Mainstream news people—I am reluctant to call most of them journalists these days—have gotten the scent. Their reporter-curiosity olfactory senses seem to have kicked in. They sniff the present state of decay in culture and societal interplay, and a prophecy of sort has emerged from among their ranks.

I sense myself that this particular reporter is chosen by others among her ranks to express what her fellow mainstream news media folks don’t want to individually verbalize for public consumption. –Thus the collective dystopian narrative.

It is, to be certain, an unusual forewarning coming from the American propagandist cabal, among whom reside deception and deceivers, the likes of which I believe the Lord Jesus spoke of in the Olivet Discourse in answer to His disciples’ question: “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

The following is a rather astonishing prediction, considering it is from a mainstream news reporter–even though Ms. Herridge is less offensive in regard to bloviating left-wing ideology than most of the others, from my perspective.

CBS News investigative reporter Catherine Herridge made a “dark” prediction that 2024 will produce a “Black Swan Event” which shocks the world.

Herridge made the call during a round table discussion when she was asked by host Margaret Brennan about what we could expect to see unfold over the coming year.

“Well, mine’s a little dark,” Herridge stated.

“I just feel a lot of concern that 2024 may be the year of a black swan event. This is a national security event with high impact that’s very hard to predict.”

A black swan event is defined as a major catalyzing event that seems unpredictable at the time, but with the benefit of hindsight seemed inevitable.

The event must have an extreme impact when it occurs…

A black swan event can also be positive, but in this context Herridge asserted that it would have negative consequences for America.

“There are a number of concerns—concerns, I have that factor into that,” explained Herridge.

“Not only this sort of enduring, heightened threat level that we’re facing, the wars in Israel, also Ukraine.”

“And we’re so divided in this country in ways that we haven’t seen before. And I think that just creates fertile ground for our adversaries like North Korea, China and Iran. And that’s what concerns me most,” she added.

Host Brenna agreed with the investigative reporter, responding, “A lot of people are up at night with that concern, Catherine. At least in this town.” (Tyler Durden, “CBS News Reporter Makes ‘Dark’ Prediction of’ ‘Black Swan Event’ in 2024,”  ZeroHedge, 12/27/23; Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news)

With Barak Obama’s recent input into the extremely dark, dystopian film in which he and Michelle are said to have producer interest, Leave the World Behind, and mainstream media joining in the gloom-and-doom outlook, it’s prudent to ask a prophetically pertinent question: What’s up? What on earth is going on with all the Utopian, New World Order types looking toward apocalypse?

It is a very good question at this time when we see all the biblically foretold Tribulation clouds gathering.

A “swan dive” event is given in some dictionary definitions as a suicide, a headlong plunge into a fatal impact. It might be described as a dive into oblivion.

It is more than interesting that those in charge, the New World Order builders, seem to be forecasting such a future for America and the world. I myself wonder if it might be Satan working to prepare those who will be in charge of post-Rapture governments for what is coming. Certainly, Lucifer , knows God cannot lie. He knows the time of Daniel’s seventieth week is on its way.

Rather than describing what is coming as a black swan dive into terrible times, the Lord Jesus Christ put the coming darkest of times on planet Earth as  follows.

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

Here, I believe the Holy Spirit is urging me to appeal to you if you are a nonbeliever. Jesus is the answer to all of your anxieties, to all of your worries. He is willing and ready to forgive all sin that separates you from God the Father in Heaven. Simply do the following. I have put it in today’s English this time, rather than the King James Version.

If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart (your mind and spirit) that God has raised him (Jesus) from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart men and women believe and are made righteous by God, and with your mouth confession is made that saves you from sin and its consequences, which separates the soul of the unbeliever from God for eternity.) (This is my paraphrase of Romans 10:9–10)

Accept God’s grace-gift offer today. It is a decision you will never regret for all of eternity.

“Unbelievable…it’s already 2024.” That’s what we hear today, or have maybe heard or said ourselves on this or any previous new year. Indeed, the days, weeks, months, and years seem to roll around faster and faster—at lease to those of us who are of somewhat advanced age.

The conversation always seems to include something like: “When I was young, time seemed to just drag on, especially during school days. Now time just flies by, doesn’t it?”

Nowadays we still say: “Happy New Year!” to those we see and talk to at this time of year. But just like in the case of those younger days in our view of time versus our elder days of thinking on time’s swift movement, whether it’s a Happy New Year, or otherwise, is truly a matter of perception.

Since this column is devoted to dealing in matters involving God’s Word, and in particular, dealing with God’s prophetic Word, perception is important, even crucial, to understanding to what degree this is a Happy New Year–or otherwise. In considering all this, there are massively divergent perspectives at hand, thus enormously important questions that need to be answered. So let’s dive in to this 2024 new beginning, in terms of what we face now and just ahead. Let’s look into whether it is, in fact, to be a Happy New Year! Or not…

Now, again, I’m going to be more America-centric than global-centric, because for most of planet earth, the term Happy New Year isn’t even thought of in such terminology. For most peoples, the majority under dictatorships, there is little thought of this year–or any year—as being “happy.”

Our nation is by far the most materially blessed of all human history–at least so far as we know. That is, some believe the antediluvian world possibly had technologies beyond our own advanced technology. I personally doubt it, so far as human beings developing technology to the extent we have now. There were, I believe, certain supernatural interventions into the human condition by the demonic world, according to God’s Word. So I proceed from the view that America and the Western world in general today have material blessings beyond any other civilizations of human beings.

Material blessings—i.e., cars, refrigerators, homes filled with comforts and conveniences of every sort—I realize aren’t necessarily things that produce the emotion we think of as happiness. And this is where the matters of perception and perspective come into relevance.

What constitutes, in our America-centric perception and perspective, a New Year—2024—that will be a truly Happy New Year?

Perception/Perspective of Most Americans

Americans, for the most part, seem focused only on the moment. This includes secular and religious people alike–believers in Jesus Christ and nonbelievers. Those in this category go about life just, as is said, keeping heads above water economically and in other ways that don’t disrupt routines of life. Barring personal and family catastrophic events, or the dire outlook of those in deep poverty, the perception and perspective is of and from the “all is well” viewpoint. The upcoming year, for these, usually is projected verbally as a Happy New Year in that sense.

However, looking from the perception and perspective of things going on, viewed under the revealing light of God’s Word, the Bible, it is quite a different and troubling reality.

The greeting “Happy New Year” doesn’t guarantee such a future for the coming year. It simply expresses hope that things of life track in a trajectory that doesn’t include any sort of unpleasant issues or events. Since such a trajectory doesn’t exist in an imperfect world full of pitfalls, wishes for a truly Happy New Year can never be fulfilled–at least not a Happy New Year in the truest sense.

So what is a Happy New Year in the truest sense? The question involves a matter worthy of exploration during this darkening time of Sodom-like cultural and moral decline.

Perception/Perspective of Those with Prophetic Enlightenment

Those who use the template of God’s prophetic Word to view the world as it is and as it looks to be projected to be for the year 2024 cannot see a particular happy outlook. That is, not in the sense that others with the view that “all is well” see things, both at this moment and in the year just ahead.

We look at the absolute adulteration of the culture in this nation as a departure from godliness. The youngest children are subjected to the most wicked forms of perversions, while parents who object are pursued by federal law enforcement as domestic terrorists.

We view the murder of millions of babies in the womb, and even after being out of the womb, through the abortion process, as the equivalent of the ancients sacrificing their infants and small ones upon the pagan alter of Moloch.

We look at the great deception going on with government and corporate entities, as well as journalists in media, lying to us as the fulfillment of Jesus’ words when he told his disciples that deception will be great just before He comes back in power and glory. The American political process is ongoing validation of the Lord’s foretelling in that regard.

The wars are rampant, just as Jesus said they would be at the end of the age. Rumors of wars are even more prolific in their assault upon our eyes and ears with each news cycle. Think Ukraine and Hamas and Israel’s determination to survive wars being perpetrated against the Jewish state.

And Israel being at the center of all controversy at this very moment leaves no doubt to those who watch from the biblically prophetic perspective that the world is on the very precipice of the Tribulation.

World War III and thermonuclear annihilation threatens each and every hour today.

So it isn’t time to forecast a Happy New Year for 2024. Not in the sense that it will be a time of joy in our nation or upon the earth. Quite the opposite is true.

That said, we who look at these things through the prism of God’s prophetic Word have peace about all the ominous societal, cultural, economic, geopolitical, and apostate religious darkness that is quickly gathering. We understand, through God’s promises, that all the evil we see coming now and in the year 2024 means one thing: The Lord Jesus Christ is about to shout from the clouds of Glory: “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1)

Paul the apostle described what happens following that shout:

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)

With this stupendous prospect in our spiritual perspective and perception, 2024 just might be the happiest of Happy New Years!

If you want to be a child of God who can truly say “Happy New Year!” in the way herein presented, this is how:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, 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)

Author’s note: This is a Christmas gift of forewarning. It is the order of terrible events prophetically scheduled to take place during the Tribulation. The memorandum is given in love and in advance for those who will choose to be left behind after the removal of believers to Heaven, rather than accept God’s grace gift of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, whose birthday we celebrate today.

Please consider the following grace gift from the Lord who created you and who desires that you be part of His family for all eternity. Follow God’s prescription in this promise. Then, the memorandum that follows will not be for you, but for others who have rejected the grace gift offer prior to the Rapture of all believers in Christ for salvation.

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)

MEMORANDUM

Date: (Unknown)

To: Everyone left on planet Earth

From: Those who have vanished

Re: The truth about what happened

This is to tell you exactly what is involved in the sudden disappearance of people around the world. It’s as simple as this: We who belong to Christ were called into the air above the planet in the Rapture. Yes, that kooky, ridiculous, pie-in-the-sky, fly-away event that Tim LaHaye and other preachers of what you’ve thought of as fantasy have been proclaiming could happen at any moment did, in fact, happen.

You are hearing, or will soon hear, every conceivable explanation of what caused this astonishing disappearance. Here are our guesses as to what some of those explanations will be:

• It was some sort of quantum evolutionary leap, which will ultimately be great for mankind.
• It was a mass abduction by extraterrestrials—an outgrowth of the singular abductions that have been reported over the years.
• It was a natural, scientifically explainable cosmic interaction that some human physiologies could resist and others couldn’t.
• It was a supernatural movement into a higher form for those who disappeared–an ascension to godhood.
• It was punishment from the great cosmogonical mind, removing the evil from the world.

Don’t believe any of these or other explanations. To find out the absolute truth about what the mass vanishing actually involves, read in the Bible 1 Corinthians 15:51–55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18. Also read John 14:1–3 to find out where we who vanished are presently located.

Now that we are gone–and our leaving has everything to do with your immediate future—the following will happen in order very similar to that listed here.

These and other events will occur over the next seven years:

• Total chaos will rule for a time. (Lk. 21: 25)
• Governments will get control through sometimes-harsh methods. (Rev. 17: 12-13)
• One world government will come together. (Ps. 2: 1-3)
• A one-world church will form. (Rev. Ch. 17)
• A world leader from Europe will step to the forefront and take charge of the peace process. (Dan. 9: 26-27)
• Israeli government and Israel’s enemies will sign an agreement of peace that ensures peace and safety. (Dan. 9: 27; Isa. 28: 18; 1 Thes. 5: 3)
• Peace will not last, as a coalition of nations—led by Russia—will invade the Middle East. (Ezek. 38: 1-12)
• God, himself, will destroy all but one-sixth of the invader forces. (Ezek. 39: 1-5)
• Much of the world will be hit by the deadly effects of the invasion. This will possibly include chemical, biological, and nuclear aftereffects. (Ezek. 39:6-7; 11-16)
• The world leader will solidify his power following the Russian-led coalition’s destruction. (Dan. 8: 23-25; 11: 36-39)
• Two Old-Testament-type prophets will come on the world scene and preach about Christ while condemning the world’s evil. (Rev. 11: 3-6)
• Meanwhile, God will put His protection upon 144,000 Jews who have converted to Christianity so that they can begin to preach God’s saving message to the people of the Tribulation. (Rev. 7: 3-8)
• At the same time, God will allow strong delusion to come over all who heard the Gospel before the Rapture, but, fully understanding the offer of salvation, refused to accept Christ. These will believe the lies of Antichrist and Satan. (2 Thes. 2: 11-12)
• Antichrist, after months of trying, will finally murder the two Old-Testament-type prophets. But they will come back to life and be taken into Heaven while the world watches. (Rev. 11: 11-12)
• Antichrist will receive a supposedly deadly head wound (Rev. 13: 3).

• Satan and his fallen angels will fight God’s forces, be kicked out of Heaven by Michael and his angels, and will be exiled to planet Earth, where Satan will bring great anger against those who live there (Revelation chapter 12).
• The False Prophet will perform supposed miracles and will call fire down from Heaven –which likely will involve light-like orbs that are those of Satan’s force thrown down to earth (Revelation chapter 13).
• Antichrist will appear to resurrect from the dead, being then possessed by Satan. (13: 3-4)

• Antichrist will sit in the Temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. He will claim to be God and demand worship. (2 Thes. 2: 3-4)
• The False Prophet will direct all worship to Antichrist, and will erect an image of him. (Rev. 13:11-17)
• Antichrist’s regime will institute a computer mark-and-numbers system. It will be both to control the world’s populations and to cause all to worship Antichrist, whose number in all of this is 666. (Rev. 13: 16-18)
• Those who refuse to accept Antichrist’s mark will be murdered. Beheading will apparently be the regime’s chosen method of offing these “traitors.” (Rev. 13: 15; 20: 4)
• Antichrist will begin a systematic genocide against the Jewish race that will make Hitler’s Holocaust look mild by comparison. (Rev. Ch. 12)
• He and the False Prophet will also have all the new believers they can find rounded up, tortured, then murdered. (Jhn. 16: 2; Rev. 13: 8)
• While Antichrist hunts down and murders people by the millions, God’s judgments will begin to fall directly on the rebellious people of the planet. (Rev. 6: 17)
• Millions upon millions will die while God’s wrath pours out in a series of three types of judgments, each consisting of seven specific judgments, for a total of 21 judgments. (Rev. chapters 6 through 18)
• When all is said and done, more than half, possibly as much as two-thirds, of all human life will die of the plagues. (Rev. 6: 8; 8: 8; 9: 18)
• God will prepare, and the Jewish remnant will flee to, a hiding place, probably Petra, the ancient city carved in the rose red-colored rocks of the Jordanian wilderness. (Rev. 12: 6, 14)
• Antichrist and his forces, led by Satan, will pursue the Jewish people and try to murder them, but the pursuing forces will be swallowed up by the Earth. (Rev. 12: 15-16)
• While the Jewish and many of the Gentile people still alive remain safely protected, God’s wrath will fall in greater force. (Rev. 16: 1)
• The sun will go partly dark, while at the same time heating up to seven times hotter than normal. (Rev. 16: 8-11)
• A great object will fall into the ocean from space. Its impact will kill life in the sea, and most likely will destroy coastal areas with tidal waves. (Rev. 8: 8-9)
• Another asteroid or other mass from space will strike earth and will poison much of the planet’s fresh water sources. (Rev. 8: 10-11)
• Great, unprecedented earthquakes will happen simultaneously all over the earth. (Matt. 24: 7; Rev. 16: 18)
• People will be so frightened they will have heart attacks, just from the things they see are yet to come. (Lk. 21: 26)
• A supernatural plague of huge insect-like creatures will be released from the abyss, and they will sting all who have the mark of the Beast. Men and women will try to commit suicide because of their great pain from the stings and bites of these demonic creatures. (Rev. 9: 3-6)
• God will then move in the minds of all military forces on earth to gather in the valley of Jezreel, the plains of Esdraelon, near the ancient city of Megiddo. This is Armageddon. (Joel 3: 14; Rev. 16: 16)
• The “Kings of the East,” a huge army out of the Orient numbering more than 200 million troops, will invade to make war with Antichrist’s and the other world’s forces. (Rev. 9: 15-16; 16: 12)
• Jesus said of this time that if He didn’t come back, everyone and everything would die because of the fighting about to take place. (Matt. 24: 22; Mark 13: 20)
• Jesus will return with the armies of Heaven. His armies consist of the mighty angels and Jesus’ Church, which will have been raptured at least seven years earlier. (Rev. 19: 11-14)
• Antichrist’s armies and all others will try to prevent Christ’s return. (Rev. 19: 19)
• Jesus will simply speak, and all armies on earth will be rendered helpless, most killed. (19: 15-18)

You have only one chance to survive: accept Jesus Christ as Savior (read John, chapter 3). This will involve refusing to take Antichrist’s mark when it is instituted. If you accept the mark, you are eternally doomed.

Note to those not appointed to God’s wrath (1 Thes. 5:9-11): Perhaps you should pass this memorandum to your lost family and friends before you vanish.

Then, post it on your refrigerator.

Author’s note: The article presented here was written some years ago. It was at that time and continues to be meant to inform the Jewish people of their God-ordained destiny. Because God’s Word is absolutely true, the matters involving His chosen nation have not been proven to have fallen by the wayside of history. God’s Word on the Jewish people has only increased in veracity. That is, each and every passing day, God’s Word about Israel issues forth ever stronger Proof that God’s promises to that people—and to all believers in Jesus Christ—will come to pass. All that’s going on at present, with the building worldwide hatred and satanically driven genocidal ranting by even deluded, American university students, gives validation that Jesus Christ is on the very brink of calling believers to Himself as He promised:

And when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:28)

Israel’s Destiny

Israel is the one nation in human history that the Creator of all things chose to be “a people unto himself”:

For thou [art] an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that [are] upon the face of the earth (Deuteronomy 7:6).

Jehovah made promises to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that are staggering in their implications. He promised to bless those who bless the nation that would spring from the loins of these men, and warned about His curse for those who cursed those people. God said to Abraham:

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:1–3).

Certainly, this promise can easily be verified as coming true throughout recorded history. The modern record, as a matter of fact, is contemporary proof of the veracity of the Almighty and His prophetic promises. Historians–except those blinded by the great deceiver, Lucifer—concede, sometime reluctantly, that Israel’s history in ancient times was a record of greatness. David’s and Solomon’s exploits and accomplishments are legendary, but built upon archaeological facts. Israel has achieved greatness among the nations of this earthly sphere.

One point over which secular historians at the minimum raise eyebrows of skepticism is that man received laws and moral codes through Moses, the son of Abraham. Most give Hammurabi’s Code that honor. But, those who believe that God is who He is know that the great human deliverer of the chosen people came down from Sinai with rules for living life, given by the God of Heaven to His creation. Particularly, the Ten Commandments were meant for Israel to follow as fealty to their God, and as example to the rest of the world.

God’s promise to make Israel a great nation and to bless all other nations through His chosen people has come true. The United States, for example, has the Ten Commandments upon its walls within government buildings–including the Supreme Court. America, despite the anti-God forces who want to destroy the nation’s moral underpinnings—continues to lead the world in most areas of improvement of the human condition. This is due to the Ten Commandments’ influence upon American ethics and achievement. But, it goes profoundly deeper.

Much of America’s successes in technological, medical, and every other category of progress has been contributed by members of the Jewish race. We don’t have to look far to find them. I’ll just mention the most obvious: Albert Einstein, the German-born, genius-physicist who became an American citizen. No more than a cursory study will show, indelibly, that God’s Word is true, when He followed through on the promise to make the people of the book the head of all peoples:

And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do [them]. (Deuteronomy 28:13)

Then what about the maltreatment, the genocide, against the Jewish race down through the millennia, particularly during the twentieth century? This doesn’t appear to be God making Israel the head of all nations. Here is where God placed some conditions upon the people He chose as destined to become the head of all others. Note the last of the above promise:

…if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do [them].

God will make Israel the head of all nations if they will listen to His instructions and commandments. Not only is that where the nation has strayed, but it is where those who say that God is through with Israel–that the Jewish race is no longer God’s chosen—have also strayed. God’s Word says ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have strayed–both Jews AND Gentiles.

Israel’s detractors within Christianity say the Jews rejected their Messiah in His first visitation. Therefore, they say, Jehovah has written off the Jews and the nation Israel. The Israel in the land surrounding Jerusalem since May 14, 1948, is not the Israel of the promises, the detractors say. Modern Israel is but an imposter, and God considers it no more within His prophecy for future national or racial greatness than He considers any of modern Israel’s blood-vowed enemies.

Absolutely nothing could be farther from the truth. It is true that Israel of Jesus Christ’s day rejected Him as Messiah. It is equally true that those of His own race, the Jews, cried “Crucify him!”—which convinced the Romans to crucify Jesus. But God’s Word says every person is a sinner. We are born into sin–because Adam, the physical father of humankind, disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. Again, God’s Word says that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”

The Jews, as a race, are no guiltier than my race, which is Gentile. We all, as the human race, put Jesus Christ to death on the cruel Roman cross. He came to earth, sent by His Father, the God of Heaven, to offer Himself as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Jesus the Christ–the Jews’ Messiah—came to fulfill all Mosaic Law, the Ten Commandments. In Christ we can now believe, and our sins are cleansed, washed away by Christ’s sacrifice for eternity. Through His shed blood, we ALL–Jew and Gentile–are in the family of God forever.

But, each individual must accept this grace gift that replaced the sacrificial system of blood from innocent lambs of the physical sort. We must accept Christ as Savior, as Lord one-on-one with God, because He gives each person the free will to accept or reject His grace offer of salvation.

Now, I must come to the sad part—the tragic part of this essay, really—in which I address this nation’s prophetic destiny.

God’s Word, the Bible, foretells that the Jewish race as a whole, Israel as a nation, will continue to reject their Messiah, the one who came to them more than two thousand years ago. This rejection will continue to result in God’s promises being delayed until the moment Jesus returns to put an end to humankind’s final war called Armageddon.

Israel was scattered after the AD 70 destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple atop Mount Moriah. This was exactly what Jesus predicted in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew, chapter 24; Mark, chapter 13; and Luke, chapter 21). Jesus prophesied that not one stone of the Temple would be left upon another. Titus and the Roman legions saw to the fulfillment of this prophecy.

The Jews lost their temple, their city, and, following Hadrian’s purge in AD 135, their geographical homeland area, plus their common language (Hebrew), as a cohesive link to one another as a distinct people. Yet God’s Word foretells that Israel will be a nation again at the end of days–the time just before Christ returns.

Again, tragically and sadly, you are back in the land for a time that will be worse than any ever experienced by any people. The prophet Jeremiah foretold this:

Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it (Jeremiah 30:7)

It will be a time of horrors beyond anything even Adolf Hitler dreamed about perpetrating upon the Jewish race.

Can we see a build-up toward that time? Let us consider the words of the prophet Zechariah, and put his prophecies as a template over today’s headlines:

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).

The peoples of the earth are gathering against Israel. Even some leaders within the US, governmental and religious, want Israel to give away land for peace. The “Zionists” are seen as the problem.

Israel is basically isolated today, so far as true allies are concerned. The United States stands almost alone as your friend. However, it hurts to say that support is eroding, while some within recent American diplomatic efforts seem to want to exclude your nation from talks involving the small territory you now occupy—territory, incidentally, that is but a fraction of the land the Lord your God granted you through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These negotiators join the so-called international community in wanting to placate Israel’s hate-filled enemies.

This Neville Chamberlain-like, “peace at any cost” maneuvering is not lost on those who want Israel wiped off the map. It is creating a perception of weakness that will tempt them to act on their satanically driven hatreds.

Ezekiel foretold of a time at the end of days when a northern coalition will invade from the North (all biblical direction is given from Jerusalem). There is not space here to go into detail, but excellent scholarship has determined the chief attacker will be Russia, joined by many surrounding peoples. This attack will include forces from the area of ancient Persia, which encompasses all of Iran, and considerable surrounding geographical areas. This coalition, I am convinced today’s news headlines indicate, is gathering now. This will be the Gog-Magog assault described prophetically in Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39.

The one bright prospect, and it is a bright spot, indeed, is that the God of Israel will never let Israel be destroyed; we have His Word on that:

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 bottom line is that Israel, the Jewish race, is again destined to become hated and persecuted—this time with satanic vitriol that will make Hitler’s Holocaust look somewhat less terrible by comparison.

Antichrist, the long-foretold, sometime spoofed, but 100 percent Bible-prophecy guaranteed-to-come-on-the-world-scene tyrant, will implement genocidal policies against the Jewish race that will go far beyond draconian.

I didn’t make up this prediction. God’s Word, the Bible, does say it. I accept that Word as the only truth there is. I, and other Christians who know Jesus Christ as Lord, love, or should love, the Jewish people–the nation Israel. God loves you; so must we. You are His chosen. However, I, and they, can’t change what God has prophesied to take place, I’m convinced, in the relatively near future.

But, I, and they, are charged with showing individuals within Israel the way to escape the coming time of Antichrist’s regime of horror. Accept Christ now. He is Messiah. And one day, perhaps very soon, He will call His people—Jews and Gentiles who accept Him as Savior—to be with Him forever. This will be the Rapture. (That stunning event in which millions of people will vanish from planet earth can be found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 and 1 Corinthians 15:51–55. Jesus spoke of it in John 14:1–3.)

The Rapture will take place before that time of horror–the era Jesus called “great Tribulation” (Matthew 24: 21).

The people of the nation Israel who are unrepentant (the remnant, for most will die in this last holocaust) will accept Christ at the last moment.

Here’s what that future remnant’s Messiah says:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. (Zechariah 12:9–10)

Israel will then be made the head of all nations, with the resurrected King David ruling as co-regent with the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, atop Mount Zion at Jerusalem for one thousand years–the Millennium! Believe it or not, that is your nation’s great God-promised destiny.

We who love Israel pray that you will believe.

Christmastime, celebrating the birth of Jesus, is for us a joyous occasion. Christ’s first coming to earth to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world must have been, however, for His Father, an excruciating matter beyond any human ability to fathom.

Only the unfathomable love of God could condescend to meet humankind’s need for a Savior in a way that would require such sacrifice.

The Father’s love in sending His Son in that first Advent brings forth a terrible realization: His vengeance on the wicked who have rejected His Son will bring wrath and judgment the likes of which is almost beyond imagination.

The rebel armies of earth will be gathered by God Himself to the most horrific killing field of all wars. As the Second Advent proceeds and the black clouds of Tribulation part, a brilliant light from glory will illuminate not the baby of Bethlehem, but the King of all kings and Lord of all lords.

Leaders of the forces meeting at Armageddon to battle each other will turn to see the brightness that has broken through the darkness that has overcast Earth’s skies because of the judgments of God. Antichrist, supreme leader of much of the forces west of the Euphrates River, will recognize the invading force from Heaven. Perhaps the leaders from the 200 million-man armies from the Orient that have crossed the dried-up Euphrates from the East will also know what the brilliant heavenly intrusion is all about. All earthly forces will then turn to concentrate their fire on the descending heavenly army led by Jesus Christ.

While the sea of humanity on the planet’s surface viciously roars in an attempt to prevent the heavenly intervention, those warring forces will turn from battling with each other to curse God and all His righteousness. Then Jesus Christ, mounted upon a stunning white steed, will speak words sharper than a two-edged sword.

Master to Calm Storm

I am convinced Christ’s words will be the same ones He spoke to that raging sea of Galilee nearly two millennia ago (read Mark 4:36–41). They are the same words He says today to everyone who turns to Him, acknowledging that there is nothing and no one but Christ who can save them. He says those words to all who accept Him and trust Him to save them from their sins and to make them born-again children of God.

Just as His words instantaneously calmed that violent sea, thus saving the men in the little boat, Jesus’ words will instantly end the warfare and rebellion at Armageddon. Christ’s words to the individual’s troubled heart likewise bring tranquility and joy to the soul. A person is never the same when Jesus speaks the life-changing words: “Peace, be still” (Mark 4:39).

Bloody Peace

When Jesus speaks the words, “peace, be still,” at Armageddon, His command will be against all the vileness that has been building in humanistic rebellion over the thousands of years since God last judged in such a mighty way. All people died in the Flood except Noah and seven others. Christ’s words at Armageddon will apparently cause most, if not all, of the soldiers of the armies of the world gathered there to literally burst open, so powerful will be His command!

The plains of Armageddon will flow with a flood of blood! The Scripture says of this event:

And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. (Revelation 14:20)

The point is, when Jesus speaks, His words are sharper and more powerful than a two-edged sword, Scripture says. When Christ speaks, all opposition by earth’s armies will instantly cease and desist. All will lie horribly bloody–but peaceful—upon the vast killing field called Armageddon.

Jesus on the Throne!

Jesus, following His stunning victory over the enemies of God, will proceed to get the people of Israel who have, during the Tribulation, come to believe in Him. He will rescue them from the place God has hidden them. This hiding of believing Israel (all Jewish people who have accepted that Jesus was and is their Messiah) is revealed in the following passage:

And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 12:13–17)    

The Hiding Place

Satan’s Antichrist forces will try to completely wipe the Jewish race from the face of the Earth. They will try to fully implement Satan’s Final Solution. But, God will intervene with great supernatural catastrophe and prevent Antichrist from finding the Jews. God will have hidden them somewhere. As we’ve looked at before, many prophetic scholars believe the hiding place will be in the Jordanian desert, in the “rose-red city” called Petra.

Jesus will retrieve these believing Jews from their hiding place, and will use this remnant of the Jewish race to be His nation of Israel during His thousand-year rule on Earth called the Millennium.

Israel Saved!

The Bible says a third of Jews alive during the Tribulation will recognize their Messiah, Jesus Christ, at the moment He returns in the Second Coming. It will be a real eye-opener for them.

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn. (Zechariah 12:10)

Jesus will then move, with His saints of the Church Age and His chosen people (all of saved Israel), to Jerusalem. He will set up His throne upon a topographically changed Mt. Moriah in the Millennial Temple He will build.

Antichrist and False Prophet Judgment

The Lord Jesus will judge Antichrist and the False Prophet, who have persecuted Tribulation saints—particularly, the Jewish race (Israel). We learn of these two beasts in the following:

And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. (Revelation 19:20)

These two will be the first to be cast into Hell. They will have it to themselves until thousand years later, after the white throne judgment.

Satan’s Confinement

The Devil will next be grabbed and confined for a thousand years.

And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. (Revelation 20:1–3)

The bottomless pit is the same place from where the rich man, in torment, looked into Paradise to see Lazarus in Abraham’s Bosom, according to Jesus’ teaching (read Luke 16:19–31).

Sheep and Goat Judgments

Christ will judge the nations. Their fate will hang upon how they treated His chosen people, the Jews. The “goat” nations will stand on Christ’s left while He judges, while the “sheep” nations will stand on His right.

All in the goat nations will be cast into everlasting darkness, lost for eternity. These nations consist of individually lost souls, each of whom will, apparently, be placed in nations that have persecuted Jews, and, most likely, Tribulation saints as well. The nations so judged will no longer be part of the nations of earth. (Read Matthew 25:32–46 to learn exactly what the Word of God has to say about that great future judgment.)

It is logical to presume the saved people who have lived in the goat, or lost, nations will be put into the sheep nations, which will be allowed into the Millennial Kingdom. Likewise, the unsaved people who have lived in the sheep nations will go into the goat nations to meet their eternal fate in outer darkness.

Saints of the Tribulation who make it through the seven years alive, will, individually, go into the nations that have treated Israel kindly. However, it must be recognized that the children who will be born during the Millennium will have to make the same decision their parents made: to either accept or reject Christ for salvation. Millions will not do so, and will be as rebellious as those who lived before this time of Christ’s glorious, thousand-year reign on earth. These unsaved will join Satan in the final rebellion when he is released from the bottomless pit for a brief time. All will be destroyed and will spend eternity in Hell apart from God.

Millions of others who are the children of the saints who go into the Millennium will accept Christ, and will, ultimately, live eternally with God. These offspring of the Tribulation saints who go into the Millennium will be the peoples who will continue to repopulate the earth for a thousand years. All of these individuals will be saved for eternity.

Fantastic Changes!

Jesus will assume the throne that belongs to Him alone. It is called the “throne of David.” David, apparently, because of God’s own choosing, will, in his supernatural state, also rule over the nation Israel during the Millennial era.

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. (Matthew 25:30)

The terrain of Jerusalem and of the whole world will supernaturally change in accordance with a masterful sweep of King Jesus’ hand. We are given a glimpse of those astonishing topographical and environmental changes prophesied to take place in that day. (Read Zechariah 14:4–9).

Like in Eden

Jesus will make the earth like it was in the time of the garden of Eden. It will be a crime-free world for the most part. Anyone who does commit a crime will be dealt with immediately, and from a righteous justice system that has perfect knowledge of all things involved in the crime.

Many prophecy students believe Church Age saints will be officers of the Supreme’s court of justice in the administration of King Jesus. As supernatural officers of the court, they will certainly be equipped to handle such a duty.

But, again, crime will be almost nonexistent, compared to our present hour. Christ’s saints, both flesh-and-blood and supernatural ones, will doubtless have wonderfully creative things to do for those thousand years. Anticipating that time of glorious service should empower us for our Royal Ambassador service here on earth!

The Second Advent will bring the glorious time on earth the utopian dreamers have longed for throughout the centuries. It will be the Lord Jesus Christ, not the would-be masters of this fallen world, who will construct the new heavens and new earth.

Even so come, Lord Jesus!

***Terry James REVELATIONS Trilogy ***

Terry James’ three novels in his eye-opening Revelations trilogy are now in a boxed set – ideal for Christmas gift giving.

Although the novels are, of course, fictional accounts of these bizarre times—so near Christ’s call to believers in the Rapture—Terry’s decades of factual study and presentation of Bible prophecy ring true throughout its pages. His devotion to God’s truth, in every sense, makes his storytelling come alive with believability for the reader.

Revelations: The Complete Trilogy is now available in an attractive set for gift-giving or for personal use. This set is especially great as a gift for your young adults and those within your family circle.

Book 1: Revelations

Book 2: Michael

Book 3: Messiah   

Note from the author: My prayerful hope is that, through these novels, the Holy Spirit will impart to readers’ spirits the truth these stories present. The world is full of distraction through entertainment of every sort that can take a person’s thoughts far from matters important to the Lord. Entertainment centered in truth from the Creator will, I prayerfully hope, through Holy Spirit intervention, capture readers’ curiosity—thus causing them to explore further what God the Heavenly Father has done for them through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I will appreciate your support in purchasing this boxed set to help spread God’s truth through fictional entertainment before the eyes of as many as possible. I am praying these novels make an impact for the souls who need Jesus.

—Terry James

To order your copy today, here is a link to the boxed set: http://geni.us/rnYRy

Author’s note: Today’s lengthy article is from a chapter I wrote many years ago for one of my books. I find that the stage being set for fulfillment of biblical prophecy has progressed to this time (2023) in a way that validates God’s Word, from which I derived conclusions back in that earlier time. We can be sure that Jesus Christ will yet bring a cessation to all the violence and evil we see around us at present.

–Terry James 

Peace, Be Still

Planet earth was near cataclysm. The atomic structure of all creation strained to explode while the One for whom and by whom all things were created descended the Mount of Olives riding on the donkey.

Apparently, all that kept the building blocks of the universe from flying apart were the hosannas of praise shouted by the people who spread the palm fronds before Jesus.

The indignant Pharisees, seeing and hearing the worshipful adulation, implored Jesus to tell them to stop their praising. The Lord knew their jealous, sin-blackened hearts: They, in their unbelief, considered the praise blasphemy. As He always did, Jesus spoke truth that cut away all superfluous side issues:

I tell you the truth that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out (Luke 19:40).

The King of kings moved toward the holiest of all places on earth to present Himself as Israel’s Messiah. In a short time, those people would reject Him and demand that He be put to death by the cruelest method of execution known in that day. When the praises turned to cursing and the Lamb of God was slain in the once-and-for-all sacrificial act that provides redemption for lost humankind, the skies darkened to midnight black at midday. The earth convulsed mightily and split apart. Corpses came out of their graves and walked the streets of Jerusalem. Nature itself must have screamed in agony when the Son of God and God the Father separated because of humanity’s sin, which Christ became in that awful moment the Trinity was split.

Before Jesus voluntarily gave up His spirit to death, He said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Could Jesus have been asking the Father to restrain the geophysical elements from taking vengeance on that generation of rebellious earth dwellers?

All of creation no doubt felt spasms of the pain the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit experienced. Legions of angels leaned forward, ready for battle if the Son of God had called. But Jesus’ words reflected only compliance with the will of His Father in Heaven: “It is finished” (John 19:30). And the upheaving geophysical universe settled when the veil in the Holy of Holies ripped from top to bottom.

Neopaganism and Its Consequences

Practically every indicator within the scope of human affairs points to restlessness, turmoil, and wars and rumors of wars. Jesus’ words as recorded in Matthew 24:5–8 could easily be applied to our times. The Lord said in that account:

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled-, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

Although He was referring specifically to the Tribulation period, He also said in Luke 21:28 that “when these things begin to come to pass,” we are to “look up, and lift up [our] heads; for our redemption draweth near.” Jesus said these indicators would be “the beginning of sorrows” or birth pangs.

The Lord warned that these symptoms of the end time will increase in frequency and intensity as the time of His return approaches like the labor contractions a woman suffers when the birth of her child nears. His words seemed to emphasize that man’s rebelliousness and wickedness will again be at levels like they were in the days of Noah and of Lot (Luke 17: 26–30). Humanity’s incorrigible rebelliousness will bring God’s wrath.

Certainly, this generation cries out for peace. Most conspicuous is the global outcry for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors. The hue and cry for peace, however, can be heard from every quarter on earth. From nations in conflict with each other, from ethnic groups warring one against another, from communities experiencing ever-increasing violence, from families in turmoil, from individuals who murder and maim each other, every hour of every day, they cry “peace, peace! when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14, 8:11).

This generation seeks to calm the rage, but does so through anything and everything but the one and only source of true peace, Jesus Christ. The poorest among our number seek comfort, solace, and sustenance from governmental bureaucracies. The middle class seeks to keep their noses above the flood of taxes those bureaucracies issue. Yet at the same time, the middle class gropes for temporal pleasures, entertainment, and material goods that might provide moments of peace that never seem to come. The wealthy and elite grasp for satisfaction they perceive as attainable through the pursuit of money, power, and self-aggrandizement.

Idolatry of every sort rules throughout every stratum of every culture and society today. God is pushed farther and farther from the thoughts of people who seek only to praise their gods of this age.

Fires of discontent are the result of people’s refusal to give God the praise and worship He alone deserves. That fire will soon produce seven years of hell on earth. As Jesus warned the Pharisees, “the very stones will cry out.”

The Stones Begin to Shout!

When the 22-pound Mars rover named Sojourner began its work shortly after landing on that planet July 4, 1997, scientists began proclaiming almost with one voice that the geological pattern was telling the story of a catastrophic planetary flood. Many of these same scientists could discern and exclaim loudly that a planetary flood had occurred millions of years ago on the planet Mars 119 million miles distant. They cannot, however, bring themselves to admit that the catastrophic global flood reported in God’s Word ever occurred on earth. They deny the flood of Noah’s day even though the geological record attests to the truth of the biblical account and is readily observable all around them on their own planet.

The stones cry out from 119 million miles away, making manifest the foolishness of those who profess themselves to be wise. The so-called scientific community can claim with absolute authority that microbial life once existed on Mars because of formations they think they see inside a meteor fragment they speculate came from Mars. They can say with certainty that man evolved out of primordial soup without producing a single link of proof that one specie has ever made the evolutionary leap to become another. Yet, when millions upon millions of sea-life fossils (seashells, etc.), are found on the highest peaks on earth, the so-called empirical method is thrown out the door. Rather than admit that these mountain ranges were once under water due to a great flood that covered the whole earth, they choose to believe and put forth the unsubstantiated claim that the mountains have been somehow rising for many millions of years from a starting point below sea level.

Human beings lie because their foolish hearts are darkened. God’s marvelously made creation cries out the truth where humankind fails to do so. The apostle Paul, writing under inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit, spoke to the heart this disbelief and its consequences:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shown it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse; Because, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, Who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen (Romans 18-25).

Our generation voraciously devours the evolutionary dogma with the same gusto the ancients had in their hunger for their self-fashioned beastly gods. Idolaters of today differ from ancient idolaters only in that neo-pagans worship gods that are a bit more interactive. They excitedly praise Hollywood entertainers and shout their adoration to sports stars and sports teams from pews at the temple-like stadiums and arenas and through television altars in their homes. They fashion their objects of worship into shiny automobiles, pleasure boats, and other usable forms. Like the pagans of old, they give their hearts, time, and money to their idols, which they name after birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things.

Evolution has become the foundation upon which humanistic agendas are built. God has been kicked out of our classrooms and our courtrooms. He has been replaced by relativism, which makes the individual a god unto himself.

Evolution says that all began in chaos, but is getting better and better as the human animal progresses toward becoming the ultimate man. But, in actuality, evolution creates chaos because it puts forward “values clarification” that says all people have a right to know and do what is right in their own eyes. The ultimately evolved human will be the incorrigibly wicked and rebellious people of the apocalypse. The Antichrist will personify the lies wrapped up in the false faith that so-called scientific minds of today term “evolution.”

Total chaos, the opposite of true peace, is unregenerate humankind’s destiny. America’s decline since the 1960’s Supreme Court decisions to legalize abortion and outlaw God in classrooms and courtrooms and many other public places proves that chaos results from a godless, humanistic system.

Perilous Times in America

Often, in discussions involving the state of the world, it is said that societies such as those in Communist China, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, or the various brutal regimes in Africa have no regard for human life. Such accusations imply that America and Western Europe are the truly civilized societies and cultures of the earth. However, with more than one million children legally murdered while still in their mothers’ wombs every year in the United States, the assertion that America honors life more than do the barbarous nations of Asia or Africa is hypocrisy. The hypocrisy is magnified many times over when we consider that this nation has had God’s grace shed upon it in ways no other nation, with the possible exception of Israel, has ever experienced.

Darkness hasn’t come upon America because of wicked regimes suppressing gospel truth. Darkness is engulfing us because we, as a people, are turning our backs on God. We are deliberately and methodically turning off God’s light so we can do our sinful deeds under cover of darkness.

American money has inscribed on it “In God We Trust.” Today, it would be more accurate to say our slogan is “In Money We Trust.”

With the Dow Jones stock market figure over the 8000 mark as of the time of this writing, we live under the euphoric bubble of economic prosperity that causes national irrationality. While leaders at the highest levels of the United States government are examined in congressional hearings for alleged influence peddling to Communist China and other avowed enemies, polls show that same leadership enjoys high approval ratings among Americans.

National news media, unlike during the Watergate hearings three decades ago, push information about the influence peddling to the back pages and middle of broadcasts—when indeed they cover them at all.

The troubling statement, “character doesn’t matter,” seems to sum up the majority of opinion in America so long as the economy continues to give us the good times we want as entertainment, recreation, and pleasure-seeking people.

America’s governmental leadership is not the source of America’s problem. Rather, America’s leadership is a manifest symptom of the sin-darkened hearts of a growing majority of our citizens.

God’s Word speaks bluntly to people who reject Him and choose instead to do what is right in their own eyes:

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished; But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they; self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities….

But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption, And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. Spots they are and blemishes, reveling with their own deceivings…. Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls; an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children, Who have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray…. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever… For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. (2 Peter 2:9–21).

America’s founding fathers determined to set this nation upon a foundation of God-given principles. Yet one federal judge can command that those godly principles, the Ten Commandments, be removed from a schoolhouse or courtroom wall. The Supreme Court of the land can declare God’s Word null and void and His Son, Jesus Christ, an undesirable entity by declaring Christianity too narrow and bigoted to be presented within America’s educational process alongside pagan deities and pgan forms of worship which, in many cases, have governmental approval. The results of such foolhardiness are inevitable.

This disregard for God’s truth is disregard for life. Such disregard is, in some sense, worse than atrocities committed by those we consider barbarians in regions that have not been so blessed by God as ours. Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). To reject and blaspheme the only begotten Son of God is to display the ultimate disregard for life. Rejecting Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, brings the opposite of peace-chaos and war.

War in the Home

Humanism, the system embodying humanity’s determination to construct the world in our own image totally apart from God’s authority, is making an indelible imprint upon American family life. Homes are ripped apart by selfish actions that cast aside the notion of personal responsibility.

A generation has arisen from the chaos of evolution-based education. Humans are but the highest evolved form of animal life, the hellish doctrine goes, and, like the lower animals, have needs that supersede any obligation to some nebulous concept of morality.

Hollywood portrays the supposedly liberated man or woman as a sexual creature not unlike a dog in the street who can simply mate on the spur of the moment, then separate after having satisfied their primal urges. There are no consequences, only self-satisfaction and contentment until the next urge wells within.

Sexual innuendo and outright reference are everyday fare on sitcoms and regular TV programming. It’s just good fun, the defenders offer when critics speak out. There is no real harm, they proclaim. Yet many who create the sexually oriented programs are among those who cry the loudest in the fight against sexual harassment in the military, in business, and in society. This sort of convoluted reasoning—that it’s okay to program the minds of people with scenes of sexual debauchery in the name of “fun” entertainment but it’s is not okay for these same programmed men to put their fantasies into action by assaulting women in the workplace—is called in God’s Word “reprobate thinking.”

Growing numbers are following the “if it feels good, do it” tenets taught by humanism and vividly portrayed by Hollywood. Divorce rates continue to climb, the majority of them due to men leaving wives and children to pursue relationships that require of them little or no responsibility. This isn’t to say women are not culpable as well. Statistics show a growing number of women deserting husbands and children for the same self-centered reasons.

Why get married? is another attitude that pervades American culture today. Single mothers who have never been married constitute a rising tide of irresponsible behavior that portends great trouble in the near future. Gangs of youth without fathers to nurture and discipline them cling to each other and rage against a society that neither understands nor seems to care except when crimes committed by the gang members on occasion directly touch our lives.

Abortion proponents give unwanted children (such as those who end up in gangs and who might predictably produce future gang members) as good reasons for ending pregnancies. Such children, if allowed to be born, they say, will only suffer the abuse of America’s gang culture or worse. The truth is, however, that abortion imprints upon the minds of our children the idea that human life is a commodity like any other commodity and can be discarded without a second thought. Humans, not God, it is implied, have authority over life and death. The message clearly has gotten through to the young gang members who slaughter each other each night across America.

War in the Streets

Americans have for decades heard of civil conflicts in third-world countries where people face bodily injury and even death because of bloody fighting in the streets of their neighborhoods. Such murderous rampages continue to inflict millions of casualties. Wars resulting from civil unrest are perhaps more horrendous in nature than those in which uniformed armies oppose each other on battlefields. Helpless women and children who carry no weapons most often fall victim to roving marauders in these civilian versions of war. Jesus’ prophecy that there will be wars until His return certainly has been proven accurate.

Rumors of war, the second part of Jesus’ prediction about deadly fighting that will mark human history as His return nears, rumble ominous warnings from America’s inner cities. Although fighting in the streets of this nation has so far been confined to youth gangs sporadically shooting it out in our larger cities, troubling reports of increased drug dealings and other criminal activities in suburban and even rural areas should serve as a wake-up call. Rumors of wars threaten to turn into actual wars if peace is not forthcoming.

So-called gangbangers—inner city youth gang members—sometimes now receive something akin to diplomatic recognition by city officials and other leaders who desperately wish to negotiate an end to gang crime and gang war. Although such overtures to these juvenile thugs are well-intentioned, they give gang leaders and the gangs themselves increased prestige, power, and authority, thus making the gang life more attractive to youngsters. Rarely is peace made, and never is peace maintained through these “summit” negotiations.

The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3 that in the last days, perilous times will come. He wrote in that account that many people will be fierce in those closing moments of human history. Death-dealing carried on by the gangs and the drug dealers who rove our streets late at night and make thousands of new gang members through death threats and thousands of new customers through addictions indeed prove we live in a time when growing numbers among us are of fierce demeanor. How long can it continue at the present rate of increasing ferocity until every street in America becomes a battle zone like those streets in so many third-world countries?

The Seas and the Waves Are Roaring

Jesus foretold:

There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring. (Luke 21:25)

The Lord alludes to humanity’s intense interest in and preoccupation with things taking place in space. It seems hardly necessary to ask whether that prophetic reference fits this generation. All eyes turned heavenward when Sputnik first traversed the space above earth. Then Uri Gagarin’s trip into space sent the US Congress, the news media, and many worried citizens into orbit and America was pronounced woefully behind in the space race. US scientists were given carte blanche to pursue the Soviets. Then came Alan Shepard, John Glenn, and all the rest. America’s space program reached its zenith when Neil Armstrong dropped onto the moon’s surface and issued the now-famous proclamation, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Telescopes in space have recorded spectacular stellar events—for example, comet fragments slamming into the planet Jupiter with stupendous impact. The space shuttle program routinely draws our attention to the fact that our future points toward the stars. We witnessed the awful, yet awesome spectacle of the Challenger exploding, then falling ten miles to the ocean’s surface, plumes of death streaming behind it.

Progress toward reaching into the heavens hardly skipped a beat, however, and now the great enemies of the Cold War, Russia and the United States, are supposedly allies in the quest for reaching those stars with cosmonauts and astronauts sharing the Mir space station and shuttle rides on a regular basis. Great plans are in the works for manned missions to Mars and beyond.

Jesus’ prophecy has already been fulfilled, and He was foretelling events scheduled to be most pronounced during the Tribulation.

The next part of the Lord’s prophecy, “and upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity, ” could be used as a bold headline on the front page of every major newspaper in the world on any given day to encapsulate the present state of world affairs. No nation on earth is without distress. Leaders are perplexed as to how to remedy the overwhelming distress.

The United Nations, supposedly instituted to deal with such problems, is proven ineffective time and time again. The nations continue to cry “peace, peace,” when there is no peace.

UN leadership vies for power and influence within that confused body. More often than not, the most horrendous distress among nations goes unnoticed because the oppressed are overlooked by the heady, high-minded diplomatic elite who seek first and foremost to secure funding for their bureaucratic power bases.

The southern part of Sudan in North Africa, for example, is perhaps the greatest point of human stress on the planet. According to Kevin Turner, a missionary with the Voice of the Martyrs organization, millions of Christians have been murdered in that region and continue to suffer such horrific deaths as crucifixion and being buried alive. He reports that children are routinely taken from Christian parents and are sold into slavery and prostitution. Turner said he recently gave slave traders $1,000 for 15 children, stating that although it distressed him to in any way encourage slave trading, his higher duty was to see to it that the little ones were redeemed.

He then reported in a trembling voice and with a breaking heart that some slave traffickers are now engaging in the hellish business of harvesting the organs of the children they take from Christian parents.’

Is it any wonder that God’s wrath is building while the seas and waves of human depravity crash upon this world? How terrible the judgments described throughout the book of Revelation will be upon the generation who turns a blind eye and a deaf ear to such atrocious inhumanity.

Jesus Himself described the plight of the generation of apocalypse:

Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. (Luke 21:26)

 Waves were breaking over the little vessel that rolled in the violent sea of Galilee. The terrified men did all they could to keep the boat from being swamped, probably shifting their bodies to offset the buffeting from one side and then the other. The storm got worse and all appeared to be lost. Despite their best efforts, they had lost control of their circumstances. Finally, they turned to the One who, astonishingly, was sound asleep in one corner of the boat.

Jesus of Nazareth awoke and calmly surveyed the heaving, tumultuous sea which threatened to destroy the tiny craft. (Read Mark 4:35-41.) You and I stand today within a sea even more violent than that stormy sea nearly 2000 years ago. It will get worse. Much worse. As a matter of fact, it will become so violent, God’s Word says that if Christ Himself did not return, all life on earth would end. Humankind would destroy itself.

Half of earth’s population will die during the Tribulation. Many will be killed through humanity’s own murderous efforts when God removes His restraining hands for a time. Billions will die as a direct result of God’s wrath during the last three and a half years of the apocalypse. Great armies will march and roll and fly into the Valley of Jezreel. More than 200 million men will come from the east while millions upon millions more invade from west, north, and south of Jerusalem. All of unregenerate humanity will, through sin-engendered insanity, determine to battle to the final breath of the last man standing. Blood will literally flow and pool for many miles at depths up to three or four feet, according to God’s prophetic Word.

When the rage intensifies to a level that God can no longer tolerate, the dark, sulfurous clouds blanketing earth’s atmosphere because of the terrible carnage of that dark hour, the very fabric of space itself, will scroll apart. A blinding, laser-like path from heaven to earth will thrust forth. Heaven’s armies will descend, led by the King of kings and Lord of lords.

While the sea of humanity on the planet’s surface viciously roars in an attempt to prevent the heavenly intervention, those warring forces will turn from battling with each other to curse God and all His righteousness. Then Jesus Christ, mounted upon a stunning white steed, will speak words sharper than a two-edged sword.

I am convinced they will be the same words Jesus of Nazareth spoke to that raging sea of Galilee nearly two millennia ago. They are the same words He speaks today to everyone who turns to Him, acknowledging that there is nothing and no one but Christ who can save them. He speaks those words to all who accept Him and trust Him to save them from their sins and to make them born-again children of God.

Just as His words instantaneously calmed that violent sea, thus saving the men in the little boat, Jesus’ words will instantly end the warfare and rebellion at Armageddon. Christ’s words to your troubled heart likewise will bring tranquility and joy to your soul. You will never be the same when He speaks those life-changing words:

Peace, be still. (Mark 4:39)

Revelation’s thunder rumbles in the distance. Before the coming storm is full-blown, Christ will come for those who trust Him and Him alone for salvation. It will happen in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

Even so, come Lord Jesus.

George Santayana’s aphorism, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” has never been more apropos than at this moment. Developments are leaping to the forefront at this late hour of the age leading to the Second Advent of Jesus Christ—developments that are mind-boggling.

Yet vast numbers of people, particularly in America, seem oblivious to the absolute madness of the building rage of hatred toward the Jewish race. The insane rants of college students are mind-boggling to my generation, but regarding much of the rest of the nation, the call for genocide—and that’s what it is, make no mistake—isn’t registering. At least, major nationwide disgust over the atrocities perpetrated isn’t being reported by mainstream media.

And mainstream media is at the sin-darkened heart of the dementia. That is, mainstream media —news and entertainment as well as left-wing blogosphere forums—have so hidden truth about the Israel/Hamas conflict as to cerebrally and spiritually incapacitate much of the American populace. Particularly, the college-age population has largely been either inculcated to view Jews as evil or dumbed down through such media truth-blocking. For example, they are falsely reporting that the Hamas attack on October 7 was not genocidal hatred being carried out by insanely evil terrorists, but is an understandably passionate and legitimate movement designed to fight against Jewish occupiers of Palestinian land “from the river to the sea.”

Thus we have the cerebral and spiritual dementia—the forgetfulness of which George Santayana wrote—apparently infecting the entire country and much of the rest of the world as well. We therefore can now understand the Truth of God’s Word and the words of His prophet Zechariah, who said Jerusalem and Israel will become a “burdensome stone and cup of trembling” to the whole world.

While listening to a program early one recent morning, I heard the words of a British soldier in a documentary of several decades ago. He was speaking to the interviewer, telling of his being part of the D-Day invasion to destroy Hitler’s Nazi regime and end war in Europe.

He said he had, during many battles during World War II, seen many, many horrendous scenes—literally, blood and bodies torn asunder. Before that, he worked in hospital settings in England. He had seen terrible human carnage of every description. So he wasn’t squeamish, but battle-hardened. But when his British Army group reached the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, he and every battle-hardened veteran became physically sick. They all became totally silent as they observed the walking skeletons—skin barely draped over walking, corpse-like victims of the Nazi Holocaust. It was, he said, something he wished every person of every generation could see so they would believe it happened and would therefore stop such inhumanity to their fellow humans whenever it again raised its ugly head.

Well, it is raising its ugly, satanic head again. And the youngsters haven’t seen the black-and-white films of the walking dead described by this old, war-hardened, British soldier, as he expressed he wished would happen.

The college students—and others who have forgotten, or haven’t been taught, prefer the lies. They prefer, rather, to keep their noses in their smartphones and instead attend exciting “protests” against the much-hated Jews. We are witnessing the rising of another holocaust. It is the holocaust Jesus and the prophet Jeremiah spoke about in warning about what is coming on this judgment-bound world of anti-God rebels:

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)

Jeremiah the prophet said:

Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness. Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. (Jeremiah 30:6–7) 

This generation is about to experience the ramifications of “forgetting the past,” as Santayana warned. Treatment of God’s chosen people is at the heart of bringing God’s righteous judgment and wrath down on a world whose inhabitants have rejected His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent as the sacrificial lamb slain from the foundation of the world for the redemption of sin-fallen humankind.

Satan, the devil, was at the nucleus of the Nazi-engendered Holocaust of the 1930s. He is at the heart of the genocide being called for by many of America’s college students and much of the world’s populace today. Because of the treatment of His chosen nation and people, God will, according to the prophet Joel, bring all to Armageddon:

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)

Make sure you recognize the present rage against Israel (which isn’t a perfect nation by any stretch, but whose people God loves) is satanically inspired and driven. Christians should have this understanding, but, sadly, not all do.

Unbelievers have an excuse, perhaps, for not understanding, but it is an excuse that nonetheless won’t assuage the judgment and wrath that are coming.

Here is how to avoid the judgment and wrath, which God in His righteousness will bring against all who reject His Son for personal salvation of their souls:

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)  

Again listening to Dr. David Jeremiah’s message on the Rapture, one of my most adamant pre-Trib Rapture beliefs came to mind.

The question in my thinking isn’t: Will all children below the age of accountability go to Christ when He shouts “Come up here!?” My question revolves around how anyone who believes in what God’s Word teaches on salvation and the pre-Trib Rapture does NOT believe everyone below the age of accountability will go to Christ at that moment.

Objections to all children going to Jesus in the Rapture revolve around one verse of Scripture:

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. (1 Corinthians 7:14) 

Even the great Dr. John Walvoord believed these words indicate that only those below the age of accountability who have at least one “saved” parent will go to Christ when He calls the Church to Himself.

I’m name-dropping, I guess, but I asked (in an open Q & A session) my good friend, Dr. Walvoord (he wrote a number of chapters for my books and we were indeed good friends and talked by phone and in person on occasion), if he could give any other Scriptures that backed up the contention that this verse indicated as he believed.

He thought for a moment and shook his head no. “No, I can’t,” he said somberly.

I no longer debate the matter when given a contrary opinion, but respond one time and one only.

This is a salvation matter between Jesus Christ and the child (an eternal matter—not a matter dealing with physical life and death). It does not concern earthly relationships (child to parent), religion (church affiliation), or morality (personal conduct).

Children who have died and those who will be taken in the Rapture have in common the fact that they were/will be instantly with the Lord. This is because they are seen in God’s merciful economy as innocents.

Most importantly, it is an INDIVIDUAL matter—God dealing one on one, not collectively or corporately with the salvation issue.

Acceptance of Christ is based upon a decision. If a person doesn’t have—and has never had—the ability to accept or reject a relationship with Him because he or she doesn’t have the mental capacity to understand, they cannot accept or reject.

The Bible says those who know to do good and do it not, to them it is sin. Conversely, I believe that the whole body of Scripture presents the case that if people don’t know they are lost because of sin, they are not condemned. But, when maturity that brings understanding comes (and the Holy Spirit draws them, convicting them of sin), they must accept God’s offer of reconciliation.

The very character of God, as presented throughout the Word of God, is at stake. All in Christ will go at the Rapture. Paul says “all will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” What does this mean—”all” who are “in” Christ? It refers to the fact that all who are redeemed by the shed blood of Christ are a part of the Body of Christ—the Church. The child—even though born into sin because of Adam’s disobedience—is “in” Christ before he/she is able to comprehend God’s salvation provision. None who are in Christ will have to face the wrath of God during the coming Tribulation.

There is a specific heavenly book that is vital to the position of the soul of every person ever born, with the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ’s immaculate conception.

Here are the scriptural passages that speak to this.

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. (Revelation 3:5)

And there shall in no wise enter into [the heavenly abode] any thing that defileth, neither [whatsoever] worketh abomination, or [maketh] a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Revelation 21:27)

God’s Word is telling us here that there is a volume in which every human being’s name is written at some point. No one whose name isn’t written in this book can enter God’s holy presence for eternity. The word “Life” in the title of this book is “eternal” life. Every human being who has been conceived in the procreation process has his or her name written in the “Lamb’s Book of Life.” But, there is obviously the chance that one’s name can be blotted out of that book, according to Revelation 3:5. Since it isn’t possible to lose one’s salvation once a person has “believed” in the only begotten Son of God (Jesus’ words in John 10: 27–29,) the term “blot out” in Revelation 3:5 needs to be explained. The meaning becomes clear, when thinking on the fact that each and every individual’s name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. The name remains there until the person is shown that he or she is a sinner, and is convicted or called by the Holy Spirit to repent of sin—to “believe” in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the person fully realizes that call, and that Jesus is the ONLY way to reconciliation with God the Father, but refuses or rejects God’s grace-gift offer, that name is “blotted out” of the Lamb’s Book of Life. The individual who rejects that gift of salvation will die in sin and spend eternity apart from the Creator. Those who have reached the age of accountability will also be left behind when the Rapture occurs.

The name will be written back in that book when the individual subsequently accepts the Lord Jesus as Savior. Jesus Christ’s shed blood is the only payment God the Father accepts. But, once a person accepts that gift, he or she is a member of God’s family–forever.

So, our position in Christ is the all-important thing, whether considering going to Heaven when we die or at the Rapture, when Jesus comes to take us to our home, which He, personally, has prepared for each of us (Read John 14:1–4). This is the only collective family gathering that counts in God’s economy, in consideration of the matter of the Rapture and salvation. We will, at the Rapture, go home to be in God the Father’s house. Here on earth, our relationship with our earthly parents is tremendously important, of course. But, it is our place in our heavenly family, in our heavenly home, that is absolutely crucial. This is an eternal matter. And, it all relies upon our position in Jesus Christ, not upon our position in our earthly home, or upon the spiritual condition of our parents.

All of that considered, what, then, is meant by the Scripture that most all seminaries teach governs which children will go in the Rapture?

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. (1 Corinthians 7:14) 

To put it as simply as possible, here is what I believe is meant by this greatly misused Scripture. I believe it means that the saved partner in the marriage will make the marriage a legitimate union in Heaven’s economy. The saved partner makes it so in God’s holy eyes, therefore the marriage bed is undefiled, as the Scripture says in another place.

Thus, in the case of the marriage of one saved parent and one unsaved parent, a child is a legitimately conceived one—again, in the Lord’s holy eyes—i.e., the child is not seen in Heaven as having been conceived out of wedlock.

When the Rapture happens, there will be no children on earth—not even those just conceived and gestating in their mothers’ wombs. I believe the God who created mankind will make the most dramatic statement possible about His view of when life begins.

There will be great chaos on this judgment-bound planet like at no other time in human history. The sudden evacuation of all little ones below the age of accountability (and only God knows that age for each child) will make that chaos terrifying beyond comprehension.

You don’t want to be left behind to face that chaos, judgment, and wrath. Here again is how to make sure you go to be with the Savior when He calls.

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)