While we sense the powers and principalities at their nefarious work just beneath the surface of what we can see, the prophetic specter of one of human history’s most catastrophic wars emerges. I refer to the Gog-Magog war of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, which, of course, we’ve looked at many times in these commentaries.

Stage-setting for the final act of the age is taking place at a blistering pace. The drive to completely erase God from the minds of earth’s inhabitants and replace Heaven’s governance with man-centered authority is full-speed ahead. A borderless world suited for the one-world order longed for by both the human and spiritual echelons in high places is no longer a surreptitious goal. The minions are out in full force, trying, in a major step, to bring America down so as to form a more perfect union, in the eyes of those globalist entities. It will ultimately become a hellish order that God promises to deal with in the most bitter, harshest terms as outlined in Psalm 2.

It’s obvious that the consummation of the end of this Church Age (Age of Grace) is near.

Not even in the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 has American liberty been so affected. World War I and all other activities in that pandemic, which was tremendously worse in terms of numbers of deaths than COVID-19, didn’t bring about a complete national shutdown. The minions in high places have used this so-called pandemic to forge their construction for Antichrist’s soon-to-come launching platform.

Two nations prophesied to be key in the assault are increasingly in the news. Prophetic overtones cannot be missed when analyzed by those who serve as watchmen on the wall.

Meantime, the Middle East is seething with the rise of evil that is barely restrained from bursting forth in one of earth’s final, major conflicts. Spectral foreshadows presaging the Gog-Magog attack from Israel’s north are darkening the region’s geopolitical horizon by the day. We will look at a couple of nations in current news that, in part, comprise Ezekiel’s Gog-Magog force that will assault God’s chosen people of Israel.

We begin with Turkey, which was within the region in ancient times known as Togarmah. The nation is one of three major countries scheduled to assault Israel in a coalition led by Rosh—or Russia, as most scholars conclude.

It is most interesting that this nation is sounding off on its plans for Jerusalem, and for the Temple Mount in particular.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to “liberate al-Aqsa mosque” from Israel after “resurrecting Hagia Sophia” as a mosque on Friday.

The decision to change the status of the ancient Hagia Sophia church, which had been transformed into a mosque in 1453 and then into a museum in 1934, was made controversially last week…

The resurrection of Hagia Sophia heralds the liberation of the al-Aqsa mosque, the Turkish Presidency website says. “The resurrection of Hagia Sophia is the footsteps of the will of Muslims across the world to come… the resurrection of Hagia Sophia is the reignition of the fire of hope of Muslims and all oppressed, wrong, downtrodden and exploited.” (Seth J. Frantzman, “Turkey Vows to ‘liberate Al-Aqsa’ after Turning Hagia Sophia to Mosque,” Jerusalem Post, July 11, 2020)

An even more key nation scheduled to attack Israel in the Gog-Magog assault is front and center in the news. We have covered a number of times the prophecy that the ancient area of Persia called Elam will suffer a catastrophe of some kind. We, along with others who study the prophecy, believe it will be a nuclear problem of some sort. People will, apparently, be forced to flee the area because of the disaster.

That mountainous area in Iran is thought to contain Iran’s nuclear development facilities. Strange things have been going on there recently.

Iran is facing a total intelligence breakdown.

With another explosion on Thursday night, reportedly at an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps facility, the question is not only how anyone has pulled off up to seven attacks in around two weeks, but how has the Islamic Republic repeatedly failed to stop them…

What the world is witnessing right now is someone – the United States, Israel or Saudi Arabia, possibly with Iranian dissident proxy help – hitting Iranian nuclear and conventional weapons and IRGC facilities practically at will. And they are doing it in a way that has virtually never been witnessed in recent memory…

The questions remaining then, are how long these attacks can continue and whether Iran can cope with them or try to make some sort of secret contact to cut a deal to get them stopped.

If it does not, the message from whoever is making this happen is clear: Continued aggressive actions on nuclear and other fronts will lead to consequences that the ayatollahs had never imagined. (Yonah Jeremy Bob, “What the World Is Witnessing Right Now Is Someone Hitting Iranian Nuclear and Conventional Weapons and IRGC Facilities Practically at Will,” Jerusalem Post, July 11, 2020)

Hatred of Israel by these and other diabolist states of the Middle East are raising the specter of the Gog-Magog war a visible, looming certainty. We believe the Rapture will immediately precede that attack—the next-to-very-last war before Christ’s return at Armageddon.

These commentaries have mentioned before Satan’s sleight-of-hand in diverting attention from what’s really going on, like in the old shell game called thimblerig.

The pea is placed under the one of three shells and the player is invited to guess which shell the pea is under after the shells are shuffled. The shuffling increases in speed, and soon the human eye can’t follow the movement to keep up with the shell concealing the pea.

In most cases, the player ends up the loser after betting on being able to pick the correct shell.

Like in the matter of globalist activity, where Satan and the demonic and human minions hide their true efforts to bring in their changed world order (with distractions of such activities as those of the cancel culture), the evil one diverts attention from things involving the number-one sign of these end times. He, for example, foments revolution within this nation and others of the Western world.

All the while, the nation Israel and the entire Middle East region are being rearranged, setting the stage for the great, end-times play that will see the triumphant return of Christ.

The devil, in his sin delusion, believes he is orchestrating the demise of God’s chosen people. But it is the Lord who is the master director. His omniscient hand has already written the prophetic script that will soon unfold.

So wise observers should keep their eye—their spiritual senses—on what’s happening that involves Israel. We must do this despite all of the other troubling distractions that otherwise plague us.

And there is more than enough going on in Israel and vicinity to keep us transfixed.

For example, Israel is at the center of accusations that Iran’s nuclear program has suffered yet another setback. The following explains:

Kuwait’s Al-Jarida newspaper on Friday reported that Israel was responsible for a Thursday “accident” at an Iranian nuclear facility in Natanz.

It is believed that the Natanz facility is used to enrich uranium.

According to the Al-Jarida report, the explosion was caused by an “Israeli cyber attack” which targeted the computers which control the pressure gauges inside gas containers. Tehran has allegedly lost 80% of the uranium hexafluoride gas it needs in order to enrich uranium.

The report also claimed that Israel is responsible for the Parchin blast which occurred last week.

On Thursday, Iran’s state news agency IRNA published an editorial warning that “if there are signs of hostile countries crossing Iran’s red lines in any way, especially the Zionist regime (Israel) and the United States, Iran’s strategy to confront the new situation must be fundamentally reconsidered.” (“Natanz ‘Accident’ Was Israel’s Fault,” Middle East/Israel National News, Reuters, July 3, 2020)

Iran, ancient Persia, is prophesied by Ezekiel the prophet to one day help lead a coalition to assault Israel in the Gog-Magog battle. Israel, as well as President Donald Trump for the US, has vowed Iran will never achieve development of a nuclear weapon.

The mountains of the area known in Bible times as Elam is where much of Iran’s nuclear program is hidden. Those mountains are prophesied to suffer some sort of catastrophic event. So, it is prudent to keep our eyes on this volatile region.

The entire international community, including Israel’s future attackers—Russia, Iran, Turkey, and others—are in a froth over Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to annex parts of the Jordanian valley. It’s especially interesting that Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church has weighed in on the annexation plan. The following story frames the matter:

The Vatican, in a highly unusual move, summoned both the US and Israeli ambassadors to express the Holy See’s concern about Israel’s moves to extend its sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank.

A Vatican statement on Wednesday said meetings with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, and US Ambassador Callista Gingrich and Israeli Ambassador Oren David, took place on Tuesday.

A senior diplomatic source told Reuters that Parolin met the two envoys separately, a detail which was not clear in the Vatican statement.

It said Parolin, the Vatican’s top diplomat, expressed “the concern of the Holy See regarding possible unilateral actions that may further jeopardize the search for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the delicate situation in the Middle East.”

Israeli leaders decided in May that cabinet and parliamentary deliberations on extending Israeli sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, in coordination with Washington, could begin as of July 1.

But with no agreement with Washington yet on the modalities of the move under a peace proposal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump in January, and talks with the White House still underway, no cabinet session was scheduled for Wednesday.

The Vatican statement reiterated its position in support of a two state solution, saying “Israel and the State of Palestine have the right to exist and to live in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders.” (“Vatican Summons US, Israeli Envoys over Annexation Moves,” Reuters, July 2, 2020)

Pressures are building to produce a two-state solution to what the world of diplomacy sees as a Jewish problem.

Just like in Hitler’s demented mind, the globalist mindset, infected by luciferian insanity, is to blame Israel for all potential threats of war in the region. The anger against the Jewish state and the Jewish people of the world will get much worse, according to Zechariah 12:1–3.

Keep your eye on Israel, no matter what else is going on.

The admission must be made up front in this commentary. As an American who has just celebrated Independence Day, I can barely contain the anger that builds within. It will be a fight with my sin nature to keep that rage contained as I write.

I recently heard one of the two presumptive presidential candidates for this year’s presidential election say, “I will do all within my power if elected president to mandate that everyone wears a mask at all times when in public.”

Being blind, I can no longer see, of course, but if I could, my vision would no doubt have reddened with blood-pressure elevation upon hearing that declaration.

Dear people, the statement is but a tiny example of the degree of attempted controls that will be forthcoming if this candidate or a candidate they choose to take his place wins in November.

At stake is whether we will suffer implementation of governmental dictatorship the founding fathers worked so hard to assure never come to pass.

We have seen recently how issuance of executive orders is dealt with by the entrenched powers that be –the judges and their panels who are more and more exerting god-like authority. I refer your memory to the current president issuing an executive order to do away with the previous president’s executive order in the matter of the so-called “dreamers” –the children of illegal immigrants.

Mr. Trump wants policy that restores the right to control illegal immigration. This he wants in order to provide security within the homeland and to assure that jobs for citizens of this nation not be taken by those who are here illegally. Within his executive order were safeguards against inflicting undue hardships on the young, illegal residents whose parents brought them here through no fault of their own.

The judges who ruled in an unprecedented –some say unconstitutional– way on the executive order said the president can’t change the executive order of the previous president. So its okay for President Obama to issue the executive order allowing illegals to come and overwhelm the jobs market and even endanger all of us through increased criminal activity with their numbers, but it is not okay for President Trump to issue an executive order that makes sure jobs for American citizens rather than for illegals are preserved.

This is the way the entrenched D.C. judicial system works. They exert a quasi-judicial prerogative at best, and in my opinion, an illegitimate one.

So, if President Trump loses in November and the new president –a D.C. swamp creature of the first order– as he has declared, issues and executive order that we all will wear masks from now on while in public, I, at least, have no doubt, we will be wearing masks or will face fines and jail time.

That same entrenched D.C. agglomerate evil has shown their intention to control us at every level. In being specific, I will stay within our theme surrounding the subject of masks.

The nation has for the past 4 years, and even previous to that, gone through the anti-constitutional process of enduring an attempted Coup d’état. One early step in that attempted coup was the unmasking of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. The intelligence community, with the almost certain knowledge and orders of President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden , set General Flynn up through FBI agents. Flynn, in order to avoid his son being dragged into the illegal prosecutorial action, pleaded guilty to a lesser process crime. It was a technicality concocted and perpetrated by the so-called deep state.

The unmasking in order to pursue criminally charging the General was done through now proven to be unjustified FISA warrants. –I.e., warrants in order to engage in surveillance on Flynn that had no legal basis.

It is thought by Gen. Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell and by most who truly understand the evil done to the general that this was done in order to try to get Flynn –the incoming national security advisor—to flip on the new president. That is, the frame-up was perpetrated in order to have Flynn give false information on Trump so a case for impeachment could be built. Another reason for the frame-up of Flynn, according to Ms. Powell and others, including Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, was to get rid of Flynn because he would have been in position as national security advisor to get to the bottom of the coup attempt the intelligence services were conducting. He had to go, as the saying goes.

With all that has gone on –and we have been subjected to this wickedness by the minions –both human and demonic—in high places for almost 5 years– is there any doubt that there are nefarious reasons behind their wanting us to wear masks? –Reasons far beyond the COVID-19 matter?

Americans are being frightened into believing that a virus that nowhere near exceeds annual flu statistics in terms of numbers of deaths makes it mandatory that we follow government dictates that rob us of our civil liberties one incremental step at a time. And make no mistake, this is why the same cabal that has attempted this Coup d’état wants the American public dumped down and made to follow orders like lemmings so this nation can be brought into the globalist order they are determined to establish.

It is actually Satan –the father of lies­—who is behind the machinations we are witnessing.

So, James, you are a Bible prophecy pundit, some would accuse. Why are you so into the politics of all this? Believe me, I would rather veg-out, as they say and drink my coffee and “watch” WW II documentaries –which I love to do. This, and ignore what his coming upon this world at such a pace it is hard to keep track.

However, you can’t achieve obtaining transparency with blinders on –or while wearing a mask that enslaves. The Christian in these prophetic times should put down the coffee and romance movies –and even the documentaries and other entertainments—and watch, as the Lord Instructed (Mark 13: 37).

Blind physically though I am, I can see that the same evil that would do anything, including breaking the law by ignoring the Constitution, thus framing a battle-honored, highly-decorated soldier like Gen. Flynn, will go along, without hesitation, with enslaving us all. The same evil operatives that brought us the Coup d’état Hoax are of the same ilk that would dictate that we will wear masks because of an enormously exaggerated virus. This lawless ideology will use –and is currently using, in my view—the anarchy, arson, tearing down of America, and yes, even the so-called Coronavirus pandemic, in order to establish the absolute power they crave over a formerly constitutionally-protected people.

Bible prophecy is the unmasking of this evil. God, Himself, has ripped the mask from Satan’s plot –for example, in Psalms chapter 2 and throughout chapters of Daniel and Revelation. God has Given True Transparency into the matters we are facing in these upcoming hours so near the end of this quickly fleeting age.

The more that is revealed through observing these times, the greater the comfort Christians can take from God’s Prophetic Word.

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thes 4: 16-18)

We’re well past April 15 and tax time, which was delayed this year because of COVID-19. However, time to assess came. It always does. Two things are inevitable in life, the saying goes—death and taxes.

However, these aren’t inevitable in terms of believers in Jesus Christ. In the case of death, not all Christians will experience it. In the case of taxes, there is a generation of believers that could miss paying them. In both cases of death and taxes, it depends upon the Rapture.

Christians will leave the planet in an instant, being changed while alive into immortal bodies. And, if that glorious event occurs before the due tax date, they will avoid having to file tax information. Two good reasons for making sure you go in the Rapture, wouldn’t you agree?

It would be a welcome thing to not be required to deal with how much we owe Uncle Sam. I make the jest in order to lead into another sort of assessment that must be made. It is best to make it now rather than later. It, again, is wrapped up in the Rapture.

The thrilling moment when Christ calls the believer in the air, there will be an assessment. Everything done during life on earth will be looked into by the Lord Jesus Himself. There will be no mistakes in His heavenly audit.

Now this is where Christians become nervous. Will everything I’ve done be flashed upon a Jumbotron screen—the good, the bad, and the ugly?

Take comfort: Nothing bad or ugly will be on that heavenly display, as I believe the Bible teaches. Only the good things done in this life will remain on that screen.

All sin, you see, has already been dealt with by the Savior—the Lamb of God, when He hung upon that old rugged cross at Calvary. He forever did away with our sin when He said: “It is finished” and gave up His life, commending His Spirit into the hands of the Heavenly Father. The bad and the ugly were forever forgotten at that moment—that is, for those who accept Christ’s sacrifice that day some two thousand years ago.

The assessment that will be made when we stand—probably kneel—before our Lord at the bema seat judgment will involve works we have done on earth that are outside consideration of sin, which, as noted, was forever forgotten at the cross for the believer.

Motive is what will be assessed at this eternal moment.

Now, we might experience a minute of regret that we didn’t do more for our Lord. There is debate among theologians about that matter.

The Lord—the perfect Auditor—will assess whether what we did in this life with regard to certain heavenly parameters was to please Him or to satisfy our own desires.

Now, I realize that this brings up many more questions than it answers. It seems simple enough on the surface. Good works will receive rewards—even crowns. All works not done with proper motive will be burned by Heaven’s fire of righteousness in some way, as I understand what the Bible tells us.

But, this whole matter of the judgment seat of Christ—the bema—warrants an in-depth study in order to come anywhere close to comprehending this magnificent moment of assessment by the God of creation.

An upside to this heavenly assessment, as juxtaposed against hanging around planet earth to pay our April 15 confiscatory taxes to Uncle Sam, includes that, rather than have to pay, we will be paid for services rendered to Heaven’s great causes.

The constant thought near the front of our considerations while living our increments of life should be that this assessment could take place following the next click of the second hand, or our next heartbeat. Once the Rapture calls us to be with our Lord or death does so, our time to earn heavenly rewards will be a closed matter. The time for doing what we do here in genuinely wanting to please God will close, and we will look into the omniscient eyes of our Savior.

As I indicated, the matter of the bema judgment is not simple. It warrants study. Fortunately, God’s Word provides much to teach all we need to know about this subject.

Looking through my computer files is what prompted me to think on this matter. However, I believe the Holy Spirit did the true prompting in impressing that it’s time to assess. The file I found gives a good, solid study outline for this assessment.

I might have put this together some years ago myself, I’m not sure. But I believe it is rather from Dr. Harold Wilmington, a great teacher and Bible scholar at Liberty University.

Carefully go through these scriptural truths to more fully understand that coming assessment of your life before the bema.

Things on which Christians will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ:

1. How we treat other believers—Hebrews 6:10; Matthew 10:41–42.

2. How we exercise our authority over others—Hebrews 13:17; James 3: 1.

3. How we employ our God-given abilities—1 Corinthians 12:4, 12; 2 Timothy 1:6; 1 Peter 4: 10.

Add to these Scriptures Jesus’ teaching of the Parables of the ten pounds (Luke 19:11–6) and the talents (Matthew 25:14–29).

Each believer has at least one talent—1 Corinthians 7: 7, 12:7–11; Ephesians 4:7; 1 Peter 4:10.

There are 18 of these gifts—Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4.

It’s up to each believer to find/discern his or her gifts.

4. How we use our money—1 Corinthians 60:2; 2 Corinthians 9:6–7; 1 Timothy 6:17–19.

All belongs to God—1 Peter 18–19.

5. How we spend our time—Psalm 90:12; Ephesians 5:16; Colossians 4:5; 1 Peter 1:17.

6. How much we suffer for Jesus—Matthew 5:11–12; Mark 10:29–30; Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 4:17; 1 Peter        4:12–13.

7. How we run the particular race God has chosen for us—1 Corinthians 9:24; Philippians 2:16, 3:13–14;                  Hebrews 12:1.

8. How effectively we control the old nature—1 Corinthians 9:25–27. Greek word adokimos, “castaway,” means      “disapproved.” It means self is disapproved. Paul wanted to keep his old nature in check, as seen in 2                  Timothy 2:15; 1 Corinthians 16:3; Philippians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:4.

9. How many souls we witness to, and win to Christ—Proverbs 11:30; Daniel 12:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20.

10. How we react to temptation—James 1:2–3; Revelation 3:10.

11. How much the doctrine of the Rapture means to us—2 Timothy 4:8.

12. How faithful we are to the Word of God and the flock of God—Acts 20:26–28; 2 Timothy 4:1–2; 1 Peter 5:2–        4.

What will be the results of the judgment seat of Christ?

Some will receive rewards—1 Corinthians 3:14

Bible mentions at least five rewards:

• The incorruptible crown, given to those who master the old nature—1 Corinthians 9:25–27
• The crown of rejoicing given to soul winners—Proverbs 11:30; Daniel 12:31; Thessalonians 2:19–20.
• The crown of life, given to those who successfully endure temptation—James 1:2–3; Revelation 2:10.
• The crown of righteousness for those who especially love the doctrine of the Rapture—2 Timothy 4:8.
• The crown of glory, given to faithful preachers and teachers—Acts 20:26–28; 2 Timothy 4:1–2; 1 Peter 5:2–4.

Looking around at the stage-setting for prophetic fulfillment that is moving in convergence and at a pace that is stunning, it is certainly time to assess!

America stands at the center of all the strangeness that has enveloped this moment in history. There is no other way to say it that fits the circumstance in which we find ourselves. At least there is no way to say it that I, myself, can offer.

This is what is meant by the title of the commentary.

It is true that the COVID-19 pandemic affects the entire world of humanity, not just the US. It is true that there is economic turmoil not just here, but in every nation on earth. It is true that there is violence based upon racial strife breaking out in major cities around the world, not just in America. But all of these things seem to center in and around, and stem from, this nation.

Perhaps it is just a matter of perspective. Maybe its nationalistic myopia from which I suffer in considering all we are enduring. But I don’t think so.

America, as we have looked at many times, is the holdup to the globalist agenda hatched in the high places of wickedness by the powers and principalities, both human and demonic. My thoughts are stronger than ever in this regard in considering things from our America-centric prophetic perspective.

The most crucial presidential election yet, in my opinion, looms just ahead. One cannot just sense, but see—through minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour actions by the enraged—assaults from every angle against America as founded that the above perspective is the right vantage from which to draw conclusions.

It is the right perspective, not in the geopolitical sense of “right” vs “left,” but the right perspective from the standpoint of what the Bible says about what is coming.

And what is coming is a regime so different from what we have known that it is unimaginable that it could ever happen in the minds of average Americans. It will be a regime that will produce, as Jesus put it, a time of tribulation “such as never was, nor will ever be.” It will be a beast regime—that of the man who will be Antichrist.

The question we who teach, preach, and write about Bible prophecy get practically every time there is a forum for questions and answers is something like: “What about America—is it in Bible prophecy?”

The answer is “No, America isn’t mentioned by name in Bible prophecy.” But, it is always appropriate to follow up with: “However, America is certainly in prophecy in the sense of being among the nations foretold to influence the course of human history while the end of the age approaches and the Tribulation looms.” We can say that, because here we are, right in the mix of things moving the world toward the climax of human history.  And, are they ever moving!

With this nation at the black heart of all the satanically inspired rage, hatred, and determination to bring America down so globalist plans can proceed, I can’t accept that I’m being America-centric unnecessarily. This nation is in the middle of a war, an end-times war in which I believe the Lord Himself intervened miraculously in the 2016 presidential election.

I have no answers to the war’s outcome in the short term. We do know that the globalists will get their “New World Order” at some point. But for now, the battle rages, and the very fact that it does is most encouraging. God is still in the middle of the fight, and there is no better side to be on than that of the omnipotent Creator of all things.  

America, A Golden Cup

Again, is the name “America” given anywhere in Scripture? Of course not. But, the influence this nation has exerted since coming to its full bloom as earth’s greatest superpower in history makes it a prophetic nation. The Creator of all things continues to use America in His mighty hand to accomplish two very distinctive, supernatural purposes. As a matter of fact, the United States, in my view, has an overwhelming presence in Bible prophecy.

Its place is at the very heart of the end times things we see developing—matters we see unfolding in daily, even hourly, news reports. In this sense, I believe God is speaking of America—in type, if not by name, when His Word tells us the following:

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

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

Some nations of Europe were formative in bringing forth Christianity into the world, thus shedding a degree of gospel light into a world of sin-darkness. But it is America that, despite its great shortcomings and more recent degeneration, has been a shining beacon, reflecting from that golden cup in God’s hand.

Being the first nation in spreading to the whole world the gospel message that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross makes possible the only way to redemption for lost mankind is a feat no other country can claim. This, ultimately, has been done not by the offices, or under the auspices of American ingenuity, but by the omniscience and the omnipotence of the One holding the “golden cup.”

It is God’s grace and mercy that has put America as a beacon of God’s light upon that mountain of gospel dissemination. God’s providence gave this nation the industrial and technological genius—a fact that is denied, or that is so taken for granted today.

Israel the Real Target

No matter the other exigencies of the hour, it is Israel that is the true target of Satan and his minions in the high places of Ephesians 6: 12. The violent organization Black Lives Matter, despite the media trying to make it look like a force for righteousness in correcting past wrongs, is an anti-Semitic evil based upon so-called liberation theology. We heard the thrust of that theology when Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s pastor in Chicago, told God to God D**** America before the presidential election of 2008.

It is Israel that Satan is aiming at, ultimately. Bible prophecy culminates first with Antichrist declaring himself God in the temple in Jerusalem. He next leads an attack on Jerusalem when he is let out of the bottomless pit at the end of the millennial reign of Christ.

Israel, America’s Saving Grace

This brings us to America’s second reason for existence—toward the purpose of accomplishing God’s great prophetic plan. In my view, this use of the phenomenally powerful American nation is among the most profound indicators we can find that America, indeed, is in prophecy. And, I believe that our nation being in prophecy includes God using it to be midwife in Israel’s modern birth into the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob those thousands of years ago.

President Donald J. Trump has been a friend to Israel like no president since Harry S. Truman. This was a stark change from the anger and disrespect with which the Obama administration treated God’s chosen nation.

Genesis 12:1–3 is still in effect. I have to believe that this counts significantly in God’s great economy for explaining why both Mr. Trump and America continue to survive the most horrendous spiritual/supernatural assault yet endured on an American president and this nation.

So, all things considered, it is permitted to be America-centric in the matter of peering into Bible prophecy on the immediate horizon, I am convinced. Continue to pray the prayer of 2 Chronicles 7:14 and to hold fast to Titus 2:13 and Luke 21:28. Our redemption is drawing near.

I remember as a teenager my dad telling me that Papa (his father, whom we grandchildren called “Daddy James”) said that one day there would be a great racial war in America. My grandfather, who was, among many other things, a school teacher and Pentecostal preacher in south Arkansas, apparently was well known in the region and was sought out for his opinion and advice by politicians and many others. His assessment was that the treatment being given black people would one day come back to haunt the nation.

I heard the story many times from my father and from others within our family on the James side. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the memories of those stories at age fifteen, even during the 1957 integration crisis at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

That crisis seemed to sort of work itself out, with a lot of help from President Dwight D. Eisenhower and a national guard that the president took out from under the command of Governor Orval Faubus.

As a tenth grader, the racial things just didn’t register very strongly with me. There was complete segregation at the time in my hometown, and Benton High School seemed a continent away from the epicenter of the great controversy of integration vs segregation—although my high school was no more than twenty-five miles from Central High in Little Rock.

The current racial crisis, as I view it as a septuagenarian, finally brings into focus the forward thinker man Daddy James apparently was…

I don’t know how much Bible prophecy played into his thinking. I just knew him when I was a teenager. He died in 1958 and, to me, he was kind of a grumpy old guy with thick, white, tousled hair and white, bushy eyebrows. He was a big, burly, man who sat around at 80-something and grumbled in curmudgeon fashion at us youngsters whenever we tried to get into his violin case in one corner of the room where his favorite chair sat. He was a gifted musician and artist.

I have to think, now, that his observations were somewhat inspired. I’ve always been told that Daddy James was a genius, with few social graces—of which he didn’t wish to indulge, at any rate, because he was inwardly turned.

He was quite the Bible student, family and friends said. This makes me wonder whether Bible prophecy played deeply into his pontification during the rare times he cared to wax eloquent on America’s future racial problems.

Whether he possessed a degree of prescience I don’t know. But here we are, and there is a great racial divide that could break into a civil war of sorts. This especially since of the most volatile areas of the country have governors and mayors who are thinking about defunding police departments, and even about completely doing away with them, in order to correct wrongs done to the black race.

Certainly corrections need to be made in ways that would assure that racial profiling and bigotry are not allowed within police departments. What happened to George Floyd should never be allowed to happen again. But it will. It is inevitable. Whether through deliberate, hate-filled racial bigotry or simply a completely lawful act by a law enforcement official to apprehend someone suspected of a criminal act, it will happen again.

There are always going to be lawbreakers, and there are always going to be bigots. As the saying goes, you can’t legislate morality. You can make laws to enforce compliance, but only God can change spiritual hearts. He does so through the saving of souls one individual at a time.

To want to defund law enforcement is nothing short of insanity, unless we want complete anarchy to rule. And one being does indeed want this scenario.

Satan, of course, is the personage stirring the pot of racial hatreds. He and his minions, both demonic and human, are active. Their chief aim is to bring America into the globalist order for the wind-up of the age, to establish his man, Antichrist, on the platform of control Lucifer the fallen one wants.

Satan’s hatred for humanity is infinitely greater than the leftists’ hatred for President Donald Trump. And this president is the target at the center of this crisis—the one I guess Gideon Johnson James—Daddy James—somehow foresaw.

Or maybe he just took the Word of Jesus, Himself, and extrapolated the evil that he perceived to be on its way to become an incendiary bomb that would explode near the time Christ would return.

I kind of sense that Daddy James read the following and cogitated quite a bit on the things within.

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. (Matthew 24:7)

It is stunning, regarding Jesus’ prophecy here. We are experiencing these very symptoms of things the Lord foretold for the very end of the age. They are part of the convergence we have been experiencing for some time during these past several years.

He said there will be famines, meaning famines of unusual dimension and cause. Jesus always spoke in terms that indicated things He prophesied will be far beyond normal levels.

The African continent and some Asian and other areas are experiencing a likelihood of growing famine. This growing probability of famine is the result of the second thing Jesus said in this prophetic verse. There is pestilence. Pestilence in the form of disease runs rampant in those areas of the world mentioned. And, as we know, pestilence in the form of the Wuhan virus is running rampant throughout the world as well.

But, beyond this, pestilence in the form of locust swarms, and even swarms of deadly hornets, the likes of which haven’t been seen since ancient times, are denuding the agricultural lands that feed the populations affected.

All the while the famines and pestilences are devastating broad swaths of the world, the great human plague is developing that has at its center bigotry and racial hatred.

Jesus foretold that “nation shall rise against nation.”

The Greek word for “nation,” here, as we have seen before, is ethnos. This means “ethnic,” of course…race—i.e., races will rise up against other races.

Perhaps my grandfather didn’t have the gift of prophecy—certainly not in the sense of Old and New Testament prophets. There is no such gift today. One thing sure, though, our Lord did and does have that ability. It sure appears He was foretelling this very moment of racial strife.

This is, I believe, all to remind those of us who truly believe every Word in the Bible that His call to us must be near indeed.

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

Pat Robertson was once heard to say on his TV program that there couldn’t be a sudden disappearance of millions of people. That would cause such chaos and carnage that such a thing just couldn’t happen. I paraphrase, but that was very close to his declaration.

He said that it would mean cars would have massive accidents, airplanes would crash, and the world would just come unglued. This was just not going to happen, he adamantly said.

I haven’t a clue of where he was going with this except to suspect that he was making known his genuine disdain for the teaching of Rapture—particularly of the pre-Trib Rapture. He consistently railed against the teaching at the time.

This isn’t meant to cast aspersions upon Mr. Robertson. But the words I remember him saying do open up my thinking regarding things that will begin taking place immediately when people all over the world suddenly vanish before the eyes of those left behind, or when people are missing the next day where it is nighttime and most people are sleeping when the Rapture occurs.

The matter that sparked this thinking also is the explosion of violence that erupted when George Floyd, an African-American, was killed by the Minneapolis policeman just over a week ago.

Video of the officer pressing his knee into the neck of Mr. Floyd until he died went viral. It appeared to be murder caught in the act—on video recording. Even the victim’s begging to be allowed to breathe before he died was there for the world to see and hear.

Like in the cases of violence in American cities in the previous incidents where black men were killed by actions of white policemen and by a “white Hispanic” man, the city of the killing, Minneapolis, exploded in violence. The white-hot rage spread to many other large cities around America. Police vehicles were damaged and burned; the police precinct building near the scene of Mr. Floyd’s death was invaded and burned to the ground. The police fled the scene and left it to the anarchists for the most part.

Looters entered and stole all they could get, destroying buildings and businesses in the process.

Like in other cases of what was deemed police brutality, the media quickly, in my view, encouraged the violence by giving the rioters camera time and even moral support. The genuine expressions of protestation—the acts of the ones who lawfully assembled to express their anger—were lost in the anarchy that ensued.

Even CNN’s headquarters being targeted for destruction in Atlanta didn’t cause that media entity to come against the rioters to any meaningful extent. To my way of thinking, it was for that news organization, like for the anarchists, yet another opportunity to push the anti-American agenda they seem to champion.

This all, again, brought to mind the belief of those who have opinions on the Rapture—whether it will occur or is a prophetic event that will not happen.

Particularly, I’m interested in examining the opinions of those who believe the Rapture is going to occur, but who think it will have little effect on American life. It will, I’ve heard these say, hardly be noticed when it happens. Their reasoning is that there are so few “real Christians” that their numbers missing will have no significant effect.

It’s dumbfounding to think that those with such a view have witnessed the American inner cities go insane with rage over one incident and used that incident to burn and loot believe that the disappearance of millions will cause but a ripple. And factors even more traumatic than just the disappearance must be considered.

The first is the fact that every child, even those still in the womb, will be gone in that instant. We’ve gone over a number of times why this is so, as God’s very character is at stake. How can anyone believe that the national psyche will remain untouched—or touched very little—by such an occurrence?

Second, and even more importantly, the Holy Spirit will, in that moment remove as the Restrainer of evil, according to 2 Thessalonians 2. If people act as they have in the recent madness by burning their cities and looting at every opportunity, how will they react to the Rapture? Do these who think it will have little effect on society and culture really believe the anarchists won’t go completely insane with their consciences having been shed of all restraint?

We’ve seen, I believe, just a foretaste of what that post-Rapture time will be like immediately following Christ’s call to the Church. It is something for profound consideration. Would anyone want those they love to be left behind to suffer the throes of enragement witnessed within America’s cities the past week? The reality of that time will almost certainly be infinitely worse than what occurred following the outrageous killing of Mr. Floyd on the street in Minneapolis.

To avoid the post-Rapture rage, it is wise to accept pre-Rapture salvation through the grace-gift offer of the God who said:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Questions continue about what is going on in all of this geopolitical and cultural/societal intrigue in terms of Bible prophecy. What does it all mean? Why such a divide? Why such rage and hatred? People want answers, and the answer is spiritual. It is all there in Bible prophecy. It is altogether a major indicator of how near we are to the end of this Age of Grace.

The spirit of Antichrist is indeed surging. It’s most revealed through the globalist mantra—that anyone who is in denial about climate change is, in effect, an apostate within their worldview.

But, in fact, another spirit of denial is the true obstacle to a pristine earth.

It is those who make such accusations against Bible-believing Christian, climate-change deniers who are at the heart of earth’s many problems. Chiefly, the Antichrist spirit denies the Lord Jesus Christ and His very existence. These are the true deniers—those who believe and proclaim that they, not Christ, have a right to control the destiny of this planet He created.

John the apostle and author of Revelation—the vision of the Apocalypse—presents what God gave Him to tell us about the Antichrist spirit.

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

Deniers of Jesus Christ—the powers and principalities in high places, those human minions and supernatural minions—and their incessant strategies and determination to keep God out of things manifest the spirit of Antichrist at an accelerating rate.

Christians are battling the Antichrist spirit at the highest levels—the evil within both human and demonic minions. Our would-be rulers (those denying, through being influenced by, the anti-Christ spirit that God should reign) hold powerful positions within the top strata of globalist echelons. It all revolves around worldwide satanic influence on matters involving the so-called deep state. It is Ephesians 6:12 we’ve been watching in action. Nationalism must go…boundaries must be erased. Sovereignty must be eliminated so global government by the elites might rule.

Once again, it’s good to look at the Apostle Paul’s warning:

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)

These powers that be in high places of government view the US as the problem rather than the answer to conflict throughout the world. It is the richest, most powerful national entity to ever exist, so must be brought down, its assets given to the global elite to use for their own purposes.

The current presidential administration has, in the obviously enraged opinion of the deep-state and leftist minions, sought to change the way things have supposed to be progressing since post WW II. The global order as run by the high echelon of the diplomatic types and the people with political power have had that drive for ultimate power disrupted. America is, in this internationalist, no borders, view, supposed to be in place to fund the UN and all of its globalist agenda plans.

Making America Great Again is not in their blueprint. This nation, therefore, is the chief obstacle, nation-wise, to Satan’s plans in forming the one-world order he wants to set up for the coming Antichrist. That’s why we’ve endured insane rage while the powers in high places strive to get power back into the formerly established order by getting rid of this president.

The satanic assault against American society and culture can’t be missed by the spiritually attuned. Minions in high places have in recent years inflicted tremendous deleterious effects upon the nation’s moral fiber established by the founding fathers and by Christian church influences. America’s public, and even private, educational systems have become completely corrupted, first by the evolutional model, then by the Marxist educators at every level of the public school system.

The rage makes clear the existence of the Antichrist spirit in high places that continues to do everything to bring America and the world into the configuration Satan wants to establish for his soon-coming Antichrist platform. At the heart of the minions’ (both human and supernatural) effort is destruction of moral values and norms based upon Judeo-Christian precepts/concepts. Cultures and societies throughout the world—especially in America—must be altered drastically to pave the way for the coming Antichrist regime.

These minions in the high places of wickedness are even now using the so-called pandemic in their incessant drive to bring about their version of Heaven on earth. They will succeed for a time, but not until the Holy Spirit as Restrainer of evil removes as God’s prophetic Word foretells in 2 Thessalonians 2.

Just as we witness the Antichrist spirit surging, we, as born-again believers should have a surging sense of excitement and comfort. Redemption is near (Titus 2:13).

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to rule the airwaves, cyberspace, and every facet of our lives. Every story coming across our TV or computer screens continues to scream with the Coronavirus onslaught that has condemned us, potentially, to death, and almost certainly, too, economic depression. The pandemic is all the media want us to think about, and most gladly oblige by adhering to the guidelines demanded by those experts such as Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The figures they parade before our near-panicked eyes are front and center each and every news cycle. One snapshot in time, as the pandemic progresses, presented the following as I perused the numbers. They are taken from a Google search.

United States cases: Updated May 17 at 10:20 AM local

Confirmed: 1,500,148 (+26,733)

Deaths: 89,498 (+1,261)

Recovered: 274,265

Global cases: Updated May 17 at 9:20 AM local

Confirmed: 4,658,651 (+95,193)

Deaths: 312,239 (+4,074)

Recovered: 1,703,322 (+54,047)

There is great alarm over the deaths among these statistics. The number of cases both in America and globally are all-consuming. However, the statistics of recoveries are downplayed to the point they are never mentioned in many newscasts or news postings.

Any death, as the president and all others consistently remind us, is too many. There is a race to move Heaven and earth in order to find a vaccine that will guarantee one cannot get the virus. That is a quest that is, almost all of the experts agree, something that can’t happen for at least another 18 months. Some say there will never be a vaccine found for these types of viral diseases because they mutate constantly. The common flu, for example, has shots but not true vaccines. The shots can lessen the severity of the flu in patients. No vaccine has been produced that guarantees people won’t get any strain of the flu.

Vaccines have been produced that are effective for measles, smallpox, polio, and other diseases but not for the viral illnesses. You will have to ask someone besides yours truly to find out why this is the case. I certainly can’t give you the answer. I just know it’s a fact.

This great, all-consuming concern for our lives, as we have seen, has a raging political agenda attached to it. We can’t open up the economies either of America or the world until that magical vaccine is found. This is the opinion of those such as Dr. Fauci and the CDC for the most part.

Yet no such vaccine is likely forthcoming, despite the efforts of those such as Bill Gates, who, many of our friends with a squinted, conspiratorial eye toward his efforts believe, intends to inject in all of us a tracking device, or worse.

There might develop flu-like shots to lessen severity, but a true vaccine such as in measles or smallpox isn’t likely to be produced.

The satanic influence of all this particularly strikes my suspicion-meter when thinking on how, while there is all this burning concern for making sure no one ever again gets a case of Coronavirus, the most vulnerable and helpless of our kind are given no such concern or protective effort – except for those who are concerned for the sanctity of life.

While we see the figures each and every news cycle of cases and deaths of COVID-19 victims, we never see the statistics of the infanticide we are deliberately allowing to be perpetrated.

Abortion in America has been consistently very near 1 million or more babies per year for decades. Statistics show a slight lessening over the last few years, but still the mark hovers around the 1 million mark. The last time I looked at it, the number since Roe v Wade was nearing 70 million.

The COVID-19 Nazis – I mean officials – have told us that the most vulnerable among us, in addition to the elderly and those with severe health problems, are people of color – mostly meaning those who are African Americans. This is of great concern to, particularly, the progressives, as they prepare their plans for how to twist things in order to get Trump removed from office. They want back the numbers among the darker races they’ve lost due to Trump’s efforts to advance their plight in America.

They blame him for numbers of deaths being so high among people of color, as they put it. The conclusion they make is, of course, ludicrous, as is so much they try to peddle.

In considering facts about concern for African Americans and the Coronavirus, we wonder where the great concern is in the matter of African American babies in the wombs of their mothers. By far, the greatest number of abortions are performed on African American fetuses. They are a minority, but the majority of abortions are performed on black children. Where is the compassion of the Party that claims to champion the black American voter base?

There is great concern to prevent COVID-19, but no concern for helpless children in the womb.

We don’t have to wonder what the Creator God of Heaven thinks about the Pandemic vs Abortion statistical inequity.

Here is what David, a man after God’s own heart, wrote under Holy Spirit Inspiration:

“For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfected; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalms 139: 13-16).

I continue to believe that when the Rapture takes place and every womb is empty because those little ones are with Christ in that instant, God will have made a Statement about when life begins.

–Terry

My title here might make one ask: “What do you mean, ‘sudden emergence?’” By this question—to carry the supposition further—the questioner might follow up with: “The Chinese have been front and center and a growing item in the news for decades.”

China has indeed been moving from its Far East shadows behind that long wall that can be seen from satellites in space. Their emergence continues on an hour-by-hour basis. All we have to do is to listen to any news report at the moment these days. China is at the center of controversy in the matter of the COVID-19 crisis.

Top administration officials who are charged with national security are looking with accusatory thoughts toward the communist government of China. Almost certainly, many are saying, China is guilty of releasing the virus once it escaped from one of their laboratories somewhere near Wuhan.

The city—larger in population than New York City—was shut down for some time right at the beginning of the virus’ release, experts are saying. Somehow, I can’t remember exactly how, according to the report, the intelligence from the area showed that many roads for heavy traffic were completely closed for more than a week at one point. It was something that had never been done. There was no explanation for the shutdown, the report I heard said.

The inference the experts in national security made, according to the news report I heard, was that the streets and roads were completely shut down, disallowing the city’s millions of people to traverse them. This means, they believe, that something of a highly dangerous nature caused the dictator, Xii Ping, to disrupt life totally in the area.

Shortly after the shutdown, U S intelligence agencies reported, according to what I heard that Chinese military removed hundreds, if not thousands, from their apartments. These same people haven’t been heard from since. The thinking, among the people who gather intelligence, is that these were taken and killed in some manner, and attempts were made to erase that they ever existed.

Why? Apparently those removed were sick with the virus. They were removed, the thinking goes, so that the Chinese government could hide that the virus broke out in Wuhan and vicinity.

This “theory” is based in fact, in that US intelligence authorities have made no effort to discount this report. Apparently, electronic devices that monitor the area of Wuhan and the military weapons laboratory picked up on all these doings in and around the area.

The reports discount the “theory” that the virus spread from the so called wet markets of the area. These are the places where meats are bought by grocery shoppers. They apparently choose live animals—and exotic animals, at that, in some cases. Bats were thought to be the “meat” from which the virus came in this regard.

Now the question is whether the virus escaped the labs accidentally or was deliberately released. The former thinking seems to be what most of the intelligence people I’ve heard talk about the matters involved have concluded.

Now the accusations are that Xii Ping and his cadre of underlings decided that the accidental release was not going to bring only China’s economic circumstance to a standstill. They wanted and continue to want all economies to suffer so China can maintain its relatively close number-one economic position as it comes out of the crisis. The virus, the thinking goes, was put on planes by the Chinese government, with people carrying it to major cities around the world.

This certainly seems to be the plausible explanation for what has happened.

It is much more than just doubtful that this could have been contrived totally as part of a plan to do the damage it has done. The Chinese have simply—and maybe not so simply—taken advantage of the virus’ accidental release. Their strategy, if so, is brilliantly evil.

As stated in previous commentaries, I believe it was planned by the greatest schemer there is—Lucifer, the fallen one. He, I conjecture, started it from the beginning and continues to carry out the devilish plan.

So the American administration is casting a suspicious glare at the Chinese communist regime and pointing an accusatory finger, based on electronic and on-the-ground intelligence.

What does this all mean, prophetically speaking? My own thought is that while Satan has planned it all from its inception, it is, of course, under the complete control of God, whose omniscience nothing and no one escapes. I believe it is yet another signal of stage-setting for the Tribulation era and the ultimate return of His Son, the Lord Jesus, to clean up the planet of all sin and rebellion.

It is almost a certainty that China will be a primary player in the Tribulation era. The virus and China’s part in the release of its deadly and destructive effects could well be the Lord grabbing the old Chinese dragon by its neck and pulling it to the surface of earth’s bubbling cauldron of rebellion against God to make known its evil intentions.

China, as we’ve looked at many times, is showing itself to be the hegemonic force that consistently proves it wants to dominate not only the South China Sea and its sphere of influence, but wants to become the world’s number-one economic and military superpower.

The coronavirus might be a pandemic—a much-overblown one in terms of its potential deadly effects, in my estimation. It is likely Satan, however, who has brought it about to the degree that it has inflicted its havoc upon the world. But the God of Heaven controls it, like He controls everything in the ultimate sense.

Could China now have been “outed” in alerting all observers to its genocidal evil? Could the Lord be seeing to it that the Chinese dragon is shown to be in cahoots with the old red dragon, Satan so that there can be no excuse that the world hasn’t been warned?

That Chinese dragon will be the king of the kings of the east, I really have little doubt. They and their Near-East and Far-East Asian cohorts will be responsible for killing fully one-third of earth’s inhabitants at the later stages of the movement of nations toward the killing fields of Armageddon.

And the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings from the east. (Revelation 16:12)