Usually when coming against the pre-Trib view of Rapture, detractors say something like: “The word ‘rapture’ isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Bible.”

We usually retort with something like: “Neither are words such as ‘trinity’ or even ‘Bible.’ But they are clearly there when considering contexts and study of the body of scriptural evidence.”

“Besides,” we say, “the Greek word harpazo is found as the word rapturo in the Latin Vulgate.”

Anyone paying much attention to prophetic trends concerning eschatological viewpoints (whether premillennial, postmillennial, amillenial, or whatever) will have noticed by now a turning away from the pre-Trib position.

Even more strongly stated, we see an adamant, even scathingly antagonistic, movement away from this view.

My own thinking about the reason for this is that it is short-sightedness and experiential paralysis. Those who have abdicated–call it “defected from”—the pre-Trib Rapture position can’t conflate an imminent Rapture with the prophetic stage-setting we’re experiencing.

Our headlines create in the minds of these defectors an inability to any longer believe that Titus 2:13 really means what it says.

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. (Titus 2: 13)  

These defectors and/or detractors are experiencing the crush of the stage being set for the Tribulation (Daniel 9 and the book of Revelation) every hour of every day. Those who have always come against any idea of a pre-Trib Rapture are appearing to be increasingly validated through the things taking place in America and across the world.

They see the ethnic upheavals prophesied by Jesus (Luke 21 and Mark 13). They see the principalities and powers of wickedness in high places literally taking over this nation and the world. They see apostasy abounding everywhere they look—with the Roman Catholic pope leading the way in championing the murders of millions upon millions of babies in their mothers’ wombs, all the while denying that Jesus Christ is the only Way to reconciliation with God the Father and salvation.

Those angry against the view of the pre-Trib Rapture give Paul the apostle, who was given the mystery of that great Rapture event by the Lord Himself, little to no credence. Yet they point to how the “perilous times” (2 Timothy 3) prove their point that the Tribulation might already be in its beginning stage of fulfillment. “We are,” I heard one of these Rapture detractors say, “right in the middle of perilous times, and this proves there will be no Rapture before the Tribulation era becomes full blown.”

I listened to one pastor, who was said to have dropped out of the “Church of God,” say that he used to be a believer in the pre-Trib view, but he now sees it as a false and dangerous teaching. He, in effect, went on to lay out his case that all who believe in a pre-Trib Rapture, seeing all the things unfolding in the world today, are dopes. We are fools for such foolishness after living through such, at the very least, a time of just entering Tribulation.

The pastor went on to say that no place in the Bible states there will be a seven-year Tribulation period. He said it only speaks of the “Great Tribulation” mentioned by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, and that what Jesus said proves that era will be only three and a half years.

Again, he and his anti-PreTrib Rapture sort point to the lack of a single verse in order to prove the pre-Trib view is false. (Our view—which is the Bible’s presentation—holds to a seven-year Tribulation). They can’t, or won’t, see that the wide body of text, in context, proves that the horrendous time leading up to the Second Advent of the Lord Jesus encompasses seven years. All we have to do is to look at Daniel’s prophecy of seven weeks of years (Daniel chapter 9) to understand the time span that will wrap up God’s plan that leads to the millennial reign of Christ.

The pastor then said we who are of the pre-Trib belief refuse to debate him and others on the matter. He is right about that. I and others have long ago refused to debate whether there is a pre-Trib Rapture. It serves no purpose, as all the issues have been long-ago debated and with only harsh rhetoric emerging when the final analyses concluded.

We point people who want truth to the “mystery” given Paul as he expounded upon in 1 Corinthians 15:51–55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18. No need to debate the pre-Trib Rapture. It is there for anyone to clearly understand with the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

I’m convinced that anyone and everyone who genuinely seeks truth by studying these Scriptures will find that the pre-Trib view and the “blessed hope” of Titus 2:13 isn’t held by a bunch of “dopes,” as charged by the detractors/defectors.

A growing threat in America at this critical moment of US history involves a term we’ve become familiar with; it’s one we hear on an almost daily basis. It involves the most basic element of the nation’s family unit.

The term is CRT—for Critical Race Theory. The threat the term and ideology most represents is aimed at America’s children.

Here is one definition as presented in today’s leftist vernacular.

critical race theory (CRT), intellectual movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour. (https://www.britannica.com/topic/critical-race-theory)

CRT is a direct and destructive assault on the foundation of morality and liberty endowed by God and constitutionally assured by the founding fathers. This is because at its black heart is the insidious brainwashing of children in the public classrooms, from kindergarten through graduate levels of higher education.

CRT pits human being against human being. It divides in a most hateful and dangerous way at the God-ordained level of individual personhood, using skin color to do its destructive work.

Luciferian minions among us are rewriting history to paint true champions of God-given human rights as evil tyrants, even though it is those heroes who ultimately did away with slavery and legislated rights that were totally inclusive for all men and women, no matter their gender or the hue of their skin.

These minions are inculcating white children with the lies that they are evil perpetrators of hatred against people of color. They are guilty of being white, guilty of association to the founding fathers and all their whiteness. These minions are teaching children of darker-hued skin that they are victims and must do what is necessary to come against all whose skin is determined to be white. It is taught that violence against such whiteness is justified. Black lives matter and white lives don’t is at the center of the CRT curriculum.

The minions have so infiltrated the US government that institutions under the Justice Department, such as the FBI, now insanely threaten to incarcerate and punish in many personal and family ways moms and dads who legally protest school boards that continue to fill the children with such hellish, hateful propaganda.

It looks for the moment that the minions are having their way. The satanic blueprint to bring down the United States of America so that the Antichrist system of global control can be constructed, unhampered, seems to be coming to fruition.

But, as we’ve observed time and time again, God’s restrainer, the Holy Spirit, indwelling all believers who constitute the Church of Jesus Christ, continues to hold back the evil that threatens.

We see this again in the mothers and fathers standing against CRT being taught in the schools of America. A great many of these parents are Christians, and, I believe, are Holy Spirit-inspired to make this stand in these closing days of the Church Age (Age of Grace). God is using these to restrain Satan and his minions’ assault on the children of the nation.

The God of Heaven is not idle. He is at work in many ways we aren’t aware of. He sees the end-times battle against the powers and principalities of Ephesians 6:12 in terms of His Son’s perfect righteousness.

God’s own CRT program is in direct opposition to the wicked CRT campaign on earth we’re witnessing in its attempts to destroy the nation through stealing the minds of our children and youth. I term God’s CRT program “Christ’s Righteousness Theology.” This CRT contains all that is necessary to combat all the wickedness the powers and principalities in high places can throw at our nation—at us.

We as Christians must let the world around us see our Lord’s righteousness—yes, even His righteous anger—against evil that is exploding across culture and society at this closing time for human history.

Christians are a last line of defense at this crucial time just before the Rapture takes us to the dwelling places Jesus has prepared for those who belong to Him (John 14:1–3).

We must stand against the atrocity of abortion, against the madness of anti-God sexual deviancy, against the humanity-destructive things wrapped up in racism, no matter the perpetrators.

All people are equal in our God’s holy eyes, as He offers mankind the righteousness that makes men, women, and children eligible for redemption. The words of His own son, Jesus, says it all about Heaven’s CRT program.

For god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

For those who observe the signs of the times—the end-times weather report—indicators continue to mount that Christ’s Second Coming must be near. For pre-Tribbers, this accumulation of signals means the Rapture of the Church could be near indeed.

We’ll take a brief look at two signs that point to the approaching seven years of Daniel’s seventieth week, also called the Tribulation. Like so many other developments, these seem to speak specifically of major prophetic fulfillment following the Rapture (see 1 Corinthians 15: 51–55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18; John 14:1–3; and Revelation 4:1).

First we have the two beasts of Revelation chapter 13, the Antichrist and the False Prophet. The first beast, Antichrist, will be the world political dictator who ultimately will be indwelt by Satan. The second beast, the False Prophet, will head the global religion that is against the God of Heaven and Jesus Christ with all demonic power that the “woman that rides the beast” can muster.

Like so many other signs we analyze in these increasingly wicked times, the second beast’s system of false religion is coming into focus. The current Catholic pope, as many Bible prophecy students have suggested, seems to be at the forefront of prophetic progression. The foretelling of this demonic, religious system is described in the prophetic passage below. The strange “beast” described here is comprised of the future ten worldwide spheres of control, Antichrist’s government. The “great whore” who rides this beast is the False Prophet’s evil, religious organization.

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. (Revelation 17:1–6)

So it shouldn’t surprise us that if this generation is near the end of this Church Age (Age of Grace), there should be signs of this evil system at least in some stage of development.

The following excerpt, I believe, provides such a signal:

Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, Ahmed Al-Tayeb, and Pope Francis of the Catholic Church, held a special Chrislam summit in the Vatican, following their participation in the Summit of Religious Leaders on Climate Change, entitled “Faith and Science”. Welcome to the One World Religion!

Pope Francis flew to Abu Dhabi to present the end times covenant of Chrislam to Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb, how both men signed this document and then sealed their pact by a kiss on the mouth. Today, Ahmed al-Tayeb was present and accounted for at the Vatican as part of Rome’s preparation for their upcoming participation in the COP26 UN Climate Conference in Glasgow in November. (“Pope Francis Holds Special Gaia One World Religion Meeting With Chrislam Co-Founder Grand Muslim Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb at Vatican Today,” Geoffrey Grider, NTEB, Rapture Ready post, October 6, 2021)

The other item that lets us peer a bit into prophetic progression toward Tribulation-era fulfillment involves Revelation 13:16–18).

This, of course, is an area of prophecy we’ve looked at many times. It’s almost uncanny, the clarity with which we can detect the rapid coming-together of satanic control that will mark the Tribulation era. We are, for example, seeing now advanced stages of manipulative, governmental machinations through growing mandates demanding that people around the world obey COVID compliance. Already their dictatorial tyranny is declaring that people can’t buy or sell without proof of vaccine compliance.

A report several days ago stated that one man was so eager to display his vaccine “passport” that he had it tattooed, in detail, on top of his hand. He was about to take a booster shot, so was going to get that additional detail included to bring his compliance up to date.

It also shouldn’t be surprising that the nation and people most mentioned in Bible prophecy yet future are at the very center of the developing Orwellian demand with regard to governmental compliance.

After earlier claiming that only two injections would be necessary in order to obtain a “green pass,” the government of Israel is now forcefully demanding that all Israelis received a third jab of the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) in order to maintain the “privilege” of buying and selling.

As many as two million Israelis who took the first two “vaccines” from “Operation Warp Speed” but not the third recently lost their green passes, according to reports. Until they comply, these double jabbed people will now be considered “unvaccinated” in the eye of the government. (“Israel just nullified vaccine passports for all double jabbed people…now only the triple jabbed get ‘freedom,’”Ethan Huff, Naturalness, Rapture Ready post,  October 05, 2021)

The entirety of the prophetic horizon seems filled with such developing Tribulation storm clouds.

Stage-setting for what might be soon fulfillment inundates our daily lives. The Rapture will suddenly bring judgment and wrath upon an unsuspecting world of anti-God rebellion and wickedness. That should cause all of us who are looking for our blessed hope to witness of Christ’s soul-saving power and of His offering supernatural safety from the coming Tribulation storm.

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)

October 5, 2021

An incendiary heads-up made our Rapture Ready News headlines recently: “Humanity on brink of nuclear annihilation with threat highest for 40 YEARS, UN chief warns in chilling message.”

The story was no less troubling than the headline:

HUMANITY is on the brink of “nuclear annihilation” with the threat reaching its highest boiling point in forty years, a top UN chief has warned.

The nuclear arms race has the globe teetering “unacceptably close” to mass atomic destruction, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the world is on the brink of nuclear annihaltion Credit: Getty

He urged nations that have “stockpiled nearly 14,000 nuclear weapons” to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to avoid an international crisis.

It comes as wealthy countries continue to show off a string of advanced destructive arms that could result in catastrophic conflict.

He addressed the issue in a powerful tweet pleading with global powers.

“Now is the time to lift the cloud of nuclear conflict for good, eliminate nuclear weapons from our world, and usher in a new era of trust and peace,” he wrote. (Olivia Burke and Aliki Kraterou, News Corp—The Sun, September 29, 2021)

Peace and safety are at the top of the New World Order elite in light of things happening within the ranks of CCP leadership. China is, it seems, to be deliberately creating a war-like atmosphere by sending fighter aircraft over the territorial boundaries of Taiwan. They have apparently flown bombers into airspace claimed by the tiny state that broke away from China, as it was then known as Formosa.

Many observers believe China’s increasing aggression was the result of the weakness displayed by the Biden administration. The militancy has definitely increased significantly since the days when the Trump administration stood staunchly in keeping a strong naval presence in the area of the South China Sea and waters around the area of Taiwan.

The Chinese government is now emboldened to make threats most politically conservative observers believe would never have been made while Donald Trump was commander-in-chief. For example, Beijing’s former ambassador to the UN, Sha Zukang, said China must make the first nuclear strike against the US if Joe Biden continues to defend Taiwan.

This sort of rhetoric has set in motion all sorts of fears among the weak-kneed among the political left and the diplomatic appointees from this and past administrations.

Even considering the fact that China has a much smaller nuclear capability than the US, which has by far the largest nuclear force on earth, there is fear China will initiate a nuclear conflict.

During a meeting of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association in Beijing last week, Sha Zukang said: “The policy not to be the first to use nuclear weapons unconditionally has given China the moral high ground internationally.” But in the next breath, the Chinese say they must reconsider this policy if Biden continues to defend Taiwan against Chinese invasion to take back their rightful territory.

Another worry to those forecasting imminent war that will ignite all-out nuclear warfare are the reports coming out of Iran. Strange things are happening there, and more and more, Israel is suspected by the Israel-hating UN and others as the cause of those strange happenings.

The following news item tells more.

A fire erupted in an IRGC facility in Iran on Sunday leaving two dead and one injured. On Thursday, Tel Aviv-based ImageSat International—ISI, a commercial servicer for satellite images—estimated that the facility was not just any military compound—it was a secret missile base.

ISI reveals: On Monday, 27 September 2021, a mysterious explosion shook western Tehran, Iran. According to ISI intelligence report, the explosion occurred at an IRGC secret missile base of Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group.

It is still unclear why the fire erupted on Sunday.

A series of explosions and fires have hit industrial sites across Iran, including a number of petrochemical plants, in recent months and over the past year.

Iranian officials have referred to most of the cases as incidents or accidents, although some reports have claimed that at least some of them involved foul play.

The aging infrastructure in Iran has also been blamed for at least some of the incidents. Frequent blackouts have plagued Iran recently amid a heatwave. (“Fire in Iran occurred at secret IRGC missile base,” Israeli report by JP staff, Jerusalem Post, September 30, 2021)

It seems that Israel’s IDF and more surreptitious entities within that force might be assisting the Lord in “Restraining” things moving ahead of Heaven’s prophetic schedule for the wrap-up of the Church Age. Our friend Bill Salus has long kept his thumb on the pulse of the developing things in the Middle East and wonders frequently if Israel is about to begin fulfilling prophecies involving that area of ancient Persia—in Elam, for example.

One thing we can be sure of is that there will not be all-out nuclear war this side of the Rapture. China will fulfill its devastating role sometime near the end of the Tribulation, as given in Revelation chapters 9 and 16. The kings of the east force will kill fully one-third of earth’s population at that future time.

There will be no all-out nuclear war between Israel and her enemies, even if there are other conflicts. Prophetic Scripture is quite specific about these conflicts and how they will play out.

So we must, as believers, not listen to the fearful forecasts, but rather to God’s prophetic pronouncements.

My daily emails and conversations usually include a statement similar to: “With everything going on, we must be very near the end.”

This usually means that this generation of anti-God rebels alive on the planet must be about to get their comeuppance; God must be fed up much like He was with the likes of the inhabitants at the lower end of the Dead Sea during the days of Lot.

It was a time of evil, debauchery, and violence, as we read in Genesis 19. Jesus gave condemning words by saying that the time He returns (that is, when He is next revealed to an unsuspecting world) will be just like it was in Lot’s day in Sodom and during Noah’s day. (Lot’s day in Sodom was a microcosm of what the entire world was like during Noah’s day.)

In both instances—Noah’s day and Lot’s day—God found mankind so repulsive in the way they were acting that He had to destroy all but the very few He found to be righteous. The biblical account says the destruction in both cases was complete. To the believer in biblical truth, that is proven to be the case as we look around.

The antediluvian world is no more. There’s not a trace of it, except perhaps in geographical sites, etc. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah can’t be found, either. We do have proof that they existed and were destroyed, however, as we will look at a bit further on.

First, it’s interesting to consider that Noah’s day and Lot’s day bore similar characteristics. We will, in this case, look basically at only one similarity: violence was rampant. Jesus said, by inference, that the time He is next revealed will be in a period of extreme violence.

This is because Genesis chapter 6 said that violence filled the whole earth during the time just before the Flood that destroyed all but Noah and his family. It must have indeed been a murderous time, one when everyone did what was right in their own eyes, with little or no attention paid to God’s prescription for living.

So we are looking at “proof” for the lawlessness—the violence that stems from throwing off God’s Law and instead doing what is right in our own, sinful eyes. Is there any evidence that this generation is coursing toward violence of such significant levels? Are we in that time like Noah’s day and Lot’s day Jesus was talking about in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24:36–42 and Luke 17:26–30? Are we at the very end of God’ holy patience, as were those earlier generations?

The following excerpt of an article may give us a clue.

Our violent, blood-soaked culture has produced a violent, blood-soaked reality in our streets.  The final numbers for 2020 have finally been released by the FBI, and they are stunning.

Prior to last year, the largest one year increase in the murder rate in the United States was 12.7 percent, and that came all the way back in 1968.  Needless to say, many of you that are reading this article were not even alive in 1968.  Well, we didn’t just break the old record last year.  We more than doubled it.  According to the FBI’s annual report on crime, the nationwide murder rate was up about 29 percent in 2020…

The United States in 2020 experienced the biggest rise in murder since the start of national record-keeping in 1960, according to data gathered by the FBI for its annual report on crime.

The Uniform Crime Report will stand as the official word on an unusually grim year, detailing a rise in murder of around 29%. The previous largest one-year change was a 12.7% increase in 1968. (“The Largest One-Year Increase in Murder in the History of the United States,” by Michael Snyder, Prophecy News Watch, 9/24/21)

In our book, LAWLESS: End-Times War Against the Spirit of Antichrist, a number of authors delineated the exponential increase in every sort of anti-God activity. Just since the recent release of that book, we witness even greater increase in violence in every direction as we look across the prophetic horizon. Thus we must conclude that the answer to the consistent comments in the emails and the conversations have proof to back up the near-consensus. We are living at the very end of this Church Age (Age of Grace).

Proof that God is dealing with absolute evil from which people refuse to repent now confronts the eyes of mankind, if we will believe what we see.

Archaeologists have unearthed physical proof of what points to the destruction of Tell el-Hammam in the Jordan valley, the region of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament, and what they found was really wild. They found evidence of an incredible explosion that occurred in the skies above ancient Sodom, an explosion so intense that building down below were destroyed and things were literally vaporized…

FROM THE JERUSALEM POST: Tell el-Hammam in the Jordan Valley might have inspired the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, according to a new study that has spanned 15 years. In the study, published in the journal Nature on Monday, archaeologists researched the remains of Tell el-Hammam in an attempt to discover what destroyed the ancient city during the Middle Bronze Age. During the period, there were roughly 50,000 people living in the area of the Jordan Valley in three cities: Tell el-Hammam, Jericho, and Tell Nimrin, with Tell el-Hammam the biggest of the three, implying that until its destruction, it would have been the political center of the area. Radiocarbon dating dates the destruction to within 50 years of 1650 BCE.

Examination of the remains revealed evidence of a destructive event that involved high temperatures, such as pottery pieces that were melted and boiled on the exterior, but normal on the inside. The buildings of Tell el-Hammam were made of mud bricks, some five stories tall. In the upper part of the city, the destructive force demolished the buildings to the height of their foundations in the walls, and little mud-brick remained. Of the palace that was in this part of the city, the first floor walls and the upper stories are missing, and most of the mud-brick was pulverized. (“Archaeologists Discover Physical Proof for Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,” Jerusalem Post and NTEB, 9/23/21)

It is more evident by the hour that we are in a time similar to those in which the Lord said “enough is enough.” Judgment is coming. But for those who believe in Jesus Christ for redemption from sin and rebelliousness, the moment of God’s next catastrophic intervention into man’s history will be a glorious one, not one to dread. Christ’s shout from above, “Come up here!” will instantaneously take all believers into His magnificent presence.

Here is how to make sure your eternal soul is prepared to leave this wrath-bound planet when the Lord calls.

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

In what might be considered a sign of God’s hand still restraining the evil as given in 2 Thessalonians 2:6–7, the left-wing press has exposed the treachery of one of its ideological own.

This past week, with regard to Bob Woodward (of All the President’s Men fame) breaking the story of how Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley’s alleged treacherous, collusion-like dealings with America’s number-one nation-state enemy, the question remains. “Why?”   Not “Why did Milley do it?” But “Why did Woodward—an avowed left-winger posing as a fair and balanced journalist, out a fellow left winger?”

I’m sure that even now, many who suffer angst over such questions are delving deeply into the whys at every level.

Regardless of their findings—and there will certainly never be a consensus—I believe it is proper that we who hold to the veracity of Bible prophecy conclude that the Lord’s restraining hand can be clearly seen in bringing Milley’s alleged traitorous behavior to light.

And “traitorous” Is the operative designation, if the allegation is anywhere near true. It shouldn’t surprise anyone who has studied the issues and events of recent times. What happened this past week has prophetic overtones that are…well…much more than mere overtones. It is as if Heaven is shining the prophetic spotlight directly on this most recent insanity displayed by this administration and those closest to it.

Here is what the Apostle Paul says about what I believe has just happened with regard to General Milley and all that pertains to the story.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be…trucebreakers, false accusers…traitors, heady, high-minded.” (2 Timothy 3:1–2, 3–4) 

Again, if the story broken through Woodward’s book and the Washington Post (another left-wing purveyor of propaganda) is anywhere near true, it can, in my opinion, be considered Heaven’s spotlight of restraint overruling the lack of transparency usually veiling leftist evil.

These are perilous times, as most students of societal and cultural matters as seen through the prism of God’s prophetic Word can attest. Much of the evil being perpetrated by the minions in high places over the past weeks and months has been unveiled for all who are willing to see and understand the wickedness. The revelations of things going on in the case of America’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs have brought that wickedness more into focus.

Just to frame where General Milley’s reported actions seem to fit Paul’s perilous-times prophecy, let’s consider the following.

The Woodward-Costa book reportedly has Milley admitting to keeping President Donald Trump from knowing about his (Milley’s) dealings with his Chinese military counterpart. This was done deliberately because Milley—and all who opposed Trump’s presidency—intended to countermand anything Mr. Trump did. Milley was a “trucebreaker,” as Paul forewarned. The military agrees to follow the commander-in-chief’s (president’s) commands and keep him informed. If they aren’t willing, they are to resign and let the president have the military support the Constitution edicts. Thus, General Milley has broken the truce he agreed to in accepting his military commission—and his job as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Milley, the book claims, told then minority leader of the House, Nancy Pelosi, in secret conversations, that Trump was dangerous and must not be allowed to make decisions in important foreign policy matters. The general was a false accuser, in this lie. He reportedly told Pelosi and others that Trump was “unhinged”—meaning mentally unbalanced. This, if Milley said it, too, was a false accusation.

Milley is reported to have told the Chinese general that he would give him a heads-up if and when there was to be a US military attack coming. This is traitorous by any stretch—especially so coming from a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

Those who have presumed to believe they are smarter and should be in charge regardless of the American voters’ decisions are indeed heady and high-minded. They are the dangerous ones—the ones who add to the perilous times  Paul forewarned of.

This brief excerpt gives an encapsulation of the prophecy coming to pass in these days so near Christ’s return.

On Tuesday, the Washington Post published excerpts of the upcoming book Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, which alleges Milley had two secret phone calls with Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army, four days before the Nov. 3 election and two days after the Jan. 6 riot.

Earlier Wednesday, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in a Fox News interview that if the secret calls are confirmed, Milley should be removed as chairman and court-martialed.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R Ark., said Wednesday on “Fox & Friends” that Congress will “ensure” that Milley addresses the report. Milley is scheduled to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee later this month…

[Cotton said] “The idea that an American military general is going to warn an adversary that an attack is coming, as you say, when Donald Trump was never even thinking about a military attack against China? The whole thing is pretty far-fetched.”…

“This was treacherous, it’s dangerous, it’s unconstitutional, and General Milley needs to answer questions about it,” [Sen. Marco Rubio] said.

Rubio said it appears now that Milley himself was the authors’ source.

“I think he told [Woodward and Costa], ‘This wasn’t normal, I had to do this for the good of our country.”

Rubio surmised that Milley did it “because he wanted to make himself look good.” (Art Moore, “Treason-mania grips U.S.: Pressure builds on ‘treacherous’ Gen. Milley,” WorldNetDaily, September 15, 2021)

Again, it is wise to ask: Why do left-wing acolytes such as Bob Woodward and those at the Washington Post expose one of their own so that controversy broils out of control? Perhaps there will be another answer come forth. But for now I prefer to believe this is the Lord’s way of showing us He is indeed restraining this avalanche of evil.

It’s like looking at a movie. The creative senses of the film’s director force our eyes to initially see a blurred vista—maybe a desert scene. At first, the scene just appears to be a barren waste. Then the camera lens turns, and suddenly the view tightens to precisely frame a group of camels and people moving in the far distance.

The scene is no longer blurry. It is in finely tuned focus, letting the movie watcher know that this is a caravan of some sort traversing a desert-like wilderness.

This is the way it seems when we consider a particular Bible prophecy that must be relatively near to its time of fulfillment. The recent geopolitical gyrations in Afghanistan and the Middle East in general seem to be orchestrated by a foreknowing director, who is bringing into a sharper image the events setting up the Gog-Magog prophecy.

We know, of course, who that director is—the God who issued the prophecy in the first place.

Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. (Ezekiel 38:2–8)

We have for months—maybe even for years now—been observing the Gog-Magog assault force coalescing. It has been a process—with Israel, of course, always at the center. The region is incessantly of concern for the New World Order builders who see Israel as being the holdup to peace in the region and the world.

The United Nations—the majority of its nations—has always voted against the tiny Jewish state in most every issue of conflict involving the nation and its surrounding blood-vowed enemies. Israel has long ago, in effect, become the “burdensome stone and cup of trembling” of Zechariah chapter 12.

Until recently, the United States has, for the most part, stood behind Israel, keeping at bay Satan’s efforts of to bring the wrath of the entire world down upon God’s chosen nation. We’ve seen some breeches in the friendship between America and Israel that have opened wider, then closed to some extent—for example, when President Barak Obama pushed Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel, too, away from warm, diplomatic relationship. Then President Donald Trump brought the schism back together for the most part. Still, however, the entrenched US State Department, apparatchiks have continued holding the Jewish state at arm’s length to a large extent.

Now, under the Biden regime, it seems the Middle East, and Israel in particular, are being abandoned, telling Israel that it is more or less on its own. It is crucial to note that Afghanistan—that is, the geographical area it occupies—was, like Iran, part of ancient Persia.

Afghanistan, in my view, is the epitome of this abandonment. I believe it is a part of shaping the prophetic picture for the near future. The entire “debacle”—as it’s called by Biden detractors—is bringing the Gog-Magog force into high resolution in a big way—an image that now, I believe, can be seen in ever-sharpening focus.

The following excerpt defines clearly the exact nations that will be at the nucleus of that coalition when all is said and done. China is the exception, but that sinister entity’s importance can’t be missed in consideration of the overall prophetic picture.

The Taliban announced on Monday that they have invited Turkey, China, Pakistan, Iran, Russia and Qatar to participate in a ceremony announcing their new government in Afghanistan.

Russia’s TASS News reported:

The Taliban (outlawed in Russia) that seized power in Afghanistan have invited a number of countries, including Russia, to take part in an event dedicated to the announcement of the composition of the new Afghan government, the group’s representative, whose name was not revealed, told the Al Jazeera TV channel on Monday.

“We have sent invitations to Turkey, China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar to take part in the [ceremony] of announcing [the composition of the new Afghan] government,” he said.

The TV channel’s interlocutor also noted that the necessary procedures for the announcement of the composition of the new cabinet had been completed by now. He added that the Taliban would create “a regime that will be accepted by the global community and the Afghan people.” (Taliban Invites Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Qatar to Ceremony Announcing New Government in Afghanistan,” By Jim Hoft, The Gateway Pundit, September 6, 2021)

Not only is the Gog-Magog coalition now sharply defined for the observer of Bible prophecy, but most every other previous fuzzy image of things taking shape for being fulfilled now is beginning to, like that blurry desert movie scene, tighten into focus.

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

“Believe It or Not” was a syndicated newspaper series of brief facts about strange things in the world that ran for decades during the twentieth century. As I recall, each explanation of the strange goings-on was accompanied by an artist’s rendering that more or less encapsulated the weird story being told.

Later, actor Jack Palance snarled out in his usual villainous voice a TV series telling Ripley’s Believe It or Not stories. The viewers could make up their own minds about the truth of the stories. However, most had enough evidence to back up their veracity.

These were, of course, for entertainment purposes. The things told were mostly about events that had happened in the distant past, so, more often than not, they had no relevance to the well-being of or potential harm to the reader. You could believe it…or not. No further action was required.

There is one particular profound fact, however, that—as strange as it might be to some—requires a decision that involves total commitment to belief. To not believe invites personal destiny that is the most devastating imaginable.

This is not some imponderable factoid or matter of conjecture as to whether it’s fact or fiction. This is the truth we must believe, or else we’ll face a destiny beyond imagination:

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:17–18)

The whispers that come in soothing sounds from the creature that tells people to not believe is a million times more sinister than the snarling admonition by Jack Palance in the TV series. Satan says to each human being facing this all-important decision: “Yea…Hath God said?”

It is the same deception that brought sin into the world when the serpent whispered those words and Eve, being deceived, convinced Adam to partake in tasting the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God’s Word says we are lost because of that original sin. Satan seductively says that God didn’t really say that, but said something else, because man, being God himself, can determine for himself his course toward ultimate destiny.

It is true that God created us in His own image. At the same time, He gave us volition (free will) to believe or not to believe. God doesn’t force Himself on us. He didn’t create robots. He wants men and women, boys and girls, to love Him because it is our decision. We can believe it—or not.

At the same time, however, there are consequences to that decision, individually. Whether we choose to believe or not believe determines where we will spend eternity.

To believe that Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world, but so the world can be saved through Him is the all-important decision we can make. Our choice sets our personal destiny.

To believe that Jesus came to seek and save the lost—those in unbelief—and to accept that He is the only remedy for this lost condition is what God requires to cover our sin that condemns us to an eternity apart from His holy presence.

Sin cannot enter heaven. That’s why Jesus said that we must be born again—otherwise, we can’t even see the kingdom of heaven, much less enter it.

We must believe that Jesus died for us to save us from our lost condition, we must believe that God raised Jesus from death, and we must confess with our mouth that we believe this (Romans 10:9–10).

Like it or not—believe it or not—this is the way, the only way to go to heaven either upon death or at the Rapture of all believers.

It is more important than ever for Christians—believers—to share this truth with everyone we meet. Conditions proliferating in every direction point to the any-moment removal from planet earth for the believers. We must look through God’s eyes, being one with Him in Spirit, and point to that one Way He accepts for redemption. Jesus addressed His disciple, Thomas:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14: 6)  

The Psalmist was given this to write by God the Holy Spirit.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD: and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. (Psalm 33:12)

Despite America’s current condition, most Christians who are spiritually attuned to what the Lord of Heaven has to say about the peoples of earth know this has been, since its inception, a God-blessed nation. While we look around at the national and world landscapes today, we can say that America’s blessings look to be headed in the opposite direction.

Just considering the conditions that have resulted from the political chaos, the so-called pandemic, and now the complete disaster that the Afghanistan withdrawal seems to be producing, it is not difficult to reach the conclusion that the nation has been “weighed in the balance and found wanting.” It is being asked in such spiritually attuned quarters whether we are now seeing the “handwriting on the wall.”

While most believe the Afghanistan cut-and-run decision to be terrible error by a commander-in-chief who is of diminishing mental capacity, a more prophetically specific take piqued my interest recently.

Some geo-strategists—former clandestine-service types I heard—caused me to think in another direction than the mental incapacity slant.

These were pointing out that whoever is directing the current American presidential administration is using the diminished mentality matter as a ruse. In actuality, these say, what is happening is the global reset being carried out.

The whole Afghanistan matter, they believe, is to pile on America’s inevitable fall. The Afghan debacle is one more part of the globalist blueprint. First it was the stolen American election. That followed the years-long internal assaults by the US intelligence services, news and entertainment media, some top military people, and the extreme left ideological wickedness. Then burst onto the scene the pandemic with the masks, vaccines, and all the rest of the efforts to control. It was and is all part of bringing on the global reset we’’ve heard about now for several years.

That strategy is being implemented by the evil powers and principalities (both human and demonic) of Ephesians 6:12, I believe.  Seems Satan’s blueprint in that regard is at the center of the accusations by the collective, American patriot, geopolitical thinkers I heard putting forth their theory.

Again, that theory is that this president’s quickly diminishing mental capacity is being used as a ruse to, the minions hope, implement their global reset. The whole Afghanistan debacle was preplanned and is being implemented. What we’ve been witnessing in Afghanistan is not an egregious error in presidential or military planning.

It makes sense, to me. The Afghanistan travesty has, many believe, greatly weakened America in the world’s view, and it has given our chief nemeses such as China, Russia, Iran, and others thoughts that the US is in a vulnerable condition.

The following excerpt from an article written many months before the Afghanistan withdrawal catastrophe explains the globalists’ mad rush to implement its reset at its core.

Conservative Americans in particular have been a thorn in the side of the globalists for generations, and it really comes down to a simple matter of mutual exclusion: You cannot have an openly globalist society and conservative ideals at the same time in the same place. It is impossible.

Conservatives believe in limited government, true free markets, individual liberty, the value of life, freedom of speech, private property rights, the right to self defense, the right to self determination, freedom of religion, and the non-aggression principle (we won’t harm you unless you try to harm us). None of these ideals can exist in a globalist world because globalism is at its core the pursuit of a fully centralized tyranny.

There are people on this planet that are not satisfied to merely live their lives, take care of their families and make their mark peacefully. They crave power over all else. They desperately want control over you, over me, over everything, and they will use any means at their disposal to get it. I would compare it to a kind of drug addiction; globalists are like crack addicts, they can never get enough power, there is always something more to take. (Brandon Smith, “Globalists Will Need Another Crisis In America as Their Reset Agenda Fails,” Lewrockwell.com, April 19, 2021)

The writer of the above article predicted last April that if the global reset failed, the minions would concoct additional crises to bring America down. This makes the theory of the collective patriots I mention quite believable.

However, again, what is left out of all this is the restraining power of the Holy Spirit. I believe the problems these globalist resetters are experiencing in their nefarious efforts is their evil being exposed by that restraining Influence.

God will continue to frustrate these agents of the devil until He calls the Church to Himself. For Americans who are Christians—as well as all true believers throughout the world—that restraint we are seeing is indeed a blessing.

We are, in my view, in the end times described by the Lord—“like it was in the days of Lot” (Luke 17: 28-29). Despite all the evil literally bursting all around us—like that which the much-vexed Lot experienced—it is still business as usual; we’re buying, selling, planting, building, etc. The economic collapse all the doomsayers are predicting hasn’t been allowed to happen yet. Neither has the “great reset” yet been allowed.

These judgments are no doubt coming, but God the Restrainer has promised the following, and the promise is a true blessing for America and the world this side of the Rapture.

And now ye know what withholdeth [the Restrainer] that he [Antichrist] might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he [the Holy Spirit as Restrainer] who now letteth [Restrains] will let [Restrain], until he [the Restraining Holy Spirit] be taken out of the way [in the Rapture]. And then shall that Wicked [Antichrist] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:6–8)

America’s total and swift abandonment of its U.S. Air Force base near Kabul, Afghanistan, has even mainstream news media anchors confused. They found it almost impossible to find the words to cover for the president’s inability to form a cogent thought in answer to questions. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mike Milley, said on Wednesday, August 18, at a press conference, “there was nothing that I or anybody else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days.”

President Joe Biden stood before microphones the same day and ranted about how COVID vaccines would be mandated, with only secondary mention of the thousands of civilian workers Americans left stranded in Afghanistan while the vicious Taliban horde moved to take over Kabul and everything else. Biden seemed oblivious to pointed questions even from his mainstream news sycophants. While Afghan women and girls as young as five years of age were being taken as sex slaves and the families of Afghanistan were being slaughtered, Biden seemed to have no idea about how to deal with what the American or Afghanistan military should do to handle the cut-and-run strategy his administration—either by omission or commission—chose to employ.

Afghan women were seen literally tossing their little children across barbed-wire fences to American military personnel to get them out of the country on C-17 and other aircraft that the U.S. Air force were trying to fly out of the Kabul airport in the panic to evacuate as many as possible.

Some of those flights saw men hanging from anything they could grasp while the planes lifted off. Some fell hundreds and even thousands of feet to their deaths. One aircraft had to make an emergency landing because the landing gear would not fully retract. That was because some men, trying desperately to flee the Taliban, had tried to hide in the massive landing-gear area to fly to safety. They were crushed to death, of course.

This abandonment of the people of Afghanistan and even of American citizens, leaving them to face their fate at the hands of some of the bloodiest terrorists on earth, is indicative of abandonment of another sort. The abandonment of God. The sheer chaos and confusion, the biblical argument can be made, is the result of the loss of ability to think clearly. The diminution of thought processes comes from anti-God wickedness.

I listened to many retired former top admirals and generals—none of which was necessarily political as to favoring one party or the other. Almost each person was dumbfounded at the way in which the Afghanistan pull-out proceeded. Some said that the president should resign, or at the very least, that the Joint Chiefs of Staff should resign in order to cover the president’s obvious ineptitude.

To me, this debacle—if one is so generous as to see it as mere debacle—is the coming to fruition of the madness we’ve witnessed in recent times.

The decision to pull out in a catastrophic manner from America’s obligations in Afghanistan comes on the heels of the political power responsible for the insane decision. The Democrat Party is the ideological bastion that long ago made it a point to kick God out of the party—i.e., to eliminate all mention of God as part of the party platform.

Since that decision, and even before, we have watched the so-called radical left take over the party in every respect.

They are the party, of course, who long ago championed abortion. At the same time, they championed causes of wildlife preservation, making certain animal mothers and their offspring are protected.

The party is the one that allowed the radicals to bring Critical Race Theory into the educational system, in effect instituting racism in reverse. They are the party that champions the evil Black Life Matters (BLM) rioters and looters. They use the killing of black men by police, which are far fewer in number than Caucasians killed by police, to give excuse to perpetrate their wickedness. At the same time, the ideology that supports BLM completely embraces abortion, which murders black babies by the hundreds of thousands every year.

This anti-God insanity declares that a person can be whatever gender they wish to be. Their birth certificate and sex at birth have no meaning in the transgender push in American culture.

They champion same-sex marriage and even every form of perversion between adults and children. This generation of anti-God adherents has come to the point that rational thinking is no longer possible, it seems.

Again, here is what God’s Word says happens and is happening in our nation and world today.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:28–32)

Having witnessed all the things just in the political arena as dissected above, can there be much doubt that God has turned a large portion of those who embrace such anti-God comportment over to upside-down thinking—to reprobate minds?

That wicked, reprobate thinking has, I’m convinced, been complicit in bringing fraudulent governance to this nation. Those anti-God forces have brought to the entire world leadership that is upside-down in thought and action. That is reprobate in every sense. It is an anti-God sort of thinking that is swiftly moving the nation and the world into an Antichrist global order.

We see the supreme, sardonic irony (God’s laughing the evil global principalities in high places to derision) in the fact that the office considered to be the leader of the free world is now occupied by a person who many, including renowned psychiatrists, believe to have progressing dementia; that’s another way of saying “having a reprobate mind.”

The craziness crisis through which we are living is a direct result of more and more people turning their backs on the One who created them. The dementia will get worse, and it will bring humanity near to the end of all flesh.

But first, Jesus Christ, our blessed hope, will call all of God’s children to Himself in the Rapture of the Church. Then God’s judgment and wrath will fall upon a world of rebels.

The only way to be rescued before this world must pay for its wickedness is, again, found in the following words of the Apostle Paul:

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)