When going to Google to flesh out my quest to write on the war being waged against Christianity today, I immediately discovered a primary attack strategy  the enemy uses.

In putting in research lines and terms, the search results often placed Christianity in the position of being the aggressor  against the social norm Christianity opposes—i.e., Christianity is most often at first presented by the search engine as wrongly assaulting the issue or event such as abortion, a homosexual convention, or whatever.

Although the search engine eventually got to the facts involving the Christianity-vs.-the-anti-biblical matter being researched, facts were reached only after going through several levels of attempts by the search engine to imply, at the very least, that Christianity, not the opposition matter, was likely in error.

There is no doubt, considering the way things are swiftly trending, that a war is being waged upon true Christianity-–that is, biblical truth.

Christians who engage in this battle are indeed combat soldiers of the cross. The proof is in every direction upon the prophetic horizon that this is an end-times battle of epic proportion. That proof is made clear through accumulating evidence such as the following:

• UK pastor says he was arrested for preaching the gospel, speaking out against Islam
  A 66-year-old U.K. pastor arrested while street preaching in London, said he is facing hate speech-related charges for preaching the Bible and speaking out against Islam. “It’s called inciting religious hatred — which is false,” Pastor Steve Maile told Fox News Digital. “The cross of Christ is a message of hope, love, mercy, and reconciliation to a fallen world… How could that be hate?” (Rapture Ready News, May 16, 2026)
• Irish Pastor Convicted, Fined for Preaching Near Abortion Facility
  Clive Johnston was arrested for holding an outdoor church service near a hospital (near an abortion facility) despite not mentioning abortion. He was convicted of violating Northern Ireland’s “safe access zone” law. “This is a very dark day for Christian freedom,” Johnston said. (The New American, Rapture Ready News, May 19, 2026)
• Every year Open Doors USA releases its World Watch report of the 50 states most likely to punish Christians for their faith…

The group Open Doors USA figures that 360 million Christians last year lived in countries where persecution was “significant.” Roughly 5,600 Christians were murdered, more than 6,000 were detained or imprisoned, and another 4,000-plus were kidnapped. In addition, more than 5,000 churches and other religious facilities were destroyed.

American Christians talk of persecution, but that is what real persecution looks like. (“Christianity Is the World’s Most Persecuted Religion, Confirms New Report” by Doug Bandow )

Here in the United States, opposition to Christianity and its principles of morality is on the grow as never before. The following points to that burgeoning opposition:

“Progressive outlets are in an uproar this week over a White House sponsored Christian prayer event scheduled to take place on this Sunday at the National Mall.  The Trump administration and the Freedom 250 nonprofit will host ‘Rededicate 250,’ which will feature Cabinet members and conservative religious leaders to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary.

“According to event organizers, the program aims to reflect on the faith of America’s founders and serve as a national moment of rededication. Participants include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

“Leftists journalists and Democrats are accusing the Trump Administration of violating the US Constitution and the ‘separation of church and state’ by sponsoring the event.

“We have seen how governments devoid of religious principle behave—The atheistic regimes of communist Russia, China, Cambodia and North Korea have murdered millions upon millions in the name of ‘saving’ the populace from the ‘opiate of religion.’ We have also seen how movements like the political left behave when they gain power, injecting authoritarianism and degeneracy into every facet of society and even targeting children with irrational and anti-science indoctrination.” (“Establishment Media Outraged By White House Sponsored Christian Prayer Event,” ZeroHedge, May 16, 2026)

The same Zerohedge article gave a sense of America’s founders view of this battle involving Christianity vs the world’s evil:

“The Founding Fathers are often described by leftists as ‘followers of the Enlightenment,’ as if this means they were not Christian. [Most] of them were in fact Christian while also promoting some ideals of the Enlightenment.  Many prominent figures of the enlightenment were religious, including Isaac Newton, John Locke, and Christian Wolff.

“Their goal was to seek harmony between faith and reason, not erase the practice of faith from society or government.  As John Adams said:

“‘The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity…I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.’

“He also stated:

“‘Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

My Maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Adams. We are supposedly somehow related to John Adams and, of course, his son, John Quincy Adams.

Whether related in fact or not, I’m in complete agreement with President John Adams’ belief in engaging in combat for Christ in this increasingly wicked world.

It started out as global warming, eventually with Al Gore’s infamously spawned picture of a polar bear floating atop a small area of ice somewhere near the Arctic, I think it was. The picture and all that flowed from that heart-tugging graphic caused much panic within the progressive enclaves of America and the world. Children in the classrooms were particularly dismayed seeing the photo and receiving the teaching that we were all doomed.

The polar bear’s supposed dilemma was to illustrate the swiftly developing ecological condition that would soon have us all, symbolically at the very least, floating on an ever-decreasing area of existence upon the planet.

We were informed–assured—by supposed top scientists that soon the Atlantic would be up to the first floor of the Empire State Building as the oceanic waters took over America’s geography as well as the rest of the world’s inhabitable areas.

But as the years and decades came and receded, the opposite was shown to be happening. The Arctic and other icy regions actually grew in their frozen expansion.

The whole lie was concocted to control the populations of America and the world. The same type of control has been attempted, and was even considerably successful, with the COVID hoax that was foisted upon us a couple of years ago.

America and the world were going to have to bow to those who knew the “science,” which the rest of us, according to those authorities, did not understand.

The results of the changes made under the lies of global warming and the COVID hoax were to make billions of dollars for those perpetrating the lies and, more egregiously, to prepare the way for forcing acceptance of demands upon those who will live under the terror regime of Antichrist at some future prophetic point.

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:16–17) 

The successful indoctrination in the global warming and COVID matters proved beyond any doubt that people are susceptible to the constant, fear-mongering warnings and threats of those who have the means to control–those with information dominance. Satan, as “prince of the power of the air,” is at the helm of all such lies. His “son of perdition”–Antichrist—will use all available platforms of satanic inculcation to bring about adherence to the devil’s control demands during Daniel’s seventieth week–the Tribulation era. 

The minions, both demonic and human, are hard at work at this moment, continuing to try to bring about submission to the control techniques of the one who stalks about seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5: 8).

I think we see the furtherance of this effort with the most recent warnings issued breathlessly by most all mainstream news sources regarding the Hantavirus health scare. It is prudent to ask how long it might be before we are again asked to change everything in our lives because of this most recent or a future threat made up by the minions.

Actual facts about the global warming lie—changed because of its failure to produce the terrors predicted from global warming to climate change—recently made their way to the surface of truth-telling. 

The IPCC has published a new generation of climate scenarios—and buried in the fine print is a remarkable concession: the extreme warming pathways that dominated climate research, policy, and media coverage for decades were never actually plausible. It took a while to notice because almost no one in mainstream media bothered to report it.

“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just published the next generation of climate scenarios,” Science policy analyst Roger Pielke Jr. wrote, calling it “big news” that “eliminated the most extreme scenarios that have dominated climate research over much of the past several decades.” 

The conclusion was unambiguous. “The IPCC and broader research community has now admitted that the scenarios that have dominated climate research, assessment and policy during the past two cycles of the IPCC assessment process are implausible. They describe impossible futures.”

Those “impossible futures” formed the backbone of a decade-plus of apocalyptic climate messaging – melting ice caps, submerged coastlines, mass extinctions, widespread crop failures, and global hunger, always around the corner, always demanding immediate, economy-reshaping action to avert a catastrophe that, it now turns out, the underlying science community had assigned to a category closer to science fiction than projection. (“UN Climate Panel Quietly Admits Its Doomsday Climate Scenarios Were ‘Implausible’,” Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge, Thursday, May 07, 2026)

Despite the divulging of such truth about what the minions are seeking to foist upon us, those minions are not the least bit deterred. Here is what the Apostle Paul warns, particularly for this end-of-the-age generation of believers.

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. (2 Timothy 3:13–14) 

The second verse here offers us absolute assurance. We are to take that assurance in the things we’ve learned from God’s love letter to all humankind. Here is what that Word promises:

• Psalm 104:5: “The Lord established the earth upon its foundations, so it will never move.”
• Ecclesiastes 1:4: “Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.”
• Isaiah 45:18: “He created the earth to be inhabited; He did not create it to be empty.”

The charlatans of global warming, climate change, and all other attempts to bring us under the satanic spell of fear should have no influence over believers in Jesus Christ—especially those who are foundationally secure in God’s prophetic Word. The Lord has given all we need to know about what lies ahead for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Here once again is how to know you are in the safe shelter of God’s Son, who went to the cross at Calvary, died, was buried and rose again to eternally pay for our sin, so that anyone who accepts this gift, this sacrifice, is forever secure in God’s 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)

 

It is one of the key components of attack by the Ephesians 6:12 cabal of minions, both demonic and human, in these last of the last days.

The accusation that reviling the people of the world who are of Islamic faithis an evil practice is particularly leveled at American patriots today. Google, the prime search engine in cyberspace, states the following, in brief, as its first definition of the term “Islamophobia”:  “dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force:

The immediate follow up in the biased Google’s definition is the declaration: “there is no place for Islamophobia in our communities.”

Mainstream media and the so-called progressive political world paints any of us who speak in any way against Islam as being hate filled against the darker-skinned people of the world. Racial bigotry is thus proclaimed by supporters of anti-Semitism to be a legitimate reason fanatics within Islam have the right to use terrorism and to war against Israel in the fight to be accepted as members of non-Muslim communities in America and other nations. While this might not always be said directly, this tenet within such journalistic shaming is inevitably there.

Those who practice Islam, therefore, we’re supposed to believe, just want to live and let live. It is a religion of peace that will, if left to its practitioners’ way of worship, make any neighborhood, community, state, or nation a more pleasant environment–a better place to live in this world.

Here I will say that Muslims who genuinely keep their (unacceptable to the rest of us) restrictive religious practices to themselves–and there are in this nation and elsewhere who do—should be welcomed and treated with the same dignity and respect as I and my family should be treated.

But this is not the norm today.

A broad swath within Islam who dogmatically hold to their Muslim faith as presented in the Koran believe, and fanatically so, that all peoples of the world must submit to Islam and to Allah or be…well…eliminated.

Here is Google’s meaning of the word “Islam”: “submission to the will of God [by which they mean their god Allah]”; adherents of Islam are called Muslims. The fundamental belief of Islam is “There is only one God, and Muhammad is his prophet.” 

Throughout the centuries, those who truly adhere to the Koran’s tenets have taken the religion’s purpose to the limits of murderous intent. These have slaughtered peoples of the world who will not submit to Allah. While many within Islam never engage in such atrocity, those who are at the top of the Islamic parapet believe it their mission under Mohammed’s instruction to, if necessary, force every last person on the planet to submit or else be eliminated as an opposing resistant entity.

And this is the answer to our friends in mainstream media and the political progressive left who declare Islam is a peaceful religion no different than Christianity. As a matter of fact, these as often as not find ways to accuse Christians of being at the center of troublemaking throughout the world because we are, they accuse, most often homophobic, or Islamophobic, and full of other white supremacist-type bigotries. (Ignored is the fact that Islam is homophobic to the extent that true practitioners believe it’s righteous to murder homosexuals.) 

But those who truly believe God’s Word, the Bible, have no history of slaughtering those who will not bend the knee.

“But wait!” I hear you. “What about the Crusades? What was that but a horrific campaign to force all to bow to the Christian faith?”

My answer is this was done by those who didn’t truly hold to the truth God put in His love letter to humankind. The Crusaders wanted all to bow to basically the Catholic faith, and to a perverted version even of that religious dogma. It started in 1095 with Pope Urban II declaring a holy war to take back the Holy Land from Muslims. (i.e., although God obviously wanted the land given to Abraham’s seed removed from Islamic rule, this movement with murderous slaughter at its center was not condoned by the God of Heaven. The Crusades were, in many cases, a fanaticism that committed evil atrocities as wicked as has Islam throughout the millennia.

Today it isn’t Islamophobia when we fearfully and with justifiable concern watch the spread of Islam’s deadly fanaticism throughout our beloved America. And its spread throughout the rest of the world is also a concerning matter.

Rapture Ready News presented stories on one recent news day the threat that confronts us.

EXPOSED: Hamas -Linked CAIR intends to use subversive tactics to transform Oklahoma by deploying a deliberate, multi-pronged campaign: 1.) Expand Muslim Political Influence Through Organizing and Coalitions, 2.) Enforce ‘Social Justice’ Norms via Education and Redefinition of Community, and 3.) Reduce Traditional Conservative Power Through Legal and Political Pressure.

• MI Dems Nominate Hezbollah-Praising, Pro-Palestinian Lawyer For Powerful University Post 
  A Michigan Muslim Democrat who is a civil rights attorney has secured the nomination for a powerful University of Michigan Board of Regents seat over a Jewish incumbent. Antisemitic, pro-Hezbollah Amir Makled is a cohort of Abdul El-Sayed and is part of the red-green alliance in Michigan, which is rising.
• America is Being Conquered Without Firing a Shot: Paterson Raises Jordanian Flag While Celebrating Islamic Caliphates & Quran Verses
  While the city’s official press release painted the April 16 event as a harmless celebration of “heritage and community contributions,” the reality unfolding at Paterson City Hall was far more revealing. Speakers openly invoked Islamic greetings, Quranic symbolism, Palestinian solidarity, and future expansion plans, all while raising the flag of another Islamic nation over US soil.
• War Plan Exposed: Muslim Brotherhood’s Secret Blueprint – ‘The Project’ to Capture America – Operates Untouched Inside Their Virginia Command Center
  The Muslim Brotherhood’s Secret Blueprint, “The Project,” (to capture America) lays out a patient, multi-generational roadmap for advancing Islam in America and worldwide. It serves as the operational manual that has guided Muslim Brotherhood networks for over four decades. (Raptureready.com News, April 21, 2026)

Islam has established a solid foothold in America. It is not Islamophobia to recognize and report that we are being assaulted by a crusade to bring sharia law to increasingly expanding areas of our nation. The aim of Islamic law that enslaves women, making them equal or less than livestock in that culture, is to do the same here. The minions–the powers and principalities—of Ephesians 6:12 intend to bring all under sharia no matter how long it takes.

As I write this, in Iran, eight young women who protested the Iranian regime of terror, some as young as 16, were scheduled to be executed for peacefully protesting that government’s deadly oppression. Reportedly, the women were to be raped before their executions, thus defiled under sharia law, so as to not be allowed into Islamic heaven.

President Trump asked that they be spared, and, thankfully, apparently the girls and young women have been removed from the execution list as part of the regime’s negotiating tactics.

The thrust of this worldwide movement is to replace the God of Heaven with the God of this world. It is not an irrational fear–that is, it is not Islamophobic–to stand against this attempt while we move toward the end of the ageand the most terrible time of all human history, the Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week).

Islam is at the heart of savagery against and hatred for Israel. It is such satanic rage that will be instrumental at bringing the world’s armies to battle against the returning Lord and King Jesus Christ at Armageddon.

But take heart believers! Like all other assaults against God’s truth, Islam and sharia law will be dealt with ultimately by Heaven’s Supreme Court!

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth . Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. (Psalm 2:6–12)

Perhaps some who read my thoughts about what I believe to be the most relevant prophecy at this moment might say I’m “flogging a dead horse” and “there he goes again with that ‘days of Lot’ prophecy.”

That “dead horse,” I must say, has, stunningly, arisen and stands front and center at this 2026 moment. I believe its coming to life is most significant as we observe all other signals flashing before us.

And, of all places on earth for it to be standing, it is God’s chosen land, Israel, where its resurrection is now manifesting for all the world to observe.

The prophecy comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, of course: the same words you have read here many times over the months and years.

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) 

We’ve looked at this as meaning it will be business as usual in general when Jesus next catastrophically intervenes in the wicked affairs of humankind. That is, the Lord will rapture believers at a time like it was in Lot’s day, with things of life going along as usual, but with great wickedness and blasphemy against God. Destruction then came upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and sudden destruction will come on the days in the future that will be like those days millennia ago.

I believe we are in times almost exactly like those ancient days. “Prove it,” the naysayers might charge. Well, I’ll let the news that has just broken provide the proof:

Israeli authorities are promoting a large-scale gay event at the Dead Sea on social media, which has caused criticism and bewilderment among Christians.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel announced the holding of a large-scale LGBT festival on the coast of the Dead Sea – in a territory traditionally associated with the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The corresponding announcement was published in the official account of the ministry on social network X.

It states that in June, for several days, the Dead Sea area will become the venue for the largest LGBT festival in the Middle East with round-the-clock entertainment programming, hotels, and concert venues.

[One German cardinal has urged clergy at the coming event to conduct blessings upon LGBT couples.]

According to media reports, the event involves creating temporary infrastructure in the desert area, including hotels and recreation zones, as well as holding concerts and various events, including those declared as “family-friendly.”

At the same time, this initiative has caused resonance in Christian circles. Social media users drew attention to the symbolism of the festival’s location, which in biblical tradition is associated with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah due to the extreme wickedness, sexual violence, and pride of the inhabitants (Genesis 19).

Some clergy and Christian public figures expressed the opinion that holding such an event in this region is perceived as a challenge to Christian values and biblical understanding of morality.

“Why here? They are mocking God,” said Father Michael Lillie, a priest of the Orthodox Church of the Nativity of Christ in Youngstown, Ohio. (“Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces LGBT festival near Sodom and Gomorrah, News,” News of Orthodoxy – the Union of Orthodox Journalists, https://spzh.eu/en/news/92652-israels-ministry-of-foreign-affairs-announces-lgbt-festival-near-sodom-and-gomorrah)

In America, we’ve witnessed a minority that makes up the gay community turn our culture toward homosexual dominance. Gay pride saturates our cities, states, sports events, and every other strata. We have looked recently in this column at how a so-called Christian worldwide organization chose to approve homosexual pastors and leaders for their churches. This took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2009, and the very day this organization mocked God’s prohibition against such anti-God activity, a tornado swooped from a sky that seemed clear to destroy the church steeple where the ordination was taking place, breaking apart the cross atop the structure.

That city and area have since, as we know, been the center of attention; even the governing authorities seem to have gone to the dark side.

And now the very heart of the God of Heaven’s touchstone to humanity, Israel, is about to embrace Satan’s most vile wickedness against God’s governance.

I’ve always wondered a bit why the following Scriptures equate God’s chosen nation and people to earth’s most wicked area of antiquity.

Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. (Isaiah 1:10) 

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. (Revelation 11:8)

God’s most virulent enemy, Satan, can certainly be seen at work with great intensity here in America and around the world. The devil especially seems to be targeting God’s chosen land and its people with his iniquitous end-times efforts.

Christ’s prophecy about the days of Lot is front and center in the news. If the Church is still here in June when this Sodom-like festival takes place, it will indeed be an event during which to be looking up, as Jesus commanded!

For when ye see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28)

 

 

 

My great friend Jan Markell, head of one of the most Christ-centered ministries of recent decades in America, has spoken and written on the geographical area where her Olive Tree Ministries and Understanding the Times radio program have been located. She has expressed that she senses the demonic influences that have manifested in the twin cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

She and I have discussed how this region seems to be the center of Satan’s concentrated attack in very recent times. And the evidence of this demonic assault continues to mount.

My son Nathan and I were in Minneapolis just days before a direct statement by Heaven, I believe, took place in the city.

We were there on July 25, 2009, to be interviewed for the History Channel’s series The Nostradamus Effect. I remember vividly sensing a fearful ambience while there, even while being driven from our hotel to the building where the filming would take place.

Our driver, a young woman who was probably about nineteen or twenty, told us she was very nervous about having to pick up the next person to be interviewed.

She was Hispanic by ethnicity, and the man she was supposed drive to the studio next was a person she called “a white supremacist.” I could hear the fear in her voice, even though, being blind, I couldn’t see her while she was speaking.

Being the grandfatherly sort, I tried to assure her that all would be well. Any such person would be on their best behavior.

I remember the date very well, because while I was in the chair to be interviewed, having the TV make-up applied, one of the film crew came in excitedly and said Michael Jackson had just died. Also, we later learned that Farrah Fawcett of Charlies Angels fame also had died that day.

So, it was a memorable trip to that city now so central to what Jan and I agree have been evil doings going on.

Less than a month after Nathan and I visited Minneapolis, as stated above, Heaven made a direct statement about wickedness taking place in the city and area even then, before all the evil we’ve witnessed there in recent weeks.

On August 19, 2009, the first buildings on the downtown side of I94 in Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Convention Center and a church, were struck by a tornado. The twister severely damaged the convention center roof, shredded some tents on the grounds, then broke off the steeple of the church, splitting in two the cross atop the steeple before it lifted. It was 2:01 p.m. that the tornado touched down at Central Lutheran Church, the largest ELCA cathedral in North and South America, where the assembly had gathered for worship.

At the very moment of the storm, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was meeting in a convention in Minneapolis to vote on whether to begin ordaining practicing homosexual pastors. For years, liberals had tried to get this policy change through, but it had always been thwarted.

Pastors and other theologians at the time called the out-of-the-blue tornado a “warning” from God to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which had been meeting to debate a liberalized policy on homosexuality. This is also definitely my thought on this dramatic weather event that produced what was, I believe, a spiritual tornado. At least, I think it was meant to give God’s opinion about that organization’s ungodly decision.

Now, it seems any lesson from above that might have been learned has been forgotten by those in charge of things going on in Minneapolis. The darkening, demonic activity that continues to spread, considering the governmental leadership that champions anti-God comportment and the theft of billions of dollars from American taxpayers, exhibits just how prevalent the days of Lot configuration is there and elsewhere in America and the world.

And the proof that the lesson hasn’t been learned in Minneapolis is seen clearly in this news excerpt.

On Thursday, the Minneapolis City Council voted to begin the legislative process that could potentially lead to the legalization of “adult bathhouses and sex venues.”

Since 1988, adult bathhouses have been outlawed in Minneapolis. Those bathhouses, which housed saunas and pools, were almost exclusively frequented by gay men who met up for anonymous sex. As a result, the bathhouses were a hive of sexually transmitted diseases.

In Minneapolis, the bathhouses were banned largely due to the spread of AIDS throughout the gay population…

Now, the Minneapolis City Council has advanced a measure that could result in bathhouses returning to the city. In a 12-0 vote, the 13-member city council directed staff to explore changes to existing law regarding bathhouses. (“Minneapolis advances measure that could lead to legalization of ‘adult bathhouses and sex venues’” by Luke Sprinkel, Alpha News MN)

In reflecting on my brief conversation with Jan and thinking about that once-great American city, the realization struck. This city, which is obviously under satanic attack, is a target for the Ephesians 6:12 powers and principalities for reasons that make spiritual sense.

This is the area of the world where the gospel of Jesus Christ exploded onto the world in modern times. With the coming of mass communications came perhaps God’s foremost evangelist. It is a name everyone in America recognizes, and this goes for the people of most of the world as well.

September of 1950 was when Billy Graham’s organization was founded in Minneapolis.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was the very heart of powerful expansion of the saving message of Jesus Christ. Jan’s own ministry carries on that all important push to get the message that Jesus saves from this geographical area. Is it any wonder Satan and his minions wage war on this twin-city area that serves as the center for evangelization of America and the world?

Those minions of Minneapolis might seem to have the upper hand in the spiritual battle at the moment. But Jesus has spoken truth, and the victory that will belong to all who believe in Him is already accomplished.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4) 

Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, was saying Bible prophecy starts with Israel and ends with Israel. Israel is at the heart of Bible prophecy.

My thoughts started churning as I heard his sermon broadcast early that recent morning. I’ve always maintained that God’s “chosen nation” is the one sure signal of where this generation stands on His prophetic timeline. Dr. Jeffress’ statement helped confirm in my thoughts that morning that indeed Israel is inseparable, start to finish, from God’s Holy Word. It’s like bookends framing Bible prophecy from beginning to end.

Israel’s conception–its true genesis—began with the Words of Jesus, who is the Word of God.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (John 1:1–5)

Jesus, then, gave through Moses what would be the beginning of the nation Israel. He was speaking of His own conception—His Incarnation, coming to earth from His triune position within the Godhead to provide redemption for fallen humankind.

Jesus said to Satan the following about His one day coming as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3: 15)

So, Bible prophecy began with the promise of the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who would come into the world as a human being.

Again, Moses was given the Word about God’s people who would be chosen to give birth to this God-man.

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:1–3)

We know Abraham and Sarah were then given the child of promise, Isaac. From Isaac came Jacob, who was renamed Israel.

Jesus, the Son of God, was born to Mary, Jacob’s progeny, through the immaculate conception, to become the Savior of humanity, which has been lost since the fall in Eden.

Israel’s history is that of suffering as victim of satanic hatred throughout the millennia. This is because Jesus redeems all who accept God’s grace gift of salvation through Christ’s death on the cross, burial, and Resurrection.

As told in Genesis 3:15, the serpent, Satan, who “bruised the heel” of Christ, would have his head crushed by the Savior, by His redemptive action on that cruel cross at Calvary and His subsequent resurrection to life.

Jesus has overcome sin and death to provide eternal life for every person–all born sinful creatures because of Adam’s sin in Eden.

Christ the Redeemer came into this doomed sphere through Israel. The ongoing war against that nation and the Jewish race continues to play out within Bible prophecy, which tells of a time that will see the world turn against Israel:

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about . And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though . gathered together against it. (Zechariah 12:2–3)

So, Bible prophecy continues to be Israel-centered as we witness the prophet Zechariah’s words playing out even at this moment.

In the near term, it doesn’t get better, but worse…much worse!

Jesus prophesied the degree to which hatred for Israel would progress:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

The prophet Jeremiah said about this time:

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

The Lord, in His Matthew 24:21 description, skips the details of the time from which things become the worst ever right to the end, when the nation Israel will be saved out of the time of great Tribulation.

But Jesus, Himself, later describes, in explicit detail through twenty-one specific judgments, the time that leads up to Israel being saved out of the great Tribulation. Jesus gave the entire book of the Revelation through the Apostle John–the disciple the Bible said the Lord loved.

Paul prophesies the ultimate position of God’s chosen nation:

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. (Romans 11: 25-27)

Israel will be saved out of this terrible time. Zechariah says:

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

So, Israel is at the center of Bible prophecy from Genesis to Revelation. And this is not to say there is a so-called dual covenant with God’s chosen people about salvation from sin. The Jewish people are saved from sin the same way all other people of all other races are saved: by belief in Jesus Christ alone.

The “saving” of Israel means a remnant of the Jewish people will comprise the nation of God’s covenant promises. That is, those who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior—Israel’s Messiah—inherit God’s promises for Israel. This remnant of Jewish believers will see Jesus returning from Heaven at the time of Armageddon and will realize He is their Messiah at that stunning moment. This will be the chosen nation and people God planned to establish from the time in Eden.

Israel is the indisputable signal of exactly where the world stands right now. The movement to fulfill all Bible prophecy is streaming more swiftly with each news cycle. All geopolitics are revolving around the nation that began in Genesis 3:15. The time of Jacob’s trouble quickly approaches.

You don’t want to be a part of people within the orbit of those who don’t know Jesus for salvation. Here again is how to go to Christ when He calls–an event that will take place at any twinkling-of-the-eye moment!

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)

 

 

When thinking about the prophetic implications of the present hour so late in this Church Age (Age of Grace), Israel is the prominent marker of where the world stands on God’s prophetic timeline.

God’s chosen people, the nation Israel, have contributed massively to achievements in many areas of human existence—just as the Lord promised Abraham, Israel’s progenitor. So, it shouldn’t surprise us that Israel is at the center of much turmoil and controversy at this time. This is precisely how Bible prophecy—through prophets such as Zechariah, for example—says Israel will be positioned the closer the world comes to Christ’s return.

Despite God’s promises to Abraham—many of which have been fulfilled—the people of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob have failed in many ways to fulfill God’s expectations. Primarily, they have failed because of rejecting their Messiah when He presented Himself to them.

Israel, therefore, is perhaps best example of the violation of Christ’s admonition: “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48 b).

God expects those whom He blesses to obey His directive and to trust His Word as given in Scripture through the prophets. There are inevitably severe consequences when His blueprint for conducting life on earth is not followed.

We know all about Israel and its place in God’s directive—His call to duty in the mission He gave Abraham’s progeny. That nation and people are everywhere we look in God’s Word and are prominent everywhere we look on the geopolitical horizon. And who could in truth deny that Israel has had nothing but trouble from this satanically saturated world?

To me, God’s appointment to our nation, the United States of America, is almost as profound in God’s blueprint as it is in that of Israel. The proof is in the dominance America has been given since its founding. And, at this moment, it is the most glaringly dominant and powerfully influential nation on the planet. The double proof of this is that America stands beside God’s chosen nation and people while most of the world’s nations demonstrate an inexplicable hatred for Israel and the Jewish people. This, to me, is absolute proof of the importance God assigned America.

I wrote in the beginning of one of my books the following:

America burst forth from history’s slow-motion movement with brilliant inventiveness that would mystify if viewed from any perspective other than that of Bible prophecy. The stunning achievements within the mix of that quantum leap continue to engender awe. Human genius almost certainly had to have been infused with supernatural influence in accomplishing the exponential progress man has achieved within 100 years. We have moved, within that time, from traveling at speeds horses can run to streaking at the speed of light through communications technologies.…

The United States of America has been the nation at the very heart of the explosion of human technological progress. America has no peer in this regard, even to this present hour. Just as God’s hand of providence guided the founding fathers in bringing the country to birth in 1776, so His omnipresence inspired the American genius and industry resident in the nation to achieve things essential to the opening of the book of end-times prophecy.…

Again, the United States of America is inarguably the matrix out of which the geometrical progression of knowledge, thus spectacular increase in ability to travel to and from anywhere on earth, has grown.…

America’s influence within its brief duration of nationhood has brought mankind relief from drudgery, physical comforts, and luxuries that no other era has provided. Although vast areas of the world still wallow in squalor, the technologies–produced for the most part by this nation–are available to bring those victims out of their tragic conditions. It is the greed of tyrants–for the most part, the dictators who keep the very poor of the world under their despotic thumbs of oppression.

The United States has been at the forefront of reaching out to other lands and their peoples–almost to a fault, one might correctly surmise. Much of the largesse that has poured from the American treasuries into these dictatorships has been scarfed up by the despots and put into their own bank accounts around the world.

Many examples can be cited.…

The explosion of knowledge brought the technology that can make man’s life on earth a blessed existence. That same bursting forth of travel and knowledge has produced the ability to deliver destructive power from the air, the like of which no other generation could even fathom. Make no mistake: America is at the very heart of the end-of-days book being opened. And open it is! (The American Apocalypse, Harvest House, 2009)

So, I titled this commentary “America the Dutiful.”

We’ve been commissioned by God to a call to duty. America has been the most materially blessed of all nations of history, second only to Israel in spiritual blessings. While this nation has used its material blessings to help the poorest of the world and has reached out as no other nation with the gospel of Christ, we’ve also infected the world with much of the wickedness our technological wizardry has produced. It might be said that the peoples of earth have become intoxicated on the wine of the fornication and depravity flowing from America’s dark subsurface.

It’s always disconcerting to consider that we can’t find mention of such a blessed nation as ours even once by name in God’s Word.

Perhaps, frighteningly, it might be there in Revelation chapter 18, but this always comes down to supposition.

It is incumbent upon Christians in our beloved America to remain “dutiful” in carrying out the commission it seems our founding fathers were blessed to receive those 250 years ago.

“For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48 b).

 

Many prophetically attuned believers, such as those who take notice of this column and of posts on terryjamesprophecyline.com, as well as of other Christ-centered, Bible prophecy platforms, pay attention to the nearness of Christ’s call to the Church. Vast billions of people on earth, however, go down that broad way of this brief life without a thought of their swiftly approaching destiny.

Sadly, we know that most Christians–even though they might be born-again believers—pay no attention to the lateness of the hour as the end of the Age of Grace draws near. Much of this disregard (even though the Bible consists of more than 27 percent prophecy) is the fault of the people in the pews who genuinely call Jesus Christ their Lord–because they have little interest in personal Bible study. But at least an equal share of blame for not paying attention to the prophetic signs of the times must be placed with the pastors whose flocks receive little or no teaching about biblical prophecy—for which the stage is being set for in every direction we look.

American Christians are caught up in not paying attention to the prophetic signals that burst in lightning strike-like fashion from each news cycle in reports from this nation and around the world. While these believers see the wars and rumors of wars, the economic strains and stresses that portend economic collapse and threaten to fracture their family well-being, or the absolute evil being perpetrated in the adulteration of a culture that murders millions of babies in the womb and subjects the youngest children to the most heinous sexual perversions imaginable, they only shake their heads and wonder aloud something like, “What’s the world coming to?”

If they would just get into their Bibles—and if their pastors would get into God’s prophetic Word—the Holy Spirit would open their spiritual eyes to what this world is coming to.

And what this world is heading toward—is soon coming to—is God’s judgment and wrath.

And I’m of the conviction–and believe that you are, also—that God’s judgment and wrath can’t be too far distant. This is obvious to the Christian who’s familiar with God’s warning and alert to the flashing signals that can’t be missed. It is imperative that we make our fellow believers aware they should be paying attention. We must hold up God’s prophetic Word to pastors in Bible-believing churches and remind them that they’re responsible for teaching and preaching Bible prophecy. They must do so today, without delay, because time is fleeting in this Church Age (Age of Grace).

We have in the book of Hebrews an exhortation I believe transcends merely urging believers to gather in physical meeting places–church sanctuaries, et cetera. Of course, this is indeed an important part of the exhortation. But I believe that, just as importantly, it means we are to come together as Christ’s Body in understanding the times, especially as we see the time of Tribulation approaching:

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25)

The words “the day approaching” in this passage is warning of the day when Christ will call the Church into the clouds of Glory, and the time of Daniel’s seventieth week—the Tribulation era—will begin.

We must come together and speak of coming judgment as a Church Body, especially as we see the stage being set for prophetic fulfillment.

We must, therefore, make sure our brothers and sisters are on the same page. Of course, we know from the apathy and because of the many different views of Bible prophecy that this cannot and will not be achieved in total, but we must do what we can to try to make it happen.

I am very thankful that those who come to read our articles here have been so supportive of our efforts. And you know who you are who have been so faithful and supportive of our Pakistani mission. My little Prophecy Power book has been used in a mighty way as the Pakistani minister has distributed it in that dark land and used it to shed the Gospel’s light about coming judgment on sin, and, more importantly, to give the wonderful message of God’s grace through His Son’s sacrifice on the cross at Calvary.

You have contributed to a mission in that foreign land and region where human history will one day culminate. When we work to get prophetic truth into the minds and hearts of pastors and their flocks, we are performing an equally worthy mission. It is a vital mission since we see that day approaching.

Like you, I want to hear the words of our Lord when we see Him face to face in that moment of Rapture. And I want every Christian to hear those words also. There will be no greater reward than to hear them as we look into the all-knowing eyes of our Savior, Lord, and God:

Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. (Matthew 25: 23)

 

It seems sometimes that Americans, particularly Christian Americans, are anesthetized to things going on around them.

Things like the attempted takeover by the dark spiritual forces behind Marxism and worse don’t seem to register on Christian Americans’ worry meters—at least not to the degree it registers on my own meter of concern.

Some will say Christians are confident that God is always in complete control, so they just don’t worry about these things. But the truth is that most American Christians are complacent; they’re not interested in thinking about the evil around us.

Even what’s going on in the Middle East, the war with Iran, and the threat closing the Strait of Hormuz presents doesn’t seem to heighten the level of worry that World War III or, at the very least, portentous economic crisis is in view.

And the Church–all who are in God’s family—for the most part doesn’t seem to have an idea of what Israel being at the center of all this worrisome news means. There is no concern about how it all relates to Bible prophecy among those who should be most aware of and alert to the fact that the world is teetering on the edge of a time Jesus called the worst that would ever be.

Yet this is another sign of where we are on God’s prophetic timeline, in my view as we look out across that horizon of “things to come,” as Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost titled his great volume on Bible prophecy.

As I’ve written many times, I believe Jesus described exactly the condition of humanity as it will be when He next catastrophically intervenes into the affairs of fallen humankind. The Lord’s “days of Lot” prophecy (Luke 17:28–30) says it will be business as usual, like it was when Lot and his family were removed from Sodom by the angels.

The Lord indicated that business and life in general itself were ongoing, even doing well, at that time, while the subsurface society and culture in that twin-cities area were as wicked as when God intervened previously in the “days of Noah” (Luke 17:26–27).

This is what we who “watch,” as commanded by our Lord (Mark 13: 37 and Luke 21: 28), should expect the world around us to look like at the twinkling-of-an-eye moment when He will again intervene as He did in those earlier times.

One of my frustrations continues to be that the Christians who say we who hold to the clearly taught, pre-Trib view of Rapture are wrong and that we’re leading believers astray. These writers, preachers, teachers, and others most often imply, or even say outright, that all the troubles we see around us means the following: Either the world—including all believers in Jesus Christ—is about to enter the Tribulation, or we’ve already entered it. Some believe we’re already engaged in World War III.

These aren’t looking for Jesus Christ to rescue believers before the Tribulation as Paul taught; they’re looking for chaos, calamity, and—to be frank—the Antichrist rather than for the True Christ.

The following article presents the view that the world is on the brink of Tribulation but offers no hope of Heaven’s rescue for the Christian.

We live at a time when millions upon millions of us feel deeply unsettled. The news is filled with constant headlines about war, political chaos, economic problems and major natural disasters. A lot of people feel like humanity’s story is building up to some sort of a crescendo, and they are not optimistic about what that will mean.

In fact, a new study conducted by researchers at the University of British Columbia has discovered that nearly one-third of the people living in the United States and Canada actually believe that the world will end within their lifetimes.…

Of course the world is not going to end any time soon.

But as global events spiral out of control, it will certainly feel like “the world is ending” to much of the population…

We really are living in apocalyptic times, and much more mayhem is in our future. (“Nearly One-Third of People Living in North America Believe The World Will End,” Tyler Durden, authored by Michael Snyder, March 13, 2026, Zerohedge)

Well…I guess one-third of people paying attention is a bit more than I thought–if the survey is correct. But one thing is sure: There is very little acknowledgment, as expressed in the article, of the need or hope of Heaven’s rescue, or even of a desire for Heaven to rescue us. This is exactly as it was in Sodom and Gomorrah and in Noah’s day, according to the Lord Jesus.

And Christian writers, preachers, and teachers who rail against the pre-Trib view by and large offer no hope of such rescue as promised by the Apostle Paul, who, again, wrote this to the Thessalonians, and also to us, these thousands of years later:

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18)  

The chaos, the calamities, the unbelievable evil we see taking place offer nothing but fear and worry to those who are paying attention. But all this evil that threatens shouldn’t induce fear in those who know Christ as Savior and Lord. We’re not looking for Antichrist, or for the chaos and calamity that Beast is about to foist upon a world lost in sin and rejection of God’s Word.

We are looking for Jesus Christ and His promise:

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) 

Now there is nothing but comfort in those magnificent words of promise given by the One who cannot lie.

Here is what we must share with those who want not chaos and calamity in their thoughts of the future, but comfort from the very heart 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)

 

Hoping this isn’t perceived as condescension aimed at the reader; it is, I’m convicted, good to think on what Paul was given by the Holy Spirit to urge us to not be ignorant. The instruction is crucial to understanding these prophetic days in which we find ourselves.

Paul uses this “be not ignorant” statement of instruction three times in the course of his epistles addressing Christians. These include his letters to the Romans, the Corinthians, and the Thessalonians. The emphasis on not being ignorant speaks of God’s strong desire for believers to understand what He wants us to fully comprehend.

While I present here all three of Paul’s instructions to “be not ignorant,” I want to look in particular at his letters to the Romans and the Thessalonians to imply that his teaching is especially relevant to where we are on God’s prophetic timeline.

Here are the three statements:

1. Romans 11:25–32: Israel’s Condition, Purpose, and Future

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

2. 1 Corinthians 12:–11: Spiritual Gifts

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

 

3. 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18: The Rapture

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Paul here makes it profoundly important—even mandatory—that we who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ understand the things covered in these instructions.

Anytime God’s Word emphasizes something three times, the matters involved are vital to being understood—and believed.

The second instruction mentioned above, in the letter to the Corinthians, isn’t pointed directly at any future prophecy. However, it is very important in urging Christians to make every effort to understand the times only through enlightenment provided by the Holy Spirit.

So, we reflect on Paul saying that he would not have us to be ignorant about the mystery of Israel and all the things that involve His chosen people.

The apostle wants all generations of believers to understand that despite Israel’s opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ and denial that He is their Messiah, the people of Israel are still His. They will at a future time be saved–that is, become believers in Jesus Christ as Savior and Messiah.

This will happen during a period of great trouble for them (Jeremiah 30:7). That Tribulation era will take place after the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled. This will be when all believers of the Church Age—the Age of Grace—are taken to Heaven in the Rapture.

During that time of Jacob’s trouble, God will bring out of the House of Israel a remnant of born-again believers who will be true Israel for all of eternity.

We must not be ignorant, then, of the significance of Israel. We must be aware that when Israel dominates the prophetic world horizon, the time of Christ’s return is very near. We must not be ignorant of Israel’s position, Paul is telling us.

The question to believers in Christ, then, should be: Is the nation Israel on the scene today in any significant way?

There is certainly no excuse for anyone, believer or not, to be ignorant in considering this question.

This brings us to Paul’s third exhortation.

Believers—Gentiles and Jews who have come to Christ for salvation during this Age of Grace—will be called into the clouds of Glory when Israel is at the center of world controversy. The last believer of this Church Age will accept Christ for salvation, and Jesus will call all Christians in the Rapture. This will be when the “fullness of the Gentiles will be come in,” as Paul prophesied.

The apostle told the Thessalonians all about that coming Rapture of the Church—God’s eternal family of believers who lived and died during the Age of Grace.

There is no excuse for us to be ignorant of just how near we must be to that call from our Savior. Can’t you sense the Holy Spirit’s assurance that this world so full of anti-God wickedness and turmoil is about to change in a twinkling-of-an-eye moment?

We are not to be ignorant. We’re to rely on God’s promise:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4: 17-18)