Over the past year, I have received email castigating me for writing on politics and matters surrounding government and things of the world. The main irritation with me seems to come from those who believe I’m paying too much attention to this world and not thinking enough on the spiritual. That is, I should, in their opinion, drop supporting one political position or the other and just dwell on strictly biblical/spiritual issues–no politics or support for politicians. That I should support and dwell on only what God’s Word has to say about the end times is foundational to these critics’ primary exhortation.

Problem is, the two are not mutually exclusive to my way of thinking. Politics and the machinations of politicians these days are, in my estimation, linked to Bible prophecy in ways I cannot ignore. To do so would be to neglect the watchman commission I believe I’ve been given.

It is thus with this admission to you that I begin yet another rant–as my critics would have it–on what is going on in the political world as connected to the spiritual. I make no apologies that I come down on one side of the issue that I wish to address. Actually, the “rant” involves a number of issues under the wider problem of the evil that pervades our nation’s capitol and other power centers here and abroad.

Satan has always worked, and continues to do so, in the power centers of the world. His record of success can’t be denied for the most part. Every man-made government that has ever existed has harbored evil at every level. The fallen one has brought every empire to destruction in one way or the other through his seduction and deception. The masses of people under the various regimes throughout history have suffered by the billions. They have died by the multiplied millions.

Purists among the scholars who observe the rise and fall of great nations and empires would, if they are biblical in their analysis, say God brings those entities down. But, it is Satan who has led them–and continues to do so–to their demise as they get farther and farther away from God in comportment.

In getting back to my dwelling on present political realities and the media and politicians who have created this incendiary atmosphere of hatred for America’s current president, I would like to offer the following.

As stated above, Lucifer the fallen one has managed through corruption, seduction, and every other way of his evil methodologies to bring down great nations and even empires. Anyone who has the good sensibility to admit the in-our-faces truth of things going on in opposition to President Donald Trump can testify to the hatred at its center. Washington, D.C., is the greatest power center, perhaps, of all of history. The evil doings there are staggering.

I find myself agreeing with the president’s words when he said recently that no president has been subjected to the degree of hateful treatment to which he has been subjected. Not even Richard Nixon had media so blatantly arrayed against him during the time of Watergate. It is an assault of unprecedented virulence we are witnessing. It is going to get much worse, and I’ve pointed out before why that is the case.

Satan’s plan to install a one-world order has been disrupted. He is as determined as ever to put his man–the son of perdition–into power. The American electorate voted the anti-globalist Mr. Trump into office, and the end-times war began in earnest.

The minions, both demonic and human, are looking for any crime and anything else that might rise to the level of impeachable offense so that they can carry out another Watergate–type coup-d’état. Short of that, they obviously intend to keep the vitriol flowing, even if there is no offense to be found. They have proven capable of creating charges–lies, out of whole cloth.

Trump’s election has brought on the observable manifestation of a specific end-times signal. The Restrainer, I am convinced, can almost visibly be seen going about His office of holding back the evil onslaught.

The Restrainer and His work in this Age of Grace  (Church Age) are explained by my good friend, Ron Graham, in an excellent article posted a couple of years ago. Ron, before he died in 2013, partially wrote the following, and his wife, Nathele, completed it in 2015. The article is in relationship to prophecy Paul the apostle gave in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2.

“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2 Thessalonians 2:7).

The Greek word translated into English for “letteth” is katechō and the definition of this Greek word is somewhat different than the definition of our English word “let,” which means “to allow or permit.” The Greek word is actually just the opposite; it means “to restrain, to hold back, detain, retain.” What we must ask ourselves is “Who is the ‘He’ that Paul is referring to in this verse?”

First of all we find the apostle referring to the “who now letteth” as a “He” and secondly that this “He” is currently holding back a flood of wickedness which is straining at the bit to be loosed. Who could be so powerful to be able to hold back worldwide wickedness but the Holy Spirit? (“Restrainer,” by Ron and Nathele Graham, raptureready.com, 2015)

One, if spiritually attuned to the current political climate, senses the constant surge of anger and hatred trying to excise the president from office. This will not happen so long as God the Holy Spirit says otherwise. Christians must pray as diligently as when praying before the 2016 election that the Restrainer continues to hold back the evil that is intended to bring about the installation of human history’s final dictator.

(And, yes…I’ve gotten the notes that say those writing them think Donald Trump could be that man–a thing his actions thus far refute in my view.)

Soon, Christ will call His Church to Himself. The Restrainer will at the same time remove from acting on the consciences of mankind. Meanwhile–thankfully–He is working overtime.

There is another wall much more critical, in my view, than the one the new president promised to build during his campaign.

President Donald J. Trump reportedly asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to let him approach the Western Wall unaccompanied. Whether a signal to the world that he, representing America the lone superpower, was showing support for Israel, or whether Mr. Trump just wanted a moment alone at this most solemn place, the gesture was profound–and touching.

He was the first president of the United States to visit the so-called Wailing Wall while in office. A number of presidents either before they became such or after they had held the office have visited the site. But, never had a current president done so.

The action was profound in geopolitical, diplomatic terms. This visit, most observers of that world seem to believe, indicated the president’s–thus America’s–support of Israel as rightful heir to the wall and to the Temple Mount. This is because the visit to the wall was made as part of the president’s official trip to Israel.

Whether that’s the case or Trump handled it in that way for other reasons, the effect was dramatic. The optics of the gesture, as the news-speak types like to say, presented a picture of a president who was in charge and who was making a statement. The Temple Mount is a subject of great contention and Trump seemed to be saying it is Israel’s, based upon biblical history.

The statement might be one open to conjecture as to what it means, but that Donald J. Trump is fully in charge of the presidency of the United States of America was made unmistakably clear.

The entire trip, for the moment at least, trampled underfoot the American mainstream news conglomerate’s incessant portrayal of Trump as a dunce who doesn’t belong in the office. A picture, as is said, is worth a thousand words–or, in the case of the hate-filled news conglomerate–millions of words.

But, even that’s not the real importance of this president visiting the wall. It’s not that he, by doing so, negated a lot of the negative press he has gotten and will, guaranteed, get in the future. It’s the recognition of Israel as a special people that is all-important, here. Even if Trump didn’t say it in direct verbiage, he gave validation that Israel is the modern incarnation–the same people–as in ancient, biblical times.

Unspoken is the truth represented by the president’s action. The Jews are still God’s chosen people.

I heard President Trump come close to saying as much during his touching remarks at the Jewish Holocaust Museum on Tuesday of the past week. His affirmation that America was bonded to Israel as friend and ally could not have been given more strongly. Netanyahu’s words in response were emotional with gratitude and relief that Israel and America had again consummated the relationship that was established in 1948 at Israel’s rebirth into modernity.

I’m aware that any attempt at man-made peace involving Israel and its enemy neighbors has prophetic implications that bode evil for the Jewish people and nation. I am reminded of that by daily email received as of late. These often state that Trump’s and his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s involvement in the peace process puts them in unsavory company, prophetically speaking.

While it is certainly true that there will come, according to God’s infallible Word, a peace that will bring about holocaust far worse than that of the Nazi era, I think it not evil to work at lessening hostilities that have raged for millennia. I agree that Mr. Trump and his point man, the young Mr. Kushner, should not engage in trying to arrange peace based upon the international community’s demand that Israel, the occupier, as the diplomats put it, give up God-given land.

However, any interim step of lessening hostilities between now and the time when the man of sin makes that death-dealing “peace” seems to me not necessarily evil. That is, if it doesn’t require Israel to give up land or make other anti-God accessions as part of any such interim agreement.

My own thinking is that there will be no such agreement concluded until the Antichrist steps onto the scene sometime following the Church leaving the planet. But, the process of making such peace is already in progress, and some constituent parts of that final, deadly contract could be negotiated sooner rather than later. America certainly should not be a part of any such negotiation, again, if there are elements within any such document forcing Israel to go against God’s directives for that people and nation.

At this point, the president’s main thrust seems to me to be getting Israel and less hostile Muslim nations, such as Saudi, to come together to eliminate radical Islamic terrorism. That is a peace effort of sorts. I’ve found nothing wicked about it so far. But, let’s keep watching…

These are strange times, and the times do not yet shed light on exactly what the president’s visit to the Middle East and to the Western Wall portends for the near future. However, Mr. Trump gave the Jewish state America’s blessings on this trip and that is good news–for the moment, at least.

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12: 1-3)

It seems strange that the one nation on planet earth that God Himself calls His “chosen” suffers such low self esteem. I use the term self esteem in the sense that there is an internal, national uncertainty concerning where the nation fits within the international scheme of things. There projects from Israel an aura of not belonging.

I suppose this shouldn’t surprise, considering that most countries making up the United Nations join in voting against Israel in almost every case that is brought against the nation. The history of such anti-Israel voting is stunning.

Israel completely outperforms all of its neighbors in productivity. Its ingenuity benefits not only the region but all the world. That tiny sliver of land encompasses only a fraction of the land grant the lord says is theirs. Yet it is an island of technological, agricultural, and societal creativity that is second only to that generated by the United States. And, fact is, much of America’s such creativity and activity is directly due to the brilliance of U.S. Jewish citizenry.

Its tentativeness in national confidence has long been the concern of Israeli thinkers and innovators. Just this past week, initiatives to deal with Israel’s identity crisis came to the surface as breaking news.

A proposal to anchor Israel’s status as a Jewish state in a Basic Law was approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation Sunday.

MK Avi Dichter (Likud), who proposed the bill, called the vote “a big step towards establishing our identity, not only universally, but mainly towards ourselves, the Israelis, to be a free nation in our land,” a line from Hatikva…

“I’ve been working on the Jewish State bill for six years,” Dichter recounted. “Six years to establish the simple and most basic truth: Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish People.”…

The legislation states that “the State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, in which it realizes its aspirations for self-determination according to its cultural and historic traditions. The realization of national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.”…

… It also mentions the Law of Return, and calls for the government to work to strengthen Israel-Diaspora ties.

It states that Hebrew is Israel’s official language and Arabic has a special status, requiring all government services to be available in Arabic. (ISRAEL NEWS, Jerusalem Post, May 7, 2017)

The bill, if approved, was set for a preliminary vote on Wednesday. It will thus take place in the first week of the Knesset’s summer session. The Justice Ministry will be charged with drafting its own version of the bill within sixty days. The two bills will then be combined.

The bill is receiving push-back by those who see it as a racist action that puts too much emphasis on Israel being Jewish and not enough on democracy.

Such an accusation has some validity. But, with things going on as of late, it is action that is warranted, in my view.

One example of the world doing all possible to strip Israel of its sovereignty and even its right to exist is that perpetrated by the U.N.

The UNESCO Executive Board passed a resolution in Paris that disavowed Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. The organization insists, thereby, that Israel should no longer have authority in the city. The vote was meant to delegitimize Israel’s right to the city governance that was won during the 1967 Six Day War.

Because of continuing such actions by the U.N. against Israel, the Israeli government is considering ousting that organization from its facilities within the city of Jerusalem.

The government on Sunday is set to debate the question whether or not to oust the United Nations from its Jerusalem headquarters, but is not expected to take any action on the matter at this time…

In a statement to Channel 2, [Miri] Regev [Culture and Sports Minister ] said that clearly there was no longer any logic to the UN remaining at that location.

“We’ve been sovereign in the city for 50 years, so there is no need for UN monitors. They were given use of the compound to oversee the cease-fire agreement from the Six-Day war, it’s an agreement that is no longer relevant. This saga has to end,” she said. (ISRAEL NEWS, Jerusalem Post, May 5, 2017)

Israel’s identity crisis is destined to become much more acute. Zechariah the prophet and other prophets foretell a time when all nations will seek to kill all Jews. Haven’t we heard that before?

Anti-Semitism on the rise is only one symptom of the great hatred that Antichrist will foment, especially during the second three and one-half years of the Tribulation.

“Alas! for that day is great, so that there is none like it   : it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” (Jeremiah 30: 7)

Israel’s identity will one day be firmly established, however. God has promised to make it the head of the nations when Christ rules and reigns from atop Zion in Jerusalem as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Zechariah the prophet’s voice is echoing down through the canyons of millennia long past. Actions by nations of today’s world make plain that God’s prophetic timeline is on the cusp of fulfillment.

The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. (Zechariah 12: 1-3)

The prophecy becomes more manifest by the hour. The nations of the world’s diplomatic community are arraying against Israel. Jerusalem is their primary target. The “occupier” must be dealt with is the mantra.

A most recent indicator that Zechariah’s prophecy is nearing fulfillment is in our headlines. Globalist forces are ramping up efforts to wrest God’s touchstone city –“the apple of His Eye”–from His chosen nation.

Israel is angry at Germany for the anticipated European support for the resolution attacking Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, which UNESCO’s Executive Board in Paris is scheduled to approve this Tuesday, diplomatic sources told The Jerusalem Post.

The behind-the-scenes conflict preceded the public argument between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel over his meeting with the left-wing group Breaking the Silence during his visit to Israel last week…

A March draft asked the UNESCO Executive Board to deny Israel sovereignty over all of Jerusalem, including the western party of the city.

The resolution’s text stated: “Any action taken by Israel, the occupying power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction, and administration on the city of Jerusalem, are illegal and therefore null and void and have no validity whatsoever.” (“Israel Blames Germany for EU Support of UNESCO Anti-Israel Resolution,” Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post, April 30, 2017)

The European Union has over the past years voted against the proposal, which has always been  supported by all of Israel’s Arab antagonists. The Arabs have refused to recognize Israel as a state, but rather, like in all instances involving Israel, declares it an illegal occupier of Palestine and of Jerusalem. This refusal to acknowledge Israel as a nation, rather call it an occupier, has apparently been the sticking point on Germany’s voting against the resolution each time it comes up.

Behind the scenes, German operatives managed to have the “occupier” language removed to soften the opposition so it could convince the EU to vote in favor of lessening Israel’s authority over the city–especially over East Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is livid over this treachery by Germany. The resolution, if adopted fully, would in effect–in the eyes of the international community of nations–take away the right of the Jewish state to govern Jerusalem. The action would negate rights won by Israel as a result of victory in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The controversy comes at an interesting time. American President Donald Trump will visit Israel soon. There is conjecture about whether he will announce movement of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The United States is certain, under this administration, to vote against the UNESCO resolution.

The tensions in the middle East continue to build. But, now the focus of the angers, frustrations, and intrigues are narrowing. Jerusalem is the obvious center of the satanic rage. The Temple Mount is sure to eventually be the hottest of the hot spots of the three-thousand-year family feud.

The entire world will, according to Zechariah, Joel, and other prophets, intentionally become entangled in that feud. The EU, most of us who believe in the Pre-Trib, pre-Millennial view of Bible prophecy hold, will be at the heart of that Zechariah 12:1-3 assembly of nations.

While the globalists are foaming at the mouth, wanting to rid the world of America’s new president, the Gog-Magog forces continue to gather directly north of Israel. Jerusalem is at the center of world controversy and the ancient prophet’s words can be heard loudly by spiritually-attuned ears.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. ¹And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:9-10)

Please indulge me as I yet again engage with personal memory of Easter season six years ago. It is a memory that I couldn’t put out of the forefront of my thoughts even if I wanted to do so–which I don’t.

Good Friday, April 22, 2011 was the day that, after a workout session, I felt as if my chest would explode. It was a widow maker heart attack.

Once the emergency guys got me to the hospital about 2 two miles from our home, my heart stopped. I was instantaneously in the presence of a throng of beautiful young people–male and female–who cheered vigorously, all the while bidding me to join them.

I started to do so, but everything grew dark around me and I was on the gurney being whisked toward the cath lab.

I heard a young man say he had to “hit him with the paddles.”

I asked, “What paddles?” and he replied: “Your heart stopped and I had to use the defib paddles.”

My heart stopped two more times that afternoon. Each time I was instantaneously in front of the same wildly cheering throng of young men and women who bid me to join them.

The third time I joined them and we were running a victory lap of some sort. They were looking over at me and laughing joyously, with their hands extended at full arms-length into the air.

The sensation was…well… heavenly. I have no other way of describing it. We were running–without any physical exertion whatsoever–toward some wonderful destination. (I have, in reflecting on this experience for years, come to the conclusion we were headed toward the Throne of God.)

I know these were the “cloud of witnesses” of Hebrews 12:1-3.

But, things grew dark again and I was again, after seemingly several seconds, on the cath lab table and the cardiologist interventionist was working on me. He had removed the arterial blockage.

Astonishingly, I had no permanent heart damage and have had absolutely no problem with my engine since. My life, however, continues to be affected every waking moment by that Good Friday trip to somewhere on the heavenly property that I will someday inherit–as will you, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. (We are joint heirs with Christ, God’s Word promises.)

So, with that memory indelibly etched in my spirit, I naturally–or perhaps supernaturally would be a better term–was reflecting on my trip of six years ago the other day as Easter 2017 approached.

One of my things to do every morning is to read The Omega Letter. This email newsletter is well known by most who love Bible prophecy, of course. It is the letter mailed daily to subscribers that was written by Jack Kinsella, perhaps the most prolific such writer I’ve known.

Jack was a dear, personal friend who went to claim his heavenly property inheritance in 2013. I miss him immensely, as do all who knew him. He was indeed a special friend and Christian brother.

More than that, he was a special teacher of all things biblical–especially of the prophetic Word of God. In that regard I don’t miss him, because his many hundreds of articles continue to instruct, implore, exhort, admonish, and inspire on a daily basis. His writing is, amazingly, as fresh as the day he wrote it.

So it was on Saturday before this past Easter Sunday that I opened my Omega Letter.

There it was–Jack’s inspiration and exhortation for this Easter. Only it was originally written April 23, 2011. That’s right. It was written one day after my trip onto the heavenly property that Jack now owns for all of eternity. I probably shouldn’t, but I envy him that fact…

Jack’s words were wonderfully poignant and personal that day as he waxed eloquent yet simply in his own inimitable, communicative style.

Since there is no such word as coincidence in God’s vocabulary, according to Jack’s dear friend Hal Lindsey, I know that the Lord somehow used Jack’s and my close friendship to convey this special message on the day following Good Friday.

Jack, in closing that Omega Letter, addresses the question: What happens when we die?

He wrote:

If the Bible is true and Jesus can be believed, then when a saved person closes his eyes in this life, he awakes fully conscious in the next – where he is whisked by the angels into heaven… There is a choice. But it is admittedly limited. One can repent and trust Jesus or one can face God clothed in one’s own righteousness and see how things work out…

Jack pointed out in the article that, tragically, the rich man Jesus told about in the rich man and Lazarus story is still in the place of torment, eternally regretting depending on his own righteousness to get him to Heaven. Jack’s posthumous post delivers to me the profoundly personal exhortation to do more to reach the lost with the Gospel at every opportunity–opportunity I’ve been given by having been returned to earth for awhile longer.

Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason, the fictional criminal defense attorney, had nothing on the apostle Paul. Gardner reported  on the great lawyer as he solved all his cases, winning acquittal for his clients at every turn. But Paul, the former Saul of Tarsus, brought the world the story of resolution  to what will be the greatest mystery of all time–that wrapped up in the case of the missing millions.

There is some interesting interplay to be found here, believe me. While Perry’s mysteries were to entertain us as he got his innocent clients off the proverbial hook within human courtrooms, Paul’s “mystery” involves us as the subjects of all being guilty in God’s Court of Righteousness. Paul explains how each of us–each human being–can be gotten off that hook, even though we are already proven guilty!

Perry always carefully defined the crime of which his client was accused. We knew the client was innocent…well…because of the very fact that Perry Mason was defending him or her. Paul places the crime of which we–all human beings–are accused  within one, simple statement: “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work” (2 Thessalonians 2:7a).

We know that we are all guilty as charged under this “mystery of iniquity” because of Paul’s words that report condemnation by the God of Heaven: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

So, “sin” is at the heart of this “mystery.” That mystery is working in the world today as it has always been active. It is scheduled to get much worse as the Dispensation of Grace (Church Age) nears its end. “But evil men and seducers shall [become] worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).

So, whereas the fictional Mr. Mason’s clients were presumed innocent, each of us–you and I–is, in fact, guilty as charged. This is because of original sin.

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

The original man, Adam, partook of the fruit of the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That act of rebellion started that mystery called “iniquity”  upon planet earth. Apparently that mystery was already present in Lucifer, one of the Lord’s most majestic angels. This is what God says about that long ago mystery:

Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee (Ezekiel 28:13-17)

This magnificent creature became full of pride (read Isaiah 14:14). He came to the planet prepared for God’s creation called man. Lucifer–now called Satan–did his iniquitous work effectively and continues to do it effectively.

Man is therefore as guilty in the court of God’s righteousness as are the fallen angels (those who rebelled with Lucifer all those eons ago).

Paul the apostle–a mere man, fallen like the rest of us, until he was  declared “not guilty”–is only the Supreme’s Court reporter. He tells us of the one and only Attorney who can successfully handle each case involving the mystery of iniquity before the eternal bench of God the Judge.

Here are John the apostle’s words on that Great Advocate:

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2: 1-2)

Our Attorney is far superior to Perry Mason or any earthly attorney. He is Jesus Christ–the very Son of the Supreme Judge–God, the Father. When Jesus defends, it is a guaranteed “Not Guilty” verdict! Our defense rests upon our plea that we believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of our Advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul, the court reporter, says of that plea, a plea each of us must make as we turn our desperate case over to our Attorney, whom we trust completely:

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)

Jesus, the Christ, stands between us and eternal punishment. He is our only hope. And He never fails to win our acquittal.

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5)

Paul expounds on a further “mystery”  that will be handled by the Lord Jesus Christ. This eternal legal action will not only keep us from God the Judge’s courtroom of condemnation; the action will get all of Jesus Christ’s clients–those who believe as described above–completely off this condemned planet at some stupendous moment just ahead!

Paul the court reporter tells us of this all-important action:

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 15:15-16)

He states further:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

Thus the case of the missing millions will conclude. Mystery will be solved. Comforting words indeed! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Those of us old enough to remember can still see the smiling faces of U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat shaking hands on the White House grounds. It was  prelude to the formal peace treaty that was concluded and signed on March 26, 1979. The treaty became effective January 1980.

The two nations–Israel and Egypt–had been in a perpetual state of impending war since Israel became a nation on May 14-15, 1948.

Israel agreed, as part of the accord hammered out in Washington D.C. in 1977, to completely withdraw all military forces from the Sinai Peninsula. Israel had won the territory in the 6-Day War of 1967. Egypt agreed to leave the area demilitarized.

Additionally, the agreement guaranteed Israel free shipping passage through the Suez Canal. Also, it gave recognition of the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as international waterways.

The treaty effectively made Egypt the first Arab state to officially recognize Israel and the first to make an agreement with the Jewish state.

Anwar Al-Sadat was successor to Gambel Abdul Nasser, the dictator who fiercely waged war against Israel in times leading up to the 1956 war and then in the 1967 war. Sadat was a fierce warrior himself during those wars against the hated Israeli intruders as they saw them. None of the major Arab states recognized Israel as a legitimate nation-state. None today officially do so–except Egypt.

Much of the Muslim world was enraged when Sadat signed the historic treaty. In my estimation, this set in motion a truly satanic rage that has escalated since, bringing us to where things are today.

Most all Muslim states are in agreement with Nasser’s long-ago declaration that Israel must be eliminated–eradicated from the face of the Middle East.

Anwar Sadat led the 1973 Yom Kipper War. He was at the center of its planning and execution.

The Arab forces were overwhelming, and by every metric of military strategic methodology, it was thought that Israel’s days were numbered.

The Yom Kipper assault was indeed a surprise to even the brilliant Israeli generals at the time–among whom was the Israeli strategists, Menachem Begin.

The Arab coalition assault at first made heavy inroads into Israeli territory. But the tide soon–miraculously, some say–turned, and Israel routed the much larger forces and captured large portions of land from its enemies.

I observed all this and especially Anwar Sadat after all these developments. I was then and remain convinced that he came to realize that–like Pharaoh came to realize finally–that Israel’s god…is God.

Sadat, a hardened Muslim-Arab warrior, I determined, changed considerably. He still was a strong leader, but with a much softer eye toward Israel–toward the West, for that matter.

Anwar Sadat paid for his embrace of Israel and the Western world with his life. He was assassinated by Muslim military elements within his own ranks near Cairo on October 6, 1981, while reviewing a parade that memorialized, strangely enough, a part of the battle that had initiated the Yom Kippur War.

Despite the death of Sadat by such violence, his successor, Hosni Mubarak–also severely wounded during the attack–held to the agreement Sadat had made with Israel. The agreement has, in effect, remained to this day, even in spite of the time of Egyptian inner-turmoil when the Obama administration worked to install the Muslim Brotherhood leadership, that organization and others overthrowing Mubarak.

The Egyptian soon became irate with the Muslim Brotherhood tyrant, Mohamed Morsi, who tried to reinstall strict sharia law and other freedom-suppressing actions.

Morsi was put out of office by the peoples’ demand, despite the Obama administration’s attempt to influence the situation. Abdel Fattah el Sisi, a much less restrictive leader along the lines of Sadat, is now president, having overthrown Morsi. He met this week with, in my view, a much less freedom-suppressing United States president than the previous one.

It was Sadat’s first reaching out to a foe who had severely “whupped” him–as Muhammad Ali might have put it–that has made possible a better working relationship in all of this Middle Eastern madness. It is Anwar Sadat’s foundation-laying  that continues to at least  provide Israel some degree of buffering protection against it’s blood-vowed enemies.

His influence is seen within the most recent, unfolding news.

Egyptian and Jordanian leaders both were in Washington,  D.C., to meet with President Donald J. Trump this past week. The meeting was to include talks on Iran, Isis, and the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. It was el Sisi’s first meeting in the White House. He had been treated as persona non grata by President Barack Obama in the view of many.

Apparently, a number of those within the diplomatic community dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process see el Sisi as being a player in working toward bringing the two sides together. While the Bible makes clear that a man-made peace deal between Israel and “the many” will end only in Israel’s having to flee for its national existence, the Lord also said “Blessed are the peacemakers.”

Sadat tried to make peace, and it remains a resilient peace under the governing hand of el Sisi. Some who study the prophetic picture see Egypt as a nation that will be immensely blessed and will embrace Israel as a friend.

The nations are scheduled to be split during that judgment into the sheep and goat division, according to Matthew chapter 25 The Bible indicates that Egypt is a nation on the scene during millennial times. It will be Israel’s friend. So, Egypt obviously will make it into the “sheep” nations during that division.

Perhaps Anwar el Sadat put that  blessing into motion when he met Menachem Begin with a smiling handshake on the White House lawn all those years ago.

Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) was quick to get behind mainstream media microphones and cameras. He did so immediately following President Trump pulling the bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Healthcare Act (Obamacare) from consideration of the House of Representatives.

The former presidential candidate, acknowledged as a severe critic and opponent of the new president, presumed to instruct Mr. Trump on how he might approach Democrats in order to improve the soon-to-implode health system President Obama ramrodded through Congress. McCain then launched into his thoughts on how Trump and himself are totally on the opposite ends of the ideological spectrum with regard to America’s rightful place so far as world leadership is concerned.

The senator talked about how he believes the United States should come closer to the European Union (EU) and totally embrace NATO as part of a new world order. He implied that Trump foolishly rejects this approach, wanting America more or less to be isolationist in its approach to dealings with the world around our nation.

McCain said “The new world order is under tremendous strain.” While speaking at the Brussels Forum, he went on to say  that the world “cries out for American and European leadership” through the EU and NATO, and said that the EU and the US needed to develop “more cooperation, more connectivity.”

McCain, chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, said, “I trust the EU.” He said further that the EU was “one of the most important alliances” for the U.S. and that the EU and NATO were the ” [most effective organizations] in history”–in maintaining the peace for the last seventy years.

McCain’s strong implication was that Trump’s idea of moving away from the so-called new world order was opposite of the direction America should move. The nation must, he implied, embrace this alliance in order to save the world in keeping peace and security in view.

I am reminded of Psalms chapter 2 about the end-times powers that be that will have no deity to rule over them, but declare that humanist effort will prevail. I believe the tremendous upheaval we have seen, particularly since Trump’s election, is minion-driven enragement. The insane statements and movements are centered in the fact that God has intervened, for whatever reason, into Satan’s plans to install world government.

It is just a postponement–a temporary setback–for the new world order builders, but it has driven them into manifesting the insanity that reprobate minds come to, as indicated in Romans chapter 1.

All of this involves two of the end-times characteristics the apostle Paul prophesied in his 2 Timothy chapter 3 foretelling.

I wrote about this in-depth in my latest book Rapture Ready…Or Not: 15 Reasons Why This Is the Generation That Will Be Left Behind. I include a portion of that presentation here.

Heady/High-Minded

The powerful and elite, would-be new world order builders fit well within this perilous times category. They sell out their nations and even their families for the sake of building the new world they desire —apart from any governance by God. Psalms, chapter 2, calls out these earth-dwellers as the KJV of the Bible defines them. They are driven by the powers and principalities outlined in Ephesians, chapter 6.

This self-uplifting, while ascending on the misfortune of others, is symptomatic of headiness or high-mindedness. Satan was and is the highest-minded of all. He sought and still has the audacity to believe he can lift himself to a position above the one, true, eternal God. Those who reject the truth of Jesus Christ are, through omission, heirs to the fallen ones – Lucifer’s great high-mindedness.

All who seek, through their great intellect, their desire, or their superiority in the realm of power-brokerage, to put themselves upon the pinnacle of god-likeness in the world they have chosen to conquer are inheritors of Satan’s pridefulness. They are exhilarated by the cut-throat struggle to vanquish all obstacles, all foes.

The high-minded intellectuals of academia, of the sciences, or of the liberal clergy seek more than at any time in history to erase all mention of God the Almighty, even at the temporary expedient of tolerating many religions and allowing those religions their many various ways to godhood.

With the intellectual exercise of plotting the planet’s physical and social salvation, they are sacrificing their eternal souls on the altar of “Evolutional Theory.” God’s Word tells that the last generation will be as was the generation that perished in the flood of Noah’s day. Of that people God says:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things (Rom. 1:21-23).

What is this, if not a description of modern intellectual man and his attempts to rationalize away all vestiges of the true God? It perfectly describes the writings of Charles Darwin and those who have reworked, reformulated and totally fallen for, in one form or another, the evolution lie These, like the antediluvians, “changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.” (Rom. 1:25). These foolish, soul-darkened “intellects” join forces with those they would once have termed superstitious idiots, the occultists, and New Age adherents, to deify Mother Earth for the sake of ecological purity.

Headiness and high-mindedness are encapsulated within the climate change, radical environmentalism that is being used to destroy national sovereignty and autonomy, thus to bring all within one-world rule. The Antichrist regime will be the penultimate outgrowth of that drive toward global order.

The headiness and high-mindedness of the new world order builders–and the rage we are witnessing, I believe, are prime reasons why believers in Christ should be more than ever looking up–as we are exhorted in Luke 21: 28.

There continues to be anxiety over the political chasm now dividing this nation. And the schism involves much more than politics. There has developed a separation of worldview unlike any yet known in this nation.

We have all heard, particularly as of late, Lincoln’s words reflecting off Jesus’ declaration that “a house divided cannot stand.” Yet these United States, clearly a house not so united, as this presidential election showed, continues to not only stand, but seemingly is on the brink of entering boom-times, economically speaking at least.

For a number of years leading up to the 2016 presidential election, America appeared to be a nation more and more moving toward unification. From our perspective on the Christian right, however, that coming together looked to be leading to disaster for religious freedom. Not only was religious liberty being cast aside, we thought, but all vestiges of morality and constitutional principles were being trashed at every turn. The libertines were having their way and hope to ever regain our national sanity seemed all but lost.

Those who prefer America detached from moorings the founding fathers provided, like most of those of us who love this nation as founded, thought the political left had won the presidency–that is, they thought they had won right up until late that night when poll results proved the opposite. The rage–the insanity–hasn’t stopped since that moment of epiphany.

The progressives were certain they had won the day and that now Bob Dylan’s lyrics, taken from the poetry of his self-chosen namesake, Dylan Thomas, were proving prophetic.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.

The oft-quoted mantra during the Woodstock era was about to find its declaration chiseled upon the marbled, governmental walls of earth’s only superpower. “Do not go gentle into that sweet good night. Rage, rage, for the times they are a-changin’.”

The “rage,” as I said, is still raging. The losers of the election–the principals, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama–are reportedly leading the charge from the shadows with their opposition community organization efforts, in collusion with the so-called deep state. The manufactured, paid-for, rage is manifest in Republican town hall meetings across the nation.

I continue to maintain that it is the satanically engendered, globalist agenda that is driving the rage. George Soros funding is unabashedly admitted by the liberal side to be adding inspirational fire to the vitriol and anger. America must be brought under control of the one-world minions. The Trump victory jolted the new world architects’ incessant drive to knock America off its constitutional foundation.

The new president, with each mention of rolling back regulations, of reformulating tax structures to make things more friendly to the business world and to middle class taxpayers, inspires the financial markets to record heights. Rather than America and the world collapsing into the deepest depression in history like many experts were predicting, the economic indicators are soaring in the opposite direction.

We are now heading into fiscal territory that is like that prophesied by Jesus. The Lord said the buying, selling, building, etc., would be going along quite nicely at the time he next catastrophically intervenes into the wicked affairs of mankind. I’m convinced that those times of buying, selling, building, etc., were referring not to just “business as usual,” but to a coming boom that is unprecedented.

So, we have all of the major elements in view that Jesus predicted when foretelling what the times of His next intervention into human affairs would involve.

He said the nations would be “in distress with perplexity.” The “seas and waves” (people of the nations) would be “roaring.” He said that people will, at the same time, be buying, selling, building, planting, and marrying. It will be a “think not” generation at the time of Christ’s sudden intervention, according to Matthew 24:44.

World conditions will be just like in the days of Noah and the days of Lot. It will be in the midst of this time of both anxiety and apparent affluence that He will suddenly and catastrophically break in on an unsuspecting world.

We are, I firmly believe, swiftly entering into just such a time. The Rapture of the Church will be, I’m convinced, the catalyst for cataclysm for those left behind.

Paul the apostle clearly laid out prophecy concerning the Rapture of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, it is clear to me and a multitude of believers. Paul’s words could not be more precise in letting us know that all who have believed in Christ for salvation will be lifted in one majestic moment of time to be with Christ in the air. This will happen before the Day of the Lord (Tribulation) begins.

However–as human minds often think in contrarian ways–this great truth of the pre-Tribulation Rapture has thereby been muddled. Therefore, in addition to the Pre-Trib Rapture, we have the mid-Trib, post-Trib, partial, and other derivatives of this matter of Rapture–including no Rapture at all.

In consideration of the Rapture, which I and other pre-Trib proponents believe is truth as expressed by Paul, timing is key to understanding how near we might be to that great event. We are, for the most part, convinced the apostle gave a most significant prophetic clue as to world conditions that will be prevalent.

Paul, in his first epistle to the Thessalonians, gave the Rapture prophecy. He, with the next line, wrote the following:

“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 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 5:1-3)

We are told through this epistle, then, that there will be a specific lament by the world in general at the time of the event–the Rapture–Paul had just prophesied. “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.” The “they” here refers to the lost or unsaved of the generation who are crying “peace and safety.”

We have examined many times in these commentaries the long-running attempts at peace making in the Middle East. The “Roadmap to Peace” is the diplomatic document that has been at the center of this attempt to bring about peace–for the region and for the world.

Throughout the entire process over the years, Israel’s prime ministers, whether Begin, Rabin, Netanyahu, or whomever,  have included in their speeches the desire to assure peace and security for their people. Paul’s prophecy in this 2 Thessalonians account includes Israel and the whole world. All will be calling for peace and safety.

In the case of Israel, anxiety over peace and security has come to a head with the insertion of President Donald Trump into the Jewish state’s dilemma. The dilemma, of course, involves the pressure being exerted on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a two-state solution. That is, the world diplomatic community demands that the Palestinians be given part of Israel’s land to form a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu is feeling equal and opposite pressure from within his own government. The opposition members of the Knesset insist that such a two-state situation will compromise Israel’s peace and security to  an unacceptable degree.

The Israeli prime minister and the new American president met in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to talk over, among other things, the possible pathway to peace for Israel. Netanyahu endorsed a Palestinian state in a speech in 2009 at Bar-State University.

Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett and Likud activists urged Netanyahu to give up his support for a Palestinian state, in advance of the meeting with Trump. Bennett declared, “The earth will shake”  if Netanyahu and Trump discuss a Palestinian state.

With Trump now the United States president, leaders on the right within the Israeli government are hopeful the prime minister will give up talk of a Palestinian state as part of securing the peace and safety of Israel. Bennett promised in a Facebook post titled “The Test of Netanyahu’s Life” that the Right will support the prime minister if he tells Trump he no longer is in favor of a two-state solution. However, Bennett said it would bring “national nightmare” if Netanyahu continues to support a Palestinian state.

He wrote: “The earth will shake. International pressure, boycotts, reports against Israel, missiles, freezes, tying the hands of our soldiers in the fight against terrorism – all this will continue and intensify.”

He went on to say that he and others of the right in the Israeli political milieu consider the election of Donald Trump an historical opportunity that cannot be missed.

Netanyahu, in the press conference held last Wednesday, in fact, indicated strongly that Israel will accept no Palestinian state. This, he indicated, is because the Palestinian Authority refuses to even officially acknowledge Israel’s existence. Plus, he said with strong emphasis, he will never accept the Palestinian declaration that Israel must be forever removed from the land.

The Israeli prime minister also brought up the terms peace and security a number of times during the press conference held upon his arrival at the White House.

Israel’s call for peace and security and the international community’s cry for peace will be front and center as never before the deeper we move into the Middle Eastern tempest. This is perhaps the most dramatic signal of just how close is the Rapture of the Church.