Prophecy Line
Gathering for Peace or War?
To Bible prophecy observers of the warp speed toward bringing Mideast peace (to use a Donald Trump term, as in the “warp-speed” development of a vaccine for COVID), the many nations sudden jumping upon the peace bandwagon should constitute a clear signal: that prophetic stage-setting has experienced Heaven stepping on the end-times accelerator.
One development in this regard is almost breathtaking in its import. I refer to the US president singlehandedly setting up the Board of Peace.
This move to establish such a board, with practically little-to-no argumentation and debate from the world leaders who usually set their collective jaws against anything and everything, especially that involving Israel, is beyond astonishing. It is a supernatural turn of events, I believe. The following somewhat gives a look into that turn:
TONY Blair and Donald Trump will jointly govern Gaza on a Board of Peace under the President’s plan to end the bloodshed and secure the release of all hostages.
The IDF would withdraw from Gaza and commit not to annex the strip if both Israel and Hamas sign the 20-point plan unveiled today…
Mr. Blair, 72, was the first world leader named on the new transitional body to run Gaza apart, which Trump will chair.
This evening Blair hailed the plan as offering “the best chance of ending two years if war, misery and suffering”.
The former Labour leader and Middle East envoy is expected to take charge of the day-to-day running of the new board which will eventually hand power back to peace-loving Palestinians. (“Tony Blair to Be on Board of Peace to Run Gaza Strip as Trump Announces Plan to End War & See Hostages Released,” The Sun)
The “cry for peace and safety” takes on a whole new end-times direction when considering that such a Board of Peace is established with the enthusiastic agreement of the nations involved.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan said they welcomed Trump’s “leadership and his sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza.”
They said they were ready to engage with the US to finalise and implement the agreement, which they said should lead to a “two state solution, under which Gaza is fully integrated with the West Bank in a Palestinian state.”
European Council President Antonio Costa said he was “encouraged by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s positive response” to the proposal. He added, “all parties must seize this moment to give peace a genuine chance”…
French President Emmanuel Macron said: “France stands ready to contribute” to the efforts to end the war and release hostages.
“These elements must pave the way for in-depth discussions with all relevant partners to build a lasting peace in the region, based on the two-state solution.” (“Leaders in Middle East and Europe Welcome Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan,” BBC)
And it is the conclusion of Macron that should explain the enthusiasm for the Board of Peace and this peace plan.
The two-state solution is what the world of anti-God, Israel-hating UN nations—and especially Mideast states—have longed to implement.
This effort to divide God’s land has been a millennia-long quest, inspired and influenced by the father of lies, Satan, who has attempted at every juncture to cause God’s promise to Israel—that it will be His nation forever—to be broken.
The leadership of these nations believes this peace effort can be the wedge to bring Israel down—thus the enthusiasm to leap aboard this Trump plan. These, I believe, sense a real possibility of at last bringing about a two-state solution to the wars in the region–wars that, in the nuclear age, threaten worldwide catastrophe.
But those who understand the things involving Israel know the gathering of nations at the end of the age will bring a far different result than the elimination of God’s chosen people.
The nations, so hostile to Israel for so long, are gathering–ostensibly for peace-making. But despite our president’s best intention, the gathering is taking place for far different purposes.
Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum wrote about truth and the great end-times pressures Israel will experience, as well as the result of such cursing of Israel the world of nations will in turn suffer at Armageddon:
This passage describing the gathering of the armies of the nations is more or less viewed from man’s perspective. From man’s standpoint, it is merely a military gathering called together by the Antichrist. The first is in Joel 3:9–11:
Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah.
God’s viewpoint is one of mockery. The nations are mockingly encouraged to go ahead and turn their farming equipment into weapons of war. As for those who are weak, let them persuade themselves and pretend that they are strong. Because while Satan and the Antichrist have their purpose for gathering the armies, that of destroying the Jews, God has His own very different purpose for permitting this gathering to take place.
This taunting of the gathering of the nations is also portrayed in Psalm 2:1–6:
Why do the nations rage,
And the peoples meditate a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against Jehovah, and against his anointed, saying,
Let us break their bonds asunder,
And cast away their cords from us,
He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh:
The Lord will have then in derision. Then will he speak unto them in his wrath,
And vex them in his sore displeasure:
Yet I have set my king
Upon my holy hill of Zion.
The gathering of the nations is presented as a gathering against God the Father and His Anointed, that is, the Messiah Jesus. By seeking to destroy the Jews, Satan is also seeking to break the cords of God’s control of the world. How foolish! Then God is portrayed as sitting in the heavens and laughing, because He will soon have these nations in confusion. (“The Campaign of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Jesus the Messiah,”Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, ThM, PhD, Ariel Ministries)
Already we see the nations gathering. Ultimately, they are gathering for war, not peace.
Armageddon’s Trigger
Jerusalem sits atop land that would be among the least desirable in terms of real-estate values. The natural inclination would be to look for more scenic, lusher beauty rather than the much improved but still-arid landscape in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. But when considering Jerusalem, one is talking in terms not of the natural, but of the supernatural.
Since before the Lord led Abraham to Moriah with Isaac in tow, when the patriarch was willing to follow through on the sacrifice of his son, the area that is now Jerusalem has been at the very center of spiritual warfare—like no other place on the planet.
Moriah is the site where Abraham laid Isaac upon the makeshift altar and started the plunge of the knife toward his son’s heart. The angel of the Lord (likely the reincarnate Christ) stopped the test of the old man’s faith by providing the sacrificial ram, caught in the thicket by its horns (read Genesis 22:1–13).
Moriah, the tumultuous centerpiece of Jerusalem to this day, is where God directed David to the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, from whom he purchased the site. This would be the place where King David would not be allowed to build God a house because he had the blood of war on his hands. But it is where David’s son, Solomon, built the great temple of God (read 1 Chronicles 3).
This plateau on Jerusalem’s perimeter is where the Ark of the Covenant sat within the Holy of Holies. It is where the veil that separated man from God in the Jewish sacrificial system was torn in two from top to bottom by the hand of God. This occurred when His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross as the once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sin of humankind—so people would forevermore have direct access to God the Father through the one mediator, the man Jesus Christ. This high place in the city of David is the most contested real estate on earth. It is scheduled to become such a cup of trembling that all nations of the world will be drawn to the Valley of Megiddo—Armageddon.
Lucifer couldn’t usurp God’s throne in Heaven, although He tried with all his might (see Isaiah 14). Moriah is the site where Satan will again try to usurp the throne of God—the Almighty’s earthly throne that is the Temple Mount, where the Ark once sat and where the King of all Kings will one day sit atop a supernaturally elevated Mount Zion.
We witness it daily, even hourly, through the news cycles. This real estate named Jerusalem provides the present impetus for the world’s call for a two-state solution to the conflict involving Israel and the Palestinians. It is supernatural, spiritual warfare that instigates hatreds in the region and particularly in this ancient city, which is mentioned more than any other in the Bible. Jerusalem is the trigger to Armageddon.
Efforts to divide this city and nation are relentless these days as we witness things going on with Israel and the international community of nations to bring peace to the Middle East, led by the US president. This excerpt makes the point that the Temple Mount is at the heart of the millennia-long dispute that causes perennial war in that volatile region.
Under the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty, Israel recognized Jordan’s “special role” in overseeing these [Temple Mount] religious sites, allowing the Waqf to manage daily operations, including access and religious activities, to preserve the Islamic character of the site.
The agreement prioritizes Muslim worship to maintain the Islamic character of al-Aqsa Mosque compound, and Israel enforces this by limiting non-Muslim religious activities to avoid escalating tensions.
The effect of the Israeli-Jordanian agreement has been disastrous for Jewish sovereignty. It concretized religious discrimination against Jews in the Jewish state, by the Jewish state, in the most sacred space in Judaism. Most Jews, and almost all Gentiles, assume that the Western Wall, a wall with no religious sanctity in Judaism, is the most sacred space for Jews. This is pure ignorance: The most sacred space has always been, is, and will always be the Temple Mount. (“Agreement on Temple Mount Pathetic Appeasement to Terrorism,” by Aliza Pilichowski, Israel News, The Jerusalem Post)
It is a spiritual, not a geophysical or geopolitical matter of satanic hatred that resides at the heart of the city God chose as His touchstone to humanity.
Jerusalem will be the nucleus of the covenant of false peace that will engulf the city, the Middle East, and all the world in a holocaust of God’s holy wrath and judgment. The world’s power-brokers elite will divide the city and, in God’s terminology, “divide My land.” The result will be to bring all nations into the battle of the Great Day of God Almighty.
For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3:1–2)
Of all the signals of these last of the last days, powerful issues surrounding Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount in particular are paramount. They constitute the trigger to Armageddon and Christ’s Second Advent.
The Rapture will preempt that time of cataclysm that will culminate at the last great battle. It is incumbent upon everyone who names the Name of Christ to get the Word out that there is safety from that horrendous time of judgment only in the Lord Jesus. You can be a part of that mission with your support of the Rapture Ready website ministry. And we thank you, our RR family, for that support, which is much-needed in this critical time while we see the approaching Tribulation–the Rapture of all believers—as imminent.
Churning toward 666
This world is in defiance of God, as seen in every news cycle. The murderous violence must certainly rival the antediluvian days of Noah.
At the same time, it should make perfect sense to believers who trust God to be in absolute control at all times: He has never sent judgment and wrath without pleading, corrective, attention-getting measures and unmistakable warning signals of impending doom to the rebels who shake their fists in His face, then turn their backs to the only One who knows the end from the beginning. America and the world are almost surely at the latter end of the divine yardstick of judgment, which measures the extent of the Lord’s lovingly generous—though not infinite—patience.
Most who study Bible prophecy have, through the years, rolled the thought over and over in their minds: “Why isn’t America mentioned in Bible prophecy?” Many have concluded that the United States must suffer a catastrophic fate—from the outside or the inside. The nation’s destiny is one of either implosion or explosion–detonations that, in either case, will spell the end for the most technologically advanced country in history.
Surely God will not allow the American ship of state to slip beneath the crushing waves of the times without clear signals that we are nearing shoals that cannot be navigated.
Words from Jesus Himself bring to mind current crises gripping the US and, by extension, the entire world. The passage is quite familiar to students of prophecy:
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring. (Luke 21:25)
Whether considering this combination of end-times signs figuratively or literally, a case can be made that the present national and world circumstances might be the time Jesus was speaking about.
This generation has seen wonders in the sky. Humanity has accomplished space adventures in going to the moon and other planets with machinery. We have witnessed astrophysical phenomena through the Hubble telescope, gigantic sun eruptions, fantastic photos of a comet slamming into Jupiter, and the losses of the Challenger and the Columbia. Then, there are the signs in the sun, moon, and stars.
Recently there are scientists who continue to monitor asteroids and other stellar phenomena that are “fly-bys” potentially threatening the planet. Some scientists who observe the sun, moon, and stars believe the planet will one day, perhaps soon, experience a major impact from one of these visitors from deep space.
My good friend who is now with the Lord, Tom Horn, wrote much about the major asteroid-type space rock called Apophis, scheduled to pass close to the Earth on April 13, 2029. He conjectured it could be the mountain-like object of Revelation that is prophetically scheduled to hit the ocean and cause great destruction during the Tribulation.
The latter part of the Luke 21:25 prophecy also leaps to the forefront of thinking about the present hour. We’ve recently seen the figurative and literal seas roaring. Figuratively, all nations seem to be in great turmoil, with their peoples in societal and cultural tumult. The literally roaring waves have produced the costliest devastation in recorded history to nations around the world within just the past months. However, it is the middle part of the prophecy that most dramatically speaks to this generation.
Jesus said the nations will, near the time of His return, be in “perplexity.” The implication is that the leaders will be floundering for answers to the profound dilemmas confronting them. The perplexity will only cause them to go farther into rebellion, we can gather from the psalmist’s words:
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. (Psalms 2:23).
The United Nations is in overt rebellion against God’s order, as we witness almost all member states coming against Israel, demanding that the Jewish state give up land to the so-called Palestinians in a two-state solution to the perennial Middle East conflict.
The fact is we are in a time of unprecedented “perplexity,” so far as my memory serves. The leaderships of the world’s nations are in turmoil, with the economic stresses and strains threatening worldwide fiscal collapse. We have increasingly been told by top monetary experts that we face economic Armageddon if something isn’t done to straighten out the fiscal problems. In all the scrambling, finger-pointing, and doomsday rhetoric, one fact is powerfully obvious by omission: Not one of them has been heard calling out to God. Not one mention of soliciting help from the God of Heaven has been forthcoming, so far as I’ve heard. Certainly, asking God’s help hasn’t been heard in a public way.
As I write this, America’s unusually gifted president, in terms of his proven business acumen, continues to work on “fixing” the economic disaster the previous administration and the ideology it inflicted on the nation. I believe this is bringing this generation to the “business as usual” days of Lot Jesus said will be prevalent at the time of the Rapture. We will see how it plays out.
I continue to believe that Mr. Trump might be in the most powerful political/governmental office on earth to produce the upbeat economy Jesus said would be in place when He next catastrophically intervenes in the Rapture. I’ve outlined my thoughts many times in this regard when addressing the Luke 17:28–30 prophecy.
In a larger prophetic context, the swift economic movement and turbulence currently taking place is not without its significance, God’s Word assures. There is coming a completely satanized (if that is a word) economic order. We are seeing a major start to that coming global rearrangement. The fiscal problems will get “fixed,” ultimately.
I’m convinced it will happen during the time that follows the Rapture of the Church. But the peoples left on this judgment-bound planet won’t like the change the decisions of the politicians of the world–apart from God Almighty—will produce for them.
The luciferian machinery of enslavement is churning America and the nations it so traumatically affects, in terms of economic equilibrium, toward the Beast system of the Tribulation.
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (Revelation 13:16–18)
It will be the worst time of human history, according to Jesus (Matthew 24:25). If you know Him as Savior, you won’t have to go through the Great Tribulation. Here is how to go to Christ when He calls God’s family–all born-again Christians—to Himself in the Rapture:
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)
Violence Trumpets Christ’s Sudden Return
The Prophet of all Prophets, who just happens to be the very Word of God (John 1:1), described the human condition at the time of the first phase of His Second Coming. Jesus said:
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. (Luke 17:26)
Those are strong words, and they open an avenue that runs directly to a signal around which we can build a case for how near this generation must be to the Rapture. I write of the Rapture, and not Christ’s Second Advent, because in this prophecy, Jesus is talking about the sudden first phase, not the seven-year buildup to the second phase of His Second Coming.
The first phase is the Rapture; the second is the moment described in Revelation 19:11 when Jesus Christ returns dramatically to earth to end the human war called Armageddon. Jesus prophesied that at the time of this first phase, the Rapture, folks on earth will be going about life pretty much as usual. It will be like it was during the days before the Great Flood. About those days, Jesus said:
They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:27)
In those days, like in our time, some strange and sinful things were going on—things that finally brought God’s wrath, judgment, and the destruction of all but the eight people inside the ark. The sinful matter going on in Noah’s day that I want to explore a bit here is put forth in the following:
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. (Genesis 6:11–13)
The operative sin is violence that “filled the whole earth.”
Violence has always been part of the human condition. Cain killed his brother Abel in the first murder. More than fifteen thousand wars have been the scourge of every generation since Noah and his family left the ark. Cain’s pre-Flood slaying of his brother set in motion a visceral propensity within humankind to do violence to fellow humans.
Wars waged by the likes of the ancient Assyrians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Alexander’s Greek Empire, and the Roman Empire brought tremendous bloodshed down through the millennia. But it was the twentieth century—with World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnamese War, and others that continue into the twenty-first century—that spawned the level of violence that equates to the level of worldwide violence during Noah’s day.
Murderous rage has exploded upon this late hour of human history in almost every aspect. Killing rampages that used to be aberrant acts of the rarely seen serial or spree killers now seem to be a part of homicide that’s considered the norm. One form of violence that strongly indicates a recently elevated rage that’s like the satanic hatred of times just before Noah and the others went into the ark is that aimed directly at true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Perhaps the most notable example is the assassination of Charlie Kirk, founder and head of Turning Point USA. He was a young man who told about his belief in Christ at every venue he spoke at. He tried, through that witness, to lead his listeners to the saving grace of Jesus Christ, in addition to trying to reason with them about coming back to their senses in understanding what living life peaceably in America should entail.
The entire world was shown the face of violence that has burst upon this generation with cameras focused on the young man when the assassin’s high-powered rifle round exploded the carotid artery in his neck at the very moment he sat civilly answering the questions of a student asking, ironically, about gun violence.
Following on the heels of the Kirk murder was the shooting by a sniper in Dallas, Texas, who unloaded his weapon into an ICE van while it transported detainees into an ICE facility.
One detainee was killed and others were wounded. The sniper then shot himself. He, like Kirk’s assassin who wrote hate-filled things on the rounds in his rifle, had written anti-ICE engravings on the shell casing of the bullet he fired.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Lyons reported that such terroristic attacks against ICE have ramped up 1000 percent just within recent weeks.
School shootings around the nation, too, have increased, with evidence coming out that such evil stems from the same leftist radical ideology.
The young have been radicalized–with the backing of mainstream news and entertainment media—to deal with anyone who opposes their anti-American ideas and upside-down political persuasion by using violence–even assassinating the political leaders they hate.
Such radicalized youths were responsible for the attempted assassination of candidate Donald Trump, the murder of Charlie Kirk, and the terroristic attacks on the ICE agents who are targets of their hatred.
So many instances of violent insanity are piling up that it is difficult to pick and choose which to use as examples of the end-times violence Jesus described.
That fact alone is enough to validate just how much our days are like Noah’s.
Violence that is such a characteristic of this generation must certainly be a major indicator sounding from the end-of-days trumpet of warning. It is heralding the glorious prophetic truth that Jesus can at any moment step out upon the clouds of glory and shout, “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).
The Untaken For Now :: By Constance O. Wyler
Book review by Terry James
The topic of the Rapture and its place in Bible prophecy has of late captured the attention of even the previously uninterested believers and, I’ve noticed, unbelievers as well.
The interest generated by the “Feast of Trumpets” celebration just past, like always on such Jewish days of historical demarcation, raised anticipation of the possibility of that great Eventhappening this year.
It didn’t of course, so there is significant disappointment and even crises of Faith as a result.
Despite that disappointment, however, make no mistake. The Rapture will happen…I believe much sooner than anyone thinks.
Constance O Wyler has captured the Biblical Truth of that coming Event in her masterfully written novel series. I urge all who want to get a sense of what the Rapture will mean to believers and to unbelievers to get this latest volume.
The Untaken series by Constance O Wyler consists of four books that not only cover the first twelve hours after the Rapture, but also twelve days, twelve weeks, and twelve months.
Written in first person from different perspectives, the series shows how traumatic and heartbreaking it will be to be “untaken” or left behind after the Rapture. While the first book deals with Sarah Colton wanting an abortion and then all children, including those in the womb, disappear, the second book deep-dives into an AI implant that wants to control Sarah. The third and fourth books have Sarah meeting a young computer hacker who lives on a large cattle ranch in Idaho, while everything changes for the worse. When the Antichrist establishes a seven-year treaty with Israel, Sarah and her friends yearn to stop being under constant surveillance and learn how to survive the first year after the Biblical event that will alter the world.
All four books focus on how important it is to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, hopefully before the Rapture occurs. The eternal plan of salvation is clearly explained in each book as the characters make a decision to follow Christ or not.
Wyler’s fourth and final book, UNTAKEN FOR NOW, was recently released, and it will, I believe, excite believers in Christ’s promise to rapture them and cause unbelievers to seriously consider their need to come to Jesus Christ for salvation. This series is a truly God-sent story for these end days.
NOTE:
Book 1 is always FREE as an EBOOK, while Books 1, 2, and 3 are currently on sale as ebooks.
Book 4 ~ UNTAKEN, FOR NOW: 12 Months Following the Rapture, is on SALE as an ebook for only $2.99 until October 10th and all print/ebook online links are at https://books2read.com/untakenfornow.
An Unexpected Journey :: By Jan Markell
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Biblical Audio Commentary – Martyrdom & The Final Ingathering 9-26-25 :: By Gary W. Ritter
There has been a lot of discussion about the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rightly so, those on the side of desiring to honor God have lamented his brutal end, but also predicted what good might arise from the ashes of his earthly grave. Those on the side of evil have made their intentions quite clear: they hate God and intend to use his murder as a springboard for further violence. Given these two polar extremes what can we determine of all this from a prophetic perspective?
Martyrdom isn’t a rare event in the world. Yes, in America we react in absolute shock because we’ve essentially closed our eyes to that which occurs elsewhere around the globe. Our easy Christian life hasn’t really prepared us for the worst, yet that happens every day, multiple times a day, in nations such as Nigeria, China, India, North Korea, and so many more. In fact, the church in America has been pretty determined not to see those atrocities; the result being that we are spectacularly unprepared for what is still to come.
Not long after I was saved, I learned about Christian persecution for the first time. That led to my volunteering with Voice of the Martyrs. In that role I spoke at a variety of churches concerning the troubling opposition Christians had, primarily, in the 10-40 Window, i.e. the area generally between 10 to 40 degrees latitude north of the equator. My speaking opportunities came through churches inquiring about having someone visit to speak to their congregations and through my own initiative in creating contacts. I also worked the yearly conferences VOM held in my area where I served in a variety of ways.
Over time a distressing reality became apparent: fewer churches had any interest in learning about their brothers and sisters in Christ who were persecuted around the world. Finally, literally all speaking opportunities dried up. When Covid came along, that stopped the regional conferences, and VOM had to go online to present information. One of the major sentiments that I heard regarding the potential of having someone like me from VOM speak at churches as time went on was that learning about persecution was too hard – too distressing – and people simply didn’t want to listen.
I was quite interested in Bible prophecy even in those early days, and one of the warnings I gave regarding persecution and being too comfortable here in our nation was that a day was coming when we would also have to face it. I stressed that I didn’t believe it would be of the nature that Christians faced daily in Third World countries, but that it was going to reach us in some way. I knew this because the Bible told me so. I don’t know how many really heard that warning, but as we’ve seen over the years now, Christians in the US have been targeted in many ways and the hatred fueling the attacks is increasing.
The horrors of Christian persecution are very real. Entire villages are laid waste with tens, even hundreds, of believers – both simply professing and those truly sold-out for Christ – raped, tortured, kidnapped, maimed, or murdered. The persecutors don’t make a distinction. If Christ’s Name is attached to you in some manner, you will be targeted in those locales.
Here in our country, we’ve had freedoms threatened and perhaps a few murders, but nothing on the scale that happens elsewhere. In one sense, we haven’t become anesthetized to the brutality, but we also don’t expect it for having a Christian label. That could be about to change.
What the enemy has found, although few admit it, is that indeed Tertullian was correct in saying that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” The way that God has designed us is that for our faith in Him, when we witness persecution, that raises up something in us to desire God more. It can happen in lukewarm Christians as well as in secular atheists. Sadly, it can also cause those who are on the fence to hop onto the other side and oppose or run away from Christianity in the hope they will be spared. They are sadly mistaken. What we also see is that the blood of martyrs increases the bloodlust of those who hate God. In those 10-40 Window nations, the enemy is strong, and his allure is to man’s sinful nature that glories in the shedding of blood.
This is exactly what’s been happening since Charlie Kirk was assassinated. His Turning Point USA organization has been flooded with tens of thousands of new chapter requests as young people, and some older, have had their consciences stricken by the Holy Spirit. They realize that Charlie had something they don’t, and it’s attractive to them.
If anyone is shocked by the opposite reaction, he shouldn’t be. Social media has been awash in demon-possessed people mocking Charlie, his murder, and those affected by it. There are also reports that those who profess this ideology are increasing in numbers because they wish to carry out the hatred in their hearts in a physical manner.
Real Raw News is a rather fringy website, but I find it interesting to peruse at times. It came out with an article titled: ANTIFA Recruitment Surges Following Kirk’s Death and Trump Promising to Label ANTIFA Domestic Terrorists, which doesn’t surprise me a bit. Here are a couple pertinent quotes:
Within hours of Kirk’s death, leaflets celebrating his demise and encouraging young men and women to join the resistance were being passed around at college campuses across the country.
“We’re seeing it all over the place, and ANTIFA is winning the hearts and minds of Leftwingers. Promoting violence, anarchy. Even if Trump labels them terrorists, which they are, they won’t be stopped unless the government freezes every single one of Soros’ bank accounts and confiscates his assets,” our source said.
So, what do we have in the aftermath of the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk? With all the interest coming forth in TPUSA, we may actually be seeing the beginning of the final ingathering of God’s people prior to the Rapture. Of course, it’s a given that many who are influenced in this way won’t become true Christ-followers. The Parable of the Sower shows us this explicitly. However, even with those who are exposed to Christ who don’t believe today, they may be some of the martyrs in the Tribulation.
Likewise, the rise of evil is exactly what the Bible foretells. What we see now is only a taste of that which is coming. Once the Holy Spirit steps aside in the Rapture of Christ’s true church, all bets are off and every evil under the sun will be made manifest. If you’ve seen some of the craziness on social media following what was done to Charlie, that will have been a day at the park compared to what’s in store once the Tribulation begins.
Many in the NAR (New Apostolic Reformation) camp have predicted a great Christian revival throughout the world whereby great numbers of people come to Christ, leading to His return in the 2nd Coming. There are many in secular circles who likewise describe a coming Great Awakening whereby spirituality intensifies and good overcomes evil, mostly in the political realm. Since there’s nothing Biblical about a massive Christian turning to the Lord before the Rapture, actually the secular-spiritual Great Awakening makes more sense. Unfortunately, its manifestation is exactly what’s being shown on social media as many profess their hatred toward Charlie Kirk. Demonic presence is growing. The only real Great Awakening in this regard will be to the realization that vast numbers of people who reject God will be demon possessed and express that in violence and chaos.
Despite this, it may very well be that this awareness of Christ through Charlie’s example could be that which leads to the fullness of the Gentiles. It’s quite possible we’re seeing this reality in a final ingathering of true believers.
Pray that this is so. Pray also that God will have finally had it with those whose hard hearts will never turn to Him. Judgment is at hand and for this dark and decaying world, it can’t come too soon. Just as Jesus instructed us to knock the dust from our feet and move on after encountering those who hate God and refuse to see truth, let us hope that the Lord likewise does this so as to bring down His much-deserved wrath.
Yes, we desire all who will turn to the Lord to do it soon, but after that for those who don’t turn to Him, there is nothing left but God’s punishment upon this unbelieving world.
Surely, that time is here, which means our time as believers is also ended. In other words, we’ll soon be going up, and God’s wrath in Judgment will come down.
https://garyritter.com/biblical-audio-commentary-martyrdom-the-final-ingathering/
Sanhedrin Syllogism Betrays Blindness
I suppose I should initially define the terms used here.
First, a “syllogism” is a noun describing a philosophical methodology founded by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. It means deductive reasoning that reaches a conclusion that follows derived from two or more premises that are known to be true.
Second, we need to understand something about the Sanhedrin to try to make application as to the “blindness” I refer to in the title of this commentary. I assure you that the title encapsulates prophetic truth for this closing time of this Church Age (Age of Grace).
Here is what one authority on the subject says:
The Sanhedrin was the supreme legislative and judicial body of the Jewish people in ancient Israel, functioning as a supreme court and a council of seventy-one members including the High Priest, elders, and scribes. Though rooted in the time of Moses, it reached its peak influence during the Second Temple period in Jerusalem, handling significant legal and religious matters. Its power waned under Roman rule and ultimately ended after the Temple’s destruction in 70 AD, with its functions largely shifting to local synagogues and later Jewish authorities.(Stone Henry – Medium)
The Sanhedrin was reestablished in modern times. Here is what a Google search shows:
The modern Jewish Sanhedrin was reestablished in October 2004, when a group of rabbis inaugurated a provisional body in Israel, consisting of over 70 members and intended to function as the Jewish Supreme Court. This attempt to revive the ancient legislative and judicial council was a significant event in Jewish history.
With all that as frame of reference, we can look to understand what prophetic stage-setting might be in view from a recent news item.
The assassination of Turning Point USA’s founder and leader Charlie Kirk is a matter known by virtually everyone on the planet with enough sophistication of communication to get news. The murder transcends the interest generated by any other news story–at least it did so for a time.
Another story that has dominated news on a worldwide basis for years, particularly since the murderous Hamas attack on Israelis on October 7, 2023, is the ongoing war involving Israel and its enemies. The threat implicit in this conflict involves possible eventual nuclear weaponry usage, thus the cry for “peace and safety” from diplomats and world leaders.
Now the two major news stories seem to be intertwining into presenting a prophetic stage-setting configuration. The recent statements from Israel’s newly formed Sanhedrin, to my way of analysis, seem to form a picture in this regard.
The Sanhedrin’s statement, dated “22nd Elul, 5785” in the Jewish calendar, opens with explicit grief: “The Court grieves over the murder of Charles Kirk, who was an extraordinary and exceptional great supporter of the people of Israel.”
The declaration immediately connects Kirk’s death to messianic prophecy, quoting extensively from Isaiah: “The path to repairing the world, stopping murder and bloodshed, and all other great injustices committed in the world is when all nations recognize the choosing of the Holy One in the people of Israel, as the prophet Isaiah said:
“And many peoples shall go and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and we may walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Isaiah 2:3
The Sanhedrin elevated Kirk to quasi-prophetic status, declaring: “Charles Kirk was among the wise of the nations of the world, who understood reality clearly, who understood the divine election of the people of Israel. On his desk was written:
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
The Sanhedrin presented a direct theological interpretation of the killing: “In the terrible murder of Charlie Kirk, the fact stood out that those who oppose and hate Israel hold to the path of murder and violence. The path to heal the world from murders and other injustices is through the people of Israel, supporting it and learning from it.”
The declaration includes a global religious mandate: “We call on all nations of the world to walk in his path, to understand that the key to repairing the world is the positive connection with the God of Israel and learning the good ways from His people Israel through observing the seven commandments of the sons of Noah, as the Holy One, blessed be He, gave to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai.”
The court offered extensive praise for Kirk’s abilities: “We bless the Holy One, blessed be He, and thank Him for the many talents He gave to Charlie Kirk: debate ability, charisma, in his appearances he was always ready to conduct substantive and eloquent discourse, showed great ability to influence young people, established several organizations, Israel supporters in the United States, and was the beautiful voice defending the people of Israel against the wave of anti-Semitism plaguing the world.” (“Sanhedrin Issues Statement Mourning Charlie Kirk’s Death, Israel365 News)
So, the Aristotelian syllogism, as applied to the Sanhedrin praise for Charlie Kirk, brings up a pertinent proof of truth found in God’s Word. The court declares the martyred Kirk to be among the wise who understood reality clearly, who understood the divine election of the people of Israel. It further argues him to be connected in death to messianic prophecy.
This shows in stark terms, I think, God’s dealing with His chosen people by accentuating the supernaturally inflicted spiritual blindness given Israel. Paul the apostle told of God’s dealing with His rebellious chosen people–about the blindness they would suffer until the Lord’s program for them and the Gentile world was complete. Paul told first about the divine discipline’s implementation:
What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. (Romans 11:7–8)
Paul then tells of Israel’s future destiny, when the blindness will be lifted:
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. (Romans 11:25–27)
Charlie Kirk is praised by the highest Jewish religious entity for his recognizing Israel’s place in God’s great plan for them. But these Jewish religionists are the same in blind, rebellious ignorance as were their predecessors almost two thousand years ago who were part of condemning Israel’s Messiah to death.
Charlie Kirk boldly declared the Lord Jesus Christ at practically every venue at which he appeared—the same Jesus Christ the Sanhedrin rejected and had put to death on Calvary.
By so lauding this martyr as a champion of Israel–a man who held Jesus Christ as the Savior of Israel, and of the entire world of lost humanity, while continuing to reject their True Messiah–whom Charlie proclaimed as the Christ—they manifest their spiritual blindness for all to see. They do so through their own misguided syllogistic rationale.
God’s Word says it will take seven years of Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week) to produce a remnant of Israel’s belief in their True Messiah. The second half of that period will be what John termed “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7). Jesus said this will be the worst time of all human history (Matthew 24: 25).
What we have witnessed in the past few weeks all means that the stage is rapidly being set for the wrap-up of this age and the beginning of that Tribulation era.
It is time for believers to be “looking up” for Jesus’ any-moment call in the Rapture! It is, therefore, time also to witness, in the strongest effort possible, of Christ’s saving power to those who are lost and headed for that Tribulation and for eternity apart from Heaven and the God who loves them so much He sent His perfect, Righteous Son, Jesus the Christ–Israel’s Messiah—to die for them.
God’s End-times Dividing Line
Charlie Kirk’s going to be with the Lord in such dramatic fashion, I believe, is a profound prophetic marker at the end of this quickly fleeting Age of Grace. I believe what happened might indicate that a prophetic division might have been set in motion by the assassination that took place before the eyes of all the world in terms of its aftereffects.
A divine division, it seems to me, was possibly initiated in some prophetically scheduled way with that shot heard and seen around the world. I’ll try to explain.
Evidence of this specific hour in history fits the time Jesus and the prophets described when God will begin bringing the end of one age to an end and the next into being. The end of this age, the Age of Grace, and the start of the next era, the Tribulation, looks to be almost certainly at hand. Jesus could call all believers into His presence at any moment.
Those who are spiritually attuned to all that has been transpiring over recent years, months, weeks, and days sense that Heaven’s judgment is poised ominously above the earth. The evil, the absolute wickedness, cannot be dismissed as simply being things as usual, even though life in general continues seemingly as normal.
It seems to me that the Charlie Kirk murder, witnessed by entire populations of the world through cyberspace platforms, has resulted, through divine arrangement, in dividing those who want God’s order from those who want no part of it.
This divine division, I believe, involves particularly the young adults of this judgment-bound planet. These, I mean, are those of Gen Z. Of course, it involves many more and diverse ages than those, but these are the most vociferous in expressing their emotions following the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
On the one hand, the young continue to cheer in the most hate-filled and vulgar terms imaginable, applauding the bloody death of the man who engaged them in debate about their anti-God beliefs and comportment. On the other hand, there is a sudden, explosive movement by the young in support of all that Charlie Kirk championed—many expressing newfound understanding of and belief in what Charlie taught about His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The mainstream news and entertainment media—which was, for a hesitating moment, somewhat unsure of how to report all attendant to the Kirk death—has now recovered its anti-God balance, and I suspect we can expect these to soon return to supportive incitement of the young haters—spewing lies and angry rhetoric against both the godly things Charlie Kirk tried to get across to the young audiences in his reasoned debates with them and, of course, against anything and everything involving Donald Trump’s efforts to govern.
However, there is a growing sense that the evil intended in this assassination of a man who professed Jesus Christ as the answer to all that’s wrong with America and the world, God will use for good.
And it is the divine dividing line, as part of that good God intends, that I think we could be witnessing as the Rapture of the Church approaches.
The Lord has used such dividing in the past to separate those who want His governance from those who want no part of divine order.
Perhaps the most relevant to today’s rebellion against God’s order is found in the book of Numbers.
Moses was leading Israel and was told by God to follow His order in doing things that would move His program for the nation forward. Korah, a man who was charged with bringing the people in line with God’s order, rather than doing so, did all he could to prevent Moses from following what God commanded.
The Lord told Moses to tell Korah to obey or face God’s anger. Korah refused and complained bitterly that God had led the people out of the land of milk and honey to die horrible deaths in the wilderness.
Following Moses’ declaration of the Lord’s command and Korah’s refusal to follow, God’s divine dividing of the obedient from the rebels was executed forthwith.
And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation. (Numbers 16:31–33)
It is true that God was dealing with His chosen people in the case of this rebellion against His divine order. But Israel is a Heaven-ordained archetype for God’s dealings with all of humankind. Rebellion against Almighty God will always result in a divine cleavage of the good from the bad—the obedient from the disobedient.
There is coming such a dividing, and I believe we are seeing the beginning of divine preparation for that division. It is God’s dividing line I believe we are seeing being drawn.
In a sense, people today are being told, as Joshua told the Israelites millennia ago: “Choose you this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).
We are seeing God’s order in the process of being issued to humanity, I believe, in this turbulent time following the bloody slaying of Charlie Kirk. It is particularly being manifested within the great masses of the youth whose passions are in full-blown turning to God or else turning angrily away from His order in these last days of this Age of Grace. The divine demarcation is becoming clearer by the hour—God’s end-times dividing line.
Whether you are of Gen Z or a different vintage, here is the only Way to be obedient to the God who is on the prophetic verge of having to judge all rebels during the coming Tribulation:
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)
End-times Extremes and the Rapture
Each hour, new and more highly pressurized dangers fill these end times with extremes. The occurrences aren’t necessarily unprecedented. However, they slam into our environment—our life’s surroundings—at a stepped-up pace and with an impact that seems unprecedented.
The end-of-the-age signs of God again beginning to deal with this fallen world in judgment are, I observe, even recognized by those in the news media. Being blind now since age fifty-one or so, I often listen to audio-only forums—radio, podcasts, talk shows, etc.—to get the latest on issues and events. These news purveyors are forced into painting word pictures, rather than relying on the screen graphics to explain to the viewers.
It’s clear that many of these broadcasters and podcasters are frustrated by not being able to explain the upside-down world matters. Their secular worldviews are out of whack, and they struggle, like their audiences, in their search for answers to why the world seems to be going crazy.
One recent incident was the murder of Charlie Kirk, the thirty-one-year-old founder of the Turning Point USA political forum that attempts to reach younger people with a conservative message of hope for the nation and world.
When he was shot and killed while speaking to a college campus audience in Utah, the reaction to his death was dumbfounding to many of the admittedly more conservative media I listen to. These broadcasters and podcasters reported—with astonishment, in some cases—that TikTok was full of myriad young people praising the assassination in the most vulgar terms imaginable.
Even though those reporting this evil know the leftist ideology is full of such hate, they were stunned and in disbelief that hatred would manifest in such a blatant display.
These seemingly insane people were wildly elated at their young peers’ assassination for no other reason than that he spoke to them and debated with them on geopolitical issues and disagreed with their ideology. Most of the program hosts I heard couldn’t fathom that, in America, the attitude of an entire generation could be so fanatically disposed as to cheer the violent death that took a young father from his wife and two small children.
A few media pundits implied that it was a lack of religious training, with prayers and Bible reading taken out of public-school classrooms, that might have had something of an influence on these raving haters. And I was surprised that very few conservative talk-show hosts expressed that they believed demon activity to be involved. Mark Levin, to my surprise, talked about Charlie Kirk’s strong Christian witness. Levin, a Jew, gave Charlie’s message in a most reverential tone. It was the gospel of Jesus Christ in every detail.
However, the news forum hosts failed, in most cases, to indicate that they understand that their own peers—the mainstream news types—were in large part responsible for the outrageous, bloodthirsty rants on TikTok and other leftist forums.
To make that charge against their colleagues would, it might be thought, make them themselves (the conservative pundits) complicit—because they had not adamantly opposed the so-called liberal press in its always covering up for leftist hatred, even trying always to turn their audiences’ attention to the responsibility for the evil to be the fault of one Donald John Trump and his supporters.
This devil-controlled mainstream media—news and entertainment—have indeed “seduced” the young of an entire generation into becoming as wicked as the father of lies, who foments such evil as murdering anyone who disagrees with you.
God’s Holy Word says, through prophecy, exactly the cause and effect of the ultimate influencer –Satan’s master plan to bring all into his hellish sphere.
The Apostle Paul prophesied:
But evil men and seducers will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:13)
The media agglomerate in general encourages violence by refusing to point to those who are really responsible for the often-deadly actions perpetrated by violent protesters. They thereby are seducers—seducing those who fall for their lies. For example, I believe most will remember that, with an area of Los Angeles burning in the background and chaos all around that city due to an enraged leftist horde, a mainstream network reporter stood in front of the camera telling us that what she was covering was a “mostly peaceful” protest.
A number of people died in that and similar riots around the nation during that timeframe, and it was all inspired by the media slanting coverage against anyone and anything that supported conservative legislative and executive actions. Mainstream media, through their heavily biased reporting, caused the leftist ideologues–especially many among the college-age youth—to go insane with rage. Added to this was the constant race-baiting that enflamed the core populace of many large American cities.
The insane leftist (communistic) demand in the face of this lawlessness was—and continues to be—to defund the police. And the crimes, especially violent crimes, in the large cities, run by leftists, continues to explode…so much so that the president took it in his own administration’s hand to clean up Washington, DC, the one city in the US under the ultimate authority of the federal government. The results have been spectacular. The numbers of murders that were ubiquitous throughout certain areas of DC were suddenly eliminated almost completely—within only a matter of weeks.
Still, the insane calls to defund policing authorities within the large cities are demanded by those leftist mayors and city councils. Some even threaten to go to war with any federal forces that might be used to quell the lawlessness and bring back sanity for the people who must live within the violence their streets have attracted and nurtured.
Just as the end-times extremes within the political and cultural milieu are plainly made manifest for all who observe these fleeting days of this Church Age through the prophetic lens of God’s prophetic Word, so, too, is the manifestation of the geophysical.
Those within the leftist ideology examined above have been deluded by the seducing forces described by Paul. Those so seduced believe in the global warming/climate-change hoax. Thus, even though scientific studies have concluded time after time—and through daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and decades-long studies and observation—that there has been no global warming other than normal cycles found throughout earth’s history.
Yet the scientists and weather experts are seemingly stumped that suddenly there are weather phenomena, as well as unusual earth convulsions, throughout the planet. They attempt to explain and allay concerns, even fears, that something inexplicable is happening to the physical environment.
There are explanations such as the sun adjusting as it has apparently done for millions of years, or that the Earth’s molten iron core gyroscope is transitioning through yet another phase, and they offer many other suppositions beyond my understanding.
I do understand that God’s Word explains how the geophysical and astrophysical environmental endangerment will manifest at the time Christ’s return approaches. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ said the following to His disciples—and to all of us who are now alive and are seeing these end-times environmental manifestations:
Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:10–11)
Jesus said further that environmental turmoil, both humanistically and geophysically speaking, would increase with troubling intensity as the time for His coming again nears:
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. (Luke 21:25–26)
Just a quick glance at weather-related news on any given day proves the ratcheting-up of strange, endangering atmospheric phenomena in many areas of the world. I’ve chosen only two such reports because of limited space in this rather lengthy commentary. I could have included a great many such reports from around the planet.
Strong Winds, Baseball-Sized Hail Pound Central Kansas
Severe thunderstorms slammed Wichita and other parts of Central Kansas with damaging hail and wind gusts Wednesday evening. See how hail as big as golf balls and baseballs rained down during the wild weather, making a mess of roads, damaging vehicles and knocking out power to thousands of customers.Severe floods collapse buildings, kill at least 6 people in Bali, Indonesia
At least six people were killed after torrential rains triggered severe flooding across Bali, Indonesia, between September 9 and 10, 2025. The floods inundated large parts of Denpasar, caused the collapse of multiple buildings, and left several people missing, while hundreds were evacuated to safer areas.(Rapture Ready News, September 11, 2025)
Many similar reports flood my newsfeeds daily. Strange weather, earthquakes, and other anomalies indicate, I believe, the end-times extremes Jesus predicted for the immediate days leading to His Second Advent.
All of this can be summed up in the words a friend said recently to me. It is a statement I seem to be thinking, if not audibly stating, to myself rather regularly. I’m sure you have thought and perhaps stated it as well: “I’ve never seen it like this before,” or, “It’s crazy, all the things going on.”
These are exactly the time of extremes Jesus, I believe, was thinking about when He instructed:
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)
Terry James Prophecy Line 