This is a great thread; it forced me to reread some stuff in the same context, which I'd not done together.
My thoughts on the "illuminati" and occultic prophesy ... it does not matter if it is legitimately from God, as long as those who follow it believe it is. So it is less about prophecy - predicting the future - and more about casting a vision of what could be to inspire your followers to make it happen. Mohammed did that, as have others. The efforts of the FS, CFR, etc ad nausea are simply attempts to achieve a vision. I would argue that the vision they are following is not fixed as fact.
Some would say Jesus merely cast a vision of how things could be, the obvious difference being that all those who have sought to work to bring the prophecy into fruition - create a Kingdom of Heaven on earth - have failed, often miserably, mostly violently. In that case it appears that God's will be done on earth despite man's efforts, no matter how altruistic.
I concur in theory with TM7 that there are only two sides involved, no matter how complex the institutions and organizations may appear. However scripture tells us that both sides, the chessboard and the rules of the game are all still subject to only one entity ... and He wins.
For the side comment about "end times" and the Christian, Jesus was preparing us for it, told us to be prepared for it, and the Pauline epistles are mostly encouragement to the persecuted church in the 1st century, many of whom thought they were in the end times. I do not think its unwise to simplify and prepare for that which you know is coming, as these times too may in fact simply be one more season that we will cycle through before the end. Certainly the first 3 centuries of Christendom, the persecution under the reformation, the church in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, and countless churches in our present time, all testify to the reality that just because its bad doesn't mean the end is coming soon.