Mainstream news people—I am reluctant to call most of them journalists these days—have gotten the scent. Their reporter-curiosity olfactory senses seem to have kicked in. They sniff the present state of decay in culture and societal interplay, and a prophecy of sort has emerged from among their ranks.

I sense myself that this particular reporter is chosen by others among her ranks to express what her fellow mainstream news media folks don’t want to individually verbalize for public consumption. –Thus the collective dystopian narrative.

It is, to be certain, an unusual forewarning coming from the American propagandist cabal, among whom reside deception and deceivers, the likes of which I believe the Lord Jesus spoke of in the Olivet Discourse in answer to His disciples’ question: “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

The following is a rather astonishing prediction, considering it is from a mainstream news reporter–even though Ms. Herridge is less offensive in regard to bloviating left-wing ideology than most of the others, from my perspective.

CBS News investigative reporter Catherine Herridge made a “dark” prediction that 2024 will produce a “Black Swan Event” which shocks the world.

Herridge made the call during a round table discussion when she was asked by host Margaret Brennan about what we could expect to see unfold over the coming year.

“Well, mine’s a little dark,” Herridge stated.

“I just feel a lot of concern that 2024 may be the year of a black swan event. This is a national security event with high impact that’s very hard to predict.”

A black swan event is defined as a major catalyzing event that seems unpredictable at the time, but with the benefit of hindsight seemed inevitable.

The event must have an extreme impact when it occurs…

A black swan event can also be positive, but in this context Herridge asserted that it would have negative consequences for America.

“There are a number of concerns—concerns, I have that factor into that,” explained Herridge.

“Not only this sort of enduring, heightened threat level that we’re facing, the wars in Israel, also Ukraine.”

“And we’re so divided in this country in ways that we haven’t seen before. And I think that just creates fertile ground for our adversaries like North Korea, China and Iran. And that’s what concerns me most,” she added.

Host Brenna agreed with the investigative reporter, responding, “A lot of people are up at night with that concern, Catherine. At least in this town.” (Tyler Durden, “CBS News Reporter Makes ‘Dark’ Prediction of’ ‘Black Swan Event’ in 2024,”  ZeroHedge, 12/27/23; Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news)

With Barak Obama’s recent input into the extremely dark, dystopian film in which he and Michelle are said to have producer interest, Leave the World Behind, and mainstream media joining in the gloom-and-doom outlook, it’s prudent to ask a prophetically pertinent question: What’s up? What on earth is going on with all the Utopian, New World Order types looking toward apocalypse?

It is a very good question at this time when we see all the biblically foretold Tribulation clouds gathering.

A “swan dive” event is given in some dictionary definitions as a suicide, a headlong plunge into a fatal impact. It might be described as a dive into oblivion.

It is more than interesting that those in charge, the New World Order builders, seem to be forecasting such a future for America and the world. I myself wonder if it might be Satan working to prepare those who will be in charge of post-Rapture governments for what is coming. Certainly, Lucifer , knows God cannot lie. He knows the time of Daniel’s seventieth week is on its way.

Rather than describing what is coming as a black swan dive into terrible times, the Lord Jesus Christ put the coming darkest of times on planet Earth as  follows.

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. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke 21:34–36)

Here, I believe the Holy Spirit is urging me to appeal to you if you are a nonbeliever. Jesus is the answer to all of your anxieties, to all of your worries. He is willing and ready to forgive all sin that separates you from God the Father in Heaven. Simply do the following. I have put it in today’s English this time, rather than the King James Version.

If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart (your mind and spirit) that God has raised him (Jesus) from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart men and women believe and are made righteous by God, and with your mouth confession is made that saves you from sin and its consequences, which separates the soul of the unbeliever from God for eternity.) (This is my paraphrase of Romans 10:9–10)

Accept God’s grace-gift offer today. It is a decision you will never regret for all of eternity.

“Unbelievable…it’s already 2024.” That’s what we hear today, or have maybe heard or said ourselves on this or any previous new year. Indeed, the days, weeks, months, and years seem to roll around faster and faster—at lease to those of us who are of somewhat advanced age.

The conversation always seems to include something like: “When I was young, time seemed to just drag on, especially during school days. Now time just flies by, doesn’t it?”

Nowadays we still say: “Happy New Year!” to those we see and talk to at this time of year. But just like in the case of those younger days in our view of time versus our elder days of thinking on time’s swift movement, whether it’s a Happy New Year, or otherwise, is truly a matter of perception.

Since this column is devoted to dealing in matters involving God’s Word, and in particular, dealing with God’s prophetic Word, perception is important, even crucial, to understanding to what degree this is a Happy New Year–or otherwise. In considering all this, there are massively divergent perspectives at hand, thus enormously important questions that need to be answered. So let’s dive in to this 2024 new beginning, in terms of what we face now and just ahead. Let’s look into whether it is, in fact, to be a Happy New Year! Or not…

Now, again, I’m going to be more America-centric than global-centric, because for most of planet earth, the term Happy New Year isn’t even thought of in such terminology. For most peoples, the majority under dictatorships, there is little thought of this year–or any year—as being “happy.”

Our nation is by far the most materially blessed of all human history–at least so far as we know. That is, some believe the antediluvian world possibly had technologies beyond our own advanced technology. I personally doubt it, so far as human beings developing technology to the extent we have now. There were, I believe, certain supernatural interventions into the human condition by the demonic world, according to God’s Word. So I proceed from the view that America and the Western world in general today have material blessings beyond any other civilizations of human beings.

Material blessings—i.e., cars, refrigerators, homes filled with comforts and conveniences of every sort—I realize aren’t necessarily things that produce the emotion we think of as happiness. And this is where the matters of perception and perspective come into relevance.

What constitutes, in our America-centric perception and perspective, a New Year—2024—that will be a truly Happy New Year?

Perception/Perspective of Most Americans

Americans, for the most part, seem focused only on the moment. This includes secular and religious people alike–believers in Jesus Christ and nonbelievers. Those in this category go about life just, as is said, keeping heads above water economically and in other ways that don’t disrupt routines of life. Barring personal and family catastrophic events, or the dire outlook of those in deep poverty, the perception and perspective is of and from the “all is well” viewpoint. The upcoming year, for these, usually is projected verbally as a Happy New Year in that sense.

However, looking from the perception and perspective of things going on, viewed under the revealing light of God’s Word, the Bible, it is quite a different and troubling reality.

The greeting “Happy New Year” doesn’t guarantee such a future for the coming year. It simply expresses hope that things of life track in a trajectory that doesn’t include any sort of unpleasant issues or events. Since such a trajectory doesn’t exist in an imperfect world full of pitfalls, wishes for a truly Happy New Year can never be fulfilled–at least not a Happy New Year in the truest sense.

So what is a Happy New Year in the truest sense? The question involves a matter worthy of exploration during this darkening time of Sodom-like cultural and moral decline.

Perception/Perspective of Those with Prophetic Enlightenment

Those who use the template of God’s prophetic Word to view the world as it is and as it looks to be projected to be for the year 2024 cannot see a particular happy outlook. That is, not in the sense that others with the view that “all is well” see things, both at this moment and in the year just ahead.

We look at the absolute adulteration of the culture in this nation as a departure from godliness. The youngest children are subjected to the most wicked forms of perversions, while parents who object are pursued by federal law enforcement as domestic terrorists.

We view the murder of millions of babies in the womb, and even after being out of the womb, through the abortion process, as the equivalent of the ancients sacrificing their infants and small ones upon the pagan alter of Moloch.

We look at the great deception going on with government and corporate entities, as well as journalists in media, lying to us as the fulfillment of Jesus’ words when he told his disciples that deception will be great just before He comes back in power and glory. The American political process is ongoing validation of the Lord’s foretelling in that regard.

The wars are rampant, just as Jesus said they would be at the end of the age. Rumors of wars are even more prolific in their assault upon our eyes and ears with each news cycle. Think Ukraine and Hamas and Israel’s determination to survive wars being perpetrated against the Jewish state.

And Israel being at the center of all controversy at this very moment leaves no doubt to those who watch from the biblically prophetic perspective that the world is on the very precipice of the Tribulation.

World War III and thermonuclear annihilation threatens each and every hour today.

So it isn’t time to forecast a Happy New Year for 2024. Not in the sense that it will be a time of joy in our nation or upon the earth. Quite the opposite is true.

That said, we who look at these things through the prism of God’s prophetic Word have peace about all the ominous societal, cultural, economic, geopolitical, and apostate religious darkness that is quickly gathering. We understand, through God’s promises, that all the evil we see coming now and in the year 2024 means one thing: The Lord Jesus Christ is about to shout from the clouds of Glory: “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1)

Paul the apostle described what happens following that shout:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

With this stupendous prospect in our spiritual perspective and perception, 2024 just might be the happiest of Happy New Years!

If you want to be a child of God who can truly say “Happy New Year!” in the way herein presented, this is how:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)

Author’s note: This is a Christmas gift of forewarning. It is the order of terrible events prophetically scheduled to take place during the Tribulation. The memorandum is given in love and in advance for those who will choose to be left behind after the removal of believers to Heaven, rather than accept God’s grace gift of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, whose birthday we celebrate today.

Please consider the following grace gift from the Lord who created you and who desires that you be part of His family for all eternity. Follow God’s prescription in this promise. Then, the memorandum that follows will not be for you, but for others who have rejected the grace gift offer prior to the Rapture of all believers in Christ for salvation.

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)

MEMORANDUM

Date: (Unknown)

To: Everyone left on planet Earth

From: Those who have vanished

Re: The truth about what happened

This is to tell you exactly what is involved in the sudden disappearance of people around the world. It’s as simple as this: We who belong to Christ were called into the air above the planet in the Rapture. Yes, that kooky, ridiculous, pie-in-the-sky, fly-away event that Tim LaHaye and other preachers of what you’ve thought of as fantasy have been proclaiming could happen at any moment did, in fact, happen.

You are hearing, or will soon hear, every conceivable explanation of what caused this astonishing disappearance. Here are our guesses as to what some of those explanations will be:

• It was some sort of quantum evolutionary leap, which will ultimately be great for mankind.
• It was a mass abduction by extraterrestrials—an outgrowth of the singular abductions that have been reported over the years.
• It was a natural, scientifically explainable cosmic interaction that some human physiologies could resist and others couldn’t.
• It was a supernatural movement into a higher form for those who disappeared–an ascension to godhood.
• It was punishment from the great cosmogonical mind, removing the evil from the world.

Don’t believe any of these or other explanations. To find out the absolute truth about what the mass vanishing actually involves, read in the Bible 1 Corinthians 15:51–55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18. Also read John 14:1–3 to find out where we who vanished are presently located.

Now that we are gone–and our leaving has everything to do with your immediate future—the following will happen in order very similar to that listed here.

These and other events will occur over the next seven years:

• Total chaos will rule for a time. (Lk. 21: 25)
• Governments will get control through sometimes-harsh methods. (Rev. 17: 12-13)
• One world government will come together. (Ps. 2: 1-3)
• A one-world church will form. (Rev. Ch. 17)
• A world leader from Europe will step to the forefront and take charge of the peace process. (Dan. 9: 26-27)
• Israeli government and Israel’s enemies will sign an agreement of peace that ensures peace and safety. (Dan. 9: 27; Isa. 28: 18; 1 Thes. 5: 3)
• Peace will not last, as a coalition of nations—led by Russia—will invade the Middle East. (Ezek. 38: 1-12)
• God, himself, will destroy all but one-sixth of the invader forces. (Ezek. 39: 1-5)
• Much of the world will be hit by the deadly effects of the invasion. This will possibly include chemical, biological, and nuclear aftereffects. (Ezek. 39:6-7; 11-16)
• The world leader will solidify his power following the Russian-led coalition’s destruction. (Dan. 8: 23-25; 11: 36-39)
• Two Old-Testament-type prophets will come on the world scene and preach about Christ while condemning the world’s evil. (Rev. 11: 3-6)
• Meanwhile, God will put His protection upon 144,000 Jews who have converted to Christianity so that they can begin to preach God’s saving message to the people of the Tribulation. (Rev. 7: 3-8)
• At the same time, God will allow strong delusion to come over all who heard the Gospel before the Rapture, but, fully understanding the offer of salvation, refused to accept Christ. These will believe the lies of Antichrist and Satan. (2 Thes. 2: 11-12)
• Antichrist, after months of trying, will finally murder the two Old-Testament-type prophets. But they will come back to life and be taken into Heaven while the world watches. (Rev. 11: 11-12)
• Antichrist will receive a supposedly deadly head wound (Rev. 13: 3).

• Satan and his fallen angels will fight God’s forces, be kicked out of Heaven by Michael and his angels, and will be exiled to planet Earth, where Satan will bring great anger against those who live there (Revelation chapter 12).
• The False Prophet will perform supposed miracles and will call fire down from Heaven –which likely will involve light-like orbs that are those of Satan’s force thrown down to earth (Revelation chapter 13).
• Antichrist will appear to resurrect from the dead, being then possessed by Satan. (13: 3-4)

• Antichrist will sit in the Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. He will claim to be God and demand worship. (2 Thes. 2: 3-4)
• The False Prophet will direct all worship to Antichrist, and will erect an image of him. (Rev. 13:11-17)
• Antichrist’s regime will institute a computer mark-and-numbers system. It will be both to control the world’s populations and to cause all to worship Antichrist, whose number in all of this is 666. (Rev. 13: 16-18)
• Those who refuse to accept Antichrist’s mark will be murdered. Beheading will apparently be the regime’s chosen method of offing these “traitors.” (Rev. 13: 15; 20: 4)
• Antichrist will begin a systematic genocide against the Jewish race that will make Hitler’s Holocaust look mild by comparison. (Rev. Ch. 12)
• He and the False Prophet will also have all the new believers they can find rounded up, tortured, then murdered. (Jhn. 16: 2; Rev. 13: 8)
• While Antichrist hunts down and murders people by the millions, God’s judgments will begin to fall directly on the rebellious people of the planet. (Rev. 6: 17)
• Millions upon millions will die while God’s wrath pours out in a series of three types of judgments, each consisting of seven specific judgments, for a total of 21 judgments. (Rev. chapters 6 through 18)
• When all is said and done, more than half, possibly as much as two-thirds, of all human life will die of the plagues. (Rev. 6: 8; 8: 8; 9: 18)
• God will prepare, and the Jewish remnant will flee to, a hiding place, probably Petra, the ancient city carved in the rose red-colored rocks of the Jordanian wilderness. (Rev. 12: 6, 14)
• Antichrist and his forces, led by Satan, will pursue the Jewish people and try to murder them, but the pursuing forces will be swallowed up by the Earth. (Rev. 12: 15-16)
• While the Jewish and many of the Gentile people still alive remain safely protected, God’s wrath will fall in greater force. (Rev. 16: 1)
• The sun will go partly dark, while at the same time heating up to seven times hotter than normal. (Rev. 16: 8-11)
• A great object will fall into the ocean from space. Its impact will kill life in the sea, and most likely will destroy coastal areas with tidal waves. (Rev. 8: 8-9)
• Another asteroid or other mass from space will strike earth and will poison much of the planet’s fresh water sources. (Rev. 8: 10-11)
• Great, unprecedented earthquakes will happen simultaneously all over the earth. (Matt. 24: 7; Rev. 16: 18)
• People will be so frightened they will have heart attacks, just from the things they see are yet to come. (Lk. 21: 26)
• A supernatural plague of huge insect-like creatures will be released from the abyss, and they will sting all who have the mark of the Beast. Men and women will try to commit suicide because of their great pain from the stings and bites of these demonic creatures. (Rev. 9: 3-6)
• God will then move in the minds of all military forces on earth to gather in the valley of Jezreel, the plains of Esdraelon, near the ancient city of Megiddo. This is Armageddon. (Joel 3: 14; Rev. 16: 16)
• The “Kings of the East,” a huge army out of the Orient numbering more than 200 million troops, will invade to make war with Antichrist’s and the other world’s forces. (Rev. 9: 15-16; 16: 12)
• Jesus said of this time that if He didn’t come back, everyone and everything would die because of the fighting about to take place. (Matt. 24: 22; Mark 13: 20)
• Jesus will return with the armies of Heaven. His armies consist of the mighty angels and Jesus’ Church, which will have been raptured at least seven years earlier. (Rev. 19: 11-14)
• Antichrist’s armies and all others will try to prevent Christ’s return. (Rev. 19: 19)
• Jesus will simply speak, and all armies on earth will be rendered helpless, most killed. (19: 15-18)

You have only one chance to survive: accept Jesus Christ as Savior (read John, chapter 3). This will involve refusing to take Antichrist’s mark when it is instituted. If you accept the mark, you are eternally doomed.

Note to those not appointed to God’s wrath (1 Thes. 5:9-11): Perhaps you should pass this memorandum to your lost family and friends before you vanish.

Then, post it on your refrigerator.

Author’s note: The article presented here was written some years ago. It was at that time and continues to be meant to inform the Jewish people of their God-ordained destiny. Because God’s Word is absolutely true, the matters involving His chosen nation have not been proven to have fallen by the wayside of history. God’s Word on the Jewish people has only increased in veracity. That is, each and every passing day, God’s Word about Israel issues forth ever stronger Proof that God’s promises to that people—and to all believers in Jesus Christ—will come to pass. All that’s going on at present, with the building worldwide hatred and satanically driven genocidal ranting by even deluded, American university students, gives validation that Jesus Christ is on the very brink of calling believers to Himself as He promised:

And when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:28)

Israel’s Destiny

Israel is the one nation in human history that the Creator of all things chose to be “a people unto himself”:

For thou [art] an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that [are] upon the face of the earth (Deuteronomy 7:6).

Jehovah made promises to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that are staggering in their implications. He promised to bless those who bless the nation that would spring from the loins of these men, and warned about His curse for those who cursed those people. God said to Abraham:

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:1–3).

Certainly, this promise can easily be verified as coming true throughout recorded history. The modern record, as a matter of fact, is contemporary proof of the veracity of the Almighty and His prophetic promises. Historians–except those blinded by the great deceiver, Lucifer—concede, sometime reluctantly, that Israel’s history in ancient times was a record of greatness. David’s and Solomon’s exploits and accomplishments are legendary, but built upon archaeological facts. Israel has achieved greatness among the nations of this earthly sphere.

One point over which secular historians at the minimum raise eyebrows of skepticism is that man received laws and moral codes through Moses, the son of Abraham. Most give Hammurabi’s Code that honor. But, those who believe that God is who He is know that the great human deliverer of the chosen people came down from Sinai with rules for living life, given by the God of Heaven to His creation. Particularly, the Ten Commandments were meant for Israel to follow as fealty to their God, and as example to the rest of the world.

God’s promise to make Israel a great nation and to bless all other nations through His chosen people has come true. The United States, for example, has the Ten Commandments upon its walls within government buildings–including the Supreme Court. America, despite the anti-God forces who want to destroy the nation’s moral underpinnings—continues to lead the world in most areas of improvement of the human condition. This is due to the Ten Commandments’ influence upon American ethics and achievement. But, it goes profoundly deeper.

Much of America’s successes in technological, medical, and every other category of progress has been contributed by members of the Jewish race. We don’t have to look far to find them. I’ll just mention the most obvious: Albert Einstein, the German-born, genius-physicist who became an American citizen. No more than a cursory study will show, indelibly, that God’s Word is true, when He followed through on the promise to make the people of the book the head of all peoples:

And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do [them]. (Deuteronomy 28:13)

Then what about the maltreatment, the genocide, against the Jewish race down through the millennia, particularly during the twentieth century? This doesn’t appear to be God making Israel the head of all nations. Here is where God placed some conditions upon the people He chose as destined to become the head of all others. Note the last of the above promise:

…if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do [them].

God will make Israel the head of all nations if they will listen to His instructions and commandments. Not only is that where the nation has strayed, but it is where those who say that God is through with Israel–that the Jewish race is no longer God’s chosen—have also strayed. God’s Word says ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have strayed–both Jews AND Gentiles.

Israel’s detractors within Christianity say the Jews rejected their Messiah in His first visitation. Therefore, they say, Jehovah has written off the Jews and the nation Israel. The Israel in the land surrounding Jerusalem since May 14, 1948, is not the Israel of the promises, the detractors say. Modern Israel is but an imposter, and God considers it no more within His prophecy for future national or racial greatness than He considers any of modern Israel’s blood-vowed enemies.

Absolutely nothing could be farther from the truth. It is true that Israel of Jesus Christ’s day rejected Him as Messiah. It is equally true that those of His own race, the Jews, cried “Crucify him!”—which convinced the Romans to crucify Jesus. But God’s Word says every person is a sinner. We are born into sin–because Adam, the physical father of humankind, disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. Again, God’s Word says that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

The Jews, as a race, are no guiltier than my race, which is Gentile. We all, as the human race, put Jesus Christ to death on the cruel Roman cross. He came to earth, sent by His Father, the God of Heaven, to offer Himself as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Jesus the Christ–the Jews’ Messiah—came to fulfill all Mosaic Law, the Ten Commandments. In Christ we can now believe, and our sins are cleansed, washed away by Christ’s sacrifice for eternity. Through His shed blood, we ALL–Jew and Gentile–are in the family of God forever.

But, each individual must accept this grace gift that replaced the sacrificial system of blood from innocent lambs of the physical sort. We must accept Christ as Savior, as Lord one-on-one with God, because He gives each person the free will to accept or reject His grace offer of salvation.

Now, I must come to the sad part—the tragic part of this essay, really—in which I address this nation’s prophetic destiny.

God’s Word, the Bible, foretells that the Jewish race as a whole, Israel as a nation, will continue to reject their Messiah, the one who came to them more than two thousand years ago. This rejection will continue to result in God’s promises being delayed until the moment Jesus returns to put an end to humankind’s final war called Armageddon.

Israel was scattered after the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple atop Mount Moriah. This was exactly what Jesus predicted in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew, chapter 24; Mark, chapter 13; and Luke, chapter 21). Jesus prophesied that not one stone of the Temple would be left upon another. Titus and the Roman legions saw to the fulfillment of this prophecy.

The Jews lost their temple, their city, and, following Hadrian’s purge in AD 135, their geographical homeland area, plus their common language (Hebrew), as a cohesive link to one another as a distinct people. Yet God’s Word foretells that Israel will be a nation again at the end of days–the time just before Christ returns.

Again, tragically and sadly, you are back in the land for a time that will be worse than any ever experienced by any people. The prophet Jeremiah foretold this:

Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it (Jeremiah 30:7)

It will be a time of horrors beyond anything even Adolf Hitler dreamed about perpetrating upon the Jewish race.

Can we see a build-up toward that time? Let us consider the words of the prophet Zechariah, and put his prophecies as a template over today’s headlines:

The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. (Zechariah 12:1–3).

The peoples of the earth are gathering against Israel. Even some leaders within the US, governmental and religious, want Israel to give away land for peace. The “Zionists” are seen as the problem.

Israel is basically isolated today, so far as true allies are concerned. The United States stands almost alone as your friend. However, it hurts to say that support is eroding, while some within recent American diplomatic efforts seem to want to exclude your nation from talks involving the small territory you now occupy—territory, incidentally, that is but a fraction of the land the Lord your God granted you through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These negotiators join the so-called international community in wanting to placate Israel’s hate-filled enemies.

This Neville Chamberlain-like, “peace at any cost” maneuvering is not lost on those who want Israel wiped off the map. It is creating a perception of weakness that will tempt them to act on their satanically driven hatreds.

Ezekiel foretold of a time at the end of days when a northern coalition will invade from the North (all biblical direction is given from Jerusalem). There is not space here to go into detail, but excellent scholarship has determined the chief attacker will be Russia, joined by many surrounding peoples. This attack will include forces from the area of ancient Persia, which encompasses all of Iran, and considerable surrounding geographical areas. This coalition, I am convinced today’s news headlines indicate, is gathering now. This will be the Gog-Magog assault described prophetically in Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39.

The one bright prospect, and it is a bright spot, indeed, is that the God of Israel will never let Israel be destroyed; we have His Word on that:

This is what the Lord says, “He who appoints the sun to shine by day, Who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord Almighty is His Name; Only if these ordinances vanish from My sight,” declares the Lord, “will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before Me.” (Jeremiah 31:35–36)

The bottom line is that Israel, the Jewish race, is again destined to become hated and persecuted—this time with satanic vitriol that will make Hitler’s Holocaust look somewhat less terrible by comparison.

Antichrist, the long-foretold, sometime spoofed, but 100 percent Bible-prophecy guaranteed-to-come-on-the-world-scene tyrant, will implement genocidal policies against the Jewish race that will go far beyond draconian.

I didn’t make up this prediction. God’s Word, the Bible, does say it. I accept that Word as the only truth there is. I, and other Christians who know Jesus Christ as Lord, love, or should love, the Jewish people–the nation Israel. God loves you; so must we. You are His chosen. However, I, and they, can’t change what God has prophesied to take place, I’m convinced, in the relatively near future.

But, I, and they, are charged with showing individuals within Israel the way to escape the coming time of Antichrist’s regime of horror. Accept Christ now. He is Messiah. And one day, perhaps very soon, He will call His people—Jews and Gentiles who accept Him as Savior—to be with Him forever. This will be the Rapture. (That stunning event in which millions of people will vanish from planet earth can be found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51–55. Jesus spoke of it in John 14:1–3.)

The Rapture will take place before that time of horror–the era Jesus called “great Tribulation” (Matthew 24: 21).

The people of the nation Israel who are unrepentant (the remnant, for most will die in this last holocaust) will accept Christ at the last moment.

Here’s what that future remnant’s Messiah says:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:9–10)

Israel will then be made the head of all nations, with the resurrected King David ruling as co-regent with the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, atop Mount Zion at Jerusalem for one thousand years–the Millennium! Believe it or not, that is your nation’s great God-promised destiny.

We who love Israel pray that you will believe.