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Last-Days Invasion
Author’s note: This article was first published on Monday, June 12, 2006. Considering we are, I believe, in the time that’s “as it was in the days of Noah” foretold by Jesus (Luke 17:26), I believe it’s good to again think a bit on the obvious invasion from the evil dimension the world faces.
We know of the violence taking place in the world today. It might even be equal to the violence of those antediluvian times. However, the other primary evil of Noah’s day is a bit harder to equate to this day and time.
The other “evil” I refer to is the corruption that had infected the entire world and caused God, following the death of Methuselah, to destroy everyone on earth except Noah and his immediate family.
Most who study the Genesis record–myself included—believe the genetic contamination that had corrupted all flesh came from the fallen angels who had sexual relations with human women, producing the Nephilim. That “corruption” doesn’t seem to be the tack of Satan in this day and age. I, at least, haven’t heard of such corruptive intermingling (except within the fiction coming from the entertainment industry).
But we can be sure Satan’s intention remains the same: He wants to corrupt God’s order of things, especially the order of things related to humanity.
The devil continues to do his worst in this regard. We see this effort at every turn. You don’t have to be either a male or female; you can now be whatever you wish. More than one hundred genders are possible, I’ve heard.
The AI phenomenon is now experimentally employed to meld in some way with human flesh–particularly with the brain—to create super intelligent beings that, some scientist types claim, are beyond human. Hormone infusion and surgical invasions are used to attempt to recreate humans in bizarre ways that confound rationale.
So, the corruption of the order God created is under assault. We know this from Ephesians 6:12 and the struggle against the principalities and powers in high places the Apostle Paul described.
This all tells us God is about to again intervene into the affairs of humankind and all the evil corruption like He did in Noah and Lot’s day. I therefore present this article again, written long ago, but more relevant than ever as we “look up” for our Lord’s call to “come up here!”
Last-Days Invasion
We just observed D-Day in honor of the Allied forces who invaded parts of Europe, the action that began in earnest the drive toward victory over Hitler’s Nazi military in 1944. Last week, I wrote about how June 6, 2006, was honored by much of media to hype a movie, The Omen, which was released that day.
The “D” seemed to stand for “Devil-Day” in that 6/6/06 instance, rather than for the D-Day celebration in remembrance of sacrifices made by Allied troops invading Normandy and the other beaches June 6, 1944.
I would like to continue dealing with thoughts about the present invasion taking place. This contemporary assault is infinitely more deadly than the dangers faced in that long-ago invasion of France. It is infinitely more dangerous because it is–in truth—supernatural. In other words, it involves eternal matters. It involves the spiritual world rather than the physical. I should say it involves the spiritual world MORE than the physical world, because the two are intricately intertwined.
Again, I see two primary areas of Holy Scripture involved in this warfare. Both emphasize the supernatural dangers and spiritual nature of the warfare:
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5: 8)
So, Satan is the general leading this end-time assault. He leads some quite terrifying forces in his stalking back and forth upon the earth:
For 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)
With but a modicum of effort in searching through the Word of God about end-times things, we can see how the contemporary assault by Satan and his forces of evil links to the devil’s past efforts. And, we can see where it is all leading in this wind-up of human history.
These last-days things are fresh in my mind while I promote my novel, The Rapture Dialogues. The subtitle, Dark Dimension, says it all. The end-time warfare is with extradimensional, not extraterrestrial, beings. We can identify these supposedly unidentified flying objects if we open our minds and hearts through spiritual discernment written about in 1 Corinthians 2:14.
The link between the human, fleshly elements of this conflict and the supernatural or spiritual elements is undeniable if we properly analyze and dissect the matters involved.
Jesus–the Greatest of all Prophets (because He is God) said the following:
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)
Jesus said history would repeat itself. Things will happen almost precisely like they did in Noah’s day before the Flood and in the days of Lot and the destruction of Lot’s hometown, Sodom, and nearby Gomorrah. What happened that was so grievous to the Lord that He determined to erase these societies from the earth’s surface?
I believe it was sin, of course, speaking in general terms. Sin always ultimately brings God’s wrath and judgment. The wages of sin is death, Scripture tells us. But I see a much more specific sin that lies at the heart of the civilizations mentioned in those judgments of the antediluvian world and ancient Sodom and Gomorrah.
The link is strong between the fleshly, or physical, realm and the spiritual, or supernatural, realm in these cases. That is made clear in the following:
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. (Jude 1:6–8)
Do you see that linkage? It is the phrase “going after strange flesh” that connects the human to the supernatural, in considering the matter of this end-time invasion Jesus said will be a recurrence of soul/flesh-corrupting things that happened in antediluvian and ancient times.
In the matter of the supernatural realm, we see in Genesis 6:1–3 that the “sons of god” went after “strange flesh.” That is, a number of angels who fell with Lucifer in the great rebellion and were cast out of Heaven saw the “daughters of men” (human women) and came down and cohabitated with them—producing hybrid offspring of the natural and the supernatural. Going after “strange flesh,” then, means doing something that is against the order God established.
These offspring were “men of renown,” the Scriptures tell us. These were doubtless the creatures from which Greek, Norse, and Roman mythologies derive, to some extent.
Genesis 19 tells the full story of the “strange flesh” Jude alludes to in verses 6–8. This is expounded upon by Paul the apostle in Romans 1. The “strange flesh” is men going after men and women after women in the sexual sense–burning in their lusts one toward the other, and receiving in themselves the payment for their sin, which, God’s Word says, is a fitting punishment.
The end-time invasion Jesus prophesied is, I’m convinced, well underway. Key among the elements of Satan’s assault is a return of the dark, spiritual beings in high places–the extradimensional, not extraterrestrial, beings, again trying to corrupt the “seed” of humankind through the sightings, encounters, abductions, ghostly appearances, visitations, stigmata phenomena, and all of the rest of these strange things reported even by documentaries like those on the Discovery and History channels every week. The prime-time invasion will, I’m equally convinced, take place in the Tribulation era (Daniel’s seventieth week), as outlined in the “strong delusion” of 2 Thessalonians 2.
On the human level, the corruption is taking place through “going after strange flesh”—doing a thing totally against God’s established order. Men, again, are lusting after men, and women after women on a scale like in those ancient times, while Hollywood and many in government and media promote this lifestyle that’s deadly to the continuation of the human race.
All of this indicates just how near this generation must be to the time Christ will step out on the clouds of Glory and shout, “Come up here!” The final war called Armageddon that will result from this satanic invasion approaches rapidly. Rapture of those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior cannot be far distant.
From Zechariah’s “Cup of Trembling” to Trump’s “Board of Peace”
Prophetic progression has suddenly accelerated, but not exactly in the direction many Bible prophecy “watchers on the wall”—including yours truly—anticipated.
For a number of years, we’ve heard Israel is prophetically destined to be the victim of an attack from its immediately surrounding enemies. This is termed the “Psalm 83 war.” I have tried to see this threat in order to agree with many of my colleagues who propose that passage is about a literal military assault on the verge of taking place.
But I have continued to maintain that the Psalm 83 matter is an imprecatory prayer by God’s chosen people, Israel, pleading for God’s retribution against the enemies who have bedeviled the nation throughout the millennia. I continue to hold this view. Specifically, I believe it is a prayer that will be answered when the Lord destroys all but one-sixth of the Gog-Magog force that attacks (as recorded in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39).
Could I be wrong? Yes. The “prophecy” can be interpreted either way. I believe, however, that my view is correct based upon surrounding context. And I believe recent developments pointing to unfolding events regarding Israel and its surrounding nation-antagonists give further evidence that my view is likely correct.
Zechariah the prophet, as recorded in chapter 12 of the book with his name, said Israel will become “a cup of trembling and a burdensome stone” to the whole world. And, certainly, we’ve watched that condition developing, especially since Israel’s rebirth into modernity in 1948.
Israel was attacked from the moment of that rebirth. America’s President Harry S. Truman recognized the new Jewish state on behalf of America and the prophecy that it would again be a nation–and one born in a day.
Despite overwhelming odds of survival against relentless attacks by forces much larger than its own, Israel remained standing when the smoke cleared. The nation was attacked in overwhelming numbers by surrounding enemies in 1967 and 1973, and again its enemies were routed.
God said Israel would be His chosen nation forever. His promise has not failed. But the modern buildup against the Jewish state has been quite powerful in these days during which we see so many other circumstances and events setting the stage for prophetic fulfillment to take place. Zechariah’s prediction that Israel will become a “cup of trembling and a burdensome stone” for the world of nation-states certainly fits this time in which we find ourselves. Practically every country in the UN views Israel as a problem and votes against the Jewish state at every opportunity.
The nation chosen by God to be His own has continued to face down bitter enemies, both near and far.
Iran, the area of ancient Persia, has been its most directly threatening enemy. We all witnessed the buildup of Iran’s nuclear program—and its obliteration, with the help of America dropping the massive ordnance into Iran’s mountainous nuclear-weapons facilities. The entire time, there was a sense of that “trembling” Zechariah predicted. But with the success of destroying Iran’s weapons-development facilities came a strange change—not only within Iran, which was forced to acquiesce to the demands of Israel and America, but a change of attitude and comportment, almost immediately, within the leadership of all of Israel’s surrounding Arab-Islamic neighboring states. Middle Eastern States, most of which had great numbers within those nations, were shouting “death to Israel” and “death to America!”
So, have we seen Zechariah’s “cup of trembling and burdensome stone” prophecy fulfilled? I believe we have seen the first, perhaps, of several stages of that prophecy fulfilled. But more is to come. We know that because of the Gog-Magog assault that is yet to come.
What I find most fascinating is that Zechariah 12 seems to be setting the world up for an even greater “cup of trembling,” that of a prophetic fulfillment that will truly cause all nations that have come against God’s chosen people to be “cut to pieces,” as Zechariah also prophesied.
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. (Zechariah 12:3)
We have watched within a week or two President Donald Trump perform what almost might be called a geopolitical/historical miracle. He has managed to gather most all of Israel’s enemy neighbors into a peace corral, of sorts. Those leaders who have perennially attacked Israel with a collective passion flowing from an eon of hate-filled rage are suddenly praising Trump’s efforts and are totally aboard the twenty-point peace plan, under what Trump terms the “Board of Peace.”
I always considered the prophecy Paul gave in his epistle to the Corinthians exclusively a cry for peace because of the fear of nuclear war that would bring worldwide destruction. Here is that prophecy:
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)
The fear of nuclear war—of worldwide destruction—will no doubt cause a future “cry for peace and safety,” as Paul predicted. However, we might be witnessing the first stage of this prophecy being set up for fulfillment.
The sudden climbing upon the Trump Board of Peace train by Israel’s blood-drenched, avowed enemies is not a “cry for peace and safety” out of fear of worldwide nuclear war, as I view this profound effort for Middle East peace led by the American president (a president, incidentally, the entire nation of Israel is cheering as a reincarnation of Cyrus the Great).
To my way of looking at this phenomenal turn of events, this is not a fear-engendered cry for peace, but rather a jubilant expression that now we have a real and—as Mr. Trump proclaims—everlasting peace.
This current “cry for peace and safety” smacks, perhaps, of the moment Paul referred to: the moment sudden destruction comes and those left behind will not escape.
Whatever the case, we know it is a sudden and strange turn of events, this peace that defies millennia of failed efforts to achieve. It is, to me, one of the most powerful newly developing indicators of how near this generation must be to the Rapture.
Here again is how to not miss that great event and be left behind to face the “sudden destruction” that, according to Jesus, will then befall those who cannot escape:
That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
Worldview Is All-Important
Looking at the world around us from so many different viewpoints separates and divides the human community, engendering hatreds, wars, and death. Jesus, speaking while on the Mount of Olives one day, prophesied the degree to which the differences would explode in the time just before His return:
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. (Matthew 24:7)
We have pointed out often that the word “nation” here is from the Greek word ethnos, translated “ethnic” in English. Jesus was warning that the Tribulation era will produce great hatreds that will center on racial and cultural differences of worldview. These unprecedented uprisings will, Jesus said, eventuate in famines and pestilence—the inevitable result of all-out war.
Although we of this generation are not in the Tribulation era about which Jesus here prophesied, we have diametrically differing worldviews on the national and international scenes that certainly must be setting the stage for the times Jesus foresaw.
The US is mired in many ethnic problems and cultural differences within the various races themselves. Insistence on embracing multiculturalism by the PC crowd, motivated to their hyper level of championing the melting-pot worldview by mainstream media, throws fuel on the fires of racial divides. The multicultural Nazis want Americans to stay separate because most of these PC types are socialist-leaning globalists who want us to be citizens of the world rather than citizens of a sovereign nation. Hyphenating, or mixing, ethnic with national identities into unique nomenclature seems designed to make America eventually forfeit national autonomy.
Worldview is being shaped in this nation to reflect the one-world-builders’ blueprint for the “global village,” as one well-known failed presidential candidate put it. The worldview in question has never gone away. It is the perennial worldview that has been with humankind since Nimrod attempted to build the tower to Heaven not long after the Flood of Noah’s day (read Genesis chapter 11). We see that blueprint manifested in the diplomatic world’s attempts to bring everyone together in the Middle East–at Israel’s expense, of course.
Jesus also prophesied that humanity would get itself deeper and deeper into trouble, so far as the nation state is concerned, the closer the Second Advent comes:
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring. (Luke 21:25)
There can be little argument against the obvious. Nations are indeed in great distress today—with much perplexity. We don’t have to look at the many nations of earth to prove this fact. Our own nation is divided right down the middle on almost all issues of politics and morality. People are so distressed—even perplexed—that many promised to leave the country if they didn’t get their way in presidential election results. Others have written fictional books venting their anger in wishful accounts of the assassination of a president they hate. And actual assassinations and attempted assassinations continue to take place.
The problems involved boil down to one issue: worldview.
Any other view of life on this planet than God’s is–to put it bluntly, but truthfully—wrong, and destined to produce disaster. This is true no matter the area of life. Worldview is all-important in avoidance of trouble and achievement of success. There isn’t space here to go into the many areas in life today to which this truth applies. So, let’s briefly look at one key issue in considering worldview that gets to the crux of the most important prophetic indicator of this late hour. The issue is modern Israel.
The geopoliticians are perplexed about Israel and its hate-filled enemies. The diplomats have no idea where the anger truly comes from; therefore, they cannot begin to understand how to solve the violence and hatreds. The world’s diplomats have worldviews that completely leave the God of Heaven out of the equation for peace-making. The result has been more than five thousand years of war throughout recorded history. God says, “Be governed by my rules, because I created all that is, and know what is best.” The earthly rulers say, “We can handle it. If there is a God, that God is existential at best. We don’t need or want him to rule over us.” This doesn’t apply, of course, to Islamic fanatics who slavishly accept the bloody demands of their god to make war.
God says everything is His, including the land of the Middle East He chose to give to the Jews–Israel. The geopoliticians say they will decide who owns the land and who doesn’t. The result: a world that is quickly moving toward all-out war—Armageddon.
The same error in worldview is within the Church today. The worldview of most mainline denominations say God is through with Israel. The Church—that worldview proposes—is now inheritor of all the promises the Lord covenanted with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is through with Israel, and all about Israel that is in the Bible must be spiritualized, allegorized, or treated as history already accomplished.
Really?
They proclaim–through their worldview—that the Church is going to make the world better and better until they have made it good enough through the political and diplomatic process—in conjunction with religious, do-good projects—for Jesus to come back and take over.
Really?
They aren’t reading the same headlines I am. If the Lord has given up on Israel, then it sure is some coincidence going on. We are expected to believe that Israel just coincidentally happens to be on the front page headlines every day, in the center of a desperate cry for peace, just like God’s prophetic Word says. Worldview is all-important in God’s economy. God’s worldview is, as legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once put it in talking about winning, not everything. It is the only thing!
The Visitation
One solitary birth is the basis upon which the future hangs for every person who enters this mortal realm we call planet Earth. How each man, woman, and child who has reached age to understand the salvation issue views this visitation determines where their home will be for eternity.
Many believe Jesus was sent by God to show us how to live a good life. Some believe He was a great prophet and teacher. Others believe He was a philosopher, right up there with Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the rest. A few among the billions who have lived since His birth have believed Jesus is the Son of God, but perhaps one among others of a created angelic order assigned to influence the affairs of humankind. Still fewer believe He was who He claimed to be–the Only Begotten Son of God; the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).
No birth of any individual has ever caused the excitement and controversy that the birth of Jesus has engendered. Was this baby a stranger of an otherworldly order, sent to Earth to provide moral guidance? Was Jesus sent to philosophize on the ups and downs of the human existence? Or was this visitation something more?
Jesus came into the world through the Jewish race. Only those who are inalterably antagonistic to the truth of history will argue against that. So, we should examine this birth–this visitation—through the prism of Israel and its dealings with Jesus.
Although there are other histories about the era, the Bible’s historical account has, through archeological unveilings, proven time after time to be accurate in details concerning matters surrounding Jesus, the Jews, and Israel. (One such example is the relatively recent discovery of artifacts and evidence that someone called Pontius Pilate ruled the area of Judea during the times attributed to Jesus’ crucifixion. Until the discovery some years ago, Pilate’s existence was seriously doubted, even denied, by many historians.)
We can know the accuracy of how Israel–the religious Jews in particular—dealt with Jesus. We can know with assurance that He performed miracles and claimed to be God, Himself, by using the Bible’s documented veracity as proof that Jesus was born exactly as foretold in detail by Old Testament prophets. These Jewish religious leaders’ treatment of Christ’s first coming as a baby lays groundwork for understanding what that visitation means to the souls of all humankind. Understanding that will also help frame the importance of how each of us views Christ’s prophesied Second Advent.
Tragically, the pious Jewish leaders refused to accept that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah sent from Jehovah to be their King and Savior. They rejected Him despite the precise prophecies He fulfilled in His coming and His ministry. They chose to have Rome rather than Jesus rule over them. As our headlines attest, the results of their rejection continue to reverberate, not only in the Holy Land, but throughout the entire world. Armageddon is building, its nucleus grounded in satanic rage against God’s chosen people.
Jesus wept over God’s people of Israel and the city Jerusalem. He saw times ahead that would eventuate in calamity for them:
And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. (Luke 19:41–44)
Christ’s first visitation was ignored and scoffed at by the religious leaders of the time. Their choice was their own way rather than God’s way. Each preferred to do what was right in his own eyes. True to Jesus’ prophecy, Jerusalem was laid waste, the Temple was destroyed, and the Jews were scattered to every part of the world. Genocide was committed against them to the point that their very existence as a race was threatened.
Israel continues to pay the price. Anti-Semitism is growing in Europe and around the world. The nation is becoming marginalized, just as the prophet warned in Zechariah chapters 12 and 14.
But a bright day is coming for those who accept the Messiah’s second visitation. Paul the apostle warned believers not to feel superior to Jews. He forecast a time when Israel would shine among the nations:
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 fullness of the Gentiles be come in. (Romans 11:25)
God foretold, again through the prophet Zechariah, that believing Israel will yet recognize the Lord Jesus upon His second visitation to the Earth:
And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10)
The Apostle Paul said:
And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. (Romans 11:26)
A parallel can be drawn between the ecclesiastical Jewish leaders of the time of Jesus’ first visitation and many among mainstream evangelical clergy today. Neither group has considered prophecies of Christ’s coming as relevant to their times. Their attitude is akin to the one described by the Apostle Peter:
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (2 Peter 3:3–4)
This sin-darkened sphere is on the brink of another visitation. Unlike the first, when He came as a humble Baby, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, He will come the next time as the King of all Kings and the Lord of all Lords. Let us who claim Christ as Savior heed His words about His coming again. The first phase of that Second Coming will be unannounced, and in the twinkling of an eye–the Rapture!
Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. (Mark 13:35–37)
Gathering for Peace or War?
To Bible prophecy observers of the warp speed toward bringing Mideast peace (to use a Donald Trump term, as in the “warp-speed” development of a vaccine for COVID), the many nations sudden jumping upon the peace bandwagon should constitute a clear signal: that prophetic stage-setting has experienced Heaven stepping on the end-times accelerator.
One development in this regard is almost breathtaking in its import. I refer to the US president singlehandedly setting up the Board of Peace.
This move to establish such a board, with practically little-to-no argumentation and debate from the world leaders who usually set their collective jaws against anything and everything, especially that involving Israel, is beyond astonishing. It is a supernatural turn of events, I believe. The following somewhat gives a look into that turn:
TONY Blair and Donald Trump will jointly govern Gaza on a Board of Peace under the President’s plan to end the bloodshed and secure the release of all hostages.
The IDF would withdraw from Gaza and commit not to annex the strip if both Israel and Hamas sign the 20-point plan unveiled today…
Mr. Blair, 72, was the first world leader named on the new transitional body to run Gaza apart, which Trump will chair.
This evening Blair hailed the plan as offering “the best chance of ending two years if war, misery and suffering”.
The former Labour leader and Middle East envoy is expected to take charge of the day-to-day running of the new board which will eventually hand power back to peace-loving Palestinians. (“Tony Blair to Be on Board of Peace to Run Gaza Strip as Trump Announces Plan to End War & See Hostages Released,” The Sun)
The “cry for peace and safety” takes on a whole new end-times direction when considering that such a Board of Peace is established with the enthusiastic agreement of the nations involved.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan said they welcomed Trump’s “leadership and his sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza.”
They said they were ready to engage with the US to finalise and implement the agreement, which they said should lead to a “two state solution, under which Gaza is fully integrated with the West Bank in a Palestinian state.”
European Council President Antonio Costa said he was “encouraged by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s positive response” to the proposal. He added, “all parties must seize this moment to give peace a genuine chance”…
French President Emmanuel Macron said: “France stands ready to contribute” to the efforts to end the war and release hostages.
“These elements must pave the way for in-depth discussions with all relevant partners to build a lasting peace in the region, based on the two-state solution.” (“Leaders in Middle East and Europe Welcome Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan,” BBC)
And it is the conclusion of Macron that should explain the enthusiasm for the Board of Peace and this peace plan.
The two-state solution is what the world of anti-God, Israel-hating UN nations—and especially Mideast states—have longed to implement.
This effort to divide God’s land has been a millennia-long quest, inspired and influenced by the father of lies, Satan, who has attempted at every juncture to cause God’s promise to Israel—that it will be His nation forever—to be broken.
The leadership of these nations believes this peace effort can be the wedge to bring Israel down—thus the enthusiasm to leap aboard this Trump plan. These, I believe, sense a real possibility of at last bringing about a two-state solution to the wars in the region–wars that, in the nuclear age, threaten worldwide catastrophe.
But those who understand the things involving Israel know the gathering of nations at the end of the age will bring a far different result than the elimination of God’s chosen people.
The nations, so hostile to Israel for so long, are gathering–ostensibly for peace-making. But despite our president’s best intention, the gathering is taking place for far different purposes.
Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum wrote about truth and the great end-times pressures Israel will experience, as well as the result of such cursing of Israel the world of nations will in turn suffer at Armageddon:
This passage describing the gathering of the armies of the nations is more or less viewed from man’s perspective. From man’s standpoint, it is merely a military gathering called together by the Antichrist. The first is in Joel 3:9–11:
Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah.
God’s viewpoint is one of mockery. The nations are mockingly encouraged to go ahead and turn their farming equipment into weapons of war. As for those who are weak, let them persuade themselves and pretend that they are strong. Because while Satan and the Antichrist have their purpose for gathering the armies, that of destroying the Jews, God has His own very different purpose for permitting this gathering to take place.
This taunting of the gathering of the nations is also portrayed in Psalm 2:1–6:
Why do the nations rage,
And the peoples meditate a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against Jehovah, and against his anointed, saying,
Let us break their bonds asunder,
And cast away their cords from us,
He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh:
The Lord will have then in derision. Then will he speak unto them in his wrath,
And vex them in his sore displeasure:
Yet I have set my king
Upon my holy hill of Zion.
The gathering of the nations is presented as a gathering against God the Father and His Anointed, that is, the Messiah Jesus. By seeking to destroy the Jews, Satan is also seeking to break the cords of God’s control of the world. How foolish! Then God is portrayed as sitting in the heavens and laughing, because He will soon have these nations in confusion. (“The Campaign of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Jesus the Messiah,”Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, ThM, PhD, Ariel Ministries)
Already we see the nations gathering. Ultimately, they are gathering for war, not peace.
Armageddon’s Trigger
Jerusalem sits atop land that would be among the least desirable in terms of real-estate values. The natural inclination would be to look for more scenic, lusher beauty rather than the much improved but still-arid landscape in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. But when considering Jerusalem, one is talking in terms not of the natural, but of the supernatural.
Since before the Lord led Abraham to Moriah with Isaac in tow, when the patriarch was willing to follow through on the sacrifice of his son, the area that is now Jerusalem has been at the very center of spiritual warfare—like no other place on the planet.
Moriah is the site where Abraham laid Isaac upon the makeshift altar and started the plunge of the knife toward his son’s heart. The angel of the Lord (likely the reincarnate Christ) stopped the test of the old man’s faith by providing the sacrificial ram, caught in the thicket by its horns (read Genesis 22:1–13).
Moriah, the tumultuous centerpiece of Jerusalem to this day, is where God directed David to the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, from whom he purchased the site. This would be the place where King David would not be allowed to build God a house because he had the blood of war on his hands. But it is where David’s son, Solomon, built the great temple of God (read 1 Chronicles 3).
This plateau on Jerusalem’s perimeter is where the Ark of the Covenant sat within the Holy of Holies. It is where the veil that separated man from God in the Jewish sacrificial system was torn in two from top to bottom by the hand of God. This occurred when His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross as the once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sin of humankind—so people would forevermore have direct access to God the Father through the one mediator, the man Jesus Christ. This high place in the city of David is the most contested real estate on earth. It is scheduled to become such a cup of trembling that all nations of the world will be drawn to the Valley of Megiddo—Armageddon.
Lucifer couldn’t usurp God’s throne in Heaven, although He tried with all his might (see Isaiah 14). Moriah is the site where Satan will again try to usurp the throne of God—the Almighty’s earthly throne that is the Temple Mount, where the Ark once sat and where the King of all Kings will one day sit atop a supernaturally elevated Mount Zion.
We witness it daily, even hourly, through the news cycles. This real estate named Jerusalem provides the present impetus for the world’s call for a two-state solution to the conflict involving Israel and the Palestinians. It is supernatural, spiritual warfare that instigates hatreds in the region and particularly in this ancient city, which is mentioned more than any other in the Bible. Jerusalem is the trigger to Armageddon.
Efforts to divide this city and nation are relentless these days as we witness things going on with Israel and the international community of nations to bring peace to the Middle East, led by the US president. This excerpt makes the point that the Temple Mount is at the heart of the millennia-long dispute that causes perennial war in that volatile region.
Under the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty, Israel recognized Jordan’s “special role” in overseeing these [Temple Mount] religious sites, allowing the Waqf to manage daily operations, including access and religious activities, to preserve the Islamic character of the site.
The agreement prioritizes Muslim worship to maintain the Islamic character of al-Aqsa Mosque compound, and Israel enforces this by limiting non-Muslim religious activities to avoid escalating tensions.
The effect of the Israeli-Jordanian agreement has been disastrous for Jewish sovereignty. It concretized religious discrimination against Jews in the Jewish state, by the Jewish state, in the most sacred space in Judaism. Most Jews, and almost all Gentiles, assume that the Western Wall, a wall with no religious sanctity in Judaism, is the most sacred space for Jews. This is pure ignorance: The most sacred space has always been, is, and will always be the Temple Mount. (“Agreement on Temple Mount Pathetic Appeasement to Terrorism,” by Aliza Pilichowski, Israel News, The Jerusalem Post)
It is a spiritual, not a geophysical or geopolitical matter of satanic hatred that resides at the heart of the city God chose as His touchstone to humanity.
Jerusalem will be the nucleus of the covenant of false peace that will engulf the city, the Middle East, and all the world in a holocaust of God’s holy wrath and judgment. The world’s power-brokers elite will divide the city and, in God’s terminology, “divide My land.” The result will be to bring all nations into the battle of the Great Day of God Almighty.
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)
Of all the signals of these last of the last days, powerful issues surrounding Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount in particular are paramount. They constitute the trigger to Armageddon and Christ’s Second Advent.
The Rapture will preempt that time of cataclysm that will culminate at the last great battle. It is incumbent upon everyone who names the Name of Christ to get the Word out that there is safety from that horrendous time of judgment only in the Lord Jesus. You can be a part of that mission with your support of the Rapture Ready website ministry. And we thank you, our RR family, for that support, which is much-needed in this critical time while we see the approaching Tribulation–the Rapture of all believers—as imminent.
Churning toward 666
This world is in defiance of God, as seen in every news cycle. The murderous violence must certainly rival the antediluvian days of Noah.
At the same time, it should make perfect sense to believers who trust God to be in absolute control at all times: He has never sent judgment and wrath without pleading, corrective, attention-getting measures and unmistakable warning signals of impending doom to the rebels who shake their fists in His face, then turn their backs to the only One who knows the end from the beginning. America and the world are almost surely at the latter end of the divine yardstick of judgment, which measures the extent of the Lord’s lovingly generous—though not infinite—patience.
Most who study Bible prophecy have, through the years, rolled the thought over and over in their minds: “Why isn’t America mentioned in Bible prophecy?” Many have concluded that the United States must suffer a catastrophic fate—from the outside or the inside. The nation’s destiny is one of either implosion or explosion–detonations that, in either case, will spell the end for the most technologically advanced country in history.
Surely God will not allow the American ship of state to slip beneath the crushing waves of the times without clear signals that we are nearing shoals that cannot be navigated.
Words from Jesus Himself bring to mind current crises gripping the US and, by extension, the entire world. The passage is quite familiar to students of prophecy:
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring. (Luke 21:25)
Whether considering this combination of end-times signs figuratively or literally, a case can be made that the present national and world circumstances might be the time Jesus was speaking about.
This generation has seen wonders in the sky. Humanity has accomplished space adventures in going to the moon and other planets with machinery. We have witnessed astrophysical phenomena through the Hubble telescope, gigantic sun eruptions, fantastic photos of a comet slamming into Jupiter, and the losses of the Challenger and the Columbia. Then, there are the signs in the sun, moon, and stars.
Recently there are scientists who continue to monitor asteroids and other stellar phenomena that are “fly-bys” potentially threatening the planet. Some scientists who observe the sun, moon, and stars believe the planet will one day, perhaps soon, experience a major impact from one of these visitors from deep space.
My good friend who is now with the Lord, Tom Horn, wrote much about the major asteroid-type space rock called Apophis, scheduled to pass close to the Earth on April 13, 2029. He conjectured it could be the mountain-like object of Revelation that is prophetically scheduled to hit the ocean and cause great destruction during the Tribulation.
The latter part of the Luke 21:25 prophecy also leaps to the forefront of thinking about the present hour. We’ve recently seen the figurative and literal seas roaring. Figuratively, all nations seem to be in great turmoil, with their peoples in societal and cultural tumult. The literally roaring waves have produced the costliest devastation in recorded history to nations around the world within just the past months. However, it is the middle part of the prophecy that most dramatically speaks to this generation.
Jesus said the nations will, near the time of His return, be in “perplexity.” The implication is that the leaders will be floundering for answers to the profound dilemmas confronting them. The perplexity will only cause them to go farther into rebellion, we can gather from the psalmist’s words:
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. (Psalms 2:23).
The United Nations is in overt rebellion against God’s order, as we witness almost all member states coming against Israel, demanding that the Jewish state give up land to the so-called Palestinians in a two-state solution to the perennial Middle East conflict.
The fact is we are in a time of unprecedented “perplexity,” so far as my memory serves. The leaderships of the world’s nations are in turmoil, with the economic stresses and strains threatening worldwide fiscal collapse. We have increasingly been told by top monetary experts that we face economic Armageddon if something isn’t done to straighten out the fiscal problems. In all the scrambling, finger-pointing, and doomsday rhetoric, one fact is powerfully obvious by omission: Not one of them has been heard calling out to God. Not one mention of soliciting help from the God of Heaven has been forthcoming, so far as I’ve heard. Certainly, asking God’s help hasn’t been heard in a public way.
As I write this, America’s unusually gifted president, in terms of his proven business acumen, continues to work on “fixing” the economic disaster the previous administration and the ideology it inflicted on the nation. I believe this is bringing this generation to the “business as usual” days of Lot Jesus said will be prevalent at the time of the Rapture. We will see how it plays out.
I continue to believe that Mr. Trump might be in the most powerful political/governmental office on earth to produce the upbeat economy Jesus said would be in place when He next catastrophically intervenes in the Rapture. I’ve outlined my thoughts many times in this regard when addressing the Luke 17:28–30 prophecy.
In a larger prophetic context, the swift economic movement and turbulence currently taking place is not without its significance, God’s Word assures. There is coming a completely satanized (if that is a word) economic order. We are seeing a major start to that coming global rearrangement. The fiscal problems will get “fixed,” ultimately.
I’m convinced it will happen during the time that follows the Rapture of the Church. But the peoples left on this judgment-bound planet won’t like the change the decisions of the politicians of the world–apart from God Almighty—will produce for them.
The luciferian machinery of enslavement is churning America and the nations it so traumatically affects, in terms of economic equilibrium, toward the Beast system of the Tribulation.
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (Revelation 13:16–18)
It will be the worst time of human history, according to Jesus (Matthew 24:25). If you know Him as Savior, you won’t have to go through the Great Tribulation. Here is how to go to Christ when He calls God’s family–all born-again Christians—to Himself in the Rapture:
That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
Violence Trumpets Christ’s Sudden Return
The Prophet of all Prophets, who just happens to be the very Word of God (John 1:1), described the human condition at the time of the first phase of His Second Coming. Jesus said:
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. (Luke 17:26)
Those are strong words, and they open an avenue that runs directly to a signal around which we can build a case for how near this generation must be to the Rapture. I write of the Rapture, and not Christ’s Second Advent, because in this prophecy, Jesus is talking about the sudden first phase, not the seven-year buildup to the second phase of His Second Coming.
The first phase is the Rapture; the second is the moment described in Revelation 19:11 when Jesus Christ returns dramatically to earth to end the human war called Armageddon. Jesus prophesied that at the time of this first phase, the Rapture, folks on earth will be going about life pretty much as usual. It will be like it was during the days before the Great Flood. About those days, Jesus said:
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. (Luke 17:27)
In those days, like in our time, some strange and sinful things were going on—things that finally brought God’s wrath, judgment, and the destruction of all but the eight people inside the ark. The sinful matter going on in Noah’s day that I want to explore a bit here is put forth in the following:
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. (Genesis 6:11–13)
The operative sin is violence that “filled the whole earth.”
Violence has always been part of the human condition. Cain killed his brother Abel in the first murder. More than fifteen thousand wars have been the scourge of every generation since Noah and his family left the ark. Cain’s pre-Flood slaying of his brother set in motion a visceral propensity within humankind to do violence to fellow humans.
Wars waged by the likes of the ancient Assyrians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Alexander’s Greek Empire, and the Roman Empire brought tremendous bloodshed down through the millennia. But it was the twentieth century—with World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnamese War, and others that continue into the twenty-first century—that spawned the level of violence that equates to the level of worldwide violence during Noah’s day.
Murderous rage has exploded upon this late hour of human history in almost every aspect. Killing rampages that used to be aberrant acts of the rarely seen serial or spree killers now seem to be a part of homicide that’s considered the norm. One form of violence that strongly indicates a recently elevated rage that’s like the satanic hatred of times just before Noah and the others went into the ark is that aimed directly at true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Perhaps the most notable example is the assassination of Charlie Kirk, founder and head of Turning Point USA. He was a young man who told about his belief in Christ at every venue he spoke at. He tried, through that witness, to lead his listeners to the saving grace of Jesus Christ, in addition to trying to reason with them about coming back to their senses in understanding what living life peaceably in America should entail.
The entire world was shown the face of violence that has burst upon this generation with cameras focused on the young man when the assassin’s high-powered rifle round exploded the carotid artery in his neck at the very moment he sat civilly answering the questions of a student asking, ironically, about gun violence.
Following on the heels of the Kirk murder was the shooting by a sniper in Dallas, Texas, who unloaded his weapon into an ICE van while it transported detainees into an ICE facility.
One detainee was killed and others were wounded. The sniper then shot himself. He, like Kirk’s assassin who wrote hate-filled things on the rounds in his rifle, had written anti-ICE engravings on the shell casing of the bullet he fired.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Lyons reported that such terroristic attacks against ICE have ramped up 1000 percent just within recent weeks.
School shootings around the nation, too, have increased, with evidence coming out that such evil stems from the same leftist radical ideology.
The young have been radicalized–with the backing of mainstream news and entertainment media—to deal with anyone who opposes their anti-American ideas and upside-down political persuasion by using violence–even assassinating the political leaders they hate.
Such radicalized youths were responsible for the attempted assassination of candidate Donald Trump, the murder of Charlie Kirk, and the terroristic attacks on the ICE agents who are targets of their hatred.
So many instances of violent insanity are piling up that it is difficult to pick and choose which to use as examples of the end-times violence Jesus described.
That fact alone is enough to validate just how much our days are like Noah’s.
Violence that is such a characteristic of this generation must certainly be a major indicator sounding from the end-of-days trumpet of warning. It is heralding the glorious prophetic truth that Jesus can at any moment step out upon the clouds of glory and shout, “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).
The Untaken For Now :: By Constance O. Wyler
Book review by Terry James
The topic of the Rapture and its place in Bible prophecy has of late captured the attention of even the previously uninterested believers and, I’ve noticed, unbelievers as well.
The interest generated by the “Feast of Trumpets” celebration just past, like always on such Jewish days of historical demarcation, raised anticipation of the possibility of that great Eventhappening this year.
It didn’t of course, so there is significant disappointment and even crises of Faith as a result.
Despite that disappointment, however, make no mistake. The Rapture will happen…I believe much sooner than anyone thinks.
Constance O Wyler has captured the Biblical Truth of that coming Event in her masterfully written novel series. I urge all who want to get a sense of what the Rapture will mean to believers and to unbelievers to get this latest volume.
The Untaken series by Constance O Wyler consists of four books that not only cover the first twelve hours after the Rapture, but also twelve days, twelve weeks, and twelve months.
Written in first person from different perspectives, the series shows how traumatic and heartbreaking it will be to be “untaken” or left behind after the Rapture. While the first book deals with Sarah Colton wanting an abortion and then all children, including those in the womb, disappear, the second book deep-dives into an AI implant that wants to control Sarah. The third and fourth books have Sarah meeting a young computer hacker who lives on a large cattle ranch in Idaho, while everything changes for the worse. When the Antichrist establishes a seven-year treaty with Israel, Sarah and her friends yearn to stop being under constant surveillance and learn how to survive the first year after the Biblical event that will alter the world.
All four books focus on how important it is to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, hopefully before the Rapture occurs. The eternal plan of salvation is clearly explained in each book as the characters make a decision to follow Christ or not.
Wyler’s fourth and final book, UNTAKEN FOR NOW, was recently released, and it will, I believe, excite believers in Christ’s promise to rapture them and cause unbelievers to seriously consider their need to come to Jesus Christ for salvation. This series is a truly God-sent story for these end days.
NOTE:
Book 1 is always FREE as an EBOOK, while Books 1, 2, and 3 are currently on sale as ebooks.
Book 4 ~ UNTAKEN, FOR NOW: 12 Months Following the Rapture, is on SALE as an ebook for only $2.99 until October 10th and all print/ebook online links are at https://books2read.com/untakenfornow.
An Unexpected Journey :: By Jan Markell
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Terry James Prophecy Line 