Just when some might’ve thought the world was looking better with the second coming of Donald J. Trump, the truth of what these last days will look like leaps from the news. That news demonstrates the absolute veracity of God’s Word–the prophetic Word in particular.

The prophetic Word that today’s news validates as proof of the late hour of this dispensation–the Age of Grace—involves what the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write. In a general sense, the following frames the condition that will be prevalent while the return of Christ nears:

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:13)

Paul further tells why humankind is moving ever deeper into anti-God evil:

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. (Romans 1:28)

Paul had just explained how sinfulness had convinced the human race to do what was right in their own eyes. They even changed the God-prescribed sexual order, leading men to sexually interact with men and women to sexually interact with women. They worshipped idols fashioned after the created order–fish, birds, mammals, and other things. They worshipped anything and everything other than the True Creator–the God of Heaven, the only God. They totally threw off Heaven’s governance.

We come to our time on this fallen planet and examine how Paul’s words have worked out.

Have we seen any of this warning in Romans 1 play out as time has progressed? Has humankind grown worse and worse, as Paul predicted? Has humanity actually become more anti-God with regard to God’s prescription for sexual interaction between men and women? Has anyone heard of the LGBTQ+, etc., movements that more and more dominate culture and society today?

Have we witnessed any attempts by anti-God forces to change God’s order in any ways of significance besides the efforts of those driving the LGBTQ+ wickedness that now saturates the cultural landscapes of America and the Western world?

The answer is, of course, a resounding Yes!

I choose the title for today’s post because I’m convicted that the Apostle Paul’s declaration that God turns those who are opposed to Him over to a reprobate mind is blatantly obvious at this moment. That is, the anti-God forces of this world have now a satanically engendered insanity–an enraged, upside-down inability to think the way God intended for humankind.

This satanic insanity–this reprobate mind—is starkly on display for all to see in consideration of the news item that follows.

Just when you thought the insanity was starting to subside with Democrats out of office, we learn last week that New Jersey hospitals are now requesting parents to specify their baby’s preferred pronouns and sexual orientation, according to a report from the NY Post.

Inspira Health’s “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Questionnaire” asks parents to “identify” their baby as “Male, Female, Transgender, GenderQueer,” or “Additional gender category.”

The healthcare system, which runs multiple hospitals and centers in South Jersey, introduced the form last year to comply with a new state law requiring providers to collect demographic and identity data “in a culturally competent and sensitive manner.”

One 34 year old resident told the Post: “That form is completely crazy, and anyone who would dictate a baby’s sexual orientation probably has an agenda. If I was told to fill this out, I’d rip it up in front of them. It feels like we’ve entered ‘The Twilight Zone.’”

Another mom-to-be commented: “Identifying my baby as gay on Day 1 is insane. I had no idea about this form and I’m shocked.”

New Jersey State Sen. Holly Schepisi (R-Bergen) criticized the form, calling it “lacking such common sense” and having “no medical value.” She noted how overwhelming childbirth is, saying, “To be handed that sort of form in the midst of all that has no medical value, it makes no sense.”

Schepisi sparked debate by sharing a photo of the form on Facebook, with many questioning its authenticity. She plans to introduce a bill next week to restrict such data collection to patients 16 and older, arguing the mandate was rushed through the legislature with little scrutiny. (“GenderQueer” Newborns? Jersey Hospitals Now Ask For Newborn’s “Preferred Pronouns” And “Sexual Orientation,” Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge, March 18, 2025)

Fallen humanity is indeed infected by Lucifer’s “I wills” of Isaiah 14:14. Just as Satan intends to change God’s order in every way possible, the fallen (reprobate) minds now have the luciferian (satanic) iniquitous infection/comportment, which God will soon destroy with His Son’s return (Revelation 19:11).

You don’t want to be under the Lord’s judgment and wrath when Christ comes to put an end to the evil presently dominating this doomed planet.

Here is how to be brought into God’s family and eternal glory with the Heavenly Father, who loves you and sent His Son Jesus to die to bring redemption from sin.

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)

Author’s note: This week’s blog post was first published on September 15, 2008. Today the problem of those who “revile” the Rapture hasn’t abated. As a matter of fact, according to the weekly comments I get, almost exclusively from those who are presumably born again, the invective against the Rapture is on the increase, not on the decline.

So addressing again, at this particular time, this denial of Christ’s promise to rescue His Church, as He did in giving John His guarantee as recorded in Revelation 3:10, is altogether appropriate. 

An emailer this past week addressed an ongoing matter that is perplexing, in that Christians read the same Word from God—the Bible—yet the message the children of God take from the same passages they read can be so different as to be troubling. Nowhere in the Holy Scriptures is this divergence of inferred meanings more pronounced than those pertaining to prophecy yet future—narrowing the problem, thinking about the Rapture of the Church.

Here are the emailer’s words, with a few redactions for the sake of not wanting to violate privacy, or to cast aspersions on specific people.

Hello Terry, I just wanted to ask you a question, and possibly have you post this on your “Interesting Email” for other visitors who have possibly had a similar experience. I listen to [a well-known Bible teacher and radio program host] every morning on my way to work. I consider him to be a “true born-again Christian,” and really enjoy hearing his teachings. He seems very knowledgeable of God’s Word. I have never heard anything from him that contradicts the word of God. However, on a recent radio program, he was teaching on the millennium… [He] was expounding on “premillennium,” “amillennium,” and “post-millennium.”

I know that he has a theological education of these issues [that] exceeds most layman’s understanding, but there was something that he said upset me during this broadcast. He happened to bring up the pretribulation rapture, and to me, he sounded as if he had contempt for the theory of a pretrib rapture.

Now, here is where my question comes in. Why do most theologians today seem to have this contempt, if I may call it that, for any teaching on a pretrib rapture? To paraphrase [the radio host’s words] on this, he said that he has never been able to find even one shred of evidence of a pretribulation rapture in the bible, and from the sound of his voice when he said it, I guess I formed my own opinion that he had contempt for this theory. Anyway, the point I am try to make here is that I realize Christians do not have to agree on this idea to receive salvation and enter the kingdom of heaven as long as they are grounded in sound doctrine concerning the true meaning of salvation: that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, and no man can come to the Father except through Him and His blood sacrifice on the cross. I just don’t understand why a pretribulation rapture theory seems to provoke people to the point of becoming hostile of this theory, and sometimes, even toward the Christians [who] believe it. Personally, I believe that the pretrib rapture can be found in Scripture if a person will just read God’s Word with an open heart and mind, along with prayer for the Holy Spirit to guide them.

This question by our Rapture Ready friend involves things that have always puzzled me, too, and I’ve written about matters attendant to the subject on a number of occasions. Why the vitriol, the seeming hatred for the pre-Trib view, even for those of us who teach the Bible from a pre-Trib Rapture view?

I believe it flows from satanic rage that affects even the born again.

To know who is right—these like the radio host to whom the emailer refers (who believe the pre-Trib Rapture is a lie from the pit of hell, as they sometimes put it) or we who teach the pre-Trib Rapture—it is best to just examine what’s going on all around us these days.

A large segment of the Rapture revilers say all prophecy was fulfilled with the AD 70 destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by Titus and the Roman legions. Some believe the world has, since that date, been in the Tribulation. They spiritualize and allegorize all prophecy we see as yet future.

They believe modern Israel isn’t God’s chosen, that God is finished with the Jews, and that the Church now has been given the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Is God indeed finished with Israel?

God’s Word says Israel will be a nation just before His Son returns. His chosen people will be hated. It will be at the center of all the world’s national chaos and controversy. Is this happening, or not?

There will be a false peace made between Israel and its enemies that will affect the whole world, God’s Word says. Do we see any peace process in progress that involves Israel, its enemies, and, in effect, the entire world?

There will be a great power due north of Jerusalem and Israel whose leader will “think an evil thought.” Do we see any sign of such a power due north of Israel?

Take a string on a globe and put it on Jerusalem. Run that string straight up from Jerusalem. Does that string bisect any major city? Moscow!

Persia, the prophetic Word of God says, will be a key partner with that leader and his nation, Rosh, the ancient name for the area that now is covered by Russia. These and a coalition called “Magog” will invade toward Israel, according to Ezekiel 38 and 39. Do we see any collusion between Persia (Iran today) and Rosh (Russia today)?

There will be a coming back together, the Bible says, of the ancient Roman Empire (the last empire of Nebuchadnezzar’s metallic man-image as seen in the Babylonian king’s night-vision). Do we see that development taking place in our news today? Yes. The European Union.

Many like the radio host/teacher the emailer mentions believe this world will be made better and better until Christ comes back to assume the earthly throne. Do we see the world getting better and better? Or is the world getting worse, according to the daily and hourly news headlines, just like prophetic Scripture predicts?

There are another dozen or more signals I could mention to draw the comparison between the beliefs the preterists and other anti-Rapture teachers hold and the pre-Trib/dispensational view we hold. Space does not allow.

The preponderance of evidence, both biblical and literal (things in the news), comes down thunderously on the side of the pretribulational, premillennial view of eschatology.

Why do they hate the pre-Trib view and the Rapture teaching in considering things to come? I’m convinced it is because Satan hates Israel and the Lord’s plan to save remnants out of Israel and out of humankind in general.

These who hurl invectives are deluded, in denial. I don’t doubt their salvation. But I do doubt their faithful adherence to God’s prophetic Word. They prefer man-made eschatology, and that is given not by the Holy Spirit, but by Lucifer, the fallen one. One prophecy in particular speaks to the Rapture revilers’ attitude toward Christ’s coming in a sudden, unexpected intrusion upon a world that will be conducting its nefarious business as usual:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (2 Peter 3:3–4).

Jesus, I am convicted, spoke to this very end-times moment in which we now live in telling about His end-of-this-Age-of-Grace, sudden intervention into the intolerable wickedness of humankind. By the use of the adjective “intolerable,” I mean in the eyes of our Holy God.

Jesus described the time of that future intervention, as we’ve looked at many times in this column. He said it will be like it was in the days of Noah and, more specifically, in the days of Lot, when He will next bring catastrophic judgment to the earth like that with which God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Following Lot and his family being taken by the angels’ hands and removed from the doomed city of Sodom to a place of safety, sudden destruction fell from above, decimating that whole region that had become intolerable to Heaven’s sense of righteousness.

The people of Sodom and Gomorrah undoubtedly no longer recognized as wickedness the evil that occurred every day and every night. They had, apparently, willfully immersed themselves in the absolute immorality that had totally polluted their society and culture. I think it’s fair to say this was the situation at that time because God destroyed all those living there, except for Lot and his family, with Jesus saying that Lot was “righteous in God’s eyes.” And that—God seeing Lot as righteous—obviously, we can conclude, was why Lot wasn’t so judged along with the others.

We leap forward now to our own time, examining and considering these days that almost certainly mirror those days of antiquity. If these days in which we live are the days about which Jesus prophesied —the time that will be like the time when Lot was removed so God’s judgment and wrath could fall—we must think on God’s method of removing the righteous so God’s sense of justice and righteousness can deal with the evil and wickedness of this world.

I choose not to go into all of the evil we’re witnessing all around us, and at every level, in this article. We’ve gone over these anti-God matters many, many times for, literally, years. I choose rather to think with you on a matter that’s among those of greatest interest to believers in Jesus Christ—the born again for salvation.

The Rapture of all born-again believers is inseparably linked to Jesus’ prophecy about the days of Lot in that Luke 17:26–30 account. The born-again believers in Christ for salvation of their souls are the righteous who, like Lot, will be removed at the Rapture (the twinkling-of-an-eye moment) when Jesus calls them into the clouds of Glory. This great event is, therefore, also linked inseparably to the sudden destruction that, like in the days of Lot, completely destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Apostle Paul was shown the mystery that is the Rapture of the Church. Paul was also given, through Holy Spirit revelation, prophetic truth about the terrible judgment that will immediately begin to fall upon those left behind—those committed to the evil and wickedness of this fallen world.

The following is Paul’s warning in that regard, linking sudden destruction to the Rapture of all believers.

But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 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 5:1–3)

The great apostle had, as recorded in the chapter just preceding this in 1 Thessalonians 5, gone into detail about the Rapture. He then gives the above prophecy, saying no one knows exactly when, but when the Rapture occurs, sudden destruction will come. This, of course, is exactly what our Lord said in the days of Lot prophecy.

At the same time the earth and those left behind are experiencing God’s judgment and wrath and the coming rule by Satan’s final dictator, Antichrist, all who have gone to Christ at the moment of Rapture will experience a “dynamic destiny.”

Here is the “mystery” the Lord told his immediate disciples—and what He later revealed to Paul, and, through His recorded words in the Bible, gave the great message of comfort for all of us who follow Jesus as our Savior and Lord:

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)

And the Apostle Paul was further given, through Holy Spirit enlightenment, an exciting promise of the dynamic destiny of every believer at the moment of Rapture forward into eternity:

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9)

Again, Paul addresses the sudden destruction/dynamic destination matters, bringing them to a most comforting conclusion:

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. (1 Thessalonians 5:9–11) 

Of course, if you don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ (haven’t accepted His grace gift offer for redemption from sin that separates your soul from God and Heaven), then you are, tragically, appointed to the wrath of God and His judgment for your sinful condition.

Here is how you can assure that you will not have to go through the Tribulation, or be eternally separated from God and Heaven:

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)

There is a powerful monetary tide sweeping the world toward what Jesus called the worst time of human history (Matthew 24:21).

One prophetic element stands out in considering the seven-year Tribulation era, with regard to the Antichrist regime. That’s the economic platform prophesied to be at the heart of the Beast system.

With so many signals in view that point to the brewing Tribulation tempest, we should expect—if we’re reading the end-times signals correctly—that this heart of the Beast should be well along in its construction. We’ve covered all the indicators found within current issues and events that we believe are signals like those given by Jesus and the prophets. National and world economies have been dealt with in our efforts to make prophetic sense of the dynamic rearrangements taking place in recent years, months, weeks, and days.

America’s staggering weight of debt and swift economic decline is front and center in pointing to the fact, we believe, that this is the generation that stands at the end of one dispensation–the Church Age—and upon the precipice of the next—the Tribulation. Each hour seems to bring additional confirmation that the Tribulation storm is about to break upon an uncomprehending world. Such confirmation is present in abundance in the realm of geopolitics and global economics.

America, as we’ve pointed out many times, is at the center of this global economic turbulence. President Donald J. Trump’s administration has made it a priority, of course, to bring the US back into fiscal sanity. The cutback in profligate spending to fund causes the world over is being stopped. That effort has thrown the rest of the world–particularly the nations of Europe—into a panic. For example, take a look at this reaction by France’s president:

Now [French President Emmanuel Macron] feels he has to go full hawk in response to US President Trump, as on Wednesday in a nationally televised address he claimed Putin is now threatening all of Europe and has declared, dubiously, that Russian aggression “knows no borders.”

Macron pulled out all the stops, and appears to be making himself into the European version of Russia’s Medvedev, going maximal no limits jingoism. “President Putin is violating our borders to assassinate opponents, manipulate elections,” he claimed in the remarks.

“We need to prepare,” the French president said, amid a broader European push to ‘fill the gap’ in the wake of President Trump suspending all US arms shipments to Kiev, as well as intelligence-sharing. On Sunday during a London security conference of European leaders, UK PM Kier Starmer presented a plan of up to 30,000 UK peacekeeping troops for Ukraine, supported by France.

“I want to believe that the US will stand by our side, but we have to be ready for that not to be the case,” Macron said in reference to shifting Washington policy. (“Macron In Anti-Russia Rant Says France Considering Expanding Nuclear Umbrella To Europe,” Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge, March 6, 2025)

Since Bible prophecy clearly states that the Antichrist government, thus the economic engine that will power that absolute dictatorship, will emerge from Europe, we need keep our prophetic antennae pointed in that direction. We must be especially alert to news involving movement within Europe to cause significant changes to the global economic structure.

Prophecy scholars and others have long pondered why the US, the most powerful nation in history, isn’t mentioned by name–or even by significant reference—in God’s Word. We continue to flounder in attempts at finding an exact answer for that question. However, with the recent astonishing changes nationally and abroad, the answer seems to be in the process of forming.

Monetary manipulation is at the root of the change taking place. The American dollar must be removed as the currency standard so that a global currency not underwritten by any national monetary unit can be established. This is precisely the Beast economic order I’m convinced Bible prophecy describes as outlined in the following:

And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (Revelation 13:16–18)

This speaks to me of a computer system–a hybrid Internet—run by highly advanced AI, whereby all citizens of the global economic order will be absolutely controlled at every level of life. Probably, it will consist at its heart of electronic funds transfer (EFT)—a system of special drawing rights (SDR). Anyone refusing to toe the mark of the Antichrist’s regime will face having his or her SDR account blocked or removed completely from the system. Fear of starvation is a mighty motivator to comply.

Pressures are mounting for a completely changed global economic order. Even the king of the kings of the East, China, is at the center of the dynamics driving the changes.

Most economists who are honest will admit that the current building economic heap of debt cannot continue to accumulate. They are amazed, in fact, that everything hasn’t already collapsed into total, worldwide depression. I again offer my belief that it will be the Rapture that causes the ultimate implosion and collapse.

The great world leader called in Revelation “the Beast” will be there to implement a satanically inspired economic scheme that will at first offer hope–that will for a time “cause craft to prosper” (Daniel 8:25). But Antichrist’s plan will achieve what it will be designed to do: enslave most of the world in electronic bondage.

Jesus offers the opposite of what the counterfeit, Antichrist, will produce. Jesus promises: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). We must at every opportunity lift up the holy Name of Jesus before the eyes of a world headed into the terrors of the Tribulation.

Signals are in every direction that Christ will at any moment step onto the clouds of Glory and call all believers to Himself. Thus Christians will be kept out of that time of Tribulation, which will come upon all the world to judge those who have refused to accept God’s great gift of salvation.

Here again is how to receive that gift:

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)