Any serious student of Bible prophecy from the pre-Trib point of view knows how deep this generation is within the end of the Church Age (Age of Grace).

Much of Christ’s Olivet Discourse was devoted to the subject of Israel’s future time of unprecedented trouble, as the prophecy said in Jeremiah 30:7. Jesus said the time of Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week) will be the worst period of human history (Matthew 24:21). We can certainly surmise that—with the recent hatred much of the world has shown against the tiny nation of Israel—the stage is at this very moment being set for the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy that the nation and its city, Jerusalem, will become a “burdensome stone” and “cup of trembling” to the entire world (Zechariah 12:1–3).

We and others have chronicled the tremendous issues and events occurring in profusion and simultaneously—all of which mark this as surely the last of the last days. When Jesus’ disciples asked Him to tell them the signs of these last-of-the-last days, He began to answer by describing a most interesting thing that would be taking place:

Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (Matthew 24:23–27)

Profound deception is the first of the signals that He will bring this fallen world to its end as part of His Second Coming. Key in that deception, He stated in starkly pointed terms, will be deceivers claiming they are Christ themselves and pointing to Christ being wherever they designate–whether in the desert, secret chambers, etc.

Many of us who study this prophecy have pointed to all the false Christs and false prophets that have arisen and deceived many throughout the centuries. We know of the false teachers and cults that have presented themselves as directly representing Christ, their leaders having, we’re told, a “direct line to God.”

However, it’s more than interesting to consider whether the latest matters to come to light regarding artificial intelligence (AI) might add even more to the number-one signal the Lord spoke of that day. Specifically, was He warning of a coming AI deception?

Of course, Jesus is God, so He absolutely knew about this very moment and the developments presently marking this generation as the one in which He will return to make all things right again on the planet. He knew about AI as it is being put forth, as presented in the following:

When you type a question into an app called Jesus AI, the reply comes in a familiar voice: “I am Jesus Christ. I am the son of God, and the one who died for the sins of humanity.”

This is no scripture. It’s an algorithm. And it’s just one of a growing number of “AI Jesus” chatbots now popping up in app stores and on websites around the world.

From Saints to Jesus AI

The Catholic Church has already embraced the digital frontier in its own way. On September 7, Pope Leo XIV canonized Carlo Acutis, a teenager who died in 2006 at age 15 and became known as “God’s influencer” for documenting Eucharistic miracles online. His sainthood signals a broader trend: faith communities are going digital, whether they want to or not.

But the church isn’t driving this latest AI-first tech jump for the faithful. The Jesus chatbots are being built by purely capitalist private companies.

Catloaf Software, Supreme Chaos, and a handful of other small developers now market apps like Virtual Jesus, Text with Jesus, and Ask Jesus. None are endorsed by churches. Most are free, but plastered with ads. Some, like Text with Jesus, offer premium subscriptions.

“It’s difficult to know if they are really about religion, or just milking money from the faithful,” says philosopher Anné Verhoef of North-West University in South Africa, in an interview with Nature.

His recent academic study, Artificial intelligence Jesus chatbots’ challenge for theology: an exploratory study (2025), dives into the issue. He tested five different AI Jesus bots, asking basic theological questions. Their answers revealed a strange mix of conviction, confusion, and commercialism.

Talking to Digital Divinity

Sometimes, the bots claim outright to be divine. When Verhoef asked who they were, three declared themselves the Son of God without hesitation. Ask Jesus took a softer tone: “Ah, dear soul, I am but a humble vessel, here to provide guidance, comfort, and the light of wisdom from the sacred scriptures.”

That down-to-earth modesty is rare. Most chatbots lean into their roles as full-blown messiahs. “The imitation of God, as Jesus the Son of God, is neither hidden nor softened,” Verhoef writes. “All of the chatbots be as convincing as possible in portraying Jesus.” (“Millions of Users Are Turning to AI Jesus for Guidance and Experts Warn It Could Be Dangerous,” Tibi Puiu, ZME Science+1, September 17, 2025)

Concerning AI, even such tech gurus as Elon Musk agree the technology could be extremely dangerous–even world-destroying—if it’s in the evil hands of those who would manipulate it for their purposes. This is, of course, exactly the hands the technology will one day soon be held in. Satan’s son of perdition, Antichrist, will possess the demonic genius to control the world for a time during the Tribulation.

He, himself, will declare himself to be God while sitting in the Temple, having deceived the people of the world with a false resurrection from death.

So, do we see, through the sudden advent of AI, the prophecy Jesus gave that day on Mount Olivet? Did He include in His omniscient look into our time this profoundly strange breakthrough in technology that now makes the claim that it is Jesus Christ, in effect, dwelling within AI?

In my view, there is no doubt that this is the case. And it all means that our Lord’s call to the Church–all born-again believers—will soon be heard saying: “Come up here!”

You want to hear that summon by the Lord and not be left on this judgment-bound earth to endure the infliction of AI evil and all other wickedness Antichrist will foist upon those left behind. Here is how to go to Jesus when He calls God’s family into the clouds of Glory.

That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)

The spiritual blindness of today’s Israel was on display in a recent report of the words of one of the most revered present-day Jewish scholars. The report, I think, is strong evidence of Paul’s words about Israel’s condition until Christ returns—a condition brought about by Israel’s rejection of Him when He first offered Himself as Messiah.

What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. (Romans 11:7–8)

This is what the article reporting the scholar’s words gave as his credentials:

Rabbi Mendel Kessin is a respected Torah scholar and lecturer with semicha (rabbinical ordination) and a PhD in psychology from Fordham University. He is best known for his teachings on Jewish mysticism, history, and the Messianic era, often weaving together Torah sources, world events, and deep spiritual insights. His lectures are widely followed in both the Jewish and broader spiritual community.

While his religious and academic credentials certainly exceed my own and those of most Bible prophecy scholars I’m familiar with, he displays the great spiritual blindness the Apostle Paul said will be Israel’s plight until the Lord Jesus returns in power and great glory at Armageddon.

He addresses, through that human-conceived purported acumen, what the evil perpetrated by Hamas and other perennial anti-Israel actors against the Jewish people means:

In a recent lecture delivered just days after the Trump-brokered ceasefire that resulted in the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza, Rabbi Mendel Kessin offered a deeply spiritual—and provocative—interpretation of current events. Far from being merely a geopolitical turning point, Rabbi Kessin argued that the hostage ordeal is part of a larger divine accounting, a cosmic reckoning unfolding in real time.

“Everybody’s got it basically all wrong,” Rabbi Kessin declared. “Let me try to explain what the whole idea of the hostages is, based on the Divine plan.”…

“So what we clearly see, this is a divine assistance that the Arabs are on the way out militarily and so on. The Arabs are on the way out, militarily and otherwise,” Rabbi Kessin said. “According to the divine plan, they are losing influence and the ability to harass Israel. This is what’s happening, and it’s being done miraculously. It’s almost like Israel doesn’t fail.”

“So the question as we approach the Messianic era, because that’s really what it means. The last enemy of the Jews, basically, is Ishmael, the Arabs. They are the last enemies of the Jews, and their reign ends at the end of time, and this is what we’re seeing. You see, that’s very important to understand now when that happens.”…

Rabbi Kessin framed the hostages not as random victims, but as spiritual representatives—“volunteers,” in his words—chosen by God to bear suffering on behalf of the Jewish people.

“As we approach the Messianic era, God must accelerate the process. This is the problem, therefore, the hostages now become the solution. The hostages are in the hands of the Arabs, and it’s not just 250 people, the hostage pains the Jewish people all over the world in many ways, God chose 250 people as what He calls ‘volunteers’ to represent the ability of the Arab people to dominate the Jews… to pain the Jews,” he said. “They don’t realize it, but their reward will be infinite.”…

“We have been released from [the Arabs’] claim that we have done to them for thousands of years.”

Rabbi Kessin connected the suffering of the hostages to the suffering of many Jews today—through illness, poverty, family crisis, or doubt—arguing that these too may serve the divine plan.

“Righteousness is losing. Many people are becoming apikorsim—heretics—because evil has a claim,” he explained. “God has to use this to level the justice claim of what goes on.”

“This hostage event, which was terrible for two years, is part of the Divine plan to remove the weight of error against the Jews and to continue the Messianic process.” (“Rabbi Kessin: ‘The Hostage Crisis Was Part of a Final Divine Reckoning,’” by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Israel365 News)

Rabbi Kessin, like all who maintain forms of Orthodox Judaism, views Israel’s Messiah as still to appear to bring all of Israel’s problems to an end. Jesus Christ, in their view, is still considered an imposter to the title “King of the Jews.”

All that’s happening now with things seeming to go more and more against the Arabs (Ishmael’s progeny) is, in his view–and those of like mind in Judaism—a divine bringing-about of prophetic fulfillment. The four thousand years of perceived wrong Ishmael’s offspring have considered as Israel’s evil against them has now or is rapidly coming to an end, he believes. All will now be “good,” as the rabbi puts it.

What a monumental misunderstanding!

Their Messiah will soon come to Israel’s rescue, but it will not be His first visit to them–a visit Jesus accused the Jewish religionists of hypocrisy for not understanding the Messianic time in which they stood.

But before that “understanding” is attained, there must come the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7). It will be a time of God’s wrath being poured out against the left-behind rebels of earth and a causing of the whole house of Israel to accept their True Messiah–Jesus Christ, their King and the King of all kings.

So, the “divine reckoning” the rabbi looks for is far different than he knows. His is a monumental misunderstanding of the True Messiah and His coming to bring a remnant of Israel into His eternal Kingdom.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Prophetic progression has suddenly accelerated, but not exactly in the direction many Bible prophecy “watchers on the wall”—including yours truly—anticipated.

For a number of years, we’ve heard Israel is prophetically destined to be the victim of an attack from its immediately surrounding enemies. This is termed the “Psalm 83 war.” I have tried to see this threat in order to agree with many of my colleagues who propose that passage is about a literal military assault on the verge of taking place.

But I have continued to maintain that the Psalm 83 matter is an imprecatory prayer by God’s chosen people, Israel, pleading for God’s retribution against the enemies who have bedeviled the nation throughout the millennia. I continue to hold this view. Specifically, I believe it is a prayer that will be answered when the Lord destroys all but one-sixth of the Gog-Magog force that attacks (as recorded in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39).

Could I be wrong? Yes. The “prophecy” can be interpreted either way. I believe, however, that my view is correct based upon surrounding context. And I believe recent developments pointing to unfolding events regarding Israel and its surrounding nation-antagonists give further evidence that my view is likely correct.

Zechariah the prophet, as recorded in chapter 12 of the book with his name, said Israel will become “a cup of trembling and a burdensome stone” to the whole world. And, certainly, we’ve watched that condition developing, especially since Israel’s rebirth into modernity in 1948.

Israel was attacked from the moment of that rebirth. America’s President Harry S. Truman recognized the new Jewish state on behalf of America and the prophecy that it would again be a nation–and one born in a day.

Despite overwhelming odds of survival against relentless attacks by forces much larger than its own, Israel remained standing when the smoke cleared. The nation was attacked in overwhelming numbers by surrounding enemies in 1967 and 1973, and again its enemies were routed.

God said Israel would be His chosen nation forever. His promise has not failed. But the modern buildup against the Jewish state has been quite powerful in these days during which we see so many other circumstances and events setting the stage for prophetic fulfillment to take place. Zechariah’s prediction that Israel will become a “cup of trembling and a burdensome stone” for the world of nation-states certainly fits this time in which we find ourselves. Practically every country in the UN views Israel as a problem and votes against the Jewish state at every opportunity.

The nation chosen by God to be His own has continued to face down bitter enemies, both near and far.

Iran, the area of ancient Persia, has been its most directly threatening enemy. We all witnessed the buildup of Iran’s nuclear program—and its obliteration, with the help of America dropping the massive ordnance into Iran’s mountainous nuclear-weapons facilities. The entire time, there was a sense of that “trembling” Zechariah predicted. But with the success of destroying Iran’s weapons-development facilities came a strange change—not only within Iran, which was forced to acquiesce to the demands of Israel and America, but a change of attitude and comportment, almost immediately, within the leadership of all of Israel’s surrounding Arab-Islamic neighboring states. Middle Eastern States, most of which had great numbers within those nations, were shouting “death to Israel” and “death to America!”

So, have we seen Zechariah’s “cup of trembling and burdensome stone” prophecy fulfilled? I believe we have seen the first, perhaps, of several stages of that prophecy fulfilled. But more is to come. We know that because of the Gog-Magog assault that is yet to come.

What I find most fascinating is that Zechariah 12 seems to be setting the world up for an even greater “cup of trembling,” that of a prophetic fulfillment that will truly cause all nations that have come against God’s chosen people to be “cut to pieces,” as Zechariah also prophesied.

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

We have watched within a week or two President Donald Trump perform what almost might be called a geopolitical/historical miracle. He has managed to gather most all of Israel’s enemy neighbors into a peace corral, of sorts. Those leaders who have perennially attacked Israel with a collective passion flowing from an eon of hate-filled rage are suddenly praising Trump’s efforts and are totally aboard the twenty-point peace plan, under what Trump terms the “Board of Peace.”

I always considered the prophecy Paul gave in his epistle to the Corinthians exclusively a cry for peace because of the fear of nuclear war that would bring worldwide destruction. Here is that prophecy:

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 5:3)

The fear of nuclear war—of worldwide destruction—will no doubt cause a future “cry for peace and safety,” as Paul predicted. However, we might be witnessing the first stage of this prophecy being set up for fulfillment.

The sudden climbing upon the Trump Board of Peace train by Israel’s blood-drenched, avowed enemies is not a “cry for peace and safety” out of fear of worldwide nuclear war, as I view this profound effort for Middle East peace led by the American president (a president, incidentally, the entire nation of Israel is cheering as a reincarnation of Cyrus the Great).

To my way of looking at this phenomenal turn of events, this is not a fear-engendered cry for peace, but rather a jubilant expression that now we have a real and—as Mr. Trump proclaims—everlasting peace.

This current “cry for peace and safety” smacks, perhaps, of the moment Paul referred to: the moment sudden destruction comes and those left behind will not escape.

Whatever the case, we know it is a sudden and strange turn of events, this peace that defies millennia of failed efforts to achieve. It is, to me, one of the most powerful newly developing indicators of how near this generation must be to the Rapture.

Here again is how to not miss that great event and be left behind to face the “sudden destruction” that, according to Jesus, will then befall those who cannot escape:

That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)

One solitary birth is the basis upon which the future hangs for every person who enters this mortal realm we call planet Earth. How each man, woman, and child who has reached age to understand the salvation issue views this visitation determines where their home will be for eternity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. (Romans 11:25)

God foretold, again through the prophet Zechariah, that believing Israel will yet recognize the Lord Jesus upon His second visitation to the Earth:

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

The Apostle Paul said:

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. (Romans 11:26)

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

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

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

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

Jerusalem sits atop land that would be among the least desirable in terms of real-estate values. The natural inclination would be to look for more scenic, lusher beauty rather than the much improved but still-arid landscape in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. But when considering Jerusalem, one is talking in terms not of the natural, but of the supernatural.

Since before the Lord led Abraham to Moriah with Isaac in tow, when the patriarch was willing to follow through on the sacrifice of his son, the area that is now Jerusalem has been at the very center of spiritual warfare—like no other place on the planet.

Moriah is the site where Abraham laid Isaac upon the makeshift altar and started the plunge of the knife toward his son’s heart. The angel of the Lord (likely the reincarnate Christ) stopped the test of the old man’s faith by providing the sacrificial ram, caught in the thicket by its horns (read Genesis 22:1–13).

Moriah, the tumultuous centerpiece of Jerusalem to this day, is where God directed David to the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, from whom he purchased the site. This would be the place where King David would not be allowed to build God a house because he had the blood of war on his hands. But it is where David’s son, Solomon, built the great temple of God (read 1 Chronicles 3).

This plateau on Jerusalem’s perimeter is where the Ark of the Covenant sat within the Holy of Holies. It is where the veil that separated man from God in the Jewish sacrificial system was torn in two from top to bottom by the hand of God. This occurred when His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross as the once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sin of humankind—so people would forevermore have direct access to God the Father through the one mediator, the man Jesus Christ. This high place in the city of David is the most contested real estate on earth. It is scheduled to become such a cup of trembling that all nations of the world will be drawn to the Valley of Megiddo—Armageddon.

Lucifer couldn’t usurp God’s throne in Heaven, although He tried with all his might (see Isaiah 14). Moriah is the site where Satan will again try to usurp the throne of God—the Almighty’s earthly throne that is the Temple Mount, where the Ark once sat and where the King of all Kings will one day sit atop a supernaturally elevated Mount Zion.

We witness it daily, even hourly, through the news cycles. This real estate named Jerusalem provides the present impetus for the world’s call for a two-state solution to the conflict involving Israel and the Palestinians. It is supernatural, spiritual warfare that instigates hatreds in the region and particularly in this ancient city, which is mentioned more than any other in the Bible. Jerusalem is the trigger to Armageddon.

Efforts to divide this city and nation are relentless these days as we witness things going on with Israel and the international community of nations to bring peace to the Middle East, led by the US president. This excerpt makes the point that the Temple Mount is at the heart of the millennia-long dispute that causes perennial war in that volatile region.

Under the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty, Israel recognized Jordan’s “special role” in overseeing these [Temple Mount] religious sites, allowing the Waqf to manage daily operations, including access and religious activities, to preserve the Islamic character of the site.

The agreement prioritizes Muslim worship to maintain the Islamic character of al-Aqsa Mosque compound, and Israel enforces this by limiting non-Muslim religious activities to avoid escalating tensions.

The effect of the Israeli-Jordanian agreement has been disastrous for Jewish sovereignty. It concretized religious discrimination against Jews in the Jewish state, by the Jewish state, in the most sacred space in Judaism. Most Jews, and almost all Gentiles, assume that the Western Wall, a wall with no religious sanctity in Judaism, is the most sacred space for Jews. This is pure ignorance: The most sacred space has always been, is, and will always be the Temple Mount. (“Agreement on Temple Mount Pathetic Appeasement to Terrorism,” by Aliza Pilichowski, Israel News, The Jerusalem Post)

It is a spiritual, not a geophysical or geopolitical matter of satanic hatred that resides at the heart of the city God chose as His touchstone to humanity.

Jerusalem will be the nucleus of the covenant of false peace that will engulf the city, the Middle East, and all the world in a holocaust of God’s holy wrath and judgment. The world’s power-brokers elite will divide the city and, in God’s terminology, “divide My land.” The result will be to bring all nations into the battle of the Great Day of God Almighty.

For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3:1–2)

Of all the signals of these last of the last days, powerful issues surrounding Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount in particular are paramount. They constitute the trigger to Armageddon and Christ’s Second Advent.

The Rapture will preempt that time of cataclysm that will culminate at the last great battle. It is incumbent upon everyone who names the Name of Christ to get the Word out that there is safety from that horrendous time of judgment only in the Lord Jesus. You can be a part of that mission with your support of the Rapture Ready website ministry. And we thank you, our RR family, for that support, which is much-needed in this critical time while we see the approaching Tribulation–the Rapture of all believers—as imminent.

The Prophet of all Prophets, who just happens to be the very Word of God (John 1:1), described the human condition at the time of the first phase of His Second Coming. Jesus said:

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. (Luke 17:26)

Those are strong words, and they open an avenue that runs directly to a signal around which we can build a case for how near this generation must be to the Rapture. I write of the Rapture, and not Christ’s Second Advent, because in this prophecy, Jesus is talking about the sudden first phase, not the seven-year buildup to the second phase of His Second Coming.

The first phase is the Rapture; the second is the moment described in Revelation 19:11 when Jesus Christ returns dramatically to earth to end the human war called Armageddon. Jesus prophesied that at the time of this first phase, the Rapture, folks on earth will be going about life pretty much as usual. It will be like it was during the days before the Great Flood. About those days, Jesus said:

They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:27)

In those days, like in our time, some strange and sinful things were going on—things that finally brought God’s wrath, judgment, and the destruction of all but the eight people inside the ark. The sinful matter going on in Noah’s day that I want to explore a bit here is put forth in the following:

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. (Genesis 6:11–13)

The operative sin is violence that “filled the whole earth.”

Violence has always been part of the human condition. Cain killed his brother Abel in the first murder. More than fifteen thousand wars have been the scourge of every generation since Noah and his family left the ark. Cain’s pre-Flood slaying of his brother set in motion a visceral propensity within humankind to do violence to fellow humans.

Wars waged by the likes of the ancient Assyrians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Alexander’s Greek Empire, and the Roman Empire brought tremendous bloodshed down through the millennia. But it was the twentieth century—with World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnamese War, and others that continue into the twenty-first century—that spawned the level of violence that equates to the level of worldwide violence during Noah’s day.

Murderous rage has exploded upon this late hour of human history in almost every aspect. Killing rampages that used to be aberrant acts of the rarely seen serial or spree killers now seem to be a part of homicide that’s considered the norm. One form of violence that strongly indicates a recently elevated rage that’s like the satanic hatred of times just before Noah and the others went into the ark is that aimed directly at true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the most notable example is the assassination of Charlie Kirk, founder and head of Turning Point USA. He was a young man who told about his belief in Christ at every venue he spoke at. He tried, through that witness, to lead his listeners to the saving grace of Jesus Christ, in addition to trying to reason with them about coming back to their senses in understanding what living life peaceably in America should entail.

The entire world was shown the face of violence that has burst upon this generation with cameras focused on the young man when the assassin’s high-powered rifle round exploded the carotid artery in his neck at the very moment he sat civilly answering the questions of a student asking, ironically, about gun violence.

Following on the heels of the Kirk murder was the shooting by a sniper in Dallas, Texas, who unloaded his weapon into an ICE van while it transported detainees into an ICE facility.

One detainee was killed and others were wounded. The sniper then shot himself. He, like Kirk’s assassin who wrote hate-filled things on the rounds in his rifle, had written anti-ICE engravings on the shell casing of the bullet he fired.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Lyons reported that such terroristic attacks against ICE have ramped up 1000 percent just within recent weeks.

School shootings around the nation, too, have increased, with evidence coming out that such evil stems from the same leftist radical ideology.

The young have been radicalized–with the backing of mainstream news and entertainment media—to deal with anyone who opposes their anti-American ideas and upside-down political persuasion by using violence–even assassinating the political leaders they hate.

Such radicalized youths were responsible for the attempted assassination of candidate Donald Trump, the murder of Charlie Kirk, and the terroristic attacks on the ICE agents who are targets of their hatred.

So many instances of violent insanity are piling up that it is difficult to pick and choose which to use as examples of the end-times violence Jesus described.

That fact alone is enough to validate just how much our days are like Noah’s.

Violence that is such a characteristic of this generation must certainly be a major indicator sounding from the end-of-days trumpet of warning. It is heralding the glorious prophetic truth that Jesus can at any moment step out upon the clouds of glory and shout, “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).

Charlie Kirk’s going to be with the Lord in such dramatic fashion, I believe, is a profound prophetic marker at the end of this quickly fleeting Age of Grace. I believe what happened might indicate that a prophetic division might have been set in motion by the assassination that took place before the eyes of all the world in terms of its aftereffects.

A divine division, it seems to me, was possibly initiated in some prophetically scheduled way with that shot heard and seen around the world. I’ll try to explain.

Evidence of this specific hour in history fits the time Jesus and the prophets described when God will begin bringing the end of one age to an end and the next into being. The end of this age, the Age of Grace, and the start of the next era, the Tribulation, looks to be almost certainly at hand. Jesus could call all believers into His presence at any moment.

Those who are spiritually attuned to all that has been transpiring over recent years, months, weeks, and days sense that Heaven’s judgment is poised ominously above the earth. The evil, the absolute wickedness, cannot be dismissed as simply being things as usual, even though life in general continues seemingly as normal.

It seems to me that the Charlie Kirk murder, witnessed by entire populations of the world through cyberspace platforms, has resulted, through divine arrangement, in dividing those who want God’s order from those who want no part of it.

This divine division, I believe, involves particularly the young adults of this judgment-bound planet. These, I mean, are those of Gen Z. Of course, it involves many more and diverse ages than those, but these are the most vociferous in expressing their emotions following the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

On the one hand, the young continue to cheer in the most hate-filled and vulgar terms imaginable, applauding the bloody death of the man who engaged them in debate about their anti-God beliefs and comportment. On the other hand, there is a sudden, explosive movement by the young in support of all that Charlie Kirk championed—many expressing newfound understanding of and belief in what Charlie taught about His Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The mainstream news and entertainment media—which was, for a hesitating moment, somewhat unsure of how to report all attendant to the Kirk death—has now recovered its anti-God balance, and I suspect we can expect these to soon return to supportive incitement of the young haters—spewing lies and angry rhetoric against both the godly things Charlie Kirk tried to get across to the young audiences in his reasoned debates with them and, of course, against anything and everything involving Donald Trump’s efforts to govern.

However, there is a growing sense that the evil intended in this assassination of a man who professed Jesus Christ as the answer to all that’s wrong with America and the world, God will use for good.

And it is the divine dividing line, as part of that good God intends, that I think we could be witnessing as the Rapture of the Church approaches.

The Lord has used such dividing in the past to separate those who want His governance from those who want no part of divine order.

Perhaps the most relevant to today’s rebellion against God’s order is found in the book of Numbers.

Moses was leading Israel and was told by God to follow His order in doing things that would move His program for the nation forward. Korah, a man who was charged with bringing the people in line with God’s order, rather than doing so, did all he could to prevent Moses from following what God commanded.

The Lord told Moses to tell Korah to obey or face God’s anger. Korah refused and complained bitterly that God had led the people out of the land of milk and honey to die horrible deaths in the wilderness.

Following Moses’ declaration of the Lord’s command and Korah’s refusal to follow, God’s divine dividing of the obedient from the rebels was executed forthwith.

And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation. (Numbers 16:31–33)

It is true that God was dealing with His chosen people in the case of this rebellion against His divine order. But Israel is a Heaven-ordained archetype for God’s dealings with all of humankind. Rebellion against Almighty God will always result in a divine cleavage of the good from the bad—the obedient from the disobedient.

There is coming such a dividing, and I believe we are seeing the beginning of divine preparation for that division. It is God’s dividing line I believe we are seeing being drawn.

In a sense, people today are being told, as Joshua told the Israelites millennia ago: “Choose you this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15).

We are seeing God’s order in the process of being issued to humanity, I believe, in this turbulent time following the bloody slaying of Charlie Kirk. It is particularly being manifested within the great masses of the youth whose passions are in full-blown turning to God or else turning angrily away from His order in these last days of this Age of Grace. The divine demarcation is becoming clearer by the hour—God’s end-times dividing line.

Whether you are of Gen Z or a different vintage, here is the only Way to be obedient to the God who is on the prophetic verge of having to judge all rebels during the coming Tribulation:

That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)