Do you sense that time is moving faster than ever before? I must tell you that I sense that the rush of everything going on becomes more intensive by the hour.

We all have had the conversation that when we were younger, time for us seemed to move much more slowly. The older we get, the minutes, hours, days, etc., fly by at a much faster rate.

Maybe it’s just that as our age increases, everything slows down within our own physiology–within our capability to match the speed with things whizzing past us. The race of life in which we must participate, possibly, might simply overwhelm us, and we can no longer keep up. The perception, therefore, might be that time itself is moving ever faster, while that’s not really the case.

Some of you physicists could likely make the case that time is actually speeding up or slowing down, or whatsoever theory science postulates these days. But, the clock still moves one second at a time. We live our own given increments of life one tick at a time like every other of our fellow travelers on the planet. So, it is outside the realm of reality to suppose that the movement of time itself is appreciably changed from the time we were youngsters.

It has to be that the increased activities and events crowding in on our given ticks of the clock have colluded to alter our perception–to make it seem that time is moving more swiftly.

There is not much room for argument that in America today, for many of us, life’s pressures have seemingly compressed our given twenty-four hours. We are indeed racing toward our destinations–our destiny–at ever-increasing speed, it seems.

This column, of course, is called “Nearing Midnight.” The commentaries Todd and I write are focused as much as possible on Bible prophecy. We place Bible prophecy as a template over the issues and events of this, what we believe to be the end-times, generation. We hope thereby to gauge how near human history is to the Second Coming of Christ.

Progression in stage-setting for fulfillment of prophecy is all-important in this gauging effort. How quickly things look to be taking place that line up with what Jesus and the Old and New Testament prophets foretold give some sense of when the Rapture of the Church might occur–i.e., we know that the Rapture of the Church will happen at least seven years prior to Christ’s Second Advent (Revelation 19:11). Therefore, if we consider that things are swiftly moving toward what the prophets say will happen during the post-Rapture era and Daniel’s seventieth week (the Tribulation), we can say with a degree of certitude that Jesus is on the very brink of calling the Church to Himself (Revelation 4:1).

For example, we have witnessed and analyzed the formation of the Gog-Magog coalition of Ezekiel 38 and 39 taking shape at a phenomenal pace. Russia, Iran (Persia), and a number of other entities that hate Israel are gathering.

There is a building world financial crisis that threatens to collapse the global economy. And, in that regard, the internationalist, new-world-order architects are going full steam ahead in their efforts to do away with national sovereignties and to instead bring the world back to Babel. We see the absolutely blatant all-out assault on the U.S. presidential candidate who opposes globalism and calls America back to the founders’ vision for this country.

Mainstream media now admits, through an article by a New York Times former journalist who is now a news media-analyst for the Times that the mainstream news conglomerate is all in for defeating Donald Trump. The writer admits their objective is to see that Trump, whom they claim–as does Barack Obama–is unfit for the land’s highest office never gets into the White House. There’s no longer any pretense of fair and balanced coverage of the candidates.

Prophetically, this fits what Daniel the prophet and John the Revelator foretold. There is to be a revived Roman Empire–a final world empire over which a beast called Antichrist will rule. We are, at this present time in history, caught up in a race politically, prophetically, and personally, as believers.

Politically, we witness the fomenting of chaos in our nation by those who want America brought into conformation with the global blueprint. It is a luciferian plan being carried out by Satan’s human minions. The current presidential administration has taken an active part in creating this chaos, through the Department of Justice (attorney general) actions and in other ways through international diplomacy.

The presidential race is bringing into focus just how determined the fallen one is to bring all mankind into its prophesied final form.

Prophetically, we are racing toward the time when the Lord will catastrophically intervene into the affairs of rebellious mankind. The Church–all born-again believers in Jesus Christ–will be removed and the most terrible time of all human history will begin.

Personally, we who name the name of Christ should all be engaged fully in the race to complete the Lord’s Great Commission while there is yet time to do His work here on earth. There are those in Heaven watching God’s children. They are cheering for believers who are running the race set before us. If you’ve read my book, Rapture Ready…Or Not, you know that I’m convinced with all that is within me that I met some of these heavenly observers on Good Friday, April 22, 2011.  AMAZON

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

The title of this week’s commentary is a proper one, I think. The famous fictional detective invented by mystery author Conan Doyle–Sherlock Holmes–often used the term “deduced” in his brilliant dissection of seemingly unsolvable crimes. He would “deduce,” or conclude, that the circumstances surrounding the mystery had led to the inevitable solving of the murder, theft, or whatsoever the crime involved.

There is no greater mystery than the mystery of iniquity mentioned by Paul the apostle: “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).

We are presently in the midst of iniquitous circumstance and behavior by a world of rebellious earth dwellers–as the KJV terms the anti-God masses of humanity that will one day suffer God’s wrath and judgment. At the heart of the mystery of iniquity that surrounds us is a growing evil spiritual dementia that is setting the stage for the prophecy given through the apostle Paul. The prophecy is from the same section of the second letter to the Thessalonians above: “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).

I think it is patently obvious to any true student of Bible prophecy that we are witnessing a form of spiritual dementia–of upside-down thinking each and every day. This evil darkening of the ability to think sanely, morally, comes from precisely the anti-God rebelliousness the great apostle warned about in his letter to the Romans:

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

I believe it is relatively easy to deduce from things taking place all around us today that the delusion Paul forewarns will be full-blown when the Holy Spirit withdraws as restrainer of evil is even now developing. As a matter of fact, my own conclusion is that the satanically inflicted dementia is already rather far advanced. The evidence grows hour by hour that we are in a world going mad with luciferian rage.

Let’s examine that evidence to see if we are on to something, as Sherlock Holmes might say…

* Economic Irrationality

As oft is said about insanity, as attributed first to Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over to solve a problem although it fails every time and expecting a different result.

This is exactly where today’s thinking is at this hour of history in America. The government runs the Treasury printing presses over and over to produce trillions of dollars with nothing to back them in order to solve the national economic woes, which only get worse and worse.

Lyndon Johnson’s presidential administration conducted a War on Poverty to produce a Great Society. Since that 1964 all-out effort to solve America’s differences in the plight of the have-nots vs. the haves, the poverty has only increased. More than $22 trillion has been thrown at the problems involved. The nation is now bankrupt for all practical purposes, and the national debt grows exponentially.

It’s the same all over the world. Nations are in dire economic chaos, and the global economic structure–for the most part inextricably linked to the U.S. dollar–is on the brink of collapse. Only the staying hand of Almighty God is keeping global depression beyond any ever experienced from happening.

Yet, the powers that be continue to use the same methodologies time and time again in their insane effort to somehow get a different result.

* Diplomatic Dementia

The international community of diplomat’s views Israel as the hold-up to peace. This, even though Israel is a thin sliver of a nation that threatens no other nation, but provides vast goods and inventive services to the whole world.

Israel’s enemies, on the other hand–the Arab nations that surround the Jewish state–threaten to annihilate the tiny nation on a daily basis. Israel offers to sit down and come to peace with those who hate them, but the Arab states won’t even recognize Israel as a country. Yet the United Nations as a whole blames Israel for not being willing to give their enemies the land they want. The land Israel’s antagonists want, of course, is the very buffer territory that gives Israel a degree of protection from their enemies, who have attacked them in three major wars.

The diplomats cannot understand or refuse to recognize the true problem in the region. It is a satanically spawned dementia that dominates their thinking.

* Societal insanity

Can there be much argument that we are faced with a culture seemingly gone mad, considering things we see transpiring as of late?

What were just a few short years ago designated mental/psychological disorders are now proclaimed to be normal human behavior. As a matter-of-fact, there now are laws that demand we assign things like homosexuality, trans-gender identification and other conditions formerly considered aberrant or abnormalities special status, warranting privileged treatment –or else.

The absolute insanity of making us agree, through legal stipulation, that men, if they feel like a woman on any given hour or day, must be allowed to go into women’s restrooms, should speak for the far advanced state of reprobate thinking in which we find ourselves. The evidence makes it a no-brainer to deduce that there is already considerable delusion in society and culture today.

I’m sure you can think of dozens of things going on in society and culture that are even more bizarre.

* Religious Reprobate Reasoning

Religious delusion at this time of the end of the age is running wild. God’s Word, Jesus Himself, says that the Son of God is the only Way to God the Father–to Heaven.

Even some “evangelical” ministries are now wanting to make nice with apostate religionists within Christianity. Even more deludedly, they are reaching out to embrace other religions that will have nothing to do with Jesus Christ as a spiritual factor, much less as Deity who offers the only Way to their perverse version of Heaven.

Crislam, the combining of Christianity and Islam, is one such effort sponsored by some well-known supposed Christian leaders. Recently, Pope Francis was interviewed on a flight returning to the Vatican. He was recorded saying over and over that Islam is a religion of peace and that it presents only love, not danger, to mankind.

Following the murder of a Catholic priest in northern France by those who claimed the act was done for Allah, the pope opined the following:

I think it is not right to identify Islam with violence…This is not right, and it is not true…I don’t like to talk about Islamic violence because each day when I read the paper I see violence here in Italy…Terrorism is born of worshipping money in a capitalist society. I know it dangerous to say this, but terrorism grows when there is no other option and when money is made a god, and it, instead of the person, is put at the center of the world economy…That is the first form of terrorism. That is a basic terrorism against all of humanity.

Pope Francis has said on occasion that Christianity and Islam are both religions of conquest, and he has blamed Western thinking and interference in the Middle East as responsible for the rise of Islamic extremism. ^“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).

It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to deduce that the end times delusion Paul prophesied for the Tribulation period as recorded in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 has truly already infected this pre-Tribulation era.

Europe and the world continue to reel economically from the fallout of Brexit–the British pulling out of the European Union. Fear of financial free-fall into the abyss of global depression is igniting fires of protests that something must be done. One such protest comes from the very heart of Europe–the area of the world most associated with Bible prophecy and the reviving Roman Empire.

Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan warned that “The unthinkable is happening… A double reaction to Brexit is under way, one financial, one political. The financial one, at least until now, is limited. I am more worried about the political one…There is a cocktail of factors that can lead to various outcomes, including a further push towards disintegration.”

Padoan lectured that those in authority in Europe must begin to listen to the people and their worries over out-of-control immigration, unemployment, and increasing inequality. Austerity measures, he said, exacerbate the problems, and something has to be done to change those budget rules Rome considers to be fueling the crisis.

He said, “Inequality is growing in Europe because growth is weak.”

He said further, “We have had proposals on the table for months that say employment, growth, well-being and equality have to be the priorities… the situation we are in now is exceptional. We have to change.”

There is a sense that Mr. Padoan’s call for new leadership is rising among the common people not only of Europe, but of the whole of the Western world. The message, it is equally observable, is being missed by those who hold the financial reins at the highest echelons of power. There seems to be rebellion building amongst the common folk against the elite who display a wanton disregard for the rest of us.

When thinking on what Bible prophecy has to say about the ultimate outcome of all of the machinations going on in the arena of international power politics these days, the prophet Daniel comes immediately to mind. He was given some very specific things to pass along to us by the messenger sent from the throne room of God. The message had at its heart a most directly pertinent point regarding world economic conditions that will produce history’s most all-controlling leader.

Here’s what the great prophet tells us about this prophetic message that seems to be particularly relevant to the days into which our world is swiftly moving. Daniel was given  a profile of the one who will be Antichrist. That beast of Revelation chapter 13, Daniel was told, will be a king of fierce countenance who will prosper greatly.

“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: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand” (Daniel 8:25).

It is the first part of the prophecy that is most notable for our purposes. This last and most powerful political/military leader will “cause craft to prosper.” He will apparently take a terrible economic situation that exists on a worldwide scale and turn it around. The economy will be caused, through his manipulations, to turn around in a mighty way.

Adolf Hitler did exactly this, students of recent history will recall. The German economy was in free-fall–actually had hit the bottom. Hitler turned it around.

But, we remember how he did it! All-out war-making–exactly how the angelic messenger told Daniel the final fuehrer–Antichrist–will accomplish the economic turn-around.”Through peace he will destroy many.” The red horse of war, you will remember, follows immediately the rider on the white horse (Revelation chapter 6).

We again remember the perhaps overly used words of Henri Spaak, Secretary General of NATO 1957-1960: “What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the alliances of all people and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man, and be he god or devil, we will receive him.”

The world–particularly the stress-torn EU–certainly appears to be in an economic morass. A central figure from the exact center of Rome is calling for leadership to again cause craft to prosper. According to all other signals that are everywhere the prophecy student looks today, that man–who really is a devil, must be awaiting in the shadows to step into the spotlight of history when the call comes.

That call will come just after another call resounds across the earth’s atmosphere. That call will be Christ’s shout, “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).

Something sinister lurks just ahead within this world of darkening uncertainty. The forewarning thought simmers beneath daily life that change is coming—transformational change that will make these present hours seem like the good old days for the inhabitants of future earth.

Princes and presidents, potentates and populations at large sense gnawing dread spawned by the seemingly unstoppable spread of murderous, racial/religious hatreds. Proliferation of nuclear weaponry among the most violence-prone among us appears on the brink of unleashing man’s final war.

The term “Armageddon” is regularly used to describe man’s greatest fear during hourly newscasts. To quote Shakespeare, it is becoming clear that “something wicked this way comes.”

For the believer in Jesus Christ, however, the near horizon that is a harbinger of the worst of times in man’s history presents just beyond that apocalyptic storm front a magnificent future beyond imagination.

Indeed, glorious change is coming. It will happen in a stunning moment of absolutely dazzling transformation and transport for the born-again believer. It will be a catastrophic intervention by the one and only Creator-God of heaven—so long seemingly silent to rebellious mankind.

This author’s commission is to proclaim to this generation—at this moment—that the very end of the age is at hand. Heaven is trumpeting the final siren of appeal for all to come within the shelter offered by the Savior who died and resurrected so that all who trust Him for salvation will be spared the horrors about to occur.

“Don’t spend eternity apart from the Heavenly Father” is the profoundly important message that must be disseminated and accepted. He desires above all else that everyone comes into the safe harbor of His family through His Only Begotten Son—the Lord Jesus Christ.

Whether one is Rapture Ready . . . Or Not, the disappearance of all true believers is about to occur. The thrilling time of that long-ago prophesied call of Christians to join with Christ will happen at any moment!

That, of course, is the tenet of my new book Rapture Ready…Or Not. I believe with all that is within me that I was prompted to relay the urgent message that the door to the Age of Grace (the Church Age) is on the very brink of closing to a Christ-rejecting generation.

This presents no pleasure to the author. Neither, of course, does it give pleasure to the God of Heaven who must, following the closing of that door, unleash His wrath and judgment upon planet earth. Jesus shed His last drop of blood on the cross at Calvary so that no person need spend one moment in that hellish time on earth we call the Tribulation or spend eternity in the place prepared for the devil and his fallen angelic horde.

Being Rapture ready is 1) knowing Christ for Salvation through following this admonition:

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)

Once a person complies with this way (the only way) to salvation, that person becomes 2) Rapture Ready through living life according to direction given in God’s Word, the Bible.

I think one of the best verses to summarize this Rapture Readiness is found in the following.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)   

In this way we will hear our Lord say, “Well done, good, faithful Servant,” when we see Him face to face at the moment of Rapture. To avoid any questions about whether I am saying one has to live above sin in order to go in the Rapture, I will be absolutely clear.

Every person who truly accepts Christ is going to leave the planet at the time Jesus calls the Church (Revelation 4:1). Not a single believer, whether walking “worthily” or not, will be left behind at Rapture. But, to be truly Rapture Ready in the sense of being “worthy” (in order to receive each and every reward the Lord wants to give us at the bema–the Judgment Seat of Christ), each Christian must be walking according to God’s precepts as taught in His Holy Word.

In that glorious, twinkling-of-an-eye moment of translation–from mortal to immortal, from corruption to incorruption–we will each realize the magnificence that is our Lord and Savior: Bridegroom. We will know Him in the same way He knows each of us. We will, in that eternal moment, want to have lived righteously for Him.

The change that is coming is spectacular beyond all that our imaginations can conjure, the apostle Paul has informed us:

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9) 

Let us do all we can in Christ’s service while opportunity is ours. Let us do all within our power to be truly Rapture Ready!

With so much controversy involving the topic of the Rapture boiling today, I thought it good to look a little closer at that event internally. That is, it might prove interesting to examine the Rapture within the Pre-Trib view to look at a divide that exists.

Mostly, preachers don’t want to address prophecy or, in particular, the doctrine of the Rapture at all. Since the call of Christ to His Church is next on God’s calendar of events, in the view of Pre-Trib proponents, ignoring this great promise of rescue from human history’s most terrible time is something that both baffles and disturbs.

We who are familiar with that great future event know, at least cursorily, the differences within the various views of when the Rapture will occur. Whether it will happen Post-Trib, Mid-Trib, Pre-Trib, etc. is sometimes hotly expressed by the various proponents. However, the vast numbers of preachers in America’s pulpits today would tell you that the Rapture is a mystery to them, as is most of Bible prophecy.

Indeed it is a “mystery” to them, because they never have opened their Bibles with the thought toward looking into the Rapture–the very thing Paul said is a ” mystery” he was showing us–that is, showing believers. They like to use the joke: “I’m a Pan-Millennialist. I believe it will all just pan out in the end.”

Again, it isn’t the hot debate between the Pre-Trib, Mid-Trib, and Post-Trib views of the Rapture I wish to address. To me, the debate is over. The Pre-Tribulation view is the only one in total context of what the Bible says about that great promise that rings true–that makes sense. Paul’s “mystery” unveiled, from the Pre-Trib perspective, is what I hope to dissect a bit.

The Scripture, of course, that sets up this great event is as follows:

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 says he is presenting a “mystery.” That is, he is dealing with an heretofore unknown matter–unknown to (not understood by) believers in Christ. And this “showing” of this “mystery” is the nuance of truth I wish to examine within the Pre-Trib view of the Rapture–the view I’m convinced is the one the Bible presents through Paul’s unveiling of this most important doctrine.

The seminaries within fundamentalist-evangelical Christianity hold mostly that the Rapture was never dealt with in anyway whatsoever until Paul “revealed” it. The most academically inclined among these will tell you that this “mystery” was never alluded to in the Old Testament. They go on to say it was never mentioned in any way by Jesus and the prophets. It is, they say, only in the Pauline epistles that the Rapture is unveiled.

I believe this is untenable, except by those who refuse to consider that Paul was “showing” the mystery–the mystery of the Rapture that had already been made manifest. He was explaining it, not just pulling it out of the hat for the first time. Paul was unveiling the Truth about what Jesus, Himself, indeed had alluded to as given in the Gospel accounts.

The first mention of this “mystery”–the Rapture–by the Lord we look at was recorded by John:

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

Jesus said that He will “receive” us to Himself, exactly like Paul reveals in 1 Corinthians 15:51 when he says we will be changed–transformed–for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 15: 50). That translation into Christ’s presence Paul further unveils in the following prophecy:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:7)

The next words of our Lord about this “mystery” Paul is “showing” us is found in the Gospel of Matthew–in what is known as the Olivet Discourse:

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. (Matthew 24:36-41)

Jesus further gave prophecy regarding that future, catastrophic break-in on human history as recorded in Luke 17:26-30. I think it is unfortunate that the most purely academic among fundamentalist theologians within the ranks of Pre-Trib Rapture proponents can’t see Jesus’ “mysterion” mention of the Rapture in the Gospels–the “mystery” Paul is plainly unlocking for understanding for all believers.

I believe that we are very near the moment of being the generation of believers who will be beneficiaries of that twinkling-of-an-eye moment when the Lord shouts, “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).

Today’s date of posting this “Nearing Midnight” article is the 72nd anniversary of D-Day. The allied forces on June 6, 1944, wanted to accomplish two things as they steamed toward the coastline of France. They were intent on defeating and destroying the Nazis’ ability to make war. Thereby, they were determined to establish peace that had been taken from the world on a global scale–primarily by the Germans–for the second time in less than a half century.

In reality, however, planet earth has never completely escaped–that is, has never been totally free–of war in recorded history. And, that includes the earliest biblical history. Cain first went to war with his brother, Abel, over jealousy that created rage that ended in the first murder. Man has been killing man ever since, with the slaughter continuing to manifest even on our city streets on a growing scale. I give you as example the streets of south Chicago on which during weekends in particular the black-on-black killing is horrendous.

The governmental authorities, both those in the city of Chicago and the present federal government, at whose heart sits the current presidential administration, hardly even acknowledge that a problem exists in the inner cities. The news conglomerate dutifully also ignores the deadly problem.

There is a satanic cover-up on the war that is raging, taking peace from life in America. The same forces covering up our domestic conflict are dedicated to the cover-up directed at keeping the world at large from knowing about the true causes and effects of the war going on in the Middle East. And, that conflict is destined to bring all of mankind to history’s final war of this quickly fleeting age.

God’s Word tells us that it is the quest for such a peace that will eventuate in the most terrible time in human history. Jesus said as recorded in the Olivet Discourse that it will be a time so terrible that it would destroy all flesh on the planet if He did not return to put an end to the warfare.

Daniel the prophet said the peace that the world will seek will be indeed produced and enforced by the “prince that shall come” (Daniel 8:25; 9:26-27). It will be, the prophet Isaiah said, a covenant made with “death and hell” (Isaiah 28:15, 18). It all involves the Middle East, and, as I said, the news media, as well as our government–and for that matter, the governments of the world–refuse to even acknowledge the true causes and effects of the conflict that makes the quest for peace necessary.

This peace is in the making this very moment while you and I consider these matters in this commentary.

This quest for peace, as I and other prophecy observers have mentioned many times, is the number-one signal of where we stand on God’s prophetic timeline. We are watching God’s prophetic Word in the process of fulfillment, as we are seeing other prophesies in process of fulfillment. The Gog-Magog forces, for example, are coalescing; the religions of the world are beginning to amalgamate, agreeing that there are many ways to Heaven; the effort to establish one world order is on the move through Agenda 21, 30, and in other ways.

But, again, it is the desire for a Middle East peace, with Israel held up as the sticking point, that the world intensely desires. The world’s diplomatic community and the global news conglomerate refuse to hear or propose any narrative other than that which declares the tiny Jewish state guilty of holding up the peace process.

The following news excerpt proves the point, in my view.

The Arab league supported on Saturday France’s Middle East peace initiative and all international efforts to create lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, AFP reported… Speaking before the ministers, [Palestinian president Mahmoud ] Abbas said that the time has come to “mobilize Arab and international wills” towards creating a Palestinian state, however said in order to do so Israel would have to make serious policy changes.  

Abbas called for NATO forces to replace the IDF in the West Bank as part of any peace deal that leads to the creation of a two-state solution. He also rejected the idea of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. (“Arab League supportive of French peace initiative,” JPOST.COM ,TOVAH LAZAROFF, 05/29/2016)

The pressures are great on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to give in to world diplomatic insistence that Israel give land for peace. That is something, of course, God says will, when it eventuates, bring total war upon the whole world (see Joel 3:2.) This will be the cause and effect of that great, fearful conflict we have come to know as Armageddon.

It will be the result of seeking a false, deadly peace, rather than that lasting and perfect peace that can only be instituted by the Prince of Peace.

_____

To parents and grandparents – for your Millennial generation children and grandchildren!

Terry’s new book Rapture Ready…Or Not: 15 Reasons This Is the Generation That Will Be Left Behind is now ready for pre-order. The publisher has made a special arrangement to make it easy for you to see to it that those young ones you love so much be given this book that we believe is so crucial to making them aware of things to soon come in this uncertain world. We, like you, want them to be Rapture Ready!

Pass It On! Don’t be a “selfie.” The next generation needs to know that Christ will be returning soon! Sadly, the Rapture is not a topic most young people are talking about over their mocha lattes or debating on social media. May we encourage you to purchase a copy of Rapture Ready to give to a younger person in your life as a conversation starter? And together we will pray that seeds will be planted that have eternal impact.

Terry’s publisher, wants to help too! Right now you can order 2 books for $20 and FREE SHIPPING.

http://www.nlpg.com/rapture-ready-2-pack

I once wrote the following in an article titled “Israel Betrayed by U.S.?”:

Israel today stands in the bull’s eye of rage. This is true in the case of being targeted by the Jewish state’s perennial antagonists, the Arab and Persian Islamist enemies. It is true in the case of the entire international community, whose constituent nations see Israel as the congestive blockage to regional and world peace. But it is the growing antagonism by United States presidential administration operatives that is most disconcerting while this beleaguered planet wobbles toward a time of unprecedented trouble.

As a matter of fact, that coming time of unparalleled strife that will bring all nations to Armageddon is termed “the time of Jacob’s trouble” by Isaiah the prophet: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7a).

And, it is Jacob’s trouble–the prophesied end-of-days dastardly treatment of Israel by the nations of earth–that will cause the God of heaven to bring them to Armageddon. This is what the prophet Joel foretells: “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land” (Joel 3:2).

Will America Betray Israel?

We come to the question “Israel Betrayed by U.S.?” The article’s title is in the form of a question because like so much of this American administration’s dealings, the “transparency” presidential candidate Barack Obama and then President Obama promised is not forthcoming. Obama’s intended dealing with Israel is wrapped in an impenetrable fog of political doublespeak…

Since the time of that writing, a number of years have passed. Mr. Obama began his administration almost from the very first day by treating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu like a White House exterminator–having him come in a door other than the front entrance reserved for dignitaries who are honored with official reception by the president.

The president, shortly after that first meeting with Netanyahu, abruptly left the prime minister and went to have a private dinner, presumably with his family. It was an undeniable snub.

This was apparently meant to be within keeping with his promise to have “the most transparent administration ever.” It was certainly transparent that this president has an utter disregard for Mr. Netanyahu and for Israel, our number-one ally in the Middle East, if not our top ally in the entire world.

Subsequent snubs and disrespectful attempts to bully the Israeli leader and the Jewish state are too numerous to get into. Obama’s attempts to intervene within the sovereign affairs of Israel have not abated as of this late hour in the Obama administration. In fact, they have increased dramatically.

While there is less than nine months of his time as president remaining, Mr. Obama is said to be planning many interventions into Israeli autonomy.

In yet another audacious display of intrusion into the affairs of Israel’s dealings with its internal enemies–many of whom plot and carry out deadly attacks against Jewish citizens–American’s diplomatic enforcers are at work. Ordered to do so by Barack Obama, America’s State Department minions join with those determined to force Israel to bow to international demands in the matter of housing construction in volatile areas of contention.

One news item reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Diplomats say the U.S. will endorse a tough new tone with Israel in an upcoming international report. The report is to take the Jewish state to task over settlements, demolitions and property seizures on land the Palestinians claim for a future state…

The harsh language marks a subtle shift. Washington has traditionally tempered statements by the so-called “Quartet” of mediators with careful diplomatic language…(Source: Matthew Lee and Bradley Klapper, “US to Take Tougher Tone on Israeli Settlements in New Report,” Associated Press, 5/7/16).

Early on in the first Obama administration, the pressure to force Israel to give in to diplomatic pressures of land for peace became a driving force in U.S./Israeli relations. The effort has only ramped up since that time. It is as if this president has an obsessive compulsion to impose his will before his time is ended in the White House.

My personal sense is that it is indeed the president’s compulsion that is in play. Because it is the nation Israel we are considering, however, there are also far more powerful intrigues involved. Ephesians 6:12 is at the center of this last minute drive to make the rearrangements that Israel’s greatest hater wants accomplished, it seems to me.

But, my personal sense of prophetic importance of what all of this vitriol pointed toward Israel means is of little consequence. What matters is what the prophetic Word of God says about His chosen nation and its destiny, both near-term and in the ultimate sense.

In that regard, the things we will see develop in these days and months leading up to the November election and beyond can be of profound significance. And in the America and the world vs Israel struggle, we can find little reassurance that anything good can come forth.

America has entered a most dangerous time.

Road rage has always been something that has confounded me. My first exposure to the phenomenon came in a humorous fashion. It was presented on The Wonderful World of Disney in animation. One of Mickey Mouse’s close pals–the floppy-eared, buck-toothed Goofy–was the featured character.

The narrator talked about the Goofy character, while the human-like canine went about preparing for work one morning. The narrator told the viewer that this was the gentlest of creatures–a person who wouldn’t harm a fly.

Goofy was polite to his wife and children; he peacefully read his newspaper at the breakfast table while sipping his coffee at a leisurely pace.

Goofy got up from the table, wiped his mug with a napkin, folded the newspaper, and put it beneath his arm. He grasped his briefcase, put his fedora on his head, kissed Mrs. Goofy goodbye, hugged the little Goofies, and opened the door to his garage.

All the while the narrator was telling the viewer just how soft-hearted and, indeed, how wonderful a husband, father, and citizen was our about-to-be work-commuter. Mr. Goofy opened the driver-side door to his sedan, sat in the seat–all the while a tranquil, most pleasant half-smile on his mug.

Then it happened! The moment he grasped the steering wheel, a profound transformation took place. His mug contorted into a vicious, snarling countenance. His smile became a fang-bearing scowl of evil. His eyes widened and became red with bulging blood-veins popping to the surface, his black eyes shifting angrily while drool seeped from the sides of the jowls and he snorted flames and smoke from his big snout.

Goofy became the supreme picture of rage. The narrator described the transformation and gave the viewer the complete account of Goofy the maniac’s trip into the city of his workplace.

Soon after that program aired, I became a regular driver, having reached the age of getting a driver’s license. However, I can’t recall at the time having experienced road rage myself, or even having seen it take place in the real world. But, the creators of that Disney program obviously had experienced the phenomenon.

A little later in life I certainly witnessed the fact that road rage exists. The phenomenon seems to be less and less a phenomenon–rather, has turned into a “new normal” for driver comportment.

The latest incident we might recall is when a former NFL football player was shot to death while he and a female passenger were on a city street. The former player apparently bumped a car in front of him for blocking him from proceeding. He then steered the car around the car he had bumped.

The driver of the car that was bumped sped after the offending vehicle. When he caught up with the former player’s car, the offended driver fired several shots into the other car, resulting in the former player being fatally wounded.

Such reports are not at all uncommon today. It’s as if the human mind has lost all control of reasoning ability while behind the wheel. I believe the phenomenon–now the new normal–might be part of the apostle Paul’s perilous times of 2 Timothy chapter 3. There seems little doubt that today men (and women) drivers are increasingly “fierce” and “incontinent,” as the KJV puts it. That people are without ability to govern their tempers is a bottom-line characterization of the human condition that could legitimately be concluded. Angers flare out of control over the slightest perceived personal disrespect. Too often, such incidents end with bloodshed.

All of the above is but representation in microcosm of the larger manifestation of the ferocity and incontinence (lack of control) that is raging across the world at present. 

On a much more profound scale of uncontrolled fury, a corpulent little tyrant In North Korea starves his people, while pouring money into military and nuclear technology with which to threaten the world. The mullahs of Islam incite hatred, encouraging all-out jihad against Israel and all who won’t bow the knee to Allah. In American inner cities, organizations devoted to anarchy and mayhem for the sake of acquiring and/or maintaining power over their ethnic masses go about tearing down the societal fiber of America’s culture. Total chaos appears to be but a major crisis away–perhaps in the very near future. Deteriorating economic conditions on a national and global scale could well be the catalyst for producing such crisis, many experts warn.

Everything looks to be out of control, while those elitists who want to bring all peoples back to Babel and a one-world order of absolute rule search for avenues to reach their utopian goals.

Uncertainty is the disorder of the day, however, no matter how far reaching are the programs and manipulations of the would-be globalist masters. This world, with its myriad building troubles, should have by now imploded from untenable, economic pressures or else exploded in nuclear fire because of road rage-like insanity in planetary conflict.

But, planet earth wags on. The uncontrollable is for some reason still under control.

God raises up kings and nations, and He brings them down. Nothing within all of creation is ever beyond His controlling hand.

Whether considering worries about the upcoming presidential election, fear of North Korea and its nukes, ISIS and its barbarous terrorism, or the fearful diagnosis of a devastating illness or loss of those we love on a personal basis, all is under control at all times. There is no situation, no matter how profound or how personal, that the Lord of Heaven doesn’t control.

The key to being at peace within the safety and assurance of God’s control of all circumstance is to be within the heavenly Father’s family.

This relationship is achieved, of course, only through acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior (Romans 10: 9-10). The Lord appeals to all of mankind to consider the matter of His absolute control and authority over all that exists.

“Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.” (Isaiah 40:21-26)

Note: This April 22 was the fifth-year anniversary of the Good Friday trip I was given to somewhere on the perimeter of Heaven. It remains as vivid in my every waking moment today as right after it happened.

I wanted to again present the articles I wrote at the end of that year–2011–because I believe we are so very near the time of Christ’s call to us–“Come up hither!” (Revelation 4:1).

Also, I wish to announce my just completed book which is now being prepared for publication at New Leaf Publishing Group. Rapture Ready…Or Not:15 Reasons This Is the Generation That Will Be Left Behind is scheduled for release July 1, 2016.

I’m certain in the deepest regions of my spirit that this book is a major reason for the round trip to that other dimension on that Good Friday five years ago.

I’m having considerable trouble exercising patience as this book approaches its release. I just can’t wait to share it with you.

Without intending to attract unto myself any aggrandizement–for the Lord of Heaven is the only Person deserving such–I believe I was commissioned to deliver this message. Rapture Ready…Or Not, this generation is on the brink of God’s most profound intervention into human history since the day the Great Flood of Noah’s day burst upon the world.

Here is Part II of that December 2011 Nearing Midnight article.

             ___

There is no specific signal that presages the Rapture of believers in the Scriptures. That calling by Christ to those who know Him as Savior will be unannounced and instantaneous. Paul the apostle’s words inform us of that stunning event: “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 says 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” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

The website Todd Strandberg began in 1987, before the internet was making an impact to any extent on life in America and throughout the world, encompasses what Christ expects every born- again believer to become. Todd gave it the name raptureready.com, a nomenclature defining a spiritual condition eternally crucial to each and every living individual.

All who have died during this Church Age (Age of Grace) are now beyond getting “Rapture ready.” They are either “Rapture ready” or not. People alive at the present time, if they don’t know Christ as Savior, still have opportunity to get Rapture ready. All who are saved (know Jesus as their Savior) are Rapture ready in one sense, but might not be Rapture ready in another. We will try to clarify these matters. It is most important that we do so.

I testified in my commentary last week of instantaneously standing before a throng of heavenly witnesses (Hebrews 12:1-3) the moment my heart stopped beating. This happened three separate times. Each time my heart ceased to beat, I was somewhere in eternity. God the Holy Spirit’s assurance of where I was and who the beautiful, cheering young people were becomes more strongly burned into my own spirit by the day.

The only action I have taken in my life to warrant being instantly transported to that heavenly realm was to accept Christ as my Savior. There is no other action I could take while in this physical life to assure my instant transport into those stunning surroundings. While my near-death experience wasn’t the Rapture, of course, I believe with all that is within my spiritual understanding that it was a type of what awaits the generation of Christians alive at the time of that great event, as described by the Apostle Paul’s prophetic words as given above. At that future moment of Rapture, all who have died during the Church Age, or who are living at the time, will stand not before a throng of witnesses as I did, but before the Lord Jesus, Himself! “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

All who are living today who do not know Jesus Christ as Savior stand in mortal danger. When their hearts beat the final time, they will find themselves in the same, unimaginably horrid place as the rich man described by Jesus in the story of the rich man and Lazarus (read Luke 16:19-31). Likewise, the moment Christ says at the Rapture: “Come up hither” (Revelation 4:1), the person who hasn’t accepted Christ will be left behind on earth to face a time in human history of which the Lord Jesus Himself said: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (Matthew 24:21-22a).

Being Rapture Ready

So, it is imperative to make clear what it means to be Rapture ready. Our eternal souls hang in the balance of God’s impending judgment. The Lord of Heaven must judge sin, because He cannot abide sin in His holy presence. No sin can enter the gates of Heaven. And this is where God’s magnificent love comes to the forefront of His dealing with each of us who are sinners.

He loves you and me so much that He sent His Son–God in the flesh, Jesus Christ—to come to earth to be the perfect sin-sacrifice, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, whose blood takes away the sin of the world. To be Rapture ready, you and I must be “saved” from our sins and made pure in the righteousness found only in Christ. When we believe God and accept Christ as Savior, we become Rapture ready in the eternal sense. We will go to Heaven upon our death, or will be raptured when Jesus steps out on the clouds of glory and shouts: “Come up hither!”

But, there is another meaning of being Rapture ready. Each Christian is responsible for being Rapture ready in this sense. To be Rapture ready as a child of God means we are to be living our lives in a way pleasing to God. We are to lift the name of Jesus so that men, women, and children will be drawn to Him for salvation. We are to be watching for His any-moment return in the Rapture.

Let me make it clear. I believe the Word of God tells us that every person who is saved through the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ will go to be with Him at the moment of Rapture, no matter the state of his or her fellowship with the Lord. We will ALL stand before Him, Paul tells us.

However, to be truly Rapture ready as a Christian means that we are living life in such a biblically prescribed way that when Jesus calls us we will not be ashamed to look Him in His omniscient eyes. We should desire above all else to hear Him say “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:23b).

End-times world conditions today are unmistakable. That face-to-face meeting could take place at any moment!

Note: This April 22 is the fifth-year anniversary of the Good Friday trip I was given to somewhere on the perimeter of Heaven. It remains as vivid in my every waking moment today as right after it happened.

I wanted to again present the articles I wrote at the end of that year–2011–because I believe we are so very near the time of Christ’s Call to us– “Come up hither!” (Revelation 4:1).

Also, I wish to announce my just-completed book that is now being prepared for publication at New Leaf Publishing Group. Rapture Ready…Or Not: 15 Reasons This Is the Generation That Will Be Left Behind” is scheduled for release July 1, 2016.

I’m certain in the deepest regions of my spirit that this book is a major reason for the round trip to that other dimension on that Good Friday five years ago. I’m having considerable trouble exercising patience as this book approaches its release. I just can’t wait to share it with you.

Without intending to attract unto myself any aggrandizement–for the Lord of Heaven is the only Person deserving such–I believe I was commissioned to deliver this message. Rapture Ready…Or Not, this generation is on the brink of God’s most profound intervention into human history since the day the great Flood of Noah’s day burst upon the world.

Here, then, is Part I of my thoughts in December, 2011, following that April 22, 2011, Good Friday event.

            ___ 

Being prepared to meet Jesus Christ face to face–as far as trying to make that my constant state of mind is concerned–has been part of my every waking moment since Good Friday of this year. Not wishing to go over it in a public forum like this one ad nauseam, nonetheless, I’ve been considering the relationship between my near-death moments of April 22, and being Rapture ready, as is the thought wrapped up in our website’s name. So, here goes yet again…

This is intended to be an exhortation for all of us who name Christ as our Lord–urging us individually and collectively to hold Him close to our spiritual hearts during this Christmas season. It is not meant to dwell upon my personal experience as an overriding point of focus. Many who read this column on a regular basis know some of the details of my heart event on Good Friday of this year. I’m often corrected by my wife, Margaret, for not calling it a heart attack. For some reason that description just doesn’t register within my aging gray matter. Others have heart attacks, not me.

I remember thinking at the time it was occurring that this wasn’t possible. The EMT working on me told the hospital dispatcher that he had a “coronary in progress.” It didn’t register then, either. There I was, however, being rushed toward Saline Memorial Hospital, gasping for breath, the pain behind my sternum feeling as if it would explode my chest at any second.

I remember arriving and the gurney being tugged toward the ER outer doors. Then, there was the computer-like blip and I was suddenly before a large heavenly throng of young, beautiful, cheering men and women. The ambiance of my surroundings was dazzling, and I wanted to join them. There was no recollection whatsoever of where I had been–no memories of this planetary existence.

I was, the doctor later told Margaret, dead on arrival.

They hit me with the defibrillation paddles–yes, just like you’ve seen in the shows where they say “Clear!” and then apply the paddles, making the body nearly jump off the table.

I felt nothing, but the action did cause me to leave the place I never wanted to leave. I remembered thinking, “I want to stay here forever in this perfect place.” But, everything turned dark and I awoke in total darkness on the gurney. This is because I’m blind due to a retinal disease, as many who read the account know. The pain behind the sternum grew worse and I heard the blip twice more. Each time I was before that cheering, enthusiastic throng of vibrant, young people. The sights were astonishing, colors of every description emanating from somewhere I could neither determine, nor cared to investigate. The third time I was among them, we were all racing, or being drawn by some powerful energy toward a destination I would never know. I was again in the hospital, this time on the cardiac unit’s procedure table. I had again been hit with the paddles.

I had survived the “widow maker,” an artery-blockage that I was told only 5 percent of victims live through. I was clinically dead three times, my heart having stopped each time. I had been given a journey and return trip that few are privileged to experience–and I say that meaning it as humbly as it is possible to express the fact.

The reasons for and meanings of this experience have been confirmed and affirmed in my spiritual understanding. I’ve dealt briefly with those impressions from the Holy Spirit in a previous article, “HeavenVision.” God willing, there will be a more in-depth presentation on these matters in a book we have planned for release early in 2012, entitled HeavenVision: Glimpses of Glory.

I continue to be given insight into what it all means. As stated at the beginning of this commentary, my thoughts have been turned toward being ever ready to meet the Lord Jesus Christ face to face since that Good Friday when my heart ceased to beat those three times. One of the things constantly on my mind is that my heart could fail again at any moment.

My rehabilitation has been an absolutely amazing success story. And, in that regard, I thank so many of you whose prayers were obviously heard in the throne room of Heaven. I honestly haven’t experienced one moment’s problem, in any way, with my heart or anything else of consequence regarding my health. In fact, I was given the “Arkansas Cardiologist Association’s Patient of the Year Award for 2011” on November 18. I was asked to speak to their convention and I told them that I don’t know why I should be honored. All I did was survive. My Lord, Jesus Christ, deserves top honors, because He holds the keys to death and hell. I then said that they, the wonderful medical professionals, also deserve honors for being the ones God chose to put me back into this race.

The only problem has been cracked teeth and one crowned tooth broken completely off that resulted from being hit with the paddles those three times. Nonetheless, the thought is there that one’s last heartbeat can occur at any moment.

Each time my heart stopped, I stood not before Jesus Christ, but in front of a cheering cloud of witnesses as given in Hebrews 12:1-3. This simply means, I have been assured in my spiritual understanding, that this wasn’t really death. It was a preview I was given for reasons the Lord has determined. But, I will, when God’s timing has come to fullness for my life, stand before my Lord and Savior. It will happen just as instantaneously as did my near-death trip to the fringes of glory. I am ready for that moment, because Jesus saved my soul with His work of redemption on the cross at Calvary nearly 2,000 years ago. When my heart beats that final time, I will, in the twinkling of an eye (see 1 Corinthians 15: 52), stand before Him, and will be with Him for all of eternity.

But, my heart has not stopped for that final time. When Christ calls all believers, living and dead, to Himself, I will, if still alive, stand instantaneously before Him just as I stood instantaneously before that cheering cloud of witnesses on Good Friday, April 22, 2011.

Being Rapture ready is being ready, period. It means you are prepared to meet the Lord at any moment–at all times. Every believer has the same promise–to be present with the Lord when life on earth is over.

“We are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight): We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).

Next week we will go in-depth, examining details about what it means to be Rapture ready.