I’m hearing it proclaimed in the strongest terms that God is judging California and punishing that area with the horrific fire because of the wickedness it embraces. I disagree. I say God is not yet judging, not in the sense that His judgment produces punishment from Heaven.

Indeed, the parts of California that are, as of this writing, being devoured by the fires—fanned by 100 mph winds, in some cases—are the center of wickedness the likes of which might make the people of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah blush.

One observer writes the following in that regard:

There is so much anger about the unprecedented fires that are ravaging the Los Angeles area, because there is a widespread belief that they could have been prevented.  Some are blaming mismanaged forests, some are blaming the extreme incompetence of our leaders, some are blaming “climate change”, and some are blaming budget cuts.  But could it be possible that the real reason why Los Angeles is burning is not related to any of those factors?

What is the one thing that sets Los Angeles apart from any other city in the world?

Needless to say, it is the entertainment industry…

Most people living in the western world consume entertainment that originates from Los Angeles almost every single day.

Most of us are literally opening up our minds and pouring in filth on a regular basis, and that has had absolutely devastating consequences.

Of course much of the filth that the entertainment industry produces openly mocks God and misuses His name.

Sadly, the entertainment industry was even mocking God at the Golden Globe awards just 48 hours before the fires hit.

So they mocked God on Sunday at the Golden Globes, couple days later their houses burn down…

The entire planet has been corrupted by the movies, television shows and music that come out of Los Angeles.  On top of all that, L.A. is the epicenter for the global pornography industry. (“Could There Be A Reason Why Los Angeles Is Burning That Nobody Really Wants To Talk About?” by Michael, End Of The American Dream, January 12, 2025)

President Trump said recently the area destroyed by the fires look as if they’ve been hit by a nuclear attack. It sure seems like the judgment of God is being visited on America’s Pompeii, doesn’t it?

No. I think not. I believe what we see happening—the fiery devastation ravaging one of America’s most desirable place to live in terms of environment—is actually an expression of God’s love.

Now, that seems almost as wrong in reasoning as the woke thinking that comes out of California, that state of upside-down, reprobate insanity!

Here I want to say that we are to have love and concern for the people who are suffering so desperately from these catastrophic fires. And they are catastrophic, with entire neighborhoods across a vast expanse having been completely burned to the ground. Let us reach out in compassion, knowing that, but by the grace of God, we could be in the same circumstances.

That said, I’m of the thinking proffered by my friend Tom Hughes, whose ministry is located in California.

He likened what’s going on there to the terminal health dilemma of someone he once witnessed to about the saving power of Jesus Christ.

The man had only days to live when he went to visit him, Tom said. The man wanted to know that if there was a God, why he was suffering such pain.

Tom lovingly and gently told the cancer patient that God had blessed him all his life with a successful life and wonderful family. Despite all the opportunities to accept Christ, the man had rejected God’s offer. The pain was given to call the man one more time. The pain was necessary as a strong measure because God knew the place the man was going without Christ was many times worse than the pain from cancer he was suffering. In other words, God was using the pain to call him to salvation one last time.

Tom’s words to this terminally ill man might sound harsh, but the Lord sometimes works His love and mercy even through the pain of life.

Thankfully, the man did accept Christ before passing into the Lord’s presence just several days later. (The following is the link to Tom’s recounting of this conversion experience: https://youtu.be/kDvItdgONFM?si=OEvKS0bITAoc0Oj7)

Tom Hughes said:

It’s the same thing I see going on right now in America. You see it in the heart of Hollywood. God is shouting to people, “Hey, you better turn to me.” The Bible tells us what’s coming during the Tribulation period.

Wow, folks. God is screaming to us. He has blessed this country with great things–with so many good things, and instead of turning to the Lord, they are turning from Him. And God is shouting to us, because He knows the pain is coming [when His true wrath must punish those who reject His Son.]

For anybody…if you don’t know the Lord, ask Him to forgive you. He will forgive anybody who will come to Him.

Amen! The fires are a merciful call to repentance–perhaps a last, loving call to accept God’s order, rather than the anti-God way of wokeness and rebellion.

What painful calls to repentance might we expect as the time of the Tribulation grows closer by the hour? Once Jesus calls all believers to Himself in the Rapture, the pain will grow infinitely worse as God’s wrath pours out on God-rejecting humankind.

You don’t want to be part of that wrath and of Antichrist’s unprecedented evil.

Here’s how to accept Christ and be kept from that worst time of human history AND from the eternal, truly horrific fire—the lake of fire—following the final punishment of lost humankind at the great white throne judgment.

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) 

While thinking on the inauguration of the 47th president of the United States on this 20th day of January 2025, I reflect on things more than a decade earlier.

I wrote in January of 2010 the following. Peace is more than the absence of war in which blood is shed while weapons destroy and death tallies their toll. Peace is contentment, with prospects for a future free of worry that conflict will disrupt tranquility. There is neither contentment nor tranquility upon this fallen sphere:

Conflict is everywhere one looks. Unsettling issues assault the eyes and ears—the senses—of the world community. Anxieties and perplexities inundate societies and cultures, nations, and continents. The voices of humanity cry “Peace! Peace!” when there is no peace. As much as I would like to bring tidings of great joy—having just celebrated the birth of Christ—I cannot do so from the perspective of what is going on here on earth. The year 2010 just ahead looks bleak for a world of inhabitants who, by and large, reject the only One who can bring peace. The rejection portends the ascent of evil that is prophetically scheduled to grow worse, according to the apostle Paul: “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).

That forecast certainly has proven accurate. But it is God’s prophetic Word, not this poor messenger’s predictive acumen, that made the 2010 prognostication an easy one. The times here at the beginning of 2025 have changed only in that the outlook for peace this darkening world seeks flees farther distant by the hour.

While seducers are on the scene in this generation at every level of human interaction, deadly conflict lurks just around the geopolitical corner in the region of planet earth foretold to be the host geographical area of man’s most horrific war. The prince of Persia foments rage against God’s chosen nation, inciting the likes of Iran’s Islamic leadership to create weapons that can destroy Israel, thus hoping to derail God’s prophetic plan to install the King of all kings upon the throne of David. Alliances form that make the wary student of Bible prophecy know that the prophet Ezekiel’s Gog-Magog coalition is coming together. One day the “evil thought” of Ezekiel 38:10 will come to a Russian leader’s mind. All hell will break loose in the most volatile region on earth.

Politicians in America and in other nations lie to their publics, promising resolution to civil and economic strife and perplexities that have no chance of improvement, based upon those leaderships’ self-serving motives and intentions. They seduce the publics they are supposed to serve, and instead rule with deluding words that flow from the mind of the great deceiver himself—the father of lies.

Religious leaders—even supposed Christian leaders—move their flocks in directions away from, not toward, the God of Heaven and His prescription for living a peaceful life on this ever-darkening planet. Indeed, the seducers of religiosity grow worse and worse, and the gospel light dims for America as it has been dimming for so long in Europe, out of which the American republic burst under God’s great providence.

Still, the self-delusion that man-made peace can prevail over this sin-blackened world persists. The cry for peace and safety is exponentially ratcheting up in the region prophesied to host the worst and final war of the age—Armageddon. That cry for peace and safety predicted to characterize the end of the age is front and center in today’s headlines.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to the 79th session of the UN General Assembly September 27, 2024, laid out the opposition to peace God’s chosen nation faces in this time so near the end of the age:

Mr. President, Ladies and gentlemen, I didn’t intend to come here this year. My country is at war, fighting for its life.

But after I heard the lies and slanders leveled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight. I decided to come here to speak for my people. To speak for my country, to speak for the truth. And here’s the truth: Israel seeks peace. Israel yearns for peace. Israel has made peace and will make peace again. Yet we face savage enemies who seek our annihilation, and we must defend ourselves against them.

These savage murderers, our enemies, seek not only to destroy us, but they seek to destroy our common civilization and return all of us to a dark age of tyranny and terror. When I spoke here last year, I said we face the same timeless choice that Moses put before the people of Israel thousands of years ago, as we were about to enter the Promised Land.

Moses told us that our actions would determine whether we bequeath to future generations a blessing or a curse.

And that is the choice we face today: the curse of Iran’s unremitting aggression or the blessing of a historic reconciliation between Arab and Jew.

But, that cry for peace isn’t working—not yet, anyway. One day the “prince that shall come” (Daniel 9:27) will confirm such a covenant of peace that will temporarily induce euphoria for a fearful world. But the present Israeli prime minister isn’t fooled into thinking such a covenant is at hand. His words haven’t changed since back in 2010. He said at that time: “There’s no more time for excuses. It is time for action.” Netanyahu also said that Israel’s most important challenge is Iran’s attempt to get nuclear weapons.

We have witnessed since that time now fifteen years ago not the trending toward peace between Israel and its enemies, but a severe ratcheting-up of terrorism and war-making. The Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, have thrown fuel on the fire of Middle Eastern volatility.

Iran continues to be at the center of all of it, with the new president of the United States, as of today, January 20, 2025, promising quick and devastating action against Iran’s nuclear threat, and against the Hamas perpetrators of the most heinous evil against the Jewish state since Hitler’s holocaust.

All of this gloom for this new year is depressing, you say. What a downer to begin 2025! The hope in all of this is glorious beyond imagination, however. It is the “blessed hope” of Titus 2:13 who remains in complete control. For the student of Bible prophecy, whose Lord is the King of kings, all of the foreboding for this world that is passing away means Christ’s return to make all things right on planet earth must be near indeed. The Prince of Peace is about to intervene dramatically into the disastrous affairs of humanity.

Margaret and I were leaving Highland Heights Baptist Church after a Sunday service sometime in the 1980s. As we turned to trek down the side of the church on the road leading to the parking lot, I heard the voice: “Terry! You and Margaret come here. I want to introduce you to Mike Huckabee.”

It was our pastor, Robert McDaniel, who was standing near the frontage road talking with Mike Huckabee, who had delivered the sermon that morning as a guest speaker.

“Mike is running for lieutenant governor,” the pastor said. “I wanted you to meet him and shake hands with him.”

We did so, and spent a few minutes in pleasantries, with my thanking him for his sermon.

Little did I imagine Mr. Huckabee would achieve the level of national and international prominence the Lord chose for him, of course.

He was, and remains, the personification of a Christian gentleman, according to all I have known from reports all these years. This, despite his being engaged in the rough-and-tumble (some would say “wicked”) business of political warfare in our state of Arkansas and in the nation.

There were many in the Christian community in those days when Mike ran for lieutenant governor and later for governor who either questioned a Baptist preacher becoming intertwined with the often nefarious art of politics, or who adamantly opposed such engagement by a Baptist preacher.

I, myself, remember asking why a Baptist preacher would want to become a part of the politicking in our state and nation.

My question has since been answered in my spirit. The Lord has had his hand on Mr. Huckabee–as well as on his daughter, Sarah, who was a youngster when Margaret and I shook hands with her father. She, of course, became President Trump’s press spokesperson and is now governor of Arkansas.

Mike, of course, ran for president, and he and the rest of the GOP field were defeated by one Donald J. Trump. Trump went on then to be elected president in defeating another who was once part of Arkansas government–Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton’s First Lady when he was governor here, and, later, when he was president of the United States.

The 2016 election was, as we recall, a complete surprise to many–especially to the Hillary Clinton presidential-aspiration camp. The shock of that victory continues to reverberate with wave after wave of political and cultural impact.

Point is that God’s mighty hand continues to be on display as He restrains evil, has that “wickedness in high places” in derision, and especially as He brings all into focus for the prophesied wind-up of this Church Age (Age of Grace).

To those who observe developments through the prism of Bible prophecy, no instance of God’s great hand of providential direction and control is more profound than the dynamics involving Israel taking place at present.

We’ve seen God moving powerfully since the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. Remember, for example, the strategic brilliance employed by the IDF in the exploding of communications devices, killing many enemy terrorists in the process. We who believe Israel’s God neither slumbers nor sleeps know this seeming miraculous action was orchestrated by Heaven, while the Supreme Maestro, Israel’s God, continues to direct the prophetic stage-setting.

That same Supreme Maestro has placed in the president-elect’s mind, I’m convinced, to appoint Mike Huckabee to be the next ambassador to God’s chosen nation. Here is a news brief framing that appointment.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be ambassador to Israel, has long rejected a Palestinian state in territory previously seized by Israel and has repeatedly signaled his staunch support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Huckabee, a former TV host and Baptist preacher, frequently visits Israel and once said he wanted to buy a holiday home there. He has maintained throughout the years that the West Bank belongs to Israel, and recently said “the title deed was given by God to Abraham and to his heirs.”

His argument for a so-called “one-state solution” contradicts longstanding official U.S. support for the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state.

He has described the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas as “horrific” and “beyond anything I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime” and argued that the U.S. needs to stand firmly behind Israel. (“Trump picks Mike Huckabee to serve as US ambassador to Israel,” AP News, Adriana Gomez Licon, November 13, 2024)

The most important thing about Trump choosing Mr. Huckabee is not that a Baptist preacher will be in the position to wholeheartedly bring America’s full support to God’s chosen nation. Even more profound is that he will have this president’s ear in such an influential way.

This message isn’t only for Mike Huckabee. I want to implore others as well who have Donald J. Trump’s ear. That is, I implore other godly men to advise without reservation as Mr. Trump performs the duties God has appointed him to carry out. That is a main reason they’ve been placed by the God of Heaven into the pathway of this unusual man who will soon again be the most powerful human leader on planet Earth.

God’s men who have this president’s ear, such as John Hagee and Robert Jeffress, have, like Mike Huckabee, a responsibility to inform the president, at every opportunity, about Heaven’s ultimate control over things at this prophetic hour. Your advice in that Holy Spirit sense, gentlemen, is far beyond the Senate’s “advice and consent authority” under America’s constitutional prerogative. Please do not shirk that great responsibility.

Vince Lombardi, the famous Green Bay Packer coach of the 1960s, known for his draconian training regimen in preparing his players, said: “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” He put his observation to practical use against his opponents by making sure it was the opponents, not his team members, who were fatigued by game’s end. Each Packer player was totally spent at the end of each practice session; he left all he had on the field of preparation. 

When strength was returned and fully pumped up on game day, there was more than enough to overpower those not as intensively conditioned. The result was a championship team that continues to be memorialized in sports lore all of these years later. There was no team that could match Lombardi’s Packers when the fatigue set in during the later stages of the games they played during the height of their power. There were teams that could match their natural athletic abilities, but none could match their endurance.

The game was won by the intensive time of preparation as much as it was won on the actual field of play.

The use of the above sports analogy is not far-fetched. Paul, the great champion for taking the gospel of Christ forth, used just such an analogy to describe his life, death, and glorious future in God’s kingdom:

“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:4-8).

Paul, it is obvious by studying his writings, was a sports fan. He used things like running a race, beating the air, finishing the course, and other terms that give us insight to the fact that he at least took interest in the society of his day. That society was one filled with sports activities, and that would have been a natural subject for the great teacher to interject as he presented the gospel and matters of Bible doctrine.

The games of the day included Olympics-type events. The races in particular turned on the cheers of fans of the day. Crowns of laurels (wreaths of leaves) were placed upon the victors’ heads by the judges.

Paul linked the races of his time to the bema (judgment seat of  Christ), at which children of God will receive  crowns of victory based upon how they ran the race in Christ’s cause during their lifetimes. The very nature of such a race indicates the necessity of enduring–persevering–through the long, sometimes uphill miles of living a life of righteousness.

Most often, Paul used such analogy to indicate, as in the verses above, the fact that the Christian should be willing to endure. In many places, he taught how to build endurance. That preparation most often was wrapped around prayer, Scripture study, and practical action–witnessing and teaching truth to others.

God’s Word telling us to endure is one area of Bible prophecy that has caused anxiety-ridden questions among some. It seems to those who question that the command to endure, according to the language used, is a requirement to assure salvation. One must “endure unto the end” to be saved–to win in the game of life, thus secure one’s place in Heaven for eternity.

Endurance is one of the things God requires of His children. As a matter of fact, He demands it. But, what does the term “endurance” used in the Scriptures, causing anxieties among some believers, mean, exactly?

A close examination of the key verses involved is necessary to understand the term “endurance” in God’s prophetic lexicon. One such reference is found in Paul’s words about a departure from Bible doctrine during the end of the Church Age:

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry” (2 Timothy 4:3-5).

Paul was prophesying a time–indeed, I am convinced we are in that time—when many within the very heart of the Christian church will move away from preaching and teaching that humankind is lost and needs the Savior, who is Jesus Christ, alone (John 14:6). This failure to endure the sound doctrine taught by Jesus, Paul, and the other apostles would, Paul indicated, be a fatigue that would make cowards of many, causing them and those they teach to turn to lies.

We see this very thing today. The gospel that humanity is lost in sin, thus must turn to the shed blood of Jesus Christ for remission of that deadly sin, has been changed to give the feel-good message that God is love and would never condemn those He knows to be less than perfect. The fable-makers teach and preach the do-good message that we must go along with the world of philanthropists who preach a social gospel to feed, clothe, and, in general, show the have-nots that humanism is their savior.

Much of the Church today thus has failed to “endure until the end.”

Jesus pronounced, in strong language, the role “endurance” will play in the days leading up to His second advent:

“And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:11-13).

Jesus even asks in one instance whether He will find any faith on earth when He returns. And, this is where the anxiety comes in for some. Is Jesus saying that those who do not hold to absolute Bible truth until the very end won’t be “saved”? Must we–and those of the tribulation era—never slip up and sin, thus departing from truth, or else suffer the eternal damnation of hellfire?

The answer is found within the character of the One who issued the solemn statement. Jesus, who said “It is finished” when He completed the redemption plan of God on the cross at Calvary, also said:

“My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:29).

Saints “endure” through Christ. We haven’t the ability to resist this fallen world apart from the strength found only in our Savior. The supernatural endurance required to “endure unto the end” is not in us, but in Jesus, who paid the full price for our eternal souls:

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

When we are “in” Christ, we will “endure,” because Christ “endures.” He is the same yesterday, today, and forever!

Now, this does not excuse the Christian from remaining faithful to God. In that sense, “endurance” is our responsibility. It is our responsibility to the very end–of our lives, or until the Rapture of Christ’s body, the Church. We are to strengthen ourselves for spiritual battle in order to not become fatigued through prayer, Bible study, and exercising our witness before our fellow man. We put on the whole armor of God as we are directed to do in Ephesians, chapter 6.

God equips us. He doesn’t demand such a hard thing without providing the ability–even the absolute guarantee–of that sort of “endurance” that takes His child “unto the end.”

Those who fail to exercise their witness, in whatever way God directs, become flabby, ineffective ambassadors in Christ’s royal service. There is always a heavy price to pay for such sloth. Not loss of salvation for those who are truly in Christ’s grip, but a loss of position within the kingdom of God.

Those who fail to endure in the center of God’s will will suffer loss of rewards when kneeling before their Savior at the judgment seat of Christ.

That is one primary reason we at Rapture Ready exhort Christians to join in our efforts in these closing days of the Age of Grace–the Church Age. There are many, many opportunities to labor, to “endure,” during these trying times that are presented by this dynamic website effort to reach the lost world for Christ.

Many are writing articles, many are writing encouraging emails, and some are giving in other ways to God’s work on raptureready.com.

One area we very much need help is in finances. Donations have dwindled, yet the ministry-associated needs of Christ in these closing days of the age have never been more pronounced. Enduring to the end also means supporting Christ-centered ministries with our financial offerings. If hundreds of millions of dollars can be contributed to so-called  secular causes–many of which  are of little help to hurting humanity–why don’t those who hold to Bible truth support faithful ministries with greatly abundant offerings?

Jesus said: ”For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). Again, Christ’s Great Commission that we as Christians must deliver to the end has at its center the following message to those who need Jesus to be saved from the sin that otherwise will separate them from the Heavenly Father forever.

“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). 

It has been said, and proven, that life often imitates art. Seems to me this might have been the case, at least to an extent, in the matter of the mysterious drone invasion, if that is the proper term for the sightings that have so held the attention in recent days–and particularly, the attention of so many during the nights…

I heard mention Lakehurst, New Jersey in conjunction with some of the most prolific sightings of the drones that suddenly began appearing in the New Jersey-New York area a week or two ago.

A real-life horror story took place in that very place in 1937, when the German dirigible, the Hindenburg, was ignited when contacting its mooring tower and collapsed in a fiery crash, killing some and injuring many more. Then, a year later, much of the nation became panicked when H. G. Wells’ novel was adapted as a radio program and narrated by Orson Welles. Again it was New Jersey that Wells placed the fictional invasion of invading forces from Mars.

The October 30, 1938, Halloween radio play was broadcast on CBS as a series of realistic-sounding news bulletins that reported the fictional invasion. Only the public didn’t understand it as fiction. The public quickly became panicked, thinking Martians were about to take over. 

Since that time, programming has been governed to prevent a repeat of such fearful confusion.

Reports about the strange drones didn’t quite reach the level of panic that War of the Worlds set off, but the fear in some cases was considerable and remains somewhat concerning.

[New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy] urged Congress to give states more authority to deal with the drones.

Meanwhile, the FBI and New Jersey state police warned against pointing lasers at suspected drones, because aircraft pilots are being hit in the eyes more often. Authorities also said they are concerned people might fire weapons at manned aircraft that they have mistaken for drones.

But do the drones pose a threat?

The growing anxiety among some residents is not lost on the Biden administration, which has faced criticism from Trump for not dealing with the matter more aggressively.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said Monday that the federal government has yet to identify any public safety or national security risks.

“There are more than 1 million drones that are lawfully registered with the Federal Aviation Administration here in the United States,” Kirby said. “And there are thousands of commercial, hobbyist and law enforcement drones that are lawfully in the sky on any given day. That is the ecosystem that we are dealing with.”

The federal government has deployed personnel and advanced technology to investigate the reports in New Jersey and other states, and is evaluating each tip reported by citizens, he said.

About 100 of the more than 5,000 drone sightings reported to the FBI in recent weeks were deemed credible enough to warrant more investigation, according to a joint statement by the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense.

Speculation has raged online, with some expressing concerns that the drones could be part of a nefarious plot by foreign agents or clandestine operations by the U.S. government.

Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said it’s unlikely the drones are engaged in intelligence gathering, given how loud and bright they are. And he repeated Tuesday that the drones being reported are not being operated by the Department of Defense. (“Mystery drones in New Jersey and the US: What we do and don’t know about the sightings,” AP News)

I will only say in my own speculative way that something strange is going on–and I mean strange in the fact that such a sophisticated government as ours is acting like Ned in the Third Reader in explaining or dealing with the situation.

They are treating us like members of Ned’s third-grade class, as a matter of fact.

Some believe the drones to have demonic dimension to their activity. I agree, but here’s how…

Most everything going on at this late prophetic hour, I’m convinced, has an element of demonic influence at its dark center. For example, it is possible that the minions, both human and demonic, within deep-state high places are likely trying different tactics to diffuse the incoming presidential administration’s intention to change things from the nefarious ways that cabal has been operating.

Also, the stage-setting for the coming Antichrist regime continues, as the Lord allows. Lucifer the fallen one, I’m convinced, knows the Rapture is very near. Like us, he doesn’t know when, but he, of all of God’s created beings, knows God cannot lie. Satan knows that DISAPPEARING event is about to occur.

Perhaps, just perhaps, all of the strangeness the New Jersey folks and others are seeing in the night skies is a foreshadowing–preparing for the fulfillment of the terrors that await those left behind in the wake of the Rapture of Christ’s Bride into Heaven.

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. (Luke 21: 25-26)

You don’t want to be here when such terrors from the skies are assaulting left behind humanity. Here once again is how to go to the safety of the Lord Jesus when He calls believers to Himself in the Rapture.

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)

To my way of thinking, the next events of end-times importance outlined in God’s Word are front and center at this very moment. Two things are about to be fulfilled that Bible prophecy specifically details for those who “watch,” as commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ.

The first on the cusp of fulfillment is encapsulated within a book my friend Pete Garcia and I wrote a few years ago: The DISAPPEARING: Future Events That Will Rock the World is described by the following pulled from its back cover.

Each hour brings troubling headlines from the many news sources now available. Every report seems more intrusive upon our daily lives than the previous, and all accounts appear to be setting the end-time stage for soon fulfillment of God’s prophetic Word…

A dramatic presentation of the Rapture…

Vivid depiction of unfolding events immediately following the Rapture and beyond—through planet earth’s judgment and its ultimate restoration…

My presentation titled, “Rapture Ready,” delivered at the Prophecy Watchers’ conference at Branson, Missouri, on December 7, was meant to cover the reasons believers should be ready for that great event–and why.

That session was devoted to the proposition–the exciting and, yes, the comforting certainty—that all the signals around us today indicate all is in “Rapture readiness.” We who are believers and in God’s eternal family should be “Rapture ready.”

Using Power Point, I tried to make clear what it means to be ready for the Rapture by presenting the following:

• First, being Rapture ready means we who have accepted Jesus Christ are automatically, by default, Rapture ready through salvation—for redemption from sin. Our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We will all, without exception, go to Christ when He calls!
• Second, being Rapture ready means we are watching for signals by understanding the times we live in as we anticipate Jesus coming for us. We are expecting the any-moment call of Christ into the clouds of Glory. The Rapture is a salvation issue. We are redeemed by the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Believers have a commission to “watch” (as recorded in Mark 13:37). So we know the Holy Spirit will give us a heads-up on the nearness of the end of the age. Those signals are everywhere at present.
• Third, again, we are to be living lives that are righteous in God’s holy eyes as we anticipate Christ’s call. This, too, is being Rapture ready.

Based on all we sense in our spirits–that something profound is about to happen—I am convinced the disappearing is now at the very prophetic moment Paul the apostle foretold:

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 5:2–6)

As we now watch soberly, with great anticipation of Christ’s call, the signals we are commanded to look for by Jesus are profound.

There is a growing cry for peace in various places where wars and rumors of war are threatening nuclear holocaust. And now the one city on earth–the longest-inhabited in human history, according to historians—is front and center in an unmistakable signal of the lateness of the prophetic hour.

The second matter covered under our article’s title, Damascus, Syria, as we all know from news accounts that proliferate daily with reports of tremendous turmoil in that ancient city, is a powder keg unlike no other possible ignition point for nuclear war outbreak. This city is known to be the headquarters for most every Islamic terrorist organization, to one degree or another.

Russia, in effect, having been evicted from influence by Assad’s removal, means tensions will ratchet up in days to come, with Russia’s Putin suffering yet another embarrassment under the scrutiny of the Russian government underlings hungry for power. His position becomes more and more tenuous.

The great prophet Isaiah’s words seem on the verge of fulfillment:

The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. (Isaiah 17: 1)

A recent statement issued by terrorists who are now taking over that ancient city makes understandable why it is destined to be obliterated, never to rise again. Again, most every terrorist organization headquarters is there, and now they have seized almost total power. Their statement shows why God will allow the destruction that is so complete, I believe: “This is the land of Islam, this is Damascus, the Muslim stronghold. From here to Jerusalem. We’re coming for Jerusalem” (Israel 365 News).

The forcible abdication of Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad and the powerful geopolitical turbulence created in its wake should alert every believer to just how near we are to the instant of disappearing. The Apostle Paul fervently told the generation of his day–and we who are now seeing all these things begin to come to pass—about that disappearance, the great rescue Jesus commanded us to look for when His coming for us is at the very door of eternity (Luke 21:28).

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

Author’s note: In preparing for speaking on the topic RAPTURE READY! at the Branson conference a couple of weeks ago, I looked through my files of articles I’ve written over the years. This one is most appropriate. I share it again here.

We have looked a number of times in this column at those who mock the end-times message and the Rapture in particular. Because those who scoff have been of the abrasive, unbelieving variety for the most part, there is a standard Bible verse reply I’ve usually employed in response.

The scriptural reply has most often been intended to let those mocking know that they are, in actuality, fulfilling Bible prophecy.

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (2 Peter 3:3-4)

As of late, however, such a reply doesn’t quite fit that which should compose an appropriate response. That is because the questions are coming weekly from genuine believers in the Pre-Trib Rapture of the Church. These Christians are worried–some very worried.

These look around them and on every side they see and feel the satanic pressures from this fallen sphere closing in. Issues and events –the very ambience in which they find their lives engulfed–generate thoughts that their circumstance is beginning to look much like the Bible’s description of the Tribulation itself.

To illustrate the growing angst, I’ve chosen the email of one such Christian brother who wrote this past week. His words pretty much get right to the point of the many other emails expressing like emotion. Here it is in its entirety:

Why is the Lord delaying the rapture? It should have happened years ago. We would be in the millennium now enjoying true peace and prosperity without the suffering. I don’t get it. It’s God call of course but 58 million aborted babies in the US since 1973, Christians tortured and murdered worldwide, people who believe in Jesus longing for his return suffering immensely. I don’t get it where is our Lord and Savior?

The emailer didn’t use any soft nuances of greetings or any other niceties. He just laid his spirit-distressed emotions right out there.

You don’t answer such gut-wrenching concern with the apostle Peter’s prophecy as given above. This child of God is worried. He is puzzled; he is perplexed. It’s the kind of questioning I’ve heard in my own kid’s anxieties when they were young and felt disappointed for one of my failures or the other to keep a promise. “Dad should never let me down like that” is the tone.

Only, this perceived unkept promise isn’t from an imperfect, human father. I say “perceived unkept promise” because the promise isn’t unbroken whatsoever. The error is in the question of the imperfect child asking it. His Perfect Father will, as always, be one hundred percent faithful to keep every promise made.

The Lord Jesus, Himself, in His ascended position, said the following to John the Revelator:

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)

Jesus said it, and that means the Heavenly Father said it–promised it! Jesus said that He and the Father are One. They are inseparable–one and the same–the first and second Persons of the Godhead–the Trinity.

God cannot lie, the Scripture tells us. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. God keeps His promises. So, this brother in Christ, like all the other believers who look to the “blessed hope” of Titus 2: 13, who are in fear and worry while watching this fallen world closing in, need an answer from the Word of God.

The Heavenly Father gave the answer to Peter to pass along to us, just a bit farther on in Scripture. The answer to why the Rapture hasn’t occurred as soon as almost all of us wish it would occur is, at least in part, wrapped up in the following:

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

The Tribulation that will follow this Age of Grace will be filled with horrors that even John, under divine inspiration, had trouble describing. The Lord wants to provide every moment possible during this present dispensation for those lost in their sin to come safely into the shelter who is His beloved Son Jesus Christ. God wants this for the lost, because, following the Rapture, making the decision to accept Christ for salvation will be more difficult by a multiple of factors. Facing beheading is but one of those factors!

That is the reason–or at least a primary reason–the Rapture hasn’t yet occurred in this generation, according to God’s Word.

That said, I must take notable exception with the emailer’s contention that God is “delaying” the Rapture. You can take this to the bank–well, to the banks the way they used to be–God is not delaying the Rapture. It will happen precisely in the twinkling of the eye at the moment the Father has determined.

Jesus said: But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. (Matthew 24:36)

God knows exactly the instant He will send His Son to get His Bride, make no mistake. There is no delay.

On that note, issues and events closing in on us show that we are almost certainly very near that exhilarating moment of instantaneously finding ourselves face to face with the Lord Jesus. Just how near we are to the Rapture–if we could indeed know–would likely allay all fears.

We want all people to come to the Lord Jesus for Salvation, thus to be Rapture Ready when He Calls believers to Himself.

Let’s tell everyone with whom we contact how to leave this Judgment-bound earth and to be with Jesus and the safety of Heaven. Here again is that message.

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)

Rather than slowing prophetic progression, the election of Donald Trump to be the 47th president of the United States seemingly continues to speed things up. (That’s although we know God’s timing is perfect and He doesn’t speed up or slow things down. He knows precisely when each prophetic event will take place).

My thinking involves the fact that movement toward war on a global scale, emerging out of profound rumors of war, seem to be on the fast track now that Trump is president-elect. The Biden administration, under the ominous guiding hand of the deep state (the globalists elite), has slapped Russian President Vladimir Putin with the militaristic glove of insult. The US military complex now will give Ukraine advanced missile weaponry that can reach deep into Russian territory with greater firepower and precision.

This is being done following Putin’s declaration that such direct intervention by the US will likely bring a nuclear retaliation—at a minimum, that of a tactical sort. In fact, the Russians did release, in an unprecedented action, an experimental mid-range missile in a precision strike into Ukraine. The missile, which travels at a rate ten times the speed of sound, had no nuclear warhead. But Putin intimated in a speech following the attack that the next such superweapon launched might be nuclear-tipped.

It is conjectured, and I’m convinced, that this militant move by the military/industrial complex of which Eisenhower warned is intended to somehow hamstring Donald Trump’s presidency–perhaps even prevent him from taking office next January.

Whatsoever the case, Jesus’ words come to the forefront of current events.

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)

I point you to the last of Jesus’ words here: “the end is not yet.” Jesus has this totally in control. There will be no all-out nuclear war this side of His taking God’s family of Church Age believers into the clouds of Glory!

So, as referenced above, the Trump election seems to have speeded up prophetic progression. Jesus’ words seem to be today’s prophetic headlines. The prophetic progression continues as part of this spectacular comeback of Donald J. Trump as president. We remember that Trump was in the middle of some prophetically important diplomatic movement when he was shortly thereafter defeated for a second term in what I continue to believe was a stolen election.

His involvement with God’s chosen nation, Israel, was, to those who observe Bible prophecy as absolute truth, action as from the hand of God. (Not meaning that Trump is godly, but that God used him to accomplish His holy will.)

President Trump announced the movement of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a matter that had been declared pending by previous presidents. A Jerusalem Post report explains.

SEOUL—President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the US recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and would move its embassy there, upending decades of a diplomatic consensus over the status of the city pioneered by his predecessors.

Citing a 1995 law, the Jerusalem Embassy Act, compelling the president to make the move absent national security risks, Trump said the time had come to recognize what everyone already knows to be true. “Jerusalem is the capital the Jewish people established in ancient times,” he said. “Today Jerusalem is the seat of Israel’s government.” (“Trump announces US moving embassy to Jerusalem, US president told regional leaders he intended to declare the city the capital of the Jewish State,” By Michael Wilner, Jerusalem Post, December 6, 2017)

The United States Embassy was indeed moved to Jerusalem on May 14, 2018, despite major angst of world diplomats and fierce threats from Israel’s blood-vowed enemies.

In keeping with that obvious use of this less-than-godly individual to move prophetic progression along at what looks to be an increasing pace, we now consider the words of one of the new administration’s presidential cabinet picks.

Donald Trump’s choice as the next United States defense secretary has called for the building of a third Jewish temple on the site of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Speaking at an event in Jerusalem in 2018 he said there was “no reason why the miracle of re-establishing the temple on the Temple Mount isn’t possible”, using the Israeli name for the raised plateau in occupied East Jerusalem where Al-Aqsa Mosque stands. “I don’t know how it would happen, you don’t know how it would happen, but I know that it could happen. (“Next US defense secretary Pete Hegseth called for new Jewish temple at Al-Aqsa,” Middle East Eye, November 16, 2024)

While Mr. Trump, who has appointed a Baptist preacher and former governor, Mike Huckabee, to be US ambassador to Israel, observably supports the Jewish state, background issues in the former president’s dealing with Israel are less than perfect.

Trump, so far as I know, continues to support the idea of a two-state solution to the Mideast trouble. This perhaps is forewarned of in Joel 3:2.

His advocating that Israel have the third temple is also an issue to consider. This will not be a temple approved of by the God of Heaven. God has announced it will be built, but it will be a temple of false worship (Judaism is a false worship system). It will be where the Antichrist will declare himself to be God.

This all means that things are aligning exactly as we have been told in God’s Word. The next great event on God’s prophetic timeline is not Israel’s capital being divided or the Jews having the third temple. The very next great event is the Rapture of the Church–the taking of all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation into Heaven.

God will then again begin dealing with His chosen people and nation as before His crucifixion. This will be the Tribulation, which Jesus said will be the worst time of all human history.

Here again is how to go to Jesus when He calls and not go through that terrible era ruled for a time by Antichrist.

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)

Once again, I want to address the belief expressed by a number of those who watch in anticipation of the Rapture of the Church. I’m referring to those who assert that now it looks like that glorious event will occur later than expected. Things now look not so Tribulation-like in the wake of the election of Donald Trump. It is now back to business as usual, with prospects much brighter. “It will have to get much darker again before Christ will call the Church out of this doomed planet of God-rejecting rebels” represents the thought of many.

The prophecy by Jesus frames how the times must be when He calls the Church in the Rapture. I’ve written about this prophecy many times. I believe this prophecy is exactly where the world is on God’s prophetic timeline. I believe it is the most relevant prophecy for this moment in regard to expecting the Rapture. Here, again, are Jesus’ words:

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 17:28–30)

My series of articles I titled “Scanning a Fearful Future” had this prophecy at its center. I therefore did have some reflective/introspective moments when I observed the economies of America and the world growing extremely tenuous under the Biden regime. With inflation, the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, and an invasion of illegal aliens this administration was increasingly funding with US taxpayer money, I was reflecting on whether my thoughts about this prophecy might be in error. It didn’t look like it was the “business as usual” environment I thought necessary to meet Jesus’ words recorded in Luke 17:28–30.

Here is a snippet of what I wrote in the series–written at the end of 2010 and beginning of 2011.

Yet Jesus tells us that it will be business as usual right up until the moment He removes believers from the planet. There is no man-made, worldwide catastrophe in Christ’s prophecy. As a matter of fact, Jesus says all will be relatively normal, in terms of human activity, until that removal. Then He will be revealed by way of His cataclysmic judgment that begins to devastate planet earth. It is God who causes the cataclysm, not George Soros or any other human or other entity.

I went on to say in the series that business as usual, like in the days of Lot in Sodom, meant that business would be more or less booming, not on a downward trajectory like during these last four years.

So, unlike those who look for the Rapture in a darkening economic environment as the most likely time for Christ to call in the Rapture, I see the opposite. Jesus says business will be as usual. And business in Sodom in Lot’s time was apparently booming, even though the culture and society beneath the surface of activity there was as wicked and evil as our own subculture has become within the last number of years.

And unlike those who think the Rapture must be farther off than before because of Mr. Trump’s election, my thinking is opposite. I believe it is Back to business as usual… There will be no collapse into economic dystopia that will be in effect at the moment of Rapture.

Since Trump’s landslide election, the business world, even as reported in Trump-hating European media, is looking for business to boom. The American stock market recorded a record high immediately following election results.

Here is one such report.

LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Global investors changed their expectations on the global economy in the wake of Donald Trump’s election win, and now see higher growth than they did before, as well as higher inflation, according to Bank of America’s monthly fund manager survey.

As a result, investors have increased their allocations to U.S. stocks and to U.S. small caps, which are more domestically focused and so potentially likely to benefit particularly from a stronger U.S. economy.

BofA polled 179 participants with $503 billion assets under management. Of those, 22% responded after the U.S. election, won by Republican former president Trump.

A net 23% of those polled after the result said they expected the global economy would get stronger in the next 12 months, the most optimistic since August 2021.

This is a turnaround from October’s survey, which had shown more respondents thought the economy would be weaker in 12 months’ time…

Investors upped their allocations to U.S. stocks. A net 29% are overweight U.S. equities, the highest since August 2013, the survey showed. (“Investors expect more growth and inflation after Trump win, BofA survey shows,” Reuters, November 13, 2024)

All of America’s most knowledgeable folks in the world of finance and business are optimistic about the coming Trump presidency. He is a businessman of first order. It is provable that he had the nation going in a positive direction that verged on a boom when, in my view, the election was stolen in 2020.

My desire is to exhort pre-Trib Rapture believers to not be part of the think not generation. We are certainly in times like the days of Lot as recorded in Genesis chapter 19. At the same time, there appears on the immediate horizon every signal Jesus gave as what to look for when the time of His Return nears.

Let us therefore do as our Lord instructs through that conversation He had with the disciples who were at His side that day on the Mount of Olives:

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)