Disturbing statistics about the nation I love bring again to mind the question: Why is America not mentioned in Bible prophecy?

It is the apex nation of history so far as concerns achieving material wealth and moving forward technology that defines the term “modernity.” America has been, as we’ve noticed on many occasions, among history’s most spiritually blessed and God-centered nation-states. Of course, we’re quick to recognize and state the obvious. That seems now a thing—for recent generations, at least—of the distant past.

Every day and in most every way it can be said that the US as currently constituted has turned our back on God and most things of the Heaven-directed sort. We watch on an hourly news-cycle basis while the political power wielders who committed electoral larceny work incessantly at trying to take apart this nation one constitutional safeguard after another. And they do so without seemingly significant push-back from all but a very few.

Sadly, it appears that a majority of we the people, rather than oppose things going on to destroy this once-great republic, just fall in line like proverbial lemmings. Evidence of this acquiescence is the very large number of people who accept an almost totally unproven and non-FDA approved vaccine. With government-engineered, fear-engendered COVID-19 at the center of the coercion, they are willing to give in to government directives to comply, if they want to be able to be American citizens in the same sense as before the so-called pandemic. Only, there is little chance of that ever being allowed to happen. Implied in this government demand that all be vaccinated with an unproven injection is that a vaccine passport is forthcoming. All will have to have it—or else stay sequestered within the confines of one’s home, I presume.

I don’t intend by this rant to advise in any way that one should or should not take the vaccine. That is a personal decision (at this point at least.) I’m more than implying, however, that I object strenuously to government, by proxy, forcing us to be jabbed, as it is termed by some.

I say “by proxy” because the politicians, very wise in their end-times deceit and treachery, are in league with big-business interests. They will, no doubt, let the business entities take the blame for requiring the vaccine passports that are undoubtedly on the way.

This is to say that in the near future you might not be allowed to go to Walmart or any other place to shop, or ride in public conveyance without your papers—yes, much like Nazi Germany began the Reign of Terror during der Führer’s rise to dictatorship.

The papers of vaccination are the new normal the powers that be want us to accept. And this while Dr. Anthony Fauci says we need to keep the masks on in public and avoid gathering.

All this, in my view of Bible prophecy, demonstrates the terrible effects of turning one’s back on God, which we mentioned at the beginning.

Is America the Babylon of Revelation 18? This is a query we’ve been over many times here, and others have explored on many occasions in Bible prophecy studies. I’ve indicated that I believe there are parallels that are hard to dismiss between that doomed, future city-state that will be destroyed in one hour and our beloved America. Time factors show, in my view, that it would be hard for another all-dominating empire-type state such as America has been to develop in the area of ancient Babylon—if Christ’s return is close.

I don’t hold that America and the prophesied Babylon are one and the same. I simply weasel out by saying it looks to me like there is a possibility that they are.

And when I see the description in Revelation chapter 18—“has been a golden cup in God’s hand”—I think of this Heaven-blessed nation.

As stated many times, we have spread the Gospel—carried out the Great Commission—as no other nation to ever exist. We have been blessed with the technology and travel capability to do so.

America has blessed God’s chosen nation Israel as no other nation has blessed that people. The US was instrumental in bringing about Israel’s rebirth in 1948 and has stood as a sort of big brother to protect the Jewish state since.

This blessing of Israel, too, is now on the dangerous side of down-trending with the Biden administration and a seeming increasing hostility toward Benjamin Netanyahu and the Jewish state.

The “golden cup” nation called America, it seems, is now cankering—rusting and deteriorating by the day. As a matter of fact, it has become rather a cesspool of Sodom-like activity in a significant way.

The following somewhat frames this truth.

There are a lot of things that we want America to be great at, but spreading sexually-transmitted diseases is not one of them.

And the numbers tell us that cases have been rising at a particularly frightening pace since 2015…

For 2019, health departments across the U.S. reported 1.8 million cases of Chlamydia, an almost 20% increase since 2015; 616,392 cases of gonorrhea, more than 50% higher than 2015, and 129,813 cases of all stages of syphilis, a whopping 70% increase, the CDC said.

So why is this happening?

Well, an NPR article on this subject is pointing out that dating apps have made finding casual sex easier than ordering a pizza…

There are many factors that contribute to the rise of STDs, and syphilis in particular.

In the gay community in San Francisco, for example, the rise of mobile dating apps like Grindr and Tinder made finding a date “faster than getting pizza delivered to your home,” says Dan Wohlfeiler, an STD prevention specialist and co-founder of Building Healthy Online Communities, which uses these apps to improve gay men’s health.

These dating apps are particularly popular among young people and in the gay community, and this is clearly showing up in the case numbers…

Additionally, gay and bisexual men and younger people also faced an increased burden. According to the report, gay and bisexual men made up nearly half of all 2019 primary and secondary syphilis cases and had gonorrhea rates that were 42 times higher than heterosexual men in some areas, whereas people aged 15 to 24 years accounted for 61% of chlamydia cases and 42% of gonorrhea cases.

It is important to keep in mind that chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis are just three pieces of a much larger puzzle.

According to the CDC, there are dozens of STDs currently spreading in the United States.  Approximately 20 million new STD infections occur in the U.S. every single year, and at any moment in time approximately 110 million Americans are dealing with a sexually-transmitted disease. (“We’re #1”: Yet Another Ignominious All-Time Record High Is Established In The Late, Great United States,” by Tyler Durden (article by Michael Snyder), ZeroHedge, April 15, 2021)

America, in significant, wicked ways, has now become like the sexually debauched days of Sodom of Lot’s day. There seems no turning back, although we should pray and work toward that changed trajectory.

This all means that Jesus, and His time for stepping out on the clouds of Glory to call His Church to be with Him, might be even at the door of Heaven. We who are called by His Holy Name can take comfort from His own Words. We can take comfort because all we are seeing might mean that things are now like they were in Lot’s day when God intervened. The next Intervention, I believe Jesus is saying, will be the Rapture!

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:28–29)

Stresses of life that sometimes seem to build every minute of every day assault us, depress us, bring about a sense of gloom—even doom, on occasion. This truth of the human condition seems to be a growing affliction as hourly news reports appear almost designed to cause feelings of hopelessness.

Just a quick scan on one day of our Rapture Ready news briefs, although necessary and invaluable in keeping us informed, makes us know that impending wickedness our way comes, as Shakespeare might put it. The world is preparing for war—and that possibility is quickly growing beyond being merely rumor, as Bible prophecy forewarns. Here a few such headlines that portend things that could break out into global warfare.

• Russian Gunboats Head to the Black Sea to Join Military Buildup Near Ukraine
• China in New Threat to Taiwan: “Island’s Military Won’t Stand a Chance”
• US Warships to Deploy in Black Sea until May 4
• Japan Lashes Out at China On Uyghurs, Hong Kong ahead of US Visit
• Iran Is Testing Nuclear-Capable Missiles, Israeli Ambassador Reveals
• 2 US Warships to Deploy Near Ukraine until May amid Russian Military Buildup
• German Chancellor Merkel Demands Putin Pull Back Troops from Flashpoint Border as War between Russia and Ukraine Seems Imminent

These were all posted on one day’s Rapture Ready News—Saturday, April 10, 2021. If we included the less prominent potential conflicts, we wouldn’t have enough space for making the points I wish to make with this commentary. Suffice it to say that just going through the many potential military confrontations Israel faces against its enemies on any given day would itself fill a commentary-length article.

We know, as believers in God’s Word, that it is only the Almighty’s staying hand that has prevented all-out nuclear war since nuclear weaponry came on the scene. Every weapon ever created has been used to make war. So has the atomic bomb, but not since Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. It has to be the God of Heaven who has prevented such horror.

Certainly, Bible prophecy indicates that nuclear weapons will at some point be used. The Tribulation era likely will see millions killed through use of such weaponry. China, which likely will be the leader of the “kings of the east” forces, will wipe out one-third of humanity. This implies nuclear warfare.

The last part of our title in this commentary—“life’s gloom”—fits this point. It is a time of gloom, thus depression, that we face with regard to possible warfare in our future. And considering all the other things confronting us or potentially confronting us in our daily lives, the gloom and depression just deepen.

COVID-19 has disrupted our lives like nothing in memory, even for my generation. We each have things in our lives—cancer, accidents, deaths of loved ones, prodigal children, unfaithful spouses, economic loss and many other depression-producing things—with which we must deal. Even when those who are without Christ in their lives, who have wealth, fame, and position, are seeming to have a great time of living it up, as they say, there come moments when severe depression sets in. The drugs, sex, illegitimate gain or ill-gotten wealth can’t provide the constant high on sinfulness to assuage coming down into the inner-darkness that the conscience tells one that he or she faces with regard to a bleak future.

So let’s look now at the first part of article’s title—“a joyous look.”

If I may give a personal example of the reason you can expect joy in the face of impending doom and gloom, maybe you can at least begin to understand. I, myself, do indeed understand how good my God is, and would like to just pass along the good news that is missing all too often in people’s lives today.

And the “good news” is all wrapped up in the “Good News”—that is, the news that Jesus Christ came to die on the cross at Calvary, was buried, and arose on the third day to take away your sins and mine. All who believe in Christ’s sacrifice in order to redeem (save) them from the consequences of sin can be assured not of gloom and doom, but of comfort and joy in this for all eternity. If we could just truly understand—all of Heaven’s riches belong to the believer!

When I learned at thirty-five years of age I would go totally blind due to a retinal disease, I was, to say the least, devastated. I had a young family with a child to raise. The gloom and doom was overwhelming. But it lasted only several days. Like Paul the apostle, I asked the Lord to take the disease—to restore my eyesight back to normal. I received no healing, no comfort. I then asked the Heavenly Father to take away all fear and anxiety that was so agonizing—remembering Paul’s answer from the Lord that God’s grace was sufficient. The healing was instantaneous. All fear was gone, and it never has raised its proverbial ugly head again.

When the total blindness came fifteen years later (a miracle in itself, as most victims of RP lose vision much more quickly) I had to push away from the computer screen and lament, “Lord you will have to do something if I’m to continue writing.”

Actually it wasn’t a demand, but a plea. Within several days I had my answer. My God-provided editor showed up on our doorstep after answering an ad for help because of my blindness. Angie is now my editor of going on twenty-nine years, I think, and is now, in the deepest reaches of my heart, my daughter. Together we have produced a number of books in our Lord’s service.

Joy again replaced gloom and doom.

Then, on Good Friday of 2011, I had the “widow-maker” heart attack. It came out of nowhere—not a hint of health problems.

I died clinically at least three times on the way to the heart cath lab, and was given a heavenly vision of three trips to somewhere on the periphery of Glory. My cardiologist, who took the case while I was in coronary ICU that Easter, told me just a few weeks ago that I was in superb condition for my age. It’s now ten years (and at least ten books later) after the type of heart attack that I was told 95 percent never survive.

Again, joy prevails over gloom.

But the most spectacularly wonderful thing for the believer in Jesus Christ to know concerns our eternal destiny. No matter how much wealth or good things of this life you accumulate or acquire—or, conversely, how much you lose or never gain—the joy that awaits you cannot be adequately imagined. The following from God’s Word should, if fully grasped in the deepest reaches of your spiritual understanding, take away all fear of troubles of this life, and give comfort straight from the supremely loving heart of our God.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 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. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. (Romans 8:14–19)

While indicators abound that the Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week) is approaching upon the prophetic horizon of the near future, one area of forewarning is somewhat neglected.

We’ve gone over ad infinitum matters involving the stage being set for that last seven years of unprecedented trouble. Things such as developments involving societal and cultural degradation. Things like political, governmental, and economic evil. Developments such as those produced through satanically manipulated science, to the detriment of mankind. Things like cumulative, anti-Christian corruption among churches. All are signals that God’s inevitable judgment approaches America and the world. But more rarely addressed is one very important sector of forewarning that Jesus, Himself, gave—the prophecy as recorded in the book of Luke.

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; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. (Luke 21:25–26)

The Lord was telling of a progressive series of end-times signals and, just two verses later, He tells us what we are to do when we see these things “begin” to come to pass.

Keep starkly in your thinking this word “begin.”It’s significant in thinking on our rescue from that terrible time of trouble—the seven-year Tribulation.

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)

Now, I realize that many—particularly perhaps a majority of seminary students and their professors—interpret this to mean that those enduring the Tribulation are to “look up” because Christ is coming for them. I agree. But I’m convinced that it is a dual audience the Lord has in mind. I believe He is talking not only to saints of the Tribulation era, but also to Christians of the Age of Grace (Church Age).

Jesus is referring to the answer He gave His disciples that day when they asked when would be the time and sign of His coming (Luke 21:25–26 as given above). He is including the signs that will mark the era (the Age of Grace or Church Age) that will usher in the time of Tribulation. He is saying that when these signs “begin” to come to pass, saints of the Church Age are to “look up” and “lift up [their] heads.” He’s also saying to Tribulation Saints (those saved during that terrible era) that when they see these things happening, they, too, are to “look up,” because He is on the way to rescue them.

The first time  His people (Church Age saints) are to look up for their redemption is at the Rapture. The second time his people (the Tribulation saints) are to look up is at the Second Advent when He returns with those Church Age saints.  So we consider whether we are now seeing prophetic signs in the sun, moon, and stars as well as all of the other signals mentioned above. Also, Jesus, the Living Word (John 1:1), gave dramatic things to look for upon and in the earth itself as prophecy begins to be fulfilled for the wind-up of history leading to His Second Coming. He gave these through the writer of the book of Acts, who quoted the Old Testament prophet Joel.

And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come. (Acts 2: 19–20)

Reports of increased stellar activity are beginning to light up the hourly newsfeeds. One report says the following.

New observations with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) indicate that the rogue comet 2I/Borisov, which is only the second and most recently detected interstellar visitor to our Solar System, is one of the most pristine ever observed. Astronomers suspect that the comet most likely never passed close to a star, making it an undisturbed relic of the cloud of gas and dust it formed from.

2I/Borisov was discovered by amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov in August 2019 and was confirmed to have come from beyond the Solar System a few weeks later. “2I/Borisov could represent the first truly pristine comet ever observed,” says Stefano Bagnulo of the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, Northern Ireland, UK, who led the new study published today in Nature Communications. The team believes that the comet had never passed close to any star before it flew by the Sun in 2019. (“First interstellar comet may be the most pristine ever found,” ESO, March 30, 2021, RR News April 2, 2021)

Other strange things in space are making themselves known in a stellar show that fascinates scientists who watch with critical eyes. A couple of other of these displays are turning eyes and telescopes upward.

Other strange things in space are making themselves known in a stellar show that fascinates scientists who watch with critical eyes. A couple of other of these displays are turning eyes and telescopes upward.

My good friend, Dr. Thomas Horn of SkyWatch TV, has done extensive research on a heavenly visitor that portends possible and prodigious prophetic possibilities—if you will forgive the alliteration.

It’s a matter of concern to scientists that most media won’t report because, we presume, of possibly panicking the public.

The space rock, an asteroid, is huge and might be on a trajectory that will bring it near earth. As a matter of fact, those who study such things say that if it comes as close as suspected, it can’t do anything but strike the planet.

While some claim it will come close enough to knock out orbiting satellites, they say it isn’t likely to actually hit the planet.

Tom Horn and others, including top scientists devoted to study of interstellar space, say it’s ludicrous to think such a huge mass could come close enough to knock out orbiting satellites and not plunge into the planet itself.

The asteroid, named Apophis after a god of ancient mythology, is headed earth’s way, according to those carefully tracking it.

You may have seen this week where NASA is calling an “all clear” on the impact possibility of Apophis in 2029. But just one of many scientists is warning that NASA’s trajectory calculation of Apophis is off by as much as 600,000 miles, which Harry Lear implies could send Apophis crashing into earth eight years from now on April 13, 2029. Lear sent an open letter to the President and U.S. Government scientists begging them to cross-check these calculations immediately, even though he ends his dispatch with an ominous admonition that we may already be out of time.…

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson admits that on April 13, 2029: “Apophis will come so close to Earth that it will dip below our orbiting communication satellites. It will be the largest closest thing we have ever observed to come by earth… the orbit we now have for it is uncertain…because these things are hard to measure and hard to get an exact distance for—we cannot tell you exactly where that trajectory will be.” (“When Prophets and Scientists Agree: Nasa “Deceptively” Clouding Truth about 2029 Asteroid Impact Odds,” 3/30/21, SkyWatch Editor)

Tom Horn, in his books The Messenger and The Wormwood Prophecy, goes into great detail, including prophetic possibilities regarding this massive space rock.

He believes that it’s possible that it might have something to do with the catastrophic object from space given in the following Scripture.

The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” (Revelation 8: 7–11)

Jesus’ foretelling that there would be a great many earthquakes and violent upheavals in the earth also seems to becoming more in view with each news cycle. Here are just a few that are occurring simultaneously.

• 2 magnitude earthquake hits near Georgetown, Saint Helena
• 2 magnitude earthquake hits near Merizo Village, Guam
• 1 magnitude earthquake hits the Owen Fracture Zone region
• Elevated unrest continues at Taal volcano with 212 earthquakes in 24 hours, Philippines
• Etna volcano in Italy erupts to 30,000 ft
• Sabancaya volcano in Peru erupts to 24,000 ft
• Popocateptl volcano in Mexico erupts to 19,000 ft
• Sangay volcano in Ecuador erupts to 19,000 ft
• Reventador volcano in Ecuador erupts to 15,000 ft
• Fuego volano in Guatemala erupts to 14,000 ft
• Pacaya volcano in Guatemala erupts to 11,000 ft
• Lava flow at Pacaya volcano heads toward inhabited areas, Guatemala
• Iceland volcano: photographer runs away as lava flows towards him

The Lord’s admonition to be looking up when these things begin to come to pass must not be ignored. His Word must be embraced and spread so others will escape that horrific seven years soon to break upon an unsuspecting world. These are not signals of doom for the believer in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Here’s what He promises regarding this time of Tribulation that will be His judgment and wrath (called “the hour of temptation” in KJV):

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)

Even so, come Lord Jesus! 

During this troubling movement into ever-increasing evil, those among Bible teachers, writers, broadcasters, et al., who proclaim there is to be no pre-Tribulation Rapture are having a field day. They feed the business of prepping for a dystopian world. They stoke the fears of those who agree that life as it’s been known here in America will collapse into a Mad Max-type struggle for existence any day now.

And, in a way, they can’t be blamed. Everything points to a profound loss of sense of reality. End-times insanity certainly seems unstoppable while mankind moves farther and farther from God and toward that time John described in the book of Revelation.

Hearing podcasts today that talk of the horrors to come is disturbing. Not hearing anything about what is coming from the pulpits of most churches is even more disturbing. What disturbs most is that nothing is being told of the truth that Jesus Himself promises: the glorious calling of the Church into His presence at a time of enveloping darkness, like what’s taking place now.     

I recently began listening to a particular podcast because I wanted to hear the host’s take on the stealing of the 2020 presidential election. After I heard that, I continued to listen as much out of daily habit as for any other reason.

The blog’s host paints—correctly, for the most part—a bleak future just ahead for the nation and the world. He points out the globalist minions who want to bring the rest of us under their domination. He includes that he believes the vaccines are all part of the control they intend to establish. They are, he offers, designed to do physical harm to recipients in order to bring the world’s population down dramatically over the ensuing months and years—i.e., he insists the vaccines will interact with immune systems in deleterious ways to cause people to die from the vaccines’ effects.

He believes the world—and the US, in particular—is in for some of the darkest times in human history. Only a few will survive.

And this is where he loses my attention. He says only those who prepare properly will survive—that is, those who are true patriots with a godly or morality-based belief system.

The globalists elite and others of the would-be rulers will submerge into their extravagant underground bunkers and even fully-equipped-for-survival cities.

Folks without these resources will still be able to survive if they follow the prepper rules for survival, including buying survival products such as those offered in his store.

When the blog host began talking in terms of his belief in God—even in Jesus Christ—and his acceptance that the book of Revelationspeaks of exactly the time of coming unprecedented trouble he is talking about, my interest was piqued.

He is apparently friends with a couple of well-known writers who delve into the subject of the hard times ahead for the nation and world. These are known to come against any notion of the Rapture of the Church. They’ve even on occasion scoffed at the idea of a pre-Trib movement of God’s people out of harm’s way. Christians will go through the Tribulation, but if properly prepared, will be kept more or less safe by God, they insist. Therefore, they must stock up and brace for the great hardships to come in order to survive.

I perceive that the blog host is, if he is a true believer—and I believe he is—he is a very immature one. That is, he has no understanding of Truth found in God’s Word in regard to prophecy yet future. I gather this opinion based upon several months now of listening.

When he began talking about the judgment and wrath in Revelation, earnestly imploring people to prepare to go through those times, I could do no other than find his email through a close friend who knows one of the men I mentioned earlier—one who is not a pre-Tribber. I emailed the blog host an offer to send him several of my books dealing with exactly the time of terrible trouble to come he’d been talking about. I also told him that his friends who teach against the Rapture are wrong, and, since he says he wants to consider all sides of matters, I wanted to present him with the truth about Christians not going through that coming time of horror.

I haven’t heard back from him. To even consider an alternate possibility to the position his anti-Rapture associates teach would go against his—and their—business models, as well as against their belief system regarding Bible prophecy.

I sensed, however, that I should make the effort to provide truth on that most glorious promise of our Lord that we will be delivered from the time of evil the likes of which mankind has never before seen.

Things going on in every facet of life at this moment, to the observant Bible prophecy student, point to very dark times ahead. The blog host I mention sees a moment coming when things will suddenly and catastrophically change. He thinks it will be brought about by the sudden fall of the US dollar as prime currency for the world, or because of some other financial disaster. Everything will collapse around the people of the nation and the world, and only those who are prepared—by having essentials of life stored, etc.—will survive. Billions will eventually die, he proclaims.

He is right about the coming calamity, except for being able to store enough gold, silver, and food to survive, and the cause of the catastrophic crash and movement into that world that will make the fictional era of Mad Max seem tame and rational by comparison.

That great, catastrophic time of unprecedented trouble will take place when millions of believers are called to be with their Lord in the heavenly clouds above this wrath-bound planet. That moment is drawing near. We can be sure of this because the Lord Jesus Himself said that when believers see the things that are now beginning to take place, we’re to “look up” because He (our Redeemer) is drawing near (Luke 21:28).   

My friend Pete Garcia and I are just completing a book on all of this, to be released in a few months, titled THE DISAPPEARING: Future Shocks That Will Rock the World.

The Apostle Paul says the following to what looks to be this generation:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18)

Those keeping an eye on the way biblical prophecy is unfolding have plenty of developments to watch to gauge what might happen in the relatively near term.

Perhaps the most obvious area of prophetic progression is seen in the preparations for the coming Antichrist regime of control. By that, I mean the proverbial noose is tightening by the satanically driven minions of governments across the world. This is, collectively, a sure signal that the time of Tribulation approaches.

I believe the COVID-19 crisis is at the nucleus of that satanic drive to develop the means for locking down the world, to ultimately put the collar and chain of control around the necks of the Beast’s victims during that last seven years of terror.

Again, that’s not to say that I think the disease isn’t real. But the attention given to a strain that is, in actuality, less widespread than flu—and not much more virulent, the studies have shown—is, to me, an overreach of great magnitude. I believe this has been done in order to command obedience to a globalist cabal of demonic and human minions who are intent on bringing America and the world into compliance for constructing the Antichrist world order.

While this pandemic is moving into new stages of efforts to meld the many peoples into one locked-down agglomerate, many peripheral noose-tightening aspects are emerging.

Let’s look at a few of these in excerpts from news reports.

The Israeli parliament just passed a law mandating that all arrivals to the state wear electronic tracking bracelets while undergoing mandatory Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) quarantines at home.

The legislation allows the government to force all new arrivals from abroad or from specific countries to choose between quarantining at home or in a state-run hotel…

Those who choose to quarantine at home must wear electronic tracking bracelets to ensure their compliance. People who refuse to wear the bracelets will be forced to quarantine at a state-run hotel for two weeks…

According to the bill, the tracking operation will be carried out by SuperCom, a private company hired by the Israeli Ministry of Health. The information collected by the operation will be stored in servers owned by the government but maintained by designated private corporations.

The data collected will supposedly be deleted at the end of the quarantine period—as long as there are no reported infractions—or in no longer than 30 days.

(“Israel Passes Law Mandating New Arriving Passengers Wear Tracking Bracelets During Quarantine Period,” NaturalNews.com, March 20, 2021)

***

With every new smart piece of smart technology we acquire, every new app we download, every new photo or post we share online, we are making it that much easier for the government and its corporate partners to identify, track and eventually round us up.

Saint or sinner, it doesn’t matter because we’re all being swept up into a massive digital data dragnet that does not distinguish between those who are innocent of wrongdoing, suspects, or criminals.

This is what it means to live in a suspect society.

The government’s efforts to round up those who took part in the Capitol riots shows exactly how vulnerable we all are to the menace of a surveillance state that aspires to a God-like awareness of our lives.

Relying on selfies, social media posts, location data, geotagged photos, facial recognition, surveillance cameras and crowdsourcing, government agents are compiling a massive data trove on anyone and everyone who may have been anywhere in the vicinity of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The amount of digital information is staggering: 15,000 hours of surveillance and body-worn camera footage; 1,600 electronic devices; 270,000 digital media tips; at least 140,000 photos and videos; and about 100,000 location pings for thousands of smartphones.

And that’s just what we know.

More than 300 individuals from 40 states have already been charged and another 280 arrested in connection with the events of January 6. As many as 500 others are still being hunted by government agents. (Tyler Durdan, “Digital Trails: How The FBI Is Identifying, Tracking, & Rounding-Up Dissidents,” Zero Hedge, March 29, 2021)

***

Last month, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) announced the launch of “Daily Pass.” Developed by Microsoft, the tracking app will scan children in schools, using a barcode, to coordinate health checks, COVID-19 tests and vaccinations.

“Sort of like the golden ticket in ‘Willy Wonka,’ everyone with this pass can easily get into a school building,” stated LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner during his weekly update on Feb. 22.

Daily Pass will gather data and share it with LAUSD collaborators

Daily Pass generates a unique QR code each day for each student and staff member. This code authorizes entry to a specific Los Angeles Unified location. To gain entry to class, each individual should have a negative test result for COVID-19, show no symptoms and have a temperature under 100 degrees.

School officials stated that data gathered by the app will be reported as required to health authorities. In addition, anonymized Daily Pass data will be used by the LAUSD’s research and healthcare collaborators “to provide insights and strategies” to implement. These partners are Stanford University, the University of California, Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins University, Anthem Blue Cross, Healthnet and Cedars Sinai.

The app will also be used by the LAUSD’s school-based vaccination program to register and schedule appointments, track vaccine supply, perform check-in and data capture, sort high-risk individuals, offer waitlists for low-risk individuals as well as provide dashboards for administrators and staff to view data…

App’s data gathering raises questions

While the LAUSD states that the Daily Pass app is being deployed for health and safety reasons, others have raised flag about the amount of data it’s collecting.

According to John Whitehead, constitutional law attorney and founder of The Rutherford Institute, parents should be asking why the app is gathering all this data. He says that they need to know what the entities involved are going to do with the data, where it is going and whether it should be given to government agencies.

“We are moving into a total surveillance state and an entire generation of young people are acquiescing to the police state,” he warned. “Privacy as we know it will be deleted and no one will be overlooked.” (Franz Walker, “Vaccine Prison Camp: LA Schools to Track Students Using Microsoft’s ‘Dailyl Pass’ Tracking,’ Natural News, March 18, 2021)

***

Pope Francis reportedly called for a “new world order” for a post pandemic world in a book set to come out on Tuesday in Rome.

According to Breitbart, the head of the Catholic Church insists for the establishment of a new world order after the pandemic because things will never be the same after it. Breitbart tagged the Pope’s call for the new world order as the Great Reset except that the pontiff’s moves away from the culture of inclusiveness that works towards the building of a green economy with focus on financial speculation, fossil fuels, and military build-up.

Breitbart said the new book, entitled “God and the World to Come,” contained the Pope’s interview with Italian journalist Domenico Agasso and that the English translation of the transcript’s excerpt of is available in the Vatican News website. (Anton Carillo, “Pope Francis Calls For ‘New World Order’ For Post-Pandemic World,” Christianity Daily, March 16, 2021)

So there we have it. The noose is tightening around the necks of people of this judgment-bound planet. The man considered the top leader of all of Christendom, the Roman Catholic pope, is all in for creation of a changed world order. It is a reminder of the man who will head up the religious arm of that new world order, the false prophet of Revelation chapter 13.

The crisis that will complete the movement into global gulag will arrive when that one great escape becomes instantaneously available. That will be the Rapture of all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ for their personal salvation.

All who are left behind to face the false prophet and his partner, Antichrist, will experience the tightening of this duo’s evil to an excruciating extent never suffered by any people in human history.

The COVID pandemic is the crisis currently being used to herd us all into that corral of compliance—the Tribulation imprisonment from which there is but one escape.

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

But the satanic noose tightening around humanity’s throats will have no soul-destroying effect on those of this Age of Grace (Church Age). Jesus promises all who are saved:

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)

Here again is the way to be certain of escaping the coming judgment and wrath.

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)     

This week—the week of the Ides of March 2021—finds the world’s most powerful government, the most powerful government in all of history, in a state worse than that of ancient Rome under Julius Caesar. The difference in the American Empire and the ancient Roman Empire is that the people in power today are laboring under guilt that the election they won under questionable circumstances might have created a nation half-full of patriots who might come for them.

Plutarch wrote that, despite the warning by a seer named Spurinna predicting that the Ides of March of 44 BC harbored danger of assassination, Julius Caesar apparently gave it little thought. It is recorded that Caesar passed by the soothsayer while he was on the way to the Theater of Pompeii where he would be assassinated and joked, “The Ides of March are come.” implying that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied, “Aye, Caesar; but not gone.”

The people, after all, had been basically convinced to bestow on the great Caesar the designation dictator perpetuo (“dictator in perpetuity”). This was done through the Roman democracy’s elective process. The dictatorial head of Roman government had no reason to fear the people. Of course, there were sixteen senators, one among them a close friend, who didn’t like the idea of having a dictator for life. The results were, of course, that we now view the 15th of March (the Ides of March) as an especially ominous date–thanks much to the Bard, William Shakespeare, and his play, Julius Caesar.

Getting back to the American equivalent in government to that ancient Roman Empire, the guilt of which I speak, of course, is obvious. Half of the US voting public—and probably much more than half—voted for the other candidate. There is much anger now smoldering just beneath the surface of societal calm that the election was stolen. It is equally apparent that the guilt festering within the ranks of those who won or stole the election, depending on which you choose to believe, has created an Ides of March-type paranoia.

Those in control have since the January 6 hubbub in Washington, DC, when the Capitol and other government buildings were attacked, reacted and continue to react like they fear an Ides of March–type Roman Senate assault on them at any moment. DC is a locked-down, armed camp, with National Guard forces and hastily constructed barriers of various sorts walling off the government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Foreign intruders, mostly illegal, many carrying COVID-19 infections and other diseases, are allowed more and more access into our southern borders. American citizens are locked out, more and more, from interacting with the governmental leaders whose salaries we pay and who supposedly who work for us. The president of the United States is kept from confronting the American people as all other presidents have done. The republic, even more than was the Roman republic all those centuries ago, is in a dire way. This Ides of March indeed looks ominous, going forward.

The following news/opinion editorial illustrates, I think, the guilt-ridden nucleus of leadership.

The Department of Defense on Tuesday agreed to keep thousands of National Guard troops stationed at the U.S. Capitol until late May, extending a posting that began after rioters overwhelmed law enforcement on Capitol Hill two months ago.

The problem for Democrats is when you blatantly flaunt election law and then institute policies that no one wants (e.g. money to Iran, bombing Syria, opening the southern border, putting children in cages, passing a massive spending bill that provides handouts to your friends and pays off your debts, etc), and then install a man as President who doesn’t know where he is and is led around like a geriatric patient, you get scared Americans will see through your corruption.

Democrats complained about a southern border wall but created a wall for themselves. They demand the military guards it. But they won’t send the same troops to protect our country’s border! (Joe Hoft, “Military Agrees to Keep Thousands of National Guard Troops at US Capitol for Weeks to Protect Corrupt Democrats Who Are Terrified of the American People,” Gateway Pundit, March 10, 2021)

The reason there is such anxiety among the political entities who have surrounded themselves with protection is a matter of basic character. Americans who consider themselves to have been done wrong in the 2020 elections still believe in the constitutionally mandated way of conducting personal and national life as established by the founding fathers. They wouldn’t perpetrate such violence unless in necessity of defense of life and liberty.

Those who at present hunker fearfully behind the barriers, walls, and weaponry of the National Guard would, themselves, consider assaulting with armed insurrection to get their way. They would utilize the very militant methods of which they falsely accuse the 74 million-plus voters who oppose their proven ideological movement away from traditional American values and traditions. To know this is true, we have only to remember the destructive evil of the anarchists they encouraged and protected while those surrogate forces tore down and burned cities.

There are those who, like Julius Caesars millennia ago, are working toward making themselves dictators perpetuo. But this ambition is not among true patriots who want to retain godly morality and values, and especially constitutional safeguards through law, not lawlessness like that championed by many of those whose political ideology supposedly won the 2020 elections.

The Ides of March this year especially seems to portend growing wickedness for the future. This means, for believers in Jesus Christ, that the blessed hope must be nearing the time of His revealing Himself to an increasingly rebellious world.

It is good at this troubled time so near the end of the Age of Grace to claim the words of the Psalmist:

O love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord preserved the faithful, and plentifully rewarded the proud doer. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. (Psalms 31:23–24)

The nation and the world are rushing with unbelievable speed into global godlessness. All the while, only a few seem recognize the end-times rage. It’s as if there’s a supernaturally imposed blindness that has the scales of satanic deception veiling the eyes even of those who genuinely know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord (the Church).

Those who read this blog are well aware of things going on for the most part, and it’s not from watching mainstream news. Those sources generally paint a picture of complete control over any potential dangers that exist somewhere in the future.

We in America, according to the fawning media, now have the near-perfect administration and governmental agglomeration within the legislative and judicial branches—that is, since the previous, much-hated president and his party associates have lost the White House and majority congressional control.

The media, which helped bring this about—through questionable electoral machinations—now turn their attention away from careful scrutiny of every detail involving Trump. They’ve turned instead to, for the most part, approval, even laudation, of every move of this new government.

They carefully avoid questioning the president on the rare occasions he’s seen in public. They say nothing about the almost nonexistence of his public availability. There is no criticism of his refusal to personally conduct press conferences.

His record-setting number of executive orders meets with absolutely no questioning by an observably unconcerned mainstream press. They seem instead to ask trivial questions of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, throwing “softballs” for her, as it is said.

When Mr. Biden is asked questions, about as hard as they get are queries like: “What does it feel like being president now after being an occasional guest in the Oval Office as vice president all those years?” And the forces now in charge continue to bring this once-great republic ever closer to something that would have been unrecognizable by the founding fathers. For that matter, it’s now already unrecognizable in many ways by someone of my generation.

There is little chance that this obfuscation of and dearth of truth will change. Alternate sources of news that would tell things as they really are continue to be systematically shut down. We watch almost hourly while websites dedicated to getting real news to the public are demonetized and even deplatformed for the most trivial reasons. And the media tyrants doing the shutting down won’t answer the whys of such shutdowns. They consider themselves above the fray. The reason for their arrogant assurance of their ability to act in such tyrannical ways is that the new governmental “watchdogs” are in cahoots with them in wishing to suppress any and all pushback or resistance to their agenda.

And that agenda is proceeding at a phenomenal pace. Some wonder if there will not be total socialism—even communist-style, governmental tyranny—in our nation by the end of 2021.

The assault on First Amendment rights (free speech) and plans to assault Second Amendment rights (the right to bear arms) are but two attacks on American citizenry. The war against American liberty coalesces from somewhere that can’t be determined by those without spiritual knowledge. Those assaults are formed by the powers and principalities in high places of wickedness we read about in Ephesians 6:12.

And this is why it is imperative that the pastors in the pulpits of America make their born-again flocks know what we face. The times are getting dark and are destined, according to Bible prophecy, to grow much, much darker.

There is no revival on a massive national or world scale prophesied to occur at the end of the Church Age. The Apostle Paul wrote that “evil men and seducers will grow ever worse, deceiving and being deceived.” The Lord Himself foretold that deception and wickedness would be signs of His return to earth to put an end to the incorrigible rebellion of earth dwellers.

The Bible prophesies that the times will be like they were during the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. Can there be any doubt we’re already at that point?

I was told before going on a radio program in Canada just last week that I couldn’t mention anything about LGBTQ or transsexual matters, or anything to do with such abominations. The station would be fined and punished—possibly taken off the air permanently—if those matters were addressed.

It might just be mere months, I sense, before such regulations will be instituted in our “land of the free.”

The reason pastors and teachers in the truth-bearing, true Christian churches should alert the people in their pews of these things is that they will soon hear it nowhere else. Younger people, who’ve been educated to believe the lies about America’s Judeo-Christian founding, may soon have no chance as they surf their ever-speech-suppressing social media. Soon the light would be quenched, even in the true, Bible-believing churches, if not for one thing.

“The gates of hell will not prevail” against His Church, the Lord Jesus has promised.

As we observe the gathering darkness, we know that the Tribulation—that last seven years of hell on earth when Satan’s evil will permeate this dying, decaying, world—approaches. Therefore, the light resident within the Church will be removed by Christ Himself, as He calls His Bride to Himself and out of harm’s way (Revelation 3:10).

So, in looking at all the evil gathering—which we can see, but the unsaved world cannot—that moment of rescue must be very near indeed.

It is incumbent upon each of us who follow Jesus as Lord to hold up before the world as much light of the gospel as possible when we have the chance.

Soon, perhaps today, we will suddenly and gloriously stand in some splendid, eternal setting. We will look into the omnipotent, omniscient, eyes of our Lord, who died and was raised again so that we might be saved from the wrath that will then begin pouring out upon the left-behind world of rebels. We will then be taken to our homes He has been personally constructing for more than two thousand years. What magnificent dwelling places those must be!

Now, that’s the very best news imaginable!

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1–3) 

Certainly, we are now in an intense time of SPIRITUAL WARFARE, not only in America, but worldwide. God has not left us empty handed. This YOU-TUBE series not only describes what Spiritual Warfare is all about, but will show the Biblical Armor God has provided for us to fight this wicked war.

These programs were made at an earlier time, so some references and interviews are “dated.” But the substance of these programs is so laser-focused on the Bible, that the messages themselves are never “dated”. Why? Because the Bible is never “dated.”

Actually, these programs are more “updated” than they were at the time they were made. Again, why? Because these Bible-prophecy messages are closer to the time of their fulfillment than they were when they were made.

So please keep that in mind and enjoy the blessing of God’s Word, “for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11)

Spiritual Warfare in the Last Day – part 4

Certainly, we are now in an intense time of SPIRITUAL WARFARE, not only in America, but worldwide. God has not left us empty handed. This YOU-TUBE series not only describes what Spiritual Warfare is all about, but will show the Biblical Armor God has provided for us to fight this wicked war.

These programs were made at an earlier time, so some references and interviews are “dated.” But the substance of these programs is so laser-focused on the Bible, that the messages themselves are never “dated”. Why? Because the Bible is never “dated.”

Actually, these programs are more “updated” than they were at the time they were made. Again, why? Because these Bible-prophecy messages are closer to the time of their fulfillment than they were when they were made.

So please keep that in mind and enjoy the blessing of God’s Word, “for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11)

Spiritual Warfare in the Last Day – part 3

One would think that the victories the ideological, political, religious left has apparently won just within the past months would have them settled into a comfortable cultural and societal residence. Anything but that settled condition is the case.

Rather, the demeanor of those who have chosen a godless path becomes observably more tumultuous by the hour. The Scripture that describes what we’re witnessing in these days, which almost certainly seem to be last days of the Age of Grace, encapsulates this generation infected with a true pandemic—the virus called sin. The word “peace” in this passage is translated as “rest” in many translations of Scripture—thus, the saying, “There is no rest for the wicked,” has been made part of the American lexicon.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. (Isaiah 57: 20–21)  

Every hour of every day, the leftist news media regurgitates billowing waves of unrest–hatred and anger. The unhappy rebels of this sin-darkened planet display the opposite of the peace described within the lyrics of the famous hymn, “It Is Well with My Soul.”

When peace like a river attended my way

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Until one knows the One the writer of this song is addressing, his or her soul will never be at rest. And, sadly, the vast majority of this generation across the globe has no knowledge of the God who created them. Even more sadly, the great majority of those who have been made aware of the God of Heaven have chosen to reject Him and His merciful, gracious offer of salvation—the only peace that can put their souls at rest.

So the rage and roaring grows and crashes in huge sea billows of unrest. Their storm-driven agitation is described in the following:

But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. (Jude 1:10–16)

Now I realize that those who are not believers in Jesus Christ will look at these scriptural condemnations and say that they and others who aren’t believers are not all “wicked.” They don’t belong within those condemnations.

From the fallen world’s perspective, this is the case. But the sin that separates God from fallen mankind is a deadly infection that makes the soul of the unbeliever contaminated, thus unworthy of entering Heaven where sin cannot exist. Sin—all sin—is wicked in the holy eyes of God. He sees only wickedness and evil when looking at mankind in our sinful, unredeemed condition. There is no one good—no, not even one, His Word tells us.

He accepts only those who are “good” into His family and into Heaven. That is why He sent His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to shed His blood on the cross as a sacrifice for our sin–the sin that separates lost mankind from Himself.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost. By simply believing in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection from death, and upon confessing with the mouth that a person believes can he or she then be redeemed—that is, made “good” in the holy eyes of God the Father.

Only then can the soul truly have peace…have “rest.”

From the moment one knows the Lord for salvation, he or she can be assured of living forever in Heaven and experiencing eternal bliss that will move ever upward in an existence that is beyond imagination.

As believers, we who know the Lord for salvation and are in His family forever must convey to the lost and dying world that time is short. A time is coming when believing will almost certainly cost them their lives. And if they are allowed to live as an unbeliever, the fate that awaits them is as unbelievably horrendous as eternity in Heaven is unimaginably magnificent.

Here is the old tried-and-true “Roman Road” formula that can lead lost friends and others to the salvation found only in Jesus.

Roman Road to Salvation

• Romans 3:10: “As it is written, there is none righteous no not one.”
• Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
• Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
• Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
• Romans 10:13: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

These Scriptures mean that none of us is worthy, nor can we earn the right to go to Heaven when we die. But Jesus loved us so much that he died for us to pay the price for our sin so that we can be with Him forever. All you have to do Is ask Jesus to come into your heart and be your Lord and Savior, then follow him. Then will your soul truly be at rest.