Prophecy Line
Bringing Back Dave Breese – Part I
One of my most cherished aspects of the Lord’s bringing me into prophetic ministry is the tremendous teachers, broadcasters, preachers, and Bible scholars I’ve been blessed to know over these many years. None is more beloved, profoundly memorable, or respected in every way than the late Dr. David Breese.
Dave was one of the most brilliant thinkers, writers, and speakers, with that golden voice possessed by only a few of God’s men. He was as intellectually gifted as any—secular or Christian—yet possessed humor and warmth that made him instantly someone you knew was genuine and transparent in relationship.
In thinking on Dave, the thought of Samuel the prophet came to mind. Samuel was brought back from his eternal rest to deliver a message of condemnation to King Saul. In my prompt from, I believe, the Holy Spirit, Dr. Dave Breese needed to be brought back in the spiritual memory sense in order to deliver a message of edification to those of us who long for Jesus to call us in the Rapture.
Dave presented a series of thoughts on the Rapture in a book of mine many years ago, for which he wrote a powerful chapter. The following are those questions and answers presented in that chapter. They are as solid and encouraging as when I first received them from my great friend.
Questions and Answers
There are hundreds of prophetic questions that live in the minds of people. Many of them are asked openly at prophetic conferences, on radio programs, and certainly in private conversations. We do well to deal with some of the frequently asked questions, believing that the answers will be helpful to us all.
What qualifies a person to be caught up in the rapture of the Church? The Word of God teaches that Christ will return again for the delivering of His Church. Everyone who is among those called “brethren” (1 Thess. 5:10) is a member of the body of Christ and will be the object of the deliverance that will come at the Rapture. The single qualification, therefore, is that an individual be a Christian. A Christian is one who has believed the gospel of Jesus Christ and knows God’s Son as his personal Saviour.
What prophetic events must be fulfilled before the Rapture? There are no prophetic events that must precede the Rapture. The predicted events of prophecy have to do with the period of time following the Rapture leading up to the glorious return of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Rapture could take place at any given moment. It is well for the believer to regularly tell himself, “Perhaps today!”
How shall I prepare for the Rapture? Surely the greatest experience in life will be to be brought into the presence of God as a good soldier, a faithful servant. The essential preparation for the Rapture is that I be a Christian. Then, the fact that I could be taken to heaven at any given moment should motivate me to exemplary Christian service. Earnest prayer, faithful witnessing, godly living – all of these will be a part of the approval that can come in heaven. We all must so live so as to hear Jesus say in that day, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
When the Rapture comes, what will happen to the children of Christians? All children who have not yet reached the age of accountability are counted as “believers” under the doctrine of prevenient grace. We, therefore, conclude that the children of unbelievers will also be included with the children of believers and taken home to be with the Lord. As one person said, “‘All the children of the world will be taken to heaven and all the unborn children of the world as well.”
What impression will the Rapture make on the world? The answer, of course, depends upon the preoccupations and involvements in which the world finds itself at the time of the Rapture. Still, we must conclude that the disappearance of the Christians of the world and the children of the world will leave a stunning impression upon the minds of people. The Antichrist will be hard-put to come up with an explanation. In lieu of this, the dismay at the teaching of Scripture now being so well proved by the Rapture may well cause minions to come to faith in Christ during the Tribulation. They, as Tribulation saints, will face a time of fearful persecution.
Can we take anyone with us at the Rapture? Certainly not by holding on to them, as much as we might desire this. But, we can take all of our loved ones and friends with us to heaven if we will have led them to Christ so that they themselves have become Christians before the time of the taking away of the Church. When the Rapture comes, it will be too late to do any additional things in this world for Christ. The record of each person’s life will stand as indelible forever after that instant of translation.
How can heaven receive and process so many millions of individuals all arriving at the same time? This is no problem to God. The arrival of the Church, the body of Christ, at heaven will be a time of great reunion and rejoicing. A home in heaven will have long since been prepared for every individual by Christ himself (John 14:3). A place at the feast of welcome, of betrothal, called “the marriage supper of the Lamb,” will have been set for each one. No one will arrive at heaven as a stranger; rather, as a brother beloved.
Isn’t it cowardly to wish for the Rapture to deliver us from the problems of life? Anyone who does not particularly wish to be beheaded during the days of the Tribulation can certainly be expected to anticipate with a welcoming sentiment the rapture of the Church and the deliverance from the wrath to come. To want to go into the Tribulation is not courage; it is mere foolish bravado. The doctrine of the Rapture is true, unrelated to human attitudes. Especially remember that we are to love His appearing (2 Tim. 4:8).
Didn’t the doctrine of the Rapture come from a strange source? The doctrine of the Rapture comes from the Word of God. It is the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who presents this marvelous truth. It is best to avoid silly stories, from whatever source, related by people who would draw our attention away from any doctrine of the Word of God.
What is the difference between the Rapture and the second coming of Christ? The Rapture is a very special mission by the Lord to deliver the Church from the awful scenes of the Tribulation. The Rapture, therefore, comes before the Tribulation and takes Christians out of this world before that seven-year period of the wrath of God. Notice that, in the Rapture, Christ does not come all of the way to this world. Rather, Christians are caught up to meet Him in the air (1 Thess. 4:17).
At the second coming of Christ, His glorious return, He comes with His saints. In fact, He returns with an army from heaven for the conquest of the world (Rev. 19:11-16). Remember, since this is an army of His saints (Jude 14), you and I will be a part of that glorious conquest that centers on the return of Christ in power.
You see from the above that Dave was a powerful messenger for the Lord’s service. His voice lives on in the marvelous teaching and biblical exposition he left with us. I’m looking forward to seeing Dave again in glory.
Next week we continue with God’s answers to prophetic questions through Dave’s recorded words that bless us all still today.
The Trigger
Many of you know I view Jesus’ words as recorded in Luke to be perhaps the most important of all prophetic teachings regarding the coming world collapse into what will quickly become the Tribulation—Daniel’s seventieth week.
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)
As stated in these articles many times, I believe the Lord was speaking to our time. Even more specifically, I believe He might have had our very nation in mind when issuing this foretelling. Further, I believe Jesus was indicating that it will be God Himself, not man, that will bring the more or less normal way of doing business crashing down into chaos.
His “revealing” will trigger this collapse, I’m convinced.
Again, the Lord could not be talking here about the end of the Tribulation, as He is preparing to come back to put an end to the wickedness of mankind and their governments of destructiveness. There will be a scant few people on earth at that time due to the Judgment, wrath of God, and of Antichrist’s reign that will destroy many. The people who are alive will be hiding in caves begging the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of the returning Christ. It will not be business as usual, as indicated in the Luke 17:28–30 account.
Jesus is speaking here to the Rapture of the Church, in my view. Like in Lot’s being taken from the doomed city of Sodom, Christians being swept into the clouds from the doomed planet will be kept from that coming hour of horror (as promised in Revelation 3:10).
It will be this event—the Rapture of the Church—that will trigger the collapse of everything on earth. It will be a trigger pulled by the God of Heaven, who will finally have had enough of man’s wickedness.
Pete Garcia and I have written a book that talks about the disastrous chaos that will result when God’s righteous anger is released once His family is removed in the Rapture. The book’s title is New World Order: Worlds in Collision and the Rebirth of Liberty.
We have addressed many times in these commentaries—and Pete has done the same in his great website, Rev310.net—the globalist elite making plans to bring into place their desired changed global order. It will be the Antichrist regime outlined in Revelation chapter 13.
In our new book, we do our best to describe in detail how this will all be triggered into taking place as prophesied once the Church is removed in the Rapture. The following is a brief excerpt from the book that gives some idea of what is coming, we believe, in the near future. There will be great societal collapse at every level, and Antichrist will implement controls draconian even beyond those conjured in George Orwell’s imagination.
This Luciferian new order will have one more ace up its sleeve in uniting all the worlds’ remaining religions—artificial intelligence.
“What you try to do a thousand years ago with the priest preaching from the pulpit you will be able to do in a far more invasive way in 10 or 15 years with all kinds of brain-computer interfaces and direct biological interventions (Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus).
As has been noted by numerous biblical scholars and teachers, the coming Antichrist’s Beast kingdom will have three legs to its political structure—economic, military, and religious. However, we believe this coming system will have a fourth leg that seemingly enables (or supercharges) the other three—the supernatural.
According to Scripture, the Beast will begin as a ten-nation/region imperial power that rises up at a time of great global crisis, and then imposes its political will over the entire earth… It’s not a stretch to see how this political power will then extend into its economic authority, to control all buying and selling everywhere. Militarily, the Beast will incorporate the latest and greatest technology information, surveillance, and deterrence weapons to enforce its iron-fisted political control over both people and economies.
Paradox Gained
Even though the public opinion or awareness of global governance has waxed and waned over the past hundred years, the plan has never wavered from the globalist mind. The continual push towards a singular, global government has wrought havoc everywhere it’s been implemented, and thus, as stated at the outset, their goal has been successful. The success is not in achieving global government, but in achieving geopolitical and societal destabilization necessary for the peoples of the earth to cry out for one. Thus, their relentless chipping away at the US Constitution has put us dangerously close to the tipping point. As of 2022, it wouldn’t take much for us to collapse nationally; a simple nudge would move us into any number of existential crises.
The COVID-19 crisis, and the political, economic, and social disruptions it has caused, is fundamentally changing the traditional context for decision-making. The inconsistencies, inadequacies, and contradictions of multiple systems—from health and finance to energy and education—are more exposed than ever amidst a global context of concern for lives, livelihoods, and the planet. Leaders find themselves at a historic crossroads, managing short-term pressures against medium to long-term uncertainties with one-size-fits-all solutions. (The New World Order: Worlds in Collision and the Rebirth of Liberty, by Terry James and Pete Garcia, set to release spring of 2023.)
Try as they have been striving to do, the diabolist New World Order minions haven’t been able to bring down the United States of America. And they must have America’s great assets and Americans’ compliance in order to achieve their one-world regime. We believe it is the restraining hand of God that has to this point prevented America’s utter collapse. If America falls, the rest of the world will follow into complete collapse, and there will be a worldwide call for a leader to bring things back to a degree of normalcy. Antichrist will be ready with answers to restore order. But it will be a hellish order full of enslavement, death, and destruction.
The Rapture is the trigger that will initiate the move toward man’s final war at Armageddon.
You don’t want to be on planet earth when God has pulled that trigger and removed His people to safety.
Here, again, is how to go to Christ when He calls the Church to Himself.
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)
Satan’s Prepping Continues
“Preppers” are sometimes deemed wise, sometimes lauded, and often criticized as conspiracy theorists—and worse. Whatever their acceptance, praise, or condemnation, their very existence and proliferation gives credence, even validation, to their fear that “something wicked this way comes,” as Mr. Shakespeare would have it.
And whether one’s a prepper or not, even a non-Bible prophecy observer can recognize that there is growing wickedness in every direction on the cultural and societal landscape.
Prepping, of course, is gathering all sorts of things to prepare against hard times to come. Fear is prevalent and growing that there will be a complete fiscal breakdown—the dollar will massively lose value and be replaced by alternative economic systems worldwide. There is belief that society will collapse under the despotic hands of tyrants seeking to bring America down. Fear of attacks of cyber and even kinetic sorts are on the rise. There is trepidation that things like this are now being planned by the likes of Russia and China against a once well-protected America—a nation no longer secured against such destructive possibilities.
I admit to writing myself about these fearful prospects, in context of trying to be discerning about what God’s Word has to say about this generation as it approaches the time Jesus said will be the most horrific of human history (Matthew 24:21).
So a growing percentage of earth’s inhabitants are looking at what they see coming, and are trying to protect themselves and those they love from a possibly unprecedented assault against humanity. Some are intensively doing so, pulling out all stops.
The billionaires we hear about are doing things like buying up old, deserted missile silos and fixing them up for long-term living underground while the chaos of nuclear war and other deadly things occur on the planet’s surface. Lesser financially secured folks who are equally fearful of things to come are stockpiling foods, medical supplies, and all they think necessary to survive.
Of course, admittedly, the vast majority of the world’s populations, if they think at all about such dire possibilities, do so for only a fleeting moment. They are too busy doing life from one minute to the next.
There is one, however, who is doing a different kind of prepping. And he is doing so at breakneck speed. We can see his handiwork in that regard by simply observing the times and watching headlines unfold. It is as if he knows that he has a short time to prepare in consideration of his biblically forecast destiny.
I’m talking about, of course, Lucifer the fallen one. Satan is in an all-out phase of prepping, as I believe I and others who are watchmen and watchwomen can discern in these increasingly troublesome times.
The devil observably has his collars and chain around the necks of the dogs of government, military, economy, science, entertainment, and especially religionists.
We go over these matters every week in the many columns of those who present observations on Bible prophecy development.
In government we see developments shaping swiftly into the final, global entity Daniel the prophet spoke of to King Nebuchadnezzar. In military matters, we see war being threatened in areas of prophetic significance. World War III is considered almost a certainty by some of the most revered military affairs experts. In the economy there are developments that can be nothing less than preparing for the coming marks-and-number (666) system of Revelation chapter 13. In science, AI and all things digital are bringing all of humanity under surveillance and controls that will provide Satan’s man, Antichrist, everything needed to enslave a world—a world that obviously is already in a compliant mood to worship Lucifer.
Last week’s Super Bowl LVII made it clear, at least within the microcosm of that screaming throng, that the masses might be all in on welcoming the coming man of sin and his Beast state.
At Super Bowl Halftime Show, Rihanna Keeps The Satanic Spirit Of Last Week’s Grammys Alive And Kicking In Demonic Aerial Display With Fallen Angels
Last week, we showed you how the Grammys invited to world to enjoy something “beautifully unholy,” and then cheered as Satan was prayed to, invoked and worshipped on international tell-a-vision, and “sponsored by Pfizer” no less. Moments ago, the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show opened with filth merchant Rihanna descending from the sky, surrounded by what could only be described as dancing fallen angels, and sang “Bi**h Better Have My Money.” What was the reaction? Cheering and applause so loud that it competed with the music for your ear. You can stop having that debate now on whether or not America is a Christian nation, we absolutely are not. (RR news story link/prompt Rapture Ready News, February 13, 2023, NTEB story)
In religion, there is movement of all religions (all belief systems) attempting to come together as one. Pope Francis is consistently seen at the forefront of the effort while he applauds and approves of the World Economic Forum (WEF) efforts to bring the world back to Babel. We witnessed a meeting on traditional Mount Sinai in Egypt, where globalist minions came down after visiting the top, bringing down (in a way that mocked God’s Ten Commandments), their ten commandments for dealing with climate change and other world problems.
All of this is Satan’s prepping. While the world preps to survive what they fear is coming, the devil is prepping with all at his disposal to bring on that very devastation the human preppers fear.
I believe one of the chief signs we see in Satan’s prepping is the activity going on with the unidentified flying objects for which nobody within the military command system seems to have an answer.
The question I have: Is the world, with this sudden rash of UFOs, being further prepared to accept a space-brother-visitation explanation for that stunning moment when the Rapture occurs? This sudden phenomenon, in conjunction with the insanity being perpetrated against children, gives reason, in my view, to wonder. As many who read these commentaries know, I’m convinced beyond any remedy that every child under the age of accountability will go to be with our Lord when He calls the Church. God is going to, I’m convinced, demonstrate how He hates the way the world has dealt with the helpless little ones. The judgment and wrath will be great on this collective sin, I have no doubt.
We can expect Satan’s prepping to become more intensive as 2023 proceeds. Perhaps part of the reason Jesus told us to keep looking up is that Satan’s prepping—the so-called UFOs, etc—will be a key indicator of the Lord’s very near call to believers.
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21: 28)
This Rapture Generation
My commentary title this week will likely be construed by some as audacious. “This Rapture Generation” implies that people of earth alive now are those who will, without doubt, be the generation of believers who go to Christ in the Rapture, doesn’t it?
Those who have named specific dates for that stupendous event have earned consternation down through the years, and deservedly so. Jesus Himself declared that no one but the Father knows the day or hour when it will occur. And certainly, to date, that truth has played out exactly as the Son of God—who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life—said.
Yet, at the same time, the Apostle Paul implied himself to be part of the generation that would be raptured:
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 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 4:15–18)
Paul obviously expected to be part of those who would be living when Christ calls believers to Himself in the Rapture. The pronouns used are pretty clear, aren’t they? Yet Paul has been dead for 2000 years or so, and the Rapture is still future, as we are all too aware.
So is God’s Word (the “Word” who, in fact, is the Lord Jesus Christ, according to John 1:1) less than truthful with us through the prophecy given Paul regarding the Rapture? We know the answer to that is a resounding “no.” God cannot lie, therefore we are to think through Paul’s words with our born-again, Holy Spirit-influenced discernment to understand the apparently audacious statement. Paul’s declaration was as audacious as my title for this commentary, I think.
So what is this seeming contradiction all about?
The answer, I believe, is found in another familiar statement by Paul, one we use frequently in studying the Rapture.
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:13)
I believe that wrapped up in this profound statement of faith is an instruction to all believers. During this Age of Grace (Church Age), we’re always to be earnestly expecting Jesus to snatch us from this fallen sphere at any moment. This instruction—this commandment—has been in effect since the Church was born (as presented in Acts chapter 2). Every believer since that time should treat the promise of the Rapture as if it absolutely will take place while we are still living on earth.
As a matter of fact, all who love the prospect of Christ’s appearing are promised a crown of righteousness.
With this in mind, the title, “This Rapture Generation,” is appropriate for those of us who are believers now. Jesus will come for us in the Rapture at any moment—perhaps today!
I hope to go much deeper in expressing this certainty. And we do go deeper with each and every article presented. At least that is our aim.
The signals are brilliantly projected for those with discerning spirits to understand. Our Lord is unfolding prophetic signals of such unmistakable significance that we would have to look in another direction to miss just how near we are to the Tribulation. The Rapture is thus right at the exit door of human history for believers in Jesus Christ.
Sadly, most who should be helping God’s children focus on the lateness of the hour continue to feed only pabulum about how to grow into Christian adulthood.
Such spiritual food isn’t bad, of course. The Scripture is necessary to spiritual growth. But there comes the time that requires us to take a deep look into just how late the hour is on God’s prophetic timeline. We are now very near that instant of Rapture about which we’re forewarning.
This is almost certainly the Rapture generation, and I cannot feel sheepish in declaring it.
Tell everyone you know, using your own words, the soul-saving truth encompassed by Paul’s Holy Spirit-given formula for going in the Rapture when Christ calls:
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)
Mr. Biden, Balunacy, and Minnesota Madness
Can there be any doubt? In every direction we look, Romans 1:28 projects from our TV screens and computer monitors. The proof of reprobate, aberrant thinking reddens the horizon with warnings of dangerous times ahead.
Anti-God forces have put the planet’s populations in a position that, like in the time of the antediluvian world of rebels, God’s wrath and judgment must again fall. This article will, I hope, point to several examples that typify the reprobate mindset and show how far into upside-down thinking those, particularly within leadership positions, have descended.
Being several months older than the current US president, it gives me no pleasure to point out what everyone knows but few amongst the media and elective government will verbalize. Joe Biden is in obvious cognitive decline. His leadership as a US senator and ice president has been the topic of concern for many years, but lately the mental decline is manifest anytime he is off the prompter. He answers practically no questions from the press assigned specifically to solicit answers that inform the American public.
A mainstream news media with a collective ideology that views America’s founding as being wickedly flawed–even evil from inception—covers up the president’s refusal and/or inability to cogently frame thoughts that American presidents have always been demanded to verbalize. I offer as evidence, for those old enough to remember, the way the wolves of the mainstream media tore at Vice President Dan Quayle for simply misspelling “potato.” This president makes gaffe after gaffe constantly without a word from the sycophantic press. They consistently prevaricate in their “reporting” in order to make the anti-America-as-founded charges, apparently wanting to move this nation as far ideologically left as most of Europe now is—or even farther left politically.
The most recent cover-up situation by what used to be referred to as “the fourth estate” involves Biden’s apparent business partner, China. The balloon sent from that Far-Eastern enemy of the United States floated across the Pacific Ocean, the largest body of water on the planet, then traversed the entire nation at 60,000 feet before finally being shot down in US waters less than 12 miles off our East Coast.
The balloon was technologically directed by China, according to some in the know. It did not just drift accidentally into American air space. The Biden administration allowed the invasion of territory some 60,000 feet above the nation. The excuse so far offered for not shooting it down is a fear that the heavy parts would crash to earth, endangering the American people.
The balloon first attracted public controversy Wednesday as it hovered near multiple military sites in Montana. China has insisted that the balloon was a civilian airship that went off course.
A report on Bloomberg said that U.S. officials were aware of the balloon back on Jan. 28, when it first entered American airspace over the Aleutian Islands. The balloon then drifted into Canada before returning over Idaho on Tuesday…
Despite downing the balloon on Saturday, the Biden administration took withering criticism from E. Casey Wardynski, a former assistant secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs in the Trump administration, according to Fox News…
Wardynski said the lack of action that took place as the balloon drifted across America amounted to” an excuse to do nothing, which is the kind of government we’ve got—a do-nothing government.”
He noted that the balloon was treated differently than almost any other aircraft.
“It’s our airspace. They [China] would’ve shot this thing down long ago if it was an American aircraft,” he said.
The Biden administration’s blustering “feeds into the overall picture of the Defense Department, which is that it’s a crowd that can’t shoot straight,” he said. (“Breaking Update: Chinese Spy Balloon Shot Down,” Jack Davis, Patriot Update, February 4, 2023)
More troubling than not being able to “shoot straight” is the fact that the administration no longer seems able to “think straight.” It seems the “reprobate mind” infects Washington, DC.
And it infects governments of lesser status as well. Minnesota state government manifests the Romans 1:28 malady, too, it is more than obvious:
Democrats [who hold a 34–33 majority in the state senate and a 70–64 advantage in the state house] in Minnesota banned coal, oil and gas after passing historic legislation in the state House of Representatives on Thursday…
And the legislation will cause electricity prices to skyrocket.
This comes at the same time that Joe Biden banned mining in the Iron Range, a Democrat-dominant working-class area in north-eastern Minnesota.
The new energy infrastructure in Minnesota will ban mining here at home as Biden struck a deal with African nations who use child labor and China where they use slave labor.
All in the name of climate change – the new religion of the left…
This is an unrealistic timeline that could endanger the lives of Minnesotans if it fails while causing their electricity bills to skyrocket, Republicans argued throughout the night.
They unsuccessfully offered several amendments to the bill, including lifting the state’s moratorium on new nuclear power plants, allowing for the use of carbon sequestration technologies, and delaying the standard to consider its impact on child and slave labor in the green energy supply chain.
“Frankly, what this bill will be doing today is making Minnesota reliant on nations around the globe that have no labor standards and no environmental standards. Minnesota in this bill will build a clean grid economy on the backs of child slaves in China and poor environmental regulations in Indonesia and the Congo,” Rep. Spencer Igo, R-Wabana Township, said at a press conference ahead of the debate.
He said the resources to build a clean energy future are right in Minnesota’s backyard, yet the federal government has now banned mining on 250,000 acres of the Iron Range.
“The third-largest deposits of copper, nickel and cobalt that exist in the known world are only 250 miles north of this Capitol. Instead of investing in those resources … we have decided to export it around the world where carbon emissions will be 20, 25, or 30 times higher than if we were to do it here in Minnesota,” he continued. (“Suicide Pact: Minnesota Democrats Pass Bill to Ban Coal, Oil and Gas in One of Nation’s Coldest States – As Biden Bans Mining in State’s Iron Range,” Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit, February 3, 2023)
Minnesota, one of the very coldest states of the Union, has as its elected leadership a majority that insists on doing away with affordable ways to keep warm. Reprobate minds, to be sure…
I tend to agree with the assessment that says blame for this and most other craziness shouldn’t be placed on this cognitively dysfunctional president. These things are being perpetrated and/or allowed—certainly directed—by the globalists. Mr. Biden is but a useful tool in the hands of those such as Klaus Schwab, George Soros, and others, it seems to me.
This upside-down non-reasoning all means that Christ’s Rapture call to believers in this anti-God age so near the Tribulation can’t be far distant. Christ’s promised return to end the madness is a bright beam of hope piercing the darkening horizon.
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. (Revelation 22:20)
Heaven’s Homecoming Highlights!
My friend Jonathan Brentner and I are set upon a book project we call HEREAFTER. Its subtitle at this point is Heaven’s Children in Eternal Glory. Considering the lateness of the hour, prophetically speaking, we believe it will be an excitingly appropriate volume for believers—especially for those who view Bible prophecy from the pre-Trib perspective.
The title came to me upon remembering the late, great broadcaster Paul Harvey’s words regarding some dental product he promoted: “If you want to keep your pearly whites from here to hereafter, you need [whatever that product was].”
The older we get, perhaps the more we can understand what Paul was talking about in his own, unique way of expressing a truth. The Bible tells us that, in old age, “the grinders are few” (Ecclesiastes 12:3). Our teeth—like the rest of us—fall victim to the accumulating years.
Paul Harvey professed to be a believer in Christ for salvation. Thus, by “hereafter,” he was referring to that magnificent sphere to which believers ascend instantaneously when we finish our work/journey in this foreign land we call “earth.”
“Hereafter,” therefore, is the one topic that should draw our attention. This life is but a vapor, as Scripture says. Eternity is, well, forever. Heaven is our real home.
With this in mind, I’d like us to think a bit on something. Jonathan and I both believe strongly that most believers alive now will experience the Rapture of the Church when Christ calls. So we could be transported into that realm at any moment—a thrilling prospect to consider!
It is sad that many pastors in churches today don’t dwell to any extent upon this thrilling prospect. Truly understanding our future in considering our “hereafter” can move us into life more abundant, as Jesus promised.
Those who are blessed to come to this understanding of the heavenly promises that await have many questions. I considered that, by researching those questions, we might get at least some small idea of that glorious future in the presence of our Lord. The following are a few attempts at answering some of the questions believers would like addressed.
- Why won’t we be bored in Heaven?
As children, we sometimes view Heaven as a boring place. This is the view of many older believers as well. Some imagine Heaven as possibly an endless church service we’ll attend while checking our heavenly watches to see how much longer until we can go to lunch.
But things will be nothing like that. Worship will be action. We will explode with desire to serve as we are expected to do as believers here in this temporal life. Our heavenly desires will be greatly magnified when we are in our eternal home.
This powerful drive to serve will involve love and work. We are told to love the Lord with all our heart, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We will spend eternity interacting with our brothers and sisters in ways that will no doubt involve love for each other and work that uplifts us and them with spectacular, ever-ascending positive results for our efforts. We will experience fulfillment individually and together in carrying out God’s holy will—dynamic activity that is beyond our imagination in the confines of our finite understanding.
- Will we know family and friends like we do here on earth?
I like the way one teacher put it:
Just as Jesus on earth loved each person differently and specially—he did not love John as he loved Peter, because John was not Peter—so we are designed to love people specially. There is no reason why this specialness should be removed, rather than added to, in eternity. Our family and special friends will always be our family and special friends. In this life a child begins to learn to love by loving mother, then father, then siblings, then pets. The concentric circles of love are then gradually expanded, but the beginning lessons are never abandoned. There is no reason to think God rips up this plan in Heaven. (Tough Questions Christians Ask, book by Christianity Today, author of comment Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy, Boston University)
- How can I be happy in Heaven if someone I loved deeply on earth doesn’t make it there?
We know that the Bible tells us:
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Revelation 21:4)
While some interpret this as occurring only after the new heavens and new earth have been created, the fact that Heaven is perfection no doubt applies the moment we leave this earth and are at home with our Lord.
From our perspective now, to lose anyone we love because they won’t believe for salvation is heart-wrenching. But we will have the mind of Christ at the moment we are with Him eternally. He tells us He will have to say to the unbeliever “I never knew you.” This is not just a judicial advisory on the part of the Lord. It means He will forget for eternity the individual who has never come to Him.
Truly we can’t understand this at present, but when we have the mind of Christ and see Him as He is, we will be like Him. We, too, will have the ability to forget, just as God has that ability. This isn’t a pleasant thought right now, but we will understand it all by and by.
There are many questions we could address from Christians wanting to know about the hereafter. Jonathan and I are trying to touch on many in our upcoming book. Suffice it to say that Paul’s words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, should be a powerful stimulant for all believers while we look forward to Christ’s any-moment call to us in the Rapture.
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 searched all things, yea, the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9–10)
Rapture and Restraint Scenario
Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, made a most interesting comment in a sermon recently televised. He said something to the effect that he believes the Rapture will occur at the moment a global holocaust of some sort is in progress.
It is interesting to me, because I remember many years ago watching a docudrama-type program, produced by Peter and Paul Lalonde, I think, that portrayed just such a scenario. Just as nuclear-armed missiles started to fly, something miraculous happened. I can’t recall whether the missiles vanished, failed to fully ignite, or what. But I believe at that moment the fictional account had the Rapture taking place.
Dr. Jeffress indicated he believed that such a holocaust situation on a global scale could be used to provide reasons for the massive disappearance of people from the populations of the world. The globalists elite might use this as part of the big lie of 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 is, I presume, what he meant.
I’m not sure I can fully embrace that particular scenario, but it fascinated me back when the Lalonde brothers presented their version, and it again piqued my imagination when Dr. Jeffress mentioned it while I was sipping coffee early the other morning.
It likely induced me to start ruminating on writing this article, because there is such a build-up to war-making I believe the New World Order types are fashioning. That build-up is more than obvious to Christian and secular observers as well who see that increase in warmongering by those who are determined to have their Great Reset so they can remake planet earth into their own imagined Utopia.
Again, the United States of America is at the center of the one-worlders’ thinking. This nation must be brought under their all-encompassing control. America is the hold up to implementing their plan to construct a world along the lines of the demonically inspired imaginations of Lenin and Lennon. We must be forced to believe that there is no Heaven, no Hell, and we all will be “as one” under the gods of this new creation—such as Klaus Schwab and his WEF henchman Noah Yubal Harari.
Americans are still buying, selling, building, planting—doing all the things pretty much as normal. While most of the rest of the nations of earth are struggling mightily, economically and in other ways detrimental to human freedom, our nation, while headed down a track that will lead to destruction, isn’t headed that way fast enough to satisfy the one-worlders.
As expressed many times in these commentaries, America is exactly in the position, the situation the Lord Jesus Christ foretold as recorded in the book of Luke. This is why I am convinced that America, the apex nation of history so far as being materially blessed is concerned, might be the specific nation and people Jesus foretold in this passage, which I believe refers to the Rapture:
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)
As I’ve mentioned many times, all nations are linked in one way or the other to the United States and the dollar. Yes. I agree completely that things are changing, and there are tremendous pressures being brought to bring down the dollar, to create alternatives to the American-dominated global financial interaction. But America continues to stand, and nothing the powers that be have tried has collapsed either the United States or the world’s economy to this point.
Nor will any earthly power be able to do so; I am of the firm opinion, based upon Jesus’ “days of Lot” prophecy. It is God, Himself, who will collapse America and the world—all deserving of His judgment and wrath, it’s sad and tragic to have to say.
Dr. Jeffress believes that a great holocaust-type catastrophe will initiate God’s judgment while the Rapture at the same time occurs. If it will be this scenario that is in play, the build-up to war we are witnessing certainly could be that global catastrophe.
Jesus said God’s judgment will, like when Lot went out of Sodom, fall that very day. That judgment completely destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, the twin cities of anti-God rebellion.
Presently Iran is said to have nuclear weapons and are going to add to their arsenal quickly. Israel has declared they will never allow Iran to have an arsenal of such weapons. So the ignition point for at least a regional war of devastating potential is in place. The Russian-Ukrainian war is building, with Putin threatening almost daily to strike a conflict-ending blow, possibly using nuclear weapons.
A general in charge of one of America’s powerful military branches is predicting war with China, the nation with the largest land army.
In a startling memo released last week, a four-star Air Force general said that he believes the United States and China will fight a war in the upcoming two years.
“A four-star Air Force general [Gen. Michael A. Minihan, USAF] sent a memo on Friday to the officers he commands that predicts the U.S. will be at war with China in two years and tells them to get ready to prep by firing “a clip” at a target, and ‘aim for the head,’” reported Reuters.
The head of the Air Mobility Command, General Minihan, is in charge of about 50,000 service members and roughly 500 planes. He is also in charge of transport and refueling…
“I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight in 2025.” (“Four star General: Be ready for this war,” New Conservative Post, January 30, 2023)
All things are building toward something earth-shattering. God continues to restrain until the instant of His next catastrophic intervention. Christ will first call believers to Himself.
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)
Nearing Midnight and the Doomsday Clock
Jesus set Heaven’s end times clock, foretelling when the second hand of eternity will reach near the midnight hour for the inhabitants of planet earth. He did so by giving God’s heavenly family the assurance that we will snatched up before that time; we will be rescued from this planet of rebels doomed to suffer His righteous wrath and judgment.
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21: 28)
The phrase “these things” refers to the issues and events of prophetic significance that have long since begun to “come to pass.”
Todd Strandberg, founder of Raptureready.com, and I have for decades written our commentaries on “these things” for the “Nearing Midnight” section of this website. We have tried, in effect, to show the progress toward that midnight hour. We’ve present what we believe is not a “doomsday clock,” but a heavenly horizon marquee announcing the great event that all who believe in Jesus Christ for salvation are swiftly approaching.
It is more than intriguing that, while we look at all the wickedness being done by the evil men and seducers who are growing worse and worse, secular watchers of mankind’s nearness to the same midnight hour perceive that time is almost up.
Such came starkly into view with the most recent setting by the “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist Doomsday Clock” watchdogs:
A panel of international scientists has warned that humanity’s continued existence is at greater risk than ever before, largely as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set its Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight the clock has been since it was established in 1947 to illustrate global existential threats at the dawn of the nuclear weapons age.
Rachel Bronson, the president and CEO of the Bulletin, said the clock had been moved forward from 100 seconds to midnight, where it had been for the previous three years, “largely, though not exclusively, because of the mounting dangers in the war in Ukraine.”
“We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality. Ninety seconds to midnight is the closest the clock has ever been set to midnight, and it’s a decision our experts do not take lightly.” (“Doomsday Clock at record 90 seconds to midnight amid Ukraine crisis” | World news | The Guardian)
The secular doomsday clock watchers hope that, by posting the warnings of impending nuclear war and other catastrophes, they can somehow avert reaching that midnight hour they so fear. This is what, for example, those who believe they can institute the so-called Great Reset believe they, in their god-like confidence in their own ability, can accomplish.
But there is one thing and one thing only that can help mankind avoid the coming judgment and wrath of that midnight hour. That is repentance and turning to the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to die as sacrifice for the sin into which humankind has been born since the fall in Eden’s garden.
God has set the doomsday clock, and His second hand hasn’t stopped moving toward that midnight moment. My own belief, along with many of God’s watchers on the wall of Bible prophecy, believe that clock’s second hand is much closer to the 12 than the 90 seconds away the authorities of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists recently placed their second hand.
The people of earth are on the cusp of being thrust into that midnight hour. You don’t want to be one who is left behind to suffer that time of horror Jesus Himself said will be the worst of all human history (Mathew 24: 21).
Here is how to avoid that fate and instead go to be kept within the safe harbor of Jesus Christ when He calls all believers to Himself.
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)
Supreme’s Sodom Decision
It was a déjà vu moment. I tuned in early one morning in January 2023 to a Bible teacher I’ve long listened to—Les Feldick. He was talking about how the Lord might soon decide to give America over to a reprobate mind, as mentioned in Romans 1:28, because of the acceptance of and even enthusiastic embrace of homosexuality within society and culture.
Les mentioned the year he was taping the program as 1995.
That triggered my memory of an article I wrote about his TV program of similar topic years earlier. I had written the particular commentary in 2015, come to find out upon researching the matter.
It was amazing how in 1995 Les had laid out almost precisely how things had developed by January 2023 in the direction of inviting God’s judgment. We were headed, Les said back then, down the same track of Sodom of Lot’s day.
I’ve written many times about sensing the same track our nation has taken, and how America must have been the nation Jesus was thinking about when He gave the days of Lot prophecy recorded in Luke 17:28–30.
Immediately below I have placed that 2015 article I wrote upon hearing that first program Les did in 1995. My commentary at the end of that article is that written for this Nearing Midnight column in January, 2023.
Supreme’s Decision (Written in 2015)
Early this morning I was listening to a Bible teacher teaching on prophecy and how it looks like America and the world are at the end of the Church Age (Age of Grace). He was talking about U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
The teacher was in the book of Romans and he was in the first chapter. The teacher was Les Feldick presenting his then weekly teaching by way of his Through the Bible television ministry. The year the program was produced was 1995. I was listening to his teaching Friday, June 26, 2015—twenty years later. A Christian TV cable network is running the series daily at 5 a.m.
Les, as I understand, is now in his mid-80s and, I’m sure, still teaching somewhere in Oklahoma. I met him at the annual Tulsa Mid-America Prophecy Conference seven or eight years ago.
Today, a few hours after I listened to him teaching from that video recording back in that year two decades earlier, I heard on network television the announcement.
It was Pete Williams of NBC News—whom you might remember as the Pentagon spokesperson during the first Gulf War—standing near the wildly cheering crowd. The NBC correspondent—an avowed gay—had to clear his throat of emotion before answering the anchor’s question about what had just happened at the Supreme Court.
He enthusiastically gave the requested report, almost shouting to be heard above the jubilant throng screaming their approval of the court’s decision.
The decision was 5 to 4, with the swing vote coming from Justice Kennedy, Williams said. The United States would now require every state to accept same-sex marriage as constitutionally validated.
Twenty years earlier, Les Feldick had dealt with what I was now hearing from Pete Williams on Friday, June 26 of this year [2015].
Les said during that early-morning program, recorded in 1995, that every time he read through Romans, chapter 1, he couldn’t help but think of the almost insane decisions that come out of the US Supreme Court. He said that the insanity really began back during the days when Earl Warren, the former governor of California, was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
The Warren court, Les said, had rendered the most destructive decisions in American history. He mentioned the decision to remove prayer and Bible reading from public schools in 1963 and 1964. He talked about Roe v Wade, issued in 1973, opening up the nation to the slaughter of babies in the wombs of America’s mothers.
He compared the Warren Supreme Court’s decision-making and the resultant chaos to Paul’s condemning words in his letter to the Romans.
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: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 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; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:18–32)
Les Feldick, in that lesson recorded two decades ago, saw the Supreme Court as demonstrating that God’s Word is absolutely true. When people move away from God, their minds become reprobate—upside-down—in their thinking. They make foolish, unthinking, unreasonable decisions. And, the Supreme Court, the majority of those nine men (not all were reprobate in thinking) seemed to try, like Lucifer himself, to usurp the throne of God—the Creator of all things.
There were ramifications, in my view, from those earlier Supreme Court decisions. John F. Kennedy was assassinated; Vietnam would eventually take 50,000 American lives; the Great Society began the financial collapse of the US—and the world, for that matter; Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, as was Robert F. Kennedy; a slide into abject immorality and cultural rot continues today as a result of those decisions that have exacerbated other aspects of national life.
Friday, June 26, 2015, is another historical milestone demarcation of mankind’s foolishness. The decision to, in effect, tell the Creator that the Supreme Court knows what constitutes marriage, so He should just butt out, is the ultimate insult in testing God’s patience. It is an act of rebellion that demonstrates this generation has reached a level of reprobate thinking like that reached by the earth-dwellers of Noah’s pre-Flood day and Sodom’s days of Lot.
I’ve received a number of emails stating that such a Supreme Court vote making mandatory that all states allow gay marriage will bring instant retribution from Heaven. This is what we are now to expect. The United States will now reap God’s judgment and wrath in short order.
Looking at what happened almost immediately following the 1963 and 1964 decisions by the Warren Court—considering the apparent consequences listed above—it would seem that such predictions have credence. I’m not at all sure there is a valid comparison to be made, then to now, however.
What happened in those earlier years, with those consequences that befell America, I’m of the conviction, involved corrective action—a call by God to this nation imploring that there be a turning from such rebellion. A question to ponder is: Does time remain sufficient enough to even warrant a call in the form of corrective action? Has the Lord just decided in this obviously late, late hour to turn America over to a “reprobate mind,” as the Apostle Paul (Romans 1:28) indicates for a rebellious people who have turned their backs on Him?
Paul tells God’s thought about those who treat the Lord with contempt.
But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. (Romans 2:5)
Despite this warning of God’s judgment and wrath accumulating, we get a look into the Lord’s merciful patience.
What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. (Romans 9:22)
The Apostle Peter explains God’s patience—the reason He hasn’t ended mankind’s rebellion to this point.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
All who name the name of Jesus Christ should not be caught up in the cares of this world, in becoming more and more like the world system of materialism. While we must live upon this world of quickly declining morality, we should be aware of what the forces of evil are perpetrating. We should stand against those powers and principalities, both human and supernatural, just as written in Ephesians 6:12.
The buying, selling, planting, the marrying—heterosexual or otherwise—is a way of life that is going to end in one stupefying microsecond. The Christian will stand before his or her Lord and give an account of whether we have been working and watching for Christ, or whether we have been caught up totally in the cares of this world, with callous disregard for being salt and light as we see the end of the age approaching.
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. (Luke 21:34–35)
The only court that is going to matter ultimately is that which renders the Supreme’s decision on how we, individually, have lived within or apart from His governance.
Make sure you aren’t one whose head is stuck deeply into the proverbial sand of worldliness and apathy.
(Fast forward from 2015 to January 2023 when I present this current commentary.)
America’s march down that same road Sodom took toward perdition continues. As a matter of fact, the pace of movement has increased significantly.
Les Feldick again was heard questioning in the 1995 program I heard this January 2023 morning whether the Lord might see fit to give America as a nation over to the reprobate mind of Romans 1:28.
Does the word “woke” strike a chord of recognition in regard to his question? It does with me.
The insanity perpetrated by the purveyors of wokeness fits the definition of the reprobate mind. We say that people have gone completely crazy with things that make no sense or totally run counter to normal thinking and activity.
Today, homosexual relationship is not only condoned, but is instituted into law by federal government. Same-sex marriage is now stamped by the supreme law-arbitor—the Supreme Court—as normal and must be accepted nationwide under penalty of law.
Government leaders, educators, and even physicians declare that men are women if they want to be, and women can be men. The transsexual madness extends to public schools where school administrators and teachers are even helping children make decisions—including medical decisions—to change their gender. All this is done most often while hiding from parents the insanity being perpetrated upon their children.
The woke adherents today declare that men can become pregnant and that it’s okay for adults to have sexual relations with 5-year-olds. Those adults who want to do so are not to be any longer called pedophiles, but MAPs (minor-attracted persons).
Drag Queens are now applauded for parading in front of children kindergarten age, while these performers invite the little ones to touch these perverted men’s sexual anatomy. And this wickedness is carried on, even in some apostate denominations, while parents look on and cheer. How much more like that ancient city of Sodom must it get before God says, “Enough!”?
God created man and woman, but the woke declare that gender is a choice, as is the choice of whether to murder babies in the wombs of their mothers—and even after birth—through the abortion process.
Two US presidents, Barack Obama in 2009 and Joe Biden in 2022, walking hand in hand with the woke purveyors of the Sodom-like drive to move America as far from God as possible, have bathed the White House in the LBTQ+ rainbow colors. Joe Biden signed into federal law December 13, 2022, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). This requires the US federal government and all US states and territories to recognize the validity of same-sex marriage else face severe legal consequences.
Be absolutely assured, though, it is not the US Congress or the Supreme Court that will have the final word on this upside-down, anti-God evil. It is Heaven’s court, where the Supreme Being sits on the throne, that will make the decision on this end-of-days, Sodom society and culture.
Jesus Christ will say, “Enough is enough,” and will call the Church into Heaven. Judgment will then cascade upon a God-rejecting nation and world. Again, here is what Jesus says about the Rapture that will bring this world system crashing down in judgment and wrath.
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)
However, God’s mercy is great and there is still time for repentance by any and all who are rebels in this present Age of Grace. Here, again, is how to turn from the sin that invites God’s wrath and instead make the sinner now a child of 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)
God, Man, and the Coming Judgment: Part II
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. (Revelation 21:1–5)
The Lord Himself expounded upon what that day would be like. I believe He spoke directly to what the very start of that day would be like for both God’s children (all born-again into God’s family through belief in Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross) and for unbelievers who are alive at the time of His sudden break-in upon the world:
In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.
Remember Lot’s wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together. (Luke 17:31–37)
Again, this corresponds to the words of Jesus:
And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. (Luke 21:39–40)
Significant Differing View
Some—likely, most—of the great seminary scholars in premillennial, pre-Trib teachers of eschatology hold that the Scriptures in these passages predict the Tribulation, just before Christ returns in the Second Advent. They for the most part believe these refer to the people who are to suffer God’s wrath and judgment.
I fall into the Dave Hunt camp regarding these matters. I am more and more convinced that these prophecies, given in more or less parabolic language by the Lord, are not about the last of the Tribulation era, but about the time when the Lord calls the Church to be with Him—the Rapture.
Actually, I believe the Lord is talking about both the middle of the Tribulation in the first part of His prophecy and the time of Rapture in the second part.
First, Jesus says:
In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.
Remember Lot’s wife.
Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.
Jesus was talking about, I’m convinced, the same directive to the Jews as He gives in the Olivet Discourse:
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:15–21)
As Different as Day and Night
The second part of Jesus’ prophecy is not about the “day” (time) when the Jews are in the middle of the “day of the Lord” (the middle of the seven-year Tribulation when Antichrist is in the Temple declaring himself to be God). Jesus talks next about “in that night.” I believe He’s referring to the end of the Church Age. He abruptly stops foretelling the conditions in the middle of the “day of the Lord” and reverts to talking about “that night,” the night into which He likens the unguarded moment when the thief breaks in. And, note that this time of taking is in all different time zones, referring to both time of sleep and of the working day:
I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
Jesus Not PC
One of the problems many seminarians will argue is that Jesus can’t be talking about the Rapture because of the distasteful, even grisly, analogy He draws in describing this one-taken, one-left account:
And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.
Jesus would never make such a reference in describing His Bride, the Church, as “eagles” (“vultures” in Biblical vernacular), or to Himself as a dead body (after all, He is the Resurrected Lord!).
That argument is very weak. We see where the Lord gives the analogy of breaking in on an unsuspecting world, likening himself to a thief. That’s not a very attractive description of the Living God. He is the Creator of all things, and by Him all things are held together. Jesus Christ, however, who is God, doesn’t have to worry about the wokeness, the political correctness, or the false niceties of this phony world system. He makes His points in the strongest terms at times because He doesn’t want the fallen minds of men to miss His point.
This is the description of the Rapture, I believe, as my late friend Dave Hunt once wrote. And, why should we not trust that the Lord of Heaven would forewarn in the strongest terms about the stupefying event that will mean absolute joy and ecstasy to believers alive at the time of its occurrence, and abject terror to those who don’t know Christ for salvation?
He would not and did not leave such an astoundingly vital prophecy to the Apostle Paul without adding His own words of foretelling. As a matter of fact, as I’ve often expressed, I believe Jesus’ words recorded in the Gospel account by John were about the “mystery,” which Paul later prophesied (1 Corinthians, chapter 15).
John’s earlier recording of Jesus’ prophecy was a mystery not understood by those listening at the time.
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)
This declaration by the Lord Jesus Christ has a significant and direct connection to His Olivet Discourse words:
I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
The Greek word paralambano is all important here.
Many seminaries teach that those removed or taken away in the “days of Noah” prophecy are those being taken for punishment. Therefore, they say, this isn’t a Rapture passage, but a reference to the Tribulation.
During Dave Hunt’s lecture at the Pre-Trib Conference in Dallas in 1998, the following statement of biblical fact was presented (taken from a transcript of that lecture):
In the 24th chapter [of Matthew], we read that they were all taken away in the flood [in judgment]. Well that’s there, and I’m not a Greek scholar, but [that word for “taken” away to punishment would be] kai erenhapantas, a completely different expression than when Jesus says, one will be taken, and one will be left behind. The “taken” there is from paralambanó, the same word Jesus uses in John 14:2–3, “I will come and receive you.” “Receive” and “taken” use the same word, paralambanó, “I will receive you unto myself, for where I am, there ye may be also,” and that’s the Rapture.
As also expressed many times before, I believe prophecies about the days of Noah and the days of Lot, as well as Jesus’ words about the thief in the night breaking in on an unsuspecting world, cannot be the end of the Tribulation when Christ returns. Perhaps as many as three-fourths of the world’s population will have died by the time the horrendous wrath of God has fallen in judgment upon the wicked. It will NOT be business as usual. People will not be building, marrying, buying, or selling in anywhere near the normal fashion Jesus described in the Luke 17 accounts. It will be hell on earth at that time.
Frightening/Exciting Time to Be Alive
This is a generation that can, if one’s head isn’t buried in the sand, sense the groping fingers of ungodly forces reaching, grasping, to strangle anything that puts forward the name of Jesus Christ and His righteousness. In sheer political terms, there is wicked law such as the “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) that will, it is almost certain, stifle biblical teaching against the abominable practice of homosexuality. Legislation to increase legalization parameters for killing babies in their mothers’ wombs continues to expand in Congress and can’t be overridden by presidential veto, or even filibustered against in the legislative process. There now is a president who is favorably inclined to support both of these egregious anti-God actions.
Time and time again, we have pointed to the signals that illustrate dramatically the almost certainty that the present generation is experiencing the birth-pang convulsions Jesus described in the Olivet Discourse.
The geopolitical upheavals moving the world toward globalization at a dazzling rate, with the likely prospect of sudden economic meltdown, are drawing even avowed foes into new arrangements to try to avert international financial collapse. All of this should alert us that the shout “Come up here!” can’t be far from happening.
At the same time, the terrifying prospect for those who will be left behind is mind-boggling. So we must be about the Father’s business. We must witness to the saving power of Jesus Christ’s finished work on the cross.
Again, here is the message to present to those who will be lost in sin for eternity if they do not heed the grace gift of salvation offered:
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)
Terry James Prophecy Line 