Nothing brings clearer definition to the stage being set for Bible prophecy than the issues and events swirling around God’s chosen nation.

At the moment, Israel is exacting a heavy price for atrocities perpetrated by Iran’s proxy terrorist organizations. The most recent is the assassination of murderous terrorist leaders in Beirut and Teheran. Especially troubling is Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh being blown up with a detonation in his room.

The attack was at first thought to be a drone strike by Israel; now it’s been found to be an explosive device inside Haniyeh’s bedroom, I take it. The occurrence was said to be an “inside job.”

Regardless, Israel is seen as being responsible for the assassination, and no doubt that is a correct assumption.

Haniyeh is said to be responsible for planning and implementing the attack and murder of twelve children as they played soccer, when a rocket‘s warhead exploded on the field. The act so enraged Israel’s government that they broke away from their normal ways of retaliation, going not to a proxy nation, but straight to Teheran to take out the head terrorist.

At first it seemd that the explosive was planted in Haniyeh’s room two months in advance of its detonation, and was ignited only when he was known to be occupying that space. This would indicate almost prescient thinking on behalf of Israel’s assassination units, and the thought of that foreknowledge apparently had the terrorists and their associate evil regime in Iran going a bit nutso. It has now been said that the explosive was placed there only two days before the detonation.

The ayatollahs and others say it is an act of war, with Israel striking directly into Iran. It opens up a new level of hostility, and Iran’s regime threatens all-out war.

In view of all this, the Biden administration has sent naval ships in that direction in anticipation of a greatly expanded conflict in the region.

It is interesting to see that things are ramping up between Israel and its blood-vowed enemy, Iran, with this unprecedented attack by Israel against Iran itself. At the same time, another nation-state actor that’s part of the coalition that will comprise the Gog-Magog assault has interjected an equally fascinating element that brings that prophecy into ever-sharpening focus.

Turkey’s leader on Sunday threatened military intervention in Israel to stop Jerusalem’s war in Gaza in a significant escalation of rhetoric from NATO’s second-largest military.

In a meeting with his Justice and Development Party (AKP), President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey “must be very strong so that Israel can’t do these ridiculous things to Palestine.”

“Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them,” he said, according to a Reuters report.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz came back swinging and suggested Erdoğan would meet a similarly deadly fate as Iraq’s former president, Saddam Hussein, who was executed by hanging in 2006.

“Erdoğan follows in the footsteps of Saddam Hussein and threatens to attack Israel. Just let him remember what happened there and how it ended,” Katz said in a message posted to X that included a picture of Erdoğan and the former Iraqi leader. (“Turkey’s leader on Sunday threatened military intervention in Israel to stop Jerusalem’s war in Gaza,” by Caitlin McFall, FoxNews.com, July 29, 2024)

The Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdoğan thus makes clearer how Togarmah, regarded as the geographical area of current-day Turkey by prophetic scholars, is moving into the Ezekiel 38–39 alliance. This movement has been growing for some time since Erdoğan took over as president of the country. Turkey, a member of NATO, has been moving more and more into the orbit of Iran and Russia and spewing hateful rhetoric against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Jewish state.

This has caused a number of legislators within the US and the European Union that are part of NATO to call for kicking Turkey out of the organization.

This call for Israel’s punishment by Turkey is seen as unprecedented by a NATO member, following the dastardly murders, rapes, and other evil perpetrated by Hamas against Israel October 7, 2023. Clearly this further sets the stage for the end of the age and the beginning of the Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week).

Everything for the Tribulation and the Rapture, which will proceed that terrible time, is tightening into focus as we continue to view things through the prism of God’s prophetic Word.

A particular deception is coming, according to God’s Word and the Apostle Paul, that will ensnare the folks who oppose the Creator of all things. When thinking about “the lie” Paul mentions in 2 Thessalonians 2, it seems there can be only one sort of “lie” Satan would be so determined to foist upon the people left behind after the Rapture of the Church.

Here is the prophecy:

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:9–12)

Satan has always sought to separate people from the Lord and His governance. He was successful in accomplishing his goal when, in the Garden of Eden, Eve fell victim to the serpent’s seduction and then Adam willfully joined her, believing Satan rather than the Lord.

God then promised the supernatural seed through humankind that would eventually produce a Savior who would ultimately destroy the serpent and overcome his great lie that separated God and man. Jesus is that Seed, the Redeemer of humanity. He said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

Jesus is the only Way to forgiveness of sin, which separates humans from God. This is what is meant by the first Scripture I and many other young children learned in Sunday school:

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. (John 3:16)

Paul foretold in the 2 Thessalonians 2 account that the “lie” the Antichrist regime will impose upon those left behind on earth after the Church is taken to be with Christ forever will involve the refusal to believe “the truth.” They will reject God’s way to redemption. They will deny that Jesus Christ—the Truth—is the way to salvation.

The “lie,” then, will be wrapped up in a grand deception that says Christ didn’t truly come in human flesh—Jewish flesh, as a matter of fact—to die for our sins. This, after all, is the “spirit of Antichrist” John warned of:

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1 John 4:1-3)

That “spirit of antichrist” lie was intrinsic within Hitler’s Nazi regime. The Jews were painted as “Christ-killers and the scourge of mankind,” not as the chosen people through whom God brought His Only Begotten Son into the world to seek and save the lost. That future führer—the satanically empowered son of perdition—will likely mesmerize the post-Rapture world with a lie that denies Jesus Christ ever came to be the sacrifice for humankind. As a matter of fact, Bible prophecy paints that future leader as the one who comes in place of the real Christ. He will claim to be the Savior. He will sit in the temple of God on Moriah in Jerusalem, declaring himself to be God! (See 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Matthew 24:15.)

I believe the groundwork is being laid today for the “lie” that will doom much of the world’s population after the Rapture. The lie will have to be part of a fearful crisis of some sort. The disappearance of millions will certainly provide a crisis that will have the attention of the peoples of the world. Any leader who can answer the question of what on earth has happened will get instant adulation from a panicked world.

As mentioned above, the earth is being prepared, I’m convinced, for just such an answer as the Antichrist will concoct. We have been given a taste of that preparation taking place for quite some time. A news story from the year 2010, for example, gave more than an inkling of the groundwork being laid for that “lie”:

It has been the subject of movies for decades—but what would REALLY happen if aliens visited earth? This may sound like a topic for conspiracy theorists or mad UFO obsessives, yet this week, science’s finest minds gathered in London to debate that very question. …The conference, The Detection of Extraterrestrial Life and the Consequences for Science and Society, was held at the high-brow Royal Society HQ in central London…

It is often said the discovery of other civilizations would shatter world religions. Delegates were not so sure. Professor Ted Peters, a theologian, briefed the meeting on some survey results that suggested that rather than undermine religious beliefs—whatever the faith—it would strengthen them, by making God’s creation seem even bigger and more wonderful.

Not everyone agreed. British physicist Paul Davies thought Christians would have a problem, given the central belief that Jesus died to save us. If we discover other civilizations, it would raise the awkward question: Why just us? (Nick Pope, “If the Cosmic Phone Rings…Don’t Answer,” 1/28/10; http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/ufos/2828017/Should-we-be-offering-hand-of-friendship-to-ET.html)

The “lie” of 2 Thessalonians 2 could well bring into its orbit and make totally believable 1) universalism—the belief that all people are God’s children and there are many ways to salvation; and 2) the notion that Jesus Christ couldn’t have been the Savior, or else He would have to die on other worlds for those inhabitants and for others in other universes.

With the way psychologically and demonically paved for there to be a massive UFO invasion during the Tribulation, millions looking for an explanation of why their world is upside down will undoubtedly readily believe such a lie—the one that the ETs who have just removed millions of rebels from the earth have come to rescue the world from oblivion.

As I’ve related a number of times, I believe the prophecy that tells of this very event might well be found in the following:

And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. (Rev. 13:13-14)

Our world today is filled with great deception. Lies come from many governmental leaders, media sources, and even from people in the pulpits of America. It is incumbent upon each of us to be discerning in these closing days of the Church Age.

Lost souls hang in the eternal balance.

Some will likely say, “There he goes again with his Amero-centricity.” But America has never been more front and center in the roaring of the seas and waves of humanity as it is during this late prophetic moment.

I find that I can do no other than examine end-times matters within the apocalyptic milieu surrounding this profoundly unique experiment in liberty—this nation-state called America, the concept of which was given to the founding fathers by the Creator, according to their own recognition of the fact.

Harvest House Publishers released my book The American Apocalypse in 2009. We, that is the publisher and myself, planned a major book tour and publicity effort at the time. However, as you might recall, that year there was a major financial meltdown in America and around the world, due primarily to a banking crisis. So our book promotion plans were greatly curtailed.

I now see that delayed book publicity effort was providential. Now, in this greatly accelerated wind-up of the age, I believe we are truly looking at the coming Apocalypse in terms of, perhaps, America’s position within that unveiling of things to come.

Here is part of what I wrote in introducing that volume:

No nation in modern times stands more at stage-center than the United States. None in all of recorded history has had more influence–or has more directly affected countries contemporary to its time of nationhood–than America. Its contributions to moving the world from the speed a horse can run to light speed through near-instantaneous communications technologies are staggering.

There is no peer to American creative industrial genius, when considered in context of civilization-enhancing contributions by all generations prior to the 20^th century. The United States of America, as a result of her genius and industry, stands alone as the most materially endowed nation-state ever.

Sounds like pompous, typically ugly American elitism, you say? Well, to borrow from, quote, and expand a bit upon the words of that renowned philosopher, one-time St. Louis pitcher Dizzy Dean: “It ain’t braggin’ if you can do it.”

Section I of this book, “Prophecy Takes Shape,” provides proof that America’s accomplishments stand far above and beyond achievements of all other nation-players in bringing mankind to the current degree of technological progress.  The most gifted history revisionists would be hard-pressed to construct even moderately believable sophistry that would offer  contradictory evidence to America’s role in bringing mankind to this amazing technological point in a mere 100 years.

Again, Dizzy would say that it ain’t braggin’, because this nation has done it. The very fact of America’s spectacular achievement would, one would think, secure its place within the final prophetic disposition of nations. Yet, this nation is referenced by name nowhere in Bible prophecy. Absence of mention of the most powerful and wealthiest nation in recorded history seems a profoundly strange omission.

Recognizing and acknowledging that this super nation-state is not even alluded to by name, there nonetheless remains room to ponder. Therefore, we return to the question, though slightly altered:  Is America in Bible prophecy, even if not specifically named?

We must first address another question even more pressing: Does there exist a Supreme Judge of all things, who therefore has the final say on human conduct and on contributions to the furtherance of man? (Terry James, The American Apocalypse: Prophetic Scenarios for the United States and the World  [Harvest House Publishers, 2009])

Much stage-setting for the coming Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week) has taken place since those days when Barack Obama became president—so much change, in fact, that my book, as thoroughly as I feel it was researched, could but serve as cursory prelude to the profound position America now occupies on this world stage of anti-God rebellion.

The all-out effort to bring down America—including the attempt to assassinate a presidential candidate who opposes their plans to rule, which just occurred—is evidence of their satanic evil. Their more than obvious intention to remove America’s sovereignty, to bring it into compliance with the globalists’ Agenda 30 goals, to me, manifests Satan’s orchestration beyond any doubt. America must, as Obama stated, be fundamentally transformed. And, beginning with his administration, that is what has been accomplished.

The open borders, the transsexual madness, the Sodom-like transformation that has swept every area of society and culture into its wickedness gives witness toward the American Apocalypse. 

Yet, as obvious as Satan’s orchestration is to bring America into his future Antichrist orbit of control, God’s great restraining hand is even more obvious.

The Ephesians 6:12 cabal–the powers and principalities against which the Church (all born-again believers) struggles—must have a crisis of world-rending proportion in order to complete the final governmental architecture necessary to support the coming Antichrist regime.

Again, in my opinion, they tried this with the COVID so-called pandemic. It failed, and now much of the world is on to their lying ways.

One writer frames well the dilemma Lucifer’s minions face in their drive to bring America and nations of the world into configuration for fulfilling Satan’s desire to enslave humankind:

The globalist timeline for their “Great Reset” mentions 2030 as the prime year for total centralization. This is the year they plan to put their carbon controls in place, remove most oil and gas energy, bring in their digital currency framework, finalize their 15 Minute City programs, establish the IMF and BIS as the overseers of the global CBDC structure, launch their cashless society and integrate ESG related goals into every aspect of the economy.

2030 is only six years away, and that’s a lot to accomplish in such short amount of time. The globalists are going to have to either admit failure and change their timeline, or, create a substantial crisis in the near term to facilitate the Reset. (Brandon Smith, “The Juggling Act: Is 2024 A Pivotal Year For The Globalists?” 1/3/2024, https://alt-market.us/the-juggling-act-is-2024-a-pivotal-year-for-the-globalists/)

It becomes more apparent by the day that the Great Resetters can’t do so without America. Thus, so much hangs on the political process leading to this November and the presidential election.

As stated before in these commentaries, Satan knows the Rapture is going to happen—and soon. He has therefore stepped up efforts at every juncture to set the stage for the great crisis the Rapture will create. His human minions, at least, don’t know about the Rapture, other than believing it is pie-in-the-sky nonsense by some religious fanatics. But Satan knows. So he lets his human minions work as feverishly as possible to create a crisis, knowing they are helping finish constructing the global platform for his Son of Perdition’s all-controlling machine for governing during that coming time of horror.

You don’t want to be here during that time. Here is how to go to Jesus Christ when He calls all believers to Himself in the clouds of Glory.

That if you will confess with your mouth the lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that god has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)