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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Israel Here to Stay?

Originally posted August 23, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17)

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

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

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

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

One senses that the LGBTQ collective is in remission of a sort. But we can be assured it’s only temporary. I think it’s safe to predict that it will soon emerge again in full-flood mode, because Jesus, Himself, said it will be just like it was in the days of Lot in Sodom when the Lord next intervenes catastrophically into the wicked affairs of humankind.

That next intervention will be the Rapture of all believers in Christ into the clouds of Glory—the Rapture of the Church.

Heaven’s reach into our present time seems to me a powerful move to restrain the evil that was raging before the woke wickedness was dealt a setback. The Restrainer, I’m convinced, has that Romans 1:28 reprobate insanity in Psalm chapter 2-type derision.

The homosexual movement grew, seemingly unstoppable, with mainstream media, both news and entertainment, giving full support to each and every demand made by their organization. Any opposition raised against the moral bankruptcy of the LGBTQ movement was considered by mainstream press as not legitimate reason for concern, but rather a hate crime against gays. Time and time again as the Sodom-like movement became more forceful throughout the nation, the rants became ever more vehement in screaming the media pundits’ almost unanimous view: the crime of bigotry against those who are gay.

The journalistic mantra seemed, to me at least, to be aimed at attempting to raise a groundswell of opinion against those who believe God’s Word condemns homosexuality.

Let me state up front that Christians are not supposed to condemn anyone. We are, however, if we truly follow what the Bible teaches, expected to agree totally with the God of Heaven in His condemnation of sin. We, likewise, are to hold fast against any sin that overtly and adversely affects the moral values of the society and culture in which we conduct our lives, raise our children, etc. When morally degrading activity is thrust into our public lives and we are forced to experience that activity’s cesspool-like goings-on—right in front of our and our children’s eyes—we must speak up. We must object to and oppose that sinful activity.

There are numerous scriptural condemnations of homosexuality. They have been put forward so many times that I see no need to list them all. One such edict by the Living God against homosexuality is the following: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood [shall be] upon them” (Leviticus 20:13).

For those who might think this condemnation applied only to the time of the Mosaic Law, I remind that the Scriptures teach that God does not change. He continues to view homosexuality as an “abominable” sin. The sin of homosexuality is indeed an abomination. We cannot ignore that it is a growing part of our national and world societies.

There is no vacation, it seems, from its morality-infecting invasiveness.

My now deceased friend and colleague from Ireland, Patrick Heron, once experienced firsthand how wicked and debauched the LGBTQ sort can be. His troubling “holiday,” as they call vacations in Europe, as he reported some years ago, drives home the point that, like in Lot’s day of vexation with the homosexuality of Sodom, there is no holiday from the debased activities of this fallen world.

Myself and Catherine just returned from five days in northern Spain, where my nephew married a Spanish girl. We stayed in Madrid last Saturday night on our way back to Dublin. Madrid was hosting a huge Gay Pride day when we arrived Saturday evening.

Unfortunately, our hotel was right on the main street of Madrid. There were thousands of men women and children lining the Gran Via leading to a huge park, which was packed full. Bus load after bus load of homosexual men and lesbians waved and cheered amid loud music and the crowds that lined the streets waved back.

Men kissing men, women kissing women–and all [were] cheered on by the on-lookers. Transvestites [were] parading boldly down the streets having their pictures taken with couples and their children. Many of the transvestites had red horns on their heads.

One man was painted in rainbow colours all over his body. He walked slowly and deliberately down the center of the street as folks jumped in front of him to take his photo. We saw him from behind and he was naked.

At 11:30 at night, Catherine and I walked up the main street amid the blaring of loud music. The street was filthy dirty, with people drinking and eating, and discarding their litter on the paths. Some people were urinating against the walls in side streets. As we got to the top of the street, there were several hundred people gathered in a big circle. They were banging drums and jumping up and down with their hands in the air shouting, all in unison.

The drums and shouting and jumping went faster and faster until it reached a crescendo and exploded with a huge shout of delight and clapping by the mob.

It looked and sounded like something from Dante’s inferno but felt like a scene directly from Sodom and Gomorrah. Truly, this was a nightmarish atmosphere and a sure indication that we are indeed in a time similar to the days of Noah. There was a similar parade of gays going on in London and other cities at the same time.

The days are getting shorter and the cracks are appearing all over the globe. If there was ever a call to reach out to the unsaved before the Lord comes to take out His Church, it is now. “Lift up your heads. Your redemption is drawing near.”

Patrick has been enjoying the presence of our Lord in eternity for a number of years. And the Sodom and Gomorrah-like evil he reported has only increased. There is a very tenuous lull in the homosexual determination to bring America and the world into configuration exactly as it was in the days of Lot. And the moment of Heaven’s judgment and wrath that are prophetically scheduled must be nearing while God’s divine patience continues to be tried by lost humanity.

Still, the Lord also continues to love the sinner, no matter the sin, and we who name the name of Christ are to love them, too. We cannot truly love our Lord if we hate those He loved so much that He came to die on the cross at Calvary so the ones who believe in Him and turn from their sin can be saved. We are nonetheless to stand against evil that would bring humanity down to the base, cesspool level to which Satan and his minions want to bring mankind. The only remedy that is left when humanity reaches such a level is God’s wrath and judgment. Our nation and world are swiftly approaching the proverbial bottom of the barrel. As my great friend Patrick wrote, when we see the end coming, we are to look up and lift up our heads, for our redemption draws near (Luke 21:28).

While at Prophecy Watchers’ studio recently, taping programs for their broadcast and podcast venues, TV hosts Gary Stearman and Mondo Gonzales asked questions relative to the material in my latest book, Tracking Toward Tribulation: And the Any-Moment Intervention by Jesus Christ.

We covered issues and events of these troubled times through the lens of Bible prophecy examined by fifteen different authors. This turned out to be, in my estimation, one of the most comprehensive “compilation” books, as we term this type of book, I’ve been a part of.

When we came to discussing one of my own contributions to the book, the chapter I called “Preparing Antichrist’s Geopolitical Platform,” either Gary or Mondo—can’t remember which—asked what I meant by the title. The questioner wanted to know, as I took it, where in Scripture I had arrived at that title and what all was involved.

The first part of the question was easy. I believe all we see happening in today’s world is driven by God’s chief antagonist, Lucifer. And when it comes to considering the geopolitical turmoil and all attendant to it, we only have to look at one verse to understand the nucleus around which all the problems within and between nation-states come:

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

Here, God’s Word—through Paul, the apostle and prophet—gives information about the demonic cabal from which Satan commands all the wickedness—especially involving all the geopolitical conflict. This cabal consists—unwittingly, for the most part—of human minions as well as willing demonic minions.

So my answer to the question was that Ephesians 6:12 is the verse around which I composed this chapter for our book. Satan is the “father of lies,” God’s Word tells us. And we need look no further to understand that the world of national and international relations within governments is burgeoning to the bursting point with lies.

Satan is also the “prince of the power of the air,” we’re told in God’s Word. And the mainstream broadcasts (over the “air”) are the most prolific transmitters of the lies Satan and his minions, both demonic and human, foist upon us daily. The results are that we live on the precipice of World War III.

Certainly, I think the title of this commentary is appropriate because the oppressive evil from that satanic cabal hangs heavily over our everyday lives.

The so-called Deep State is at work within every nation on earth. Even God’s chosen nation, Israel, has a Deep State every bit as wicked as America’s own.

We see it at work against the Benjamin Netanyahu government, which tries to govern in a sensible way in order to keep Israel’s blood-vowed enemies at bay. The Jewish state’s Deep State has been as pernicious as America’s in every way possible, and anyone should be able to see that evil enclave in DC and Tel Aviv at work over the past decade and even longer.

Nowhere is this Ephesians 6:12 human-minion membership more on display than within the United Nations. The evil is so overt that only those whose consciences are seared to the point of being ineffective are completely numbed to U.N. treachery.

The following validates the UN’s Ephesians 6:12 membership, I think:

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, slammed forces in the U.N. Security Council for “facilitating terrorism.”

“While the blood of Israeli representatives is not yet dry on the sidewalk in Washington, the Security Council is meeting to condemn Israel,” he stated. “This is a moral disgrace. Instead of condemning terrorism, it has become a tool serving those who carry it out.”

Algeria published a draft of an anti-Israel resolution “less than 24 hours after the brutal terror attack, in which two employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington were murdered,” Danon stated.

The Security Council will put the resolution to a vote on May 28.

“The draft demands the lifting of restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the release of prisoners, and a complete withdrawal from Gaza—without mentioning Hamas or the terror attacks waged against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023,” the Israeli mission to the United Nations stated. (“Terror forces at work at UN while blood of Israeli embassy staffers ‘not yet dry,’ Danon says,” JNS staff, May 22, 2025)

In the interview at Prophecy Watchers, I again mentioned that Satan, no doubt, is not in the camp of the pre-Trib Rapture deniers. The devil is in total agreement with those of us who believe Jesus will one day, perhaps much sooner than is thought, call believers to Himself in that glorious event.

The devil knows the Rapture of the Church is about to happen. He has fomented all the evil and wickedness prophesied for these end times. He’s been doing all he possibly can to get the geopolitical, societal/cultural, religious, and economic platform set for placing his horrific dictator—Antichrist—on the Tribulation throne.

The Ephesians 6:12 cabal is indeed in session!

You don’t want to be left behind on this judgment-doomed, rebellious earth when Jesus takes all who have been saved by belief in Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary for salvation of their souls to Heaven.

Here again is how to go to the eternal safety of Jesus Christ into the clouds of Glory.

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

The message I sense that’s the most important to address is that we–humanity—are now on the precipice of history’s most dangerous moment.

It is the most dangerous because of the warning of the very God of all creation. They are the words of Jesus when He walked in human flesh upon the streets and hills in and around Jerusalem. I would get tired of repeating them so many times in these commentaries. But I dare not stop repeating them, because I sense this prophetic message involves what I’m convicted the Holy Spirit wants all of humanity—both the born again and the unsaved—to know.

And it is dangerous particularly to the unsaved—all of humanity who are of the age of understanding (age of accountability) who don’t know Christ for salvation of their souls. It’s also dangerous, in a sense, to the born again (all who know Jesus for salvation), because we’re commanded to “watch” (Mark 13:37) and discern this late hour of the Age of Grace (Church Age). To disregard this command by the Lord is to disobey God.

Again, I’m convicted that the world of humanity is exactly at the time Jesus spoke of in warning of His next catastrophic intervention into this world of advancing wickedness. And the conditions the Lord said will be manifest immediately before He calls the Church into Heaven are nothing like some Bible prophecy pundits who deny the pre-Trib Rapture are presenting.

And, it isn’t my purpose to be disrespectful to the people who are misreading and falsely reporting on what Paul the apostle and even the Lord Jesus prophesied regarding the very end of this Age of Grace. My purpose is to present the truth so Christ’s warning is conveyed by the Holy Spirit to the understanding of humankind.

Those Bible prophecy writers and pundits to whom I refer have taught for years that we are seeing the economy and all else get worse, and that we should prepare to enter history’s worst time–the Tribulation (Daniel’s 70th week). They accuse that Christians have been led astray by those of us who preach, teach, broadcast, and write that Christ will call all believers in the Rapture to Himself and safety before that terrible time of Tribulation begins. Christians, these anti-pre-Trib Rapture proponents declare, therefore won’t recognize Antichrist and won’t be prepared to “endure unto the end” (endure until the Second Advent of Christ at the time of Armageddon).

For the past months, in particular, the pre-Trib Rapture opponents have had us look at economic conditions so dire that we should, they declare, recognize that the world will be swept into unprecedented depression at any moment. They say this is the beginning of the world of humanity going into the prophesied Tribulation. Indeed, things were looking extremely bleak in that regard. All the secular economic gurus agreed that depression is on the way. It cannot be avoided or averted.

My own take has been focused not on what men say, but on what the Lord Jesus Christ said about the end of this age. And, please understand, I have no delusions of grandeur that I’m an Old Testament-type prophet, or even one who has had a “word of knowledge,” as some claim to have. I just read what our Lord says about the end things and believe Him. Therefore, the Holy Spirit directs as I adhere to God’s Holy Word. Any Christian can do the same.

I’ve written that I believe there will be no great economic disaster on a worldwide scale, neither will there be a world-rending nuclear conflict.

The Lord, through His Word and my prayerful consideration thereof, made it known to me that the economy will, at the end of this age, be in a business-as-usual condition rather than in great depression. I’ve written on it probably until folks are tired of reading it: I believe Jesus said it will be business even better than usual at the time He was referring to in Luke 17:28–30.

Here again is that prophecy:

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

Again, I believe the Lord was saying here that at the time He next interrupts the affairs of humankind business will be booming, not in a state of depression and calamity. Sodom and Gomorrah, when Lot lived there and served as a city administrator and judge, was the envy of the entire region. Business was booming–while just beneath the surface of civility, the twin cities were probably the most wicked and debauched on earth. Jesus said it will be just like that when He next reveals Himself to humanity. The righteous (represented by Lot) will be removed, then destruction will befall those left behind.

Now we come to the present time on this wicked, debauched planet. Until recently, the economic outlook was bleak–very bleak. Depression and worse looked to be on the cusp of plunging us into both economic disaster and World War III. Wars and rumors thereof were–and remain—in the news.

I believe we’re being shown that God is still in complete control, no matter how bleak things look. Jesus foretold about this very moment just before the world plunges into that abyss the pundits—secular and some Bible-teacher sorts—have predicted for years.

Suddenly we see the world of economy begin to bloom. Remember, I’ve written that I believe Donald John Trump is not a godly man, but he is, I have no doubt, God’s man for this hour.

He is a builder and negotiator like none I can recall, either by observation or by my understanding of human history. I believe we’re about to witness an economic boom.

And even our friends who oppose teaching the pre-Trib Rapture are lightening up a bit, although never coming into the pre-Trib camp.

I offer as evidence these brief prompts from one such writer. The first is found in our Rapture Ready News list for Tuesday May 11, 2025. The second is a couple of days later, May 13, when Trump’s bringing the UK, China, and other nations into talks about trade has begun producing spectacular results in an economic upswing worldwide. Even the previously skeptical Wall Street types are now predicting not gloom and doom, but a boom, if things keep moving ahead under the direction of Mr. Trump.

On May 11, the writer’s take was almost Tribulation gloomy.

Financial Stress Is at an All-Time High for 70 Percent of Americans
When you don’t have enough money to pay the bills, it can make for a lot of sleepless nights.  If you are in that position right now, I want you to know that you are definitely not alone.  I have heard from so many people that are being absolutely crushed by our ongoing cost of living crisis that seems to have no end in sight.  Just about everything has become substantially more expensive over the past five years, and now the global trade war threatens to push prices for foreign-made goods into the stratosphere.

On May 13, after Trump began bringing together top nations to talk trade deals, the writer has lightened his dire presentation–but only to a degree, and with a tone of sarcastic wit.

The Truth about the “Trade Deal” With China
Everybody is so happy right now.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up more than 1,000 points today, the talking heads on television are bubbling over with optimism, and even many of President Trump’s harshest critics are cheering.  It warms my heart to see everyone so happy, and so there is part of me that is not inclined to dump rain on everyone’s parade.  But I am not going to tell people what they want to hear just to tickle their ears.  I have got to tell the truth about the agreement that has just been made with China, and the truth is not all rainbows and lollipops.

I agree with his conclusion in that statement. The truth is not all “rainbows and lollipops.”

It’s certainly not all “rainbows and lollypops” for those who aren’t under the sheltering wing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who haven’t accepted Christ’s grace-gift offer of salvation from the wages of sin are at the most dangerous moment of human history.

Jesus said He would next intervene into history catastrophically when conditions are precisely as they are quickly becoming while we watch things unfold hourly. It looks to the world that all is about to make a climb out of certain economic collapse and all-out, worldwide war into a time of peace and prosperity. This is, however, a time exactly like what Jesus described. Rather than a spectacular climb into the stratospherics of peace and prosperity, sudden destruction is about to begin.

The great Dave Hunt wrote masterfully of this time in his book: Peace, Prosperity, and the Coming Holocaust.”

This economic boom and cry for peace and safety–even from the just-elected pope from America in Rome, all means that it is like it was in the days of Lot when he and his daughters (the only righteousness God saw in Sodom and Gomorrah) were removed to safety. Sudden destruction fell following that removal. Jesus said conditions will be exactly like that when He is next revealed, making God’s presence known to the entire world.

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Mike Hile and I were at the Christ in Prophecy TV studio near Dallas. TV hosts Tim Moore and Dr. Nathan Jones invited me to interview on our latest book, Tracking Toward Tribulation: And the Any-Moment Intervention by Jesus Christ.

I believe strongly that the programming accomplished that day was Holy Spirit-directed, for two reasons that involve the meaning wrapped within the words “convergence” and “urgency.”

Lamb & Lion Ministries, the overall parent ministry for the Christ in Prophecy TV sector of that ministry, will, like us at RaptureReady, be concentrating more than ever on the convergence of indicators for prophetic fulfillment we see developing. Certainly, for those who are truly watching for prophetic stage-setting as the time of the Tribulation nears, there are hour-by-hour signals that the world is about to be plunged into the time Jesus said will become the worst in all of human history (Matthew 24:21).

“Convergence” was sort of a central theme we kept in mind while going through Tracking Toward Tribulation, a book with chapters by fourteen top scholars, writers, and broadcasters who have a pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy. Plus, I put my two cents in as general editor. I believe it’s one of the most prescient of these books the Lord has given me to publish. By this, I mean that each chapter seems to have a special, Holy-Spirit imprint on the dissection of the times each author presents. And the contributors’ in-depth examinations and analyses engender the word “urgency.”

While filming the programs, as we went through the many signals of convergence bursting forth more and more frequently and intensely in these strange times, it was made clear how the greatest of all prophets expected those who are watchmen to act and react. Jesus said the following in that regard:

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28)

Jesus was saying He wants all who believe He is Lord and Savior to not be like the Judaizers, the Pharisees of the time when He first visited the earth in His fleshly incarnation.

These had their Messiah standing right in front of them, speaking with them, with Heaven-sent signs that He had come into their midst. He condemned them because they didn’t recognize Him despite all the signals. He said they could determine what the weather would be next day by observing the signals—the clouds, et cetera—but they couldn’t recognize Israel’s King standing before them at that very moment.

Jesus is saying today that the signals will be everywhere and in great profusion when the time arrives for His next intervention into the affairs of wicked humankind. We who have within us the Holy Spirit—whom He sent to indwell us when He returned to Heaven and the right hand of His Father—are to look up and know He is on His way back to take us unto Himself (paralambano in the Greek language). He will fulfill at that moment the mystery Paul would later reveal. Jesus said He would go away, but would come again and receive believers to Himself (John 14:1–3). That is the Rapture Paul, the great apostle, gave us in revealing that mystery Jesus described in John 14:1–3.

Jesus said in the Luke 21:28 account that we will see “all these things.” We’ll see the burgeoning signs of His Return. All of us (believers) are to watch for these signs (Mark 13:37).

Those of us who truly watch have been seeing these things “begin” to come to pass for quite some time. For certain, some who watch have been watching intensely since the rebirth of Israel on May 14, 1948!

The absolute avalanche of prophetic signals is converging at this moment at the end of this Age of Grace like at no other time I can remember. Thus I and the others in our Christ in Prophecy filming sessions believe there is great urgency to present these signs and all attendant to them as quickly and as effectively as possible. Souls of people hang precariously in the balance.

We want those who don’t know Jesus for salvation to not be left behind to suffer under Antichrist’s hellish evil and God’s wrath during the last seven years leading to Christ’s Second Advent. Nor do we want those who are lost in sin and headed for eternity apart from God to die and go to the lake of fire, that terrible place prepared for the devil and his rebellious angels.

Thus the urgency cannot be overemphasized. The convergence we see propelling this judgment-bound world toward the Tribulation means there isn’t time to disregard or ignore the call of the Holy Spirit to accept Jesus Christ right now, rather than think to accept His saving grace offer at some time in the future. Because of the convergence of signs, Jesus is, we concluded in that TV filming, perhaps at the very door of Heaven about to step out on the clouds of Glory to call all believers out of harm’s-way in the Rapture.

We want all who don’t know Him for salvation to be saved from the wrath to come, and instead be in the shelter of Jesus Christ. Here again is how you can be saved from sin and its deadly consequences. Jesus is the only Way (John 14:6).

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

A note from a frequent emailer friend in India brought to my spiritual understanding that indeed all we see happening on the peace-effort front might have prophetic significance beyond what I’ve fully covered.

I’ll just mention his name as “KS.” He proffered his thought that we could be right at the point near what’s described in 1 Thessalonians 5:3:

For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

KS then indicated that his thoughts included a nuclear deal with Iran and talks for a two-state solution that might be key to bringing about the Rapture and the “sudden destruction” Jesus spoke of in His “days of Lot” prophecy (Luke 17:2 8–30). The destruction might then eventuate to be the foretold permanent removal of Damascus as a city (Isaiah 17:1) and possibly the Psalm 83 war many believe to be in the near future (I still don’t agree with that).

It’s not that I haven’t considered the many issues involving possible war and peace under the light of Bible prophecy for the end times. It is just that there are so many major war dynamics erupting so often, I must now explore them more closely than ever. We have examined these things many times, based upon the words of the greatest of all prophets:

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. (Matthew 24:6)

Jesus made it clear that as the end of this age (the Age of Grace) approaches, there will be a ramping-up of wars across the world. Yet He we shouldn’t be troubled; these terrible wars and dire warnings of war to come will not mean it is the end.

How in the world could the Lord say we shouldn’t be troubled–that this didn’t mean it is the end?! If there are to be more of these wars–many with the possibility of nuclear exchanges—shouldn’t that be reason for being more troubled, not less?

When thinking on Jesus’ prophecy here, the words of World War II Prime Minister Winston Churchill come to mind. As Hitler’s Blitzkrieg and the bombings came to an end against London early in the war, Churchill tried to fortify the British people for the hellish war against the Nazis he knew Britain and the world still faced.

He said in a broadcast to his people and the rest of the world: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

I wonder if Sir Winston, in his famous speech, framed his thoughts after studying Jesus’ words found in the Matthew 24:6 warning of things to come. Probably not. But Churchill’s own words might be expressed in terms of what we as a nation and world face at this moment.

Our own time at present in facing war is certainly not at an end. Ukraine versus Russia is at a critical phase, with obstacles against which even our own president, a master negotiator, can’t seem to make headway. Israel versus Iranian terrorist proxies rage and build daily toward becoming a truly troubling conflict. And my friend who lives in India faces rumors of nuclear war with Pakistan, where another of my friends makes his home and conducts Christian ministry. Both India and Pakistan now have heating-up hatreds long simmering, each possessing nuclear weaponry.

And, at the same time, a profoundly perilous “rumor of war” threatens regional and world peace.

Iran, with fanatic Islamic leadership that daily threatens to destroy the much-hated Israel, and that sponsors terrorism globally, is perhaps days from developing nuclear weapons it will use to accomplish its blood-vowed intention.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised Iran will never be allowed to develop such weaponry. He is backed by a president of the United States who has proven he will follow through with what he promises. He has promised that if negotiations don’t work and the Iranian regime gets close to having an atomic weapon, the US military will lead the way in taking out Iran’s underground facilities.

Russia has signed pacts with the Iranians, and such lethal actions as will be necessary to destroy the underground weapons labs would make Russia put up or shut up in its friendship of protection with Iran.

This is indeed a “rumor of war” to consider!

The following news item tells of dangers involved in terms of the tenuousness of peace for Israel and the Middle East:

[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking in JNS interview]

“I’m saying this for the ambassadors who are here—all of you know this,” he said. “We just tried a Palestinian state in Gaza,” he continued. “You saw what that brought, right?”

The Jewish state had been “attacked savagely, horribly” on Oct. 7, 2023, said Netanyahu. When German Chancellor Olaf Schultz, who visited Israel early in the war, “saw the film of the horrors and visited the sites, he said there: they’re exactly like the Nazis,” the Israeli premier recalled.

“And I said, well, they’re different. Not in intent, not in savagery—but the Nazis tried to hide their crimes. And these people carry GoPro cameras, live, you know, they’re ecstatic about the blood they shed, the people they butcher, the women they rape, the men they beheaded, the babies they burned,” he continued.

“You cannot build peace and security on lies. If you do so, sooner or later, these lies will crash on the realities of the Middle East,” he said…

“So what’s left? Well, quite a few things and many opportunities, but obviously they’ll all go down the tube if Iran gets nuclear weapons,” he added, vowing to work with Washington to ensure that Tehran will not be able to enrich uranium under a possible deal. (“ ‘Folly’ to Think Palestinian State Will Produce Peace, Netanyahu Tells JNS,” JNS staff, JNS.org)

My friend KS from India is looking for the Rapture like so many who can discern these end times of “wars and rumors of war.” Jesus has promised that there will be no such all-out, world-shattering war before He calls the Church (all born-again believers) to Himself in the Rapture. (Read again the “days of Lot” prophecy in Luke 17:28–30.)

In this sense, we can apply Mr. Churchill’s war-time statement to this time when the stage is being set for the quickly approaching Tribulation. What we see in these times of war and rumors of even greater wars of the nuclear sort, when viewed through the prism of Bible prophecy, is that this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps very soon, the end of the beginning.

This satanic assault on humanity, and particularly upon Israel, is about to end for those who believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. The Tribulation–the great end-times war—will then have its beginning in all its full-blown virulence and violence.

Now we can more clearly understand with spiritual assurance why the Lord Jesus said: “Let not your heart be troubled.”  Believers will not be here on earth to participate in the coming wars and humanity’s final war, Armageddon.

If you want to go to Christ and to the safety of the clouds of Glory when He calls believers to Himself, follow God’s holy instructions:

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

A favorite lyric line of mine in a country song by The Oak Ridge Boys called Thank God for Kids is: “The nearest thing to Heaven is a child…”

Now I know that new parents, when up at 3 a.m., walking a baby that won’t stop crying, or having to feed the child at that hour, might not always find that line by the Oak Ridge Boys so heart-warming. But as one now far into the distant grandfatherly sphere, I can and do see the Truth and heart-warming efficacy in the song’s sense of God’s love for children.

God’s Word makes it quite clear about Heaven’s View of children and their innocence and helplessness. We are shown that anyone dealing treacherously with those who haven’t reached an age of full understanding and comportment is dealing with the very center of God’s own Heart. His anger over such egregious treatment of little ones is implicit in His Son’s words while teaching during his earthly incarnation.

“At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drown in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:1-6). 

It is my contention, based upon conviction from the Holy Spirit, that the millstone reference has a most profound relevance for this generation – especially for America. The satanically inspired treatment of children, much of it codified by the woke movement over the past recent years, shows, I believe, just how near the end of Heaven’s patience is with the Sodom-level wickedness here in this nation and world.

That evil influence from the dark dimension continues to assault all that is decent, and much of it is aimed directly at the youngest, most vulnerable among us. A news item highlights where the nation stands on this war on godliness.

In preparing for a Supreme Court argument on Tuesday over the role of religion in public schools, the justices and their law clerks have considered the usual pile of briefs, pleadings, declarations, and exhibits.

But this time, the key documents in the court record are seven colorful books for young children, with sparse text and cheerful illustrations. They include Pride Puppy, an alphabet primer about a family whose puppy gets lost at a Pride parade; Love, Violet, about a girl who develops a crush on her female classmate; Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, about a same-sex union; and Born Ready, about a transgender boy…

Source: Supreme Court to Weigh Use of L.G.B.T.Q. Children’s Books in Schools – The New York Times By Adam Liptak, April 23, 2025]

While this report is out of the wokeness-prone New York Times —thus we can’t get the full maliciousness wrapped up in what’s going on in the Maryland public schools with regard to the evil attempted against children and their parents—other reports tell the truly troubling story.

An example: Chris Plante on his morning, nationwide radio program, Wednesday, April 23, described the books the Maryland school board insisted even kindergarten children be shown. The pictures were line drawings rather than photographs. If they had been photographs, the producers would have been charged with criminal pedophilia, Plante said. Because they were artist renderings, the pictures were not felonious in the eyes of Maryland law.

Not meaning to offend with being overly graphic, these drawings, Chris Plante said, showed small boys and grown men in sexual ways of the most explicit sort. He described other, even more horrendous drawings in the books being forced upon the parents, who apparently have no recourse to having their children exposed to this wickedness unless the Supreme Court ultimately overrules these ungodly school board members.

Jesus’ Words again reverberate throughout our land as the highest court considers whether to allow or remove such hellish so-called textbooks. I would remind both those school board members and all who perpetrate such evil – and remind the Supreme Court justices as well of God’s verdict on such perversion.

“Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” 

And more to the Relevance in all of this building end times anti-God activity, I once again must express a Truth I have known since my own earliest childhood, when saved at age 6 in the Seventh Street Bible Tabernacle in Pekin, Illinois.

All children below the age of Accountability will go to Jesus when He calls all believers to Himself in the Rapture. There will not be one such little one–even those just conceived—who will be left behind to face God’s Wrath and Judgment.

Jesus’ own Words, again, I believe, assure this absolute Truth in regard to Children and the Rapture.

“Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus is saying here, I am convinced, that, before reaching the age of accountability, little children are guaranteed to be in His Kingdom.

The God of all Creation will declare through that action exactly when life begins for the pro-abortion and woke activists. He will demonstrate in no uncertain terms His opinion of abortion. He will indeed prove in that electrifying instant of Rapture that the nearest thing to Heaven is a child.  

You want to be in God’s Holy Eyes as one of these little children about whom Jesus spoke. That is you want to be a part of those who will go instantaneously to Jesus when He summons the Church (all born-again believers). Simply follow God’s Instructions in order to be forever redeemed out of sin and separation from God.

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

Authors note: We have just passed through the 2025 celebration of our Lord’s death, burial and resurrection. I am, I believe, prompted by Heaven’s nudge to follow up by again testifying to my cardiac arrest and going to somewhere on the periphery of Heaven three times on Good Friday of 2011.

I remember sitting with my great friend Dr. Tim LaHaye at a breakfast table while in Dallas many years ago. It was just Tim and myself, and perhaps Mike Hile, my friend who drives us or flies with me to conferences and who is as close as a family member in my life.

Tim said that he had asked—as did Dr. Jerry Falwell asked regarding his own life—that God give him fifteen more years of living.

As I recall, that was the approximate number of years Tim lived following that breakfast conversation. Dr. Falwell went to be with the Lord after only a few years following his own request.

In my case, I haven’t asked the Lord for a particular number of years. But He has brought me to the fourteenth anniversary of that Good Friday of 2011 trip into somewhere in Glory.

I realize the stigma of disbelief and even scorn sometimes attached to relating such a thing as I experienced. I, too, have always cast a wary eye when hearing such experiences. But, the Lord took me there for His own good reasons, and He brought me back to testify of that heavenly trip. So I can do no other than continue to relate it to whatever audience opportunity permits and the Lord directs.

On remembrance of our Blessed Lord’s resurrection and what it means to each and every one of us, I believe it is altogether fitting to do so again now.

An intensively documented hospital record of those heartbeat stoppages proves the reality of the clinical situation that Good Friday.  

The following, considerably longer-than-usual commentaries, is a chapter from the book, HeavenVision: Glimpses into Glory, which Angie Peters, my daughter-close editor of many years, and I wrote following that tremendous event in my life.

HeavenVision Unveiled

There are no coincidences in God’s dealings with His children. And, the only children He has, in terms of human family, are those who are born again, as Jesus explained. Jesus said: “Ye must be born again.” (Read John 3:1–21 for the full explanation of what it means to be born into God’s family.)

As mentioned previously in this book, God’s Word says further in regard to God’s dealing with His Family: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9–10).

So it was that God, my Heavenly Father, has dealt with me through the clinical death I experienced Good Friday, April 22, 2011. I went through that ordeal, and I am here, now, writing about it for purposes He has determined. It is not a coincidence that brings me to this point of writing what I am about to write and your being here at this point reading what I have written. God has shown me, without the slightest doubt in my spirit and mind about these matters, exactly what the near-death experiences when my heart stopped three times mean. Therefore, without any reservation whatsoever, I am putting down for the record the message I know my Father in Heaven wants me to deliver at this time–in this book.

I write these things with a profound sense of humility, however. I am nobody special, other than a child of God through the shed blood of my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

On second thought, I guess that does make me someone special in God’s holy eyes, but only because of what Christ did for me on that old rugged cross. Like the Apostle Paul framed his own relationship with God, the same applies to my case. Terry James would be the chief among sinners, if not for the righteousness God the Father sees when looking at His Son, Jesus the Christ, in evaluating my life now that I am His child.

Believe It or Not

There is a Scripture that many who major in teaching and preaching miracles and wonders today use to launch into stories of great ecstatic pronouncements:

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. (Joel 2:28)

The time spoken of by Joel the prophet, as recorded in this passage, has not yet been reached. The word for when this era will be reached is in the Hebrew achar, “afterward” in English. This prophecy of miraculous visitations, when old men will dream dreams and young men and women will see visions is scheduled for after Israel, God’s chosen nation, will as a people recognize that God is their strength and their provider. The people of Israel today do not look to the God of Heaven. They haven’t received reconciliation through repentance yet. This prophesy is for when King Jesus rules and reigns upon the throne of David atop Mount Zion during the Millennium. (The Millennium—the thousand-year reign of Christ—is in view in Revelation 20:1–5.)

The world certainly hasn’t reached the time of the Millennium. Jesus is still at the Father’s right hand upon the throne. So, I did not have a dream or vision because we have reached that spectacular future time prophesied for the millennial reign of Christ. However, the Lord can and does reach into any and all time-frames (dispensations) He desires to reach into, and God, the Holy Spirit, did so on April 22, 2011.

I could, in order to sound self-deprecating, tell you that the Lord just on the spot decided to use my widow-maker heart attack, when it happened, to say through my experience what He wants to say. But, I can’t tell you that was what really happened. It was much more specific and preordained than that. God reached down and took my spirit into…where, I’m not certain, but for sure from this earthly dimension, and stood me in front of those young, beautiful, wildly cheering, jubilant young beings. It was no coincidence of timing. It was done for an absolute divine purpose. God chose the likes of me–a blind, aging, sinner saved by His grace—to go through this extremely brief but spectacular visit to the fringes of Heaven.

Some of what this all means came to me almost immediately upon being hooked to wires leading to monitors and tubes while in the cardiac intensive care unit. Other aspects of what the heart stopping those three times and being instantly in the presence of those heavenly beings is all about were, in some cases, revealed much later, while thinking in directions totally unrelated to the experience. It has been confirmed in my spiritual heart that it was the voice of the Holy Spirit I heard, almost audibly, on each and every occasion.

Believe me, I am among the most reluctant of people to embrace in any sense metaphysical, experiential expressions of the Christian faith. By that, I mean stories of supernatural intervention by God into the lives of believers today through such things as dreams, visions, and miraculous healings—like missing limbs being replaced, or…well… people brought back to life after being dead and embalmed.

Do I believe God performs miracles today? Absolutely. He performs them every hour of every day. But, they are very rare in the truly spectacular sense of performing miracles. For example, I have never read or heard of a single case in modern history—a documented case—where someone whose arm was totally withered, atrophied to the point that it was a useless blob of flesh, was restored to full size and use like the person’s other arm, simply by a faith-healer or other person touching it and praying over it. I’ve never seen documentation verifying that one born without a leg, foot, or eyes suddenly have those miraculously added to that person’s body through a faith healer’s touch.

I’ve heard a lot of stories about this happening, told by those who teach and preach miracles as the centerpiece theology of their belief systems. But, not one case has been recorded by medical documentation or through scientific empiricism. I’m a believer, and trust my Lord implicitly. But, I’m also a rational being who finds it prudent to, when it comes to dealing with human beings, do what President Ronald Reagan said about dealing with the Soviets. “Trust, but verify.”

So, with spectacular miracles from on high being rare to the point of being almost undocumentable in these days, why should you–or anyone—believe me and my recounting the wondrous visit to that heavenly dimension on Good Friday of 2011? All I can say is that I know it happened, because I was there among that throng of heavenly beings each time I heard the computer-like blip and my heart stopped. The Lord has told me in the deepest reaches of my spirit to report to you that visit. He has also given me what it means–and in remarkable detail, considering the brevity of the trip to and from that realm.

Believe it or not. Do with it what you will. The following is my faithful execution of the commission I’ve been given–that of reporting what my HeavenVision means to this generation.

HeavenVision–The Interpretation

Near the end of the year 2010, two projects came into my thought processes. The first was for our raptureready.com website—a series of articles I soon gave the title “Scanning a Fearful Future.” The second project that came into my mind was, as stated earlier in this book, a book on Heaven my mother and her sister wanted me to write.

I began writing the series for our Nearing Midnight column—ten articles in all—the last one which I completed and we posted January 24, 2011. Sometime in late December of 2010 or early January 2011, I decided to soon start the book project. My subsequent notes indicate I actually named the book HeavenVision: Glimpses into Glory. The date in my notes for beginning the book project was February 4, 2011.

I also made the note to consider building the HeavenVision book around near-death or clinical-death experiences of individuals–if we could find some that rang true, according to what the Bible has to say about life, death, and Heaven.

One of the primary reasons I wanted to write the “Scanning a Fearful Future” series was to try to help provide answers from the prophetic Word because so many who visit our raptureready.com website were concerned about where the national and worldwide economic upheaval was leading. Also, we were getting an increasing number of emails accusing us of being heretics who were leading people to Hell with our pre-Trib teaching. Christians should be prepared to face the coming Tribulation and Antichrist, we were told in the scathing diatribes. By not preparing Christians to face the beast of Revelation 13, they would not know to reject Antichrist’s mark and number. We were leading people to Hell with our false teaching of the pre-Trib Rapture.

As a matter of fact, we were already in the Tribulation, many of the quite excoriating emails were telling us.

Along with the two projects going through my mind were the thoughts, which became persistent prayers: Lord, I know what your Word says. The pre-Tribulation view of the Rapture is the correct one, I believe. But, nonetheless, please give me absolute confirmation of this truth. We don’t want to lead people astray.

The second thought was: I have written the “Scanning a Fearful Future” series. I would also like to have affirmation in my spirit that what I believe you gave me to write, I have faithfully written.

These were matters I took before the throne constantly. One other was in my thoughts, if not my prayers. I’ve mentioned it before in this book. It went something like: Wouldn’t it be interesting to have a near-death or clinical-death experience, myself? Just die briefly, then be brought back to tell the story of a spectacular experience the Lord allowed. That would really give the book credibility!

The Lord has a sense of humor–I now have no doubt. The old adage, “Be careful what you wish for” definitely applies.

The fact that I clinically died not once, but three times—on Good Friday, no less—was in that other place with the cheering young people, then was “resurrected,” in a manner of speaking, was the Lord making a statement, I’ve been shown.

The first thought to penetrate my realization while lying in the hospital bed was that the throng of beautiful, joyful cheering young people that greeted me each time my heart stopped was–and is—the “cloud of witnesses” of Hebrews 12:1–3.

The second thing that pierced my spiritual understanding, several days later, was that the cheering that greeted me in that heavenly setting was approval of my writing and teaching Bible prophecy in these end of days. But, it was burned deeply into my understanding that all of this cheering was affirmation from the Heavenly Father not just for me, but for all of His children who believe and disseminate Bible prophecy in these last of the last days before His Son calls His Church to Himself (Revelation 4:1, as He promised [John 14:1–3]).

My commission, it was seared into my realization, is to pass along that God, through the cloud of witnesses I saw, was giving His nod of approval to His people for getting out His prophetic truth whenever and in whatever way opportunity is presented.

Later, over the weeks and months of recuperation, I’ve been given deeper understanding of those Good Friday glimpses of Glory.

My series of articles “Scanning a Fearful Future,” which concluded with the January 24, 2011 article, is key to the HeavenVision, the Lord continues to impress upon my spiritual understanding. The articles were begun to, I prayerfully hoped, help allay the fears that were coming to my email inbox fast and furiously around the time when national and global economic collapse looked to be imminent.

The question in every email on the topic of the “coming economic collapse” was based upon a well-known TV pundit’s declaration that Americans could awaken on any morning and find that the world had changed completely. The US dollar would be no longer of any value. Worldwide depression would quickly bring changes that would in its course bring martial law and imprisonment for all who didn’t toe the mark of what Big Brother demanded.

I was prompted by the Holy Spirit to write the series, examining carefully what the Bible prophesies for the end of the age.

Most all emails at the time expressed fear that Christians in America would be put in FEMA internment camps—which were said to be proliferating around the country, according to many blogs and conspiracy-laden websites.

Would Christians in America face martyrdom–maybe even have to face the Antichrist regime? Maybe the pre-Trib Rapture view wasn’t prophetic truth after all. Maybe we were already in the Tribulation!

The series covered ten weeks, so there isn’t room in this section of the book to put all that was presented over the course of those articles. However, the bottom line in answer to the fear-filled emails was and is the following—the conclusion to which the series came.

Jesus Provides Answer

The series of articles, “Scanning a Fearful Future,” in examining truth about where the apparent building economic cataclysm will lead, and what will cause the world-shattering bubble to burst, brought me, in the final analysis, to the words of the greatest of all prophets–the Lord Jesus Christ.

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:26-30)

Another Gospel account expounds further upon Jesus’ prophecy about conditions that will be prevalent at the moment He next intervenes in human history.

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. (Matthew 24:36–42)

The conclusion reached in the series–based upon the above prophecy by Jesus—was that there will be no catastrophic man-made or natural event that will throw the nation and world suddenly into the time of apocalyptic chaos. It will be Christ’s sudden call to His Church–His Bride—that will bring on God’s judgment.

It will be business as usual, according to Jesus’ words in this prophecy, with people buying, selling, building, marrying, etc., right up until the moment when born-again believers instantaneously go to be with their Lord, when He calls them in the Rapture.

Jesus could not have been prophesying about the time of His Second Advent (Revelation 19:11). At the time He returns, as Armageddon is raging in the valley of Megiddo, it will not be business as usual, as is indicated by Jesus’ words in Luke 17:26–30 and Matthew 24:36–42. At the time of Armageddon, as many as two-thirds of humanity will have been killed by the events of the Tribulation era (the last seven years of human history before Christ’s Second Coming).

I have had confirmed in my spirit through the cheering of the cloud of witnesses that what I wrote in “Scanning a Fearful Future” is the way things will unfold. The Lord of Heaven, Himself, is preventing the total collapse of the world economic system, as He is keeping all-out war from breaking out in the Middle East.

When Christ steps out on the clouds of Glory and shouts: “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1), judgment will begin to fall upon America and the world that very day.

HeavenVision Afterthoughts…

Not long after Angie and I began writing this book, I was totally engrossed in listening to a television program. I don’t remember what the program was about; it was probably a ballgame of some sort. Out of seemingly nowhere, the inner voice spoke almost audibly.

“Terry, you remember praying all of those months, before the Good Friday experience, asking to have confirmed in your spirit that the pre-Trib view of the Rapture is the absolute truth from my Word? Well…what do you think that cheering group of youngsters was all about?”

It was all I could do to keep myself from leaping through the ceiling from my sitting position, even without any assistance from the Rapture experience! The epiphany was stunning! I could almost hear the smile of holy amusement in that revelation.

The next moment brought the humbling realization that the Lord of all creation would be so loving as to spend such an intimate moment with someone like me.

I was being cheered for teaching, specifically, the pre-Trib Rapture view. The pre-Tribulation Rapture, I was thus assured, is the true meaning of the Apostle Paul’s prophetic writing to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15:51–55 and to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18.

Again came the prompting in my spirit that the cheering wasn’t for me alone, but for all who hold to and teach and preach the pre-Trib Rapture in these final hours of the age.

Some time before that, another Holy Spirit epiphany had illuminated my spiritual understanding of my Good Friday visit to what I believe must have been somewhere near the portals of Heaven.

While standing before that throng of vibrant, cheering, young people each time my heart stopped beating, one face stood out from among them. Her smile was wide, her face beaming with joy, while she was thrusting her arms upward as if celebrating victory at a sports event. On the third and last visit to that otherworldly place of stunning beauty and absolute peace, the young woman looked over at me while we were all running as if in a race, her hands raised in victory. She was laughing, her beautiful facial expression bursting with unbridled exultation.

That face was constantly with me for more than a month following the trip to that realm. The image never left my conscious thoughts. The identity of the young woman emerged suddenly into my mind at a rare moment I wasn’t thinking about my near-death event.

While the last vestiges of my eyesight were in process of fading to darkness, I had begun my first book of Bible prophecy. I called it Storming toward Armageddon. During that time, I became friends with an elderly woman who could no longer attend our church because she had reached the advanced stages of osteoporosis.

She was a great Christian lady who loved Bible prophecy, and she also was a very good poet. Many of her poems involved prophecy from God’s Word, as a matter of fact.

Additionally, she taught several classes of young women each week in her home. They would sit on the floor surrounding her while she taught the Bible studies.

We talked on a regular basis by phone, and I visited her at her home from time to time. She was excited about the fact that I was about to become an author of a prophecy book. I asked her if we could use one of her brief poems in that book. She readily agreed, and we put the poem at the beginning of Storming toward Armageddon. We also put her poems in my next two books, and she lived to see them in print.

My friend began to lose her ability to see, so we could commiserate over our mutual eye problems. Her health declined quickly, and she died before she lost her eyesight totally.

The Lord has confirmed in the deepest reaches of my spirit that the dynamic, joyfully cheering young woman of my visit to the outskirts of Glory, whose beautiful face continues to be etched in my mind’s eye, is Arbra Carman–my wonderful friend and Christian sister.