Prophecy Line
World War III: The Beginning?
Some observers of these troubled times say World War III has already begun. I’m not so sure I disagree with the premise. Dynamics for the roots of war are more prolific and far more volatile at present than those that generated both World War I and World War II.
Times preceding World War I constituted basically a tranquil era, relatively speaking, when compared to those leading to World War II. Nonetheless, the seeds of war were there. Political events, spawned by nationalist movements and burgeoning industrialization, finally disrupted the tranquility of the late 1800s. This resulted in growing, bitter rivalries for coveted areas of expansion, both geographic and economic. The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand is most often given as the cause for the beginning of World War I. But, it was only the sparking point.
Decades leading up to this infamous incident were fraught with extreme nationalism–people within the various nations of Europe being taught the superiority of their own countries. Also, the people were inculcated with paranoia that the competitor nations presented dangers that, if not defended against, would be harmful to the homeland.
Ferdinand’s murder was but the lighting of the fuse leading to the economic-based powder keg.
World War II began building from the moment hostilities stopped in World War I. The harsh reparations imposed–particularly upon the defeated, humiliated Germans–and the depression that forced Europe and the entire world into an economic abyss brought to the world earth’s most infamous despot to this point in history–at least in my opinion.
Adolf Hitler eventually defied most every war requirement slapped on Germany, building the world’s most powerful military by the late 1930s. He came to full power promising to rebirth respect for the Fatherland, restore monetary stability, and create prosperity.
The point is, both of the world wars had at their genesis severe economic conditions.
Some observers of such things, as I say, therefore proclaim that World War III has already begun. They see as the genesis of this conflict such things as the building economic bubble of world debt that must be constantly manipulated and massaged. To ignore the problems would bring catastrophe in short order, say most economists who will admit truth about the conditions faced by the world at this critical hour.
The fuse for igniting man’s final conflict, so the thinking goes, could be something like what is happening with Russia versus the money powers that be at this moment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is faced with personal loss of power if Russia’s economic woes continue to spiral downward. Sanctions against Russia for their hostile actions in Ukraine and in other areas under their self-perceived sphere of influence might present reason for the bear to act like…well…a bear.
Adolf Hitler, remember, used military buildup and action to get on the road to starting World War II. This is most often the way of tyrants when faced with backing down, thus losing, their dictatorial position. Remember, also, Saddam Hussein, when his regime was squeezed by the Middle East petroleum powers? He thrust his supposedly elite Republican Guard military force into Kuwait, and when forced to withdraw, began setting the oil wells on fire.
Mr. Putin faces similar such squeezing by Saudi and the Western powers. He could be set to do something quite extraordinary, many observers conjecture.
The thing I hear over and over–particularly from economists in the know (and these are secular economists)–is that it will be one incident or the other that will likely be the catalyst for World War III. The incident in question will pop this building bubble that is unsustainable by all measures of economic sensibility. The cascade of collateral things involved will spark seen and unforeseen calamities, including the next world war, is their dire prediction.
One who understands Bible prophecy to any extent–from the dispensational, premillennial, pretribulation perspective–cannot help but agree with the basic tenets of these economists’ postulations in this instance. Although the secular experts who make the predictions apparently have no biblically prophetic discernment in the matter of predictions for end-times conditions and outcomes, they assuredly have it right in general terms.
There is indeed coming one, specific, incident that can–and I’m still convinced will–bring on catastrophe, as enumerated in Holy Scripture. When Christ shouts “Come up hither!” (Revelation 4:1), the cascade of calamity will begin. It is clearly delineated in the following apocalyptic passage:
And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6: 2-8)
Turkey on End-Times Table
A major leg of the Ezekiel 38-39 Gog-Magog coalition is coming into view. The Turkey leg is now, undeniably in the estimation of many students of prophecy, on the end-times table of Bible prophecy.
We are given the nations that will make up that attacking force by the prophet Ezekiel.
Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. (Ezekiel 38:2-6)
Modern-day Turkey covers most of the territory that made up ancient Togarmah. Ezekiel was told to prophesy that the house of Togarmah will be among the horde from the north of Jerusalem that will assault Israel near the time of Christ’s return.
Many things have been written in recent months and years that analyze developments to Israel’s north. It is as if those with spiritually attuned eyes and ears are being given a play-by-play unfolding of this coalition.
Russia is pared down from its configuration as the nucleus of the former Soviet Union. It more or less once again covers territory that it encompassed during the time of Ezekiel’s giving the Gog-Magog prophecy. Meshech and Tubal comprised that territory. The “Gog” demonic spirit will, according to this prophecy, inhabit the chief prince, or leader of Russia. This leader is also destined to be the leader of the entire coalition.
Developments toward these prophesied have been nothing short of phenomenal as of late.
Russia, after falling apart as the USSR, is again a powerful force. It has inserted its influence, including a considerable military presence, into the region directly north of Israel.
Iran, which is the central-most territory today that once was called Persia, has joined Russia as a close ally–again, just to Israel’s north. Russia’s and Iran’s military assets co-mingle in the region to influence Syria, another end-times player.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, as we’ve said many times, looks to be the prototype for the leader who will be Gog of the Gog-Magog force prophetically scheduled to invade toward Israel to the south.
The prophet Ezekiel was told to foretell that God, Himself, will put hooks into the Gog-leader’s jaws and jerk him southward like a fisherman would set hooks into a big fish’s mouth and reel him in.
There is good reason to believe, upon watching all that has been transpiring to Israel’s north, that the “hooks” are about to be set. The evidence of this certain eventuality mounts. The latest evidence is that the third major leg of the three main Gog-Magog invasion force diabolists now seems to be solidly within the evil coalition.
The transformation of Turkey–ancient Togarmah–from being friend of America and the geopolitical west to being increasingly hostile is amazing to witness. Turkey is a NATO member that is rapidly changing allegiance from the western defense conglomerate to cozying up to Putin, Iran, and what seems to be the coalescing Gog-Magog force.
Turkey’s leader, who recently has made moves within the nation’s government that make him virtually a dictator, now almost daily expresses his hatred for Israel. This, when Turkey for decades, if not exactly in a warm, fuzzy, relationship with Israel, was nonetheless in a cordial, live-and-let-live relationship with the Jewish state.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently called Israel’s actions against the violence in Gaza “inhumane” and referred to the Jewish state as “terrorist state and occupier,” and to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a “terrorist.”
According to Turkey’s Daily Sabah, Erdogan–speaking at a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party in the southern Adana province–said, “I do not need to tell the world how cruel the Israeli army is. We can see what this terror state is doing by looking at the situation in Gaza and Jerusalem.”
The Turkish leader was referring to the actions taken by Israeli forces in answer to the largest uprising of Palestinians along the Israeli-Gaza border in recent years. The protesters were carrying out acts of violence, demanding a right of return for refugees to what is now Israel. More than 3,000 gathered at five locations along the fenced 40-mile frontier where tents were erected for a planned six-week protest, it was reported.
Israeli troops finally had to use force in order to stop the enraged attackers. Reportedly, 17 protesters were killed and more than 1,400 were injured.
Netanyahu, in answer to Erdogan’s accusations against Israel’s actions to put down the violent demonstrators, said: “I am not used to receiving lectures about morality from the leader who bombs Kurdish villagers in his native Turkey, who jails journalists, who helps Iran go around international sanctions and who helps terrorists, including in Gaza, kill innocent people. That is not the man who is going to lecture us.”
Along with Israel, itself, being prime indicator of just how near might be the Gog-Magog attack are these swiftly moving developments to her north. The end-times table is indeed in process of being set!
This Present Madness
Perhaps you will remember a novel by Frank E. Peretti published in 1986 with the title This Present Darkness. The story involved spiritual warfare engaged in by human protagonists, and pitting God’s angels against the demonic minions. It featured prayer and biblical prescription for battle as given in Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 12, in particular.
the 1980s were certainly years that brought forth growing spiritual darkness on planet earth, just as has every decade since the Fall in Eden. The issues and events of that decade provided more than plentiful fodder for the fiction conjured from Peretti’s brain. Although the book dealt with and dwelled on spiritual darkness in a fictional way, the actual downward spiral of morality in America and the world during that timeframe more than matched that portrayed by the novelist.
On the geopolitical level, the Soviet Union became increasingly brutal in exerting dictatorship over its East European client-states. Thus, all the while its power was degrading because of the cost of maintaining and trying to further build upon its fanatic militarism. The USSR, being totally sold out to and invested in anti-God evil, suffered the weight created by communism’s ideological gravity, which pulled freedom’s light into itself in much the same way a star in the process of going nova collapses in upon itself. The last years of the decade, geopolitically, indeed imposed a dark presence.
Hatred for Israel grew in the mid-1980s as Islam’s chief terrorist organizations were found to have massive arsenals stockpiled along Lebanon’s southern border. Israel’s avowed enemies within the Arab world obviously planned an all-out assault. The Jewish state’s preemptive military action pushed back for decades the insanity that we are experiencing at present. Not only Islamist hatred, led by a nuclear-ambitious Iran, but anti-Semitism now seems an unstoppable, malignancy spreading globally by the hour.
And this is where the “present darkness,” as Peretti would have it, has become “this present madness,” as is manifestly the case in so many ways.
Satan is the most cunningly evil of all creatures, and brilliant in stratagem, as tracing his footprints while he, like a roaring lion, stalks back and forth, seeking whom he might devour, clearly shows. But, he is also now mad that is, insane— provable by truth found in God’s Word: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind” (Romans 1:28a).
The old serpent, the devil, who is the father of lies and hates any thought of God, has a mind that is totally incapable of seeing things as they really are. His thinking is upside down, and incorrigibly wicked.
Proof that he is mad–insane— is found in the fact that he knows the Creator of all things is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. God cannot lie, and absolutely knows the end from the beginning–in each and every, excruciatingly minute detail. Yet, knowing that God has foretold Satan’s ultimate destiny–that he will burn eternally in the lake of fire—Satan still thinks he will be victorious and escape his fate. That is the supremely arrogant, essence of madness.
This luciferian madness is more infectious than Ebola or any of the most such diseases one could name. Its effects, I contend, are seen most observably by considering, again, the number-one signal of where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline. I’m referring to the nation Israel, and to God’s chosen people, the Jews.
Specifically, I’m talking about the Christian church–a broad, evangelical, portion of which has adopted or is in process of adopting the anti-Semitism that is metastasizing throughout the world at present.
Despite God’s plain declaration that those who curse the progeny of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will suffer curses of eternal consequences, a vast number of pastors and their church bodies are taking up the rant of Palestinianism, which holds, basically, that modern Israel has no claim to God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
These church leaders and their regimes that support Israel’s enemies’ right to the land God granted the Jews claim that Israel, in its modern incarnation, is illegitimate and an intruder. In this way they are falling into the same satanic trap into which the people of Hitler’s Germany fell. This is, in my view, madness that is much darker than the darkness Mr. Peretti portrayed in his best-selling novel.
It is madness that is swiftly bringing upon the world what will be the greatest judgment ever experienced by those who defy the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. True believers in the Lord Jesus Christ–who was virgin-born a Jew, ministered and did miracles as a Jew, who died on the cross and resurrected as a Jew for the salvation of all who will believe—should immediately leave any church that harbors this anti-Semitism.
This same Jewish Lord of all lords and King of all kings is coming again to rule and reign on the throne of David. It will be a Jewish throne!
End-times Trump Intrigue
Fascinating speculations are dredged from the swamp intrigues as of late. These tug mightily at my fiction-writer side, bringing out the novelist that lives there and comes out only very occasionally.
Story-telling possibilities keep coming forth that would have provided exciting fodder for any Clancy novel. But, real life in the case of what’s been going on in the D.C. Swamp might make a Tom Clancy determine that the reality was just too implausible to make for believable fiction.
I’m not in that stratospheric, novelist class within which the late, great Tom Clancy dwelt. So I haven’t his likely inhibition against mixing the swamp realities with a fictional plot, regardless of the chances it might all come across as unbelievable.
And, I’m not composing here a novel or short story. Rather, I’m writing a straight-forward commentary, therefore I’m safe in just presenting what I see as things that are possibly brewing. I’m not at all certain about the prophetic implications all of this might portend. However, that there are prophetic implications embedded in these intrigues, I have no doubt.
This all blossomed into a storm that talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said threatened President Donald Trump’s base of voters going “wobbly.” The president informed the press that he would sign the $1.3 trillion budget bill to keep the government going. Then, on the eve of the signing scheduled for the next day, he threatened to veto the bill, throwing media, the Democrats, and many within Congress into a frenzy.
Trump’s voter base, Limbaugh said, supports the president because of promises he made and has diligently worked to keep. Nobody can separate them from Trump, Limbaugh said, no matter how hard the Democrats, media, and Washington establishment try in assaulting him with all of their false accusations. Only Trump, himself, can cause the separation, and that by the president failing to stick to his agenda: 1) getting a border wall built; 2) stopping the massive influx of illegal immigrants; and 3) upholding the 2nd Amendment, the right to bear arms.
There are many other things the Trump base voted for in electing him to the presidency. but those are some main reasons.
Donald Trump, although threatening a veto of the huge spending bill that was full of Democrat Party social-spending demands, including funding of Planned Parenthood, followed through on his declaration that he would sign. This, according to Limbaugh and many of the conservative coalition within Congress and other support groups might cause Trump supporters to stay home in November of 2018 when mid-term elections are held.
In that case, the Democrats might win back the House, possibly the Senate. That would mean immediate attempts at impeachment. –That, based upon Special Counsel Robert Muller finding impeachable offenses with his seemingly endless investigation, originally into Trump-Russian collusion during the 2016 election. This, despite the fact that there has been no evidence found of such collusion.
President Trump held a press conference Friday March 23, at which he somewhat somberly gave a lengthy explanation of why he signed the bill that gave the Democrats much of what they wanted.
He said he was “very disappointed” in the package, in part because it did not fully pay for his planned border wall with Mexico and did not extend protection from deportation to some 700,000 “Dreamer” immigrants due to lose coverage under a program the president himself has moved to eliminate.
But Trump praised the bill’s provisions to increase military spending and said he had “no choice but to fund our military.”
He then went on to give extensive details on that military spending that will now be funded with more than $700 billion as part of the budget-spending package.
And, here is where the intrigues come in, in my estimation.
I’m of the very strong belief that the military is likely in much worse shape than the American public has been told. This is the only pressure that would make Donald Trump risk alienating his staunch voter base. The military, I sense, has to play catch-up at a phenomenal pace in order to keep the nation safe from the likes of Russia, China, and even from North Korea and Iran, who have been on massive arms build-up programs during the Obama years of neglect.
And, here’s where my novelist instincts kick in.
The American military at the level of the fighting generals–not the arm-chair generals of the D.C. establishment–know they have a genuine champion on their side. They embrace this president because they recognize what his predecessor did to greatly degrade the armed services. They have just been shown his loyalty to the nation’s safekeeping, and to the military’s great need of funding.
Trump, in my observation, went to extraordinary lengths in that presser to explain that it was the necessity of funding the military that made him risk alienating his supporter base. He was telling the non-political top officers that he is a friend to be trusted. It might soon become necessary for the military leadership to demonstrate that they have his back, as well.
The globalists want Trump gone at any cost. They make no attempt to hide that desire. The one-world conglomerate includes a great number within the U.S. State Department, the so-called deep state ensconced within the U.S. intelligence community, and even the Washington D.C. establishment cabal, including Republicans who are totally opposed to Trump’s outsider status.
This treachery is all backed up by the media–news, entertainment and social–who also want things to return to nefarious business as usual in Washington D.C.
This is very conspiratorial thinking, I’ll acknowledge. But, as I said, my novelist persona has emerged for writing this commentary. The fictioneer in me wonders whether the president might have been forewarned that there might be an attempted coup d’état when those of the so-called deep state become convinced–as they are learning–that they can’t remove him any other way.
Satan’s minions, both human and demonic, are in full rage against American sovereignty–against this president who champions that sovereignty. If these combined forces were to attempt to forcibly remove the president, unconstitutionally, Trump would almost certainly have the U.S. military–minus the Pentagon political types on his side.
This would certainly be a horrendous situation—for the U.S. military, in effect, to have to take over in such a situation. It could lead to dictatorship if someone or a group within the military establishment with tyrannical proclivities came to power.
This is all fictional rumination—or is it? It would be foolish to dogmatically declare that the scenario describe has not already been contemplated. I can almost assure that it has, and even now is being considered. The very nature of military contingency planning dictates that every possibility be taken into account.
When the Rapture of all believers in Jesus Christ occurs, times on earth will indeed be precarious. The scenario above might be mild in comparison to things happening on this judgment-bound planet as they roll out toward the coming time of Antichrist.
All of the intrigues of this fallen world will be left behind as the Lord leads the redeemed through the gates of Glory.
You and I want to be part of that procession!
Growing Globalist Monstrosity
An email from a long-time visitor/friend to raptureready.com sparked this commentary. His concerns as he laid out in that email, I’m convinced, fester in the thoughts of many who read this column and others that often deal with Bible prophecy overlaid by the issues and events of these volatile times.
My dilemma in presenting his concerns is that I find it difficult to select only portions in order to keep the total number of words as few as possible. So much of what he presents is what I believe is in the minds of so many these days. Admittedly, some of it certainly dwells within the deepest crevasses of my own thoughts.
The emailer writes the following, in part:
I believed that God put [President] Donald [Trump] in there to be effective for at least four years.
But with the Democrat sweep of almost everything in the Virginia state elections (where I live) last November, the Roy Moore disaster in Alabama and now the failure in a Republican district in PA, I am troubled that the Democrats will take back one or both houses in November. There is so much insanity and deception going on in our country … that I wonder if our Heavenly Father does not want me to be focused on this anymore.
The President is hated by most of Washington, including many Republicans, and I see and hear it every day as I work there. The Washington Post is the bible to so many of the people here. I’m really distraught now after all these setbacks since Donald’s election. The Lord has not been answering my prayers. I’m sure there are many in the country who are like-minded with me and spend a great deal of their prayer time focusing on these elections. And I’m sure they’re as disappointed in these results as I am. And maybe wondering what to do now like I am.
I heard J Vernon McGee say we are not to be focused on cleaning up the town or creating good government. I don’t really like to hear that as I think that is part of our mission to be salt and light. But maybe I’m putting too much emphasis on it. And God is telling me to let it go or back off on it with all of these dismal results.
I’m left to wonder why God put Donald in there if he only gave him two years to accomplish anything. He accomplished a lot for sure including the American embassy move to Jerusalem. I didn’t want Donald and the Republican Party to just hold Satan at his line of progression where he was stopped in Nov 2016. I want them to roll back a lot of Satan’s progress and restore some of what we’ve lost before his time ends and the next Obama and that party inevitably take control again.
I know this is just a brief respite from the scourge of evil that has overtaken us, and I am ever thankful for that. But I was hoping it would last for at least four years and even eight years, if the Lord tarries and He is willing to let Donald continue into a second term. Now it seems like it will only last two years. I’m starting to wonder why God even bothered if this was all we were going to get!
So please give me your thoughts on how much emphasis I should place on this in my prayer life. Why is God allowing evil to take back over again so quickly? How are you approaching this area since Donald was elected?
Again, my apologies for using so much quoted material this week, but you can see, I think, the raw emotion in the emailer’s words is best left as is in order to get across his concerns. They are representative of many such concerns I’ve received as of late.
I preface this by first addressing one statement this dear brother writes. He says, “God has not been answering my prayers.”
Let me say that I believe from the perspective of a great number of years of living that God answers the prayers of His children. I hold to the statement that He sometimes answers “yes,” He sometimes answers “no,” and He sometimes answers “wait.” But He always answers the prayers of His children.
God answered the prayers of His children who prayed fervently leading up to election day 2016. He gave His people the results they prayed for, most of you reading this will agree. At the same time, the answered prayers of His people were in keeping with His foreknowledge of history as it continues to unfold–i.e., neither His prophetic foreknowledge nor human volition has been violated in any of these strange, often perplexing, developments.
God’s prophetic plan for the ages continues to roll out unabated, unaffected in any way whatsoever by Satan and His minions–neither demonic nor human. What we are witnessing is Daniel, chapter 2, playing out on a daily basis through hourly headlines. The pace is observably accelerating in prophetic stage-setting–particularly in that involving Nebuchadnezzar’s dream-image.
The summation in answer to the concerns wrapped up in our emailer’s words seems to be God saying ”Wait.” The Lord is perhaps saying to keep praying and watching the His Mighty Hand at work while end-times prophecy continues to unscroll–not unlike when Moses told the Israelites to watch the Mighty Power of God while Moses held the rod stretched in the direction of the Red Sea.
Globalist “Progression” Predicted
Our emailer writes, “I didn’t want Donald and the Republican Party to just hold Satan at his line of progression where he was stopped in Nov 2016. I want them to roll back a lot of Satan’s progress and restore some of what we’ve lost before his time ends and the next Obama and that party inevitably take control again.”
Now I want to say respectfully to our friend that neither President Trump nor the Republican Party is going to–or even can–“hold” Satan’s “progression.” Globalism’s progress is a foregone conclusion. It is predicted in a number of places in God’s prophetic Word. One such place is in the aforementioned Daniel 2.
Daniel the prophet gave Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar the answer to his dream of the gigantic image of a man. The image was composed of four metals and indicated five successive world kingdoms. The feet and toes of the man-image represented the final world humanistic kingdom. That kingdom, Daniel prophesied, would be a revival of the fourth kingdom, which, in history, turned out to be the Roman Empire.
The revived form of this fourth empire would, according to Daniel 7 and John 13, be a composite beast-kingdom (a combination of all world kingdoms that preceded it). It would be more evil and world-rending than any that went before or would come after. Jesus even said that this kingdom will produce the worst conditions for Israel and for all of humanity that has ever been in world history (Matthew 24: 1).
This is the kingdom we have been watching develop, particularly over the last decade. It was on a very fast track to reach the moment Daniel prophesied, when it will dominate most all people on planet earth.
Like I am convinced–and like our emailer-friend believes–the election of this president slowed that progression significantly. But, remember, it was God’s intervention, not ours, that did the slowing. The results have been demonic enragement on a global scale, the likes of which have never been experienced. The spiritual warfare described by Paul in Ephesians 6 starkly manifested for all who have spiritually attuned eyes to see and ears to hear.
There is a growing anxiety among such Christian observers that it is but a matter of time before the temporary roadblock God put in the way of the globalists’ progress will be removed. This is also something prophetically scheduled to happen. The platform for launching the most terrible regime of all history is still being constructed. Antichrist is waiting in the shadows for his time to step into the global spotlight.
But, the roadblock the Lord so obviously placed in the path of the globalists building Antichrist’s power base will NOT be removed until God says so.
The reason it is in place is so the Holy Spirit can speak to the hearts of those who are lost–those who haven’t accepted Jesus Christ for the slvation of their souls.
So, what are we to do now, as our emailer asks? We are to pray and witness while there is time to do so. This is the primary reason we are here on this planet. We are to lift the name of Christ so the world will be drawn by the Holy Spirit to His saving grace.
If we concentrate on doing our job–our primary job–our worries about the politics of today and what might happen will fade. After all, we are not appointed to God’s wrath (Revelation 3:10), which is the future time ruled by Antichrist. We are to look for Jesus, our “blessed hope (Titus 2:13).
When the time of the Gentiles is completed, God’s next phase for fulfillment of His prophetic plan will be put into effect. The last person to accept Christ during this dispensation, the Church Age (Age of Grace) will be received into God’s family. Jesus will call all living believers into His presence, along with all believers of the Church Age. The cares of this judgment-bound world will be left behind.
While we see the globalist monstrosity–the so-called new world order–continuing to rage toward its fulfillment as the power base of the Beast of Revelation 13, let us remember for Whom we are watching (Luke 21:28).
Deceivers: Exposing Evil Seducers and Their Last Days Deception
Terry James’ just-released book, Deceivers: Exposing Evil Seducers and Their Last Days Deception, brings fifteen of today’s most recognized experts in Bible prophecy together to analyze the first prophetic sign Jesus gave to look for as His Second Coming approaches.
Names like Jan Markell, Dr. David Reagan, Dr. Gary Frazier, Gary Stearman, and many other writers, broadcasters, and nationally known speakers contribute profound insights through Holy Spirit-given discernment. The authors combine to produce a most relevant and fascinating exploration into just how near this generation is to Christ’s sudden intervention into the affairs of mankind.
Can there be any doubt that this generation is under assault by deceivers of every sort? The deception being perpetrated in government and politics today would be more than enough to say we are suffocating in lies, seduction, and deception each and every hour. But far beyond that deception taking place in the daily news cycle, religionists, in the name of Christendom, lie through false doctrine and the false teaching that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s prophetic plan.
Souls are being seduced into falling for the satanic deception that there are many ways to God and Heaven. The present Catholic pope leads the way in this hellish doctrine of devils. Media, in all its forms–news, entertainment, social media venues–observably runs counter to God’s will for conducting life on the planet He created. Deceivers lead the way in corrupting the young, in tearing apart America’s moral fiber, in perverting every family principle established by the One who created the human race.
Jesus, the greatest of all prophets, as well as Creator of everything that is, began by forewarning of the deceivers that will mark the end of days. The Lord promised that when this prophetic indicator, followed by the many others He gave, begin to come on the scene, His coming will be very near indeed.
Authors in Deceivers: Exposing Evil Seducers and Last Days Deception prove through Scripture and the issues and events of our time why ours is likely the last generation of the Age of Grace…why Christ’s coming for the Church in the Rapture is even at the door!
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The Love/Hatred Dynamos
Early one morning a few years ago I was listening to a television program on one of the cable networks while at the same time going about my before-dawn activities. The guest on the program was the niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She was asked what Dr. King, her father–who also was active in the 1960s civil rights movement–and others would think of the protests then taking place in Ferguson, Missouri, and other cities around the United States.
She said that they would be appalled at the destruction and hatred involved within the ranks of those destroying property that in many cases belong to black people. She said Dr. King and the others of that sixties movement to win freedom for black people and others believed in and taught peaceful protests and constitutionally appropriate civil disobedience–i.e., they believed it God-sanctioned to engage in disobedience to unfair, unjust laws as they perceived them.
She offered that all people have freedom under the Constitution. She said in so many words that what they need are jobs and an economy that will support the quality of life her uncle and the others envisioned. She said that love, not hatred, is the answer to injustice and to all of mankind’s problems, ultimately. And then she really won my heart with the next thought. She said that that love comes from only one source: the Lord Jesus Christ.
Her expression of truth found in God’s Word rings loudly and clearly in these days where the terms “love” and “hate” have somehow become twisted and intermingled, so that it takes the voice of God, Himself, to straighten out the sophistry we endure hourly.
I’m certain that the likes of the “reverends” Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson considered those thoughts by this dear woman traitorous to the cause. They doubtless see her as an enemy for putting down the riotous methodologies they use to foment hatred for wrongs, perceived or actual.
There has been developing for millennia, I believe, a diabolical engine–a dynamo–that generates destructive supernatural energy that will one day–perhaps very soon–bring all mankind to the brink of extinction. I call it a dynamo because it is an unseen, but powerful, entity-machine that produces a vortex of hate-filled turmoil whose resultant carnage is in every direction one looks on today’s end-times landscape. It is a luciferically spawned instrumentality we are given insight into within the Ephesians chapter 6 exhortation.
We have looked at this passage many times, as it is one of the clearest on just how dangerous a foe we face, especially in these, the last of the last days leading up to the rapture of the Church.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 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. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (Ephesians 6:10-13)
This evil dynamo, I repeat, will one day bring the creation called mankind to a point very near extinction. Be assured, however–this extinction Satan and his minions intend will never happen. We have the very Word of the Creator of all things on that promise. Jesus said:
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:21-22)
So, we find ourselves at this time in history caught up in a great, hate-generating vortex created by a luciferic machine of destruction. There is, however, a counter force even more powerful available to those who name the name of Christ–all born-again believers. This force is precisely what Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, niece presented with such clarity of reason on that early morning program. That omnipotent force is wrapped up in the words of the Lord she recommended to the world that day.
Jesus said in answer to a question about what is the greatest commandment:
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:30-31)
The love of God, resident in the believer, is the spiritual dynamo, the only counter to Satan’s machine of destruction, while this rebellious world runs at breakneck speed down the broad way that leads to eternal oblivion. That otherwise inevitable destruction can be neutralized by the most recognized Scripture issued from the heart of the Living God.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
Terry’s “Dream Doors Adventures” series Reminder
The new book release by Terry James and Douglas Hirt presents the coming Millennium in a story that is exciting and inspiring to children and adults alike.
“Adam’s Apples” is the first of a series we hope every grand parent will want to get for the grand children they love.
Many have already gotten this book for the kids they love, or just to read themselves. Adam’s Apples is already number 1 in new releases in children’s books!
The Dream Doors Adventures series are fantasy tales based on God’s Promise that “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of mankind, the things God has prepared for those who love Him!”
Please help us in disseminating God’s Truth, even through fantasy, so the young ones in your life will come to know better the God of Heaven and the Jesus they’ve heard so much about!
To read more about this book:
To purchase:
How Near?
One of the prophetic Scriptures most poured over by those who hold the pre-Millennial, pre-Trib view of eschatology is the following.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Matthew 24:32-35)
Despite the fact that the seminaries more often than not teach that Jesus, in the Olivet Discourse, addresses only the Jews (Israel), many, including this writer, believe Jesus is speaking not just to Israel. He is speaking here to all, Jews and Gentiles alike, who will accept Christ for salvation down through the ages.
Although there are differences of opinion in precisely what the prophecy means, most agree that the fig tree in Scripture refers most often to the nation Israel.
This prophecy, given by the Lord Himself, is thought by many to be among the strongest scriptural reasons to believe that this present generation will experience Christ’s return to planet earth. Israel, as is said, is God’s prophetic timepiece. The view holds that this generation will see the prophecy fulfilled within the definitive timeline framed by Israel being back in the land God gave them.
Certainly, recent history, in combination with current events, seems to present a strong case that gives this view credibility.
That case is built upon the following:
1) The Bible gives the definition of a generation as 70 years.
2) The nation Israel was reborn–in a single day, as prophesied–in 1948.
3) We are in the year 2018–70 years since Israel came back into the land as a nation following World War II.
4) America is scheduled to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, letting all the world know that we consider Jerusalem the Jewish state’s capital.
5) This is scheduled to happen May 14, the exact anniversary of the month and day of Israel’s rebirth into modernity.
These factors are not all to consider in thinking on Jesus’ prophecy. There is strong reason to believe that this foretelling speaks clearly to a pre-Tribulation Rapture, admittedly the view held today by fewer and fewer pastors and professing Christians.
The Lord next said the following:
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. (Matthew 24:36)
Jesus is here talking of a specific day and hour that no one will know. It will be an unannounced event, so far as timing is concerned. This cannot be the Second Advent when Christ returns as given in Revelation 19:11. There are precise number of days when that great event will take place, as measured from the midway point of the 7-year Tribulation. This unknown day and hour Jesus talks about is, rather, the first phase of His Second Coming–the Rapture of the Church!
Immediately after Jesus talked about the generation that would see all the prophecies fulfilled, He spoke of the human condition that will be prevalent at the time of His return. In fact, He spoke of several conditions that will mark that last generation before the first phase of His Second Coming.
We have been over these conditions many times over the past number of years. I refer to Christ’s “days of Noah, days of Lot” prophecy.
The Lord spoke with precision as to what that generation will be doing with regard to carrying on life in general. This is all outlined immediately following Him saying that no man knows the day or hour when His next intervention will take place into the affairs of mankind.
Read again Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17: 26-30 to understand the time of His sudden, catastrophic intervention into life on earth.
My contention has been for many years that this time when he suddenly comes for His Church will be in the middle of an economic boom. Economists and others have for years been predicting an economic downturn–even another Great Depression. And, admittedly, by all fiscal principles one can bring forth from economic physics, the world should have long ago fallen into depression.
Then came Trump. He came out of the prayers of those called by the Name of Jesus Christ, who implored the Lord to act leading up to the 2016 presidential election. The miracle occurred. The nation was given, as I’ve said before, not a godly man, but without a doubt–in my mind at least–God’s man for the hour, a president who has put in place policies and structure for a profound economic uptick.
All of this appears to be God’s preparation for bringing this generation to very near the moment of Christ’s shout: “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1)
If There is No God . . . Part Two – By Ed Wood
Suppose your friend remains unconvinced by the arguments we examined in the first article that the odds that life could have come into existence by chance are so fleetingly small as to be impossible. Now what? Let’s therefore regroup and come at the problem from another direction.
For the sake of argument, let’s assume that there is no God and see what that premise does to the things most people take for granted in everyday life.
I went to college way back in the 1970’s majoring in Earth Science, a time still characterized by the uncertainty and turmoil of the decade preceding it. Though the unrest was on the wane, it was still a time of questioning many pillars of our society such as how the government was being run, capitalism in general, and whether or not God was dead or even if he ever existed at all.
I remember as if it were yesterday when an upperclassman told me in my first freshman weeks something to the effect of, “By the time you’re done here, you won’t believe in God.” I disagreed with him but I can’t for the life of me remember whether I made a good case for my point of view or not. As it turned out, college did not turn me into an atheist and I’m hoping that over the course of the intervening decades I can better defend my beliefs.
Where Science Leaves Off
I’ve always been fascinated by science, ever since the day my mother had sent away for a map of the solar system back in 1959 (I know the date because I discovered its copyright year on the Internet). The sun, planets, and other celestial objects were presented in full, vivid color, and totally captured my attention. From there I went on to getting books on astronomy and the other sciences, an activity that has lasted up through today! Truth is, not being the scholarly type by nature, science is about the only subject I consistently “aced” in school.
I came to appreciate the ability of science to explain how things were put together and how they work, from atoms to stars, single cells to people. I’ve also learned its limitations, the things it couldn’t explain. There are two categories of the latter: things presently unknown which the future likely would resolve and those that are unquantifiable that which will forever lie outside its grasp. Let’s take a look at some of those of those “immeasurables.”
A Pound of Trust
Ever trust anyone or anything? At some point in your life you must have, though a lot of people would strongly deny they ever did. Here are some simple examples: When you go to the grocery store every week and buy a can of soup, aren’t you trusting that what’s inside isn’t actually a lethal poison?
How about when you got into your car to go to the store in the first place? Didn’t you trust that your vehicle was designed in such a way that it would get you there without falling apart en route? Or that the guy with the red light wasn’t going to T-bone you when you drove through the intersection when you had the green?
Admittedly, it gets more complicated when it comes to trusting in any kind of relationship because you’ve probably noticed by now that no one is perfect – including the owner of the face that looks back at you in the mirror every day. Unless you have some level of trust, life pretty much becomes impossible. You might not realize it, but you trusted the total strangers who filled the soup can and those who designed and assembled your car.
Trust is not something science can handle because it can’t be measured or seen. Show me a pound of trust, or any other emotion, for that matter, but it exists all the same. Science is even more at a loss to demonstrate where it came from in the first place.
It’s time now to explore some other “immeasurables” in the context of a universe with or without God.
Why Get Upset?
Unless someone is a sociopath, just about everyone in every culture has a capacity for outrage under some pretty universal circumstances. For example, harm coming to a family member or friend at the hands of someone else. Little kids getting horrible diseases and having to suffer through no fault of their own. Watching a hardened criminal get released on a technicality to commit crimes again. Grappling with someone close to us dying. I’m sure you can make your own list.
The question here is, what is it that gets us so upset about these things? Is it just a matter of self-interest in hoping that the bad things we see happening to others won’t happen to us or is there something more that we can’t quite put our fingers on but is an integral part of our natures? If it is, why is it so?
Putting God into the picture makes the answer a lot easier because we who believe humans are made in his image. The Bible shows us the same sorts of things also outrage God. The evidence of this lies in what Jesus did when he was here. He cured the sick, stood up for the downtrodden, raised the dead, and finally in the greatest of all miracles, was raised from death himself. God makes the concepts of “good” and “evil” genuine because he was the one who defined them in the first place.
Removing God from the equation nullifies everything the Bible teaches as well as the reason we should be indignant about anything because from the atheistic point of view whatever happens is nothing more than a roll of the dice.
Isn’t it therefore interesting that most atheists will still be just as upset over the same things that believers are? Their problem is, unlike those who accept the existence of God, they have no logical reason for their dismay because whatever happens is all the product of random chance.
Morality
One’s point of view regarding the existence of God means everything when it comes to good or evil, right or wrong. For the believer, God is the ultimate lawgiver who defined these things in absolute terms even before he made the universe. These standards are clearly seen in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17), Jesus’ summary of the moral law expressed in the Commandments (Matthew 22:34-40), and his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5, 6, and 7). Since believers accept that God made the absolutes of the physical laws on which the cosmos operates, absolutes of morality are certainly consistent with his character.
But what do we have if there is no God?
In this case, the concepts of right or wrong are totally in the eye of the beholder. The problem is that if everyone freely “did their own thing,” no stable society could ever exist. Since it was necessary for people to be able to live together cooperatively, they had to come up with some rules to make it possible, some means of governing. Across the span of history right into the present, we see all manner of variations of government ranging from reasonably free kinds where its citizens have a voice in how they are governed to rigid autocracies like North Korea where only the voice of the guy on top matters.
For a country like the United States which was founded by men who believed in God (despite what the modern historical revisionists would have you believe) many of the biblical principles of right and wrong found expression in its original founding principles and laws, a legacy which reaches up into the present, yet is no doubt under challenge in our present times. Even so, we are still a lot better off than those atheistic dictatorships where one man and his underlings call the shots. One need look no further than Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, or Kim’s North Korea to find examples of a state-defined morality those of us in free countries find totally repulsive.
If God does not exist, however, none of these systems or societies is better or worse than any other in absolute terms because right and wrong are defined by whatever the respective society says they are. If one decides that killing some of its residents simply because they are of a certain ethnic group is okay while another society finds this abhorrent, so what? Nothing is intrinsically evil or good because there is no ultimate “Lawgiver” to define these terms in the first place.
Despite this, I would wager to say that most people, even atheists, function as if there really are some kind of universal standards that operate at a level beyond civil law and at times supersede it. That was certainly Dr. Martin Luther King’s premise in his letter from a Birmingham jail in 1963:
“One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all.’ ”
As we all well know, his premise was based entirely on his belief in God who defined what was just and unjust in absolute terms right from the start – or, in our case, before the universe ever came to exist.
But Dr. King is only right if his premise of God’s existence is correct. Otherwise, his views on racism being evil are nothing more than his personal opinions, not better or worse than the opinions of a leader of the KKK or neo-Nazi group.
To sum it up, a believer in God can logically argue what is right and wrong based on his or her premise that he established the standards. An atheist lacking this basic premise cannot logically claim anything being intrinsically good or bad, even though most of them go through life acting as if this is the case.
Explaining Awe
Ever watch a particularly striking sunrise or sunset? Or see the arch of a rainbow in the summer sky after a thunderstorm? Or gaze up into a perfectly clear night at a sky speckled with thousands of stars?
How did it make you feel?
If you’re like most of us you experienced a sense of awe, even if you know the science behind what you were seeing. There is just “something” about experiencing such things that touches one in a way that words cannot describe. We don’t know if other creatures we consider to have a reasonably high order of intelligence are also capable of feeling what we call “awe,” but we know for certain that we can.
Why do we have this ability? It certainly isn’t required to help us find food, shelter, or to procreate. Could it be related to the universal tendency of humans throughout history to develop some kind of religion which goes beyond just an attempt to understand or perhaps even control aspects of nature that are at the time unexplainable and uncontrollable?
It seems that for some reason we humans seem to have wired into our being some kind of impulse to seek out something much greater than ourselves. I might be wrong but I’m of the opinion that it takes a real struggle for someone to turn into an atheist because they have to make a concerted effort to go against this basic drive all humans seem to have.
Perhaps the best evidence of that is just how vehemently atheists defend their point of view when challenged by someone who does believe in God. Why is that? After all, if God doesn’t exist, aren’t they making much ado over . . . nothing? Seems like an atheist has to work awfully hard at denying God, as if trying to shut out a persistent inner voice that keeps telling them that they are completely wrong! (See 1 Kings 19:9-12)
Bigger than Us
According to Genesis, the first two people knew right from the start that there was “someone” else besides themselves who was much greater than they were. It is likely in their sinless beginning that this relationship with God was on a level far beyond any which was possible after separation caused by the Fall, although there are many incidents of “close encounters” of various kinds afterward throughout the Bible (e.g. Genesis 28:10-17; 18:1; Exodus 3:1-4:16; Ezekiel 1:26-28). When Jesus came to live among us, mortal humans once again could talk to God face to face but even then only Peter, James, and John, got to behold the merest a glimpse of his true glory (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8 ).
However, for most of history since the expulsion from Eden, our knowledge of the one True God has been limited (1 Corinthians 13:11-12) which led to just about every society developing some kind of religion. The earliest were usually some kind of nature worship. In the midst of something like a powerful storm, a total solar eclipse, or the aurora borealis (or australis in the southern hemisphere), this is perfectly understandable. Most of the things in the natural world are much bigger than we are and still remain beyond our ability to control even with the technology of the Twenty-first Century. Nature-religions such as Wicca still exist today and are even finding “scientific” incarnations in the more extreme elements of the environmental movement.
Generally, though, many cultures moved from worship of nature to the “deities” they believed to be controlling it. Only comparatively recently has the idea of “one God” become predominant, with variations amongst them. The one true God has repeatedly made himself known directly across early history to men such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, to name but a few, right up into modern times, most clearly as Jesus of Nazareth, the record of these encounters faithfully preserved across the millennia in what we now call the Bible.
If we accept the existence of God as revealed in this Bible, then it makes a lot of sense that he would instill a trait to seek him out in every human who has ever lived. Unfortunately this quest has all too often led to what in some cases have become bloody confrontations among peoples of varying views across the ages, right up to the present.
Even conflicts which are not overtly termed as “religious wars” have religious underpinnings. In the Twentieth Century, World Wars 1 and 2, the Korean War, the Viet Nam War were between free societies based on Judeo-Christian principles against those in which the “state” (or its respective leader) was the object of worship, as was the Cold War of the century just past.
Today, the increasing rise of Islamic terrorism against Jews and Christians is a particularly ugly, escalating and clearly religious conflict, though it seems that the politicians and media just aren’t seeing it in these terms. I have no doubt the inability to see this reality is but one component of our age that will ultimately bring about the war of Armageddon as the Antichrist tries to take over the world claiming to be “God” and demanding worship as such. With that in mind, it’s time to consider what may be the most important question of all.
A Plan for Humanity?
From the perspective of the pure evolutionist, humans, whales, trees, or algae evolve only in response to their respective environments. If they fail to adapt successfully, they become extinct. There’s no “plan” for any of them, no predetermined destiny. If something ends up going extinct, then it either failed to adapt or was at the wrong place at the wrong time like the dinosaurs when the asteroid hit Earth 65 million years ago and killed off most of them.
If it happens again while we’re still here, we could share their fate. We could even do it to ourselves in a global nuclear war or in developing and turning loose a lethal virus into the environment. An Armageddon is now a real possibility. But if the atheists are right, it doesn’t matter because nothing – including us – has any real purpose anyway. We’re only here as the product of totally random chance
Yet if one instead subscribes to a universe designed and run by God, then humans were created in his image and he has an overall plan for them. Many religions of the world have their own concepts of where we will eventually end up, but for our purposes, we’ll stick to the one that the Bible reveals since it is, in my opinion, reliable to a much higher degree than any of its competitors (a vast subject of study and commentary in itself). That plan is to bring those who believe in him into his presence for all eternity by the atoning sacrifice of his Son Jesus and to one day recreate the entire universe and come to dwell among us in the New Jerusalem on a new Earth.
Without God, there is no plan. On an individual level, once one takes his or her last breath, as far as they are concerned, it’s the end of the line. As a species, our future would continue to unfold in a random manner until it ceases to exist just like the countless other species that came before us Barring divine intervention even if we manage to hang on for a long haul, our sun’s increasing output will one day make life on Earth impossible, evaporating our oceans and turning our planet into a second Venus. But it gets worse because billions of years from now the sun will expand into a red giant and swallow up Mercury, Venus, and possibly Earth itself.
We might be smart enough by then to figure out how to make a mass exodus to Mars to escape the solar fires, but even that will be temporary. Presupposing we did manage to survive the flames, the sun will eventually contract and cool off. The problem will then become one of dealing with the intense cold instead of the searing heat.
If we are then advanced enough technologically to travel to another star system to escape our dead one, it will only delay the inevitable once again because no star lasts forever, nor will the universe itself. There are even some theories that matter itself will be torn apart as the fabric of space continues to expand leaving only an unimaginably cold, dark, nothingness behind.
Just as death is an inescapable fact of life for the individual, so it will be eventually be for everything if there is no God to intervene. (Personally, I like the ending of Revelation 21 and 22 a whole lot better!)
Conclusion
I hope this article and its predecessor have provided something for both believers and non-believers to ponder and hopefully discuss, should the opportunity arise. If you, like me, are a believer, then you have real reason to hope for the future. Perhaps the arguments here may help in convincing others that our hope is a genuine one and one in which they, too, can share.
Terry James Prophecy Line 