Antichrist is going to rule the whole world at some point before Christ returns–right? That is the thought of many who have studied Bible prophecy throughout the decades. It is not an accurate assessment of what is scheduled, however.

Much of the thinking regarding the all-encompassing rule of the beast of Revelation chapter 13–Antichrist—is based upon the prophetic passage: “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” (Revelation 13:16). It certainly appears from this portion of Scripture–Revelation 13:12-18—and others that the entire world of earth-dwellers comes under Antichrist’s beastly rule. But this is not the case.

There is a fancy term that defines why the simple word “all” doesn’t necessarily mean “all.” The term is “synecdoche,” which, according to the World English Dictionary, is a figure of speech in which a part is substituted for a whole or a whole for a part, as in fifty head of cattle for fifty cows or the army for a soldier.

This means for our purposes here that the use of the expression “He causeth all” is a synecdoche, or representative of many people throughout the earth, but not necessarily every single individual on earth or every nation. The Bible might include a synecdoche in terms of geography, but never in matters dealing with the soul. In other words, when Paul wrote that “all” will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, he meant that literally everyone who is born again will be changed in that atomos of time that will be the moment of Rapture. When John wrote “He causeth all,” he meant “all” in the synecdochical sense.

All of that explanation is to say that Antichrist will have absolute power over much of planet Earth, but not all of it. He will not, according to Bible prophecy, be allowed to spread his tyrannical hegemony to the Middle Eastern nation of Jordan, for example. That prophecy is most interesting when considered in light of the news story released some years ago.

The Obama Administration and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan have both reportedly sided with Israel in its demand to retain control over the Jordan Valley in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians…

Israel has long insisted that, even if it surrenders the bulk of Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”), it must retain control of the Jordan Valley as a buffer against future external threats, and as a deterrent and protection against Palestinian aggression.

Jordan wants Israel in the Jordan Valley to prevent further influx of Palestinian Arabs into the Hashemite Kingdom. Jordan’s Palestinian majority has threatened the Bedouin-backed Hashemite monarchy in the past, including in the 1970-1971 Jordanian Civil War. (Ryan Jones, “US, Jordan Agree: Israel Should Control Jordan Valley,” Israel Today, 12/09/13).

There has been over the decades an almost comfortable arrangement between Israel and Jordan. The late Jordanian King Abdullah, and now his son, have always received a degree of protection from Israel, the much-hated Arab enemy.

Of course, the geopolitical reason for the arrangement is that Jordan and surrounding area gives Israel a buffer zone against attacks that could otherwise be launched, giving the Jewish state a much shorter warning time. However, the real reason for the peaceful arrangement doubtless derives from heavenly directive. Jordan is scheduled to escape the deadly Antichrist regime’s tyrannical grip during the time of Tribulation. There are interesting aspects of this apparently heaven-given arrangement we will examine momentarily.

Let’s look first at the prophesied rise of Antichrist in the region and the lead-up to the matter of Jordan escaping his murderous control. Daniel the prophet gives the beast of Revelation 13 the title “the king”:

And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant. (Daniel 11:21-22)

And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. (Daniel 11: 36)

He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. (Daniel 11:41)

Daniel switches from ancient wars and conquest, as recorded in chapter 11 prior to verse 40, to suddenly bring the reader to the end of the age and the Antichrist’s appearance and rampage across the pages of end times history. This vile king of fierce countenance overtakes many nations, but Daniel foretells that Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon escape his terrible land grab.

Moab, which is in essence modern-day Jordan, it is fascinating to consider, isn’t mentioned as part of the coalition in the Gog-Magog war of Ezekiel 38 prophesied to attack Israel. It is also interesting that Edom, part of modern Jordan, is the place the Lord will come from at the Second Advent in great fury. Bozrah was that area’s capital. Here is what Isaiah said about that area when Christ returns to do battle with Antichrist and earth’s rebels:

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. (Isaiah 63:1-4)

Another fascinating point of prophecy to consider, seeing as how Jordan and its relationship with Israel is currently arranged as it is, is that nation’s apparent treatment of the Jews as Antichrist’s full fury storms against them as given in Revelation chapter 12. The remnant of Israel will escape into the wilderness while Satan’s forces rage after them. It will be in the middle of Daniel’s seventieth week, the last half or three and a half years into the time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7). All Jews are told to flee Jerusalem, for Antichrist’s full fury will come against them.

The remnant of Israel will flee, many believe to Petra, the ancient, rose-red city. And that is, guess where, in the Jordanian desert area, somewhat south of the place known in ancient times as Bozrah.

Whether the hiding place is Petra or another, it almost will certainly be in the area of the Jordanian valley, and Christ will make a stop there, as we know, to save God’s chosen people–the remnant (all) of believing Israel.

Jordan is proving to be one more indicator of this late date on God’s prophetic timeline.

I remember writing a few years ago a piece on Israel. It was the morning that was the first day of the Pre-Trib prophecy conference in Dallas–the 23rd such conference, according to Dr. Tim LaHaye, the founder of the forum. that year’s conference was on Israel and that nation’s destiny.

We have addressed this subject on a number of occasions on Rapture Ready, but it is one that never grows stale–at least not with me. So, it was that the insights gained during that conference while listening to Dr. David Hocking made the trip worthwhile, even if I didn’t sit through many other sessions.

Israel is the prophetic signal–if one were to choose just one specific sign–that should prove to any rationally oriented mind that: 1) God’s Word is true, and 2) This generation is very near the end of the dispensation of grace.

Dr. Hocking, one of the most knowledgeable scholars and speakers on Israel, spent 45 minutes or so laying out the case for Israel being the one nation that is guaranteed to be such forever. In the process of his presentation, he, without having to say so, built the foundation to show that the God of the Bible is the one and only God. He told how he had opportunity to witness to a cabbie who had driven him from the airport to the hotel. He said the cab driver made the mistake of asking what he was doing in Dallas. Dr. Hocking told him he was speaking at a conference. The cabbie, a Muslim a native of the Middle East, asked him what he was speaking on, and the conversation that followed was one of great interest. The shuttle van’s driver said something about Allah being in charge of everything, and Dr. Hocking went into depth–for the brief duration of the ride from DFW to the hotel, how there is only one God and His Name is Yahweh. He didn’t say–or I don’t remember him reporting that he did so–how the conversation ended. But, David spoke the following morning with his head still attached, so I presume the driver didn’t consider the infidel’s offense of sufficient magnitude to take jihad action. Or, maybe Dr. Hocking didn’t mention Mohammed, which seems to be the red line for employing the scimitar, like in the case we remember involving the writer Salman Rushdie from some years back.

Again, David Hocking’s presentation was on Israel and her destiny. That topic continues to be at the heart of what is going on, prophetically, in the world today. One question Hocking addressed was the question of whether Israel today is fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Is the modern state of Israel a literal fulfillment of Bible prophecy?

The more academic of Bible prophecy scholars–the seminarians–mostly hold that Israel being back in the land God gave the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is “preparation” for fulfillment of prophecy, in their view, but not literal fulfillment of any specific prophecy. I was rather surprised, and pleasantly so, to learn that David Hocking considers it literal fulfillment, not merely preparation for fulfillment of prophecy from the futurist point of view.

Dr. Hocking certainly fits into the fold of academia, but his overwhelming, evidence-laden exposition on modern Israel being prophecy fulfilled in our time proved, to me, at least, that the academic purists within the pre-Trib view of eschatology camp are out of sync with what God predicts for Israel.

Now, for a commercial. That’s what my book, Cauldron: Supernatural Implications of the Current Middle East, is about, in its essence. It is a treatment–and, if I may say so, a very reader-friendly treatment–of why Israel is at the center of world geopolitical controversy and has become a nation blamed for the threat of global nuclear war–thus, even though it is that tiny Jewish state, itself, that is constantly threatened with destruction from its enemy neighbors.

The book covers the current, precarious state of world peace. It goes back to the book of Genesis to find the beginning of the supernatural hatred being waged against modern Israel at this very hour. It deals, often in minute detail, with some of the international intrigues being plotted for the wind-up of human history.

The bottom line is summed up scripturally with the prophetic words, “He who keepth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” To put it another way–“Israel forever!”

All directions in God’s Word to humanity–the Bible–point outward from God’s touchstone city to the human race. That is, Jerusalem is the topographical center of the world from God’s Holy perspective.

Therefore, north, south, east, and west, in terms of Bible prophecy, can be determined by considering that all-important city as the starting point.

We will look in this commentary at the kings of the east prophecy. That prophesied group of potentates, then, must be viewed as if we are standing, perhaps, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and looking eastward. This is how we can know that the kings of the east referred to in prophecy yet future are those kings or national entities of China and the Orient in general.

Here are the nucleus scriptural references to the kings of the east prophecy:

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. (Revelation 9:13-16)

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. (Revelation 16:12)

We note with interest that the Euphrates River seems to be the boundary dividing the Occidental world from the Oriental. God tells through prophecy that this boundary harbors some powerful and tremendously evil demonic actors that are incarcerated until time for the prophesied invasion from that Oriental world. As a matter of fact, these are so powerful that they will imbue this force of two hundred thousand-member military with the capability of killing one-third of the people of the world.

I’m aware that there is a train of thought that puts forth that one-third of a specific number of combatants who are to die in the overall campaign of Armageddon will be killed by this force from the Orient. To me it reads that one-third of those living on the planet will be killed.

That there are supernatural elements involved within this murderous capability cannot be denied. It is reasonable to presume, I believe, however, that nuclear weaponry might be employed in accomplishing that grisly task.

The prophecy concerning the kings of the east becomes particularly fascinating, I think, when looking at geopolitical military rearrangements taking place today.

To preface these considerations, I urge us to remember that the demonic minions that will be the catalyst to galvanize the destructive kings of the east force are presently under God’s restraining power. These evil entities are held back until a particular “hour, and a day.” There is a specific moment when they will be unleashed to cause the two hundred million-man force to kill one-third of everyone living on the planet.

I have always considered it a point of fascination that since the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, there hasn’t been a single incident of a nuclear weapon discharged in any sort of military conflict. There have been nuclear tests of every sort, above ground and below. But, not a single nuclear warhead of any sort has been fired as part of military action.

My friends, this lack of employing nuclear weaponry has taken far more than diplomacy, human fear, in trepidation, or whatsoever else. This has been the obvious, restraining hand of the God of Heaven. Just like in the case of the evil angels being restrained somewhere beneath the Euphrates, the nuclear, war-making genie has been kept in the bottle marked “For Tribulation Only.”

As a matter of fact, the nuclear factor has been used, I’m convinced, by the Lord Himself, to prevent man from self-destruction. If nuclear weapons were not at the ready at every moment of every day, the human race might have long ago ended most if not all life on earth with conventional weapons only slightly less horrific. Man has–some would surmise–retained the common-sensibility, at least to this point, to refrain from all-out war, since those two, small-by-comparison nuclear bombs that ended World War II.

North Korea forges ahead with production of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to far-distant points. This, despite a president who has vowed that such development will not be allowed to be brought to the point the NK weapons can be used against the United States. There seems shaping a showdown of monumental magnitude at some point soon.

Yet, as many who read these commentaries know, I’m convinced there will be no earth-shattering event such as nuclear war take place until the Rapture has occurred. I’m convinced that Jesus’ words in the days of Noah and days of Lot prophecy in Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17:26-30 indicate it will be business as usual–even better than usual–right up until He next “reveals” Himself to a rebellious world. This will be Rapture, not Second Advent when He will come back to earth to put an end to Armageddon and the threatened, complete destruction of all life on earth.

Meantime, it is an almost certainty in my spirit-mind that there will be no complete disarmament of the nuclear powers. These weapons of mass destruction will doubtless, in my opinion, be used during the Tribulation, as part of judgment and wrath poured upon the evil and rebellion that will be against the God of Heaven.

The North Koreans might be restrained in some fashion from unleashing their nukes on the rest of us for now. They will, however, likely have them at their disposal when they rage across the dried-up Euphrates under demonic influence. China and the rest of the Oriental diabolists will, the prophecy says, kill one-third of people left on the planet at that time. Certainly, nuclear weaponry could accomplish fulfillment of that prophecy.

It is interesting to think on the fact that there seems to be no nuclear weaponry used on Israel as the Gog-Magog forces descend like a cloud to take great spoil. It is a conventional force that makes the assault, apparently. At that point there is either great restraint so they can enjoy the “spoils” they intend to take, or there is restraint on the Gog-Magog forces of some other sort, preventing use of nuclear weaponry. There are those who believe that this is because there has been nuclear disarmament at this juncture, and there are no nuclear weapons available. I do not agree.

God, Himself, will unleash His own form of “nukes” at that time, destroying all but one-sixth of the invading force.

The assault from the kings of the east seems to have no such encumbrances of nuclear restraint. The attack seems to come later than the Gog-Magog attack as the wind-up of the campaign of Armageddon looms.

One thing is sure in my view of these matters. We are witnessing things shaping for prophetic fulfillment in the arena of the kings of the east in regard to the nuclear factor.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio–Pope Francis, 266th pontiff of the Catholic Church–seems to take the world by storm, as they say. He is, of course, the 112th pope since twelfth-century Irish Bishop, St. Malachy, “prophesied” that the last pope would be number 112 from the time he made the “prophecies,” as we’ve all learned about by now.

Obviously, he hasn’t overtly taken the official name “Petrus Romanus,” Peter the Roman, as Malachy predicted would be the moniker of the final pope who would preside over the Catholic Church during an era of the greatest time of trouble in its history. Let’s think again briefly upon what Malachy said he foresaw. Malachy’s biographer, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, reported in Life of Saint Malachy that St. Malachy wrote briefly, in Latin, on each succeeding pope of the future, and then gave the document to Pope Innocent II, who had it placed in Vatican archives, where it remained for several centuries. It was rediscovered in 1590 and published.

Some scholars who have studied these predictions carefully claim that Malachy was remarkably accurate about succeeding popes right up through Pope Benedict XVI, who abdicated his papal throne in 2013. Others who have looked into these things have found that in most cases regarding the Malachy prophecies, the bishop’s predictions were too oblique, too veiled, or couched in esoteric description to be validated as having been fulfilled to any great extent. Our bottom line conclusion must be that, while most of Malachy’s “prophecies” about the popes are questionable as to absolute proof that the bishop was accurate in every case, there is little doubt that the 112th pope from the time he wrote the predictions is a strange pope to be sure.

The world at large literally loves the guy. His popularity really jumped on a global scale–and especially in the view of national and international mainstream media, when he implied that there might be many ways to God and Heaven, and declared that Christians must be more tolerant of things we don’t embrace or understand. At least, that was the gist of his statements.

The pope made it clear in a number of statements in various speaking forums that the Catholic Church and all of Christendom must cease condemning and excluding from God’s kingdom homosexuals and those who hold other religious views than those that are Jesus Christ-centered.

That sentiment, even among a growing number within so-called Christian churches, is a visceral part of all of humanism’s elite and their mouthpieces. The Christian Bible and its harsh, restrictive, “one way to God” is intolerant, bigoted, homophobic, and bordering on fundamentalist insanity that desires to bring the world to Armageddon. (The pope didn’t say that; I did, based upon his stance of his years as pontiff that has won him great accolades.)

America’s former president was perhaps the most recent of the global leaders to express this pope’s elevated standing in his opposition to biblical restrictions. Barack Obama said: “I have been hugely impressed with the pope’s pronouncements.” He described Pope Francis as “somebody who lives out the teachings of Christ [who, by the way, claimed He is the only Way to God, the Heavenly Father]. Incredible humility–incredible sense of empathy to the least of these, to the poor.”

In his interview with the CNBC business news channel, Obama was asked about Francis’ comment that the Catholic Church has become too “obsessed” with issues like gay rights and abortion. Obama said: “[Pope Francis is] somebody who is–I think first and foremost–thinking about how to embrace people as opposed to push them away; how to find what’s good in them as opposed to condemn them…And that spirit, that sense of love and unity, seems to manifest itself in not just what he says, but also what he does. And, you know, for any religious leader, that’s something–that’s a quality I admire” (http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/10/02/obama-pope-francis-cnbc-abortion-gay-rights/2911067/).

Sure sounds good, doesn’t it? Unity–that’s the ticket for the coming Antichrist system. Unity means to embrace all belief systems as acceptable to God’s prescription for living on planet Earth, according to the globalists elite. This is the route to “peace.”

We are to embrace those religionists who behead women for having been raped. We are to accept as brothers those who murder anyone with whom they don’t agree.

Pope Francis once met with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. He wasn’t prepared to give the Israeli prime minister an audience, however. Yet, he was pushing the peace process so Palestine can have its statehood on Israel’s tiny land mass.

The pope gave the Palestinian leader a special pen. He said when handing it to him, “Surely, you have a lot of things you have to sign.”

Abbas responded, “I hope to sign a peace treaty with Israel with this pen.”

My thought was, upon reading about the pope’s generosity, the first beast of Revelation chapter 13 will have a sidekick who will–like Mr. Big himself–push the peace that will be the covenant made with death and hell (Isaiah 28:15, 18).

These are times the entertainment industry gleefully uses to take advantage of those they see as nutcases. The supposed nutcases are those whose determination is to prepare for what they envision as the coming meltdown of civilization.

You can see the programs on the various channels during the course of any given week. The producers of such programs, it is obvious from the programming, pick and choose the most conspiratorially prone of the “preppers,” as they are called, to film while the producers follow those preppers’ every move.

You can sense from the tone of the narration that it is, for the most part, tongue-in-cheek so far as the producers of these programs are concerned. They are simply trying to entertain the viewers by doing case studies on the fringe “kooks” who are out there in the few wildernesses left in America.

Of course, the kooks themselves are clueless. They are dead serious about their prepping, and that makes it all the more entertainment fodder for the hip TV production crews as they send the filmed fruits of their labor into such areas as, particularly, the sophisticated, metropolitan regions of the Northeast and the cool, with-it West Coasters of places like San Francisco.

I think I’m considered in with the “nut jobs,” at least until they talk to me, by the producers of such programming. It used to be that I only got emails, followed by phone calls from the documentary producers who wanted my take on the Rapture. The Rapture is, of course, also fodder for entertaining the hip of the nation. However, now I am included in the producers’ search for those who want to make the case for the prepping going on in this nation and elsewhere. In most cases, I never hear from the producers again, after the initial “pre-interview,” as they call it. When those call, I give them the biblical explanation of these things–with chapter and verse. I don’t go into my personal opinion–at least rarely do so.

They don’t seem to like the answers they get. I think it is because I usually end it with the Gospel Message, weaving it as adroitly as possible into my answers to their inquiries.

By the end of our conversations, they usually say something like, “Thank you so much. This is great. We’ll get back shortly.” Then they ask: “Do you know anyone we might talk to who says they know the day of the Rapture?” Or, in the case of this prepping question: “Can you give us the names of anyone who believes the world will soon be destroyed?”

I never give them the names they seek. I never hear from most of them again.

I have to say that I’m not a fan of the prepping TV programs. But I think it wise to at least think about having finances in order and some degree of preparations in place–like food and emergency-kit-type things in case of severe economic downturn, not unlike preparations that the wise citizens of places along the coastal areas might make, just to be ready in case of hurricane aftereffects.

But there seems to be a kind of prepping in reverse going on in this country and around the world. This is what I want to address, if I may explain… The prepping for truly bad times to come is being done, as I see it, by government and its enablers/propagandists in mainstream media, in particular. Forget the masses. They are, for the most part, absorbed into the entertainment and day-to-day ether that obscures all perception of what’s really going on around them. They seem blissfully ignorant when it comes to the preparatory activity taking place, readying the hapless masses for fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Two areas I see as most obvious are those involving economy and religion. Another is preparations being made for setting up the false peace that will bring all nations to Armageddon–but that one will have to take second place for the moment.

Anyone who has carefully examined the financial upheaval since 2006 or so, leading into the 2008 collapse and rise in debt of nations around the world, and particularly in America, will acknowledge that control of finances by individuals has forever been usurped by governments who have mortgaged the futures of the citizenry of those indebted national entities. This is all about prepping for fulfillment of Bible prophecy, although largely not realized by those in governments who have done the usurping.

It is the same in the religious realm. All have been prepping. Congresses and presidents, parliaments and prime ministers in the Western nations have for decades been turning out the light of Christianity by proposing banning God–particularly the name of Jesus Christ–from public places. Many ways to God are embraced within the governance of the people in the name of “tolerance,” although total neutrality is preferred by the increasingly agnostic leaders. Jesus Christ is unmentionable, proving the Lord’s word as true–that the world would hate Him, and eventually, will hate all who claim His Holy Name through belief in Him. This is all prepping by the humanistic one-world builders who are determined to establish change. They want change that doesn’t include God in any fashion except that which will be the god of this world once this false religious system comes to fruition.

We find this religious and economic prepping’s prophetic culmination in 2 Thessalonians 2 and Revelation 13. The way is being prepped for world-wide religious worship, as given in Revelation 13: 8: “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

The object of this new-world-order worship is found in the following prophetic passage given through the apostle Paul: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposed and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).

Prepping is being carried out at every level of culture and society by Satan-inspired human governments for fulfillment of Bible prophecy. That prophecy involving worldwide economic control is found in the following: “And he caused 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).

So, how should the Christian be prepping for the bleak future that is immediately set before us? I think the following scriptural admonitions are the best preparation to be found: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal” (Matthew 6:19—20).

The most solid advice of all is given to us by the Word of God as follows: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Then we are to do the following: “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).

There are today so many obvious assaults against God-given principles through which we are meant to comport ourselves, that choosing any as the number-one assault should be a difficult thing to do. But, it isn’t, as I believe we will understand upon reaching the end of this essay.

We can with certainty state that in America at this moment, Satan is leading assaults on God’s prescription for marriage. It is working. Not too many years ago, more than 70 percent of people involved in romantic relationships in the United States got married, in the legal sense. These were man-woman marriages. Today, fewer than 50 percent are getting married, choosing to engage in live-in arrangements. But, the number of marriages of men to men and women to women, although still low, is growing. It is more than obvious that this is a satanically inspired trend that is prophetically scheduled to increase. (Jesus said it will be like it was in the days of Lot when He next intervenes, catastrophically, into the history of man. Homosexuality was at the heart of Sodom’s society and culture.)

This isn’t, however, the top assault Satan and his minions are making on this generation.

An even more horrific attack on humanity is the murder of babies in their mothers’ wombs. The evil one has convinced a large section of those who claim to be the most compassionate, caring, intelligent among us–the “progressives”—that burning little ones to death in the womb, or ripping them apart, or–if still breathing upon making it to birth–killing them by severing the spines is nothing more than birth control after the fact. At this infanticide–getting rid of human beings like refuse–the devil has been most successful.

This isn’t, though, his number-one priority.

The great deceiver incessantly attacks the human, fallen mind, inciting the greed within, fanning the flames of avarice. The result is movement toward one-world, economic enslavement, in which the few intend to control the rest of us by severely governing our ability to buy and sell. The devil is working, seemingly to perfection, his plan to one day install the 666 “Beast” system of Revelation 13:16-18. Even this love-of-money incitement, though, is not the number-one assault being made by Lucifer, the fallen one.

His absolute hatred for the creation called man is eclipsed only by his insane detestation of the God of Heaven. He drives the hatreds man has for his fellow man, instigating conflicts and wars at every opportunity. In this he has been highly successful, with well over 15,000 wars being waged and countless millions of lives being destroyed over the centuries.

This carnage is increasing, with the twentieth century seeing the most prolific loss of life in war ever, due to the horrendous capability of modern weaponry. With the fantastic weaponry available now–and that’s on the drawing boards of the military-industrial complex that studies war-making–there will come warfare that will make even World Wars I and II pale by comparison. We know that Armageddon looms.

But, again, this is not Satan’s number-one assault on this generation.

Then, his number-one assault must be to bring all the world into a hatred for God’s chosen people, Israel, I can hear some surmising. Certainly the words of the prophet Zechariah can be seen materializing into reality before our amazed eyes:

The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. 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 are gathered together against it.”

We have gone over many times how this is an all-important plan of Satan–to destroy that people. God’s ultimate salvation plan would be thwarted, were this to happen, because the Lord’s promises would have been proven false. The fallen one has made great strides in bringing all against Israel, and this assault certainly continues—sometimes seemingly unabated.

Yet, as integral to Satan’s war on God and man is to his fiendish intentions, the destruction of Israel is not his number-one objective in assaulting this generation. Time after time it has been seen that the most powerful plans are often the simplest. So it is with Satan’s plan to destroy as much of humanity as possible in the short time I believe he is aware he has left.

I am convinced that Satan’s number-one priority is to convince as much of mankind as possible to do away with one particular scripture. That’s it! Just do away with one Scripture, and the devil’s plan will blossom to full bloom…and men, women, and children will be swept into the abyss.

Satan’s number-one priority is to convince America’s Christians that Jesus wanted, above all, unity of belief. Jesus Christ wanted us to accept that unity of all religious systems must be achieved–that His followers must learn to tolerate each other and all other “believers,” no matter their “beliefs.” If this happens, all wars will be eliminated, because–Satan wants us to believe–all wars are instigated in one way or another by religious intolerance.

Secondly, the devil wants us to believe that the real gospel involves the realization that we must not be judgmental. This, you see, is closely related to intolerance–the basis for all hatred, bigotry–and, well, for wars.

If we just would not be judgmental–the rant goes– we would tolerate all religious belief systems. This would produce unity, which is what Christ taught. He wanted all “believers” to come together in unity. Thus, the “progressives” of the religious world within Christianity exclaim they are correct in saying we must accept all ways to God–ways proposed by each and every religion of the world.

Strangely, it is only Christianity that, in actuality, overtly hangs onto one way only!

John 3:16 has been replaced today in the church, particularly as the most quoted by younger people. Statistics bear out this contention–statistics that I don’t recall at the time of this writing. The Scripture that has replaced John 3:16 as the most-quoted Scripture is the following: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (Matt 7:1)

This is the verse that is thrown in the face of every Christian who witnesses that Jesus is the only way to salvation. We are not to “judge” others, or their religions.

Like all Scripture taken out of context, a case can be made in this instance that convolutes the Word of God. This sounds so pious and condemning of being judgmental–of intolerance. But, the meaning in context of the Scripture is that we must judge rightly, righteously. One does that by first making sure one is in right–that is righteous—relationship with God through Christ. That is the teaching of God’s Word about having good judgment. Unless we have the mind of Christ–are subject to Holy Spirit guidance–we cannot judge another. In Christ, we are discerning of truth and of the false.

But, the father of lies has convinced an ever-growing number of Christians and, of course, multiplied millions of others, that the new Scripture personifying Christianity is Matthew 7: 1, rather than John 3:16.

However, that replacement attempt does not constitute Satan’s number-one priority to which I’m referring here.

What, then, is Satan’s number-one priority that supersedes all other priorities in his assault on the world today?

It is this: That one certain verse must be forever done away with in the minds and hearts of those who claim Christianity. To do away with this Scripture means there will one day come acceptance of all other religious systems. An ecumenical system will one day amalgamate into spiritual unity that will give worship to Satan’s man, Antichrist.

That verse is this: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the father but by me” (John 14:6). Get rid of that truth, and the way will be clear for there to be unity and tolerance. It will forever do away with judgmentalism. We heard Pope Francis give lip service to this new “tolerance,” by implying there are many pathways to God. Jesus said, however, that He will one day say to those who fall victim to such satanic convolution of God’s Word: “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matthew 7:23).