George Santayana’s aphorism, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” has never been more apropos than at this moment. Developments are leaping to the forefront at this late hour of the age leading to the Second Advent of Jesus Christ—developments that are mind-boggling.

Yet vast numbers of people, particularly in America, seem oblivious to the absolute madness of the building rage of hatred toward the Jewish race. The insane rants of college students are mind-boggling to my generation, but regarding much of the rest of the nation, the call for genocide—and that’s what it is, make no mistake—isn’t registering. At least, major nationwide disgust over the atrocities perpetrated isn’t being reported by mainstream media.

And mainstream media is at the sin-darkened heart of the dementia. That is, mainstream media —news and entertainment as well as left-wing blogosphere forums—have so hidden truth about the Israel/Hamas conflict as to cerebrally and spiritually incapacitate much of the American populace. Particularly, the college-age population has largely been either inculcated to view Jews as evil or dumbed down through such media truth-blocking. For example, they are falsely reporting that the Hamas attack on October 7 was not genocidal hatred being carried out by insanely evil terrorists, but is an understandably passionate and legitimate movement designed to fight against Jewish occupiers of Palestinian land “from the river to the sea.”

Thus we have the cerebral and spiritual dementia—the forgetfulness of which George Santayana wrote—apparently infecting the entire country and much of the rest of the world as well. We therefore can now understand the Truth of God’s Word and the words of His prophet Zechariah, who said Jerusalem and Israel will become a “burdensome stone and cup of trembling” to the whole world.

While listening to a program early one recent morning, I heard the words of a British soldier in a documentary of several decades ago. He was speaking to the interviewer, telling of his being part of the D-Day invasion to destroy Hitler’s Nazi regime and end war in Europe.

He said he had, during many battles during World War II, seen many, many horrendous scenes—literally, blood and bodies torn asunder. Before that, he worked in hospital settings in England. He had seen terrible human carnage of every description. So he wasn’t squeamish, but battle-hardened. But when his British Army group reached the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, he and every battle-hardened veteran became physically sick. They all became totally silent as they observed the walking skeletons—skin barely draped over walking, corpse-like victims of the Nazi Holocaust. It was, he said, something he wished every person of every generation could see so they would believe it happened and would therefore stop such inhumanity to their fellow humans whenever it again raised its ugly head.

Well, it is raising its ugly, satanic head again. And the youngsters haven’t seen the black-and-white films of the walking dead described by this old, war-hardened, British soldier, as he expressed he wished would happen.

The college students—and others who have forgotten, or haven’t been taught, prefer the lies. They prefer, rather, to keep their noses in their smartphones and instead attend exciting “protests” against the much-hated Jews. We are witnessing the rising of another holocaust. It is the holocaust Jesus and the prophet Jeremiah spoke about in warning about what is coming on this judgment-bound world of anti-God rebels:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21)

Jeremiah the prophet said:

Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness. Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. (Jeremiah 30:6–7) 

This generation is about to experience the ramifications of “forgetting the past,” as Santayana warned. Treatment of God’s chosen people is at the heart of bringing God’s righteous judgment and wrath down on a world whose inhabitants have rejected His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent as the sacrificial lamb slain from the foundation of the world for the redemption of sin-fallen humankind.

Satan, the devil, was at the nucleus of the Nazi-engendered Holocaust of the 1930s. He is at the heart of the genocide being called for by many of America’s college students and much of the world’s populace today. Because of the treatment of His chosen nation and people, God will, according to the prophet Joel, bring all to Armageddon:

For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3:1–2)

Make sure you recognize the present rage against Israel (which isn’t a perfect nation by any stretch, but whose people God loves) is satanically inspired and driven. Christians should have this understanding, but, sadly, not all do.

Unbelievers have an excuse, perhaps, for not understanding, but it is an excuse that nonetheless won’t assuage the judgment and wrath that are coming.

Here is how to avoid the judgment and wrath, which God in His righteousness will bring against all who reject His Son for personal salvation of their souls:

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)  

Again listening to Dr. David Jeremiah’s message on the Rapture, one of my most adamant pre-Trib Rapture beliefs came to mind.

The question in my thinking isn’t: Will all children below the age of accountability go to Christ when He shouts “Come up here!?” My question revolves around how anyone who believes in what God’s Word teaches on salvation and the pre-Trib Rapture does NOT believe everyone below the age of accountability will go to Christ at that moment.

Objections to all children going to Jesus in the Rapture revolve around one verse of Scripture:

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. (1 Corinthians 7:14) 

Even the great Dr. John Walvoord believed these words indicate that only those below the age of accountability who have at least one “saved” parent will go to Christ when He calls the Church to Himself.

I’m name-dropping, I guess, but I asked (in an open Q & A session) my good friend, Dr. Walvoord (he wrote a number of chapters for my books and we were indeed good friends and talked by phone and in person on occasion), if he could give any other Scriptures that backed up the contention that this verse indicated as he believed.

He thought for a moment and shook his head no. “No, I can’t,” he said somberly.

I no longer debate the matter when given a contrary opinion, but respond one time and one only.

This is a salvation matter between Jesus Christ and the child (an eternal matter—not a matter dealing with physical life and death). It does not concern earthly relationships (child to parent), religion (church affiliation), or morality (personal conduct).

Children who have died and those who will be taken in the Rapture have in common the fact that they were/will be instantly with the Lord. This is because they are seen in God’s merciful economy as innocents.

Most importantly, it is an INDIVIDUAL matter—God dealing one on one, not collectively or corporately with the salvation issue.

Acceptance of Christ is based upon a decision. If a person doesn’t have—and has never had—the ability to accept or reject a relationship with Him because he or she doesn’t have the mental capacity to understand, they cannot accept or reject.

The Bible says those who know to do good and do it not, to them it is sin. Conversely, I believe that the whole body of Scripture presents the case that if people don’t know they are lost because of sin, they are not condemned. But, when maturity that brings understanding comes (and the Holy Spirit draws them, convicting them of sin), they must accept God’s offer of reconciliation.

The very character of God, as presented throughout the Word of God, is at stake. All in Christ will go at the Rapture. Paul says “all will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” What does this mean—”all” who are “in” Christ? It refers to the fact that all who are redeemed by the shed blood of Christ are a part of the Body of Christ—the Church. The child—even though born into sin because of Adam’s disobedience—is “in” Christ before he/she is able to comprehend God’s salvation provision. None who are in Christ will have to face the wrath of God during the coming Tribulation.

There is a specific heavenly book that is vital to the position of the soul of every person ever born, with the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ’s immaculate conception.

Here are the scriptural passages that speak to this.

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. (Revelation 3:5)

And there shall in no wise enter into [the heavenly abode] any thing that defileth, neither [whatsoever] worketh abomination, or [maketh] a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21:27)

God’s Word is telling us here that there is a volume in which every human being’s name is written at some point. No one whose name isn’t written in this book can enter God’s holy presence for eternity. The word “Life” in the title of this book is “eternal” life. Every human being who has been conceived in the procreation process has his or her name written in the “Lamb’s Book of Life.” But, there is obviously the chance that one’s name can be blotted out of that book, according to Revelation 3:5. Since it isn’t possible to lose one’s salvation once a person has “believed” in the only begotten Son of God (Jesus’ words in John 10: 27–29,) the term “blot out” in Revelation 3:5 needs to be explained. The meaning becomes clear, when thinking on the fact that each and every individual’s name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. The name remains there until the person is shown that he or she is a sinner, and is convicted or called by the Holy Spirit to repent of sin—to “believe” in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the person fully realizes that call, and that Jesus is the ONLY way to reconciliation with God the Father, but refuses or rejects God’s grace-gift offer, that name is “blotted out” of the Lamb’s Book of Life. The individual who rejects that gift of salvation will die in sin and spend eternity apart from the Creator. Those who have reached the age of accountability will also be left behind when the Rapture occurs.

The name will be written back in that book when the individual subsequently accepts the Lord Jesus as Savior. Jesus Christ’s shed blood is the only payment God the Father accepts. But, once a person accepts that gift, he or she is a member of God’s family–forever.

So, our position in Christ is the all-important thing, whether considering going to Heaven when we die or at the Rapture, when Jesus comes to take us to our home, which He, personally, has prepared for each of us (Read John 14:1–4). This is the only collective family gathering that counts in God’s economy, in consideration of the matter of the Rapture and salvation. We will, at the Rapture, go home to be in God the Father’s house. Here on earth, our relationship with our earthly parents is tremendously important, of course. But, it is our place in our heavenly family, in our heavenly home, that is absolutely crucial. This is an eternal matter. And, it all relies upon our position in Jesus Christ, not upon our position in our earthly home, or upon the spiritual condition of our parents.

All of that considered, what, then, is meant by the Scripture that most all seminaries teach governs which children will go in the Rapture?

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. (1 Corinthians 7:14) 

To put it as simply as possible, here is what I believe is meant by this greatly misused Scripture. I believe it means that the saved partner in the marriage will make the marriage a legitimate union in Heaven’s economy. The saved partner makes it so in God’s holy eyes, therefore the marriage bed is undefiled, as the Scripture says in another place.

Thus, in the case of the marriage of one saved parent and one unsaved parent, a child is a legitimately conceived one—again, in the Lord’s holy eyes—i.e., the child is not seen in Heaven as having been conceived out of wedlock.

When the Rapture happens, there will be no children on earth—not even those just conceived and gestating in their mothers’ wombs. I believe the God who created mankind will make the most dramatic statement possible about His view of when life begins.

There will be great chaos on this judgment-bound planet like at no other time in human history. The sudden evacuation of all little ones below the age of accountability (and only God knows that age for each child) will make that chaos terrifying beyond comprehension.

You don’t want to be left behind to face that chaos, judgment, and wrath. Here again is how to make sure you go to be with the Savior when He calls.

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)

Many times I’ve remarked, after being informed of one prophetic development or another, something like: “Well…what can we expect at this late hour of the age? It’s all coming together just like it should.”

That’s almost a too-casual look on my part at these things we see happening that prove the truth of God’s prophetic Word. I haven’t, in making such a statement, fully grasped in every instance what is taking place at this late hour. At least, yours truly has been occasionally lax in totally understanding what’s taking place, to some extent. So I’ll say here that it’s my faux pas, not yours, that should be addressed and corrected.

Bottom line of this self-critique is that things are taking place not by natural, prophetic selection—the evolving events that build upon one another by happenstance. These things are actually orchestrated by the very hand of the One who foretold the matters involved. God is in the Heaven-ordained process of pulling all things together for the wrap-up of this quickly fleeting Age of Grace. 

I could point to many areas that validate that this is taking place. However, one stands out profoundly.

The war Hamas started on October 7, which Israel is in the middle stages of finishing, seems to be the catalyst that’s galvanizing the final stage being set for the Gog-Magog battle (Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39). The Lord’s great hand of direction came starkly in view for me when the announcement that a minor player has just become part of the massive gathering of the major Gog-Magog players.

I don’t mean to trivialize that coming attack on God’s chosen people by likening it to a game of two teams opposing one another. Certainly that isn’t my intention. However, the whole of this thing called human creation and God’s dealing with us seems in some way to be a stupendous drama—a great play, that is, as the title of this article implies—directed by the very hand of God.

And what we see happening in and surrounding God’s chosen nation is unimpeachable proof, if we ever needed it, that He isn’t the existential God the agnostics claim, but a hands-on God beyond human comprehension.

And it isn’t the grand orchestration that so impresses me and any child of God. It is, rather, a more-or-less minor element He has just added to the drama He long ago told us about through Ezekiel that makes the goose bumps run up the back of the neck, because it shows just how very near we are to the finale of the great play that’s about to begin.

The “minor element” is the announcement given in the following news item:

MSN: Algerian parliament authorizes President Tebboune to support Gaza amid Israeli assaults

ALBAWABA- In a significant move, the Algerian Parliament has officially authorized President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to enter the conflict in support of Gaza, with a unanimous vote of 100/100.

This decision comes in response to the escalating Israeli massacres against the Palestinian population in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Algeria becomes the second Arab nation to declare official support for Palestine and to confront Israel. (“Algeria Votes to Go to War with Israel,” by CWR, November 3, 2023)

So why does this joining in by a minor Israel-hating, blood-vowed enemy invoke such a back-of-the-neck chill? The following helps us understand:

The key consideration is the content of Ezekiel 38 and 39. What features of these chapters indicate the timing of the invasion, its participants, and location?…

Magog occurs in the Old Testament on four occasions (Genesis 10:2; 1 Chronicles 1:5; Ezekiel 38:2; 39:6). It identifies a descendant of Japheth in the table of nations, which scholars trace to the ancient Scythians. These tribes lived in the region north of the Black Sea and some consider their territory stretched from Ukraine to Siberia. Further, Ezekiel describes Gog as “the prince of Rosh” (38:2, NASB), which also suggests a location in Russia, although the use of “Rosh” is debated…

Added to these are “Persia, Cush, and Put” (Ezekiel 38:5), as well as “Gomer and all his hordes” and “Beth-togarmah” (38:6). Persia is clearly modern Iran, another Islamic nation, whose name was changed to Iran in recent times. Cush and Put are more difficult to identify, as is Beth-togarmah. Scholars consider Cush is the nation of northern Sudan, an Islamic one, and Put is Libya, another Islamic (mainly Sunni) nation, and possibly includes Algeria and Tunisia because the ancient borders extended west beyond modern Libya. (“The Battle of Gog and Magog,” The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, https://www.foi.org/2021/12/10/the-battle-of-gog-and-magog/)

The fact that tiny Algeria—which is almost certainly a major constituent part of the ancient area known as “Put”—is now added to the jigsaw puzzle of the Gog-Magog invading horde shows that God’s great hand of control is at work. This confirms yet again that our Lord keeps every detail of His promises in every instance.

The detail we’re “looking up” for in particular is the Rapture of all believers in Jesus Christ. Here is how to be assured you will be a part of that tremendous rescue from this judgment-bound world.

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)  

How Near Is the “Fullness of the Gentiles”?

During the course of my conversations with David Hitt, a close friend of many years, he interjected what I believe to be a most insightful consideration. His thinking involves the circumstances surrounding the Rapture, the restoration of Israel, and the possibility of the Rapture occurring during widespread devastation, perhaps a war—one like we see going on at present involving Israel and its hate-filled enemies.

The “fullness of the Gentiles” presented by Paul in Romans 11 has always been foremost in the minds of those who study from the pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy. What exactly does that phrase mean with regard to the time of the Rapture of the Church?

Here are David Hitt’s thoughts:

Isaiah 6 contains the well-known “Here I am.  Send me” passage in which Isaiah volunteers to convey God’s message to His people that they are hardened (deaf, blind, and without understanding).

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. (Isaiah 6:8–10)

God not only informs His people that they are hardened and that He is the one hardening them, but also that He has hardened them to delay their repenting and being healed.

In Matthew 13, when the disciples ask Jesus why He speaks “to them” in parables, He quotes from Isaiah 6:

He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:” (Matthew 13:11–14)

In Acts 28, Paul also quotes Isaiah 6, reminding the local leaders of the Jews that they are hardened.

And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. (Acts 28:24–27)

Paul discloses for the first time a consequence of Israel’s hardening: the Gospel would be extended to the Gentiles:

Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. (Acts 28:28)

However, both of these quotes (Matthew 13 and Acts 28) from Isaiah 6 stop short. They only address God’s hardening of Israel. Returning to Isaiah 6, beginning in verse 11, the prophet then begs God for an answer, and God gives it to him:

Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate…” (Isaiah 6:11)

God will lift Israel’s partial hardening during or just after a widespread devastation. This may be a great war, even a nuclear war given the extent and degree of damage. However, it may also be a direct act of God.  Note that the cities and the houses need not be in “the land” (the Promised Land). They may be in the land or elsewhere.  God continues His answer in verse 12:

And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. (Isaiah 6:12)

God gives five conditions that exist just before his people spiritually awaken: (condition 1) cities lie waste without inhabitant; (condition 2) houses are without people; (condition 3) the land is a desolate waste; (condition 4) the Lord removes men (better rendered in the ESV as “people”) far away; and (condition 5) the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

In the middle of describing utter devastation (conditions 1–3 and 5), God interjects an enigmatic condition 4: “and the Lord have removed people far away.” The Lord (in all caps) is Yahweh: the covenantal God, and thus the emphasis appears to be on the keeping of a covenant. “People” implies more than one people, i.e. Gentiles. This clause likely refers to the Rapture. Note that condition 5 mentions “forsaken places.” Being listed after condition 4, might God have forsaken them, the Rapture having happened? It’s an interesting thought.

The lack of an explanation for even 4, the Lord’s removal of people far away, makes it a mystery (something hidden).

Now, let’s look at Romans 11, in which Paul answers the question his earlier chapters begged: If Christ is the answer and the law is not, what about the Jews, to whom God had given the law? Has God turned His back on Israel?

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. (Romans 11:1–4)

The answer is an emphatic “No!” God will save an elect remnant of Israel, and He will save them by grace, not the law. To keep the Gentiles from being feeling superior to the Jews, Paul goes on to say:

I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? (Romans 11:11–15)

Then, after describing how the holy firstfruits of lump of dough renders the whole lump holy, how a holy root can render the entire tree holy, and how branches may be cut off and grafted onto a tree and thereby become holy, Paul reveals a mystery in verse 25:

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.  (Romans 11:25)

The mystery Paul reveals is that the partial hardening of Israel’s elect will end when the “fulness of the Gentiles be (has) come in.”

So, let’s assemble what we have learned. Paul says in Romans 11:25 that Israel’s partial hardening will end when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.  In Isaiah 6:11–12, God tells the prophet that He will end His hardening of His people proximate a widespread devastation, likely a great war or a direct act of God.  From these two statements, one concludes that the fullness of the Gentiles comes in on the precipice of or during a widespread devastation, after which God ends His partial hardening of Israel’s elect.

God has one last thing to say to Isaiah to answer his “How long, O Lord?” question:

But yet in [the land] shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. (Isaiah 6:13)

This speaks of Daniel’s Seventieth Week or the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, commonly called the Tribulation.  The stump (the believing remnant of Israel) connects the holy root (Jesus) to the branches (believers) of the pruned and grafted tree (the body of Christ).  Thus, Israel will be reawakened, after which will be Daniel’s Seventieth Week, which reiterates what we’ve already known: the Rapture precedes Daniel’s Seventieth Week, but perhaps in a time of great tumult, even war.  It won’t be the Tribulation, but many believers may think it is.

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The time of “the fullness of the Gentiles” must be very near, thinking on the signals of Christ’s return flashing all at once during this generation. To be sure to go to Jesus when He calls in the Rapture, you must do the following:

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)