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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking in JNS interview]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HeavenVision Unveiled

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

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

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

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

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

Believe It or Not

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HeavenVision–The Interpretation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jesus Provides Answer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HeavenVision Afterthoughts…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is it! This is the beginning of the great financial collapse that’s going to send the world into Tribulation—the last seven years leading to Christ’s return, the last three and a half of which will be the worst time in human history, according to Jesus Himself (Matthew 24:21).

This is the apparent belief of some who study Bible prophecy and completely dismiss any notion that the Bible teaches a pre-Trib Rapture that will keep believers in Jesus Christ out of that terrible time the Lord warned about. Those who adamantly proclaim there will be no pre-Trib Rapture, or that there will be a mid-Trib Rapture, imply that now is the beginning of the Tribulation. Or, they believe the world is at least entering the portal that will lead into that last seven years the book of Revelation covers by giving twenty-one specific judgments in a series of seven scrolls, seven trumpets, and seven bowls, or vials.

All of this dire assessment is, of course, based on the turmoil stirred by the tariffs threatened against America’s worldwide trading partners for not treating the US fairly. The stock market has been fluctuating wildly, with nations threatening retaliation, causing panic within the world of economy and finance. The dire analysis reverberates within the no-pre-Trib sphere, to be sure.

Two articles posted on Raptureready.com more or less frame this “we-are-now-entering-the-Tribulation-era” view that ignores the great mystery revealed through the Apostle Paul about the Rapture of the Church (all born-again believers in Christ for salvation).

Here are the prompts linking to the stories on Rapture Ready News on April 8, 2025. The stories are products of a writer who covers news from a biblically prophetic perspective, for the most part:

We Are Witnessing “Lehman-Style Margin Calls” in the Aftermath of the Biggest Stock Market Wipeout in U.S. History

We have never seen so much stock market wealth get wiped out in such a short period of time. Unfortunately, many major players on Wall Street that made a ton of money on the way up were not prepared for a rapid reversal of this magnitude. All of a sudden, hedge funds are being hit with absolutely enormous margin calls, and this threatens to create a “doom loop” which could potentially push stock prices a whole lot lower.

The second such prompt linking to the full story is the following:

This May Not Be What They Were Originally Anticipating, but a “Reset” of the Global Economy Is Definitely Here

Over the past few years there has been a tremendous amount of buzz about an imminent “reset” of the global economy. Well, what we are witnessing may not look like what they were anticipating, but a “reset” of the global economy is definitely here.

The article’s writer (who covers issues and events such as the world’s economy as it might pertain to Bible prophecy fulfillment, and who, for the most part, does so very well) always points to the Tribulation, never to the blessed hope of the Rapture. This troubles me, of course, because that consistent perspective, which never includes God’s promises of Rapture, diminishes our Lord’s truth about things to come.

Jesus said in no uncertain terms that at the time He next catastrophically intervenes into the affairs of wicked, rebellious humankind, there will be no worldwide economic disaster in progress. The Lord said business will be doing well, perhaps even booming. He said it will be exactly like it was in Lot’s day when that “righteous man” was removed to safety (Luke 17:28–30). God will call all believers out of a totally debauched society and culture like that of Lot’s day while building, planting, buying, and selling are taking place–indicating a strong commerce at that future time. He will take them to a place of rescue, just like He did Lot and his daughters, because Lot was seen as righteous in His holy eyes. All believers in Jesus Christ will be removed from this planet before all of the disastrous judgments of the Tribulation begin. That’s what we must take from Christ’s words in the “days of Lot” prophecy.

Get it? Economy will be business as usual when Christ calls us into the clouds of Glory. No matter what the wild world financial markets indicate—or what any other indicator flashes before the panicked eyes of the financial gurus—the economy will be business as usual.

While in the process of writing this article, the news came that despite the fact that the direst warnings of financial collapse imaginable were in every headline of significance, the Dow had gone up 2,500 points. This, due to President Trump putting a ninety-day pause on all tariffs he had previously said the US would impose. In addition, it was reported that the tariffs will likely be only 10 percent across the board (not the tremendously higher percentages) on all nations (more than one hundred at this time) that had not retaliated against America wanting a fair balance of trade with the nations of the world.

China, at the time of the report, would have a 125 percent tariff for engaging in war against the Trump tariff initiatives for fair and balanced trade. (It later went to 145 percent on China.)

This president—and I give him credit only because he is, unwittingly, being used as God’s human agency in keeping Heaven’s control on matters as the end of the age approaches—is a negotiator like no other. Trump, as I’ve often expressed in these commentaries, is, I am convicted, not a godly man, but God’s man for this late hour of the age.

It should be obvious to any serious student of world economic matters, and of America’s economy in particular, that there are forces that have done all within their power to bring the world into financial collapse in order to reshape—“reset”—things so their power base might control all things, especially all things of the fiscal order.

One of the most-respected Wall-Street types weighs in on all of this:

Mark Spitznagel, one of Wall Street’s most prominent skeptics, is sounding the alarm once again—insisting that the recent market volatility is not the long-awaited reckoning he has been predicting for years, but rather a harbinger of something far worse.

“This is a trap,” Spitznagel told MarketWatch, dismissing the latest downturn as a mere tremor before a true financial earthquake. “I expect an 80% crash when this is over. I just don’t think this is it.”…

Last week’s steep selloff, triggered in part by former President Donald Trump’s announcement of new tariffs, saw the S&P 500 suffer its sharpest two-day decline since the COVID crash in March 2020, falling more than 10%. Monday brought further volatility, with the Dow losing over 200 points and major indexes continuing to swing wildly. Yet Spitznagel remains unfazed.

“This isn’t Armageddon,” he continued. “That time will come as the bubble bursts.” (“Wall Street Bear Warns: The Real Crash Is Still Ahead,” America’s News Brief, WWWAmericasnewsbrief.com)

This secular financial wizard is correct, even though he most likely doesn’t understand Bible prophecy. The worst—by far—is yet to come during that time of Great Tribulation Jesus warned about. It will be the Rapture that bursts that bubble he mentions. Until then, there will be no great economic crash.

While I think on and write this commentary for posting April 14, there are powerful storms brewing to the west in Oklahoma. This time of year always brings angst about the tornadic thunderstorms that threaten during the springtime in the mid-South. This one is particularly threatening, the weather gurus are saying. Long-track tornadoes are possible, even likely, and the rain, they say, could be the likes of which we haven’t experienced in…maybe…fifty years or so.

By now, at the time you read this, of course, that threat is long gone, and we have likely faced similar weather fronts since.

Always, while the storms are forming and approaching, we pray for God’s protection—that His hand govern so people aren’t harmed.

There is building at this moment in our world a storm potentially far worse than a long-track tornado that destroys only what’s in a relatively narrow path. World War III is looming across the horizon, and it is from the east, rather than from the west, from whence the tornadic thunderstorms come.

The threats have been building and ongoing for months, and have come more intensely into focus within recent weeks and days.

The latest indication of the building storm of potential world war came directly from the nation-state possessing reportedly the largest stockpile of nuclear weaponry. The warning implicit within the threat again brings back thoughts of the same nation-state and its part in bringing the world to the brink of nuclear holocaust.

I’m talking about, of course, the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev threatened all-out war while America’s President John F. Kennedy opposed Khrushchev’s movement of nuclear weapons onto the island of Cuba ninety miles to our south.

As a twenty-year-old college student, I was quite worried as that geopolitical storm developed and grew to the point that it looked like the nukes would be unleashed at any moment.

There is a report I’ve read of a Soviet submarine at that crucial moment carrying atomic weapons whose commander came within a hair’s breadth of pushing the nuclear button. Three of the sub’s officers had to make the decision to launch, and one of the three didn’t believe there had been the hostile action reported against the Russian navy that warranted retaliation. He refused to agree to the launch, and World War III was avoided.

Although the world of military history doesn’t acknowledge the truth, it was, to us who were Christians and went through that time, God’s staying hand that controlled the decision of those submarines in that fateful instant. It continues to be our God’s omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience that, as Kennedy said in his inaugural address: “stays the hand of man’s final war.”

The following demonstrates that man continues down that deadly pathway toward the great Tribulation storm leading to World War III and devastation even worse than nuclear weapons can produce. Ironically, again the threat comes from within a Russian nuclear weapons-laden submarine.

On the cold steel of the Arkhangelsk, a nuclear submarine anchored in the machinery of modern warfare, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a message that bypassed diplomatic filters and landed directly on the fault lines of international tension. He spoke not with rhetoric, but with a calculated, measured threat—the kind that doesn’t need to shout to be heard.

“He forgot, it seems, that Russia has crews like yours and submarines like yours,” he said, staring out across a sea of uniformed sailors and flashing cameras. His words, directed at former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, were neither casual nor symbolic. They were a deliberate invocation of power, a reminder carved into steel and uranium that history has not been forgotten—and will not be forgiven.

This wasn’t a nostalgic reference to past conflicts. It was a direct line drawn in real time between an aborted peace agreement in 2022 and the quiet hum of nuclear submarines now fully armed and ready beneath the waves. The implications are staggering, and the silence in London should no longer be interpreted as strength, but as ignorance—or worse, as denial. (“BREAKING: Putin Sends Nuclear Warning from Submarine Deck—‘You Forgot about Our Submarines,’ He Tells Britain as Poseidon Looms off the Coast,” amg-news.com, American Media Group, Telegram, by Medeea Greere)

It is not just the Russian dictator who’s threatening to initiate World War III, but other building situations to our east. Here are a few examples taken from Raptureready.com News.

• The Iranians Load Missiles “Onto Launchers in All Underground Missile Cities” after Trump Threatens Them with “Bombing the Likes of Which They Have Never Seen Before.” Iran threatens to target US-British joint base in Indian Ocean. Trump warned that any future attacks from the Houthis, who have targeted US Naval vessels hundreds of times and wreaked havoc with global shipping channels, would be treated as a direct aggression from Iran itself. Iran has threatened to retaliate against the joint U.S.-U.K. naval base on Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago if the United States attacks the Islamic Republic,
• Kim Jong Un Unveils Large AI-Equipped Combat Drones. North Korea has unveiled a new batch of new AI-equipped suicide and reconnaissance drones which the country is showcasing as part of military modernization plans. State-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Thursday that leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the testing of “various kinds of reconnaissance and suicide drones.”
• China is practicing “dogfighting” in space, Space Force says. Chinese satellites have conducted coordinated maneuvers with “synchrony” and “control,” a top Space Force official revealed Tuesday, dubbing the moves “dogfighting in space.” The service is “starting to see our near-peers focusing on practicing dogfighting in space with satellite-on-satellite” operations, Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein said during the annual McAleese defense programs conference.

The Tribulation storm, outlined in the book of Revelation, is building. Our new book, Tracking Toward Tribulation: And the Any-Moment Intervention of Jesus Christ, is a volume I hope you will read. The subtitle tells the great truth within these times that threatens ominously at this moment. Jesus is about to intervene. God’s staying hand until that stunning moment of the Rapture is easily discernable to the believer who knows it is God’s merciful, staying hand that keeps us from that terrible hour of His wrath and judgment.

If you haven’t yet accepted God’s grace gift offer of salvation through belief in Jesus Christ to forgive and cleanse you of all sin, here is the message whose divine Instruction I prayerfully hope you will follow:

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

Members of the media today are as often as not a danger to truth. They are so in that 1) they deliberately lie about much to tailor their narratives so the public is deceived into accepting the media’s desired slant; and/or 2) they are so woefully inept and uneducated because of their lack of research accuracy that non-truth is far more prevalent than actual truth in conclusions reached and delivered for public consumption.

The Second Coming and Christian Reconstruction

Such a condemnation of the media is blatantly on display with the claim that former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, now in the process of being confirmed as the Trump administration’s ambassador to Israel, adheres to dominionism.

He is lumped in with those on the so-called Christian Right who claim Christian reconstructionism (CR) as the biblically prescribed way of governance.

The following is taken from a recent article we ran on Raptureready.com News. I wish we hadn’t done so—wish that I had read it before it was posted. 

Dominionism constitutes a radical departure from traditional Christianity, in which believers await Christ’s return for a millennial reign. CR teaches that the world must come under Biblical law before Christ will return. Along with its inherent bias towards unchecked capitalism and disregard for the needy, Christian Reconstructionism provides a philosophical underpinning for world domination by rich, Christian American males.

As George Grant wrote in The Changing of the Guard, Biblical Principles for Political Action: “Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ—to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness. But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice. It is dominion we are after. Not just influence. It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time. It is dominion we are after. World conquest.” (“Trump names a Dominionist as Ambassador to Israel. Here’s What that Means,” Janet Phelan, ZeroHedge, March 23, 2025)

This source of news we post is usually on the mark and holds to information that is from an unbiased to slightly right-leaning slant. Therefore, I believe this comes from the second condemnation I mention above. I believe this to a large extent is due to ignorance–information that hasn’t been researched and vetted. That’s probably why I didn’t check it. ZeroHedge is generally a source I trust, thus don’t feel the need to fact check. That, I now realize, can be a very serious omission, so will do better in that regard.

Here is what the writer says about Mike Huckabee that I find in error at best, and deliberately misleading at worst:

President Trump has named former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as the next Ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a Christian and a Dominionist. The Senate confirmation hearings will take place next week.

While pro-Palestinian media has been critical of Huckabee’s stance on settlements https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/12/trump-picks-pro-settlement-mike-huckabee-as-us-ambassador-to-israel and pro-Trump sources have been critical of the critics https://jewishbreakingnews.com/american-jewry-fractured-over-trumps-choice-for-israel-ambassador/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJMSlVleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHd3tzFULbZDT8aCe8mqk49j5BfjKK4VdkzibyvHqT9nG-SB-RzdsuGgToA_aem_secsh04VNNch9Qdp-_1rqQ , the fact remains that a core belief of Dominionism is that the Jews will need to die in order to enable the Second Coming.

In 2015, New Eastern Outlook published my article on Dominionism, which I have copied in its entirety here. I have only one question, which is how in the world could an individual with this set of beliefs possibly align those beliefs with the best and highest interests of a Jewish state. (Ibid.)

Ms. Phelan goes on to present her previously published article. She asks: “Have you ever wondered why the political arena in America has become so top heavy with Christian fundamentalists?”

She writes that as society continues to fray (things becoming less moral, etc.), the religionists came to the forefront. She then says the following:

A parallel movement of “back to fundamentals” began to emerge in all three Abrahamic religions. It is not only Islam that has birthed its own variety of fundamentalism. Orthodox synagogues are seeing a swelling of congregations, and a new strain of Christianity, which is both fiercely political as well as militant in its promotion of theocracy has emerged as a potent force on the American scene.

Christian Reconstructionism (CR) has been called “the American Taliban.” (Ibid.)

I need go no further in this brief space to lay out the egregious charge implicit within Ms. Phelan’s piece on Governor Huckabee and her view of the dangerous rise of so-called Christian Reconstructionism. Her calling Mr. Huckabee a dominionist represents a charge far from the truth regarding the Governor’s view of how God intends His representatives on earth to interact.

Mr. Huckabee is a Southern Baptist preacher who believed he should become involved in government. And, yes, he did so hoping to contribute godly influence when he became involved first as lieutenant governor, then as governor, of Arkansas. He also, of course, ran for president at one point.

Huckabee has been influential at every opportunity, drawing ire, in some cases, from even among some of the so-called RINOs (“Republicans in name only”) from within his own party. By championing causes that uphold true biblical, Christian principles, the enemies of the God of Heaven have emerged many times from the proverbial woodwork.

I know what Mr. Huckabee believes about government, because I come from the same biblically correct background. He does not believe, as Ms. Phelan charges, that all citizens should be made to conform to a Baptist or even a Christian view codified in constitutional law.

He certainly does not believe or agree with CR and the dominionists like Ms. Phelan writes. —That CR and the dominionists intend to make America and planet Earth good enough for Christ to return. He knows and declares that Jesus Christ, and He alone, can and will return to make this world ready for His thousand-year reign.

Mike Huckabee does believe with all that is within his Holy Spirit-directed mind that God has told all of humankind that He–God—will bless all who bless Israel and that He–God—will curse all that curse Israel (Genesis 12: 3).

We can be thankful that God has, for His own good reasons, put true Christians like Mike Huckabee in this government to surround this president. I haven’t a clue as to all of God’s great purpose in all of this. But I do know that it is to somehow bring all of Bible prophecy to fulfillment.

This means, I believe, that very soon the Rapture of all believers will occur. All Christian influence by believers–in whom the restraining Holy Spirit indwells—will be removed to the clouds of Glory, leaving a terrifying vacuum of Christian influence upon governing in America and every other nation of this judgment-bound world.

We–Mr. Huckabee and myself–along with every believer in Jesus Christ for salvation say with acclamation that Jesus Christ and His millennial reign on this planet is the dominion we desire in the deepest reaches of our souls—souls our Lord has secured for all eternity as the sacrificial Lamb that takes away the sins of the world.

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Most relevant of the political questions presently is: Why can’t the Democrat Party acknowledge that the majority of America’s voters–and by a large margin—have rejected their party’s governance?

That this is the most relevant question isn’t even considered by that party’s radical membership–the base that so obviously controls that party. As a matter of fact, that radical base, I think it’s reasonable to say by observing their antics, doesn’t have the individual or collective capability of figuring out their dilemma. –That of why America’s voting public has shown them the door as of last November’s presidential election.

Their irrational antics include screeching in resistance to and protest of anything Trump. They also include burning and/or defacing with swastikas Tesla vehicles they just weeks ago championed over polluting, gas-burning vehicles.

They scream against deporting illegal migrants who have raped and murdered throughout this country. They rant and rave over the new administration closing borders that formerly allowed such murderers, rapists, and child sex traffickers into our nation.

They support wholeheartedly the drive by Israel-Jew-hating jihadists who perpetrate genocide, determined to remove all such people from the “river to the sea.” They embrace every anti-God cause that degrades, debases, and debauches human beings and normality. They worship at the altar of Mother Earth with their climate-change insanity. They favor in every way possible the abuse of the most innocent, championing the insane changing of children’s gender through bodily mutilation and hormonal disrupters.

They have, as the radical base of that political party, contributed mightily to turning America’s subculture into a mirror image of ancient Sodom.

This fanatical base sees America not as a light on the hill for freedom and national sovereignty–an example for the world to emulate—but as a holdup to bringing all the world together as one, as John Lennon would have it. They embrace the globalist goals toward that end.

But the God of Heaven has, for His own reasons, stopped these anti-God of reprobate mind (Romans 1:28) sorts dead in their tracks. At least for the moment…

Psalm chapter 2 is in view, I believe, and it can’t be missed:

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. (Psalms 2:1–5)

God the Holy Spirit, resident within each believer in Christ, is restraining evil and wickedness during this time so near the end of the Church Age (Age of Grace; see 2 Thessalonians 2). And I believe we are witnessing, through Heaven’s action, God saying just how near we are to the moment He will have His Son, the Lord Jesus, call all believers into the clouds of Glory.

I believe God is—by plainly putting His Psalm 2 “derision” of anti-God forces on display—giving a heads-up on things to come in the very near future. These things include proof of the truth Paul the apostle was inspired to write:

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)

Now, understand that I in no way whatsoever believe the Democrat Party is the devil’s political party and the Republican Party is God’s. All political entities of this fallen world are sin-laden. Please know that this is all to say I believe God is displaying that Heaven is restraining against and has in derision the anti-God forces at this late prophetic hour through His dealing with this particular evil. I believe it’s evidence that He is on the very cusp of intervening into this Sodom-like world.

This leftist political entity that goes against all that is godly is in total derision. The fanatical adherents within its body are tearing apart the fabric of their political brand for all to see. That derision is from the very hand of God, in my view.

Again, I believe this is particularly important, because it could be a significant indicator of just how swiftly things are about to unfold from this point. Christ’s call to “Come up here!” could be very near indeed.

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

Second only to Israel now being at the heart of the desperate search for global peace, I’m convinced that Europe being suddenly thrust to the top of the end-times quest for that world peace is a profound development. And, just as profound, I believe, is that this man—who, against all odds, is opposed by all the powers of geopolitics, and is the object of two nearly successful assassination attempts—is the force behind bringing this generation to the time when God will bring His prophecy to fulfillment.

Donald J Trump is, I believe, the man who is, unwittingly, key to the process in this matter—the world being moved toward the time God’s Word plainly says will be history’s most terrible era.

By this, I don’t mean Mr. Trump is a pawn of Satan in setting up the world for the son of perdition (Antichrist) to step onto the platform of power. Rather, I believe this unusual man (and, like him or not, who can honestly deny that he is unlike any we’ve seen?) is being used by heavenly direction—again, unwittingly—to bring all the evil of this world to its conclusion.

We’ve watched him jump without hesitation into the world’s most dangerous conflict—the one involving Israel, the number-one Bible prophecy signal of this being the end of the age. His doing so is because of another top sign of this late prophetic hour: the desire to bring peace in a region where war threatens to break into global nuclear conflict. This peculiar peace, in fact, is at the center of what Bible prophecy says will indeed bring carnage to all of humankind at some point.

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) 

And now, Mr. Trump, the American president number 47, has jumped in with everything available to him into the second-most-dangerous situation involving the very real possibility of world war being ignited. We’ve watched with almost mesmerized attention the unprecedented lack of decorum when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tried to pull a fast one in the televised Oval Office visit.

The American president told Zelensky he was putting the world in danger of World War III by his effort to force America to guarantee troops on the ground in Ukraine to protect against Russian assault. This wasn’t part of the agreement already made before that meeting, and Zelensky was trying to make America look bad before the world through his subterfuge.

However, the confrontation, as entertaining as it was to some—me included—the greater takeaway is that the entire matter has Bible prophecy at its dark center, I have no doubt.

Here’s what I mean.

Zelensky was told to leave the White House in rather rude terms, but in terms well deserved. The Ukrainian president then returned to Europe, where he was received by the nations whose leaderships, though stunned by what had happened in the Oval Office, nonetheless embraced Zelensky, who was nursing wounds from his underestimation of Trump’s reaction.

Or was it underestimation? At the very least, it was, in total, governed by heavenly direction, in my opinion. Whatever it was, it has thrown fear into those who govern/rule Europe. It has put into fast-forward the movement toward establishing the prophesied military power for that area, which is destined to be the area out of which the world’s last and most despotic dictator will arise.

Here is a news item that somewhat enlightens, I think.

European nations are rapidly increasing defense spending in response to growing security concerns driven by the ongoing war in Ukraine and uncertainty over US commitments under Donald Trump’s presidency.

European leaders met in London on Sunday to advance plans for stronger defense cooperation, with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warning that Europe urgently needs to “rearm.”

“We need a massive surge in defense, without any question. We want lasting peace, but lasting peace can only be built on strength,” von der Leyen said on Monday. She added that she would inform EU member states on Tuesday about plans to strengthen European defense industry and military capabilities.

The talks, which brought together 18 allies, came just days after Trump publicly berated Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, accusing him of being “disrespectful” and ungrateful for US aid…

“We should have woken up earlier,” [French President Emmanuel] Macron said. “I’ve been saying for years that we need a more sovereign, more united, more independent Europe.”

The UK, Germany, and Denmark are also set to increase defence investments. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged last week to raise defense spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2027 – the largest increase since the Cold War. (“‘We should have woken up earlier’”: Europe races to rearm as old alliances falter, Explainer, Rapture Ready News, March 4, 2025)

As I wrote in a commentary of March 3, “Antichrist’s Power Base,” this president, I believe, could well be fulfilling, unknowingly, the end-times movement toward Europe’s development of a unified military power base. When the Rapture occurs, America will be in disarray perhaps more than any other nation due to Christian influence within government and the military no longer being here.

I believe the probability is strong that a greatly weakened, disunified US will have to join, at a future time, a powerfully unified European defense consortium. This coalition will then be in possession of America’s awesome nuclear arsenal, along with all of its technological war-making assets. This would certainly bring to fulfillment the prophecy, “Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:4).

As we watch, as commanded by the Lord Jesus, it’s these two developments we should observe most diligently: 1) Israel and America’s/Trump’s involvement in the “cry for peace and safety”; and 2) America’s/Trump’s involvement in forcing Europe, through fear, to create, ultimately, the most powerful military force ever.

Of course, what all this means is that believers—all born again into God’s family through belief in Christ—will at any moment be called into the clouds of Glory in the Rapture.

Here again is how to tell everyone you know how to go to Christ when He shouts, “Come up here!”

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

Some who make Bible prophecy their major study in writing and other ministry endeavors leave the Rapture of the Church out of their consideration. Or else they bring arguments meant to completely come against the pre-Trib Rapture in particular.

Some even are excellent writers and thinkers. These concentrate correctly on the darkening times, weaving into their messages current issues and events. They present such reports in speculating how those news items might be leading to the Tribulation, Daniel’s seventieth week.

However, if and when they mention the Rapture, they say that this event, prophesied by the Apostle Paul, will happen not before the Tribulation, but sometime during that last seven years leading up to the return of Christ at the time of Armageddon. There is, in their view, no Rapture prior to that terrible time. Christians, they believe and present uncompromisingly, will have to go through at least some portion of the Tribulation.

Some of these folks charge those of us who believe God’s Word holds forth the pre-Tribulation Rapture as guilty of causing Christians to not recognize Antichrist when he comes on the scene. Thus because we teach and preach that all believers will not be on earth when that man of sin becomes known.

It is a complete mystery how such otherwise biblically astute, Christ-centered, and quite talented, in some cases, believers can so misunderstand. It is most perplexing that they go against the Scripture as presented. God plainly presents the Rapture as occurring before God’s final wrath and judgment will fall.

They declare that God’s promise is to keep us “through,” not “out of,” the coming time of Tribulation, the worst of all times. But the word in Christ’s most profound promise in this regard is the Greek word ek, meaning “out of,” not “through.” We see this as follows.

The pre-Tribulation Rapture is built upon a body of scriptural references. But the most powerful proof that the Church—all believers in Christ of the Church Age or Age of Grace—will be kept out of the time of God’s wrath and judgment is given by the Ascended Lord Jesus Himself in one statement:

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)

The word “from” in the phrase “from the hour” is the Greek ek, meaning “out of,” as stated previously. Jesus will keep the Church out of those seven years of judgment and wrath soon to come.

Jesus, in His ascended position following His resurrection, gave John the message He wanted to be presented to the churches of the Age of Grace. The message gave Christ’s holy assessment of each of the seven churches John was to address.

In the above statement, Christ was commending believers of the Age of Grace for their faithful belief in His death, burial, and resurrection as payment for their sin.

Because of this unbreakable belief that seals their souls forever (Romans 8:38–39), Christ would keep them out of the terrible wrath and judgment that would befall all of the world’s unbelievers. This promise was a prelude to John being called into Heaven, symbolically foreshadowing the believers being kept out of the wrath and judgment.

Revelation, then, beginning with chapter 4, lays out in terms of seven scrolls, seven trumpets, and seven bowls or vials, twenty-one specific judgments through which God deals with the rebels of earth. This is the unfolding of the time, the latter part of which the Lord foretells will be the worst time of all human history (Matthew 24:21).

The purpose of this time of wrath and judgment, the overall picture Bible prophecy portrays, is to: 1) judge the world for sin and rebellion; and 2) bring out of that terrible era a remnant of Israel (Jewish believers). This remnant will comprise the head nation of the world during the millennial reign of Christ, which follows Christ’s return at Armageddon.

Now the reason for the title of this commentary.

The writers and other presenters who ignore any possibility of the pre-Tribulation Rapture of believers in Christ watch and report on the issues and events of this darkening age, but see no hope for believers escaping the seventieth week of Daniel—the coming seven years of Tribulation. If Christians are alive when that era begins, they will, according to the anti-pre-Rapture pontificators, go into that time along with all the lost (those who don’t know Christ for salvation) and who are alive at that time.

However, here again is what the Bible tells us:

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

What hope is there in “looking for” the worst time in all of human history? Our hope is in Jesus Christ and His promise to call us into His presence before the seven years of judgment and wrath begin, as, again, He told John to write to the Church.

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10) 

The anti-pre-Trib Rapture proponents do not discern the entire body of prophecy; else they wouldn’t miss the following:

And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke 21:34–36)

There is a sudden moment coming when all things on earth will change in a millisecond. It will come as a snare upon the world. Here is that moment from another Holy Spirit perspective:

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. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. (1 Thessalonians 5:1–6)

What is this moment of snare-like change upon earth? Paul explains in the verses immediately preceding the above. In the last verses of 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, he says this:

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 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: 15–18)

A profound question: What are the closing words of this Rapture promise? “Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

What comfort can be found if we are facing seven years of the most horrendous times in all of human history?

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!