Once again, I want to address the belief expressed by a number of those who watch in anticipation of the Rapture of the Church. I’m referring to those who assert that now it looks like that glorious event will occur later than expected. Things now look not so Tribulation-like in the wake of the election of Donald Trump. It is now back to business as usual, with prospects much brighter. “It will have to get much darker again before Christ will call the Church out of this doomed planet of God-rejecting rebels” represents the thought of many.
The prophecy by Jesus frames how the times must be when He calls the Church in the Rapture. I’ve written about this prophecy many times. I believe this prophecy is exactly where the world is on God’s prophetic timeline. I believe it is the most relevant prophecy for this moment in regard to expecting the Rapture. Here, again, are Jesus’ words:
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 17:28–30)
My series of articles I titled “Scanning a Fearful Future” had this prophecy at its center. I therefore did have some reflective/introspective moments when I observed the economies of America and the world growing extremely tenuous under the Biden regime. With inflation, the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, and an invasion of illegal aliens this administration was increasingly funding with US taxpayer money, I was reflecting on whether my thoughts about this prophecy might be in error. It didn’t look like it was the “business as usual” environment I thought necessary to meet Jesus’ words recorded in Luke 17:28–30.
Here is a snippet of what I wrote in the series–written at the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011.
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.
I went on to say in the series that business as usual, like in the days of Lot in Sodom, meant that business would be more or less booming, not on a downward trajectory like during these last four years.
So, unlike those who look for the Rapture in a darkening economic environment as the most likely time for Christ to call in the Rapture, I see the opposite. Jesus says business will be as usual. And business in Sodom in Lot’s time was apparently booming, even though the culture and society beneath the surface of activity there was as wicked and evil as our own subculture has become within the last number of years.
And unlike those who think the Rapture must be farther off than before because of Mr. Trump’s election, my thinking is opposite. I believe it is Back to business as usual… There will be no collapse into economic dystopia that will be in effect at the moment of Rapture.
Since Trump’s landslide election, the business world, even as reported in Trump-hating European media, is looking for business to boom. The American stock market recorded a record high immediately following election results.
Here is one such report.
LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Global investors changed their expectations on the global economy in the wake of Donald Trump’s election win, and now see higher growth than they did before, as well as higher inflation, according to Bank of America’s monthly fund manager survey.
As a result, investors have increased their allocations to U.S. stocks and to U.S. small caps, which are more domestically focused and so potentially likely to benefit particularly from a stronger U.S. economy.
BofA polled 179 participants with $503 billion assets under management. Of those, 22% responded after the U.S. election, won by Republican former president Trump.
A net 23% of those polled after the result said they expected the global economy would get stronger in the next 12 months, the most optimistic since August 2021.
This is a turnaround from October’s survey, which had shown more respondents thought the economy would be weaker in 12 months’ time…
Investors upped their allocations to U.S. stocks. A net 29% are overweight U.S. equities, the highest since August 2013, the survey showed. (“Investors expect more growth and inflation after Trump win, BofA survey shows,” Reuters, November 13, 2024)
All of America’s most knowledgeable folks in the world of finance and business are optimistic about the coming Trump presidency. He is a businessman of first order. It is provable that he had the nation going in a positive direction that verged on a boom when, in my view, the election was stolen in 2020.
My desire is to exhort pre-Trib Rapture believers to not be part of the think not generation. We are certainly in times like the days of Lot as recorded in Genesis chapter 19. At the same time, there appears on the immediate horizon every signal Jesus gave as what to look for when the time of His Return nears.
Let us therefore do as our Lord instructs through that conversation He had with the disciples who were at His side that day on the Mount of Olives:
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28)
Terry James Prophecy Line 
I completely agree with you. And to add to your words, Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3, “For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.” If ever I have heard those words, peace and safety, it is now, after the election.
Thank you Terry!
I have been recently reminded of when Jesus said…,Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Luke 12.40.
This is the perfect scenario for that!
Thank you for all that you do and God Bless.
Hum……yes,Lord come! Thank you Terry James for this reminder.
I think this is a perfect time for the Rapture because things have lightened up compared to the last four years.
Next, the acceptance and promotion of evil has become incorporated into “business as usual” at a level I’ve never seen on my 70+ years – just as it must have been in the days of Noah and Lot.
Therefore, I am expecting our departure is much more likely at a time like this when it is least expected.
Keep looking up!
Hi Ed, a fine article by Terry, and you may very well be right in your analysis of the current situation. I am reminded of my life earlier when I was married and attending church on a regular basis. Back in the 1980s, many including me and my wife were convinced the Rapture was about to happen. We saw the previous Egyptian Peace Accord signed by Begin and Sadat a few years earlier. Many prominent evangelical leaders of the day saw this single event as confirming 1st Thessalonians 5:2-3. It seemed so as only a few years before this, peace seemed in the offing between the two countries. The generation that saw Israel born in a day was still around and we were within 40 years-1988-we will be around to witness the Rapture! Only to learn the error of our understanding of a Generation according to the Bible is 70 years, or 80 years, pushing that timetable out by 40 more years. Now we are nearly 40 years in the future waiting on that Blessed Day Jesus told us to keep looking up for! Think of what we have witnessed since the 1980s? Who could have foreseen block chain technology, DNA analysis of crime scenes to help capture the guilty, and acquit the innocent, or CBDC(Central bank digital currency) already taking hold of the banking system, the espoused ideas of the World Economic Forum to control economies of the world’s countries, a Pope saying there are many ‘Paths that lead to God’, and not the only Way, through Jesus Christ! Who could have imagined the lockdowns on a global scale with the Covid-19 plandemic leading to a ‘vaccine’ developed in a matter of a few months vs years of clinical research with other vaccines to insure their validity and safety for widespread use. I could go on and on, but what tells me we must be awful close is what we’re seeing with Russia, Iran and Turkey joining forces shows me the end-time alliance that will invade Israel is now only awaiting a trigger to set it off. What that ‘Trigger’ is I don’t know, it could very well be the Rapture itself!
I’ve been thinking that too.
Our Father will and has always moved and dealt with us in a way that in retrospect we have stood amazed. We are witness to the absolute unique Lord we serve. So very different to what we see in human strategy and doing. He is not limited as we are, yet the Lord has never crossed any lines that are out of character or cannot be justified as that of a just and caring God. No court of law here or hereafter would be able to find any wrongdoing or malice. The actual opposite has been His perfect creed. Humans will not have a single instance or witness of our Creator where His words or actions were false or misleading on any level. Fair, just and true. A longsuffering Father that has not a single failure and has never made a mistake or been the cause of any pain or suffering or overwhelming hopelessness. Worthy of worship by all of Creation. The Redeemer of all souls from sin and the Restitutioner of all good things. Where is there a God such as He? All glory be to the Lord.
There is a major contradiction recorded in Revelation 6 to the perceived belief of normalcy prior to the Wrath or Day of The Lord.
“And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”- Revelation 6:15-17.
From this scripture reference, we can see life is not normal nor is the Time of Wrath a surprise to the inhabitants of the earth. The Day of the Lord or Time of Wrath is heralded by various cosmic signs in the heavens.
“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come”- Joel 2:31.
“And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places”- Revelation 6:12-14.
If as recorded, these cosmic signs alert humanity that the Time of Wrath has come, how then is it an unexpected event catching the world by surprise? This appears to be a major contradiction.
Rodney