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Why the Rapture Must Happen   

Much has been discussed and written about speculation leading up to this calendar date. That the Rapture must happen during this year’s Jewish Feast of Trumpets observation is the central subject of the frenzied conversation.

To be honest, I’ve not looked very deeply into the Feast of Trumpets, as to its meaning and all attendant to it. I do have a general working knowledge of that tradition and others held by the Orthodox Jewish community but have come to believe and accept that the Rapture is not linked to any Jewish day of observation, so far as its timing is concerned.

Some scholars of the Jewish holy days say the Feast of Trumpets this year was to be September 16–17, not September 23–24. But here we are, at this posting, on September 22.

I would love, despite my skepticism, for the speculation that the Rapture will happen at this time to be correct. I, like most of us who believe the pre-Trib Rapture to be the correct view from what the Apostle Paul and Jesus, Himself, have said, am always “looking up” (Luke 21:28) and “looking for the blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). We are “watching” (Mark 13:37). We believe the Rapture can happen at any moment. It is imminent.

So, do I believe it can happen on September 23 or 24 of 2025? Absolutely. I believe it can happen on this much-talked-about date.

Do I believe it definitely will take place on this date? No, I do not. It could happen as I’m writing this almost a week earlier!

If the Rapture does occur on the date being speculated by many, then it will make no difference to believers who have been raptured about whether it happened on the date predicted other than that we will be celebrating eternal, joyous bliss! But if it doesn’t happen on that date, I’m concerned that the faith of some will be shaken.

This has always been the deleterious result of past date-settings regarding the Rapture. Many have gone into deep crises of faith in God’s promises over such failures.

So, with that as a preface, I’d like to examine why it is necessary for God to Rapture the saints of this Church Age—why He will be true to His Word and will do so, I believe, very soon.

The tremendous ramping-up of evil taking place today as humanity proceeds farther toward God’s judgment against sin and rebellion is most relevant to the premise implicit in the title of this commentary: “Why the Rapture Must Happen.”

When looking at the black-and-white films the Allies shot within the Nazi death camps following victory over Adolf Hitler’s Germany in World War II, it’s difficult to comprehend that level of evil. The images of walking skeletons that were the Jewish “survivors” of those camps remain etched in the memory of anyone who has seen those videos.

Upon viewing those films, one instinctively senses that there must be eternal punishment for anyone who perpetrates such absolute evil.

The same level of pictorial record doesn’t exist for the genocidal rampages inflicted on their own people by Josef Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, and the murderers of the other despotic regimes in modern times. However, eyewitness accounts and some photographic evidence make it hard to fathom that those beastly tyrants were restrained in their butchery.

The Bible nonetheless bears witness that God the Holy Spirit governs the human conscience. In biblically prophetic terms, this is most evident in Paul’s second epistle to the Thessalonians:

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:78)

Paul was saying here that evil was at work in a big way even at the time he was writing the letter. Still, the Holy Spirit was then “restraining” and would continue to hold back that evil until the Holy Spirit withdraws as the Restrainer of evil. Then all hell will break loose as the Antichrist is revealed. The spirit of Antichrist is already present in the world—and was manifest even during John’s day (read 1 John 4:1–3). The mystery of iniquity about which Paul prophesied and this spirit of Antichrist are interlinked in the ancient web of lawlessness we call evil.

Jesus told what will happen once the Restrainer (the Holy Spirit) withdraws from governing the wickedness in the hearts and minds of people of the post-Rapture world:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21)

The Lord said just how bad things would become:

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:22)

God will shorten the days of the great Tribulation, because if He were to let things go on to their conclusion, without the return of Christ, every being of flesh and blood on the planet would be destroyed. Such is the mystery of iniquity that exists today, and it will become exponentially worse once the restraint of evil is no longer in place. Then, the ultimately evolved man—as evolution would have it—will step to the forefront of fallen human history. Antichrist will inflict horrors on the people of earth in ways Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and the rest of history’s madmen could not have even imagined. His regime will be the most bloodthirsty of all time.

Lawlessness is everywhere we look. Whether considering the Middle East and the unspeakable evil of satanic forces like Hamas, the absolute wickedness of mutilating children fostered by the trans movement, or America and the devil-inspired anti-Semitism of youth groups indoctrinated by US universities, the “mystery of iniquity” is swelling like a great caldera that is about to explode across the world.

Evidence of the growing global lawlessness is compiled hourly through reports like the following:

As recent as 2019, The Economist’s Safe City Index placed Amsterdam at the top in Europe and fourth worldwide, behind only Tokyo, Singapore, and Osaka, but a new debate hosted by local broadcaster AT5 has revealed that seven in ten panel members avoid certain parts of the city because they now feel unsafe.

That figure rises to 85 percent among women, while half of the women surveyed reported experiencing some form of harassment, with some subjected to intimidation, being followed, or assault.

The issue has gained urgency after several high-profile crimes, including the murders of two 17-year-olds, Rivaldo, shot dead on a soccer field, and Lisa, who was brutally murdered by a 22-year-old asylum seeker as she cycled home. Multiple sexual assaults have also rocked the city in recent weeks, and police were on high alert after recording three explosions in five days last week.

Headlines at the time read: explosions-rock-amsterdam-as-dutch-capital-continues-to-reel-from-recent-teen-girl-allegedly-murdered-by-asylum-seeker. (“Amsterdam used to be the safest city in Europe; now a majority of its citizens are afraid to go out at night,” Rapture Ready News, September 12, 2025)

The youth, guilty of most of such lawlessness in inner cities across the world, have been taught by cultural inculcation that they have been held down by the affluent, so their actions are justified. The inference is that it is no more than simply Robin Hood robbing the evil sheriff of Nottingham.

Can there be much doubt that if they commit such bold acts now, then when the Holy Spirit is no longer restraining such evil thinking and actions, even America will quickly become a hellish existence in which anything goes?

It is almost as if the US federal governmental powers-that-be have taken Paul’s 2 Thessalonians 2:7–8 passage to heart. It seems they anticipate a time when draconian measures will be necessary to restrain the evil that is coming. Antichrist’s restraint will be even more draconian, but his own evil will far surpass all other iniquity of history, the Bible says.

Judgment of such rebelliousness awaits implementation by the God who must bring back the righteousness lost in Eden. Our Holy Heavenly Father is the only One who can cleanse humanity of this satanic infection called sin.

Only those who are born again through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ–God’s Son who has taken away the sins of the world—are not subject to God’s judgment of those left behind at the Rapture.

This is the purpose of the Rapture: to rescue all who are in God’s family through belief in Jesus. We are “not appointed to wrath,” which the world of left-behind rebels is about to experience during the Tribulation (Revelation 3:10).

God must remove all who are righteous and all those who have died while in Christ’s saving grace before His judgment and wrath must begin cleansing this fallen world. He will then, again, begin dealing with His chosen nation, Israel, to bring a remnant to accept their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus will return to the planet’s surface, destroy all enemies of God, and set up His Millennial Kingdom.

Ultimately, God will purge all sin, bringing humankind and all of creation back to the perfection that was lost when iniquity was found in Lucifer, and when sin and death entered through Adam’s disobedience.

It will all begin with the Rapture of the Church, which has been being constructed by the Lord Jesus since His death, burial and Resurrection, and His sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

This is why the Rapture must happen. Here is how to be sure you go to the Lord Jesus and be rescued from the coming judgment and wrath:

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

The Rapture Paradox

A woman from the Netherlands who years ago was a frequent visitor to www.raptureready.com once proposed we address a troubling thought she lived with as a Christian. It is a paradox I believe many Christians who look for Christ to come for believers in the Rapture have considered, at least to some extent.

The writer those years ago sent an article about the growing Islamic population in Europe and the threat Islam represents not only to Israel, but to the rest of the world that is not Islamic. She recognized that Israel being at the center of world controversy indicates the lateness of the hour, prophetically speaking. She put it this way in her email:

Every time I see these articles, I am on one hand horrified at the treatment of the Jewish people but on the other hand full of anticipation as I know that with each event that pushes the Jewish people back to their homeland of Israel, the closer the Rapture is for Christians. I do feel badly that I am excited for the Rapture though as I know what that means for those that will be left behind… Should we be as excited as I am to know that we can (I believe “will”) be raptured any second? I know this gives me an urgency to share the gospel with friends and neighbors, but I still always feel guilty for the anticipation and excitement I get when I see the current events played out daily.

This dichotomy within the believer’s thinking is, I believe, not unusual for those who truly look for Christ’s any-moment call as prophesied by Paul the apostle:

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)

Christians who believe the pre-Tribulation Rapture is truth from God’s Word yearn—without need to apologize—for the blessed hope that is found in Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). At the same time, they know that when that call from their Lord comes, those left behind will soon endure a time of horror, about which the Lord Himself said:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21)

Those left behind will, the Christian knows, include perhaps close friends and beloved family members. So, the paradox of wanting the Rapture to take place, and at the same time dreading it for those who will stay on this planet to endure God’s judgment and wrath is, to some, troubling.

The article this writer sent with her email those years ago encapsulates just a small part of the building evil the Lord of Heaven will judge with His righteous wrath. The matters the article involved point to the satanic rage represented within Islam, the number-one Israel-hating entity on the planet. Hatred for Israel, and the desire of the international community to force the Jewish state to divide the tiny portion of its God-given land to come up with a formula for peace with its Islamic neighbors, will lead to Armageddon, God’s Word says:

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

The article the emailer sent contained a speech by Geert Wilders, a Dutch member of Parliament for the Netherlands. He synopsized with stunning description how Israel’s Islamic enemy was systematically infecting Europe, thus threatening world stability—or what little of it that remains.

Wilders, who was chairman of the Party for Freedom, the Netherlands, spoke at the Four Seasons, New York, introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem. He announced that Europe was in dire straits as it was undergoing Islamization. America and the world, he warned, faced the same fate as Europe if the threat wasn’t confronted and defeated everywhere it exists.

Wilders said that entire city sections throughout Europe were taken over by Islamics one street at a time. Local governments and police forces were often so intimidated that they dared not go into those areas to govern. Women, treated no better than slaves, according to the speaker, were covered from head to toe in tent-like attire, sharia law took precedence, and women in sections of the cities not part of the Islamic communities more and more were hearing hate-filled shouts of “Whore!” from those of the Islamic populations. (http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/wilders.asp)

That news report was from a decade and a half ago. Today the Wilders prediction is manifest in hourly news reports while American cities and states such as Texas are experiencing what can only be described in my view as an Islamic invasion.

In 1991, the Muslim Brotherhood issued a confidential memorandum that outlined the strategy for the group in North America. It details a plan for the “Enablement of Islam in North America,” understood as “establishing an effective and a stable Islamic Movement led by the Muslim Brotherhood which adopts Muslims’ causes domestically and globally, and which works to expand the observant Muslim base, aims at unifying and directing Muslims’ efforts, presents Islam as a civilization alternative, and supports the global Islamic State wherever it is.”…

The aim of Islamists is not integration into our society, nor to isolate themselves within their own enclaves, but rather to energetically integrate America into Islamist culture. Far from a Muslim “Benedict Option,” the Islamist strategy is political and confrontational…

Islamists oppose the American sense of nationhood and form of government and seek to replace constitutional and national governments with the global Islamic state…

The digital age means the annihilation of distance. Thanks to the internet, Islam’s reach and networks have globalized. Immigrants talk regularly with relatives on the other side of the world and establish international revenue streams. This new technology presents Islamists with an opportunity they never enjoyed a hundred years ago. Those advocating for stricter Islamic practices can use the power of digital connections to reach and reeducate Muslims around the world. Videos from conflicts in far-off places can be broadcast instantly to millions of Muslims in the West, encouraging them to see themselves as participants in the same struggle. The 1991 memorandum indicates how Islamists exploit this situation by encouraging Muslims to think of themselves not as members of a Western polity but as internationally interconnected engineers who are building one global Islamic state. Islamists will not permit Muslims to blend into America’s purported melting pot. (“The Islamist Threat to American Communities,” Nathan Pinkoski, May 7, 2025)

Israel and its being targeted for extinction by Islam, which has infected so much of the American radical leftist anti-Semite insanity with hatred, is the sure sign that the Tribulation is in view. The Rapture of the Church is, therefore, an event that must be very near to occurring indeed. That being the obvious case, what should be the Christian’s foremost priority? The answer is that it should not be considered a paradox for the believer, but an exhortation, a call to duty.

There is nothing anyone can do to hurry or delay the coming of Christ for His saints in the Rapture. The timing of that great event is out of our hands. Therefore, longing for the blessed hope (Titus 2:13) to rescue us from the terrible time to come (Revelation 3:10) doesn’t conflict with our concern and compassion for those who will be left behind if they don’t come to Christ for salvation. It is time for those who name the name of Christ to recognize the lateness of the prophetic hour; witness to those around us of the truth that Jesus Christ is the one and only Way to salvation; and live in such a way that we can earn our Lord’s commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Pastors, Prophecy, and Powerlessness

A power vacuum exists today that was foretold almost two thousand years ago. Its effects on this generation and beyond are profound and are destined to have an even more deleterious impact on America and the world in the days just ahead. The Apostle Paul prophesied the following:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come…[men] having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. (2 Timothy 3:1, 5a)

Many pastors within Christianity today, I’m sorry to have to say, are complicit in helping fulfill this prophecy.

First, let’s define the term “Christian pastors.” Within the context of Paul’s prophecy I wish to examine here, I refer to pastors who truly preach and teach that Jesus Christ is the only Way to redemption, to reconciliation with God the Father. All others who claim to be clergy within Christianity I completely disregard, because God’s Word discounts them as false prophets, as defined by the following Scripture, to give but one example:

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. (2 Peter 2:1–3)

Again, to be clear, when I say, “Christian pastors,” I’m referring to Bible-believing preachers who lift up Christ as the only Way to salvation.

Some will say that Paul’s “perilous times” warning of men who would have “a form of godliness,” but deny “the power thereof” applies to the false teachers of Peter’s prophecy, not to true preachers called by God to be shepherds of His flock. I agree that the prophecy applies to interlopers who deny Jesus Christ as the only Way to redemption.

However, the accusation against those who have a “form of godliness, but deny the power thereof” can apply as well to God’s true shepherds. The condemnation is, in some ways, even more to the point than when leveled at the false preachers and teachers. I contend that Christian pastors today–sadly, I believe this includes most of them—deny the power of God when they cast aside prophecy given in the Bible that is for a time yet future.

As I and many others have often pointed out, the Bible consists of at least 27 percent prophecy. Half of that prophecy has been fulfilled; the remaining half has yet to be fulfilled. Although it can be proven through Scripture and history that the Bible has always been accurate in past instances, preachers and teachers consistently and persistently ignore preaching and teaching about things to come.

By this willful disregard for presenting this vast body of scriptural truth, men of God–called and anointed by the Lord as guardians of His truth and shepherds of His flocks—deny the great power wrapped up in the astonishing reality that our God is the only One who knows the end from the beginning–and in excruciating detail, I might add.

For the most part, preachers today seemingly avoid the prophetic Word at any cost. And, in God’s holy economy, the cost must be astronomical. These shepherds of God’s precious people are denying them the assurance of the hope He promises. Jesus Christ, their Lord and Savior, is the fruition of God’s magnificent plan for their journey into forever. With the knowledge of Christ’s return plainly given as imminent in God’s love letter to mankind, the born again should be living victoriously, not with cringing fear or, even worse, in almost complete apathy.

The prophetic Word says:

Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior 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 2:12-14)

The majority of those who aren’t informed about what’s going to happen next in this judgment-bound world, or who are totally unconcerned about things of God, are fed baby food rather than meat for living the way the Lord intended. These are, as often as not, force-fed the “feel good and let’s not dwell on sin too much” worldly message that is anathema to God’s truth.

To the pastors and teachers who do in fact teach doctrine and sound biblical principles, may the Lord bless you to the extent to which you remain faithful to break the Bread of Life the way it should be fed to your flocks. But if you don’t include prophecy as an important and generous part of your messages—that Jesus is coming again and might come at any moment—you are falling far short of deserving full commendation. You are denying the true power of God. You are exhibiting only a form of godliness.

Respectfully, please pay attention, you who are the truth-bearing pastors of our Holy God. These are the times to which all of Bible prophecy has pointed for millennia. These are perilous times. Signals are rampant that this generation is the one that will almost certainly see the Lord’s return in power and glory. Israel and the peace process, with all nations beginning to turn against that state, dear pastors, is the number-one signal that we are bumping up against the very end of this swiftly fleeting age. Christ’s shout, “Come up hither,” is imminent!

You will be held accountable at the judgment seat of Christ for how you treat His whole Word in feeding your flock. Jesus spoke to the great power and importance resident within prophecy while addressing the churches. John recorded what the resurrected Lord directed him to write:

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw…Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. (Revelation 1:1-2, 7-8)

AI, Delusion, and the Lie

One arena of development in the swift movement toward the Tribulation era is the technology that’s exploding all around us. There is just no way to keep up with it. Most indicative of this is the matter of artificial intelligence (AI).

We are hearing more and more stories about how AI is affecting life. It’s in the process of taking over to the extent that even its developers worry that it might soon slip from becoming not a helper to humanity, but rather a master ruling over it.

We see changes in daily internet use reflecting AI’s burgeoning influence. For example, when we launch a Google search, we now receive notice that AI was instrumental in the search.

This, of course, is considered a great boon to our need for instant knowledge and its application to every facet of life. And, admittedly, I want instant gratification when I’m researching something for an article, book, or whatever else I’m doing at the moment.

However, the absolute evil of AI becomes unbearably troubling when considering how the diabolists of the world are using it.

For example, just this past week I heard a report of a teenage girl who is a Christian in the truest sense. She is active in her church and has been raised in what is said to be a wonderful Christian family.

The report I heard—I believe on the Sean Hannity radio program—was that someone had used AI to place the girl’s likeness on the body of someone engaged in sex with the father of the boy who produced the wicked video.

The girl and her parents were, of course, devastated as the video went viral.

This vile action is no doubt almost tame by comparison to how this technology will be used to perpetrate Antichrist’s great lie, as foretold in the following.

And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:8–12)

The entire Antichrist regime, following the Rapture of all believers in Christ, will be based upon a gargantuan lie. This lie will no doubt begin by convincing most of humanity to take the mark of Antichrist (Revelation 13:16–18).

Can we have any doubt that some form of AI will be used in causing all people to accept the 666 designation as a matter of worshiping the beast—or else being cut out of the system of buying and selling?

The result will not be Heaven on earth, but a horrendous system that probably even the fictional account in my novel Jacob’s Trouble 666, written several decades ago, couldn’t adequately capture. Please allow a brief look at a passage from that book:

Bright amber computer data flashed on the rectangular INterface screen when the old woman stepped beneath the Decodscanner.

“Look up!” commanded the stern woman across the counter, her black eyes leering from sockets surrounded by dark, sunken flesh.

The woman obeyed nervously, turning her puffy, age-creased face upward.

The screen displayed:

INterface Response Unity

U.S. SECTOR 781

PROCEED—INPUT

The checker herded a few canned grocery items onto the conveyor, then pressed a button located at waist level behind the counter.

Fumbling through her cracked vinyl purse, the older woman retrieved a tissue and applied it to her cold-infected nose.

“Look, lady! There are other citizens besides you in the PC,” the checker said icily. “Move along!”

Her eyes betraying fear, she gathered the sack into her arms, coughed into the tissue, and exited the Product Center under the suspicious glare of a black-uniformed controller.

An old man shuffled tentatively into the checkout lane, avoiding the gaze of the checker. His broad head was bowed as if he sought to hide beneath the upturned collar of the ragged gray coat he wore. “You got an IN, mister?” Her question cut the air in a tone of disgust.

“Yes… Yes… See here.” The man let his eyes meet hers fleetingly while he pulled back the sleeve on his right arm and moved his hand to a position beneath the countertop Decodscanner, activating an ultraviolet light which made visible a bar code tattooed on the back of his hand. At the same time, the number appeared on the INRU screen:

5DD197920-J

Looking at the screen, the checker pushed a button, and data was added to the display.

5D019792O-J IN5DR – O – CREDIT LINE – D

“You don’t have any drawing rights, Jew! Take these and put them back where they belong!”

The little man shrunk deeper into the oversized coat, although he made a meek protest. “Please… but madam… I…”

“Just get these things back on the shelves, Jew!” She shoved the items roughly at him, cursing beneath her breath. Her outburst drew the attention of others in the Product Center and caused the controller to stiffen to alertness from his position near the exit.

(This isn’t included here to urge the reader to get the novel, but to show how AI will almost certainly be advanced to a point that will control earth’s populations during the Tribulation. Amazon has the novel if you wish to get it.)

To get an idea of just how such a future awaits humankind when Antichrist is on the scene, we can look at the following news item that shows the developing technology that will one day be used to control:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reportedly intends on acquiring AI technology capable of scanning people’s eyes from several feet away.

According to 9NEWS, the agency issued a notice to purchase licenses for the iris recognition technology to aid in deportations and removals.

“The mobile software from BI2 Technologies can identify individuals from 10 to 15 feet away using a smartphone app, according to the the Massachusetts-based company. It then connects with a second product that includes a database,” 9NEWS wrote.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reportedly intends on acquiring AI technology capable of scanning people’s eyes from several feet away. (ICE Reportedly Plans to Obtain Eye-Scanning AI Technology to Aid Deportations, Danielle, Aug. 12, 2025, Rapture Ready News)

Everything we observe regarding Bible prophecy at the end of this Church Age seems to be already in place and/or developing quickly. Technology is the most rapidly advancing evidence of just how close we might be to Christ’s call to the Church.

AI must surely have been one of the things the angel was referring to when he told Daniel the prophet (Daniel 12) that knowledge will increase as the book is opened for those alive at the time to understand.

And, again, the Lord Jesus’ admonition must surely include the development of AI technology.

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)

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

God’s Chain Restraining End-times Tyrants

Mike Hile, my great friend of many years who has kept this old, blind purveyor of Bible prophecy between the ditches in our many travels, sent an interesting report and a suggestion I believe has tremendous relevance at this late hour of our fleeting age.

We hear from all the news reports and punditry almost hourly that World War III might break out at any moment. And, looking at the many hostilities around the globe, we could easily conclude that, indeed, all-out nuclear conflict is on the brink.

The Russian-Ukrainian war still rages. Israel is still dealing with the war-making of Hamas and the terrorist evil that comes against the Jewish state and people. Other smaller wars and rumors of war occur and threaten because of the likes of the North Korean dictator and other minor tyrants.

And of the major tyrants, recent news isn’t good. While China still threatens to invade Taiwan and wreak havoc in other regions, it seems for the moment to be more focused on keeping its communist dictatorship from imploding due to economic pressures–many of these being brought to bear by one Donald John Trump.

Russia, also under terrific economic pressures, threatening the dictatorship of Vladimir Putin with internal degradation, rather than backing down at Trump’s sanction actions, warns of the nuclear option.

My friend Mike weighed in on all this, reminding me of why he and I, and anyone who studies Bible prophecy from, particularly, the pre-Trib viewpoint, can look at this development with calm assurance. There will not be all-out nuclear World War III as long as we remain in this Age of Grace, also called the Church Age.

These two major tyrannical entities, we believe—China and Russia—are prophetically scheduled (that is, we are told through God’s foreknowledge, His omniscience) to fulfill their dastardly destructiveness at a time yet future—a time after all believers in Jesus Christ have been taken (paralambano) into the gathering we call the Rapture of the Church.

Russia, we believe through much intensive study by ourselves and others, will be the lead national force that takes the coalition of Israel-hating hordes toward Jerusalem in the Gog-Magog assault described by Ezekiel the prophet.

China, we are convinced, will be the king (or lead nation) of the massive force called the “kings of the east” that will destroy a third of the world’s population at the time of crossing the dried-up Euphrates River. This war-making venture is found in Revelation chapters 9 and 16.

So, with this as a prophetic backdrop, I insert part of my friend Mike Hile’s email to me that precipitated this commentary:

It is interesting how the Lord (Holy Spirit—The Restrainer) keeps China on a leash with weather problems (also Russia with war in Ukraine) so that they do not accelerate the prophetic process (think an evil thought) beyond what the Lord’s plan is and what He allows them to do. Look at the list of weather events at the end of this article that China has been dealing with.

At least 30 people died and more than 80 000 were evacuated in Beijing, China, after record rainfall from July 26–28, 2025, caused severe flooding and landslides.

Record-breaking rainfall from July 26–28, caused severe flooding across Beijing, leaving at least 30 people dead and forcing more than 80 000 to evacuate, Beijing Municipal Government officials confirmed on July 29. (By Reet Kaur Tuesday, July 29, 2025, https://watchers.news/2025/07/29/30-dead-80-000-evacuated-extreme-rainfall-beijing-china/)

Mike’s information went much more in-depth, making his point that China is being diverted in its wicked ambitions to control the world through its rapidly building military might.

The Trump administration is greatly inhibiting this evil regime from being able to complete its long-game plans to rule the world, through President’ Trump’s economic savoir faire. And this president is doing the same to stymie Vladimir Putin’s apparent desire to reconstruct the old Soviet Union—despite Russian saber-rattling recently in threatening nuclear war if America intervenes in their bloody war-making against Ukraine.

However, it is the God of Heaven who has the chains of restraint around the necks of the tyrants of Russia and of China–and around the necks of the other dictators of this violent world. We can be assured that that chains of restraint will stay firmly in place, so far as preventing all-out nuclear war, until God’s people, the Body of Christ—are removed to the shelter, Jesus, in the clouds of Glory.

You want to be part of that removal to the shelter when God’s judgment and wrath begin to fall on this rebellious world. Here is how to go to Christ when He calls the Church:

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

Days of Noah, Days of Lot Alert!

Ever since Donald J. Trump became president #45, I’ve presented in this column the conviction that his coming into such global power must have dramatic prophetic significance.

Specifically, I’ve expressed that Trump’s presidency might be relevant to what I believe is one of the most obvious prophecies for the time of the Rapture of the Church.

I believe and have often put forward that the words of Jesus about the days of Lot, as recorded in Luke 17:28–30, portrays precisely what things will be like when Christ steps onto the clouds of Glory and shouts “Come up here!”

That belief about social and cultural atmospherics at Christ’s next catastrophic intervention into the affairs of mankind has been framed as “business as usual.  In other words, things will be going along pretty much as usual, economically speaking, when the Church is called into eternity at the Rapture. People will be buying, selling, building, planting–doing all the things of normal life.

As a matter of fact, I believe Jesus’ words in that prophecy indicate that things, fiscally speaking, will be moving along at a better-than-usual pace.

Sodom and Gomorrah constituted the region in the Middle East that had to offer the richest lifestyles for inhabitants. Remember, Lot chose to go to Sodom when his Uncle Abraham offered him his choice of places to establish residence. Sodom was the lushest, most desirable area in the region.

Of course, Sodom and Gomorrah at the same time constituted the wickedest place on earth, according to Genesis chapter 19.

I draw the parallel of our society and culture today to that experienced by Lot in Sodom. Just as America’s economy is beginning to pick up at a reluctantly acknowledged pace of increase by some anti-Trump pundits, we have endured a corruptive and wicked societal and cultural degradation over the past months and years.

We all know about the woke insanity that was intended to fundamentally transform America, according to Barack Obama. Things became so insane that government was preventing parents from keeping the evil forces from mutilating their children to change their genders, even arresting parents in some instances.

And now, the much-hated Donald J. Trump is credited—reluctantly so by Trump-haters—with creating an economy that is on the verge of booming. For instance:

  • Wall Street sentiment is surging as the stock market reaches new record highs. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, UBS Global Wealth Management, and Barclays have all elevated their S&P 500 Index year-end targets—now predicting record gains to continue.
  • Consumer outlook is on the rise. With core inflation at its lowest level since March 2021, expectations for an inflation spike have “completely receded” as Americans grow increasingly confident about the economic outlook.
  • Price hikes never materialized. A new study found that prices for imported goods have actually declined faster than prices for overall goods — confirming that tariffs have had little effect on prices.
  • By all metrics, President Trump is overseeing another economic boom. Jobs numbers have trounced expectations for four straight months, gas prices remain at their lowest level in four years, and blue-collar wage growth has seen the largest increase in nearly 60 years. (https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/07/trust-in-trump-sentiment-surges-as-economy-booms)

And even the most ardent anti-Trump entertainment types have joined in praising the Trump economic phenomenon.

Bill Maher said he has been proven wrong about his belief that President Trump’s tariff plan was going to wreck the economy.

The veteran comic, during the latest episode of his “Club Random” podcast on Monday, said he agreed with those who projected the president’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, which were announced in early April, would result in the economy being “tanked” by the Fourth of July.

“I would have thought—and I gotta own it—that these tariffs were going to [expletive deleted] sink this economy by this time—and they didn’t,” Maher said.

A moment earlier, he noted how the stock market has reached record highs and that it does not look like the country is on the verge of a 21st Century Great Depression when he drives around town.

His comments stand out, considering he originally lambasted the tariffs in April. At the time, Maher said on his HBO show “Real Time” that using tariffs to try and get a better trade deal with China was a “completely a–backwards” approach. (“Bill Maher Says He Was Wrong About Trump Tariffs: ‘I Gotta Own It’,” Sean Burch,  July 28, 2025)

Since Maher reversed his course on the Trump economic successes, the president’s trade deals and their achievements with China, the EC, and many other such fiscally amazing deals based upon tariff dynamics continue to perplex his political enemies and astound the financial experts.

With the “days of Lot” prophecy by Jesus plainly appearing like our own day, the other foretelling by the Lord cannot be missed either. Jesus said that as it was during the days of Noah, so will it be in the day of the coming of the Son of man (Luke 17:26–27).

The primary characteristics that marked that antediluvian time were total moral and genetic corruption. One other thing that made God say He was sorry He had made mankind was the blood-drenched violence throughout the world.

Our generation is, in my estimation, becoming more and more like that antediluvian age. Just this morning as I compose this commentary, there have been reports in a single newscast of multiple shootings throughout America and the world–murderous rampages that have no apparent causes the authorities can figure.

The liberal news reports call these “gun violence,” but it is “people violence,” and it is saturating all societies throughout the world.

There is but one answer to the days-of-Noah-and-Lot characteristics from which this world suffers. The answer is the Person who warned that these societal and cultural characteristics would be prevalent when He next intervenes into the affairs of humanity. The Lord Jesus Christ will suddenly call all believers–all who are righteous in God’s holy eyes—to Himself.

When the Rapture of the Church happens, judgment will begin falling on a world of rebellious, violence-filled people. This righteous act by God must take place in order to bring His Son Jesus to rule on a restored planet where righteousness reigns.

You don’t want to be left behind when Christ’s call is heard by all who are Christians. Here is how to be sure you will hear that call:

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

Revisited—Zola Promoted!

Author’s note: In thinking on the many Heaven-sent friends in ministry I’ve known over my many years, my spirit is convicted to once again post a memory of an especially gifted and powerful brother for the great cause of Christ.

I wanted this reposted commentary to be relevant to these times and wanted it to be about a recognized personage that most of you will, I believe, remember well because of his profound presence through his TV ministry Zola Levitt Presents.

Nothing from the past could be more relevant today than matters involving God’s chosen people, the Jews, and His chosen nation, Israel. Zola Levitt personified God’s love for His nation and people. It is with a most-beloved memory that I present again this commentary about someone I look so forward to being again with one eternal day.

This article was originally posted on April 24, 2006.

Zola Promoted!

It was at the Sherlock Bali prophecy conference at Branson, Missouri, a number of summers ago. Several of us were standing around the hotel lobby just outside the main conference room where the lectures and presentations were taking place. My great friend, Zola Levitt, finished his presentation and was making his way through the lobby.

Someone of our group had just asked where in the Bible it explains when the Old Testament saints will be resurrected. About that time, Zola grabbed me and, smiling, with that little laugh he always had, answered the question instantly, when one of us asked it directly of him. He went into detail. He was tremendously qualified to go into detail. There were few with the knowledge Zola had. Then, when he was asked when he might be coming out with another book, he patted my back, and said, “Ask Terry, he’s my publisher.” (Zola wrote many chapters for me in my books of compilation.)

That bit of kindness, I assure, could have caused a mighty swelled head–if it hadn’t caused such a lump in my throat, from the emotion in my humbled heart. That’s just the kind of friend Zola was, and I loved him very much. And will, for all eternity. He was and is my brother forever.

Zola, of course, died [April 19, 2006] after a brief battle with one of the most virulent forms of cancer. He had been diagnosed in February of 2006.

When asked about the cancer that–barring a decision by the Lord to perform a miraculous physical healing—would end his life on earth, Zola, with that typical humorous chuckle, said, “If the Lord wants to give me a promotion, I certainly don’t object.” He wasn’t being flippant. He meant it with all his heart.

Zola received his promotion last Wednesday. Now his assignments will far exceed even the things to do for God’s service he was assigned while in this mortal flesh. His gifts were far beyond those given most of us. Perhaps that was because God knew His servant, Zola, would make full use of what he was given.

Zola Levitt certainly did that, and the world is a more eloquent realm for his having performed his services as a very special royal ambassador.

Iran Leader Uses Prophetic Language

Thinking about Zola made the recent vitriolic talk by the Iranian leader all the more significant. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ranted about the thing Zola Levitt loved most, second only to His Lord and Savior—the nation Israel. About God’s chosen people, the Iranian tyrant said: “The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm” (“Iran Leader: Israel Will Be Annihilated,” April 14, 2006, Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press writer).

Those who follow the Zola Levitt Presents TV program or “The Levitt Letter” know Zola many times addressed Israel as the “fig tree.” He specifically dealt with the following prophecy, given by the Lord Jesus, Himself:

Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors (Matthew 24:32–33).

Those of us who recognize Israel as the key indicator of the lateness of the hour know that far from being “a rotten, dried tree,” like the Iranian dictator proclaims, the nation Israel is putting forth the new growth of its modern nationhood. It is the most productive nation in the Middle East by far and takes second place to no country in the world, so far as contributing to the advancement of civilization is concerned.

So, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vile words are the antithesis of God’s prophetic truth. Israel is, rather than a dried-up tree, a live, vibrant one that is the center of the world of nations, especially from the viewpoint of international media and the international community. The Iranian president’s declaration that Israel “will be eliminated by one storm” will one day be proven satanically false by a Persian tyrant’s own forces. We see the prophecy concerning this in the following:

Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: And thou shalt say,

I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land. (Ezekiel 38:9–12)

We are told what will happen in this “storm” against God’s chosen people:

And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone” (Ezekiel 38:18–22)

The modern-day Persian leader, Ahmadinejad, is deceived and deluded by the same creature that leads all who oppose God in the direction opposite of the Lord’s ways. My great friend Zola knew there is only one Way, and that is Jesus Christ, who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

That’s why the newly promoted Zola Levitt, even before his elevation to a higher position, always ended his time before us with words about the Prince of Peace: “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.”

Big Brotherism

We’re witnessing an assault—including that of the most violent sort—by communist-style revolutionary evil in America. It all smacks of being directly out of the Karl Marx playbook. The young candidate for mayor of New York City, who has basically sewn up the Democrat nomination, is currently the chief archetype example of this radical leftist assault.

Marxism, communism, Nazism, fascism…these evoke thoughts of tyrants and dictatorships. Well, Marxism and communism might be wishful utopianism to some within political ideology circles in these days of movement toward socialism. But for the most part, thoughts of these isms generate study-related memories of the likes of Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Mussolini, and other humanity-destroying beasts.

The matters involved within the recollection include revolution, war, torture, gulag, genocide—any systems of governing that should be avoided at all costs. Fear and apprehension over dictatorships were the very reason the United States Constitution was written. Specifically, the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, spells out the rights of each citizen that government cannot usurp. These rights, the shapers of the Constitution meticulously wrote, are “inalienable.” That is, they are given by God, thus can’t be taken away by people in government.

Another ism has developed that threatens our inalienable rights. Its ominous construction continues at a torrid pace and will ultimately be worse than any of the aforementioned isms. As a matter of fact, it will be all those tyrannical nightmares rolled up into one system of utter decimation. George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, authors of well-known novels, played upon fear of such governments in their futuristic books, 1984 and Brave New World. The swiftness of developments lately makes their works of fiction look ever more prophetic.

Orwell used London and Britain in 1984 as the genesis of a world of ruthless control. “Big Brother is watching you” is a phrase the author used with grave effect. It continues to be used by those who warn of the exponentially encroaching surveillance technologies. Again, Orwell’s vision was almost prophetic in the biblical sense.

A friend who is a well-known journalist in Great Britain emailed me a number of years ago with the following troubling, though fascinating, information:

I was putting together some slides for one of my presentations yesterday and discovered that Britain has 1.5 times as many surveillance cameras as China! We now have cameras that talk to people, bossing them around in the streets! They are being installed in twenty cities. They are also getting listening devices. Some places also have face-monitoring systems so they can scan for people the authorities are interested in.

The average Briton is now filmed about three hundred times per day! We also have camera cars patrolling the streets, filming whatever takes their fancy and harassing motorists.

We are years ahead of America in plans to put GPS systems in cars, etc. They also want even more speed cameras, speed-averaging cameras—you name it. All of them are being linked into one enormous grid. The records of journeys are logged and kept. As you drive down the main highways, your number plates are scanned every few miles. Our son and I spent a day in the control room where all this information is monitored—an astonishing operation, with screens showing all the main roads. The EU is now planning to store all e-mails, log every web page visited, every phone call, etc., which Britain has done for years.

My friend told me—has told the world—that cameras are trained on his home from right across the street, atop a telephone-type pole.

It isn’t hard to imagine what that surveillance system is like these years later with the exponential developments involving AI (artificial intelligence).

It’s just a matter of time until all of England is under a surveillance system much more sophisticated and intrusive than our 1940s author, George Orwell, could have imagined. All of Europe is following suit, and we can see developments hourly of evidence that America is coming into Big Brotherism’s orbit of control.

The whole world is on track for super-sophisticated tracking. And a familiar name pops through the inky blackness of cyberspace to make this a readily observable fact: google.com.

Who in the world knows as much about you and your private thoughts as Google? That’s the question Katherine Albrecht, radio talk-show host and one-time spokeswoman for Startpage, a search engine that protects user privacy, posed to American Internet surfers a decade and a half ago.

“It would blow people’s minds if they knew how much information the big search engines have on the American public,” she told WND. “In fact, their dossiers are so detailed they would probably be the envy of the KGB” (Chelsea Schilling, “Life with Big Brother: Killer Way to Slay the Google Beast!” WorldNetDaily, 1/27/2010).

Albrecht detailed how Google and other search engines gather and maintain dossiers on everyone who uses the service. Despite legislative efforts in Congress to regulate Google and other such intrusive cyberspace entities, the information continues to be released to governments—for example, to America’s Homeland Security Agency—when information is requested. It seems the Bill of Rights is cast aside, even with efforts to legislate against invasive intrusion. Such ability to collect data on their victims was merely the dreams of people like those in Stalin’s secret service and Hitler’s Gestapo.

Albrecht said Americans unwittingly share their most private thoughts with search engines, serving up snippets of deeply personal information about their lives, habits, troubles, health concerns, preferences, and political leanings.

“We’re essentially telling them our entire life stories—stuff you wouldn’t even tell your mother—because you are in a private room with a computer,” she said (ibid.).

Big Brotherism, of course—in our view at Rapture Ready—is another way of defining the ideology that is heading up the drive toward establishing the regime of Antichrist, found in Revelation 13:16–18. With the government groping for control in ways that totally disregard the wishes of US citizenry, more often than not throwing constitutional safeguards to the winds of political expediency, the ideology becomes ever more manifest through our daily headlines.

All of this shows how near we must be to the Tribulation hour—thus, we’re that much closer to Christ calling His Church to be with Him (John 14:1–3; 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17).

As believers in Jesus Christ and believers in God’s prophetic Word, and knowing how all this points to the any-moment call of the Lord to His Church in the Rapture, we should be ever more faithful in warning those who will be left behind if they don’t accept the salvation offered by Christ.

Here is the message so vital at this late hour of this Age of Grace.

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

Strange Winds of Deception Indeed!

Jesus’ first words of warning about the end of the age and the birth pangs He called the “beginning of sorrows” were about deception and deceivers.

Nothing has been more on my mind lately than the deception going on. Of course, this last-days symptom the Lord warned about has been going on throughout human history. Satan began this end-times plague in the Garden of Eden with the seduction of Eve and the fall of Adam.

Every society since that point has been deeply immersed in this luciferic evil. But recently the deception has taken on new levels, in my thinking. Perhaps it’s superfluous to even interject it here, but the deception involved has significantly heightened my irritation as I see things unfolding within the area in which I’ve invested a certain amount of trust.

I shouldn’t be surprised at the deception because it emanates from the arena of human government. And it isn’t so much the deception, but the people who seem to be perpetrating the deception—the deceivers involved—that increase my irritation.

Promises made by those who said if elected they would root out and expose to the American people all the wickedness involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s Lolita Express child-sex trafficking activities were broken—at least they seem to have been so at this point.

When President Donald J. Trump answered a reporter’s question about why the list of those involved hasn’t been released, I knew the heinous matter was to be dismissed. The matter was done. There was no list. No penalty would be paid by the child rapists—who, before the election, were said to be high-profile public figures in many cases.

The president said in a tone of consternation something like, “Are you still talking about that?” He then added that there were so many important things going on—like the Israeli-Iran and Middle East peace efforts—and the administration accomplishments have been so many that to continue to dwell on the Epstein matter was no longer something to be concerned about.

That was totally unlike any Trump answer, so I knew we were being deceived. I, being a Trump supporter because I believe he is God’s man for this late hour of the age, was disappointed and highly irritated. I feel betrayed in this matter because it touches the most innocent among us—the children, whom Jesus Himself held so close, saying that Heaven belongs to those who are like children (Matthew 18:3–5 and Matthew 19:14).

Even through my disappointment and irritation, I continue to hold out hope that there are legitimate reasons—ones I’m not privy to—for this apparent betrayal. Maybe there is information that must be withheld for the moment, but that will be made clear in due course.

Regardless, this is a most important concern, Mr. President. Heaven will not simply dismiss it as secondary to other governmental pursuits, no matter their level of priority within human-government consideration. The abominable things committed must be dealt with; we cannot and will not simply look away and begin concentrating on things even like world peace and ignore this satanically driven wickedness.

Deception is something Christians must be ever more aware of in this darkening time as history’s most terrible era approaches. We are to be light in this moment, no matter who, in their corruption, must be unveiled in God’s revealing light.

The deception and deceivers are beginning to be unleashed by Satan and his hellish forces, just as we take account of all I mentioned just above. Doctrines of devils are on the cusp of invading even the Christian heart of America. And the following evidence found in the excerpt below should alert those who “watch,” as Jesus commanded (Mark 13:37), to guard against the demonic winds that are blowing.

Technology that Antichrist will no doubt use to delude and control people during the Tribulation–AI, for example—is nearing its full potential.

Should pastors be using AI to write their sermons? I recently saw a website for a company that advertises itself as “Your AI-Powered Sermon Assistant” designed to help pastors “create better sermons in less time” using artificial intelligence.

A video on the website claims you can just type a word (like “forgiveness”) into the sermon builder tool and “instantly have a sermon ready to preach” and if you like the sermon “copy it, paste it, you’re ready to preach.” In other words, as a pastor you don’t even need to go to the Bible yourself to prep for your sermon—AI will do it all for you.

There are many good uses for AI—this is certainly not one of them! Yes, perhaps AI could be useful in pulling some cross-references, finding related passages, or pulling quotes to consider from church fathers (although resources to do all of these things already exist). But using AI to write sermons strips away a pastor’s wrestling with and studying of God’s Word. When a member of such a pastor’s flock comes to him for wisdom, counsel, and shepherding, he won’t know God’s Word to apply it properly!

And pastors surely should be praying (as any teaching pastor should do) for God’s guidance and wisdom as they build sermons. Be assured, AI doesn’t pray for any wisdom from God! (“‘Copy, Paste, Preach’: Should Pastors Be Using Artificial Intelligence To Write Sermons?” By Ken Ham, July 8, 2025)

Wicked, corruptive winds of evil that divert from God’s wisdom and truth are beginning to blow in increasing volume and strength. Let us stand against such by putting on the whole armor of God as instructed in Ephesians 6: 12. We must “be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace” (Hebrews 13:9) “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4: 14).

Too many pastors, as we’ve examined many times, won’t look into the issues, events, and immorality that saturate society and culture. They are afraid that addressing such matters will adversely affect church attendance and other aspects of ministry. We’ve charged that many won’t put in the time to truly explore what God’s Word has to say about these times that are growing dark under the quickly spreading shadows of the coming Tribulation.

This lack of attentiveness to where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline perhaps adds to the ease with which such abominable activity as child-sex trafficking can thrive and destroy. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and His controlling hand on this fallen world, let us oppose the strange winds of evil as He directs. We can then look forward to hearing the words, “Well done, good, faithful servant.”

Jeremiah 49 Elam Destruction

Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel, has perhaps framed my thinking in this commentary.

He says that US B-2 bombers “need to visit Yemen” after Houthis missile intercepted.

“We thought we were done with missiles coming to Israel, but Houthis just lit one up over us in Israel,” the ambassador noted after the first missile attack since the Iran war. “The law of Yemen is the law of Tehran,” he wrote. “After we strike the head of the serpent in Tehran, we will also strike the tail of the serpent in Yemen” (Rapture Ready News, July 2, 2025).

Huckabee’s words validate that the 12-Day War between Israel and Iran, as it has been termed, isn’t over. This is no surprise to any Bible student who is familiar with God’s prophetic Word. The war with Israel’s surrounding enemies has been waged for thousands of years, and we know from Bible prophecy that the conflict hasn’t come to an end with the B-2 bombers dropping multiple bunker-buster bombs down the center of the mountain hiding the Iranian Fordow nuclear facility.

The leak to CNN and others from out of the Department of Defense claiming that the huge ordnance sent into that facility three hundred feet beneath the mountain didn’t finish off the Iranian nuclear program, whether true or not, has created a strong sense that there’s more to be done to end the Iranian regime’s nuclear-weapons ambitions.

The leakers inside the DOD, who are being pursued by Defense Secretary Pete Hegset and by the Trump administration, are thought to be of the deep-state variety. These, it is charged, want never-ending war, particularly in the Middle East, to feed the greed of the so-called military-industrial complex. (That, plus the desire to bring down the presidency of Donald J. Trump.)

Some who study Bible prophecy from the pre-Trib perspective have suggested that this strike to rid Iran of its nuclear program was the fulfillment of the following Jeremiah 49 prophecy:

The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come. For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them even my fierce anger, saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them: And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the LORD. But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 49:34–39)

The prophecy certainly seems to fit, in some respects, with what the Israel’s IDF and America’s B-2 attacks wrought in Iran.

My good friend Bill Salus, whom I believe has a Holy Spirit-directed focus on the evil in the Middle East against God’s chosen nation, Israel, wrote several years ago with uncanny accuracy about the Jeremiah 49 prophecy.

In this prophecy Jeremiah declares that a time would arrive when the Lord would be furious with the leadership of Iran. We know this because Jeremiah 49:38 says that the kings and the princes will be destroyed. This most likely represents the Iranian government in place when the prophecy occurs. The Lord would never destroy good kings and princes, so we can safely presume that bad Iranian leadership is the problem.

An example of good Iranian leadership was King Cyrus the Great of Persia who lived between 600-529 BC. Isaiah 44-45 predicted his arrival on the world scene a century before Cyrus was even born. Isaiah called Cyrus by name and confirmed that he was anointed by the Lord. If Iran’s current supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, was a good leader like Cyrus, then Jeremiah 49:34-39 would not be a NOW prophecy. The Lord would be pleased with the Ayatollah, rather than furious with him.

But why is the Lord fiercely angry with the government of Iran at the time of the prophecy? The reason is because Iran wants to launch something powerful somewhere. This is why the Lord will break the bow at the foremost of Iran’s might in order to prevent such a lethal launch.

But where does Iran want to launch something powerful? (The Now Prophecies by Bill Salus, Prophecy Depot Publishing, 2016)

Despite the Israeli Defense Force reportedly taking out almost all the Iranian regime’s leadership, and most of the nuclear scientists involved with the weapons program, and American bombers “totally obliterating” the Fordow facility, according to President Trump and Secretary Hegset, there is growing evidence that Iran is back at it. That is, enough of Iran’s nuclear program survived to begin anew the development of nuclear bombs, some sources say.

Satellite and other surveillance apparently observed a number of eighteen-wheeler type trucks moving from the Fordow facility just before the attack by the B-2 bombers. This indicates, to those who are concerned, that the ninety-something canisters of enriched uranium were removed to another location or locations. That nuclear material, the sources say, was almost at the point of being usable to construct the nuclear weapons the regime is determined to affix onto the nose of their ballistic missiles.

Whatsoever the case, it’s obvious that the total destruction indicated in the Jeremiah 49 prophecy against Elam hasn’t yet been fulfilled. The inhabitants haven’t been totally dispatched from the area. The nuclear fallout that many of us think is part of this prophecy that will scatter the inhabitants of Elam far and wide hasn’t occurred. Not yet.

My thinking, as I wrote above, as framed by Ambassador Mike Huckabee’s words on the need perhaps for the B-2s to again be used, is that Iran will again be struck in powerful attacks. With the brilliance of Israeli intelligence and the sophisticated technologies to detect movement of assets, one must presume that if the canisters of enriched uranium or whatever was transported to safety, Israel—and America—know with precision where they now are.

I very strongly suspect that at the appropriate time, if these nuclear materials exist, they will be hit. Could this be when the full extent of this prophecy about Elam’s destruction reaches the beginning of its fulfillment?

    ***Please donate to this Gospel Witness effort in Pakistan ***

Dear Rapture Ready family, my translated Sunday School-size book “Prophecy Power: Strength From God To Face Your Future,” has been reprinted in Pakistan, thanks to a generous donation by a friend of the RR ministry. Just as we are so grateful to each of you who have contributed in past efforts, we are most grateful to him, and thankful to our Lord for that funding so the book can go forth with God’s word to those so in need in that sin-darkened area of the world.

The Pakistani minister who translated my book into his native language must travel far and wide –and at great personal risk due to the hatred of Christianity, as you know.

There is a great need for travel and other expenses in the preaching, teaching and distribution of this book.

The pastor reports much positive response to the efforts, as the people are hungry for good news. And the Gospel is the Ultimate Good News!

So please, if the Lord is speaking to you in spirit, donate to this important Great Commission cause so near the end of this quickly fleeting Age of Grace.

Again, I have no doubt that great will be your Heavenly Rewards.

To donate, please send to my attention.

I’m sorry, but checks are the only option this time in this effort. Please make them payable to me,Terry James, putting on the line at the bottom the words: “For Pakistan”.

Please send to:

Attention: Terry

Rapture Ready

P.O. Box 969

Benton, AR 72018