This past week, the going home to Heaven of my friend Bob Rogers to be with our Lord brought the impression I believe is from that eternal realm of glory.

Bob was both a gentleman and a gentle man, as the great Paul Harvey used to put it in describing those he greatly honored and respected. We will miss Bob, but only for a very brief time in terms of eternity. In our last conversation, he confided that he and his family loved me and my family. That memory means more to me than I can adequately express. We were—and are—indeed one family, both in terms of here on earth and of eternity.

His passing into glory immediately brought forth my own recollection of dying clinically those three times on Good Friday of 2011. What a magnificent sight I, a blind person, saw each time my heart discontinued its beating. I won’t go into all that again, as I have mentioned it many times. Suffice it to say it all was just…well…glorious!

So, the joy Bob is experiencing now, I perhaps can remember only a brief glimpse of, but to be there in God’s presence forever must be beyond anything any of us can imagine.

And this has me contemplating the time when we will all stand before our Lord Jesus Christ to receive eternal rewards. These we will enjoy in a timeless dimension that will grow exponentially in terms of heavenly exultation.

We who are in Christ and particularly look with great anticipation for the Rapture are told we will receive the crown of righteousness.

There are some who believe all Christians will receive this crown, because all Christians will be thrilled when Christ calls them to Himself. I don’t view this crown this way, because I’m convinced we must look forward with great anticipation now, in this life, in order to be rewarded for our belief that Christ will keep this promise of escape from the time of Tribulation (Revelation 3:10).

Here are the Apostle Paul’s words on this promise of that crown.

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. (1 Timothy 4:8)

Most who read these commentaries, I believe with all that is within my spirit, will be awarded this crown. Rapture Ready–and my personal blog, terryjamesprophecyline.com—are devoted to putting forth the magnificent promise that our Lord will snatch us from this fallen earth just in time to avoid the great trouble that is prophetically scheduled for this planet of rebellious people. Those who love to read these articles and study other materials must have in their spiritual hearts the love for Christ’s appearing, as Paul terms the prerequisite for receiving the crown of righteousness.

Here, again, are the crowns promised to believers who devote themselves to godly living while in this present life on earth.

The Bible mentions at least 5 crowns/rewards:

1. The incorruptible crown, given to those who master the old nature

1 Corinthians 9:25–27

And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

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.

2. The crown of rejoicing given to soul-winners

Proverbs 11: 30

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

Daniel 12: 3

And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

1 Thessalonians 2: 19–20

For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?

For ye are our glory and joy.

3. The crown of life, given to those who successfully endure temptation

James 1:2–3

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

Revelation 2:10

Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

4. The crown of righteousness for those who especially love the doctrine of the Rapture

2 Timothy 4:8

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.

5. The crown of glory, given to faithful preachers and teachers

Acts 20:26–28

Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.

For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

2 Timothy 4:1–2

I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

1 Peter 5:2–4

Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.

And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

What a glorious prospect—to see our Savior face to face and to hear Him say: “Well done, good, faithful servant.”

Praise God, that is what my great friend Bob Rogers is hearing at this very heavenly moment!

Today when we look around the world and the way things have moved from a “saner” time until now, those who care to consider these matters see an increasingly wicked world. Such observers see, for example, Russia and Vladimir Putin, China and Xi Jinping, and North Korea and Kim-Jong-un. These are leaders who hold their populations under absolute control. They do so sometimes with the greatest cruelty imaginable.

Sadly, there are few observers who care to gauge the evil, the wickedness we face as a world while things are sucked into the gravity of the increasingly evil times.

And as a result, America herself, under the greatest, most noble experiment in human government of all of history, now faces insanity that threatens tyranny the equal of some of the most terrible regimes ever upon the planet. This is, of course, in keeping with God’s prophetic Word for the wrap-up of history.

Many, including this writer, considered in times past that the Antichrist system of control would suddenly leap onto the scene once the Rapture occurred. The call of Christians into the air would be what set in motion that sucking of left behind mankind into the gravity of what would almost instantly become Tribulation tyranny.

Some warned of incrementalism –the slow changes through luciferian incursion into the human condition. But none foresaw the almost instantaneous dive into the reprobate sea of debauchery into which much of mankind has plunged during this late hour.

Freedom found in God’s Rx for mankind has been abandoned to the upside-down madness that separates humankind farther and farther from the Creator Who Knows Best for us. That Heavenly Rx is, of course, Jesus Christ, the opposite Truth from the total lie with which the evil men and seducers of this present evil day deludes and destroys.

Paul forewarned that the end times generation would face exactly what we are experiencing.

“But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” (2 Tim 3: 13)      

And it is not just the Vladimir Putins, the Xi Jinpings and Kim-Jong uns who are the evil men and seducers. We, in this once great republic, face now some of the most evil and seductive forces on Planet Earth. These are determined to bring not only America down but are even more determined to destroy all Christian vestiges. They are making inroads in this regard not by banning Christianity, but by changing what Christianity means in many instances.

I found the following think piece most interesting in considering this force of evil men and seducers.

In a recent Front Page column, Dennis Prager criticizes the idea that people are basically good.  The belief that humans are inherently good is both “foolish” and “dangerous,” writes Prager, and it leads to much suffering.  He offers several sobering examples from recent history of what happens to people who put their trust in human nature.

Prager was prompted to write his rebuttal when a respected Jewish publication published an article by an Orthodox rabbi claiming that “Judaism posits that people are basically good.”  The idea has long been prevalent among non-Orthodox rabbis, but Prager was surprised that an Orthodox Jew would subscribe to an idea that is clearly rejected in the Torah.

The notion that human nature is basically good is also rejected in the rest of the Bible—and just as strongly in the New Testament as in the Old.  Which brings me to my main point.  Over the last six decades, belief in human goodness has become an article of faith for many Christians as well as for Jews. This is particularly true of many mainstream Protestants and Roman Catholics.  For the Catholic Church, the belief has served as a wrecking ball. Numerous polls have shown a massive decline in church attendance among Catholics (and other Christians), and a corresponding drop in the number who identify as Christians.

Different people give different reasons for the decline of Christian belief, but for me the obvious reason is that Christians have replaced the idea of human sinfulness with the idea of human goodness.  And when you do that, you undercut the whole rationale for Christianity—namely, that we are sinners in need of redemption.  If human beings are good the way they are, then there is no need for a Savior to free us from our sins. (The devastating impact of the premise that people are essentially good, William Kilpatrick , Frontpage Mag, February 4, 2022).

The founding fathers of the United States recognized the Biblical Truth of the depravity of man. The idea that man is good flies in the face of God’s Truth. “There is none good, no not one…”

Unless the individual is willing to admit they are not good and need a Savior to save them from their sinfulness, there is no hope. And this is the great, seductive ploy of the devil, and has been since his time of tempting Eve in the garden. “Ye shall be as God,” he seduced and beguiled. The ploy is working now more effective than ever, and we see the results with man’s turning their back on God –doing what is right in their own eyes– in preparation for the time of God’s Wrath and Judgment. As looked at many times, we now are at the Romans 1:28 place at the very end of the age. Man has turned his back to the God of Heaven and now has been given over to a reprobate mind.

Good is called evil and evil good. Thankfully, God still Calls individuals to Salvation, but the creature called man continues en masse down that broad way to destruction.

There is the Narrow Gate Jesus said. As a matter-of-fact, Jesus is that Narrow Gate that leads to Eternity spent with God the Father.

Don’t listen to the evil men and seducers of these increasingly sin-darkened days. Here again, is how to enter that Narrow Gate.

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)

An exciting new book is scheduled for release shortly. I can brag just a bit about it because my cowriter has done such a phenomenal job infusing the work with insightful presentation.

Pete Garcia, whom many in the Rapture Ready family know as a gifted writer with Holy Spirit-directed analyses of the times, is my coauthor. We are convinced that the monumental event we believers long for, because of the issues and events that are in our faces daily, must be drawing very near indeed.

The Disappearing: Future Events That Will Rock the World brings to light things to come in a way I’m very pleased about. Again, this is in large part because of Pete’s generously offered talents and efforts. It is a volume that the Lord has commissioned us to present now, because the Rapture should be foremost on our minds and hearts in these closing days of this Church Age.

Each hour brings troubling headlines from the many news sources now available. Every report seems more intrusive upon our daily lives than the previous, and all accounts appear to be setting the end-time stage for the soon fulfillment of God’s prophetic Word.

The world is turned upside down by issues and events that are contrary to life as we’ve known it. All rational thought has turned to wickedness—toward the dark side. Our times seem like the “days of Noah,” just as Jesus Christ described how things will be at the moment He is next revealed. That moment—the Rapture—will be when the greatest event since Christ’s resurrection occurred!

The book presents the wind-up of human history, chronicling what set in motion and is driving this Heaven-directed, end-times drama. It’s the conclusion of the greatest story ever told. What we’re witnessing today is about to bring down the curtain of prophecy’s final act.

And when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:28)

The dynamic ebb and flow of the times, with the production of our book being slightly delayed due to the pandemic, have combined to bring the work to the publishing surface at a propitious moment. The horizon is on fire with powerful indicators of where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline.

This book is somewhat of a hybrid. By this, I mean it is nonfiction, but includes a sprinkling of fictional accounts that highlight and, we believe, significantly enhance the presentation.

Our foreword is written by our great friend Jan Markell, the nationally renowned radio host and president of Olive Tree Ministries. She writes in part:

All I know for sure is that believers must have hope, and with the world crumbling all around us, we are left with only the predicted “blessed hope.” This world has nothing to offer the Bible-believing Christian. Our focus must be eternity, and that is likely soon for many reading this book—not because readers will face an untimely demise, but rather because Christ’s return is at the door.

The book is set for release in March or April. I will give more of an update on its release as the time draws closer.

Pete and I are scheduled to visit the SkyWatch TV studios in early February to tape programs on The Disappearing. We will, of course, provide you with links to those programs as soon as available.

Meantime, I understand that the book is already listed on Amazon and at SkyWatch TV and Defender Publishing, so you are invited to check it out. It is not yet available to order, but should be as soon as our publisher, Defender Publishing, has completed the publishing process. 

It is our most heartfelt wish that our effort will edify the believer while together we carry out Christ’s Great Commission to a lost and dying world. There is no more noble or God-ordained mission to be undertaken.

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (Revelation 22:20–21)

The Lord tells, through the prophet Joel, the dire recompense for the rebellious evil of opposing His righteousness:

Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. (Joel 9–14)

We are at this moment very near the beginning of that time, at the end of which everyone will be gathered into the Valley of Jehoshaphat–the killing field of Armageddon.

As Joel declares, we now see wickedness growing daily—even hourly. It is indeed an exponential growth of evil directed primarily at God’s prescribed order of things for planet earth.

Armies of the world, particularly those of nations primary to prophetic fulfillment, have already turned pruning hooks and ploughshares into swords and spears that are the incredibly powerful instruments of modern warfare. They have awakened the men of war and gathered them, as witnessed by Russia’s threatened invasion of Ukraine and China’s voracious glances at Taiwan. The world is, to any observer with a rational eye for developments, preparing to make war.

It is just a matter of time until the multitudes will gather to oppose God and storm toward His touchstone to humanity, Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. They will at first rage against one another, each wanting to make that satanic prize–Jerusalem and the Mount Moriah—their conquest. They will be filled with the madness that their father, the devil, has planted in their reprobate minds. They will then see the black skies above earth split apart and the glory of Heaven beaming through as the Lord of Lord and King of kings and His army of redeemed saints begin their descent.

Today we are in a valley of decision, of sorts. The decision is whether to be on the side of the heathens destined to oppose God and His righteousness, thus be in colleague with those who will face Christ the King in the Valley of Jehoshaphat or whether to be on God’s side by accepting His only way to redemption, thus to be on the side that opposes the wickedness we see proliferating in every direction we look.

Another valley I think we can see very plainly at this time is a valley of derision.

It is a place of profound struggle against the powers and principalities in high places of Ephesians 6: 12. Christians who determine to fight the evil that opposes God’s righteousness comprise the nucleus of this force. While many others who do not know Christ as their Lord also fight in this arena against wickedness, God’s people are the glue that holds fast the frontline resistance to the assaults by Lucifer’s minions, both demonic and human.

Paul the apostle says that it is the Restrainer who will hold back the assaults of evil and wickedness until He is taken out of the way. The Holy Spirit is that Restrainer, and He works primarily by indwelling all who know Christ for salvation. So it is the believers of this age who must continue the struggle, empowered by God the Holy Spirit.

And there is plenty of evidence to validate that God is restraining in these times so near His calling the Church out of this doomed world of rebelliousness.

We have witnessed time after time, for example, blockage of legislative efforts that would take America into dictatorship. The evil continues to advance, but is not allowed to completely infect the world with the sin-disease that will cause God’s judgment and wrath to finally fall upon the incorrigible rebels who oppose His righteousness.

The time will come when “earth dwellers” will have their way, mostly unimpeded by God’s governance. But this condition will not last long. Devastating things will begin to happen as God prepares for His Son, Jesus Christ, to return and put an end to all evil, wickedness, and rebellion.

The Lord has these anti-God, anti-Christ forces in derision at this very moment. His Holy Spirit is holding back Satan’s all-out assault until the Church is taken to be with Jesus in the Rapture.

Again, here is what the Lord says about what is going on now and into eternity.

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. (Psalms 2:1–12)

Harkening back fifty plus years ago to my time in the United States Air Force, memories of the jet fighter trainers we were responsible for maintaining further stimulates thoughts on Bible prophecy. The words of Dr. J. Vernon McGee come to the forefront of that time a half-century ago.

Dr. McGee once commented in answer to the naysayers about him being an “escapist” in regard to his pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy. He answered the detractors in his typically southern, cornpone, yet brilliantly humorous way.

The arguments of those who poo-pooed the Pre-Trib Rapture usually went something like this.

“Those who preach that that Christians will somehow avoid being part of the Tribulation are pie-in-the-sky escapists. They are preaching and teaching false doctrine. They just hope to escape that terrible seven years of God’s judgment and wrath.”

Dr. McGee would say something like: “You better believe I hope to escape that time of God’s judgment and wrath. If the house is on fire, I’ll go out the door, through the window, or up the chimney. I’ll leave that burning building however I can.”

Then McGee would usually add: “That’s who Jesus Christ is. He is the blessed hope. And He is my way of escape from that coming time.”

“Boy howdy!” as ol’ Dr. McGee might say, were he here instead of with the Lord in Heaven. “Are we ever in a house on fire today!”

As we’ve covered time after time, every which direction we look we see signals that indicate, like the title of a Billy Graham book once read, in a World Aflame!

Societally and culturally, the landscape is so debauched that nothing short of a miracle can bring things back into a normal pattern of life with morality at its center. The Antichrist spirit has brought about a turning of humanity’s back on God. The result is the reprobate mind of Romans 1:28 for the majority across the world.

Consider the gravity of the sexual revolution of the 1960s that has pulled human sexuality ever downward into some sort of insane-asylum configuration. Men can now be women and women can be men. Boys and girls are taught they can be whichever gender they decide, leaving the parents out of any decision-making. Sodom and Gomorrah-level homosexuality and other depravity is not only accepted, but embraced and championed by governmental leaders and mainstream media. Even worse, a large portion of so-called Christian clergy declare it all to come under God’s love, with no condemnation. The Bible is old-fashioned, out of tune with the times, and should be rewritten to be inclusive of all these new ways of sexuality and human behavior.

Governmental and political lies reside at the heart of everything from legislation to judicial decision-making. Deceivers are on the scene as never before, just as Jesus forewarned for the end of the age while sitting atop the Mount of Olives answering his disciples’ questions about when the end would come.

All nations mentioned in Bible prophecy for the wrap-up of human history seem at play at this very moment. Russia is about to assault Ukraine; Iran threatens Israel with utter destruction; and the Europeans are in turmoil, becoming lockdown states as the likes of Emmanuel Macron of France becomes more dictatorial by the day. China is on a tear, threatening all within its sphere of hegemony and promising to bring Taiwan back into its orb, even if it takes kinetic war.

Pope Francis embraces the dark side at every turn. He fires from the Catholic government longtime clerics who don’t go along with his rewriting of the Scriptures to include homosexuality in biblical approval.

It is indeed a World Aflame!

So, this brings me back to ol’ Dr. McGee and my time in the US Air Force all of those decades ago.

Just as McGee said he would go out the door, through the windows, or up the chimney to escape a burning house, so pilots of those high-performance jet trainers we worked on wanted to escape sure death if necessary.

All jet fighters have an egress system. This is that means of escape. The seats in which the pilots sit and in which they, with their parachutes, are strapped tightly, have what was called in my day t-handles. As I recall, there was a metal handle that the pilot could grip on each side of the seat so it was easy to pull if necessary.

The t-handles were painted bright yellow in the T-38 trainer, as I remember. The pilot could pull straight up on the t-handles. When that happened, the canopy was supposed to pop loose and the wind would take it away. Instantly, a small but powerful rocket ejected the pilot high above the doomed aircraft. At least this is how it was supposed to work. There were times when the canopy wouldn’t pop loose and be carried away by the wind stream. The top of the seat above the pilot’s helmet-covered head had a canopy piercer. It was a piece of metal shaped kind of like an axe blade. If the canopy didn’t deploy, the canopy piercer would crash through the canopy bubble when the rocket fired.

As I say, there were cases when the whole egress system didn’t work properly. These sometimes ended with the pilot being caught up in the destruction of the plane.

All this is to say that we are on a planet about to crash, and, like ol’ Dr. McGee, any sane person would want a way to escape any such holocaust that Bible prophecy foretells.

I’ve given the commentary the title “God’s Egress System” because that’s exactly who His Son, Jesus Christ, is. He is the “blessed hope”—the Savior of the world that is aflame. He came to seek and save the lost—all who are headed down into flames if not ejected into the air when Christ calls all born-again believers to Himself.

The crash into judgment and wrath could happen at any moment. This world is aflame with all of the things we have looked at as indicators of the end times. God’s escape is available for all who will grip that blessed hope—the t-handle of God’s egress system.

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus 2:13–14)

Jesus foretold that one of the great signals of His Second Coming and of the end of the age would be deception and deceivers. Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2 tells us there will be strong delusion in the last days. He prophesied also that there will be “evil men and seducers growing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

God’s Word—Jesus Himself—declared that the evil at the core of all the deception is a being full of lies. He said in answer to the Jewish religious zealots who tried to entrap Him:

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he spiked a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44)

There is scriptural proof, therefore, that the charge is based on God’s truth when we say all the lies we see perpetrated in these closing days of this Age of Grace (Church Age) come from the chief minion of Ephesians 6:12. Indeed we have experienced an increase in lies coming at us from many directions.

Remember the explosion of lies following the presidential election of 2016. The accusation of Trump’s campaign and election being in cahoots with the Russians—with Vladimir Putin himself—was in our faces for Trump’s full four years as president. The lies kept coming, and were front and center on every mainstream news outlet and left-wing social media every hour of every day for those years.

Then it was proven that that the Russian collusion charge was all lies, based upon a phony, political dirty trick. The opposing presidential campaign paid operatives to concoct and distribute a false dossier involving charges accusing Mr. Trump of paying Russian prostitutes to do salacious things in order to spew vitriol against Barack and Michelle Obama, his predecessor and former first lady.

The same political party concocted lies against a Trump administration Supreme Court candidate. We remember the weeks and weeks of that parade of prevarication. The president was subjected to a daily barrage for weeks and months in impeachment efforts—all based on lies.

Mainstream newscasts, social media blogs, and other platforms made up lies about the Black Lives Matter and Antifa destruction of cities across America being peaceful protests rather than riots. The same news and entertainment media, while ignoring those destructive, anti-American insurrections, now accuse Trump supporters who protested—mostly peacefully—in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, as being insurrectionists. The vice president declared the protest and march to be the evil equivalent of December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001.

Lies of less magnitude, but progressing geometrically on an hour-by-hour basis in order to maintain the political power they achieved through one of the biggest lies—those involved in the stolen election of 2020—continue to do their destructive work against the republic.

We have covered a number of times the fact that the globalist minions, both human and demonic, are working incessantly to set the stage for the coming Antichrist regime. I’ve pointed out that two prongs of this evil effort are primary in Satan’s blueprint. One is the climate-change mantra and the other is the COVID pandemic that, it is becoming obvious, isn’t likely to end anytime soon. Both are based largely on lies generated by the principalities and powers in high places.

The initial effort was the lies of global warming. That morphed into climate change, when the ice cap at the North Pole didn’t melt and submerge New York City in the waters of the Atlantic after the first prediction of such catastrophe some thirty years ago.

Reports have it that the University of Alabama at Huntsville data set presented from satellite reconnaissance has shown that there has been no global warming at all for the last seven years. Based on the HadCRUT4 data set, there has been no statistically significant global warming for more than nine years—August 2012 to October 2021.

Before the findings, the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confidently said in its First Assessment in 1990 that global warming is a great deal and a climate emergency. But given the succession of long periods without global warning as shown by HadCRUT4 data set, it is safe to say that the IPCC’s warning is way off the mark.

One writer renders judgment on the climate-change hoax.

Journalist and blogger Christopher Monckton noted that the West is self-destructing due to its belief in global warming, which has benefited China and Russia…

Monckton noted that totalitarian administrations, such as that of the United Kingdom, is imagining climate emergency–giving as example the situation in rural Cornwall. He predicted that the first political party to find the courage “to oppose the global warming nonsense root and branch” will sweep the board at the next elections.

“There is no more of a climate emergency today than there was in 2012, so the only reason for declaring one now is not that it is true (for it is not) but that it is politically expedient,” wrote Monckton.

The political leadership in the West, said Monckton, is committing economic suicide as it allowed high-energy industries to be wasted because of the fear of imagined global warming. “Whole industries are have already been or are soon to be laid waste – coal extraction, distribution and generation (and, therefore, steel and aluminum); oil and gas exploration and combustion; internal-combustion vehicles; and a host of downstream industries which will create joblessness and hardship to income earners,” he wrote. (“Global warming statistically insignificant: Climate emergency is imaginary,” Matthew Davis, 1/6/22, Rapture Ready News)

With regard to the pandemic that has the entire world in fear of facing death, the deception—the lies involved—are beyond our ability to comprehend at this point. I’m of the conviction that could be at the center of the prophesied lie that leads to enslavement of the populations of planet earth following the Rapture of the Church.

Never has there been such a global effort among the leaders of the world’s nations in attempts to bring their peoples into subjection. Demanded compliance in the matter of vaccinations and mask-wearing constitutes a powerful mechanism that could soon force all into the one-world mold Antichrist will impose.

The big lie—the great delusion of 2 Thessalonians 2—might spring from the present delusion being foisted—that the jab will bring freedom from pestilences and freedom to be an accepted citizen of the new order.

What we are witnessing might be the catalyst for Antichrist’s underlings—his liars—to bring about control over humanity which the father of lies has desired for millennia.

Before that can happen, the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life will step out of the heavenly throne room and call those who belong to the eternal family of God the Father to Himself. You don’t want to miss that magnificent reunion in the clouds of glory.

Again, here’s how you can make sure you will go to Christ when He calls the saints.

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)

Lou Dobbs, a long-time broadcast pundit on issues and events of the day, and his guest, Eric Metaxas, were discussing the guest’s new book, Is Atheism Dead? The conversation turned to the way culture in America has become victim of insane thinking wrapped in the term “woke.”

Dobbs offered, optimistically, that he had seen his own church and his pastor beginning to awaken. The congregation was awakening to the evil of things going on that were, through the insanity of woke wickedness infecting American culture and society with a deadly virus spawned by neo-Marxists, determined to change the nation into a Soviet or Maoist-style tyrannical state. He said that we are awakening to what is happening. The attempted Marxist cultural revolution is being made manifest for Americans to see. There is, he believes, still a considerable majority of such patriots to prevail against the globalist efforts to bring America down. The founding fathers, he said, knew that we the people need God, thus built into the founding documents that reality and provided ways thereby to deal with such assaults. God has His hand on the nation, but we must exercise our courage to keep the nation as founded, was his exhortation.

Dobbs and his guest, like we do in presenting these commentaries over the months and years, discussed the upside-down thinking of the leftist radicals at the forefront of the woke insanity: how it all got started with the takeover of the public educational system, with Marxist becoming ensconced in the institutions of learning, and the ideological contamination then spreading from K to 12.

Study of the real disciplines—reading, writing, arithmetic, biology, etc.—under woke-ism has been cast to the rear of educational prerequisite. Now it has come to be that CRT (Critical Race Theory,) GLTBQ, and other crazy inculcation grips children in years as young as kindergarten.

Parents are attacked by the governing elements at every stratum, from the federal level to the local school board, for daring to assert that they, the parents, should influence curriculum. Concerned parents have been labeled as “domestic terrorists” for showing up at school board meetings, demanding that their children not be taught CRT or not be subjected to boys and girls sharing the same restrooms or locker rooms at the same time.

We have all been aware of these news stories. And unless we’ve tuned to mostly secondary news sources, not mainstream news outlets, we’ve been bombarded by news slanted so that we are made to seem like the lunatics for disagreeing with the woke culture, and the perpetrators of the woke culture are made out to be the enlightened, sane ones in today’s America.

Lou Dobbs and his guest had to admit that with the ubiquitous mainstream news and the governments in the hands of mostly woke types in many cases, it would indeed be a fight to awaken the numbers of Americans necessary to overthrow this evil. However, such a revolution of change back to sanity was possible with the awakening taking place because of the woke evil in our faces constantly.

One such news item seems to somewhat support the contention.

A majority of Americans say that male and female are the only two genders, and that schools shouldn’t be allowed to counsel children about gender or sexuality without parents’ consent, according to the results of a survey released Monday.

The survey was conducted by Rasmussen Reports among 1,000 American adults from Dec. 21 to 22, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at and 95 percent confidence level. It comes amid a social media firestorm sparked by Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling, who was accused of engaging in “hate speech” for insisting that there are only two biologically distinct genders.

“Transgender activists have accused J. K. Rowling of ‘hate speech’ for saying it, but most Americans agree with the Harry Potter author that there are only two genders,” the report said. (“Most Americans Don’t Trust Teachers, Schools With Children’s Gender Identity: Survey,” by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times, ZeroHedge, December 30, 2021)

Despite the encouraging survey result mentioned here, I must say I can’t match Mr. Dobbs’ optimism. I believe that the year 2022 finds this generation in America and on the earth too far into the reprobate mindset of Romans 1: 28. Rather than seeing a great move within our churches and among our pastors to begin rectifying the cultural rot through turning to God in all the Heaven-prescribed ways, the church as a whole looks the other way to different priorities. The evil and wickedness manifest through this thing called woke run rampant. Our God, through Isaiah the prophet, put it this way.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! (Isaiah 5:20–21)

This condition of seemingly incorrigible corruption as we face 2022 seems to match Jesus’ words about His sudden intervention into the affairs of mankind, when things will be like they were in the days of Noah, and again in the days of Lot.

It is incumbent upon each Christian who reads this to seriously consider whether we are woke or awake. There might not be a Great Awakening taking place as secular pundits such as Mr. Dobbs and some religious personages apparently believe. As a matter of fact, I’m convinced there is no such movement coming. But it is time for each Christian to awaken to the fact that Christ’s Second Advent is blazing across the prophetic horizon.

First there must come a time of horror such as has never been or will ever be—according to Jesus Himself. That is the reality facing all of humanity–with the exception of those in God’s family.

It is time to be awake to how near is Christ’s call to His own in the air above this judgment-bound planet. This individual awakening should inspire each of us to do our utmost for His highest, as Oswald Chambers put it.

What a glorious eternal day it will be to hear our Lord and Savior say, “Well done, good, faithful, servant!”

Twenty something years ago, Pat Robertson was on his network, Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). I remember him saying in an almost amused, mocking tone that there would be no Rapture of the church. He declared that if that were to happen, it would completely disrupt all of the human condition across the world.

Planes would be crashing, cars would be wrecking, trains would run wild, and destruction of every sort would take place in such a moment. That’s not going to happen, he said. There will be no Rapture. He implied rather that there will be a “rupture” of all culture and society across the world. The Tribulation would be the implosion that wrecks everything, rather than the explosion a so-called Rapture would cause.

I remember distinctly Pat talking with his then co-host Sheila Walsh, the Scottish Christian broadcaster. As a side note, I presume Sheila has since moved on from agreeing with Mr. Robertson and his dismissing the pre-Trib Rapture “theory,” as he called it. I’ve heard her just within the past year on air with Dr. David Jeremiah, who teaches solidly on the pre-Trib Rapture of the church. She seemed to agree totally with all he said on the prophetic topic.

Over the years, there has been banter coming from those who adamantly hold that the pre-Trib Rapture is a myth. These sometimes use the word “rupture” to sneer at the idea of a Rapture, which we believe is Bible truth as taught by the Apostle Paul—and, by the way, by the Lord Jesus as well. He said the following as recorded by the Apostle John.

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

In these words of the Lord we are told, I’m convinced, the same as the Apostle Paul foretells.

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 4:16–17)

For all the fun-making against pre-Trib Rapture and those of us who believe it to be the next catastrophic intervention by Christ into human affairs, they can’t erase these powerful promises. That is, they can’t without spiritualizing and allegorizing as they make their case. They have to conclude that neither Jesus nor Paul meant what they said in a literal sense.

There is, however, a biblically prophetic passage that speaks, I believe, of a rupture. It is a key prophecy that will take place immediately after the Rapture of the Church. As a matter of fact, we’ve seen this rupture beginning for some time. It will be the tear in the fabric of this world system that will rip civilization the way Mr. Robertson once feared.

The prophet Zechariah forewarned of this coming rupture.

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)  

The prophet is saying here that when the world takes on Jerusalem and Israel–God’s chosen city and nation—it will be a load too heavy to lift. They will be injured severely, or ruptured, in their attempt to remove the city and nation from being in the place where God put them.

We’ve seen almost daily leaders from countries surrounding modern Israel declaring they will destroy the tiny Jewish state. Those such as Nasser and Sadat have tried to do so. Israel not only remains, but is now in a stronger position than ever, even though constantly threatened.

Antichrist and his juggernaut will finally manage to invade Israel, following all of Israel’s surrounding enemies being destroyed in the Gog-Magog attack of Ezekiel 38 and 39.  But the man of sin will, too, be severely injured and ultimately bound in chains and removed to eternal punishment. Israel will become the chief nation of the entire world during the Millennium—Christ’s thousand-year reign on planet earth.

Thankfully, all who accept Christ now, this side of the Rapture, will not endure the rupture the whole world will suffer when God again begins dealing with His chosen people, the Jews.

Here again is how to avoid being part of that future injury—that rupture—that will condemn the soul to eternity apart from God.

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

When Hal Lindsey’s book, The Late, Great, Planet Earth, was released in May of 1970, the information startled even more than informed those who read it. People by the millions were suddenly given biblical teaching they, except for very few among them, had never heard.

Bible prophecy was presented as relevant in such a way as to make clear where the world stood in history and where it was headed. The results were a spiritual awakening for many.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard people say that they were saved as a result of reading Hal’s book. I agree with the encapsulating description promoting the book:

The Late Great Planet Earth cannot be overstated. The New York Times called it the “no. 1 non-fiction bestseller of the decade.” For Christians and non-Christians of the 1970s, Hal Lindsey’s blockbuster served as a wake-up call on events soon to come and events already unfolding—all leading up to the greatest event of all: the return of Jesus Christ.

The book was—as they say—cutting edge. It did indeed give some current events as viewed through the template of Bible prophecy.

For example, Lindsey and his coauthor C. C. Carlson wrote about how the region of Russia and surrounding USSR states were likely the nucleus of the Gog-Magog force that would, according to the prophet Ezekiel, attack Israel from the north. They detailed the development of the European Union and how it was likely destined to morph into the final Antichrist kingdom as given by Daniel the prophet.

Again, current events and issues of that time in the 1970s were shaping along the lines of God’s Word with regard to prophecy for the end of the age.

Lindsey pointed out many other facets that gave evidence that Christ would soon call the Church into His Presence. This would be the Rapture.

Some accused him of date-setting in that he implied 1988 might be the year of the Rapture or of some calamitous occurrence in earth’s history—based upon Israel having been reborn as a nation in the year 1948.

I don’t find anywhere that Lindsey actually predicted the Rapture, but only that he offered supposition—again, based upon the Bible giving the number of years as forty for a generation. The Lord saying that “this generation shall not pass until all these things are fulfilled” and Israel’s rebirth into modernity being 1948 was offered as the basis for this thought.

Yet, with the ground-breaking evidence he saw through issues and events of the time, viewed through the prism of Bible prophecy, planet earth continued. It did not become the Late, Great, Planet Earth.

So we come to the year looming before us. The year 2022.

We might wonder how can we possibly truly look at the horizon of humanity and proclaim “Happy New Year!” The issues and events faced by humanity during the 1960s and 1970s were daunting in many ways for America and the world. However, those that confront humanity at this time as we begin 2022 are formidable indeed.

Of course, like most folks around at the time of Lindsey’s book release, the masses of humanity are looking in other directions than at the horizon they, in actuality, are facing. This is the case, even though the issues and events of our time far exceed the virulence of the Cold War, oil crises, and the free-love generation.

Not only are the issues and events of these troubled times more ominous in many respects, but they point almost certainly at the coming Tribulation—Daniel’s seventieth week and the year 2022.

Let’s consider but a few as we peer into what the current occupant of the White House once termed “a dark winter.”

Israel

If Israel was a central indicator of the lateness of the prophetic hour in the time of The Late, Great, Planet, Earth’s release, that nation and people are in an intensifying diplomatic spotlight at this hour. It is swiftly becoming the “burdensome stone” of Zechariah chapter 12.

Fear of Israel striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, for example, engenders great concern from the global puppet masters—the UN, etc.

Russia, Iran, Turkey

These nation-state entities represent the heart of the Gog-Magog attack. They are coalescing above Israel in the precise configuration Ezekiel prophesied.

China

The CPC is preparing the Chinese people for something dramatic. They are increasing China’s hegemony over the other regions of Asia. This is shaping for the moment they and other “kings of the east” will kill a third of the earth’s population.

New World Order

The globalists, who in my view are the human minions in consort with the demonic minions of Ephesians 6:12, are preparing the way for Antichrist’s 666 dictatorship.

COVID has served as a tool of gathering control over the entire planet. Vaccine and mask mandates are making lemmings out of people across the globe. The devil’s blueprint for enslaving the planet at some point in the not-too-distant future is well into the construction stage.

Economic tyranny is driving the richest nation to ever exist on the planet toward collapse, with trillions of dollars printed out of whole cloth—nothing to back those dollars. Complete collapse is inevitable.

Culture and Society

The culture isn’t just coarsening, it is corroding and corrupting at a pace the folks of the 1960s and 1970s, despite the sensual evil of that time, could not have fathomed.

This era’s beastly, cultural minions are doing such things as insisting that children age 5 and younger be given hormonal and other treatments in order to change their genders.

They are having perverts teach grade schoolers and younger sexual activities and deviancy that people of the 1960s and 1970s would have deemed worthy of public hanging for the perpetrators.

Apostasy

Even Catholics are appalled at the pope’s antics in these times.

He condones homosexuality; he says Christ is not the only way to salvation; he makes nice in trying to bring all religions together—a thing Bible prophecy tells us will be central to Antichrist and his system of world control.

Yet with all this and much more wickedness developing, I can say “Happy New Year!”

That’s because the Lord Jesus Christ is still sitting at the right side of God the Heavenly Father. The Father is about to say to the Son, “Go get my children.”

I can assure this, because all of the signals are in place that point to the Tribulation and Christ’s Second Advent.

Unlike in the time of Hal’s release of his book, they are all in place. That is a happy prospect indeed for 2022!

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)

Significant proof of advanced end-times prophetic progression recently leaped to the forefront of communications coming from some within the Roman Catholic Church.

I have mentioned before that I receive on a regular basis a newsletter from These Last Days Ministries, a Catholic group. It is especially interesting to me because those presenting the news and commentary do so from a viewpoint remarkably like that of us who hold to the pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy.

To put it mildly, they are no fan of the current pope. As a matter of fact, they have even communicated several times that they see him as a candidate for the false prophet, the second beast of Revelation chapter 13. With Pope Francis’ latest action, he brings to the forefront, for those willing to see, that he is deserving of such accusation. His action is Antichrist—anti-biblical—at its very core.

The pontiff is a supporter of abortion. He recently publicly gave President Biden and, in effect, the entirety of the Democrat Party, a blanket pass on the killing of babies in the womb—a matter long seen as great sin by the Roman Catholic Church.

We have written before this pope’s predisposition to support things that portend Antichrist’s arrival.

He has said on more than several occasions that there are ways to God, Heaven, and salvation of the soul other than through belief in Jesus Christ alone. He has backed up those political minions in high places within the Catholic Church, giving them a pass on the murder of millions of babies through abortion. He has embraced at every opportunity the climate-change madness and the worship of Mother Earth and the Gaia mantra that we must all come together to save the planet.

He joins the totally reprobate purveyors of insanity who demand that all must either submit to an experimental, highly questionable injection or be excluded from the formerly normal activities of the compliant human community.

Now Pope Francis has moved into the area of anti-God activity that Jesus, Himself, indicated will mark the moments leading up to His intervention into human history. The pope has sanctioned homosexuality in no uncertain terms and those in the Catholic Church who know this is anti-God at its black heart are pushing back.

The word “sanction,” like so many English words, has more than one meaning. It can mean a prohibition against or a punishment for defying or violating a regulated matter (for example, when the US sanctions Iran for not abiding by agreements on atomic weapons development). But the use of the word in the sense that it means to approve or accept an action or conduct is how this pope has “sanctioned” homosexuality, despite God calling it “abomination.”

And this is the gist of the newsletter I recently received from the Catholic group that I mentioned earlier.    

Following is an excerpt that explains their displeasure with this pope’s action.

Francis has written to pro-LGBT New Ways Ministry, praising and thanking the group and its founders, despite its long-standing opposition to Church teaching on matters of sexual morality and consequent censorship by Church authorities.

On December 8, the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) revealed that Pope Francis wrote two letters to the group’s executive director, Francis Deeryard, on May 3 and June 17. The NCR stated that the letters were on official “Vatican stationary,” and written in Spanish.

The first letter, dated May 3, was in response to an April 21 letter DeBernardo had written to the Pope, explaining the nature of the pro-homosexual New Ways Ministry (NWM). The organization claims it “educates and advocates for justice and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Catholics, and reconciliation within the larger church and civil communities.”

According to NCR, Francis wrote of a discernible “attitude of shepherd closeness” in NWM, saying that DeBernardo’s letter had “helped me a lot to know the full story you tell me…”…

The second letter from the Pope to DeBernardo – a long-time advocate of homosexuality, and a 29-year veteran with New Ways Ministry – again praised the NWM head while also honoring NWM’s co-founder Sr. Jeannine Gramick.

“Thank you for your neighborly work…[your] heart, open to your neighbor,” wrote the Pope, before praising Gramick, who has a long history of dissenting from Catholic teaching on homosexuality and abortion…

“The Holy Father’s warm letter to New Ways Ministry is not only another step in his outreach to LGBTQ people, but the beginning of a kind of rehabilitation for New Ways, and for Sister Jeannine [NWM’s co-founder Sr. Jeannine Gramick] as well, in recognition of their important ministry in our church.” (“Francis Praises Dissident Pro-LGBT ‘Catholic’ Group Previously Condemned by the Church,” by Michael Haynes, LifeSiteNews, December 9, 2021)

We are now well into times “as it was in the days of Lot” in the wicked city of Sodom, as the Lord Jesus forewarned (Luke 17:26–30). Homosexuality and all forms of sexual perversions marked that time. The “falling away” of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 is manifest starkly for all who can discern the lateness of the prophetic hour.

It’s time to “watch” (Mark 13: 37), but it is even more imperative that believers witness as never before to bring lost souls to Christ before the shout is heard from above, “Come up here!”

“And when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21: 28)