't have a chance to be able to get into it. But you do all have to recognize how big of a deal it is to me to have Tom coming to our church and actually doing a conference. That's to me a big deal.

I'm looking forward to this. I think it's going to be awesome because I always would go to your church to do stuff like that.

Tom Hughes: I've quoted you from a lot of conferences, as you know. And there's certain things that you've done in the times you've been at our church, I've used your quotes many times. And it's always great.

But this Sunday night everybody at Calvary Chapel Signal Hill, right by Long Beach, California. Big day for me by the way. I'm very excited. It will be completely full so if you want to get there and get a seat, you better get there early. We're actually debating whether or not to set up an overflow in the parking lot. We may end up doing that. It's going to be a very big night. And it will be on social media too, we'll be livestreaming it.

James Kaddis: We'll be livestreaming on your channel. We'll be livestreaming on the church's channel. We may even be livestreaming it on my channel. We can just do a collaboration and just do them on everybody.

Tom Hughes: Friends, it's going to be everywhere. All right, ten kings. I've got to go here because this is fun. I was just with Tommy Ice recently. It was great. He believes like you do. I've taken the position the globe will be divided into ten regions, which could be true. But James, I might be coming over to your side.

So you talked about Hungary, right? We are looking at these dynamics in Europe. Dude, it's fascinating. If you start thinking of the ten kings rising out of Europe and you start looking at it, friends, there is going to be a global system. We know that. There's going to be players who are going to resist it, but there's going to be a global system. Hence what we see with the West versus Russia and China and Iran, the IMEC trade deal, that's all part of building to a system that's going to win in the end. And there's going to be ten kings.

And then the little horn, the Antichrist is going to rise up out of that. We are watching the beast system being built. If we go back six years, James, we were looking at all the obvious things we still can't talk about. But the building of databases and everything, the world, even the stuff that you start looking at transgender stuff which makes no sense. You look at policies and you go, "This makes no sense." Climate laws. It's all been conditioning to get to where we are rapidly going.

And now we can see it's going like a freight train. So what's happening between the US and Iran is about this global system and the positions are being moved around. Out of this is going to come eventually a plan for a fake peace for Israel, a system that's going to be a rise to the ten kings. So this whole thing with Hungary and Orbán, that's a big deal.

James Kaddis: Oh yeah. And by the way, I'm doing a video on this tomorrow, it gets released. I've already recorded it. But I want everybody to pay attention to this because the Viktor Orbán issue is massive. Just to understand this, he's been the Prime Minister of Hungary for over ten years. He just lost power after more than a decade and that's a big deal. Why? Because it wasn't even close. The numbers that are coming in right now are telling us 52% to 38%. And here's the part that's devastating. It was a record turnout, over 75%.

That signals a major national shift in direction. And my guess is that was heavily influenced by the EU because the EU wanted to do everything in their power to get rid of Orbán because he's been a gatekeeper. This was not just a political loss, by the way. This was a very decisive change in the direction of a nation and it's going to be something that a lot of people are going to feel.

He was the gatekeeper. He was, in many ways, one of the strongest nationalist leaders in Europe. And it's the good kind of nationalism, not the bad kind of nationalism. He consistently, on a regular basis, resisted openly and was proud of it the EU centralization movement that's existed. He constantly was ignoring the global pressure that he was feeling to do the things that he was doing, especially in relationship to Poland and some of the relationships that he was establishing with nations in the Baltics.

It was a super, super big deal and he maintained independent positions that he got beat up for on a regular basis. He was super pro-Israel, very close to Bibi Netanyahu, and of course very pro-America, close with Donald Trump. And he wasn't just a leader, he was literally a breaking system. No joke, he was the guy who pushed the brakes on a system that's trying to move faster and we're talking about these ten kings.

So that's what's happening. So what this actually means is that this resistance that he's been leading is now weaker. This alignment that they're looking to do is going to become much easier because Hungary was a part of this broader group that was pushing back on EU consolidation. So that's all gone now. And so when you remove leaders who resist all this central authority, you're going to make it way easier.

And by the way, I was shocked by this, but the Prime Minister of Italy actually congratulated the new knucklehead that's taken over.

Tom Hughes: I didn't know that. Which just shocked me. I understand maybe you're trying to have some semblance of let's work together, whatever, but no. She's been exceptionally strong against that stuff, so Italy's done a better job of resisting than much of the rest of Europe has. Poland's done well. Germany is starting to, but you wonder as you look at this. You look at the guy in Argentina, he is bold. Milei.

Okay, so listen, we got a lot more to talk about. On the next time we meet, James, let's talk about Daniel chapter 2, the statue, the feet that are partly strong and partly weak and that global system that's coming. We've got to get to Thomas Jefferson and the whole Barbary Coast Barbary pirate issue. That is huge and if we could understand some of those dynamics and then we look at Europe and the rise of the ten kings. We could call the next program "The Rise of Ten Kings" or something.

James Kaddis: Okay let's do it. I'm actually going to just write it down so that I don't forget it. But I want to encourage every single person that's listening to us to pay attention to Europe because what's happening right now is a big deal.

Pay attention to what's going on over there because what's happening is literally moving the world closer to the ten kings that we're talking about. Orbán represented resistance that was in place that was keeping it from happening. His removal now represents almost an alignment, like they're joining together now and that is going to lead to consolidation. They're going to consolidate and that is going to set the stage. And I'm not saying it's happening right now, I'm not date setting, but what I am saying is that we should be looking at the evidence of what's happening and we're getting there.

Tom Hughes: Absolutely. We're going to have an incredible program next time because I've got to go.

James Kaddis: I hope that you guys, we sincerely hope that you guys have enjoyed listening to this as much as we've enjoyed making it. On behalf of the great Tom Hughes, we love you guys. God bless you. Keep seeking Him, keep fighting the good fight. Christ is coming at any moment. We love you.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Countdown to Eternity with Pastors James Kaddis and Tom Hughes online at countdown2eternity.com. You can listen to this episode again right there at countdown2eternity.com. I should also mention Tom Hughes is online at hopeforourtimes.com. Take a look at his available resources and some of the top stories at hopeforourtimes.com.

Pastor James has a new book called *The Last Book*. Revelation isn't a book of fear, it's a book of hope. *The Last Book* is a guide to Revelation, giving you what you need to know about Revelation, the rapture, and the end times. Learn what the Bible says about the days we're in and what God's promise is for believers in *The Last Book* by James Kaddis. Available right now at countdown2eternity.com or amazon.com.

If you'd like to support what we're doing at Countdown to Eternity, there's a place to give at countdown2eternity.com, then click the give tab. And then join us next time when the countdown to eternity continues. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.