Each passing second, advancing history goes deeper into the unknown for much—maybe for most—of the world’s population. From that unknown boils fear. The fear Is steeped in self-conjured premonition that the evilest things imaginable will soon engulf life, bringing devastation and even death.

It is the feeling of impending doom, of something dreadful lurking just ahead. In terms of Greek mythology, it’s the sword of Damocles hanging overhead threatening to decapitate the fearful.

Probably you’ve had that feeling, but maybe not as intensely as described above. I’ve certainly had moments when I had a sense that something bad is about to happen.

For me, the dread, thankfully, has never played out. The anxiety soon passes, and sometimes even a sense of joyful anticipation resides where the fear sat just a short time before.

For others, the premonitions have seemed to play out in worst-case scenario.

At this moment, even for those who are Bible-believing, born again people of God, the times are producing such fear. I know this because I get emails in which people share their worries about what’s on the horizon that will affect their lives and the lives of those they love.

Usually the alarm is expressed through questions such as: Do you think there will be a time of martyrdom for Christians before the Rapture?

Of course, what most writers really mean by that question, I suppose, is: Do you think Christians in America will face martyrdom before the Rapture?

Another question I often get is: Do you think there will be a World War III before we are raptured?

With all the reports of some of America’s powerful enemies preparing for war, we’ll think about that last question in particular a bit more deeply.

As we’ve looked at more than once in this column, it looks like the current American government and the so-called Western allies are doing much to provoke such a nuclear conflict. Rather than looking to ask Mr. Putin to sit down with the Ukrainian leadership—which itself seems to be a complicit partner in poking the nuclear bear—the United States is sending elite forces such as the 101st Airborne into places near the bear’s cave.

And, while that once-unthinkable move—provoking toward war rather than toward peace—brings the world closer to unleashing the nuclear genie, China leers Westward.

As amazing as this administration’s actions are in seeming to make Russia do something Putin obviously doesn’t want to do at this time, even more amazingly, the entire US diplomatic machinery all but totally ignores the threat China poses.

The US Navy has a presence in the South China Sea and purports to be a buffer against China invading Taiwan. But, in reality, with Taiwan being just miles from the Chinese mainland, it would take nothing short of nuclear weapons to offer any hope of dealing with such an assault. And, in that regard, China is as equipped as American forces. So it is feared that the US couldn’t win such a conflict due to having to confront China in its own backyard.

There’s good reason for many of us to be anxious, as that deadly sword is indeed hanging over our heads, based upon just these geopolitical realities. It seems as if everything is out of control—as if even the top leaders on both sides of the nuclear threat have little interest in a peaceful resolution to prevent WWIII.

But for those who know what God’s Word has to say about how things end up, the fears of nuclear holocaust this side of the Rapture don’t need to reach the level of trepidation I described earlier. That’s because of the thought wrapped up in the title: “Prophetically Appointed Day and Hour.”

We’ve incessantly gone over the Gog-Magog war prophesied by Ezekiel and how Russia is destined to lead that assault. There has even been speculation that Putin might be the one who will be indwelt by the Gog spirit at the time of that invasion against Israel. Although I have to say here that while he is a known dictator and a KGB operative from the Soviet days, Putin seems in many ways more honorable than a number of the Western leaders who foment globalist surreptition.

If there is all-out nuclear war, neither Putin nor Russia would be available to take part in that Gog-Magog attack—that is, not if the assault is scheduled to take place soon. God, Himself, is going to take care of that invasion force. And, while He could use nuclear force to take care of business, the description given by Ezekiel seems to be that God has scheduled a supernatural fire from Heaven, like in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah.

God’s schedule is key in considering why believers don’t need to sense that dreaded sword of destructiveness.

We see this by looking at the great book of prophecy that God has given us so we can know how things play out.

China is at the heart of God’s final dealing with humankind’s rebellion, I’m convinced. We can see clearly that the massive nation continues to build in every way toward becoming the head of the hegemonic force that will kill a third of the world’s population during the Tribulation. John, the prophet chosen to present the Revelation, terms this force “the kings of the East.”

I call China the “king of the kings of the East.” That nation is, I believe, scheduled to gather all others within its Oriental orbit for the movement to the Euphrates—the apparent barrier separating the Oriental and Occidental worlds.

Their 200-million-man army will, John said, be possessed by demons that have been kept beneath that area for a certain prophetic moment. It will be the time appointed by God, who knows and controls all things from beginning to end. Here is what He says about that horrendous army from the East:

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. (Revelation 9:13–16)

John also said:

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. (Revelation 16:12)

The reason believers shouldn’t fear all-out nuclear war is tied up in John’s statement in Revelation 9:15:

And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year.

Just as Russia is scheduled to come against Israel, the kings of the East have been scheduled by God Himself to cause—because of His righteous judgment—massive deaths across the world. He has appointed the “hour,” “day,” “month,” and “year” when it will happen. It is the God of all there is, not human warmongers, who will control when death and destruction on a massive scale will occur.

Meantime, we have been promised that we’ll be kept from that appointed time:

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)  

It becomes more evident by the hour that the world is quickly headed toward the Tribulation storm. That’s what our new book, TRAJECTORY: Tracking the Approaching Tribulation Storm, is all about HERE

You don’t want to be left on this judgment-bound planet when that storm begins. Here’s how to go to Jesus Christ and heavenly shelter before that judgment falls.

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)