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!

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)

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)

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.”

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.”

Authors note: While awaiting President Donald J. Trump’s decision on ridding Iran’s Islamic regime of its nuclear weapons-making capability, I researched through past commentaries I’ve written on this troubling topic. There were a number of such articles, but the one I chose, I think, portrays just how long the threat has been allowed to build to this moment of absolute necessity of eliminating a sure and present danger—a danger not only to Israel and America, but to the entire world.

Now the president has made the decision that will have resounding ramifications throughout the world. Iran’s nuclear facilities have been totally eliminated in the strikes Saturday night, June 21, 2025.

However, none of the usual pundits can answer: What happens next? Will there be regime change? There are no answers coming from the so-called experts.

There is no uncertainty from this quarter. It’s not that I am super-smart or prescient. But I read the future that is found only in the Holy Word of our God.

The ”Persian” evil is not finished. Iran is destined to join the Gog-Magog coalition of Ezekiel chapters 38-39.

Because of Bible prophecy, I’m prepared to offer with a significant degree of certainty the opinion that this action–righteous though it is in ridding Israel and the world of an immediate nuclear threat from this wicked regime, has started a process that will very quickly push Iran further into the arms of the likes of Russia, Turkey, and others that will constitute the Gog-Magog coalition. 

The following was posted on Raptureready.com August 23, 2010.

My thought in reposting here is to show that no matter how things look from human perspective, God is in full control at all times. He is restraining and has the satanically inspired forces of evil often in derision as promised in Psalm 2.

The dangers examined in that article still exist, and the Lord continues to restrain and be in full control. So, those who know the Lord and watch prophetic developments as we are Instructed by Jesus (Mark 13:37 and Luke 21:28) can be assured that God’s promise to take believers home to Glory is imminent, while witnessing “all these things begin[ning] to come to pass.”

Israel Here to Stay?

Originally posted August 23, 2010

My inbox and the news from Bible prophecy circles bulge with talk of Israel’s almost-certain attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The scuttlebutt has been coming hard and fast since 2007 or even earlier. Each summer was going to bring an assault by Israel,and all-out Mideast war was sure to ensue.

As I write this, the predictions are at fever pitch. John Bolton, former American UN ambassador, declared that Israel had until Saturday, August 21, [2010.] to take out Iran’s nuclear plants, or risk—by their bombing—spreading radiation contamination across the area and into the Persian Gulf.

The flood of emails proclaims that this is it. The region is going to go up in flames, with Russia coming to the aid of Iran, because the Russians are so heavily invested in the Iranian nuclear program. There will be Russian nuclear technicians installing the radioactive rods necessary to fuel and power up the facility. They will be in harm’s way, and Moscow–from which Gog of Magog prophetic infamy will come—will not abide such an insult. The thought frequently conjectured: Could this be the beginning of Ezekiel 38-39—the Gog-Magog attack?

Israel can’t afford, the argument goes, to allow the facility to come online. This, because the spent fuel rods will provide plutonium and other byproducts to give Iran the materials from which they can produce nuclear weapons. That’s a simplification of the matter, but should suffice, I hope, for making my point.

This attack by Israel will be, the emailers apparently believe, prophecy being fulfilled. This preemptive attack by the Jewish state upon the land of ancient Persia surely will, the messages exclaim, instigate a chain reaction of events. These events will bring the Gog-Magog attack, and perhaps Isaiah 17:1 will also be fulfilled. Some even believe it will provoke the long-pondered-over Psalm 83 war supposed by many to be in the offing.

I could have waited until Saturday, August 21, had passed to write this piece, but chose not to do so. My reason is primarily that I don’t believe this is the time for the Gog-Magog War, or for the proposed Psalm 83 conflict, should it be an actual prophecy. Exigencies just aren’t ripe for producing the horrific results such conflicts as the Gog-Magog, or even the supposed Psalm 83, conflagrations would inflict. At least, that’s my view from my present perspective.

More than that, I believe that’s the way it is presented from the perspective of Bible prophecy. One thing I do think is an almost 100-percent certainty is that Israel isn’t going anywhere. Iranian tyrant Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s promises to erase Israel from the face of the Middle East and the world are empty threats. It will never happen—not even with the help of the Gog nation, Russia.

Why do I say “an almost 100-percent certainty”?

This goes to the argument of those who say it is possible that Israel could be removed from its land yet again. Then, all would have to once more rearrange in order to get the prophetic indicators into place like they are now. God might allow Israel’s enemies to again take the Jews from the Promised Land because of their unbelief.

Zola Levitt and I were once discussing the hatred of the Arab nations for Israel. I mentioned that the late Dr. J. Vernon McGee didn’t think the Jews being back in the land was necessarily a major signal of the nearness to Christ’s return. My friend Zola, a very passionate man when it came to Israel, got pretty exercised, as I recall. He said he and Dr. McGee “got into it” over this subject.

Zola said Dr. McGee said it could be that Israel might yet be removed from the land of promise. Zola didn’t like that at all, so they had a rather lively discussion on the matter—on camera. I said, “Well, Dr. McGee [who went to be with the Lord in 1988 at age 84] knows now, that’s for sure.” That seemed to calm Zola a bit.

Dr. McGee would no doubt agree that Israel is back in the land to stay, if he could have watched developments of the years since he left the planet. Israel being: the center of most all controversy so far as issues of war and peace are concerned; pressured by the international community to give up God’s land; at the center of a forced, phony peace process, with Iran (ancient Persia) threatening from the north. How could he or anyone being privy to such facts say otherwise?

Whatever happened last Saturday—as you read this on August 23 or later—Israel isn’t going anywhere. So, I’ll change my “almost” to an absolute 100-percent certainty.

Although Israel—and the world—is in for some terrible times ahead, I firmly believe we have the very Word of God about the current and future disposition of His chosen nation. Israel is here to stay.

And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God. (Amos 9:14–15)

We’re living in a time of prophetic dichotomy. That is, we’re in a moment very similar to a time Bible prophecy says things will be like when humanity experiences the end of this Age of Grace.

This dichotomy—a significant difference between two things that otherwise should match up—is that things on the economic front seem headed in a positive direction. All the while, things tending toward nuclear war and global cataclysm seem to be surging into the most terrible time of human history.

Despite reports of developing economic collapse and shortages amounting to famine-like conditions, reports to the contrary tell of ports full of shipments and shelves full of products here in America. At the same time, there’s no getting around it: The rumors of war—and war itself—seemingly can’t be avoided. That war would, the experts say, quickly make the leap to the nuclear variety. Life on earth will, if this happens, mean the end of humankind at some point.

Jesus Himself has told of such a scenario. He said if He didn’t return to put an end to the destruction, no “flesh” would “be saved” (Matthew 24:22). The Lord also said people will be buying, selling, marrying, planting, and building when He is next revealed and intervenes into the affairs of wicked humankind. He said it will be business as usual—not all-out nuclear war or world-rending famine—at the moment of that intervention (Luke 17:28–30).

While this president is, I believe, about to be instrumental in producing an economic boom in business like the conditions the cultural immorality-vexed Lot was experiencing in his days in Sodom, at the same time. we seem to be poised for nuclear extinction. We indeed face a genuine dichotomy!

In regard to the building movement toward war, a recent news item adds enlightenment to the predicament:

[British Labour PM Sir Keir] Starmer, Macron, new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, plus the unelected EU apparatus under Ursula von der Leyen all seem to be avid for war with Russia. They are insane, of course, and not just because their combined militaries are joke. They stirred the pot badly over the weekend, helping Ukraine carry out drone attacks against Russian air defense bases as far afield as Siberia and outside Murmansk, way up north on the Barents Sea. The bold attack was apparently carried out after a year-and-a-half of planning, using tractor-trailer trucks to transport concealed drones in on-board shipping containers deep into Russia. The drones took out Russian aircraft enabled to launch cruise missiles and long-range radar detection planes, all tolled estimated at $7-billion damage. The gambit would have required NATO satellite targeting assistance.

You might recall a week ago, Chancellor Merz declared that Germany gave Ukraine “permission” to carry out long-range strikes into Russia. Smooth move, Friedrich. He is, apparently, unaware that in so-doing he automatically gave Russia permission to strike deep into Germany as well, which Russia has not yet done. Instead, it replied with missile strikes against Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kyiv, little more than a routine smack-back, but perhaps an ominous prelude to worse in the offing…

Russia wants to conclude this war. Mr. Trump wants to end it, too. Mr. Zelenskyy, maybe not so much, since his fate is only secure as long as the war keeps going and he is not overthrown by his own wing-men.

Neither the US nor the NATO / EU axis will participate in the Istanbul peace talks directly, but you can suppose that Merz, Macron, Starmer, and von der Leyen are looking to stir-the-pot in the background. You might conclude that war is all they’ve got left as summer draws near and each of them face a European population primed to explode at its feckless, noxious, incompetent leadership. I would expect much more fighting in the streets of the European capitals going forward, and falling governments. It could prove hard to put these Humpty-dumpties back together, with years of political chaos following. (“Bedlam Is in The Air,” Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge, authored by James Howard Kunstler, The Widening Gyre, June 2, 2025)

So, it looks as if believers during this Age of Grace (Church Age) are confronted by what would, by the secular world of unregenerate minds, be considered a biblical contradiction. But since God cannot lie, and Jesus Christ is God, there can be no contradiction. There is an answer to the seeming prophetic dichotomy.

The explanation for this seeming division of Bible prophecy—on the one hand, business as usual, and on the other, world-rending catastrophism—is given by Jesus in His “days of Lot” prophecy.

The division—the prophetic dichotomy—is foretold and explained by Jesus in, again, what I believe is the most relevant of all prophecies for this exact moment.

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:28–30)

Here is Jesus’ explanation: “But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.”

The impending, world-rending war—the Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads at present—is on heavenly hold until a certain condition is met. All believers in Jesus Christ—the only righteousness God sees on this fallen planet—must be, as was righteous Lot, removed before all-out war and destruction can begin falling in judgment.

God’s Word—which is Jesus’ Word, because He is the Word (John 1: 1)—tells us, through the Apostle Paul, the truth wrapped up in this moment of removal. They are the words of our Lord when He presented a mystery to His immediate disciples while sitting atop the Mount of Olives:

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

The Holy Spirit commissioned the Apostle Paul to reveal that “mystery” Jesus told His immediate disciples that day.

Paul, saying, “Behold, I show you a mystery” (1 Corinthians 15: 5), thus prophesied the following:

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)

There can be little doubt in the spiritual hearts and minds of believers who truly study God’s prophetic word and genuinely observe these times in which we live that our removal, our rescue—like Lot’s from Sodom—as Jesus and Paul said, must be at any moment.

Paul’s final word upon describing that Rapture promise was:

Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:18)

Let us “look up and lift up our heads, for our redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28). Thus we can find, and offer to others, great comfort in these exciting days of anticipation of Christ’s Words: “Come up here!”