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)

The believer’s pathways toward the future are illuminated through the prophetic Word of God. Many specific signs are posted along those pathways. God’s prophets—of whom Jesus, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Godhead, is greatest—foretells things to come with unerring clarity.

The Third Temple, the subject of this commentary, is one such prophetic sign. That Jewish house of worship is prophetically scheduled to be constructed atop the most volatile piece of real estate on the planet. That rocky plot of earth is feared by world diplomats to present the greatest threat to Mideast and world peace.

Mount Moriah, known as the Temple Mount, is a focal point for adherents of the world’s three most prominent religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Only worshippers within Islam, at present, are allowed to worship upon this promontory at the southern area of Jerusalem. Merely the hint of the other religions’ attempts to conduct worship atop Moriah is met with violence from Muslim militants. It seems inconceivable that a Jewish house of worship can ever be built there.

Yet, there is more than a concept—the matter of wanting to build a Jewish Temple on Moriah. In the thinking of some, it is as good as already done. That’s because the God of Heaven has declared that it will be built. His prophetic Word never fails to produce fulfillment. The nation in the midst of which Moriah sits is absolute proof in the thinking of those who believe the Third Temple is as good as already placed there.

Modern Israel is a miracle entity, guided by the very hand of God through more than 1900 years of dispersion. The Jewish people endured enemies and persecutions of every description while being brought to return and reestablish their nation on the very ground where ancient Israel surrounded the Temple Mount.

This fact is proof that God’s Word is truth. Bible prophecy foretold that Israel would be punished as a nation and removed completely from the land God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

We remember that Jesus told His disciples while they sat on the Mount of Olives that not one stone of the Temple would be left upon another. This dismantling took place in AD 70 when the Romans, under General Titus and his father, Emperor Vespasian, destroyed the Jewish Temple. The people were scattered throughout the known world and, as prophesied, were brought back into their own land and reestablished as a nation on May 14, 1948.

Jesus also prophesied that someday there would be a Temple sitting on Moriah and that the deceptive man of sin the Jews would accept—rather than Jesus Christ, their True Messiah—would sit in that Temple and declare himself to be God and demand worship. This would be right in the middle of the last seven years of human history before Christ will return at Armageddon. We call this horrendous time, of course, the Tribulation.

With all of the other signals that point to that time shaping up for fulfillment, the Temple in which Antichrist will sit must be somewhere upon the end-times horizon.

Those who visit Jerusalem can go to the Temple Institute near Moriah and view all of the implements for Temple worship that are already prepared for such worship to begin. It’s more than rumor, we believe, that a Third Temple sits in modular form somewhere nearby and can be quickly assembled, once the go-ahead is given to place the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount.

And most recently we see the reason for this commentary’s title.

Certain cleansing rituals must take place for the sacrificial system demanded by Torah. This involves the burnt ashes of a perfect red heifer, which are to be mixed with water to do the cleansing practices.

There have been searches over the years for the “perfect” such red heifer. We remember a number of years ago those responsible for the search thought they had found such an animal. Her name was Melody, as I recall. But hairs colored other than red were found, and the search went on.

Now they believe they’ve found five candidates for the red-heifer ritual cleansing requirements. The following, although the Hebrew language can’t be understood by most, I realize, gives information about the red heifer matter.

“The Temple Institute launched its  Red Heifer program about a decade ago, led by Rabbi Azariah Ariel. But even in Temple times, an animal that fulfilled the Biblical requirements was exceedingly rare. Failing to produce a suitable candidate from ranchers in Israel, The Temple Institute began investigating alternative sources for a red heifer.

“Boneh Israel, an organization that connects Christian lovers of Israel to the Holy Land, stepped in to help. Led by Byron Stinson, a native Texan, Boneh Israel understood ranchers.

“ ‘I didn’t set out to do this, but right now, I am probably the best red heifer hunter in Texas,’ Byron quipped. ‘The Bible says to bring a red cow to purify Israel, and I may not understand it, but I am just doing what the Bible said.’

“ ‘The prophecies came true, and the Jews are back in Israel,’ Byron said. ‘Now they need to build a Temple. But it’s like buying a really nice car. If you don’t have the key, you aren’t going anywhere. The red heifer is the key to making the Temple work like it’s supposed to.’”

The cows [Byron found and acquired] were between 5–8 months old. To be suitable for the red heifer ceremony, the cow must be two years and one day old so these heifers will be raised in Israel until they reach the proper age.

Chanan pointed out that last year was 5781 in the Hebrew calendar.

“ ‘In Hebrew numerology, this is תשפא. That is an acronym for תהיה שנה פרה אדומה (it will be the year of the red heifer). The cows we are looking at now were conceived last year,’ Kupietzy said. ‘This year is תשפ,ב 5782, an acronym for תהיה שנה פרה בישראל (It will be a year for the heifer in Israel). In two weeks we will begin תשפג, 5783, the year in which the ceremony of the Red Heifer will be performed. This is an acronym for תהיה שנה פרה גאולה (It will be a year of the Red Heifer of redemption).’ (ISRAEL365 EXCLUSIVE: Red Heifers arrive in Israel, by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Israel365news 202, 9/16/22, Rapture Ready News, 9/17/22)

Sadly, all this is preparation for what Jesus called the worst time in all of human history. The prophetic clock is ticking swiftly toward that time of unimaginable horror.

But those who know Christ are promised to be kept out of that time (Revelation 3: 10). Here, again, is how to be assured that you are in God’s family and kept from the time of Tribulation.

“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)

Prepping for terrible times ahead, anticipated by the entire spectrum of those garnering goods and shelters in order to survive, saturates the many blogs that predict world-wide collapse into dystopia. This prepping includes many who are Christians –true believers in Jesus Christ for their Salvation.

This is the case, despite God’s prophetic Word plainly teaching that there is no preparation, apart from relying totally on God, alone, that can guarantee even a modicum of safety in that most horrendous time of history to come –the Tribulation. And believers of this age won’t endure that terrible time at any rate.

But this isn’t the prepping that is the subject of this commentary.

My thought is to address the preparations we can see being made by the minions, both demonic and human, of Ephesians 6: 12. The principalities and powers in high places which, unwittingly and unknowing, perhaps, in the case of the human minions, are preparing the way for human history’s most terrible tyrant.

And boy! Is that preparation ever  taking shape in ways and at speed which prophecy Watchers from the preTrib perspective find truly astonishing?!

As stated in previous attempts to cover what is happening with regard to things shaping up for the ending to this Church Age(Age of Grace,)I’m convinced that evil assaults on children constitutes a major signal of just how near the beginning of the Tribulation must be.      

Satan is preparing the hearts of fallen mankind to accept every form of wickedness in paving the road for his Antichrist’s regime to take power. The devil is more and more focusing his attack on the United States of America, because this nation is the last bastion of liberty in terms of human government. America also, despite speeding into anti-God behavior on practically every level of society and culture, still maintains the Light of God’s Salvation Message in which He Invites the world to accept His Grace Gift. –Thus the attack increases almost hour to hour.

One such report shows this as plainly as it can be shown, I believe. The once seemingly innocent Walt Disney productions, as I heard recently are banishing Prince Charming and is instead bringing in the prince of darkness. The following are a few excerpts of that report.

 “Little Demon,” a new animated show about a woman who mates with Satan and produces the Antichrist, is raising eyebrows and making cultural waves.

But amid the cacophony of frustrated retorts to the show — which airs on the Disney-owned network FXX and stars Danny DeVito as Satan — faith leaders and media experts are sounding some consequential theological and practical alarms for parents and children alike.

“I … can’t believe that this show exists,” Mike Signorelli, senior pastor of V1 Church in New York City, told CBN’s Faithwire. “I think if we could go back 30 years … everybody would universally be shocked and appalled.”

Disturbing Storylines

Signorelli isn’t exaggerating the situation, as the promotional language for “Little Demon” alone showcases the disturbing themes and images embedded in the show — violence, paganism, and satanic storylines cloaked in attempted comedy.

“Thirteen years after being impregnated by Satan, a reluctant mother, Laura, and her Antichrist daughter, Chrissy, attempt to live an ordinary life in Delaware but are constantly thwarted by monstrous forces, including Satan, who yearns for custody of his daughter’s soul,” reads the show’s description.

Signorelli said “Little Demon” is the fulfillment of what happens when morals and ethics slowly erode and decay, sending culture on a slippery slope that tragically yields such a strange moment.

“What happens is, things incrementally change year over year to where you can accept what you would have never accepted in a previous generation,” he said. “As a Christian, I believe that the enemy is after our children. We wrestle not against flesh and blood but principalities powers and rulers in high places.”

Considering the purported paganistic themes in “Little Demon,” one of the quotes about the series that is circulating comes from actress Aubrey Plaza, who plays Laura.

“I love that we are normalizing paganism,” Plaza said while speaking about the show during an event this summer. “Laura is a pagan. She’s a witch. She’s jacked.”

(I can’t believe this show exists’: Network unleashes ‘Little Demon’ about woman mating with Satan, WND News Services, September 7, 2022 )

Lucifer and his minions are determined that America blocks the blueprint for the regime that will thwart Heaven’s prophetic Blueprint for mankind. So the assaults intensify. Demonic forces seem to be concentrating on demolishing the moral center of America, and seem to be successful to this point.

I remember placing the transcript of a warning issued by one of the nation’s top broadcast conscience-stimulating voices in my very first book –Storming Toward Armageddon—30 years or more ago. I will leave you with this once again. Paul Harvey’s prescience in delivering this stunning message and I believe delivering it for us at this moment, must have been Heaven-Directed.

PAUL HARVEY’S ‘IF I WERE THE DEVIL’ TRANSCRIPT

If I were the devil … If I were the Prince of Darkness, I’d want to engulf the whole world in darkness. And I’d have a third of its real estate, and four-fifths of its population, but I wouldn’t be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree — Thee.  So I’d set about however necessary to take over the United States. I’d subvert the churches first — I’d begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: ‘Do as you please.’

“To the young, I would whisper that ‘The Bible is a myth.’ I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what’s bad is good, and what’s good is ‘square.’ And the old, I would teach to pray, after me, ‘Our Father, which art in Washington…’

“And then I’d get organized. I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I’d pedal narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.

“If I were the devil I’d soon have families that war with themselves, churches at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If I were the devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions — just let those run wild, until before you knew it, you’d have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

“Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing, I’d have judges promoting pornography — soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money. If I were the devil I’d make the symbols of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.

“If I were the devil I’d take from those who have, and give to those who want until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.

And what do you bet I could get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich? I would caution against extremes and hard work in Patriotism, in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on the TV is the way to be. And thus, I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure. In other words, if I were the devil I’d just keep right on doing what he’s doing.

Paul Harvey, good day.”

The subject of this commentary title is admittedly among the hardest I’ve tried to wrap the aging gray matter around. This, of course, is because it isn’t a provable thing to consider by mere intellectual endeavor. And it is so deep in its implication that it is too labor-intensive if we can’t just allow that we can only look at matters involved with self-agreement that we can’t for sure know the truth about it.

Although I’ve thought about the question/possibility many times, especially since my Good Friday clinical flat-line experience on April 22, 2011, it was a friend of our Rapture Ready website who prompted me to write this article.

The gist of her email to me follows.

“Something you wrote in your ‘Home Going’ blog post was extremely intriguing to me. You stated: It has been conjectured, and I believe, that when Jesus calls us to Himself (Revelation 4:1), those still alive will somehow arrive at that face-to-face meeting with our Lord and Savior at precisely the moment those who have gone through the portal of death will see His wonderful face. God’s eternal realm is outside of the thing called time that He created for man. Anything is possible in that eternal sphere.
If you are saying what I think you are saying, those who have passed on before us, no matter how many years they died prior to that blessed event, could possibly arrive to see Jesus and thus enter Heaven at the same time we who are raptured see Him.”

It is a fascinating question to be sure. Will my dad, who went to the Lord in October of 1992, and my mother, who passed away in February of 2020, arrive at the same twinkling-of-an-eye moment as will I when the Lord Jesus calls us in the Rapture?

This might be a bit presumptuous of me—but you get the question. Like you, I fully expect to hear that call at any moment.

But the question involves further asking whether it makes any difference in terms of God’s timing regarding those who have died arriving in Christ’s presence more than a split second before those who are still living at the moment of Rapture.

The Rapture Ready friend who emailed asked if I could provide more information about my statement. I suggested that she check my late friend Chuck Missler’s website. I know he did lots of things in this area. Sure enough, she found some fascinating studies, learning that another great prophecy scholar, Lambert Dolphin, has done tremendous writing on the topic. She sent me the link to one of Lambert’s articles; here it is if you want to get really deep into the subject of God’s timing in regard to death, the Rapture, and many other areas: http://www.ldolphin.org/time.html.

Our column space here is much too limited to give this subject the treatment it deserves, but the article above will certainly give more than one needs to delve as deeply into these questions as one could want. Here are a few excerpts from Lambert Dolphin’s major study.

“In the experience of the Christian, one’s personal death corresponds exactly with the Second Coming of Christ, though this event will also happen on earth at the definite date and time in recorded human history. This is what Paul meant when he said to be absent from the body was to be at home with the Lord, not as a spirit, but in a resurrection body along with everyone else who knows God. This can be seen at the Martyrdom of Stephen in the book of Acts.

‘Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth against him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.’ (Acts 7:56–8:2)

“As Stephen died he saw heaven opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Throughout the New Testament Jesus is ordinarily pictured as seated at the right hand of God. Evidently He stands to receive His bride, the church, at the rapture. Thus all Christians get to heaven at the same moment. In one sense, then, heaven is now empty. There is no value in praying to the Virgin Mary or St. Jude since they aren’t there yet! But as will be seen shortly, there is another sense in which all believers are already in heaven…

“Although our spirits and souls are made new if we know Jesus Christ personally, our bodies are not yet redeemed. It is our present mortal physical bodies (connecting us by the five senses) which link us to the ‘old creation.’ In spirit we already have been ‘raised’ from the dead, we are dwelling in the heavenly places—we are already seated with Christ at the right hand of God. If we had our resurrection bodies ‘put on’ instead of our old earth-tents, we would immediately perceive that we all had arrived in heaven together…

When Time Ends

“All this may sound quite confusing, and it is true it contains great elements of speculation. But let us return to the Scriptures and the problem of what happens to the believer when he dies. Holding firmly to the essential point that time and eternity are quite different, then when a believer steps out of time, he steps into eternity. What was perhaps a far-off distant event in time is suddenly present in eternity if one is spiritually prepared for it. Since the one great event for which the Spirit of God is now preparing believers here on earth is the coming of Jesus Christ for his own, that is the event which greets every believer when he dies. It may be decades or even centuries before it breaks into time, but this particular person is no longer in time. He is in eternity. He sees ‘the Lord coming with ten thousands of his saints,’ just as Enoch did when he was permitted a look into eternity, and at a time when he was the seventh from Adam and the population of the earth was very small (Jude 14).

Where The Ages Meet

“But what is even more amazing is that in the experience of that believer he does not leave anyone behind. All his loved ones who know Christ are there too, including his Christian descendants who were not even born yet when he died! Since there is no past or future in heaven, this must be the case. Even those who, in time, stand beside his grave and weep and then go home to an empty house, are, in his experience, with him in lorry.

“Dr. Custance carries this even further.

‘The experience of earth saints is shared by all other saints, by those who have preceded and those who are to follow. For them all, all history, all intervening time between death and the Lord’s return is suddenly annihilated so that each one finds to his amazement that Adam, too, is just dying and joining him on his way to meet the Lord: and Abraham and David, Isaiah and the Beloved John, Paul and Augustine, Hudson Taylor and you and I–all in one wonderful experience meeting the Lord in a single instant together, without precedence and without the slightest consciousness of delay, none being late and none too early.’ (Doorway Paper No. 37, p. 28)

“This truly astonishing quality of eternity is the reason Jesus could promise his disciples with absolute certainty, ‘And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also’ (John 14:3). That promise not only applied to that generation of Christians, but would apply to all, directly and personally, through all the intervening centuries. This also explains the strange promise at the close of Hebrews 11. Speaking of Abraham, Moses, David, Jacob, Joseph, and others the writer says, ‘All these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.’

“To be ‘made perfect’ is to be resurrected, so this passage specifically states that the saints of old will not be resurrected without us. Either they are disembodied spirits waiting for the resurrection (which we have already seen is not likely) or there is some way by which we can leave time one by one and yet participate together in one glorious experience of resurrection. The proper understanding of eternity supplies the answer.

Eternity Invades Time

“There are other references in Scripture that present this same phenomenon of the apparent eclipse of time. For instance, in Revelation 13:8, Jesus is referred to as ‘the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.’ Now the cross occurred at a precise moment of history. We know when the Lamb of God was slain. But the Bible says it occurred before the foundation of the world. How can an historical event which occurred at a certain spot on earth, in the biblical reckoning be said to have occurred before the earth was even made? The passage does not say that the Lamb was foreordained to be slain before the foundation of the world, but it says he was actually slain then. Surely it means that the cross was an eternal event, taking place both in time and eternity. In time, it is long past; in eternity, it forever occurs. So also would the resurrection, and in the same way, the second coming of Christ. When any Christian dies, he passes from the realm of time and space into timelessness, into the NOW of God when the full effect of these timeless events is experienced by him to whatever degree his spiritual state requires. But the Lord’s return is an event yet to take place in historical time when the Church is complete and the end of the age has come. Perhaps this is the meaning of the Lord’s words: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live’ (John 5:25). (“Complexity of Time,” Lambert Dolphin, http://www.ldolphin.org/time.html)

*************

Again, Chuck Missler always stressed that God created time for mankind on earth. Time, in that regard, is linear. It stretches from one of its ends to the other. God is outside of time, thus we can’t put death and the Rapture within linear time constraints. Both death and the Rapture, for the Christian, is not an ending, but a beginning. I, like my great friend, Chuck, believe that both portals are somehow, inexplicably to the finite mind, infinitely inseparable wonders of the homeward going.

If there is one term in today’s upside-down culture that pushes the button that brings division in America, it is the word “race.” But concerning the life of the Christian, that is a word that should trip movement diametrically opposite of division in the spiritual minds of those who claim Christ as Lord.

I’m referring, of course, not to the colors of the skin of humanity, but to the force with which the believer runs his or her course that is assigned by God beginning with the believer’s new birth. Running the race set before us in the right way never brings division, but oneness in the most critical matter in God’s holy eyes.

The race is that of believers in Christ following the course set for each of us individually. But the collective race is for the high calling of our Lord Jesus Christ. That call unifies the Body of Christ. It does not divide one from another in the family of God.

What is that calling? It is found in the Great Commission, the commandment with which the Lord left the apostles who stood gawking upward as He ascended (Acts 1: 9-10).

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matt 28: 19-20)

While obeying this one commandment—the Great Commission—is a critical collective effort that includes every believer of the Church Age (Age of Grace), obeying Christ’s last words (what He said before He ascended) is just as critical to each person who follows Jesus. How we run this race throughout our lives determines our eternal future. We are running it at this very moment. We—you and I—have been in this race since the moment we were born into the family of God.

And no matter our station in life in our jobs, health, society, wealth, class, or any other, we each have a certain course God set for us at our new birth. We are, individually, to run our race with all that is within us, as we let the Lord lead (Proverbs 3:5–6).

The words that frame this race we’re in were indelibly stamped into my spirit on that Good Friday, April 22, 2011—the clinical death I experienced three times within forty-five minutes, according to hospital records. The scriptural application has been with me every day since.

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1–2).

Those who have read of that experience know of my report of the race I perceived I was a part of, surrounded by young, beautiful, heavenly beings with their arms raised in victory. We were running, I’ve been told in my spiritual understanding, to serve as, in part at least, encouragement to finish this earthly, spiritual race in which we as believers are presently participants. That’s why I continue to share the matters involved with my fellow believers. I am convicted I must.

We’re not running this sometimes very difficult course in vain. Paul said further:

“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (1 Corinthians 9:24–27)

As we observe the prophetic stage-setting that is literally bursting from all our news reports, our eyes should be affixed on Heaven’s finish line. We are already victors through our Savior and Lord and His finished race on the cross at Calvary two millennia ago. All we have to do is carry out His Great Commission collectively and, particularly, individually.

The great apostle, as he faced the moment of his execution, said further:

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7–8)

Our Lord could appear at any moment, or we could at any moment appear before Him through the portal of death (a passage into that glorious dimension I look back on as nothing to fear as a Christian.)

So it is a critical race you and I are in at this very moment, and it’s not a “theory,” as the nonbelieving world sadly views Bible truth to be. We want, when our race is finished on this earth, to hear the Lord Jesus Christ say, as I’m sure He must have said to the Apostle Paul the moment Paul had his physical life ended by a Roman sword: “Well done, good, faithful, servant. Enter into your eternal rest as my joint heir.”

But you will never hear those words from the Savior who died to take away your sin that separates you from God and Heaven if you don’t accept Christ’s grace gift of salvation. Here, yet again, is how you can join and finish the critical race toward the high calling of 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)

Will the United States of America be a sheep nation or a goatnation? That is perhaps a Shakespearian question in the vein of “To be or not to be?”.

The question, of course, is rooted in context of the Millennium, at the beginning of which Jesus Christ will judge which will be, symbolically, a sheep nation, or a goat nation—based upon how these entities dealt with God’s chosen nation, Israel. Believers in Christ who survive the horrendous Tribulation will inhabit the sheepnations. All who survive the Tribulation but who have not accepted Christ will be placed in the goatnations, then be cast into what is described as “outer darkness,” and will remain in that state until the white throne judgment at the end of the one-thousand-year reign of King Jesus upon the millennial earth.  

Our quest here is to wonder just a bit on whether America is destined to be a sheep nation. You can guess without much speculation what I, personally, hope is the answer.

One thing that comes to mind in these contemporary times regarding the United States is its magnetic attraction to peoples around the world. This nation might be likened to the planet Jupiter. It is huge in most of the ways human beings see as alluring, giving it the greatest gravity—materially speaking—of any nation-state to grace earth’s surface. God has indeed blessed America “from sea to shining sea.”

While all other nations orbit this one, realization about the liberty that is synonymous with the US to worship, move about, work, play, or even just be slovenly doesn’t escape even those kept from knowing much about things going on around the rest of the planet. Indeed, America’s gravity dynamically has drawn all peoples toward its irresistible opulence. With the exception of very few, no one makes noises about leaving this nation to live elsewhere.

Billions look in America’s direction as the “shining light on the hill,” as President Ronald Reagan once called it.

Even the defectors who sought to dodge the draft during the Vietnam era have since done all they could to come back to the nation they deserted. The Hollywood types—like Barbra Streisand, for example—who periodically threaten to leave America because they don’t get their way, politically, decide to stay when it comes down to the moment of leaving or staying. In southern parlance, they know on which side their bread is buttered.

Perhaps to get right to the heart of what has made America the center of the universe of nations, and to try to determine its status so far as involvement in Bible prophecy might be concerned, I would like to consider a well-known historical observation by a man outside this country—a Frenchman, no less.

French social philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville, while touring the United States in the 1800s, said about America: “America is great because America is good. If she ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.” De Tocqueville no doubt was speaking of how he viewed cultural and societal good. But, upon observing the nation’s Christian church foundation he encountered, he must have based his conclusion on the fact that America’s goodness in the societal sense was a result of Christianity running throughout the country’s cultural fiber. What he likely didn’t understand was what that “goodness” really means in God’s economy.

God’s Word speaks of this “good”: “And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God” (Mark 10:18).

Jesus was not saying to the man who fell on his knees before the Lord that He, Jesus, was not “good,” but the Lord was acclaiming that God, alone, is the only good. Jesus was—and is—the only “good” flesh-and-blood person to ever walk the earth’s surface following the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. That is because Jesus IS God.

De Tocqueville now looks from the past at America’s once pretty face, and his words of warning are reverberating: “If America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

America, A Golden Cup

Again, is the name “America” given anywhere in Scripture? Of course not. But, the influence this nation has exerted since coming to its full bloom as earth’s greatest superpower in history makes it a prophetic nation. The Creator of all things continues to use America in His mighty hand to accomplish two very distinctive, supernatural purposes. As a matter of fact, the United States, in my view, has an overwhelming presence in Bible prophecy. Its place is at the very heart of the end-times things that we see developing—matters unfolding in daily, even hourly, news reports. In this sense, I am of the conviction that God is speaking of America—in type, if not by name, when His Word tells us the following:

“Babylon [hath been] a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad” (Jeremiah 51:7).

Certainly, the United States of America has been a “golden cup” in the Lord’s hand. No other nation of modern vintage can come close to claiming that achievement.

Some nations of Europe were formative in bringing forth Christianity into the world, thus shedding a degree of gospel light into a world of sin-darkness.

But, it is America that, despite its great shortcomings and more recent degeneration, has been a shining beacon, reflecting from that golden cup in God’s hand.

Being the first nation in spreading to the whole world the gospel message—that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross makes possible the only way to redemption for lost mankind—is a feat no other country can claim. This, ultimately, has been done not by the offices or under the auspices of American ingenuity, but by the omniscience and the omnipotence of the One holding the “golden cup.” It is God’s grace and mercy that have put America as a beacon of God’s light upon that mountain of gospel dissemination. God’s providence gave this nation the industrial and technological genius—a fact that is denied, or that is so taken for granted today.

All of the grace God has shed upon America from sea to shining sea, it must now be noted here, means nothing in addressing the question we are seeking to answer: Will America be a sheep nation or a goat nation?

The United States has been extremely generous with its wealth at every turn. Whether rebuilding war-torn nations far away, such as through the Marshall Plan, or providing billions of dollars whenever there are tragedies to be funded, our country has seemed to be the Good Samaritan. But our largesse as a people also will not determine whether America is destined for sheep-nationstatus.

Again, according to the prophetic Word, it seems national status in this regard is to be based on how other nations have dealt with God’s chosen nation, Israel.

It is based upon this factor—US/Israeli relationship—that I have great hope in trying to answer our question.

America was chosen by God, Himself, I have absolutely no doubt, to act as national midwife in Israel’s rebirth into modernity. Any true reading of history will attest to this reality. The revisionists, the Marxists, the evil from the mind of Satan cannot change this fact. America has, despite its egregious acts of late against the God of Heaven, has been friend and protector of the fledgling Jewish state as it entered again as a nation at mid-twentieth century.

Will America face God’s judgment? Again, there can be no doubt. We have allowed the murder of more than sixty million children in their mothers’ wombs, just as a start on listing the absolute wickedness we have seen recently. God will judge this nation.

But there will be a glorious rebirth for America, I’m believing, once its sins are purged and the Lord again counts our nation as “good.”

Perhaps you will forgive the personal nature of this week’s commentary. Or, as I hope, maybe it will strike a common chord among those who are Heaven-bound.

I write this with a longtime friend in mind who shared the love of God in so many ways. Particularly, she loved God’s prophetic Word, and even more so the pre-Trib view of eschatology as presented by those who write for our website.

I’ve been expecting her home-going for quite some time due to her ill health and rapid deterioration. Nonetheless, I was more or less blindsided when my daughter informed me that my friend had passed away. I suppose one never gets easily past someone who is close leaving us, even if that person is a believer and you know they are now safe at home.

My friend, Gail Blackburn, lost her husband, Tom, not long ago. It was obvious when we talked on several occasions since Tom’s passing that Gail was looking forward to being free of the pain and crippled state she suffered and being with her beloved Tom again. She is now in that eternal realm and is enjoying life exactly as she was ready to accept.

God’s will was always in Gail’s servant’s heart. I know this as fact, because when we were on the phone, we discussed time and time again just what the Lord meant to her.

I am in a habit of saving voicemails I get from those I love on occasion, and today I have listened to a couple from Gail. Her love for Christ and all He had done for her was obvious even when she was simply leaving a message for me to call back when I could.

Part of Gail’s special gifts was the interest she took in helping guide younger women in helping them nurture their children.

Angie, in informing me of her passing away, wrote the following: “What an incredibly special woman and friend she was. I learned things from her as a young mom that have carried me through all phases of parenting and marriage.”

I’m certain this will be the thoughts of the many she touched over the years.

For me, she loved to talk about Jesus coming again in the Rapture. The Lord obviously wanted her next to Him before that glorious event, so she will be on the front line of the saints to greet those who are chosen to take part as those still alive at that magnificent moment.

You and I hope to be in that throng, of course. That’s why we are “Rapture ready,”as our website’s name indicates.

It has been conjectured, and I believe, that when Jesus calls us to Himself (Revelation 4:1), those still alive will somehow arrive at that face-to-face meeting with our Lord and Savior at precisely the moment those who have gone through the portal of death will see His wonderful face. God’s eternal realm is outside of the thing called time that He created for man. Anything is possible in that eternal sphere.

So we will see Gail, Tom, and all others gone before. And we will know each other as well as we know our own family members here on earth—even though we never met and even lived in other centuries.

What a glorious home-going that will be!

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13–17)