Among the most telling signals that this is the time of the consummation of human history this side of Christ’s Second Advent are the developments wrapped in the following prophecy:

Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. (Revelation 9:21)

It’s this matter of “sorceries” that I would like to dwell upon here. 

“Sorceries”in this instance is derived from the Greek pharmakeia. It has several meanings, including “witchcraft” and “poison or drugs.”

Early in history, the word pharmakeia, as referring to drugs, was thought to indicate poison. The level of dosage determined whether the poison was fatal. Of course, this is true. Too much can be deadly. We know people overdose many times, and some die, either by accidental or deliberate overdose.

This has caused some within religions to declare all modern pharmakeia, or pharmacy, as a sin.

I have a son who is a pharmacist, and, of course, I believe he and his fellow doctors of pharmacy do good, not evil. However, there is no arguing against the fact that it’s not only the illicit drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and others that are harming and even killing people, but it’s legitimate medicines that are doing the same, in all too many cases.

Abuse of opioids has become so problematic, for example, that most state regulating boards have gone overboard, some believe, by keeping those who genuinely need help from getting appropriate meds. Pain-management clinics, for example, are heavily restricted from dispensing medications above certain dosages, etc.

One such medication is at the heart of the problem that has brought about this over-regulation. It is the drug said to be killing thousands in the United States—youths in particular. Fentanyl is a Chinese-produced drug for pain that was once used regularly, but now is more or less banned here in America. I don’t know the cases in which it’s allowed to be used, but I presume there are some.

The lethality of this drug is exacerbated by the insane border policies of this presidential administration. Drug runners are practically running free in illegally flooding our southern border areas with fentanyl and other such powerful drugs. Cartels from south continue to reap billions of dollars while killing our citizens with their drug trafficking.

One story frames the problem:

…Los Angeles County experienced a 1,280% spike in overdose deaths from fentanyl, according to a recent report from the county Department of Public Health.

In a joint statement, the LA County District Attorney’s Office (which regularly refuses to charge drug dealers) and the health department announced the creation of a working group to address the situation “through prevention, education and enforcement.”

The ‘enforcement’ part will of course mark a radical departure from DA George Gascón’s ‘catch-and-release’ policy when it comes to criminals.

According to the health department, there were 104 deaths in 2016 attributed to fentanyl, which ballooned to 1,662 in 2021.

According to City News Service, black residents had the highest overdose rate based on the population, at 30.6 per 100,000 residents. White residents are overdosing at a rate of 22.5 per 100,000, while Latinos are at 11.1 per 100,000 residents.

The overdoses also occurred much more frequently in less affluent areas – which came in at 38.4 deaths per 100,000 vs. 12.3 per 100,000.

“Fentanyl overdoses are a significant and growing public health problem across the United States and in [the county], across sociodemographic groups and geographic areas,” reads the report, which adds “The increases among youth and the widening inequities between under-resourced and more affluent groups underscore the need to target prevention efforts to those at highest risk to decrease fentanyl overdoses and advance health equity in [LA County].” (“LA County Experiences 1,200% Increase in Fentanyl Overdose Deaths Over 5-Year Period,” Planet Today, 12/3/22)

Many observers, including yours truly, see this incursion as a direct invasion by the communist Chinese government as a concerted effort on behalf of the Marxist/socialist/globalist order to bring America to its knees. The fentanyl assault is no doubt from the mind of Satan, who is at work readying his Antichrist overlord to enter the stage of end-times history.

People, particularly the young, embrace this deadly drug through recreational use. According to God’s prophetic Word, the problem will become exponentially worse. A salient question is: Might the horrific level of drug use during the Tribulation be partly responsible for the “strong delusion” people will be sent, according to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3?  

To avoid being a part of that era of earth-dwellers when such “sorceries” are embraced by the deluded masses, and instead be with the Lord Jesus Christ, here is what you must do now, while there is time before the Rapture or your own cessation of life:

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)

Author’s note: This article first appeared on Raptureready.com Monday, February 11, 2008. That evil spirit has become much more manifestly virulent, as those who follow issues and events of these closing moments of the age will attest.

John the apostle’s words are ringing louder and more succinctly than ever in the senses of those alert to the deceptive siren song of replacement theology.

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (1 John 2:18–19)

It was already the “last time” when John wrote this under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The apostle who was so close to Jesus told us just how near Christ’s return is. Even though it has been almost two millennia, in God’s economy of time, that is nothing. Proof of it being the last time was the fact that there were many antichrists in and around Jerusalem. The coming of the Antichrist—the final, ultimate Antichrist—was on the way. But, John went on to say:

And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1 John 4:3)

Many, following the crucifixion of Christ, were at first claiming they believed Jesus had been the Jews’ Messiah. They seemed to be genuine followers of Jesus. But, the farther away the time of Christ’s death, burial, and well-known resurrection got, the more these people drifted away from the truth that indeed Jesus of Nazareth had come into Jewish flesh—the God/Man—to die on the cross as a once-and-for-all sacrifice for sin.

Now, those claiming to be believers were feeling the pressures and heat of the atmospherics surrounding the Resurrection. The Romans would tolerate no god but Caesar. The Jewish high-minded religionists persecuted and pursued all who accepted, followed, and worshipped the imposter Jew who had claimed to be Israel’s Messiah. The Judaizer Saul, of course, was one who persecuted true believers, but who would soon become Christ’s most fervent evangelist.

John said—again, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit—that those who denied that Jesus had come in the flesh to seek and save the lost were “antichrists.” They had the “antichrist” spirit.

This “spirit of antichrist” is more and more in view today. This comes to my attention not just weekly these days, but on a daily, even hourly, basis. There is a massive denial that Israel, the Jews in the modern nation and around the world, are any part of God’s plans for the restoration of all things. As a matter of fact, many of these attribute the term “Jew” and God’s promises to that people to themselves.

They go so far, in some cases, as to attribute the designation “Israel” to the nations of, for example, Great Britain and the United States. They are, they say, part of the ten lost tribes of Israel. They, in other words, claim they and/or these nations are the true Jews, and that the people who claim to be Jews are—well, like those of the Antichrist spirit in John’s day claimed Jesus to be—imposters.

These are doing the same thing the Judaizers–the hierarchy of the Jewish religionists—were doing in John’s day. They are denying linkage between the Jews and God’s coming to earth in the form of Jesus the Christ. This is a denial that Christ has come in the flesh—Jewish flesh. This is the spirit of antichrist.

This “spirit” is the one that caused the progeny of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be pursued, hated, and murdered down through the centuries. This is the “spirit” that Satan has used to rage against the chosen people since the promise of the seed that would be raised to destroy him (Genesis 3:15).

It is the spirit of Antichrist that boils within Islam today. It is the spirit of Antichrist that brought Hitler’s Holocaust to the flesh-and-blood Jews—a thing that, unbelievably, is being denied as ever having happened by those who claim to be Christians.

And this is the reason for my rant. The following excerpt is from one of many I get from around the world—most claiming to be Christians, and, I might add, to be the true Jews today—replacing the Jews who can claim genetic ties to Jacob, who became Israel.

The diatribe was much longer than I can devote to this limited space. But, this is the gist, and typical of what I get incessantly from those who say we who believe in the Rapture and support the rights of a phony Israel to exist are, well, headed for a devil’s Hell. The person sending this follows a “ministry” that holds to the British Israel theory, or to a theory that the Church has replaced the Jews—modern Israel—in God’s promises. He tells about a man who gives the following “testimony”:

I have done my own research, and I have been to the concentration camp Dachau four times; once in college, and three times when I was in the military.

I had some problems with what I saw, and with what I was told. I am going to attempt to clarify myself hopefully in an outline that is understandable.

First: 1) I stood in what I was told was the gas chamber; but it was concealed as a large shower room. One question I had was very simple. Why would the Germans use a shower to conceal the gas chamber? If your [sic] going to kill the people with gas; then just do it, don’t try to disguise it. There I stood in the middle of this large room looking at the shower heads; and I could smell gas; but was it coming from a vent, an outside source, or what. I couldn’t tell. I thought this was somewhat strange. I even went outside the building looking for an outside source, or some kind of piping that would funnel any foreign objects into the building, but I couldn’t find any. Actually, the gas smelled like the gas that came from the canisters that we used in combat training when I was in the military.

It wasn’t until 12 years later when I was in the Air National Guard; and I went to Widmund Germany to support a Tactical Command fighter unit out of North Carolina, that I really started questioning what I was told earlier. I was in a combat communications unit, and in 1985 I had to go to the Air Force combat communications training school at Tinker AFB Oklahoma…

I went through training in the classroom; being trained in CPR, first aid, Geneva Convention, and so forth, and then I went out into the field for three weeks training in combat.

This was the first time I was ever in the full MOP suite (gas mask, boots, and the entire ensemble) while in training. I was in a foxhole for six hours under the hot Oklahoma sun. One thing I was taught was that in order to have a successful gas attack; there [have] to be nearly perfect weather conditions.

In other words, to[o] much wind could blow the gas that you directed at another country right back at you; and also, the rain has a way of dissolving or nullifying chemical, bacterial, and nuclear gas agents. One thing I learned was that water and steam could very well nullify any gas in the area. I started thinking, than [sic] how could the German’s [sic] gas the Jews while they were taking showers? They couldn’t, the water and steam would dissolve the gas to the point that the gas would be neutralized.

I realize that it is a terrible thing to come against the Jews; after all, wasn’t Jesus Christ a Jew? Wasn’t the Jews God’s chosen people? And wasn’t the Word of God given to the Jews for them to study, and use to bring the light of the Gospel to the world? The answer of course is, NO!!!…”

This same “spirit of antichrist” is flagrant among those who claim devotion to Christ. It is the denial of the flesh-and-blood people—the “chosen people”—into which the son of God was born. It is this spirit that will bring about the ultimate Beast—the Antichrist. Jeremiah spoke to this in his prophecy about Israel during the Tribulation:

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 spirit of Antichrist is on a rampage, even in subdued ways among the Church, by refusing to address the hatred coming against modern Israel. It does, indeed, tell us where we are on God’s prophetic timeline. 

This commentary is offered in consideration of Christian young adults—those who are God’s children. That is, they are God’s own through belief in Jesus Christ according to perhaps my favorite scriptural passage on how to be saved from sin’s dread sway:

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)

We will delve a bit into the plans of these young adults in consideration of Bible prophecy. The concerns they have too often go without much notice by those of us in the Bible prophecy ministry, I’m afraid. Their worries, which might have at one time been the very ones of my generation and younger, now can be easily overlooked by us older ones. We have lived our lives, we’ve had and raised our children, and we’ve completed many of our family, social, and business desires and expectations.

I can remember when, on the rare times when those of us in our twenties and thirties had discussions about the Rapture and of the Second coming, some—perhaps most—would say something like: “I want the Rapture and Jesus to return, but I hope I get to enjoy life and see my kids grow up.”

Otherwise, we didn’t talk about Bible prophecy much in our social gatherings—or even in our church gatherings, as I recall. The subject was almost taboo, because it engendered thoughts of separation. Somewhat like the thought of death, the Rapture threatened to separate us from those we loved –especially in thinking about our babies or our future life with family and children.

Of course, this was because even back then, pastors rarely taught about Bible prophecy. Our Sunday schools and other forums almost never dwelt on God’s prophetic Word, either. Those of my era and subsequent eras of young adults, like today’s young adults, never were led to understand the promises our Heavenly Father has made in His prophetic Word.

So it is understandable why today there is little interest in the teachings of Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ. I, too, am guilty of pointing only to the gloom and doom of these darkening times. There’s not much hope—or certainly not much fun—in thinking about the evil that permeates our world in ever-increasing virulence.

We who are commissioned to analyze and dissect the prophetic implications of these days leading to the Tribulation too often don’t take into account the fact that the young adults of our time don’t see the final outcome of the prophetic stage-setting as wonderful and magnificent as we do.

The young people only see the problems of making their way into life’s mainstream and preparing for or working toward building their families and security for those families. Looking up for the any-moment Rapture is, most times, far outside of their worldview. All they know is the here and now and trying to find their way through the maze of growingly difficult social and cultural situations they face daily. And, again, the Rapture seems to be something more to be feared than looked forward to with great anticipation, as we are exhorted in Paul’s words of Titus 2:13.

As I write, I’m reminded deeply in my spirit how the Lord wants those who are in His family to gather within their redeemed spirits the astonishingly wondrous things He wants them to anticipate—the things that are coming much sooner than we can realize.

My spirit tells me that reaching the ability to have this kind of anticipation comes most often from years of studying Bible prophecy. And every generation has failed to properly bring the young to such a level of study.

In other words, I and others who have spent most of our adult lives deeply rooted in the study of and prayer about Bible prophecy now know in the deepest reaches of our being the wonders that await just after the final heartbeat or that glorious moment when Christ shouts for His Bride to come to Him. The young ones, and even older Christians who haven’t studied the prophetic Word on their own or in churches or other venues, don’t have the assurance or even knowledge of that magnificent future on the very cusp of pulling them instantaneously into glory.

It is not possible for a writer or a preacher to make these folks understand the joy that awaits the believer in Jesus Christ. But it is possible, if they can just be convinced to take God at His Word, that a fantastic future beyond anything imaginable is approaching at a speed never before experienced by God’s people.

The Scripture I would encourage every young person to include in their plans is given by the Apostle Paul—the same prophet who revealed the mystery of 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. (1 Corinthians 2:9)

It seems, then, that no one can know with great inner assurance of the glories that await believers. But God’s promise goes beyond this seeming inhibition against knowing Heaven’s wonders.

Paul tells us further the following about knowing that blessed eternal life to come:

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (1 Corinthians 2:10–13)

Those words from the very heart of our God tell His family that the desire to know of the never-ending life of glorious exultation can be fulfilled through Holy-Spirit revelation. This is what each believer needs to understand and apply—study, prayer, and a deep belief in God’s promises. The Holy Spirit will give understanding and deep, abiding faith in the promises of God regarding our eternal life with Him.

To the younger and older members of God’s family—who are already citizens of that place called Heaven: Make Bible prophecy a big part of your plans for the future. God’s powerful promises will bring your earthly plans into focus with a heavenly perspective. And you will begin to understand that leaving this earth doesn’t mean you will lose the children and family you love so much. You will begin to know beyond any doubt that the life God has prepared for you is billions of times more wonderful and fulfilling than any time you spend with them on earth. Your life with loved ones will be enhanced beyond what you can fathom.

The red tsunami didn’t happen. Midterm election results fell far short of what conservative, America-like-it-used-to-be voters desired.

Politico-pundits and patriots alike have since dissected and analyzed every facet of what happened on November 8, 2022. Reasons for the failure to produce the red wave (overwhelming victories by Republicans) run the gamut of accusations, excuses, and factual findings.

Many Americans listen only to mainstream news and social media forums that don’t tell the truth and hide important facts about the dire state of the nation. They don’t hear about the true crisis of the country’s wide-open borders, where millions of illegals are pouring through and being distributed throughout the nation by a government now turned toward Marxist-socialist ideology. The people aren’t told the full story regarding the serious tearing-down of the US infrastructure, like oil and gas production within our own resources.

They are oblivious—sometimes deliberately so—to the all-out efforts by the globalists elite to tear down our country’s sovereignty so they can divert United States wealth to fund their one-world order. While these uninformed Americans care about insane, inflation-caused prices and increased personal danger because of rampant crime, the thing that apparently prevented the red tsunami is found in another matter more concerning.

The issue that tipped the balance is maintaining the freedom to abort babies. This was the finding of the exit polls on November 8.

Leading up to Election Day, many of the pollsters said people were not expressing the abortion issue as being important to them. However, after the vote—in exit interviews and beyond—folks were saying they voted for the pro-abortion party candidate. This was the primary reason they gave for voting as they did. It was votes for the right to continue abortion on demand. These voters feared—as surmised by pollsters, pundits, and politicians—that since the Supreme Court recently found the Roe v Wade ruling of 1973 to be unconstitutional, the religious right would control if the red wave prevailed.

To me, the demand to continue slaughtering babies is all-important to consider as we approach the darkest era of human history.

This election-steering determination to rid the world of unwanted children pierced to the core of my thinking on the matter of Rapture. At the moment I sensed my spirit being prompted by the Holy Spirit to think about the abortion demand alongside the Rapture of the Church, I received an email. It was obviously sent by someone who hoped to hook interest in promoting a novel.

But, now knowing more about the author, I know the email was sent with the humble request that the Holy Spirit guide the novel to its target. I’m familiar with that request because I’ve offered them frequently myself in the book-writing, publishing, and promotion process.

The note wasn’t addressed to me personally. It was just a kind of scatter-shot “feeler.” The author’s hope was to, by chance, draw interest in the book.

Well…in this case, it worked.

The novel hit the very spot it was meant to hit. Or, I should say, the topic within the novel hit the target it was intended to hit. That would be yours truly.

Most who are familiar with these commentaries know the abortion issue is one of the key indicators of the lateness of the prophetic hour as we approach the Rapture.

Readers are also familiar with my core belief that God is, by taking all children in the Rapture, going to make a definite statement about abortion, when life begins, and His attitude regarding children who are innocent because they haven’t yet reached the age or maturity level enabling them to decide whether to accept or reject Jesus Christ. As I’ve stated many times, based on how God has historically dealt with humankind, to do anything other than remove these innocent children from the horrific judgment and wrath to come would fly in the face of His perfect character.

The novel slammed hard into my thinking on the voters’ embrace of the right to abort babies by the millions. It is a work of fiction, of course. But I’m convinced that the truth within its pages needs to be shared—particularly with people who have been deceived by those who spread Satan’s lies about killing babies in the womb.

I read (listened to) the book in three settings—a feat I rarely achieve, considering the number of things on my to-do list. I believe that you’ll devour it, too. I’m hoping you will, and then pass the story on to many others, particularly young adults who are exposed to all the lies surrounding the abortion issue.

Here is a brief description I received that got me started reading the book. But to really understand the story’s impact—that when the Rapture intervenes into this judgment-bound world, real lives will be ripped apart—you’ll want to get into that first chapter. I believe you won’t want to stop reading.

Book snippet:

What would you do? Your husband is missing; you don’t want to be pregnant; you witness a horrific airplane accident, and you learn all babies and young children have disappeared. Twenty-eight-year-old Sarah Colton may think she is in control, but she’s far from the truth, not realizing the Rapture has occurred. Enter the writer’s mind as she deals with this imminent, amazing event. (Updated 2022 version of Untaken, originally published in 2017)

When Christ calls the church out of this world, all children—even those just conceived—will go missing instantaneously. The impact of this loss around the globe will be profound, but the way it will affect those like Sarah and others like her will be beyond any description, fiction or nonfiction.

This is why I’ve chosen to promote this book through a commentary rather than a review. Even though I realize that many who follow these columns don’t have an interest in fiction, I’m convinced you will find this one irresistible once you take the chance to start reading it.

Here are the author’s words about her desire to get this story in front of readers: “One thing I must stress is that this is a ministry for me to promote Christ, so I would like the e-book to always be NO CHARGE to anyone who wants it.… This is not about me making any money, but promoting God’s Word!”

While the e-book is FREE everywhere online but on Amazon (they require it to be $0.99), the print copy is $9.99, from which the author makes less than a dollar each. Prices are often fixed by the publishing process and are beyond her control. Having been in the business of writing commercially published books for many years, I can vouch that some of the new, electronic publishing platforms can be simply labors of love on the authors’ behalf.

Such is the case with Untaken:12 Hours Following the Rapture by C. O. Wyler. Out of love for the Lord and for those she doesn’t want left behind at the Rapture, she intends this story to warn of the horrors that will follow Jesus calling the church from planet earth and how the missing children will make that time of Tribulation even more horrendous.

Since the book includes the eternal plan of salvation and is timely to what is happening in the world, it is for both believers and unbelievers.

Today is the day of salvation!

To order this short novel, click on any of these online links:

Universal link for all websites: https://books2read.com/Untaken

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077GFQM1Y ~ $0.99

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/untaken-co-wyler/1141008345 ~ FREE e-book

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/untaken-12-hours-following-the-rapture/id1311177990 ~ FREE e-book

Hoopla: https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/13565377 ~ FREE e-book

!indigo: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/untaken-12-hours-following-the/9781386310402 – FREE e-book

Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9781386310402_9781386310402_10020 ~ FREE e-book

Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Untaken-12-Hours-Following-the-Rapture-Paperback-9798201886240/577981343 ~ Paperback $9.99

Feel free to pass on the link, promote it at your church, or include it in your bulletins; spread the Word before it is too late!

Download your copy and copies to give to those you would like to inform about this coming time of unfathomable horror for those untaken in the Rapture.

Most of us have had the sensation. It’s the strange feeling that the exact same moment has been experienced before. The experience is brief and, to me at least, almost entertaining. And, at my age, I’ve lived long enough to have had a number of these “brain slippages back in time,” or whatever they are.

One recognized dictionary defines the term: “Déjà vu is a French loanword expressing the feeling that one has lived through the present situation before. It is an anomaly of memory whereby, despite the strong sense of recollection, the time, place, and practical context of the ‘previous’ experience are uncertain or believed to be impossible.”

A most pointed malapropism (unintentional, often humorous, misuse) of the term was issued by one of Major League Baseball’s most famous malapropists, Yogi Berra. (The other is Casey Stengel.)

Yogi, Hall of Fame catcher for the New York Yankees, made the hilarious and now-famous quip using the term during the 1961 baseball season. When Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle were batting third and fourth in the Yankee lineup, many times Roger would hit a home run on his way to eclipsing Babe Ruth’s record that year. Mickey, batting right behind him, would also hit a home run. They combined that year for a record of such follow-up home runs.

Yogi, observing from the bench as his teammates homered, turned to somebody and said, right after Mickey followed up Roger’s home run with one of his own: “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

Well, the way I intend to present the word and its meaning will, I hope, come across somewhat less obliquely than Yogi’s observation on that day. As a matter of fact, the things involved are most serious. The Lord Himself seemed righteously angry at the religionists of His day and the way they ignored their duty to observe and report on the times of their watch.

Here is a description of the incident that stirred the Lord to chastise the Jewish teachers. I wrote the following for our book, Discerners: Analyzing Converging Prophetic Signs for the End of Days.

“Jesus looked directly and deeply into the eyes of the pious religionists and elitist-legalists (the Pharisees and Sadducees). His omniscient, penetrating, piercing, eyes saw into their very souls. These religious zealots and lawyers sought to disprove the claims by His followers that He was sent from God. They wanted Him to immediately perform a private miracle for them, thinking, no doubt, that He would fail, giving them fodder for their attacks against Him.

“In answer to their probing demands that He show them a sign to prove His commission from Heaven, Jesus said: ‘When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?’ (Matthew 16: 2–3).

“Jesus was chastising these zealots because they deliberately refused to accept that He fulfilled every prophecy that pointed to Him as Israel’s Messiah. He later said about these and the Jewish people, who were misled by them, thus rejected Him as Israel’s Mashiach.

“ ‘I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.’ (John 5: 43)

“Jesus was referring to a time in the Israel of the future that would set in motion the most terrible period of all of human history. It will initiate Daniel’s Seventieth Week—the last seven years before Christ’s return at Armageddon.

“We find the prophecy about this one Israel will accept in Daniel 9:26–27. Israel will make a covenant with this ‘prince that shall come,’ which this son of perdition will confirm for that week of years.”

The Jewish nation is scheduled, according to Jesus’ foreknowledge, to experience “déjà vu all over again,” as Yogi would put it. They will again be led astray in their spiritual blindness to Christ’s true messiahship. They will instead fall for the False Messiah, who, really, will come on the scene in a dual configuration: The Antichrist and the False Prophet—the two beasts of Revelation chapter 13.

An interesting young man, whom some of Israel’s foremost religious leaders look to in an almost worshipful way, has stepped upon the stage of end-times history. His name is Rav Shlomo Yehuda.

The following article explains the Orthodox Jewish leaders’ looking for a Messiah, while continuing to turn a blind eye to the real Messiah:

A recent interview on Israeli radio featured prominent rabbis explaining that the Messiah is just about to reveal himself.

Rabbi Yaakov Zisholtz told religious broadcaster Radio 2000 that Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky (who passed away earlier this year) had told him that he (Kanievsky) was already in direct contact with the Messiah.

To understand why religious Jews are taking this seriously, it’s important to know that Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky was considered one of the two or three top rabbis of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Israel.

And Rabbi Zisholtz says that Kanievsky and others of the mystical “concealed” rabbis had tasked him with informing the public of the Messiah’s imminent arrival.

Rabbi Zisholtz began his explosive three-hour interview with a warning:

“…the process of redemption is about to start happening very quickly and at a fast pace. It is important that people remain calm and steady to act properly in the right time.

“There is a potential Messiah in every generation and there are righteous men who know precisely who it is. This is, of course, true in this generation.

“Getting the word out now that the Messiah is closer than ever is a matter of life and death. Haven’t you heard of Gog and Magog? That is what is going to happen very soon. Right now, the situation is explosive more than you can possibly imagine. (“Israeli Rabbi Says He’s Already Holding Meetings with Messiah, A snapshot of Israel’s spiritual hunger as biggest rabbis are afraid to leave the country lest they miss Messiah’s coming,” by Ryan Jones, 9/29/22)

Many among the rabbinical high clergy apparently believe that Rav Shlomo Yehudah is that long-awaited savior of Israel.

The following gives a glimpse of this man of mystery who has suddenly appeared on the scene at the same time so many signs of the Tribulation are converging. There are reports that he performs miracles and heals terminal diseases, among other wonders.

We’re outside, waiting for the Yanuka.

It’s silent in the deserted courtyard of the little shul, for even though coronavirus restrictions have been eased and the streets have again come to life, most people are in bed at this hour. But we’re waiting — and then we see him. Soon we’re face to face with this bashful young man who’s taken the Torah world by storm — self-effacing, unremarkable in appearance, but so remarkable in the impact he’s had on the lives of the thousands who flock to him, hanging on his every word…

Rav Shlomo Yehudah was born in Eretz Yisrael in 1988, an only child born after many years. His paternal grandfather, Rav Shlomo, was a scion of the sages of Yemen and learned with the great mekubalim of Jerusalem after he arrived in the Holy Land. His maternal grandfather, Rav Yehudah, made aliyah from Aleppo, Syria…

The family returned to Israel shortly before Shlomo Yehudah’s bar mitzvah. At the time, there was a memorial event for a relative, and the family was looking for someone to say words of Torah in honor of the deceased. His father asked him to speak before the assembled, and he agreed, out of respect — but even his father had no idea of the depth of Torah that would pour forth from his young illui. As Shlomo Yehudah lowered his head and sought the right words, the thin stream quickly grew into a powerful waterfall. People were astonished.

It was as if they were watching a child possessed. The voice was small and innocent, but the words were those of an accomplished talmid chacham — a tapestry of Chumash and Navi, Gemara and Aggadah, every source accurately cited…

When Rav Shlomo Yehudah was 18, he began giving regular shiurim in different communities around the country, and it didn’t matter if you were litvish, yeshivish, or chassidish — people from all sectors began to flock to him. He married at age 20 and settled in Rishon L’Tzion, where he lives today, and where for the last ten years he’s been giving a regular shiur and trying to avoid publicity. But two years ago, in response to the directive of gedolei hador (some of whom come to his shiurim), his shiurim have gone public, in halls and auditoriums, sometimes drawing over a thousand people at an event. And there are a lot of surprises too. He often asks the crowd to pick a subject they want him to speak about — and he’s off and running, pulling together sources from all over, creating a tapestry of light and wisdom for a spellbound audience. (“Perfect Harmony,” by Aharon Kliger and Aryeh Ehrlich, Mishpacha Magazine, 5/26/20)

Israel will again make the mistake of failing to discern the time of their Messiah’s appearance. The Jewish religionists are again leading the people astray as they look to another rather than to the True Messiah—Jesus Christ. The result will be much worse than a 2,000-plus-year diaspora. The rebellious action will bring the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7).

You don’t want to make the same devastating mistake that Israel once made and is about to make yet again. Accept today Israel’s Messiah, the Savior of the world (John 3:16).

Here again is how to make sure you will go to Him when He calls all believers in the Rapture.

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)

Geopolitical warmongering intrigues are in full bloom for those who watch for end of the age signals. Societal and cultural, Sodom-like reprobate madness are on display and growing in ways prophesied by Paul in Romans chapter 1. National and global economic scheming and profligate spending treachery by governments have the seas of humanity roaring.

And now, as if to fully round out the picture of end times developments, the religious harlot system is in dynamic agitation, shaping dramatically for all who are truly watching to see.

John, given the vision while on Patmos, describes that wicked religious entity that will ride the back of the Antichrist’s regime.

“And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.” (Rev 17: 1-6)

It is an amazing thing to observe, even for those who are alert to things that must come to pass according to God’s Holy Word. And the story developing is nothing short of prophetic in consideration of the above prophecy given John to Forewarn those who will have the ability to discern the signs of the times.

The picture of the coming harlot that rides the beast has been in the last days developing process for some time. We have gone over how the global warming matter has morphed into the climate change mantra. The earth is being destroyed by mankind is the incessant hue and cry. there is a religious-like fervor to “save the planet”. The basic color scheme for the developing secular-humanistic system –the hue of the robes worn by the priests of climate change– is, of course, green.

Also, in order to save the earth there must be a drastic depopulation of the planet. The Georgia Guide stones told us so. The population must be pared down to a maximum of 500 million inhabitants. –Else all of mankind will face the fate of extinction.

That message and doctrine has at its heart, although the priests of green have never said so publically—the elimination of humanity through the process of murder of children while in their mothers’ wombs. This doctrinal matter within the climate change religion serves, in my view, as a sacrificial presentation upon the white hot Moloch-like altar of the self-appointed gods of this world. Thus their Utopian world can, they seem to be convinced, be brought to perfection.

The following information was recently brought to my attention. To me, the information seems to bring into focus the formation quickly taking place. –The symbolic religious harlot of Revelation 17.

Between November 6th and 18th, 2022, the UN climate conference COP 27 will take place on the Sinai Peninsula, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Religious communities and religious leaders have a key role to play in addressing climate change and climate justice, which requires deep transformation within society. The knowledge of what changes are critically needed to diminish long-term harm to the planet is readily available. However, bringing about change in action demands deeper changes in attitude, a change of heart. This has been the domain of religions for millennia. Religions are sources of inspiration for the transformation of heart and the ensuing changes of attitude.

Over the weekend of November 12th-13th, few official discussions or activities are planned at COP 27. This provides a major moment when the attention of media and participants can be turned to interreligious climate messaging and a transformative vision. On Sunday, November 13^th, religious leaders will ‘return’ on Mount Sinai, a mountain whose memory and meaning loom large as a place of revelation in the collective consciousness of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and others. As an ancient sacred space, it was the site of prophetic experience, and receiving God’s message, for the prophets Moses and Elijah in all three Abrahamic traditions, and the prophet Muhammed in the Muslim tradition. It therefore serves as an ideal location to remind humanity of our sacred responsibility to care for God’s creation. (Returning to Mt. Sinai” — A Prophetic Call for Climate Justice and Ceremony of Repentance, The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, https://interfaithsustain.com/returning-to-mt-sinai/%5D***

So we get insight at this late, prophetic hour, into the religious system John forewarned of and which the false prophet of Revelation chapter 13 will no doubt, greatly expand.

The following is the statement of commitment by the leaders of this developing Mystery Babylon system.

“We come to Sinai in a movement of repentance and quest. We seek a new vision for humanity and its endangered existence, and we seek to receive and amplify a message of life-sustaining living and habits that humanity needs to hear today. In this spirit, the project partners will bring together premier religious leaders from the world’s major religions to gather upon Mount Sinai to engage in a first ever Climate Repentance Ceremony, and to put forth a prophetic interreligious call to action: ‘climate Justice: Ten Universal Commandments.’”

Goals of the Event

• • • Inspire and unleash the power of religions, religious leaders and faith communities as change agents for climate action and as sources for inspiring and motivating discussions among politicians and civil bodies.
    • Motivate action among religious communities and the wider public to curb climate change.
    • Invite media to cover religious leaders’ advocacy in combating climate change.
    • Promote a coalition of religious leaders to work together for climate action.
    • Generate new faith-inspired climate education materials for broad use.
    • With the Harlot getting ready to ride the Satanic beast Daniel and John saw –the last world empire that Antichrist will rule—Observers of the times from the preTrib view can do none other than believe the Rapture is very near.
    • Here again is how to be part of that Blessed Call to believers when the Lord Jesus Christ’s Voice sounds as a Trumpet.

“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 seems I just can’t turn loose of the prophecy I believe to be perhaps the most immediately pertinent to Christ calling His Church to be with Him. And, at any rate, I wouldn’t want to turn loose of it if I could bring myself about to do so.

The words are from the very mouth of God, and they speak directly to the most desired prophecy for our day from the standpoint of what we ,as pre-Trib believers, look to be imminently fulfilled. I believe He is talking about the Rapture.

Jesus, while teaching about the same  time frame He spoke of during the Matthew 24:36–42 Olivet Discourse prophecy, said the following.

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)

He was foretelling the characteristics that would be starkly observable before and during His next intervention into this earthly wickedness. That time will, as I study things surrounding the Rapture in context, look much like the very times we’re enduring now.

We have, of course, considered this many times before. However, there is one specific angle that might pull into a little sharper focus just how much our darkening moments of history might be likened to Lot’s time in Sodom.

To begin, we must first consider God’s words to Lot’s uncle, Abraham.

The Lord said He would tell Abraham things to come, because He knew Abraham would do righteously. God wanted him to know His plan to deal with Sodom’s wickedness, once He determined that it was necessary. The Lord, Himself, stood with Lot, then, and discussed Sodom’s fate, while the Lord’s angel-representatives headed down toward Sodom and Gomorrah.

And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? (Genesis 18:20–23) 

We remember that there was then a profound back-and-forth discussion between the Lord God and a lowly human being—Abraham. God answered each of Abraham’s questions as the old man asked them. Abraham was appealing to God to have those in the wicked cities spared from destruction. He asked if God would relent if 50 were found to be righteous—then 40, then 30, then 20.

Finally, after Abraham asked if God would spare the cities if the Lord could find even 10 righteous, and 10 couldn’t be found, Sodom and Gomorrah’s fate was sealed.

God had said to Abraham before the countdown began—following Abraham’s initial question about the possibility of the cities being spared:

That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Genesis 18:25)

It was almost as if the Lord was mildly indignant to have it thought of Himself as so unjust as to condemn the righteous with the unrighteous.

Alas, there were not 10 righteous left in the city of Sodom. There were only Lot and his small family. God’s Word calls Lot “righteous,” even though Lot dwelt among perhaps the worst culture and society biblically recorded in such detail. The detail was so graphic as to make the fact of the level of unrighteousness unmistakable.

While it was business as usual during daylight hours, with the cities being apparently prosperous, buying, selling, building, planting, etc., when the sun went down it became a habitation of every sort of evil—particularly of debauchery, with homosexual rapaciousness leading the wickedness. The lustful males came even against the angels who visited Lot.

The raging men of the city threatened Lot with the worst possible attack if he didn’t go along with them and send out his visitors. They were just on the verge of tearing down the door to get at their would-be victims. The only ones God considered righteous in the city at that moment were hated and threatened by the rest, who were the unrighteous in God’s holy view.

And this is the angle I would like us to consider for now.

Jesus foretold in Luke 17:28–30 that it will be for those alive at His next revealing or intervention like it was at that time for Lot when he was hated and threatened by the wickedness of that society and culture.

We have covered many times the God-rejecting, hate-filled actions and activities of our own troubled times. Is there any question of how the evil and wickedness have increased exponentially?

The following brief excerpt tells of one pastor’s story who has endured such assaults by the unrighteous against the righteous. He was imprisoned in Turkey for preaching of Jesus as the only way of salvation. He was finally released after the Trump administration and others pressured Turkey to release him after that government had sentenced him for the crime of preaching the gospel.

He tells that he sees in the United States the same sort of Sodom-like actions coming against believers.

Andrew Brunson’s message is straightforward, but it is far from simple: The Church needs to brace for a dark wave of persecution that is coming…

“Most of the institutions of society are supporting things that a faithful follower of Jesus cannot embrace… and that’s how they will justify persecuting us,” Brunson said.

Believers who stand for this truth will be marginalized in schools, jobs, banks and more, he added. Testing believers’ resolve, the pressure to conform will manifest socially and eventually financially.

“What has emerged as the main flashpoint is gender identity and LGBT. And wherever that is intersecting with religious freedom, LGBT is winning,” he said. “Now there is a requirement that people not only tolerate, but that we embrace and celebrate this ideology. And if you don’t, you are seen as someone who is hateful.” (“American pastor delivers sobering message of coming ‘dark wave’ of persecution, All Israel News, October 19, 2022)

The days (and nights) of Lot are gathering around those who hold to biblical Christianity. At the center of the threats is the same spirit of Antichrist that infected the rapacious hordes of ancient Sodom.

Jesus promised He will catastrophically intervene and execute judgment and wrath against the unrighteous when these conditions become undeniably evident at the end of the Age of Grace (Church Age).

You want to escape with those God considers righteous. You want to be removed from the gathering wickedness and the judgment that must destroy it the same as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Here, again, is how to escape the coming judgment and wrath—through the Rapture promised by our Blessed Hope, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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)

The entire Bible is Jesus speaking.

He is the Word (John 1: 1). Each of the writers was inspired by Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, to speak and or pen what is written in God’s love letter to mankind.

However, the words spoken directly by the Lord Jesus while He was here on earth penetrate even more deeply into our spiritual hearts. This is especially the case, for me at least, when He talks about prophecy to be fulfilled as the time of His Return nears.

When considering the Olivet Discourse given by Christ, laid out in the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, I believe everything wrapped up within His words comes into phenomenal focus in the following:

“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).

Seminaries most often hold that the Olivet Discourse is almost exclusively for the House of Israel–for the Jews. It is said to have nothing to do with prophecy for our time that is leading to the Rapture. As a matter of fact, those within seminary academia generally pooh-pooh the notion of the Rapture being in view within Jesus’ message on the Mount of Olives.

Dave Hunt, one of the great prophecy teachers, I remember vividly, spoke about the topic of the Olivet Discourse and the Rapture of the Church.

It was in 1998 early one morning in Dallas at the annual Pre-Trib meetings. Dave was assigned the topic: Is the Rapture in the Olivet Discourse?

I know the title of his presentation and his precise words not because I was there that morning (I was), but because I have a full audio and transcript of that lecture.

Dave said: “Well, I’d like to talk on the topic ‘The pre-Trib Rapture in the Olivet Discourse.’ I couldn’t quite handle that question. I couldn’t justify why there ought to be any question at all…why the pre-Trib Rapture, or the Rapture, or the Church, or anything else was in the Olivet Discourse.”

Dave proceeded, then, to lay out as well as anyone ever has done, that the Rapture is indeed spoken of in the Olivet Discourse.

I could only say “Amen!” that morning. And I still say “Amen!” today. There is just no question to my understanding that Jesus had the Rapture and the Church in mind that day on the Mount of Olives when he dealt with the end of the age and His return in the clouds of glory some seven years later.  

When Jesus instructed us (believers) to “look up” and “lift up our heads” when we see “all these things,” for our “redemption is drawing near,” He was talking about the Rapture. “All these things” will, then, obviously be in view—that is, they will have begun to come to pass—at some future time. Those alive at that future time, it is also obvious, will be given the ability to recognize the apocalyptic signals when they begin appearing.

It is more than obvious to those who look at the issues and events boiling to the surface of these strange times that “all these things” spoken of by Jesus are coming into focus in a truly profound way.    

The so-called two-state solution as part of the increasingly demanded nucleus of a peace process speaks directly to the forewarning given in Joel 3:2. It is just such dividing of God’s chosen land that will cause Him, in his wrath, to bring all nations to the killing fields of Megiddo. We watch daily, even hourly, while the pressures build on Israel to relent and give land for peace.

It is not the leadership of Israel who has authority to acquiesce to the anti-God world of diplomacy. The land upon which the present-day Israel sits–and much, much more surrounding land—is God’s alone to do with as He determines. And He determines that it will not be divided–not without the most serious consequences ever to be meted out by heavenly judgment.

Yet Israeli interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid, on September 22, 2022 informed the UN General Assembly that he endorses a two-state solution. This is a stark development with regard to bringing to pass Joel 3:2. It seems an opening that will ultimately bring the Antichrist covenant confirmation of Daniel 9: 26-27.

And, as part of that beast regime we see in development, “all these things” are moving with amazing swiftness.

The onslaught of Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum and the entire globalists-elite cabal to bring the world’s populations under their despotic thumb are nothing short of astonishing. The words, spewed freely by Schwab’s right hand man Yuval Noah Harari, mock the very name of Jesus Christ while he declares there is no God, and that man is his own god-creator. He declares that the computer and all other technologies from the creative brains of mankind will be melded soon with artificial intelligence—and all that is being developed renders any deity as myth and legend.  

Spinning from “all these things” is the demanded new economic order that will be based on no telling what. Certainly, it will entail–as Harari and others proclaim—the merging of the very cellular makeup of human genetics with nano bio-engineering elements to bring about the complete control system of Revelation 13:16–18—the 666 marks-and-numbering system.

We won’t even go for now into the matters involving Russia and the coalition of nation-states north of Israel that are shaping for fulfillment of Ezekiel’s Gog-Magog assault.

“All these things” that are deluging our lives at this very moment have at their center the almost incomprehensible evil and wickedness of the Genesis 6 account of the antediluvians. The corruption Satan and his minions are overtly attempting through pharmaceutical-DNA manipulation and through the transhuman, gender-morphing madness can bring no other bottom-line conclusion to the prophecy watcher of the pre-Trib view.

Jesus was speaking to our time…to this moment in history.

Now a late breaking matter has come to our attention. Although the things involved would in normal times smack of conspiracy, we should rule nothing out in this, one of the most critical elections in U.S. history. The powers of evil directly confront the Power of God on most every level at this crucial moment.

Sources that have credibility in the thinking of a number of those in the intelligence community (former and even present U.S. government officials) believe that there is evidence to  suggest Former President Donald Trump might be arrested just prior to the mid-term elections of November 8. –Thus, to prevent that election process from taking place. Such would be the ultimate October surprise, as the now traditional political wickedness terms it. Certainly, we must pray this isn’t allowed to happen.

Of course, the truly Ultimate Surprise will be when Christ Calls His Bride, the Church, from this Judgment-bound planet. 

Therefore, it is time, as never before, to be “looking up”–because, observably, all these things are right in our faces. Our redemption is drawing near!  

Computing the Politics

The midterm elections at this point are three weeks away. If looked at through a lens based on sanity, things do not bode well for the political party in power as Election Day, November 8, approaches.

Some, perhaps many, say the nation’s culture is so corroded by the woke inculcation that hope is lost. The anti-God, anti-America voter base, plus the expertise the election-cheaters wield, means reestablishing an America anything like patriots desire just isn’t going to happen.

These will, it is feared, find a way to retain all three branches of government, thus allowing the bureaucracy to continue taking America down the road to totalitarianism.

Some believe that to avoid being thrown out of power, those bent on shutting down all opposition and resistance will invoke one executive order or another to cancel the midterm elections on November 8. One possible such action is steeped in genuine concern that has arisen almost on cue as Americans get ready to step into the voting booths.

We have considered previously the great fear associated with the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. I, as a young man in college, experienced it first hand, and at that young age was extremely worried that the US was about to go to war because of Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev secretly placing nuclear-tipped missiles only 90 miles from the US mainland. I can’t imagine what adults of the era must have thought, being much better able to assess the situation and the threat.

Such fear, it seems to me, is now being deliberately generated by those in the current American government. The most profound example of this is the current occupant of the White House saying outright and publicly that Russian President Vladimir Putin is serious in saying he will launch tactical nuclear weapons in his war against Ukraine. –Thus because Putin’s conventional forces are woefully inadequate to carry out their conquest in the war. Mr. Biden said that it is the greatest threat of all-out nuclear war and Armageddon since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

This is a thing no president or anyone within his administration would have done previously, given the panic that might ensue among the American public.

My question is: Why is this president allowed to make such a statement and neither his administration underlings, the US State Department, nor the mainstream media walking back such a likely panic-inducing declaration?

Does it come down to the possibility that those who are determined to maintain power are willing to go so far as to make people think nuclear war is inevitable? If so, why?

Could it be that they seek the suspension of this midterm election? And are they willing to use the most fear-producing geopolitical diplomatic tool at their disposal to suspend these elections that many political experts believe will overwhelmingly go against the present make-up of US and state governments across America?

Are they willing to declare a national emergency and go to DEFCON 1 (the highest alert of impending nuclear war) in order to keep people from going to the polls to throw the rascals out?

Computing the Prophecy

While it is very possible that such a tactic could work—that is, the political strategy, wicked as it might be, could lead to the result the perpetrators desire—the worldwide nuclear war wrapped up within their election-suspending blueprint isn’t probable, or even possible.

That is, a global nuclear exchange that would fulfill man’s greatest fear of thermonuclear war consequences isn’t possible. Such a conflict, according to Bible prophecy from the pre-Trib view, just isn’t scheduled.

Thermonuclear war that decimates the world is not slated to happen this side of the Rapture of the Church. (And I’m not saying there won’t be a tactical nuke unleashed at some point, just that massive nuclear war isn’t prophetically scheduled, as I see it.)

When Christ’s Bride is in the heavenly clouds of glory, all bets are off.

I believe this is seen in by John’s being called into the presence of the Lamb of God as described in Revelation chapter 4. Then, when the Lamb (Jesus Christ) unseals the scrolls, things on earth begin playing out in order.

The false peacemaker comes forth (Antichrist on the white horse; Revelation 6:1). That rider is followed by the red horse rider who takes peace from the earth. This is, quite likely, nuclear war en masse. Yet it will still be controlled by God; otherwise no flesh would be left on the planet, according to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Another and most important computation to plug into all of this thinking: Seeing all these things beginning to come to pass, what is our part as royal ambassadors alive on this darkening planet at this time?

We are, of course, to be “looking up” (Luke 21: 28) for our “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). But more than that command by the Lord Jesus, we are to be “salt and light” in these dark times, so the Gospel can shine forth.

Jesus spoke to this precise time in human history. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. He knows all things—from eternity past through eternity future. He spoke directly to us who are witnessing all these things that have to do with the end times.

About these reports we’re getting of impending nuclear war—whatever purpose they serve—Jesus said the following in answer to His disciples’ question about the end of the age.

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” (Matthew 24:6)

Do you truly understand Jesus’ words about these rumors of wars and even wars we hear in the news at present? He doesn’t tell us to prepare to fight or defend ourselves. He says plainly, “See that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

The word for “troubled” is “terrified.” We are not to be terrified by these wars and rumors of wars. The end is not yet upon us and prophecy will play out.

Figured magnificently in our computation, then, is the Rapture of believers before that end comes. I, like many believers, sense that moment of Christ’s call, “Come up here!,” must be near indeed.

To be part of that call by the Savior and Lord, here is what you must do:

“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)

Do you find it odd, at the very least, that while there are direct threats of nuclear attacks by the leader of Russia, here in the US it is pretty much business as usual? I mean by that there is nothing during this hour like the fears in America I remember as a 20-year-old back during the so-called Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hinted at the possible use of tactical nuclear weaponry to achieve victory in the war against Ukraine. Now he has announced in his recorded message that there will be a major call-up of Russian men in a draft, Russian style. They are even taking prisoners from their gulag camps to flesh out their military muscle.

Putin threatened the US directly saying the nuclear winds could “blow your way.” This, even though winds blowing this direction would not be the case if Ukraine was the focus of his assault with nuclear weapons. The “winds” would blow into Russia, because of prevailing dynamics of weather, etc.

He meant, obviously, for Americans to infer that there might be nuclear missiles coming our way if he began using them against his Ukrainian enemies and if we dared to try to intervene.

Dmitry Medvedev, former president of Russia and now a top Russian governmental official, has backed up the Russian dictator’s threat by saying they don’t rule out the use of tactical nukes, or even strategic nuclear weaponry–which includes ICBMs.

Have you noticed that there seems relatively little pushback or even significant rhetoric coming from the American State Department or this presidential administration against the Russian threats?

In 1962, the Soviet buildup and move into Cuba was met with tremendous counterthreats. President Kennedy even warned directly on television that any launch of Soviet missiles against the US or against any other nation would bring immediate retaliatory response against the Soviet Union.

Now, with Putin’s threats ratcheting up, the present occupant of the White House has gone before the UN to talk–not about possible nuclear war, but about the so-called climate crisis.

There seems no major concern within the ranks of Western diplomacy that Putin might initiate the world blowing up in nuclear conflict.

All of this started me pondering about the prophetic warning given through Paul the apostle.

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

Why, I ask myself, is there no cry for peace and safety, like in the days of yore? There should be. But I find in my observations that the people of the US seem oblivious to Putin’s threats for the most part.

For those of you who were alive and old enough to remember during the Cuban Missile Crisis, you will recall how it was a nerve-wracking time. Now, such threat seems just another ho-hum news story.

My own thinking is that an all-out nuclear exchange just won’t happen this side of the Rapture of the Church. Such a scenario simply doesn’t fit God’s prophetic Word from the pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy. Such a monstrous event would certainly take the world out of the time of “business as usual” that is indicated by Jesus’ prophecy as given in Luke 17: 26–30, as I’ve often parsed in these columns.

Such a scenario does fit, however, what I believe Jesus prophesied regarding His intervention in that Luke 17 passage.

The very day that Lot went out of Sodom (taken out by God’s angels), judgment fell. Jesus said it will be just like that when He next catastrophically intervenes.

In Sodom that day, that judgment completely obliterated everything and everyone left once Lot and his family were removed. Certainly nuclear explosions would do likewise when striking cities.

There seems no concern, no cry for peace and safety regarding this threat by Putin, who certainly holds sufficient nuclear power to carry out such judgment as Jesus prophesied. And that prophecy will be fulfilled at some point.

Maybe by the time this article circulates, that cry for peace and safety will be running wild. But as of this writing, the people of America, in particular, seem relatively quiet.

Russian people, on the other hand, are at of this moment leaving Russia en masse. Their roads and airports are said to be inundated with people trying to flee. They seem to have no doubt that there are about to be major nuclear exchanges–or some such military conclusion to the war Russia is waging against Ukraine and threatening to wage against the Western world, particularly the United States.

God’s Word foretells a cry for peace and safety that brings sudden destruction from which the peoples of the world will not escape. Jesus says it will be business as usual right up until, like in Lot’s time, His Church is removed. I must conclude, therefore, that a Russian nuclear attack, at least on a massive scale, just won’t take place–for now, at least.

Such a cry for peace and safety will no doubt be forthcoming when there are such nuclear explosions taking place. As a matter of fact, there will be a great peacemaker–a false peacemaker the world will accept to the point of worship, who will make that covenant Israel will accept. It will be the covenant of death and hell described in Isaiah 28, verses 15 and 18.

He will be viewed as history’s great peacemaker. He will, in fact, be history’s most vicious tyrant, and will bring humanity to the brink of extinction.

We have recounted in these columns the many things shaping for that time of Tribulation. No need to recount them again here in detail. However, here are some in brief.

Culture and society within America and much of the world have become like in Sodom at the time Lot and family were removed. The globalists are constructing their one world order from which Antichrist will destroy mightily. These are bringing in a monetary/economic order that will fulfill Revelation 13:16–18, the marks and number system of 666. The religions of the world are proposing to come together somewhat, with the one whom they claim as the head of Christendom, the Catholic pope, preaching that there are many ways to God.

God has obviously, observably, turned America’s current leadership–and much of the nation—over to the reprobate mind of Romans 1: 28 because of those people turning their backs on Him.

Israel is in rapid-mode preparation for reinstituting Temple worship, with the recent five red heifers and rail preparation for train transport, etc.

With most people treating as ho-hum signals that point to the trajectory toward the Tribulation this doomed world is swiftly moving, Paul’s further prophetic warning is central in my ponderings.

“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)  

Here’s how to make sure to be kept out of the fear-filled hour described above.

“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)