One of my most cherished aspects of the Lord’s bringing me into prophetic ministry is the tremendous teachers, broadcasters, preachers, and Bible scholars I’ve been blessed to know over these many years. None is more beloved, profoundly memorable, or respected in every way than the late Dr. David Breese.

Dave was one of the most brilliant thinkers, writers, and speakers, with that golden voice possessed by only a few of God’s men. He was as intellectually gifted as any—secular or Christian—yet possessed humor and warmth that made him instantly someone you knew was genuine and transparent in relationship.

In thinking on Dave, the thought of Samuel the prophet came to mind. Samuel was brought back from his eternal rest to deliver a message of condemnation to King Saul. In my prompt from, I believe, the Holy Spirit, Dr. Dave Breese needed to be brought back in the spiritual memory sense in order to deliver a message of edification to those of us who long for Jesus to call us in the Rapture.

Dave presented a series of thoughts on the Rapture in a book of mine many years ago, for which he wrote a powerful chapter. The following are those questions and answers presented in that chapter. They are as solid and encouraging as when I first received them from my great friend.

Questions and Answers

There are hundreds of prophetic questions that live in the minds of people. Many of them are asked openly at prophetic conferences, on radio programs, and certainly in private conversations. We do well to deal with some of the frequently asked questions, believing that the answers will be helpful to us all.

What qualifies a person to be caught up in the rapture of the Church? The Word of God teaches that Christ will return again for the delivering of His Church. Everyone who is among those called “brethren” (1 Thess. 5:10) is a member of the body of Christ and will be the object of the deliverance that will come at the Rapture. The single qualification, therefore, is that an individual be a Christian. A Christian is one who has believed the gospel of Jesus Christ and knows God’s Son as his personal Saviour.

What prophetic events must be fulfilled before the Rapture? There are no prophetic events that must precede the Rapture. The predicted events of prophecy have to do with the period of time following the Rapture leading up to the glorious return of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Rapture could take place at any given moment. It is well for the believer to regularly tell himself, “Perhaps today!”

How shall I prepare for the Rapture? Surely the greatest experience in life will be to be brought into the presence of God as a good soldier, a faithful servant. The essential preparation for the Rapture is that I be a Christian. Then, the fact that I could be taken to heaven at any given moment should motivate me to exemplary Christian service. Earnest prayer, faithful witnessing, godly living – all of these will be a part of the approval that can come in heaven. We all must so live so as to hear Jesus say in that day, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

When the Rapture comes, what will happen to the children of Christians? All children who have not yet reached the age of accountability are counted as “believers” under the doctrine of prevenient grace. We, therefore, conclude that the children of unbelievers will also be included with the children of believers and taken home to be with the Lord. As one person said, “‘All the children of the world will be taken to heaven and all the unborn children of the world as well.”

What impression will the Rapture make on the world? The answer, of course, depends upon the preoccupations and involvements in which the world finds itself at the time of the Rapture. Still, we must conclude that the disappearance of the Christians of the world and the children of the world will leave a stunning impression upon the minds of people. The Antichrist will be hard-put to come up with an explanation. In lieu of this, the dismay at the teaching of Scripture now being so well proved by the Rapture may well cause minions to come to faith in Christ during the Tribulation. They, as Tribulation saints, will face a time of fearful persecution.

Can we take anyone with us at the Rapture? Certainly not by holding on to them, as much as we might desire this. But, we can take all of our loved ones and friends with us to heaven if we will have led them to Christ so that they themselves have become Christians before the time of the taking away of the Church. When the Rapture comes, it will be too late to do any additional things in this world for Christ. The record of each person’s life will stand as indelible forever after that instant of translation.

How can heaven receive and process so many millions of individuals all arriving at the same time? This is no problem to God. The arrival of the Church, the body of Christ, at heaven will be a time of great reunion and rejoicing. A home in heaven will have long since been prepared for every individual by Christ himself (John 14:3). A place at the feast of welcome, of betrothal, called “the marriage supper of the Lamb,” will have been set for each one. No one will arrive at heaven as a stranger; rather, as a brother beloved.

Isn’t it cowardly to wish for the Rapture to deliver us from the problems of life? Anyone who does not particularly wish to be beheaded during the days of the Tribulation can certainly be expected to anticipate with a welcoming sentiment the rapture of the Church and the deliverance from the wrath to come. To want to go into the Tribulation is not courage; it is mere foolish bravado. The doctrine of the Rapture is true, unrelated to human attitudes. Especially remember that we are to love His appearing (2 Tim. 4:8).

Didn’t the doctrine of the Rapture come from a strange source? The doctrine of the Rapture comes from the Word of God. It is the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who presents this marvelous truth. It is best to avoid silly stories, from whatever source, related by people who would draw our attention away from any doctrine of the Word of God.

What is the difference between the Rapture and the second coming of Christ? The Rapture is a very special mission by the Lord to deliver the Church from the awful scenes of the Tribulation. The Rapture, therefore, comes before the Tribulation and takes Christians out of this world before that seven-year period of the wrath of God. Notice that, in the Rapture, Christ does not come all of the way to this world. Rather, Christians are caught up to meet Him in the air (1 Thess. 4:17).

At the second coming of Christ, His glorious return, He comes with His saints. In fact, He returns with an army from heaven for the conquest of the world (Rev. 19:11-16). Remember, since this is an army of His saints (Jude 14), you and I will be a part of that glorious conquest that centers on the return of Christ in power.

You see from the above that Dave was a powerful messenger for the Lord’s service. His voice lives on in the marvelous teaching and biblical exposition he left with us. I’m looking forward to seeing Dave again in glory.

Next week we continue with God’s answers to prophetic questions through Dave’s recorded words that bless us all still today.

“Preppers” are sometimes deemed wise, sometimes lauded, and often criticized as conspiracy theorists—and worse. Whatever their acceptance, praise, or condemnation, their very existence and proliferation gives credence, even validation, to their fear that “something wicked this way comes,” as Mr. Shakespeare would have it.

And whether one’s a prepper or not, even a non-Bible prophecy observer can recognize that there is growing wickedness in every direction on the cultural and societal landscape.

Prepping, of course, is gathering all sorts of things to prepare against hard times to come. Fear is prevalent and growing that there will be a complete fiscal breakdown—the dollar will massively lose value and be replaced by alternative economic systems worldwide. There is belief that society will collapse under the despotic hands of tyrants seeking to bring America down. Fear of attacks of cyber and even kinetic sorts are on the rise. There is trepidation that things like this are now being planned by the likes of Russia and China against a once well-protected America—a nation no longer secured against such destructive possibilities.

I admit to writing myself about these fearful prospects, in context of trying to be discerning about what God’s Word has to say about this generation as it approaches the time Jesus said will be the most horrific of human history (Matthew 24:21).

So a growing percentage of earth’s inhabitants are looking at what they see coming, and are trying to protect themselves and those they love from a possibly unprecedented assault against humanity. Some are intensively doing so, pulling out all stops.

The billionaires we hear about are doing things like buying up old, deserted missile silos and fixing them up for long-term living underground while the chaos of nuclear war and other deadly things occur on the planet’s surface. Lesser financially secured folks who are equally fearful of things to come are stockpiling foods, medical supplies, and all they think necessary to survive.

Of course, admittedly, the vast majority of the world’s populations, if they think at all about such dire possibilities, do so for only a fleeting moment. They are too busy doing life from one minute to the next.

There is one, however, who is doing a different kind of prepping. And he is doing so at breakneck speed. We can see his handiwork in that regard by simply observing the times and watching headlines unfold. It is as if he knows that he has a short time to prepare in consideration of his biblically forecast destiny.

I’m talking about, of course, Lucifer the fallen one. Satan is in an all-out phase of prepping, as I believe I and others who are watchmen and watchwomen can discern in these increasingly troublesome times.

The devil observably has his collars and chain around the necks of the dogs of government, military, economy, science, entertainment, and especially religionists.

We go over these matters every week in the many columns of those who present observations on Bible prophecy development.

In government we see developments shaping swiftly into the final, global entity Daniel the prophet spoke of to King Nebuchadnezzar. In military matters, we see war being threatened in areas of prophetic significance. World War III is considered almost a certainty by some of the most revered military affairs experts. In the economy there are developments that can be nothing less than preparing for the coming marks-and-number (666) system of Revelation chapter 13. In science, AI and all things digital are bringing all of humanity under surveillance and controls that will provide Satan’s man, Antichrist, everything needed to enslave a world—a world that obviously is already in a compliant mood to worship Lucifer.

Last week’s Super Bowl LVII made it clear, at least within the microcosm of that screaming throng, that the masses might be all in on welcoming the coming man of sin and his Beast state.

At Super Bowl Halftime Show, Rihanna Keeps The Satanic Spirit Of Last Week’s Grammys Alive And Kicking In Demonic Aerial Display With Fallen Angels

Last week, we showed you how the Grammys invited to world to enjoy something “beautifully unholy,” and then cheered as Satan was prayed to, invoked and worshipped on international tell-a-vision, and “sponsored by Pfizer” no less. Moments ago, the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show opened with filth merchant Rihanna descending from the sky, surrounded by what could only be described as dancing fallen angels, and sang “Bi**h Better Have My Money.” What was the reaction? Cheering and applause so loud that it competed with the music for your ear. You can stop having that debate now on whether or not America is a Christian nation, we absolutely are not. (RR news story link/prompt Rapture Ready News, February 13, 2023, NTEB story)

In religion, there is movement of all religions (all belief systems) attempting to come together as one. Pope Francis is consistently seen at the forefront of the effort while he applauds and approves of the World Economic Forum (WEF) efforts to bring the world back to Babel. We witnessed a meeting on traditional Mount Sinai in Egypt, where globalist minions came down after visiting the top, bringing down (in a way that mocked God’s Ten Commandments), their ten commandments for dealing with climate change and other world problems.

All of this is Satan’s prepping. While the world preps to survive what they fear is coming, the devil is prepping with all at his disposal to bring on that very devastation the human preppers fear.

I believe one of the chief signs we see in Satan’s prepping is the activity going on with the unidentified flying objects for which nobody within the military command system seems to have an answer.

The question I have: Is the world, with this sudden rash of UFOs, being further prepared to accept a space-brother-visitation explanation for that stunning moment when the Rapture occurs? This sudden phenomenon, in conjunction with the insanity being perpetrated against children, gives reason, in my view, to wonder. As many who read these commentaries know, I’m convinced beyond any remedy that every child under the age of accountability will go to be with our Lord when He calls the Church. God is going to, I’m convinced, demonstrate how He hates the way the world has dealt with the helpless little ones. The judgment and wrath will be great on this collective sin, I have no doubt.

We can expect Satan’s prepping to become more intensive as 2023 proceeds. Perhaps part of the reason Jesus told us to keep looking up is that Satan’s prepping—the so-called UFOs, etc—will be a key indicator of the Lord’s very near call to believers.

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)  

Can there be any doubt? In every direction we look, Romans 1:28 projects from our TV screens and computer monitors. The proof of reprobate, aberrant thinking reddens the horizon with warnings of dangerous times ahead.

Anti-God forces have put the planet’s populations in a position that, like in the time of the antediluvian world of rebels, God’s wrath and judgment must again fall. This article will, I hope, point to several examples that typify the reprobate mindset and show how far into upside-down thinking those, particularly within leadership positions, have descended.

Being several months older than the current US president, it gives me no pleasure to point out what everyone knows but few amongst the media and elective government will verbalize. Joe Biden is in obvious cognitive decline. His leadership as a US senator and ice president has been the topic of concern for many years, but lately the mental decline is manifest anytime he is off the prompter. He answers practically no questions from the press assigned specifically to solicit answers that inform the American public.

A mainstream news media with a collective ideology that views America’s founding as being wickedly flawed–even evil from inception—covers up the president’s refusal and/or inability to cogently frame thoughts that American presidents have always been demanded to verbalize. I offer as evidence, for those old enough to remember, the way the wolves of the mainstream media tore at Vice President Dan Quayle for simply misspelling “potato.” This president makes gaffe after gaffe constantly without a word from the sycophantic press. They consistently prevaricate in their “reporting” in order to make the anti-America-as-founded charges, apparently wanting to move this nation as far ideologically left as most of Europe now is—or even farther left politically.

The most recent cover-up situation by what used to be referred to as “the fourth estate” involves Biden’s apparent business partner, China. The balloon sent from that Far-Eastern enemy of the United States floated across the Pacific Ocean, the largest body of water on the planet, then traversed the entire nation at 60,000 feet before finally being shot down in US waters less than 12 miles off our East Coast.

The balloon was technologically directed by China, according to some in the know. It did not just drift accidentally into American air space. The Biden administration allowed the invasion of territory some 60,000 feet above the nation. The excuse so far offered for not shooting it down is a fear that the heavy parts would crash to earth, endangering the American people.

The balloon first attracted public controversy Wednesday as it hovered near multiple military sites in Montana.  China has insisted that the balloon was a civilian airship that went off course.

A report on Bloomberg said that U.S. officials were aware of the balloon back on Jan. 28, when it first entered American airspace over the Aleutian Islands. The balloon then drifted into Canada before returning over Idaho on Tuesday…

Despite downing the balloon on Saturday, the Biden administration took withering criticism from E. Casey Wardynski, a former assistant secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs in the Trump administration, according to Fox News…

Wardynski said the lack of action that took place as the balloon drifted across America amounted to” an excuse to do nothing, which is the kind of government we’ve got—a do-nothing government.”

He noted that the balloon was treated differently than almost any other aircraft.

“It’s our airspace. They [China] would’ve shot this thing down long ago if it was an American aircraft,” he said.

The Biden administration’s blustering “feeds into the overall picture of the Defense Department, which is that it’s a crowd that can’t shoot straight,” he said. (“Breaking Update: Chinese Spy Balloon Shot Down,” Jack Davis, Patriot Update, February 4, 2023)

More troubling than not being able to “shoot straight” is the fact that the administration no longer seems able to “think straight.” It seems the “reprobate mind” infects Washington, DC.

And it infects governments of lesser status as well. Minnesota state government manifests the Romans 1:28 malady, too, it is more than obvious:

Democrats [who hold a 34–33 majority in the state senate and a 70–64 advantage in the state house] in Minnesota banned coal, oil and gas after passing historic legislation in the state House of Representatives on Thursday…

And the legislation will cause electricity prices to skyrocket.

This comes at the same time that Joe Biden banned mining in the Iron Range, a Democrat-dominant working-class area in north-eastern Minnesota.

The new energy infrastructure in Minnesota will ban mining here at home as Biden struck a deal with African nations who use child labor and China where they use slave labor.

All in the name of climate change – the new religion of the left…

This is an unrealistic timeline that could endanger the lives of Minnesotans if it fails while causing their electricity bills to skyrocket, Republicans argued throughout the night.

They unsuccessfully offered several amendments to the bill, including lifting the state’s moratorium on new nuclear power plants, allowing for the use of carbon sequestration technologies, and delaying the standard to consider its impact on child and slave labor in the green energy supply chain.

“Frankly, what this bill will be doing today is making Minnesota reliant on nations around the globe that have no labor standards and no environmental standards. Minnesota in this bill will build a clean grid economy on the backs of child slaves in China and poor environmental regulations in Indonesia and the Congo,” Rep. Spencer Igo, R-Wabana Township, said at a press conference ahead of the debate.

He said the resources to build a clean energy future are right in Minnesota’s backyard, yet the federal government has now banned mining on 250,000 acres of the Iron Range.

“The third-largest deposits of copper, nickel and cobalt that exist in the known world are only 250 miles north of this Capitol. Instead of investing in those resources … we have decided to export it around the world where carbon emissions will be 20, 25, or 30 times higher than if we were to do it here in Minnesota,” he continued. (“Suicide Pact: Minnesota Democrats Pass Bill to Ban Coal, Oil and Gas in One of Nation’s Coldest States – As Biden Bans Mining in State’s Iron Range,” Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit, February 3, 2023)

Minnesota, one of the very coldest states of the Union, has as its elected leadership a majority that insists on doing away with affordable ways to keep warm. Reprobate minds, to be sure…

I tend to agree with the assessment that says blame for this and most other craziness shouldn’t be placed on this cognitively dysfunctional president. These things are being perpetrated and/or allowed—certainly directed—by the globalists. Mr. Biden is but a useful tool in the hands of those such as Klaus Schwab, George Soros, and others, it seems to me.

This upside-down non-reasoning all means that Christ’s Rapture call to believers in this anti-God age so near the Tribulation can’t be far distant. Christ’s promised return to end the madness is a bright beam of hope piercing the darkening horizon.

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. (Revelation 22:20) 

Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, made a most interesting comment in a sermon recently televised. He said something to the effect that he believes the Rapture will occur at the moment a global holocaust of some sort is in progress.

It is interesting to me, because I remember many years ago watching a docudrama-type program, produced by Peter and Paul Lalonde, I think, that portrayed just such a scenario. Just as nuclear-armed missiles started to fly, something miraculous happened. I can’t recall whether the missiles vanished, failed to fully ignite, or what. But I believe at that moment the fictional account had the Rapture taking place.

Dr. Jeffress indicated he believed that such a holocaust situation on a global scale could be used to provide reasons for the massive disappearance of people from the populations of the world. The globalists elite might use this as part of the big lie of 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 is, I presume, what he meant.

I’m not sure I can fully embrace that particular scenario, but it fascinated me back when the Lalonde brothers presented their version, and it again piqued my imagination when Dr. Jeffress mentioned it while I was sipping coffee early the other morning.

It likely induced me to start ruminating on writing this article, because there is such a build-up to war-making I believe the New World Order types are fashioning. That build-up is more than obvious to Christian and secular observers as well who see that increase in warmongering by those who are determined to have their Great Reset so they can remake planet earth into their own imagined Utopia.

Again, the United States of America is at the center of the one-worlders’ thinking. This nation must be brought under their all-encompassing control. America is the hold up to implementing their plan to construct a world along the lines of the demonically inspired imaginations of Lenin and Lennon. We must be forced to believe that there is no Heaven, no Hell, and we all will be “as one” under the gods of this new creation—such as Klaus Schwab and his WEF henchman Noah Yubal Harari.

Americans are still buying, selling, building, planting—doing all the things pretty much as normal. While most of the rest of the nations of earth are struggling mightily, economically and in other ways detrimental to human freedom, our nation, while headed down a track that will lead to destruction, isn’t headed that way fast enough to satisfy the one-worlders.

As expressed many times in these commentaries, America is exactly in the position, the situation the Lord Jesus Christ foretold as recorded in the book of Luke. This is why I am convinced that America, the apex nation of history so far as being materially blessed is concerned, might be the specific nation and people Jesus foretold in this passage, which I believe refers to the Rapture:

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:28–30)  

As I’ve mentioned many times, all nations are linked in one way or the other to the United States and the dollar. Yes. I agree completely that things are changing, and there are tremendous pressures being brought to bring down the dollar, to create alternatives to the American-dominated global financial interaction. But America continues to stand, and nothing the powers that be have tried has collapsed either the United States or the world’s economy to this point.

Nor will any earthly power be able to do so; I am of the firm opinion, based upon Jesus’ “days of Lot” prophecy. It is God, Himself, who will collapse America and the world—all deserving of His judgment and wrath, it’s sad and tragic to have to say.

Dr. Jeffress believes that a great holocaust-type catastrophe will initiate God’s judgment while the Rapture at the same time occurs. If it will be this scenario that is in play, the build-up to war we are witnessing certainly could be that global catastrophe.

Jesus said God’s judgment will, like when Lot went out of Sodom, fall that very day. That judgment completely destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, the twin cities of anti-God rebellion.

Presently Iran is said to have nuclear weapons and are going to add to their arsenal quickly. Israel has declared they will never allow Iran to have an arsenal of such weapons. So the ignition point for at least a regional war of devastating potential is in place. The Russian-Ukrainian war is building, with Putin threatening almost daily to strike a conflict-ending blow, possibly using nuclear weapons.

A general in charge of one of America’s powerful military branches is predicting war with China, the nation with the largest land army.

In a startling memo released last week, a four-star Air Force general said that he believes the United States and China will fight a war in the upcoming two years.

“A four-star Air Force general [Gen. Michael A. Minihan, USAF] sent a memo on Friday to the officers he commands that predicts the U.S. will be at war with China in two years and tells them to get ready to prep by firing “a clip” at a target, and ‘aim for the head,’” reported Reuters.

The head of the Air Mobility Command, General Minihan, is in charge of about 50,000 service members and roughly 500 planes. He is also in charge of transport and refueling…

“I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight in 2025.” (“Four star General: Be ready for this war,” New Conservative Post, January 30, 2023)

All things are building toward something earth-shattering. God continues to restrain until the instant of His next catastrophic intervention. Christ will first call believers to Himself.

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:28–30)  

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. (Revelation 21:1–5)

The Lord Himself expounded upon what that day would be like. I believe He spoke directly to what the very start of that day would be like for both God’s children (all born-again into God’s family through belief in Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross) and for unbelievers who are alive at the time of His sudden break-in upon the world:

In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.

Remember Lot’s wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.

Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together. (Luke 17:31–37)

 Again, this corresponds to the words of Jesus:

And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. (Luke 21:39–40)

Significant Differing View

Some—likely, most—of the great seminary scholars in premillennial, pre-Trib teachers of eschatology hold that the Scriptures in these passages predict the Tribulation, just before Christ returns in the Second Advent. They for the most part believe these refer to the people who are to suffer God’s wrath and judgment.

I fall into the Dave Hunt camp regarding these matters. I am more and more convinced that these prophecies, given in more or less parabolic language by the Lord, are not about the last of the Tribulation era, but about the time when the Lord calls the Church to be with Him—the Rapture.

Actually, I believe the Lord is talking about both the middle of the Tribulation in the first part of His prophecy and the time of Rapture in the second part.

First, Jesus says:

In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. 

Remember Lot’s wife.

Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.

Jesus was talking about, I’m convinced, the same directive to the Jews as He gives in the Olivet Discourse:

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: 

Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 

Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 

And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 

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 24:15–21)

As Different as Day and Night

The second part of Jesus’ prophecy is not about the “day” (time) when the Jews are in the middle of the “day of the Lord” (the middle of the seven-year Tribulation when Antichrist is in the Temple declaring himself to be God). Jesus talks next about “in that night.” I believe He’s referring to the end of the Church Age. He abruptly stops foretelling the conditions in the middle of the “day of the Lord” and reverts to talking about “that night,” the night into which He likens the unguarded moment when the thief breaks in. And, note that this time of taking is in all different time zones, referring to both time of sleep and of the working day:

I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

Jesus Not PC

One of the problems many seminarians will argue is that Jesus can’t be talking about the Rapture because of the distasteful, even grisly, analogy He draws in describing this one-taken, one-left account:

And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.

Jesus would never make such a reference in describing His Bride, the Church, as “eagles” (“vultures” in Biblical vernacular), or to Himself as a dead body (after all, He is the Resurrected Lord!).

That argument is very weak. We see where the Lord gives the analogy of breaking in on an unsuspecting world, likening himself to a thief. That’s not a very attractive description of the Living God. He is the Creator of all things, and by Him all things are held together. Jesus Christ, however, who is God, doesn’t have to worry about the wokeness, the political correctness, or the false niceties of this phony world system. He makes His points in the strongest terms at times because He doesn’t want the fallen minds of men to miss His point.

This is the description of the Rapture, I believe, as my late friend Dave Hunt once wrote. And, why should we not trust that the Lord of Heaven would forewarn in the strongest terms about the stupefying event that will mean absolute joy and ecstasy to believers alive at the time of its occurrence, and abject terror to those who don’t know Christ for salvation?

He would not and did not leave such an astoundingly vital prophecy to the Apostle Paul without adding His own words of foretelling. As a matter of fact, as I’ve often expressed, I believe Jesus’ words recorded in the Gospel account by John were about the “mystery,” which Paul later prophesied (1 Corinthians, chapter 15).

John’s earlier recording of Jesus’ prophecy was a mystery not understood by those listening at the time.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions:

if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1–3)

This declaration by the Lord Jesus Christ has a significant and direct connection to His Olivet Discourse words:

I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

The Greek word paralambano is all important here.

Many seminaries teach that those removed or taken away in the “days of Noah” prophecy are those being taken for punishment. Therefore, they say, this isn’t a Rapture passage, but a reference to the Tribulation.

During Dave Hunt’s lecture at the Pre-Trib Conference in Dallas in 1998, the following statement of biblical fact was presented (taken from a transcript of that lecture):

In the 24th chapter [of Matthew], we read that they were all taken away in the flood [in judgment]. Well that’s there, and I’m not a Greek scholar, but [that word for “taken” away to punishment would be] kai erenhapantas, a completely different expression than when Jesus says, one will be taken, and one will be left behind. The “taken” there is from paralambanó, the same word Jesus uses in John 14:2–3, “I will come and receive you.” “Receive” and “taken” use the same word, paralambanó, “I will receive you unto myself, for where I am, there ye may be also,” and that’s the Rapture.

As also expressed many times before, I believe prophecies about the days of Noah and the days of Lot, as well as Jesus’ words about the thief in the night breaking in on an unsuspecting world, cannot be the end of the Tribulation when Christ returns. Perhaps as many as three-fourths of the world’s population will have died by the time the horrendous wrath of God has fallen in judgment upon the wicked. It will NOT be business as usual. People will not be building, marrying, buying, or selling in anywhere near the normal fashion Jesus described in the Luke 17 accounts. It will be hell on earth at that time.

Frightening/Exciting Time to Be Alive

This is a generation that can, if one’s head isn’t buried in the sand, sense the groping fingers of ungodly forces reaching, grasping, to strangle anything that puts forward the name of Jesus Christ and His righteousness. In sheer political terms, there is wicked law such as the “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) that will, it is almost certain, stifle biblical teaching against the abominable practice of homosexuality. Legislation to increase legalization parameters for killing babies in their mothers’ wombs continues to expand in Congress and can’t be overridden by presidential veto, or even filibustered against in the legislative process. There now is a president who is favorably inclined to support both of these egregious anti-God actions.

Time and time again, we have pointed to the signals that illustrate dramatically the almost certainty that the present generation is experiencing the birth-pang convulsions Jesus described in the Olivet Discourse.

The geopolitical upheavals moving the world toward globalization at a dazzling rate, with the likely prospect of sudden economic meltdown, are drawing even avowed foes into new arrangements to try to avert international financial collapse. All of this should alert us that the shout “Come up here!” can’t be far from happening.

At the same time, the terrifying prospect for those who will be left behind is mind-boggling. So we must be about the Father’s business. We must witness to the saving power of Jesus Christ’s finished work on the cross.

Again, here is the message to present to those who will be lost in sin for eternity if they do not heed the grace gift of salvation offered:

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)

Every prophet of God is inerrant in his foretellings given through God’s Word. Each prophecy must be considered solemnly and soberly. God said the following through one of His prophets, the Apostle Peter:

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (2 Pter 1:20–21)

Jesus’ Prophetic Words

How much more solemnly and soberly should we study the prophetic words of Jesus Christ, who is God Himself, with prayerful, reverential awe. It is with this realization, while pondering these strange times, that I was impressed to revisit the passages from one of the Lord’s prophecies I and others have used numerous times in thinking about things to come. I am usually hesitant to use such an extensive block of Scripture in this limited space. However, I believe it’s good to look at the prophecies involved here, rather than send you off to look up the Lord’s words elsewhere.

Jesus spoke about two specific past generations in order to forewarn one particular future generation, the generation that will be alive when He returns to intervene into the affairs of mankind.

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:26–27)

God’s People Hated, But Work Continues

The primary point I want to address here is that Noah and his seven family members had been pushed to the limits of their unwelcome status upon earth by the beastly, anti-God masses that inhabited the planet. Noah and the others had no choice but to trust God in His instructions to build the ark, in preparation for leaving their hate-filled environs. Noah didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, but he did trust God to deliver him and the others. The others were perhaps less certain than Noah of things to come, but the proverbial handwriting was on the wall. Violence and corruption filled the whole earth. Hatred against them was pressing in from every quarter.

They believed God was going to move by supernatural cataclysm as Noah preached forewarnings of certain judgment. These eight souls didn’t dig bunkers and gather weapons of war against the world of violent, corrupt earth-dwellers. They simply took God’s plan to construct the ark and carried it out to the letter. They trusted God, not humans, as they believed the day of God’s judgment and wrath would surely come. They were true believers. They took God at His Word, through His preacher, Noah.

While Noah and the others worked on constructing the vessel—which most likely no one could fully fathom (because it had never even rained, much less come a flood)—the mocking, demon-indwelt people threatened the believers, wanting these judgmental religious fanatics gone from their presence. Just as the hatred reached a crescendo, with the totally corrupted masses groping viciously to get their fingers around the throats of the believers, God told Noah to go inside the ark, now fully prepared, and the Lord himself sealed the door.

The “work” was complete. Noah and his family had carried out the Lord’s directive to build a vessel upon which anyone who would believe could enter for safety from His coming judgment. The God-haters got their way; the planet was rid of the religious nuts. God’s people were lifted above the floodwaters that destroyed all of incorrigibly wicked mankind.

The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were likewise as corrupt as the whole world of Noah’s pre-Flood days. Jesus told us about Lot’s time, in continuing His prophecy of earth’s final days:

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:28–30)

Day of the Lord a Stunning Surprise

Jesus was forewarning here of a specific “day” when He said:

Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

That is the day the entire book of the Revelation addresses. It is the day that begins, according to Jesus, like a “thief in the night” experience for the world.

Jesus prophesied about His stunning return to earth using metaphorical language that you and I would not use in describing our Lord. He said:

And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. (Luke 12:39–40)

The apostles Paul and Peter addressed this special “day” using similar metaphorical language. Paul described how Jesus’ return at the end of the age will begin:

For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. (1 Thessalonians 5:2)

Peter foretold how the Lord’s second coming will begin, in describing that astounding “day”:

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10)

We should understand, then, that the “day of the Lord” starts Christ’s Second Coming from the moment He breaks in upon an unexpecting world of rebellious earth-dwellers. That “day of the Lord” lasts through to the complete remaking of the heavens and the earth, as reported by John, who recorded the vision he was given.

We can discern signals of the coming judgment of God in every direction we observe upon the prophetic landscape today. In the second part of this series, we will look further into how close our own time might be to the seven years of God’s judgment and wrath known as the Tribulation.

Meantime, if you are in God’s family through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross, always tell others about that saving power. Here is the message we are commissioned to take to the whole world of unbelievers.

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 often use the phrase “the powers that be.” Much is tied up in that expression–more than even the most spiritually astute might suspect.

Usually, in considering these “powers,” we look at the Apostle Paul’s heads-up in his letter to the Ephesians.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12)  

It has always been relatively easy to understand who these supernatural “powers and principalities” are. Not long ago, discernment that this warning involves human minions as well as demonic entities wasn’t so easily recognized. But the progression of stage-setting for soon fulfillment has changed that.

The unfolding of prophetic progression continues at a pace that’s difficult to keep up with. And—again, at the risk of being accused of being Amerocentric—I believe we can see most every element, every satanic influence, operating within this apex nation of world history. America, the most materially blessed and one of the most spiritually blessed nations, is now host to minions of the deadliest sort. Their parasitic infestation grows more horrific by the day.

The spread of sin within the nation has reached the very thinking processes of at least half of our populace. Our leadership, particularly at the national level, exhibits the Romans 1:28 “reprobate” mindset with elected representatives of the people throwing caution to the winds of destruction. They’ve reached the point that the printing presses can’t keep up with the amounts of money they ravenously want to spend.

They now seek to join the globalist powers that be in embracing those minions’ digital economic madness. They can, through electronic transfer, instantly create revenue for their every desire. They can control all people by controlling buying and selling. It is almost certainly the precursor to the Antichrist 666 system of Revelation 13:16–18.

Indeed, the love of money is proving to be at the root of all sorts of evil.

The powers that be, led–willingly or not—by the father of lies, himself, are spreading their reprobate mind infection to the point that evil is spreading uncontrollably.

Inventor of mRNA vaccines Dr. Robert Malone, having worked with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) for many years, warns that a war is being waged by the government for control of people’s minds, and that social media platforms are being weaponized in this war and are “actively employed” by the intelligence community to influence what people think and feel.

“This new battleground, in which your mind and your thoughts, your very emotions are the battleground. It is not about territory,” Malone said during a recent interview for Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders” program. “…Members of a specific “influencer cloud” can be tracked using the military spy technology called the Gorgon Stare, said Malone. This spy technology is capable of detecting movements including what car you drive, who gets in your car, and where you go, he said.

The Gorgon Stare is a surveillance technology, originally created to target terrorist groups, that utilizes high-tech cameras mounted on drones to capture video images of large areas, such as entire cities. Then artificial intelligence is used to analyze the surveillance footage.

Arthur Holland Michel, author of the book, Eyes in the Sky: The Secret Rise of Gorgon Stare and How It Will Watch Us All, called this technology the “pinnacle of aerial surveillance” during a 2019 interview with the CATO Institute and said the things he learned while writing the book were so troubling, they kept him up at night. (“In War for Control of Humanity, Thoughts and Emotions Are the Battlefield: Dr. Robert Malone,” Terri Wu, Epoch Times, 3/26/22)

The human powers are totally sold out to the one who will deliver them the authority to bring about the all-controlling, one world regime demanded by those within the World Economic Forum (WEF). This is prophetically scheduled, of course, to bring about not Utopia, but Hell on earth.

The Lord Jesus’ dealing with Satan and rejecting his proposition proves that Satan could offer the world’s kingdoms at that moment.

And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours. (Luke 4:5–7)

Some believe Satan no longer has that authority, because Jesus took back the title deed to planet earth with His death, burial and resurrection. The devil, they believe, no longer can offer the world to his human minions.

Well, all that we observe at the moment is that those powers that be are now creating that New World Order we’ve heard much about for so long.

In that regard, Pete Garcia’s and my new book, New World Order: Worlds in Collision and the Coming Rebirth of Liberty, deals in depth with this swiftly developing, satanic regime. That book will be released soon.

The developments toward bringing in the last seven years before Christ’s Second Advent are now in place. This means the Rapture of believers is on the very brink of taking place.

You don’t want to miss that great event when Jesus shouts “Come up here!”

Here’s how to make sure you don’t miss the Rapture.

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)

America’s national political system has from the beginning been less than virtuous. There have even been duels fought as part of the process, with, for example, Alexander Hamilton being killed by Aaron Burr. So it is not surprising that a sin-drenched national milieu has produced Mafia-like shakedowns and extortion, blackmail, and every other nefarious political tactic.

We have seen it time after time, issue after issue. Leaders of movements wanting their way politically –these usually pushing demands involving forcing American taxpayers to pay for their more often than not ungodly plans— threaten businesses and even elected authorities in order to get their way.

Whereas Mafioso might urge a business to take out their insurance against destruction of their business –or even breakage of their knees, these political shake-down artists operate similarly. They often suggest that an elected official vote and/or implement plans the shakedowners want –as protection against having the shakedown organization (often a race-based monocracy) work against the extorted elected official’s political futures.

It has become the American way of local, state, and national politics. And as I believe biblically prophetic progression has reached the end of this Church Age, I think it is probably accurate to say–as Obama’s one-time pastor Jeremiah Wright might say—America’s chickens have come home to roost.

The title for this commentary, Shaking down Sodom, is meant to convey yet again how our beloved nation seems to fit the Sodom of Lot’s day. Jesus foretold that things would be like they were in those wicked times in Sodom, when God will suddenly and without remedy cast judgment upon an incorrigible, ungodly, rebellious people. This will be done, just as when the Lord first removed Lot, whom He viewed as righteous. It will be the Rapture that removes God’s children and begins bringing to an end through judgment and wrath mankind’s final rebellion against Heaven’s intended order.

The United States fits the Luke 17:28-30 Sodom model, as I’ve written before. Of all nations on the planet presently, many in severely failing economic situations, America is still going along pretty much business as usual, just as Sodom of Lot’s day. Beneath that business-as-usual flow, however, beats the heart of wickedness perhaps matched by no other nation on earth. Our technological advancement, along with unparalleled freedoms, has produced a level of evil unavailable to any other generation.

And this brings me to the point I hope to make.

Having reached this Sodom-like level, America is ripe for a shakedown of monumental proportion.

As a matter of fact, Satan’s desired installation of his Antichrist regime, it seems to me, cannot be achieved so long as this constitutional republic as configured since its founding stands. It must be destroyed–or at least disassembled. And in that regard, we have been and are presently witnessing such a shakedown on a global scale.

The Ephesians 6 12 human minions within the UN, the World Economic Forum, and other New World Order institutional bodies, are stripping America’s wealth–and even more profoundly—America’s structure, once moored and governed by Judeo-Christian principles. And, again in my opinion, many within our representative government at the national level are willing to allow this undoing of our nation out of motives governed by the desire for personal wealth and power.

Those who understand what is truly happening to our country recognize the collusion and subterfuge taking place within the federal government. We have observed and chronicled once American protective agencies like the FBI, CIA, and others while they became totally politicized and joined to the globalists’ cabal. They have made American citizens the targets for purposes of bringing the nation into compliance with all plans global. We have watched these forces, now turned totally to the dark side, in my view,do all within their collective power to bring down an America-First president. And they have, in effect, managed to do just that.

We have watched, standing by almost helplessly, while elections were and are still being stolen. Again, seemingly because of desire to achieve personal wealth and power, elected representatives of both major political parties have chosen to not rock the boat in which they float within the Washington swamp. It is indeed a uniparty –as charged—that we are now, it seems, becoming enslaved by–as the American electoral process no longer exists as intended by the founding fathers.

This American president, likely compromised by conflict of interest with China, Ukraine, and other international entities, along with the military-industrial complex warned about by President Dwight Eisenhower, has the nation bogged in commitments that drain America’s wealth by trillions of dollars –which, incidentally, we no longer possess.

Yet this once-great nation continues to stand, although shaken by the shakedown minions both external and internal. Like Sodom of Lot’s day, business as usual within the US even seems to hold up the collapse of much of the rest of the world.

The most stringent efforts of the Ephesians 6:12 shakedown artists–the powers and principalities, both human and demonic—have not yet succeeded in bringing America down so they can plunder her wealth.

And they won’t succeed in doing so by their ever-increasing wicked efforts. Like in the case of Sodom in Lot’s day, America –and the entire, wicked world system, will come crashing down by the shaking God’s judgment will bring. It will occur at the Rapture of all believers in Jesus Christ.

Here, again, is how to avoid being a victim of the coming, catastrophic world collapse, and instead become one of God’s children taken to their eternal home by the Lord Jesus Christ.

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)

These thoughts encompass the many things of prophetic progression going on as we enter 2023. Issues and events are, indeed, speeding full bore toward that twinkling-of-an-eye instant when we hear Christ shout our names, saying, “Come up here!”

However, I’d like to think a bit with you on the “race” Paul the apostle consistently worked into his great epistles. I want to bring our thoughts down to our individual sprint toward that God-ordained finish line, giving every ounce of our spiritual ability and strength to the effort.

Okay. At the risk of raising an eyebrow or two from the skeptics, I’m going to bring it up again. I can’t and won’t apologize for telling it—at least in part—again, because it is an experience I was given, and I know that not using it when appropriate would run counter to God’s purpose in the entire matter.

I’m talking about my widow-maker heart attack more than ten years ago. (The “widow-maker” occurs when an artery that runs directly into the heart is blocked. The heart stops if it isn’t cleared immediately.)

My heart did stop—on, the hospital records show, four different times. I remember three of those times, because each time it stopped, I was instantaneously in front of the same huge throng of magnificent heavenly beings. They were handsome and beautiful young men and women—smiling broadly with great, energetic enthusiasm—who were bidding me to come to them. They looked no older than their mid-to-late twenties.

Each time I was with them, things shortly started darkening from the spectacular brightness of that realm. That’s what happened when the doctors in the cath lab kept hitting me with the defibrillation paddles to restart my heart. By the third time it happened, I definitely remember not wanting to leave that joy-filled place.

That third time, I wasn’t in front of the group, but among them. We were running swiftly and effortlessly toward a destination I couldn’t know at that moment. They had their hands raised, and they were looking over at me, laughing out of sheer delight, making me sense they were saying, “Isn’t this the most wonderful thing ever?!”

It sure was, and I didn’t want to leave. But, being blind, things started fading to black yet again, and I was again in darkness on the table. The doctor had removed the blockage, and I was back to stay.

I now know the raised arms and bright smiles were the way these runners were saying as they looked over at me: “This is a race we are running together…and we are already in a victory lap!”

To add validation, that experience occurred on Good Friday, April 22, 2011. Meanings of the details of that heavenly visit were provided and remain at the center of what it was all about that strange day.

The Scripture assuring me the Lord is in that experience is constantly on my mind:

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1–2) 

I was running along with that “cloud of witnesses” toward the throne where Jesus sits with God the Father, wanting to award us for our victory. Our victory, of course, is possible only as we overcome this sin-filled world through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has already overcome this world of wickedness.

The race is full of obstacles made up of evil and corruption at every level, with luciferian maliciousness toward God becoming overwhelmingly evident at this hour.

We’ve looked at all of the levels of resistance to godliness throughout the past year. The “woke” insanity that has assaulted America and the world, bringing about recognition that God has turned much of our country over to the “reprobate mind” of Romans 1:28, is undeniable.

Defection from a strong stance against such insanity by even formerly staunch Christian churches has risen to apostate levels. Devilish practices (including transvestites being allowed to perform for children) have even entered some denominations.

And 2023 portends even more hellish lasciviousness. This, while at the same time the globalist-cabal—the demonic and human powers and principalities described in Ephesians 6: 12—make plans in the New Year’s first month to bring on Antichrist’s rule as quickly as possible.

Karl Schwab’s World Economic Forum (WEF) seems at the moment to be the primary force in this accelerated effort to bring about a one-world government. January 16, 2023, the WEF will meet to deal with the following agenda items to create systems of control, according to reports. This is the nucleus of their much-ballyhooed “Reset.”

1. A new system to deal with energy and food crisis.
2. A new system to deal with high inflation, low growth and high economy.
3. A new system based on the use of technology.
4. A new system to deal with social issues.
5. A new system to deal with dialogue and cooperation in multi polar world

The satanic powers are in a race to have everything in order when the real Reset takes place. The demonic minions among them, at least, understand that the real Reset will be the one God interjects into this world. They believe in the Rapture, because they know God cannot lie. They just don’t know when it will happen (it will be cataclysmic for the world of rebels, but not for Christians).

You and I are in an even more profound race of destiny. The race God has chosen for us to run is all-important within His eternal knowledge. We are to run it all out and give all we can to God’s great calling in our lives–individually and collectively as His Church.

Paul the apostle informs about his own race, which he carried out spectacularly to the very end of his life and until his beginning at home in Heaven:

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13–14)

Let us run this race in which we’ve been placed for this time at the very end of this Church Age. Like Paul heard, we want to hear what the Lord said will be His words for us when we finish this race to the best of our ability:

…Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. (Matthew 25:21–22)

Have you ever, in a moment of immersion in deep thought, had a question like “When did the existence of God begin?” Or perhaps: “How could God always have existed, and how can He exist forever?”

I’ve had similar questions a number of times over my life as a Christian. Yet it isn’t with doubt, but rather with wonderment that I’ve indulged in these imponderable ponderings. The finite mind is incapable of such infinite cogitation. That is, the human brain is not able to carry out such thought to the point of securing satisfactory answers.

We who are believers in Christ for salvation know that every word in the Bible is absolute truth. We can trust what is written in God’s love letter to mankind to us, His born-again children. John wrote the following regarding his and his fellow disciples’ closeness to Jesus during His time of ministry:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare us unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:1–3)  

So, while it is not just difficult, but impossible, to understand the questions above concerning the eternal existence of Jesus, we trust that every Word is truth.

Another question along this line might be: “Did God the Father Create Jesus?”

This is how we interpret naturally. Everything has a beginning–a moment of coming into existence. Every one of us had our conception, our birth. So it is a natural question for the human mind: “Did Jesus begin when He was born upon planet earth?”

Of course, we who believe God’s Word about our Lord’s earthly incarnation know God didn’t create Jesus Christ, the Son—just as God didn’t create the Holy Spirit. All three are, and have always been, God. They are coequal as the Triune Godhead–the Trinity.

The Bible teaches that Jesus is a separate and distinct God who existed with the Father before anything was created. The Father did not create Jesus; in fact, all three –God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—have existed from eternity past and will exist forever.

I want to delve into…well…into pondering with our finite thinking the infinite matters of that most important statement in all the Scripture so far as mankind is concerned.

We have just passed through another Christmas, a time when we honor the earthly incarnation –the advent/birth—of our Lord Jesus Christ.

While the Apostle John was exiled by the Roman government on the Aegean Island of Patmos, Jesus gave Him a vision–the Revelation, as we know it. The following is what John tells us he heard Jesus say to him at one point very early in the vision.

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:17–18)

Much later in the Revelation, Jesus said: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (Revelation 22:13).

The Lord also said:

And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. ²He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. (Revelation 21:6–7)

Wrapped up in those powerful words is Christ’s declaration of His Godhood and eternal existence.

He exclaims that He is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega.

Jesus says without equivocation: “It is done!”  He promises further:

To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

You see, He declares He is God and gives eternal life to all who overcome. We know, of course, that we overcome only through our absolute belief and trust in Jesus, who has overcome the world.

The Lord’s declaration, “It is done,” is the most thrilling, greatest promise of all. Since He is the Alpha and Omega–the beginning and the end—He alone can say that salvation of the believer is already done.

It was done as He said while voluntarily giving up His life to death in order to rescue you and me from the penalty of sin: “It is finished!”

Really, though, it was done–finished—from eternity past. God’s plan for our salvation was already in effect then, as God is outside of time. He had His plan in place back in eternity past, and it is already finished in eternity future. He chose us from the foundation of the world.

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:4–6)

When we look around us at things going on–the world seeming to fall apart—we can say along with our friend Jan Markell: Things aren’t falling apart, they are falling together. They are coming together just as our Lord said they would. Everything is right on the heavenly course for redeeming us and rejuvenating planet earth.

The Rapture, too, is going to be right on time–on God’s time! And I, for one, believe it is so close we could reach out and touch it, were that possible. You don’t want to miss it. Here again is how to make sure you are part of Jesus’ profound promise, “It is finished!”

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)