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Prophecy Ponderings
Colorado Springs is a beautiful and fascinating place to be sure. My brother-close friend, Mike Hile, and I had a “room with a view,” as is said in hotel rhetoric.
The fourteen-thousand-foot peaks filled the skyline just outside our seventh-floor window in the Marriot. Of course, being blind for many years due to a hereditary retinal disease, I couldn’t see the scenery, but the descriptive I heard from Mike and others filled my memory and imagination with more than enough visual reality to convince me of the vista that lay just outside.
We were there for me to speak at the second annual Prophecy in the News Pike’s Peak prophecy conference. The rarified air–and I mean literally as well as spiritually– was troubling on the one hand and fortifying on the other. Literally, I could just not adjust the second year to the thinner oxygen level as the first when I spoke there. It seemed almost as if the air had changed–that my body just couldn’t quite catch up to the oxygen intake level required to be comfortable.
However, the human ambience and fellowship were fortifying and refreshing. The speakers were up to the task of filling our need for rejuvenation of mind and spirit. The renewing of friendships and acquaintances more than met our expectations.
The conference, held at seven thousand-plus feet above sea level, seems, in retrospect–for me, personally–a sort of metaphor for this strange moment of history. With all of the powerful dynamics going on in the world at this moment, life for the prophecy student is both troubling and at the same time exciting. The times that are pressing in on us sometimes make it hard to breathe in the sense of the anxiety produced when thinking on what’s coming down the proverbial pike that might adversely affect our lives.
Knowing that just outside our cocoon of earthly angst, however, lies the most beautiful scenery imaginable– and knowing that we will soon be inheritors of the glory that vista represents–is exciting and uplifting to our born-again spirits.
Bible prophecy from the pre-trib viewpoint makes understandable much of the troubling aspects of things transpiring all around us. This viewpoint makes these troubling times negotiable–i.e., able to get through until Christ shouts “Come up hither!”
The speakers at that second prophecy summit described in vivid terms the vista that Bible prophecy presents. They spoke superbly of the things that are leading to the brilliant time that awaits the Christian. Like in the matter of my own inability to see the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains surrounding our hotel, our earthly, physical limitations prevent our seeing the magnificent reality that is our future. The Power Point words and pictures the speakers presented lit our imaginations the way the descriptive of those marvelous mountains I was given made my memory of once seeing those scenes come alive.
The stormy times we are currently going through serve only to make us know just how near might be Christ’s shout that will set us upon our journey with Him as recorded in John 14:1-3.
The conference presenters spoke to issues and events of prophetic matters both familiar and to those rarely explored. Some who study Bible prophecy are off-put, even disgruntled, when, for example, such matters as those of the Genesis chapter 6 story are fully explored. But, Jesus, Himself, spoke to the fact that times will be like they were in the days of Noah when He returns to planet earth. Despite the fact the seminaries teach almost exclusively that the “sons of God” of Genesis 6 are not fallen angels, even a cursory study of Hebrew terms show in crystal-clear fashion that the “sons of God” are exactly that rebellious horde. The giants of those antediluvian times, like it or not, believe it or not, were a part of Noah’s day. The very genetics of mankind were totally corrupted, biblical description affirms.
That particular Pike’s Peak Prophecy Summit addressed some of these lesser-explored things of earth’s past and what it all portends for earth’s future. At the same time, other prophetic indicators we see all around us were thoroughly explored. Chief among those signs of the end times examined was the nation Israel and its increasingly becoming the focal point of world hatred.
Anti-Semitism is on the rise, as shown by movement within Europe. Likewise, America is more and more exhibiting hatred for Jews.
One of my Power Point presentations at that Colorado Springs conference was on Israel and the satanic rage that is growing throughout the world today. This, I am convinced, is the number-one signal of just how far advanced this generation is in nearness to the Tribulation. All the Bible prophecy student who adheres to the pre-trib view has to do to know we are on the very cusp of entering that glorious realm just outside these bonds of this fallen planet is to observe treatment of God’s chosen nation hour by hour. We are almost there!
In God’s Face
One of the pleasures in life at my advancing age is to have what I have come to call conflab sessions. Yes, I know the legitimate word would be confab. Not conflab, but the sessions are so informal that I use the urban rather than the mainstream dictionary term.
These conflab sessions are especially enjoyable when between my sons and myself or between myself and my partner in the raptureready.com website, Todd Strandberg—the Toddster, as I sometimes call him. He is like one of my boys—thus the informality.
We often go over the most pressing news of the day. Most always we discuss things from the prophetic perspective.
When discussing the seeming endless string of absurd, anti-God things going on, the bottom line usually expressed by these younger gentlemen is that it’s a good thing they don’t have divine power and authority, else—well—there would be a quick resolution to the absurdity and evil.
Being considerably more mature and mellow, I usually say things like, “Yes. I, too, am thankful you don’t have such power and authority.”
They, of course, realizing my wisdom from this senior vantage point, ignore my usually offered remark. I’m sure they remain unresponsive to the opinion because they so profoundly respect my… ahemmm…even temperament and sound judgment.
We do get deeply into the issues of the day, and there are plenty of them to explore, to be sure. More often than not, we end up talking about how the Lord seems to be putting up with so much, with people, in effect, telling Him, “in your face.”
We discussed, for example, things like the actress who held up the award she had won, saying Jesus didn’t give it to her. She then made a salacious remark involving the Lord that, my boys thought, should have brought an instant lightning bolt to the top of her lovely head.
Before that, there was the crucifix submerged in urine, for which the art critics gave great accolade. There has been since then the former New York City mayor who said when he reaches the pearly gates of Heaven, he will walk right in and demand his reward, because he’s earned a face to face with God—if there is one. Before him, a famous billionaire said that he didn’t need anyone to die for him, when asked about Christianity.
In the 1960s, we had people kicking God out of classrooms and throwing Bibles out the doors of those classrooms. We had a generation of if it feels good, do it trying to strip society and culture of all morality. In the 1970s we began to legalize the murder of babies by the millions while still in their mothers’ wombs.
We later had—and continue to have—men-with-men and women-with-women sexual-relations advocates. Much of the anti-biblical, anti-God activity was written into our laws or issued through governmental authorization by presidential edict. One president even gave a White House party, bathing the presidential residence in the rainbow colors.
—All of this, when the vast majority of Americans disapprove of such debauched activity.
Then came the official governmental declaration that homosexual marriage is the equivalent of heterosexual marriage, saying to God, in effect, “in your face!”
Now, we have the latest movement of the anti-God insanity down the broad way that leads into the abyss. Transgender, transsexual advocacy has trans-morphed into an even more rebellious, anti-God, anti-biblical proposal by the earth-dwellers.
There are those within the scientific and medical communities who see men carrying babies in the womb at some future date. The following news excerpt tells the story.
WOMB transplants could allow men to have babies “tomorrow”, an expert claims. They would not be able to deliver the baby naturally, but could give birth by cesarean.
Richard Paulson, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said eight children had already been born to women after transplants.
And he told a meeting in San Antonio, Texas: “There’s plenty of room to put a uterus in there. Men and women have the same blood vessels.”
He said the next step would be trials involving transgender women to help them become natural mothers…
Doctors hope to perform the first UK womb transplant in 2018. (Source: Womb Transplants Could Allow Men to Have Babies “Tomorrow,” Victoria Fletcher, Rapture Ready News, 11/5/17)
Remember that movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger? His character was pregnant. The shocking movie poster had him, with his Mr. Universe body, with a swollen abdomen. He was smiling, being proudly with child. Well, that might not be mere fiction for too much longer.
Come to think of it, I’m glad I don’t have my finger on the trigger of divine power and authority, either! We can all be thankful that the Lord does…
Sure End-of-the-Age Indicator
It is my usual procedure to not respond to the virulent email I get almost daily from those who don’t believe in the pre-trib view of the Rapture. These days the hate email is coming from those who sometimes even write that they hope we who do believe that God’s Word teaches this doctrine be sent to Hell–the same place where they scream we are leading people with our “false teaching.”
There are a number of these anti-Rapture flame-throwers who send out their rants on a regular basis. They have extremely limited audiences, and they are no doubt hoping beyond hope that their angry protestations will somehow make it in front of the massive audiences such as that with which Todd Strandberg and my website ministry raptureready.com has been blessed.
Perhaps I am granting their wish by writing on the matter. However, the anger has reached such a fevered pitch that I sense it should be addressed. The rage is, I’m convinced, a sure signal that we are indeed at the very end of the age.
In fairness, there are those who have scriptural arguments for another view of the Rapture, or for the position that there will be no Rapture. These are, most generally, gentle and rational in presenting their cases. Those who present their cases in those instances are not of the group that I’m attempting to address in this column.
I will present here the full text of one email I have received. It is actually one of the milder of the sort of which I’m addressing. I prefer to not give those more radical than this one any space in this forum.
I’ve watched this particular blogger change from one who in earlier times seemed to at least present a scriptural case worthy of consideration to a person of scathing rants full of irrationality and outrageous invective. Again, he is one of the milder Rapture-position detractors I find in my inbox almost daily.
Here is his most recent commentary.
THE RIDER OF THE WHITE HORSE IS IDENTIFIED……………………. Revelation 6:2
This Scripture is describing a RELIGIOUS DECEPTION of a CROWNED rider on the deceptively WHITE horse having a BOW, which is a WEAPON OF WAR without arrows to kill the body, but rather to kill the mind with anti-Christian deception . He is CONQUERING MINDS with anti-Christian false doctrine. He is waging war, in the later years, against the doctrine of Jesus Christ as it is recorded in the Holy Scriptures.
The CROWNED RIDER’S name is C. I. Scofield. His BOW, without arrows, is the Scofield Bible. He has been CONQUERING the minds of ignorant Christians who are being deceived into believing the anti-Christian FALSE DOCTRINE OF THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE.
Jesus explicitly states, in His Olivet Discourse, that the rapture will occur as recorded in Matthew 24:31 “AFTER THE TRIBULATION” which He states will occur before the rapture as recorded in Matthew 24:29, If your mind has been “conquered” by the rider on the white horse into believing the anti-Christian false doctrine of a pre-tribulation rapture you had better wake up and repent because “Many are called, but FEW ARE CHOSEN.”
2 John 1:9
“Whoever transgresses and does not abide IN THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST does not have God. He who abides IN THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST has both the Father and the Son.”
Well, maybe this writer is not so “mild” as I thought on a second reading. Seems we who believe in the pre-trib Rapture are, according to his thinking, headed… well, not headed to heaven.
C. I. Scofield–the Antichrist, huh? Perhaps Billy Graham, another teacher of the Rapture, is the False Prophet–you think?
Again, I feel that I should apologize for giving such unscriptural nonsense so much space before such a wide audience. But, there is a point in doing so. I believe this gravitation toward–a free fall, really—into hatred for the pre-trib Rapture position shows just where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline. We are, I believe, in a prophesied period of false teachers and false accusers among the flock.
The apostle Paul foretold that the last days would produce perilous times that would bring false accusers (2 Timothy 3: 3). The apostle Peter said there would come scoffers mocking Christ’s coming again (2 Peter 3: 3-4).
God’s Word forewarns those who make falsehoods their message: “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).
The Scripture says further in defense of those–like C.I. Scofield–who proclaim the prophetic Word in truth: “Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm” (1 Chronicles 16:22 and Psalms 105:5).
Jude, through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has ominous words for those who make it their priority to wreak destruction within the body of Christ. His words are given as what to watch for at the very end of the age, when Christ’s return nears:
“These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” (Jude 1:12-13).
“But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.” (Jude 1: 17-19)
I prayerfully urge the angry, anti-Rapture detesters to reconsider their ungoverned use of rhetoric against a most important Promise made by the Lord Jesus.
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).
Departure Near
Author’s note: Because I’m convicted that we are so near the time when Jesus will say “Come up hither,” I wanted to again present an article, somewhat revised, from my past commentaries. It is vital that the Church (all born again believers) be aware of the nearness of our Departure.
The Scripture is haunting. It echoes and reverberates throughout the spiritual hallways of the Church with each passing hour.
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Tim. 4:1).
This forewarning fits into the last-days pattern, also given by the Apostle Paul, in the familiar prophetic passage: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of Perdition…” (2 Thes. 2:3).
The “falling away,” apostasia in Greek, means a “departure from.” Paul prophesied in the 2 Timothy 4:1 passage that there will come a time at the end of the Church Age when people will depart from the “faith.” He foretells in 2 Thessalonians that this will be a general “falling away,” the apostasy of the endtime. What is this “faith” from which people will fall away, and who are the “people” who will fall away? Another crucial question is: Can the departure that God, through Paul, forewarned about be recognized when it occurs?
“Faith,” as here defined, must, by context, be the faith in the One who is at the heart of the Gospel–faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, chosen from the foundation of the world to be the propitiation for the sin that separates fallen man from God. It is the faith you and I must have in order to confess with our mouths that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, and to believe in the deepest part of our spirits that God raised Him from the dead.
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9).
A person can’t fall from a position (doctrinally speaking in this case) he never has attained. The “people,” then, whom Paul the apostle is writing about in his prophecies of 1 Timothy 4:1 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3 are those who have believed in Jesus Christ for salvation of their souls.
This brings us to the question: Can the departure God, through Paul, forewarned about be recognized when it occurs? To recognize that “falling away”–that apostasia, or apostasy— when it begins to happen, will almost certainly give the Christian attuned to God’s will a heads-up on the nearness of the Tribulation era, thus to the nearness of the rapture of the Church.
We have looked at the “faith” as faith in Jesus for salvation, and at the “people”who will “depart” from the faith as being the Church–that is, the true Christians who are alive at the time of the end, when the apostasy takes place.
Although there are those who think this departure includes the possibility of one losing one’s salvation, the “falling away” of 2 Thessalonians 2:3 cannot include that meaning. A quick look at Romans 8:38 and 39, to name just one security-of-the-believer passage, shows that God’s Word teaches that the believer can’t depart from the Heavenly Father to the point of losing his or her family status. Jesus, in John chapter 17, makes that absolutely clear. I suggest that if you have questions about this, read the Scriptures I just mentioned.
What, then, is meant by “departing from the “faith”? Glad you asked. The “faith” mentioned in 2 Thessalonians and 1 Timothy 2:3 is a collection of faith principles wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ. These principles are doctrines put forth by the Word of God. The Word of God is none other than the Lord Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
“People” at the time of the “falling away” will “depart” from the “faith” –the doctrines put forth by the Word of God, who is Jesus Christ. This departure will mark the generation of Christians at the very end of the Church Age.
The question that applies most relevantly to us today is: Are we seeing signals of the departure about which Paul forewarned?
We have analyzed, dissected, examined, and inspected every endtime signal found in God’s Word many times in these raptureready.com webpages: Israel again in the land of promise; the EU looking to be the reviving Roman Empire; Russia, Persia (modern Iran) and other nations looking to be a nucleus that will one day form the Gog-Magog force of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. These, plus, all of the other endtime characteristics of this generation.
However, I believe the most insidious of all the things taking place under the clever, devious hand of the devil –Satan—is the falling away, the departure from the faith being currently orchestrated by Lucifer, the fallen one This departure is evident to the spiritually discerning when looking at the church growth movement. This “seeker friendly” approach to both the saved and the lost (all who don’t know Christ) through New Age, corporation-type seminar seductiveness and brainwashing techniques that water down or completely eliminate true Bible doctrine is leading in a profound departure from the “faith once delivered” (see Jude 1: 3).
The new paradigm instituted by the champions of the church growth movement is the shift from New Testament Christianity to “New Spirituality-Driven Christianity.”
Like in the modern corporate organization, invented in large part by German economic guru Peter Drucker, who mentored some of the leading designers of the church growth movement, the system is more an organism than an organization –adopting Drucker’s model based upon Freudian psychology and Darwinian evolutionary principles. The individual is assigned a value, and he must fit in, or be removed from the system. To put it as I heard one person of the movement say: “Pillars just hold things up. So, they need to be moved out of the way.” So, those who hold to doctrine must get out of the way so no one will have their feelings hurt by talk of sin, and blood atonement, and eternal punishment in the place called Hell, if repentance is not forthcoming. Again, the Apostle Paul wrote God’s view of this watering down of doctrine: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8).
Are we at the point of departure from the faith that is prophesied for the very end of the Church Age? Maybe we can get a better sense by looking at one more area of Scripture pertaining to the matter: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Tim. 4:1-4).
There is another prophetically scheduled departure to consider. It’s the one to which we should be looking forward. It is a God-ordained departure that will remove every child of God of the Church Age –living and dead—from Planet Earth in one millisecond of time:
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:13).
Harbingers and Hedges
You will, I hope, indulge me a bit of personal reflection in this week’s commentary. The message was a haunting one. It came from the television set in my office while I sat at my desk. I often like to take time out to click through the religious channels on the cable package that has several hundred channels. That probably sounds ludicrous—a blind guy going through the TV channels. But, I assure that, having been blessed with relatively good eyesight for more than fifty of my seventy-five years, I am, through vividly remembered sights and sounds, able to visualize (if that is the word) what’s going on with each channel. It almost seems as if I’ve been given second sight of some sort, so vivid are the cerebral images that are produced—i.e., I hardly miss not being able to see while locked into the channel surfing.
This is particularly true when it comes to “watching” and listening to preachers that were my favorites back in the pre-1994 days when I still had eyesight.
Dr. Charles Stanley sounds older, slower, and less dynamic in his presentations, as do Hal Lindsey and David Jeremiah. But, the power of the presentations they still faithfully give more than makes up for the diminished strength and quality brought about by their advanced ages.
Nonetheless, I still see them in my mind’s eye the same as they appeared on my screens those twenty-something years ago.
In the case of old reruns of the pastors and evangelists who have gone on to their eternal rewards, their images, of course, have not been tarnished by the lessening of strength and power in their speaking. They “look” and sound exactly the same to me.
So it was that last Sunday I clicked on a channel with the remote, and Dr. Adrian Rogers was holding-forth in his inimitable fashion.
Dr. Rogers, who was pastor at Belleview Baptist Church in Memphis for many years, went to be with the Lord a number of years ago. But, his Love Worth Finding television ministry continues. It is one of my favorites; much like Dr. J. Vernon McGee’s Thru the Bible program is one of my favorite radio presentations that has continued since his death in 1988.
Dr. Rogers often spoke on the decline of the America we all love and want to see return to morality more in line with those ways the Founding Fathers first sought to institute. He was dealing with one such theme in the sermon last Sunday.
That message is what sparked the thought to write on “Harbingers and Hedges.”
America has, Rogers said, had a great, heavenly hedge of protection. He was thorough in emphasizing that the United States was in no way under the same covenants as God’s chosen nation, Israel. But, he did want it known that, like in the case with Israel, the Lord of heaven chose this nation for special purposes.
The proof of the hedge He placed over America is the material blessings it has been given. No other nation has ever existed that has produced for the entire world material goods that have brought the world out of the darkness of the past.
The US has been among the most spiritually blessed nations ever to grace the earth’s surface, he correctly stated.
There is a kinship between America and Israel that cannot be denied, he further instructed. Both nations have had at the centers of their foundings God’s providential Influence over the leaders who were instrumental in bringing both countries to birth and to apex positions among the peoples of history.
Just as Israel’s brilliance of conceptual level of functioning blessed all of mankind, America’s industry and ingenuity blessed the human race and continues to do so.
Israel brought the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ to the entire world. America continues to carry to the very ends of the earth the gospel message that Jesus Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life—the only way to God the Father and eternal life.
Then the pastor, who so loved both Israel and America, painted the not-so-flattering picture of ancient Israel and modern America. They both were given great hedges of protection.
Rogers used Job, the faithful man after God’s own heart, as an example of the hedge that God provides for His people. When Satan came, wanting to test Job’s faith, the devil said the following:
Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. (Job 1:9–10)
We know how Job remained faithful and was blessed far beyond any loss he suffered during his ordeal of testing by Satan.
Adrian Rogers then brought home the truth of what happens when God takes His mighty hedge of protection from any person or nation that becomes incorrigibly unfaithful and rebellious. The biblical stories are replete with Israel acting like an unfaithful wife to her husband, the Lord God. The nation has suffered immensely because of such egregious sin. Prophecy foretells that Israel will yet suffer the worst of all persecution for remaining in rebellion and unfaithfulness.
When the nation finally does recognize Christ as Messiah—while He is returning to put an end to Armageddon—she will again be the apex nation of the world. Like Job (who did not rebel or become unfaithful in any sense), Israel will be blessed of God beyond all the nations of planet earth. She will receive far more than anything she lost in all her history of being persecuted.
America was in gross sin and immorality even those many years ago when Dr. Rogers gave that sermon. And we have witnessed God’s great hedge of protection being removed a layer at a time, because there is a concerted effort by leaders and people alike to move farther and farther away from the God of heaven who has so wonderfully blessed this nation.
My prayerful hope is that, one day, America will be restored and become one of the “sheep’” nations, not one of the “goat” nations, Matthew chapter 25.
The harbingers are all about us, as I believe Jonathan Cahn did a God-ordained job of presenting in his novel, The Harbinger. Still, there seems little movement back to the Lord, rather a government and increasing majorities within the populace that demonstrably prove daily that they prefer to remove any and all godly ties.
I believe God’s hedge of protection will remain, but to a diminishing extent—for the sake of His children, all born-again people, including, of course, those not in America—until the moment He calls “Come up hither!” (Revelation 4:1).
Let us pray that that is the case, while we watch and work in God’s great cause: the salvation of souls.
Prophetic Indicators in View
Those who are watchful for Christ’s soon return from the pre-Millennial, pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy see this present time as inundated with significant signs. We more and more often these days hear the term “convergence” bandied about. “Convergence” is used to define the coming-together at once of most of the indicators the prophets–particularly Jesus–gave for the end of the Church Age (Age of Grace).
Two signals fitting within that definition, I believe, are in the news while we continue to observe these troubled but exciting times. I say “exciting,” because the signs are indicators that our Lord must be very near that moment of shouting from the clouds of Heaven, “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1-2).
First, I would like to again look at the prophecy Jesus gave about when He will next be revealed to mankind in a catastrophic way. As those who read these commentaries regularly know, I believe Christ was talking about our present time very near the end of the Church Age in this prophecy.
The Lord, as recorded in Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17:26-30, said it would be just like the days of Noah and the days of Lot when He intervenes or is revealed. I believe this has to be the time of the Rapture. He said people will be buying, selling, building, planting, marrying, etc. It will be business, I believe He was saying, even better than usual when the Rapture occurs.
But, we have to look into other aspects of the way it was in Noah’s day in order to find reference to the prophetic signal I wish to examine here. We go to Genesis chapter 6 for that perspective:
And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. (Genesis 6: 5-6)
Paul, the great apostle, further enlightens on how it was in Noah’s day:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 1: 21-25)
The following item in the news is quite telling, in my opinion, regarding how this generation fits within God’ prophetic timeline.
“So many millennials read their horoscopes every day and believe them,” [Coco] Layne, who is involved in a number of nonreligious spiritual practices, said. “It is a good reference point to identify and place people in the world.”
Interest in spirituality has been booming in recent years while interest in religion plummets, especially among millennials. The majority of Americans now believe it is not necessary to believe in God to have good morals, a study from Pew Research Center released Wednesday found. The percentage of people between the ages of 18 and 29 who “never doubt existence of God” fell from 81% in 2007 to 67% in 2012.
Meanwhile, more than half of young adults in the U.S. believe astrology is a science…
Melissa Jayne, owner of Brooklyn-based “metaphysical boutique” Catland, said she has seen a major uptick in interest in the occult in the past five years, especially among New Yorkers in their 20s. The store offers workshops like “Witchcraft 101,” “Astrology 101,” and a “Spirit Seance.”
“Whether it be spell-casting, tarot, astrology, meditation and trance, or herbalism, these traditions offer tangible ways for people to enact change in their lives,” she said. “…
Astrology isn’t the only spiritual field overwhelmed by demand: Danielle Ayoka, the founder of spiritual subscription service Mystic Lipstick, said her customer base is growing exponentially. The self-described astrologer sells a “mystic box” subscription, which includes crystals, “reiki-infused bath salts,” and incense customized to the unique energy of the current moon cycle for $14.99 a month. She says she’s seen 75% increase in her audience in the past year. (Why millennials are ditching religion for witchcraft and astrology, MarketWatch, Rapture Ready News, Oct. 21, 2017)
Second of the prophetic indicators I think appropriate to mention here involves the incessant assault by the globalists elite.
The drive to construct the New World Order, as President Herbert Walker Bush termed it, continues at a stepped-up pace. President Donald J. Trump’s call to “Make America Great Again” has sent the one-worlders into a frantic effort to get our thinking back on track. –Back on the track upon which President Obama faithfully took the U.S., in line with recent presidents who came after Ronald Reagan, who, for the most part, was a staunch advocate for American sovereignty.
Now, the son of the first President Bush has weighed in, demonstrating where his strongest allegiance lies. Without mention of Trump’s name, Bush 43 unloaded on any thought of America being given first place over the more important globalist agenda.
Former President George W. Bush delivered a public repudiation of President Donald Trump’s political identity, suggesting many aspects of the current administration are fueling division in the United States and around the world…
“We cannot wish globalism away,” Bush said, noting that the United States must sustain “wise and sustained global engagement” for the future of the country.
Bush indirectly accused Trump of fueling dangerous ideologies that threatened the unity of the United States and global stability, spending a large portion of his speech complaining about social ills in the country…
Bush urged Americans to “recover our own identity,” citing a commitment to global engagement, free and international trade, and immigration.
“We’ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism, and forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America,” he lamented…
Bush’s decision to publicly criticize Trump’s presidency is unusual after he made a point of rarely challenging President Barack Obama while he was in office. (Source: George W. Bush Emerges to Bash Trump, ‘Nativism’: ‘We Cannot Wish Globalism Away,’ Charlie Spiering -Breitbart, Oct. 21, 2017)
George W. Bush had qualities I admired in a president. His holding to his father’s desire to bring the world back to configuration like it was during the days of Babel is not one of them. Globalism is a satanic, not a godly, concept. It will eventuate, however. We are seeing stage-setting for producing the platform from which Antichrist’s regime will rule with an iron fist.
Here’s what the Lord says about that effort we see in development at present:
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. (Psalms 2:2-9)
Muslim Antichrist at Hand?
While ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), formerly ISIS, rampaged toward establishing its intended caliphate, some who propose that the prophesied Antichrist will come from the Eastern leg, not the Western leg of the ancient Roman Empire proclaimed they have their candidate for who will be the man of sin in view.
The late Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was one that some thought fit the description of the son of perdition, according to the proclamations.
A number of written and stated beliefs declared that the first beast of Revelation 13 will be a Muslim. A number of books, even by born-again former Muslim terrorists, have for several years been saying Antichrist will soon emerge as the Mahdi—the messiah figure prophesied in the Koran.
Headlines for the several years just past seemed to have validated that Islamist power was supernaturally growing as it set its sights on destroying Israel. What the military powers of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Hafez al-Assad, Anwar El Sadat, and all of the Arab hordes couldn’t do, the relative handful of ISIS terrorists seem to have been doing. For a time, they were able to move aside militaries of the region–like the American-supplied and trained new Iraqi armed forces. They were establishing sharia or Islamist law everywhere the butchers invaded.
The Trump Administration has taken a more strident and successful tact against militant Islam. Despite ISIL being in full retreat for now, there is still adamant belief by Eastern-leg prophecy pundits. These still make their point that soon history will prove the Antichrist to be not from the Western European sphere involving Rome, but a man of terror the Muslims claim will climb from a deep well somewhere to rule the world and make all bow the knee to Allah or lose their heads.
“See,” the Eastern-leg pundits say: “Islam’s primary means of execution is beheading. Revelation, chapter 13, plainly says the first and second beasts will demand the first beast be worshipped as God, or heads will roll.”
Everything, these say, points to prophecy shaping rapidly in which Islam will rule the day—will indeed establish a global caliphate.
So, let’s think on this punditry for a bit.
What does the Bible say about Antichrist and his rise to power? We should be able to appropriate a considerable degree of perspective on what we see developing in the Middle East presently and what the Bible has to say about this prince that shall come.
First, we look at the most familiar biblical truth on the man who will be Antichrist.
Daniel the prophet, under divine inspiration, gave us the following piece of the puzzle as we seek perspective:
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:26)
Most everyone of the pretrib, premillennial system of eschatology agrees that this is referring to the destruction of the Jewish Temple and to the city of Jerusalem in AD 70.
Whether we look to historians such as Edward Gibbon (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) or to the great Josephus, the Jewish historian, we learn that the forces that destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple were those of Emperor Vespasian, who sent his son, General Titus, to do the job.
These men were born near and raised in and around the city of Rome, not Mecca, Medina, or Constantinople. Their troops were from the legions of Rome, even though claims are being made that Rome enlisted many from the conquered regions of the Middle East.
The Scripture, nonetheless, points directly to the Romans.
Next, we ask: What characteristic will this beast, who will ultimately become the world’s last and most evil dictator, first exhibit when he comes on the end-times scene?
Again, we go to the prophet Daniel.
And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many. (Daniel 8:25 a,b,c)
And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. (Daniel 11:21)
He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province. (Daniel 11:24a)
Get it? This coming Antichrist, Daniel tells us, will appear at first to be a peacemaker, although he will be the greatest deceiver of all time, second only to his father, Satan, in deceptiveness and ferocity. Revelation 6 foretells that he will come riding on a white horse and with a bow, but with no arrows in his quiver. This indicates plainly that he will come as a false peacemaker.
Now, what do we know about the Islamist Mahdi? According to the Koran, he will come lopping off the heads of all who won’t bend the knee as he sweeps with his supposedly divine scimitar across the world. He will come from his well of hibernation with hatred for everyone and everything that doesn’t agree with him or the Koran.
But, doesn’t Revelation say the means of execution during that horrible period known as the Tribulation will be beheading?
Yes, indeed it does so. Remember, however, that many regimes throughout history—not just Islamist ones—have used beheading to instill fear within the general populaces. Remember, too, that the apostle Paul himself was thought to have been beheaded—by the Roman Empire.
Daniel foretold that long before the prophet Mohammed, or Islam, or Constantinople—the Eastern leg of the Roman Empire— finally came on the scene, Antichrist (the prince that shall come) will be from Rome. The prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70, hundreds of years before Mohammed was born.
The Koran predicts a violent entrance of their messiah into the world, and certainly, the Muslim world seems intent on bringing that Mahdi in. For example, consider the many people recently crucified as ISIS attempts to establish its caliphate across the region. This is anything—false or otherwise—but a “peaceful” entrance onto the world scene, as Revelation and Daniel prophesy for the true Antichrist when he rides onto the stage of history.
However, we can see the geopolitical road being paved for that first beast of Revelation 13. That means that Christ’s call to His church—“Come up hither!”—must be very near at hand, indeed.
Peripheral Prophecy Pondering
Dr. Mark Hitchcock, speaking at the opening of the Prophecy Watcher’s Blessed Hope Prophecy Conference in Norman, Oklahoma, a little over a week ago, reminded me of a question some have had over the years. I, too, have asked the question. Why does the Gog-Magog coalition of Ezekiel 38–39 apparently mount a land invasion rather than simply nuke Israel?
It is a peripheral issue to be sure, but one that is interesting to ponder in light of current goings-on just to Israel’s north.
It is true that Ezekiel saw a massive military juggernaut invade “like a cloud to cover the land.” This could indicate a cloud of aircraft, but, not necessarily. A land invasion in that arid region would certainly kick up a lot of dust. We saw some of that kind of action during both Gulf Wars.
My friend Mark mentioned that some believe certain technological problems might be at the heart of it being a land invasion. The conjecture is based upon the same thought as expressed in Salem Kirban’s novel of many years ago titled 666.
Kirban portrayed the Russian-led attack, primarily from the north of Israel, as being one conducted with ancient weapons—horses and all—just like Ezekiel has it. I forget the technology that had, in the fictional account, rendered the modern weapons of war inoperable. But, they fought totally with, basically, weapons like the prophet describes.
The weapons were mostly of wood and other material that readily burns. So, Israel was able to use the weapons as fuel for heating, etc., once the flesh-and-blood part of the force, five-sixths having been dispatched by the Lord, was no longer a threat.
Dr. Hitchcock brought up the possibility, according to what some believe, that electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) weapons might be used to render all modern weaponry useless by the time the Gog-Magog invasion takes place.
EMP, of course, disrupts electronic circuitry of all instrumentalities not protected when a nuclear explosion takes place in the atmosphere. All computer and other electronic circuitry on land, and even in the air near where the explosion takes place, supposedly will be fried. Thus, nuclear warfare, some believe, will help fulfill—in the most literal sense—Ezekiel’s prophecy about horses, sword, bucklers, and shields used as weaponry in that future time.
At present there is much dispute about Iran’s (area of ancient Persia) nuclear program. Persia is given as one of the primary members of the Gog-Magog coalition military force. That force obviously, according to Scripture, doesn’t use nuclear force against Israel in that prophesied attack. So, the question is: Why not?
Perhaps it is the EMP scenario. However, there are other possibilities.
Gog, in his evil thinking, wouldn’t want Israel’s “spoil,” as it is called in the KJV, contaminated by radiation from nuclear weapons. Another is, the Gog-Magog force wouldn’t want to go into a nuclear-radiated territory in order to occupy it.
They want to completely destroy Israel and do away with every Jew, that’s for certain. But it seems the main thinking in Gog’s satanically inspired brain is to take the riches in the region.
Another scenario is, of course, that Iran will indeed give up its nuclear ambition. That would mean that Russia, too, and any others would have given up their nuclear weapons for whatsoever reasons by the time of the Gog-Magog assault.
This, in my thinking, is the least of the possibilities.
Maybe Israel will have been so weakened by the covenant made with Antichrist as given in Daniel 9:26–27 that Israel will be the proverbial sitting duck. Thus, ol’ Gog won’t believe he needs to use the nukes.
As part of considering all of this, it is more than of just passing interest that President Trump is about to nuke the nuclear deal President Obama made with Iran—this, even in the face of rebellion by all others in the deal, including U.S. allies.
The globalists, as I view the satanically influenced architects of the tremendous backlash against anything this president does to keep America sovereign, turn a blind eye to the fact that the ayatollahs allow no inspections of their key nuclear development facilities.
Mr. Obama completely cast aside President Reagan’s rubric for negotiations with diabolists such as Russia and Iran: “Trust, but verify.”
It seems those American allies, under the influence of globalist group think, have joined the insanity in giving the Israel-hating Islamists the benefit of a doubt, as the saying goes. The excerpt that follows makes the point, I think.
Global powers, including key US allies, have said they will stand by the Iran nuclear deal which US President Donald Trump has threatened to tear apart.
Mr. Trump said on Friday that he would stop signing off on the agreement.
The UK, France and Germany responded that the pact was “in our shared national security interest.” The EU said it was “not up to any single country to terminate” a “working” deal.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the US was “more isolated than ever.” (Iran nuclear deal: Global powers stand by pact despite Trump threat – BBC, Oct. 15, 2017)
Developments in Iran, Russia, Turkey, and Israel are all part of another of the things Mark Hitchcock and many of us who spoke discussed at the conference. The word of the hour is convergence.
Convergence—the coming-together of practically every signal for the end of the age—is upon this generation. Developments north of Israel at the present moment are possibly the most significant of all of the signals that Christ’s Second Advent is near.
Since that great event will take place at least seven years later than the Rapture of the Church, we who name the name of Jesus should be in a state of anticipation of, not in fear of things to come.
When you see all these things begin to come to pass, then, look up and lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:28)
Laodicea on Display
Prophecy coming to fulfillment was on full display while America’s number-one Christian preacher–in terms of numbers he draws to his events—gave the many thousands in attendance his version of “hope” for their lives.
Joel Osteen wrapped up his confirmation of this “hope” that resides within each by having them repeat his gleefully shouted words.
(I paraphrase, because I couldn’t find a transcript of the TV program.)
He said with a toothy smile, while holding up a Bible, “Repeat what I say!
He then proceeded:
“I am favored by God!” (The audience jubilantly repeated the words.)
“I am special!”
“I am destined for something great!”
“I am important!”
“I am deserving of all things good!”
“I will overcome all problems!”
“I will defeat all depression!”
“I will take control of my own destiny!”
You get the point. This went on for many such “”I wills” and “I ams.” The many thousands were in rah – rah ecstasy by the time the head cheerleader concluded.
I heard no mention in Mr. Osteen’s sermon, I guess you could call it, of any of the “I wills and I ams” giving glory to the one who makes hope possible. I heard nowhere America’s most popular pastor of the moment mention the biblical ”hope” that is in reality at the heart of the Christian’s glorious destiny–salvation from soul-destroying sin through the shed blood of the only begotten Son of God.
Instead, I heard the glorification of self, and how good everyone is, and how deserving everyone in attendance was to receive the very best God is obligated to bestow.
More troubling, as the program came to an end, was the perception that the “I wills and I cans” the mesmerized thousands shouted, repeating Osteen’s words of self-praise, reminded me of the “I wills” of Isaiah 14:13-15: “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
Jesus, resurrected and at the right hand of His Father, gave John, who penned Revelation, a vivid picture of the church that will, literally, make Him sick. That church was the last one the Lord addressed while going through the seven churches of the Church Age: And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. (Revelation 3:14-17)
The Laodicean church bases its thoughts and actions on terms of 1) self-glorification and 2) physical prosperity, i.e., wealth. This end-of-days’ church is “lukewarm”; that is, it is tepid so far as teaching and preaching the gospel. This church preaches and teaches that people are good and deserving of God’s total blessings and adoration. It does not teach and preach that people are not good, that they are lost in sin, thus need a Savior.
The Laodicean church teaches and preaches that all is well, if money and physical comforts are in abundance. That prosperity is the key to a glorious future is the message sweet to the taste of those who sit in its luxuriant pews. It appeals to self, the same as did the serpent to Eve in Eden.
Another prophecy of Jesus comes into view when we consider the great moral degradation that has taken place in the last half-century. The prophecy is in line with the Laodicean church that, in my opinion, constitutes the majority of so-called Christendom today. Jesus, in His Olivet Discourse, forewarned first and foremost of deception which would mark the time just before His return. Many would, He warned, come in His name, proclaiming themselves to have Christ within themselves–to belong to Him. They would be deceiving themselves and those who followed them, according to what I see in my study of Paul’s words that in the last days evil men and seducers would come, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:13).
Again, the apostle Paul put his prophetic finger on our time, and, I’m convinced, the sugary, feel-good sermonettes, the likes of which preachers like Mr. Osteen pour into the itching ears of today’s Laodiceans: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Questions that must be addressed are: Where is the proof that this coming forth of a more sinner-friendly church has done harm rather than good? What’s the harm in embracing all sinners and bringing them into the fold, without the condemnation that the Bible passages on sin throws at them? Isn’t Jesus a Lord of love and all-inclusiveness? Isn’t that accusation of Christianity’s “intolerance” the thing that brings the disdain of the world for the very name of Jesus Christ?
All that has to be said to answer the above is: Churches of America have indeed increasingly moved away from pointing at sin as requiring condemnation and sinners as requiring redemption. The result has been that the increased inclusiveness–this greater toleration of sinfulness, in concert with every imaginable evil gushing from Internet debauchery–has produced a society and culture rivaling that of Sodom and Gomorrah.
One article outlined some problems stemming from the church shirking responsibility in America.
The divorce rate has doubled, teen suicide has tripled, reported violent crime has quadrupled, the prison population has quintupled, the percentage of babies born out of wedlock has risen sixfold, couples living together out of wedlock have increased sevenfold, and gay marriage is now a legalized reality in a number of states, with many believing the end is not in sight. (Bert M. Farias, “The Great Deception in American Church,” Charisma News)
Paul prophesied as recorded in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that the Restrainer, resident within the church, would one day be removed from planet earth. Antichrist and complete lawlessness will then rule the world when the true church–all born-again believers—are called into Heaven.
The Laodicean church now on display, as forewarned by Jesus, Himself, surely must be a major indicator of where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline.
Trump: “Peace has to happen”
It is inevitable. Peace in the Middle East must happen. This, according to President Donald Trump.
The president, while being interviewed on former Governor Mike Huckabee’s initial TBN program, made the declaration.
“I want to give that a shot before I even think about moving the embassy to Jerusalem.”
He said further, “f we can make peace between the Palestinians and Israel, I think it’ll lead to ultimately peace in the Middle East, which has to happen.”
Trump, in June of 2017, signed a temporary order keeping the American embassy in Tel Aviv. This follows the actions of presidents preceding him.
Some see this as his breaking a promise he made while on the 2016 presidential campaign trail. He received rousing ovations every time he declared he would move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, the city that Israel claims as its capital.
Mr. Trump has said on numerous occasions that his administration is working on a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians that will result in peace for the whole region. He has appointed his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as unofficial diplomat in charge of working to accomplish peace in the Middle East.
Others–including the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government–deny that the president has abandoned the idea of moving the embassy. In his declaration that he wants to give peace a chance before moving the embassy, Trump simply means, in their view, that the move is postponed. To force such an action at this moment in the current volatile geopolitical climate would likely ramp up hostilities.
To watchers on the wall–those who view the world through the prism of Bible prophecy from the pre-Millennial, pre-Tribulation perspective, the president’s declaration and decision on the embassy move should not come as surprise.
Like every other prophetic indicator on the present world horizon, the fact that there is a continuing drive to force peace between Israel and its enemy neighbors is simply something that must be in view while final prophecies near fulfillment. Like Mr. Trump says, peace between Israel and its closest enemy neighbor “has to happen,” from the human point of view.
Like all the world has cried for decades–as wrapped neatly in the lyrics of the song by John Lennon–we must “give peace a chance.”
But, that much-ballyhooed peace process leaves out the one essential ingredient that can make it come to pass. God is ignored. The very Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ, is not even considered in their humanistic effort. As a matter of fact, His Holy name is ridiculed and mocked at every turn by most of the diplomatic world. Christ is viewed as the holdup to peace in most instances, rather than the solution to the hatred and war-making that has dominated human history.
Mr. President, much of your political–electoral–base is made up by those of us who support Israel. We want peace for Israel, the Middle East, the United States, and the world. We know, however, from what God’s prophetic Word has to say, that there will be no peace until the Prince of Peace rules and reigns in the hearts and minds of mankind.
The present call for peace is addressed, I’m convinced, by the apostle Paul as follows:
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:1)
Mr. President, peace will happen. It will come in two distinctively opposite forms.
The first peace will be a false peace, brought about by the man of sin, the son of perdition — Antichrist.
Daniel the prophet said the following about this false prince that shall come:
And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many. (Daniel8: 25)
The other peace–the real peace–will be brought upon the planet at Christ’s return to make all things right again.
Jesus, the Prince of Peace, said the following just before leaving this sin-corrupted world:
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)
Terry James Prophecy Line 