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)

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)

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.

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).