Prophecy Line
“Looking Out” vs. “Looking Up”
We should all be on the same prophetic page, but that isn’t the case. Prophecy “watchers” are attuned to differing wavelengths on a prophetic spectrum. And it’s a man-made rather than a biblically constructed spectrum that is divisive to the point of being a disservice to God’s family here on Earth.
Here I intend to present my thoughts on Bible prophecy yet in the future, which I maintain is based only in truth from God’s Word—in contrast to what I perceive as a falling-away from that truth at this late hour of the Church Age.
By this, I’m not in any way intimating that this falling-away is the apostasies (departure or falling away) foretold in 2 Thessalonians 2. That sort of departure from the faith denies gospel truth that belief in Jesus Christ alone for salvation is the only way to God the Father and Heaven (John 14:6).
Although some who are truly saved by their belief in Christ say there is no pre-Trib Rapture, I do believe they are misguided to the point of being damaging to the great cause of Christ. These observers of today’s issues and events relative to the anticipation of prophecy to be fulfilled are, as the title has it, “looking out.” But they are not, as the second part of the title says, “looking up.”
They are watching for issues and events that signal fulfillment of things prophesied in God’s Word. But they aren’t anticipating the any-moment call of the Lord Jesus Christ to all believers who have lived and died during the Church Age—this Age of Grace.
These who watch are “looking out”–that is, at things going on around them, but they aren’t “watching” the way Jesus and the Apostle Paul instructed.
Jesus said to “watch” for the signs He gave in His Olivet Discourse:
What I say unto one, I say unto all. Watch. (Mark 13:37.
The watchers of the first sort–the ones who only “look out” at things happening that appear to be setting the stage for the fulfillment of prophecy—aren’t following through on Jesus’ words in His final instruction about “watching”:
And when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head. For your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:28)
Those who only “watch” the signals of prophetic stage-setting miss the true point of the Lord’s instruction. Those of us who are believers–who are saved by His wonderful grace—must be looking for Him, our Redeemer, not for a fulfilled prophecy other than that of the Rapture.
And what these mistaken observers watch for is the start of the Tribulation, that seven-year period–Daniel’s seventieth week—the second half of which Jesus said will be the most horrendous time of all human history. And the first half of era won’t be much better, according to the twenty-one specific judgments given in the book of Revelation, following Christ’s call to the Church (Revelation 4).
That time of horror will be ruled over for the most part by Antichrist. He will be history’s most vicious tyrant, a dictator indwelt by Satan who will demand worship (Revelation 13).
So those who are in grievous error of watching exclusively for signals of the Tribulation, rather than for the imminent (any-moment) call by Jesus into the clouds of Glory in the Rapture, are looking for Antichrist. This is not what our Lord commanded. This is not what the great Apostle Paul, who was given this mystery by God the Holy Spirit to divulge to believers during this Church Age, told us. We are, Paul said:
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:13)
There is no “blessed hope” in looking for Antichrist and the Tribulation. And there is no comfort in looking for God’s wrath that will befall rebellious humankind during that terrible seven years of judgment upon this fallen planet.
About that comforting blessed hope, Paul writes:
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)
We are to take great comfort–encouragement—as we watch all these things that signal that the Tribulation is very near beginning: things that will bring about the worst time in human history. We who are saved by the precious blood of Christ will not be here to suffer God’s judgment. God’s Word tells us:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1)
The Church–all born-again believers in Christ—is mentioned nineteen times in Revelation chapters 1–3. The Church is not in Revelation’s prophetic picture again until chapter 19, where we read that the saints, robed in pure white, accompany King Jesus back to put an end to Armageddon. The Church will be in Heaven, not on Earth, during Daniel’s seventieth week–the Tribulation.
Now there is great comfort in that promise!
So while we look outward at what’s going on—the evil that is so troubling to others—believers should find comfort, even thrilling anticipation, that we are about to see our Lord face to face in Heaven. We are, as instructed by our coming King, to be “Looking up,” as well as watching the issues and events that are setting the prophetic stage, and working to bring others to a saving knowledge of Christ.
Here, again, is how to be saved from the sin that condemns those who have not accepted Christ’s redeeming forgiveness.
That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10: 9-10)
Israel Here to Stay?
Authors note: While awaiting President Donald J. Trump’s decision on ridding Iran’s Islamic regime of its nuclear weapons-making capability, I researched through past commentaries I’ve written on this troubling topic. There were a number of such articles, but the one I chose, I think, portrays just how long the threat has been allowed to build to this moment of absolute necessity of eliminating a sure and present danger—a danger not only to Israel and America, but to the entire world.
Now the president has made the decision that will have resounding ramifications throughout the world. Iran’s nuclear facilities have been totally eliminated in the strikes Saturday night, June 21, 2025.
However, none of the usual pundits can answer: What happens next? Will there be regime change? There are no answers coming from the so-called experts.
There is no uncertainty from this quarter. It’s not that I am super-smart or prescient. But I read the future that is found only in the Holy Word of our God.
The ”Persian” evil is not finished. Iran is destined to join the Gog-Magog coalition of Ezekiel chapters 38-39.
Because of Bible prophecy, I’m prepared to offer with a significant degree of certainty the opinion that this action–righteous though it is in ridding Israel and the world of an immediate nuclear threat from this wicked regime, has started a process that will very quickly push Iran further into the arms of the likes of Russia, Turkey, and others that will constitute the Gog-Magog coalition.
The following was posted on Raptureready.com August 23, 2010.
My thought in reposting here is to show that no matter how things look from human perspective, God is in full control at all times. He is restraining and has the satanically inspired forces of evil often in derision as promised in Psalm 2.
The dangers examined in that article still exist, and the Lord continues to restrain and be in full control. So, those who know the Lord and watch prophetic developments as we are Instructed by Jesus (Mark 13:37 and Luke 21:28) can be assured that God’s promise to take believers home to Glory is imminent, while witnessing “all these things begin[ning] to come to pass.”
Israel Here to Stay?
Originally posted August 23, 2010
My inbox and the news from Bible prophecy circles bulge with talk of Israel’s almost-certain attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The scuttlebutt has been coming hard and fast since 2007 or even earlier. Each summer was going to bring an assault by Israel,and all-out Mideast war was sure to ensue.
As I write this, the predictions are at fever pitch. John Bolton, former American UN ambassador, declared that Israel had until Saturday, August 21, [2010.] to take out Iran’s nuclear plants, or risk—by their bombing—spreading radiation contamination across the area and into the Persian Gulf.
The flood of emails proclaims that this is it. The region is going to go up in flames, with Russia coming to the aid of Iran, because the Russians are so heavily invested in the Iranian nuclear program. There will be Russian nuclear technicians installing the radioactive rods necessary to fuel and power up the facility. They will be in harm’s way, and Moscow–from which Gog of Magog prophetic infamy will come—will not abide such an insult. The thought frequently conjectured: Could this be the beginning of Ezekiel 38-39—the Gog-Magog attack?
Israel can’t afford, the argument goes, to allow the facility to come online. This, because the spent fuel rods will provide plutonium and other byproducts to give Iran the materials from which they can produce nuclear weapons. That’s a simplification of the matter, but should suffice, I hope, for making my point.
This attack by Israel will be, the emailers apparently believe, prophecy being fulfilled. This preemptive attack by the Jewish state upon the land of ancient Persia surely will, the messages exclaim, instigate a chain reaction of events. These events will bring the Gog-Magog attack, and perhaps Isaiah 17:1 will also be fulfilled. Some even believe it will provoke the long-pondered-over Psalm 83 war supposed by many to be in the offing.
I could have waited until Saturday, August 21, had passed to write this piece, but chose not to do so. My reason is primarily that I don’t believe this is the time for the Gog-Magog War, or for the proposed Psalm 83 conflict, should it be an actual prophecy. Exigencies just aren’t ripe for producing the horrific results such conflicts as the Gog-Magog, or even the supposed Psalm 83, conflagrations would inflict. At least, that’s my view from my present perspective.
More than that, I believe that’s the way it is presented from the perspective of Bible prophecy. One thing I do think is an almost 100-percent certainty is that Israel isn’t going anywhere. Iranian tyrant Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s promises to erase Israel from the face of the Middle East and the world are empty threats. It will never happen—not even with the help of the Gog nation, Russia.
Why do I say “an almost 100-percent certainty”?
This goes to the argument of those who say it is possible that Israel could be removed from its land yet again. Then, all would have to once more rearrange in order to get the prophetic indicators into place like they are now. God might allow Israel’s enemies to again take the Jews from the Promised Land because of their unbelief.
Zola Levitt and I were once discussing the hatred of the Arab nations for Israel. I mentioned that the late Dr. J. Vernon McGee didn’t think the Jews being back in the land was necessarily a major signal of the nearness to Christ’s return. My friend Zola, a very passionate man when it came to Israel, got pretty exercised, as I recall. He said he and Dr. McGee “got into it” over this subject.
Zola said Dr. McGee said it could be that Israel might yet be removed from the land of promise. Zola didn’t like that at all, so they had a rather lively discussion on the matter—on camera. I said, “Well, Dr. McGee [who went to be with the Lord in 1988 at age 84] knows now, that’s for sure.” That seemed to calm Zola a bit.
Dr. McGee would no doubt agree that Israel is back in the land to stay, if he could have watched developments of the years since he left the planet. Israel being: the center of most all controversy so far as issues of war and peace are concerned; pressured by the international community to give up God’s land; at the center of a forced, phony peace process, with Iran (ancient Persia) threatening from the north. How could he or anyone being privy to such facts say otherwise?
Whatever happened last Saturday—as you read this on August 23 or later—Israel isn’t going anywhere. So, I’ll change my “almost” to an absolute 100-percent certainty.
Although Israel—and the world—is in for some terrible times ahead, I firmly believe we have the very Word of God about the current and future disposition of His chosen nation. Israel is here to stay.
And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God. (Amos 9:14–15)
Revelation 17 Harlot System
We can see on the prophetic horizon a monstrous beast lumbering in this direction with a woman riding astride its back. Dave Hunt, you might recall, wrote a provocative—even controversial—book on the subject: The Woman Rides a Beast. Most literalists believe (as did Hunt) the “woman” represents the apostate religious system that will be Antichrist’s mistress, as a counterfeit of the Church, the Bride of Jesus Christ.
The matters involved present a terrifying specter—a foreshadowing of bloody things to come, given John to record on the Isle of Patmos almost two thousand years ago:
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. (Revelation 17:3–6)
Historicists–those who believe that most prophecy, including this one, has been fulfilled historically—say this all took place during the Roman-based persecutions throughout early Church history. The prophecy, they say, has nothing to do with things to come, except in the most general sense. Certainly, the prophecy has nothing specific to do with an end-times persecution leading to the most terrible time in human history. Such a view presents a torturous task for historicist adherents who try to explain the Revelation 17 prophecy of the wicked woman on the hideous beast.
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. (Revelation 17:12–14)
This powerful ten-nation entity and the beast have no historical basis as accomplished fact. Any dealing with this part of the prophecy from the perspective of any but the futurist view—that there is much Bible prophecy yet to be literally fulfilled—requires spiritualizing, allegorizing, or else applying pure sophistry to everything to do with these Scriptures.
Contemporary headlines, as they do for so many prophecies yet future, make the case for the Revelation 17 prophecy coming into view in our time. It is literally shaping up for fulfillment before the eyes of those with prophetic discernment. We’ve used these commentaries many times to dissect and examine news stories that show the governments of the world reconfiguring into what George H. W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Barack Obama, and many others have termed “New World Order.” The dire global economic crises that have moved toward critical mass just within the past couple of years have shown the inextricable national fiscal interlinkages. It has become obvious that the world is being forced into a monetary mold that could easily morph into something like the ten-kingdom power bloc God’s Word says will give its power and authority to the beast.
I believe it will be the Rapture of the Church that will quickly bring about that ten-kings fiscal power bloc.
So, it’s reasonable to expect the harlot who rides the beast—the agglomerate ten kings and kingdoms of Revelation 17—to be somewhere in the prophetic picture, if indeed we are witnessing that monster in the making.
There has always been much talk, among those who watch for signals of the end times, about a final Catholic pope who might be Antichrist’s False Prophet. I ‘m not one who believes a future pope will necessarily become that second beast of Revelation 13.
However, the religious organization the pontiff heads will, I believe, be a major part of the nucleus of the religious amalgamation outlined in Revelation 17.
It’s quite interesting to consider here the perspective of one who came out of the Catholic Church and who I believe is one of the key observers of these profound times we face as we watch for our Lord’s return.
The new pope appears to be well qualified to be the head of an international organization. He can speak five languages including English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese and he can also read Latin and German. He is well educated with advanced degrees in Mathematics and Theology. But is he qualified to be the head of the church that Catholics believe was founded by the Lord Jesus Christ? The short answer is a resounding “No!” Jesus Christ, God’s perfect man and man’s perfect God, is the only one qualified! He is the One who purchased His church with His own blood and He is its only Head and only foundation (Acts 20:28; Eph. 5:23; 1 Cor. 3:11).
Catholics have foolishly replaced Christ as Head of the church with the pope. This is why the Reformers referred to the Pope as the antichrist, which means, the one who replaces or stands in the place of Christ. The Bible has many warnings concerning antichrists and trusting in mortal men. “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands…But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him” (Jer. 17:5–7). “Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation” (Psalm 146:3).
Will the Pope Be Liberal, Conservative or Biblical?
Many Catholics are wondering if Pope Leo XIV will be liberal or conservative on social and political issues. Yet, they should be more concerned with biblical issues that have eternal consequences. If he continues to preach a false gospel that keeps 1.4 billion Catholics on the wide road to destruction, he is accursed (Gal. 1:6-9). (“What Will Catholics Do with Pope Leo XIV?”, Mike Gendron, Proclaiming the Gospel, June 2025)
The new pope is at the center of the ongoing reach of the Catholic Church into the European structure from which the Antichrist regime, I believe, will emerge. The following shows that continuing relationship between the EU and the Vatican.
Led by its President, H.E. Mgr Mariano Crociata, the COMECE delegation introduced itself and engaged in discussion with the Holy Father on the current state of the European integration process and the European Union’s role in promoting peace and integral human development in an increasingly uncertain and rapidly evolving world. During the audience, Pope Leo XIV underscored the significance of COMECE’s mission of dialogue with the institutions of the European Union.
During the meeting, a number of pressing themes were addressed. These included the urgent need to promote dialogue and peace both within Europe and globally; the challenges posed by migration and asylum; the social implications of emerging technologies, particularly those based on Artificial Intelligence (AI); and the erosion of democracy in various regions.
The new pontiff particularly emphasized the Christian roots of Europe and their significance for the European project, while also acknowledging the presence of other cultural and religious traditions, and highlighting the importance of guiding younger generations in their faith and supporting their integral development. (“Pope Leo XIV to Host EU Bishops’ Delegation in First Official [Meeting],” CatholicVote.org, https://catholicvote.org)
This brings home to my thinking how many of the megachurches within Christianity are, similarly to the EU “summits,” contributing to setting up platforms that will produce the woman who will one day ride upon the back of the beast government of Revelation 17. Like in the EU get-together, there is compromise at the heart of these mega-efforts at man-made salvation.
The methodologies employed by such churches include the idea to bring together the saved and unsaved in a sort of “summit.” The idea is one of thesis (Christian faith) and antithesis (the lost or unsaved), with the objective of producing synthesis. The “summits,” in these cases, aim to bring about dialogue between the two opposite worldviews to produce answers (synthesis) that both sides can live with.
The process is satanic at its core, denying that God’s way to redemption and reconciliation is necessary. Apostasy is the result—the Laodicean model for the end of the age.
Be sure that you’re not a part of helping that woman of wickedness climb upon the back of the beast that will one day be scarlet with the blood of the Tribulation saints.
Last-Days Lawlessness and Power
In 1887, in a series of letters to Bishop Creighton about the moral issues of writing history about the Inquisition, British historian Lord Edward Acton wrote, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” His understanding of the human psyche bordered on prescient, it seems, considering the all-out quest for power that saturates the American political culture at present.
Former US Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger famously said: “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” Growing up in Germany as a boy, because of lawlessness among governmental leaders, he became pessimistic about human nature, skeptical about the inevitability of progress, and deeply committed to the values of order and stability. To these ends, Kissinger viewed power, not moral ideals, as the driving force of history. (This according to “Henry Kissinger and the Seductions of Power,” Iowa Capital Dispatch, https://iowacapitaldispatch.com.)
In America, at this late moment of this Age of Grace, we certainly have to consider Dr. Kissinger’s viewpoint, brought about from his experience in the power struggle he witnessed early in his native country. Stability, in this world of lawlessness, in reality, comes not from moral ideals, but rather from power. There is no reasoning from a morally correct position that will calm the paid-for rage/chaos that has swept the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other cities. The organized No Kings rioters claim they’re protesting the Trump administration’s use of ICE (the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to carry out raids against those who have illegally entered America.
While the violent rioters are held up as bastions of righteous cause by mainstream news media, and the Trump administration is falsely accused as authoritarian and an evil wielder of power, the lawlessness expands to what looks to be prophetic levels.
Jesus, in the Olivet Discourse, told about how things will be as His return nears:
And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24: 12 NKJV)
To my way of seeing this, in an important sense, the Lord’s words could be taken that the lawlessness being demonstrated to champion illegals staying inside America stems from the absence of love for this nation as founded. I realize much more is involved in the meaning of Jesus’ prophecy here, but there is an undeniable coldness in the way the vicious rioters throw at police and ICE agents frozen bottles of water and chunks of concrete taken from curbs they’ve sledgehammered, in addition to the property they loot and damage at every opportunity.
It is telling of just how appropriate it might be to consider Jesus’ prophecy for this particular time, because almost half of the members of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate either back the lawlessness by supporting the rioters, or, at the very least, offer no condemnation.
This is because one political party has demonstrated time and time again that power is what they seek above all else. They want to swell the voting base with illegals—almost all of whom will support them—no matter the cost to other, legitimate, citizens. Their aim is to garner all power into their political party. Love for country and lawful conduct within government and society is out the window with this party. In this ideology, they’re in agreement with the ideology that sparked the 1917 revolution in Russia: “The end justifies the means.”
To those on the totally reprobate political left in America today, power is indeed the ultimate aphrodisiac.
Indeed, as Lord Acton presciently said, “power corrupts.” And they—the leftists—seek absolute power, and at any price—even to the undoing of the document that gave us a constitutional republic…the American government that Benjamin Franklin told someone the founders had given we the people (adding, “If you can keep it”).
The lawlessness we witness taking place on an increasing level hourly is but another ingredient that adds to the last-days prophetic puzzle. It is a large part of “all these things” our Lord told us to look for at the moment He is about to come for us in the Rapture:
And when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:28)
Jesus will soon return to this unlawful, politically corrupt planet to establish righteous rule and lawful conduct among earth’s inhabitants. It will take His omnipotent power to bring about His millennial (thousand-year) reign.
But it is His power that can bring about a change in the minds and spiritual hearts of humankind even now, amidst this current time of lawlessness and chaos. He can take away the sinful, destructive thoughts, thus the evil actions, of each person who will receive His grace gift of salvation.
Here again is how to receive that gift that renews the mind and dispels lawlessness while empowering with God’s righteousness:
That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
Rapture or Rupture
For immediate posting
Author’s note: Events we are witnessing revolving around God’s chosen nation, Israel, speaks to my spirit in ways I’ve not sensed to this point. Christ’s call to His Church must be very near indeed.
It is time as never before to look up and lift up our heads, for our redemption (the Lord Jesus Christ) is drawing near. He is, I believe, on the very cusp of stepping out onto the clouds of Glory to call to Himself all believers of this Church Age–those alive and those who have already passed into His presence.
I heard again this week an interview between Scottish Christian broadcaster Sheila Walsh and Dr. David Jeremiah regarding the Rapture. This and the likely prophetic import of things happening surrounding Israel prompted me to again post this article, which was previously posted January 3, 2022.
Rapture or Rupture
Twenty something years ago, Pat Robertson was on his network, Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). I remember him saying in an almost amused, mocking tone that there would be no Rapture of the church. He declared that if that were to happen, it would completely disrupt all of the human condition across the world.
Planes would be crashing, cars would be wrecking, trains would run wild, and destruction of every sort would take place in such a moment. That’s not going to happen, he said. There will be no Rapture. He implied rather that there will be a “rupture” of all culture and society across the world. The Tribulation would be the implosion that wrecks everything, rather than the explosion a so-called Rapture would cause.
I remember distinctly Pat talking with his then co-host Sheila Walsh, the Scottish Christian broadcaster. As a side note, I presume Sheila has since moved on from agreeing with Mr. Robertson and his dismissing the pre-Trib Rapture “theory,” as he called it. I’ve heard her just within the past year on air with Dr. David Jeremiah, who teaches solidly on the pre-Trib Rapture of the church. She seemed to agree totally with all he said on the prophetic topic.
Over the years, there has been banter coming from those who adamantly hold that the pre-Trib Rapture is a myth. These sometimes use the word “rupture” to sneer at the idea of a Rapture, which we believe is Bible truth as taught by the Apostle Paul—and, by the way, by the Lord Jesus as well. He said the following as recorded by the Apostle John.
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1–3)
In these words of the Lord we are told, I’m convinced, the same as the Apostle Paul foretells.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17)
For all the fun-making against pre-Trib Rapture and those of us who believe it to be the next catastrophic intervention by Christ into human affairs, they can’t erase these powerful promises. That is, they can’t without spiritualizing and allegorizing as they make their case. They have to conclude that neither Jesus nor Paul meant what they said in a literal sense.
There is, however, a biblically prophetic passage that speaks, I believe, of a rupture. It is a key prophecy that will take place immediately after the Rapture of the Church. As a matter of fact, we’ve seen this rupture beginning for some time. It will be the tear in the fabric of this world system that will rip civilization the way Mr. Robertson once feared.
The prophet Zechariah forewarned of this coming rupture.
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. (Zechariah 12:3)
The prophet is saying here that when the world takes on Jerusalem and Israel–God’s chosen city and nation—it will be a load too heavy to lift. They will be injured severely, or ruptured, in their attempt to remove the city and nation from being in the place where God put them.
We’ve seen almost daily leaders from countries surrounding modern Israel declaring they will destroy the tiny Jewish state. Those such as Nasser and Sadat have tried to do so. Israel not only remains, but is now in a stronger position than ever, even though constantly threatened.
Antichrist and his juggernaut will finally manage to invade Israel, following all of Israel’s surrounding enemies being destroyed in the Gog-Magog attack of Ezekiel 38 and 39. But the man of sin will, too, be severely injured and ultimately bound in chains and removed to eternal punishment. Israel will become the chief nation of the entire world during the Millennium—Christ’s thousand-year reign on planet earth.
Thankfully, all who accept Christ now, this side of the Rapture, will not endure the rupture the whole world will suffer when God again begins dealing with His chosen people, the Jews.
Here again is how to avoid being part of that future injury—that rupture—that will condemn the soul to eternity apart from God.
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. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
HOW TO BE SAVED AFTER THE RAPTURE
A Concise Handbook for Spiritual Survival During the Tribulation
By Roy R. Reeves
Book review by Terry James
Readers will be delightfully surprised, I think, to see just how readable and understandable, and woven into a brief presentation, is this book on what can be a complicated prophetic matter.
Roy Reeves has the gift of powerfully yet simply addressing questions we who deal with prophetic matters from the pre-Trib view have been asked over the years. I am most pleased to offer, with my full endorsement, this book to all who have such questions.
How to Be Saved after the Rapture: A Concise Handbook for Spiritual Survival During the Tribulation was written first and foremost for unsaved individuals still on earth after the Rapture. However, it is also for pre-Rapture readers who can benefit from the concepts being presented. The book aims to:
- Show that the Bible provides an opportunity for people to be saved during the Tribulation.
- Discuss what they must do to obtain salvation.
- Explore the challenges to being saved after the Rapture and elaborate on how to deal with the trials saved persons will then face.
The book is written with simplicity of language so that it can be read in a short time by people under the duress of the Antichrist’s oppressive rule. Concepts are presented in a manner that doesn’t require any theological or church background for understanding. Thus, it is hoped the ideas addressed can be quickly understood even by those with little knowledge of Scripture and limited time for study.
The book begins by describing what happens with the Rapture, what it all means, and the dire conditions that result. Since many people left on earth will probably feel salvation is impossible, the next section demonstrates clearly from Scripture that people not only can be saved, but millions will be—even during the Tribulation. With that fact established, the basics of what a person must do to be saved are then presented. Subsequent attention is given to the danger of false salvation. During the Tribulation, deception will be intense, and the reader is warned to trust solely in salvation by the only Way to God: the Lord Jesus Christ. A chapter is then devoted to how to know conclusively that one has truly been saved.
The book then turns to what the saved person needs to do next and elaborates on the difficulties associated with this. Discussion entails the risks of walking out one’s salvation during the time of the Antichrist, but also the necessity and rewards of doing so. Finally, the book reveals that there is true hope and a glorious eternity for those who are saved and endure. No matter how bad things get, the glory of Heaven makes any amount of suffering trivial compared to what awaits those who follow the Lord.
After the concluding chapter, appendices for pre-Rapture readers are provided. These discuss what individuals should be doing now and neutrally explore controversial ideas about exactly who will remain on earth after the Rapture. A list of other resources for those left behind is also included.
Again, I wholeheartedly give my full endorsement on this book, which is a volume most important for these closing hours of the Church Age.
This little book will be excellent to hand to lost friends, to your saved friends to use as witnessing tools, and to place in advantageous places for those who will be left behind when the Great Event happens.
How to Be Saved after the Rapture: A Concise Handbook for Spiritual Survival During the Tribulation
Author: Roy R. Reeves
Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishers
ISBN: 979-8-89597-356-1
The book can be ordered from Amazon at this link: How to Be Saved after the Rapture
On War and Peace
Many years ago, I read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, the Russian writer considered one of the great literary masters of the novelist sort. His masterpiece, portraying in great detail Napoleon Bonaparte’s war-making on Czarist Russia is, once you have the courage to get into it, spellbinding. At least it was in my case.
I have two volumes—each a different English translation, and each well into the thousands of pages. I’ve read both, and have gone back to read portions again and again.
I say “once you have the courage to get into it” because it’s an ancient report of a long-ago war, and dedicating one’s self to such a daunting read indeed takes courage–or something like it. There is a long-time stigma attached to reading overly long tomes, and War and Peace is almost always the one held up as the example of the long-winded reads.
However, the book is a brilliant, although fictional, accounting of man waging war at its most terrible and personal, yet most fascinating, level. Yet we think of such wars of the distant past—such conflicts—as irrelevant to life today. It’s all history. We must deal with now…and with the future. We have our own threats—and they’re potentially globally destructive—so we find it unproductive, a waste of time, to live the lives of characters of antiquity such as Prince Andrei Nikolayevich and Natasha Rostova.
Wars of our own time are everywhere we look, and they genuinely and in real time threaten our own existence.
War and Peace is simply too close to home, and most today shy away from dwelling on the reports of actual conflicts and the efforts at peaceful resolution.
But matters of war and peace within God’s prophetic Word cannot, for the Christian who is commanded to examine the future through that Word, be avoided, if obeying Heaven’s instruction. Jesus said: “What I say unto one, I say unto all. Watch” (Mark 13:37).
The Lord was talking about the signals of His coming again to watch for as the end of the age approaches. He said, for example, that there will be “wars and rumors of war.” We who are in God’s family are to watch, therefore, for these prophesied wars and rumors of war. I believe this warning by Jesus, the Greatest of all Prophets, points to wars and rumors of war as being most profound as an end-of-the-age indicator, second only to the nation Israel itself.
God’s Word also states that at the same time there are wars and rumors thereof, there will be a great cry for peace and safety. As a matter of fact, we’re told that when there is that end-times cry for peace and safety, we can expect sudden destruction to fall (“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” [1 Thessalonians 5:3]).
A recent news article indicates proliferating signals, I think, of the growing global call for peace and safety.
Pope Leo XIV and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a phone call today, with the Pope asking Putin to “make a gesture that would promote peace,” while emphasizing dialogue.
Earlier today Russian news outlets reported that Leo and Putin had spoken by phone, but it was not until a little after 9 p.m. Rome time that the Holy See Press Office confirmed the news.
A statement issued by the Vatican read:
During the phone call, in addition to matters of mutual interest, special attention was paid to the situation in Ukraine and peace.
The Pope made an appeal for Russia to make a gesture that would promote peace, stressed the importance of dialogue for the realization of positive contacts between the parties and seek solutions to the conflict…
In his first address to the world and the Church on his first Sunday appearance after the election, Pope Leo called for an end to global conflicts. “Never again war,” he urged, citing the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and Pakistan by name. (“Pope Leo holds first phone call with Vladimir Putin, urges him to ‘promote peace’,” Michael Haynes, Snr. Vatican Correspondent, LifeSite, June 4, 2025)
The dichotomy of war and peace have been a constant exigency in humankind’s history since the disobedience of Adam in the Garden of Eden. I heard recently that there have been no more than 268 years of peace in all of recorded history. Certainly there has been no such lack of wars and rumors of war that I’ve known during my lifetime. Nor can I find any such periods of absence of war in my, admittedly less than stellar, academic study of humanity’s long history. I’ll just have to trust the statistic, which I heard from Dr. David Jeremiah, who said the 268 years of peace number came from an article in the New York Times.
Again, the Word of God tells the reason for the war that rages and moves humanity toward Armageddon. The war in fallen humankind began in Eden, and it will end at Armageddon.
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. (James 4:1–2)
There is no peace in this fallen world other than the peace the Lord Jesus Christ gives upon salvation of souls. The Lord said:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. (John 14:27)
The person who doesn’t know Jesus Christ as Savior can’t find the peace of which Jesus spoke, unless, as James in the Scripture above says, the person “asks.” One has only to ask to receive God’s forgiveness and achieve the inner peace the Holy Spirit gives when He comes to live within the believer.
Here again is how to come to that moment of peace Jesus promises to all who but “ask”:
That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
A Time to Comfort
We’re living in a time of prophetic dichotomy. That is, we’re in a moment very similar to a time Bible prophecy says things will be like when humanity experiences the end of this Age of Grace.
This dichotomy—a significant difference between two things that otherwise should match up—is that things on the economic front seem headed in a positive direction. All the while, things tending toward nuclear war and global cataclysm seem to be surging into the most terrible time of human history.
Despite reports of developing economic collapse and shortages amounting to famine-like conditions, reports to the contrary tell of ports full of shipments and shelves full of products here in America. At the same time, there’s no getting around it: The rumors of war—and war itself—seemingly can’t be avoided. That war would, the experts say, quickly make the leap to the nuclear variety. Life on earth will, if this happens, mean the end of humankind at some point.
Jesus Himself has told of such a scenario. He said if He didn’t return to put an end to the destruction, no “flesh” would “be saved” (Matthew 24:22). The Lord also said people will be buying, selling, marrying, planting, and building when He is next revealed and intervenes into the affairs of wicked humankind. He said it will be business as usual—not all-out nuclear war or world-rending famine—at the moment of that intervention (Luke 17:28–30).
While this president is, I believe, about to be instrumental in producing an economic boom in business like the conditions the cultural immorality-vexed Lot was experiencing in his days in Sodom, at the same time. we seem to be poised for nuclear extinction. We indeed face a genuine dichotomy!
In regard to the building movement toward war, a recent news item adds enlightenment to the predicament:
[British Labour PM Sir Keir] Starmer, Macron, new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, plus the unelected EU apparatus under Ursula von der Leyen all seem to be avid for war with Russia. They are insane, of course, and not just because their combined militaries are joke. They stirred the pot badly over the weekend, helping Ukraine carry out drone attacks against Russian air defense bases as far afield as Siberia and outside Murmansk, way up north on the Barents Sea. The bold attack was apparently carried out after a year-and-a-half of planning, using tractor-trailer trucks to transport concealed drones in on-board shipping containers deep into Russia. The drones took out Russian aircraft enabled to launch cruise missiles and long-range radar detection planes, all tolled estimated at $7-billion damage. The gambit would have required NATO satellite targeting assistance.
You might recall a week ago, Chancellor Merz declared that Germany gave Ukraine “permission” to carry out long-range strikes into Russia. Smooth move, Friedrich. He is, apparently, unaware that in so-doing he automatically gave Russia permission to strike deep into Germany as well, which Russia has not yet done. Instead, it replied with missile strikes against Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kyiv, little more than a routine smack-back, but perhaps an ominous prelude to worse in the offing…
Russia wants to conclude this war. Mr. Trump wants to end it, too. Mr. Zelenskyy, maybe not so much, since his fate is only secure as long as the war keeps going and he is not overthrown by his own wing-men.
Neither the US nor the NATO / EU axis will participate in the Istanbul peace talks directly, but you can suppose that Merz, Macron, Starmer, and von der Leyen are looking to stir-the-pot in the background. You might conclude that war is all they’ve got left as summer draws near and each of them face a European population primed to explode at its feckless, noxious, incompetent leadership. I would expect much more fighting in the streets of the European capitals going forward, and falling governments. It could prove hard to put these Humpty-dumpties back together, with years of political chaos following. (“Bedlam Is in The Air,” Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge, authored by James Howard Kunstler, The Widening Gyre, June 2, 2025)
So, it looks as if believers during this Age of Grace (Church Age) are confronted by what would, by the secular world of unregenerate minds, be considered a biblical contradiction. But since God cannot lie, and Jesus Christ is God, there can be no contradiction. There is an answer to the seeming prophetic dichotomy.
The explanation for this seeming division of Bible prophecy—on the one hand, business as usual, and on the other, world-rending catastrophism—is given by Jesus in His “days of Lot” prophecy.
The division—the prophetic dichotomy—is foretold and explained by Jesus in, again, what I believe is the most relevant of all prophecies for this exact moment.
Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:28–30)
Here is Jesus’ explanation: “But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.”
The impending, world-rending war—the Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads at present—is on heavenly hold until a certain condition is met. All believers in Jesus Christ—the only righteousness God sees on this fallen planet—must be, as was righteous Lot, removed before all-out war and destruction can begin falling in judgment.
God’s Word—which is Jesus’ Word, because He is the Word (John 1: 1)—tells us, through the Apostle Paul, the truth wrapped up in this moment of removal. They are the words of our Lord when He presented a mystery to His immediate disciples while sitting atop the Mount of Olives:
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1–3)
The Holy Spirit commissioned the Apostle Paul to reveal that “mystery” Jesus told His immediate disciples that day.
Paul, saying, “Behold, I show you a mystery” (1 Corinthians 15: 5), thus prophesied the following:
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17)
There can be little doubt in the spiritual hearts and minds of believers who truly study God’s prophetic word and genuinely observe these times in which we live that our removal, our rescue—like Lot’s from Sodom—as Jesus and Paul said, must be at any moment.
Paul’s final word upon describing that Rapture promise was:
Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:18)
Let us “look up and lift up our heads, for our redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28). Thus we can find, and offer to others, great comfort in these exciting days of anticipation of Christ’s Words: “Come up here!”
Noah’s day—Today’s Violence
In writing many of these commentaries over the months—and even years—my continuing mantra has been that I believe Jesus’ words about “the days of Lot” found in Luke 17:28–30 constitute the most prominent indication of where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline.
Here we have the Creator saying simply and without equivocation that the day when He next catastrophically intervenes into the wicked affairs of humankind will be a mirror image of Lot’s time in Sodom. Jesus will, He said, next be revealed when business is going along as usual.
Just as Jesus removed the only righteous people from that evil city, He will remove the only righteous people at that future time. Destruction of the rebellious people who are left behind will, the Lord said, begin that very day. This is the great event we know as the Rapture of the Church (all believers in Jesus Christ for salvation of their souls).
Just prior to the statement about the days of Lot and Lot being taken to safety from the destruction to come, Jesus said this about a rescue previous to Lot’s:
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:26–27)
That antediluvian world had become so corrupt, both morally and genetically, that God destroyed it all, except for righteous Noah and his family, plus two of all species. Again, Jesus said it will be the same, in the sense that at the time of Rapture, the righteous will be placed in Christ as a type of “Ark” in the clouds above the earth.
We’ve looked many times at the indicators that our days are like they were during the days of Lot in Sodom. The wickedness of today—rapes and murders; sex trafficking; evil perpetrated on children; the murder of little ones in their mothers’ wombs; anti-God evil that goes against God’s order of things, like transsexual activities, homosexuality, and pornography spread by internet across the world—has likely exceeded the evil of Lot’s day.
And God warned Noah of what He was about to do in those days for all the anti-God wickedness He saw on the earth:
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. (Genesis 6:11–13)
The one feature of the evil that seemed to most disgust God in this scriptural description is the violence that had, to the Lord, become intolerable. The following informs of the end-times violence of these evil days in which we live.
Violence is more widespread today than it has been in decades, with armed conflict touching every major region, according to data analyzed by The Telegraph.
Last year, varying levels of conflict were reported across at least 50 different countries, from the civil war in Myanmar to extreme violence between drug cartels in Mexico, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).
Experts predict that the trend will probably continue throughout 2025 and beyond.
Across the 50 countries, there were at least 56 active conflicts—one of the largest quantities since 1946—“with fewer conflicts being resolved, either militarily or through peace agreements,” the Global Peace Index estimated.
“The level of violence happening is certainly at one of its highs since the Second World War ,” said Clionadh Raleigh, the founder and director of ACLED.
The only year to exceed 56 was 2023, which recorded 59 armed conflicts, according to certain estimates.
Armed conflicts are increasing everywhere. (“World most violent it has been in decades. At least 50 different countries have been hit by armed conflict in the past year, researchers find,” The Telegraph, Rapture Ready News, May 25, 2025)
Each and every day, reports come in of violence—much of it of the most heinous sort. All we have to do is remember October 7, 2023, and the savage attacks on the Israeli gathering to understand the incorrigible nature of the violence we’re witnessing.
The evil is incorrigible because the rage is the reprobate, fallen minds of humankind being led by Israel-hating, humanity-hating demonic forces, with Satan directing the violence.
Jesus said that if He did not return at a specific time at Armageddon, no flesh would be saved. Thankfully, He will do just as promised.
Thankfully, too, He will return in the clouds of Glory above this judgment-bound planet to remove all believers to Himself—the Ark of safety—just as He lifted Noah and his family above the destructive waters that fell upon the incorrigible world of that antediluvian time.
Here again is how to be aboard that Blessed Ark just before God’s judgment must fall:
That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
Terry James Prophecy Line 