This president is doing his best to fulfill campaign promises. His “best” is something to behold. He is getting it done at breakneck speed and despite opposition–much of that opposition satanically inspired.

The hatred toward him and even his family is unlike anything witnessed in our nation’s post-election history. Donald J. Trump forges ahead as if he doesn’t notice the fierceness and threats of the haters screaming their vitriol from every quarter. At least the rage doesn’t seem to bother him much. He doesn’t turn the other cheek, of course. His Tweets can be as devastating as slaps across the face. For example, his Tweet that asked the question: Isn’t it terrible the way Obama had my phones tapped in the Trump Tower?

He responds immediately in most cases to the written words of the hostile news media and spoken words of political antagonists. He is a New York City street fighter, and can obviously handle himself amongst the political and media street brawlers in spite of the fact that he is a political neophyte–but one that is quickly attaching himself to the learning curve.

Mr. Trump can be very kind, generous, and compassionate, as well as tough. We have seen these traits demonstrated on a number of occasions before and since he became president. He gets no notice of approval for this side of his personal deportment from any of his opposition of course. Neither does he seek it. He just…well…forges ahead and accomplishes what he has promised.

Although I’ve received criticism even from brothers and sisters in Christ who read this column for being “too caught up in worldly politics,” I don’t mind being perhaps overly transparent that I’m an ardent supporter of our new president. This doesn’t mean I approve of some of his NYC street jargon or his every word uttered or action taken. But for the most part, I think he is a man of honor, determined to do exactly what he promised the voter who supported him. I have no doubt that he is God’s chosen man for the job at this critical time in history.

The larger part of what makes this a critical time is Israel’s position on the world stage. That stance is becoming more front and center –more focused– with every hour that passes. This, as we have said many times in these essays, is a prime indicator, if not the prime indicator of where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline.

I believe this, in conjunction with the convergence of many prophetic indicators at this late hour constitutes the number one signal that the Rapture of the Church is very near.

After all that positive assessment of President Trump to this point, I must project an exhortation, almost an admonishment, in his direction. Rather, more to the point, I am issuing such to a select few people who orbit him, on a personal basis, I’m presuming.

I’ll mention five men specifically. These, I believe, have a responsibility the Lord Himself appointed for influencing this president. Each, I know absolutely, has biblical knowledge of God’s Word regarding the wind-up of human history. They must, if they have opportunity–and I have no doubt they do have opportunity–inform Mr. Trump, in detail, what Bible prophecy has to say about anyone dealing with Israel.

These men whom I believe have this responsibility are Franklin Graham, Dr. Robert Jeffress, Dr. David Jeremiah, and Mike Huckabee. One other might be Jerry Falwell, Jr. Each is thoroughly familiar with the futurist view of biblical prophecy. Each understands Israel’s role in the final disposition of prophetic fulfillment.

I’m not certain about Huckabee as to how in-depth is his stance on prophetic details regarding Israel. Sadly, Southern Baptist seminaries are now egregiously weak in prophecy teaching. Huckabee, however, was inculcated as a budding Southern Baptist minister when that denomination was on the money in God’s truth surrounding eschatology. Falwell surely must adhere to his late father’s viewpoint in matters concerning Israel’s future.

These people have apparently been embraced as evangelical leaders friendly to and accepted by the president. Thus, their responsibility to advise him is profound.

My reason for addressing the matter stems from President Trump’s meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Trump’s subsequent comments. The following news excerpt frames my concern.

US President Donald Trump is mulling the option to hold a peace conference in the Middle East in an effort to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after speaking on Friday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas…

“The president emphasized his personal belief that peace is possible and that the time has come to make a deal,” the White House said…”The president noted that such a deal would not only give Israelis and Palestinians the peace and security they deserve, but that it would reverberate positively throughout the region and the world,” the White House clarified. (Source: Trump Mulls Middle East Peace Conference, Annette News -Israel news by Orly Azoulay & Elior Levy, 3/12/17)

So, the question comes: What’s wrong with the president of the United States trying to make peace? Another question: Didn’t Jesus say, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will inherit the earth”? The problem isn’t the effort at peacemaking by Mr Trump or anyone else. The problem is that the attempt at making peace between Israel and her enemies always involves Israel having to give up its land for peace–something that God says will bring mankind to the battle of Armageddon.

For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3: 1-2)

God will not abide the dividing of His land–which the world, in effect, has already done. To further divide the land, after God has brought the Jews back from dispersion will, undoubtedly, be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.

God’s Word prophesies about peace deals that involves His chosen people and nation He forewarns His people, Israel:

Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves… And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. (Isaiah 28: 15, 18)

Antichrist will make that final peace deal with Israel (read Daniel 9: 26-27). The results, as you see from Isaiah’s prophecy, will be catastrophic for Israel. Joel, in his prophecy, makes it clear that it will be equally disastrous for the whole world.

President Trump, like all presidents before him, receives daily briefings on the important matters he must consider. There is no matter more important than the way he deals with this nation so close to God’s great heart.

The gentlemen I’ve mentioned have an awesome responsibility to give the president the most important briefing he will ever receive: forewarning from God’s prophetic Word regarding Israel.

The TV teacher was finished with his first hour of “teaching” from the Bible. I know this, not because I watched the first half hour of the one-hour daily Monday through Friday program, but because I know the schedule. The program has aired for many years and I have on occasion flipped through the channels and stopped just to hear what this man happens to be saying.

Some degree of what he “teaches” is in accordance with Bible truth as best I can tell. However, much is almost anti-Semetic in its presentation in that he is of the view that the nation of Israel has been replaced in God’s economy by the church. His view of Bible prophecy could hardly be more wrong. His almost total disregard for modern Israel having any place in God’s prophetic plans brings his whole ministry into question, in my opinion.

The TV “teacher” says this generation is presently in the era of the sixth seal as given in the book of Revelation. He says that the prophetic trump of Revelation is as follows:

“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15), is the same spoken of by Paul the apostle in the following passage:

“Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).

In other words, he teaches that believers will be changed into spiritual bodies at the end of the Tribulation period. When I heard this familiar television pontificator make this equally familiar proclamation, this past Tuesday morning, rather than click to the next station as I would normally do, an inner tug at my spirit caused me to “stay tuned,” as they say.

What happened next was quite revelatory to me. I determined that it was worthy of passing along to you who read these commentaries. It was such a strong impression, that I consider it yet another of the epiphanies I’ve received from the Good Friday April 22, 2011 widow maker heart attack, when my heart stopped beating on three separate occasions during a forty-five minute rush to the hospital and in the heart cath lab.

For those who aren’t familiar with what I term my HeavenVision, I invite you to look into the archives of the “Newest Articles” at raptureready.com and read my article of the same title. For an even deeper review of what happened on that day, my bookHeavenVision:Glimpses into Glory is available.

Briefly, each time I heard an electronic-sounding blip, I stood instantaneously before a huge throng of magnificent young people, men and women who looked in the prime of life. They were beckoning me to come and join them.

Their hands were raised above their heads in a gesture of corporate victory, and the jubilation and warmth I viscerally felt at my very core made me never want to leave them. But I did leave them, only to return two more times to the same throng, each time my heart stopped again. The third time I was in their midst─we were running, hands raised-high in the air, and it felt like a great victory lap.

Then I was hit with the defibrillation paddles for the third time, and I was again in the cath lab, the blockage to the major artery having been removed. Tuesday morning as I watched the TV preacher as he again proclaimed that the Rapture was a fraud─as he does every chance he gets─I saw in my mind’s eye that group of cheering, jubilant young people─heavenly beings with their hands in the air in an unmistakable gesture of victory.

My irritation with the anti-Israel, anti-Rapture TV “teacher” instantly dissipated. Warmth not unlike the sensation that gave me peace beyond any I’ve felt before, or since that Good Friday made me know, gave reassurance that the Pre-Trib Rapture is truth from God’s Word.

Okay, I know that some will accuse my “epiphany” as being just an ecstatic rant from an emotional moment─thus not a valid proof of anything. I understand those who might accuse in that manner. If they truly knew me, they would know that I am among the least likely of individuals to embrace “experiential” Christianity─in the ecstatic sense. But few personally know me, so I will add some other considerations to this account of my again being influenced, I’m convinced: By that cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Today, there are a considerable number of Bible prophecy, anti-Rapturists like the gentleman I’ve just mentioned. Most include within their teaching, in addition to vitriol condemning all who teach and believe in a Pre-Trib Rapture—that:

1) Israel, in the modern sense, has no relevance to Bible prophecy yet future. The church has now been given all of Israel’s promises.

2) Many of these sorts, teach that Britain and America are where the “lost tribes of Israel” settled. Thus Britain and America are now the Jews of God’s promises.

3) They spiritualize and allegorize much of prophetic Scripture whenever it is most convenient, to fit within their false prophecy teaching/preaching schemes.

4) Many include─like the TV preacher I mention above─that we are already in the Tribulation era, usually proclaiming this generation is likely somewhere within the first six seal judgment.

Israel, alone, is enough to show the foolishness of their teaching. The Jewish people are again a nation after nearly 2000 years of dispersion throughout the whole world, precisely as Bible prophecy foretells. They are at the center of hatred among all the nations of the world.

The U.N. body is almost totally against everything about Israel. Israel is seen as the occupier and aggressor against their neighbors, despite the absolutely undeniable fact that the tiny Jewish state has been attacked en masse by its neighbors in 1948, 1956, 1967 (Israel preempted Arab forces) and 1973. There have been many other less major-attacks against this state.

Most spectacular of all as proof that the anti-Israel teachers are wrong is the fact that Israel has never been defeated in a major way. God has promised to Israel that they will be His nation forever. He still has His Mighty Hand on His chosen people!

For sake of brevity, I’ll skip to the final category I mention that the anti-Rapturists most often claim. They believe we are in the Tribulation already─usually claiming this generation is somewhere within the six seal judgments. Some proclaimed that Barack Obama was to be the Antichrist, and even gave dates for when he would desecrate a future temple. Some, in fact, have claimed dates Antichrist would take power, dates, which, of course, have already passed.

In total context, the Pre-Trib Rapture view of unfolding Bible prophecy is proving daily to be the true biblical course of fulfillment. Every geopolitical, socio-economic, religious and technological indicator fortifies the sense that there is coming a catastrophic event that will bring all crashing down upon this world so ripe for judgment. I welcome, nonetheless, the reassurance that my throng of young, heavenly, friends continue to give─in validating God’s promises to call His people home before His wrath must fall.

Bible prophecy is in motion with stage-setting for the wind-up of this present dispensation clearly in view. Manifestation of issues and events pointing to the end of the age isn’t merely a sense among prophecy watchers that things are shaping for fulfillment. Hard news attests that Christ’s return in the Rapture must be very near indeed.

Israel is again moving to the center of the spotlight on the world stage. In a strange twist of geopolitical interaction, the Jewish state is reaching out to do diplomatic business with one of the chief antagonists Ezekiel the prophet foretold will lead an attack on God’s chosen people.

Not only is Russia being consulted in an effort to improve Israel’s security, but another key enemy that will join Russia in the Gog-Magog assault is involved in the attempt at negotiation. Iran (Persia) is the primary antagonist of contention that Israel is asking Russia to influence so that the Israeli people will achieve an added degree of peace and safety.

Israel hopes to reach “specific understandings” with Russia to prevent Iran from permanently setting up a base of operations in Syria against Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the cabinet on Sunday.

At the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu announced that he will be traveling to Moscow on Thursday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the focus of the discussions will be on current efforts to put together new arrangements in Syria. Those efforts have taken place in recent weeks in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, and Geneva.

“With the framework of these arrangements, and even without them, there is an Iranian effort to become firmly established on a permanent basis, either through Syria, the presence of ground forces, or naval forces,” Netanyahu said.

He also said the Syrians are involved in a “gradual attempt to open up a front against us on the Golan Heights.”

The prime minister said that he will express Israel’s fierce opposition to this in his discussions with Putin. “I hope that we can reach specific understandings in order to decrease possible friction between our forces and theirs, as we did successfully until now,” Netanyahu said. (Source: “Benjamin Netanyahu to Urge Russia to say ‘nyet’ to Iranian Ops Near Israel Border,” Israel News, Jerusalem Post, March 5, 2017)

At the same time, Israel is dealing with an enemy it apparently can’t fully recognize, there is movement afoot to bring the Middle East to a potentially explosive point–even though well-meaning, potentially conflict-producing plans are going ahead to at some point soon move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

An official United States delegation led by Congressman Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is briefly visiting Israel on Saturday and Sunday to study the possibility of relocating the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The delegation is in Jerusalem to learn firsthand what it will mean to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” said Ruth Lieberman, a friend of DeSantis and a political advisor in Israel. (Source: US delegation in Israel to study relocation of embassy to Jerusalem , Rapture Ready News March 5, 2017)

The move, promised by Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, would almost certainly help bring to the forefront the “cup of trembling” prophetic scenario of Zechariah 12: 1-3.

All the while things are setting up for Israel to play its phenomenal end-times role on the global stage, we get a glimpse here in our own nation of the coming time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).

Headstones were found toppled in Brooklyn’s Washington Cemetery on Sunday morning. It is the fourth in a rash of vandalism at US Jewish burial grounds.

The cemetery is located in the Mapleton neighborhood, located between Borough Park and Bensonhurst…

New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind tweeted photos of some of the downed headstones on Saturday night. He said he was alerted to the vandalism by the Boro Park Shomrim organization, a Jewish security patrol.

It is not known who toppled the headstones or why. In 2010, some 200 headstones were toppled in the same cemetery, also over a Friday night and Saturday, when it is closed. (Source: Jerusalem Post, Reuters March 5, 2017)

Antichrist will be the most virulent Jew-hater of all time, his rage against God’s chosen people far surpassing that of Adolf Hitler and his murderous regime. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in America as well as in Europe and other places. Antichrist’s platform of genocidal rage is being constructed!

There is tremendous prophetic shifting taking place in every direction at this moment. We, as ambassadors for Christ, have been put here at this time and in our specific places in order to witness the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must make the greatest use of the time to present Christ to the world during this prophetic movement.

International spy-thrillers have always been among my weaknesses. I’ve spent far too much time over the years enmeshed cerebrally within one such story or another. Robert Ludlum was perhaps my favorite author within the genre, with such enthralling tales of espionage at the highest levels as The Bourne Identity and The Matarese Circle. I was also hooked at one point on fiction involving Blackford Oakes CIA intrigues authored by William F. Buckley, Jr.

It’s difficult to find such books in electronically-presented form (in Word document) that my synthesized voice, computer program can read for me. I’m now blind due to a retinal disease, and the JAWS (Jobs Accessible Word System) program reads to me most all correspondence and other written materials over the Internet.

It’s just as well that I can’t easily access such books, because these, though entertaining, would be time-wasters for me, especially considering the compression of time I believe we are presently operating within─as we move quickly toward the consummation of human history. There are far more important things to accomplish than being entertained by fictional stories of clandestine doings within top-echelons of governments.

On second thought, we read in our headlines almost hourly of just such intrigues taking place in reality, that if not entertaining─certainly are quite thrilling, in the frightening sense at many levels. So as a fellow watchman with many of you who are reading this column, I, like some of you, am really not missing anything but the love of fiction factor. And, things of factual import are developing at a pace and in fashion precisely the way the greatest of all authors─the Lord Himself─has foretold for all to read.

One such spy-thriller comes to mind that helped bring out in me the interest in Bible prophecy that would in later years transform my thinking in a profound way. That 1960 novel’s title is, In High Places. Its author, Arthur Hiley, a British/Canadian writer who was among the first to produce such novels that later, writers like Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy would take to great book marketing heights.

In High Places is a story of a fictional Canadian prime minister and his political machinations while trying to maintain power, during the time of the cold war─that was fraught with nuclear threat and Canada’s troubled dealings with immigration. The author attempted and did a good job at showing the evil, wicked and even perverse interactions of politicians at the very top of power politics and in governments at the highest levels.

Even as a very young man reading the novel, I noticed Hailey’s use of biblical reference in selecting his title. The phrase, “in high places” of course is found in the apostle Paul’s passages on spiritual warfare:

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

I realized even as a young man of 18, upon reading the book and thinking on its title that the Bible’s use of the phrase was infinitely different in scope from Arthur Hailey’s. Yet at the same time, what I didn’t understand at the time was that the malevolent forces in the fictional realm of Hailey’s geopolitical thriller reflected and represented evil, other worldly forces at work in real life.

I’m not so sure that the author of the novel, In High Places fully realized it, either. One thing for sure, no one in government in the highest of places today where true wickedness is happening, nor the journalists of our world who are supposed to be the watchdogs on behalf of the citizenry, indicate in the slightest way that they understand the true source from whence the wickedness this way comes.

If they do understand it, they must be in collusion with it, because they aren’t letting us know. But, that’s really a kook-conspiracy notion, is it not? (Human beings in power at the top levels in cahoots with the likes of Satan and his minions!)

Yet, I believe this is precisely what the apostle Paul was saying under inspiration as he penned the words to the Ephesian Christians, and to us─who would follow.

The ultimate battle is being waged in the very highest places. The devil and his minions are using every device at their disposal that is allowed by the God of heaven, who is always in complete control. Those include human beings, who do the demonic entities’ bidding, whether realizing it or not in many cases─probably most cases in these end of the age days.

Look for the demonic influences in high places to become ever more evident while evil men and seducers grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:13).

Author’s note: This week, I’m doing something I’ve done only once before during the course of writing for this Nearing Midnight column. I’m repeating a commentary I wrote previously –this one on January 16, 2006.

I am doing so because I believe the Lord impressed upon my spirit that the Departure is so very near, and our minds and spiritual hearts are too often far from that stunning event that can take place at any given second. It’s time to “look up” is the exhortation of the hour.

The Scripture is haunting. It echoes and reverberates throughout the spiritual hallways of the Church with each passing hour.

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils”(1 Tim. 4:1).

This forewarning fits into the last-days pattern, also given by the Apostle Paul, in the familiar prophetic passage: “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…” (2 Thes. 2:3).

The “falling away,” apostasia in Greek, means a “departure from.” Paul prophesied in the 2 Timothy 4:1 passage that there will come a time at the end of the Church Age when people will depart from the “faith.” He foretells in 2 Thessalonians that this will be a general “falling away,” the apostasy of the endtime. What is this “faith” from which people will fall away, and who are the “people” who will fall away? Another crucial question is: Can the departure that God, through Paul, forewarned about be recognized when it occurs?

“Faith,” as here defined, must, by context, be the faith in the One who is at the heart of the Gospel–faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, chosen from the foundation of the world to be the propitiation for the sin that separates fallen man from God. It is the faith you and I must have in order to confess with our mouths that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, and to believe in the deepest part of our spirits that God raised Him from the dead.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

A person can’t fall from a position (doctrinally speaking in this case) he never has attained. The “people,” then, whom Paul the apostle is writing about in his prophecies of 1 Timothy 4:1 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3 are those who have believed in Jesus Christ for salvation of their souls.

This brings us to the question: Can the departure God, through Paul, forewarned about be recognized when it occurs? To recognize that “falling away”–that apostasia, or apostasy— when it begins to happen, will almost certainly give the Christian attuned to God’s will a heads-up on the nearness of the Tribulation era, thus to the nearness of the rapture of the Church.

We have looked at the “faith” as faith in Jesus for salvation, and at the “people”who will “depart” from the faith as being the Church–that is, the true Christians who are alive at the time of the end, when the apostasy takes place.

Although there are those who think this departure includes the possibility of one losing one’s salvation, the “falling away” of 2 Thessalonians 2:3 cannot include that meaning. A quick look at Romans 8:38 and 39, to name just one security-of-the-believer passage, shows that God’s Word teaches that the believer can’t depart from the Heavenly Father to the point of losing his or her family status. Jesus, in John chapter 17, makes that absolutely clear. I suggest that if you have questions about this, read the Scriptures I just mentioned.

What, then, is meant by “departing from the “faith”? Glad you asked. The “faith” mentioned in 2 Thessalonians and 1 Timothy 2:3 is a collection of faith principles wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ. These principles are doctrines put forth by the Word of God. The Word of God is none other than the Lord Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

“People” at the time of the “falling away” will “depart” from the “faith” –the doctrines put forth by the Word of God, who is Jesus Christ. This departure will mark the generation of Christians at the very end of the Church Age.

The question that applies most relevantly to us today is: Are we seeing signals of the departure about which Paul forewarned?

We have analyzed, dissected, examined, and inspected every endtime signal found in God’s Word many times in these raptureready.com webpages: Israel again in the land of promise; the EU looking to be the reviving Roman Empire; Russia, Persia (modern Iran) and other nations looking to be a nucleus that will one day form the Gog-Magog force of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. These, plus, all of the other endtime characteristics of this generation.

However, I believe the most insidious of all the things taking place under the clever, devious hand of the devil –Satan—is the falling away, the departure from the faith being currently orchestrated by Lucifer, the fallen one.

This departure is evident to the spiritually discerning when looking at the church growth movement. This “seeker friendly” approach to both the saved and the lost (all who don’t know Christ) through New Age, corporation-type seminar seductiveness and brainwashing techniques that water down or completely eliminate true Bible doctrine is leading in a profound departure from the “faith once delivered” (see Jude 1: 3).

The new paradigm instituted by the champions of the church growth movement is the shift from New Testament Christianity to “New Spirituality-Driven Christianity.”

Like in the modern corporate organization, invented in large part by German economic guru Peter Drucker, who mentored some of the leading designers of the church growth movement, the system is more an organism than an organization –adopting Drucker’s model based upon Freudian psychology and Darwinian evolutionary principles. The individual is assigned a value, and he must fit in, or be removed from the system. To put it as I heard one person of the movement say: “Pillars just hold things up. So, they need to be moved out of the way.” So, those who hold to doctrine must get out of the way so no one will have their feelings hurt by talk of sin, and blood atonement, and eternal punishment in the place called Hell, if repentance is not forthcoming. Again, the Apostle Paul wrote God’s view of this watering down of doctrine:

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8).

Are we at the point of departure from the faith that is prophesied for the very end of the Church Age? Maybe we can get a better sense by looking at one more area of Scripture pertaining to the matter: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Tim. 4:1-4).

There is another prophetically scheduled departure to consider. It’s the one we should be looking forward to. It is a God-ordained departure that will remove every child of God of the Church Age –living and dead—from Planet Earth in one millisecond of time:

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:13).

Dark, spiritual forces in high places are at work. There is no groundbreaking revelation in that statement regarding life in this nation and the world today. However, the true nature of the demonic delusion being foisted upon us is something even the most biblically mature among us will continue to miss─I’m convinced─if spiritual antennae aren’t properly attuned.

Additionally, it is time, like no other time before, to put on the whole armor as outlined by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:12-18. Even more profound than the political insanity of the lunatic left that splits America, I perceive a most troubling schism developing amongst the brethren. I refer to those who watch –like the Lord commanded (Mark 13: 37) — end-times developments in what many believe are the closing hours of the Church Age.

Reports, leading up to this presidential election, came at us on an increasingly regular basis of behind-the-scenes activities that appeared to be─to say the least─bizarre. I’m talking about things the equivalent of claims/reports of the U.S. Government actually planning and carrying out the assassination of John F. Kennedy,─of George W. Bush’s administration being behind the planning and attack on the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2011.

I’m certain that, over recent years, the reader of this essay has read the many articles of such mind-boggling reports─all written/presented as if they were unassailable truth. These accounts sprang from unseen fly-on-the-wall sources that gave the impression they personally witness the making of plans to imprison believers or to implant us all with computer chips while we sleep, or…whatever the conspiratorial imagination might conjure.

I will already have angered those who send such email with that word-portrait, no doubt. But before my thoughts on your side of the issue raise the blood pressure with words of anger, “I’ll never send him another article,” please hear me out. There is the other side of the developing schism. It, too, is deleterious to the task of being a watchman on the wall in these critical days leading up to our Lord’s catastrophic intervention into the affairs of mankind.

I’m talking about the mindset that writes off as complete lunacy every report issued by the likes of Alex Jones crossing their computer screens. To fold up the antennae of discernment and simply lump all things that don’t slip smoothly through one’s anti-conspiratorial filter, just might, in my view, constitute a deadly delusion in the making.

The rift, I sense developing between the watchmen during these fleeting days of the age is, inflicted by the father of lies, himself. It is all part of the great, spiritual, wrestling match Paul warns about in Ephesians 6:12. The devil likes to pit one side against the other, and it is easy for him to do, if the spiritual armor isn’t the battle gear of choice.

One side of the divide most often sees only collusion of governmental diabolists at every level, thus is, understandably, accused by the secular world and fellow Christian watchmen alike of being: conspiracy kooks.

The devil, it cannot be denied by those with discernment, has made great strides in dividing this nation along many lines. Abraham Lincoln, we remember, once used Jesus’ words to warn that our nation “…divided against itself cannot stand.”

The danger we face in this hour of apparent triumph, with the new presidential administration now in place, is that Christians on each side of the divide, out of apathy, sometimes fail to recognize the ways Satan directs his human minions to plot his end-times mischief.

Paul, mentioned at the beginning of this piece, must have, with his words of Ephesians 6: 12-18, been given his inspired thought particularly to give to this generation so near the return of Jesus Christ. Each Christian should daily put on the whole armor of God. This, obviously, hasn’t happened, and likely won’t happen.

The vast numbers within the body of Christ are turned inward, or in directions other than watching and yearning for the Lord’s coming back to put an end to this evil world-system. If we are honest, we must say that the body of Christ, as a whole today, isn’t even pursuing the Great Commission left to us by Jesus─to carry the gospel to the whole world and to do whatsoever He taught and instructed.

Let’s not wrestle violently, angrily against each other, but combine, with reasoned purpose, against our true foe. Here is how to dress for the battle that will surely grow more intensive by the hour as the Rapture of the church approaches.

“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. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

“And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Ephesians 6:10-18).