Election results still aren’t settled as I write this. Presidential Election 2020 is, in my many decades of experience, unlike any other. And this is in no way hyperbole.

I know I don’t have to convince you of the truth of that statement. Those of you who read these columns have lived through everything from Donald Trump’s 2016 election until this present hour. Little in the four intervening years has not been strange and, to use KJV terminology, extremely “vexing.”

Strangest of all regarding this election are the dynamics within the matters involved. Donald J. Trump has had everything imaginable thrown at his presidency—and some things so profoundly evil as to defy anything approaching political normalcy. None of it has touched him.

We’ve expressed many times in these articles how Trump seems impervious to and even invulnerable against anything his political enemies and even the minions of Satan can manage against him.

The election of 2016 presented, according to all political hacks—and all polls—insurmountable odds against Trump winning. This was the case up until 9 o’clock on that election night. But when the electioneering dust settled, the political pundits all had to sadly report that the woman the Democrats had chosen to coronate as president had gone down to electoral landslide defeat.

The rage then exploded across the nation and the world. The globalist-elites’ grand plans for America—thus for the world—had been stopped cold in their tracks. Trump had one thing in mind. Well, two things: 1) To drain the swamp that was Washington, DC, and 2) To “Make America Great Again!” Neither could then nor now be tolerated by the powers and principalities of Ephesians 6:12.

Those powers and principalities, both human and demonic, had had their power and control diminished. It could not stand, and their rage became, as often described, “unhinged.”

We who viewed all this through the prism of Bible prophecy understood that this fury that seemed to make Trump’s human enemies do things that bordered on totally irrational was the result of their throwing off all godly restraints. The opposition party, in fact, voted audibly to kick God out of their party platform. Romans 1:28 thus observably set in, and the rage went wild.

There was the Russian collusion hoax brought against Trump twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for years. The political witch hunt went on until the $40 million Mueller investigation had to admit, finally, that Trump wasn’t guilty of even the slightest infraction.

The Democrat side of the House of Representatives impeached him for something that a White House recording plainly showed was a non-impeachable matter, with the president’s legitimate call to a Ukrainian official. Still, the phony trial went on for months. Taken to its full course, the inevitable not-guilty verdict made the unhinged party on the left look for all to see to be the evil minions they are.

These were the major actions used to assault Mr. Trump. If we dig in a bit, we can present hundreds of less dramatic attacks from the Democrats and their henchmen and henchwomen in the mainstream press. The assaults, as you will remember, were unrelenting.

The question, then, to consider—and I believe it to be one of a profound nature as we move farther into this fleeting age: Why, after all of this, in which nothing could remove this president from the Oval Office, no matter what was attempted, does it now appear that he will be removed by the mere electoral process? This, despite the blatant evidence that his opponent is obviously mentally challenged as proven every time he speaks for any length of time in public. Why are voters—at least half of them—so deluded as to elect the radicals who want to remake America into something akin to the old Soviet Union?

More profound than this is the question: Why has the Lord of Heaven suddenly seemed to take his hand off, which had so obviously been on this man He miraculously put in the White House?

It is especially a profound question, because God’s greatest end-times indicator, His chosen people, Israel, is at the very heart of things accomplished by one Donald J. Trump.

He promised to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv after declaring Jerusalem as Israel’s capital from America’s perspective. This is something other presidents had promised but never did. Trump did keep the promise to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

He has kept practically every promise he has made—to Israel—to the American people. There is no doubt that this is God’s man for this hour at the close of the Age of Grace (Church Age).

Why has God decided, as it appears He has as of this writing, to remove him from earth’s most powerful office? Why, if it does happen, would the Lord of Heaven replace him with a person who, being mentally ill, seems to represent, through his incapacity, the entire reprobate (upside-down) spiritual and mental capacity of his political party?

Israel must be considered in all this. I haven’t the answers—just the questions.

It will be our wonderful God who will provide those answers when He chooses.

While the presidential election draws ever nearer, the current president’s accumulation of accomplishments becomes truly astonishing. His many achievements, despite being opposed by every conceivable power within governmental auspices and, particularly, by minions of the father of lies, the mainstream media, continue to accumulate.

None of those accomplishments has been more prophetically significant than those involving the Middle East peace process. His promises to move the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, to declare Jerusalem Israel’s capital, and to make the “Deal of the Century” regarding Middle East peace have all been kept.

He has kept promises both at home and abroad on many levels, but none are more important than those dealing with the matter of Israel and its Arab neighbors.

The bringing-together of Israel with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is considered something of a master stroke. Trump did what no one thought could be done. He bypassed the Palestinian Authority altogether, making and end-run around them, thereby bringing other Arabs to the table of peace.

Now that “circle of peace,” as some are calling it, has expanded to include a total of six Arab states. The latest to join is Sudan, a country marked as a terrorist state.

The following news excerpt frames the profoundly significant accomplishment.

Israel and Sudan have agreed to normalize their relations and open economic and trade ties, the countries and the U.S. announced Friday. The U.S. said earlier this week that it would remove Sudan from the state sponsors of terrorism list as part of the agreement.

“This is an incredible deal for Israel and Sudan,” President Trump said in the Oval Office, according to a White House pool report. “For decades, Sudan has been at a state of war with Israel. They have been in a state of war and boycotted Israeli goods. There was no relationship whatsoever.”…

“I could see Iran ultimately — it sounds, right now, it doesn’t sound like something that would happen, but I see it happening,” the president said.

“Ultimately, they’ll all be one unified family,” Trump added. “It’ll be an amazing thing. Probably has never happened in the Middle East, because the Middle East is known for conflict and fighting.”

Leaders of the U.S., Israel and Sudan “spoke today to discuss Sudan’s historic progress toward democracy and opportunities to advance peace in the region,” the joint statement released Friday says. It adds that the historic shift will bolster regional security and open new opportunities for people in Sudan and Israel as well as their neighbors. (“Sudan and Israel Agree to Normalize Relations In U.S.-Brokered Deal,” Bill Chapell, NPR, RR News, October 23, 2020)

So it is indeed an amazing series of accomplishments, so far as international diplomacy is concerned. The president has been nominated for four different Nobel Prizes, including the Peace Prize, because of his efforts. Trump’s negotiators convinced Sudan, one of Israel’s most violent enemies, to join the circle by offering to take them off the terror list, if they complied with the stipulations of that newly formed circle.

Those within the six nations will derive economic benefits in trade and even US defensive weaponry purchase agreements by recognizing Israel and working toward a broader peace in the region.

With Donald J. Trump’s stunning accomplishments, it would in normal times mean he would be a shoo-in for reelection on November 3. But these are not normal times. They are supernatural times, in that this Church Age (Age of Grace) is swiftly concluding, according to the convergence of many aspects of prophetic stage-setting we are witnessing.

I have never believed the polls in these last two presidential elections. The mainstream media and their pollsters have proven time and time again to be exaggerating in favor of Trump’s opponents at best, and outright lying at worst. They continue to be doing the same while we approach what is being called the most important election in the nation’s history.

I don’t think that is hyperbole. Watching the carnage being wreaked upon American cities, the debauchery of the culture, the educational lies being taught the next generations of Americans, and other evils too numerous to mention, this election is supremely important.

This president seems possessed of an energy that defies all physiological and biological laws. He has been attacked from every angle every hour of every day for more than four years, yet is still in office and growing stronger every day, it seems.

He recovered from the dreaded coronavirus in record time–so fast, in fact, that many who hate him and stated that they wanted him to die of the virus believes he never even had it but used the “miraculous recovery” just to enhance his reelection bid.

Donald J. Trump is in the place the Lord of Heaven has determined he will be for this moment so near the time of the Rapture and the Tribulation.

A vote for Trump, it should seem to everyone, is a vote for peace. Peace in that the culture will be brought into a more tranquil time than his opponents would inspire. Peace in terms of world peace and particularly peace involving God’s chosen people, Israel, and all of the Middle East. But, this is serious misconception, as I will explain at the conclusion.

Mr. Trump, as I’ve written many times, is not a godly man. But he is God’s man. He is in the position as the most powerful leader on earth at present because God has deemed it to be so.

This is true for many reasons. Most of those reasons, no doubt, are far beyond our ability or need to know. But the fact that Trump is in the position he is in and has to this point been unmovable out of that place makes me, at least, believe that he is there, at this time, to be part of the unfolding of the very end of this quickly fleeting age.

Chief among the reasons, I’m of the growing opinion, is that he is the one man the Lord, in His omniscience, knows can construct the peace that will prove the instrumentality to bring Israel–His chosen people—to the point of repentance. They will at last see Jesus for who He is as they see their Messiah returning from Heaven on a white steed, followed by an Army dressed in white (Revelation 19:11).

So, I do not say that voting for Trump is truly a vote for the kind of peace the world needs. Only Christ, the Prince of Peace, can produce true peace in the human heart.

Donald Trump, by seeking earthly peace, genuinely wants to make life better for people of Israel and the Middle East, I have no doubt. He wants peace for the United States and all people of the world. He is my choice for president as strongly as I can state it as November 3 looms.

But the peace that will eventuate during the coming Tribulation from these “Deal of the Century” initiatives at present is destined to be a peace that destroys many, as we are told in Isaiah 28:15, 18.

Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves… And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

Keep in mind that God is in absolute control of all of this. He has ordained it to happen–howsoever it happens–as part of His great plan to redeem Israel as well as all who will believe in His Son Jesus Christ for salvation.

My good friend Dr. Tim LaHaye used to quip that his and Jerry Jenkins’ best-selling novel series Left Behind gave his critics room to accuse that his pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy was all fiction.

I guess that, to my critics who have considered the several novels I’ve written, it’s proof that my take on Bible prophecy is entirely fictional as well.

That being the case, the minute-by-minute unfolding of issues and events is illustrating that developing reality is stranger than fiction, as they say. As a matter of fact, the observation that life imitates art is becoming the norm in looking at Bible prophecy rather than a saying that applies to fodder for novelists.

A couple of things are growing to blockbuster size. These matters have been all but totally ignored by mainstream news media, but are now growing in such enormity that they have moved beyond being laughed off as merely rumors spread by conspiracy kooks.

The way you can tell that there is substance to the formerly laughed-at “conspiracy” matters is that the mainstream anchor-types start harping on them, trying to sway the voting public.

Such is the case on the matter of QAnon, or Q, which has until the “Town Hall” broadcast by NBC the other night been ridiculed by the elite media as the insane ravings of conspiracy lunatics.

When Savannah Guthrie, the NBC Today Show cohost, laid into President Trump about QAnon, she kept at him in almost a vicious way about whether he would disavow it. It was clear that this means this covert entity called “Q” is becoming major in the eyes of the elitists in media who want to bend the minds of voters in this presidential election. It has become a serious enough matter that they want us to believe the president commands a secret cabal that is dangerously right-wing in the same sense they consider white supremacy.

I’ve written before about this covert entity, formerly laughed at by the media types and scorned as conspiracy nuttiness.

Much of what I know about this entity, as I said about the mainstream narrative these days, defies logical discernment. Does he—for it is thought to be an individual within the immediate circles that surround the president, and I presume it is a man, if he indeed exists within that circle—truly have knowledge of the intrigues he reports?

“Q” or “QAnon” is the name given a supposed insider within the White House ranks who issues reports about what is in actuality going on with regard to this president and the so-called deep state. The deep state is a term most recognize. It refers to those within government—particularly within the top ranks of clandestine services such as the CIA, FBI, NSA, etc., that are part of the Washington, DC “swamp,” as Mr. Trump termed it during his campaign to win the presidency. These, along with many DC.-establishment types, have been doing all within their power to destroy Trump’s presidency and even the man himself, family-wise and business-wise.

The aforementioned mainstream media joins this cabal in the attempted destruction.

At the heart of this drive to oust this president at any cost is the pile upon pile of lies that continues to spew from the “swamp” and are magnified and carried throughout mainstream media. You might have noticed how there has been a steady stream of such lies meant to destroy the president—a different lie almost every week (for almost four years now).

QAnon is disseminating through alternative news sources that there is a reckoning coming for the deep state and those complicit in opposing the president and doing great harm to the American Republic. “He” indicates that something big is on the way that will expose and even bring to justice much of the deep state at every level. It will soon be made clear for all to see the corruption at the very top of US government, and where the true collusion festers…

So Savannah Guthrie’s grilling of the president, obviously aimed at forcing him to admit his association with QAnon or else disavow that entity, makes clear that the man or organization has, as the media used to say, gravitas in the scheme of things. It almost certainly is a matter that troubles them and their desire to rid America of Trump at any cost.

The whole thing could constitute wonderful fiction with realistic pathos, intrigue, danger, and all the rest that inhabits the novelists’ world. But, it appears forever more to be truth, not fiction, that is bubbling to the surface of these prophetic times.

Adding to this life-imitating-art scenario is the matter of an even more profoundly strange tale that seems to be taking on the look of reality bubbling to the surface. The following excerpt frames the matter.

On Sunday, October 11th, 2020, documents, and tapes along with audio were delivered to a U.S. Congressman along with several conventional media outlets demonstrating that President Obama, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conspired and developed a sophisticated cover-up in the matter of Seal Team 6 and the purported killing of Osama Bin Laden.

Furthermore, the $1.2 billon Obama sent to Iran was part of a blackmail effort by Iran to Obama to keep the secret that Osama Bin Laden was killed, when he was not! Furthermore…a sophisticated cover-up ensued to protect Obama, Biden, Clinton including involvement by the John McCain Foundation and the Clinton Foundation.

Further participants include, but are not limited to: Leon Panetta, John Brennan, and the architect Hillary Clinton. These documents have supposedly been verified by several intelligence professionals along with a former high ranking U.S. General. The documents have been released to President Trump. (Video: Evidence Suggests Obama, Biden, Hillary Conspired With Iran – Clinton Gave Order to EXECUTE Seal Team 6 ⋆, Conservative Firing Line, RR News, Oct. 17, 2020)

Even Reformed theologians in many cases call the book of Revelation fiction, in that they say it shouldn’t have been in the canon of Scripture. They say it is just too far out there. It is mostly the figment of the writer’s imagination.

God’s Word, however, is absolute truth. Is it too far-fetched to believe that stories like the above—which don’t come anywhere near reaching the bizarre levels of the fantastic future reports from Revelation—could have fundamental elements of truth?

Stay tuned, I guess is the right thing to say here.

As some know, I’ve been totally blind for about twenty-seven years due to retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a hereditary disease in which the rods and cones of the retina degenerate. There is no replacement for them at this point—the retina is brain tissue that doesn’t regenerate. (Some who disagree with my view of Bible prophecy might conclude that brain-tissue degeneration is why I can’t see things their way.) But, as I understand it, degeneration of the tissue that comprises the retina has nothing to do with cognitive dysfunction. So maybe what I’m saying here will make some sense.

When I started experiencing night-vision problems when I was in my thirties, I went to an ophthalmologist, who said he thought I might have this disease. He sent me to a retinal specialist, who indeed, after a quite painful exam that lasted more than forty-five minutes, said I had RP. At the time, it was a malady they knew relatively little about. There was no cure, and he said the prognosis was almost certain blindness.

The Lord was good, and the disease progressed very slowly–compared to many who have RP. It wasn’t until I was around fifty-two that I lost the ability to see well enough to operate fairly normally. My central vision became affected and it was lights-out from then on, so to speak.

The time leading up to that point, however, was the most frustrating time. When I was in my late forties, I could see partially well—and partly terribly. It grew progressively worse, of course.

It was a constant struggle to determine if what I was seeing was reality or imagination. That’s the only way I can explain it. Most movement, whether I was moving about physically or looking at text in books or on a computer monitor, was terribly taxing.

It was only after I completely lost the ability to make out any text on the screen that I had to push back and say to the Lord: “If you want me to continue to write, you will have to intervene.”

Thankfully, He did so, and thirty-something books and hundreds of articles have been the ongoing result of His blessings on my life.

But that period leading up to just giving it all over to Him was the toughest time and the most exasperating. I could see just clearly enough to get into trouble with trying to figure it all out.

Now to the point, I hope.

Here is what the apostle Paul writes.

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. (Romans 11:25–27)

In the eleventh chapter of Romans, Paul deals with the nation Israel—with the individual disposition of the Jew with regard to their blindness, spiritually speaking.

Lest anyone believes the Jews are condemned forever because the father of lies—Satan—has convinced people that the Jews are responsible for killing Jesus Christ, read the book of Romans. Paul destroys that absolute lie from the pit of hell. He tells that they are blind partially for now. But their future is glorious beyond all imagination, according to the promise of God.

In my own small experience with the physical blindness, the most painful part was trying to do everything myself as I struggled to see through the progression of the disease. To make perhaps not the best analogy, but the one in mind at present, the nation of Israel—the Jews, as nonbelievers in Christ as Messiah—are partially blinded. Religious Jews believe in Jehovah, the Person they see as the One and Only God. They reject that Jesus was and is their Messiah and the Savior of the world from the collective and individual sins of mankind.

This spiritual blindness has caused them great stress throughout history. They haven’t turned this spiritual disease over to the God who can heal them.

This remains their state at present. They can’t understand the world’s hatred or the persecution they are even today enduring. They can’t grasp the division within their own ranks as a people, the sons and daughters of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

That painful progression of Israel’s spiritual blindness—that partial blindness—I think, is made manifest in the news excerpt below.

When asked about American Jews, [Mark] Zell [chairman of Republican Overseas] stated: “75-80 percent of Jews in the United States vote for Democrats. It goes beyond logic. It’s irrational. They vote that way in any election campaign and cannot renounce the Democratic Party. It is against their interests as Jews. I do not spend our time explaining to Jews in the United States who to vote for.”

On the other hand, Zell noted, “there are pro-Israel evangelicals and Christians who look to us to see if we vote for Trump and the Republicans to make sure we are with them.”

Zell firmly believes that a Biden victory would be disastrous for Israel and the Jewish people.

“He [Biden] announced that as soon as he takes office in January he will renew the nuclear deal with Iran. He also said that immediately after entering the White House he will renew funding for the PA and the UN regarding the Palestinians, but beyond that, we see within the Democratic party congressional delegates who are really anti-Semitic. Jews see it, they understand it and just don’t care. They also donate hundreds of millions of dollars to the Democratic Party. I have no words,” Zell said, adding that “in New York there was a Democratic delegate, Eliot Engel, who was a friend of Israel, and they threw him in the trash in the primaries and replaced him with an anti-Semite.” (Mark Zel: If Biden is elected, Jews in Israel will be harmed, Arutz Sheva, U.S. and Canada—Israel National News, October 9, 2020)

The whole House of Israel—it is obvious by considering that the Jews in New York go for politicians and policies that are against Israel for the most part, while Jews in Israel see things exactly opposite—has a blindness that seems inexplicable. They can see only partially and, like my own case of progressive physical blindness, it is exasperating, and gets them into situations in which they can do nothing themselves to bring them into a clear vision of things before them.

Thankfully, as Paul foretells, this blindness is only temporary. They will one day be healed, and will see their Messiah as He comes to rescue them.

Hey! I’m looking for the same Divine Healer, myself! I hope you are, too. His name is Jesus Christ!

“Is it time for a divorce?”

The woman who phoned in to the Rush Limbaugh Show September 29 asked the question. I find it to be a most poignant question, and quite pertinent.

Should we, she was wondering, now agree to split down the middle—or along lines of ideological , political, religious, and other areas of the schism that is tearing the nation apart. The divide is indeed deep and the fabric that once held us together as a people seems to be seen and heard ripping violently as it fractures to pieces in accounts from hour by hour news feeds.

Lanny Davis, the political operative and White House lawyer and spokesman during the years of the Clinton presidency, has proposed such a divorce. He says he and a number of his blue-state think-alikes intend to propose that the nation be divided in two—or in fractured parts, according to their blueness and redness. He says they will take the best part of that division, the East Coast and West Coast, population centers in the cities of the middle country and Hawaii. By implication, the rest—the backward, Bible-clinging gun-toters and hayseeds—can be left to see if they can survive without the brilliance and guidance, as well as the assets, of the glorious blue-state secessionists.

It’s a fascinating proposal, to be sure. Considering that most of the population centers of the nation are now suffering unparalleled violence and carnage from the likes of BLM and Antifa, with no governance of blue-oriented mayors and governors, the proposal is almost appealing—to this Bible-carrying, gun-toting hayseed, at least. Federal taxes taken from us to provide for the common defense and general welfare of such anti-American areas of the nation have little appeal, so far as I can determine.

On the other hand, our Lord told us that a nation divided against itself cannot stand. That truth was taken to heart by Abraham Lincoln, and years of one of the deadliest wars of history saved the Union and thereby preserves the nation to this day.

I, and you, as Americans, have lived in peace. —That is, “peace” relative to the lives lived by those of the rest of the world.

We get up daily, free from fear of government and from our neighbors. Or, that is the way it has been until the election of Donald J. Trump.

The politicians and media prevaricators who are ideologically blue blame this president for the great divide although it is they who have been at the center of the despicable, attempted coup d’état they’ve perpetrated. This fact makes the woman on the Rush Limbaugh program wonder aloud for his forty million-plus daily listeners to hear: “Is it time for a divorce?”

If the coup is successful—if the change-America, blue-state cabalists get their way, we can no longer awaken free from fear of saying the wrong thing or making a misstep that will get us sent off for reeducation camps, gulags, or worse.

But, wait—she is concerned because she already is feeling such persecution. The woman said, as I recall, that she’s now surrounded by “blue-thinking” neighbors who constantly harangue her if she so much as speaks in a way they think is hate speech.

Although she hasn’t a clue she has said any such thing or made any such misstep, she’s been threatened, through unspoken and overt intimidation. She is sick of it, she said, and wonders if we shouldn’t just make the divide that those such as Lanny Davis want.

Her question, I’m sure, must have been made in a non-literal sense—although, I must say, she never indicated such.

A number of pundits I’ve heard have said they see such a civil war to divide the nation as Davis wants. I’ve said before that my own grandfather, Gideon Johnson James, said way, way back there when I was about ten years old that there was coming a great divide in the nation. He said there would be another civil war.

Listening to the debate between the president and the former vice president did nothing to assuage the fear of such a coming conflict. There was a divide right down the middle. Well, I would put the moderator in there as part of the divide, based upon his constant input of assistance at times one of the debaters began to stumble. The media, as I said, as a whole is in the blue-state category. It showed in that September 28 forum.

Make no mistake: a divorce is coming. It will be a much greater a parting of the ways than ever seen in any divorce court at any time in national or world history. Believers will be instantaneously divorced from the evil of this earth.

I’m talking about the moment when believers in Jesus Christ leave this judgment-bound sphere. Those “engaged” to the Lord, the Creator of all things, the King of Kings, will split the heavens to be forever with the Bridegroom in a symbolic wedding that can never be dissolved.

Let us look for this “blessed hope” as instructed in Titus 2:13. But at the same time, let us witness of Christ’s saving grace and God’s desire that all come to repentance (2 Peter 3: 9).

The Rapture is imminent! Even so, come Lord Jesus!

The title of our book to be released soon is LAWLESS: The End-Times War Against the Spirit of Antichrist. Is there any title that could more encapsulate what we’ve been witnessing in our nation for these past weeks?

The apostle John wrote of his own time that the “spirit of Antichrist” was already in the world:

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. (1 John 4:2–3)

The apostle Paul also spoke of this lawless spirit that would prevail at the very end of the age. Its growing manifestation, he wrote, will be a precursor to the Antichrist himself vaulting onto the world stage:

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. (2 Thessalonians 2:2)  

The “day” Paul refers to is the “day of the Lord”—the beginning of the Tribulation, the last seven years of human history leading up to the Second Advent of Jesus Christ, as foretold in Revelation 9.

The great apostle foretold that this “day” won’t begin until there first comes a “falling away,” or “apostasy.” This word can be interpreted several ways, and has also been translated to mean several things wrapped up in one meaning.

One definition of “apostasy” is a “departure,” and it can be either a departure from faith (belief in scriptural truth) or a departure in the spatial sense—that is, literally leaving one place to go to another. I believe that in this case, “apostasy” carries both meanings: Paul is saying that before Antichrist comes on the scene to become the world’s last and fiercest tyrant, people will largely be deep into a state of departure from faith in Bible truth.

I also believe he is saying that Antichrist can’t come on the scene until there is a spatial departure—that is, a removal from one place to go to another, literally. This will be the Rapture of the Church (all true believers in Christ for salvation).

When the departure (as wrapped up in both meanings) is complete, the “man of sin”—Antichrist—will leap to the end stage of history for his horrendous reign of terror.

He is also referred to, like his father, Satan, as the “man of lawlessness.” The word departure also has within its meaning the thought of being lawless—denying the Creator who laid down how mankind should live.

The “spirit of Antichrist” has at its God-denying center the evil of complete lawlessness. That’s why God’s Word calls end-times man, as expressed in the KJV, “earth dwellers.” Those in unbelief are “earthy”—they care only about things that are of this sin-saturated existence on earth.

Paul the apostle, again, said that this “falling away” (apostasy) will first appear on the scene before Antichrist will be manifested before the world. The departure from faith will include increasing lawlessness, preparing the way for the most lawless one of all—Antichrist.

The following excerpt, I think gives a deep look into the “spirit of Antichrist” making literal inroads into the evil we see exploding in our cities.

In a June 13 conversation between Black Lives Matter (BLM) co-founder Patrisse Cullors and BLM-Los Angeles chapter co-founder Melina Abdullah, Abdullah discusses how the two of them have “become very intimate with the spirits we call on regularly,” and Cullors talks about how using a hashtag for BLM is “almost resurrecting a spirit so that it can work through us.”…

In the interview, Abdullah states, “maybe I’m sharing too much but we’ve become very intimate with the spirits that we call on regularly.  Right?  Like, each of them seems to have a different presence and personality. You know, I laugh a lot with Wakiesha [Wilson].  You know?  And I didn’t meet her in her body.”…

Wakiesha Wilson was a black woman who suffered from bi-polar disorder and reportedly hanged herself while in LAPD custody.Her death has become a cause célèbre among BLM activists.

Cullors responds, saying that she was raised a Jehovah’s Witness but, “as I got older, ancestor, ancestral worship became really important.”

Cullors then explains how the hashtags such as #SayHerName and #BLM are a means to honor the dead and invoke them. (Alexander Watson, “BLM Leaders Discuss ‘Resurrecting a Spirit So That It Can Work Through Us,’” CNS News, September 24, 2020)

Based on what we see on the evil streets of America and the world today, can there be any doubt that we’re witnessing the spirit of Antichrist manifesting at this time so near the end of the age? The departure—in every sense—has begun in earnest. It will soon have its conclusion. That conclusion will mean God’s judgment and wrath for earth dwellers, and glory beyond all imagination for believers in Jesus Christ.

One of the prime points of Bible prophecy, at least from the pre-Trib view, is that America isn’t mentioned in it by name or even in cursory reference. (That’s unless, of course, one sees the reference to the “young lions” in Ezekiel 38:13 as meaning the United States as offspring of “the Merchants of Tarshish,” referring to England.)

This is made even more intriguing when we consider all that we believe is going on in setting the stage for the soon fulfillment of prophecy.

We believe most, if not all, of Paul’s “perilous times” (2 Timothy 3) forewarning is now taking place everywhere we look in our nation—i.e., people are “lovers of themselves,” “without natural affection (abortion and homosexuality)”; they are “fierce” (think “BLM” and “Antifa”), and they’re “traitors” (in reference to the Deep State and others subverting the Constitution), etc.

All these things are, as I like to term them, “America-centric,” in their composition. America seems to be at the center of all the earlier-mentioned stage-setting.

Then we have this president stunning the world, really, with a peace arrangement that no one but perhaps he and a few others saw coming. It’s a stage-setting reality that is indeed profound.

To convince so many within the Arab world to come along with the plan Mr. Trump, Kushner, and the others of the administration have put together is just nothing short of phenomenal. It’s phenomenal when we think about the absolute volatility of the Israel haters within the Arab world, which is so heavily influenced by the chief terrorist regime, Iran (ancient Persia).

So America is at the center of most all primary activity as far as the current ebb and flow of issues and events. That makes it more than a curiosity, really, why God chose not to make this apex nation of history (so far as worldly achievement is concerned) the main focus of prophetic national disposition. Yet America is overtly omitted by name in biblical prophecy.

Why did I title this commentary: “America’s Diminishing Role”?

Again we come to what I see as the strangest presidency in our history. Certainly this is true, it’s reasonable to conclude, because we’re so near the end of this age (Age of Grace/Church Age). The prophetic Word tells us it will be so as the time of Christ’s return nears. Looking around, we’re not disappointed. Things are getting stranger and stranger.

One of the ironies, if that’s what we may call the strangeness, is that this president exerts the most powerful influence on the issue of Middle East peace as any leader ever. At the same time, he’s determined to pull out of that region to an extent that no other leader has attempted since much earlier days when isolationism ruled within American diplomatic spheres of influence. For example, he has announced troop withdrawals from Afghanistan and other areas, much to the chagrin of those in the defense department who are supposed to serve at his pleasure.

Trump doing so, as a matter of fact, constitutes one of the reasons the so-called Deep State opposes his every move. They like to determine such things and have always been able to do so with the cooperation or the acquiescence of those occupying the White House. It’s all part of the power wielded by the military-industrial complex President Dwight Eisenhower forewarned about.

America’s influence in the world, then, despite it being front and center in most every prophetic signal of the approaching Tribulation, is diminishing. The very president put in place by God to serve at this crucial time is an “America-First” chief executive, yet he also is withdrawing the nation from the most focal area of Bible prophecy—even while formulating a peace initiative that might lead to the very covenant Daniel prophesied.

The following news excerpt highlights this dichotomy within Mr. Trump’s presidential action.

Turkey and Iran are engaging in new operations in Africa… It is important to understand that this is in the context of the US generally reducing its global role and comes around 60 years after European colonialism was rolled back…

An article at The National in the UAE in May revealed that Iran has begun to play a role with military proxy groups in the Central African Republic (CAR). The article revealed that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Quds Force has played a role in cultivating “terrorist cells.” It has operated, funded, trained and directed proxy groups. Its role and influence in Africa is still far from mapped and known but the article implies it has recruited figures in the CAR and elsewhere. Iran has also been active in Nigeria and also in South Africa and Hezbollah has been active in West Africa…

An article at Al-Ain also asserts that Turkey and Qatar are now working to exert influence in Africa. The article asserts that Qatar has been trying to do influence peddling in Tunisia and that Qatar’s Defense Minister Khalid al-Attiyah has been coordinating with Turkey’s defense minister in discussions about Libya and Tunisia. They want to establish a “joint military training center” in Libya. (Seth J. Frantzman, “Turkey and Iran Are Engaging in New Operations in Africa,” Rapture Ready News, September 18, 2020)

With the key Ezekiel 38–39 players blatantly moving to fill the vacuum developing in the region because of America’s withdrawal—Iran (ancient Persia) and Turkey (much of what comprised ancient Togarmah)—it becomes quite clear that America, although prophetically scheduled to diminish, is nonetheless most prominent in this pre-Rapture era. It will, it’s therefore logical to conclude, take a dramatic set of circumstances to remove the nation so influential in the world power arrangement.

Each succeeding week that produces fodder for another commentary brings with it the thought that things couldn’t be more in place for setting in motion the Tribulation.

The perception is always proved wrong.

This week is no different; prophecy stage-setting is still ramping up.

While many issues and events we explore seem at the moment to be critical in setting the stage for fulfillment of Bible prophecy, they most often turn out to be peripheral to the most crucial signals. The things developing now, however, are anything but minor.

Israel and the peace process can never be seen as a subject that’s on the outer edges of Bible prophecy. And what we’re seeing now certainly must be considered as profound a sign as any of where we stand on God’s prophetic timeline.

With all else that’s going on in this nation (which, by the way, is overtly omitted by name in biblical prophecy), we see the strangest presidency of our history at the very heart of astonishing prophetic stage-setting. And who can deny that this president moves the needle on history’s tachometer each and every news cycle?

Never has President Trump been as instrumental in so moving that needle as this past week or so. It’s as if the engine of biblical eschatology has revved once again to near max. I see this as a matter to be viewed as seriously as any we’ve yet seen—i.e., it seems to take us as near Christ’s call to His Church as any movement we’ve known.

With President Trump’s acting as an instrument of such profound prophetic movement comes danger, however. It’s a danger that we all should recognize.

The peace currently being brokered by the Trump administration between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) presents one of the two areas of danger about which the president must be cautioned.

The statement by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to reporters frames one of the dangers. Kushner said recently: “We were trying to save the two-state solution… If we kept going with the status quo… ultimately, Israel would have eaten up all the land in the West Bank.”

Kushner, husband of Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, is a Jew who apparently has little knowledge of, or else not much regard for, God’s promises to His chosen people. The Lord gave the Jews all the Land of Promise, including all the land in the West Bank. Mr. Kushner acts as if this is negotiable.

In God’s view, no area of land He gave Israel is negotiable. There is no room whatsoever for a “two-state solution to any problem Israel’s surrounding neighbors have in failing to be at peace with the Jewish State.

Here are the Almighty’s words on the matter:

And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. (Genesis 17:7–8)

I would urge men with Holy Spirit-provided savvy regarding Bible prophecy, such as Dr. Robert Jeffress, who have the president’s ear to counsel Mr. Trump about this promise and the serious consequences of attempting to interfere—whether wittingly or not—with that covenant.

Here is what God’s prophet, Joel, foretold more than two thousand years ago regarding the fate the nations of the world will suffer for doing exactly what this administration is trying to do. We’ve looked at it many times.

I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3:2)

This of course speaks of Armageddon, the killing field where the rebellious armies of the world will be slaughtered.

The second of the cautions I put forth here to this president—whom I very much support in most every way—concerns his possibly making the mistake of listening to those who push for mandatory vaccinations against COVID-19.

Here is a news item that encapsulates to some extent the issue:

President Donald Trump announced several weeks ago that the US government will purchase 100 million doses of Moderna’s experimental coronavirus vaccine, which is currently in late-stage human trials.

In addition to Moderna, AstraZeneca and the Pfizer/BioNTech alliance are also working on a vaccine.

Trump recently estimated that a vaccine for coronavirus may be produced ahead of the US presidential election on November 3.

The US has registered more than six million cases of COVID-19—almost a quarter of the global total—and 185,000 deaths, according to Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University. (“US States Told Be Ready for COVID-19 Vaccine by November 1,” US & Canada—Israel National News, September 4, 2020)

There is more than just conspiracy theory behind fears that some folks in high places have suggested that a computer tracking nanochip or something like that be injected along with the coming COVID inoculations. There is ample documentation that such ideas have been exchanged between Bill Gates and others who contemplate vaccinating the entire world.

I don’t pretend to suggest that this will be part of such vaccinations, nor am I saying this has something to do with the Revelation 13 “mark of the beast,” “666” system of buying and selling. No one needs to fear that they will take that mark this side of the Rapture, no matter what else the proposed COVID vaccine might mean.

But it all does smack of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four and Big Brother, in which the ruling class is in complete control of the hapless masses and wields absolute power.

Mr. President, be aware. Christians who understand Bible prophecy as it is meant to be understood will strongly resist such “mandatory” impositions upon personal liberty.

Crucial issues and events involving the fate of the nation and world are discussed in-depth in these four programs. Bible prophecy is at a critical moment in human history, and things brought to light in these programs speak directly to where we stand on God’s prophetic timeline.

WHAT IS HAPPENING!? IS THE WORLD FALLING APART? OR IS A WELL PLANNED ANCIENT SCHEME UNFOLDING NOW!?

DO VATICAN AUTHORITIES BELIEVE POPE FRANCIS IS THE FINAL POPE OF THE APOCALYPSE? SURPRISING ANSWER!

SATAN’S PROXIES? Senior Pentagon Analyst On Those Undermining God And America, Some Surprising Names

Is This The Fourth Turning? Pentagon Insider Issues Stark Warning Over Anti-Americanism, Anti-Family

Senator Rand Paul appeared on Fox and Friends Friday morning, August 28. He was quite upset at what he had experienced the night before.

He told about the terror he, his wife, and two female friends had experienced upon leaving the White House grounds. They had been there to hear President Trump give his acceptance speech and to be part of other festivities wrapping up the 2020 Republican Party Convention.

Paul said that there was a mob of probably thirty protesters gathered outside the White House grounds. The Secret Service advised that they take a bus to get around the protesters and approach, from another side, their hotel that was several blocks away.

They took the advice, and when they got off the bus, there was another group of protesters. Paul thought about not risking getting near them, but said he made the decision to walk the couple of blocks to the hotel rather than solicit a ride to avoid the protesters.

It was a decision he said he very much regretted.

The crowd saw him, recognized him, and immediately came toward him and the women with him. The protesters were screaming obscenities and threats, including threats to kill them all. They screamed for Paul to bow to their demands to say the name of someone for whom they were supposedly rioting.

The DC police got between Paul’s group and the mob, which had now grown to three times its initial size and was now pushing and shoving forward, trying to push aside law enforcement. The senator reported that the number of officers was grossly fewer than the number needed to handle the now probably 120 rioters that had turned violent.

Senator Paul said he genuinely feared for their lives, and that if the brave police officers, few though they were, hadn’t put themselves in harm’s way, he was convinced he and his party would have been seriously injured or even killed.

Paul said that he, himself, had to help one officer to his feet after he had been knocked off-balance by the surging rioters.

The ironic thing, the senator said, was that the very thing the mob was demanding that he declare was something he had led the way in trying to get done in the Senate. It was the matter of legislation, which passed, due to the killing of Breonna Taylor in a no-knock raid.

Their enragement completely negated any chance of the thugs listening to the facts, to being subjected to reasoning.

The story relayed by Senator Paul is but one of hundreds, some even more egregious. Such lawlessness is now being experienced in larger cities across the nation. Even smaller cities and communities have had spillover incidents.

We hear of such reports daily and nightly in the hourly news cycles. The rebellious thuggery has proliferated over the past months and shows every indication that things will get much worse. Signs of rebellion, of lawlessness, are continuing to spread.

These times of lawlessness, of course, have not gone without notice by God, who knows the end from the beginning. This was predicted by Jesus Himself for this end-of-the-age moment in human history: “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).

Paul the apostle told of the rebellion that I’m convinced this generation is experiencing at this very moment:

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a [rebellion] first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

Early manuscripts indicate the word apostasia as having several meanings, according to some scholars. It can mean the falling away, in terms of departing from the faith. It can mean a spatial removal or departing. And, it can mean a rebellion against God. I believe it involves all three meanings in the present supernatural movement we’re experiencing toward the Second Coming of Christ.

Our book to be released sometime in late September, LAWLESS: The End Times War Against the Spirit of Antichrist, has many top prophecy writers, broadcasters, and speakers presenting tremendously relevant chapters on these issues and events involving the lawlessness of these end times. We will announce more about this book in the near future.

We are, without doubt to this observer, witnessing stage-setting for the coming to power of the chief lawless one’s—Satan’s—son of perdition.