We’ve all heard it, or said it ourselves. “A strange thing happened to me.”

It’s something we say for anything out of the ordinary. For example, when you pick up the phone (especially back in the old days when everyone had a land line) and you haven’t talked to a certain person in weeks. You dial the friend’s number and there is no ring. Then someone on the other line speaks the word “Hello.”

It is your friend–the one you haven’t talked with on the phone for days or weeks–maybe even months. It’s your friend’s voice.

You say his or her name in a questioning inflection. They say, “Yes, it’s me,” and ask if it’s you.

Then you both say almost simultaneously: “I was just calling you.”

The phone didn’t ring because you dialed simultaneously and connected at precisely the right time that prevented a ring on either end.

That “strange-thing” scenario plays out in our brains over the course of our lifetime. We have deja vu moments–sensations that make us sense that we are reliving a previous moment in time. The brain glitches, or whatever they are, are rare, but they happen to most of us.

We might say, “I had a funny thing happen to me,” rather than, “I had a strange thing happen to me,” on these deja vu moments and  other occasions when extraordinary occurrences take place in our lives. A movie with a title reflecting this sensation is the film A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

But what we really mean when we use the word “funny” is that the occurrence is very out of the ordinary.

The above is to preface the telling of a strange thing that happened to me a week and a half ago. It is among the strangest of my experiences–perhaps second only to my brief visit to somewhere within the heavenly realm on Good Friday of 2011 due to my heart stopping three times because of a “widow-maker” heart attack–an event about which you are doubtless tired of my recounting…but it was so out of the ordinary and so absolutely a vision, not a dream, that I can’t help recounting it.

A friend of mine since junior high school days and I have kept in touch over these many years. He is a guy who is full of good humor, yet serious-minded when sound thinking is called for by life’s circumstances. He is one thing more. He is lost–doesn’t know the Lord for salvation.

My friend went to Vietnam, was a second lieutenant, led a squad of twelve men into the tunnels beneath those killing fields. They were charged with cleaning out the tunnels of Vietcong, the term for North Vietnamese, black pajama-clad jungle fighters.

He did his job, and, miraculously, after many missions, made it back home to America. He did get into drugs, not an unusual thing for those who fought in that war. He suffers traumatic psychological disorders. However, he is a very sound thinker, and always under control, having received much psychological help over the years since returning home. He earned a law degree during the early years of his return.

I have prayed for him for all these years–that he would be brought to the point that he would hear the words of my witness to him.

He always listened to my talk about Christ, yet, although very politely listening and agreeing that he acknowledged there is a God, never seemed to go deeply beyond a cursory acknowledgment of needing God in one’s life.

About six months ago, he called to tell me he was under a doctor’s care. He had been diagnosed with a form of lung cancer. They were attacking it with chemo and radiation. They had hope for cure.

I prayed more and more that he would come to genuinely want to accept God’s way to salvation–a thing I had gone over with him many times. I prayed the Lord would draw him to Christ in whatever way necessary.

To go back a bit farther in our lives, a friend of ours since childhood–a very healthy guy of about 70 at the time–suddenly developed a strange heart malady. This friend was a Christian, and very close to both of us over the years.

Howard, this friend with the heart disease, died in 2013 right before Christmas. My friend and I have talked about Howard many times since.

I continued to pray that the Lord would use Howard’s death, somehow, to bring my friend to understand what is needed for his own time of death, if he is to go to Heaven.

Mike called me about a month ago to tell me that he was now in hospice. The doctors told him they were out of options, which means he will doubtless pass away soon.

I prayed all the harder in the manner mentioned above.

A week and a half ago, Mike called me. There was a strange lilt to his voice. He said, “Terry, guess who I just was visited by this morning before dawn.”

I hesitated, not having a clue. My dying friend, his voice unusually serious, yet strangely expressive, made seemingly a hundred thoughts race through my head. I was silent.

“Howard,” Mike said.

“Howard?” I tried to think of who he was talking about.

“Howard was here. Right here at the end of my bed,” Mike said. “He talked to me.”

“What did he say?” It was all I could think to say. I knew he meant our friend who had died had, Mike thought, talked with him. I was then stunned into silence.

“He said, ‘Mike, you’ve gone to Sunday School and church your whole life. But, you’ve not heard a word. But, Mike it’s going to be okay. You’ve got to listen, though, in order for everything to be okay.”

Instantaneously, I jumped in. I said, “Mike, I believe you have had a genuine visitation from Heaven.”

I believe this, because at that moment I knew without any doubt what the words Mike had heard from Howard–or whomever the heavenly visitor was– meant. They were to give me an opportunity to speak directly to him in a way I had never been able to do so before.

I said, “Mike, I have to tell you that this is a message from God Himself, from the Lord Jesus Christ, who wants you to accept Him for salvation. You must listen to what I have to tell you. The Lord wants you to listen.”

I said, “You know I love you. I would never lie to you or hurt you. I want only the very best for you.”

Mike said, “I know that, Terry. I believe you.”

I said, “Then listen carefully, because this is directly from Jesus to you.”

I then went through the plan of salvation–how Jesus said He is the only Way to God the Father and Heaven.

Mike listened, and said he believed I was telling him the truth.

I said, “The Lord sent Howard–or whomever the heavenly being was–to you to make you realize this message is from Heaven above.”

Mike said, “When I started to ask Howard about what was going on with this…standing at the end of my bed, he said. ‘Mike, where do you think I am?'”

Mike said he knew then that Howard  had come to him from Heaven. He knew Howard was a Christian–had taught Sunday School and lived a Christian life all the years of our lives together.

Let me tell you, by this time, I had chill bumps running all over me, chill bumps of happiness. The Lord had used our friend Howard’s heavenly image, in whatever way, to get Mike’s attention. God had directly intervened–had answered my prayers that Mike would truly listen to what God had been prompting me to say to him.

When we hung up, Mike had not yet committed to Christ for salvation–not verbally, at least. I told him that Paul the Apostle wrote that if he will confess with his mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in his heart that God has raised Him from the dead, he will be saved–will go instantaneously to Heaven and to Jesus when his heart stops in this life.

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,” I told him in the simplest terms the Bible uses.

So, it was a “strange thing” that happened to both my friend Mike and me a week and a half ago.

But was it “strange,” really?  God has moved Heaven and Hell to bring sinners to repentance by sending His Son to die for us. He is not willing for any to perish.  For God to move in this way is not at all strange in God’s love for us. Miracles can be commonplace in His divine view of things.

Mike and I have just been blessed to be part of  God’s increasingly miraculous interventions into this world during this time so near Christ’s return. He is about to intervene in an even more thrilling way–through the Rapture!

Pray that Mike will soon call again with some really good news.

A major leg of the Ezekiel 38-39 Gog-Magog coalition is coming into view. The Turkey leg is now, undeniably in the estimation of many students of prophecy, on the end-times table of Bible prophecy.

We are given the nations that will make up that attacking force by the prophet Ezekiel.

Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. (Ezekiel 38:2-6)

Modern-day Turkey covers most of the territory that made up ancient Togarmah. Ezekiel was told to prophesy that the house of Togarmah will be among the horde from the north of Jerusalem that will assault Israel near the time of Christ’s return.

Many things have been written in recent months and years that analyze developments to Israel’s north. It is as if those with spiritually attuned eyes and ears are being given a play-by-play unfolding of this coalition.

Russia is pared down from its configuration as the nucleus of the former Soviet Union. It more or less once again covers territory that it encompassed during the time of Ezekiel’s giving the Gog-Magog prophecy. Meshech and Tubal comprised that territory. The “Gog” demonic spirit will, according to this prophecy, inhabit the chief prince, or leader of Russia. This leader is also destined to be the leader of the entire coalition.

Developments toward these prophesied have been nothing short of phenomenal as of late.

Russia, after falling apart as the USSR, is again a powerful force. It has inserted its influence, including a considerable military presence, into the region directly north of Israel.

Iran, which is the central-most territory today that once was called Persia, has joined Russia as a close ally–again, just to Israel’s north. Russia’s and Iran’s military assets co-mingle in the region to influence Syria, another end-times player.

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, as we’ve said many times, looks to be the prototype for the leader who will be Gog of the Gog-Magog force prophetically scheduled to invade toward Israel to the south.

The prophet Ezekiel was told to foretell that God, Himself, will put hooks into the Gog-leader’s jaws and jerk him southward like a fisherman would set hooks into a big fish’s mouth and reel him in.

There is good reason to believe, upon watching all that has been transpiring to Israel’s north, that the “hooks” are about to be set. The evidence of this certain eventuality mounts. The latest evidence is that the third major leg of the three main Gog-Magog invasion force diabolists now seems to be solidly within the evil coalition. 

The transformation of Turkey–ancient Togarmah–from being friend of America and the geopolitical west to being increasingly hostile is amazing to witness. Turkey is a NATO member that is rapidly changing allegiance from the western defense conglomerate to cozying up to Putin, Iran, and what seems to be the coalescing Gog-Magog force.  

Turkey’s leader, who recently has made moves within the nation’s government that make him virtually a dictator, now almost daily expresses his hatred for Israel. This, when Turkey for decades, if not exactly in a warm, fuzzy, relationship with Israel, was nonetheless in a cordial, live-and-let-live relationship with the Jewish state.  

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently called Israel’s actions against the violence in Gaza “inhumane” and referred to the Jewish state as “terrorist state and occupier,” and to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a “terrorist.”

According to Turkey’s Daily Sabah, Erdogan–speaking at a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party in the southern Adana province–said, “I do not need to tell the world how cruel the Israeli army is. We can see what this terror state is doing by looking at the situation in Gaza and Jerusalem.”

The Turkish leader was referring to the actions taken by Israeli forces in answer to the largest uprising of Palestinians along the Israeli-Gaza border in recent years. The protesters were carrying out acts of violence, demanding  a right of return for refugees to what is now Israel. More than 3,000 gathered at five locations along the fenced 40-mile frontier where tents were erected for a planned six-week protest, it was reported.

Israeli troops finally had to use force in order to stop the enraged attackers. Reportedly, 17 protesters were killed and more than 1,400 were injured.         

Netanyahu, in answer to Erdogan’s accusations against Israel’s actions to put down the violent demonstrators, said: “I am not used to receiving lectures about morality from the leader who bombs Kurdish villagers in his native Turkey, who jails journalists, who helps Iran go around international sanctions and who helps terrorists, including in Gaza, kill innocent people. That is not the man who is going to lecture us.”

Along with Israel, itself, being prime indicator of just how near might be the Gog-Magog attack are these swiftly moving developments to her north. The end-times table is indeed in process of being set!

Fascinating speculations are dredged from the swamp intrigues as of late. These tug mightily at my fiction-writer side, bringing out the novelist that lives there and comes out only very occasionally.

Story-telling possibilities keep coming forth that would have provided exciting fodder for any Clancy novel. But, real life in the case of what’s been going on in the D.C. Swamp might make a Tom Clancy determine that the reality was just too implausible to make for believable fiction.

I’m not in that stratospheric, novelist class within which the late, great Tom Clancy dwelt. So I haven’t his likely inhibition against mixing the swamp realities with a fictional plot, regardless of the chances it might all come across as unbelievable.

And, I’m not composing here a novel or short story. Rather, I’m writing a straight-forward commentary, therefore I’m safe in just presenting what I see as things that are possibly brewing. I’m not at all certain about the prophetic implications all of this might portend. However, that there are prophetic implications embedded in these intrigues, I have no doubt.

This all blossomed into a storm that talk-show host Rush Limbaugh said threatened President Donald Trump’s base of voters going “wobbly.” The president informed the press that he would sign the $1.3 trillion budget bill to keep the government going. Then, on the eve of the signing scheduled for the next day, he threatened to veto the bill, throwing media, the Democrats, and many within Congress into a frenzy.

Trump’s voter base, Limbaugh said, supports the president because of promises he made and has diligently worked to keep. Nobody can separate them from Trump, Limbaugh said, no matter how hard the Democrats, media, and Washington establishment try in assaulting him with all of their false accusations. Only Trump, himself, can cause the separation, and that by the president failing to stick to his agenda: 1) getting a border wall built; 2) stopping the massive influx of illegal immigrants; and 3) upholding the 2nd Amendment, the right to bear arms.

There are many other things the Trump base voted for in electing him to the presidency. but those are some main reasons.

Donald Trump, although threatening a veto of the huge spending bill that was full of Democrat Party social-spending demands, including funding of Planned Parenthood, followed through on his declaration that he would sign. This, according to Limbaugh and many of the conservative coalition within Congress and other support groups might cause Trump supporters to stay home in November of 2018 when mid-term elections are held.

In that case, the Democrats might win back the House, possibly the Senate. That would mean immediate attempts at impeachment. –That, based upon Special Counsel Robert Muller finding impeachable offenses with his seemingly endless investigation, originally into Trump-Russian collusion during the 2016 election. This, despite the fact that there has been no evidence found of such collusion.

President Trump held a press conference Friday March 23, at which he somewhat somberly gave a lengthy explanation of why he signed the bill that gave the Democrats much of what they wanted.

He said he was “very disappointed” in the package, in part because it did not fully pay for his planned border wall with Mexico and did not extend protection from deportation to some 700,000 “Dreamer” immigrants due to lose coverage under a program the president himself has moved to eliminate.

But Trump praised the bill’s provisions to increase military spending and said he had “no choice but to fund our military.”

He then went on to give extensive details on that military spending that will now be funded with more than $700 billion as part of the budget-spending package.

And, here is where the intrigues come in, in my estimation.

I’m of the very strong belief that the military is likely in much worse shape than the American public has been told. This is the only pressure that would make Donald Trump risk alienating his staunch voter base. The military, I sense, has to play catch-up at a phenomenal pace in order to keep the nation safe from the likes of Russia, China, and even from North Korea and Iran, who have been on massive arms build-up programs during the Obama years of neglect.

And, here’s where my novelist instincts kick in.

The American military at the level of the fighting generals–not the arm-chair generals of the D.C. establishment–know they have a genuine champion on their side. They embrace this president because they recognize what his predecessor did to greatly degrade the armed services. They have just  been shown his loyalty to the nation’s safekeeping, and to the military’s great need of funding.

Trump, in my observation, went to extraordinary lengths in that presser to explain that it was the necessity of funding the military that made him risk alienating his supporter base. He was telling the non-political top officers that he is a friend to be trusted. It might soon become necessary for the military leadership to demonstrate that they have his back, as well.

The globalists want Trump gone at any cost. They make no attempt to hide that desire. The one-world conglomerate includes a great number within the U.S. State Department, the so-called deep state ensconced within the U.S. intelligence community, and even the Washington D.C. establishment cabal, including Republicans who are totally opposed to Trump’s outsider status.

This treachery is all backed up by the media–news, entertainment and social–who also want things to return to nefarious business as usual in Washington D.C.

This is very conspiratorial thinking, I’ll acknowledge. But, as I said, my novelist persona has emerged for writing this commentary. The fictioneer in me wonders whether the president might have been forewarned that there might be an attempted coup d’état when those of the so-called deep state become convinced–as they are learning–that they can’t remove him any other way.

Satan’s minions, both human and demonic, are in full rage against American sovereignty–against this president who champions that sovereignty. If these combined forces were to attempt to forcibly remove the president, unconstitutionally, Trump would almost certainly have the U.S. military–minus the Pentagon political types on his side.

This would certainly be a horrendous situation—for the U.S. military, in effect, to have to take over in such a situation. It could lead to dictatorship if someone or a group within the military establishment with tyrannical proclivities came to power.

This is all fictional rumination—or is it? It would be foolish to dogmatically declare that the scenario describe has not already been contemplated. I can almost assure that it has, and even now is being considered. The very nature of military contingency planning dictates that every possibility be taken into account.

When the Rapture of all believers in Jesus Christ occurs, times on earth will indeed be precarious. The scenario above might be mild in comparison to things happening on this judgment-bound planet as they roll out toward the coming time of Antichrist.

All of the intrigues of this fallen world will be left behind as the Lord leads the redeemed through the gates of Glory.

You and I want to be part of that procession!

An email from a long-time visitor/friend to raptureready.com sparked this commentary. His concerns as he laid out in that email, I’m convinced, fester in the thoughts of many who read this column and others that often deal with Bible prophecy overlaid by the issues and events of these volatile times.

My dilemma in presenting his concerns is that I find it difficult to select only portions in order to keep the total number of words as few as possible. So much of what he presents is what I believe is in the minds of so many these days. Admittedly, some of it certainly dwells within the deepest crevasses of my own thoughts.

The emailer writes the following, in part:

I believed that God put [President] Donald [Trump] in there to be effective for at least four years.

But with the Democrat sweep of almost everything in the Virginia state elections (where I live) last November, the Roy Moore disaster in Alabama and now the failure in a Republican district in PA, I am troubled that the Democrats will take back one or both houses in November. There is so much insanity and deception going on in our country … that I wonder if our Heavenly Father does not want me to be focused on this anymore.

The President is hated by most of Washington, including many Republicans, and I see and hear it every day as I work there. The Washington Post is the bible to so many of the people here. I’m really distraught now after all these setbacks since Donald’s election. The Lord has not been answering my prayers. I’m sure there are many in the country who are like-minded with me and spend a great deal of their prayer time focusing on these elections. And I’m sure they’re as disappointed in these results as I am. And maybe wondering what to do now like I am.

I heard J Vernon McGee say we are not to be focused on cleaning up the town or creating good government. I don’t really like to hear that as I think that is part of our mission to be salt and light. But maybe I’m putting too much emphasis on it. And God is telling me to let it go or back off on it with all of these dismal results.

I’m left to wonder why God put Donald in there if he only gave him two years to accomplish anything. He accomplished a lot for sure including the American embassy move to Jerusalem. I didn’t want Donald and the Republican Party to just hold Satan at his line of progression where he was stopped in Nov 2016. I want them to roll back a lot of Satan’s progress and restore some of what we’ve lost before his time ends and the next Obama and that party inevitably take control again.

I know this is just a brief respite from the scourge of evil that has overtaken us, and I am ever thankful for that. But I was hoping it would last for at least four years and even eight years, if the Lord tarries and He is willing to let Donald continue into a second term. Now it seems like it will only last two years. I’m starting to wonder why God even bothered if this was all we were going to get!

So please give me your thoughts on how much emphasis I should place on this in my prayer life. Why is God allowing evil to take back over again so quickly? How are you approaching this area since Donald was elected?

Again, my apologies for using so much quoted material this week, but you can see, I think, the raw emotion in the emailer’s words is best left as is in order to get across his concerns. They are representative of many such concerns I’ve received as of late.

I preface this by first addressing one statement this dear brother writes. He says, “God has not been answering my prayers.”

Let me say that I believe from the perspective of a great number of years of living that God answers the prayers of His children. I hold to the statement that He sometimes answers “yes,” He sometimes answers “no,” and He sometimes answers “wait.” But He always answers the prayers of His children.

God answered the prayers of His children who prayed fervently leading up to election day 2016. He gave His people the results they prayed for, most of you reading this will agree. At the same time, the answered prayers of His people were in keeping with His foreknowledge of history as it continues to unfold–i.e., neither His prophetic foreknowledge nor human volition has been violated in any of these strange, often perplexing, developments.

God’s prophetic plan for the ages continues to roll out unabated, unaffected in any way whatsoever by Satan and His minions–neither demonic nor human. What we are witnessing is Daniel, chapter 2, playing out on a daily basis through hourly headlines. The pace is observably accelerating in prophetic stage-setting–particularly in that involving Nebuchadnezzar’s dream-image.

The summation in answer to the concerns wrapped up in our emailer’s words seems to be God saying ”Wait.” The Lord is perhaps saying to keep praying and watching the His Mighty Hand at work while end-times prophecy continues to unscroll–not unlike when Moses told the Israelites to watch the Mighty Power of God while Moses held the rod stretched in the direction of the Red Sea.

Globalist “Progression” Predicted

Our emailer writes, “I didn’t want Donald and the Republican Party to just hold Satan at his line of progression where he was stopped in Nov 2016. I want them to roll back a lot of Satan’s progress and restore some of what we’ve lost before his time ends and the next Obama and that party inevitably take control again.”

Now I want to say respectfully to our friend that neither President Trump nor the Republican Party is going to–or even can–“hold” Satan’s “progression.” Globalism’s progress is a foregone conclusion. It is predicted in a number of places in God’s prophetic Word. One such place is in the aforementioned Daniel  2.

Daniel the prophet gave Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar the answer to his dream of the gigantic image of a man. The image was composed of four metals and indicated five successive world kingdoms. The feet and toes of the man-image represented the final world humanistic kingdom. That kingdom, Daniel prophesied, would be a revival of the fourth kingdom, which, in history, turned out to be the Roman Empire.

The revived form of this fourth empire would, according to Daniel 7 and John 13, be a composite beast-kingdom (a combination of all world kingdoms that preceded it). It would be more evil and world-rending than any that went before or would come after. Jesus even said that this kingdom will produce the worst conditions for Israel and for all of humanity that has ever been in world history (Matthew 24: 1).

This is the kingdom we have been watching develop, particularly over the last decade. It was on a very fast track to reach the moment Daniel prophesied, when it will dominate most all people on planet earth.

Like I am convinced–and like our emailer-friend believes–the election of this president slowed that progression significantly. But, remember, it was God’s intervention, not ours, that did the slowing. The results have been demonic enragement on a global scale, the likes of which have never been experienced. The spiritual warfare described by Paul in  Ephesians 6 starkly manifested for all who have spiritually attuned eyes to see and ears to hear.

There is a growing anxiety among such Christian observers that it is but a matter of time before the temporary roadblock God put in the way of the globalists’ progress will be removed. This is also something prophetically scheduled to happen. The platform for launching the most terrible regime of all history is still being constructed. Antichrist is waiting in the shadows for his time to step into the global spotlight.

But, the roadblock the Lord so obviously placed in the path of the globalists building Antichrist’s power base will NOT be removed until God says so.

The reason it is in place is so the Holy Spirit can speak to the hearts of those who are lost–those who haven’t accepted Jesus Christ for the slvation of their souls.

So, what are we to do now, as our emailer asks? We are to pray and witness while there is time to do so. This is the primary reason we are here on this planet. We are to lift the name of Christ so the world will be drawn by the Holy Spirit to His saving grace.

If we concentrate on doing our job–our primary job–our worries about the politics of today and what might happen will fade. After all, we are not appointed to God’s wrath (Revelation 3:10), which is the future time ruled by Antichrist. We are to look for Jesus, our “blessed hope (Titus 2:13).

When the time of the Gentiles is completed, God’s next phase for fulfillment of His prophetic plan will be put into effect. The last person to accept Christ during this dispensation, the Church Age (Age of Grace) will be received into God’s family. Jesus will call all living believers into His presence, along with all believers of the Church Age. The cares of this judgment-bound world will be left behind.

While we see the globalist monstrosity–the so-called new world order–continuing to rage toward its fulfillment as the power base of the Beast of Revelation 13, let us remember for Whom we are watching (Luke 21:28).

One of the prophetic Scriptures most poured over by those who hold the pre-Millennial, pre-Trib view of eschatology is the following.

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. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Matthew 24:32-35)

Despite the fact that the seminaries more often than not teach that Jesus, in the Olivet Discourse, addresses only the Jews (Israel), many, including this writer, believe Jesus is speaking not just to Israel. He is speaking here to all, Jews and Gentiles alike, who will accept Christ for salvation down through the ages.

Although there are differences of opinion in precisely what the prophecy means, most agree that the fig tree in Scripture refers most often to the nation Israel.

This prophecy, given by the Lord Himself, is thought by many to be among the strongest scriptural reasons to believe that this present generation will experience Christ’s return to planet earth. Israel, as is said, is God’s prophetic timepiece. The view holds that this generation will see the prophecy  fulfilled within the definitive timeline framed by Israel being back in the land God gave them.

Certainly, recent history, in combination with current events, seems to present a strong case that gives this view credibility.

That case is built upon the following:

1) The Bible gives the definition of a generation as 70 years.

2) The nation Israel was reborn–in a single day, as prophesied–in 1948.

3) We are in the year 2018–70 years since Israel came back into the land as a nation following World War II.

4) America is scheduled to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, letting all the world know that we consider Jerusalem the Jewish state’s capital.

5) This is scheduled to happen May 14, the exact anniversary of the month and day of Israel’s rebirth into modernity.

These factors are not all to consider in thinking on Jesus’ prophecy. There is strong reason to believe that this foretelling speaks clearly to a pre-Tribulation Rapture, admittedly the view held today by fewer and fewer pastors and professing Christians.

The Lord next said the following:

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. (Matthew 24:36)

Jesus is here talking of a specific day and hour that no one will know. It will be an unannounced event, so far as timing is concerned. This cannot be the Second Advent when Christ returns as given in Revelation 19:11. There are precise number of days when that great event will take place, as measured from the midway point of the 7-year Tribulation. This unknown day and hour Jesus talks about is, rather, the first phase of His Second Coming–the Rapture of the Church!

Immediately after Jesus talked about the generation that would see all the prophecies fulfilled, He spoke of the human condition that will be prevalent at the time of His return. In fact, He spoke of several conditions that will mark that last generation before the first phase of His Second Coming.

We have been over these conditions many times over the past number of years. I refer to Christ’s “days of Noah, days of Lot” prophecy.

The Lord spoke with precision as to what that generation will be doing with regard to carrying on life in general. This is all outlined immediately following Him saying that no man knows the day or hour when His next intervention will take place into the affairs of mankind.

Read again Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17: 26-30 to understand the time of His sudden, catastrophic intervention into life on earth.

My contention has been for many years that this time when he suddenly comes for His Church will be in the middle of an economic boom. Economists and others have for years been predicting an economic downturn–even another Great Depression. And, admittedly, by all fiscal principles one can bring forth from economic physics, the world should have long ago fallen into depression.

Then came Trump. He came out of the prayers of those called by the Name of Jesus Christ, who implored the Lord to act leading up to the 2016 presidential election. The miracle occurred. The nation was given, as I’ve said before, not a godly man, but without a doubt–in my mind at least–God’s man for the hour, a president who has put in place policies and structure for a profound economic uptick.

All of this appears to be God’s preparation for bringing this generation to very near the moment of Christ’s shout: “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1)

Recently channeling through my  TV channels, I heard more than one preacher say that we are to get ready for the “anointing” in these last days. The anointing to which they referred, I found out by listening further, meant, according to the speakers, that a special ability will be placed upon the Church (all within the Body of Christ). The anointing will bring about a great revival and a massive move of the Holy Spirit that will bring a tremendous number of souls to salvation.

The preachers I heard didn’t say where in the Bible this promised anointing is found. At least I missed it if they did give scriptural references.

And that’s the problem I have with this last-days great revival I’ve heard about for years. I can’t find a scriptural proof-text that makes such a promise.

There are references that there will be many saved during the Tribulation. For example, Revelation 7:9-17 foretells a time when a tremendous multitude of saints will bow before the throne of God along with the angelic billions. John the Revelator is told that these are the martyrs who came out of Great Tribulation. God will wipe away all their tears and will comfort them forever in his majestic presence.

There are other references to a multitude of souls being added to God’s Kingdom. All such references, however, are to the time following the Church Age. I can find no specific prophecy that there will be either a great end-of-this-age revival, or of a massive number of souls being added because of such a revival.

Now, there might come a revival and an addition to the Kingdom of the magnitude these preachers proclaim. But if so, it isn’t announced any place in the Bible that I can find.

On the other hand, there are prophecies of the times leading up to the Tribulation that tell quite a different story than the prediction of a last-days revival. Jesus, Himself, said that the love of many will grow cold. People will be like they were in the days of Noah and of Lot–i.e., they will be doing evil and thinking only evil thoughts, while business goes on as usual.

The Apostle Paul tells us that “evil men and seducers will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived,” and that even within the Church, people will be falling for false teachers and doctrines of devils. Not only will these be following “strange winds of doctrine,” but they will “heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.”

In other words, they won’t endure sound doctrine, but will follow fables. Much of this very thing is going on in the world of Christendom even as I write this.

Paul lists a litany of the characteristics of end-times man as recorded in 2 Timothy 3. Men will have a “form of godliness” but will “deny the power thereof.” Nowhere does Jesus, Paul, or any other of the prophets tell of a time when men would be turning to the Gospel message en masse for the salvation of their souls.

John implies that in the last days, the “spirit of Antichrist” will dominate the human condition. Here is what he writes under Holy Spirit direction:

1 John 2:18–Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

1 John 2:22–Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

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

2 John 1:7–For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

Many of the largest church assemblies today fit the portrayal of the Laodicean church. These most dramatically manifest their Antichrist spirit through their 1) turning more and more toward universalism, and 2) embracing replacement theology.

Universalism is the burgeoning belief system that teaches that there are many ways to God the Father and Heaven. It is a direct turning away from Jesus Christ as the only Way, Truth, and Life (John 14:6).

Replacement theology is the satanic lie accepted by more and more so-called mainstream Christian ministries that hold that the Church has replaced Israel as recipient of God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This, of course, is a massive part of the very satanic ploy that will ultimately bring all peoples of planet earth to Armageddon.

We don’t have to hear of ABC’s The View host Joy Behar mocking Vice President Mike Pence’s hearing Christ speaking to him to know the spirit of Antichrist is surging. Mocking anything and everything to do with the Name of Jesus Christ is rampant, even within much of a large percentage of those who claim Christianity as their spiritual platform. One great example of this is Catholic Pope Francis, who has a number of times proclaimed that there is more than one way to heaven.

This is a blatant display of the Antichrist spirit surging in these closing moments of the Age of Grace.

Billy Graham went to be with the Lord Wednesday, February 21, 2018. Since then, he has been quoted a number of times commenting about his own passing from this life. He made the declaration in one of his crusade sermons many years ago:

“One of these days you’re going to hear that Billy Graham has died. Don’t you believe a word of it…I will be more alive at that time than I am right now… I will be with the Lord in my home in Heaven. I will have just simply changed addresses.”

I heard Dallas First Baptist Church pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress, say of Billy Graham upon hearing of the evangelist’s death, “He is hearing the Lord say to him ‘Well done, good, faithful servant.'”

These quotes are reflective of absolute Bible truth. The very Word of God tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We are advised that every believer should want to hear his Lord say to him or her, “Well done, good, faithful servant…Enter into the glory of your new dwelling place.”

One day each of us will come face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ, if we have accepted His death, burial, and resurrection as the only way to redemption and to God the Father. Sadly, tragically, those who have rejected God’s salvation plan will come face to face with Him as judge of their unredeemed souls.

So only the saved of the ages can look forward to having the Lord Jesus say to them, “Well done…”.

Billy Graham, as Dr. Jeffress pointed out the other day, surely has now heard those wonderful words from the One whose Holy Name the evangelist spoke in hundreds of crusades across America and the world. His homecoming must  continue to be glorious indeed.

As we think on Billy Graham’s departure for his new address in Heaven, it is apropos, I should think, to consider our own time of coming face to face with our Savior and Lord. What should we be doing to strive toward one day, perhaps soon, hearing Jesus say, “Well done, good, faithful, servant”?

Each of us who name the name of Christ must work in His great cause in the way He directs. That is, we must do our best to do His will in serving the purpose He has chosen for our time on earth. This service is individual, of course. But, it can also be done in a collective way.

And, this is the reason for this particular approach to our Rapture Ready donation drive for this quarter. This ministry–designed to lift the name of Jesus so that many will be drawn to Him, and to proclaim His soon return–provides a opportunity for all of us, together, to serve our lord in a powerful way. Those who contribute financially to our effort to alert many around the world to God’s salvation message and to the prophetic truth of Christ’s soon return are performing service that will one day bring forth the words we all want to hear from our Lord: “Well done, good, faithful servant!”

The challenges are great, and are growing more so while we move deeply into the very end of the age. Our financial needs have expanded with increased efforts to give the website a more powerful and effective outreach. As example, it was necessary to spend  three months on updating the board. Since the software was old, it took endless hours for two design teams to update the software from version 4 to version 5. Todd says that if he had known it was going to be such a costly and time-consuming affair, he would have started over with a whole new website model.

As Dr. J Vernon McGee would say, I’m a back number, and understand none of the technological aspects with which Todd has to deal. However, I have listened to him as he has worked to make Rapture Ready everything the Lord wants it to be. He continues to work diligently. The effort and financial expense, likewise,  continue to be considerable.

So, thanks for joining us in this most worthy endeavor while the coming of our Lord nears.

Time is short to work toward pleasing our Lord and Savior, who gave His all for us. What an experience it will be one day to–like no doubt Billy Graham has just done–look into Jesus’ loving, omniscient eyes and hear Him say, “Well done, good, faithful servant. Welcome into the magnificent abode of your eternal joy.”

As we get closer to the Tribulation hour, it is important for every Christian to have an end-time mindset. Prayer is essential at this crucial time. We appreciate those prayers more than we can express. If you truly believe the Rapture is drawing near, you should be more focused on endeavors that will contribute to the Kingdom of God.

Please consider becoming a monthly subscriber. This has been our best form of support. And, it is needed as never before.

An easy way to support RR is with an automatic monthly donation. The PayPal subscription service and allotments set up through a bank are convenient ways to send funds to the site. We hope you will sign up as soon as possible. You can find the link on the Donation Depot page. Donations can also be sent to our PO Box at:

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As Billy Graham used to say: “May the lord Bless you real good!”

The shooting down of an Israeli military jet over Syria as it apparently attacked an Iranian military site seems to have exposed a long-held fear of Israel’s enemies of the region.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, following a statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, chided that the shooting down of the fighter jet on February 10  had shattered the myth of Israel’s “so-called invincibility.” It is thought to be the first loss of an Israeli military plane to hostile fire since 2006.

Zarif, in his glee over the shoot-down, said, “Israel uses aggression as a policy against its neighbors,” accusing Israel of “mass reprisals against its neighbors and daily incursions into Syria, Lebanon.” He added, “Once the Syrians have the guts to down one of its planes it’s as if a disaster has happened.”

His caustic remarks came following Netanyahu’s holding up a piece of what he called an Iranian drone and accusing Iran of desiring to impose an empire across the Middle East.

The Israeli engagement with Syrian and Iranian military as of late has some quite astute prophecy watchers speculating that the Isaiah 17 destruction of Damascus, the Psalm 83 war, or even the Gog-Magog war of Ezekiel 38 might be in the making.

Bill Salus of Prophecy Depot Ministry, for example asks: “an Israeli F-16 was shot down by the Syrian Air Defense Force after conducting an air raid on Iranian-backed positions inside Syria. Does this set the stage for the fulfillment of the Isaiah and Jeremiah prophecies concerning the doom of Damascus?”

Many who write are concerned about Israel and its precarious position amongst the Mid-East haters. Particularly, there are concerns about Benjamin Netanyahu and the political intrigues by which he is surrounded.

Not unlike in the case of our own president, it seems the enemies of sound thinking, democracy, and sanity are assaulting Netanyahu at every turn. So far, the globalists and all the others who come against these men are failing in their attempts to bring them–and their nations as democracies–down so that the world order can become reality in order to achieve their evil desires.

The Iranian’s snarky remark about the myth of Israel’s invincibility having been shattered betrays a deeper-seated anger. It involves the same sort of resentment the so-called “deep state”  and Swamp “establishment” harbors for Donald Trump and Bibi’s hate-filled enemies have for him.

The resentment and hatred seems to me to marinate in anti-God vitriol. Satanic fury is at the bottom of the rage.

It’s as if Iranian Foreign Minister  Zarif knows–or at the very least strongly suspects–that God has provided Israel with some degree of invincibility. The loss of a single plane to anti-Israeli, military fire in 12 years is reason to jubilantly proclaim Israel’s invincibility is smashed. They mockingly call that invincibility “myth.” But you have to know that down deep in the Arab-Islamist psyche, they sense that it’s not a myth.

The devastating Arab forces losses of the 1948 war at Israel’s rebirth into modernity, the 1956 war and 1967 wars led by Gamul Nasser, and the 1973 Yom Kipper war led by Anwar Sadat amount to strong evidence. Israel’s seeming invulnerability to defeat must make invincibility seem far more to them than “myth.”

I’m convinced that Egypt’s Sadat came to the conclusion that Israel’s God indeed assures Israel’s invincibility. He thus wisely made peace with Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin while President Jimmy Carter looked on all those years ago.

God does assure that Israel will be a nation forever. But, at the moment, the Jewish state is not God’s nation in the sense of being the eternal Israel, as promised. Israel is the Lord’s chosen nation–chosen to one day be His people and His nation. This will happen when the remnant of surviving, believing Jews at Christ’s return look upon their Messiah.

There is coming a time before then when they will seem anything but invincible. The Tribulation –the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7)–will be the worst time ever for Israel. Satan, through his tyrant Antichrist, will wreak more devastation on the Jewish race and the nation Israel than have all the tyrants down through human history.

But, in the truest sense of the word invincible, the Jewish race–the nation Israel–is the one national entity God-guaranteed to never perish from the earth.

“This is what the Lord says, ‘He who appoints the sun to shine by day, Who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar — the Lord Almighty is His Name; Only if these ordinances vanish from My sight,’ declares the Lord, ‘will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before Me.’” (Jeremiah 31:35-36)

All the beautiful pageantry was there. Excitement and joy were on the faces of the colorfully clad athletes from around the globe. Attention of the world’s media focused on how wonderful was the fact that the two Korean youths were marching together and getting along as if peace and love had overruled hatred and division–all in all, a kumbaya moment in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

Not far into the ceremony, a familiar anthem to the brotherhood of man swept everyone involved into a euphoric high. The music invited us all to Imagine all the world as one…

Neo-Babel builders construct even their music in a way that clearly demonstrates the luciferian desire to usurp God’s throne. John Lennon’s universally popular song could easily be mistaken as portraying the biblically prophesied millennial reign of Jesus Christ. But Lennon, like Lenin, preached man-made heaven on earth–an imitative mockery of the true Messiah’s coming kingdom. The words and melody are infectious.

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one…

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one.

Lennon, who once assured us that the Beatles were “bigger than Jesus Christ,” is a bit off in his assessment given through his lyrics. He says “no religion too.” He wanted us to “imagine” a world without religious restraint. Only then could we all “be as one.”

That particular sentiment–“no religion too”–will have to be rewritten if it is to fit what is coming when the first beast of Revelation chapter 13 and the second beast bring their version of heaven on earth to the planet.

It will be a religious system of the most intrusive sort. Here is a brief look from Scripture about that system:

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored 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. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. (Revelation 17:3-6)

The angel who showed John the Revelator these things told him–and us–that this whorish woman who rides the beast sits upon seven mountains or hills. The beast she rides is a composite of world kingdoms of the past and one that is yet to come. The last kingdom and the one who rules it will be Antichrist.

We know from Revelation 13 that his sidekick will be a false prophet–a religious leader–who will orchestrate the worship by everyone on earth of this eighth king who will come up from the bottomless pit.

My friend Dave Hunt wrote all about this eventuality in “A Woman Rides the Beast.”

All of this said, it is more than interesting that the world’s most lauded religious leader in Christendom has waded in on how America needs to be brought under the world community’s control if there is to be heaven on earth at any time in the future.

Pope Francis told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that the United States of America has “a distorted vision of the world” and Americans must be ruled by a world government, as soon as possible, “for their own good.”

The Pope made the observation in an interview with La Repubblica reporter Eugenio Scalfari.

“Last Thursday, I got a call from Pope Francis,” Scalfari reported. “It was about noon, and I was at the newspaper when my phone rang.”

He said Pope Francis had been watching Putin and Trump at the G20 and had become agitated. The Pope demanded to see him at four that afternoon, according to a Google translation of the Italian report.

“Pope Francis told me to be very concerned about the meeting of the G20,” Scalfari wrote.

As translated into English by Agence France Presse, which picked up the story, the Pope said “I am afraid there are very dangerous alliances between powers who have a distorted view of the world: America and Russia, China and North Korea, Russia and Assad in the war in Syria.”

“The danger concerns immigration,” the Pope continued to La Repubblica. “Our main and unfortunately growing problem in the world today is that of the poor, the weak, the excluded, which includes migrants.”

“This is why the G20 worries me: It mainly hits immigrants,” Pope Francis said, according to AFP.

Pope Francis’s idea that Americans would be better off under a world government doesn’t stop there. The radical leftist pontiff also went on record stating that Europe should become one country under one government. (“Pope Francis: World Government Must Rule U.S. ‘For Their Own Good,’” JEWSNEWS, Rapture Ready News, Feb. 11, 2018)

As we near the midnight of world history on God’s prophetic clock, we see the four horsemen of Apocalypse getting set to ride. Might we be seeing the woman that rides the beast of Revelation chapter 17 getting ready to sit upon its back?

There is increasing talk lately of fears of nuclear exchange. Critics of increase in nuclear armaments are also ramping up their rhetoric.

Russia has been found to have violated several elements of various nuclear anti-proliferation treaties and agreements. The latest is development of a nuclear-tipped torpedo weapon that can be launched into the shores of a country. North Korea is known to be acquiring  technology that will speed up and greatly enhance their nuclear weapons capability. They are being aided and abetted by the likes of Russia and China, who have promised to act in concert with the international community to prevent  Kim Jong-un from obtaining such technology and material.

Yet with all the illegal weapons procurement by America’s antagonists and enemies, the criticism is of the Trump administration. The diatribe is aimed at the president because he has determined the U.S. must play catch-up in the arena of weapons development. This is because the previous president was on an eight-year-long campaign to decrease America’s nuclear armaments–thus to, it was supposed, lessen the chances of a future nuclear conflict.

While America decreased in nuclear capability, the other side went on a tremendous building program, increasing their stockpiles and technological capabilities–even while having entered into agreements and treaties that were supposed to bind them to cutbacks in line with America’s decreases and those of other Western nations.

Trump’s decision to go in the opposite direction of Obama in the arena of nuclear development has, of course, evoked resistance just as has everything else he has done since the 2016 election.

President Trump’s Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette explained at a Pentagon news conference why the United States is changing course.

“Over the past decade, while the United States has led the world in these reductions, every one of our potential nuclear adversaries has been pursuing the exact opposite strategy…. These powers are increasing the numbers and types of nuclear weapons in their arsenal.

“The president, during the State of the Union address Tuesday, February 30, declared that the U.S. will build a deterrent force “so strong and powerful that it will deter any acts of aggression.””

Mainstream news media are accusing the president’s actions–increasing the nations’ nuclear forces–as reckless. They say, in addition to other things, that he is deliberately bringing the prospect of nuclear war back into the American psyche for the first time since the Cold War.

Those mainstream outlets are almost as one in declaring that it is dangerous for this particular president to have the sole authority to launch nuclear war. But, thankfully, Mr. Trump forges ahead, assuring that America’s security, with strength through deterrence capability, is sufficient.

All that said, this is a dangerous world–as our current president recognizes. It is more than prudent to maintain such strength. It is absolutely crucial.

But, in the final analysis, it is the God of Heaven who continues to hold the key to the lock on the trigger to nuclear Armageddon. The Lord of all creation has determined that the most horrific of all weaponry hasn’t been unleashed. If one studies the many near-accidents involving nuclear weapons, it is astounding that catastrophe hasn’t resulted. Only God’s staying hand has spared us.

In 1980, for example, a missile in a silo in northern Arkansas exploded because a wrench was dropped and ruptured the missile’s thin metal skin. If the weapon at its tip had been armed, yours truly might not be here to write this piece.

There are still unexploded nuclear bombs off the eastern coast of America. Some were never found. These were deposited there because of accidental drops or aircraft accidents.

There have been false missile launches indicated on America’s NORAD radar screens. Those with the launch codes had less than 10 minutes to decide whether to launch a retaliatory attack.

A Russian crew once came within minutes of launching a nuclear strike based upon a false command accidentally issued.

The Lord is still in control. He will be right up until all of the weapons in the nuclear stockpiles are released. Yes. I do believe they will be used–practically every one of them.

Descriptions within the Revelation and the Old Testament books of prophecy indicate death on a sudden and massive scale. The effects of nuclear horror on the human body, some scientists believe, is graphically given by Zechariah: “And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth” (Zechariah 14:12).

The kings of the east as given in Revelation chapters 9 and 16 will kill one-third of all people living on the planet. This can be done only by employing nuclear weaponry.

Jesus said that if He doesn’t return when He does, “there will no flesh be saved.”

Further indication that the nuclear stockpiles will be used is something I heard Hal Lindsey say. It makes sense, although it could result from a supernatural rather than a nuclear event.

Hal said that during the Bikini tests in the 1950s, they put in the test areas old navy ships to be sunk because of their obsolescence. The military and scientists wanted to see the effects of an H-bomb on these vessels. In addition to the devastating explosion causing massive damage, huge chunks of ice, like hailstones, fell from the tremendous heights the nuclear cloud reached. These weighed 100 pounds and more, falling into the ocean and denting the solid, steel hulls of the ships.

Hal then reminded that the last great judgment of the twenty-one given in Revelation will be 100-pound hailstones falling upon mankind.

He believes–and I concur–that these falling on the millions of military personnel at Armageddon could well be the reason blood will flow to the height of bridle reins and for so many miles. The melting hailstones, having fallen from the sky because of nuclear explosions, mixed with the pulverized human carnage, could make such a “winepress event” exactly like God’s Word describes the Lord’s punishment for rebellious earth dwellers at that time as being.

Planet earth is destined for nuclear devastation, I have no doubt. But there is no need for anyone alive to have to endure that hell-on-earth experience.

Again, here is the divine formula for protection against such a destiny: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).