A couple of commentaries ago, I announced my great friend Bob Rogers going to our Heavenly home and how he is now enjoying things beyond which we can imagine. Today we share with you through tears comforted by joyful knowledge that he is alive forever, that his dear wife, Vicki Rogers, a wonderful Christian, wife, mother, grandmother, and friend, has joined him after a lengthy bout with illness.

However, both were infinitely more than my friends. We are all part of a family the Lord put together many years ago. It is a spiritual family relationship rather than biological, and that, to me at least, has always meant it was even more meaningful than if we could have been relatives in the earthly, biological sense.

Their daughter, Angie, is my honorary daughter in every sense. She is also my editor (the best in the world of editing) of many, many years. The children of Angie and husband Kurt (also close to my fatherly heart) – Nick, Lindsey and Erin – are my honorary grandchildren, whom I love as if they were my biological family.

Because of her belief in Jesus Christ and being in God’s family, Angie’s mom is now together again with her beloved husband Bob and is exulting in a magnificent joy that’s beyond comprehension. We can know this because of the following familiar promise from God’s Holy Word.

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

We have read in that Holy Word that Jesus said that in Heaven we are neither married nor given in marriage. Some might find that to be something that is discouraging. I do not. That’s because of the above promise. We are promised more wonderful things when we reach that eternal state of joy than we are capable of imagining. This means, to me, and should to you also, that the relationships, whether they be earthly friendships and family relationships – or marriage partnerships – the intimacy will be millions of times more wonderful than any relationship we’ve had while in this earth-bound body.

Like in the earlier case of Bob’s making that trip to his eternal home, Vicki’s going to be with her Lord tripped things within my spiritually-motivated cognitive processes. It immediately brought up the scriptural promise that I have always found profound almost beyond ability to express. Here is that promise. It is more than a promise.

It is a fact right at this moment, not just when we reach that heavenly home that Bob and Vicki now are enjoying. It is profound because it is so hard for us who are now in God’s eternal family to get our earthly minds around while still in these mortal bodies.

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8: 16-17).

Do you grasp what this is truly saying? All that God has He has given to His Blessed Son, Jesus. God is telling us here through the Apostle Paul that we – already, in this life – are possessors of all of God’s riches, in exact measure as is His Son! Now that is something that I can certainly not truly get this feeble, full-of-much-age grey matter around!

God is telling us that we are joint heirs with the Creator of all that is! Jesus was given the power and authority from the Father to make all there is!

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Col. 1:16-17).

The phrase “by him all things consist” has always given me a sense of the awesome power of our Lord. We are told that He created the very substance of all matter. He holds together the atoms and even the elements that make up the atom! If He didn’t hold the elements of Creation together, all that is in existence would fly apart instantaneously.

That is how we can begin to somewhat understand why when Jesus rode the little donkey into Jerusalem to present Himself as Israel’s Messiah, he said that if the people didn’t praise Him at that time, the very stones would cry out. All of nature – the very elements – obeys our Lord and recognizes Him for Who He is!

When we are in Heaven with Bob and Vicki, with each other, and with our wonderful Savior and Lord –our Brother Jesus – we won’t just be tiny unrecognized figures in a Heaven full of billions of souls. We will be people in flesh-and-bone bodies – immortal bodies – like Jesus’ Body. We will know each other individually and intimately, as God, our omniscient Father, knows each of us and every hair on our heads (which all men among us will have again in abundance)!

As Dr. David Jeremiah might say while preaching fervently, “Can I get a praise?

I had just turned twenty years old a couple of months earlier when I watched and heard John F. Kennedy say live on TV something like: “The United States shall consider any missile launched from Cuba to be a direct attack by the Soviet Union upon this nation, which will bring a full retaliatory response by the United States upon the Soviet Union.”

The president’s famous smile had been wiped away and a grim expression had taken its place. Even at only twenty, I knew there had never been such a critical moment in human history, so far as potential for war was concerned. The missile crisis of October 1962 had brought mankind to the brink of all-out nuclear war.

Many years later, it was learned that only the refusal of one Soviet submariner to agree to launching a missile prevented initiating a conflagration. The sub’s command was under the mistaken impression that Soviet military assets had been attacked with nuclear warheads.

The Soviet naval officer was the third vote required to send the nuclear missiles toward their targets. Two of his fellow officers, one of them being the sub’s commander, voted yes. He voted no, so the missiles weren’t launched. It was the right decision, and, after days of tense standoffs and negotiations directly between Kennedy and Soviet Premiere Nikita Khrushchev, the most dangerous nuclear confrontation in history dissolved back into less-threatening cold-war status.

Both Kennedy and Khrushchev–particularly Khrushchev—have been credited with and lauded for showing great restraint in preventing all-out atomic war. This, because the Soviet dictator started dismantling the nuclear missiles on the Cuban island.

I knew little about the details of Bible prophecy at that age, although I had been taught prophecy from the pre-Trib viewpoint since I was very young. I can remember vividly, as a six-year-old, hearing Pastor Harris in the Seventh Street Tabernacle in Pekin, Illinois, preaching on the Rapture of the Church. The belief that the Lord knows the end from the beginning was never a point to question in my thinking. But when the Cuban missile crisis was in full bloom, I admit I didn’t think about all that. I was very worried–as was most every American who kept up with the unfolding events.

My naïve understanding was that these geopolitical leaders had indeed been responsible for applying the restraint of common sense in preventing the world from being blown up. I even found a modicum of appreciation for Khrushchev, who had, a year or two earlier, boasted that he would bury us.
And now, in 2022, some are saying we are facing the greatest threat to world peace and of nuclear annihilation since the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962.

These six decades later, I have no fear whatsoever of nuclear world annihilation. Thus, even though Russian President Vladimir Putin has just said something to the effect that if anyone tries to interfere with his going into Ukraine, they will experience something that they have never faced in all of history. By this, the diplomats of the world began thinking Putin meant he would unleash nuclear attacks against the US if American forces tried to intervene.

At this moment of writing, it seems there is no restraint whatsoever from the Russian side. And many, including yours truly, believe that America’s current leadership either doesn’t know how to restrain the nuclear demon, or is using the attack on Ukraine in a wag-the-dog move to distract from all this presidential administration’s failures at every level.

Despite the seemingly out-of-control movement toward possible nuclear conflict, like I say, I have no fear of the world ending through atomic warfare.

I’ve learned much since I was that naïve youth of 1962. I have learned to trust, without reservation, our God’s ability to restrain even the most horrific of man’s proclivity for self-destruction.

I now know the end from the beginning, because my Father in Heaven has told those who believe His prophetic Word that there will be “wars and rumors of wars,” and He has said that we should look for them. But He has also foretold that “the end is not yet” when we hear of those wars and rumors of war.
Our Heavenly Father has also told us that particular developments must take place as the end of human history plays out. That process does not include all-out nuclear destruction prior to the Rapture of the Church.

Following that great event, the red horse of war will indeed ride. As much as three-fourths of humanity will be killed by the judgments; most of the destruction almost certainly will come from nuclear weapons being unleashed. The black horse of famine and the chloros horse of death and Hell will quickly ride upon a planet of rebels deserving of God’s wrath.

Since the atomic bombs fell in 1945 on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nuclear demon has been restrained. Not one such weapon has been allowed to be released in warfare, only in testing. This, in itself, is a miracle of God.

It won’t be any human leader or other human agency that will restrain the nuclear demon. The demon about which physicist Dr. Robert Oppenheimer remarked upon witnessing the first atomic explosion at the site called Trinity might be referenced obliquely in his following statement: The explosion brought to Oppenheimer’s mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
I believe that it is God’s mighty hand that will continue to restrain the nuclear demon–and all other wickedness—until the Restrainer, the Holy Spirit who indwells believers in Christ—is removed when we are called into the clouds to be with Jesus for eternity.

We’ve talked several times about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, offering Himself as Israel’s Messiah. The people were exultant.

So much had been seen and heard regarding Jesus’ miracles and transforming message as He taught through his travels with His immediate disciples. He was hailed by the masses as He sat atop that donkey, moving through the slopes and into the city.

At the same time, those of the Jewish ecclesiastical class—the so-called Judaizers—decried the Lord’s movement into the city, seeing it as blasphemy. They believed He was anything but sent from God. They were, as a matter of fact, determined to murder Him. They did, in fact, do so, through the Roman government, a short time later.

The Jewish religious leaders were enraged at the way the people who believed (Jesus’ disciples) were responding to Jesus as He came toward Jerusalem.

And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. (Luke 19:37-40)

Jesus was revealing a truth that few who read this passage really grasp: the truth about His relationship not just with people, but with the very creation—planet earth and all the cosmos. That is, all that God created.

Remember the time on the Sea of Galilee when the little boat was about to be destroyed in the great storm that came up? Jesus was sleeping soundly when the disciples came to Him and, with great fear of being swamped by the storm, wanted Him to know what was going on.

The Lord simply said calmly “Peace, be still,” and the sea’s surface became instantly as slick as glass. Nature itself obeyed Jesus’ command, and His disciples, who had been with Him and seen many miraculous things He did, were dumbfounded.

They said, “What manner of man is this that even the sea obeys him?”

Later, Jesus said that if He didn’t receive praise while He rode into Jerusalem showing He was that God/man–Israel’s Messiah King—all of nature would erupt in praise of Him. Nature knows to not turn its back on the God who created it. Man, on the other hand, continues to do so without thinking twice. And mankind turning its back on God is what will ultimately bring the great geophysical and astrophysical upheavals of the Tribulation as given in the book of Revelation. It is the Revelation, the unveiling of Christ for all of the rebels of earth at that time to witness. They will endure horrendous judgment and wrath, but they will know, in the end, that Jesus is Lord–the Creator of everything that is.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Revelation 6:15–17)

But the rocks won’t obey them as they do the God who created them. Man will face God’s ultimate punishment for willfully, knowingly turning the back to Jesus Christ and the great price He paid to redeem sin-condemned mankind if they would but accept God’s grace offer.

We present numerous news stories of the increasing weather and geological upheavals at this late hour so near the end of the age. The climate change the New World Order builders claim is man-made, thus, they proclaim, can only be dealt with by man, is beginning to ratchet up. But it is the stones–nature— beginning to cry out because wicked mankind is determined to remove God from heavenly governance. These phenomena are scheduled to get worse–much, much worse.

The Jewish religious hierarchy continues to misunderstand God’s truth regarding all this. They almost get it, but still don’t understand who is Israel’s Messiah. Excerpts of a recent report make this clear.

Two earthquakes shook northern Israel within a few hours, bringing the total of earthquakes in Israel this month up to four. Scientists are issuing dire warnings of imminent doom, but rabbis point to the prophecies as proof that people who have faith, have nothing to fear and even that the Messiah’s arrival is “speeding up.”…

Rabbi Lazer Brody, an American-born Hasidic rabbi from Ashdod, explained that earthquakes and other signs of the end-of-days would begin appearing at an even faster pace.

“People don’t need to wonder about this,” Rabbi Brody said. “The sages wrote that when the fate of Israel would be in the hands of the Erev Rav (mixed multitude), God will speed up the geula (redemption). And that is precisely the government Israel has right now. They are telling Jews that we can’t live in the Negev, Judea and Samaria, and now they are even kicking Jews out of their houses in the Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood in Jerusalem.”

“This is Hashem having mercy on us by speeding up Moshiach (Messiah), like he did at the end in Egypt.” (“Israel hit with two earthquakes in ten hours, 4 in one month; ‘Accelerating Messiah’s arrival,’” by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz | Feb 16, 2022 | Biblical News)

Like we’ve looked at many times in these articles, we’ve come again to times described by Paul in Romans chapter 1. People in America and around the world have largely turned their backs on God. The results are a collective reprobate mindset. We can expect, with this rebellion, nothing less than what the Lord Himself said about this condition.

I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. (Luke 19:37–40)

But God’s judgment and wrath are not reserved for believers who praise Him (Revelation 3:10). So take heart. He will rescue believers from the Tribulation storm that’s coming. He is saying even now to us as we look upon this tumultuous sea of rebellious humanity and all the wickedness it engenders, “Peace. Be still.”

Many Bible prophecy students of the pre-trib sort have carefully watched Vladimir Putin over the past years. The Russian president’s demeanor, many believe, demonstrates that this man of relatively short stature exhibits and presents a much larger image, in possible prophetic terms.

I’m referring, of course, to the belief by many that the dictator, a former KGB operative, could be the Gog of Ezekiel 38-39. That is, Mr. Putin could be the leader who will be possessed by the Gog spirit or demon who will think the evil thought described by the prophet Ezekiel. –That Putin might be the leader who will lead the Gog-Magog coalition of nations prophesied to invade toward Israel.

While I find this an interesting, even fascinating prospect, I’m not prepared to totally commit to a definite postulation in that regard.

However, thinking on these strange and troubling times during which we are traversing times of fortified prophetic progression, a term my partner in raptureready.com, Todd Strandberg, has coined, the possibility of Putin filling that prophetic role is certainly worthy of consideration.

The lateness of these closing days of the age, while Russia threatens to invade Ukraine, brings into focus such prophecies by Jesus Himself as the following.   

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” (Matt 24: 6)

and

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring.” (Lk 21: 25)

With Putin bringing more than one hundred thousand troops and military equipment to the borders of Ukraine and his apparently wanting to invade to bring that former Soviet bloc nation again into Russia’s orb, the rumors of war are rampant. This is perhaps the greatest threat of regional and even world-wide war since the fall of the Soviet Union and the close of the cold war.

With the world-wide protests across Europe and the Canadian/American truckers’ massive protests, and with despot-like leaders facing them and not knowing how to handle it all, the nations are in perplexity and the people are likened to seas and waves roaring.

So, it is more than understandable why many Bible prophecy observers of the times might strongly point to Putin as the Gog possessed leader of that invading force predicted by Ezekiel. All stage-setting seems almost complete for these things to begin to come to pass.

This American presidential administration has demonstrated weakness in practically every endeavor, in terms of dealing with international problems. They have dealt in evil harshness and dogged determination in confronting American patriots –the prime example being the January 6 peaceful protesters who were seduced into a march on the capitol, etc., and set up by the FBI and others as terrorists, imp my humble opinion. But in facing off with Russia and China –the truly great threats against America– this president has been, as the overused word indicates, feckless.

While in SkyWatch TV studios last week doing a number of programs for Pete Garcia’s and my book The Disappearing: Future Events That Will Rock the World, I was asked the question: Do you think Putin will invade Ukraine?

My answer at that time, just this past week, was, “I really don’t think Putin really wants to invade. He has things going his way without invasion.”

My opinion has changed in that short period of time. His bringing more troops and military assets to Ukraine’s borders isn’t the movement of one who is bluffing. The fact that he won’t talk with American officials, and barely will talk with this president is indication enough to know that he intends to fully act out the role of the Russian bear. I would now be surprised if he doesn’t invade. This is due to placating him at every turn and threatening only sanctions of the economic sort.

If Putin were to deliberately attack a NATO nation, then there would be confrontation from the western alliance. But Mr. Biden observably hasn’t the nerve –or whatsoever it takes— to unilaterally face down this voracious dictator.

There is increasing talk among some observers that Gog is not Putin or a Russian leader but very possibly the Turkish leader Erdogan (the most likely) or a future Turkish leader and that Magog is Turkey, not Russia.

While we must never rule out possibilities so far as details are concerned, I can’t, after years of studying the Ezekiel 38-39 Gog-Magog matters, conclude that the head of the coalition against Israel will be other than Russia. It looks very much like Vladimir Putin might well be the man who could lead such a coalition. His appetite for conquest is building, and a time might come soon when Israel and its vast oil and gas reserves, a threat to Putin’s desire to be the lone supplier of Europe and other regions, might give him that evil thought that puts hooks in the jaws of Gog.

By placating this ruthless Russian leader, Biden and company just might be fueling the fires of Putin’s appetite for such conquest as Ezekiel ascribes to the one who will be Gog.

God’s prototype nation continues to point the way into prophesied, troubled times. Jesus said it would eventuate in the worst times of all human history (Luke 21: 25). Jeremiah the prophet called it the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30: 7).

Just as the Lord’s dealing with His chosen people throughout millennia past, the cause for His dealing in the future with Israel revolves around the same problem: The people have forgotten Him. They depend upon strange gods–upon others—for their protection and salvation.

While Israel’s modern leadership recognizes only military power as central to the nation’s defense, they nonetheless seem to propose miraculous protective measures that almost mimic Old Testament acts of the God they no longer depend upon for their peace and safety.

The following news item is an interesting development in this regard, I think you will agree.

On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced that Israel will be fast-tracking the development of a laser defense system that will be used to defend against attacks from Gaza and Hezbollah. The lasers, using an autonomous detection and tracking system, will superheat drones and rockets which the developers claim will catch on fire within a few seconds. The system will supplement the Iron Dome that operates against short-range projectiles with the lasers concentrating on smaller projectiles.

The Defense Ministry said the laser uses a “highly advanced optical targeting system, with tracking capabilities and artificial intelligence” to locate a target “at highly precise levels of accuracy.”

Israel also uses David’s sling-and-arrow systems against long-range ballistic missiles.

“Within a year already the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will bring into action a laser-based interception system, first experimentally, and later operationally, first in the south, then in other places,” he said in a speech at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. “And this will enable us, as the years advance, to surround Israel with a wall of lasers which will protect us from missiles, rockets, UAVs and other threats.”

The new laser-based system will drastically reduce the cost of defending against the frequent rocket attacks that target Israeli cities… The Iron Dome systems deployed around Israel to protect its cities cost $50 million per battery and $100,000–150,000 per interception. Hamas fires low-tech missiles that are inexpensive and inaccurate. (“Wall of Lasers; A ‘Biblical Pillar of fire’ that protected Israelites from Egypt” by  by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, 2/2/22, Biblical News)

The story of the modern “miracle” continues, with one of Israel’s rabbis weighing in.

When he heard of the innovation, Rabbi Aryeh Weingarten was unsurprised.

“Innovations and inventions are simply the mind of Man reflecting the aspect of God that is in nature,” he said. “Bennett’s vision of a ‘wall of lasers’ is a reflection of the Biblical pillar of fire that accompanied the Children of Israel in their Exodus, protecting the Jews from Egyptian arrows.”

The Israel Bible described the pillar in a manner that modern missile defense systems would do well to emulate:

According to Rashi, the pillar of cloud that led the Jewish people in the desert during the day moved behind the camp, and obscured the Egyptians’ vision as they progressed in their bloodthirsty pursuit of the Jewish people. The cloud protected Israel as they fled and absorbed the arrows shot by the Egyptians at the fleeing nation. Today, the soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces are a pillar of defense, shielding Israel from her enemies. May the God of Israel continue to protect His people through His modern-day pillar of defense, just as He did long ago. (Ibid.)

It might be easy to give God glory for protecting His chosen nation in providing this modern warfare capability. However, the nation as a whole–particularly Israeli governmental and military leaderships—has all but replaced the God of their salvation with their own efforts in producing “miracle” weaponry and defense systems. Sadly, the price will yet have to be paid for the nation’s usurpation of the miraculous power of Israel’s God.

The following is a stunning heavenly opinion of this chosen nation when it casts its God to the side.

And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. ²For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. (Deuteronomy 32:20–35)

This condemnation of Israel is what will bring on the Tribulation. God will call the nation back to Himself through great trouble–Jacob’s trouble. But a remnant will turn to their true Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God will restore His people and make them the head of all nations in the Millennial Kingdom.

Just imagine, based upon this condemnation of the fifth Book of Moses turned toward God’s chosen people, what awaits the Tribulation-world of earth dwellers the rebels totally turned against Israel’s God!

You don’t want to be part of that world destined for God’s wrath and judgment. Here, once again, is how to become right with that God, who sent His son to die for our redemption.

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

My friend Dr. J. R. Church used to end every TV program in Prophecy In the News with the words: “Keep looking up!” He was referring, of course, to Jesus’ command in Luke 21:28:

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

While the Lord was, without question, talking about being vigilant in watching for all the conditions He said would be prevalent as His time to call His Church to Himself neared, and, indeed, was pointing to His Second Advent, it is perhaps less than a stretch to ask if He was doing one more thing. Was He also alluding to the prophetic signal He mentioned a few verses previous?

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars. (Luke 21: 25a)

It is a worthy question, considering recent developments. Strange things are going on in the heavenlies, with interest stirred almost weekly with new signs discovered in the region of the sun, moon and stars.

There is more than good reason to be concerned enough to “look up” with regard to signs in the heavens.

Our friend Dr. Thomas Horn of SkyWatch TV has presented a number of programs pointing to astronomical reports from scientists that predict an asteroid of earth-devastating size coming our way. The space rock the size of a stadium, termed Apophis, is on track to possibly impact the earth April 13, 2029. Horn has conjectured whether this could be the space object prophetically scheduled to crash into an ocean during the Tribulation. Such an impact would certainly cause great destruction and cause the death of millions.

More recently, scientists are changing their estimated trajectory-predictions to say that this visitor from deep space might only be detrimental to satellites orbiting earth, thus disrupting the planet’s communications, etc.

This seems a ludicrous conclusion, considering an asteroid of such monumental size. I’m no astronomer or otherwise an expert, but something this big coming this close seems to me to be a cause of possible danger dwarfing the mere disruption of communication by knocking out a few satellites.

And signals from space continue to grab attention of scientists, who seem genuinely baffled. Here’s one story:

A team led by astronomers in Australia has discovered a brand new type of object in deep space that behaves in bizarre and mysterious ways never seen before.

Something about 4,000 light-years away, which is relatively close in our cosmic neighborhood, was seen spinning around and regularly blasting out a massive burst of energy that lasts a full a minute. Even weirder, that bright beam of radiation occurred like clockwork every 18 minutes.

“It was kind of spooky for an astronomer because there’s nothing known in the sky that does that,” astrophysicist Natasha Hurley-Walker said in a statement.

The behavior is similar to that of a pulsar or magnetar, which spin around as they blast out pulses of energy that can be detected here on Earth. But pulsars pulse very quickly, usually every few seconds. An object that sends out longer bursts just a few times an hour has never been seen before. (“Astronomers spy powerful deep-space object unlike anything seen before,” CNET, Rapture Ready News, 1/28/22)

Just as deep-space signals are ramping up interest by the scientists who say they are “spooked” by things they’re seeing, the whole UFO thing is being opened up by those in government who have always been desperate to put a cap on such information.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is finally getting back into the UFO business.

And depending on which UFO believer you ask, it’s either a historic step forward to getting to the bottom of conspiracies or a ploy to regain control of the narrative — and possibly even prepare for interplanetary war.

The establishment of a new office, signed into law just before New Year’s, to study “unidentified aerial phenomenon” has divided the loose community of activists, researchers and pseudo scientists who hunt for proof that we are not alone in the universe.

Some hail the legislation creating the new office, tucked into section 1683 of the massive National Defense Authorization Act, for bringing new resources, rigor and officialdom to the investigation of a phenomenon — and a potential national security threat — that has long been stigmatized in a way that makes it difficult to study. (“ Historic step forward or cover-up plot? Pentagon’s new UFO office splits ufologists,” Alex Seitz-Wald, 1/8/22, Rapture Ready News, 1/28/22)

With all this “looking up” by scientists and government, there must be something up, so this generation should be “looking out.”

Just as the powers that be have set in motion the machinery of generating fear through the microbial world of virus pandemic, so, too, I’m of the cynical opinion, they are beginning to raise the fear factor in pointing us to things to come from somewhere above.

I’ve pointed before to the thought that the “great delusion” of 2 Thessalonians 2 might involve the lie that extraterrestrial visitors will come to rescue us from planetary disaster. These will, the lie will include, be called down from space by the false prophet. In actuality, it might well be that Satan and his evil hordes are being ejected from the heavenlies for the final time in the war they have lost with God’s angelic forces.

Regardless of how it all plays out, it is time for all believers to be looking up, while “watching” all going on around us, for our redemption—our Lord and Savior—must certainly be drawing near!

I want to make it exceedingly clear that I consider myself neither a prophet nor a son of a prophet in the Old Testament sense. However, I believe that in these times as we see the Tribulation closing in like a tightening vice, all who earnestly “watch” developments –including yours truly– can qualify in some sense, under God’s definition of what constitutes a prophet. Since we are all commanded to “watch”, according to Jesus Himself, we who are believers have the command to be prophets in the sense of forth telling. That is forth telling, not foretelling. We are to observe the times –the issues and events of our times, and then to compare to Bible prophecy to see if there is prophetic relevance as we see the time of fulfillment of Christ’s return approaching. We are then to tell others –to warn others that time of fulfillment is nearing.

Jesus said the following: “And what I say unto one, I say unto all. Watch.” (Mark 13: 37)

In regard to the above lead into this commentary, I say without apology that I believe the following Old Testament Truth applies in some sense to each believer who today sincerely tries to discern these strange times.

“Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealed his secret unto his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3: 7)

The Lord –because He has Given us His complete Word, the Bible– no longer gives the power to foretell (predict the precise occurrence of an event or something other yet in the future). However, He expects us to be discerning enough through Bible study, prayer and observation of the times to forth tell matters involved in order to forewarn. I’m of the belief that we are being given prophetic indicators as in no other times in modern history.

For example, as we have forth told many times, all of Israel’s Gog-Magog enemies listed in Ezekiel 38 and 39 are now gathered north of God’s chosen nation. The coalition of Russia, Iran, Turkey, and others have coalesced. At some point those nations will, as God has Foretold, rush in storm-like fashion toward Israel.

We have forth told this reality in order to forewarn of where this generation stands on God’s Prophetic Timeline.

In the same sense we have forth told our prayerful, studied, observations that the minions, both human and demonic of Ephesians 6: 12 are at work in these closing moments of the age. Those powers and principalities are so obviously in process of trying to bring Satan’s one-world regime into being that it cannot be missed by the believer who is doing what Christ has commanded –to watch these developments in these troubling times.

Again, I’m neither a prophet nor a son of a prophet (although my Daddy was a pretty wise fellow). But I must be true to the commission I believe the Lord has given us as believers. –To watch with prayerful study and observation developments I discern to be on the prophetic horizon.

This brings us to the title of the commentary: In Antichrist’s Shadow.

The stage-setting is in every direction one looks for the son of perdition to leap onto the end times platform. Many control mechanisms have been carefully and methodically formed and put into position for the rise of the wicked one of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Of course, he cannot appear as long as we, believers, are still on the planet. But like in all things of prophetic import, the long shadows of coming evil darkens these times so near the consummation of human history. Antichrist’s long shadow precedes his coming to power once the Church, indwelt by the Holy Spirit are Called into the air in that glorious instant promised through the Apostle Paul.

One of those long shadows we see each and every day as times get ever darker is the so-called pandemic. The lockdowns, the mandates, the insane rants and raves of those who want imprisonment and even death to come to those who refuse the vaccination demands are red lights of warning. The forth telling prophets –believers who want to alert –to forewarn of the coming man of sin—are duty bound to flash those red lights before a world going down the broad road to destruction scheduled for the Tribulation.  

It is with this matter of desiring to forewarn further that I, like many, point to an interesting development on the geopolitical scene.

Emanuel Macron, president of France is a most fascinating character, as we consider these times so near the dénouement of this Age of Grace.

His name means God with us, as many know. It was one of the names Bible prophets said Jesus, Himself, would be called centuries before He came to earth as a baby. This fact alone is sufficiently interesting to make a forth telling believer focus in laser-like fashion. –Or at least it should be so.

This man who will soon assume the presidency of the European Union, as its France’s turn, is thought by some in his orbit to be a genius. –a genius who always manages to get his way. His charm, they claim can and does disarm his enemies with relative ease.

His history, as given by some who apparently have made an in-depth study into his background indicates a more esoteric pathway as he began his rise to power.

One report gives the view that is less than flattering to the young, mercurial, French leader.

Psychiatrist Adriano Sagatori, who says he has studied the biography of the French President, described Mr. Macron as a psychopath who he said would not fight for the French people.

“Like all psychopaths, he believes in his higher purpose. Macron does not love France and will not fight for the French people,” Sagatori said. (Emmanuel Macron labeled ‘psychopath who hates France’ in Russian media | The Independent | The Independent)

My friend Matt Ward, who wrote an in-depth article on the French president, reported that information he gathered presented the following conclusion by the psychiatrist.

Sagatori concludes, ominously, by summing up who he believes Macron really is clinically, in view of his psycho-social profile: “So we are confronted with three paradigms that define a certain type of personality; 1) the idea that there exist no limits; 2) a feeling of omnipotence from childhood, but even more so in adulthood; 3) a narcissism that can accurately be defined as malevolent.” (Emmanuel Macron by Matt Ward, raptureready.com)

All this to say that the coming Antichrist’s shadow is already forecasting truly evil times just ahead.

Will Emmanuel Macron be that beast of Revelation 13? I don’t know. That wicked prince that shall come won’t be revealed this side of the Rapture. But looking at this man gives the believer who is a prayerful, studied, observer reasonable latitude to conclude that while we don’t know, we can’t say that we haven’t a clue.

When looking upon the cultural and societal horizon, it’s hard to avoid the questions: How did things get this way so quickly? Where is it all taking us? When will we reach that destination?

My thoughts include the query: How very confusing and troubling—even terrifying—must it be to those who don’t have Bible prophecy as a basis for pondering all of these things? But then comes the reality of the human condition. It is obvious that the great majority of humanity moves through life without paying much attention to matters engulfing them, except and until their lives collide with calamitous circumstances. I’m referring to such circumstances as the so-called pandemic and its many variations. Humanity, at such time, accepts wholeheartedly, even clamors for, such things as unproven, experimental vaccines.

Christians join the majority of humanity who doesn’t give a thought to what all this demand by the powers that be means—demands that everyone on the planet take the jab.

This is not to rail against the vaccines themselves. And I write other than to criticize Christians and non-Christians for jumping on the globalist vaccination train, although I believe there are biblical reasons for addressing the egregious error wrapped up in the matters involved. But we will reserve such reasoning for subsequent commentaries.

What I do wish to address is the ease with which most all of humanity—including those who claim Christianity as their belief system—move along in herd-like lockstep toward a destination of which all are oblivious. They are pushed and prodded along by the elite and evil powers and principalities of Ephesians 6:12, as I’ve pointed out many times.

Some finally come out of their trance-like states to suddenly realize things have changed desperately. Their world—their circumstance—has seemingly suddenly altered, and they no longer recognize it. And now the wickedness that surrounds them engulfs them, and seems to have no remedy. The only result of their movement, unrealized while they were in transit, is lockdown by draconian would-be masters.

It is at such times that God’s cup of wrath is full nearly to the brim. This is a horrifying place for any generation to occupy.

We remember the people of Noah’s day in antediluvian times when God regretted that He had made mankind. We recall Sodom and Gomorrah, when every sort of wickedness had come into play. We were given the story of Nineveh, and its people the Lord spared from His certain wrath to come if repentance wasn’t forthcoming.

We look at the terrible, sexually depraved city of Pompeii, and suppose with good reasons that the Lord’s cup of wrath had overflowed as surely as did Vesuvius on that fateful day.

In each of these judgments, the people had, through full-bore compliance or through acquiescence, become willing participants in the rebellion against the Creator God of Heaven. The results were catastrophic—even for Nineveh at a time when that city’s evil once more filled God’s cup of wrath and brought about His wrath.

Again, looking upon the cultural and societal horizon of our times, we might wonder how quickly things got this messed up. They got this way the same way all other societies and cultures reached their tipping points—their world steeped in such evil that it filled God’s cup of wrath, bringing catastrophic judgment.

A recent news item gives but one insult to the Creator. The insult, of course, is compounded exponentially by too many instances to list.

A new law, put in place on Saturday in Canada, is causing concern that it may criminalize the dissemination of the Bible.

The concern is that Bill C-4, the Act to amend the Criminal Code-conversion therapy, defines conversion therapy in overly broad terms. The definition set out in the bill read as follows:

“A practice, treatment or service designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, to change a person’s gender identity or gender expression to cisgender or to repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behaviour or non-cisgender gender expression.”

The new law expressly forbids practices, treatments, or services designed to change or repress a person’s gender expression to align with their biological sex…

Rev. Dr. Aaron Rock, pastor of Harvest Bible Church in Windsor, Ontario, notes: “In Canada, the teachings of both basic biology and the Bible are now ‘myths’, according to the preamble to Bill C-4 (conversion therapy bill)… This isn’t about protecting people from harm, it’s about the state playing the role of God. And, not a single MP objected to it, including several that claim to be Christian.” (“Canadian Christians Fear New Law Will Criminalize Bible,” Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Biblical News, 1/9/22)

As I say, the anti-God actions by government and humanity as a whole would fill volumes. Meantime, those who believe there is a God, but who don’t know Him, say He is a “God of love” and would never bring judgment and wrath.

If those who say this could talk to the people of Samuel’s day, well, let the scriptural account speak for itself.

Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. (1 Samuel 5:1–3)

How horrendous it will be when God must pour His righteous judgment from that full-to-the-brim cup of wrath. And this generation of lost individuals who occupy planet earth are facing the Lord’s fury. Jesus said it will be a time worse than has ever been or will ever again be (Matthew 24:21).

Thankfully, God’s wrath is still filling into that terrible cup. We must alert our fellow Christians who don’t have a clue, but who are mixed within that herd being pushed and prodded along by the minions of Ephesians 6:12.

Those believers will be spared, but those who surround them who don’t know Jesus Christ for salvation will feel the full force of God’s holy wrath. Everyone who reads these posts should be personal evangelists. Forewarn those around you of the wrath to come if repentance and acceptance of God’s way of escape aren’t forthcoming.

Again, here is that way of escape:

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)

Any observer of these strange times from the preTrib view of Bible prophecy can do no other than conclude that the wicked powers and principalities in high places of Ephesians 6: 12 are at work.

Concerning one major section of this work being done by the minions in that stratosphere of evil, I find the following conclusion by a writer quite on the mark.

(1) COVID-1984 Bringing the Great Reset’s Conquest

The Chinese Flu may be a minor pestilence, but after two years of scientific dictatorship taking hold around the world, it is clear that the lockdowns, small business devastation, church closures, and punishments for disobeying arbitrary and capricious mandates devised by petty tyrants have all been about conditioning national populations to accept total government control over their lives. Plain and simple: Governments love the virus they have taught the world to fear. It is their weapon of choice for initiating, in their own words, a “Great Reset” that allows them to conquer free nations and remake them into slave states mastered by a small coterie of the fantastically wealthy and politically powerful. (Source: The Four Horsemen of the Left’s Artificial Apocalypse, J.B. Shurk, American Thinker.com, January 7, 2022)

The minions in high places determined to bring about the new global order have, of course, been setting the stage –or attempting to do so— for decades. They concentrated on first global warming, then climate change, when Manhattan and other places failed to succumb to the ocean waters rising from melting Artic ice as predicted. It seems that they concocted the idea of adding global pandemic to their one-world design and implemented the blueprint in 2020 to begin the process of controlling us and channeling us into planetary lockdown.

Their main thrust in implementing their plan to reset Planet Earth in their own image remains forcing everyone into a Mother Earth worship. This is an unending movement despite the fact that most of earth’s population isn’t concerned to any great extent. The masking and vaccines are much greater fear producers than the climate horrors predicted, it seems. So, the minions are full bore in demanding that the vaccinated turn against those who don’t want to take the jab.

People across the world, for the most part, ignore the dire warnings, despite the likes of the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg being used as the megaphone alarmist proclaiming earth is doomed. The distance between the rational mind and the fear-mongering mind of the globalist provocateurs is stark. The American Thinker presents an excellent contrast in this regard.

Most journalists, the U.N., Kerry, Greta, Biden, educators, entertainers, environmentalists, and other Democrats say the science is settled.  They say it is proven that humans, CO2, fossil fuels, and automobiles cause warming.  They say the warming is causing the ice to melt, and coastal cities will soon be gone.  They say we need to stop using fossil fuels because there are only a few years left to stop the warming.  Somehow, they also pretend more people die from a little warmth than the cold.  Evidence hasn’t mattered for a long time when they are pushing their agenda to destroy the economy.

On the other hand, people with the ability to use logic and reason will say that there is no correlation between populations, fossil fuel use, CO2 content, and temperature.  They will say truthfully that the climate has always changed cyclically and naturally.  Sometimes it is cold; sometimes it is warm.  Sometimes we have droughts, and sometimes we have rain and floods.  Sometimes we have less snow, and sometimes we have more snow.  Some years are stormier than others.  They understand that fossil fuels have greatly improved the quality and length of life for those who use them.

In other words, people who can use logic and reason follow the facts.  People who are pushing the leftist agenda to remake and destroy America don’t care about the facts.

Regardless of ideological differences in the matter of earth’s ecology, weather, etc., God’s Word indicates man can neither save nor destroy the planet.

“The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.  For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.” (Psalm 24: 1-2)

I recommend that one read the complete article above, which includes facts and fallacies about COVID and what’s going on as well as facts about the climate change delusion, to understand clearly truth vs lie in the Luciferian plans to bring on the Antichrist regime.

It seems to me that dynamics taking place in Europe, with regard to the dictatorial demands of the likes of French President Emmanuel Macron of France in effect controlling all activity with mandates, shows how near the world might be to the man of sin being revealed. Before the Antichrist steps into the spotlight, we can be assured believers in Jesus Christ will be with their Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a Glorious prospect if you are in God’s Eternal Family!

Today, as the new year begins, the cry for peace and safety rings more loudly than ever. I’ve written about the fears and calls for remedy of those fears in numerous posts. The prophecy below is one of the clearest in indicating when judgment will fall.

For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:3)

Following the Rapture of the Church, that cry will become much more urgent. As a matter-of-fact, the cry will be demanded from most everyone on earth at that time. The Antichrist will step forward and presumably have the answers to the deluded masses’ life-threatening dilemmas.

We can hear the cries even now beginning to build—not so much by the masses of peoples under the increasingly despotic governing authorities, but by the governing authorities themselves.

These fear mounting threats to world peace. Their fears, I think the evidence shows, is because they don’t wish their safe havens of ever-increasing wealth-building they’ve carved for themselves to be disrupted.

China wants to be number one in all matters of world domination. The CCP wants to retake Formosa (Taiwan). The Communist Party’s dictatorship has lost its fear of the US vanguard against their aggression with the current American presidential administration. The Chinese have, with patience and clever, even brilliant, strategies, tied up the US and much of the Western world with economic/monetary chains.

Vladimir Putin and the Russian military threaten the Ukraine and other neighbors. They have, by taking advantage of the Biden administration’s foolhardy green environmental/anti-petroleum policies, rearranged things in Europe and elsewhere that in a way that places increasing hardships upon the average citizenries.

Israel, in the view of the globalists elite, presents a great threat to their drive toward one world by demanding that Iran get of its nuclear weapons ambition. Israel is seen as the hold-up to peace in the Middle East to a large extent, despite that it is the Jewish State’s surrounding enemies that declare almost daily that they will wipe Israel off the map.

The very wealthy and privileged among us are picking up the mantra of peace and safety in the entertainment world as well. The very purveyors of ideology that has been at the forefront of the “woke” cancel culture and the rest of that insanity now seek safety from their constituent masses. It would be humorous if it wasn’t a sin infection that will ultimately enlarge the chambers of Hell.

The following report tells more.

After years of rising crime in Los Angeles, elites in wealthy neighborhoods are finally panicking about the recent string of high-profile retail robberies and home burglaries. Experts say wealthy individuals are purchasing bulletproof cars, safe rooms, employing armed guards, and even constructing walls with barbed wire around their properties.

The issue of violent crime is nothing new to Los Angeles, but a spillover to upscale neighborhoods has put elites on edge. The Hollywood Reporter reports agencies that provide private security are seeing increasing demand for private patrols…

Estate manager Bryan Peele, president and founder of the L.A.-based Estate Managers Coalition, said his clients have “fully equipped safe rooms that they can live in for a few days, if necessary, that are completely hard-wired with phone cables, Internet, everything.”

One of Peele’s clients has three bulletproof cars and wears fake Rolexes. “This guy will take a $200,000 Rolex and copy it, using stainless steel and other metals, so it looks like the original but costs maybe $2,000-$3,000 per watch. So, in the event that it’s stolen, the client is out a lot less money,” he said.

Many upscale homes are installing more cameras, constructing fences with barbed wire, and employing 24-7 security details that will protect them from once their private jet touches down to their mansions. (“Hollywood Elites Panic-Buy Armored-Cars and Safe-Rooms Amid Rising Violent Crime,” Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge, December 28, 2021)

Crime in the most elite sections of LA and the surrounding area has risen dramatically since so-called reforms to law and justice have taken place. The madness has caused cries for peace and safety from the most vocal “wokes” in the nation.

Criminals can steal as much as $950 worth of goods and receive only slaps on the wrist. What comes to mind is the scriptural reminder, “Be sure, your sins will find you out.”

Woke culture is reprobate thinking manifest for the entire world to see. Turning one’s back to God, as we are reminded in Romans chapter 1, brings about upside-down thinking.

Sadly, many–most—will never experience true peace and safety, either in this fallen world or, even more tragically, in the world to come—in eternity.

True peace and safety are found only in Jesus Christ. Only He can provide the shelter from the Tribulation storm to come and offer us safety throughout all of eternity during life after death.

Read again the words of the Lord of all lords—the Savior who came to take away the sins of the world. Hear through your spiritual senses the compassion and love in His prayer to the Heavenly Father.

When the Lord Jesus prays, the heavenly Father ALWAYS grants His Son’s prayer. Jesus prayed for the children of God—all children past, present, and future, saved through Christ’s precious shed blood:

I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them…

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent  me.

And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them (John 17: 9–10, 20–26).