Home » Nearing Midnight

Category Archives: Nearing Midnight

Answering Trump’s Question

As things in the Middle East are ramping up with a major conflict in progress (Operation Epic Fury), stage-setting for prophetic fulfillment, I think, comes into quickly tightening focus. The Iranian regime’s intransigence, in particular, helps bring matters regarding Mideast hostilities into understandable Bible prophecy perspective.

The same level of comprehension is not true for observers who don’t have God’s Word as the centerpiece of their thinking on the present warfare in that volatile region.

The primary consideration regarding what to address in the swiftly moving Iranian situation is the question the president of the United States was asking, according to a recent news item.

US envoy Steve Witkoff said in an interview with Fox News that aired on Sunday that President Trump was “curious” that Iran hasn’t “capitulated” to US demands due to the major US military buildup in the Middle East and threats of war.

“I don’t want to use the word frustrated because [Trump] understands he has plenty of alternatives, but he’s curious, he’s curious as to why they haven’t, I don’t want to use the word capitulated, but why they haven’t capitulated,” Witkoff told Fox News host Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law.

“Why, under this sort of pressure, with the amount of sea power, naval power, that we have over there, why they haven’t come to us and said, ‘we profess that we don’t want a [nuclear] weapon, so here’s what we’re prepared to do,’ yet it’s hard to get them to that point,” Witkoff added. (“President Trump ‘Curious’ Why Iran Hasn’t ‘Capitulated’,” Dave DeCamp, zerohedge, February 23, 2026)

It’s easy to wonder over the Ayatollahs’ refusal to cooperate, as did President Trump, knowing how devastating was the US military’s previous “obliteration” (in Trump’s own words) of the Iranian regime’s underground nuclear-weapons’-development facilities.

It is easy to ask this question the president was apparently asking. Why did the Iranian leadership not prefer to give in rather than face an even more decimating action if negotiations failed to produce results this president wanted—an ongoing assault that Trump has now delivered?

In last year’s so-called 12-Day War, American military forces proved beyond any doubt that powerful bombs of unprecedented capability could penetrate—precisely—deeply within Iran’s hiding places, and that the bombs could be delivered by aircraft so advanced they couldn’t be detected even though Iran’s defense forces knew they were going to be hit—i.e., the B-2s delivered the penetrator ordnance and were gone before the Iranians knew of the assault.

Understanding that this president doesn’t play games—he does what he says he will do—the Ayatollahs still refused to stop threatening Israel and the Mideast region…and America, for that matter. They refused to give up their ambition to develop nuclear weaponry and delivery systems that would give them the ability to accomplish those desires.

This attack in Operation Epic Fury by the American military—and by the Israeli Defense Force in Roaring Lion—proved to be much more destructive, with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and most of Iran’s leadership killed –as forewarned by Mr. Trump’s own words.

So, why indeed did the fanatic Islamic regime not do all things necessary to avoid the inevitable?

Bible prophecy answers the president’s question from thousands of years ago.

Daniel, the great Old Testament prophet, was and is the conduit through which the answer to today’s question by President Donald John Trump was given.

The same commander of the same evil forces Daniel faced in that long-ago time is still in charge of stirring problems in the Middle East. He whispers into the demonically inspired thoughts of the Ayatollahs who want to initiate worldwide war…so their Mahdi, whom they believe will help them rule the world, will come on the scene as prophesied when total war begins.

The following gives a clue identifying this evil, Ephesians 6:12 demonic minion that is as active as ever today.

My friend, the late Dr. John Walvoord, once addressed the time when the prophet Daniel had troubling questions about the threats he and his people, Israel, faced.

At that time, according to Daniel chapter 10, an angel was sent to inform and comfort the old prophet:

10:12–14 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.…

Daniel is further encouraged by the exhortation, “Fear not, Daniel.” To allay the fears of Daniel still further, the angel informs him that from the very beginning of his intercession, three weeks before, God had undertaken to answer his prayers and send the angelic messenger to him. What a reassurance it is that when one comes to God as Daniel did, setting his heart to understand and chastening himself before God, one may expect Daniel’s experience of the response of God that his words were heard and the messenger dispatched. The delay is explained in verse 13 as being occasioned by the opposition of “the prince of the kingdom of Persia” who “withstood me one and twenty days.” This “prince” is not the king of the kingdom of Persia but rather the angelic leader of Persia, a fallen angel under the direction of Satan, in contrast to the angelic prince Michael who leads and protects Israel. That the angel described as “the prince” of Persia is a wicked angel is clear from the fact that his opposition to the angelic messenger to Daniel is given as the reason for the delay of twenty-one days. (Chapter 10, The Vision of the Glory of Godhttps://walvoord.com)

Mr. President, this is the answer to your query. That same entity–the Prince of Persia—continues in his demonic activity. As a matter of fact, this prince of evil, like his master Lucifer the fallen (Satan), knows he has but a short time. His activity is growing in virulence, as is manifested more dramatically in each succeeding news cycle.

The Ayatollahs were and are satanically driven in their madness. Regardless of the success of this latest action to eliminate those who foment evil in the region, Bible prophecy tells us the evil minions that hate Israel will yet assault God’s chosen people, according to Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39.

All the dynamic rearrangements in the areas involved in Operation Epic Fury show clearly just how near is the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).

Christ will call all believers into Heaven in the Rapture before the seven-year Tribulation begins. The dynamics triggered by that great event will no doubt quickly arrange all things prophesied for the Gog-Magog attack and all other prophecies yet to be fulfilled.

That twinkling-of-an-eye moment of Rapture must be near indeed!  

We must, therefore, as Royal Ambassadors on this Tribulation-bound world, instruct those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior how to come to accept God’s grace-gift offer of salvation through His Only Begotten Son. When a person accepts Jesus as Savior, he or she is Rapture Ready. –That is, he or she will go to be with Christ before that great and terrible day of the Lord begins. Here is how to accept Jesus Christ right at this moment and become a child in God the Father’s eternal family:

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)

 

Rapture-Ready Remnant

As if to frame the entire set-up for how near we are to the last moment of this Church Age, the exodus of God’s chosen people from around the world back to their God-given land is suddenly in stark view.

The set-up includes all the eschatological stage-setting things—the issues and events we’ve pored over for many months—particularly the prophetic signals that have become manifest over these last few weeks. There can be no missing it for those whose eyes and ears are spiritually attuned to God’s Word regarding how things will be when this age is at an end.

Key among the signals is the world’s treatment of the Jews. Jesus gave the conditions that would eventuate when the time of His return at Armageddon nears:

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. (Matthew 24:9)

Jesus was stating what will take place, full-blown, during the time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7). This will come to pass in its most virulent manifestation during the second half of the seven-year Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week).

However, it becomes more obvious with each passing hour that the nation Israel—and that includes all Jews worldwide—is in the crosshairs of satanic hatred. Anti-Semitism is on the rise, and not just in Europe or Germany as in Hitler’s day.

The effects this madness is having make clear that one of the most profound reasons for the coming Tribulation era is right before our eyes. The Jewish people are at the beginning of the great drive to return to the Promised Land—whether knowingly or unwittingly.

By this I mean that some Jewish scholars and others who believe God’s chosen people are prophetically scheduled to come into their God-given land see what is happening as prophetic fulfillment. They are wrong about Jesus Christ His involvement, but they non do believe that God gave Israel the Land of Promise and see the forced exodus from the nations of the world to that land as God’s hand in the matters involved.

The following excerpt from an in-depth article on aliyah (a call upward to a synagogue or to Israel as homeland) frames this observation and shows just how near we must be to the Tribulation, thus to the Rapture:

With antisemitism surging worldwide, Israeli officials believe more Jews will opt to make aliyah; but the path isn’t as easy as they think.

In December, when two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, killing 15 people and wounding dozens more, Israel’s message to the global Jewish community was clear.

“Today, Jews are being hunted across the world,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in the aftermath of the massacre, calling on Jews in Australia, Britain, France, Canada, and Belgium to “come home” to Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed the sentiment, urging Western governments to do more to protect Jewish citizens, while framing Israel as the only place where Jews could truly be safe.

Immigration action

Now the government appears to be backing up the words with action.

According to the Hebrew newspaper Makor Rishon, officials have begun advancing an emergency immigration plan called Aliyat HaTekuma, designed to fast-track the immigration process for those coming from countries experiencing a surge in antisemitism. (“Israel urges Diaspora Jews to come home, but will they?” Jerusalem Post, February 16, 2026)

Those who study Bible prophecy as it is meant to be studied–to be taken literally, unless otherwise directed by Scripture—know that most Jewish people alive at the end of the Church Age will return to God’s chosen land for them. Sadly, it won’t be a time of jubilation, but of great trouble, according to the Lord Jesus (Matthew 24:21).

From that regathering, God will bring out a remnant of people who will finally recognize their True Messiah, Jesus Christ. They will be rescued by the Lord Himself as He descends with the armies of Heaven to put an end to enemies at Armageddon (Revelation 19:11).

In the same sense, I’m convicted that God has gathered another remnant on this violent, Genesis 6-like present earth. This remnantI believe, consists of those who are saved by the matchless grace of the same Lord who will rescue the Jewish remnant of people who look to Him as He descends and who believe in Him (as given in John 14:6).

A considerably smaller group within the Christian remnant are those looking for Jesus to rescue them before that dark and terrible Day of the Lord begins, when the Tribulation is initiated by the confirming of the covenant of false peace by Antichrist.

(I want to make it clear that ALL who accept Christ for salvation will go to Him in the Rapture, not just those with the pre-Trib Rapture understanding of Bible prophecy.)

The even-smaller remnant–those of the pre-Trib Rapture belief—consists of those who hold to Christ’s promise that we won’t have to endure even one second of the Tribulation.

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)  

You want to be part of this Age-of-Grace remnant—those who know Jesus Christ for salvation. You will thus not have to endure the terrible time of Tribulation that’s about to break upon a violent, unbelieving world that will become subject to Antichrist’s vicious reign. You will not have to suffer God’s Holy wrath that will rain down on sin and rebellion to bring out of that horrendous era that remnant of Jewish believers and all who will accept Christ during that most terrible time in human history.

The pre-Tribulation Rapture will, in the twinkling of an eye, take (paralambano) all believers in Jesus Christ into His presence in the clouds of Glory.

Here is how to make sure you are part of this present-day Christian remnant before the coming judgment and wrath of God:

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)

 

Rapture Ready…Or Not

Rapture Ready…Or Not

Author’s note: I believe I am prompted to again present my book Rapture Ready…Or Not: 15 Reasons This Is the Generation That Will Be Left Behind, published in 2016 by New Leaf Press.—Thus because all indicators are pointing with flashing forewarning that the Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week) is almost upon this generation of those who reject Christ’s saving grace.

My article this week is the preface to that book (very lightly edited). It leads into the book by my telling of my clinical death.

I heard recently Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas, cautioning in the strongest terms against believing accounts of those who claim to have died, gone to Heaven, then returned to tell of the matter. I agree. I have always been most wary of such accounts.

Dr. Jeffress says that the Bible is sufficient, and there is no need for any extrabiblical information about Heaven or what happens after death.

Again, I agree totally. However, I can do no other than testify as to what happened the moment my heart stopped that fateful day.

This book, I sense, is one of the most relevant for this late hour of the Church Age (Age of Grace) even though things described and reported are dated to the times ten years ago, and don’t account for the tremendous prophetic stage-setting taking place, especially since the influences of the second Trump Administration.

I think you will agree the book nonetheless is on point about Bible prophecy truth in every chapter. In-depth information about the pre-Tribulation Rapture and the reasons it’s about to happen is needed at this critical hour. My prayerful hope is that many reading this will, even if they have that volume already, want to get additional copies for pastors, teachers in the churches, and people in the pews, many of whom have no idea of just how near we are to moment when Jesus steps onto the clouds of Glory and shouts “Come up here!”

Information about how to get the book is posted below the article.

Instantaneously, I stood before a throng of cheering people who appeared to be in their mid-twenties. Young men and young women looked at me with expressions of absolute jubilation projecting from the most beautiful faces I’ve seen. Their hands were thrusting at full arm’s length above their heads while they looked into my eyes. I knew theirs was a cheer for some immense victory. They were bidding me to join them—or so I thought at that eternal moment.

But everything turned dark again, and I heard someone say, “I had to hit him with the paddles.”

“What paddles?” I asked.

“Your heart stopped and I had to use the defib paddles,” the young man’s voice said.

In what seemed mere moments, I heard a strange sound, the same one I had heard immediately before standing in front of that cheering throng. It was a blip sound, like that of going from one computer application to another.

I instantly stood for the second time before the same wildly cheering young men and women, their hands again thrusting upward, as if expressing victory. They laughed and gracefully jumped up and down while looking into my eyes with pure delight projecting into my core being, causing an inner warmth I had not known before that moment.

Things started darkening around me again, and I said—whether audibly or not, I don’t know—that I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay with them—wanted to join them.

But I was again on the gurney, or hospital cath-lab table. “What are you doing?” I asked the people who were working feverishly on me.

“They’re trying to save your life,” came the voice from the one who had said he had to use the defib paddles.

Then it happened again. I heard the electronic-sounding blip. Immediately, for the third time, I stood with the beautiful young women and handsome young men. This time I joined them while they continued to look into my eyes and wave their hands high above their heads.

This time we were running, and they were looking over at me while we ran. Toward what, I don’t know. We were moving swiftly, with no effort whatsoever, toward something wonderful—toward the reason for this “victory lap.”

The darkness came again, and I was again on the table. I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to be with the group I had somehow gotten to feel a visceral part of during my three trips to…where? I don’t know.

It was Good Friday, April 22, 2011, and I was said to be dead on arrival, and then was clinically dead—flatlined—on two other occasions. The interventional cardiologist told me that 95 percent of people with the “widow maker” never make it to the cath lab. Of those who do, he informed, only 50 percent live. Then he wanted me to look at the picture of my artery and what he had done to remove the blockage that had stopped my heart.

I told him I couldn’t see it. I’ve been totally blind since a hereditary retinal disease took my eyesight almost twenty years earlier.

“You should see where I’ve just been,” I tried to tell the doctor and the others who had just pulled off a medical miracle. They were too busy to listen.

My case was so unusual and the “miracle” of my recovery was so astounding that the cardiologist association of my state gave me the “Cardiologist Patient of the Year Award,” which still sits on a shelf in my office.

There isn’t a day that passes that I don’t think deeply on the reason for my experience—my trip into that realm, suspended somewhere between life and death, that could only be described as being on the periphery of Heaven.

Although there are reasons beyond my ability to know why I was allowed that Good Friday trip to be with those cheering, young, heavenly beings, I have been given over the months since some answers as to what the experience was about. I intend to share that knowledge here. Not only do I want to share what I know the experience involved, but I must tell you, because I am absolutely required to do so. It is my commission from God in Heaven. The purpose is that important.

My commission is to tell you that there is coming—and very soon—one specific tick of the clock’s second hand that is going to convulse every culture, every society, every individual on planet earth. God has spoken it. It will happen. That instant of time will be the event that is one of the most derided, the most mocked, of all biblical truths. It will come without any immediate forewarning. But it will not happen without a great number of prophetic signposts that presage its occurrence.

As a matter of fact, those signals are literally pulsing all around us at this moment. The very atmosphere is electric with the heavenly siren call to be alert. Something of earth-shocking impact is about to happen.

Multiplied millions of people across the world will disappear in less than a microsecond. The aftermath of the sudden vanishing in America in particular will produce carnage that staggers the imagination. Those left behind will face problems that will make any situations they are presently experiencing seem nothing by comparison.

Beware and aware: Believe it or not, it is going to happen. According to the signals that warn of its horror-filled aftermath, the Rapture is about to rip civilization as no other event since the Flood of Noah’s day.

This is the distinct impression permanently engraved into my spirit on that Good Friday, 2011.

The crowd’s cheering—the young, heavenly beings which were, I believe the cloud of witnesses of Hebrews 12:1–3—my spirit-impression tells me, is for the message I have been disseminating for many years through books, speaking engagements, broadcasts, and articles on our website, www.raptureready.com. However, the young heavenly cheerleaders were mostly praising. They weren’t praising me or the others who present the message of the Rapture in all its truth—although that was part of the reason they cheered. They were praising God that this astonishing event is on the very brink of bringing the vast body of believers into the Father’s house, just as God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, promised. Their jubilation was Heaven’s validation of the view of the Rapture that proclaims that believers in Jesus Christ—alone—for salvation will be brought instantaneously into His blessed presence before the most horrendous time of human history breaks upon a world ripe for judgment. Be assured: Rapture ready or not, these things are about to take place!

To order Rapture Ready…Or Not: 15 Reasons This Is the Generation That Will Be Left Behind, here’s the link:

https://www.masterbooks.com/rapture-ready-paperback-single

Donation Drive February through April of 2026

Satan and his evil minions, both demonic and human, almost hourly seem to turn down the rheostat of spiritual enlightenment. The incremental darkening can’t be missed by those who are observing these times.

However, while that hellish darkening process intensifies, as witnessed here in our own nation in places like Minneapolis, Chicago, and other blue cities, and in the Middle East with the slaughter by the Iranian regime, we who belong to Christ have within us the light that cannot be turned down or extinguished.

Our Lord said the following:

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:14–16)

Dear Rapture Ready family:

Jesus’ words, issued two thousand years ago, describe His thoughts about you and me as we strive to put forth light in His holy name. We’re here on this fallen planet at a time He knew would be the spiritual environment of darkening evil at the very end of this Age of Grace.

This website strives to put forth in this ever-darkening world truth from the very heart of God. Our purpose is to fit within Christ’s definition: “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hil [that] cannot be hid.”

You—as a citizen of Heaven and as a sojourner, a royal ambassador for God’s Kingdom upon this fallen planet—are part of that light. It is the heavenly light that all who are lost in the darkness of sin will forever be without…apart from God’s saving grace. 

It is vital to the great cause of bringing souls under God’s saving grace for Rapture Ready to have the support of you, our RR family—that is, the family of God.

We’ve been assigned to be the light of the world. We’re like the Lord’s description of the shining city on a hill that cannot be hidden. We cannot let our efforts diminish but must make that light brighter than ever in these darkening hours so near the Tribulation.

The minions of the Ephesians 6:12 cabal (the wickedness in high places against which we struggle) are doing everything within their demonic power to turn off God’s light. This includes coming against this website as we strive to enlighten the world of cyberspace with truth.

For example: During this last quarter, Todd has had to increase the ad budget for RR. This is necessary because of restrictive movement placed on the site by those who govern Google, et cetera. This interference has diminished our prominence in regard to being easily accessed by those looking to link to Raptureready.com.

Unfortunately, the greatly increased expenditure is the only way to reach new people. Social media sites have a monopoly over the internet. The move has increased our traffic by 20 percent.

But this attempt to boost traffic to the level needed is expensive. We need more revenue to make Raptureready.com more easily accessible to those searching for God’s truth. We need you, our RR family members, to help keep God’s light bright in this spiritually darkening time so near Christ’s call to the Church in the Rapture.

I heard Dr. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas just as I was writing this appeal. He quoted a pastor he knows, who said: “When we leave this earth we will leave all in our bank account behind. That is, except for that which we send on ahead to our Heavenly Bank Account.”

The compounding interest that accrues from that investment over the trillions of years into eternity will reap heavenly riches beyond anything we can imagine.

But the souls saved because of our contributions will doubtless reap the greatest heavenly rewards of all!

There are three ways you can contribute to RR: You can send a financial gift via our P.O. Box, you can make a one-time donation, or you can make monthly donations. If you’re interested in signing up to do that, find the links on the Donation Depot page.

Donations can be sent to our P.O. Box at:

Rapture Ready
P.O. Box 969
Benton, AR 72018

–Terry

Perfect Prophetic Storm

It was one of the last major great weather events I remember being able to see. I lost my eyesight within a few years, but this storm stands out in my memory as no other.

What makes it stand out is that the news cameras were all trained at one point on the summer White House of President George H. W. Bush in Kennebunkport, Maine. The raging Atlantic waves were actually crashing into the home, and it was feared it would be washed away, the continuing assault was so powerful.

Here is a brief description of that great storm:

In late October 28 into early November 1991, a fierce storm wreaked havoc on the high seas, bringing hurricane-force winds, major coastal flooding, and perilous waves to New England. Though it never actually made landfall in the United States, it is regarded as a highly unusual and record-setting storm for the northwest Atlantic Ocean and was memorialized in the book Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger and a movie of the same name.…

In the first few days of November, the “Perfect Storm” evolved into a tropical cyclone, and then quickly evolved into a hurricane as it sped back towards the northeast. On November 2, it passed over the same area where it had originated, landfalling in Nova Scotia…

there were isolated rogue waves reported as high as 90 feet in the North Atlantic. Hurricane-force wind gusts, reaching almost 80 miles per hour in certain areas, swept the coasts and whipped seas into a frenzy.

There can be no doubt that, though it never touched down on American soil, the “Perfect Storm” will forever be remembered as a benchmark storm for the North Atlantic. (“Remembering the ‘Perfect Storm’,” National Weather Service Heritage—Virtual Lab, By Emily Senesac (edited by Greg Romano)

This was the storm that sank the Andrea Gail, a 72-foot fishing vessel, and took the lives of six crewmen.

That infamous storm will always be pointed to with legendary implication, much as the storm years earlier that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald in the Great Lakes.

The remembrance of that 1991 storm I was able to watch unfold, and the winter storm of a week or so ago I was not able to “watch”—the one predicted to be a storm like no other, at least for the central US—engendered thoughts of things we believe are coming together in a perfect prophetic storm.

The ingredients are now in place to produce the great Tribulation storm that will make all the maelstrom of human history seem insignificant by comparison when it breaks full-blown upon anti-God rebels left behind on earth. I often refer to developments we see coming together for this perfect storm as the stage being set for the seven years known as “Daniel’s seventieth week.”

Just as weather watchers could observe the various elements of that 1991 storm and the recent winter storm, so the student of God’s prophetic Word can observe what’s coming. We can witness and report the most prominent elements forecast by Jesus and the prophets as those ingredients coalesce while the Tribulation approaches.

With God’s chosen nation, Israel, at the center of world turmoil, and with many lesser ingredients on the stormfront horizon, here are the key elements that continue to come together that will produce the unprecedented prophetic storm John saw when he was inspired to write the Revelation.

Wars and Rumors of War

Wars are raging, as has been constantly in the news in the Middle East and the arena of the former USSR. The rumors of war have never in humankind’s history been more prolific.

America’s powerful naval forces now churn into the region, bringing speculation that a US military action against Iran will likely ignite a greater regional conflict. Nuclear war is a possibility, it is speculated, while the Iranian terrorist regime threatens to sink the Abraham Lincoln American aircraft carrier and fire on other US military assets.

As part of the overall buildup to war, the major coalition members that will constitute the Gog-Magog attack of Ezekiel 38–39 have come together north of Israel.

As we’ve looked at previously, economics–the need for fiscal stability among Russia, Persia (Iran) and Turkey (Togarmah) in order to quell unrest that threatens these dictatorships likely will drive the leadership to have that evil” thought” that will lead to seek “great spoil” to the south.

The Cry for Peace

The fears produced by the buildup toward war are bringing forth an unprecedented call for peace among the nations. This is a primary indicator the Bible gives as proof that great destruction—the destruction of the Tribulation—is about to occur.

But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:1–3)

All we have to do is consider the cry for peace that’s in the news every hour of every news cycle. The Board of Peace the American president has presented to the world’s leaders is nothing short of profound in setting the stage for the perfect prophetic storm.

Leaders who have always been completely against everything Mr. Trump ever proposed apparently can’t resist climbing on the Trump Board of Peace train. Even Russia’s Vladimir Putin seems intrigued—wondering, no doubt, how to gain something economically advantageous by joining with the multi-world leader group part of Trump’s proposed peace initiative.

The Board of Peace comes at a time when all other ingredients for the perfect prophetic storm are brewing. And this is where I suspect a very special ingredient that ties this time so close to the Tribulation together.

Jesus’ Days of Lot Prophecy

As readers know, the one prophecy I believe most relevant to our time is Jesus’ word about the days of Lot:

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:28–30)

While all the volatile ingredients of the building Tribulation Storm are coalescing, Jesus gives those of us who are watchers (Mark 13:37) a heads-up on precisely what life will be like. And, again, I believe our Lord might have had America in mind when He gave this prophecy.

I say this because unless one just will not admit to truth, this country must be considered the apex nation of world history, so far as being materially blessed—and next to Israel so far as being spiritually blessed.

However, America, it is tragic and sad to say, has long since departed from God’s supreme directions in so many ways. We have become almost a twin—or I should say a “triplet”?—of Sodom and Gomorrah in ways of cultural anti-God comportment.

Our Lord said He will next catastrophically intervene into the wicked affairs of humankind—not at a time when there is world war or economic collapse into depression, but at a time of buying, selling, building, planting, and marrying—all the activities that indicate business as usual. As a matter of fact, I believe we are beginning to see economic times boom, as Sodom did in Lot’s day.

It will be at that time—like in the case of Lot’s day in Sodom—when Christ will call all believers to Himself in the clouds of Glory. That “sudden destruction” of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 will then take place. That is, it will take place at the same time as the cry for peace is taking place!

I believe we are seeing the perfect prophetic storm very near the point of breaking upon a world totally unsuspecting that it is coming. “Like a snare,” it will come upon the entire world (Luke 21:35).

A Special Thank You!

The donation request for the Pakistani ministry was very successful, thanks to you wonderful brothers and sisters who so generously opened up your hearts to this effort.

Soon our Pakistani Pastor Anil will send for posting his personal note of gratitude to you and thanks to our Lord.

The printing and distribution of my two little books, Prophecy Power: Strength from God to Face Your Future and HeavenVision: Glimpses into Glory are now in process there in Pakistan. Let us pray together that many souls come to Christ in this mission effort!

Again, may our Lord bless each of you in every way!

—Terry

PS—I sent personal notes of thanks through email to those of you who included your email addresses with your donation.

Unfortunately, a few of those notes came back as undeliverable. So, to those who didn’t get my personal thanks, please send me an email at wtjames1@swbell.net and I’ll respond with a thank-you note, which is what I very much want to do.

The “Fierce” of these Perilous Times

If you’ve watched the rage going on in Minneapolis and other cities, you see the screaming, howling, cursing, and, in many cases, the physical assaults upon the ICE agents trying to enforce the law by rounding up illegal aliens. It seems sheer lunacy, at least to this observer, just listening to the screeching, especially of young women who seem to have gone mad with the obsession of keeping those convicted of the most heinous crimes imaginable from capture and deportation.

These aren’t protests like the founders envisioned, but are riotous and steeped in violence, and even murderous intent, as fiercely wicked as the acts of the illegals who have invaded our borders. We remember vividly, for example, the recent death of the thirty-seven-year-old woman who tried to block ICE agents and, when ordered to get out of her vehicle, instead of lawfully complying, accelerated into the ICE officer. He then, in order to protect himself and others, fired his weapon, striking the woman and killing her.

As insanely as the young woman acted, I was touched by words I heard her father say when interviewed. He was, the report indicated, a Christian who, while heartbroken over his daughter’s death, said she had no business acting in such a way, when obviously trying to run the ICE officer over.

Days later, an armed rioter threatened an ICE officer with guns and was shot and killed, touching off even more violence. One rioter, in the throes of ferocity, bit off the finger of an ICE agent.

What has happened in this nation, where sanity seems out the window and absolute hatred rules in the minds of those who apparently want to protect murderers, rapists, child molesters, and many other kinds of criminals from other countries to remain in America?

And the chaos and insanity are backed up by most every mainstream news organization in the country. It’s a growing sin infection that Paul the apostle called “the reprobate mind” (Romans 1:28).

Paul warned of how things will develop as the time of Christ’s return nears. We have looked at that passage many times. I refer, of course, to the great apostle’s “perilous times” prophecy of 2 Timothy chapter 3. I’ll let you look it up in totality but will dwell only on one element for our purpose here.

Paul said: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be…fierce…” (2 Timothy 3:3). 

And, as we have just recounted, women will be fierce, too.  As a matter of fact, the record is reflecting that those responsible for organizing these rages against law and order are using young, white women to thrust into the forefront of protecting the murderers, rapists, child molesters, and other illegal criminals murdering, raping, sex-trafficking children and plundering billions of dollars from tax paying citizens, such as we have witnessed from among the Somali fraud—again in the Minneapolis area.

Again, Paul wrote under Holy Spirit Inspiration of the very thing that would mark the end of the Age of Grace (Church Age).  He said that the “lawless one, Antichrist, will be revealed following the removal of the Restrainer as governor of evil over this fallen world system. It will be the spirit of Antichrist that even in John the apostle’s day was prevalent that will pervade the human race and its rebellion against all godliness.

That spirit is being manifest with each of these lawless episodes exploding around the nation. These have at their riotous hearts the reprobate minds of those who champion the wickedness that saturates our nation’s bluest cities. This has been the evil springing forth since the Biden administration opened those floodgates along our borders.

But it is not a political problem that threatens the republic the founding fathers—and God Himself—gave us. My great friend Gary Stearman had something to say about all this, giving us a Holy Spirit-influenced think-piece, I believe:

Years ago, I noticed something in Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy. It struck home in a big way, and to this day directs my thinking about Bible prophecy. In the third chapter, there is an intriguing statement: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” Probably most serious Christians have noticed this warning, and then have continued to read the long list of character deficiencies that follow…

This description of latter-day societal shortcomings rings with a surprising familiarity to those of us who observe the daily media parade. As I read this, it occurred to me that I needed to do a deeper study of what the term “perilous times” really meant. Looking it up, I found that the word “perilous” came from the Greek word, chalepos.

Looking further, I discovered that in the New Testament, this word was used only twice, the other time being in Matthew, Chapter 8, in which Jesus and His disciples had sailed across the Sea of Galilee. A windstorm had risen and swamped their sailboat, until He spoke and calmed the waters:

“27 But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him! 28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way”(Mt. 8:27, 28).

To my amazement, I discovered that the Greek word chalepos was used in the phrase, “exceedingly fierce!”

And fierce they were … so strong that in this territory of the beach and its cliffs, no one could pass. Their strength came from demonic possession.

I was immediately struck with the thought that when Paul wrote those prophetic words to Timothy, his exhaustive description of latter-day humanity was constructed around the idea of madness … raging insanity empowered by dark forces! Suddenly, I was deeply impressed with Paul’s true intent: to show Timothy – and us, in the twenty-first century – that the days before Christ’s return would be marked by a growing social insanity.

And not just that; it would be an insanity driven by the same dark forces encountered by Jesus and His disciples on the shores of Galilee on that day so long ago.

When this connection struck me so long ago, I began what I called the Chalepos Watch!

Always keeping Paul’s words in mind, I noted social changes and developments that were driven by raging insanity of the sort that suggested the presence of dark forces, working behind the scenes to fragment our civilized society:

“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” (Eph 6:12).

The Chalepos Watch is still underway, and I intend to pursue it in the future, just as I have for so many years now. (Source: Gary Stearman needs no introduction to those who study Bible prophecy, of course. I’ll just say that Gary is cohost, along with Mondo Gonzales, of Prophecy Watchers, one of the premiere Bible prophecy ministries today.)

So, it is obvious that we face at this moment fierceness born of the dark side, fomented by the father of lies and the perpetrator of lawlessness against the order established by our God.

But as Gary put it in concluding his thoughts on this fierceness we face: “The good news? It is found a little further down in Paul’s letter”: “But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was” (2 Timothy 3:9).

Looking into the Root of Evil

This week’s column is intended to build upon last week’s regarding what the violence and great unrest are about and where they’re leading prophetically.

One prophetic component of what will comprise the denouement of this Age of Grace (Church Age) has vaulted to top of the stage-setting platform. This ingredient has, I believe, put end-times prophecy into overdrive while we watch things unfold through today’s hourly news cycles.

This component is spelled out unequivocally in God’s Word as at the root of evil in this sin-infected world, fallen since humanity’s rebellion in Eden.

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (1 Timothy 6:10)

It would be easy to conclude a probe into this root cause of all the world’s evil by simply pointing to the billions of dollars of fraud found by Elon Musk’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). The tremendous fraud is still being uncovered daily after a year of the Trump administration coming to power.

Or an even greater proof that could be concluded is to offer the many billions of dollars of which the American taxpayers have been defrauded by Somalia operatives in Minnesota. But as profoundly evil as this larceny is, it’s only the tip of the enormous, evil iceberg that has grown to now threaten, in Titanic-like fashion, to sink the entire world in an economy-crushing cataclysm.

That iceberg of evil that’s grown exponentially harbors within its crushing power the love of money that God’s Word says is the “root of all evil.” Let’s examine this more deeply to understand its growth and orchestration by the being who, for now, owns the wealth of this God-rejecting world.

The destruction of humankind has, from some point near the beginning of Lucifer’s rebellion in Heaven, been Satan’s goal. That destructive effort has ramped up quickly and powerfully, as the news testifies.

Tyrants and dictators have long kept the victims within their despotic grips to suppress freedom that might replace their evil regimes. They control all commerce ruthlessly—creating, in effect, slave labor—while providing scant substance of money and foodstuffs. This has always been the case with evil leadership. Their power indeed comes from the barrels of guns–or from other murderous weaponry of dealing death to those who resist.

These who hold their victims in their grip of absolute control harbor the love of money at the center of their black, sin-saturated hearts. Money is what ensures that they will stay in power so they can enjoy the lives of billionaires. Money purchases the weapons they can use to suppress those under their dictatorships. It gives them the means necessary to invade and conquer more and more victims.

And that love of money isn’t exclusively owned by what we most often think of as the enemies of democracy. President Dwight D. Eisenhower once waxed eloquent on this when he warned against the West’s military-industrial complex.

Many of the top echelons within this conglomerate, it has been charged by Eisenhower and others, want to see the wars continue to rage. The fantastic wealth such buildup to wars produce is staggering, if one adds up the cost of all conflicts just within the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

The lives of the youths in the world’s nations have been fed into such conflict for the purpose of not just defending against tyrants, but to create great wealth to provide lavish lifestyles for politicians and corporate titans.

We see all this rolling before our eyes as we watch, for example, things going on involving Iran. The ayatollahs and their regime of Islamic terror are under great pressures from the people who now occupy the area that was Persia of ancient times. These evil leaders are about to loosen their stranglehold on their victims. The rioting and revolutionary fervor stem, in large part, from the people’s anger over economic deprivation. The regime’s dictators, the people know, are making life miserable, and they are rising up to rid themselves of their masters.

While it might seem the uprising is calming somewhat, it will, I believe, grow in swelling waves of discontent.

Exacerbating the ayatollahs’ problems with the current revolution in Iran is the fact that America’s president is promising, in some way not yet clear, to support the people in a way that will be disastrous for the regime.

This president follows through on such promises, so the regime’s leadership is in collective panic. For example, the leadership abruptly cancelled the execution of eighteen anti-regime protestors when President Trump said any executions would mean American action directly against those who ordered the executions.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, top leader and commander of the military, has reportedly made plans to go into exile–perhaps to Moscow—if America looks to be truly on the brink of regime change.

I don’t think this will be the case. These ayatollah types are satanically bound to the most radical and virulent form of Islam, and Khamenei is 87, so the regime might be ready to die on that hill, as is sometimes said for those who won’t change or quit.

But getting back to this article’s titleit is money that is at the root of what I sense is going on now in this regard. And it is profoundly prophetic, if it’s the way this might all be shaping up for one of the most notable of all Bible prophecies.

The people of Iran are revolting vehemently due to their destitution, driven to action by the regime creating that dire economic condition. And with sanctions in place that this American president has set against the Iranian dictatorship, they haven’t any way of satisfying the reason for the peoples’ revolt.

They must therefore do what every government, especially those under the tyrannical leaderships, usually do: create diversion—or, in this case, join a coalition that is strong so as to prevent their own loss of power.

It is fascinating to note that another nation of prophetic interest is in terrible economic shape, also. And, as stated before, it’s obvious to me that one reason Vladimir Putin of Russia is so adamant about taking back Ukraine because his own people must realize they’re being deprived and tremendous internal revolt is developing.

A much-appreciated reader wrote to say there are no such hard economic times in Russia–at least not to the extent the sources I’m hearing from are reporting. However, despite Russia’s economic condition one way or the other, with the American president, for example, cutting off Russia’s oil from Venezuela and other harsh monetary impositions such as sanctions, the Russian plight is destined to worsen.

Ukraine offers that diversion mentioned above, keeping the attention focused on the war. But the tremendous numbers of Russia’s youth lost in the war, and now even older people, are adding to the increasing displeasure among the people of Russia. At the same time, there is great need to get vast sums of money to keep their economic base out of the pit of destitution.

I wonder again if the “evil thought” that comes into the mind of the one called Gog will have the love of or the desperate need for money at the root of the decision to invade toward Israel to “take great spoil” (Israel’s riches).

The same question applies to Iran (Persia). Might the leadership see that their way to survive is to join that coalition with Russia and the others to gain strength back as they pursue riches to the south?

While the Tribulation grows nearer on the prophetic horizon, things seem to be shaping up quickly, with many of the developments wrapped around economic exigencies. And that shaping up includes the US, as we’ve looked at numerous times before.

While the tyrannical nations to the east are in declining economic conditions, I believe there’s about to be an economic boom in America. This is a reason, I believe, that Donald Trump was allowed in office again despite even assassination attempts against his life and every sort of unsavory political and personal attack imaginable.

Despite the declarations of some prophecy writers—those who deny there will be the pre-Trib Rapture and who think we are on the precipice of economic collapse, thus about to go directly into the Tribulationthe facts are coming out to the contrary. A just-released indicator of the up-trending fiscal outlook is highly relevant.

The U.S. trade deficit has been reduced to $29.4 billion, after last being reported at $48.1 billion. The forecasted deficit had been $58.1 billion, Investing.com reported. The deficit dropped by $18.7 billion, and was $28.7 billion less than the predicted figure. The deficit is the lowest since 2009. (“US Trade Deficit Shrinks to $29.4 Billion, Lowest Since 2009,” https://amac.us/newsline/economy/us-trade-deficit-shrinks-to-29-4-billion-lowest-since-2009/)

Some financial authorities/experts believe an economic boom is thus beginning. This fits with our Lord’s Luke 17:28–30 “days of Lot” prophecy. It’s just a time like this—when building, buying, selling, and other economics are on the uptick—when He will call the Church into the clouds of Glory, according to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

So, after here looking a bit into the root of evil, let us rather, with great anticipation, begin looking up for our redemption, which is drawing near (Luke 21:28)!

 

Persia’s Gog-Magog Motivation?

Most observers of Bible prophecy and developments toward eventual fulfillment—from the pre-Trib perspective—believe a motivation for the Gog-Magog attack of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 will involve economics. It seems, as a matter of fact, that perhaps the primary motivation will be monetary.

The scriptural basis for this presumption derives from the following:

Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land. (Ezekiel 38:9–12)

Of course, the real motivation, the impetus for this future attack, comes from Satan. He wants the Jewish nation Israel destroyed. If he can cause God’s promise—for Israel to be a nation forever—to fail, he doubtless believes he can avoid his own promised punishment, which is to burn throughout eternity in the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

The “evil thought” in this Ezekiel prophecy, though, will have at its root in the mind of the Gog spirit indwelling the leader of this satanic coalition the dark idea of stealing all the riches Israel is blessed with.

This motivation, it more and more appears, will be not only from just the desire to take Israel’s riches, but also from the determination to turn around all the coalition members’ (Gog-Magog nations’) abject, dismal economic conditions.

And this monetary-fiscal failure is ever more evident within the economic conditions of these major players that will lead the Gog-Magog assault, according to today’s news cycles.

Russia is in dire stress economically, and many observers believe this is one reason Vladimir Putin keeps feeding the youth and now even the older soldiers of Russia into the deadly machinery of war in the bloody battles against Ukraine. He must distract from the increasingly horrendous economy and living conditions suffered by the Russian people to preserve his position of power.

This has often been the strategy of the likes of Josef Stalin and subsequent dictators of the Soviet Union and around the world.

But we’re looking here at the Gog-Magog coalition member called “Persia.”

This, of course, is the area now called “Iran.”

Here are some news tidbits about that nation’s dismal fiscal condition:

  • Iranians use internet connectivity to fight hated regime: Iran’s latest wave of unrest began with the kind of trigger that regimes fear because it spreads through every class: money. Shopkeepers in Tehran’s large mobile phone market shuttered their stores, and the anger pulled in students and more cities as the rial kept sliding and prices kept climbing. The protests did not reach the scale of the 2022 uprising, yet the tone shifted quickly, and the content online sharpened.
  • Why Iranians are calling for the return of the Pahlavis and their monarchy: Protesters took to the streets of Iran this week, amid chants of anger against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and fury over an economy in free fall, a slogan once considered politically unutterable returned, and the sounds of crowds chanting it filled the air. “Javid Shah” – Long Live the Shah.
  • Regime Change Here? Protesters Call for the Death of Ayatollah Khamenei Aa Violence Erupts All over Iran:  Is this the end for the tyrannical regime of Ayatollah Khamenei and his minions? During the fifth day of protests in Iran, violence erupted in multiple major cities, and protesters were shouting for Khamenei to be killed. But I wouldn’t get too excited yet. Demanding regime change is easy. Bringing it about is something else altogether. Khamenei and his minions have a lot more guns than the protesters do, and the current regime will never step aside willingly. So those that are desperately hoping for regime change in Iran should not count their chickens before they hatch. (Rapture Ready News, January 2, 2026)

The stories of Iran’s radical Muslim regime coming under assault by the Iranian people continue to mount. And it is reported that the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini has made arrangements to go into exile in Moscow at any moment.

But it is reasonable to wonder if this will happen because of Islam’s absolute dedication to establishing the rule of Allah no matter the opposition. War in the cause of Allah—even to the extent of murdering all people who oppose the Islamic law and rule—is justified, and there is to be no quarter given.

Like in the case of Putin and Russia, the Islamic dictatorship will not be deterred. Anything and everything will be done, if history is an indicator, to forge ahead with satanic-directed hegemony. Therefore, Bible prophecy and its fulfillment could well be in play in light of the dire economic conditions and resultant rage by the Iranian people.

It’s easy to postulate that the wrathful unrest of the people who now occupy the land of ancient Persia will cause Iran’s evil leaders to eagerly join with Russia, Turkey, and the rest of the Gog-Magog force in the assault against God’s chosen nation and people.

The “evil thought” of the one called “Gog” will almost certainly center around deflecting the anger and rage of the millions of people under these regimes’ dictatorships.

We are perhaps witnessing now the buildup toward solidifying that coalition Ezekiel spoke of thousands of years ago.

Money—the love of which, God’s Word tells us, is the root of all sorts of evil—certainly is at the nucleus of much of what’s going on in our world today. Whether considering the hatred surrounding the Israel-Muslim world, the blood-drenched Russia-Ukraine war, or the US action against the drug cartels of oil-rich but citizen-destitute Venezuela, economics are surely a prime motivating factor in the drive toward global dictatorship that will one day be attempted by Antichrist.

In that regard, we can see where President Dwight Eisenhower had it right in his warning against the military-industrial complex. The munitions industry it takes to foment and carry out war continues to create wealth for the producers and the merchants of weaponry.

All this we see developing points to the truth that Christ’s call to the Church is drawing near.

Speaking of motivation: Seeing that glorious moment drawing ever nearer, how motivated should we be to be about our Father’s business in carrying out the Great Commission?

Here again is the heart of that gospel to use in our mission to reach the lost:

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)

What’s Next for America?

Beginning the New Year 2026 and considering all that’s happening that looks to signal the very end of this Age of Grace, sets the stage for wondering just how near we might be to the time when Christ calls His Bride. And, meantime, the question arises: Just what might be next for life in America?

While thinking about my research in writing my Harvest House book released in 2009—The American Apocalypse: Is the United States in Bible Prophecy?—took me back to God’s dealing with America in the 1930s. The things Americans suffered were considered by preachers and politicians alike to be God’s wrath and judgment.

One well-known writer, John Steinbeck, even gave his famous novel on that depressed time in America the title The Grapes of Wrath.

America had gone through a tremendous time of growth and relative prosperity during the “Gay 90s” (for the younger readers, it had nothing to do with the 1990s, nor with homosexuality). It was the 1890s, and the term “gay” still enjoyed its proper definition.

Despite the early 1900s bringing about World War I, the nation leaped forward, and soon the “Roaring Twenties” brought forth the flappers and boisterous, even debauched, “good times.” Reformers tried to squash the hedonism, and the passage of the 18th Amendment instituted prohibition against alcohol manufacture, sale, and transportation. The action only increased rebellion against morality. American gangsters took over, and illegal booze, gambling, and every other type of nefarious activity permeated culture and society.

Then, in 1929 came the stock market crash in the United States, and worldwide depression quickly followed. The wrath of God had fallen!

Or had it?

No, it had not. Neither had His judgment against America’s sin fallen upon the nation, thus affecting the world—not in the sense of God’s great judgment that came upon the antediluvians, the wicked, violent, even genetically corrupted earth dwellers of Noah’s day.

But God’s mighty hand of correction through the Great Depression and the horrendous “Dust Bowl” era came down hard on the backside of this nation He so manifestly chose to accomplish great things for His great purposes. Those things would include, in particular: 1) developing the technologies that would spread the gospel around the entire world, and 2) to act as midwife for the birth of modern Israel on May 14, 1948, and to become that Jewish peoples’ closest ally—an ally that just happened to soon become the most materially blessed, most powerful, and most influential nation the world has ever known.

America has, despite recession, economic downturns, and wars that took thousands of young American lives, known a standard of living and pleasures—both unsullied and debauched—like no generation of any people in history. The profoundly disturbing questions to ponder are: Will God choose to again correct this special nation called America? Or, will He take His hand off to an extent, allowing the US to find its own way, and the people to do what is right in their own eyes, which is what much of the American electorate seems to want?

Daily I read news, even from those who write on things from the Bible prophecy perspective who fear this nation will now feel the Lord’s hand of wrath. These writers usually are those who reject totally the pre-Trib view of Rapture. They hold that the die is cast, as one of Shakespeare’s characters said. I don’t necessarily subscribe to that “judgment and wrath is about to fall” opinion—at least not in the immediate, near-term way many who write the fear-filled articles and books believe.

God’s wrath, however, is building. It will be unleashed when the “prince that shall come” confirms the covenant with Israel and Israel’s antagonists (Daniel 9:26–27).

That pouring out of God’s anger won’t happen until the Church is removed. However, there is almost certainly a heavenly decision that has already been made and is even now in the process of implementation. It is likely the decision to either take corrective measures as in God’s past dealings with America in order to get this nation back on the moral course, to complete its work in His grand prophetic design, or to give rebellious masses what they more and more demonstrate they demand. They demand freedom to choose what is right in their own eyes.

God’s decision to take His hand off to some extent would be far more fearful than His again taking corrective action like world economic depression. To let the rebels do what is right in their own eyes, thus casting God away from any semblance of divine guidance, means America’s work is done. That is indeed a frightening thing to contemplate.

I must say that I, with reverential consideration, don’t expect immediate meltdown and correction from Almighty God. I believe with all that is within me that He has been demonstrating corrective movements over the past years and months—movements that have gone unheeded by even the majority of His people. These have chosen to bury their heads in the sands of watered-down messages that have practically no relevance to God’s message of doctrinal truth. Rather than revival, there have been false, emotional outbursts that have done disservice to the Lord, who purchased each and every one who has been born again. It seems to me that the Church’s work, like that of America, has almost run its course.

Dave Hunt once wrote a book called Peace, Prosperity, and the Coming Holocaust. His basic premise was that this fallen world system—and particularly the United States and even the Church—would be drawn ever deeper into believing in humanistic salvation by seeming peace and prosperity. He demonstrated, then, through historical precedent and Bible prophecy both past and yet to come that the world of fallen man will, at a future time of unprecedented evil activity on earth, endure a holocaust far worse than that perpetrated by Adolf Hitler. The end will bring, he concluded, God’s wrath and judgment on an incorrigibly wicked world.

I believe America and the world might be entering a time of so-called peace and prosperity as Dave foresaw. But it will be abbreviated by Christ’s sudden intervention. The “change” the country and the world is clamoring for through trust in human governmental entities rather than God’s moral governance will, as my late friend Dave Hunt wrote, swiftly bring the holocaust of the Tribulation.

As many know, I believe that Jesus’ prophecy on “the days of Lot” (Luke 17: 28-30) Is exactly where this generation likely stands on God’s prophetic timeline.

It will not be world economic collapse or the end of the American dream, as some declare, that will preempt the “sudden destruction” of Luke 17-30. Jesus said that the economy will be business as usual, while wickedness proliferates just beneath the surface of civility when He next catastrophically intervenes into the world of sin and rebellion.

As a matter of fact, instead of the economic collapse into the Tribulation, as some prophecy writers of the anti-pre-Trib Rapture sort are declaring, I believe we are headed for somewhat of an economic boom.

While, at the moment, the writers of economic collapse are pointing to the rise in prices they believe will bring economic despair at the Tribulation level, the facts are entirely different. The following item points to what is happening under this unusual president named Donald J. Trump.

Well, Donald Trump has done it again!

He stumped the chumps.

The “chumps” in this case were the “blue chip” academic and financial economists whose consensus forecast this time last year was for high inflation and low economic growth. Wrong on both counts.

As you’ve probably heard, the GDP growth for Q3 came in at a red hot 4.3% following 3.5% for the second quarter. Some 90% of the professional economists got it wrong — all underestimating the strength of the Trump economy. QED: these weren’t random errors. These were “hate Trump” errors.

They also predicted inflation of above 3% for 2025. It’s going to come in at closer to 2.7% with the last two months trending down to the Fed inflation target of 2%.

Starting in the second quarter, GDP has been nearly twice as high as predicted.

To quote the inimitable special agent Maxwell Smart: “Missed it by that much.”…

Krugman and others all thought Trump’s tariffs would ignite runaway inflation.

There’s no doubt tariffs did cause a rise in aluminum, coffee and beef prices – commodities that got hit by tariffs as high as 50%. But the economic pundits failed to take account of the disinflationary effect of pro-growth policies like deregulation, Trump tax rate cuts, and pro-America energy policies. These counteracted the impact of tariffs on prices overall.

One would have thought that the academics and media would have learned from their mistakes of always underestimating Trump on the economy. But they seem incapable of self-correcting. They keep doubling-down on dire predictions about Trumponomics. (https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/moore-economists-got-2025-all-wrong)

While prices continue to be too high for consumer affordability because of prior economic mishandling, I believe changes to bring costs down for the consumer are in process.

Do not think that this coming economic uptick is a good thing in terms of the world. Rather, it is a harbinger of the moment when God takes His great hand of restraint off this fallen planet and takes His family into the clouds of Glory!

It signals the any-moment Rapture!

Jesus said the economy will be just like it was in Sodom when Lot was removed. Business in that wicked place was booming—so much so that Lot chose to settle there when his Uncle Abraham gave him a choice.

It also will be like it was in Sodom once God’s family—all born-again believers in His Son Jesus Christ—are removed. Sudden destruction will follow, like in ancient Sodom.

So, like in the case of Lot’s family (the only righteousness God recognized in Sodom), the righteous–all born-again living and dead during the Church Age or Age of Grace will be removed from amongst the unbelieving of this fallen planet. This will be the Rapture—the pre-Trib Rapture!

Let us pray for the president and for all governmental leaders, so that we might lead peaceful lives. This is commanded of us by the Lord. But, let us work to complete whatever He puts in front of us to do for the Kingdom. Let us, as Oswald Chambers entitled his book of devotions, do “Our utmost for His highest” while our fleeting time remains upon this fallen sphere.

*******

Pakistan Ministry Mission Appeal from Terry James

To my Rapture Ready and Prophecyline family: I again solicit your support in spreading God’s Word in Pakistan.

Your generosity in past missionary efforts has just been wonderful beyond measure. I again prayerfully ask that you open your spiritual heart in helping fund the distribution of the books I have given to our pastor in Pakistan to use while he preaches and teaches about our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pastor Anil Jasper translated my little book, Prophecy Power: Strength from God to Face Your Future. He has now also translated into the Urdu language my small book, HeavenVision: Glimpses into Glory.

This is the book in which I describe my widow-maker heart attack on Good Friday of April 22, 2011. In this book, I tell of being somewhere in the heavenly sphere each time my heart stopped. The voluminous documentation of that medical emergency shows why my survival was so unusual that the cardiological association gave me the “Cardiological Patient of the Year” award and asked me to speak at their convention.

Of course, at the heart of my testimony is the salvation message that Jesus alone can save the soul from an eternity apart from God the Father.

The first book Pastor Anil translated, then distributed and continues to distribute to the people of his country, Prophecy Power remains a great witness of Christ’s saving power. HeavenVision will now add a second tool that will help Pastor Anil win souls for God’s eternal family.

I have special permission from my publishers to donate these books to this ministry. I receive no compensation whatsoever from their distribution in Pakistan.

Your donations are essential to carry out this all-important mission. I believe your contributions will result in great heavenly rewards some eternal day when we all come before our Lord at the judgment seat of Christ.

We need funding to print and distribute these books beginning this month.

May the Lord bless you mightily for helping in this mission to the people of Pakistan.

Again, I don’t have a way to accept credit cards or Pay Pal-type contributions. I ask that you send a check to the address below.

Please put in the line at the bottom of your check: “For our Pakistani mission.”

Also, please include your email address so I can thank you individually. Being blind now since I was fifty-one, sending out letters is beyond my ability. But sending emails is easily within my capability, and I certainly want to thank each of you.

Please make the check out to my name–Terry James—and send to:

Terry James Prophecyline

P.O. Box 38

Benton, AR 72018           

Thanks, and God’s Blessings.

Terry 

PS—I am thankful and so pleased to announce that we have received a donation offer that will greatly help in this effort to fund printing and distribution of my books in Pakistan.

A most generous brother in Christ has offered up to $7,500 in matching funds for donations we receive.

In other words, for each donation you send, he will match with an equal amount up to $7,500.

This will greatly bless our effort to provide for the printing and distribution of these two books, each  of which has been translated by Pastor Anil Jasper into his Urdu language.

Thanks to each of you who help reach our goal, which we believe will be sufficient to accomplish this missionary effort in our Lord’s service.

All funds received will be used toward reaching the people of Pakistan with truth from God’s Word.

Resolution or Revolution

New Year’s resolutions of every description are no doubt being sworn as 2026 makes its entrance. I’ve never made such commitments over my many decades of life; I guess I’ve always known my weakness in not being able to stick to them.

There is, however, a resolution I hope to make central to this commentary—one I believe you and I must keep while we watch the burgeoning evil of this late prophetic hour.

We can keep this resolution—a heavenly directed one—because the very hand of God is guaranteed to be upon us while we try to keep it. It is Heaven’s answer in dealing with the other matter, “revolution,” in this commentary’s title.

There is a deluge of news counter to God’s design for humanity’s conduct. We look at the incessant evil each week in this column and in other venues, books, etc.

“Revolution” is the antithesis of Heaven’s directive for humankind. The revolution springs from the original rebel who first seduced the mother of us all. It is the result of the venom called “iniquity” introduced when Lucifer, now called Satan, convinced Eden’s only human inhabitants to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Since that time, the deadly disease of sin has coursed through the veins of every person who has ever lived–except for Jesus the Christ, whose birth into this fallen sphere we celebrated a week or so ago.

And He is the One who has given us the antidote to the deadly malady from which all of humankind suffers.

The spirit of indwelling revolution against God within all of us is the cause of the wickedness and rebellion demonstrated across the world at this very moment. That revolutionary hatred is pushing all of humanity ever nearer the time of Tribulation. Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and Resurrection is the antidote to that deadly eternal virus, when the person infected receives that antidote as God’s grace gift to each of us.

To be free of this satanically induced, rebellious revolution that condemns all people to separation from the Heavenly Father forever requires a Savior. Without the Savior that takes away the sins of the world, the human creation would be condemned to eternal destruction.

The returning King of all kings and Lord of all lords Himself said that if He didn’t intervene at Armageddon, no flesh would be savedJesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world who takes away the sin that was introduced into Eden when Adam and Eve rebelled against their Creator.

He is the only way individuals can be saved. He is the Savior of the world!

And this is the truth wrapped up within the resolution for this new year that we must make and carry out. The message wrapped within this resolution is the only answer to what ails the entire world at present, the evil and wickedness that confront us in hourly news each and every day.

Jesus, the Savior of the world, issued Heaven’s command. It’s a command that we as members of God’s eternal family, saved by the matchless grace of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross at Calvary, must resolve to carry out in this New Year. Here is our Lord’s command, which we must make our resolution to obey in 2026.

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:16–20)

Let us resolve to fight against the rebellious evil of this satanic revolution raging in this fallen world. Jesus and the message of the gospel must be presented to everyone on earth in order to offer Heaven’s antidote to the deadly sin infection afflicting all of humanity.

Here is that message:

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)