I preface this commentary with an acknowledgement that rumors have it that the Trump administration might insist that Israel tear down some of its walls that separate that tiny nation from its blood-vowed enemies–thus to put together “the deal of the century.”

This, of course, brings to mind the prophet Ezekiel’s foretelling that Israel will be a ”land of unwalled villages” at the time of the Gog-Magog attack. We will address that at another time, if true that this administration will make that wall removal part of “the deal. And I assure the assessment here, if this turns out to be fact, will not be gentle.

Most people as young as 20, and certainly those of us of sufficient age in the late 1980s, know the source of the phrase. President Ronald Reagan demanded, while standing at the Berlin Wall in Germany: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

The reference, of course, was to that hideous, concrete and iron edifice that scarred the middle of Berlin, separating the western part of the city from the east.

The purpose of the Berlin Wall was not to keep people out of Soviet-dominated East Berlin. It was to keep east Berliners from escaping from the dehumanizing, communist regime that was the puppet of Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev’s Soviet Union.

U.S. President John F. Kennedy had in 1961 stood near the same spot as Reagan and pointed for all the world to see and hear the evil represented by the wall. President Kennedy  said to anyone who wanted to see the difference between the free world and the iron curtain regimes: “Let them come to Berlin!”

Today we are inundated every day by mainstream news reports that try to equate that enslaving wall those decades ago to the wall or barrier on the southern U.S. border that President Donald J. Trump is determined to build.

That wall, of course, is to keep invaders from coming into America, not to keep the American people from leaving this nation. And, make no mistake, those who want to enter America illegally are invaders, not innocent people just seeking a better life.

It is true that many among the invaders are innocent in age and motive. These are unwitting tools of those who profit from the invasion.

The evil, criminal forces that are expert at piercing security at the borders profit monetarily. Those among the deep state and “progressive” political elements within the U.S. are intent on gaining greatly and permanently from the invasion. They want the wall torn down where it exists and kept from construction in areas Mr. Trump is determined to fortify against invasion. These political entities–both in government and in media–want as many illegals as possible to keep pouring into the country in order to procure a permanent underclass that will be forever beholden to them. They want voters who will keep them in power in perpetuity.

And this brings us to the crux of the subject of “walls” I wish to address. The tearing down of walls is one of the most relevant of all of the end-times signs.

Worldwide, those of the “progressive” mindset–the deep-state types, if you will–are determined to tear down, on a global scale, all walls that separate humanity. They want all borders erased. They want a return to Babel like times reported in Genesis chapter 11, so that, as Vladimir Lenin dreamed and John Lennon wrote and sang, all the world will be as one.

They are striving mightily to achieve this worldwide condition. The election of Donald Trump to the presidency dramatically disrupted their plans. They are in an absolute rage because of the disruption. It is destined to grow much more intense in every respect.

Satan wants a global platform from which to launch his man of sin–Antichrist. And, there is no doubt about it. According to Bible prophecy, this will be accomplished. The world will pay a horrendous price for welcoming such a tearing down of borders–the walls of separation between nations- that the Lord of Heaven commanded, following Nimrod’s one-world attempt on the plains of Shinar.

The effort is right in our faces, although much of America hasn’t been given much information about the attempt to set up this neo-Tower of Babel. The American and international news media have done their best to not alarm the American public with their plans to control every aspect of life in their planning for their new world order.

We haven’t heard much about the World Government Summit, except in places like Rapture Ready columns by writer/observers like my great friend and authority on global, end-times issues, Daymond Duck.

Here’s a brief summary of what has just taken place in regard to the World Government Summit.

Top globalists are coming out of the closet. Thousands of leading globalists, communists, Islamists and others from around the world converged on the Arabian Peninsula this month for the World Government Summit. Their goal: promote technocratic globalism and plot the future of what they often call their “New World Order.” Senior officials from the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union, Communist China, central banks, and even the Trump administration showed up to mingle with heads of state and advocates of Islamic Sharia law from across the region. Even Pope Francis delivered a message. As usual, despite top U.S. media outlets partnering with the summit, the establishment press in the United States largely failed to inform Americans about it. (“World Government Summit,” Globalists Push UN Agenda 2030, by Alex Newman, taken from news source posted on SkyWatch TV website)

So-called Christendom, represented by Catholic Pope Francis, has signed on, joining with representatives of Islam and many other religionists, invoking the name of God to give His blessings. We can only surmise, with great trepidation, who this god is whose blessings they seek.

These are UN goals according to examination of the World Government Summit by the writer of the report: national and global wealth redistribution, government control over the economy, globalist indoctrination of all children, surrendering more sovereignty to global institutions, and much more. They are essentially a “master plan for humanity,” as UN bosses put it, to build a global technocratic government that would dominate every facet of human existence.

So, while tearing down the walls of borders that God deemed to be erected following Babel, these minions of the evil one are constructing walls even more dehumanizing, more enslaving than that wall that separated west from east Berlin. It will be the devil’s wall–the wall separating lost mankind from their Creator Redeemer–that will bring about the most terrible era of human history, according to Jesus (Matthew 24: 21).

But the Christian of this age–the Church Age–need not fear what is coming from this evil, supernatural, wall construction. The believer in Jesus Christ for salvation, according to Romans 10:9-10, will go to be with Christ when He calls (Revelation 4:1).

The Rapture will take God’s children out of harm’s way, where they will live gloriously in His magnificent presence for all of eternity.

Critics of the pre-Trib Rapture continue to send email. Every week I get a number of messages telling me we are teaching error. Well…some accuse of much more damage done than simply teaching error. We are sometimes charged with leading people to accept the lie of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. This, of course, is the great delusion Antichrist will foist upon mankind when the Tribulation is in effect.

By teaching that Rapture will occur before the seven years of Tribulation begins, we are, these in opposition to the pre-Trib Rapture accuse, likely causing people to not recognize Antichrist when he one day soon comes on the scene. These who are so duped, the critics say, might well take the “666” mark of the beast of Revelation 13:16-18 because they will be thinking the Rapture must occur first and not realize that they must endure all or at least part of the Tribulation era.

If they take the mark, they will be doomed forever, according to Revelation chapter 14.

I must say that I have to believe that anyone who views the Rapture as mid-Trib or post-Trib cannot believe in eternal security of the believer. They cannot believe in “once saved, always saved.”

Those who enter the seven years of Tribulation will have to make the choice of whether to take Antichrist’s mark of worship. If they take the mark in order to receive sustenance so as to not starve, or to avoid beheading, they are, God’s Word says, lost forever, with no chance for redemption. So, they will have lost their salvation.

In such case, the Age of Grace–in which one can be saved for all eternity–can’t be a dispensational fact. There is no separation of the Church Age from the Tribulation era within this view.

This is a double-jeopardy belief system. There is no comfort to be found within it. And yet, God’s Word says the following:

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18)

Accompanying the charge that we are leading people to not recognize Antichrist, thus endangering them of taking the mark of the beast, is the accusation that we are practicing the false teaching of escapism.

This is the accusation, often charged in anger,  that we are telling Christians they can escape the coming time of God’s judgment and wrath. These who charge such most often teach that Christians must go through the time of Tribulation to prove their worthiness to inherit the eternal kingdom. They don’t explain why millions of believers who have lived and died since the Church was born won’t have to do the same.

I remember well the words of Thru the Bible Radio teacher and famous pastor of the Church of the Open Door, Dr. J. Vernon McGee . He once said that people accused him of being an escapist theologian–of teaching falsely the escaping from that horrendous time of God’s judgment and wrath. Ol’ Dr. McGee said that he wholeheartedly agreed. He was a believer in the escapist theology. He said something like: “If the building is on fire and I’m about to be burned up, I will go out the door, the window, up the chimney–I’ll go through any opening to escape the horror of that threat.”

And the Tribulation will certainly be seven years of unspeakable horror. It will make the Holocaust of Hitler’s day look like a Sunday school picnic, McGee went on to say.

Jesus said of that time: “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).

So, I, like Dr. McGee, will gladly take that open door into Heaven that the Lord will provide when this dispensation, the Church Age or Age of Grace ends and that time of horror, the Tribulation, begins. Short of death, it is my only way out of the most terrible time of all human history, according to the lord Jesus’ own words.

It is also your only way, other than death, to get out of the horrors of that time–a time that the signs proliferating all around this generation tells the observer of God’s prophetic Word must surely be near.

This is not a forewarning of gloom and doom for the believer in Jesus Christ for salvation. The glory that awaits the believer who is alive at this exciting yet troubling hour in human history is stupendous–spectacular beyond our wildest imagination!

Don’t fear things to come. Just believe and take comfort. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved (Acts 16:31)!

Even beyond that, whether through death or the Rapture before this era of horror begins, you and I will instantaneously be in the presence of our Lord and Savior. We will inherit the entirety of Heaven’s unfathomable splendor!

It is not the Deep State of governmental cabals I wish to examine here. It is the deeper state of depravity into which America has entered that demands to be addressed.

That being said, the former matter, like the latter, is part of the same depraved nature of man. It is rebellion against the Creator that is moving the nation and world ever downward toward the abyss where sin will be incarcerated for all eternity.

We witness daily all the madness and say with a shake of the head: “It’s just insanity.”

We have seen it in the political realm. The party of the ideological left continues to seemingly self-destruct. They do things that make no sense from the perspective of what under the norms of times just past would seem rational. For example, New York City leaders, desperately in need of revenue to fund their “progressive” giveaways, let a 29-year-old, first-term congresswoman–who most often speaks like a teenager–cause  $27 billion in taxes from Amazon to be lost. The company instead moved to another state. The neophyte politician, who has an economics degree from Boston University or one of those schools, thought the city was going to give $3 billion to the company to come to the city.

But that wasn’t the case. The company would have paid $30 billion annually to the city, with the city government agreeing to give the company a $3 billion tax break, meaning they would pay $27 billion.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez convinced her constituency and hundreds of thousands of other “progressives”  that they  didn’t want their city paying $3 billion to Amazon, because one of their key hatreds in their ideology is hatred for the rich. Donald Trump, after all, is a billionaire…

This hatred could not be contained, even though Amazon leadership is totally left on the ideological spectrum in every sense of the anti-Trump political war.

In addition to the lost $27 billion in tax revenue annually, New York City lost what would have amounted to 25,000 jobs. The top officials in Ms. Cortez’s party hierarchy aren’t happy about this matter.

So, as we say here in the South, they cut off their noses to spite their faces.

It shows the growing spiritual dementia, I think. It is an ever-deeper state of depravity into which this generation is descending.

Other symptoms of this dementia-malady can be seen in the same political party in which Ms. Cortez is considered the up-and-coming darling. For example, more than 70 percent of all Americans, which includes those strongly in favor of abortion, say they are against after-birth infanticide. And, infanticide is exactly what a growing number of progressively run states are proposing following in the footsteps of New York City’s decision to let just-born infants die if they were intended for abortion but continue to live after the birth. Despite this large percentage against such horrendous action, the Democrat Party continues to expand the attempted legalization of this infanticide. Other states continue to attempt to pass laws allowing this satanic practice.

Excerpts of a recent news item frames the depravity.

The newly elected Governor JB Pritzker has promised to make Illinois the abortion capital of the world, and he’s making good on his word…

Illinois is taking extreme measures to ensure women are free to…abort their babies, even when they’re partially born…

[The legislation, if enacted] repeals the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975, the Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act, and the Abortion Performance Refusal Act.

That means doctors and medical facilities can be sued for NOT performing an abortion. You have a religious objection to abortion? Too bad Dr. Mohammad! You better suck that fetus out or you’re through! (“Illinois Democrats propose laws expanding abortion access — including repeal of parental notification for minors,”  https://t.co/XHk6k2hQiq, Rapture Ready News, Feb 16, 2019)

The genuine madness continues to rage. The Apostle Paul’s spiritual truth as given in Romans chapter 1 is coming to pass every day before our eyes and ears. Turning from God leads to reprobate (upside-down and evil) thinking and action. A stunning example of this is manifest in a recent news story.

A group of grandmothers in Maine is causing quite a stir for a little group they’ve formed “GRR!” which advocates for their children and grandchildren to have the right to abort any further progeny

According to LifeNews.com, GRR!, or “Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights,” seeks to “educate women at the local level about the pro-abortion agenda, and encourage women to speak with their local government officials about supporting abortion and other reproductive health issues.”

About 40 grandmothers participate in GRR!, according to a report. (“Pro-Abort Grandmas in Maine Form Group to Promote Aborting Grandkids,” By ISRAEL WIRE, Rapture Ready News Feb 16, 2019)

Just the acronym for the “grandmas” organization alone should clue us. “GRR!” They are obviously angry at someone or something. Paul indicated the anger of this rebellious generation at the end of the age would be directed toward the Creator of all things. This prophecy has proven true. It seems that more than half of the U.S. is growling forth their hatred like an angry bear just out of hibernation.

We recall one of Paul’s key “perilous times” prophecies in 2 Timothy, chapter 3. He foretold that people will be without “natural affection.” For those grandmas and grandpas reading this, does this make a profound statement as you think of your love for your grandkids?

America and the world are moving swiftly down the road of Sodom and Gomorrah-like depravity. When the Church and the restraining power residing within Christ’s Body goes to the Lord Jesus when He calls, that movement will become an instant free-fall into the Tribulation abyss.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

A neighbor teenager comes to visit us often. She and my wife are quite close. The 15-year-old calls us her “grandparents.” We have known her for years as a neighborhood child, but it is in just the past several years that she has discovered us as “grandparents.”

She has her eyes constantly fixed upon her device, just as most all teenagers.

When she came by the other day, she was distraught. Her mom had taken off several applications (or whatever they’re called) from her device. Also, ol’ Mom had removed Netflix. When asked why she was so down in the doldrums over this, she said that her mother took Netflix off because of the program called Lucifer.

I, of course, said before even thinking very far about the matter: “Good.”

I couldn’t see Miss Terri’s (I’ll call her Terri; not her real name) eyes, but Grandma said: “She just rolled her eyes.”

Terri said in a whiny, but cute, voice: “Why?…What’s wrong with it? Its a good show.”

She added, after giving the name of the character who played Lucifer, “He’s so handsome and good to everyone…”

Where to begin, or not to begin? That is the question as Shakespeare might have framed the dilemma.

How to begin framing the answer to the question by our genuinely non-comprehending Terri?…

We did our best to explain why ol’ Mom was doing the right thing by taking her daughter out of harm’s way. I tried to explain exactly who the real Lucifer is. That he is not a fictional character–he is in fact the being at the center of every problem, every evil thing faced by men, women, and children today.

Her mother has her in Sunday School and church, and she should know the whole story by now. She loves and trusts us, but I’m far from sure the explanation–and it was lengthy inconsideration of a teenager’s attention span–was accepted. You just can’t tell with them. The ability to truly connect is lost back there somewhere when we go into our middle to late 20s, I think.   

The little session that afternoon did start me cogitating about what has happened in recent times. –What is, in fact, happening at an accelerated rate hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second.

Bottom line is that Lucifer the fallen one has injected humanity with his deluding, mesmerizing venom. We see the effects every day and every hour when our senses are subjected to news from around the world.

Again, I use the United States to analyze the tremendous influence this angelic rebel exerts upon the human condition. I do so because his effectiveness is most starkly pronounced, I think, by looking at what his devilish minions have been able to wreak upon a nation founded on godly principles.

Now, right off the proverbial bat, we see his nefarious prevarication infused into American society and culture.

He has the millennial generation of this nation thoroughly inculcated by the American media. Both news and entertainment branches of that institution we call media tell the young that America’s founding was exclusively by rich, white slave owners who wanted power to make themselves even richer. Our youth are likewise taught within our now-corrupted, public educational system–at every level, primary to post graduate– that America was wicked from its beginning and is now so wicked it needs changing completely. (Does that sound familiar?)

The most previous president told us that hope and change was the only way to make things right–to absolve America of her national sin. America’s sin? Simply having more than any other nation on earth. What was needed to rectify this? Redistribution of wealth so that–like in socialist nations–everyone had an equal share of the wealth.

Donald Trump’s election disrupted Obama and the entire globalist agenda from bringing the U.S. into a changed world order. Thus erupted the prodigious explosion of resistance to Trump’s efforts to “make America great again.” Remember how immediately there was–and continues to be–hatred by the political left for anyone who believes, thus espouses, that God, not man, must rule in order to bring about the Utopia the globalists elite say they desire to create. They fully intend to be the progenitors of a totally equitable world that needs no God. Ah…but they indeed have one. His name is Lucifer.

The most obvious manifestation that illustrates the leftist and one-world would-be masters want no deity to rule over them is the climate-change matter. The claim is that man has caused the destruction of the planet. It is man who must fix the things causing the destruction. These neither believe in a God who rules nor do they accept that rubric. Instead, the elite intend to force all to comply. America, under this president, will not comply with their global warming/climate change edicts, thus, again, the massive eruption of resistance and geopolitical, cultural and societal warfare. All fomented by–that’s right–“handsome” and “good” Lucifer, about whose evil intentions Terri’s mom has God-given discernment. (Thanks, again, mom.)

Another Luciferian manifestation that is fully in view is the delusion that murder in just the right way and for exactly the right reasons is a good thing. We who still maintain our moral equilibrium and sound minds are aghast as we hear a governor of a state (who is also a pediatric physician) wax eloquent on why it is acceptable and even preferable to take the life of a newborn. First there is wild, almost uncontrollable cheering when the New York state legislature is announced to have passed law legalizing abortion right up to the moment of birth and even beyond. Then those on the political left, affirmed by punditry on mainstream news and entertainment media, smile and are boastfully proud of that legitimization of murdering the most helpless and innocent among us.

As expressed in this column many times, I’m convinced we are witnessing things of prophetic portent which most born-again Christians do not take time to spiritually consider, thus cannot realize.

We are seeing Lucifer–Satan–totally delude the nation’s and world’s unregenerate populations. He has managed, as stated before, to infuse or inject humanity with his venom. This has produced–and is producing–the reprobate mindset as given by Paul the apostle in Romans chapter 1.

The plans of the globalists elite are on the fast track to bring about the new world order. This will be the platform from which the devil plans to launch his final fuhrer, Antichrist, into position of god of this world. He, Lucifer, will then indwell this man of sin and finally, he thinks, receive the worship he deserves. This self-aggrandizement has apparently been festering in his wicked thinking since God created man.

God, at the same time Lucifer’s plan is unfolding, is restraining evil. This is what the ruckus is all about. God the Holy Spirit is the “restrainer” of 2 Thessalonians 2. He is holding up Satan’s ability to saturate the planet with his venomous, deluding evil.

Now, to the “scenarios” as presented in the title of this commentary.

Resistance will grow. Trump’s plans to “make America great again” will likely only become more virulent, not diminish. The best that can be hoped for, in human terms, is for enough people of sound mind to be elected in order to prevent complete debauching of the sort that took place within the New York legislature as they approved of murder. Because the prophetic hour is very late, America will never be “great again,” in the sense we think of it as once being a great nation. And, God is the One who made it so to whatever degree it was indeed ever in that condition.

God the Holy Spirit will continue to restrain evil perpetrated by Lucifer and his minions, both demonic and human–thus to bring as many to salvation through belief in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as will so respond to the Holy Spirit’s call.

America’s economy continues to be supernaturally prevented from collapsing, it is quite obvious to the spiritually attuned mind. With a national debt having just exceeded $22 trillion, the national fiscal condition is dire. Only God, Himself, can keep it propped to this level. This, sets the stage for an even more dire eventuation, in this writer’s view.

I have expressed that scenario many times here in this venue. I believe with Donald Trump being–miraculously, I believe–put into the office of president, the stage is set precisely as Jesus said it would be when He next catastrophically intervenes into this world. Again, I’m referring to the “days of Lot, days of Noah” prophecy found in Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17:26-30.

The  moment Christ calls His Body–the Church–into His presence (Revelation 4:1), the Restrainer–God the Holy Spirit–will withdraw His restraining influence over the evil of this planet. This is because the Holy Spirit indwells every believer, and it is all born-again believers who are even now being used to help restrain the evil ol’ “good” and “handsome” Lucifer intends to foist upon every earth-dweller, those who will be instantly left behind to receive his evil–and, sadly–God’s wrath and judgment.

To you who are reading this, you don’t have to be one who will be left behind. Simply believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation. Confess with your mouth that God has raised Christ from death and that He is now your Redeemer. Do this, and you will be saved for all eternity, God’s Word promises. That is not just a scenario; that is unimpeachable truth!

Observers of the signs of the times that indicate the nearness of Christ’s Second Advent chronicle with ever-increasing interest the convergence of all the signals given for the end of the age. These look at the major areas of life upon this judgment-bound sphere. The areas include geopolitics, socioeconomics, geophysical occurrences, and developments in religion.

We consistently deal with what is going on in Israel and the Middle East. We look at the declining morality and economic upheavals, natural weather and earthquake disasters around the globe. Too often, however, I think we sometimes put on the back burner of prophetic discernment what is happening in the arena of religious apostasy. And, there is no area with greater emphasis placed on it by the Word of God than religion in discerning the times as the end of the Church Age approaches.

Bible prophecy foretells the coming of a worldwide religious system. It will be anti-God in every respect and likened to a harlot with whom the leaders of earthly kingdoms will consort. This evil will bring God’s ever-increasing judgment as He releases His wrath on an incorrigibly rebellious world of whom the KJV calls “earth dwellers.”

This prostitute-like religious system is described as follows:

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (Revelation 17:1-5)

One of the great Bible prophecy scholars and writers of recent times, a person whom it was my great privilege to call a friend, wrote the following:

The great prostitute described in these verses is a portrayal of Apostate Christendom in the end time. When the Rapture occurred, all true believers were caught up to be with the Lord, but left behind were many thousands of those who made some profession of faith in Christ and claimed to be Christians who were not born again. These constituted the apostate Church which will dominate the scene politically and religiously up to the midpoint of that last seven years before the Second Coming. The apostasy, called adultery and fornication here, of course refers to spiritual unfaithfulness, not to physical adultery. The church, devoid of any redeeming influence, is now completely united with the world, and, as the passage indicates, is working hand in glove with the political powers. (Dr. John F Walvoord, Every Prophecy in the Bible, Chariot Victor Publishing, 1999, pp. 604-607)

This harlot church system that will be in place during the Tribulation will, many prophecy students and teachers believe, be made up of an eclectic mix of religions in the time following the Rapture of the true Church. The religious system, called “Mystery Babylon,” will work in concert with the Antichrist regime to enslave the world in every realm of life.

With every day that passes, it becomes more obvious that the ecumenical movement among the religions of the world and the falling away within Christian church bodies from the sound, fundamental doctrines are quickly pushing the world toward this prophesied harlot system.

With the coming on the scene of Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church, the observance of the development of end-times religious apostasy must no longer remain on that back burner. His recent comments make clear that he breaks dramatically from Catholic doctrine. For certain, his declarations fly in the face of Christian doctrine found in God’s Word, the Bible.

This pope has declared that there are many ways to God, not just one, as Jesus Christ, Himself, said as recorded in John 14:6. He has said that all atheists will one day be in Heaven. He has declared that there is no Hell. This can all be seen as nothing less than heresy, apostasy in its most blatant form.

Once again the news blaring at this generation on a minute-by-minute basis shows the dynamic movement of this most relevant end-times prophecy.

Rearrangement of the religious landscape on a national basis is significant enough. Pastors are abandoning sound, doctrinal teaching. The Laodicean church of Revelation is more and more in view.

However, it is the dramatic development involving Pope Francis and his embrace of many religions that take front and center in the news. The story makes plain that the current movement into apostasy is a relevant sign of the times. The following report, in my estimation, demonstrates how quickly the entity that will become the harlot system of Revelation 17 is coming into view.

135,000 tickets have been issued for a historic mass with Pope Francis. The Pope is heading to the United Arab Emirates, the first papal visit to the Arabian peninsula. The February 3-5 visit will also highlight coexistence, religious freedom and interfaith relations as the Pope meets with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayebb. The UAE has declared 2019 the “year of tolerance,” bringing together different religions….

The centerpiece of the visit is a mass at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Sports City on Tuesday. Initially expected to draw 120,000, it now appears to be including up to 135,000 according to the Vatican.

“I am happy for this occasion the Lord has given me to write on your dear land, a new page in the history of relations between religions,” the Pope said last week….

The UAE is hosting 600 religious leaders for an inter-faith conference that will also be part of the Pope’s itinerary…

The interfaith discussions also come in the wake of reports in December about a synagogue in Dubai which Bloomberg described as a rented village in a “quiet residential neighborhood” used for services. Rabbi Marc Schneier, who has played a formative role in Jewish outreach to the Gulf, told The Arabian Gazette in an interview published January 30 that he was in the UAE this week. “To start it is historic that Pope Francis is visiting Abu Dhabi and a true honor for me to be here for this and to represent the Jewish communities in the Gulf. This is not only an incredible fete for the UAE and the Vatican, but it marks a new era for interfaith relations.” (Seth J. Frantzman, “Pope Francis Headnig to UAE for Historic Meting with Religious Leaders and Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayebb part of UAE’s ‘year of tolerance’ supporting interfaith dialogue,” Jerusalem Post, February 2, 2019).

Like other last-of-the-end-of-the-age prophecies involving geopolitics, socioeconomics, and geophysical upheaval, the last-days apostasy is developing swiftly. Rearrangements that will usher in Antichrist and serve as his platform of control that will enslave Tribulation earth dwellers are all converging upon this generation.

Every day, I am reminded by those who send emails that Titus 2:13 is on the collective mind of those truly devoted to discerning the signs of the times: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

The chamber exploded in wild clapping, whistling, and thunderous applause that went on for a number of minutes. The cheering wasn’t for a national championship during the current frenzy over national championships, however.  The exultation was for the announcement that the New York state legislature had just passed the Reproductive Health Act.

New York Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo then signed the piece of legislation into law. In doing so, he–obviously greatly encouraged by the wild cheering of the legislators–gleefully said, “I am directing that New York’s landmarks be lit in pink to celebrate this achievement and shine a bright light forward for the rest of the nation to follow.”

He then proceeded to do just that, lighting the World Trade Tower in a brilliant, pink color.

He added, “The Reproductive Health Act is a historic victory for New Yorkers and for our progressive values.”

The ravenous jubilation over the “achievement” has at its center legitimizing the murder of babies, both in and out of their mother’s wombs, right up until the birth and beyond.

Attempts have been made for many years to get such legislation made into law. The Republican Senate, until now, managed to block the efforts. This time, with the Republican numbers insufficient to stop it, the assembly passed it 92-47.

One legislator summed up the law that takes away all rights of the unborn child to enjoy the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness:

“We have a president who’s made it very, very clear that he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins declared before the vote. “Today, here in New York, we are saying no […] and we’re not just saying no. We’re saying that here in New York, women’s health matters. We’re saying here in New York, women’s lives matter. We’re saying here in New York, women’s decisions matter.”

Ms. Stewart thereby voiced, wittingly or unwittingly, the rebellious declaration that mankind has exhibited down through the millennia: We need no God to rule over us is the never-ending mantra while shaking a collective fist in the Almighty’s face.

The cheer that erupted in the New York legislature chamber that day instead–again, wittingly or unwittingly–was fulfilling Bible prophecy that will, perhaps very soon, bring rulership of the god of this world. Antichrist awaits in the shadowy wings of this ever-darkening time as the Tribulation looms. They were cheering for that man of sin who will give them not only the infanticide they think is such a glorious thing, but genocide that will force them to worship and obey him if they don’t want to be among those murdered. They are cheering on a holocaust of dimensions unimaginable, even when considering the horrendous one of Hitler’s making.

These are cheering the likes of Planned Parenthood, an organization inspired by Margaret Sanger, a woman with a globalist view who championed eugenics–the killing of inferior races, black people in particular–in order to bring about racial purity. Doing so, she proposed, was the way to perfect mankind. All dark races are, she postulated, inferior.

Hitler and the Nazi ideology absorbed her Satan-inspired madness.

With Mr. Cuomo’s blatant decision to light the World Trade tower in pink to honor the occasion and the women who see the murder of babies as a glorious thing,  thoughts, I must admit, sparked within my own mind: Will the Lord respond in some way to this unbelievably rebellious and deliberate shaking of the fist in His face?

I’m sure you might have entertained similar thoughts. To bathe in pink the Tower that replaced the Twin Towers where three thousand lost their lives seems not just a rebellious act by man, but an act of hatred against the Creator of all things inspired by the greatest of all rebels.

I guess the jury is still out on whether the Lord will, in the near term, respond in some way to this act of what seems to me the epitome of this generation’s depravity and ungodliness. Certainly, we can be absolutely assured that this and all sin will be dealt with in a heavenly-appropriate way on one eternal day. But, being human and quite vindictive in attitude at some points in my appraisal of things, I would like to… Well, I won’t verbalize it here because then you wouldn’t think of me as the saintly scrivener I would have myself to be in your eyes.

I receive emails weekly expressing that the senders long for the Rapture. They ask, rhetorically: Why has the Lord not put an end to all this evil, and taken us home?

The answer burns in my thoughts. There are billions of people on the planet who are being called by the Holy Spirit at every given moment. America, where the gospel has saturated culture and society for decades, is not Heaven’s only consideration. Millions around the world are God’s omniscient concern. Many are coming to Him for salvation daily. He, alone, knows when that final person to be born again into His family will accept Christ for salvation during this Age of Grace.

The Apostle Peter gave us a prophetic glimpse of our Lord’s ways and thoughts being high above our own, and of His patience with mankind:

Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:7-11)

All that said, those who are–wittingly or unwittingly–cheerleaders for Antichrist are waging unholy warfare these days in ways that are portentous. It is a dangerous matter to shake a fist in His holy face.

He accepted me into His family through my repentance and belief in the death, burial and resurrection of His Son. He did the same for many of you reading this commentary. In the matter of being sinners, these who demonstrate a hatred for the God who created them are no worse sinners than were we. The Lord wants to welcome them into His eternal kingdom so they won’t have to endure the coming years of wrath He must pour upon those who remain rebels.

If you don’t know Him through His Son, Jesus Christ, turn to Him in repentance at this moment. It is just this simple.

“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” (Romans 10:9).

Once again I come to the point in my pontificating that I admit to being sorely vexed. I understand more and more the KJV’s description of Mr. Lot’s sense of hyper frustration. Like Lot just before Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone from Heaven, I am indeed sorely vexed.

I’ll bet you are, too.

It seems as if the world has been turned upside-down in many ways. It seems that way because it is, in fact, being done so on a daily, even an hourly, basis.

Just as there is a globalists-elite, all-out assault to invoke change  in world order from sovereign nation-states configuration to borderless, one-world status, there is effort to change you and me from freedom-loving people to slaves under their control. Even as the previous presidential administration’s hope and change promises proved to be part of the globalist agenda, the ongoing effort to turn everything upside-down continues–despite what I am convinced is God’s Holy Spirit restraint against what looks to be developing the most evil time in human history.

Bible prophecy stage-setting for the consummation of the Church Age (Age of Grace) is on the horizon in every direction the discerning senses turn. This upside-down assault by the most evil creature of history is no exception. In that regard, we look at the Scripture that forewarns of exactly where we stand as a generation on God’s end-times timeline.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)

This warning might easily be seen as pointing at those who today are directly assaulting everything God has deemed “good.” He did so when He created that perfect or “good” sphere to be ruled or governed by His creature called man. The Fall in the Garden of Eden, of course, caused Adam to lose the title deed to Planet Earth to Lucifer, the leader of the angelic rebellion in Heaven. Everything became corrupted by sin. The Lord was thus caused to destroy all life on earth that breathed air–with the exception of Noah, his family, and select animal life that would replenish the planet.

Now, at this late hour in human history, everything is in a rapidly degenerating state due once again to sin-corruptive forces. No force is more corruptive than that being used by the chief corrupter, Satan. Lucifer the fallen one is upside-downing all that God considers “good” and right in the world.

We could go through example after example of how this is taking place. Like the matter I’ve mentioned many times–wanting to preserve “Mother Earth” by doing things like saving the egg of the spotted owl or the tiny snail darter’s habitat, while at the same time murdering human babies in their mothers’ wombs by the millions. (More than 60 million in America since Roe v Wade in 1973.) I received the following web link that reports 1.72 billion babies have been aborted worldwide in the past forty years: https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/1.72-billion-abortions-worldwide-in-the-last-40-years.

On the religious level, the current Catholic pontiff says the Bible is wrong–that there are many ways to achieve eternal life in Heaven, that is, redemption. Jesus Christ is not the only Way, as Jesus said (John 14:6). This is calling “good” “evil” in the most egregious terms possible. It is upside-downing, in the most blatant way possible, the absolute necessity to believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ–the prescription God has, in His perfection, determined to be the only cure for sin sickness and the way to salvation for fallen mankind.

This blatancy can be witnessed in the most easily discerned way by considering the way the corruptive force is dealing directly with God’s creature called mankind.

God, as recorded in Genesis, made man and woman–male and female. There were none other human types that He made. The corruptive force tells us daily that we must accept that there are a number of types. There is the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer. There are likely a number of other such designations, but this is as far as my vexation allows me to investigate…

I will wrap up with the upside-downing this force has managed to perpetrate upon the most foundational relationship God created for us. This corruption was made intensely manifest with this news item.

Calling family “family” has sparked a meltdown among workers at Google, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation,including one who lashed out at company officials for their “disrespectful way to speak.”…

The revolt began when a company official was talking to employees about features of Google’s Unicorn product that continually use the word “family” as a synonym for “household with children.”

“That employee posted an extended rant, which was well-received by his colleagues, on why linking families to children is ‘offensive, inappropriate, homophobic, and wrong,’” the Daily Caller said.

The worker’s scolding included: “This is a diminishing and disrespectful way to speak. If you mean ‘children’, say ‘children’; we have a perfectly good word for it. ‘Family friendly’ used as a synonym for ‘kid friendly’ means, to me, ‘you and yours don’t count as a family unless you have children’…

… Use the word ‘family’ to mean a loving assemblage of people who may or may not live together and may or may not include people of any particular age. STOP using it to mean ‘children.’ It’s offensive, inappropriate, homophobic, and wrong.”

Dozens of other workers joined in, including Google Vice President Pavni Diwanji.

“Hi everyone, I realize what we said at tgif might have caused concerns in the way we talked about families. There are families without kids too, and also we needed to be more conscientious about the fact that there is a diverse makeup of parents and families, Dwiwanji wrote.

“Please help us get to a better state. Teach us how to talk about it in inclusive way, if you feel like we are not doing it well…’

One worker lashed out at conservatives, writing: “Using the word ‘family’ in this sense bothers me too. It smacks of the ‘family values’ agenda by the right wing, which is absolutely homophobic by its very definition.” (“Calling Family ‘Family’ Sparks Meltdown for Google Workers,” WorldNetDaily, Jan. 18, 2019)

Satan’s insane rage has at its heart a hatred for mankind. This is why he has waged a campaign to corrupt, thus with the desire to destroy, God’s creation called man. That’s why the corruptive force has managed to convince the elected (and unelected Supreme Court) governing authorities in America to allow the slaughter of more than 60 million babies in their mothers’ wombs since 1973. That is why Satan has created the rage within the corrupted human mind that LGBTQ is a loving alternative to one man and one woman for life as the way to procreate. Lucifer the fallen one has convinced that to not procreate is preferable–and when there is procreation, the child is unimportant and needs to be eliminated.

The corruption even goes on to put in the fallen minds of the vilest of human beings that children can be used in the most anti-God ways imaginable in satiating their lusts and perversions.

All of that constitutes a major reason this dispensation is quickly reaching its end and that God’s judgment and full-blown wrath loom. He will soon end the upside-downing and put everything right-side up again.

While the world at large might have some concerns about the human condition, there is scant recognition of truly impending doom for their judgment-bound planet. Certainly, there is no understanding, or even desire to discern, things to come that are foretold in God’s prophetic Word. Sadly, the same has to be said for much of the Church today–born-again believers in the Lord of Heaven, who is on the very brink of calling that body to Himself in the Rapture.

Judgment and wrath are just a heartbeat away for the rebellious creature called man, whether in death or in going into the Tribulation era to come. It is vital that the word go forth; Jesus Christ is about to be revealed, as Jesus Himself made clear in His days of Noah, days of Lot prophecy (Matthew 24:36-42; Luke 17:26-30).

At the heart of this dire event at some point in the perhaps very near future are the words Paul wrote. I urge the reader to carefully study the entire condemnation the Holy Spirit gave the great apostle to forewarn of the reasons that bring the Almighty’s wrath upon rebellious earth-dwellers–the term the KJV uses to define those who turn against God.

I’m referring to a passage in Romans beginning with 1:21. We will look at this condemnation of rebellion against the Lord in a few of its parts.

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools…  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. (Romans 1: 21-22; 26-28)

Now, I know that in today’s reprobate vernacular what I’m saying here is considered “hate speech.” But the God of Heaven does not engage in humanistic political correctness. He speaks plainly to truth. He has said ithat when a people, a society, or a culture reaches this point, He turns them over to a reprobate mind. That is, He lets them go insane with their sinful rebellion, which is exactly where determination to go in the opposite direction from the Creator’s will for humanity leads–precisely where this generation finds itself.

History records the unyielding accuracy of God’s Word. Homosexuality and its many versions and perversions have been at the heart of every great, earthly empire as they came to their end. Ridding encumbrances to convenience of pleasurable indulgences–like removing inhibiting factors such as unwanted children through abortion and/or idolatrous sacrifice–have marked their descent into madness. Through observation of the perversions being foisted by the LGBTQ forces upon all of American society, we can see, under God’s enlightening Word, the proverbial handwriting on the wall.

With the murder of more than 60 million babies in their mothers’ wombs since 1973, in America alone, the world is under the looming judgment of a righteous God, a loving Lord who has moved Heaven and Hell, having sent His only begotten Son to die on a cruel cross, to bring about redemption from the sin that holds this rebellious nation and world in satanic bondage.

So, I view all that is wrapped up in the homosexual–thus incorrigibly rebellious–movement as the third most prominent indicator of where this generation stands as it moves deeper into 2019.

Finally, I come to the number-one indicator, in my view, that America and the world’s appointment with the Supreme’s court is drawing much nearer than most might think. We go back to the point with which we began this three-part series.

We use the word “convergence” to express the urgency of the prophetic hour. That is, those who think and write about Bible prophecy yet future from the Pre-Trib perspective use the term in trying to forewarn that Christ’s call to His Church looks to be very near.

Many who study and teach Bible prophecy from the pre-Trib view are convinced that it is this very matter–convergence of practically every signal given for the end of the age by Jesus and the prophets–that most profoundly points to where this generation sits upon Heaven’s prophetic timeline. We chronicle the signs of the times daily in our books, websites, TV broadcasts, and nationwide radio programs. Convergence of all the indicators is front and center. And, nobody is paying much attention, in  terms of the vast numbers who claim Christianity as their belief system.

One Scripture that I believe captures the essence of our exact prophetic hour is given by Jesus, Himself: “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44).

Man himself is at the center of stage-setting as we continue to look at prospects for Bible prophecy fulfillment in this new year and beyond. We have looked at Israel as the second most focal area of prophecy. Mankind is, in my estimation, third on the list as we consider prophetic prospective for 2019.

God’s human creation is the only creature that has volitional choice. That is, only we can say yes or no to God in the matter of whether to obey or disobey–of whether to decide for good or for evil.

In this regard, fallen mankind is observably taking the precise prophetic path God’s Word foretells. Daily headlines tell the story. It’s as if the Apostle Paul’s prophecy comes into view moment by moment. The figure of the prophesied earth-dweller takes shape hour by hour as chips fall away while the evil sculptor carves mankind’s final, rebellious form during these end of days.

Some will criticize my assessment as greatly flawed because I present analysis only from the perspective of America’s part in the ongoing end-of-days developments. I’ll admit this is a valid criticism in some ways. However, the United States of America is, in terms of being materially blessed and even spiritually blessed, the apex nation of world history. All other nation-states are linked to America’s economic hegemony. And, America’s position in being spiritually blessed takes second place only to the nation Israel’s position as number one.

Israel is God’s chosen people to be example for all others. The Law was given through that nation to show all people how to comport themselves. The Ten Commandments, in God’s holy eyes, superseded the Code of Hammurabi, which was written under human authorship as a body of law for governing human conduct in Babylonia in ancient Mesopotamia around 1754 B.C.

The history of the Israelites, throughout the Old Testament, dramatically portrayed how the Hebrew children would be blessed of God when they obeyed His Law. When they transgressed, the Lord would, after periods of bidding them to repent, judge that people. In this sense, Israel is spiritually blessed beyond all peoples. The nation was materially blessed, as well. They possessed phenomenal physical riches during the reign of Solomon, one of the wealthiest kingdoms of history. Today, their breakthroughs in practically every technological area of endeavor is moving the nation toward another level of super-wealth attainment.

Sadly, that achievement will lead only to the greatest of all judgments–that of the Tribulation era.

Again, America has far surpassed in physical riches and opulence any nation of world history –including that of Solomon’s kingdom. The technological instrumentalities for living life on a plain beyond any other nation of history is undeniably obvious. –Thus even though that level of luxury has come to be treated as commonplace in the U.S.

We often wonder over the fact that even the poorest of America’s citizens, for the most part, live a lifestyle that is luxurious in comparison to the conditions endured by people in most all other parts of the world. Again, in this respect, America is the apex nation ever to exist upon this fallen planet. Yet this great blessing is taken for granted by those of us who live that lifestyle.

So, too, the spiritual principles of the Almighty Creator, the one and only God of Heaven, have been taken for granted.

Most in our nation today–including many of those who attend church regularly and consider themselves to be Christians,  give little to no thought of the morally/spiritually deteriorated state of their nation and world. These matters are almost never addressed from the pulpits at this late, prophetic hour. We have moved deeply into the Laodicean time predicted by Jesus, the Ascended Lord, as recorded by John the Revelator in Revelation 3.

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. (Revelation 3:14-19)

This condemnation seems to be speaking almost directly to Christendom in America today. The malaise regarding lack of energy or desire to deal with the descent into societal and cultural evil is spiritually organic. It has spread like septicemia suffered in a biological sense.

Failure of resolve by the born-again to deal with this descent has wrought ungodly consequences. This lack of effort has permitted the development of the reprobate mindset forewarned by the Apostle Paul more swiftly than otherwise would be the case.

To get the full scope of what  God’s Word says about what brings about His righteous judgment, we need to appropriate discernment from the only source of truth. We will begin our next week’s look at the prophetic prospective for 2019 by examining Paul’s Holy Spirit-inspired condemnation of a generation that looks very much like our own as we begin the new year.

We use the word “convergence” to express the urgency of the prophetic hour. That is, those who think and write about Bible prophecy from the Pre-Trib perspective use the term in trying to forewarn that Christ’s call to His Church looks to be very near.

The year 2018 drew into focus the convergence of issues and events that we believe have immediate prophetic significance. I hope to file through some of these things, with a bit of conjecture as to where it is all leading, prophetically speaking.

I, of course, cannot foretell the future precisely in terms of exact timing. Neither can anyone who draws breath upon this planet that is prophetically destined for judgment. However, following God’s Word on things to come, combined with careful analysis of the above-mentioned issues and events, and with prayer and Holy Spirit guidance, one can discern the direction the world is taking toward its date with supreme justice. And with the level of wickedness we witnessed developing throughout 2018 and seeming to increase hourly, the need for the date with justice dispensed by the True Supreme Court is becoming ever more understandable.

We will begin looking at what the year 2019 might portend by considering the number 2 signal of how near we are to Christ calling His Church to Himself. That sign is Israel.

Yes. I say the number 2 signal is Israel.

This is a departure from what we Pre-Tribbers have until the year just past considered the number 1 signal of where we are on God’s prophetic timeline. The year 2018 has, I believe, brought most of us to the point that Israel might have to take second place in our eschatological outlook. Explanation is forthcoming in a future commentary of the series…

Things happening in and around Israel are shaping in a profound way. The latest development is President Donald J. Trump’s seemingly flabbergasting decision to remove US military forces and some diplomatic influences from Syria and possibly from Afghanistan. Many believe this will leave the Jewish state vulnerable to hostile forces gathering to its north.

The American president said of such criticisms: “Israel is capable of taking care of itself.”

The rather strange thing about the ostensibly flippant remark is that, as far as I can determine, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had little to say. It is if this has long been understood to be a course of action that is acceptable to the Israeli government. There is little doubt among those who truly understand the military power structure status in that region that Israel can indeed “take care of itself,” if it comes down to that necessity.

Any assault that might possibly be lethal to Israel’s continued existence would bring nuclear holocaust and utter devastation to all involved. Israel’s enemies, whether speaking of the many terrorist entities who hate the Jews, Syria, Iran, or even Russia–none harbors any realistic desire to join such an attack while Israel possesses the ability to destroy them in return. There will be no such attack against Israel–as long as their nuclear capability is in place.

With that as an absolute, so far as I’m convinced the present military stand-off exists, I believe strongly that we have definitely seen a shift that will lead to the Ezekiel 38-39 scenario. America’s withdrawal from the region is right in line with how the Gog-Magog prophecy should be shaping at this late, prophetic hour.

Israel will grow increasingly to be the number 1 troublemaker in geopolitical thinking. Zechariah chapter 12 is materializing an hour at a time through our headline news.

The volatility–the danger of all-out nuclear conflict involving the Jewish state–and America’s withdrawal are setting the stage for the great peace broker–Antichrist– to “disarm” the situation…disarm Israel, that is. I believe he will do this through satanic subterfuge, setting the stage for the now-gathering coalition–the Gog-Magog forces. These are certain to strike at Israel, once Israel has agreed to that Isaiah 28:15-18 covenant of false peace made with death and hell.

I believe 2019 will see Israel make some startling breakthroughs in several areas of significance involving geophysical resource discoveries and technology. These, I conjecture, will add to the “spoil” the prophesied leader called “Gog” will one day, perhaps very soon, consider in having his “evil thought.”

Before that “evil thought” can come into that demonically possessed leader’s mind, something eternally profound must take place: Jesus Christ’s call (see Revelation 4:1) to all born-again believers (see Romans 10: 9-10) will be heard by those who belong to God’s family. You don’t want to miss that call!

We will continue looking at prophetic potentiality for 2019 in next week’s “Nearing Midnight” commentary.