Most educators in higher academia who make space in their thinking for the existence of deity believe that entity to be existential—i.e., any such God who might exist has, at best, created the world and left it to evolve or whatever, as through some natural process. It is a hands-off, not a hands-on God who inhabits their worldview.

While it’s unlikely that any exploration of these ideas will penetrate the hard shell of their intellect, I nonetheless believe it a worthwhile endeavor. That is, it’s worthwhile to look into God’s Word, overlaying that holy template upon the issues, events, and ongoing developments which, to those who truly “watch,” as Jesus commanded, prove the nearness of Christ’s return.

As one who has done so for decades, I can with certainty confirm that the God I serve attends to the minutest detail of every life, including what the academicians would term the “lower forms.”

I was thinking about Jesus once stating that God clothes the flowers of the fields with glory not even Solomon in his kingly attire and wealthy splendor could match. I remembered that beautiful, radiant face of Ethel Waters, her eyes seeming to project light from Heaven itself while she sang “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” at Billy Graham crusades: “His eye is on the sparrow…and I know He Watches me…”

Jesus’ words:

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29–31)

Our God is not an existential God, as even some of our founding fathers believed. He is hands-on, giving attention even each person who has ever lived—attention the depths of which far exceed any degree the finite mind can fathom.

The title of this commentary is meant to encapsulate the Heavenly Father’s complete oversight of this world, many of the inhabitants of which neither accept nor want to accept His governance. But He governs regardless.

God’s restraint has been governing in recent months in ways starkly observable to those who “watch” as commanded in, for example, Mark 13: 37: ”And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch.”

We have, for example, watched God deal in derision with the “powers and principalities”—the globalists that comprise the human element of Satan’s Ephesians 6:2 cabal. Despite all-out efforts by that so-called deep state entity to destroy God’s obviously appointed man for this late hour of the age, Trump triumphed and is now in position as president, just as the Lord determined. His restraining hand was starkly on display when He spared Mr. Trump that day in Butler, Pennsylvania. I believe His hand continued to be on display as the many-pronged attack from Satan’s forces came against Trump, and failed miserably in changing the minds of voters–except, perhaps to change minds in direction opposite to what Trump-haters desired.

We know the result. The people voted overwhelmingly to return this supposedly universally hated man to the most powerful governmental office on the planet.

Only God’s hands-on activity could have bent the election in direction it went.

We who “watch” through the lens of Bible prophecy are convicted through Holy Spirit influence. We understand that all God is doing with His hands-on shaping—the stage-setting we see that indicates the Tribulation is near—means that Christ is at the very door He will open to welcome all believers into His glorious presence.

It will be the Rapture of His Church. That “twinkling of an eye” moment when we will hear our Lord shout, “Come up here!”

Then there will be God’s recompense.

For Raptured believers, it will be a glorious time of recompense.

God’s just-gathered family will stand before their Lord at the judgment seat of Christ to receive rewards earned in life while on earth.

About this, God’s Word says:

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. (1 Corinthians 2:9)

For those left behind on the earth, however, the recompense will be filled with punishment from God’s cup of wrath that will be beyond anything ever experienced by humanity. It will be recompense for wickedness of the sort that caused the Lord to completely destroy all the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, once righteous Lot and the few with him were removed from that doomed region.

The recompense will be for such activity as reported in a recent news item that proves we are living in the days like Lot’s day just before God’s judgment and wrath fell.

“Children, boys and girls, are being sold for sex,” Tara Rodas, a whistleblower from the Department of Health and Human Services, told Congress. “Just last month I spoke with a care provider in Florida who told me about cases of migrant children as young as 8 with sexually transmitted diseases.”

Rodas, a former deputy to the director of the Federal Case Management Team at the Department of Health and Human Services, had been working on spotting red flags for child trafficking among the underage migrants who were being wrongly released to sponsors,

“Today, children are being sold for sex. Some children, girls and boys, will get sexually transmitted diseases. Some girls – as young as 12, 11, or even 10 years old – will give birth to children of their own. Forced labor and prostitution among underage migrants have more than tripled,” she warned, under the Biden-Harris administration…

Tara Rodas had watched as underage migrants were turned over to non-family sponsors with no tracking or accountability. No welfare checks were conducted on those children and the word of the sponsor was considered enough. But some of those sponsors were the worst of the worst.

Children were handed over to “traffickers, members of transnational criminal organizations, bad actors, bad, bad, bad people” after the Biden administration “stripped all the vetting out of the process.”

And Rodas said that “after nearly 3 and a half years of sounding the alarm, no significant action has been taken to rescue children.”…

Alicia Hopper, a consultant on human trafficking, described “a young girl who arrived at the border in the custody of individuals claiming to be her family was bruised, disoriented and in pain. Medical examinations revealed that she had been raped, yet she was sent back to her abusers because no verification was done to confirm her guardianship.” (“Open borders tripled child prostitution” | World Israel News, Daniel Greenfield, Frontpage Magazine, November 26, 2024)

God neither slumbers nor sleeps. He is restraining evil and has anti-God forces in derision, despite the abhorrent things reported above. The Rapture is next on His agenda to bring this Age of Grace to a close. Then will come recompense, and God’s process of prophetic fulfillment will unfold precisely as He has promised.

Even so, Come, Lord Jesus!

Observing these times so near the end of this quickly fleeting age conjures thoughts about Lot’s days in Sodom. This, of course, has been an ongoing train of thought for me, as those reading my articles can attest.

Those ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the remains of which archeologists are just now digging up from the south end of the Dead Sea region, had at their black hearts a term that believers in Jesus Christ don’t often give much thought to: unrighteousness.

Unrighteousness isn’t merely the lack of righteousness. It is the diametrical opposite, contrary in every respect to righteousness as defined by God. It is a determined, conscious—and even militant, in some cases—effort to move in a direction other than toward God and His holy prescription for living.

They need no deity to govern their comportment, the lost sinners declare.

But here is what God in Heaven, through Paul the apostle, has to say in regard to the soul:

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. (Romans 4:2–8)

So righteousness in God’s holy perception isn’t based on doing good rather than evil works, but rather on genuine belief in His way of salvation. Jesus described that way:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14: 6)

Getting back to Abraham’s nephew who lived in Sodom, I remain convicted that we’re living in the time Jesus described as being like “the days of Lot” (Luke 17:28-30). Moreover, I believe Jesus might have had our very nation in mind when He told of a coming day that would be like Lot’s day–that time in the future when God’s righteous people will be removed from a place of wickedness and evil, as Lot and his family were removed from judgment-appointed Sodom.

The United States of America is the most materially blessed, technologically advanced nation in history. In that level of attainment and achievement, America likely matches Sodom as that city existed in ancient times.

The people who will be evacuated in that future removal will be God’s people because of their being like Lot himself. Here the Apostle Peter delivers God’s message, reporting the facts about why Lot was removed from the doomed region.

And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. (2 Peter 2: 6-10)

Lot was righteous in God’s holy view. He and his family were removed from among the unrighteous people Lot had dwelt with in Sodom. Jesus said it will be just like this for His people in a future time. His people are righteous because they/we have believed in the Holy Name of the Only Begotten Son of God.

Certainly God’s people live today within a Sodom-like society and culture among a generation that has turned their backs on God’s prescription for life on earth. The reprobate minds of Romans 1:28 have long ago been reached, according to the wokeness and debauchery we’ve been witnessing.

My thoughts lately, in consideration of the Rapture and America and the world’s likeness to the days of Lot, turns to percentages. The question: Percentage-wise, have America and the world reached relatively the same configuration as Lot and those few taken out of Sodom, as compared to the number of those left behind to be judged and destroyed during those business-as-usual, but wicked days of evil? In other words, has this nation and the entire world reached the time when God will take the righteous from among the unrighteous so He can begin bringing His prophetic blueprint–the establishment of Jesus Christ upon His millennial throne—to fulfillment?

When will the only righteousness to be found on earth be removed? Seems to me that we might not be far from knowing the answer.

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Author’s note: I sense it good to again present this salvation roadmap. Never has the truth of God’s saving grace been more urgent or more important than now, so near the Rapture of believers into the presence of Christ.

Salvation

Salvation is rescue from something that is death-dealing in nature. That is, it is the plucking from a deadly situation or circumstance and placing in a position of safety. This is what God offers to all of humankind. He offers salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Salvation from what?

Each human has been born under the penalty of sin, since Eve was seduced into eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and Adam knowingly disobeyed by joining the woman in eating that fruit.

God warned the first two people that if they disobeyed by eating fruit from this tree, they would surely die. Lucifer, in the form of the serpent, put the question of whether to believe the Creator in their minds by asking, “Yea? Hath God said?”

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1–5).

With that disobedience—just as God said—sin and its consequence, death, entered the world. The man and woman lost fellowship with God. They began aging and degenerating toward death. Human beings now needed salvation from sin and death.

God loves His creation called humanity, and wanted to have the people become part of His eternal family—to live with Him forever in Heaven. The Creator, in His grace and mercy, said He would redeem them; He would bring into the world One who would save them from sin and death.

He cursed the serpent, Lucifer, who became known as Satan, and the devil, and said to him:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

Sin had begun its life-sapping work, and the man and woman had to be ejected from the Garden of Eden. Many Bible scholars believe this was done to keep them from the Tree of Life that grew in the Garden. If they had access, they would eat its fruit, and rather than eventually dying, they would grow increasingly grotesque in every way. Angels were placed at the Garden’s entry to keep them from returning.

God shed the blood of His creation for the first time when He provided animal-skin coverings for the naked man and woman. This was the first of the blood system of sacrifice that would foreshadow the awful price that would be paid for sin upon the cross at Calvary, when God’s only begotten Son died there.

John the Baptist announced Jesus’ purpose when Jesus approached while John stood at the Jordan River, baptizing people.

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)

Jesus lived on the earth for thirty-three years, then was sacrificed by crucifixion—the cruelest of all executions of the day. Jesus became sin for all of humankind on the cross that day. God the Father could not look upon Him while Jesus took all sin upon Himself for all men, women, and children.

Jesus’ true agony of that moment, when He became the horrendous thing His Father could not look upon, was recorded by the Gospel writer Matthew.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)

Matthew recorded the moment when Christ completed His mission on the earth:

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30)

Jesus Christ, the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world, had fulfilled the supreme sacrifice.

Jesus spoke of that salvation mission while preaching, teaching, performing miracles, and ministering during His time here as the Son of man—the only sinless human ever to walk the earth’s surface.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:14–18)

The question often arises: What about those who haven’t heard of Jesus? This was asked of the late Dr. Tim LaHaye, and when he started to answer, he was allowed only a few seconds. He was put on the spot by the host, who asked a question that called for a profound answer.

Dr. LaHaye had only a moment to answer the TV host’s assertion that it isn’t fair of a God to send anyone to Hell if they don’t hear the message. Dr. LaHaye used Scripture in a split-second decision in answering, then was abruptly cut off from continuing with his answer.

The Scripture in question is Romans 2: 12:

For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.

Tim was saying, I think, that the totality of Scripture teaches that people are without excuse who have the understanding that there is a creator who judges sin. This is true whether Gentile or Jew.

Implicit within Dr. LaHaye’s response were things he never got to explain. I knew him well, and he would have made his case something like the following, had he been given time.

God’s precepts are one upon another, remember, and often truth comes from an entire body of scriptural proof, rather than from just one or two verses.

Paul was addressing, particularly, the Jews, who labored under the Mosaic Law (although by that time, the Law was not in effect because of the Cross), juxtaposed against the Gentiles, who didn’t have the Mosaic Law.

Keep in mind that God’s Word says:

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth [it] not, to him it is sin. (James 4:17)

Scripture says also:

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:13–17)

All of this adds up to the fact that Jesus Christ, alone, is the way to redemption. But, He must be lifted up so that all will be drawn to Him. If there is no preacher to preach, then there can’t be faith, because faith comes by hearing (the Gospel). Just as an infant is innocent in God’s eyes, because the child can’t “hear”—i.e., understand—so are those who haven’t understood (truly heard) that Christ is the way to salvation.

However, even among savages in the darkest places where the Gospel hasn’t reached, if they “know to do good, and do the opposite,” they are not guiltless. God will hold them accountable for the light they have, which the Law would have provided for more civilized peoples.

The key here is that Jesus fulfilled the Law when He said “It is finished!” and gave up His spirit to death. Remember, Jesus once asked those around Him, “Why callest me good?” He then said, “There is but one good, and that is God” (Matthew 19:17).

Jesus was, of course, saying He was the only good, because He is God. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to cover the sin debt owed by fallen humankind. So, when the savage knows to do good, he is given that light by the Holy Spirit. He still chooses or rejects Christ, who is the only good.

The simple explanation is that people are accountable to the extent that they have been given light (understanding). But, that doesn’t unveil the whole Gospel story, regarding its application to those who haven’t had a preacher or teacher.

The Bible speaks to savages and the so-called civilized as well. Here are some relevant salvation Scriptures that cover every person who has been or will ever be born.

I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:14–18)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power  and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:16–20)

Here once again is how to come to salvation, thereby to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, 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)