This series of Nearing Midnight articles was written at the end of 2010 and the very beginning of 2011. These articles were written in response to people who were quite fearful about what they saw developing. Glenn Beck, then host of a FOX program and Hal Lindsey were both saying the world’s financial system was on the brink of collapsing.

I believe the Lord gave my spiritual understanding His answer to readers’ fears. The following series of 10 articles was what I wrote, intending to share what I believe the Holy Spirit wanted shared with readers.

I am now –in early 2020– getting exactly the same sorts of fear-filled emails as back in 2010 and 2011.

I wanted to repost this series, in its entirety to again put before readers the same insights I believe the Lord gave me to disseminate a decade ago.

I’m asked if my thoughts have changed about the “Days of Noah, days of Lot” prophecy by Jesus found in Matthew 24 and Luke 17 and 21.

The answer is no… My thoughts haven’t changed because Jesus’ Words in His prophecy have not changed. Like Christ, Himself, His words are the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

 Scanning a Fearful Future: Part 1

 By Terry James

Commentators, secular and religious, weigh in incessantly on all aspects of the issues of greatest concern for these angst-ridden times. Those issues of most profound worry are collapsing economy, loss of personal liberty, and what is going to happen in the immediate and long-term future.

One can almost physically feel the fear in the emails I receive daily. Worries over what the future holds fill the articles and, more to the point for this commentary, dominate the personal missives that search for answers that might provide some degree of comfort.

One of the more mildly fearful emails I received this week says in part, “I watched the Hal Lindsey Report yesterday in which he said that he believes before the Rapture that Christians were going to be persecuted. After reading your nearing midnight article today I can see that Christians becoming more and more isolated for their support of Israel is just another sign that he is right. If Hal is right, with the rapture being as close as it is then persecution for Christians has to be very close. What is your take on this?”

I listened to what Hal Lindsey had to say in that particular program, and he did paint a bleak picture for the immediate future of planet earth. He correctly pointed to even more terrible times for the world a bit further out–during the Tribulation. I had so many urging me to watch Glenn Beck’s program that I tuned in to that show on the several days he painted a frightening picture of what he says he believes George Soros and the New World Order minions have in mind for the world –particularly for the citizens of the United States.

Mr. Beck, like Hal Lindsey, gave as part of his view of things the prescription he thinks necessary to help with curing the sickness from which the United States and the world suffer. It is interesting that both Lindsey and Beck–one Christian, the other secular (in that he is a FOX News pundit)–give faith turned toward God as a major part of any such remedy.

Now, I am aware Glenn Beck is a Mormon, and that this fact makes the difference between the views of the two men and their recommendations quite distinct from one another. But the intensive urging of both to look more deeply into the crush of troubles weighing heavily on the minds of most everyone is more to the point. Both see what is happening in these strange times as emanating from dark, spiritual forces.

I know that Hal’s analysis is correct because he realizes that the source against which humanity–particularly Christians–struggles is found in God’s Word. I honestly don’t know exactly what Glenn Beck sees as the chief opponent against which humanity must be protected. He points to George Soros and his ilk, but never seems to get to the root of the evil we face.

Lindsey knows–as do you and I who try to be attuned to God’s Word in these prophetic times—that, according to the apostle Paul, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

Paul wasn’t writing about the George So roses of the world. He was forewarning of the dark powers behind the earthly megalomaniacs who would be our masters. Maybe Mr. Beck sees those darker powers, too, but he can’t bring himself about to cast God’s light upon that unseen realm. Perhaps that is because he sees us, the American people, as the answer to our own spiritual problems. If we will just summon the same patriotic grit of the founding fathers, we can overcome the human diabolists like Soros. To aspire to vanquish “spiritual wickedness in high places” –the dark, satanic forces of the spiritual world—would not be possible. When all is said and done, Beck’s viewpoint is inclusive of only the humanistic elements of the struggle mankind faces today. In this, sadly, he seems in lock-step with the world order builders that God laughs sarcastically at as recorded in Psalms 2.

I won’t go further about Glenn Beck so far as concerns his acumen in pointing the way to overcoming in the struggle we face as the apocalyptic storm nears. His religion’s prophetic beliefs dictate outcomes drastically different from those found in the Bible. Since he hasn’t overtly introduced those to his viewing/listening audiences–at least, not yet–I won’t address those here.

However, the biblical scenarios are the ones Hal Lindsey does introduce on a weekly basis to his audience. It is this view we will look at when thinking on the prospects you and I face, considering all of the bleak economic and societal news on the immediate horizon.

But, we’ve run out of column space for this week. We will begin scanning our darkening prophetic landscape through God’s radar next week, God willing.

 

Scanning a Fearful Future: Part 2

By Terry James

Terrible times like no other in American history lurk somewhere in the future, according to FOX News Channel’s Glenn Beck. He is joined in his stated apprehension for what is coming by thousands of American citizens. Many of these are fear-filled Christians who look to Beck and others to inform them of the proposed terrors to come, and to tell them what to do about it. I continue to hear from some of these through email on a weekly, even daily, basis.

I would like us to look briefly at developments across today’s socioeconomic landscape, thus to examine as analytically and as fairly as possible the portentous matters that give Beck and others fodder for their doomsday scenarios.

Economics-minded forecasters great and small watched the stock market bubble build during the days preceding the Lehman Brothers collapse of 2008, speculating wildly what the bubble’s burst might bring. That financial aneurysm, they determined, would certainly rupture–and, of course, it did. Governmental insanity created by ultra-liberal politicians saw to it that people with champagne tastes and beer drinkers’ budgets for years received home loans they didn’t have much more than a prayer of ever repaying.

We are now familiar with the terms “Freddie Mac” and “Fannie Mae.” We are equally acquainted with names such as Barney Frank, Charles Schumer, and others, who–in the name of “fairness” to those who couldn’t afford housing like the more affluent–demanded these be given the loans anyway, despite the fact the recipients didn’t have the income or collateral to support that level of debt.

Rather than govern the housing industry responsibly, the elected officials invested with the responsibility to oversee things, in concert with their Wall Street cohorts, foolishly threw caution to the fiscal winds. A banking crisis of unprecedented magnitude was thus created, with the housing bubble rupture setting in motion bank failures and threats of even greater crises.

Calls for massive bailouts to avert what the president of the United States and others in government and media speciously screamed would otherwise be world-rending calamity brought about the most devastating crisis of all. Trillions of dollars were, in effect, created out of thin air by the Federal Reserve Bank to save entities “too big to fail.”

The totally irresponsible sleight-of-hand accomplished only the creation of an exploding national debt that most likely can never be repaid. Decisions made by some of the same people who help create the problems strapped on the back of American citizens financial burdens with which generations far into the future will have to deal.

The resulting economic uncertainty deepened an abyss-like recession that more soundly thought-out measures would have surely lessened in severity. Jobs, as we know, are being lost; businesses are closing their doors; deflation or hyper-inflation–the experts can’t figure which—might collapse the American economy within a near-time frame (which the experts can’t predict, either).

The stability of the global economy hangs in the balance, with the other nations and their monetary gurus wondering about the financial fate of the U.S. and its all-important dollar. And, make no mistake: Under present world economic structures, the fate of the American dollar is absolutely critical.

Enter Glenn Beck at the tip of the gloom iceberg. And “iceberg” is a viable term here because the things he and others are forewarning are indeed chilling. Statements the TV and radio show host make almost daily send shivers down the spine of many of his viewers and listeners. He says things like (I paraphrase), “Change is coming, and when it happens, you won’t recognize your country. You will wake up next day, and it will no longer be America as you’ve known it. And, it will happen just that fast. I can’t tell you when that transformation is coming, but it’s coming.”

Beck forecasts the same astonishing change for the entire world in his proposed overnight transformational moment. His words sound almost out of the pages of Bible prophecy from the Pre-Trib view, don’t they? But the change he predicts is tied almost exclusively to the earthly, not to the ethereal–almost, but not entirely, as we will soon find.

Economic collapse, thus societal rearrangements of apocalyptic dimension, is at the heart of his fearful forecast. He implies that we will, perhaps, awaken that morning to a monetary cataclysm–our dollar as worthless as the deutsche marks of the Weimar republic of Germany just before Hitler’s meteoric rise to power in the 1930s. The FOX program host often raises the real probability, in his view, that inflation, which is on the rise, will skyrocket to astronomical levels when the great transformation he fears takes place.

He gives some key commodity future dollar amounts for what he claims the experts tell him will be exponential price rises. A small bag of sugar could be as much as $60 or $70. One ear of corn could be $11 or higher. A loaf of bread will likely be $24. Just under a pound of coffee could be $77. Fifteen ounces of orange juice will likely be $45, according to Beck’s forecasters.

A Hershey chocolate bar, standard size, will cost $15.50, his experts say. Now, that is certainly a crisis in the making if it is an accurate prognostication. Chocolate lovers I know would probably join the rioters Beck believes will rage in the streets once cuts to federal government give-away programs have to be made.

Next week, we will think a bit on what a changed America might look like if truly effective remedies to deal with Mr. Beck’s fearful vision of a new socioeconomic paradigm are ever implemented.

 

Scanning a Fearful Future: Part 3

By Terry James

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has internment compounds placed strategically around the United States. These will be used as concentration camps when anarchy reaches a critical point in America and the world. This sort of warning has been at the heart of fear-filled emails I’ve been receiving for the past seven years, at least.

Today, the trepidation concerning the likelihood of the collapse of America and the world issues daily from a populist mouthpiece. There are others, but Glenn Beck fills the role as chief forecaster of impending doom. He says frequently that we will awaken one morning and find that America has changed. We won’t recognize the nation. It will happen just that swiftly, and the transformation will involve, among other things, probable hyper-inflation that will make money valueless for most people in America. This means that the entire world will follow suit. Global depression, we infer, will be the plight of all but the ultra rich of the world–the George Soroses, etc.

Based upon Beck’s dire suppositions, we consider things to come. Just how far into the future all of this evil lurks, Beck doesn’t know. However, based upon the rapid movement in economic uncertainties, it is likely, he implies, that it will happen sooner rather than later. That new dawning–or perhaps “nightfall” is the more apropos term–will be bleak, he predicts. The dollar will have fallen as the reserve currency for most of the world’s economies. Entire bank accounts will be wiped out, in that their contents likely won’t be sufficient to feed a family for a day, much less for longer. Governments will be forced to cut social programs of every sort–completely eliminating them in most cases. Rioting will explode while those on welfare roll and others used to government largesse will turn violent. The big inner cities will be particularly hard hit.

If the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans can serve as example, looting and violence might well be the order of such changed way of life on that terrible day after the transformation forecast by Glenn Beck occurs. The sorts who looted during the devastating hurricane will almost certainly spill into the suburbs, then into the countryside, pillaging for food and anything else that strikes their fancy.

Riots in the streets of Greece, Spain, and most recently in London, brought about by governments imposing austerity measures on money spent on social programs, present a foreboding picture of how things in the U.S. might look within twenty-four hours of an economic collapse such as Beck and others fear. In the United States, the very thought of what might take place when government handouts are cut off caused Indianapolis, Indiana, city officials to bring in greatly increased law enforcement when officials were about to announce that unemployment payments would not be extended.

So daunting are the prospects that even Beck stops short of delving too deeply into what such a changed world–catastrophically lacking in food, electricity, appropriate sewage treatment, and clean drinking water–would mean to Americans. But such change, he forewarns, is coming…and soon. It is coming, he says, because of the internationalist elitists who want that transformed world through which to rule over the rest of us–a “New World Order,” as George Soros, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and even George H. W. Bush and other champions of globalism have termed it.

Presidents have for decades been leading America into the globalist economic arena. No chief executive has observably been more determined to meld the U.S. economy with the rest of the world than Barack Obama. He said in a speech in Mumbai, India, regarding his desire to take America into the global economic model, “This will keep America on its toes. America is going to have to compete. There is going to be a tug-of-war within the US between those who see globalization as a threat and those who accept we live in an open, integrated world, which has challenges and opportunities.”

Obama stated further that unemployment within the U.S. that might result from global economic integration is going to be the “new normal.” It is just something we are all going to have to get used to.

Most every proponent of this move into globalism comprehends that the process of merging the American economy into the one-world configuration they desire will be painful for U.S. citizens. Wages will go down. America’s living standard will fall, according to the globalists. Americans will face a struggle in the course that must be taken to reach parity for all of the world community. This is just a fact of life, according to those who know best. President Obama himself says that the nation’s economy might “not be fixed for quite some time.”

Again, if I hear him right, Glenn Beck believes this change will be, for Americans, an instantaneous fall into an abyss of economic depression, not a slow slide into the poor house. He presents an almost fatalistic scenario, concerning our not being able to stop it from happening overnight. He urges all who will listen to prepare for the coming, contrived collapse of the American and world economies.

He says, at the same time, that he believes Americans have what it takes to thwart this drive toward New World Order–this effort to return to Babel. He indicates that he believes fervor for patriotism at the level of that of the founding fathers can reignite a foundational movement to restore sanity to government, economy, and culture/society.

At a rally in Washington DC, he threw some spiritual/religious verbiage into the mix of his exhortation to take back America: “Something that is beyond man is happening. America today begins to turn back to God. For too long, this country has wandered in darkness.”

Sounds like Beck is onto something there, doesn’t it? Let’s look more deeply into where that might be leading next time.

 

 

Scanning a Fearful Future: Part 4

By Terry James

America is on the precipice of economic implosion, according to Glenn Beck and others. A sudden, catastrophic transformation will jolt us one morning upon awakening to the fact that the way of life we’ve known is gone. The Fox News show host pronounces the nation’s doom if his prescription for cure isn’t followed.

If the cure is not taken, George Soros and his ilk, the New World Order titans, will march America’s citizenry into global gulag–on the broad way back to Babel. There, all of mankind will, like John Lennon once sang, “Be as one.”

Beck’s biblical allusions flow soothingly, once the dire diagnosis and prognosis for America’s socioeconomic illness are firmly grasped by his audience. And, a growing number of people seem mesmerized by the host’s descriptions, illustrations, and analyses.

The Lord God knew that being “as one” was a humanistic recipe for disaster, Beck pontificates. The Almighty rushed to the plains of Shinar–as recorded in Genesis chapter 11–to spread humankind throughout all parts of the planet to avoid exactly what Soros and his buddies are again planning to foist upon earth dwellers. After laying out instructions and suggestions about how to survive some harsh, even terrifying, interim times just ahead by storing foods with long shelf lives and making other prudent preparations against the devastation the dollar’s demise will assuredly bring, Beck shifts to spiritual counsel. He leads into this phase with his words at the rally, as mentioned earlier: “Something that is beyond man is happening. America today begins to turn back to God. For too long, this country has wandered in darkness.”

Almost tearful with emotion in his voice, Beck pleads for Americans to go to our knees and pray for the nation’s salvation. Then, with a great inhalation of patriotic resolve like that of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and other of America’s founders, Beck, with Patton-like motivational rhetoric and steel in his voice, fortifies his troops for the battles ahead.

America will triumph through all the assaults against the republic, he declares with vigor, “because we are Americans.” Americans always do whatever it takes to overcome evil.

Glenn Beck exhorts Americans to invoke God’s name and help in the “take-back America” campaign. Good–so far as it goes.

With his next declaration, the Fox host frames his proclamation about the cure he envisions. He declares that the American people–those like the patriots in his audience–will do the necessary sacrificing and make the political and economic changes essential to set the U.S. ship of state back on course to a sound moral and socioeconomic mooring.

America will survive the great crash that is coming and, he implies, it will again become the greatest nation–although perhaps smaller, he adds–because of the goodness intrinsic within the American people. We are, he says, about to “witness miracles.”

And, this is the point where emotionally hyped fervor and patriotic resolve—no matter how sincere—depart from truth that resides within the heart of God’s prophetic Word. No matter how well constructed or intensive the efforts to implement it, Beck’s blueprint–or any humanistic blueprint—for saving the republic is doomed to failure.

To this point, Hal Lindsey’s view of Bible prophecy and Glenn Beck’s analyses and forecast for America’s destiny have run relatively parallel. Both Lindsey and Beck see a time coming in the near term when America will suffer financial collapse. It will be, they each predict, a time of national and worldwide societal darkness worse than the bleakest years of the Great Depression. Based upon the staggering debt of the U.S. and of most every other major nation on earth, theirs is the only conclusion that can reasonably be reached using informed rationale.

Lindsey and Beck also envision a singular moment when America and the world will change forever. It will be an instant so calamitous that it will, in effect, eventuate in a totally transformed global order for every facet of human interaction.

This, however, is where similarities in their view of the future end. Now the views diverge as dramatically as the difference between the eternal places called heaven and hell.

As I wrote in the beginning of “Scanning a Fearful Future,” Glenn Beck hasn’t overtly interjected his Mormon beliefs into his foreboding predictions. Therefore, I won’t address his pronouncements in regard to his religious beliefs–that is, except to again point out that the Mormon view of the end of human history differs greatly from what the Bible says about the consummation of all things encapsulated by this thing God created for man called time.

I feel justified in mentioning this because Beck himself more and more brings the name “God” and the need for the exercise of “faith” into his presentations. However, his consistently stated viewpoint makes it obvious that he believes the fate of us all will play out in an all-earthly scenario, with America winning the day, if we all follow his prescription for dealing with the coming calamity.

Hal Lindsey, like me and those who believe that Bible prophecy clearly speaks of what conditions will be like at the very end of the age, also sees America and the world headed into an economic morass. Unlike Glenn Beck, however, we are of the conviction that if indeed we are at the end of this dispensation–the Age of Grace (Church Age) as we believe is the case–this nation is beyond anything human intervention can do to save it. Next time we will look at what I’m convinced is God’s view of things to come in the very near future.

 

 

Scanning a Fearful Future: Part 5

By Terry James

I must preface what follows by saying that I use Hal Lindsey in this look at the future because I and so many others hold him in high regard as the most widely recognized apologist for the pretribulation Rapture view of Bible prophecy. His book, “The Late, Great Planet Earth,” is of course the work that vaulted him into prominence. His continuing efforts over the decades to forewarn of things to come–with his current TV program serving as an excellent Bible prophecy platform–puts him at the top level of those who watch for Christ’s return, in my view.

Lindsey has indicated on his television program, The Hal Lindsey Report, that he believes America and all other nations of the world are headed into the darkest of socioeconomic times. American Christians, he believes, face persecution unlike any that believers in the United States have experienced. He recommends, as does Glenn Beck, that people store food and make other preparations against possible hyper-inflated times to come.

While Lindsey advocates–as does Beck—that we strive to be good citizens and fight the staunch, patriotic fight through the ballot box in order to return the nation to one centered in morality and freedom, he says in practically the same breath that this world system is doomed. There is no hope, apart from the hope that is in Jesus Christ. His seeming dichotomy of thought evokes concerns that must be addressed.

We began looking into prospects for the near future by considering an email I received from one such concerned Christian. Again, he wrote the following, in part:

I watched the Hal Lindsey Report yesterday in which he said that he believes before the Rapture that Christians were going to be persecuted. After reading your “Nearing Midnight” article today, I can see that Christians becoming more and more isolated for their support of Israel is just another sign that he is right. If Hal is right, with the Rapture being as close as it is, then persecution for Christians has to be very close. What is your take on this?

This writer’s perspectives carry much weight. It is Dr. Lindsey’s view of things that impressed the emailer to write. Since I am asked for my “take” on Hal’s position regarding severe persecution for believers being imminent, I must be true to my study of prophecy and risk going somewhat counter to his stated belief that Christians in America are necessarily going to suffer such intensive, satanically engendered travail.

I mean no disrespect for this man, certainly a special servant chosen for the Lord’s prophetic ministry for these closing hours of the age. However, my assessment differs from his forecast to an extent that I sense it needs to be presented here.

We have spent time thus far looking into the eerie, troubling changes taking place across the socioeconomic landscape of America and the world. Mostly, we have tried to get our brains around the apparent insanity of our leaders and why they have created crises then printed trillions of dollars to throw at those crises–all of this sleight-of-hand chicanery done to stave off supposed national and world cataclysm those leaders warned would otherwise destroy civilization as it has been known. Their supposed attempts to preempt economic Armageddon now threaten to bring about the collapse of every economy on the planet.

The foundation had to be laid thusly in order to begin answering the question so many people want to know. Our emailer framed well the fears of many who worry what the near future might hold. Since world conditions are in configuration that includes issues and events much like those for the Tribulation given in Bible prophecy, will Christians in America face severe persecution before Christ returns to this desperately wicked planet? That is among the most expressed concerns in email correspondence I receive these days.

Hal Lindsey, like Glenn Beck, states that he believes there will be a cultural and societal breakdown due to an economic collapse that is surely about to take place in the United States. I infer from his strongly stated position that he believes Christians in America will face severe persecution as a part of the sociol and economic upheaval about to erupt in this nation.

In the final analysis, however, whether I accurately understand and expound upon Dr. Lindsey’s thoughts in these matters is of minor consequence to the treatment at hand. The fact is that many Christians who do observe these times from a prophetic perspective need answers to questions like the one posed by the emailer. Trying to look at what lurks just ahead in the foreboding mist and haze of the coming days is the proposed objective of what follows.

Next time we will attempt to accomplish this, staying within the confines of what God’s Word actually has to say about the very end of the age.

 

 

Scanning a Fearful Future: Part 6

By Terry James

There are so many ominous signals of stage-setting for fulfillment of Bible prophecy in every direction we look that even secular fascination with things to come is piqued. One such example is the History Channel’s “Nostradamus Effect” series in which I was asked to participate. One of the most immediately troubling signals that threatens apocalyptic disruption of world stability is the very probable collapse of the global economy, which we’ve been examining. There is little doubt, using even a modicum of rationale, that monetary madness infects the entire planet. We will now peer through God’s prophetic lenses into the portentous future nearest us.

The title I’ve chosen for this exploration, “Scanning a Fearful Future,” envelops all of Glenn Beck and Hal Lindsey’s thoughts about the dire immediate future for America and the world. If their extremely similar assessments of what this generation faces is truly about to take place, my answer to the recent question to the worried email sender–representative of many such trepidacious emailers–must be given quickly. The emailer, after prefacing his question by saying that Lindsey stated persecution is coming for Christians, asked: “…persecution for Christians has to be very close. What is your take on this?”

First, I must rephrase his question to get to the heart of what he and so many others are asking. The question they mean to ask is: “…Persecution for the church in America has to be very close. What is your take on this?”

Believers in Jesus Christ–the born again (John 3:3)—are being persecuted around the globe at this very moment. Many are suffering torture and martyrdom. Members of the true church of Jesus Christ have always suffered and died, and will do so right up until Christ’s call, “Come up hither!” (Rev. 4: 2). So, what American Christians are concerned about in regard to this question is whether Christians in the United States will suffer the level of persecution endured by believers like those in, for example, the Sudan. For that matter, the question implies asking whether American believers will suffer to a major extent in any way whatever. Hal Lindsey expressed in several of his TV programs that he believed Christians in America will suffer persecutions, and, I infer, he was speaking of persecutions of the fearful sort–those that might include loss of life in martyrdom. This fearful future, again I infer, will likely be part of a severe societal/cultural breakdown brought about by economic cataclysm. This, as pointed out previously, is much like Glenn Beck’s forecast for Americans in general.

My answer to the emailer and others who continue to ask similar questions is that I don’t believe Christians in America are prophetically scheduled for severe persecution like that being experienced by those in Sudan, China, and other such places around the globe.

Now I can almost hear the clicking of emails being typed. Some are already conjuring the questioning flames of retort. “Do you think American Christians are too good to suffer persecution?”; “Do you think America is God’s pet nation? –That the U.S. doesn’t deserve judgment?!” Please…save your fingers the pain from the white-hot irritation shooting from your keyboard. I agree completely with you. American Christians are NOT too good to be persecuted. The U.S. does deserve judgment. There is no argument there. Now, please allow me to give my scripturally based reasoning in disagreeing with Dr. Lindsey on these matters.

I begin by inserting this caveat about my assertion that American Christians won’t suffer persecution of the most heinous sort. My belief in this regard is predicated upon my prayerfully studied understanding that the world as we know it would have to first come tumbling down, then rearrange to be configured exactly as it is now in order to accommodate American Christians going into such persecution as feared by my emailer.

That world crash, then turn-around, just isn’t going to happen. Everything is in place for Bible prophecy to unfold. Based upon this reality, my case follows in presenting why I’m so sure that what I believe about things to come in the very near future correctly diverges from what Dr. Lindsey and Mr. Beck say they believe is about to happen.

Each is certain that the United States is facing economic catastrophe that will bring about food and other shortages, thus will engender rioting that will bring anarchy and collapse. Lindsey’s fears are less adamantly presented than Beck’s, but the implication that such is in the very near future is there in Hal’s TV program narratives. While Beck doesn’t consider anything regarding true Bible prophecy at all, Hal Lindsey believes that severe persecution for Christians is also in that bleak future.

To briefly state my “take,” in answer to my emailer, I believe that America will not suffer catastrophic collapse while Christians (true believers in Jesus Christ) remain on planet earth. You and I–whether believer or nonbeliever–are, I’m firmly convinced, members of the most privileged generation in history. We are alive at the very end of this fascinating moment in human advancement. For believers, however, the privilege is magnified beyond imagination.

Believers in Jesus Christ are alive during this end of the Church Age for a divinely appointed purpose. We are witnesses to and participants in the very time the Lord Jesus Christ Himself prophesied would see Him revealed in spectacular fashion. The prospect for those who name the name of Christ is truly glorious.

While “Scanning a Fearful Future” is an accurate title for purposes of this examination of things to come, an equally appropriate title for those who are born again would have been “Scanning a Fabulous Future.” We will  continue next week with specifically what I believe the near future holds for believers and nonbelievers alike.

 

 

Scanning a Fearful Future: Part 7

By Terry James

America and the nations of the world, as we have explored, are–according to Glenn Beck and Hal Lindsey–moving quickly down the road that leads to global socioeconomic cataclysm. I agree. Such a destiny lurks in the murkiness of the not-too-distant future. However, exactly how that destination will be reached and who among the planet’s current population will suffer the disastrous fate predicted by Beck and Lindsey are matters for much closer scrutiny. Two questions we will try to address are in view as we look at the near future through the prism of Bible prophecy:

1) Will America and the world suffer Beck and Lindsey’s feared versions of economic collapse, thus societal catastrophe? 2) Will Christians in America suffer severe persecution as part of any such catastrophic breakdown?

Now, here’s where things can get quite confusing, if careful attention isn’t paid to the thoughts I’m trying to convey. I am of the conviction that America and the world will suffer Lindsey and Beck’s predicted economic, thus societal, catastrophe. Persecution and martyrdom will coalesce to make life for believers even in the U.S. region hell on earth as a result of that immense calamity.

I am at the same time equally convinced that there will neither be national and worldwide economic and societal collapse nor severe persecution and martyrdom for American Christians. Lunacy? Not if one views things to come through Bible prophecy as it is truly given for us to understand.

God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isa. 55:8). Believe it or not, like it or not, God’s Word demonstrates that He deals with mankind in dispensations–distinctive eras that He alone determines. This generation is part of the dispensation of grace–the Church Age. This dispensation will morph into the Tribulation, a period of seven years of God’s judgment and wrath also known as “Daniel’s seventieth week.”

My seemingly irrational claims, viewed in light of dispensational truth, are on sound biblical footing. Please consider slowly and carefully. Putting forth that I believe America and the world both will experience and will not experience apocalyptic socioeconomic collapse makes sense from dispensational perspective. Holding that American believers in Jesus Christ will not go through such persecution that includes martyrdom, all the while proclaiming that believers living in this nation will suffer persecution and martyrdom, is a biblically correct dispensational pronouncement.

These paradoxical proclamations are made understandable by the words of the greatest of all prophets–the Lord Jesus Christ. His astonishing prophecy about the end of this dispensation in which you and I are living addresses the two questions for which we seek answers.

Bible prophecy’s answers to these are as follows, I’m firmly convinced:

1) Neither America nor the world will suffer societal and monetary catastrophe that will bring about apocalyptic collapse due to man-made accidental bungling or contrived manipulation. However, there will be a crash of the world’s socioeconomic system, which will cause chaos of unfathomable scope, brought about by the God of heaven in an instant of time.

2) Christians in America today will not face persecution of the sort suffered by martyrs in past ages and by believers in parts of the world at present. But, following God’s next catastrophic intervention into earth’s history, believers in North America–as well as all other believers in Jesus Christ–will suffer persecution even worse than that inflicted upon believers of previous times.

Most Relevant Prophecy

When thinking on prophecies that are stage-setting for the wind-up of history, we most often point to prophecies involving Israel being back in the land of promise as most key to where we stand on God’s end-of-the-age timeline. The peace process and Jerusalem being at the center of the world’s spotlight show precisely the lateness of the hour.

That said, I believe no prophecy is more relevant for this moment in history than that given by Jesus Christ Himself, which encompasses not just the future of Israel and Jerusalem, but of the entire world:

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17: 26-30)

This prophetic declaration by the Creator of all things is about the generation that will be alive at the dénouement of the age. Specifically, it refers to one catastrophic moment in the present dispensation when all of this world system will come crashing down. We will next look in-depth at the details wrapped up in Jesus’ foretelling of planet earth’s near future.

 

 

Scanning a Fearful Future: Part 8

By Terry James

Planet earth is on the brink of what both Glenn Beck and Hal Lindsey have stated they believe will be monetary and societal collapse of unprecedented magnitude. We also looked previously at a prophetic declaration by the Creator of all things, which is–I believe I can verify–about the generation that will be alive at the very end of the age.

Specifically, Jesus’ prophecy refers to one catastrophic moment in this present dispensation–the Church Age (Age of Grace)–when all of this world system will come crashing down.

Again, here’s the prophecy from Christ himself:

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:26-30)

Are the two cataclysms–the one Beck and Lindsey talk about on their TV programs and the one Jesus foretells–related to each other? If so, how?

We will now try to answer the questions about world collapse, whether persecution for American Christians is imminent, and how it might all be tied together prophetically. We will do so by looking in-depth at the details wrapped up in Jesus’ forecast for earth’s near future.

Jesus gave what I am convinced is the premiere end-of-the-Church-Age prophecy in Luke 17:26-30. He describes in considerable detail world conditions and activities at the moment He breaks in on things of this present age.

He tells in His prophecy just the opposite of what Glenn Beck says is on the brink of happening to the people of America and the world. That is, the Lord’s description of how the worldwide catastrophe will happen differs greatly from the Fox host’s prediction of the cause of the calamity he says is just around the corner.

Remember, Mr. Beck is predicting for the near future the direst of socioeconomic collapses. He recommends that we prepare for, quite likely, hyper-inflated times to come, at the very least. He indicates that he fears that from the collapse will spin draconian governmental measures to quell the rioting that will occur when those millions who are given government hand-outs no longer receive the largesse. There is more than enough evidence of unchecked government today to prove Beck’s fears are well founded. The phenomenal growth of federal intrusion into practically every facet of the citizen’s life today portends grave consequences for liberty in the months and years just ahead. For example, bureaucratic regulation such as the move of the unelected FCC apparatchiks to invoke “net neutrality”–a Big Brother-like regulatory process that could eventuate in establishing dictatorial power over Internet usage–threatens anyone who would express opinions that run counter to state-approved language. The current administration intends to implement this despite the fact that a federal appeals court has ruled the administration doesn’t have the authority to do so.

Hal Lindsey sees the same cataclysm approaching, basically for the same reasons. He also recommends that we prepare for possible food shortages, and he says he believes Christians in this country will face severe persecution, which I infer to mean persecution of the sort suffered by martyrs for the cause of Christ. I must add here that I agree with both of these gentlemen–to some degree. And I disagree, also, with both–for differing reasons. But I reserve my thoughts in that regard for the biblically based logic I hope will make itself manifest as I analyze the words of the greatest of all prophets.

We now are basically familiar with what Glenn Beck and Hal Lindsey say about the two questions involving the probability of American and world socioeconomic collapse and, in Lindsey’s case, about Christians in America facing imminent, severe persecution.

Let’s dissect carefully what Jesus predicts for the times just ahead. I say with confidence that Jesus tells the future from this moment forward, based upon what I’m convinced His words are speaking to this generation at this very hour. He prophesied in the Luke 17:26-30 passages that in the “days” He, the “Son of man,” is about to break into earth’s history, mankind will be doing certain things. It will be a time like the days of Noah before the Flood and the days of Lot while he was still in Sodom.

People, the Lord said, will be eating, drinking, marrying, building, buying, selling, and planting. Things will be going along pretty much as normal for the time. The Lord indicates no catastrophic, worldwide socioeconomic breakdown of any sort in this time immediately before “the Son of man is revealed” (Luke17:30)–the time He breaks into human history.

This time cannot be the Second Advent of Revelation 19:11. At the time the Lord of Lords and King of Kings breaks through the planetary darkness of death and destruction at Armageddon, perhaps as many as three-fourths of all people on earth will have died as a result of wars, pestilence, and geophysical disasters brought about by God’s judgment and wrath upon an incorrigibly wicked, unrepentant world of earth-dwellers.

In other words, planet earth’s living conditions at the time of Christ’s return in power and glory at Armageddon will not be anything like living conditions at the time of His intervention into human affairs as He describes in the days of Noah, days of Lot prophecy. At the end of the seven-year Tribulation period, it will be anything but business as usual. It will truly be hell on earth when Jesus comes to destroy all human government and the soul-rending carnage it has produced.

So, Jesus, in the Luke 17 account, was foretelling the days leading up to the time when He calls His church to Himself–”His church” meaning all born-again believers who have lived and died during the Church Age (Age of Grace). This is known as the Rapture. To learn more about this stupendous event, read 1 Corinthians 15:51-55, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, John 14:1-3, and Revelation 4:1-2.

To repeat, Jesus was not describing His coming back to earth in the Luke 17:26-30 prophecy. He was telling about His coming to above the planet to receive His people–Christians—to Himself. Christians–the Church—then will accompany Him back to the heavenly places He has prepared for them in the Father’s house–heaven.

Again, we have reached the limits of our space for this commentary. We will next further examine Jesus’ telling us about–I’m convinced—this very hour in which you and I inhabit planet earth.

 

 

 

Scanning a Fearful Future: Part 9

By Terry James

Jesus Christ–God in the flesh—foretold that the time just before God’s judgment and wrath befall rebellious mankind at the very end of the Church Age will be like it was in the days of Noah and of Lot. Although those times were wicked and all thoughts were focused continually on evil, people of the earth were carrying on with normal activities like eating, drinking, planting, building, marrying, buying, and selling.

In the days of Noah, earth dwellers were carrying on business as usual right up until the moment that Noah entered the ark and all who were left on earth were swept away by the Flood. In the days of Lot, there was an air of civility, with Lot even serving as a judge at the city gates during the day. At night, however, the depravity ran rampant when homosexual lust turned to voracious, predatory assault. Lot and his family members were removed, and all people who were left behind in the city were consumed by the holocaust from heaven.

Jesus said He will be revealed when conditions are like they were during those times. We have seen that the time when He intervenes into the affairs of mankind as described in Luke 17:26-30 will not be His Second Coming at Armageddon (Revelation 19:11). It will be another, earlier intervention–but catastrophic, nonetheless.

We have pointed out many times in these commentaries the strangeness of the dynamics of our times. Crises are building in many critical aspects of human interaction. We have wondered in amazement at the insanity of the dastardly mismanagement of economic matters by governments around the world. How, we puzzle over, have the economies of America and the world avoided crashing?

Why, despite threats of the destruction of Israel by the likes of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has a preemptive attack on Iran’s nuclear production facilities not occurred? Why, with the tremendous buildup of arms by the many Islamic Israel-haters in obvious preparation for an attack on the Jewish state, has there not been a major blow-up in the Middle East that would disrupt world stability?

Yet the anxieties about the world sitting on a number of powder kegs afflict only a few people, relatively speaking. Except for those who are unemployed in America, for example, it’s business as usual. The majority of people just don’t worry about the precarious position of the nation and the world. The masses are buying, selling, marrying–even men with men and women with women, I might add. And building continues, despite the housing debacle and trillions of dollars of debt wrought by monetary madness such as that found in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Most troubling, the church in America–and I am referring to those who are born again (see John 3: 3)—is, for the most part, oblivious to world conditions that present strong evidence that we are on the brink of the prophesied apocalypse. This makes this generation of Christians precisely the generation I believe Jesus was speaking prophetically to when He said, “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44).

But, as we have been examining, there are those who are scanning the fearful future. Glenn Beck, the Fox News program host, says he sees coming a man-contrived world economic collapse, hyperinflation, and societal collapse that only patriotic, sound-thinking, even spiritually-inclined Americans can begin to fix. He doesn’t know when it will happen, but, he says, it will happen almost overnight. We will awaken the next morning to a world totally different than what it was before we went to sleep.

Hal Lindsey, the author of The Late, Great Planet Earth, says much the same thing. He foresees, as a part of that feared socioeconomic collapse, severe persecution for Christians in America at some point. Jesus’ words, which I believe speak directly to this generation, present a different picture than Beck’s forecast (and to some extent, than Lindsey’s) regarding things about to break upon a mostly unsuspecting world. My own thoughts that follow are based upon what I believe is wrapped up in the Lord’s forewarning to our generation in Luke 17: 26-30.

Two statements are necessary at this point. First, it is God’s staying hand that prevents the impending calamities outlined in this essay from collapsing America and the world into the worst times in history. Second, if things continue on their present course geopolitically and socioeconomically–and if God takes His hand of control off developments–the collapse feared by Beck, Lindsey, and many others will certainly come at some point. The longer the rebellion-engendered crises build, the more devastating will be the crash when it comes.

I begin my analysis of what lies just ahead in that fearful future about which Beck, Lindsey, and others have conjectured, and over which so many emailers have fretted. Again, I believe that the answers reside cocooned within Jesus’ “days of Noah, days of Lot” prophecy. Now, we apply His analogy to the present generation.

Jesus foretold that human activity will be going along in a business-as-usual manner. God, in one day, will take His family–believers—out of harm’s way. That very day, His judgment and wrath will begin falling on those not taken. To reiterate because the point can’t be overemphasized: If one accepts Christ’s words as true, and as literal, as I do, one must agree that things must be going along as normal for the time when the sudden intervention happens. Jesus plainly says that the generation alive at the time of that divine intervention will be removed to safety before the devastating events of judgment take place.

Both Beck and Lindsey say they believe a world-rending socioeconomic collapse is imminent. Beck, at least, believes the crash and totally changed America and world will be brought about by the diabolical efforts of New-World-Order types like George Soros. Both Beck and Lindsey are recommending that we make preparations to survive that coming time of devastating collapse.

Yet Jesus tells us that it will be business as usual right up until the moment He removes believers from the planet. There is no man-made, worldwide catastrophe in Christ’s prophecy. As a matter of fact, Jesus says all will be relatively normal, in terms of human activity, until that removal. Then He will be revealed by way of His cataclysmic judgment that begins to devastate planet earth. It is God who causes the cataclysm, not George Soros or any other human or other entity. Mankind’s involvement in the whole matter is that of displaying total rebellion and refusing to repent of sin, thus bringing on God’s righteous judgment. One era–the Church Age—comes to an end with the removal of believers. The next era then begins at some point with the confirming of the covenant with Israel, as given in Daniel 9:26-27. That period will be the seven years of Tribulation, the last three and one-half years about which Jesus said: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew24: 21).

Next we will look into the fearful future, specifically as it relates directly to America’s near-term financial destiny and to whether believers will face deadly persecution.

 

 

 

Scanning a Fearful Future: Conclusion

By Terry James

My disagreement with Glenn Beck and Hal Lindsey regarding their statements that they believe America is about to suffer economic, thus societal, collapse is only one of degree. There is absolutely no doubt that collapse is coming. It is how that implosion will eventuate and who will be caught in the carnage that are at the heart of my disagreement.

My divergence from Dr. Lindsey’s fears about the immediate future for America and Christians is of the very mildest sort. I look to God using him in a mighty way during the past decades as validation of his mission being God-ordained. Thus confutation is entered with all due respect. That stated, I must give the reasons I believe Beck and Lindsey’s fears for the immediate future are somewhat off the mark, as far as Bible prophecy is concerned.

Every signal across the geopolitical, socioeconomic, and religious spectrum–even signals involving the geophysical and astrophysical— scream through the sirens of forewarning. We are at the very end of the Church Age–on the brink of the Tribulation. Yet most in America–including most believers in Jesus Christ—are going about business as usual. Except for the relatively few voices forewarning of the impending cataclysm, there is no recognition of or interest in the end-times storm warnings.

Jesus, as we have seen, said human activity will be like it is at present when He next breaks into earth’s history like a thief in the night. Again, we look at the Lord’s words in the book of Matthew:

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. (Matt 24:36-42)

As we have examined, this break-in upon mankind’s history cannot be describing the Second Advent. It will not be business as usual at that time, when the planet is decimated by wars and God’s judgment and wrath. Jesus is here speaking of the Rapture–His imminent, catastrophic break-in upon earth’s history.

So, we come to our present hour. America is the apex nation of the world. That is, it is the most materially blessed nation and one of the most spiritually blessed nations ever to exist. This, despite the fact that it has degenerated in many ways to become perhaps the most wicked in human history. The United States is so blessed with material wealth that every nation on earth is inextricably linked to its economy in one way or another.

It is true that its dominance is under threat and is eroding quickly. The economic meltdown and unavoidable implosion of America’s monetary hegemony is imminent. But everything of global financial significance still hinges on the health and fate of the American dollar. This is to the great consternation of the people Glenn Beck rails against as wanting to bring the dollar down so that a new monetary regime can be brought to bear on the hapless citizens of what they envision as a Babel-like, one-world order.

Despite incessant assaults, the American economy hasn’t collapsed. It should have by now, but it hasn’t. It is, despite ominous signs ahead, business as usual–just as Jesus said it would be at the end of the age. If America’s economy crashes–as Beck says it will very shortly— the entire world will collapse to rubble. The business-as-usual element of Christ’s prophecy about it being like the days of Noah and Lot would be out the proverbial window.

If the U.S. economy collapsed, taking the world’s buying and selling capability into the darkest times in history, it would take years–if ever–for everything to recover so that things would again come into business-as-usual configuration. Yet the devastating, world-rending collapse is coming. It cannot be stopped. I completely agree with Glenn Beck and Hal Lindsey in seeing that coming economic catastrophe in the immediate future. However, I disagree that the folly of man or the deliberate manipulations of human diabolists will bring the fearful disaster. And the disaster will not happen until God’s prophetic timing allows. It will continue to be business as usual despite increasing harbingers of economic calamity. Perhaps conditions will even look like they are improving. But if so, it will be smoke and mirrors–a sham “recovery.” The damage is done. Recovery is impossible.

This all means that Jesus Christ is poised to do exactly what He foretold. The prophetic signals and conditions prevalent in America and the world should have the attention of every believer. Jesus is about to fulfill His glorious promise as recorded in John 14:1-3.

The Rapture, I believe Jesus is telling us, will be the sword of judgment that pierces the building, festering boil of humanistic rebellion. When the Church is taken to heaven, the minds of those left behind who want to control will no longer have restraint on their thoughts and ambitions. There will cease to be a governor on man’s conscience, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8, because the Holy Spirit will allow the evil within mankind to do its dastardly work.

This will be the time–during the chaos of the days immediately after the Rapture—that all of Mr. Beck’s fears will come to fruition. Neither patriots nor anyone else will be able to save America and the world.

Now to try to answer my emailer concerning whether Christians in America will suffer severe, even deadly, persecution, as I infer Hal Lindsey believes. Christians of America in this pre-Rapture time certainly are not immune from persecution–even from the persecution like that suffered by the Christian martyrs of history. However, it would take a horrendous catastrophe–such as the one Beck predicts—for American society to totally turn its back on Christianity, thus to begin physically attacking Christians in the way Lindsey fears might happen.

The Church, with the Restrainer resident within each believer, will continue to be salt and light–to exert influence over America’s societal and cultural conditions. That influence, although observably becoming less and less effective, will be sufficient to prevent all-out, Nazi-like persecution against Christians in this nation.

When the Church-Age saints go to Christ upon His call to them (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; Revelation 4:1-2), America and the world will be devoid of the Church’s buffering influence. Those who accept Christ during the Tribulation will undergo the most horrific persecution of human history.

Again, if a calamity like the one Beck forecasts were to befall this nation before Christ’s foretold intervention into earth’s history, such a collapse would take the U.S. and the world out of the time of business as usual Jesus said will be in place when He pays the earth that surprise visit.

Jesus was telling us in Luke 17:26-30 and Matthew 24:36-42 specifically about His coming for the Church, and the general time-frame of that event. With all that is in alignment precisely as Jesus and the prophets described, I am convicted in my spirit that now is that time.

Those who haven’t become part of God’s family–believing in Jesus Christ for their personal salvation—face a fearful future indeed. They will be left behind in an instantly changed world gone mad with chaos infinitely worse than even Glenn Beck predicts.

There is still opportunity in this Church Age for the person who hasn’t accepted the Lord Jesus as personal Savior to do so. But time is fleeting. The Rapture could take place at any moment.

Here is what God’s Holy Word, the Bible, has to say to you, if you want to escape from this world that is soon to suffer God’s righteous judgment. Truly follow these instructions from the heart of the God who loves you and wants you to be safe with Him forever. You will then be assured not of a fearful future, but of a future that is fabulous beyond description.

“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. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10: 9-10).

 

 

 

 

While we investigate constantly the many signals that future Bible prophecy is on the verge of fulfillment, there remains the truth of the matters involved: Tremendous change must take place in order for that fulfillment to actually transpire.

The United States of America, for example, must fade from view. It is far from that prospect at present; in fact, our nation is front and center at every level of international interaction.

Under the Trump administration, the nation has become that much more at the center of world affairs. The US president is a powerful force, with a personal presence and personality that when other leaders are in his company, they are changed from their otherwise contrarian demeanors.

This is not to just laud Mr. Trump. It is fact. Even the Chinese dictator, Xi Jinping, when in the direct presence of Mr. Trump, has been almost acquiescent in past meetings in Florida and other places. The president has proven “stage presence,” which seems at the very least to impress, and in some instances, to intimidate.

In major meetings with other world leaders, America is front and center in determining the direction of those gatherings, because Donald J. Trump is there and seems to personally take charge. The other leaders—at least, those of the Western world—seem to acquiesce to his suggestions and proposals. Of course, their demeanors often change once they’re no longer face to face with the president. In many cases, they go back to their contradictory ways.

The point is that America is in a stronger position for leadership in the world than it’s been in many, many years. This cannot stand from the standpoint of Bible prophecy.

As we’ve looked at many times, America is found by name nowhere in Scripture. We concede it could be there by implication, like when we infer that the “young lions” said to be among the nations who protest the Gog-Magog invasion (Ezekiel chapter 38) could refer to America as offspring of England. But that is a weak position in trying to make the point that America is in Bible prophecy for certain.

So there must be a radical change in this matter alone. America, the most powerful nation ever to have existed in terms of economic, technological, and military achievements in the history of mankind, must suffer profound diminishment, at the very least.

And, Mr. Trump and America are at the heart of another significant change that must take place. It involves history’s most important nation from Heaven’s perspective—Israel.

Israel, in its own right, stands as the most powerful nation among its Middle Eastern counterparts. It has nuclear weaponry and technological capability to engage in war the likes about which none among the diplomatic world can fully know—i.e., the weaponry that the Israeli military possesses is a highly protected secret.

On top of that, Israel is now, under the Trump administration, backed up by the world’s only superpower, the United States of America.

This is perhaps the greatest factor that must undergo dramatic change. The change must take place in the most astonishing way possible, because Israeli political and military leadership, regardless of whether conservative or liberal, hawkish or dovish, are in agreement. They know they are surrounded by those who hate the nation and who don’t want the Jewish state to exist. Therefore, Israel must never give up its vigilance against this surrounding enemy. It must always have the very best defensive and even offensive capability in order to avoid annihilation.

Iran, of course, is Israel’s number-one threat. The ayatollahs are constantly promising to wipe the Jewish state from the Middle East map.

Israel will, it’s stated by those in the know, immediately introduce the so-called Samson Option if it’s ever about to lose in a military conflict. To start war with Israel would likely be to light the fuse that will ignite World War III.

A current news item shows the powerful position in which Israel stands, with the help of President Trump and the world’s only superpower.

If Israel indeed decides to take out Iran, the Trump administration has just made it much easier

That’s because the U.S. State Department approved an Israeli request to buy eight KC-46A Pegasus aerial tankers reports the Middle East Forum. This includes support equipment, spare parts, and training. The entire deal is valued at $2.4 billion. The first aircraft shipment is set to arrive in 2023. (David Sidman, “Trump Agrees to Provide Israel the Technology It Needs to Take Out Iran,” Breaking Israel News, March 5, 2020)

Just considering Israel and America’s positions in current issues and events brings us to conclude that major changes are coming. America must fall or be diminished from its superpower status. Israel must somehow give up its great defensive and offensive military capabilities in order to meet prophetic pronouncements by the prophet Ezekiel.

Ezekiel said Israel will be in “unwalled villages” at the time of the Gog-Magog attack from its north. This means the Jewish state will not be capable of defending itself. Ezekiel says that God promises to do the defending of His chosen people. And, it will be an offensive show of power unlike any in history, prior to Armageddon itself.

Almost certainly, the Rapture of the Church will bring about the conditions for these profound changes that must take place. Those changes could be initiated…well…in the “twinkling of an eye.”

“My God [or my Jesus] would never send anyone to Hell.”

This is a statement in one form or another I’ve heard many times, and I’ll bet you have, too.

The world of quasi-Christianity presents a view of Heaven, God, and Jesus as love that holds no person ultimately responsible for sinful activity. While many of the mainline sorts of these folks claim to preach from the same Bible as we do, they deny the concepts of Hell and eternal punishment for sin. These, like the current Catholic pope, hold that everyone will somehow make it to Heaven, because all are loved by God.

This is why, for example, the Catholic Church and most reform brands coming out of Catholicism believe that prophetic portions of the Bible and the book of Revelation (the “Apocalypse,” as the Roman Catholic Church would have it) are to either be spiritualized or allegorized—or should have been left out of the canon of Scripture altogether.

That God’s judgment and wrath are on the way to a rebellious, evil world system lost in sin just doesn’t register within quasi-Christianity.

“Evil will be dealt with by simple, God-ordained dismissal when all is said and done” seems to be the answer when these are questioned about the Bible’s truth about wrath and judgment, because God is only love.

I don’t intend to paint all reform congregants or all Catholics in this way. But, this is a growing heresy—a burgeoning, blasphemous trend within so-called Christendom.

The following examples document how far this world is going in a direction opposite of God’s prescribed way to live, and are, I think, evidence of why God’s judgment and wrath are—and must be—inevitable because of mankind’s incorrigible rebellion.

A new study by LifeWay Research says that 47 percent—nearly half—of all Mainline Protestant pastors now support same-sex marriage. This is up 15 percent from ten years ago. increase over the same time period.

According to the report at LifeWay, “Around a third (32%) say they see nothing wrong with civil unions between two people of the same gender. Almost two-thirds (63%) say they disagree, with a majority (54%) strongly disagreeing.”

The study aligns itself with the evidence that is persistent in mainline Protestant denominations—such as the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), the United Methodist Church, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), all apostate denominations that ordain women and, in many cases, homosexuals. (Jeff Maples, “New Study Shows Nearly Half of Mainline Protestant Pastors Support Gay Marriage, Reformation Charlotte, Rapture Ready News, February 28, 2020)

Jesus forewarned that at the time of His next catastrophic intervention into the affairs of wicked mankind, people would be conducting life like people did during the days of Lot. The sodomite lifestyle is now condoned by an ever-broadening swath of clergy. And, according to this ecclesiastical agglomerate, there will be no ultimate judgment or wrath from Heaven for this sinful conduct.

The second example must be even more angering to the loving God who sits on the throne:

In a shocking move Tuesday, nearly every Democratic senator voted against requiring that medical care be provided to babies who survive abortions.

A cloture vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act garnered the support of 56 senators, compared to 41 who voted to block it.

All 53 GOP senators and three Democratic senators voted to proceed, while 41 Democrats voted no, meaning the measure fell short of the 60 votes needed for cloture, ending debate.

The bill requires, in part, that medical personnel “exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child [who survives an abortion] as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.”…

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who sponsored the bill, rightly observed from the Senate floor prior to Tuesday’s vote, “Every one of us should be able to say without any hesitation, ‘leaving babies to die is unacceptable.’ THIS AIN’T HARD STUFF, PEOPLE!!

This should be a 100 to zero no-brainer.”…

The Susan B. Anthony List’s national campaign chair, Jill Stanek, a former nurse who witnessed babies born alive during an abortion procedure and then left to die, said in a statement provided to The Western Journal, “It is appalling to see Democrats…vote against compassionate, common-sense bills, including one that simply requires medical care for born children.”

Concerned Women for America president Penny Nance linked Planned Parenthood to Tuesday’s vote by Democrats.

“It is a very sad day for the unborn, and I pray God’s forgiveness over our country. Planned Parenthood and abortion extremists’ death grip have once again prevailed through the Democrat party,” Nance said in a statement given to The Western Journal. (Randy DeSoto, “God Help Us: 41 Dem Senators Vote Against Protecting Already Born Babies from Being Legally Murdered,” The Western Journal, February 26, 2020)

That any baby is murdered, either while in the mother’s womb or once born, must wrench the very heart of God, must anger the Creator who loves His creation so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die for mankind’s sin. That is love our finite minds cannot grasp.

It takes infinite comprehension to grasp that kind of love. We can only get that kind of understanding through the grace of God—through the salvation process and a regenerate mind given to us when we accept Christ as Savior.

God’s love also demands judgment and wrath. He cannot allow unrighteousness in His holy presence. He, in His holiness and righteousness, therefore, must exact a price. Jesus paid that price for sin with His own blood upon Calvary’s cross more than two thousand years ago.

Therefore, God’s wrath is inevitable. It will be unleashed against all unbelief at the Great White Throne judgment.

To avoid that wrath and judgment, each person must accept the gift of grace that is Jesus Christ and His once-and-for-all-sacrifice for mankind’s sin.

Again, here is the only way to avoid the otherwise inevitability of God’s wrath falling upon you and me:

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. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)

American stock-market gurus are astonished and baffled. The Dow and other financial/economic averages have plunged in unprecedented fashion. It is not a crash, as in the 1929 stock-market crash. But it has never gone from an unprecedented high to a 10 percent loss in such short order.

The stock market has since somewhat rallied, but still is tremendously down.

It is all, of course, because of a panicked selloff by those whose whole reason for being revolves around making money, the love of which, God’s Word says, is “the root of all kinds of evil.”

At the core of the panic is the coronavirus. The spreading disease—of which little is known as far as its cause and ultimate effects—is feared to eventually bring to a standstill the consumption of products around the world.

It is thought that factories will be unable to produce goods and parts to sell to other manufacturing entities, because workers either won’t, due to illness, be able to attend work, or because workers are afraid to be around other people. This, it is feared, will ultimately bring on a major depression—or something even worse.

The hyperbole is rampant. At the heart of it all are the Democrat Party leaders, the mainstream news media, and the Trump haters, all of whom see in the hyperbole political advantage as the US presidential election date comes into view.

Leaders of that party weighed in almost immediately, accusing President Donald Trump of being inadequate to handle the crisis. They charged that he is doing too little, and compared the coronavirus to Hurricane Katrina of the George W. Bush era. A number of mainstream broadcast networks and cable channels saw their program hosts join in with their Democrat guests. The tenor and tone of their analyses seemed to be that this disease will be Trump’s Katrina.

This refers to the charge made against President Bush that he was inadequate to handle that crisis, so many people died and great dangers existed that wouldn’t have if a Democrat had been in office.

One host urged her guests to just start calling it the “Trump Virus.”

It remains to be seen, of course, just where this outbreak will end. The stock market has fallen, as stated above, and, indeed, unless things turn around and there is a bounce-back of the bottom of the fall, things could severely damage an economy that has been perceived as booming.

My own take has been, as most who read these commentaries know, that the Rapture will occur at a time of economic uptick, not during a global fiscal disaster.

My belief hasn’t changed. I still contend that the Lord Jesus prophesied it will be business as usual, or even better than usual, when He next catastrophically breaks in on the affairs of mankind.

It will be catastrophic for those left behind. But it will be glorious beyond imagination for those who go to be with their Lord in that electrifying instant of Rapture.

All the experts I’ve heard lately say that America isn’t in real danger of the outbreak at the moment, but things could change. They expect measures taken by this administration to keep the coronavirus from becoming pandemic within the borders of the United States.

The experts also say almost as one that it will take many months, perhaps even years, to develop a vaccine that is highly effective against the disease. This is quite troubling to consider.

God has His mighty hand on it all, and that is the spiritual prompting upon which I base my optimism that the resolution to the problem will be forthcoming sooner rather than later.

The following news item speaks to that internal, spiritual prompting I sense.

Israeli scientists are on the cusp of developing the first vaccine against the novel coronavirus, according to Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis. If all goes as planned, the vaccine could be ready within a few weeks and available in 90 days, according to a release.

“Congratulations to MIGAL [the Galilee Research Institute] on this exciting breakthrough,” Akunis said. “I am confident there will be further rapid progress, enabling us to provide a needed response to the grave global COVID-19 threat,” Akunis said, referring to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

For the past four years, a team of MIGAL scientists has been developing a vaccine against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), which causes a bronchial disease affecting poultry. The effectiveness of the vaccine has been proven in preclinical trials carried out at the Veterinary Institute. (Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, “Israeli Scientists: ‘In a few weeks, we will have coronavirus vaccine.’” Jerusalem Post, February 20, 2020, https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Israeli-scientists-In-three-weeks-we-will-have-coronavirus-vaccine-619101)

It is within prophetic purview to conjecture whether the Lord might be about to bring forth evidence of why Israel is His chosen people. It will be fascinating to watch developments.

The Lord has said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1–3)

 

Once-in-a while, my writer’s cognition takes me into the realm of imagining what would happen if…

Now, I am aware of the bromide of precaution: “’If’ is for children.” Nonetheless, “what if?” is the conduit through which the imaginations of nonfiction writers as well as fictionists have been transported throughout history.

With full recognition and acknowledgment of this precautionary heads-up, I want to think a bit on “what if” regarding a prophetic matter most of us are deeply concerned about.

We are, after all, “children of God,” so, if “what if” is for children,” I feel secure in proposing this “what if” to you.

As you see, the title is “Rapture…What If…?”

While I know this will be read mostly by children of God, I write it with the hope that readers in this category also know they are royal ambassadors of the court of the heavenlies. Therefore, I hope you will share the thoughts herein offered within your spheres of influence as people charged to carry out the Great Commission.

Writing about this “what if” is so important to produce and disseminate at this time because history might well be nearing the prophetic moment that instantaneously dooms millions—particularly in America—because all in this nation will have heard the Gospel. Beyond that stupendous event, some will have no chance to be saved from damnation. They will be lost for all eternity.

Most every signal of the colossal, world-rending change that is on the very brink of striking the inhabitants of the planet is flashing brilliant red. Within the past few days, I’ve received a number of emails listing many such ominous signals bombarding this generation. These are almost identical and come from a number of websites, without any of these sites giving attribution to the original source.

The best I can tell, they originate with Michael Snyder, a blogger with whom I’m sure many are familiar (http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/10-plagues-that-are-hitting-our-planet-simultaneously).

(I must note here that Mr. Snyder does not accept that the Bible teaches a pre-Tribulation Rapture.) The following is a very brief list of some of these signals.

1) Locust swarms as large as cities are destroying entire agricultural crops within thirty seconds of alighting.

2) Rampaging weather events are taking place, such as what’s going on in Australia. After fires that killed a half-billion animals and many people, rain deluged the area in record amounts. Winds in excess of two hundred miles per hour created dust storms that blotted out the sun. Jackson, Mississippi, received record rainfall and flooding.

3): Major earthquakes are occurring around the globe and increasing in magnitude. Those who keep up with them report that there are too many to record individually at times.

4) Volcanoes are erupting simultaneously around the world. The gargantuan Mount Merapi in Indonesia, for example, sent lava and ashes more than two thousand meters in the air and forced people to stay clear of its zone of devastation.

5) The coronavirus is potentially one of the most devastating diseases the world has experienced. It threatens entire national economies as well as the health of citizenry.

6) African swine fever has wiped out much of the pork sources, which threatens food supplies around the world.

7): The H1N1 swine flu kills people rather than the animals, and has already taken the lives of more people than the coronavirus in China.

8): The H5N1 bird flu, which killed many a few years ago, is said to be recurring and threatens to cause even more deaths than before.

9) The H5N8 bird flu is thought to be more virulent than even H5N1 bird flu. It is appearing all over the world, and experts are surprised by it popping up in Germany recently.

My long-time friend and colleague, Dr. Joseph Chambers of Paw Creek Ministries, has weighed in on how near to the Rapture today’s flashing-red-light issues and events must surely place this generation.

I’m thrilled at the many signs of Christ’s soon return. The Rapture is evident, but so are the many great events of the end connected to the Rapture and His return to reign on the earth. Let’s look at the times in Scripture where the writers are using the term, “last days.” This very term mean, “the last of the last.” This is where we certainly have arrived.

Let’s talk about:

1. The days of Revelation: Hebrews 1:1–6

2. The Day of Great Wealth: James 5:3

3. The Day of Great Wickedness: 2 Timothy 3:1–8

4. Time of Many Scoffers: 1 Peter 3:3

5. The Time of Technological Inventions: Nahum 2:3–6

6. The Time of Great Awakening: Acts 2 17–21

7. Infectious Diseases: Matthew 24:6–7

So, with the explosion of prophetic indicators converging at this time, the thought I intend to present in this commentary revolves around “what if” the people of the earth are now about to be catastrophically jolted by the most calamitous event of all time. Specifically, the likely scenarios of post-Rapture America are most troubling to consider. For the moment, I want us to think on one of the situations that would develop in the United States if the Rapture of the Church should take place at this present hour: What if the Rapture happens right in the middle of this presidential election year?

As the days leading up to November 3, 2020, pass, the nation becomes more divided than ever in the view of America’s future. Should we continue to go the way of socialism? Should we allow the people into the public treasury, thus buying votes for the give-away society and culture that Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez propose and that the Democrat Party and mainstream media seems to want? Or should the United States embrace getting back to the way the Founding Fathers intended—the Constitutional republic they framed that caused Benjamin Franklin to quip, “We have given you a republic…if you can keep it.”

By every estimate, it looks as if the president will win the election by, at a minimum, a near landslide. The opposition is so crazed in their abject hatred for the man who occupies the Oval Office that they have gone off track and are headed for a crash. That’s the way even James Carville, the Clinton-era Democrat guru who gave us the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid,” has described his own party’s current condition.

But “What if…?”

What if, just before the day of the election, the Rapture occurs—catastrophically affecting those who are left behind?

More than half of the president’s voter base would be gone in that instant. What a thing to consider!

There would be no doubt about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election if that scenario played out. The disappearance of most of Trump’s supporters would be a dream come true for the “resisters”—the “let’s-change-America” masses. It would be an absolute nightmare for those who support bringing America back to the constitutional republic Ben Franklin and the Founding Fathers envisioned.

But, the political consequences would be small potatoes compared to the consequences for the individual souls left behind to face the horrors soon to come in America and upon the entire world.

And, this is the message I intend to deliver. As I mentioned above, I hope you will convey the message as a real possibility that might come to pass; it is your job as a royal ambassador.

As an ambassador for Jesus Christ, according to all the signals, you are about to be called home. So, it is incumbent on you to proclaim the message while you remain on this fallen planet.

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Things shaping up in terms of prophetic stage-setting, particularly regarding Israel, should strike us as crucial. By this, I mean things prophesied for the time just before Christ’s Second Advent are in precise configuration for the very dénouement of the Church Age.

Nothing could be more crucial now than preparation in the Jewish mind and spiritual heart for constructing the Third Temple.

Increasing noise of constructing that end-times edifice is coming from that nation’s leadership.

Consider the following excerpt from an article that originated in that prophetic nation.

Israel’s defense minister and head of the New Right party, Naftali Bennett, spoke to a Yeshiva (male seminary) in northern Israel on Wednesday criticizing a political rival who Bennett claims doesn’t treat Israel’s state institutions as playing an integral role in the Redemption process.

Bennett then lamented what he sees as a current attitude of lawlessness in Israel saying that the reason that the Second Temple was destroyed was because everyone “followed their own rules.”

“We need to understand the big picture” Bennett said, adding “today we are in (the era of) the Third Temple.”

Bennett then reminded the captive audience about the history of the Kingdom of Israel, saying “we have had a state twice where we ruled as a united people. The first time it only lasted 80 years—King David 40, then King Solomon 40. After that, we separated.”

“The second time, we were sovereign for only 74 years during the Hasmonean dynasty” he added.

Bennett, then [touched] on the present, saying “Now we are at 72 years. The Jewish nation has never been able to maintain a united rule for more than 80 years.”

The Defense Minister concluded saying that he will not let “anyone tear apart the state of Israel.” (David Sidman, “Israel’s Defense Minister: We Are Now in Era of Third Temple,” Breaking Israel News, February 13, 2020)

The defense minister’s assessment is one I hadn’t considered. Israel has never gone more than eighty years with a united leadership—that is, with a connected government. They are but eight years from a record in that regard.

What does it mean? I haven’t a clue. But the timing of all things is a fascinating exercise in considering Heaven’s timeline for bringing a close to this Age of Grace.

One of the great Hebrew eschatological scholars of our time wrote a compelling piece on the coming Third Temple some years ago.

The significance of Israel’s reinstituting the Sanhedrin may be another event that leaves in place the possibility of how the Lord will work out His will with His people. Almost sixty years after a 1900-year absence, the nation of Israel came into existence. Jewish people from the four corners of the world have made aliyah to live in the Land. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem has reconstructed the instruments for Jewish Temple worship; Jewish men determined to be descendants of Aaron, known as the Kohanim, are being trained in ritual practices to serve as Temple priests; and now we have the establishment of an authoritative body to speak to the nation of Israel on matters of Jewish religion. This is significant in light of such passages as Zechariah 12:10 and Hosea 5:15, which speak of a time when the people of Israel will be led into the acceptance of Jesus as their Messiah. The existence of a religious authority for the entire nation will facilitate the multitudes coming to faith. (Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Ariel Ministries Newsletter, Fall 2004/Winter 2005, p. 4)

One of today’s foremost scholars in end-times prophecy, Dr. Thomas Ice, concludes the following about the timing of rebuilding the Temple atop Mount Moriah:

In spite of contemporary turmoil, Israel’s Third Temple will one day be rebuilt.… Daniel 9:24-27; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 11:1-2; 13:14-15. Few observers of world events ever thought Israel would become a nation again, but it did occur in 1948. Yet, there will be a rebuilt temple by the middle of the seven-year tribulation in order to facilitate the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

I have often taught that the long-awaited permission for the Jews to rebuild their Temple will likely be part of the covenant between Antichrist and Israel that starts the seven-year tribulation after the rapture. It appears to me that the Temple will be rebuilt and supervised supernaturally by the two witnesses during the first half of the tribulation. Since one of the two witnesses will most likely be Elijah, this would mean that the ministry of Elijah should tell us more about the ministry of the two witnesses. Malachi 4:4-5 says, “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. An he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.” Perhaps the ministry of Elijah, where he will help the Jewish people “get right with God,” before the return of the Lord will involve their Third Temple, until commandeered by Antichrist.

Regardless of how the Lord works out the details, His plan will be brought to pass. In the meantime, many of the current events now taking place in and around Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are setting the stage for what will be a string of events that will usher in the second coming of Christ. Meanwhile, the church is looking for the rapture, where Christ will take us in an instant to be with Himself for all eternity. (Dr. Thomas Ice, “Is It Time for The Temple?” Rapture Ready archives)

The building of the Third Temple is as good as done. God has pronounced its rebuilding, and nothing can stop or inhibit its construction. It’s all within His perfect timing.

In the days to come, The Mount of Hashem‘s House Shall stand firm above the mountains And tower above the hills; And all the nations Shall gaze on it with joy. (Isaiah 2: 2)