My commentary title this week will likely be construed by some as audacious. “This Rapture Generation” implies that people of earth alive now are those who will, without doubt, be the generation of believers who go to Christ in the Rapture, doesn’t it?

Those who have named specific dates for that stupendous event have earned consternation down through the years, and deservedly so. Jesus Himself declared that no one but the Father knows the day or hour when it will occur. And certainly, to date, that truth has played out exactly as the Son of God—who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life—said.

Yet, at the same time, the Apostle Paul implied himself to be part of the generation that would be raptured:

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 4:15–18)

Paul obviously expected to be part of those who would be living when Christ calls believers to Himself in the Rapture. The pronouns used are pretty clear, aren’t they? Yet Paul has been dead for 2000 years or so, and the Rapture is still future, as we are all too aware.

So is God’s Word (the “Word” who, in fact, is the Lord Jesus Christ, according to John 1:1) less than truthful with us through the prophecy given Paul regarding the Rapture? We know the answer to that is a resounding “no.” God cannot lie, therefore we are to think through Paul’s words with our born-again, Holy Spirit-influenced discernment to understand the apparently audacious statement. Paul’s declaration was as audacious as my title for this commentary, I think.

So what is this seeming contradiction all about?

The answer, I believe, is found in another familiar statement by Paul, one we use frequently in studying the Rapture.

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:13)

I believe that wrapped up in this profound statement of faith is an instruction to all believers. During this Age of Grace (Church Age), we’re always to be earnestly expecting Jesus to snatch us from this fallen sphere at any moment. This instruction—this commandment—has been in effect since the Church was born (as presented in Acts chapter 2). Every believer since that time should treat the promise of the Rapture as if it absolutely will take place while we are still living on earth.

As a matter of fact, all who love the prospect of Christ’s appearing are promised a crown of righteousness.

With this in mind, the title, “This Rapture Generation,” is appropriate for those of us who are believers now. Jesus will come for us in the Rapture at any moment—perhaps today!

I hope to go much deeper in expressing this certainty. And we do go deeper with each and every article presented. At least that is our aim.

The signals are brilliantly projected for those with discerning spirits to understand. Our Lord is unfolding prophetic signals of such unmistakable significance that we would have to look in another direction to miss just how near we are to the Tribulation. The Rapture is thus right at the exit door of human history for believers in Jesus Christ.

Sadly, most who should be helping God’s children focus on the lateness of the hour continue to feed only pabulum about how to grow into Christian adulthood.

Such spiritual food isn’t bad, of course. The Scripture is necessary to spiritual growth. But there comes the time that requires us to take a deep look into just how late the hour is on God’s prophetic timeline. We are now very near that instant of Rapture about which we’re forewarning.

This is almost certainly the Rapture generation, and I cannot feel sheepish in declaring it.

Tell everyone you know, using your own words, the soul-saving truth encompassed by Paul’s Holy Spirit-given formula for going in the Rapture when Christ calls:

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

My friend Jonathan Brentner and I are set upon a book project we call HEREAFTER. Its subtitle at this point is Heaven’s Children in Eternal Glory. Considering the lateness of the hour, prophetically speaking, we believe it will be an excitingly appropriate volume for believers—especially for those who view Bible prophecy from the pre-Trib perspective.

The title came to me upon remembering the late, great broadcaster Paul Harvey’s words regarding some dental product he promoted: “If you want to keep your pearly whites from here to hereafter, you need [whatever that product was].”

The older we get, perhaps the more we can understand what Paul was talking about in his own, unique way of expressing a truth. The Bible tells us that, in old age, “the grinders are few” (Ecclesiastes 12:3). Our teeth—like the rest of us—fall victim to the accumulating years.

Paul Harvey professed to be a believer in Christ for salvation. Thus, by “hereafter,” he was referring to that magnificent sphere to which believers ascend instantaneously when we finish our work/journey in this foreign land we call “earth.”

“Hereafter,” therefore, is the one topic that should draw our attention. This life is but a vapor, as Scripture says. Eternity is, well, forever. Heaven is our real home.

With this in mind, I’d like us to think a bit on something. Jonathan and I both believe strongly that most believers alive now will experience the Rapture of the Church when Christ calls. So we could be transported into that realm at any moment—a thrilling prospect to consider!

It is sad that many pastors in churches today don’t dwell to any extent upon this thrilling prospect. Truly understanding our future in considering our “hereafter” can move us into life more abundant, as Jesus promised.

Those who are blessed to come to this understanding of the heavenly promises that await have many questions. I considered that, by researching those questions, we might get at least some small idea of that glorious future in the presence of our Lord. The following are a few attempts at answering some of the questions believers would like addressed.

1. Why won’t we be bored in Heaven?

As children, we sometimes view Heaven as a boring place. This is the view of many older believers as well. Some imagine Heaven as possibly an endless church service we’ll attend while checking our heavenly watches to see how much longer until we can go to lunch.

But things will be nothing like that. Worship will be action. We will explode with desire to serve as we are expected to do as believers here in this temporal life. Our heavenly desires will be greatly magnified when we are in our eternal home.

This powerful drive to serve will involve love and work. We are told to love the Lord with all our heart, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We will spend eternity interacting with our brothers and sisters in ways that will no doubt involve love for each other and work that uplifts us and them with spectacular, ever-ascending positive results for our efforts. We will experience fulfillment individually and together in carrying out God’s holy will—dynamic activity that is beyond our imagination in the confines of our finite understanding.

2. Will we know family and friends like we do here on earth?

I like the way one teacher put it:

Just as Jesus on earth loved each person differently and specially—he did not love John as he loved Peter, because John was not Peter—so we are designed to love people specially. There is no reason why this specialness should be removed, rather than added to, in eternity. Our family and special friends will always be our family and special friends. In this life a child begins to learn to love by loving mother, then father, then siblings, then pets. The concentric circles of love are then gradually expanded, but the beginning lessons are never abandoned. There is no reason to think God rips up this plan in Heaven. (Tough Questions Christians Ask, book by Christianity Today, author of comment Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy, Boston University)

3. How can I be happy in Heaven if someone I loved deeply on earth doesn’t make it there?

We know that the Bible tells us:

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

While some interpret this as occurring only after the new heavens and new earth have been created, the fact that Heaven is perfection no doubt applies the moment we leave this earth and are at home with our Lord.

From our perspective now, to lose anyone we love because they won’t believe for salvation is heart-wrenching. But we will have the mind of Christ at the moment we are with Him eternally. He tells us He will have to say to the unbeliever “I never knew you.” This is not just a judicial advisory on the part of the Lord. It means He will forget for eternity the individual who has never come to Him.

Truly we can’t understand this at present, but when we have the mind of Christ and see Him as He is, we will be like Him. We, too, will have the ability to forget, just as God has that ability. This isn’t a pleasant thought right now, but we will understand it all by and by.

There are many questions we could address from Christians wanting to know about the hereafter. Jonathan and I are trying to touch on many in our upcoming book. Suffice it to say that Paul’s words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, should be a powerful stimulant for all believers while we look forward to Christ’s any-moment call to us in the Rapture.

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searched all things, yea, the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9–10)  

Jesus set Heaven’s end times clock, foretelling when the second hand of eternity will reach near the midnight hour for the inhabitants of planet earth. He did so by giving God’s heavenly family the assurance that we will snatched up before that time; we will be rescued from this planet of rebels doomed to suffer His righteous wrath and judgment.

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21: 28)

The phrase “these things” refers to the issues and events of prophetic significance that have long since begun to “come to pass.”

Todd Strandberg, founder of Raptureready.com, and I have for decades written our commentaries on “these things” for the “Nearing Midnight” section of this website. We have tried, in effect, to show the progress toward that midnight hour. We’ve present what we believe is not a “doomsday clock,” but a heavenly horizon marquee announcing the great event that all who believe in Jesus Christ for salvation are swiftly approaching.

It is more than intriguing that, while we look at all the wickedness being done by the evil men and seducers who are growing worse and worse, secular watchers of mankind’s nearness to the same midnight hour perceive that time is almost up.

Such came starkly into view with the most recent setting by the “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist Doomsday Clock” watchdogs:

A panel of international scientists has warned that humanity’s continued existence is at greater risk than ever before, largely as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set its Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight the clock has been since it was established in 1947 to illustrate global existential threats at the dawn of the nuclear weapons age.

Rachel Bronson, the president and CEO of the Bulletin, said the clock had been moved forward from 100 seconds to midnight, where it had been for the previous three years, “largely, though not exclusively, because of the mounting dangers in the war in Ukraine.”

“We are living in a time of unprecedented danger, and the Doomsday Clock time reflects that reality. Ninety seconds to midnight is the closest the clock has ever been set to midnight, and it’s a decision our experts do not take lightly.” (“Doomsday Clock at record 90 seconds to midnight amid Ukraine crisis” | World news | The Guardian)

The secular doomsday clock watchers hope that, by posting the warnings of impending nuclear war and other catastrophes, they can somehow avert reaching that midnight hour they so fear. This is what, for example, those who believe they can institute the so-called Great Reset believe they, in their god-like confidence in their own ability, can accomplish.

But there is one thing and one thing only that can help mankind avoid the coming judgment and wrath of that midnight hour. That is repentance and turning to the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to die as sacrifice for the sin into which humankind has been born since the fall in Eden’s garden.

God has set the doomsday clock, and His second hand hasn’t stopped moving toward that midnight moment. My own belief, along with many of God’s watchers on the wall of Bible prophecy, believe that clock’s second hand is much closer to the 12 than the 90 seconds away the authorities of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists recently placed their second hand.

The people of earth are on the cusp of being thrust into that midnight hour. You don’t want to be one who is left behind to suffer that time of horror Jesus Himself said will be the worst of all human history (Mathew 24: 21).

Here is how to avoid that fate and instead go to be kept within the safe harbor of Jesus Christ when He calls all believers to Himself.

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

It was a déjà vu  moment. I tuned in early one morning in January 2023 to a Bible teacher I’ve long listened to—Les Feldick. He was talking about how the Lord might soon decide to give America over to a reprobate mind, as mentioned in Romans 1:28, because of the acceptance of and even enthusiastic embrace of homosexuality within society and culture.

Les mentioned the year he was taping the program as 1995.

That triggered my memory of an article I wrote about his TV program of similar topic years earlier. I had written the particular commentary in 2015, come to find out upon researching the matter.

It was amazing how in 1995 Les had laid out almost precisely how things had developed by January 2023 in the direction of inviting God’s judgment. We were headed, Les said back then, down the same track of Sodom of Lot’s day.

I’ve written many times about sensing the same track our nation has taken, and how America must have been the nation Jesus was thinking about when He gave the days of Lot prophecy recorded in Luke 17:28–30.

Immediately below I have placed that 2015 article I wrote upon hearing that first program Les did in 1995. My commentary at the end of that article is that written for this Nearing Midnight column in January, 2023.

Supreme’s Decision (Written in 2015)

Early this morning I was listening to a Bible teacher teaching on prophecy and how it looks like America and the world are at the end of the Church Age (Age of Grace). He was talking about U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

The teacher was in the book of Romans and he was in the first chapter. The teacher was Les Feldick presenting his then weekly teaching by way of his Through the Bible television ministry. The year the program was produced was 1995. I was listening to his teaching Friday, June 26, 2015—twenty years later. A Christian TV cable network is running the series daily at 5 a.m.

Les, as I understand, is now in his mid-80s and, I’m sure, still teaching somewhere in Oklahoma. I met him at the annual Tulsa Mid-America Prophecy Conference seven or eight years ago.

Today, a few hours after I listened to him teaching from that video recording back in that year two decades earlier, I heard on network television the announcement.

It was Pete Williams of NBC News—whom you might remember as the Pentagon spokesperson during the first Gulf War—standing near the wildly cheering crowd. The NBC correspondent—an avowed gay—had to clear his throat of emotion before answering the anchor’s question about what had just happened at the Supreme Court.

He enthusiastically gave the requested report, almost shouting to be heard above the jubilant throng screaming their approval of the court’s decision.

The decision was 5 to 4, with the swing vote coming from Justice Kennedy, Williams said. The United States would now require every state to accept same-sex marriage as constitutionally validated.

Twenty years earlier, Les Feldick had dealt with what I was now hearing from Pete Williams on Friday, June 26 of this year [2015].

Les said during that early-morning program, recorded in 1995, that every time he read through Romans, chapter 1, he couldn’t help but think of the almost insane decisions that come out of the US Supreme Court. He said that the insanity really began back during the days when Earl Warren, the former governor of California, was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The Warren court, Les said, had rendered the most destructive decisions in American history. He mentioned the decision to remove prayer and Bible reading from public schools in 1963 and 1964. He talked about Roe v Wade, issued in 1973, opening up the nation to the slaughter of babies in the wombs of America’s mothers.

He compared the Warren Supreme Court’s decision-making and the resultant chaos to Paul’s condemning words in his letter to the Romans.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:18–32)

Les Feldick, in that lesson recorded two decades ago, saw the Supreme Court as demonstrating that God’s Word is absolutely true. When people move away from God, their minds become reprobate—upside-down—in their thinking. They make foolish, unthinking, unreasonable decisions. And, the Supreme Court, the majority of those nine men (not all were reprobate in thinking) seemed to try, like Lucifer himself, to usurp the throne of God—the Creator of all things.

There were ramifications, in my view, from those earlier Supreme Court decisions. John F. Kennedy was assassinated; Vietnam would eventually take 50,000 American lives; the Great Society began the financial collapse of the US—and the world, for that matter; Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, as was Robert F. Kennedy; a slide into abject immorality and cultural rot continues today as a result of those decisions that have exacerbated other aspects of national life.

Friday, June 26, 2015, is another historical milestone demarcation of mankind’s foolishness. The decision to, in effect, tell the Creator that the Supreme Court knows what constitutes marriage, so He should just butt out, is the ultimate insult in testing God’s patience. It is an act of rebellion that demonstrates this generation has reached a level of reprobate thinking like that reached by the earth-dwellers of Noah’s pre-Flood day and Sodom’s days of Lot.

I’ve received a number of emails stating that such a Supreme Court vote making mandatory that all states allow gay marriage will bring instant retribution from Heaven. This is what we are now to expect. The United States will now reap God’s judgment and wrath in short order.

Looking at what happened almost immediately following the 1963 and 1964 decisions by the Warren Court—considering the apparent consequences listed above—it would seem that such predictions have credence. I’m not at all sure there is a valid comparison to be made, then to now, however.

What happened in those earlier years, with those consequences that befell America, I’m of the conviction, involved corrective action—a call by God to this nation imploring that there be a turning from such rebellion. A question to ponder is: Does time remain sufficient enough to even warrant a call in the form of corrective action? Has the Lord just decided in this obviously late, late hour to turn America over to a “reprobate mind,” as the Apostle Paul (Romans 1:28) indicates for a rebellious people who have turned their backs on Him?

Paul tells God’s thought about those who treat the Lord with contempt.

But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. (Romans 2:5)

Despite this warning of God’s judgment and wrath accumulating, we get a look into the Lord’s merciful patience.

What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. (Romans 9:22)

The Apostle Peter explains God’s patience—the reason He hasn’t ended mankind’s rebellion to this point.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

All who name the name of Jesus Christ should not be caught up in the cares of this world, in becoming more and more like the world system of materialism. While we must live upon this world of quickly declining morality, we should be aware of what the forces of evil are perpetrating. We should stand against those powers and principalities, both human and supernatural, just as written in Ephesians 6:12.

The buying, selling, planting, the marrying—heterosexual or otherwise—is a way of life that is going to end in one stupefying microsecond. The Christian will stand before his or her Lord and give an account of whether we have been working and watching for Christ, or whether we have been caught up totally in the cares of this world, with callous disregard for being salt and light as we see the end of the age approaching.

And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. (Luke 21:34–35)

The only court that is going to matter ultimately is that which renders the Supreme’s decision on how we, individually, have lived within or apart from His governance.

Make sure you aren’t one whose head is stuck deeply into the proverbial sand of worldliness and apathy.

(Fast forward from 2015 to January 2023 when I present this current commentary.)   

America’s march down that same road Sodom took toward perdition continues. As a matter of fact, the pace of movement has increased significantly.

Les Feldick again was heard questioning in the 1995 program I heard this January 2023 morning whether the Lord might see fit to give America as a nation over to the reprobate mind of Romans 1:28.

Does the word “woke” strike a chord of recognition in regard to his question? It does with me.

The insanity perpetrated by the purveyors of wokeness fits the definition of the reprobate mind. We say that people have gone completely crazy with things that make no sense or totally run counter to normal thinking and activity.

Today, homosexual relationship is not only condoned, but is instituted into law by federal government. Same-sex marriage is now stamped by the supreme law-arbitor—the Supreme Court—as normal and must be accepted nationwide under penalty of law.

Government leaders, educators, and even physicians declare that men are women if they want to be, and women can be men. The transsexual madness extends to public schools where school administrators and teachers are even helping children make decisions—including medical decisions—to change their gender. All this is done most often while hiding from parents the insanity being perpetrated upon their children.

The woke adherents today declare that men can become pregnant and that it’s okay for adults to have sexual relations with 5-year-olds. Those adults who want to do so are not to be any longer called pedophiles, but MAPs (minor-attracted persons).

Drag Queens are now applauded for parading in front of children kindergarten age, while these performers invite the little ones to touch these perverted men’s sexual anatomy. And this wickedness is carried on, even in some apostate denominations, while parents look on and cheer. How much more like that ancient city of Sodom must it get before God says, “Enough!”?

God created man and woman, but the woke declare that gender is a choice, as is the choice of whether to murder babies in the wombs of their mothers—and even after birth—through the abortion process.

Two US presidents, Barack Obama in 2009 and Joe Biden in 2022, walking hand in hand with the woke purveyors of the Sodom-like drive to move America as far from God as possible, have bathed the White House in the LBTQ+ rainbow colors. Joe Biden signed into federal law December 13, 2022, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). This requires the US federal government and all US states and territories to recognize the validity of same-sex marriage else face severe legal consequences.   

Be absolutely assured, though, it is not the US Congress or the Supreme Court that will have the final word on this upside-down, anti-God evil. It is Heaven’s court, where the Supreme Being sits on the throne, that will make the decision on this end-of-days, Sodom society and culture.

Jesus Christ will say, “Enough is enough,” and will call the Church into Heaven. Judgment will then cascade upon a God-rejecting nation and world. Again, here is what Jesus says about the Rapture that will bring this world system crashing down in judgment and wrath.

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)

However, God’s mercy is great and there is still time for repentance by any and all who are rebels in this present Age of Grace. Here, again, is how to turn from the sin that invites God’s wrath and instead make the sinner now a child of God.

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

Stories abound, filed away within the records of young women being found dead and having within their corpses unborn children. Often, the fathers of the dead babies are found guilty of these double homicides. DNA technology and forensics, of course, have made it possible to make the biological connections, thus provide a base study of such horrendous activity.

Pressures to “make the problem go away” come not only from the terrible fathers involved in ending unwanted pregnancies, but from a broad swath of society and culture today. Young women are told by those who purport to have all the answers in such matters to simply get an abortion. Doing so is no more than employing a medical solution to a medical problem. The fetus is no more than a growth, not unlike a tumor, that can be eliminated through medical procedure, or pregnancy is seen as merely birth control after the fact.

Eliminating a pregnancy can mean, the young mothers are often told, the difference between a happy life without the burden of caring for a child and a life of unnecessary drudgery. After all, life for the young should be enjoyed, not dreaded. And, it is best for the eliminated child, too, who would otherwise grow up in a world hostile to a life that a single woman or even a family can’t properly provide for.

In this way, abortion is indeed extortion. It is extortion through hollow teachings and fallacy in the form of verbal intimidation. It is a threat that, when considering life through the prism of fear, the very young in particular can’t get beyond in looking at their imagined future. This coercion is perpetrated by our nation’s highest governmental extortionists.

The evil is generated from the mind of the one who comes to destroy and kill.

Influencers have for decades been used by anti-God forces harboring the luciferian mindset. One of the chief such influencers—Cosmopolitan magazine– continues to be devoted to convincing women that abortion is a woman’s right-to-choose issue; the unborn child’s right to live is, at best, a secondary concern that is far distant.

An article recently provided glimpse into such influence within the political process today.

Cosmopolitan weighs in on the election in a new piece this week – that’s not unusual, as is election season.

…the bias here is extreme to the point of weariness. Not only does every discussion end with an urging to vote for a Democrat, the only issue even seemingly on the ballot is abortion. And, you know, not even the Democratic Party is entirely about that one subject let alone politics or this election.

It is true though, they run five different articles – all published at the same time – about the upcoming election…

Every single urging is to vote Democrat and for abortion…

[The] assumption by the writers and editors of Cosmo is that there is only that one way that they should recommend, or that their readership would be interested in…

Cosmo is a general magazine, possibly even a lifestyle one. Clothes, make-up, fashion, the arts, culture and so on. But the moment that politics becomes the subject under discussion there is only one way. No even balancing of the this and the that, just that insistence that there can only be one way that votes could possibly be cast. (“Cosmopolitan Magazine Declares Only Pro-Abortion Candidates Matter,” Tim Worstall, Liberty News, 10/22/22)

It is clear that Bible prophecy truth comes into focus with the abortion issue: “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).

There is nothing more evil being perpetrated today than people joining Satan in his campaign to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10: 10). And the all-out effort by the human minions of Ephesians 6:12 are engaged in assault against all-out human life on planet earth. There are too many useless “eaters,” according to the minions of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and other such New World Order types.

Abortion is at the heart of their efforts, with millions upon millions of children in the wombs of mothers around the world being murdered throughout the days, weeks, and months of each and every year.    

Now, here I want to say that women who have had abortions need to realize that God can and does forgive even this egregious sin. He is willing and ready at all times to cleanse the sinner of all unrighteousness. The Lord of Heaven will take away all guilt and make clear the spiritual pathway to life free of the guilt, fear, and depression that afflict those who have heeded the lies of and fallen victim to the abortionists.

And severe depression is the affliction frequently reported by many counselors and psychologists involving patients who have lost babies through this vile killing procedure.

Again, Jesus Christ, the Creator of all that is and the Son of God who came to save lost humanity, is ready, willing, and able to free those who experience guilt and depression because of abortion. He will one day reunite the mothers who have accepted Him as Savior with their children.

These little ones are with Jesus now, in Heaven, where He left earth to go prepare dwelling places for those who love God. We shouldn’t doubt for a moment that the Lord will see to it that these mothers and their babies will be forever together in Heaven in a relationship of love we can’t possibly fully imagine.

According to every prophetic signal converging at present, our Lord must be about to call all believers to Himself in the Rapture. Now is the time to accept God’s love gift of grace so that you can live eternally in the magnificent home called Heaven.

Here is how to make sure you will go to Christ in the Rapture to be with all believers, including all children who have ever been aborted.

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

Many who view Bible prophecy from the pre-Trib view believe the United States has a special relationship with the nation Israel. I am certainly of that camp, as I’ve clearly expressed throughout the years.

My own meaning is that America was used by God in the process of bringing Israel back as a nation after millennia of being dispersed throughout the world. The Diaspora began, as Jesus prophesied, in AD 70 when the Romans, led by General Titus, destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple atop Mount Moriah. The Jews scattered, but with the promise that they would one day return to their God-ordained homeland, where they would never be uprooted again.

President Harry S. Truman stood against most of his presidential cabinet in supporting the rebirth of Israel, and the nation came into modernity, with its own language of Hebrew still intact even after all those centuries of dispersion. The date was May 14, 1948.

This rebirth is considered a miracle even by many secular historians.

The one bright prospect for this nation of destiny is that the God of Israel will never let that nation be destroyed; we have His Word on it.

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

That being established, God nonetheless pronounced that His chosen people, the Jews, will suffer a period of great tribulation. It will be known as the time of “Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7).

Jesus further foretold this horrendous persecution of God’s chosen. He said the following while sitting atop the Mount of Olives.

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21)  

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

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

I didn’t make up this prediction. God’s Word, the Bible, says it. I accept that Word as the only truth there is. I and other Christians who know Jesus Christ as Lord love, or should love, the Jewish people–the nation Israel. To Israel, we say, “God loves you; so must we. You are His chosen.” However, neither I nor Israel can change what God has prophesied to take place in the relatively near future.

Despite the current American president and his administration observably moving away from supporting Israel, the American people, remarkably, continue to back the Jewish state. The following explains.

For decades, in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the American public has sided with Israel. In fact, in recent years it has done so by rather hefty margins. Consistent with many earlier surveys over the years, the 2022 Jewish Institute for Liberal Values (JILV) survey of likely voters in the U.S. found that Israel sympathizers out-number Palestinian sympathizers by almost a 2:1 ratio, or 39% to 21%, to be exact. And if we focus upon those with strong feelings—those who strongly favor Israel or strongly favor the Palestinians—the pro-Israel advantage in the American public grows to nearly 3:1 (22% for Israel vs. 8% for the Palestinians).

Adding to this narrative, pro-Israel profile feelings emerge from another key question in the JILV survey. The question asked about competing images of Israel, giving respondents two dramatically opposing choices in how to characterize Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians. Respondents could choose to see Israel as “an occupier and a colonizer using modern military power to attack defenseless Palestinian civilians to steal more indigenous Palestinian land.” Alternatively, the likely voters could choose the pro-Israel option: “Israel is a sovereign nation which has the right and the obligation to defend itself from terrorists intent on killing civilians.” So, is Israel seen as an occupier and colonizer or as a nation defending itself?

Once again, the results favor Israel by a 2:1 margin. As many as 51% see Israel as sovereign with the right to defend itself from terrorists, while just 22% see Israel as an occupier and colonizer attacking defenseless Palestinians. (“Liberals, Progressives, Wokeness and Israel,” Samuel J. Abrams, JewishJournal, 12/13/22)

This same survey, however, finds that such support is eroding. This erosion comes from the constant diatribe of mainstream news sources against Israel and pro-Palestinian rhetoric within journalism and academia.

So, despite America’s current support for God’s chosen nation, the trend is toward development of the coming time when all nations will turn against the Jewish state. This is seen in Zechariah chapter 12 and other Scriptures outlining the time of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.

It is not altogether pleasant to be among those charged with pointing out God’s coming judgment. But we are charged with showing individuals within Israel the way to escape the coming time of Antichrist’s regime of horror. Accept Christ now. He is Messiah. And one day, perhaps very soon, He will call His people—Jews and Gentiles who accept Him as Savior—to be with Him forever. This will be the Rapture. (That stunning event, in which millions of people will vanish from the earth, can be found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51–55. Jesus spoke of it in John 14:1–3.)

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

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

Here’s what that future remnant’s Messiah—the Lord Jesus Christ—says:

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

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

We who love Israel pray that you will believe. And God’s unbreakable promise is that you will indeed believe, as a people.

Here is how to believe now, in individual repentance that will spare you from going through the time of Jacob’s trouble.

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

Climate change—formerly global warming—is almost certainly the nucleus around which the Revelation chapter 17 harlot religious system is being formed. Mother Earth worship seems to be the system the globalist would-be world rulers want us to embrace as quickly as possible.

There is an almost visceral sense of many among the pre-Trib camp that the system is satanic, involving not only fear-mongering about climate change, but also the panicked pronouncement of an unstoppable pandemic. All this is combined with the lie that there are too many people populating the victim of all this—planet Earth.

The sacrifice that must be made upon the altar erected by the unspecified powers that be is the elimination of all but 500 million human beings. This sacrifice has at its heart the offering, through abortion, of many millions of children in their mothers’ wombs, and even some outside the womb.

Those powers command that we must bring the ratio of humans to nature into sustainable configuration—a demand long championed by Prince Charles, who is now King Charles III. He is totally sold out to the developing New World Order being orchestrated by Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum (WEF) and other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

For years, observers of the efforts to bring about the one-world utopia have insisted that these minions in high places (like given in Ephesians 6:12) are deliberately trying to change weather and climate. These observers charge that those who intend to establish a New World Order want to alter the ecosystem in ways that will help depopulate Mother Earth.

The Klaus Schwab types proclaim that too many people on earth mean they are polluting the planet. There are too many eaters, and thus soon there will be more starvation than ever, along with malnutrition and every sort of pestilence—like the recent pandemic has wrought.

One has to question the veracity of their reasoning. It seems that if they just let things take the natural course, as discomforting as it might be, the result of the starvation, disease, etc., would bring their desired depopulation. An interesting quandary, but one apparently not long dwelt upon by reprobate minds, it seems.

The observations by the likes of us pre-Tribbers regarding charging the powers that be with taking depopulation into their own hands now has apparently been born out, at least to some extent. The accusation that we are conspiracy nuts or tin-hat sorts  has proven otherwise. The following item is interesting in that regard.

To keep natural sunlight from reaching planet earth and supporting life, a geoengineering startup company called Make Sunsets has begun deploying massive weather balloons to blast the stratosphere with reflective sulfur particles, all for the claimed purpose of “fighting climate change.”

A phenomenon also known as chemtrails, these sulfur blasts stop the sun’s ultraviolet rays from reaching the atmosphere and ultimately earth’s surface. The result is a dimmed sun that no longer functions as designed to sustain life on earth. (Related: It was known in 2018 that climate fanatics were pushing a “global dimming” agenda to block out the sun and “save the planet.”)

Much like how natural volcanic eruptions flood the skies with pollutants that darken daylight for days or even weeks at a time, chemtrail blasts like the ones occurring at Make Sunsets mimic this sun-blocking effects to fight “global warming.”

Numerous test launches have already taken place at sites across Mexico with no public input or scientific debate. The goal, according to the company’s head, is to eventually commercialize the technology for widespread use.

“We joke slash not joke that this is partly a company and partly a cult,” said Luke Iseman, the co-founder and CEO of Make Sunsets. “It’s morally wrong, in my opinion, for us not to be doing this … (and we need) to do this as quickly and safely as we can.” (“After Decades of Denial, Corporate Media Admits Chemtrail Terraforming Is Happening Right Now to “fight climate change,” Ethan Huff, Natural News, 12/28/22, Rapture Ready News, 12/30/22)

So we eaters have for decades been accused by the global warmist/climate-change gurus of polluting Mother Earth with our deadly carbon footprints. But the admission that there are private industries, aided and even funded by governmental entities actually and deliberately spreading the earth’s skies with destructive chemtrails or whatsoever, make clear who the real polluters are.

The powers that be–Lucifer’s minions, both human and demonic—may think to change the time, seasons, and the ecology of earth. But our God says otherwise. The Lord tells truth about who controls His creation. He does so through His everlasting promise to Israel.

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

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), the late-nineteenth—early-twentieth-century humorist-writer, penned his famous A Connecticut Yankee in King Author’s Court. It was a fanciful play on the legend of Camelot and all involved in matters of King Arthur and his knights of the round table in ancient England. 

The 1940s Hollywood film adaptation starring Bing Crosby by the same title was a much lighter-hearted portrayal than Twain’s book. While moments of humor dotted the book’s story, a dark, dystopian undercurrent permeated, projecting the author’s cynical, even fatalistic, view of the world.

In the film, the protagonist endures the morose evil of ancient European society while trying to improve that world with his advanced technological knowledge. In the end—and back in the future that is his own time—he lives happily (we suppose ever after) with the exact copy of the girl he fell in love with in that ancient dream-vision.

However, in the original story, his dream-vision carrying him throughout King Arthur’s kingdom with the king himself at his side ends with unfulfilled hope. The protagonist sees all he tried to accomplish back in time come to nothing. And, in his own time, he drifts into death toward an unknown hereafter.

The story, then, is really the author’s allegorical treatment of humanity going down a one-way road that, no matter the victories and even kindly intentions along the way, ends without fulfillment or hope. This, despite the famous author’s wit and humor, was the view Clemens—an agnostic, and some say an atheist—had: Life is without hope; it is without God.

Apart from God, there is no future “happily ever after,” only moments of imagined joy that are fading—they’re temporary and fleeting. At all times, there is a God-shaped void within the human soul that, through self-generated effort, can at best assuage the inner emptiness for a moment during our physical existence.

As believers who have the very essence of God dwelling in us, we can be joyful and blessed beyond measure, despite this increasingly darkening world. It is this oppressive, depressing, wicked world system that is the temporary, fleeting, sometimes nightmare-like occupation in this foreign land that believers will soon evacuate for a glorious future where joy never fades; rather, it builds in never-ending ecstasy.

As we come to the beginning of this new year, I again want to tell of another Connecticut Yankee–this one isn’t in a fictitious king’s court, but in the court of the King of all kings.

Tom, of the Watchman River podcasts—a Connecticut resident—is the teacher who stations himself beside the Connecticut River and proclaims King Jesus on a daily basis.

Many of you now know about his efforts to simply and humbly lay out truth about God’s care for you and me—His absolute love for all of humanity.

Because our website is Rapture Ready, I’m especially eager to propose going to this podcast ministry hosted by Tom each and every day when possible.

We post his links to the daily programs on a regular basis so that God’s truth is a click away at any time.

Tom presents news of the day that is filled with likely prophetic significance. He especially brings in the pre-Trib Rapture and its nearness because of the exploding news items that are literally flashing the brilliant red alert of Jesus Christ’s coming intervention into this anti-God world system.

So I call my friend Tom a “Connecticut Yankee in King Jesus’ court.”

No matter where any believer lives, he or she is a member of King Jesus’ court.

Please understand that we aren’t merely “subjects” as believers during this Church Age. We are the Bride of the King of all kings. We are the very children of God the Father. We are joint heirs with King Jesus!

Can there be a more magnificent prospect than to be in this eternal kingdom, and expecting Jesus’ any moment call for us to “Come up here!”? (Revelation 4: 1).

Here is a link to one of Tom’s most recent programs in which he speaks in eloquently simple words about the King who is about to summon us into that realm where He’s been preparing our mansions for glory in eternity.

Watchman River Podcast 12-31-22

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1–3)

Going back just a way in my personal history, I’ll divulge my one-time wanting more than anything to be a cape-wearing, soaring superhero. In that regard, there’s a photograph somewhere in the family archive of myself, Pappy, and David all wearing capes (towels). All three of us were about 6, I think—the age when I was saved in the Seventh Street Tabernacle Church on the corner of Seventh and Derby in Pekin, Illinois.

Superman was the rage in the “funny books” (my sons mock me now for using that term for comic books). We studied the Man of Steel and wanted more than anything to fly and perform super feats of strength. Sometimes it got us in trouble –like when we jumped from places higher than were safe for mere mortals with towels affixed around necks.

So Pappy, David, and I proved that human beings’ desire for supernatural powers must begin early in life. But what we are witnessing today is not mere child’s play. The determination has now reached the Tower of Babel level. People are determined to do things that caused the Lord God of Heaven to say the following:

And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. (Genesis 1:6)

Following the Great Flood of Noah’s time, people began to multiply, and the populations grew while they moved onto the plains of Shinar. They built their cities and erected the ziggurat we call the Tower of Babel.

According to the Lord’s observation, they were apparently doing things that exhibited Lucifer’s ambitions to be God-like. The Lord, likely because they were created in His image and could achieve their ignoble ambitions, thus said: “Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech” (Genesis 11:7).

It was done, and the people, unable to communicate, scattered about the then-known earth, forming various languages, cultures, etc. God had to intervene, else rebellion would again reach antediluvian level, bringing about the Lord’s judgment and the death of most all upon the planet.

Some biblical scholars believe these post-Flood generations had tapped into dark powers from the demonic dimension and were beginning to achieve breakthroughs that were evil, not productive toward human progression God wanted for mankind.

We come up to the Lord Jesus’ words: “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24: 37).

Ladies and gentlemen, the evidence indicates that we have arrived there. We must certainly be in times like when God had to scatter the tower-builders. Humanity’s lust for God-like power manifests each and every hour of the ongoing news cycles. It is neither childlike nor mere noble aspiration that confronts us with wicked enticement to be God-like. Demonic influence more and more becomes stark reality to those with spiritual discernment.

Maybe the most egregious example of the neo-Babel tower-builders’ attempts at usurping God’s throne is found within the ambitious planning of Karl Schwab’s World Economic Forum (WEF). The following, I think, presents the indictment framing Jesus’ words “as it was in the days of Noah.”

People’s desires to expand their human capabilities will give globalists an instrument of total control over our lives.

Globalists have big dreams: to have godlike power over human beings, their reproduction, and their genetic code. Under their new buzzwords “human upgrade” or “body tuning,” they are selling their plans of providing people with chips for everyday use. With their desire to be able to rule over life, they don’t even stop at unborn children: You even want to tinker with babies’ genetic prerequisites in the womb…

As Xiao Liu wrote on the World Economic Forum (WEF) website in June 2020, “We’re entering the era of the “Internet of Bodies”: collecting our physical data via a range of devices that can be implanted, swallowed or worn.”

Apple is already boasting of a new implant in the clinical trial phase, which will grant users the ability to use their brains to control their iPhone or iPad with their thoughts. In addition, app stores are already being dreamed up for the future brain chips.

Transhumanistic God Playing

WEF advisor and transhumanism thought leader Yuval Noah Harari even goes one step further. He dreams of an “anti-virus program for the mind” to drive out negative – and probably also critical – thoughts from people. Then, in the future, Harari believes, “bioengineers will take the old Sapiens body, and intentionally rewrite its genetic code, rewire its brain circuits, alter its biochemical balance, and even grow entirely new limbs. They will thereby create new godlings, who might be as different from us Sapiens as we are different from Homo erectus.” So basically, in less than half a century, Cyborgs will replace humanity.

In this world of machine-made elite gods, conventional, ordinary people without such “upgrades” only appear as a herd of cattle to be controlled and ruled over. Even human reproduction is to be controlled; the beautiful and rich can choose their desired children from the test tube. In any case, Harari doesn’t think much of humans. As he explains, there is no scientific evidence that sapiens, unlike pigs, have a soul. Transhumanists want to overcome humanity and cement their power. Sadly, people’s desires to expand their human capabilities will give globalists an instrument of total control over our lives. (“Transhumanism Horror: Elites Want to Genetically Alter Children in the Womb, High-Bred Globalist Kids,” Rapture Ready News, December 16, 2022)

Getting back to Pappy, David, and my 6-year-old self, it seems our own desire for superpowers were something the globalist masters believe mankind can now achieve.

WEF agenda contributor Kathleen Phillips, in a blog post titled, “Augmented tech can change the way we live,” writes:

Superheroes have been dominating big and small screens for a while, but there’s a subtle change happening. Many children expect to develop superpowers themselves. These expectations may sound unattainable, but we’re already making the first strides towards an “augmented society.””, but only with the right support and vision.

The support the globalist masters need is that which will be given by the Antichrist regime during the Tribulation.

Let us be thankful that it is God, not the minions from the dark dimension, who has ultimate power and control over things to come. He tells us in His Holy Word the one and only way to be kept from that hour of absolute wickedness that is about to burst upon this rebellious earth –thus to be kept from His judgment and wrath.

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

…

One solitary birth is the basis upon which the future hangs for every person ever to enter this mortal realm we call planet earth. How each man, woman, and child who is old enough to understand the salvation issue views the First Coming determines where their home will be for eternity.

Many believe Jesus was sent by God to show us how to live a good life. Some believe He was a great prophet and teacher. Others believe He was a philosopher, right up there with Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the rest. A few among the billions who have lived since His birth have believed Jesus is the Son of God, but perhaps one of many others in a created angelic order assigned to influence the affairs of humankind. Still fewer believe He was who He claimed to be–the only begotten Son of God; the way, the truth, and the life (John 14: 6).

No birth of anyone else has ever caused the excitement and controversy Jesus’ birth has engendered. Was this baby a stranger of an otherworldly order, sent to earth to provide moral guidance? Was Jesus sent to philosophize on the ups and downs of the human existence? Or, was this visitation something more?

Jesus came into the world through the Jewish race. Only those inalterably antagonistic to the truth of history will argue against that. So, we should examine this birth—this First Coming—through the prism of Israel and its dealings with the one called Jesus.

Although there are other histories about the era, the Bible’s account has, through archaeological unveilings, proven time after time to be accurate in details concerning matters surrounding Jesus, the Jews, and Israel. (One example is the relatively recent discovery of evidence that someone called “Pontius Pilate” ruled the area of Judea during the times attributed to Jesus’ crucifixion. Until the discovery, Pilate’s existence as an historical figure was seriously doubted, even denied, by many historians.)

We know the accuracy of how Israel–the religious Jews in particular—dealt with Jesus. We know with assurance that He performed miracles and claimed to be God, Himself, by using the Bible’s documented veracity as proof that Jesus was born exactly as foretold in detail by Old Testament prophets. These Jewish religious leaders’ treatment of Christ’s First Coming as a baby lays the groundwork for understanding what that first visitation means to the souls of all mankind. Understanding that First Coming also will help frame the vital importance of how each of us views Christ’s prophesied Second Advent.

Tragically, the pious Jewish leaders refused to accept that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah sent from Jehovah to be their King and their Savior. They rejected Him despite the precise prophecies He fulfilled in His coming and His ministry. They chose to have Rome rather than Jesus rule over them. The results of their rejection continue to reverberate—not only in the Holy Land, but throughout the entire world. Armageddon is building, its nucleus grounded in satanic rage against God’s chosen people.

Jesus wept over God’s people of Israel and the city, Jerusalem. He saw times ahead that would eventuate in calamity for them.

And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. (Luke 19: 41–44)

Christ’s First Coming was ignored and scoffed at by the religious leaders of the time. Their choice was their own way, rather than God’s. They preferred to do what was right in their own eyes. True to Jesus’ prophecy, Jerusalem was laid waste, the Temple was destroyed, and the Jews were scattered to every part of the world. Genocide was committed against them to the point that their very existence as a race was threatened.

Israel continues to pay the price. Anti-Semitism is growing in Europe and around the world. The nation is becoming marginalized, just as the prophet Zechariah forewarned in Zechariah chapters 12 and 14.

But there is a bright day coming for that people–those who accept the Messiah’s second visitation. Paul the apostle warned believers not to feel superior to Jews. He forecast a coming time when Israel would shine among the nations.

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 fullness of the Gentiles be come in. (Romans 11:25)

God said, again through the prophet Zechariah, that believing Israel will yet recognize the Lord Jesus–upon His Second Coming to the earth.

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10)

The Apostle Paul said:

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. (Romans 11:26)

A parallel can be drawn between the ecclesiastical Jewish leaders of the time of Jesus’ first visitation and many among mainstream evangelical clergy today. Neither group has considered prophecies of Christ’s coming as relevant to their times. Their attitude is much akin to the one described by the Apostle Peter:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (2 Peter 3:3–4)

This sin-darkened sphere is on the brink of another visitation. Unlike the first, when He came as a humble baby, who was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, He will come the next time as the King of all kings, and the Lord of all lords. Let us who claim Christ as Savior heed His words about His coming again. The first phase of that Second Coming will be unannounced, and in the twinkling of an eye—the Rapture!

Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. (Mark 13:35–37)