God’s Word lays out, in detail in many instances, how things will be as the time of Christ’s Second Advent (Revelation 19:11) nears. We are given specific characteristics of the human condition leading up to the time of Tribulation. This is the time in which this present generation finds itself. We call it the Pre-Tribulation era. We also know it as the Age of Grace, or the Church Age.

As a slight preview of things to come from the James quarter, I’ll announce here my next book, presently scheduled to be released March of this year. I say “my” book, but it is  also “our” book.

I and my colleague/friends have put together a volume of fourteen chapters by some of the most outstanding writers, broadcasters, speakers and prophecy experts from the Pre-Trib viewpoint. These are colleagues and friends of many years who have combined their Holy Spirit-inspired  thoughts and analyses on a most important topic.

It is the first prophetic indicator Jesus, Himself, gave as He sat answering His disciples’ question: “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Jesus, of course, told them–and us by extension–to not be deceived. He went on to say that great deception and many deceivers will mark the very end of the age.

Our book’s title is, therefore, Deceivers: Exposing Evil Seducers and Their Last-Days Deception.

Authors such as Dr. David Reagan, Jan Markell, Dr. Gary Frazier, Gary Stearman, and ten others have combined their talents and insights. They present a truly important work on what is possibly the most discernible signal in view today that we are on the precipice of Christ catching up believers in the Rapture.

Jesus began by forewarning of deceivers. He went through a litany of other signs that would be appearing as the wind-up of the age drew to a close. He then went into what the Tribulation itself would be like, explaining in considerable detail in some parts of the Olivet Discourse. A little later, He folded back into the mix things to come. He gave how prophecy would shape up and lead to that exact moment when He would say to the Church, “Come up here!”

That moment of Rapture will happen, I’m convinced–as I have alluded to on many occasions–when things become like they were in the days of Noah and of Lot (Matthew 24:36-42, Luke 17:26-30). The Lord included in all of this that there will be wars and rumors of war. The nations will be in distress with perplexity. The seas of people will be in a state of constant unrest.

Yet, this greatest of all prophets–because He is the very Creator of all that is–said that at the same time things are building toward the climax of the age, people will be conducting life in an economical uptick. They will be buying, selling, planting, building–doing all the things that are indicative of prosperity.

Folks, with the advent of the Trump presidency, we are, it seems to me, at the very point Jesus said the generation will be that will experience His next catastrophic intervention into the affairs of fallen mankind. The national and world economies are poised for boom, according to most every indicator. Even the mainstream media is beginning to very reluctantly concede this fact. It wants to give credit for it starting with President Obama, not with the actions of Donald Trump. Regardless, the media is reluctantly beginning to admit that America and much of the world are headed into an unexpected boom. This is exactly the condition the Lord prophesied will be prevalent at the time of Rapture, the way yours truly reads it.

The fact that deception is at the forefront of practically every facet of life today adds fuel to the fires of approaching apocalypse. The apostle Paul’s foretelling of how end-times human beings will comport themselves is all the proof we need to point to the deception saturating this generation.

Paul said men (human beings) will be “lovers of themselves.”

There are a number of ways deception can be seen in this end-times characteristic. I point to only one. Forgive me, Facebook fans, but a vast number who use the various social media spend time lying about who they are, their achievements, etc.–so much so, that some psychological studies indicate troubling cultural ramifications from the deceiving going on.

Many take “selfies” to add to self-aggrandized perceptions they wish others to form about them. These can be considered “lovers of self” and deceivers.

Paul prophesied that  mankind will be “without natural affection.”

I’ve often dissected this characteristic of end-times man as being involved in both homosexuality and abortion. Neither of these characteristics, championed by the progressives of our time, are “normal.” Or, I should say these used to be considered abnormal.

We remember the deceivers within this end-times characteristic. The doctors and technicians within Planned Parenthood secretly were shown on hidden cameras to be harvesting organs from these tiny, helpless human beings. They were doing so, in some cases, while the hearts of the unborn were still beating. These are deceivers of first order!

Paul foretold that end-times man will be traitors, heady, and high-minded.

To me, all of this can be seen as wrapped up in these thousands and thousands of emails that are electronic conversations within government agencies talking about trying to disrupt the Trump campaign and the Trump presidency. Those responsible then tried to deceive Congress by telling congressional oversight people that  the emails couldn’t be found. A deception and a lie.

The 50,000-plus emails have since been found, but not without deep, technological probing and congressional threatening.

One man involved in all of  the email intrigue wrote, or was heard saying, that they shouldn’t be released because the American people wouldn’t understand. This is heady high-mindedness and deception of unbelievable magnitude. These deceivers believe they are far above the average American citizen in knowledge and intelligence as to  say what’s best and what is not in keeping us ignorant. They are traitorous, heady, and high-minded.

The never-ending Russian-Trump collusion story has been proven a false accusation. The lie–the deception–that generated the special counsel investigation is based upon the so-called Russian dossier that was purely fiction. It was prepared and presented to and by American governmental services like FBI in order to begin the probe. Trump’s political opponents were at the core of the lie. These were and are false accusers. 

All of the above proves, to me at least, that we are at the very end of this Church Age. Jesus’ words are appropriate here, like when we’ve used them over and over many times: “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).

Most of the world, it can be said, is not prepared for the wrap-up of human history as prophesied in the Bible. This is especially true of the apex nation of world history in which we are privileged to live.

America is afflicted by great turmoil in the political sense. We are divided almost down the middle, so far as our choices for social and political directions are concerned. As a matter of fact, I’ve used the word “schizophrenia”–correctly, I think–to describe the nation’s malady.

One side seems to want freedom from moral constraint and government that is like a rich uncle who provides everything. The other wants morality more sensibly controlled and a return to government founded under constitutional restraint as put in place by the Founding Fathers.

Like the rest of the world, however, neither side of the political divide–or I should say none in America, of most social and political stripes–is prepared for the wrap-up of human history as given in God’s Word.

I continue to perhaps bore you with my belief that America has reached the “think-not” time expressed by Jesus as recorded in Matthew 24:44: “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

I have observed nothing in these times to indicate my sense of direction is amiss about how things are going, prophetically speaking. This is in no way neither to claim infallibility in the area of diagnosing our times, nor to claim perfect prognostication for the future. I’m just saying that things continue to move in direction exactly as I have thus far thought they would, if we are at the end of the age, as I believe this generation to be.

The Trump presidency has seemed to me to accelerate this movement into position for the prophesied end of this Church Age. We are entering a time of economic boom despite all of the minions of global order and anti-God forces coming against Him.

The latest assault, of course, is the forcing of the government shutdown by a 100 percent vote against a proposed alternative by the so-called opposition party, the political party that admits to be the party of absolute resistance.

That party, the Democrat Party, quickly backed down from their resist-at-any-cost stance when they realized the voting public across the nation saw them as placing taking care of illegal aliens above taking care of the military and the American people.

While many economists have been claiming the nation and the world were on the verge of entering a depression worse than in the 1930s, Trump’s innovations, regulation rollbacks and the tax cutting has every economic indicator imaginable looking as if a true boom is beginning. This, despite the mainstream media refusing to present almost any news whatsoever about the economic uptick.

Again, I believe all this will come crashing down at the time of Rapture, when Christ next catastrophically intervenes into the affairs of wicked, rebellious, mankind.

Jesus told us how it will be when He does so. He said it will be like in the days of Noah and the days of Lot. The people of those days were enjoying prosperity, not abject poverty and hard times. This, despite the world wagging on as usual with wars and immorality that invited God’s judgment and wrath.

Jesus said of those days: “ For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah 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” (Matthew 24:38-39).

Jesus forewarned that this time of apparent prosperity would come like a snare upon the whole world: “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:34-35).

The Lord was, in my opinion, talking here about the Rapture, not, as some claim, about the Second Advent (Revelation 19:11.) Thus because this will be an any-moment, unknown microsecond of time, whereas the Second Advent is calculable to the very day as given by Scripture: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew 24:36).

Jesus gave instructions for the believer alive at the time of this break-in on a world of unaware, uncaring earth dwellers: “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:42).

Everything looks to be in preparation for that great snare to be activated by the very Creator of all that is. He will shout “Come up here!” to those who have spiritual ears to hear His command. All others will be left behind to suffer seven years of horror, the likes of which the world has never experienced.

Here is how to avoid being left behind to face Antichrist and his regime of evil: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

When that funny, irritating noise coming from your TV set goes off, what is your reaction? I’m talking about that grating   OINK!…OINK!…OINK! sound that disrupts whatever program you are watching or happen to have the television on while you do other things.

The noise is followed by an announcement: This is a test. This is only a test. If this had been an actual emergency… Well, you know what I’m talking about.

When that goes off, what is your reaction? I must admit that my first, instantaneous, thought is still: Could it be a nuclear attack?

This automatic reaction comes, I have little doubt, from the time of “duck and cover!”–the warning/instruction that dominated my days as a kid. We were told to get under our desks if at school, should the sirens sound announcing nuclear attack. We were told to jump off our bikes and try to get under something, get flat into a ditch, or  hide behind anything available if we were out and about.

I’ve mentioned before in this column that when I was a sophomore in high school, the rumor had it that atomic war with the Soviets would happen on a certain Friday. It was cause of angst for some, but not all paid any attention to the rumor–or to the warnings to “duck and cover,” for that matter. I guess I’ve always been a bit geopolitically sensitive…

So it was that I tried to imagine what the people of Hawaii must have experienced when their devices and televisions announced there were incoming nuclear missiles. The announcement said this wasn’t a test–everyone should seek immediate shelter.

There was crying and gnashing of teeth, if I might use biblical language. People got under mattresses with their families or boarded themselves in garages. One grandfather herded his grandchildren into a sewer manhole. It was a time of anxiety far beyond anything I experienced as a child or have experienced since.

We think of how, if it had been an actual nuke headed to the beautiful islands of Hawaii, there would be no beauty remaining following the impact. It is almost unimaginable as to what that part of the islands would have looked like. But, it isn’t beyond our imaginations, because we have the films of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs to graphically remind us of the results of such weaponry. We have the films of the Bikini tests in the 1950s that demonstrated the horrific destructiveness of nuclear devices far more powerful than the bombs used on Japan to end the war.

Thankfully, the feared attack on Hawaii was a false alarm. The  people between the mattresses, in their garages, and in the manholes could emerge to consider how things could have ended so differently. We can hope that the accidental siren alert will serve as a wake-up call to everyone of just how short a time (less than twelve minutes from time of the alert) such devastation can come upon us.

There is devastation coming that has a much, much shorter time of arrival than 10-12 minutes upon a totally unsuspecting people. There will be no alert to forewarn those under this incoming destruction. That is, no OINK!…OINK!…OINK! will disrupt TV programs or announce on various devices what is about to occur.

However, the siren is blaring, warning that the catastrophic impact is about to take place. The siren has been sounding for some time. As a matter of fact, this column and a number of others have been sounding the siren alarm.

The devastation will far surpass what that nuclear-tipped missile would have caused, had it been an actual attack. The sirens of Bible prophecy have been sounding–especially in these end of days the secularists call the end times. The devastation, following this imminent, catastrophic event, will result in as much as three-fourths of people on earth perishing over a period of seven years.

Those upon whom this calamity is about to fall are oblivious to the sirens of warning. It’s sad to say that many who should know about the coming time of destruction and should be issuing the warning refuse to do so. Not only that, they refuse to believe the impending disaster is a prophetic fact. They even make fun of the notion.

I’m referring, of course, to the preachers who claim to name the name of Jesus Christ, but who don’t believe He is returning in a catastrophic way to planet earth.

These, if they have any opinion or care one way or the other, believe Christ will return and take over from the Church. The Church, they believe, will have made worthy His Kingdom, over which He will then reign.

Only, that’s not what the Bible says. That Revelation 19:11 return is to a war-torn planet where most of its inhabitants have died in the violence and wrath of seven years of Tribulation.   

Many of these type theologians will tell you they don’t believe the book of Revelation even belongs in the canon of Scripture. There is, they will say, no Rapture–no time of great trouble ruled over by somebody known as Antichrist. That stuff is all to somehow be taken in a spiritual way, not literally.

Jesus will indeed come back to rule and reign over a planet that is much like it was in the time of Eden before the fall of man. But, He–not the theologians who think they will prepare the way for Heaven on earth–will do the restoration. When Christ calls all believers to Himself at the Rapture, that very moment devastation will begin to fall. It will be just like in the time of Lot, when he was removed from Sodom. (Read Jesus’ words in Luke 17:26-30).

So, the siren of Bible prophecy goes unsounded, unheard by the vast majority of humanity. But, that siren is sounding more loudly every day in the Christ-sensitive ears of those spiritually attuned. That’s why we present these commentaries. We want to sound the siren a devastating time is coming–and it could come at any moment.

One siren-signal is most prominent. Israel is being forced by Satan’s globalist minions to give in to demands to divide God’s land further. The Lord is on the cusp of taking the Church Home with Him. He will then again begin dealing with His beloved Israel. It will be a time of His wrath, while He purges those who are rebellious earth-dwellers and rescues for Himself a people to populate the millennial earth.

The sirens are sounding!

It’s almost like watching a war in much the same way people used to observe Civil War battles. The towns people would, in some cases–particularly early in the conflict–get their picnic goods together and sit in what they thought to be secure positions with their families to watch the blue and gray combatants go at it.

I feel sort of like that at the moment.

There is an end-times war going on–building toward Armageddon–and the individual battles are fascinating.

I’ve noted with amusement and a degree of schadenfreude the leftist, Hollywood types have their accusations against Donald Trump bounce off his administration and stick on them. The sexual harassment charges have made manifest their hypocrisy.

Satan has appeared to have been losing the battle as of late on several fronts. Of course, we know that neither he nor his minions, whether demonic or human, will ever give up their assaults until the war is over. They will seem to win many battles right up until the gathering at Armageddon.

Evidence of the battles Lucifer and his legions will continue to fight is observable in the conflict Attorney General Jeff Sessions has initiated regarding marijuana sales. It is a civil war in its own right.

The old devil never ceases to amaze in his ability to deceive and cajole. He not only has a majority of people clamoring to make “Mary Jane” accessible on a national scale, thus eventually making the nation unable to think clearly, he finessed the controversy into a political poison dart aimed at the president he is desperate to see removed from the reigns of power. The following hate-Trump news outlet piece illustrates my point, I hope. 

As of late Friday, POLITICO Magazine could not find a single member of Congress who had issued a statement in support of Sessions’ actions. In the end, this is a self-inflicted pot crisis that could prove to be a critical test of Trump’s ability to maintain his base.

“There’s a lot of old white men who are marijuana users, and the marijuana is keeping them alive,” Segerblom said from his cell phone while driving around Las Vegas. “Trump is going to have fewer to vote for him if he doesn’t keep marijuana legal.”

Sessions’ antipathy for a drug that has lost much of its stigma among a wide cross section of Americans has only galvanized disparate factions in Congress to protect an industry that is expected to generate $2.3 billion in state tax revenue by 2020. (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/06/jeff-sessions-marijuana-legalization-congress-216251)

I’m sure that among that 70 percent of Americans who are said to support legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes are many who regularly read this column. There are those within my own family who think it is something that should be allowed without resistance.

I don’t.

It is the so-called recreational usage that is embedded within the satanic ploy that makes the battle plan an end-times issue in my view. It is the proverbial slippery slope to open more and more avenues to national inability to think rationally.

America already is plagued with that malady to an unacceptable degree. A glaring example is that at least half of the nation has been deluded into believing that supporting the murder of babies in their mothers’ womb and same gender partners engaging in sexual relations is natural and not abnormal.

The prophetic Word of God has things to say about this drug-induced delusion at the time of Christ’s Second Advent approaches.

John wrote about those rebellious earth dwellers who would populate the planet at the very end, as Armageddon nears:

“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” (Revelation 9:21).

Again, John, with dictation from Jesus Christ, writes the following: “And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived” (Revelation 18:23).

The word “sorceries” here is from the Greek pharmakeia (#5331 in Strong’s). There is some connection here to the word “pharmacy.”

The following is informative about the use of the Greek term chosen for use.

Okay. Now lets ensure that we correctly understand this:

The root meaning of this group of Greek words [magos, mageia, pharmakeia, pharmakeus]  is “druggist,” “poisoner,” or, “giver of potions.” These particular “sorcerers” were persons able to prepare and dispense potions. But why did they dispense these potions? Was it in order to give relief from illness?

Absolutely not! It was in order to stimulate hallucinations or visions! We must understand that it was long part of pagan religious practice to administer potions, or drugs, which would encourage hallucinations! There is, of course, a direct parallel here to modern illicit drug taking. But these original “pharmacists” were involved in the black arts and in demonology; the basic idea was that taking certain potions could bring one into contact with the spirit world, and that this was to be desired. But the fact that the modern English word “pharmacy” happens to be derived from pharmakeia frankly proves absolutely nothing! Do people visit doctors in order to be given drugs which will bring them into contact with the spirit world? Of course not!! People visit medical practitioners in order to have an illness diagnosed, to be treated for sickness, or to gain relief from illness! Yet there are some extremist charismatic ministries around today which teach that we sin when we visit a doctor just because the word “pharmacy” happens to be related to these Greek words!

We must understand that on several occasions the Bible backs up the principle that sick people should look around for remedies for their sickness. This is a very clear biblical principle!…

While the English word “pharmacy” is indeed derived from a group of Greek words used to describe those pagans who used potions to encourage hallucinations in those who wanted to contact the spirit world, to suggest that modern medical pharmacists are in any way associated with the “black arts” is as ludicrous as to suggest that when my friend took penicillin for a very serious infection, he was really more interested in contacting spirits!!! (By the way, my friend was healed and gave the full glory to God who alone is our healer). (Robin A. Brace-2005, Sorcery in the Bible, Pharmakeia and Modern Medicine www.ukapologetics.net/pharmakeia.html)

The battle waged by Satanic forces to bring in last-days sorceries, according to Bible prophecy, will be a victory in their column. We are, in my opinion, witnessing the beginning of their winning that battle in our beloved nation. But, one battle won’t win this war. We have God’s Word on that truth!

The Devil at 4 O’Clock is a 1961 movie starring Frank Sinatra and Spencer Tracy. It involves three prisoners who are brought to an island in the South Pacific. The prisoners are to help evacuate a colony of children with leprosy from the island, which is on the verge of exploding because it is one enormous volcano.

The ground quakes constantly. Ominous rumbling in the background makes clear the urgency to evacuate. All on the island are doomed who are not removed in time.

This is one of my favorite movies. I have thought about it over the years, have even included it in writing these commentaries and in books. The analogy can’t be missed. Planet earth is a volcanic island in the vast sea of the cosmos. Rumblings that are increasing and the quaking that is being felt makes the diligent student of Bible prophecy from the Pre-Trib perspective know that things are winding up for human history’s final cataclysm.

While we enter the year 2018, prophetic rumblings are consistent. The ground, symbolically speaking, is quaking. Despite the time when all seems calm and the rumblings seem to have subsided, a true, eschatological seismologist knows what is happening.

The biblically prophetic sensors cannot lie. The planet is doomed. There is  need of an evacuation plan. There is one available, and we will look at that momentarily.

Getting back to the Pre-Trib prophetic sensors the student of eschatology possesses–the spiritual seismometer–I will look with you at three indicators I think it is good to watch as 2018 counts down.

First: Israel will come under greatly increased hatred. 

Second: The threat of war will ratchet up dramatically.

Third: National and Western world economies will appear to be booming.

There are, of course, many more foreshocks to be examined, but these are the ones I think are most obviously in view. Like in The Devil at 4 O’Clock, this is an island in the sea of the cosmos that is about to be devastated. We must help as many to evacuate as possible before history’s most horrific time of cataclysm erupts.

1) Israel will come under greatly increased hatred.

Jesus, in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, tells His disciples to expect greatly increased hatred while the time of His Second Advent nears. He indicates in these prophetic words that He, Jesus, is the reason they will be hated.

This has certainly been the case in modern history. The Nazis, for example, stirred hatred for the Jews by claiming them to be “Christ killers.” Jews in many parts of the world are still accused in this way.

Mostly, though, they are hated because they are accused of being “occupiers” of land that doesn’t belong to them. They are considered intruders in the land that belongs to the so-called Palestinians.

Anti-Semitism, of course, is Satan’s tool to bring the entire world’s ire against the nation that is God’s chosen people. The devil is more than just a word used in the title of the movie I mention. He, Lucifer, now Satan, is working diligently to bring about the destruction of the Jewish people–the nation Israel. And, it is the “Jewish problem,” as Adolf Hitler and his beastly cohorts put it, that must be dealt with in the eyes of much of the diplomatic world today.

We saw this as the year 2017 came to a close. The matter of the U.S. president calling for the move of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem brought squeals of outrage. These squeals came not only from the Arab Islamists, but from some of our supposed closest allies.

Although some nations now seem to be trying to climb back on the Trump bandwagon of support for Israel, the vast majority still is screaming hate-filled protests against the Jewish state and all it represents.

I believe this president has been brought forth at this point in history for the specific purpose of supplying American support to God’s chosen people. Far from this being a measure intended to bring peace, however, I think it is becoming obvious that the Lord is using American support to further enrage Israel’s blood-vowed enemies. Additionally, it is making manifest the anti-God, Antichrist global cabal that wants no deity to rule over them (Psalm 2).

The Lord of Heaven might just be stirring the end-times volcano, bringing it to an explosive head. All this might accomplish not only bringing into focus the Zechariah 12:1-3 prophecy, but the prophetic matter I wish to address next.

2) The threat of war will ratchet up dramatically.

We are, I believe, on the precipice of entering the time of the “cry for peace and safety” as given in the prophecy of Paul the apostle: ^“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” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

This forewarning was issued for those indicated by the pronoun “they.” Paul was speaking of those who are not under the salvation protection of Heaven.

Paul says right after the “peace and safety” foretelling: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” (1 Thes 5: 4-5)

The people of earth–particularly the diplomatic world–will be crying “peace and safety.” But, those who are in God’s family—the “we” Paul mentions, indicating the pronoun for believers, should know the cry for peace and safety doesn’t apply to them.

The believer in Jesus Christ for salvation is under God’s protection. The rebellious earth and all of its dangers are not for them.

As stated above, I believe we are on the precipice of great, collective fear of war–nuclear conflict–exploding across the globe. This comes partly from the North Korean threat, with it becoming more apparent that China is backing North Korea, rather than trying to damper the North Korean dictator’s reckless behavior.

The sense of looming world war could also come from threats from a growingly hostile and Israel-hating Iran. That whole cauldron of boiling rage might be about to overflow.

Again, this president might be a catalyst to galvanize the developing situations. He is not one to take the path of least resistance as has been the tact of his most recent predecessors.

And, yet again, it is this president who is at the center of the last thing I will mention as possibly bringing the year 2018 to a prophetic tipping point.

3) National and Western world economies will appear to be booming.

I wrote last week, and a number of times before in this column, that I’m convinced Christ’s “days of Noah, days of Lot” prophecy is the most relevant for our time. I believe we are entering the time Jesus spoke of as I pointed out last week. That prophecy is found in the Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17:26-30 accounts of the Olivet Discourse. (At least many, including myself, believe the Luke portion was issued during the Olivet Discourse.)

Jesus said business will be going along at a brisk pace when He is next “revealed”–when He next catastrophically intervenes into the corrupt, wicked affairs of mankind.

I believe we have about reached that point.

The economy is, I’m convinced, about to take off in a big way. Like him or not, this president–as mentioned in points 1 and 2 above–is at the heart of that economic boom I believe is coming. I more and more suspect the coming boom Jesus indicated would be in progress when He next intervenes catastrophically might be the one we see developing at this time.

The “boom,” as I’ve written previously, will be, in many ways, based upon smoke and mirrors because of computer manipulations. However, it is manifesting as a genuine uptick for America and much of the world. This is because of the world’s nations being intricately linked to the U.S. economic engine.

How does this all come together into prophetic synchronization? My own thought is that Israel must again become the focus of God’s course of prophetic fulfillment. He will again begin dealing with His chosen people and nation. To me, it is observably manifest that He is beginning to more directly influence matters in that regard.

Secondly, the “cry for peace and safety” is beginning in earnest. The U.N. and the Western diplomatic world in particular are calling for a damping-down of the possibility of nuclear conflict.

Israel, of course, is seen by these as the reason that such conflict might begin in the Middle East. Israel must give in to its enemies so peace can prevail. (And this is what will cause the Lord to bring all anti-God perpetrators to Armageddon–Joel 3:2.)

Again, Donald J. Trump doesn’t see things that way. He is fouling globalist plans to bring in the new world order they seek to construct.

Third, Jesus said it would be at “a time ye think not” when He next makes His presence known to the world. This is not the time of the Second Advent (Revelation 19:11), but the time when everything, economically speaking, seems to be humming along nicely.

We are hearing that hum even now as 2018 gets underway!

It is at such a time of business as usual–or even better than usual–when He will call those of us who Paul said are not “children of the night, but of the day” to be with Him in the clouds of glory. Let us work to see that as many as possible are evacuated from this satanically volcanic planet when the Rapture occur

We’ve been over it before in this column. However, things are shaping so rapidly it again needs our attention. Prophecy watchmen on the wall should pay close attention.

The seminaries consistently ignore this prophetic indicator altogether. Or they steadfastly say it is to be applied to Jews alive during the Tribulation. It is not for the Church.

I say–and have done so for years–that the prophecy is specifically for our time–that is, the Age of Grace.  I’m referring to Jesus’ foretelling of the time of His next intervention into the affairs of mankind. He described those days being like the days of Noah and the days of Lot.

‘m convinced the prophecy involved is so important for us to consider as this new year begins that we will include it here it in its entirety.

In the Matthew Olivet Discourse account, the Lord says that no one can know the day or hour of His coming. He next informs of what this time will be like and what to look for in being watchmen.

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)

Jesus further expands in the Luke account:

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)

We have looked numerous times at these words of Christ. We have noted that the time of which He spoke in prophesying these matters could not be the time of His Second Advent. The world will be almost totally destroyed when Armageddon is raging. perhaps as much as three-fourths of the earth’s population will have died as a result of God’s wrath and Satan’s evil through the Antichrist’s reign. it will not be business as usual.

This prophecy about Christ’s “revealing” indicates plainly that it will be a time of buying, selling, marrying, planting–all of the activities that indicate business as usual. I maintain that because Christ doesn’t emphasize things that are mundane; he was talking here about a time when business was much better than usual.

As long as five years ago, we expressed in this Nearing Midnight column our belief that it would be a time of economic boom, not bust, that would mark when the Rapture of the Church would occur. It would be the think not time because the world, economically speaking, would be doing quite well.

Of course, not all the world is doing well at present, economically or in any other way. This has always been the case. The poor will always be with us, the Lord, Himself, told us.

However, for the part of the world where economies have the capability to thrive, the world, Jesus said in this prophecy, will be doing quite well at the time He is next “revealed.”

Almost every economic indicator is moving upward in America at this moment. This nation is the economic engine for the rest of the world. The better the U.S. does, economically speaking, the better the other nations who have the capability to thrive will do.

I’m dumbfounded at the fact that the true, Bible-teaching seminaries of America see this prophecy as being only for the Jews of the Tribulation. It seems to be a blindness they suffer.

However, I do know why the tremendous economic potential that has burst onto the scene is unheralded by the mainstream news media. They hate Donald Trump, plain and simple.

Now, I’m not so foolish as to think that the economic upswing is one built on sound economic principles. We are in a tremendous financial bubble that continues to grow by the hour. At some point it is going to burst. It simply defies the fiscal laws for it to continue without imploding.

However, it will not come to that point of implosion, I’m of the belief, until the Lord Says so. He is allowing it to move exactly toward the prophetic point the Lord Jesus foretold in the above scriptural accounts.

As I’ve expressed many times, this president is God’s chosen man for this hour, a builder, an entrepreneur extraordinaire. But, the mainstream news prevaricators refuse to report the tremendous economic growth the nation is experiencing. To do so would move in the opposite direction of trying to bring America down so that the globalists can usurp its wealth and power to construct the world order they wish to establish. They want desperately to destroy this president’s efforts to restore the United States to its former, leading status.

Antichrist’s global platform will be constructed, I believe, when the Rapture occurs and this phenomenal economic bubble explodes and comes down around the ears of an unsuspecting world.

The year 2018 could be the time. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The secularists, those who demand that we not be exclusive at this time of year, have done all they can do to replace the greeting “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays.” These don’t want us to hurt the feelings or offend the sensibilities of people by using the name of the person for whom we celebrate the season.

The politically correct insist that we all use the term “Happy Holidays”as we send out greetings in whatever form. They cringe at the sight of nativity scenes and become disturbed at the sounds of songs that name the one whose birthday we celebrate on December 25.

While it is true that the larger portion of American citizenry thinks it not wrong to proclaim “Merry Christmas,” the politically correct Nazis, many of whom speak loudly through their social activist, bully pulpits, try to make it miserable for those of us who use the greeting we cannot and will never  abandon.

These of the “Happy Holiday”-only crowd–and I mean the militant types who genuinely hate the moral authority that Christianity represents–see “Merry Christmas” as equivalent of the evil that they, themselves,  most often champion. They accuse, for example, in many cases, that Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime celebrated Christmas, many during those horrific years in Germany saying “Merry Christmas” right after saying “Hile Hitler.”

They, themselves, act like Nazi thugs in many cases. They are the types who demand that Christians who own bakeries be forced to bake cakes for same-sex couples or lose their businesses through fines and court costs. They demand that taxpayers, in a nation that claims to be more than 70 percent Christian in population, subsidize the arts, which often display most salacious, even anti-God, presentations. They expect Christian taxpayers to subsidize abortion through support of organizations like Planned Parenthood.

The fact is, there is little “happy” within the ranks of those who want to do away with the term “Merry Christmas.”

These are in constant turmoil. They are often found among those who foment rioting and claim it to be in the name of social justice. They form, in my opinion, the nucleus of the Apostle Paul’s perilous-times characteristic, “false accusers” (2 Timothy 3:3).

Those with the no-more-“Merry Christmas” rant fall in line with every effort to remove God from every public venue. It is just a matter of time, it is obvious to anyone with the ability to observe, that when they come to full power they will demand that Christ be taken out of our private lives as well.

Let’s look for a moment at the mindset that wants to break the bonds–the contact–of mankind with the Creator, a thing that will bring severe ramifications and wrath from Heaven, according to God’s Word. (Read Psalms 2:1-9).

Beginning with our government allowing Madelyn Murray O’Hair to achieve her enraged, singular purpose–to get God out of public schools–we have witnessed a rush to national insanity. We have watched entire generations be subjected to revisionist history and inculcated by anti-God education. The results have, in these days of bizarre behavior and brainwashing by anti-God forces–primarily through social media–brought this nation to the brink of change that cannot be reversed.

I believe it took the God of Heaven, Himself, intervening in the 2016 presidential election, to stop the shoving of America into the godless, grasping arms of the globalists.

The rage that intervention produced is self-evident. We have witnessed those who have been raised through O’Hair’s insane achievement go completely out of their minds. They believe the lies that the mainstream media, the entertainment world, and the social media liars have told them. They are miserable, and even when they get what they want, it just throws fuel on the fires of their anger against an America that, under God’s gracious hand, has allowed them to live better than any people on earth.

There is nothing “happy” about the mindset that demands we say “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas.” This fallen mindset has made this the most unhappy generation in American history.

Satan is at the core of the movement to push God out of this magnificent desire by true Christians to honor their Lord’s incarnation. The secularists’ “Happy Holidays” offers nothing but misery in a future apart from God and Heaven’s influence.

Bible prophecy foretells of a time that is coming that will be as far from happiness as can be imagined. Apart from God, Planet Earth is destined to become hell on earth.

Jesus Christ, the reason for our celebration, on the other hand, promises to save mankind–individually and collectively (as the human race)–so that they may live for eternity in the most blissful conditions beyond imagination. This is why we don’t say “Happy Holidays” rather proclaim “Merry Christmas!”

Presidents of the recent past have made statements that I recall as having Bible prophecy in view. I haven’t researched to find these statements in their exact verbiage, but they were made and could be rather easily found with today’s search engines.

I remember that Jimmy Carter referred to the Holy Land as having biblical and historical importance according to Israel’s prophets. Ronald Reagan sometimes would refer to the Second Coming of Christ and the reality of Armageddon. Bill Clinton once said that his pastor, Dr. W. O. Vaught, told him when Clinton was governor of Arkansas that if Bill ever became president, he had better treat Israel according to Genesis 12. –This, regarding the blessings or cursing to be given by the Lord, Himself, depending upon whether one blessed or cursed Israel.

President Donald Trump, in talking about his decision declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital, and announcing he will move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, said something of profound significance, in my view. He announced a number of important reasons for his decision. Then he said: “…It is reality, And, its the right thing to do.”

One must wonder how much of this president’s declaring Israel’s eternal capital and moving the embassy there is based upon true understanding of why it’s “the right thing to do.”

A considerable amount of the criticism I’ve heard about Trump’s decision comes from a specific, leftist diatribe. These say it’s the crazy evangelical Zionists who base Israel’s right to the land they “occupy” upon the Bible. The word “Bible” is dripping with vitriol, even when read rather than heard. It’s like they are saying”…the Bible!…Ugh!”

Trump is listening to the Bible thumpers and doing it for their votes. That is the rant. Yet, the following Bible truth is exactly what makes Mr. Trump’s decision to declare Israel’s capital Jerusalem and move the American Embassy there the “right thing to do.”

Jerusalem, is, in fact, chosen by the Lord of Heaven to be at the center of His chosen land for His chosen people:

But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel. Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. But the LORD said to David my father, Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my name, thou didst well in that it was in thine heart: Notwithstanding thou shalt not build the house; but thy son which shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for my name. The LORD therefore hath performed his word that he hath spoken: for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and am set on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. And in it have I put the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, that he made with the children of Israel. (2 Chronicles 6:6-11)

Almost every leader on the world stage at present is against the decision. Even our closest allies, like British Prime Minister Theresa May, are adamantly against the declaration and the move. Yet this president is unmoved. He seems determined to carry out the promise that presidents preceding him didn’t have the political will or courage to honor. –That of proving America’s commitment to declaring Jerusalem Israel’s capital by moving the embassy there from Tel Aviv.

Trump is one who has proven that he keeps promises, even bucking the heavy resistance of opposition from outside his own political party and from within. He forges ahead, despite the world’s opposition to this decision. He doesn’t wither under the fire of the fanaticism of the Islamic world that rages with hatred for Israel.

It is not possible for me to know for certain, but I strongly suspect that Christian counsel from people such as Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, have made it known to the president the truth about Israel from God’s perspective. Thankfully, Mr. Trump has wisely listened to such counsel, it appears. America stands in much better stead with the Almighty with this fulfilled, presidential promise.

Anti-God forces are still on the move, forging ahead with even increased intensity in their madness. We read about it every day or see it on our television and/or computer monitors. Anti-God forces’ determination to unseat the Creator of all things has not abated. It is, as said, intensifying.

We can go back much farther. But a modern starting point to see this intensification involves the 1962–63 decisions by the Supreme Court to attempt to kick God out of classrooms by banning Bible reading and prayer from public schools. Then, we consider most often the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 that gave us not only the right, but the commission, to allow the murder of babies in their mothers’ wombs.

God was, in these cases, ruled out of order by the Supreme Court justices. They, we can infer, believe they know better than did the Founding Fathers of America—and, better than God, as well.

The humanists continue in their incessant drive to remove all influence by the One who gives and allows each heartbeat, each breath for every living being upon the planet.

As example, it is interesting that while Sweden has allowed so many Muslims into their country that they are taking over, the most prominent Christian body in that nation, at the same time, seeks to rule God out of order. Many among the Lutheran Church—more than six million membership among ten million citizens of that country—are declaring, in effect, that the order God established is wrong and they are out to rectify the situation.

The following news excerpt explains.

The Church of Sweden is encouraging its clergy to use the gender-neutral term “God” instead of referring to the deity as “he” or “the Lord”.

The decision was made on Thursday, wrapping up an eight-day meeting of the church’s 251-member decision-making body. The decision will take effect on May 20 during Pentecost.

It is the latest move by the national Evangelical Lutheran church to modernise its 31-year-old handbook setting out how services should be conducted.

The decision to update the book of worship gives priests new options on how to refer to God during their services.

Priests can now open their services by referring to the traditional “Father, son and Holy Ghost” or the gender-neutral phrase “in the name of God and the Holy Trinity”. Other gender-neutral options are available for other parts of the Church of Sweden liturgy. (Church of Sweden to stop clergy calling God ‘he’ or ‘the Lord’ in bid to crack down on gendered language, The Telegraph, November 26, 2017)

God is thereby ruled out of order by the high, ecclesiastical body in the nation that seems to have developed spiritual dementia. God’s Holy Scripture refers to Him as “He.” But, Sweden’s Lutheran top echelon, now led by Archbishop Antje Jackelen, who was elected Sweden’s first female archbishop in 2013, says it is wrong to refer to the Lord in the masculine gender.

Obviously, the radical feminist agenda is on track and growing in Europe. That agenda, instigated and fueled by the same creature who first beguiled the first woman, continues to seduce and deceive. God is out of order, is Satan’s number-one accusation.

He told Eve “Yea, hath God said?” He continues to whisper, even shout, the same question. He thus declares on every continent, at every opportunity: God is out of order!”

Again, in Sweden, Muslims are taking over. Swedish women, I’ve read reports, are dyeing their hair black in many instances, and even wearing berkas, to keep radical Muslim men from raping them—thus, because blonde hair and blue eyes, to these radicals, gives license to rape, since the women are obviously, in their view, infidels.

That mankind has come to such a reprobate mindset should not surprise. Insanity has set in on a planetary scale. The lines between truth and lie, between good and evil, have become so blurred as to make God, Himself, almost unrecognizable. Paul, the great apostle, wrote the following prophetic Truth, which we’ve looked at a number of times.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:28–32)

The reprobate (upside-down) thinking has set in across the globe. The radical, feminist, mindset is one proof that it has done so. They who hold to such upside-down thinking have ruled God out of order.

Paul writes concerning those who rule God out of order, and who, instead do things which are right in their own eyes: “But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things” (Romans 2:2).

My good friend, Bill Salus, published a book a few years back that continues to hold my fascination. The title is NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN IN IRAN: The Ancient Prophecy of Elam.

He presented a thorough treatment of a topic few, if any, writers about Bible prophecy have, to my knowledge, explored in recent times.

Today’s news headlines are dealing in serious concern with the most volatile area of the world at the moment. It is the same area of Planet Earth that has been the center of war, anger, and bloodshed for millennia. Bill Salus’ book, in my view of things that are developing, demonstrates a certain degree of prescience.

We have watched for a number of years the coalescing of military powers that look very much like the Gog-Magog force described by Ezekiel the prophet in chapters 38 and 39. We point out incessantly that this gathering to the north of Jerusalem and Israel looks to be a major part of preparation for fulfillment of Bible prophecy. This forming of Russia, Iran, and Turkey into an agglomeration that is an existential threat to the Jewish state, in combination with the convergence of many other prophetic signals, is well worth examination.

Ezekiel tells us this region of the Middle East he calls Persia will constitute a primary partner within the Gog-Magog coalition.

The news at the moment is particularly pointing the prophetic finger at Iran, ancient Persia. We begin by having a look at the forming alliance between the major players of the Gog-Magog force.

Moscow, Turkey and Iran are all sending symbolic messages to Washington that the Americans are out in the cold and the post-ISIS era may well be dictated by regional powers…

Turkish, Russian and Iranian diplomats will meet in Antalya on Sunday in the run-up to a major get-together in Sochi on November 22. The meeting is supposed to focus on Syria, but its real purpose is part of a larger effort by Moscow to illustrate its influence in the region…

According to Hurried Daily News, the foreign ministers from Moscow, Ankara and Tehran will meet in Antalya, followed a few days later by a meeting in Sochi between Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hassan Rouhani that is being billed as a “trilateral summit.” (Analysis: Russia-Iran-Turkey meeting is message to US – Middle East -Jerusalem Post Israel News, November 19, 2017)

The meetings between the prophesied powers is over the disposition of another prophesied power—Syria. The whole matter has Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exercised considerably regarding the threat to Israel—another nation in prophecy about which you might have heard.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised on Tuesday that Iran would not gain a foothold in Syria by which to attack Israel. The premier spoke via video to American Jewish leaders just hours after Russia clarified it had no intention of pushing Tehran’s military forces out of the country. “Iran is scheming to entrench itself militarily in Syria.

“They want to create a permanent air, land and sea military presence, with the declared intent of using Syria as a base from which to destroy Israel. We are not going to agree to that. I have said very clearly that Israel will work to stop this,” Netanyahu told the Jewish Federation of North America’s General Assembly which is meeting in Los Angeles. “We must all work together to stop Iran’s aggression and its pursuit of nuclear weapons. If we stand together we will achieve it. But if we have to we’ll stand alone. Iran will not get nuclear weapons. It will not turn Syria into a military base against Israel,” the premier asserted. (BEWARE IRAN: PM Netanyahu vows Israel will act alone against Iran to destroy their nuclear capability if given no choice, JEWSNEWS, Nov. 13, 2017)

And that brings us to my admiration for Bill Salus’ expansive work on what looks to be a fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the making as I write this commentary.

Much of the Salus book involves the following prophetic passage. “‘But it shall come to pass in the latter days: I will bring back the captives of Elam,’ says the LORD” (Jeremiah 49:39).

Bill believes this is a prophecy yet future. God will make it possible for Christians to escape from this, one of the most hateful regimes on earth against those who name the Name of Christ.

He believes the forewarning is dire for those of Iran (Persia/Elam) who refuse to let God’s people go.

He describes the land of Elam.

The prophet Jeremiah issued an interesting prophecy that could involve Iran’s highly controversial nuclear program. The subject of Jeremiah’s prophetic utterances is Elam. During the prophet’s time, Elam comprised what consists of the central western portions of Iran today. Elam basically hugged much of the northeastern coastline of the Persian Gulf, while Persia encompassed much of today’s southern and eastern parts of Iran. It was bounded by Elam to the west and Media to the north. (Bill Salus, NUCLEAR SHOWDOWN IN IRAN: The Ancient Prophecy of Elam, chapter 3)

The author believes the prophecy indicates Iran’s prime nuclear facilities in Bushehr, a mountainous region, could be struck by Israel’s military force. He also thinks it could be struck by a major earthquake, nuclear disaster, or directly by the hand of God in a supernatural cataclysm. In any case, he believes, as I take it, that believers of the region will be freed to go into the world to carry the gospel in a mighty way.

Bill sees the prophecy about this region also as proclaiming that Elam’s military will suffer destruction. This, he believes, is found in Jeremiah 49:34-39.

The prophecy says that Elam’s “bow” will be broken. He believes this might mean that the missile launching capabilities might be destroyed. The arrows (missiles) can’t fly to their targets, if there is no launch facilities.

We have looked before at how the Gog-Magog force comes to destroy Israel, but it seems to be a conventional force, not one that involves nuclear weaponry. Certainly, To today’s Israeli prime minister and the Israeli people, this prophecy should be welcome news.

It is fascinating—and reassuring—to be a “watchman” while the Persian prophecy is in process of preparing for fulfillment.