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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.”