A flood of stories continues to pour upon us. It’s as if a cesspool of salaciousness is in process of being purged and it’s all gushing into our eyes and ears.

If the things with which we are deluged aren’t true—and there is more than enough that is true— then the news media will make it up and throw it into the mix for their own nefarious purposes. I’ll let you think on what you consider that which is real sludge and that which is fake news.

Hollywood has always provided fodder for the tabloids to fill ears and eyes more than willing to take it all in. Now, however, even Hollywood seems to be regurgitating the sick things that have become worse and worse.

Wait! There’s a prophecy about such sickness. Oh, yes. Here it is: “But evil men and seducers shall [become] worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).

The apostle, in his second letter to Timothy, seems to have been pointing to a time near the end of the dispensation of grace that would see an increase in the number of evil people who become worse by the day. He called them “evil men and seducers.” At the same time, he said they would be being deceived while deceiving others.

The rumors have been around for ages about the so-called casting couch. This, of course, is the term for those in the movie industry or the acting profession in general who misuse their power to give roles to the actresses seeking the jobs. They provide jobs for sexual favors from those seeking the available roles.

Until a few weeks back, this was all kind of looked at by the public and by the movie and acting industries in general as something that elicited a wink and a chuckle. It was all a consensual thing…no harm done. Just compromise one’s self a time or two, and many a budding starlet was on her way to fame and fortune.

The Harvey Weinstein story has suddenly changed all that. Now, we know details of the alleged crimes involved. Underage sexual contact, abuse, blackmail, and a number of other criminal actions make the casting couch no longer a thing about which to only give a wink and a chuckle. It is as if the Lord, Himself, has taken the cover between thumb and index finger and peeled back the lasciviousness. Suddenly, the evil of Hollywood has been exposed for what it is. Bible prophecy again is validated in our time as is revealed for the world to see, the evil-day seduction that has been going on among the much worshipped elite—the idols media and fans have made of those under this blanket of iniquity.

Pulling back this blanket has exposed such debauched evil at every level. It now is in process of exposing politicians at every level.

Some used to chuckle, wink, and revel in stories such as when Senator Edward Kennedy, the lion of the Senate, and Senator Christopher Dodd reportedly visited a certain D.C. restaurant and made “waitress sandwiches” in private dining rooms. Many other stories of orgiastic activities in D.C. and other halls of power have entertained the news-consuming public for decades. But, it is no longer funny. And, the same entertainment and news media types that have for those many decades secretly enjoyed knowing about the debauchery and/or engaged in it themselves now find it all an outrage.—Especially when an avowed Christian is accused by supposed victims from some thirty or more years ago.

And, indeed, it is not funny. It is an evil that is going to add to the horrors of God’s wrath and judgment in the near future. The following excerpted story illuminates the evil-day seduction taking place on a worldwide scale.

It’s not just pimps and escaped convicts involved. It’s the people we’re expected to respect or “look up to” the most: the politicians, the elite, the wealthy businessmen, your neighbours, and oftentimes the people that you’d least expect

In this particularly devastating case, it’s the people we’re supposed to trust to help others: the United Nations’ peacekeepers. As it turns out, these people are anything but “peace keepers.” Instead, they’re the ones wreaking havoc in these villages and causing children to have nightmares for the rest of their lives…

Many of the children living in poverty in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, are left to fend for themselves, scavenging for food and struggling with hunger on a daily basis. Their lives drastically changed when the UN peacekeepers moved to their village, as they were offered snacks and cookies.

However, this food came with a heavy price no one should ever have to pay. In exchange for food, the UN peacekeepers demanded sex from children as young as 12. In regards to the child sex ring run by UN peacekeepers in Haiti, nine children were being passed around from 2004 to 2007…

There was another pedophile ring in the Democratic Republic of Congo that the UN was involved in — UN police officers in Bosnia paid for prostitutes and were caught trafficking young women from Eastern Europe — and the UN was involved with child sexual abuse and rape in the Central African Republic as well. [“SHUT IT DOWN: United Nations ‘Peacekeepers’ Caught Running A Child Sex Ring: 2,000+ Cases of Sexual Abuse Reported,” JEWSNEWS, Rapture Ready News Nov. 12, 2017)

Many stories available at present contained reports much more graphic, disgusting, and heart-wrenching. They were quite difficult for me to read, much less bring before you in this column.

Evil men and seducers are becoming worse and worse, to be sure. They have been in the process of deceiving and being deceived by hiding much of the evil going on in America and the world. The uncovering of these things taking place now is long overdue. I believe the exposure taking place at present can be seen as the Lord revealing exactly how far along this generation is on God’s prophetic timeline.

These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. (Jude 1: 19-20)

One of the pleasures in life at my advancing age is to have what I have come to call conflab sessions. Yes, I know the legitimate word would be confab. Not conflab, but the sessions are so informal that I use the urban rather than the mainstream dictionary term.

These conflab sessions are especially enjoyable when between my sons and myself or between myself and my partner in the raptureready.com website, Todd Strandberg—the Toddster, as I sometimes call him. He is like one of my boys—thus the informality.

We often go over the most pressing news of the day. Most always we discuss things from the prophetic perspective.

When discussing the seeming endless string of absurd, anti-God things going on, the bottom line usually expressed by these younger gentlemen is that it’s a good thing they don’t have divine power and authority, else—well—there would be a quick resolution to the absurdity and evil.

Being considerably more mature and mellow, I usually say things like, “Yes. I, too, am thankful you don’t have such power and authority.”

They, of course, realizing my wisdom from this senior vantage point, ignore my usually offered remark. I’m sure they remain unresponsive to the opinion because they so profoundly respect my… ahemmm…even temperament and sound judgment.

We do get deeply into the issues of the day, and there are plenty of them to explore, to be sure. More often than not, we end up talking about how the Lord seems to be putting up with so much, with people, in effect, telling Him, “in your face.”

We discussed, for example, things like the actress who held up the award she had won, saying Jesus didn’t give it to her. She then made a salacious remark involving the Lord that, my boys thought, should have brought an instant lightning bolt to the top of her lovely head.

Before that, there was the crucifix submerged in urine, for which the art critics gave great accolade. There has been since then the former New York City mayor who said when he reaches the pearly gates of Heaven, he will walk right in and demand his reward, because he’s earned a face to face with God—if there is one. Before him, a famous billionaire said that he didn’t need anyone to die for him, when asked about Christianity.

In the 1960s, we had people kicking God out of classrooms and throwing Bibles out the doors of those classrooms. We had a generation of if it feels good, do it trying to strip society and culture of all morality. In the 1970s we began to legalize the murder of babies by the millions while still in their mothers’ wombs.

We later had—and continue to have—men-with-men and women-with-women sexual-relations advocates. Much of the anti-biblical, anti-God activity was written into our laws or issued through governmental authorization by presidential edict. One president even gave a White House party, bathing the presidential residence in the rainbow colors.

—All of this, when the vast majority of Americans disapprove of such debauched activity.

Then came the official governmental declaration that homosexual marriage is the equivalent of heterosexual marriage, saying to God, in effect, “in your face!”

Now, we have the latest movement of the anti-God insanity down the broad way that leads into the abyss. Transgender, transsexual advocacy has trans-morphed into an even more rebellious, anti-God, anti-biblical proposal by the earth-dwellers.  

There are those within the scientific and medical communities who see men carrying babies in the womb at some future date. The following news excerpt tells the story.

WOMB transplants could allow men to have babies “tomorrow”, an expert claims. They would not be able to deliver the baby naturally, but could give birth by cesarean.

Richard Paulson, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said eight children had already been born to women after transplants.

And he told a meeting in San Antonio, Texas: “There’s plenty of room to put a uterus in there. Men and women have the same blood vessels.”

He said the next step would be trials involving transgender women to help them become natural mothers…

Doctors hope to perform the first UK womb transplant in 2018. (Source: Womb Transplants Could Allow Men to Have Babies “Tomorrow,” Victoria Fletcher, Rapture Ready News, 11/5/17)

Remember that movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger? His character was pregnant. The shocking movie poster had him, with his Mr. Universe body, with a swollen abdomen. He was smiling, being proudly with child. Well, that might not be mere fiction for too much longer.

Come to think of it, I’m glad I don’t have my finger on the trigger of divine power and authority, either! We can all be thankful that the Lord does…

Author’s note: Because  I’m convicted that we are so near the time when Jesus will say “Come up hither,” I wanted to again present an article, somewhat revised, from my past commentaries. It is vital that the Church (all born again believers) be aware of the nearness of our Departure.

The Scripture is haunting. It echoes and reverberates throughout the spiritual hallways of the Church with each passing hour.

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Tim. 4:1).

This forewarning fits into the last-days pattern, also given by the Apostle Paul, in the familiar prophetic passage: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of Perdition…” (2 Thes. 2:3).

The “falling away,” apostasia in Greek, means a “departure from.” Paul prophesied in the 2 Timothy 4:1 passage that there will come a time at the end of the Church Age when people will depart from the “faith.” He foretells in 2 Thessalonians that this will be a general “falling away,” the apostasy of the endtime. What is this “faith” from which people will fall away, and who are the “people” who will fall away? Another crucial question is: Can the departure that God, through Paul, forewarned about be recognized when it occurs?

“Faith,” as here defined, must, by context, be the faith in the One who is at the heart of the Gospel–faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, chosen from the foundation of the world to be the propitiation for the sin that separates fallen man from God. It is the faith you and I must have in order to confess with our mouths that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, and to believe in the deepest part of our spirits that God raised Him from the dead.

“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” (Rom. 10:9).

A person can’t fall from a position (doctrinally speaking in this case) he never has attained. The “people,” then, whom Paul the apostle is writing about in his prophecies of 1 Timothy 4:1 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3 are those who have believed in Jesus Christ for salvation of their souls.

This brings us to the question: Can the departure God, through Paul, forewarned about be recognized when it occurs? To recognize that “falling away”–that apostasia, or apostasy— when it begins to happen, will almost certainly give the Christian attuned to God’s will a heads-up on the nearness of the Tribulation era, thus to the nearness of the rapture of the Church.

We have looked at the “faith” as faith in Jesus for salvation, and at the “people”who will “depart” from the faith as being the Church–that is, the true Christians who are alive at the time of the end, when the apostasy takes place.

Although there are those who think this departure includes the possibility of one losing one’s salvation, the “falling away” of 2 Thessalonians 2:3 cannot include that meaning. A quick look at Romans 8:38 and 39, to name just one security-of-the-believer passage, shows that God’s Word teaches that the believer can’t depart from the Heavenly Father to the point of losing his or her family status. Jesus, in John chapter 17, makes that absolutely clear. I suggest that if you have questions about this, read the Scriptures I just mentioned.

What, then, is meant by “departing from the “faith”? Glad you asked. The “faith” mentioned in 2 Thessalonians and 1 Timothy 2:3 is a collection of faith principles wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ. These principles are doctrines put forth by the Word of God. The Word of God is none other than the Lord Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

“People” at the time of the “falling away” will “depart” from the “faith” –the doctrines put forth by the Word of God, who is Jesus Christ. This departure will mark the generation of Christians at the very end of the Church Age.

The question that applies most relevantly to us today is: Are we seeing signals of the departure about which Paul forewarned?

We have analyzed, dissected, examined, and inspected every endtime signal found in God’s Word many times in these raptureready.com webpages: Israel again in the land of promise; the EU looking to be the reviving Roman Empire; Russia, Persia (modern Iran) and other nations looking to be a nucleus that will one day form the Gog-Magog force of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. These, plus, all of the other endtime characteristics of this generation.

However, I believe the most insidious of all the things taking place under the clever, devious hand of the devil –Satan—is the falling away, the departure from the faith being currently orchestrated by Lucifer, the fallen one This departure is evident to the spiritually discerning when looking at the church growth movement. This “seeker friendly” approach to both the saved and the lost (all who don’t know Christ) through New Age, corporation-type seminar seductiveness and brainwashing techniques that water down or completely eliminate true Bible doctrine is leading in a profound departure from the “faith once delivered” (see Jude 1: 3).

The new paradigm instituted by the champions of the church growth movement is the shift from New Testament Christianity to “New Spirituality-Driven Christianity.”

Like in the modern corporate organization, invented in large part by German economic guru Peter Drucker, who mentored some of the leading designers of the church growth movement, the system is more an organism than an organization –adopting Drucker’s model based upon Freudian psychology and Darwinian evolutionary principles. The individual is assigned a value, and he must fit in, or be removed from the system. To put it as I heard one person of the movement say: “Pillars just hold things up. So, they need to be moved out of the way.” So, those who hold to doctrine must get out of the way so no one will have their feelings hurt by talk of sin, and blood atonement, and eternal punishment in the place called Hell, if repentance is not forthcoming. Again, the Apostle Paul wrote God’s view of this watering down of doctrine: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8).

Are we at the point of departure from the faith that is prophesied for the very end of the Church Age? Maybe we can get a better sense by looking at one more area of Scripture pertaining to the matter: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Tim. 4:1-4).

There is another prophetically scheduled departure to consider. It’s the one to  which we should be looking forward. It is a God-ordained departure that will remove every child of God of the Church Age –living and dead—from Planet Earth in one millisecond of time:

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:13).

Dr. Mark Hitchcock, speaking at the opening of the Prophecy Watcher’s Blessed Hope Prophecy Conference in Norman, Oklahoma, a little over a week ago, reminded me of a question some have had over the years. I, too, have asked the question. Why does the Gog-Magog coalition of Ezekiel 38–39 apparently mount a land invasion rather than simply nuke Israel?

It is a peripheral issue to be sure, but one that is interesting to ponder in light of current goings-on just to Israel’s north.

It is true that Ezekiel saw a massive military juggernaut invade “like a cloud to cover the land.” This could indicate a cloud of aircraft, but, not necessarily. A land invasion in that arid region would certainly kick up a lot of dust. We saw some of that kind of action during both Gulf Wars.

My friend Mark mentioned that some believe certain technological problems might be at the heart of it being a land invasion. The conjecture is based upon the same thought as expressed in Salem Kirban’s novel of many years ago titled 666.

Kirban portrayed the Russian-led attack, primarily from the north of Israel, as being one conducted with ancient weapons—horses and all—just like Ezekiel has it. I forget the technology that had, in the fictional account, rendered the modern weapons of war inoperable. But, they fought totally with, basically, weapons like the prophet describes.

The weapons were mostly of wood and other material that readily burns. So, Israel was able to use the weapons as fuel for heating, etc., once the flesh-and-blood part of the force, five-sixths having been dispatched by the Lord, was no longer a threat.

Dr. Hitchcock brought up the possibility, according to what some believe, that electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) weapons might be used to render all modern weaponry useless by the time  the Gog-Magog invasion takes place.

EMP, of course, disrupts electronic circuitry of all instrumentalities not protected when a nuclear explosion takes place in the atmosphere. All computer and other electronic circuitry on land, and even in the air near where the explosion takes place, supposedly will be fried. Thus, nuclear warfare, some believe, will help fulfill—in the most literal sense—Ezekiel’s prophecy about horses, sword, bucklers, and shields used as weaponry in that future time.

At present there is much dispute about Iran’s (area of ancient Persia) nuclear program. Persia is given as one of the primary members of the Gog-Magog coalition military force. That force obviously, according to Scripture, doesn’t use nuclear force against Israel in that prophesied attack. So, the question is: Why not?

Perhaps it is the EMP scenario. However, there are other possibilities.

Gog, in his evil thinking, wouldn’t want Israel’s “spoil,” as it is called in the KJV, contaminated by radiation from nuclear weapons. Another is, the Gog-Magog force wouldn’t want to go into a nuclear-radiated territory in order to occupy it.

They want to completely destroy Israel and do away with every Jew, that’s for certain. But it seems the main thinking in Gog’s satanically inspired brain is to take the riches in the region.

Another scenario is, of course, that Iran will indeed give up its nuclear ambition. That would mean that Russia, too, and any others would have given up their nuclear weapons for whatsoever reasons by the time of the Gog-Magog assault.

This, in my thinking, is the least of the possibilities.

Maybe Israel will have been so weakened by the covenant made with Antichrist as given in Daniel 9:26–27 that Israel will be the proverbial sitting duck. Thus, ol’ Gog won’t believe he needs to use the nukes.

As part of considering all of this, it is more than of just passing interest that President Trump is about to nuke the nuclear deal President Obama made with Iran—this, even in the face of rebellion by all others in the deal, including U.S. allies.

The globalists, as I view the satanically influenced architects of the tremendous backlash against anything this president does to keep America sovereign, turn a blind eye to the fact that the ayatollahs allow no inspections of their key nuclear development facilities.

Mr. Obama completely cast aside President Reagan’s rubric for negotiations with diabolists such as Russia and Iran: “Trust, but verify.”

It seems those American allies, under the influence of globalist group think, have joined the insanity in giving the Israel-hating Islamists the benefit of a doubt, as the saying goes. The excerpt that follows makes the point, I think.

Global powers, including key US allies, have said they will stand by the Iran nuclear deal which US President Donald Trump has threatened to tear apart.

Mr. Trump said on Friday that he would stop signing off on the agreement.

The UK, France and Germany responded that the pact was “in our shared national security interest.” The EU said it was “not up to any single country to terminate” a “working” deal.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the US was “more isolated than ever.” (Iran nuclear deal: Global powers stand by pact despite Trump threat – BBC, Oct. 15, 2017)

Developments in Iran, Russia, Turkey, and Israel are all part of another of the things Mark Hitchcock and many of us who spoke discussed at the conference. The word of the hour is convergence.

Convergence—the coming-together of practically every signal for the end of the age—is upon this generation. Developments north of Israel at the present moment are possibly the most significant of all of the signals that Christ’s Second Advent is near.

Since that great event will take place at least seven years later than the Rapture of the Church, we who name the name of Jesus should be in a state of anticipation of, not in fear of things to come.

When you see all these things begin to come to pass, then, look up and lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:28)

It is inevitable. Peace in the Middle East must happen. This, according to President Donald Trump.

The president, while being interviewed on former Governor Mike Huckabee’s initial TBN program, made the declaration.

“I want to give that a shot before I even think about moving the embassy to Jerusalem.”

He said further, “f we can make peace between the Palestinians and Israel, I think it’ll lead to ultimately peace in the Middle East, which has to happen.”

Trump, in June of 2017, signed a temporary order keeping the American embassy in Tel Aviv. This follows the actions of presidents preceding him.

Some see this as his breaking a promise he made while on the 2016 presidential campaign trail. He received rousing ovations every time he declared he would move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, the city that Israel claims as its capital.

Mr. Trump has said on numerous occasions that his administration is working on a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians that will result in peace for the whole region. He has appointed his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as unofficial diplomat in charge of working to accomplish peace in the Middle East.

Others–including the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government–deny that the president has abandoned the idea of moving the embassy. In his declaration that he wants to give peace a chance before moving the embassy, Trump simply means, in their view, that the move is postponed. To force such an action at this moment in the current volatile geopolitical climate would likely ramp up hostilities.

To watchers on the wall–those who view the world through the prism of Bible prophecy from the pre-Millennial, pre-Tribulation perspective, the president’s declaration and decision on the embassy move should not come as surprise.

Like every other prophetic indicator on the present world horizon, the fact that there is a continuing drive to force peace between Israel and its enemy neighbors is simply something that must be in view while final prophecies near fulfillment. Like Mr. Trump says, peace between Israel and its closest enemy neighbor “has to happen,” from the human point of view.

Like all the world has cried for decades–as wrapped neatly in the lyrics of the song by John Lennon–we must “give peace a chance.”

But, that much-ballyhooed peace process leaves out the one essential ingredient that can make it come to pass. God is ignored. The very Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ, is not even considered in their humanistic effort. As a matter of fact, His Holy name is ridiculed and mocked at every turn by most of the diplomatic world. Christ is viewed as the holdup to peace in most instances, rather than the solution to the hatred and war-making that has dominated human history.

Mr. President, much of your political–electoral–base is made up by those of us who support Israel. We want peace for Israel, the Middle East, the United States, and the world. We know, however, from what God’s prophetic Word has to say, that there will be no peace until the Prince of Peace rules and reigns in the hearts and minds of mankind.

The present call for peace is addressed, I’m convinced, by the apostle Paul as follows:

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 5:1)

Mr. President, peace will happen. It will come in two distinctively opposite forms.

The first peace will be a false peace, brought about by the man of sin, the son of perdition — Antichrist.

Daniel the prophet said the following about this false prince that shall come:

And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many. (Daniel8: 25)

The other peace–the real peace–will be brought upon the planet at Christ’s return to make all things right again.

Jesus, the Prince of Peace, said the following just before leaving this sin-corrupted world:

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)

Recently I listened to a well-known preacher on his TV program saying something to the effect that only those “watching” for Jesus will go to be with Christ in the Rapture. He defined “watching” as those Christians who are truly wanting for Jesus to return and that believe with great faith that He will call them to Himself in that great Rapture event.

This didn’t totally surprise me, because this particular preacher has, in my opinion, never been clear in his thoughts on the security of the believer—that is, the once saved, always saved doctrine, as the sometimes hotly debated term goes.

While his remark in making such a statement—to be watching is commanded by the Lord—is scripturally correct, I totally reject the premise that it is possible for even one truly born-again person to be left behind when Christ says: “Come up hither” (Rev. 4: 1).

I believe that the apostle Paul made very clear who will be taken in the Rapture when Jesus calls the Church. Paul, in revealing the mystery of the Rapture, said the following:

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51–52)

Paul, given the key to this mystery by the Lord Jesus Himself, tells us clearly that all will be changed. It will take place in less than a microsecond. That’s the Rapture!

The word “we” is the pronoun that is all-inclusive as given in this context. The “we” here means all who are born again—the Church.

There is no room for any believer to be left behind in Paul’s declaration. Those who are truly saved—that is, who are in Christ Jesus, who shed His blood and resurrected to redeem all who will but received this free, grace gift, will go in that twinkling-of-an-eye moment.

Paul, under divine inspiration, further enlightens concerning the security of the believer:

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

Again, Paul uses a pronoun that is all-inclusive of believers in God’s way to salvation—Jesus Christ—the only righteousness God the Father recognizes. Paul, under that divine inspiration, says that nothing and no one will ever be able to separate “us” from the love of God.

Paul is undeniably talking about the born-again, because he goes on to say that this “love” of which he speaks is “in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The pronoun this time is “our,” meaning those he is talking about—including Paul himself—who are born again—that is, who are believers in Christ for salvation. 

The TV preacher then said that watching for Christ means one is “worthy” to stand before the Lord on that Rapture day. Again, implying strongly that unless one is watching, he or she is not going to go in the Rapture.

He used the following Scripture in that declaration:

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke 21:36)

Some years ago, I addressed the matter of being “worthy” in God’s holy eyes.

What does it mean to be “worthy,” as given in this Rapture example? Again, the answer is wrapped up in the same name as before: Jesus. Jesus is the only person “worthy,” in God’s holy eyes, to be in the heavenly realm.

Remember what Jesus said to a man who addressed Him as “Good Master”?

And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. (Luke 18:18)

Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, was not seeking to chastise the man for addressing Him in this way. The Lord was confirming through this question that He is indeed God, the only good, the only righteousness. Righteousness is the only ticket to Heaven–either through the portal of death, or through the Rapture. Only through Jesus—being born again into God’s family through belief in Him—can a person enter the heavenly realm.

Jesus spoke to this all-important matter by addressing Nicodemus:

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)

God’s Word says about fallen mankind:

As it is written, There is none righteous no not one. (Romans 8:10)

And:

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 8:23)

So, Jesus is the only person “worthy” to enter Heaven. It is through Him that any of us are worthy to stand before Him in that heavenly realm. That is the truth found in the Scripture in question.

On a less magnificent scale, the word “worthy” in this passage means that we should be in a constant mindset of prayerful repentance. We should always want to be found “worthy”—cleansed of all unrighteousness, as stated in 1 John 1:9, so that we will hear our Lord say to us on that day:

Well done, good and faithful servant. (Matthew 25:23)

Many of God’s children will doubtlessly lose rewards at the Bema (judgment seat of Christ,) for not being watchful and not listening for their Lord’s call in the Rapture. But, they will make that fantastic trip into Heaven, every single one, because of the Lamb of God who redeemed them.

Saturday, September 23, 2017, has come and gone by the time you get this. I’m writing this on Sunday, September 17, 2017. If you are reading this when it is posted on the evening of September 24, 2017, or later, and you know Christ for salvation, the Rapture hasn’t occurred. If you aren’t reading this because you are no longer on the planet, or it was never posted because there was no one here to post it, then my commentary is inconsequential. But if you are a believer and you invested heavily in the notion that the date, September 23, and the Revelation chapter 12 Scripture pointed to the Rapture of the Church, you might find the considerations herein worthy of your time.

This is not to point fingers of shame at those who were invested in the September 23 date as tied to Revelation 12. There were many chronological and astronomical/astrological statistics and postulations to support a case that the date and the signs in the heavens meant something of prophetic significance was afoot.

Many–including some colleagues and friends of mine–believe that the sign in the stars that converged on September 23 didn’t necessarily point to the Rapture. They believe these strange comings-together of astral bodies is a confirmation from the Lord that the end times are here and Christ coming to put an end to man’s rebellion is imminent. These same colleagues and friends, thus believe–and I agree–that they haven’t violated the “doctrine of imminence” regarding the unknown time of the Rapture of the Church.

I won’t attempt to defend those who did dogmatically predict that September 23, 2017, was definitely when the Rapture would happen. There is no pinpointing the exact day and hour of Christ’s coming for the Church. Jesus said so.

To make such predictions is to enter into the folly that so many down through the years have entered. The result is the same. The Rapture did not occur on September 23. What else can be said?

Their disappointment, if they were totally invested in the proposition of Rapture on September 23, is no doubt profound. I, myself, wish it would have happened on that date. As a matter of fact, I prefer that the Rapture happen right now while I’m writing this on September 17.

Now, what do we do from this point forward? I believe we go from disappointment to determination.

We don’t have to look at perceived astronomical, astrological, and other anomalous signs to know that Christ’s return is imminent. We don’t have to look longingly each year for the Jewish holy days–the feasts, etc.–in thinking on the Rapture of the Church.

There are signals of the prophetic stage-setting sort that make it crystal clear concerning the time and season in which this generation finds itself.

The Gog-Magog coalition is practically 100 percent formed. Russia (Rosh), Iran (Persia), Turkey (Torgomah), and all the Arab world of the Middle East are gathering north of and surrounding Israel.

China and the kings of the east are growing in strength and leering westward.

The globalists elite and their minions are in a rage to bring in the Antichrist regime, even though they perceive their quest as attempting to establish Utopia.

The nations of the world are in economic and civil chaos. They are in perplexity with great distress at the center of their troubles.

There is a developing religious universalism in which the pope and many so-called Protestant pastors are proclaiming many ways to God and salvation.

Nature seems to be spinning up as part of the great end-times storm that is most certainly on its way.

Rather than suffer in the throes of disappointment because dates and prophetic events don’t work out to fit human calculus, let us be determined to serve our individual and corporate–heavenly–purpose. Let us lift the Name of Jesus during the time between now and when He comes for us who are called by His Holy Name.

We are not left without understanding of the lateness of these last days.

Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. (1 Thessalonians 5:5)

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

We are currently writing a book called Deceivers: Exposing Evil Seducers and Their Last-Days Deception.” I say “we” are writing it, because it is to be one of my books that presents a compilation of chapters by some of the most recognizable names. These include Todd Strandberg, Jan Markell, Dr. Dave Reagan, Gary Stearman, Dr. Gary Frazier, and others.

Jesus, while sitting on the Mount of Olives with His disciples nearly two millennia ago, gave as His first forewarning that, in the last days, deceivers will be in abundance. Certainly, there is deception at every level at this present time in human history.

Ruminating over the book we are in process of writing, the thought came that we have on the front burner of headline news a storm-like combination of signals harboring seduction and deception that begs exposure.

The primary foretellings I would like to look at that Jesus gave while answering His disciples’ question— “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”–include the following:

1) There will be distress of nations with perplexity.

2) There will be wars and rumors of wars.

3) There will be earthquakes in various places.

4) The seas and waves will be roaring.

5) Nation will rise against nation.

During all of this last-days storminess, Jesus said, there will be deceivers and great deception. Again, this is the subject of our upcoming book. But, I would like to consider for our purposes here a peculiar seduction within the end-of-days storm that is assaulting this generation:

1)There will be distress of nations with perplexity.

We have only to consider recent news to validate this Olivet prophecy by the Lord.

The national and world economic distresses are phenomenal. America’s own national debt is right at $20 trillion. The unfunded liabilities for the nation exceeds $200 trillion. The world at large has economic circumstances that are maybe not so large, but just as perplexing to those trying to deal with the problem.

2) There will be wars and rumors of wars.

There exists at present, one of the most troubling confrontations since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.

The North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un threatens to launch hydrogen bomb tipped ICBMs at the U.S. and our possessions and allies. Whether he has this capability is a matter of conjecture. But, the threat is there.

Other rumors of potential wars can be found without effort simply by thinking on Israel and those blood-vowed to remove the Jewish state from the planet.

The cold war might again become reality in the near future. This, with Russia and China building massive military forces even at the expense of Russia’s already-dire economic circumstances on the one hand and China’s desire to, for its own benefit, interact commercially with other nations on the other.

Rumors of war are everywhere one looks on the geopolitical horizon.

3) There will be earthquakes in various places.

Most recently, while hurricanes Harvey and Irma devastated portions of the U.S. mainland, an 8.2 earthquake struck Mexico.

Swarms of earthquakes up to 5.3 on the Richter Scale continue to shake the infamous Yellowstone caldera region, causing alarm even among seasoned, professional seismologists.

Earthquakes make much of the Middle East quiver on a regular basis. They are occurring in “various places” at most every hour of every day.

4) The seas and waves will be roaring.

There’s no question that the literal seas and waves have been roaring as of late. Again, Harvey and Irma were given 24/7 coverage on practically every news channel over recent days.

But, I believe the Lord was prophesying mainly about figurative seas and waves roaring in this particular foretelling while atop Mt. Olivet.

The peoples of the world are indeed in tumult. Europe is rioting because of economic turbulence. The Arab world is often in tumult against the hated Israel and against each other. America boils with clashes fomented in many cases by thugs paid to stir trouble in our city streets.

The seas and waves, both figurative and literal, are roaring.

5) Nation will rise against nation.

We have looked many times at the term “nation” in this prophecy Jesus gave.

The root of the word for “nation,” here, is the Greek word ethnos. This means that in the days just before Christ’s Second Advent (Revelation 19: 1) there will be great strife of one racial group against another.

Certainly, these kinds of conflicts exist at this very moment everywhere across the planet –including within our own borders. All we must do to understand this is to look at the groups known as the white supremacists and Black Lives Matter to see the reality of this prophecy taking place in our own time. –And we are at least seven years away from Christ’s Second Advent when Armageddon will be raging.

So, we can conclude that we are in the beginning of the great, end-times storm about which Jesus forewarned. Now, to look at the peculiar seduction that I believe is taking place as part of Satan’s deception that is, perhaps, at the eye of this prophetic storm.

The following news story, I hope, will help make the point I wish to make.

Sure, the US has a National Flood Insurance Program, but who’s covered by it? Besides, the Program was already $24 billion in debt by 2014 largely due to hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. With total costs of Harvey estimated at $200 billion or more, and Irma threatening to cause far more damage than that, where’s the money going to come from?

It took an actual fight just to push the first few billion dollars in emergency aid for Houston through Congress, with four Texan senators voting against of all people. Who then will vote for half a trillion or so in aid? And even if they do, where would it come from?

Trump’s plans for an infrastructure fund were never going to be an easy sell in Washington, and every single penny he might have gotten for it would now have to go towards repairing existing roads and bridges, not updating them -necessary as that may be-, let alone new construction.

Towns, cities, states, they’re all maxed out as things are, with hugely underfunded pension obligations and crumbling infrastructure of their own. They’re going to come calling on the feds, but Washington is hitting its debt ceiling. All the numbers are stacked against any serious efforts at rebuilding whatever Harvey and Irma have blown to pieces or drowned. (“After the Storms Are Over: America Can’t Afford to Rebuild, Zero Hedge,” By Tyler Durden, September 10, 2017)

The author paints the direst portrait of the results the storms will bring to America. (You must read the complete piece to get the full impact.) And, I would agree completely with his assessment of the situation–that is, if I didn’t know “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey used to say.

The world’s economies, as I have written many times, are intricately, inextricably linked to that of America. That’s why I build my thoughts on things that are likely to happen–prophetically speaking–upon the American model. If this nation implodes—comes crashing down–the whole world will be sucked into the vortex caused by the collapse.

Jesus tells us that, like in the days of Noah and of Lot, people at the time of his next catastrophic intervention into history will be buying, selling, planting, and marrying–doing all the normal activities of life. I believe, because it is Jesus who predicts the buying, selling, etc.,– that it will be far more than normal in its reality. I believe we are about to see an economic boom.

Somehow, some way–I don’t presume to know how–all of the destruction taking place now because of the hurricane damage might well turn out to be catalyst for the prophesied building, buying, and selling Jesus foretold that day atop the Mount of Olives.

The “seduction” I believe wrapped up in all of this might well reside within the good economic times that could result from the rebuilding—i.e., the economic boom that might be on its way might take people’s thoughts even farther from God. The seduction just might produce the think-not generation that Jesus prophesied will be doing anything but giving consideration to God and eternity:

Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. (Matthew 24:44)

Donald Trump is a builder perhaps unparalleled in history. Could it be that he is president of the United States for just this moment in regard to Jesus’ days of Noah, days of Lot prophecy?

One would almost think that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been pouring over prophetic Scripture in the Bible. He has predicted that the entity that becomes the ultimate leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) will rule planet earth. His is a most interesting prognostication. Here’s an excerpt from the news item laying out ol’ Vlad’s foretelling.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says that whoever reaches a breakthrough in developing artificial intelligence will come to dominate the world.

Putin, speaking Friday at a meeting with students, said the development of AI raises “colossal opportunities and threats that are difficult to predict now.” (Source: Putin: Leader in Artificial Intelligence Will Rule World, Houston Chronicle, 9/2/2017)

The former KGB operative turned dictator/oligarch of the nucleus of what was the Soviet Union before perestroika, glasnost, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and finally the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., said further that “the one who becomes the leader in this sphere will be the ruler of the world.”

The Russian warned that “it would be strongly undesirable if someone wins a monopolist position.” He pledged that Russia would share its know-how in artificial intelligence with other nations.

Putin predicted that drones will fight future wars. He said, “When one party’s drones are destroyed by drones of another, it will have no other choice but to surrender.”

The Putin prediction would be amusing, if not so much on the eerie side—kind of like Gog of Ezekiel 38–39 “prophesying” the emergence of the prince that shall come of Daniel 9:26–27.

We have mentioned numerous times that Vladimir Putin displays characteristics that the future leader of the Gog-Magog attack will possess, according to the prophet Ezekiel. Putin, here, is delving into perhaps not the characteristics of Antichrist, but certainly into the technological realm Revelation seems to indicate that future fuhrer will have at his disposal.

The Russian says that the leader in such advanced technology will eventually rule the world. To be sure, Antichrist is prophesied to rule over most of the world at a point during the seven-year Tribulation era. His rule will be brief and chaotic, but it will be brutal and, according to Jesus Himself, will bring a time upon the people of the planet worse than any before or after.

Artificial Intelligence will mark his despotic control. He will, through the most advanced computer (AI) technology, do the following:

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. (Revelation 13:16–17)

But AI is, perhaps, prophesied to go much deeper than Antichrist’s 666 computer controls. Some would say there will come a destructive military force that appears to be completely robotic, commanded through AI to assault Jerusalem during that time known as the Day of the Lord. It is a terrifying description of a superhuman—or perhaps hybrid or robotic—force destined to riffle the city and ravish its women, according to prophecy.

Read about what some call Joel’s Army (Joel 2: 1-11).

(I wrote a short story of a fictional nature about Joel’s Army years ago for a filmmaker. That story can be linked below.)

http://www.raptureready.com/2017/09/09/joels-army-a-short-story

AI is a hot topic, causing an uproar even among some of the well-known leaders in its development.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk got into a spat recently on Twitter with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg over the dangers of artificial intelligence.

Musk urged a group of governors to proactively regulate AI, which he views as a “fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization.”

“Until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don’t know how to react because it seems so ethereal,” Musk said.

Zuckerberg shot back, saying fearmongering about AI is “irresponsible.” (Source: “Humanlike Robots Provoke Questions about our Humanity,” Rosalie Chan, Religion News Service)

Many scientists and futurists are declaring that from some point in the near future, major wars will be waged by beings of intelligence superior to that of mere mortals. However, Bible prophecy tells that, ultimately, it is human blood that will flow to the bridle reins following the fighting at Armageddon. It is the corpses of millions of human beings that will have to be buried following the battle of Gog and Magog.

News reports forewarn a nation descending toward chaos. Forces have obviously been set in motion that threaten to tear America apart. This instigation is purposeful, I have no doubt, and is spawned by Satan.

Saul Alinsky’s blueprint to bring about chaos so the one-world-order builders’ perfect, utopian plan can eventually rise from the ashes of this republic is well underway. George Soros and all the other globalists elite have little trouble finding minions of the human source to carry out the carnage. Lucifer’s demonic minions throw fuel of hatred on the fires of anarchy, and we see the incendiary results in our hourly headlines.

A 1979 Hollywood production, remade in 1980, 1985, and 2015, I believe, gives a fictionalized look at the real world to come when God the Holy Spirit removes from acting as restrainer on the already half-crazed minds of earth dwellers.

Mad Max is the disturbing foreshadowing of things to come when the Body of Christ—the Church—is removed in the Rapture.

Although made in Australia, the movie was Americanized in that the Aussie accents were dubbed over in the American-English accent in order to give the sense of the carnage taking place in the U.S. The storyline, set in the near future, portrayed a world gone mad with evil. The dystopian film presented in graphic terms people’s unrestrained actions against their fellow human beings.

Of course, the creators of the film had no idea that Bible prophecy presents just such a scenario—at least, I don’t think that entered their thinking.

We find the real story of things to come in this regard in the following Scripture.

And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now [restrains] will [restrain], until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. (2 Thessalonians 6–8)

When God the Holy Spirit withdraws from restraining wickedness perpetrated by fallen mankind, the world will become instantly worse than the fictional world of Mad Max. The present hostilities and chaos being churned by the would-be masters—both human and demonic—will swiftly result in destructiveness beyond description. We are indeed currently enduring a prelude to planetary madness.

But the Creator has not left us in a state of hopelessness despite the rioting and insanity going on in our nation and world. The Lord has provided a way to escape the carnage so vividly described in Revelation by John the apostle while exiled on Patmos two thousand years ago.

I wrote the following for our book, The Departure: God’s Next Catastrophic Intervention Into Earth’s History:

First, the Departure

Before God’s wrath falls, in the twinkling of an eye (an atomos of time), millions of Christians—those born again by believing in the shed blood of Christ on the cross two millennia ago for salvation—will vanish from the earth’s surface. The departure—the Rapture—will bring planet-rending disturbances to an already reeling world of nonbelievers.

God has been patient in allowing the world to see the Tribulation storm alerts. He has shown mercy and grace, as there is no prophecy given that must be fulfilled in order for the Rapture to happen. The departure can take place at any moment.

Getting out the warnings is the duty of spiritual meteorologists. This is a commission each author in The Departure: God’s Next Catastrophic Intervention into Earth’s History takes most seriously. We prayerfully hope many, upon reading the book, will take to heart the call of the only Lord and God of all Creation, who prompted the apostle Peter to write: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

This is the only way to be saved from the sin that separates the sinner from the Heavenly Father. This is the only way to be secure from the approaching Tribulation storm.

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)

We join with the prophet John, who wrote, “He which testifieth these things saith, ‘Surely I come quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).