If these are the last of the last days we are experiencing, we who are believers should possess the capability to know just how near is our Lord’s Return. A powerful scripture that makes this so is the Command Given by the Lord Himself.

“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).

Jesus, when using the phrase all these things, was referencing the prophetic signals that would immediately precede His breaking in on this incorrigible world of rebels against God. The signs would be, he forewarned, prolific and ubiquitous. That is, these prophesied things will be tremendous in terms of their happening and swiftness in coming to pass. These will be in every direction one looks. It will be a time of a prophetic horizon filled with unmistakable indicators that the believers alive at the time cannot miss.

This generation of the Redeemed is to be looking up for His coming to bring Fulfillment of their Promised Redemption. I.e., the Rapture will, the Lord Promises, be on the very cusp of happening when all the indicators will be flashing brightly into the spiritual eyes of those who are in God’s Family.

One of the most profound prophecies given in God’s Word concerning the very last days before Christ’s physical Return to Planet Earth involves that of the world’s final dictator, the one John called Antichrist.

There have been volumes written on this foretold tyrant that will, for a short time, rule much of the world.

We are told in Revelation chapter 13 that he will cause all to receive a mark and number in order to survive. This has, at its core, the infamous 666 numbering system. It will no doubt be the outgrowth –the greatly developed technology—involving digital currency and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).

That technology is, at this point, a worldwide reality because of satellites connecting all continents with instantaneous transacting capability.

So, the Antichrist’s technologies are on the scene now, as is the entirety of the societal, cultural, geopolitical, and religious stage-setting for the coming Tribulation era.

There are differing views regarding from what area of the ancient Roman Empire will come the one who will be Antichrist. My own view –which I believe has been for many decades the view of solid Bible prophecy scholars such as Dr. John Walvoord, Dr. Dwight Pentecost, Dr. Henry Morris, Dr. Tim LaHaye, and many others, is that this final world dictator will come out of Western Europe. –Thus, because he will, according to Daniel the prophet, be the prince that shall come out of the Roman force that destroyed Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple in A.D. 70. Here again is the prophecy that helps draw this conclusion.

“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate” (Daniel 9:26-27).

Antichrist, that prince that shall come, we are convicted, will not be from the eastern leg of the old Roman Empire, that is, not from out of Constantinople, the eastern capital, but from Rome, the capital of the western leg of that monstrous dream vision Daniel interpreted for King Nebuchadnezzar, as recorded in Daniel chapter 2.

It is from out of Rome that General Titus, sent by his father, Roman Emperor Vespasian, led the Roman legions in destroying Jerusalem and the Temple.

In consideration of this and taking into account that all other signals now are in place, setting the stage for that man of sin’s coming to power, we must take a serious look at a recent matter that is in the process of developing.

We must examine whether Antichrist’s western European stronghold –his inevitable geographic base location, can now be determined. The following news brief is interesting in that regard.

Horizon Europe is the European Commission’s plan to implement “adapting our way of life” for climate change; funding digital, genome collections and cybersecurity projects under the guise of tackling cancer; a digital twin of the oceans; smart cities for which two UK cities have been selected; and, a “soil deal for Europe” which is another means of achieving the European Green Deal and UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This is the advance of technocracy. The UN Sustainable Development Goals is technocracy.

(“UKSTF”). Launched in March 2023, the UKSTF is the UK government’s plan to cement the UK’s place as a science and technology superpower by 2030…. Where is all of this leading to? Technocracy…

Governments are increasingly exerting control over citizens, eroding rights and freedoms. Centralization of power is on the rise, which is undermining the role of local governments.

Across the world, regimes, such as the European Union, are constructing a worldwide enslavement grid that has not been possible before as the technology was not available.

Several different technologies are being implemented over time and in different places. It’s easy to lose sight that it is all connected…

Throughout history, dictators and tyrants have been constrained by various factors, such as logistical difficulties, fear of resistance, or the intervention of other nations. However, as technology advances, these limitations are becoming increasingly weaker, allowing dictators to push people further than ever before…

Source: Horizon Europe is a euphemism for technocracy BY RHODA WILSON ON FEBRUARY 29, 2024 – EXPOSE, RAPTURE READY NEWS, MARCH 1, 2024]

So it is prudent to look at this development in Europe as likely being the constructing of that future and final world dictator’s stronghold. Horizon Europe is yet another brick in the neo-tower of Babel Lucifer is building. “Build Back Better” is the slogan that globalists such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) and others are proclaiming in demanding a “Great Reset.”

These anti-God minions of Ephesians 6: 12 will have their construction pathway when Christ Calls believers to Himself in the Rapture. Those left behind to face the penultimate evil flowing from Antichrist’s stronghold will endure the worst time of all human history, according to Jesus Himself (Matthew 24:21).

You need not be in those numbers left behind. Here is how to instead go to the Safe Heavenly Shelter the Lord has Prepared for those who love Him and accept God’s Grace Gift Offer.

“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).

Recently, a 66-year-old man in my state was investigated upon reports of his being a pedophile. According to the report of his arrest, he had computer files taken from his online perusing of the Internet involving child porn. At the center of his wicked fetish, the report says, was sado-sexual activity. For his crime, upon his pleading guilty to the charges, he was given 40 years of imprisonment –if I heard the report correctly. Certainly, this is a death sentence in that, without parole, he will die incarcerated.

Like you, his crime is, to me, unthinkable. Such evil must be secured against ever coming to the forefront of human comportment. Yet the question must be examined. Why do the same justice systems, whether national, state, or local, look at this man’s wickedness as criminal activity that must be dealt with as harshly as possible yet look upon the murder of children in the wombs of their mothers as deserving no punishment? As a matter of fact, governments have, since Roe v Wade in 1972, called abortion “the right of choice.”

The reason for justification of this death-dealing has been tied to a term that the fallen minds of men have come up with that makes it okay to kill children in ways they prescribe. That term is “the unborn.”

In the most egregious form of use of the term, it is applied to any child before he or she has taken his or her first breath. All before this are considered unborn, thus are viewed as not yet alive. Various states have, over the years, modified the permissive time frame for aborting. It is different in states regarding the number of months when there is life in the womb. When the number of months has been reached, the abortion can no longer be performed. Those who govern that industry have come up with their own ideas of when babies in the womb become yet another term in their vocabulary of taking the lives of children in the womb. The term is “viable.” When the baby becomes viable, it is no longer fair game for the abortionists.

To this point, that which we who believe in God’s View of what constitutes a human being –the person when conceived— has no standing in the world of those embracing the right to abort. The right-to-choose belief system declares the fetus as it is forming and beyond to looking like a human being to be nothing more than a blob of biological material to be removed, much like an unwanted tumor.

But God, Who Created all that is –including human beings— declares something quite the opposite. Here is what that All-Powerful, all-Knowing God says through inspiring the Psalmist to tell Truth about human life.

“For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book, all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them” (Psalms 139:13-16).

The God of all Creation has declared that He knew each and every individual who has ever been born or will ever be born before the person was ever conceived in the womb. It is somewhat encouraging that at least there is now significant realization and acknowledgment of the Truth about the unborn – that the baby is fully a human being from the moment of conception and that each human being was fully a human being in God’s Omniscient mind even before mother and father ever joined in the child-producing union.

Here is a recent decision that seems to give hope that sanity still survives in this maddening world of anti-God, reprobate thinking.

A ruling from the Supreme Court in the state of Alabama has released a stunning verdict: That embryos are “children” under state law and protected by the same laws that apply to children already born.

The decision essentially determined that unborn children are a person. The question posed was whether a state law protecting children excluded those unborn.

“Under existing black-letter law, the answer to that question is no: the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location,” the court said. “The relevant statutory text is clear: the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies on its face to all unborn children, without limitation.”

The decision reversed a lower court ruling that tossed a case brought by three couples over the destruction of their embryos at a clinic. [Source: State Supreme Court Rules Embryos ARE Children! By Guest Contributor Feb. 20, 2024, WND.com]

I remain convicted with all within my spirit that God is going to make a world-shattering Statement at the Moment of Rapture. He will take every child below the age of being accountable for knowing to accept or reject Jesus Christ for Salvation of their souls. This will include, I’m convinced, every child just conceived and every baby gestating in the womb of his or her mother.

What a Judgment that will be upon a fallen world of anti-God rebels. You don’t want to be a part of that left-behind world. Here is how to go to Jesus when He Shouts to His Church –all born-again believers: Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

We have looked at Restraint and Derision by the Lord against the anti-God wickedness of these evil, current times on a number of occasions in these commentaries.

That this Intervening action from Heaven would be the order of the last of the last days of the Dispensation of Grace (Church Age) is, of course, found in Psalms chapter 2 of the Old Testament and in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 in the New Testament.

“The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.’ He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision” (Psalms 2:2-4).

We have looked before at truth regarding God’s Omniscient analysis involving the human minions of wickedness in high places that are, wittingly or not, doing Satan’s bidding.

A careful dissection of things going on over recent years shows time after time that the Lord has intervened to slow down the Ephesians 6:12 minions, both demonic and human, in their effort to hurry the process of bringing Antichrist to the end-times world stage.

Again, without intending to get deeply into the weeds of politics, I believe we see Heaven’s Intervention each and every day to slow the process of, for example, bringing this nation down from the Judeo-Christian principles the founding fathers intended.

We remember when Democrat party attendees years ago during their convention gave a resounding “No” when the proposition was brought up to keep the mention of God in official declarations of party campaign rhetoric. The “Nos” clearly dominated the voice vote, but those in charge didn’t dare try to kick God out because of the political damage that no vote would have inflicted.

Of course, kicking God out of anything isn’t possible with the omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent God of Heaven. To that end, He continues to have that anti-God party in “derision,” just as He indicated He will do to anyone against Him.

They kept the word God in but definitely haven’t included Him in actuality in any way I can detect.

The anti-God opposition continues in that now more than ever radical, leftist, ideologically driven political party that governs. What I’ve written in the past in regard to God’s having such wickedness in derision applies more than ever while we move ever more quickly toward the Tribulation. I wrote the following some time ago:

These—the president, the vice president, and the press spokesperson—have actually become almost laughingstocks to observers outside their political party, their leftist ideology, and the mainstream media (which, mentioning in the same breath, is perhaps redundant). Their mental acuity is, it seems to me, inadequate to the challenge in addressing legitimate issues on the national and international scene.

These are avid adherents of the platform presented by the political party that verbally shouted God out of their midst.

As we’ve often looked at in considering how both political parties, along with every other aspect of American culture and society, including business, public education, and even woke military insanity, we see that our so-called leadership has almost without question been turned over to the reprobate mindset of Romans 1:28.

The result of the growing anti-God actions by most all of America’s day-to-day activity is eventuating in a madness that is inexplicable apart from Psalms chapter 2 as given above.

And the leaderships of most every nation on earth observably have fallen victim to the same reprobate infection as America’s governmental leadership. All of this aided and abetted by news reporters and institutions, which makes Hitler’s Goebbels look less wicked and evil by comparison.

Rebellious mankind, driven literally mad by their own back-turning to the God Who is not willing that any should perish but all should come to Repentance, are setting the stage for fulfilling prophecy of the most frightful sort. Jude was given to foretell this most terrible outcome for those whom God has in Derision at this very moment.

“But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage” (Jude 1: 10-16).

To those who are unbelievers in God’s Grace Gift Redemption Process and who are within these doomed anti-God rebels, upon which the Lord must one day, perhaps very soon, Pour His Righteous Judgment and Wrath, please understand the following: God has Provided a Way to be Reconciled to Him and to become part of His Family in Heaven Forever. This is the One and Only Way to escape the horrendous disaster, the Judgment and Wrath that is surely coming.

“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).

Christendom is a word I view as designed by secularists of the world to encompass their misunderstood view of what comprises True Christianity. Under this misunderstanding, all who claim to be Christians are, according to this worldly definition, Christians. All fall under the term Christendom.

There are many sects, faiths, and religious systems that the secularists include within their favored term to encapsulate, to one degree or the other, religious belief in and spiritual embrace of the figure called Jesus Christ. These are each and every one false.

In my own view of what it means to be a Christian, there is but one system of faith. There is no other person, method, or anything else that can make a person a Christian. That Faith system, the Bible –God’s Word—tells us that Jesus Christ alone is the Savior of mankind. The person is a Christian who accepts without question what Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6).

There is nothing that stands between God and the human being other than Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten (born in the flesh) Son.

It is with this Truth from God’s Word –the Bible—that I must somewhat qualify, or perhaps explain, the title of this article.

Pope’s defection – a key end times signal

The Catholic system of belief –of which there are several versions—often is separated by those commentating on the Catholic faith as differing from mere Christianity. This is, presumably, because those devotees to that system consider their Catholic Church as the only True Church to the exclusion of others that left as part of the Reformation and since have divided into multiple factions of Protestantism.

Catholicism says there are layers of mediators between God and mankind, i.e., one must confess to a priest, who might take the confession to the Mother of God (Mary), who, again, presumably might take the confession to the Son (Jesus) Who then, presumably takes the confession and obtains the forgiveness necessary from God the Father. At least, this is my –a neophyte in comprehension of the Catholic system— cursory understanding of how the Catholic system of mediation works.

I cannot even begin to accept this for many reasons, but to name just one reason, I offer this Truth from God’s Holy Word.

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

Now, I write all of the above in order to try to explain how the Catholic pope –Pope Francis—has “defected” and why this “defection” is a key end times signal.

My belief in Christ alone for salvation precludes my counting the pope as within Christianity, but rather under the Christendom umbrella posited by the secularists, as I’ve tried to show above. So, when I say that Pope Francis has “defected,” I don’t mean that he has, in my view, defected from the True Christian Faith.

In my view, because of the Catholic Church’s declaration that there are a number of mediators between God and Man (as just one reason in this regard), this pope –or any other pope—can’t defect from a faith system under which they’ve never been.

This said, this pope, Pope Francis, has defected from that faith system –Catholicism—which has in common with True Christianity the belief that God finds homosexuality to be an egregious sin of an abominable sort. This agreement between the True Christian Faith and the Catholic faith does point starkly to the defection that this pope champions.

The following helps make understandable the end times apostasy at this late hour of the Church Age (Age of Grace).

Pope Francis is now accusing opponents of priestly gay-couple blessings of being hypocrites when, in fact, his blessing of homosexual relations and calling it good is hypocrisy. According to Francis, all the holy popes, bishops, and saints of Church history were hypocrites because they denied blessings to gay couples and barred them from the Church.

In a recent interview, Francis expressed his strongest words thus far concerning his decision to bless homosexual couples. He told NBC:

“Nobody gets scandalized if I give my blessings to a businessman who perhaps *exploits people, and this is a very grave sin. But they get scandalized if I give them to a homosexual, Pope Francis, via ‘Credere.’ This is Hypocrisy.”

This is a highly inappropriate comparison and reflects an obstinate attempt to continue his blessing of homosexual unions. His argument holds no water. Comparing a businessman to a homosexual makes as much sense as comparing a carpenter to a rapist. A carpenter, by definition, is a responsible working man, whereas a homosexual, by definition, is a sex offender on the path to perdition. Businessmen generally are responsible people working to support their families, unlike homosexuals whose criminal lives “cry to heaven for vengeance.”

If a businessman comes to a priest for a blessing, it means he truly wants this blessing for his soul and for success in his work, so the priest should bless him. And while he might commit some sins or faults in his work, that’s not a reason to deny him a blessing. “A just man shall fall seven times” (Proverbs 24:16) and then rises.

Whereas, if a homosexual couple comes to a priest for a blessing, it’s because they want their shameful relationship blessed. Were it otherwise, they wouldn’t dare to approach the priest ‘holding hands’ together. They want their gay union blessed, so Francis blesses it because he is a gay sympathizer. He is blessing their homosexual aspirations, not their souls, thereby working their eternal ruin, and then he calls it “good.” That is hypocrisy!

Source: Francis: Opponents of Clerical Gay Couple Blessings are ‘Hypocrites,’ by David Martin, Canada Free Press, February 8, 2024]

My writing of late has been on the likeness of our present time to being like that of Lot’s day in Sodom. This pope and his declarations –the latest being on the matter of sodomy and his opposition to his Catholic faith system, highlight, I think, just how near is that moment when Jesus foretold He will next be “revealed” and God’s judgment would fall on a Sodom and Gomorrah-like people.

There are today pronounced instances of falling away within major denominations from the True Faith found in God’s Holy Word. Homosexuality is at the heart of much of this defection. This “defection” by this pope from his own false system also smacks of Paul’s forewarning found in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 about the falling away (the apostasy) that will occur just before Antichrist comes onto the scene following the Rapture of the True Church –all born-again believers.

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thes 2:3).

Despite God’s dire forewarning about those who fall under what He calls the abomination of homosexuality, He desires to forgive and bring into His family all who repent and believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, for salvation. And I must say here that those who are Catholics who believe in Jesus Christ alone for the salvation of their souls are “in Christ” forever. But they are saved in spite of, not because of, their Catholicism. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Here is how to receive God’s Forgiveness and be part of God’s Heavenly Family forever.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

My contention continues to be that the answer to this question can be found within one verse. It is a statement by the ascended Lord Jesus Christ to John, the disciple Jesus called “beloved.”

I believe there is a singular word to describe the reason for the Rapture. We will, I hope, get to both the Scripture passage and the word that I believe answer the question “Why the Rapture?”.

First, we need, for those not familiar with the term “Rapture” to provide a definition.

The word “rapture” isn’t expressed as that term in the Bible, at least not in the English versions. It is given in the Latin Vulgate, however, as rapturo—translated from the Greek language in which the New Testament was mostly written. The Greek word for the great snatching away (being “caught up”) is harpazo, and it eventually became called the “Rapture” by most in the English-speaking world.

It is the “twinkling of an eye” moment the Apostle Paul prophesied will take place at some unknown time, a time only God the Father knows. Here is the Scripture passage encompassing that stupendous event:

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, what is the purpose of this event Paul tells believers to “comfort” ourselves in, considering that it will take place at some unknown instant? Certainly, the great apostle spent much writing time telling of this call of Christ into the clouds of glory. Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-55, for example.

Paul, himself, looked for this event to happen during his time on earth. He preached and taught, assuring the believers in Thessalonica that this event hadn’t yet occurred—because many of them feared it had happened and they had missed it somehow. Paul went to great lengths to explain the truth of the Rapture—the harpazo. (Read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.)

So, again, why the Rapture? To be given so much ink by the most prolific writer of the New Testament, and by one of God’s most prominent prophets, the Rapture must have monumental significance.

The Rapture is indeed one of the most significant events that will play out in human history. This is because it is a rescue from the most horrific time in all of human history. Jesus, the Creator of all things, said the time to come will be the worst to ever occur, even until His return at Armageddon (Revelation 19:11).

Here, again, is what the Lord said of that ultimately evil time that is about, at this very moment, to burst upon a judgment-bound world.

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21)

God is about to pour His righteous judgment and wrath upon a world of rebels–those who have totally turned their backs on Him. Planet earth is about to endure the global warming and climate change–and, much worse, the wicked Ephesians 6:12 sorts are constantly and falsely declaring. The Lord of Heaven–Creator of all that is—is about to demonstrate who is in total charge.

He is a righteous God and cannot allow the rebellion to continue beyond the point He has determined.

But “righteous” is the key word here. God is righteous. And His righteous judgment and wrath are not for those who are righteous, but for those who are unrighteous.

Now to get to the Scripture and the word promised at the beginning of this article.

The Scripture that encapsulates the reason for the Rapture in one verse is the following:

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’ words of comfort were to all believers in Him for salvation down through the ages, as well as for the church at Philadelphia. It is a promise to keep all believers of the Church Age (Age of Grace) out of the Great Tribulation He told of in Matthew 24: 21.

And that brings us to the single word that encapsulates that salvation. It is the word “righteous.”

All who are righteous will be kept from the Tribulation. This is because God the Father sees all who have believed in His Son Jesus for salvation as being “in Christ.” That is, all born again are seen through God’s holy eyes as being covered by the precious, holy blood of the Savior, Jesus Christ. This means that we who accept Jesus as Savior are clothed in the righteousness of the Son of God, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, in order to bring all who will accept His sacrifice to redemption and reconciliation with God the Father.

To miss accepting this truth is to die in sin and go to the lake of fire, or to go through that horrific time called the Tribulation, if still alive when it begins. To accept God’s free, grace offer of salvation is to go to the Savior, Jesus, when He calls, as the Apostle Paul has prophesied.

The Rapture is to spare you terrible anguish and separation from God forever. Here is how to make sure you go in the Rapture, and to Heaven–and not into eternal torment.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10) 

In constantly thinking on and writing about Bible prophecy, one can lose sensitivity to the reality that people –even the saved– often view such matters as gloomy at best and terrifying at worst. Maybe “lose” is the wrong word. We who believe we are given the assignment by our Lord to write on these topics perhaps “misplace” sensitivity to the fact that things are gloomy or terrifying to people, rather than “lose” that understanding. We easily forget believers need to be uplifted, not terrified. And there is a way in presenting Bible prophecy to accomplish the former rather than the latter.

In speaking not long ago to a good number of people, I was nudged in my spirit to begin by trying to make it clear that while I was there to talk about things involved in Bible prophecy, the ultimate outcome of all the end-times things we see going on only point to the glory that is to come.

Paul, the great apostle and writer of much of the New Testament, for example, wrote:

Eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the mind the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.

We are told that there is a “crown of righteousness” for those who love Christ’s appearing. Jesus, Himself, told us through the Apostle John that He –Jesus—will keep us from the time of the great trouble that is coming (Revelation 3: 10). Now all that encapsulates a glorious prospect, not gloom and doom!

I was told recently that my friend Dr. Ed Hindson, one of the greatest Bible prophecy teachers of our time, in his last moments of life opened his eyes and exclaimed something like: “I had no idea it was so glorious!”

I can relate perhaps only slightly to Dr. Hindson’s reported last-moments vision of Heaven, but certainly agree from firsthand experience. Many know of my dying clinically on Good Friday of 2011, April 22. What I saw was indeed glorious. (I don’t apologize for here over using the term “glorious”. One can’t overuse the term because there is none more appropriate to convey Heaven’s…well…glory!) I was, it has become apparent, “sent back” to tell exactly that truth to all who will listen. I cannot help but do so. Going to that place of glory was and remains something that comes to my mind at moments, particularly when things look to be gloomy, prophetically speaking. The trip to that sphere on three occasions of my heart stopping was truly glorious, and it was instantaneous upon each heart stoppage.

My thoughts on recalling those heavenly visits always go back to Paul telling us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. There isn’t even a twinkling of an eye of time between the last heartbeat and bursting onto that glorious scene –not one fraction of a second.

Stephen, the first Christian martyr, as he was being stoned, saw the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, stand from the right hand of God’s throne to welcome Stephen into glory. I am certain that, had God intended to keep me on that Good Friday, I would have been instantaneously in His holy presence. This will be the indescribably glorious reception each believer will experience when the final heartbeat instantaneously transfers us from this fallen sphere into the presence of the eternal magnificence our God has prepared for us.

Jesus said the following.

Let not your heart be troubled. Behold I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again, and will receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:1-3) 

The glorious dwelling place Jesus has prepared for you and me is beyond comprehension, as Paul has assured. We can get but an inkling of that stupendous vista that will burst in our super-enhanced eyesight. Being blind for more than 30 years now, I’m particularly looking forward with great expectation and Anticipation to that scene, whether experiencing it through the instantaneous portal of death or the even-swifter entry into that heavenly presence in the Rapture.

Like the song lyrics of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” express: “The things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

The Lord is not willing for anyone to perish; He wants all to come to repentance. This desire to bring the lost to Christ should be in the deepest reaches of our own spirits. That’s why we must always carry out the Lord’s Great Commission to all who are lost in sin.

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28: 18-20)

The future is glorious for all who put their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. Here is how to become part of God’s eternal, heavenly family. Let us who are in that family point the unsaved in the direction of the heavenly gates with Scripture like the following.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10: 9-10)

War begins in each individual, the Apostle James reveals:

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. (James 4:1–2)

The fallen nature, which came when sin was introduced to humanity, started a war that rages to this day and is intensifying by the minute, according to the hourly news reports that constantly bombard us.

Threats of war ebb and flow and reach, at times, the very brink of exploding into full-blown nuclear devastation. But that hasn’t happened to this point.

Those of my age remember the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 in which the US and Soviet Union faced off. I certainly remember that, as a 20-year-old, there was genuine fear, even by those of us so young at the time.

Sounder thinking prevailed, and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and US President John F. Kennedy pulled back from that fatal moment when the Doomsday Clock must have been one second from midnight.

Or did they?

Did these leaders of the enslaved and of the free world save the planet to fight instead in a thousand conventional conflicts into the future?

Or did physical salvation of everyone on the planet come from another source?

To answer His disciples’ question—“What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world (age)?”—Jesus said:

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 can’t remember when fear of world war has been more prevalent than in this present hour. The fear is being expressed not so much by average people of the world, but within the highest echelons of world diplomacy. The following somewhat puts this all into perspective.

According to media reporting on documents leaked from the German Ministry of Defense, European leaders are preparing for a “hybrid” Russian attack in Eastern Europe. The first stage, dubbed “Alliance Defense 2025,” would start this February with Russia mobilizing an additional 200,000 soldiers. Fox News reported on Tuesday that classified German documents outlined how the militaries of several European countries are planning to prepare for an offensive by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The story was first reported in the BILD newspaper based on information obtained from the German Ministry of Defense. The “Alliance Defense 2024” could start in February as Russia deploys about 200,000 soldiers in response to Western financial support for Ukraine drying up, according to the report…

Newsweek reported on Tuesday that Margarita Simony an, editor-in-chief of the Russian-state-owned broadcaster RT, predicted that World War III will “definitely” break out in the Middle East.

“And now the third world war,” Simonyan posted to Twitter on Monday evening. “Whether a world war will break out now or a little later depends on whether Washington believes that it will be useful to it now, before the elections, or vice versa. Judging by the choral silence of the American media, they are still thinking.” (Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, “Media Warns of WWIII Starting in Mid-East after Presidential Elections,” World News, 1/19/24, https://www.israel365news.com)

Certainly it cannot be denied that armies are positioned around the world—particularly in the Middle East—for whatever reasons. They are there, and war-like tempers are in a rage.

Iran continues to develop its nuclear weapons program while threatening both Israel and America. It uses proxies to attack ships in the Red Sea and other places. Hezbollah makes noises of joining in the assaults on Israel. Lebanon threatens to join the fray for what is perceived as Israeli intrusions, even though attacks emanate from Lebanese territories. Turkey’s dictator talks in terms of war rhetoric as he observably moves Turkey into the coalition formed against the increasingly hated Jewish state.

In Asia, China is positioned to assault Taiwan, using provocative tactics to intimidate that state, which China considers its own.

Vladimir Putin is stepping up military action against Ukraine, while angered over Western—particularly US—funding of the Ukrainian military.

There is no weapon ever invented—including nuclear weapons—that hasn’t ultimately been used in war. The thermonuclear weapons developed since the atomic bombs used to end World War II are exponentially greater in power than those two bombs that killed more than one hundred thousand people.

So is World War III—a thermonuclear holocaust—about to destroy us all?

Again we look at Jesus’ words:

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)

Further, we are assured by Jesus Himself that the world will not end in thermonuclear cataclysm.

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:22)

So, as Jesus Himself said, “Let not your heart be troubled”—that is, if you are a child of God. Despite the rumors of war raging from every quarter, there will be no all-out nuclear World War III this side of the Rapture. And even following the Rapture, God will prevent Satan’s attempts to destroy humankind.

You don’t want to be here when Satan’s efforts to do just that will be at their horrendous worst during the Tribulation. Here is how to become a child of God and go instead to be within the safe harbor the Lord Jesus Christ provides for all who accept God’s salvation offer.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)

Jesus Christ Himself gave the very first sign to look for in answer to His immediately present disciples’ question: “What shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

The Lord answered: “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you” (Matthew 24:4a).

Jesus continued by applying the deception that would mark His return and the end of the age to that involving the deceivers claiming to be Christ Himself. That has proven to be the case.  There have been within every generation those who claimed to be the Christ. However, the matter of this end-times deception goes much, much deeper, and there is great evidence that the greatly increased deception Jesus warned of is full-blown in every facet of the world today.

As a matter of fact, there is deception within deception taking place, which I hope to show as we proceed. That strange, intramural conflict amongst end-times deceivers is, I’m convicted, perhaps God’s having the evilest among us in derision, as given in Psalm 2. Perhaps it is the restraining hand of God the Holy Spirit slowing the Ephesians 6:12 cabal of demonic and human minions in their drive to establish Antichrist’s regime before its appointed time.

I wrote of this rage by the global cabal to bring in their New World Order in the introduction to our book of compilation, DECEIVERS: Exposing Evil Seducers and Their Last-Days Deception. 

Satan, the grand deceiver, continues to mesmerize much of the American populace… The reprobate mind of Romans chapter 1 is now the norm more than the aberration.

Satanic rage against anyone who opposes his global agenda to bring all into a new world order is front and center each and every hour in news headlines. His deceivers—his minions both human and demonic—are busy building upon his deadly blueprint to bring about destruction of America and the world.

The apostle Paul’s forewarning of the coming end-times deception and delusion that appear to be just ahead are ringing like alarm bells in spiritually attuned ears:

“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-11).

These wicked antagonist-rival forces that are spawned by the same source–Satan—are fighting over, of all things, deception!

Here is information to that effect.

[Because of AI deception] the World Economic Forum has now declared “Disinformation” to be the world’s greatest threat according to their 2024 “Global Risks Report,” which will obviously require more control over free speech. —WEF founder and chairman, Klaus Schwab

As Jonathan Turley writes in a Friday note:

The report shows just how engrained this anti-free speech movement has become among the world elite from media to business to politics.

The absurd finding is consistent with the warning of other international figures and groups. We previously discussed how WHO Director-General Tudors Adhanom Ghebreyesus has supported censorship to combat what he calls the “infodemic.”…

Yet, we’ve now gone beyond simple “disinformation.” The world is now under threat from “AI-Powered” Disinformation!

According to the Financial Times, disinformation created via artificial intelligence is on the horizon. The outlet points to an incident during the September elections in Slovakia – in which a mysterious recording of the liberal opposition candidate, Michal Šimečka, could be heard plotting with a journalist to buy votes and rig the result. Yet, the recording was fake. The Slovakian police warned voters to be cautious online of nefarious actors with “vested interests.”

Šimečka lost the election to a populist “pro-Russia rival,” which, of course, the FT uses to imply Russia was behind the recording and the threat to democracy is greater than ever before!

Online disinformation has been a factor in elections for many years. But recent, rapid advances in AI technology mean that it is cheaper and easier than ever to manipulate media, thanks to a brisk new market of powerful tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, AI art start-up Midjourney, or other text, audio, and video generators. At the same time, manipulated or synthetic media is becoming increasingly hard to spot. (“Disinformation ‘Doomsday Scenario’: AI-Powered Propaganda Is the Latest Threat to Humanity (That Must Be Censored),’ ZeroHedge, Tyler Durden, 1/12/24)

What this all means–and it is hard to follow—is that Klaus Schwab and the WEF and other would-be New World Order builders can’t control the manipulation of elections and other things that go against their drive to bring in complete control under their auspices. AI (artificial intelligence), which they no doubt have been greatly influential in creating, has gotten out of their control.

AI is being used by operatives not under the globalists’ control to use the technology to create phony conversations that sound exactly like candidates, etc.—i.e., deception is being created by AI to make the New World Order builders’ candidates look evil in the eyes of voters, etc.

This group of deceivers is using AI to do the same thing to the WEF types that the WEF types intended to do to them: put deceptive information into the eyes and ears of voters and other constituent entities.

AI is indeed deception on steroids.

When the Church of Jesus Christ is called from planet Earth and God’s restraining hand, the Holy Spirit, withdraws the same degree of constraint to the wicked minions, AI will no doubt be allowed to come under Antichrist’s satanic authority for a period of time.

You don’t want to be here during that time. Here’s how to instead be with the God who loves you and gave His only begotten Son as a sacrifice so that you can be saved and be with Him throughout eternity.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

I was sitting in a hotel restaurant in Dallas where the pre-Trib Study Group founded by Dr. Tim LaHaye had its annual meetings during the 1990s. We were awaiting delivery of our breakfasts, when I watched a friend—a well known Christian-Jewish ministry television host—approach our table.

He sounded chagrined, his face, according to another friend sitting beside me, not the usual smiling countenance we all were accustomed to witnessing. He shook my hand and I said, using his name, “What’s wrong? You have a bad flight?”

He had just returned from Israel, where he had conducted services and did television programming.

He began by saying in a disgusted tone, “I just don’t know why God made Arabs.”

My reaction was, “Well (his name)…”

Before I could say anything else other than express my being unable to say anything, he said in even a more disgusted tone and with greater fervor, “Well d*** it, Terry, I mean it…”

I was both amused and somewhat amazed to hear such foul language from my great friend.

He went on to explain how one Arab Muslim contingent or the other had physically attacked in an act of terrorism while he and his crew were near the Temple Mount, as I recall. This evil activity, of course, wasn’t unusual, and continues to this day, decades later, and even increases in ferocity, as we’ve recently seen with Hamas’ brutal slaughter of Jews and others on October 7 of the year just past.

Without any doubt, my friend, now gone to be with the Lord, knew better than just about anyone on the planet the story of Abraham going to Sarah’s handmaiden Hagar, how his wife told Abraham to produce a child with Hagar because it was obvious to her that at her age she would have no more children.

My famous friend knew Abraham and Sarah got ahead of God’s great plan to bring Isaac into the world through that couple’s union. The birth indeed happened by the time Abraham’s son by Hagar, Ishmael, became a teenager.

So that, of course, was, to answer my friend’s angrily posed question, why Arabs were eventually “made,” as my friend put it. But his demeanor exemplifies to this day the Jewish-Arab raging differences that seem to have no end in sight.

An article somewhat frames the never-ending things involved in that ever more violent and expansive conflict.

[Regarding the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 and its aftermath, the article states:] But the depth and scope of this crisis require a comprehensive cultural and spiritual rethinking of how we perceive ourselves and the enemy, focusing on the question of why the enemy fights and what we are fighting for.

Hamas and Hezbollah fight out of religious belief. By contrast, we are not clear on our reasons for uniting to fight wars beyond our desire to safeguard our existence and survival.

A.B. Yehoshua once posed an existential question: “Nation of Israel, for what purpose do you live?” Later, he clarified: “Survival is considered the most prominent aspect of the Jewish people…but it is not survival that is the prominent aspect, but rather how it is done, what its agenda is, what values it holds, and primarily, what its cost is.” (A. B. Yehoshua, Haaretz Books Supplement, 20.2.2013)

This question must be applied to clarify the central inquiry: Nation of Israel, for what purpose do you fight, and how do you fight? (“A Clear Post-War National Vision Means Returning to the Roots of Zionism,”Gershon Hacohen, Opinion Algemeiner, Rapture Ready News, January 11, 2024 )

The above piece demonstrates Israel’s blindness to what’s going on with regard to the evil perpetrated incessantly against the Jewish race—against Israel the nation. They can’t get a grasp on all the things that are driving and tugging His chosen people and nation back toward the God who loves them with all of His majestic being.

“Why the Arab versus the Jew?” is a monumental and seemingly insurmountable question, to be sure. Some believe it is the holdup to even world peace, not to mention Mideast regional peace. In fact, to those of us who believe God’s Word is absolutely true in every respect, this is the case. The Jewish/Arab problem will eventually involve the whole world and will ultimately bring all the nations into the killing field called Armageddon.

Zechariah the prophet foretells that Israel will become a “burdensome stone and a cup of trembling” to the entire world. Paul the apostle foretold that there will be a great “cry of peace and safety” that will cause “sudden destruction.”

It is obvious that the great conflict between these antagonists–the Jews and the Arabs—is what is now causing the most profound angst within the world’s diplomatic sphere.

These would-be world masters–the globalist ringmasters—constantly try to force a two-state solution to the great conflict they believe more than any other on the planet threatens the ignition of nuclear war and the end of humankind.

And it is this very matter–the tearing apart of God’s land granted to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—by the powers and principalities of the global cabal that will fulfill prophecy that brings everything to a head.

Again, Joel tells of this in the starkest of terms.

For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3:1–2)

Many believe the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, could be a primary catalyst for bringing Zechariah and Joel’s prophecies to fruition. Regardless, our witness of Israel now at the center of hatred practically everywhere on earth–especially hatred by the young in universities across the world—lends credence to the likelihood that pressures to force Israel to make peace from many directions could bring God’s great hand of judgment.

That judgment will begin with His calling all believers in His Son, Jesus Christ, out of this world of rebels, to safe harbor in the Rapture. Here is how to be within that safe harbor, while wrath and judgment ravage the planet.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9–10)

The great prophet Daniel was given immense prophetic foreknowledge. He saw the rise of kingdoms and their leading protagonists. He saw the end of all these world kingdoms and their kings, or hierarchy.  Yet he wasn’t allowed to know the finale of things with regard to either his beloved nation Israel or of the planet—at least not in significant detail.

He wasn’t permitted to see what I believe you and I are presently allowed to witness regarding the wrapping up of “all these things,” which Jesus told us to look for as recorded in Luke 21:28. And anyone who is biblically centered and “watching,” as we are told to do by the Lord, according to Mark 13:37, is witnessing phenomenal stage-setting for the end of the age and the beginning of Daniel’s seventieth week—the Tribulation.

Here is what the prophet was told by the angel in their exchange when Daniel desired to know what would be the end of his people:

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. (Daniel 12:4) 

Daniel responded as follows:

And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. (Daniel 12:8–9)

Many observers of the times—including yours truly—believe those words and that book are now being opened for us to discern these end-of-the-age hours leading to the triumphant return of Christ.

One of the most fascinating aspects of “watching” all of the developments, to me at least, is the rise of dictators and their being allowed by Heaven to do their wickedness. And, I include in that evil group many of the leaders within the American political power structure, both elected and appointed, or even just inserted within that structure because of the influence their wealth gives them.

We have watched them do all within their deception and conniving efforts to change this nation into one totally ruled by insane policies and would-be tyrannical enslavement. They haven’t yet reached the level of an Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, or even a Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping. But they want to bring America into their own view of what the world should look like. And that view is them at the top, with the rest of us here to serve them. This is the human minion element within the Ephesians 6:12 cabal against which we who name the name of Christ wrestle, as Paul put it.

So, in hearing the new speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaking , his words tripped my curiosity meter that maybe is a bit like the prophet Daniel felt, regarding his wanting to know the end of all this worldly wickedness.

Speaker Johnson’s words were as follows.

“I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a [matter] like this,” Johnson said during his Oct. 25 acceptance speech in the House chamber. “I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the One that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you, all of us, and I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time. This is my belief. I believe that each one of us has a huge responsibility today to use the gifts that God has given us to serve the extraordinary people of this great country, and they deserve it, and to ensure that our republic remains standing as the great beacon of light and hope and freedom in a world that desperately needs it.”

Now, Mr. Johnson is an outspoken devout Christian, and I applaud his standing up and declaring that God’s way is the way business should be done. I’m thankful he has been placed in that important position at this critical time in our nation’s movement through history.

But the thought struck. Yes. I believe God raised up Mike Johnson for this moment. And I believe that God raises up all men who achieve powers to govern. Johnson’s belief is based upon Daniel’s words.

Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. (Daniel 2:19–22)

Daniel, the great man of God, had it right, of course. He affirms with all his heart that God is in complete control at all times, and nothing is done without His being in control.

But the key here for purposes of our commentary title are the prophet’s inspired words: “he removeth kings, and setteth upkings.”

God does indeed raise up leaders, as Mike Johnson told those in his audience–some of whom are themselves deeply into that wicked Ephesians 6:12 cabal. And the question piques my curiosity, like it probably does yours.

Why, if God controls everything, does He permit these evil sorts to achieve power and do the dastardly things they do? Like, for example, why were the leaders of that Hamas terrorist pack of demonically-inspired horde allowed to plan and carry out such blood-drenched atrocities October 7?

The answer that comes to me isn’t one that takes away the intense fervor of the question. But it does provide comfort. I think that while our finite minds can’t understand fully such an Infinite dealing by a sovereign God with such an absolutely incomprehensible evil as wrapped up in the thing called sin, to accept that God is in control, no matter how things look otherwise, is a faith-building matter. Daniel’s story of his faith is most relevant to acceptance that God is using all the sin-saturated activities by even the most evil of world leaders to ultimately bring all things back to perfection that was lost when iniquity entered Lucifer’s mind.

So God, who knows the end from the beginning, raises dictators as well as godly people to do His bidding. Antichrist will come on the scene and will accomplish God’s great purpose. Like Daniel counted on that truth–we can count on it too!