When that funny, irritating noise coming from your TV set goes off, what is your reaction? I’m talking about that grating   OINK!…OINK!…OINK! sound that disrupts whatever program you are watching or happen to have the television on while you do other things.

The noise is followed by an announcement: This is a test. This is only a test. If this had been an actual emergency… Well, you know what I’m talking about.

When that goes off, what is your reaction? I must admit that my first, instantaneous, thought is still: Could it be a nuclear attack?

This automatic reaction comes, I have little doubt, from the time of “duck and cover!”–the warning/instruction that dominated my days as a kid. We were told to get under our desks if at school, should the sirens sound announcing nuclear attack. We were told to jump off our bikes and try to get under something, get flat into a ditch, or  hide behind anything available if we were out and about.

I’ve mentioned before in this column that when I was a sophomore in high school, the rumor had it that atomic war with the Soviets would happen on a certain Friday. It was cause of angst for some, but not all paid any attention to the rumor–or to the warnings to “duck and cover,” for that matter. I guess I’ve always been a bit geopolitically sensitive…

So it was that I tried to imagine what the people of Hawaii must have experienced when their devices and televisions announced there were incoming nuclear missiles. The announcement said this wasn’t a test–everyone should seek immediate shelter.

There was crying and gnashing of teeth, if I might use biblical language. People got under mattresses with their families or boarded themselves in garages. One grandfather herded his grandchildren into a sewer manhole. It was a time of anxiety far beyond anything I experienced as a child or have experienced since.

We think of how, if it had been an actual nuke headed to the beautiful islands of Hawaii, there would be no beauty remaining following the impact. It is almost unimaginable as to what that part of the islands would have looked like. But, it isn’t beyond our imaginations, because we have the films of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs to graphically remind us of the results of such weaponry. We have the films of the Bikini tests in the 1950s that demonstrated the horrific destructiveness of nuclear devices far more powerful than the bombs used on Japan to end the war.

Thankfully, the feared attack on Hawaii was a false alarm. The  people between the mattresses, in their garages, and in the manholes could emerge to consider how things could have ended so differently. We can hope that the accidental siren alert will serve as a wake-up call to everyone of just how short a time (less than twelve minutes from time of the alert) such devastation can come upon us.

There is devastation coming that has a much, much shorter time of arrival than 10-12 minutes upon a totally unsuspecting people. There will be no alert to forewarn those under this incoming destruction. That is, no OINK!…OINK!…OINK! will disrupt TV programs or announce on various devices what is about to occur.

However, the siren is blaring, warning that the catastrophic impact is about to take place. The siren has been sounding for some time. As a matter of fact, this column and a number of others have been sounding the siren alarm.

The devastation will far surpass what that nuclear-tipped missile would have caused, had it been an actual attack. The sirens of Bible prophecy have been sounding–especially in these end of days the secularists call the end times. The devastation, following this imminent, catastrophic event, will result in as much as three-fourths of people on earth perishing over a period of seven years.

Those upon whom this calamity is about to fall are oblivious to the sirens of warning. It’s sad to say that many who should know about the coming time of destruction and should be issuing the warning refuse to do so. Not only that, they refuse to believe the impending disaster is a prophetic fact. They even make fun of the notion.

I’m referring, of course, to the preachers who claim to name the name of Jesus Christ, but who don’t believe He is returning in a catastrophic way to planet earth.

These, if they have any opinion or care one way or the other, believe Christ will return and take over from the Church. The Church, they believe, will have made worthy His Kingdom, over which He will then reign.

Only, that’s not what the Bible says. That Revelation 19:11 return is to a war-torn planet where most of its inhabitants have died in the violence and wrath of seven years of Tribulation.   

Many of these type theologians will tell you they don’t believe the book of Revelation even belongs in the canon of Scripture. There is, they will say, no Rapture–no time of great trouble ruled over by somebody known as Antichrist. That stuff is all to somehow be taken in a spiritual way, not literally.

Jesus will indeed come back to rule and reign over a planet that is much like it was in the time of Eden before the fall of man. But, He–not the theologians who think they will prepare the way for Heaven on earth–will do the restoration. When Christ calls all believers to Himself at the Rapture, that very moment devastation will begin to fall. It will be just like in the time of Lot, when he was removed from Sodom. (Read Jesus’ words in Luke 17:26-30).

So, the siren of Bible prophecy goes unsounded, unheard by the vast majority of humanity. But, that siren is sounding more loudly every day in the Christ-sensitive ears of those spiritually attuned. That’s why we present these commentaries. We want to sound the siren a devastating time is coming–and it could come at any moment.

One siren-signal is most prominent. Israel is being forced by Satan’s globalist minions to give in to demands to divide God’s land further. The Lord is on the cusp of taking the Church Home with Him. He will then again begin dealing with His beloved Israel. It will be a time of His wrath, while He purges those who are rebellious earth-dwellers and rescues for Himself a people to populate the millennial earth.

The sirens are sounding!

It’s almost like watching a war in much the same way people used to observe Civil War battles. The towns people would, in some cases–particularly early in the conflict–get their picnic goods together and sit in what they thought to be secure positions with their families to watch the blue and gray combatants go at it.

I feel sort of like that at the moment.

There is an end-times war going on–building toward Armageddon–and the individual battles are fascinating.

I’ve noted with amusement and a degree of schadenfreude the leftist, Hollywood types have their accusations against Donald Trump bounce off his administration and stick on them. The sexual harassment charges have made manifest their hypocrisy.

Satan has appeared to have been losing the battle as of late on several fronts. Of course, we know that neither he nor his minions, whether demonic or human, will ever give up their assaults until the war is over. They will seem to win many battles right up until the gathering at Armageddon.

Evidence of the battles Lucifer and his legions will continue to fight is observable in the conflict Attorney General Jeff Sessions has initiated regarding marijuana sales. It is a civil war in its own right.

The old devil never ceases to amaze in his ability to deceive and cajole. He not only has a majority of people clamoring to make “Mary Jane” accessible on a national scale, thus eventually making the nation unable to think clearly, he finessed the controversy into a political poison dart aimed at the president he is desperate to see removed from the reigns of power. The following hate-Trump news outlet piece illustrates my point, I hope. 

As of late Friday, POLITICO Magazine could not find a single member of Congress who had issued a statement in support of Sessions’ actions. In the end, this is a self-inflicted pot crisis that could prove to be a critical test of Trump’s ability to maintain his base.

“There’s a lot of old white men who are marijuana users, and the marijuana is keeping them alive,” Segerblom said from his cell phone while driving around Las Vegas. “Trump is going to have fewer to vote for him if he doesn’t keep marijuana legal.”

Sessions’ antipathy for a drug that has lost much of its stigma among a wide cross section of Americans has only galvanized disparate factions in Congress to protect an industry that is expected to generate $2.3 billion in state tax revenue by 2020. (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/06/jeff-sessions-marijuana-legalization-congress-216251)

I’m sure that among that 70 percent of Americans who are said to support legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes are many who regularly read this column. There are those within my own family who think it is something that should be allowed without resistance.

I don’t.

It is the so-called recreational usage that is embedded within the satanic ploy that makes the battle plan an end-times issue in my view. It is the proverbial slippery slope to open more and more avenues to national inability to think rationally.

America already is plagued with that malady to an unacceptable degree. A glaring example is that at least half of the nation has been deluded into believing that supporting the murder of babies in their mothers’ womb and same gender partners engaging in sexual relations is natural and not abnormal.

The prophetic Word of God has things to say about this drug-induced delusion at the time of Christ’s Second Advent approaches.

John wrote about those rebellious earth dwellers who would populate the planet at the very end, as Armageddon nears:

“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” (Revelation 9:21).

Again, John, with dictation from Jesus Christ, writes the following: “And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived” (Revelation 18:23).

The word “sorceries” here is from the Greek pharmakeia (#5331 in Strong’s). There is some connection here to the word “pharmacy.”

The following is informative about the use of the Greek term chosen for use.

Okay. Now lets ensure that we correctly understand this:

The root meaning of this group of Greek words [magos, mageia, pharmakeia, pharmakeus]  is “druggist,” “poisoner,” or, “giver of potions.” These particular “sorcerers” were persons able to prepare and dispense potions. But why did they dispense these potions? Was it in order to give relief from illness?

Absolutely not! It was in order to stimulate hallucinations or visions! We must understand that it was long part of pagan religious practice to administer potions, or drugs, which would encourage hallucinations! There is, of course, a direct parallel here to modern illicit drug taking. But these original “pharmacists” were involved in the black arts and in demonology; the basic idea was that taking certain potions could bring one into contact with the spirit world, and that this was to be desired. But the fact that the modern English word “pharmacy” happens to be derived from pharmakeia frankly proves absolutely nothing! Do people visit doctors in order to be given drugs which will bring them into contact with the spirit world? Of course not!! People visit medical practitioners in order to have an illness diagnosed, to be treated for sickness, or to gain relief from illness! Yet there are some extremist charismatic ministries around today which teach that we sin when we visit a doctor just because the word “pharmacy” happens to be related to these Greek words!

We must understand that on several occasions the Bible backs up the principle that sick people should look around for remedies for their sickness. This is a very clear biblical principle!…

While the English word “pharmacy” is indeed derived from a group of Greek words used to describe those pagans who used potions to encourage hallucinations in those who wanted to contact the spirit world, to suggest that modern medical pharmacists are in any way associated with the “black arts” is as ludicrous as to suggest that when my friend took penicillin for a very serious infection, he was really more interested in contacting spirits!!! (By the way, my friend was healed and gave the full glory to God who alone is our healer). (Robin A. Brace-2005, Sorcery in the Bible, Pharmakeia and Modern Medicine www.ukapologetics.net/pharmakeia.html)

The battle waged by Satanic forces to bring in last-days sorceries, according to Bible prophecy, will be a victory in their column. We are, in my opinion, witnessing the beginning of their winning that battle in our beloved nation. But, one battle won’t win this war. We have God’s Word on that truth!

The Devil at 4 O’Clock is a 1961 movie starring Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy. It involves three prisoners who are brought to an island in the South Pacific. The prisoners are to help evacuate a colony of children with leprosy from the island, which is on the verge of exploding because it is one enormous volcano.

The ground quakes constantly. Ominous rumbling in the background makes clear the urgency to evacuate. All on the island are doomed who are not removed in time.

This is one of my favorite movies. I have thought about it over the years, have even included it in writing these commentaries and in books. The analogy can’t be missed. Planet earth is a volcanic island in the vast sea of the cosmos. Rumblings that are increasing and the quaking that is being felt makes the diligent student of Bible prophecy from the Pre-Trib perspective know that things are winding up for human history’s final cataclysm.

While we enter the year 2018, prophetic rumblings are consistent. The ground, symbolically speaking, is quaking. Despite the time when all seems calm and the rumblings seem to have subsided, a true, eschatological seismologist knows what is happening.

The biblically prophetic sensors cannot lie. The planet is doomed. There is  need of an evacuation plan. There is one available, and we will look at that momentarily.

Getting back to the Pre-Trib prophetic sensors the student of eschatology possesses–the spiritual seismometer–I will look with you at three indicators I think it is good to watch as 2018 counts down.

First: Israel will come under greatly increased hatred. 

Second: The threat of war will ratchet up dramatically.

Third: National and Western world economies will appear to be booming.

There are, of course, many more foreshocks to be examined, but these are the ones I think are most obviously in view. Like in The Devil at 4 O’Clock, this is an island in the sea of the cosmos that is about to be devastated. We must help as many to evacuate as possible before history’s most horrific time of cataclysm erupts.

1) Israel will come under greatly increased hatred.

Jesus, in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, tells His disciples to expect greatly increased hatred while the time of His Second Advent nears. He indicates in these prophetic words that He, Jesus, is the reason they will be hated.

This has certainly been the case in modern history. The Nazis, for example, stirred hatred for the Jews by claiming them to be “Christ killers.” Jews in many parts of the world are still accused in this way.

Mostly, though, they are hated because they are accused of being “occupiers” of land that doesn’t belong to them. They are considered intruders in the land that belongs to the so-called Palestinians.

Anti-Semitism, of course, is Satan’s tool to bring the entire world’s ire against the nation that is God’s chosen people. The devil is more than just a word used in the title of the movie I mention. He, Lucifer, now Satan, is working diligently to bring about the destruction of the Jewish people–the nation Israel. And, it is the “Jewish problem,” as Adolf Hitler and his beastly cohorts put it, that must be dealt with in the eyes of much of the diplomatic world today.

We saw this as the year 2017 came to a close. The matter of the U.S. president calling for the move of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem brought squeals of outrage. These squeals came not only from the Arab Islamists, but from some of our supposed closest allies.

Although some nations now seem to be trying to climb back on the Trump bandwagon of support for Israel, the vast majority still is screaming hate-filled protests against the Jewish state and all it represents.

I believe this president has been brought forth at this point in history for the specific purpose of supplying American support to God’s chosen people. Far from this being a measure intended to bring peace, however, I think it is becoming obvious that the Lord is using American support to further enrage Israel’s blood-vowed enemies. Additionally, it is making manifest the anti-God, Antichrist global cabal that wants no deity to rule over them (Psalm 2).

The Lord of Heaven might just be stirring the end-times volcano, bringing it to an explosive head. All this might accomplish not only bringing into focus the Zechariah 12:1-3 prophecy, but the prophetic matter I wish to address next.

2) The threat of war will ratchet up dramatically.

We are, I believe, on the precipice of entering the time of the “cry for peace and safety” as given in the prophecy of Paul the apostle: ^“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

This forewarning was issued for those indicated by the pronoun “they.” Paul was speaking of those who are not under the salvation protection of Heaven.

Paul says right after the “peace and safety” foretelling: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” (1 Thes 5: 4-5)

The people of earth–particularly the diplomatic world–will be crying “peace and safety.” But, those who are in God’s family—the “we” Paul mentions, indicating the pronoun for believers, should know the cry for peace and safety doesn’t apply to them.

The believer in Jesus Christ for salvation is under God’s protection. The rebellious earth and all of its dangers are not for them.

As stated above, I believe we are on the precipice of great, collective fear of war–nuclear conflict–exploding across the globe. This comes partly from the North Korean threat, with it becoming more apparent that China is backing North Korea, rather than trying to damper the North Korean dictator’s reckless behavior.

The sense of looming world war could also come from threats from a growingly hostile and Israel-hating Iran. That whole cauldron of boiling rage might be about to overflow.

Again, this president might be a catalyst to galvanize the developing situations. He is not one to take the path of least resistance as has been the tact of his most recent predecessors.

And, yet again, it is this president who is at the center of the last thing I will mention as possibly bringing the year 2018 to a prophetic tipping point.

3) National and Western world economies will appear to be booming.

I wrote last week, and a number of times before in this column, that I’m convinced Christ’s “days of Noah, days of Lot” prophecy is the most relevant for our time. I believe we are entering the time Jesus spoke of as I pointed out last week. That prophecy is found in the Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17:26-30 accounts of the Olivet Discourse. (At least many, including myself, believe the Luke portion was issued during the Olivet Discourse.)

Jesus said business will be going along at a brisk pace when He is next “revealed”–when He next catastrophically intervenes into the corrupt, wicked affairs of mankind.

I believe we have about reached that point.

The economy is, I’m convinced, about to take off in a big way. Like him or not, this president–as mentioned in points 1 and 2 above–is at the heart of that economic boom I believe is coming. I more and more suspect the coming boom Jesus indicated would be in progress when He next intervenes catastrophically might be the one we see developing at this time.

The “boom,” as I’ve written previously, will be, in many ways, based upon smoke and mirrors because of computer manipulations. However, it is manifesting as a genuine uptick for America and much of the world. This is because of the world’s nations being intricately linked to the U.S. economic engine.

How does this all come together into prophetic synchronization? My own thought is that Israel must again become the focus of God’s course of prophetic fulfillment. He will again begin dealing with His chosen people and nation. To me, it is observably manifest that He is beginning to more directly influence matters in that regard.

Secondly, the “cry for peace and safety” is beginning in earnest. The U.N. and the Western diplomatic world in particular are calling for a damping-down of the possibility of nuclear conflict.

Israel, of course, is seen by these as the reason that such conflict might begin in the Middle East. Israel must give in to its enemies so peace can prevail. (And this is what will cause the Lord to bring all anti-God perpetrators to Armageddon–Joel 3:2.)

Again, Donald J. Trump doesn’t see things that way. He is fouling globalist plans to bring in the new world order they seek to construct.

Third, Jesus said it would be at “a time ye think not” when He next makes His presence known to the world. This is not the time of the Second Advent (Revelation 19:11), but the time when everything, economically speaking, seems to be humming along nicely.

We are hearing that hum even now as 2018 gets underway!

It is at such a time of business as usual–or even better than usual–when He will call those of us who Paul said are not “children of the night, but of the day” to be with Him in the clouds of glory. Let us work to see that as many as possible are evacuated from this satanically volcanic planet when the Rapture occur

We’ve been over it before in this column. However, things are shaping so rapidly it again needs our attention. Prophecy watchmen on the wall should pay close attention.

The seminaries consistently ignore this prophetic indicator altogether. Or they steadfastly say it is to be applied to Jews alive during the Tribulation. It is not for the Church.

I say–and have done so for years–that the prophecy is specifically for our time–that is, the Age of Grace.  I’m referring to Jesus’ foretelling of the time of His next intervention into the affairs of mankind. He described those days being like the days of Noah and the days of Lot.

‘m convinced the prophecy involved is so important for us to consider as this new year begins that we will include it here it in its entirety.

In the Matthew Olivet Discourse account, the Lord says that no one can know the day or hour of His coming. He next informs of what this time will be like and what to look for in being watchmen.

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. (Matthew 24:36-42)

Jesus further expands in the Luke account:

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)

We have looked numerous times at these words of Christ. We have noted that the time of which He spoke in prophesying these matters could not be the time of His Second Advent. The world will be almost totally destroyed when Armageddon is raging. perhaps as much as three-fourths of the earth’s population will have died as a result of God’s wrath and Satan’s evil through the Antichrist’s reign. it will not be business as usual.

This prophecy about Christ’s “revealing” indicates plainly that it will be a time of buying, selling, marrying, planting–all of the activities that indicate business as usual. I maintain that because Christ doesn’t emphasize things that are mundane; he was talking here about a time when business was much better than usual.

As long as five years ago, we expressed in this Nearing Midnight column our belief that it would be a time of economic boom, not bust, that would mark when the Rapture of the Church would occur. It would be the think not time because the world, economically speaking, would be doing quite well.

Of course, not all the world is doing well at present, economically or in any other way. This has always been the case. The poor will always be with us, the Lord, Himself, told us.

However, for the part of the world where economies have the capability to thrive, the world, Jesus said in this prophecy, will be doing quite well at the time He is next “revealed.”

Almost every economic indicator is moving upward in America at this moment. This nation is the economic engine for the rest of the world. The better the U.S. does, economically speaking, the better the other nations who have the capability to thrive will do.

I’m dumbfounded at the fact that the true, Bible-teaching seminaries of America see this prophecy as being only for the Jews of the Tribulation. It seems to be a blindness they suffer.

However, I do know why the tremendous economic potential that has burst onto the scene is unheralded by the mainstream news media. They hate Donald Trump, plain and simple.

Now, I’m not so foolish as to think that the economic upswing is one built on sound economic principles. We are in a tremendous financial bubble that continues to grow by the hour. At some point it is going to burst. It simply defies the fiscal laws for it to continue without imploding.

However, it will not come to that point of implosion, I’m of the belief, until the Lord Says so. He is allowing it to move exactly toward the prophetic point the Lord Jesus foretold in the above scriptural accounts.

As I’ve expressed many times, this president is God’s chosen man for this hour, a builder, an entrepreneur extraordinaire. But, the mainstream news prevaricators refuse to report the tremendous economic growth the nation is experiencing. To do so would move in the opposite direction of trying to bring America down so that the globalists can usurp its wealth and power to construct the world order they wish to establish. They want desperately to destroy this president’s efforts to restore the United States to its former, leading status.

Antichrist’s global platform will be constructed, I believe, when the Rapture occurs and this phenomenal economic bubble explodes and comes down around the ears of an unsuspecting world.

The year 2018 could be the time. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The secularists, those who demand that we not be exclusive at this time of year, have done all they can do to replace the greeting “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays.” These don’t want us to hurt the feelings or offend the sensibilities of people by using the name of the person for whom we celebrate the season.

The politically correct insist that we all use the term “Happy Holidays”as we send out greetings in whatever form. They cringe at the sight of nativity scenes and become disturbed at the sounds of songs that name the one whose birthday we celebrate on December 25.

While it is true that the larger portion of American citizenry thinks it not wrong to proclaim “Merry Christmas,” the politically correct Nazis, many of whom speak loudly through their social activist, bully pulpits, try to make it miserable for those of us who use the greeting we cannot and will never  abandon.

These of the “Happy Holiday”-only crowd–and I mean the militant types who genuinely hate the moral authority that Christianity represents–see “Merry Christmas” as equivalent of the evil that they, themselves,  most often champion. They accuse, for example, in many cases, that Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime celebrated Christmas, many during those horrific years in Germany saying “Merry Christmas” right after saying “Hile Hitler.”

They, themselves, act like Nazi thugs in many cases. They are the types who demand that Christians who own bakeries be forced to bake cakes for same-sex couples or lose their businesses through fines and court costs. They demand that taxpayers, in a nation that claims to be more than 70 percent Christian in population, subsidize the arts, which often display most salacious, even anti-God, presentations. They expect Christian taxpayers to subsidize abortion through support of organizations like Planned Parenthood.

The fact is, there is little “happy” within the ranks of those who want to do away with the term “Merry Christmas.”

These are in constant turmoil. They are often found among those who foment rioting and claim it to be in the name of social justice. They form, in my opinion, the nucleus of the Apostle Paul’s perilous-times characteristic, “false accusers” (2 Timothy 3:3).

Those with the no-more-“Merry Christmas” rant fall in line with every effort to remove God from every public venue. It is just a matter of time, it is obvious to anyone with the ability to observe, that when they come to full power they will demand that Christ be taken out of our private lives as well.

Let’s look for a moment at the mindset that wants to break the bonds–the contact–of mankind with the Creator, a thing that will bring severe ramifications and wrath from Heaven, according to God’s Word. (Read Psalms 2:1-9).

Beginning with our government allowing Madelyn Murray O’Hair to achieve her enraged, singular purpose–to get God out of public schools–we have witnessed a rush to national insanity. We have watched entire generations be subjected to revisionist history and inculcated by anti-God education. The results have, in these days of bizarre behavior and brainwashing by anti-God forces–primarily through social media–brought this nation to the brink of change that cannot be reversed.

I believe it took the God of Heaven, Himself, intervening in the 2016 presidential election, to stop the shoving of America into the godless, grasping arms of the globalists.

The rage that intervention produced is self-evident. We have witnessed those who have been raised through O’Hair’s insane achievement go completely out of their minds. They believe the lies that the mainstream media, the entertainment world, and the social media liars have told them. They are miserable, and even when they get what they want, it just throws fuel on the fires of their anger against an America that, under God’s gracious hand, has allowed them to live better than any people on earth.

There is nothing “happy” about the mindset that demands we say “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas.” This fallen mindset has made this the most unhappy generation in American history.

Satan is at the core of the movement to push God out of this magnificent desire by true Christians to honor their Lord’s incarnation. The secularists’ “Happy Holidays” offers nothing but misery in a future apart from God and Heaven’s influence.

Bible prophecy foretells of a time that is coming that will be as far from happiness as can be imagined. Apart from God, Planet Earth is destined to become hell on earth.

Jesus Christ, the reason for our celebration, on the other hand, promises to save mankind–individually and collectively (as the human race)–so that they may live for eternity in the most blissful conditions beyond imagination. This is why we don’t say “Happy Holidays” rather proclaim “Merry Christmas!”

Presidents of the recent past have made statements that I recall as having Bible prophecy in view. I haven’t researched to find these statements in their exact verbiage, but they were made and could be rather easily found with today’s search engines.

I remember that Jimmy Carter referred to the Holy Land as having biblical and historical importance according to Israel’s prophets. Ronald Reagan sometimes would refer to the Second Coming of Christ and the reality of Armageddon. Bill Clinton once said that his pastor, Dr. W. O. Vaught, told him when Clinton was governor of Arkansas that if Bill ever became president, he had better treat Israel according to Genesis 12. –This, regarding the blessings or cursing to be given by the Lord, Himself, depending upon whether one blessed or cursed Israel.

President Donald Trump, in talking about his decision declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital, and announcing he will move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, said something of profound significance, in my view. He announced a number of important reasons for his decision. Then he said: “…It is reality, And, its the right thing to do.”

One must wonder how much of this president’s declaring Israel’s eternal capital and moving the embassy there is based upon true understanding of why it’s “the right thing to do.”

A considerable amount of the criticism I’ve heard about Trump’s decision comes from a specific, leftist diatribe. These say it’s the crazy evangelical Zionists who base Israel’s right to the land they “occupy” upon the Bible. The word “Bible” is dripping with vitriol, even when read rather than heard. It’s like they are saying”…the Bible!…Ugh!”

Trump is listening to the Bible thumpers and doing it for their votes. That is the rant. Yet, the following Bible truth is exactly what makes Mr. Trump’s decision to declare Israel’s capital Jerusalem and move the American Embassy there the “right thing to do.”

Jerusalem, is, in fact, chosen by the Lord of Heaven to be at the center of His chosen land for His chosen people:

But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel. Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. But the LORD said to David my father, Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my name, thou didst well in that it was in thine heart: Notwithstanding thou shalt not build the house; but thy son which shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for my name. The LORD therefore hath performed his word that he hath spoken: for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and am set on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. And in it have I put the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, that he made with the children of Israel. (2 Chronicles 6:6-11)

Almost every leader on the world stage at present is against the decision. Even our closest allies, like British Prime Minister Theresa May, are adamantly against the declaration and the move. Yet this president is unmoved. He seems determined to carry out the promise that presidents preceding him didn’t have the political will or courage to honor. –That of proving America’s commitment to declaring Jerusalem Israel’s capital by moving the embassy there from Tel Aviv.

Trump is one who has proven that he keeps promises, even bucking the heavy resistance of opposition from outside his own political party and from within. He forges ahead, despite the world’s opposition to this decision. He doesn’t wither under the fire of the fanaticism of the Islamic world that rages with hatred for Israel.

It is not possible for me to know for certain, but I strongly suspect that Christian counsel from people such as Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, have made it known to the president the truth about Israel from God’s perspective. Thankfully, Mr. Trump has wisely listened to such counsel, it appears. America stands in much better stead with the Almighty with this fulfilled, presidential promise.