Prophecy Line
Mystery Un-muddied
Satan, the great deluder–the infernal illusionist–has muddled one of God’s most wonderful promises. As a matter of fact, it is the second most wonderful promise in God’s Word. Both promises, numbers one and two, are inextricably linked.
Paul the apostle reveals that second promise as follows: “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52).
Paul further elucidates this tremendous promise of God to those who belong to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ: “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” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).
Again, Satan–Lucifer, the fallen one–has used every nefarious tool in his bag of tricks to muddle this great promise from the Almighty. He has particularly done so during the last several centuries.
Muddling this promise fits into the devil’s scheme to strike at the very heart of God’s redemptive plan for mankind. That plan–the salvation of the souls of lost human beings–is the first of the two great promises from the heart of God. This first is linked to the second by the one and only way to receive redemption, explained by none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is that link. The Lord answered His disciple, Thomas: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14: 6).
Man’s understanding of how to “cometh to the father” is the matter Satan desires to muddy. He has done a dangerously good job of doing so.
Even the current pope of the Roman Catholic Church preaches that there are many ways to Heaven. This is in direct violation of what the Lord Jesus Christ said. He is the perfect, sinless, Lamb who died, was buried, and resurrected for the redemption of mankind and should know. Yet the religionists of the world promote their own particular ways to attain salvation.
Again, Pope Francis has said that everyone–even atheists–will one day be redeemed. Satan has indeed managed to darken humanity’s pathway to redemption.
So, it is no wonder that there is such controversy–so much misunderstanding and deliberate confounding–about this second most important promise so closely linked to salvation itself. Sadly, in my view, even Christian theological seminaries join in the corruption of truth regarding this great “mystery” Paul unveiled in that 1 Corinthians 15 account of the Rapture of the Church. These institutions for the most part hold that Jesus’ own words about this great promise to God’s people–the Church–have nothing to do with the Rapture.
Paul called this event a “mystery” that he was revealing. He was, he said, showing the facts surrounding that promise to all believers of this Church Age (Age of Grace). The seminaries for the most part say that this was the first unveiling of the Rapture–that Jesus or the prophets never previously revealed this promise of snatching believers from Planet Earth, both living and dead.
I beg to differ–dogmatically.
Paul the great apostle was revealing a mystery that was, until that point, wrapped up in the words from the lips of the Creator of all things–Jesus, Himself. The Lord told His disciples about His coming death and going to the Father. But, they understood none of it. It was a complete mystery to them. Paul unveils the truth of what Jesus was promising. That is the “mystery” the apostle was showing all believers who were to come afterward.
Here is the mystery the Lord Jesus pronounced that Paul was later to reveal: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).
Jesus plainly laid out His next intervention into the affairs of mankind, as we have seen a number of times by examining the “days of Noah, days of Lot” prophecies of Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17:26-30. It should be noted that most seminaries hold that this has nothing to do with Christ’s coming in the Rapture, just as they that deny John 14:1-3 has anything to do with the Rapture.
These teach that, in both instances, the Scriptures involved allude to Christ’s Second Advent (Revelation 19: 1), not the Rapture. Again, I adamantly disagree.
Jesus says in John 14:1-3 that He “receives” believers to Himself and goes with them directly to the Father’s House, where He, Himself, has prepared places for them. In the Second Advent, He comes all the way to Planet Earth, bringing the saints with Him from Glory.
In the “days of Noah, days of Lot prophecy,” He says that business on earth will be going along in a rather brisk fashion–indicating, perhaps, even a “boom.” At the Second Advent, when He comes back with the saints from Heaven, as many as three-fourths of humanity will have died due to the great wrath and judgment that will come upon the planet during the Tribulation, the last seven years preceding Christ’s Second Coming. That certainly will not be a time of “business as usual.”
We are in a time of economic “boom” at this very moment in America–although the evil in the world is raging and growing worse. That “mystery” taught by Paul the apostle, unveiling the words Jesus issued in prophecy as recorded in John 14:1-3, I believe, is “even at the door” (Matthew 24:33).
Sodom Similarities
Mid-term elections 2018 are over. Civility is the talk of the pundits. Both sides of the great divide are calling for America to find common ground. Only one side, however, is serious about the proposal, in my view.
Political dynamics make it impossible to bring the incivility into a non-polarized, American kumbaya. One side has become so sin-sickened that rationality no longer applies to the discourse – nor can it. The reprobate mindset foretold by the Apostle Paul is nearing the saturation point in American culture.
The similarities to ancient Sodom came into focus, I think, following this election. The radical elements of the opposition to the Trump Administration – to the president personally – didn’t settle down with winning control of the House of Representatives. They doubled down. The mob became an even more determined force. They started acting much like the description of the mob in Genesis chapter 19.
The mob enragement reached new levels of the already incendiary assault on domestic tranquility. The attackers moved from the more public environs where protests have always been confined – to the quiet, suburban, private family setting.
I wondered just how the wife and children of Fox program host Tucker Carlson must have been traumatized when the door to their home was being pounded on by the mob. Was it similar to the way Mr. and Mrs. Lot might have felt on that night in ancient times when the insanely lustful, enraged mob banged on their door, demanding that they give up the strangers who had entered the home?
The society and culture have been building toward this moment for some time – since the 2016 election in particular.
We have observed news of senators, of White House workers and many others being assaulted verbally in restaurants and in public places. We have seen one political party’s congressional members attacked with semi-automatic gunfire while readying to have a baseball game. Now the hordes, driven to unhinged frenzy by some unseen force are, like the depraved mob that assaulted Lot’s home in Sodom, trying to break into the private residence, threatening the safety of his wife and kids.
Jesus foretold it would be this way, did He not? He said it will be like in the days of Noah and the days of Lot when He next breaks into this sin-sickened world of Sodom-like rebellion.
Paul wrote that evil men will grow worse and worse. Is there any doubt we are witness to these prophecies beginning to come to pass in these volatile times?
It is somewhat heartening that some within the leftist ideology have called the Sodomite-like attempt to crash the door of Tucker Carlson’s home a “monstrous thing.”
Comedian Steven Colbert said something to the effect that those in opposition to Trump and his Make America Great Again agenda should not “feed” the monsters who try to break into private homes. He said that to feed monsters just makes them bigger and more violent.
Those are wise sentiments. Let us hope his words are sincere and not proffered merely to make political hay as America proceeds toward the 2020 presidential election.
As Robert Bork wrote, society and culture seem to be slouching toward Gomorrah. We are indeed nearing the time like it was in the days of Lot.
Jesus promised that He will intervene catastrophically into the world of incorrigible rebelliousness at just such a time. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
On Binding Satan
Upon clicking through the religious channels at any given hour of the day –and there are many on my Direct TV set up– there are certain catchphrases I hear consistently.
The most prominent, I’ve found, is the term “plant a seed.” Another is “seed faith brings harvest.” The phraseology is issued forth by the prosperity propagandists, as I term them. These invariably twist and convolute scriptural truth in pursuit of their gullible followers’ contributions.
While there is usually a “seed” of factuality in their pontification that claims planting financial seeds will bring increase, the whoppers I’ve heard some of these “preachers” tell are far beyond anything promised in God’s Word.
For example, I heard not long ago one man with whom most would be familiar because of his constant presence on the fund-raisers say that he once sowed $100,000 into a ministry. This greatly pained him at the time because of his amazement that the Lord would “tell” him to do such a thing.
He complied, despite his pain, and the result was a return of $100 million within a month or so. That’s right. The man said he received $100 million for his $100,000 seed.
That was the only reference I’ve heard to this phenomenal “harvest,” so I presume this sort of return isn’t all that unusual in the prosperity circles…or else such claims are just part of the pitch. Looks like, though, that this amazing sort of miracle return on investment should have made the financial news or something.
Another phrase the prosperity preachers are prone to issue on a rather regular basis is that, in the name of Jesus, they “bind Satan.”
Now, this is even more amazing than the $100,000 being turned into $100 million within a month. This implies not a promise based upon biblical return for faith in planting a financial seed, but claims for any human being who is a Christian direct, supernatural power to completely paralyze almost certainly the most powerful being God ever created.
There have been books sold by the hundreds of thousands telling of how this “binding” can be done. Most all of the prosperity ministries hold this teaching close to their statements of faith. This is often a declaration I’ve heard made as a reward for one ministry or the other receiving a large “seed faith” contribution. The on-air person will declare that he or she binds Satan in Jesus’ name for the benefit of the contributor.
Only–I can find no place in Scripture where Christians can “bind Satan.” The old serpent certainly doesn’t seem to be bound these days–does he?
The Bible tells us: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5: 8).
There is no chain on our adversary, according to God’s Word. There is restraint, to be sure, upon the old devil’s activity, but that comes from one source and one source only. The Bible reports the following incident, which gives clue to this restraint on our great enemy.
“Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee” (Jude 1: 9).
There will come a time when a chain will be used to bind Satan. We learn of this future binding in the following account which is prophecy yet future:
“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season” (Revelation 20:1-3).
So, that we can “bind Satan” is a false teaching. But, we are confronted constantly by the serpent and his minions. Here is the Scripture that tells about this constant confrontation. How then, can we deal with this powerful enemy in the biblically-prescribed way? God’s Word has the answer, of course.
First, we are told how to deal directly with that roaring lion–the devil.
“Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1 Peter 5: 9).
We are to do certain things to prepare for this “resistance” against that old serpent, the devil. Here are our instructions:
“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:11-17).
We as God’s children cannot and must not claim to “bind Satan.” This is the most powerful instruction for the battle in which we find ourselves the nearer we get to Christ’s call to His Church.
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4: 7).
Mad as Hell
It was somewhat shocking, what happened while “watching” the Lou Dobbs program on Fox Business Network a week or so ago. (Technically, being blind, I was “listening” rather than “watching.”) I heard Lou’s guest say the words “I am as mad as Hell!”.
Now, even Mr. Dobb’s wife, he has confided on the program, has gotten onto him for using during the broadcast what we might consider the milder cuss words in today’s vernacular. But, it wasn’t the show’s host who used the word this time.
Lou’s guest was Dr. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of the megachurch, First Baptist of Dallas, who uttered the word. That it was Dr. Jeffress who said it was slightly jolting.
As I recall, the topic revolved around the upcoming midterm elections. Specifically, it was about the vitriol the mainstream news conglomerate continues to spew against President Donald J. Trump. The host and Dr. Jeffress agreed that every effort was being made by the leftist cabal, consisting of the mainstream news and entertainment media and the Democrat Party, to demonize the president and all who adhere to his Make America Great Again agenda.
The pastor said something along the lines of, “The voters are angry. In this election, they might say, through their collective vote, something like was uttered in the old movie, Network. Like when the guy said, ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.’”
I’m not here casting a condemning glance at Pastor Jeffress. I have said worse–like the other morning when I knocked the “I Love New York” coffee mug given me by my much beloved, honorary, granddaughter from my desk and broke the handle. So, I certainly have no room to cast aspersions.
The quotation Dr. Jeffress used to express the need for voters to fight the political evil going on, ironically, was made by the character who was a network news anchor, Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch. He had become somewhat senile and was being removed as anchor. The character, during his broadcast, urged all to take action. He shouted, “I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell, ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change!”
There is a lot wrapped up in that term, ”mad as Hell.” To be in that state of mind is, I am certain, beyond any mindset one can conjure.
To be that angry implies that the mindset has been reached like that of those who are in that eternal, infernal place. To anyone who has read Inferno by Dante Alighieri, the briefest glimpse of the madness might be achieved. But, being of human authorship, the descriptions of that fictional Hell can provide fodder for but the slightest imagining of what must be the reality.
The ultimate madness that is the final result of turning away from the God of Heaven comes to fruition in that place called Hell. But the mindset that determines to turn one’s back on the Almighty begins at birth. We are born sinful creatures–lost from our very conception because of original sin. When we mature to the point that we can know we must accept or reject God’s offer of redeeming grace, and when we choose the latter, the madness–spiritual and eventually mental–begins to fester. It incubates growing sinfulness–rebellion against Heaven and all that is righteous. Turning one’s back to the Lord of Heaven moves one down the road of madness as framed by the Apostle Paul.
We have looked at the scriptural condemnation before. Here it is again to reinforce with biblical description where I’m convinced this generation of the anti-God rebels is positioned:
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. (Romans 1:28-31)
We have witnessed these anti-God characteristics grow and play out within American society and culture in recent decades. The madness has increased and the reprobate mindset Paul alludes to truly dominates the national political landscape at this very moment. For whatever time is left in this dispensation of grace, we must wrestle–God’s way–against the powers and principalities, against the wickedness in high places, as given in Ephesians 6:12.
The specific, God-ordained way to do so as we face this time of determining which way the United States will choose is to earnestly pray according to 2 Chronicles 7: 14–then to vote against the madness assaulting America.
Control Means Everything
Road rage has always been something that has confounded me. My first exposure to the phenomenon came in a humorous fashion. It was presented on The Wonderful World of Disney in animation. One of Mickey Mouse’s close pals–the floppy-eared, buck-toothed Goofy–was the featured character.
The narrator talked about the Goofy character, while the human-like canine went about preparing for work one morning. The narrator told the viewer that this was the gentlest of creatures–a person who wouldn’t harm a fly.
Goofy was polite to his wife and children; he peacefully read his newspaper at the breakfast table while sipping his coffee at a leisurely pace.
Goofy got up from the table, wiped his mug with a napkin, folded the newspaper, and put it beneath his arm. He grasped his briefcase, put his fedora on his head, kissed Mrs. Goofy goodbye, hugged the little Goofies, and opened the door to his garage.
All the while the narrator was telling the viewer just how soft-hearted and, indeed, how wonderful a husband, father, and citizen was our about-to-be work-commuter. Mr. Goofy opened the driver-side door to his sedan, sat in the seat–all the while a tranquil, most pleasant half-smile on his mug.
Then it happened! The moment he grasped the steering wheel, a profound transformation took place. His mug contorted into a vicious, snarling countenance. His smile became a fang-bearing scowl of evil. His eyes widened and became red with bulging blood-veins popping to the surface, his black eyes shifting angrily while drool seeped from the sides of the jowls and he snorted flames and smoke from his big snout.
Goofy became the supreme picture of rage. The narrator described the transformation and gave the viewer the complete account of Goofy the maniac’s trip into the city of his workplace.
Soon after that program aired, I became a regular driver, having reached the age of getting a driver’s license. However, I can’t recall at the time having experienced road rage myself, or even having seen it take place in the real world. But, the creators of that Disney program obviously had experienced the phenomenon.
A little later in life I certainly witnessed the fact that road rage exists. The phenomenon seems to be less and less a phenomenon–rather, has turned into a “new normal” for driver comportment.
One such incident we might recall is when a former NFL football player was shot to death while he and a female passenger were on a city street. The former player apparently bumped a car in front of him for blocking him from proceeding. He then steered the car around the car he had bumped.
The driver of the car that was bumped sped after the offending vehicle. When he caught up with the former player’s car, the offended driver fired several shots into the other car, resulting in the former player being fatally wounded.
Such reports are not at all uncommon today. It’s as if the human mind has lost all control of reasoning ability while behind the wheel. I believe the phenomenon–now the new normal–might be part of the apostle Paul’s perilous timesof 2 Timothy chapter 3. There seems little doubt that today men (and women) drivers are increasingly “fierce” and “incontinent,”as the KJV puts it. That people are without ability to govern their tempers is a bottom-line characterization of the human condition that could legitimately be concluded. Angers flare out of control over the slightest perceived personal disrespect. Too often, such incidents end with bloodshed.
All of the above is but representation in microcosm of the larger manifestation of the ferocity and incontinence (lack of control) that is raging across the world at present.
On a much more profound scale of uncontrolled fury, a corpulent little tyrant In North Korea, even while being pressured by President Trump to change his ways, starves his people, while pouring money into military and nuclear technology with which to threaten the world. The mullahs of Islam incite hatred, encouraging all-out jihad against Israel and all who won’t bow the knee to Allah. In American inner cities, organizations devoted to anarchy and mayhem for the sake of acquiring and/or maintaining power over their ethnic masses go about tearing down the societal fiber of America’s culture. The political left have lost their collective mind as anyone who has been observing the madness can attest. Total chaos appears to be but a major crisis away–perhaps in the very near future.
Economic conditions on a national and global scale are greatly improved since President Trump took the reins of control in the U.S. However, the global elitists who want to bring all peoples back to Babel and a one-world order of absolute rule search for avenues to reach their Utopian goals. The lengths to which they are willing to go to get their way is insane.
This world, with its myriad building troubles, should have by now imploded from untenable, economic pressures or else exploded in nuclear fire because of road rage-like insanity in planetary conflict.
But, planet earth wags on. The uncontrollable is for some reason still under control.
God raises up kings and nations, and He brings them down. Nothing within all of creation is ever beyond His controlling hand. The presidential election of 2016 is absolute proof.
Whether considering worries about fear of North Korea and its nukes, Iran and its nuclear program and barbarous terrorism, or the fearful diagnosis of a devastating illness or loss of those we love on a personal basis, all is under control at all times. There is no situation, no matter how profound or how personal, that the Lord of Heaven doesn’t control.
The key to being at peace within the safety and assurance of God’s control of all circumstance is to be within the heavenly Father’s family.
This relationship is achieved, of course, only through acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior (Romans 10: 9-10). The Lord appeals to all of mankind to consider the matter of His absolute control and authority over all that exists.
“Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.” (Isaiah 40:21-26)
Prophetic Fine Tuning
Theological academicians–primarily seminarians–sometimes accuse those who look at issues and events of the hour in light of Bible prophecy of engaging in newspaper exegesis. By this, I presume they mean that such practice is improper because one cannot discern Bible prophecy unfolding based upon such examination.
While it is prudent to proceed with caution in such examination, it is commanded by the greatest of all prophets to understand the prophetic times. Jesus’ words to those who failed to discern the prophetic times are as follows:
He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? (Matthew 16:2-3)
I would much prefer being accused by those with the theological doctorates of engaging in newspaper exegesis than to stand one day before my Lord and know that I failed to understand these times. And, these are indeed prophetic times!
Looking at the wide view of the times in which we live under the microscope of God’s prophetic Word, it is a staggering vista to be sure.
- Evil men and seducers are becoming worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. I just did a presentation on this massive assault on Truth during the Prophecy Watchers conference in Norman, Oklahoma. Paul’s warning about evil men and seducers growing worse and worse can be seen dramatically affecting religion, society and culture, politics and government and the news and entertainment media.
- Continuing to look at the times in a wide view of prophetic stage-setting for the wind-up of the age, the Middle East is most revealing.
- The Gog-Magog coalition, as we have examined many times, is forming to Israel’s north. This is precisely as the prophet Ezekiel foretold.
- Russia–ancient Rosh–is at the center of this forming agglomeration of hostile forces. Iran–ancient Persia–has of late made profound linkages to Rosh, out of which will come the Gog–indwelt leader who will have an evil thought. That thought, of course, will be to invade to the south–over what God calls “the mountains of Israel.”
- Turkey–ancient Togarmah—is in the process of leaving NATO and is drawing closer to Russia and Iran (more about this a bit later).
- Israel continues to be assaulted at its borders on a daily basis. The UN takes the side of Israel’s Islamist enemies in most every issue addressed within that corrupt, international body.
The Jewish state is under constant pressure to give up its already precious little land to the so-called Palestinians. Even the United States is complicit in trying to force a peace that includes a two-state solution.
Israel, we can see in our broad view of prophetic development, is rapidly becoming the cup of trembling and burdensome stone of Zechariah 12:1-3.
Many, many other prophetic developments are front and center each and every hour of every news cycle. So, through a broad, sweeping examination of developments in considering today’s issues and events, discernment should be forthcoming. Any Christian, each of whom is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, should be able to understand these times so near the dénouement of the Church Age (Age of Grace).
Now, back to the matter of Turkey–ancient Togarmah, as presented by Ezekiel the prophet in Ezekiel, chapter 38. As I wrote above, Turkey is in the process of leaving NATO, the Western alliance that has long been a policing force against the bad actors, particularly the aggressive sorts among those of the Eastern hemisphere.
This is where the microscope of Bible prophecy can be used to focus more sharply, looking closely at the issues and events of our time. I like to call it prophetic fine-tuning.
We are all familiar by now with the assassinated journalist who was somewhat involved with the Muslim Brotherhood. He worked for the Washington Post and was, it is alleged by most pundits, murdered by forces from Saudi, Arabia. The murder occurred within the Saudi consulate in Turkey. The ramifications have been profound.
The bottom line of the matter, for my purposes here, is to express my contention that the mainstream news media and the Democrat Party–and much of the Washington, D.C. establishment–have tried to use the murder to destroy President Trump’s relationship with the Saud royal family. That relationship is one that was negotiated because the Saudis need American military equipment and support to fend off a growing threat from Iran.
Difference in the Islamic sects, one Sunni and the other Shiite, is at the heart of the hatred between Saudi and Iran. It is a schism that has driven the royal family to ally with the west in many ways. Now that alliance is threatened because of the journalist’s murder. Trump is expected to severely sanction the Saudis, thus threatening to destroy the relationship. Many billions of dollars in sales to Saudi and more than 6,000 jobs are at stake.
In fine-tuning the prophetic picture because of being able to discern the times, I’m confident in predicting that, ultimately, the relationship between the Saudis and the Western alliance won’t be destroyed.
Why? Because of Ezekiel the prophet’s foretelling:
Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? (Ezekiel 38:13)
Many scholars hold that Sheba and Dedan here are in reference to the Arab areas that today constitute the Saudi Kingdom. If this is the case, the Saudis will be aligned with the Western alliance–which those scholars believe are referenced in the rest of Ezekiel 38: 13–at the time of the Gog-Magog assault.
This is prophetic fine tuning. Such examination of issues and events through the prism of Bible prophecy can help the spiritually attuned Christian discern the times–as the Lord obviously expects of those who are His.
Supernatural Storm Shelter
Springtime in the Arkansas-Louisiana-Oklahoma-Texas region evokes somewhat precautionary thought of nature’s most singularly powerful storms. By that, I mean storms that can do the most complete devastation within the areas across which they sweep.
These, of course, are the huge tornadoes almost certain to occur in one or more of the aforementioned states from April through June. Oklahoma, particularly, is prone to produce the most powerful of the twisters. We remember a couple of 300-miles-per-hour tornadoes within the last several decades in that state. One of them was considered by the weather experts to have contained the strongest wind ever recorded on planet earth. I believe that 318 mph was the figure.
My friends just outside Oklahoma City lost everything except their lives in one such monster storm a few years ago. Some of the readers of my commentaries very generously contributed to a fund to help those folks–the family of a great personal friend of mine who is part of a team that heads a major prophetic ministry in Oklahoma City.
When I was last in that city, someone with me pointed out a company that manufactures and sells tornado shelters that was very near the TV studio where we taped some programs. It was a stark reminder of the fact that we were right in “tornado central.” Without a “fraidy hole” (as we in the south call them) to go down into, one is on his or her own. People are subject to the vicissitudes of the winds that come sweeping down the plains in springtime, as the musical, Oklahoma would have it.
As we point out constantly and consistently in these commentaries, there is a storm brewing. It is a supernatural storm, and it is a certainty. It will strike. It can be clearly seen gathering on the prophetic horizon.
Whether considering matters involving geopolitics, socioeconomics, religion, or any other aspect of the human condition, the forecast looks bleak indeed. No shelter of the human-manufactured sort can protect against the boiling, chaotic tempest that the Lord Himself predicts for times just ahead.
Daniel the prophet forecast the storm that approaches:
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27)
Jesus zoomed in more specifically to forewarn about the power and destructiveness of the coming supernatural storm:
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21)
The entire book of Revelation, of course, is a detailed, blow-by-blow description of that coming Tribulation tempest. John outlines twenty-one specific destructive aspects of the storm in a series of seven scrolls, seven trumpets, and seven bowls of judgment.
Again, there is no human manufacturer that could produce a safe place against what is certainly scheduled to be the worst time of destruction the planet has ever known (and that’s saying a lot, considering all life was destroyed by water in the Flood of Noah’s day). But, thankfully, there is a superhuman shelter that is readily available to each and every person alive today.
In thinking on that shelter, my own ruminations caused me to wonder more deeply about God’s promises.
Jesus prophesied that the time He next intervenes into the affairs of mankind–revealed by His catastrophic interaction–the world will be exactly like it was in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot. (We read of that prediction in Matthew 24: 36-42, for example.)
Like in those two instances, God’s children–those who are righteous in His holy eyes–who are alive at the time of the Rapture will be taken out of harm’s way. The terrible storm of His judgment will then fall. All believers will go into that supernatural storm shelter prepared for them in Heaven, while there is great chaos and carnage on the planet that is ripe for God’s wrath.
Many new believers who were left behind when the Rapture happened will come out of that Tribulation storm, some as martyrs and others as flesh-and-blood survivors to repopulate the millennial earth during the reign of Christ upon His Second Advent.
And, there is a second supernatural storm shelter that will be provided during the Tribulation tempest itself. I believe the following prophecy and promise applies to both the saints who will be raptured and to another group of believers –the believing remnant of Jews who will find shelter through God’s divine direction. This protection will likely include Tribulation-era Gentile believers to some extent, too.
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be over past. For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. (Isaiah 26:20-21)
Jesus, Himself, points the way to the supernatural storm shelter. It is the ONLY way to assure that we can be safe while the coming Tribulation tornado ravages a judgment-deserving world.
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)
Coming Out!
“Coming out of the closet” is an expression most understand in terms of the American lexicon. We have watched them “come out” over the last few decades. We have been a part of forewarning God’s words of condemnation for the practices of homosexuality–such as the following:
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. (Romans 1:26-27)
The forewarning God gave the Apostle Paul to pronounce has been ridiculed as have few other of His prescriptions for living while on the planet He created for humankind. As a matter of fact, governments–such as that of Canada–have gone a long way toward making offering such scriptural condemnation crime worthy of punishable by imprisonment.
American Christian ministries are affected by those foreign governments whose laws are aimed at punishing those who “discriminate” against “gays.”
For example, one TV ministry recently told a guest minister you would recognize that he was not to say anything about homosexuality. If he did so, the TV hosts told him their ministry would be heavily fined–$50,000. And, the ministry possibly would be forbidden to air programs in Canada in the future.
So, the gay community has not only come out of the proverbial closet, but now has major governments championing them as they proceed to emerge.
Actually, the nucleus of this article isn’t meant to dwell upon the coming out of the so-called gay community. That is very old news in this swiftly moving era as we near the end of this Age of Grace, as I am convinced with every ounce of discernment within me this generation is approaching.
The opening of that barrier to total immorality–the homosexual closet door-–however, I believe, is precursor to–indication of–the opening of a much more massive door. I think the door has been opened to the demonic nether region–to the dark dimension from which end-times evil is beginning to emerge.
In every direction we look these days as prophetic observers (watchmen on the wall), there is inexplicable activity by people that flies in the face of common sensibility. I refer to the rage in the streets that not only has not abated, but continues to increase as part of America’s former political process. I say former because the process is no longer recognizable within what was previously the civility norms of that process.
The reprobate mindset for a growing number of people has, I believe, resulted from the spiritual infection gushing from that open door. Paul’s forewarning of what happens when people turn their backs on God becomes more readily apparent by the hour:
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity. (Rom. 1:28-29)
Many examples could be given to express what constitutes the end-times reprobate mindset. I’ll give just one of recent vintage you might remember.
Reacting to the Kavanaugh confirmation, a Georgetown professor said white Republican senators deserve to die “miserable deaths” while “feminists laugh as they take their last gasps.
Carol Christine Fair, an associate professor in the Security Studies Program, added that once the white Republican Senators die miserable deaths, their corpses should be castrated and fed to pigs. (WND, “Prof: White GOP senators deserve ‘miserable deaths,’” Oct. 2, 2018)
But the invasion from that netherworld seems to have transcended merely the bringing about of the reprobate mindset prophesied by Paul–the mindset of those like the professor who is charged with inculcating the minds of America’s youth. The insanity takes on even more pronounced end-times madness.
In what is becoming a regular political expression of the left-wing, an occult bookstore in Brooklyn is organizing a gathering to hex newly appointed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The Facebook announcement read:
“Please join us for a public hex on Brett Kavanaugh, upon all rapists and the patriarchy at large which emboldens, rewards and protects them. We are embracing witchcraft’s true roots as the magik (sic) of the poor, the downtrodden and disenfranchised and its history as often the only weapon, the only means of exacting justice available to those of us who have been wronged by men just like him. (“Brooklyn Witches to Hex Brett Kavanaugh,” Breaking Israel News, by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Oct.15, 2018)
Each hour that passes brings such reports and even stranger indications that the demonic world is coming out of that netherworld closet.
And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. (Isaiah 8:19-20)
End Times Petri Dish
Sin infection spawned from man’s disobedience has metastasized globally at this late point of the final dispensation leading to Christ’s return. It is not far-fetched to think of things that are happening in such biological terms, or to express them as such, while two major players in Bible prophecy bring the terminal situation into focus.
The European Union (EU), thought by many observers of prophecy in Scripture to be the global nucleus out of which will come a revived form of the Roman Empire in accordance with Daniel 9:26-27, continues front and center in relevant news. The most central national entity of eschatology for the wind-up of human history, Israel, is, of course, always the key player in today’s news of prophetic portent, in my estimation. Of all developments in the milieu of end-times things going on, it is as if some master pharmacologist has upon his lab table a petri dish within which broils a deadly mixture prophesied to explode in a breakout of human history’s deadliest era.
Effervescing within that dish are the virulent ingredients that threaten to take peace from the earth in the form of war unlike there has ever been on planet earth. That war will not be brought about by the players most often believed to be the instigators of man’s final war. Quite the opposite.
Armageddon will be brought about by the One the false religionists of the world of Christendom proclaim could never judge sin harshly. He is love, and no loving God could react with such hateful, punitive action, these purveyors of prevarication promise. Here, again, is what God’s Word says about the very end-times things that are taking place within that petri dish I use as analogous symbolism.
“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)
That, my friends, is Armageddon that the Lord is prophesying through Joel. The nations of the world are going to pay a terrible price for their rebellion against Him and for the treatment of His chosen people, the Jews–Israel.
The intention to divide God’s land–land He gave to Israel forever–is at the heart of the prophesied simmering brew. The world–including much of Christendom, is turning against Israel in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) piling-on. This, of course, involves economically punishing Israel because they refuse to give up land in order to give the Palestinians a nation within current Israeli borders–land won by Israel in several wars that already belonged to them by divine promise in God’s holy eyes.
The EU, out of which the one who will be Antichrist will emerge, many prophetic observers believe, has consistently spoken out of both sides of its official mouth. Its spokesmen seem to obliquely defend Israel, while at the same time holding the Jewish state responsible for the hold up to a peaceful solution to the Israel-Palestinian so-called problem. A news item within recent years makes the point.
Without the Israeli-Palestinian conflict there would be no Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, the European Union’s envoy to Israel said Monday, arguing that the best way to fight BDS is to take steps to advance a two-state solution…
“The most effective antidote against the BDS movement is to solve the Palestinian issue. If there were no Palestinian issue, there would be no BDS movement,” [EU] Ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen said at a conference in Jerusalem…
Earlier during the conference, which was organized by the Yedioth Ahronoth daily newspaper, Faaborg-Andersen expressed the EU’s desire to see Israel thrive and said the union completely rejects any efforts to boycott Israel. “Let me make one thing 100 percent clear: The European Union is against BDS. Our policy is totally opposite of BDS. Our policy is one of engagement with Israel.”…
But it is important for Israel not to be seen as undermining a two-state solution, he said. “If more effort is put into showing a will to move forward and to obtain progress in this process, it would greatly weaken the BDS movement.”
(Source: The Times of Israel , Boycotts will disappear when Israel advances peace, EU envoy says, by Rapheal Ahre, March 28, 2016)
The all-out effort to “divide” God’s land–that given Israel in perpetuity– is underway. Even though America’s present president has chosen to support Israel in most every respect, the Jewish state remains at the center of this dangerous petri dish mixture. Certainly the world must be near the time when the final prophecies will begin manifesting. That means the Rapture of all born-again believers is even nearer!
Most Important Matter
Much preparation is required when getting ready for a prophecy conference. This is especially the case for yours truly. A blind guy getting ready to give a Power Point presentation to an audience that is keenly clued in to the topics involved can be a daunting exercise. (Thanks, sweet Dana, for all the work on this. Couldn’t do it without you!)
Memory must be relied upon to know what is on the screen, to keep in line the order of points to be made, and to speak to all of the facts and ideas in between. So it is that while preparing for my speaking session (which, by the time this commentary is posted will already be history), the true importance of what is involved speaks to my spirit. It is a matter that burns into my conscience as one charged with trying to address what the Lord prompts me to present.
Lord willing, I have by the time of this posting, spoken on “Deceivers and the End of Days” at the Prophecy Watchers Conference in Norman, Oklahoma.
The lecture/session is based upon the book of the same name, Deceivers. It revolves around Jesus’ prophecy given on the Mount of Olives as recorded in Matthew 24:3-5. The book is a compilation of chapters written by fourteen of the most well-known writers, broadcasters, and teachers of Bible prophecy from the Pre-Trib view of eschatology. Authors present their analyses of how current issues and events of our time are all setting the stage for fulfillment of Bible prophecy for the very end of the Church Age (Age of Grace).
While working on writing this article and thinking on continuing preparation for the upcoming presentation (from my perspective at that time), I kept being distracted by the desire to watch the punditry about the Supreme Court nominee’s confirmation. I got caught up in this world’s political goings-on. My thoughts ran the gamut from: What does it mean to how the abortion controversy will play out from this point forward? to What does it mean for the upcoming November midterm elections? Does Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation mean that the national electorate will see fit to vote to assure that constitutional principles will prevail over the radical mob mentality that threatens civility? Also, I considered whether the current president and his policies will continue to build a booming economy as is happening presently.
Much of this is what I will be talking about (did talk about, from the point in time this is posted) in that session–i.e., my thought was to dwell on America and all things going on in this country with regard to the end-times Deceivers acting within religion, society / culture, politics /government, and news and entertainment media.
It hit me, then, during that preparation: The religion, societal/cultural, political/governmental, and news/entertainment media things occurring in this nation are insignificant in relation to things going on in the human, spiritual heart at this critical moment. The ultimately important thing is not how all of the prophetic stage-setting is affecting the well-being of each of us and our lives in America. This nation–its governmental/social-cultural/media and religious systems–are all soon doomed to pass away.
My thinking on these things in terms of how Mr. Trump or any other leader or system of leadership might improve–or, for that matter, cause to be deteriorated–life in America is exercise in futility. The all-important thing consider is the human condition, in terms of spiritual exigencies.
We are told in God’s Word to pray for leaders in government so that we might “lead peaceable lives.” But, there is no percentage to be gained by placing faith, or even trust, in government–ever. Government–all of existence under the present world systems and regimes of this age–are passing away. All is “vanity,” as the “preacher” of Ecclesiastes put it.
There are no such worldly entities as a godly or Christian government. The best we can hope for is a reasonable government that adheres to basic, godly principles the Founding Fathers were influenced by the Holy Spirit to build within our Constitution. It is wholly just and right to fight, politically, for these things at the ballot box and fight, literally, against those who would destroy our nation.
All that said, one thing matters most of all–beyond all else–to each human being alive at present: What is the status of one’s soul? Do you and I know Jesus Christ as the One who was crucified, buried, and resurrected to life those two thousand years ago? As important as it is to love country, family, and all the things that are good that life brings, the status of our souls are what matters.
We must pray and vote to see to it that our liberty is preserved so we may live peaceable lives despite all of the evil percolating all around us. But, embracing Jesus Christ for salvation is the one action we can take to assure life for an eternity of joy and ever-increasing exultation. We will, at that eternal moment, begin to live and love our friends and family who are saved more intimately than can be imagined while in this earthly existence. In Heaven we will praise the Savior who provided, once and for all, payment for the sin that would otherwise separate us from God the Father forever.
Again, the truth of that all-important matter is wrapped up in the following, penned by the Apostle Paul: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).
Terry James Prophecy Line 