Israel, always in the news while planet earth closes in on Christ’s Second Coming, again is drawn into the center of stage-setting for prophetic fulfillment. I’m referring specifically to prophecy involving ancient Persia–modern Iran.

We’ve looked at the prophecies involving these end-times players over the past number of years. Dynamics generated from things going on in the region have increased in intensity as of late. It is therefore worthwhile to catch up with developments involving Israel and its biblically foretold enemies.

Iranian leaders are angered over the Trump administration’s taking the U.S. out of the “nuclear deal.” They are threatening the Jewish state and vowing that soon Israel will feel their wrath.

Development of nuclear weaponry is at the heart of the threat. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump have both vowed that Iran will not have nuclear weapons. However, it is known that they already possess missiles thought to be capable of carrying nuclear payloads. And, their centrifuges and nuclear laboratories, deeply ensconced within Iran’s mountainous regions, are beyond inspection by the people who came up with the “worst deal in history,” according to President Trump.

A primary reason Trump considered the “deal” as such is because the inspectors could neither “trust” nor “verify,” as President Ronald Reagan insisted in the case of dealing with the Iranian’s chief ally, Russia.

A Jerusalem Post article reports Israel’s present mindset.

Netanyahu said he spoke over the weekend with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and expressed Israel’s appreciation for the strong and determined position the US administration is taking against the Iranian nuclear agreement and the Islamic Republic’s aggression in the region.

“The regime in Tehran is the main factor undermining stability in the Middle East,” he said. “The campaign against its aggression is not over, and we are still in it.”

Netanyahu said that Israel is working against the Iranian regime on three fronts: preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons, working against its military entrenchment in Syria, and working against the transfer of game-changing weapons from Syria to Lebanon, or the manufacturer of that weaponry in Lebanon.

“Those weapons are intended for use against Israel, and it is our right – by virtue of the right of self defense – to prevent its production or transfer,” he said. (Netanyahu says campaign against Iran ongoing on three different fronts, by Herb Keinon,  Israel News – Jerusalem Post, May 27, 2018)

As mentioned, we have previously, and on several occasions, covered the threat to Israel from its prophesied enemy, Persia (Iran). That nuclear threat hasn’t gone away since we last paid attention in one of these commentaries. It has, as a matter of fact, progressed toward becoming not just a threat, but, possibly a real assault. The former U.S. presidential administration aided and abetted that ratcheting-up of Iran’s eventual achievement in producing atomic weapons. Israel’s military posture as of late, combined with Netanyahu’s elevated words of concern, illustrate, I think, just how near might be some action to neutralize Iran’s growing danger to not only the Jewish state, but to other nations as well.

I wrote the following in a commentary on June 14, 2014:

My friend, Bill Salus, has just released an especially fascinating book relative to our time. NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN IN IRAN: The Ancient Prophecy of Elam points to a particular prophecy in the book of Jeremiah that the author believes foretells a devastating blow to a certain part of Iran–the area of ancient Elam.

One of my own burning questions has been: Why does Persia (modern-day Iran) seemingly intend to attack Israel alongside Russia in the Gog-Magog attack of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 without apparent deployment of nuclear weaponry? –Thus, since Iran is obviously developing such weapons as fast as it can.

That prophecy that both Bill and I had and still have in mind is the following:

Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come. For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the Lord; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them: And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the Lord. But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 49:35-39)

The title of Bill’s book–NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN IN IRAN: The Ancient Prophecy of Elam–might itself prove to be prophetic, as things wind up for the end of the age.

In thinking on Paul’s “perilous times” characterizations of end-times man, we have covered most all of them as they seemed to become most prominent in daily life.

Here, again, is the apostle’s forewarning of things to come in this regard:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

We have looked at each individually and collectively. Paul’s description of how humanity will be while the wrap-up of the Age of Grace nears its end has proven to be stunningly accurate. Of course, this shouldn’t surprise, because the apostle received  the descriptive directly from the mind of the Living God.

Paul tells us that the nearer the Church Age comes to its conclusion, the more self-centered human beings will become.

We have discussed in these commentaries that–in my view, at least, the “selfie” –photos of one’s self–is such a manifestation of Paul’s prophetic characterization.

It is perhaps somewhat of a humorous example, but an example, nonetheless. Combined with social media and the desire of so many to one-up others in lifestyle creation -often fictional–the selfie becomes even more significant in fulfillment of this prophetic element.

We have gone over other characteristics of end-times man Paul lays out in this prophetic passage. Another example of these characteristics manifesting in our society and culture today is that men will be “without natural affection.”

My own view of this prophetic manifestation in our time is, of course, homosexuality and abortion.

My wonderment has always been: How can anyone consider sexual relations with a person of the same sex as “natural” activity? How can anyone believe abortion to be “natural” in a mother dealing with a baby in her womb? Yet these are two of the most prominent social and cultural manifestations of our day.

We know from our daily news of how “fierce” people can be in dealing with each other. This sort of murderous news seems to be the kind that most interests the viewing public–thus stimulates the news-reporting sources to broadcast it.

All we have to do is consider many of our congressional leaders and other governmental “servants”–such as those within our judicial system–to see the truth in Paul’s condemning words about mankind being “heady” and “high-minded.” These more often than not go against the will of the people in making decisions that “rule,” not “serve,” we the people.

Now we come to the title of the commentary–the characteristic Paul terms “false accusers.”

This characteristic of end-times man has, in my view, become the most manifest of all for this particular hour while the end of the age draws to its conclusion.

The 2016 presidential election has brought this one front and center for all to clearly discern. Any sound-thinking people can–if they simply open their eyes and ears–realize that the effort to destroy this president and his presidency has been the drive of the political left. As a matter of fact, I have characterized it as a satanic rage by both human and demonic minions that come against this administration’s efforts to get America back on track.

Certainly, America has been derailed, moving farther and farther away from God’s directions for life on earth as put forth in His Holy Word. Having been founded on godly principles by the Founding Fathers, it has been Satan’s plan to remove all tethers from those spiritual moorings. He has been phenomenally successful in doing so. The former presidential administration and its deleterious achievements are proof of the fallen one’s success in that regard.

The nefarious work of Satan and the minions continue. They do so through “false accusation.”

There are so many false accusers and false accusations that one commentary could not begin to cover them. So, we will look briefly at the most obvious of the false accusations.

I’m thinking here about Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent who, for payment, apparently, by the opponent candidate’s campaign against Donald Trump, wrote a fictional dossier, falsely accusing Trump of salacious activity while in a hotel room in Russia. This was done, it has been proven through many months of closely examining the facts, in order to give the FISA judge reason to issue permission to open investigation into Trump’s collusion with Russia in the defeat of Hillary Clinton.

It is all totally false, of course, but Muller’s investigation goes on. This is false accusation manifest for all the world to see.

No matter which channel or network that is giving news, this is the number-one story. And, it has proven to be totally “fake news.” That, friends and countrymen, is “false accusers” doing their minion work right in our faces.

This particular characteristic of end-times man, forewarned by Paul the apostle, threatens to create a constitutional crisis, threatens to tear apart the United States by dividing America in a way not even the Civil War could accomplish.

The only comforting thing those who are under the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ can take from all this is that seeing all this in our headlines today means that our redemption is drawing near.

While Iran and Russia continue to merge and coalesce north of Israel, controversy is stirring mightily over the Iranian nuclear “deal.”

President Barack Obama, in 2015, agreed to the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers. The agreement that included the US, the UK, Russia, France, China, and Germany was considered the signature foreign-policy achievement of his presidency.

The lifting of crippling economic sanctions on Iran in return for limitations to Iran’s forging ahead with nuclear development was at the heart of the deal. The agreement was struck out of fear that the Iranian regime would use their nuclear program to develop nuclear weapons.

With Iran’s Islamist-controlled government constantly and consistently calling for the total annihilation of the “Little Satan”–Israel–the deal continues to be the international community’s idea of the best way to assure that the nukes never reach the level of being usable.

The election of President Donald Trump disrupted the deal-consummating matter. Trump stumping for president, while calling it a “bad deal,” declared that, if elected, he would do away with it and would do a “better deal.”

The new president has said he will not recertify it because it is too weak and Iran has already violated key provisions. He said that it is much too lenient, and that Iran has broken the agreement by, for example, violating heavy-water limits and access to international inspectors.

He wants new sanctions on Iran and, in particular, against the regime’s Revolutionary Guard police force.

He has referred the deal to Congress for changes to the US terms.

Israel has seemingly exercised considerable patience, staying relatively silent, while the  Trump administration applies its policy-making to the critically important process. The world of diplomats–particularly in Europe–look with a wary eye not toward the treacherous Iranian-Russian cabal, but at the Jewish state. They see Israel as the most dangerous element in the whole matter. And with good reason.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that if the world of diplomacy doesn’t get rid of the nuclear threat–a threat directly aimed at Israel–the IDF will.

So it is that President Trump has yet another pressure point to his multitudinous pressure points since taking office.

There is rumor–speculation–that he will renege on his campaign promises and presidential promises to drop the Iran nuclear deal and do a “better deal.”

Europe sent to America the leader they consider to be closest to having Trump’s proverbial number.

France’s young president, Emmanuel Macron, and the American president seem to have formed a mutual admiration society of sorts. While the president has rubbed most of Europe’s leadership the wrong way, especially the EU’s most economically powerful leader, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Trump and Macron seem to hit it off, personally and diplomatically.    

The same reports that say Trump might be about to change his mind on his campaign opinion, and that since becoming president, regarding the Iranian nuclear deal, he is about to face a dual assault in an attempt to sway him into keeping the deal as is.

Both Macron and Merkel are scheduled, as of this writing, to present their unified message. That message, it is said, is save the deal.

The French president has done some stage setting for the meetings with his close friend, as the media pundits would have it.

“I don’t have any Plan B for nuclear [protections] against Iran,” Macron said Sunday on Fox News. “Let’s preserve the framework because it is better than a sort of North Korea-type situation.”

The American president wasted little time upon Macron’s visit to make clear that his mind has not changed about the “worse deal ever made” in reference to the Iranian deal the Obama administration put together. Trump said if the Iranians start again toward a dangerous nuclear program, they will pay a price like no one else has paid. At the same time, he indicated that the North Korean situation to which the French president made reference is on track for a meeting that might lead to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. If not, he will walk away from the meetings.

International politics, like national politics, often make strange bedfellows, as the saying goes. Certainly that seems to be the case in this instance of today’s diplomatic machinations.

I hope the following gives some clarity to what I mean.

MOSCOW – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday he had agreed with his Chinese counterpart that Moscow and Beijing would try to block any U.S. attempt to sabotage the Iran nuclear deal, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

“We are against revising these agreements, we consider it very counter productive to try to reduce to zero years of international work carried out via talks between the six major powers and Iran,” TASS quoted Lavrov as saying after talks with Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, in Beijing.

“We will obstruct attempts to sabotage these agreements which were enshrined in a U.N. Security Council resolution,” Lavrov was cited as saying. (Jerusalem Post Breaking News, “LAVROV: RUSSIA AND CHINA TO OBSTRUCT U.S. ‘SABOTAGE’ OF IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL,” Rapture Ready News, April 23, 2018).

The strange bedfellow situation, however, in this case, isn’t really so strange, when considering things from the perspective of Bible prophecy. All who are involved against this president are under the master director of the globalist cabal. That cabal belongs to Satan, who desperately desires to construct the platform from which his coming man of the hour–Antichrist–will launch planet earth’s deadliest conflict.

Beware, Mr. President. Russia is definitely colluding–and with America’s so-called friends, at that.

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.