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Psyching Out Israel’s Enemies
To “psych out” means to insinuate a sense of intimidation into the psyche or cognitive process. At least that term encompasses the achieved ramification, to my way of intended meaning.
Perhaps you might think of better examples, but here are a couple.
Bobby Fisher, an undefeated chess champion in the early 1970s, was a reclusive, thus unknown, player who many say “psyched out” his Russian-Soviet opponent, Boris Spassky, in their July 1972 world championship match. Fisher was a strange, eccentric man holding anti-Semitic views. His brooding reclusiveness and odd ways apparently had a tendency to intimidate opponents who had to face him in their matches.
Another, more familiar, case of “psyching out” opponents might be when Goliath, the giant warrior, intimidated the Israelites—that is, until he came up against young David, Israel’s future king.
And this brings us to thinking about recent cases of Israel’s enemies who seek to destroy the Jewish nation and eradicate the chosen people of God.
We’ve witnessed God dealing with Israel’s enemies within the past few weeks in ways almost as dramatic as when He dealt with them in Israel’s ancient past.
And I’ve mentioned recently Israel’s defense force bringing Iran’s nuclear-weapons program to a standstill by introducing a computer worm called Stuxnet into the technology used to run Iran’s centrifuges.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently said Iran never will be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. Implied within that statement is the threat of using whatever military or other means necessary to keep the Israel-hating Iranian regime from developing nuclear bombs.
This threat, and Iran’s insistence on using proxies to harass and attack the Jewish state and its people through actions such as on October 7, 2023, has the diplomats of the world in a near panic.
To this point, the all-out war that might be necessary to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons hasn’t happened. Israel has, it seems, been able to thwart Iran’s destructive intentions.
As stated above, we saw this with Stuxnet some years ago, and we continue to see Israel’s almost-magical thwarting of the genocidal aspirations of Iran and its proxies. The remarkable feat of causing the Hezbollah pagers and other communications devices to explode almost simultaneously, killing many terrorists and wounding many others, has put, it seems, an even more virulent “worm” than Stuxnet into the nefarious minds of the devilish Israel haters.
The following excerpt demonstrates the effects of this mind virus. If not such a serious matter of keeping Israel from the dastardly plans of the likes of Iran’s regime leaders, it would be hilarious to consider the paranoid reaction Israel’s “magical” doings have inflicted on those devoted to the destruction of the Jewish state and people.
As Israel continues to demonstrate impressive intelligence capabilities by eliminating much of the leadership of the Hezbollah terrorist organization, some of its enemies are reportedly attributing supernatural powers to the Jewish State.
Iranian opposition news site Iran International published a recording from a televised interview given by an Iranian cleric close to the Ayatollah’s regime accusing the Jewish people of trapping and employing jinn, or genies, for three thousand years, as well as using science fiction technology.
Iranian Shia seminary teacher Mostafa Karami claimed, “Considering the Zionists’ history of subjugating genies, they carry out many of their missions through this means, and demons are their secret army.”
“They [the Jews] have had access to genies and cosmic science since the time of David and Solomon,” he added. “Historically, they have always used genies, their documents and traditions proved that. They have used genies and demons for warfare and intelligence operations throughout history.”
Karami detailed his magical conspiracy theory in response to the elimination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah last week. (Arutz Sheva, “Iranian Cleric: ‘Jews have had access to genies since Davidic time’,” Israel National News)
It’s amusing that this Islamic cleric fanatic believes in Israeli magic. He isn’t far from wrong, in that it is supernatural in its reality, rather than the nonexistent “magic” to which he attributes Israel’s ability to perform things that seem miraculous.
In fact, the feats are miraculous. The God who calls this strange miracle nation His “chosen people” has imbued Abraham’s seed with His own power at points in history of His own choosing.
So the Islamic Jew-haters have had their evil minds invaded by the “magic” worm, as the cleric has complained. They’ve been “psyched out” by the God of Israel, about whom the Holy Scripture says: “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4).
All of this involving hatred of Israel and the Jewish people at this moment means Jesus is about to intervene against the evil ramping up in the Middle East as well as in the rest of the world.
That intervention will be the Rapture of all believers into Christ’s presence in the clouds of Glory.
You don’t want to be left behind when that any-moment call to believers is made. Here, once again, is how to go to the Lord and to Heaven when that call issues forth, as Jesus told about in John 14:1–3.
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)
God’s Word Trumps Trump
It appears we are, in a sense, at the end of the cosmic end game. If compared to cards, the winning hand is about to be revealed. And the outcome is not a gamble in any sense.
The One who holds that winning hand cannot lose. He knows every card held by every opponent, and they are all losers. This is because they choose to not accept the hand originally given them, but rather continue determined to play by rules contrary to the One who deals only in truth.
Truth is all that matters in this game, and when deliberately denying the truth, either on purpose or in ignorance, the player suffers loss to one degree or another.
And now I get to the point of this metaphor. I will aim it at the presidential candidate I support in the upcoming presidential election. It is not a gentle comparison I make, because I want Mr. Trump to realize that when it comes to God’s Word, we are not in the hallway of our junior high years. It is a deadly serious matter to deny the truth—and God’s Word is the only truth there is.
In this eternal high-stakes end game, your word, Mr. President, is trumped by the inerrant Word of the one who holds the hand that cannot be overridden.
Your declaration recently is a most egregious misunderstanding of earthly geopolitics from God’s inerrant view.
In his characteristically outspoken manner, Trump has been critical of Jews who support his opponent. At a speech addressing antisemitism Thursday night in Washington D.C., he warned that if Harris enters the White House as president, Israel would be “eradicated.”
“If I don’t win this election, Israel in my opinion will cease to exist within two years, and I believe I’m 100% right,” Trump said. “If I do win, Israel will be safe and secured.”…
Dr. Miriam Adelson, the widow of late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, [Who leads the way in a large Jews-for-Trump group] spoke in favor of the candidate, saying that Jews have a “sacred duty” to vote for Trump, “in gratitude for everything he has done and trust in everything he will yet do.”…
She has written that Trump “should enjoy sweeping support” among U.S. Jews and Israelis and that Trump deserves a “Book of Trump” in the Bible due to his support for Israel…
She did, however, chide Trump after the event. While noting that his claims had some merit, she added, “Our people have one more secret.”
Adelson quoted from the Passover Haggadah to explain what that secret is, “And this [promise] is what has stood by our ancestors and us; for it was not only one man who rose up to destroy us: in every single generation people rise up to destroy us—but the Holy One, Blessed Be He, saves us from their hands.” (“Trump warns President Harris would “eradicate” Israel but Megadonor corrects him: ‘Jews have a secret’”—Israel365 News)
Donald Trump as president did much to support Israel. He has taken strong and definitive stands against anti-Semitism. For this he no doubt was at least in part brought to that high office by the Lord. But it is obvious from his rhetoric that he is woefully ignorant of the truth in this cosmic end game we’re in the midst of.
This Jewish influencer/supporter has corrected him, although I’ve not seen or heard any evidence of Mr. Trump acknowledging that he was wrong by saying that if he doesn’t win this November, Israel will cease to exist within two years.
Mr. President, I hope someone will pass this along to you. You can’t play junior-high word games when it comes to God’s chosen nation. And I say that as one who is praying that if we reach Election Day, you will be the victor. I pray for your safety, and for ours as a nation.
That God will assure our continued traversing upon this planet is something we can’t know for certain. But the continued existence of the nation Israel is a God-guaranteed matter.
God’s Holy Word trumps your words, Mr. President. Here is that Word, issued from the Holy Spirit-inspired prophet Jeremiah thousands of years ago:
This is what the Lord says, “He who appoints the sun to shine by day, Who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord Almighty is His Name; Only if these ordinances vanish from My sight,” declares the Lord, “will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before Me.” (Jeremiah 31:35–36)
The date of posting this article is most poignant as we remember October 7, 2023. Israel’s blood-vowed enemies inflicted the most heinous atrocities against the Jewish people since the time of Hitler’s Holocaust.
This is but one more reminder of just how near the world is to entering the time known as Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30: 7). But even during the time Jesus, Himself, said would be the worst in all of human history, Israel and the Jewish people will, as a chosen remnant, be preserved to go into the millennial reign of the Messiah they rejected two millennia ago.
It will not be Donald J. Trump, or anyone or anything other that will bring them to that glorious head of all nations of history. It will be done by the very Word of the Living God!
If his sons forsake My law, and do not walk in My judgments, if they violate My statues, and do not keep My commandments, then I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. But I will not break off My loving kindness from him, nor deal falsely in My faithfulness. My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. His descendants shall endure forever like the moon, and the witness in the sky is faithful. (Psalm 89:30–37)
Strange Winds Blowing
Climate change fear-mongering continues to grow as the nucleus around which the coming false religious system will likely be established. That harlot system of Revelation 17 will ride astride the beast described by Daniel the prophet and John, who was given Revelation to write by the Holy Spirit.
Most of us who closely observe these times from the pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy understand that the climate-change mantra is a Mother Earth worship ruse used by Satan to inject fear into the world’s populations. –Thus to bring into existence a new world order that will eventuate in the Antichrist regime of absolute evil.
Jesus Himself forecast the weather in His Olivet Discourse. He said the winds and waves will be roaring. This can include, I’m convinced, both the literal seas and waves as well as the seas of people. And certainly both the literal and the figurative are in tumultuous upheaval as these end times unfold.
With regard to the literal, any review of weather news on any given day is full of great storms that are becoming more violent and wreaking havoc on a global basis. The figurative seas and waves—the wars and rumors of war, the ethnic conflicts—are just as violent and growing more so by the hour. This ramping up of violence includes the ethnic strife within supposedly the most civilized nations such as our own. There are warnings from many quarters that such turmoil is destined to flair in dramatic fashion no matter which party’s presidential candidate is victorious in November.
All of the above is part of the Bible prophecy picture coming into focus as we watch for and anticipate the wrap-up of this Age of Grace (Church Age).
So the winds Jesus gave us a heads-up about, as far as what to look for as His Second Advent nears, are beginning to blow in hurricane fashion on the end-times horizon. And it is yet another sort of prophetic allusion to tumultuous winds that will blow in the last days that I hope to look at for now. This is a climate-change matter we can point to that is truly upon us as the time of Tribulation nears.
The Apostle Paul prophesied this particular type of climate change for the end of the age: spiritual climate change. It involves a prophecy I believe is taking place at this moment.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2 Timothy 4:3)
Paul further related this end-of-the-age doctrinal tumult to a dangerous windstorm:
So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (Ephesians 4:14)
It’s easy to see that we’re now in such an anti-biblical storm of anti-God assaults by strange winds that are blowing against the truth. The following gives credence to the tempest Paul warned of:
Brad Ruggles had already begun wrestling with his evangelical faith when he was called to launch a small church in a north Indianapolis suburb. As he pastored over his 200-member congregation, he found himself struggling with members’ resistance to issues of LGBTQ inclusion or questions raised by the murder of George Floyd.
Eventually, in 2021, he stepped down and away from his faith – but ultimately craved the brotherhood he’d enjoyed as part of a congregation. Then he found C3, an inclusive Sunday collective in west Michigan that had undergone its own transformation and now describes itself not as a church but a home for the spiritually homeless, dedicated to pondering existential questions and living out shared values…
“The post-religious organizational field is highly diverse and fluid,” said Christian Smith, a professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame who is writing a book about younger generations’ diminishing devotion to traditional religion.
The patchwork existence of such churches means these communities provide their own oversight; their adherence to no doctrine leaves teachings open to constant shift. For now, that’s how they like it. (“As Millions Leave Organized Religion, Spiritual and Secular Communities Offer Refuge,” Mark Ramirez, USA Today)
All of Christendom is under this heavy spiritual weather. Strange winds are blowing, particularly within the organization many prophecy watchers believe will be at the dark center of the Revelation chapter 17 whore of Babylon false religious system headed by the False Prophet of Revelation 13. That prophetic wind might be said to be coming from the voice of the man currently heading up that organization. The following is interesting in that regard:
Pope Francis told young people in Singapore that being “Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian” are just “different paths,” as “every religion is a way” to God…
Continuing, the Pope declared that each religion is a means to attain God, stating:
“Every religion is a way to arrive at God. There are different languages to arrive at God, but God is God for all. And how is God God for all? We are all sons and daughters of God. But my god is more important than your god, is that true?
“There is only one God and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, they are different paths.”
The Pope’s words were warmly welcomed by those present in the hall, which included leaders and representatives of Singapore’s many religious bodies and the large papal retinue. (“Pope Francis: ‘Every religion is a way to arrive at God’,” Michael Haynes, Snr Vatican correspondent – LifeSite)
To my way of discerning these times and considering the strange winds of doctrine blowing across the spiritual landscape at this late prophetic hour, what might happen next is always at the tip of my mind. Everything points to the beast state–Satan’s Antichrist system—rapidly advancing toward Daniel’s seventieth week–the Tribulation era. That goal of the Ephesians 6:12 cabal cannot take place until the church–all born again believers—is removed from the planet and taken into the clouds of Glory.
This is why we urge believers to be Rapture Ready.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you must be watching for Him, as described in Mark 13:3, 7; Luke 21:28; and Titus 2:13. Be aware of and beware of strange winds of doctrine–like that which denies the scriptural truth that Jesus will come for His Church before the Tribulation begins (Revelation 3:10).
If you are not a believer in Christ for salvation, your time to get ready for when He calls looks to be very short. Here is what the Bible says you must do in order to be saved from the wrath to come and go to the Lord when He calls believers:
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)
Blessed Assurance
True believers in Jesus Christ will never be depressed. We will never face circumstances that can cause a loss of trust in our position within God’s family, if we are truly saved.
The above statements are not validated by God’s Word. On the contrary, they’re propagated by the father of lies—the wicked one who stalks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he might devour. And I must confess to myself—and to you—that I have sensed the tempter’s whisper into my own ear lately. It goes something like, “Look around you. In every direction, things are growing ever darker. Think on these things and believe these conditions will grow infinitely worse, as Heaven taking action just isn’t in sight.”
This is my thought, even though I write about all of the strangeness I observe that is transpiring at this time so near the end of the age. I then reason that our Lord wouldn’t charge me with the business of correlating issues and events with end-of-the-age prophecy if there wasn’t the best possible end to it all at some glorious point in the future.
One sentence from Scripture almost always emerges in my thinking to replace the depression begun from that whisper from the evil one: “Comfort one another with these words.”
The most prominent placement of this statement in God’s Holy Word is where the promise of the glorious end of these evil days for believers is presented. And what a presentation it is!
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)
So it was the other morning when I began my day with a number of thoughts about the depressing things going on in the world. Paul’s great prophetic utterance above, ending with the comforting exhortation, finally emerged near the surface of my aging gray matter. Then the thought struck that obliterated the depression the minion whispering earlier intended to inflict to ruin my day.
The words of “Blessed Assurance” burst into my memory–melody and all.
The Holy Spirit brought to mind that great old hymn I’ve heard all my life. You may have heard and sung it, too. And what a remembrance it was; what a comforting truth it delivered! Depression from all the oppression that dark region of Satan’s realm could fling had no chance of surviving that burst of “Blessed Assurance”!
Here are the lyrics to remind all of us of the magnificent future we believers in Christ have as inheritors of all of the heavenly riches that belong to Jesus Himself.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine
Heir of salvation, purchase of God
Born of his Spirit, washed in His blood
This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long
This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long
Perfect submission, perfect delight
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight
Angels descending bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love
This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long
This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long
Praising my Savior all the day long
We can’t avoid the pure evil assaulting our eyes and ears–our spiritual senses—such as yet another attempt on the same presidential candidate’s life while he played golf Sunday, September 15, in Florida. Yet all the wickedness we observe fades in the brightness of the Lord Jesus’ promise to call us into His presence at any moment. We have blessed assurance that we will not face the concluding seven hell-on-earth years marked by Antichrist’s regime or face the wrath and judgment of the righteous God of Heaven. We will be in Jesus’ Father’s house–which is our house, too (John 14:1–3), because of what Jesus did on that old rugged cross at Calvary.
As that old hymn, “Blessed Assurance,” says, we who are in God’s family are heirs…heirs of salvation and all of Heaven’s glory.
So, as we’re thinking about what Jesus has done for us, we can cast aside the depression–the oppression—Satan desires to inflict. All of this brings to mind another hymn with lines that express how Christ’s work on that cross and His Resurrection give us blessed assurance. This hymn tells us what we should be doing to do the work assigned us while we’re on earth:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
If you don’t have that blessed assurance because you’ve never accepted God’s grace gift offer of salvation through belief in His Son, Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, here is how to be part of God’s eternal family:
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)
The Tribulation Incubator
Evidence that the Tribulation is about to be birthed has exploded from the hourly news feeds. That eruption has the diplomats, particularly of the Western world, searching desperately for the calculus that will bring the chance of nuclear conflict into a more controllable configuration.
It is a real curiosity that while those diplomats seek ceasefire in the Middle East—a one-sided nuclear threat, supposedly—they almost treat as a minor concern things going on between Russia and Ukraine, from where all-out nuclear war is much more likely to be unleashed.
Israel indeed has a nuclear arsenal. But its blood-vowed enemies, although vicious and certainly militant to the max, haven’t such an arsenal with which to engage in nuclear exchange…at least not yet, that we know of. (Iran’s nearness to achieving weapons-grade nuclear material is a great concern.)
With Russian President Vladimir Putin stating on a number of occasions that Russia might be willing to use tactical nukes, and even stating that America is in their crosshairs with the big nukes if pushed by NATO in the Ukraine matter, it seems to me the diplomatic concerns should be to pursue a ceasefire and peace in that region. But instead, most all the diplomatic efforts—influenced to great degree by the military-industrial complex—seem concentrated on making Israel cave to a ceasefire arrangement with enemies whose whole purpose, in writing, is to eradicate the Jewish state “from the river to the sea.”
There is no doubt that most all attention in that regard is on things happening in and around Israel. The following are brief news links on our Rapture Ready News forum that point to the tremendous uptick in tensions in the land most frequently mentioned in Bible prophecy.
Here are very brief excerpts of several stories from Thursday, September 5.
Details Emerge: Israel’s Response to Iran in April Destroyed Russian-Made Defense System
A major scoop by the Jerusalem Post was published on Monday… According to an article published in the Jerusalem Post, “Israel’s April strike on Iran’s S-300 missile system deterred Iran and Hezbollah from launching large-scale attacks in August.”
Israel Poised to Establish Military Government in Gaza amid Aid Distribution Crisis
There are no alternatives, and nobody wants to risk allowing Hamas to seize control of the aid. “There is no one else who can do the job, the current situation does not serve the Israeli interest, we must take upon ourselves the distribution of aid,” a senior Israeli security source told TPS-IL.
Starve Them Out: Israeli Generals Present “plan to defeat Hamas”
Two-phased “Generals’ Plan” calls for the forced evacuation of northern Gaza and a total siege on the terrorists who remain there. A forum of top Israeli army reserve commanders this morning published a “plan to defeat Hamas” that is certain to raise eyebrows. “The Generals’ Plan is the right way at this time to defeat Hamas and free the hostages, and we should have implemented it months ago. Those who cannot implement it are failing in their duty.
Hezbollah Fires over 100 Rockets at Upper Galilee, Destroying Houses and Causing Fires
The long-suffering residents of Israel’s northern regions, who have not yet been evacuated from their homes, experienced another day under Hezbollah fire, as the terror group fired over 100 rockets into the Upper Galilee on Wednesday.
Air Force Chief: IDF Poised to Combat Hezbollah, Nearing Victory over Hamas in Gaza
The head of Israel’s air force, Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar, announced on Thursday… “We are in the midst of the longest war in our history since the War of Independence,” Bar stated. “We have been fighting for almost nine months without respite, tirelessly. Hamas in Gaza will be defeated soon.” the Israeli military is prepared to shift its focus to potential conflicts with Hezbollah in the north.
I could have included in this list many other similar story links posted on that one day. All pointed to the military turmoil building all around Bible prophecy’s nation most central to the end times. The cries for peace from the diplomatic world are intensively focused on the building conflict. Most pointedly, the cries are for Israel to cave in to demands from the international community to stop destruction to Israel’s hate-filled enemies in making peace in the region.
The region is indeed the incubator of the peace that will destroy many. That “false peace” will be the covenant made with “death and hell” (Isaiah 28:15, 18). It will be Satan’s ultimately evil document that will be confirmed (Daniel 9: 27) by the man of sin who will become the world’s most vicious dictator—the Antichrist.
We are witnessing at this moment that incubator in its process of gestating what will become the final seven years of hell on earth leading to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ at Armageddon.
All of this Mideast turbulence means the Rapture must be very near. You want to be part of that glorious time when the Lord takes all of His children out of harm’s way (Revelation 3:10).
Here once again is how to go to Jesus when He calls:
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)
Imminent!
My friend Chris sent me an email with a link to an interview between an author and a CBS Mornings host. The title of the book being discussed was Imminent: The Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs.
The word “imminent” naturally piqued my friend’s tendency to link the urgency integral to that word’s meaning to the same word’s urgency as related to the Rapture. And he knew it would garner my interest, too.
The Rapture is an imminent event; that is, it can happen at any moment, without warning. Our purpose here is to urge our audience, if saved by belief in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross at Calvary, to be “Rapture ready” by being in God’s will when that great event occurs. We urge our readers who aren’t yet saved to accept Christ now, this moment. Jesus is the only Way to be transported into the clouds of Glory and onward into Heaven. All others will be, as the title of the series by my friends Dr. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins puts it: Left Behind.
The Rapture, of course, is that moment (in the “twinkling of an eye”) when millions will vanish from the earth when Jesus calls them (1 Thessalonians 4:16—18). I say “is” that moment, rather than “will be” that moment, because that calling is as good as already done in God’s omniscient, omnipresent view of things. Nothing can change that scheduled time when Jesus shouts, “Come up here!” as He did in calling John into Heaven to witness things to come following the Church Age (Revelation 4:1).
And, again, that calling is imminent. That is, the Rapture can take place at any moment. There is no sign or signal that is to precede that great event.
If one is to be Rapture ready, one must be so at all times. There will be no time to get ready. The time is now—right this moment—to be prepared, in the salvation sense, for that (twinkling-of-an-eye) instant when Jesus calls.
And that is the gloriously wonderful thing about the matter of the imminent Rapture. If you have accepted Christ, you will go to Him when He calls. No believer—no child of God—will be left behind to suffer the judgment and wrath that will, following that call, begin to descend upon the world of left-behind earth dwellers.
I take it that the author’s book, Imminent: The Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs, involves the belief that UFOs, or as they are called now by the government, UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena), are threatening us. According to the brief interview I heard, I presume the book warns that visitors from other worlds are on the verge of invading our planet.
In that regard, I think all we have to do is to glance around our society, culture, and every other aspect of the human condition to know that indeed there is an invasion from another world: the interlopers from the other dimension Paul described:
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)
Bible prophecy scholars like the late Chuck Missler undertook in-depth studies on these interlopers from the dark dimension. Writers and speakers like L. A. Marzulli continue to present great research about this end-times invasion. I, myself, have delved into fictional accounts of the matters involving UFOs—for example, with my novel The Rapture Dialogues.
I’ve written many times that I, as do others from the pre-Trib view of prophecy, believe the imminent invasion feared to come from other worlds (as even our government now expresses) will be part of the big lie Antichrist will foist upon those who are left behind. The people of the earth have endured many decades of being prepped/inculcated by the nefarious powers that be for that coming invasion, the time when the false prophet of Revelation 13 will call fire down from the skies.
Seeing this big lie taking shape, so far as it involves that coming supposed invasion from space, and discerning these times that look more and more like the Tribulation era to come, it is truly time to expect the greatest imminent event of history this side of the Second Advent.
Again, here is Paul’s heads-up on that occurrence:
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)
As always, for those who read this and don’t know Jesus for the salvation of your soul, you don’t want to be left behind when that invasion from Satan’s forces assaults the planet during the seven years of Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week). Here is how to make sure you go instantly to Jesus Christ when He calls all 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)
Coincidence and Christ’s Coming
“There is no such word as ‘coincidence’ in God’s vocabulary.”
Hal Lindsey is the one I first heard say this. Perhaps others said it before him, but I’ll just give him credit for that truth. And truth it is. Nothing that happens occurs without God knowing. As a matter of fact, He knew about it—whatever it might be—since as far back as eternity goes. And this gives me great confidence that when the Lord Jesus says our redemption is drawing near when we see things He foretold begin to come to pass (Luke 21:28), we can be sure those things we see are not coincidences.
Jesus is the very Word of God (John 1:1). So the things His Word tells us we should look for to determine the nearness of His return to “redeem” or “rescue” God’s children can’t be mere coincidence. We know these are bona fide indicators that His return is on the very brink.
Jesus said great deception and deceivers would be on the scene as the time nears for Him to intervene in the wickedness of humankind. He said there would be great tumult within the seas of humanity, and there would be great ethnic turmoil. Things, He said, would be like they were in the days of Noah and of Lot in Sodom. He said there would be wars and rumors of wars.
Through the Apostle Paul, Jesus warned that the times would be perilous as the end of the age nears. People would be fierce. They would be without natural affection, meaning, I take it, that humankind would be going after “strange flesh,” as Jude described the greatly increased ungodliness. They would, like in Lot’s day, be engaging in homosexual activity and abortion, both of which are as far from “natural affection” as any society or culture can get.
Do we see great deception today? Just consider the way the American political process the deceivers, with the assistance of the mainstream news media, blatantly display this end-times characteristic.
Is there tremendous tumult among the peoples of earth, with ethnic strife ramping up to the point that there are great rumors of war, and, in fact, major wars that threaten much wider conflict?
Are things like they were in the days of Noah and of Lot? Is there ever-increasing violence, with homosexuality seemingly becoming the norm rather than aberrant?
Are there indicators today that, like Jude points out, this world is filled with ungodliness and incorrigible wickedness that is deserving of God’s judgment and wrath? How about, as a prime example, the slaughter of babies by the multi-millions in their mothers’ wombs?
Any believer filled with Holy Spirit discernment can testify that we see all these end-of-days’ characteristics and activities in every direction. But, to go deeper into where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline, let’s examine up close things taking place that cannot be mere coincidence in showing the nearness of Christ’s soon, sudden involvement in the evil affairs of fallen humankind.
In my thinking, the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump is an astonishing indicator of Heaven’s direct reach into this wicked time. That the candidate for the presidency was providentially protected is nothing short of miraculous. Yet the matter has been totally washed over by a lack of mainstream coverage. The prince of the power of the air turned all the right devices of control to influence his broadcasting minions to ignore what surely was one of the most overt acts of Deity in history.
Mainstream media, after twenty-four hours or so of semi-coverage, relegated the near assassination, the murder of another, and the near-fatal wounding of two others to being nothing more than coincidence.
But it was not coincidental. The intervention was on full display before the entire world. It was God making a statement. He is now showing His great right hand of omniscience and omnipotence at this late hour of the quickly fleeting Age of Grace.
Our God has reached down to make such statements before in recent times. These, too, have been treated as coincidence by mainstream media–and subsequently they have deceived their mass audiences.
You might recall that one memorable event took place several years ago as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was voting to approve a “social statement on human sexuality” designed to open the way for congregations to be led by openly homosexual ministers and to make way for ELCA to perform same-sex marriages. A fierce storm described by many as a tornado unexpectedly ripped through downtown Minneapolis, where the ELCA convention was taking place. The storm damaged the convention center, along with the ELCA church across the street—even knocking over the church’s steeple in a bizarrely symbolic occurrence.
The tornado touched down near the outskirts of the city and made its track directly to the church, where it struck precisely at 2 p.m., the exact time the vote on the matters involved was to begin.
The Washington Post reported on the event in a joking way, calling it a coincidence and chiding mockingly those who attributed it to anything other.
Jesus said through the prophets that His return to intervene into the affairs of humankind would involve the nation Israel at the center of the turmoil that would be raging at the time. There is great turbulence at this moment in the Middle East. And Israel is at the center–not only of the troubles in the Middle East, but of the entire world of diplomatic chaos.
Those diplomats are crying “peace and safety,” wanting to force Israel to bring to an end the ongoing conflict against Iran and its proxy terrorist entities.
Israel, because of the October 7, 2023, assault that killed 1,200 people, has directly attacked Iran, killing one of the top terrorist leaders in Teheran. Iran’s supreme leader has vowed to make Israel pay for the attack. This, the diplomatic sorts fear, could spark all-out war–even one that might go nuclear.
But just as everything pointed to this expanded war taking place, another “coincidence” has taken place. My friend Dr. Mark Hitchcock frames the incident:
The main story I would like to highlight surrounds the earthquake that took place recently in Syria. There’s an article in the Jerusalem Post about this fascinating development. The headline of the article says, “Heaven sent: Is Lebanon’s earthquake a testament to divine protection?”
Here is some intriguing information the article included:
Hezbollah’s underground ambitions may now lie buried, turned to ashes before they had any chance to harm us.
In our collective memory, Tisha B’Av has always been a solemn day, marked by the destruction of the First and Second Temples.
To provide further context, Tisha B’Av is a day of sorrow and reflection, which usually falls on our calendar in early August. It marks the destruction of Solomon’s Temple in 586 BC and the destruction of the Second Temple in AD 70. Those events happened on the same day. That’s not an accident—that’s divine providence. It was the hand of God showing the Jewish people that He was behind these destructions that took place because of their disobedience to Him.
The article continues:
This year, however, the day bore witness to what many of us view as a modern-day miracle—a testament to divine intervention that could not have come at a more crucial time.
Reports confirmed a 5.4-magnitude earthquake that struck Syria and Lebanon, profoundly impacting the region. This was not just any seismic event; it may have served as an unanticipated yet divine act that thwarted a grave threat against the Jewish nation. (“Tectonic Shifts: Did God Use an Earthquake in the Middle East to Thwart an Attack on Israel?” “Marking The End Times,” August 18, 2024)
The collapse of those tunnels filled with munitions meant to be fired into Israel is profound proof of God’s hands-on control.
I believe we will see God’s mighty hand of control continue to reach into our world of wickedness the nearer we come to the time when Jesus calls all believers to Himself in the Rapture.
I implore you to be part of that divine rescue and avoid the terrible judgment and wrath that will then befall all rebels left on earth.
Here is how to go to the Lord when He calls all believers living and who have died:
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)
Prince of Persia Postponement?
To Holy Spirit-centered Bible prophecy observers, there should be little, if any, doubt that we are dealing now with demonic activity at every turn. This is truer than ever when considering things going on in the Middle East. Narrowing it down to the nation Israel, the dark spiritual forces become even more manifest.
The other nation-state entity that makes clear the demonic influences in that volatile region is Iran. This nation, of course, is located in the area where ancient Persia sat.
This is important to think on at this present hour; everything of significant prophetic importance now revolves around this region.
Daniel, the great prophet who was given an end-times heads-up concerning his people, the Jews, had a visit in which God’s angel told him about this very time that is front and center in our hourly news. At least it seems this is likely the beginning of the time the angel spoke of that is the nucleus of the stage being set for the wrap-up of things leading to Christ’s Second Advent.
Here is that one-way conversation the angel delivered:
Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thane heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days. (Daniel 10:12–14)
The angel then laid out what would happen after those many days had passed. Those days have now passed, and the book that was closed to him, Daniel was told about later, is now almost certainly opened.
That prophecy said the “wise who see these things of the end times will understand” (Daniel 12:10). All who view the issues and events developing in the Middle East, overlaid by the template of Bible prophecy, are the “wise” the angel mentioned.
Things involving Daniel’s people, Israel, and the area of ancient Persia, Iran, have the diplomatic world in a fever pitch to force peace and safety in the region. There is great fear that Iran is about to attack Israel in retaliation for the Israelis eliminating Iran’s proxy terrorist leaders. And, to add insult to injury, Israel did so in one instance by going to the heart of Teheran.
Iran has been threatening ever since to launch a major assault to destroy the Jewish State.
This hasn’t happened, nor do I believe it will. The Iranians (Persians), creators of the game of chess, are smart enough to know better. They are fully aware that Israel has one of the great militaries in the world and possesses nuclear weapons that would devastate any enemy. The Iranian Israel-haters know better than to threaten Israel’s destruction at this point.
To attack in such a way would give Israel the excuse it has been wanting—to do whatever is necessary to destroy Iran’s budding nuclear program hidden deep within the Bushehr Mountains area.
Now, our God is in complete control of all things at all times. He is restraining at every level throughout this world of evil that is straining at the leash to bring about the Antichrist. That said, I think it is accurate to believe the same prince of Persia the angel, with the help of Michael, fought against is alive and well in that region. He is doubtless whispering in the ear of the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei. He is likely saying in the ears of the ayatollahs to withhold their attack until a more propitious time—when they and the massive coalition outlined by Ezekiel come together with tremendous power to destroy the hated Israel.
So, in that sense, it might well be the prince of Persia who is postponing the war that everyone in the diplomatic world fears.
The blustering Khamenei and his fanatic Islamists are obviously quite hesitant to carry out their threats to get revenge. Their hesitancy is based in fear, we can conclude. The following somewhat adds credence to this likelihood.
For all Iran’s threats to retaliate against Israel for assassinating key Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, the key concern for the ayatollahs will be that, in any confrontation with the Israeli military, they have no chance of winning.
Tensions between Iran and Israel have risen considerably since Israel was accused of carrying out the assassination of Hamas Political Bureau leader Ismail Hanimex in Tehran shortly after the swearing in ceremony for Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian last month.
Although Israel rarely confirms or denies its involvement in overseas assassinations, the Iranian regime has been quick to accuse Israel of killing Haniyeh, who reportedly died after a bomb exploded in his guest apartment in northern Tehran.
A senior Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr, was assassinated in Beirut the previous day, in an operation for which Israel took credit. (“Iran knows it cannot win a war against Israel,” By Con Coughlin, Gatestone Institute, August 11, 2024)
Other news items frame Iran’s reluctance to launch an attack on Israel. The following briefs on Raptureready.com news linked to stories relevant to Iran’s hesitancy.
Ayatollah Khamenei faces tough dilemma when it comes to retaliating against Israel
The 85-year-old despot is keenly aware of the repercussions of a major strike on Israel and, given the delicate timing of Masoud Pezeshkian’s first steps as president, it’s somewhat likely Iran’s Supreme Leader will opt for a more prudent approach.
Internal strife: Iran’s delayed retaliation to Israel sparks rift within terror proxies
Iran has angered its allies, particularly Hezbollah and Hamas, by once again urging caution in responding to Israel after the assassinations of high-ranking Hezbollah terrorist Fuad Shukr and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, the Kuwaiti newspaper al Jarida reported on Wednesday.
An all-out Middle East war just might be restrained for the moment with the assistance of the Prince of Persia, that old nemesis of Daniel’s angel visitor and Michael, God’s mighty archangel.
You want to be among the “wise” who watch with understanding the entire stage being set, not among those who haven’t a clue. Those who are wise can take comfort from knowing that all these things happening mean Jesus is about to call all believers to Himself in the Rapture.
Here is how to go to Him when He summons Christians in that great event.
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)
Restraint, Derision, then Catastrophism
A number of reports coming across my research in the sudden seeming collapse of US and world economic conditions, make it clear that, now, the long-feared disaster has begun. There would be no stopping the total collapse from happening, although it might take some time coming.
This continues to be the conclusion by even some folks who look at such matters through the prism of Bible prophecy. This collapse will bring on the globalists’ desire to begin instituting the Great Reset that’s been long desired by Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum (WEF) sorts. This means the Tribulation is about to begin, or maybe has begun.
We can next expect the beginning of the fulfillment of all Bible prophecy. That includes the Antichrist’s rise to power and Israel being assaulted. This will result in the catastrophes outlined throughout the book of Revelation.
Agreed. When the Tribulation begins, the severity of God’s judgment and wrath will increase in intensity, and the planet will reel from the resulting carnage. Antichrist will more or less rule for a time, and Israel will become the object of Satan’s full-scale wickedness as he strives to destroy God’s chosen nation.
We see developments toward the rise of Satan’s man of sin each and every news cycle. The WEF and others of that organization’s ilk are making great strides toward constructing the New World Order long advocated by one-world architects such as the now-deceased David Rockefeller. As a matter of fact, that progress was so aggressively pursued that I believe they were getting ahead of God’s governance. That is, they exceeded their allowed evil progression—at least time-wise.
And that’s why I titled this commentary “Restraint, Derision, then Catastrophism.”
My thinking on all this involves the American political left. That is the ideology–perhaps better stated, the “theology”—of the extreme left on the political spectrum of America and the world.
It is indeed a theological drive toward removing God’s supremacy and installing the luciferian authority embraced by these people and their activities. Each political nuance pursued by that fanatic element is focused on evil continually. That is, the adherents to the woke insanity, for example, accept every form of wickedness God’s Word says goes against His holiness and His will for humankind. God has thus given them over to the “reprobate mind” of Romans 1:28.
I maintain that the evil coming from the leftist ideology/theology has just been handed an astounding restraint by the backhand of the Lord of Heaven and earth. Rather than the sudden downward plunge by the stock markets of America, Japan, and the world being used by the WEF to create conditions to further their Great Reset ambitions (as I’m convinced was intended), God used that contrived event to heap derision upon, in particular, those on the American political left. The stock market’s dramatic fall starkly pointed out the abysmal way the current presidential administration has detrimentally afflicted this nation—and thereby the entire world, because the rest of the world economies are so intricately linked to that of the US.
This, and the chaos created within the party of the anti-God left by apparently choosing totally woke candidates for the 2024 presidential election, in my opinion, is God’s hand of restraint and fulfillment of His Psalm chapter 2 promise of “laughing to derision” those who would put their power above the supremacy of God. That was the huge mistake Lucifer made when he looked into that mirror of iniquity and said his “I wills” (Isaiah 14:14).
And this is to in no way say I believe this means one party will prevail over another in the upcoming election. We should pray and vote as God gives light to the believing mind–the spirit within.
With everything that’s happening in every direction on the end-times landscape, our primary focus should be as Jesus Himself commanded:
And when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption draws near. (Luke 21:28)
God’s restraining hand will be on this world as long as believers of this age are on the earth. When Jesus calls all of God’s family to be with Him upon the clouds of Glory, all will come crashing down–including the economy that has been miraculously kept from total collapse, as predicted for two decades or more.
Catastrophism—the complete disruption of things as usual upon the earth—will then be the result of humanity’s rebellion and the embrace of Satan’s Antichrist counterfeit. That rejection of God will bring judgment and wrath the likes of which Jesus said will be the worst of all human history (Matthew 24:21).
You don’t want to be here when Antichrist rules and God’s judgment and wrath begin to fall on the rebels of this world. Here is how to go to the safety found only in Jesus Christ when He calls all 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)
The Nuclear Stone
Many things of end-times importance aren’t just on the horizon of Bible prophecy, but are now upon the actual national and international landscapes—so much so that even those who aren’t interested in anything to do with God’s Word are engaged in wonderment.
While working on a computer matter in my study, my tech guy asked me: “What do you think is going on with everything?”
He then launched into all the things he saw as astonishing developments in just the past several weeks. He brought up the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the lunacy that went on in the introduction to the Olympic Games in Paris, and the world seeming to turn against the Jews and Israel.
He commented: “The world has gone completely nuts.”
This gentleman has been a friend for several years; he’s about the age of my younger son, with two children—one 16 and the other 22. He is concerned that the world will be uninhabitable to any sane extent very shortly and his kids will have to face the terrors coming upon the planet.
He doesn’t know the Lord for salvation, and I’ve witnessed to him for some time. I explained what’s going on, from the Bible prophecy standpoint. He listened, for the first time, with what I could tell was concentrated interest.
Anyone with a trace of comprehension about the things going on knows that something’s up, as my computer expert put it.
Our society and culture are lurching from one insane situation to the next. The rearranging of world conditions is happening too quickly to grasp, and Israel, in particular, is the focus of the fear that a much wider conflict might erupt from that ignition point at any moment.
And it is Israel that I would like to focus on now.
The “stone” in today’s title is a reference to the much-mulled-over-lately prophecy by the prophet Zechariah:
The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. (Zechariah 12:1–3)
Although Zechariah’s prophecy, most premillennial prophecy students believe, is primarily for the Tribulation era (Daniel’s seventieth week), it has become clear that, as in the case of many prophecies, this foretelling is casting its foreshadows upon these times so near Christ’s call to the Church in the Rapture.
Explosive events involving Hezbollah’s murderous attack that killed twelve Israeli children on a soccer field have caused great angst around the world. Iran’s proxy terrorist actions continue to burgeon, causing demands that the Iranian atrocities be dealt with promptly. The following illustrates the point.
Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Rabbi Goldstein, reacts to Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on the Iran threat, covering Israeli military strategy, US Congress reaction, and the Iran-Israel conflict. The Chief Rabbi delves into an analysis of Netanyahu’s address discussing its impact on military tactics and the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict.
Rabbi Goldstein opened his comments by saying that, “The unprecedented fourth speech by an Israeli Prime Minister to the United States Congress amidst innumerable standing ovations should not lull Israel into thinking that it can rely on a polarized America to save it from the existential threat that a nuclear Iran poses. If Israel does not destroy Iran’s production of nuclear weapons, no one else will. Israel has been here before.”
Rabbi Goldstein explained that, “In 1981 Prime Minister Menachem Begin faced a similar decision. Under Saddam Hussein Iraq had been pressing ahead with its nuclear program, just like Iran. Saddam had issued genocidal threats against Israel. According to many reports the country was less than a month away from full nuclear capability and so Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered a daring Israeli Air Force operation on the eve of Shavuot, 7 June, 1981… Rabbi Goldstein continued, “So we’ve been through all of this. We’ve seen it before. None of this is new. Today Israel faces the same situation with Iran. If there’s one thing that October 7 has taught us, it is that the implacable hatred of the proponents of violent Jihad knows no bounds. For them no evil is too horrific to perpetrate. Anything is possible. Hamas is Iran’s proxy army. It operated in that capacity on October 7th and gave an inkling of what Iran would do from the moment it possesses nuclear weapons. Iran has stated clearly on many occasions its determination to wipe Israel off the map. An objective deeply embedded in its Jihadi worldview. The prospect of mutually assured destruction, which deterred the atheistic secular Soviet regime during the Cold War, won’t deter Iran.” (“SA Chief Rabbi to PM Netanyahu: ‘Israel needs to know that it is alone in the world’,” Israel National News, Arutz Sheva, July 30, 2024)
Israel is taking out Iran’s proxy terrorist heads, and the ayatollahs are threatening to retaliate with major destructive action. Such threats increase pressures to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capability and are ramping up international jitters, thus adding to the world’s turn against the Jewish state, just as the prophet said.
No matter the atrocities perpetrated against the Jewish state and the Jewish people through anti-Semitism, the world increasingly declares Israel, not its blood-vowed enemies, to be the genocidal evil that threatens to ignite World War III.
Israel is the nuclear “burdensome stone,” to be sure, in these darkening, final days of this Age of Grace.
The Rapture is next on God’s timeline, and all the stage-setting for the Tribulation is pointing to Christ’s soon call to His Bride, the Church. You want to be part of that great event. Here is how to go to the Lord when He calls believers into the clouds of Glory:
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 a man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
Terry James Prophecy Line 