Thinking on the rise of Adolf Hitler to power in the Germany of the 1930s immediately produces realization that the bringing together of ruthless enforcement entities was key to establishment of der Fuhrer’s dictatorship.

It started with the brown shirts, headed by Ernst Rhome, a homosexual thug who did Hitler’s bidding in creating chaos and fear in a failing German republic. When the future Fuhrer began to consolidate power through eliminating opposition, the German Wehrmacht (Germany’s army) soon had to share controlling authority with the Waffen-SS, the black-uniformed, select group of supposedly Aryan troops assigned as Hitler’s personal body guard. The brown shirts were eliminated, and the SS, headed by the now infamous Heinrich Himmler, began the implementation of the final solution—the genocidal war on all Jews in Europe.

At the same time, the civilian police establishment was turned into the dreaded Gestapo, the police force that locked the Nazi regime into place. The Nazi military and civilian policing establishment became, in effect, a single force against which there was little resistance.

And, this brings us to the crux of things going on in that same geographical area from which Hitler terrorized the world.

There is seen by some the development of a movement to establish similar tyrannical controls within the European Union (EU) at the present hour. An article of recent vintage frames the growing threat the concerned observers fear. It states the following to begin the piece.

As the European Union and the establishment behind it become increasingly totalitarian, paranoid, and unstable, the EU super-state is raising up and training its own transnational military-police force. According to reports and its own propaganda material, the EU “Gendarmerie,” as the force is known, will apparently be charged with putting down protests and civil unrest, raiding illegal political meetings, propping up foreign governments, and even confiscating weapons. (“EU Building Potentially Tyrannical Military-Police Force” by Alex Newman,http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/23163, May 10, 2016)

The article states that the EU’s military-police force is merely one component of the broader transnational police-state apparatus being quietly imposed on the formerly sovereign peoples of Europe. The force includes the bringing together of “transnational police” with “transnational army units” and “EU air and naval operations.”

The bringing together of the forces has all been accomplished in the shadows, but is now being thrust into the light of geopolitical reality, according to the concerned observers reporting–those of Breitbart’s U.K. operation.

It was a controversial training operation taking place in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia in April that sparked concern and alarm within Europe and beyond.

Media reports stirred fears of the rise of a tyrannical, controlling force. According to those reports, the training consolidated 600 troops and police officers in order to prepare for crises of the international and civil war sorts.

The EU military-operation information branch reported about its training scheme that the aim of the [April 15, 2016] Comprehensive Live Exercise will be capacity building of police and gendarmes who will participate in international stabilization missions and projects with a police component. The force is aimed at preparing the hybrid military-police force for “future” missions.

The troubling reports said that forces from Islamic Turkey, and Tunisia, as well as the African nation of Cameroon, participated in the “scheming.”

There remains, of course, considerable resistance to the reuniting of Europe. There is at the same time all of this is going on, a strong trend toward nationalism. The threat from the Islamist world, with deadly attacks in places  such as Brussels, make the populations, if not the one-world order leaderships of EU nations, deeply concerned about a reviving, unified, European empire that takes protection against dangerous, Islamist, “migrants” out of the hands of local and national authority. Yet, crises that loom, particularly involving Greece-type financial meltdowns and rioting, make probable over-arching EU police controls and military involvement inevitable.

Remember, it was severe fiscal crisis that brought Hitler to power, along with and through his all-controlling military/police monstrosity. There are those who agree with George Santayana that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

God’s Word foretells that history repeats time after time. Every empire has eventually fallen, even, arguably, the greatest of all world empires, the Roman Empire. The same basic ingredients have constituted most every such collapse.

While Santayana’s bit of philosophy has been proven true time after time, he left out a key element in phrasing his thought. It should be: “Those who do not acknowledge God and cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Every world empire has ignored the true God of Heaven. Prophecy tells us that the final empire–that of Antichrist, the Roman prince of Daniel 9: 26-27—will be the most God-hating empire of all history.

Along with all other signals of Christ’s soon return on the world-scene today, the reviving of the Roman Empire is more and more coming into view. It is a sure signal that this generation is at the end of the Church Age and that Christ’s call to His Bride must be near indeed.

We come to the question “Israel Betrayed by U.S.?” The article’s title is in the form of a question because like so much treachery that has gone on within American presidential administrations’ dealings with Israel, Washington’s overall disregard for that nation well-being continues to be troubling.

The “transparency” presidential candidate Barack Obama and then President Obama promised was never forthcoming. Obama’s intended dealing with Israel for 8 years was wrapped in an impenetrable fog of political doublespeak throughout.

Mr. Obama began his administration almost from the very first day by treating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu like a White House exterminator–having him come in a door other than the front entrance reserved for dignitaries who are honored with official reception by the president.

The president, shortly after that first meeting with Netanyahu, abruptly left the prime minister and went to have a private dinner, presumably with his family. It was an undeniable snub.

If this was meant to be within keeping with his promise to have “the most transparent administration ever,” It was certainly transparent that Obama had an utter disregard for Mr. Netanyahu and for Israel, our number-one ally in the Middle East, if not our top ally in the entire world.

Subsequent snubs and disrespectful attempts to bully the Israeli leader and the Jewish state were too numerous to get into. Obama’s attempts to intervene within the sovereign affairs of Israel did not abate throughout his years as president. In fact, they increased dramatically as that administration moved forward.

With 9 months left in his presidency left, he doubled down on attempts to intervene into the sovereignty of the Jewish state.

In an audacious display of intrusion into the affairs of Israel’s dealings with its internal enemies–many of whom plot and carry out deadly attacks against Jewish citizens– Obama’s diplomatic enforcers were at work. Ordered to do so, America’s State Department minions joined with those determined to force Israel to bow to international demands in the matter of housing construction in volatile areas of contention at the time.

One news item reported at the time:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Diplomats say the U.S. will endorse a tough new tone with Israel in an upcoming international report. The report is to take the Jewish state to task over settlements, demolitions and property seizures on land the Palestinians claim for a future state…

The harsh language marks a subtle shift. Washington has traditionally tempered statements by the so-called “Quartet” of mediators with careful diplomatic language…(Source: Matthew Lee and Bradley Klapper, “US to Take Tougher Tone on Israeli Settlements in New Report,” Associated Press, 5/7/16).

Early on in the first Obama administration, the pressure to force Israel to give in to diplomatic pressures of land for peace became a driving force in U.S./Israeli relations. The effort ramped up from that time. It is as if Obama had an obsessive compulsion to impose his will before his time was ended in the White House.

My personal sense was at the time, and is now, that it was indeed the president’s compulsion that was in play. Because it is the nation Israel we are considering, however, there were then and now are far more powerful intrigues involved. Ephesians 6:12 is at the center of this last minute drive to make the rearrangements that Israel’s greatest hater wants accomplished, it seems to me.

But, my personal sense of prophetic importance of what all of this vitriol pointed toward Israel means is of little consequence. What matters is what the prophetic Word of God says about His chosen nation and its destiny, both near-term and in the ultimate sense.

In that regard, the things we are seeing –like the movement of the American Embassy to Jerusalem –like pressure ratcheting up to force a 2 state solution as part of making a peace covenant can be of profound significance. And in the world vs Israel struggle, we can find little reassurance that anything good can come forth.

America has entered a most dangerous time. Our nation is at risk, based upon the upside-down thinking that is increasingly observable within Washington, D.C.

President Trump, I feel, is a reprieve, but the future beyond the next 2 years indeed looms ominously.

Mid-term elections 2018 are over. Civility is the talk of the pundits. Both sides of the great divide are calling for America to find common ground. Only one side, however, is serious about the proposal, in my view.

Political dynamics make it impossible to bring the incivility into a non-polarized, American kumbaya. One side has become so sin-sickened that rationality no longer applies to the discourse – nor can it. The reprobate mindset foretold by the Apostle Paul is nearing the saturation point in American culture.

The similarities to ancient Sodom came into focus, I think, following this election. The radical elements of the opposition to the Trump Administration – to the president personally – didn’t settle down with winning control of the House of Representatives. They doubled down. The mob became an even more determined force. They started acting much like the description of the mob in Genesis chapter 19.

The mob enragement reached new levels of the already incendiary assault on domestic tranquility. The attackers moved from the more public environs where protests have always been confined – to the quiet, suburban, private family setting.

I wondered just how the wife and children of Fox program host Tucker Carlson must have been traumatized when the door to their home was being pounded on by the mob. Was it similar to the way Mr. and Mrs. Lot might have felt on that night in ancient times when the insanely lustful, enraged mob banged on their door, demanding that they give up the strangers who had entered the home?

The society and culture have been building toward this moment for some time – since the 2016 election in particular.

We have observed news of senators, of White House workers and many others being assaulted verbally in restaurants and in public places. We have seen one political party’s congressional members attacked with semi-automatic gunfire while readying to have a baseball game. Now the hordes, driven to unhinged frenzy by some unseen force are, like the depraved mob that assaulted Lot’s home in Sodom, trying to break into the private residence, threatening the safety of his wife and kids.

Jesus foretold it would be this way, did He not? He said it will be like in the days of Noah and the days of Lot when He next breaks into this sin-sickened world of Sodom-like rebellion.

Paul wrote that evil men will grow worse and worse. Is there any doubt we are witness to these prophecies beginning to come to pass in these volatile times?

It is somewhat heartening that some within the leftist ideology have called the Sodomite-like attempt to crash the door of Tucker Carlson’s home a “monstrous thing.”

Comedian Steven Colbert said something to the effect that those in opposition to Trump and his Make America Great Again agenda should not “feed” the monsters who try to break into private homes. He said that to feed monsters just makes them bigger and more violent.

Those are wise sentiments. Let us hope his words are sincere and not proffered merely to make political hay as America proceeds toward the 2020 presidential election.

As Robert Bork wrote, society and culture seem to be slouching toward Gomorrah. We are indeed nearing the time like it was in the days of Lot.

Jesus promised that He will intervene catastrophically into the world of incorrigible rebelliousness at just such a time. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Upon clicking through the religious channels at any given hour of the day –and there are many on my Direct TV set up– there are certain catchphrases I hear consistently.

The most prominent, I’ve found, is the term “plant a seed.” Another is “seed faith brings harvest.” The phraseology is issued forth by the prosperity propagandists, as I term them. These invariably twist and convolute scriptural truth in pursuit of their gullible followers’ contributions.

While there is usually a “seed” of factuality in their pontification that claims planting financial seeds will bring increase, the whoppers I’ve heard some of these “preachers” tell are far beyond anything promised in God’s Word.

For example, I heard not long ago one man with whom most would be familiar because of his constant presence on the fund-raisers say that he once sowed $100,000 into a ministry. This greatly pained him at the time because of his amazement that the Lord would “tell” him to do such a thing.

He complied, despite his pain, and the result was a return of $100 million within a month or so. That’s right. The man said he received $100 million for his $100,000 seed.

That was the only reference I’ve heard to this phenomenal “harvest,” so I presume this sort of return isn’t all that unusual in the prosperity circles…or else such claims are just part of the pitch. Looks like, though, that this amazing sort of miracle return on investment should have made the financial news or something.

Another phrase the prosperity preachers are prone to issue on a rather regular basis is that, in the name of Jesus, they “bind Satan.”

Now, this is even more amazing than the $100,000 being turned into $100 million within a month. This implies not a promise based upon biblical return for faith in planting a financial seed, but claims for any human being who is a Christian direct, supernatural power to completely paralyze almost certainly the most powerful being God ever created.

There have been books sold by the hundreds of thousands telling of how this “binding” can be done. Most all of the prosperity ministries hold this teaching close to their statements of faith. This is often a declaration I’ve heard made as a reward for one ministry or the other receiving a large “seed faith” contribution. The on-air person will declare that he or she binds Satan in Jesus’ name for the benefit of the contributor.

Only–I can find no place in Scripture where Christians can “bind Satan.” The old serpent certainly doesn’t seem to be bound these days–does he?

The Bible tells us: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5: 8).

There is no chain on our adversary, according to God’s Word. There is restraint, to be sure, upon the old devil’s activity, but that comes from one source and one source only. The Bible reports the following incident, which gives clue to this restraint on our great enemy.

“Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee” (Jude 1: 9).

There will come a time when a chain will be used to bind Satan. We learn of this future binding in the following account which is prophecy yet future:

“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season” (Revelation 20:1-3).

So, that we can “bind Satan” is a false teaching. But, we are confronted constantly by the serpent and his minions. Here is the Scripture that tells about this constant confrontation. How then, can we deal with this powerful enemy in the biblically-prescribed way? God’s Word has the answer, of course.

First, we are told how to deal directly with that roaring lion–the devil.

“Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1 Peter 5: 9).

We are to do certain things to prepare for this “resistance” against that old serpent, the devil. Here are our instructions:

“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:11-17).

We as God’s children cannot and must not claim to “bind Satan.” This is the most powerful instruction for the battle in which we find ourselves the nearer we get to Christ’s call to His Church.

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4: 7).

Road rage has always been something that has confounded me. My first exposure to the phenomenon came in a humorous fashion. It was presented on The Wonderful World of Disney in animation. One of Mickey Mouse’s close pals–the floppy-eared, buck-toothed Goofy–was the featured character.

The narrator talked about the Goofy character, while the human-like canine went about preparing for work one morning. The narrator told the viewer that this was the gentlest of creatures–a person who wouldn’t harm a fly.

Goofy was polite to his wife and children; he peacefully read his newspaper at the breakfast table while sipping his coffee at a leisurely pace.

Goofy got up from the table, wiped his mug with a napkin, folded the newspaper, and put it beneath his arm. He grasped his briefcase, put his fedora on his head, kissed Mrs. Goofy goodbye, hugged the little Goofies, and opened the door to his garage.

All the while the narrator was telling the viewer just how soft-hearted and, indeed, how wonderful a husband, father, and citizen was our about-to-be work-commuter. Mr. Goofy opened the driver-side door to his sedan, sat in the seat–all the while a tranquil, most pleasant half-smile on his mug.

Then it happened! The moment he grasped the steering wheel, a profound transformation took place. His mug contorted into a vicious, snarling countenance. His smile became a fang-bearing scowl of evil. His eyes widened and became red with bulging blood-veins popping to the surface, his black eyes shifting angrily while drool seeped from the sides of the jowls and he snorted flames and smoke from his big snout.

Goofy became the supreme picture of rage. The narrator described the transformation and gave the viewer the complete account of Goofy the maniac’s trip into the city of his workplace.

Soon after that program aired, I became a regular driver, having reached the age of getting a driver’s license. However, I can’t recall at the time having experienced road rage myself, or even having seen it take place in the real world. But, the creators of that Disney program obviously had experienced the phenomenon.

A little later in life I certainly witnessed the fact that road rage exists. The phenomenon seems to be less and less a phenomenon–rather, has turned into a “new normal” for driver comportment.

One such incident we might recall is when a former NFL football player was shot to death while he and a female passenger were on a city street. The former player apparently bumped a car in front of him for blocking him from proceeding. He then steered the car around the car he had bumped.

The driver of the car that was bumped sped after the offending vehicle. When he caught up with the former player’s car, the offended driver fired several shots into the other car, resulting in the former player being fatally wounded.

Such reports are not at all uncommon today. It’s as if the human mind has lost all control of reasoning ability while behind the wheel. I believe the phenomenon–now the new normal–might be part of the apostle Paul’s perilous timesof 2 Timothy chapter 3. There seems little doubt that today men (and women) drivers are increasingly “fierce” and “incontinent,”as the KJV puts it. That people are without ability to govern their tempers is a bottom-line characterization of the human condition that could legitimately be concluded. Angers flare out of control over the slightest perceived personal disrespect. Too often, such incidents end with bloodshed.

All of the above is but representation in microcosm of the larger manifestation of the ferocity and incontinence (lack of control) that is raging across the world at present.

On a much more profound scale of uncontrolled fury, a corpulent little tyrant In North Korea, even while being pressured by President Trump to change his ways, starves his people, while pouring money into military and nuclear technology with which to threaten the world. The mullahs of Islam incite hatred, encouraging all-out jihad against Israel and all who won’t bow the knee to Allah. In American inner cities, organizations devoted to anarchy and mayhem for the sake of acquiring and/or maintaining power over their ethnic masses go about tearing down the societal fiber of America’s culture. The political left have lost their collective mind as anyone who has been observing the madness can attest. Total chaos appears to be but a major crisis away–perhaps in the very near future.

Economic conditions on a national and global scale are greatly improved since President Trump took the reins of control in the U.S. However, the global elitists who want to bring all peoples back to Babel and a one-world order of absolute rule search for avenues to reach their Utopian goals. The lengths to which they are  willing to go to get their way is insane.

This world, with its myriad building troubles, should have by now imploded from untenable, economic pressures or else exploded in nuclear fire because of road rage-like insanity in planetary conflict.

But, planet earth wags on. The uncontrollable is for some reason still under control.

God raises up kings and nations, and He brings them down. Nothing within all of creation is ever beyond His controlling hand. The presidential election of 2016 is absolute proof.

Whether considering worries about fear of North Korea and its nukes, Iran and its nuclear program and barbarous terrorism, or the fearful diagnosis of a devastating illness or loss of those we love on a personal basis, all is under control at all times. There is no situation, no matter how profound or how personal, that the Lord of Heaven doesn’t control.

The key to being at peace within the safety and assurance of God’s control of all circumstance is to be within the heavenly Father’s family.

This relationship is achieved, of course, only through acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior (Romans 10: 9-10). The Lord appeals to all of mankind to consider the matter of His absolute control and authority over all that exists.

“Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.” (Isaiah 40:21-26)

Springtime in the Arkansas-Louisiana-Oklahoma-Texas region evokes somewhat precautionary thought of nature’s most singularly powerful storms. By that, I mean storms that can do the most complete devastation within the areas across which they sweep.

These, of course, are the huge tornadoes almost certain to occur in one or more of the aforementioned states from April through June. Oklahoma, particularly, is prone to produce the most powerful of the twisters. We remember a couple of 300-miles-per-hour tornadoes within the last several decades in that state. One of them was considered by the weather experts to have contained the strongest wind ever recorded on planet earth. I believe that 318 mph was the figure.

My friends just outside Oklahoma City lost everything except their lives in one such monster storm a few years ago. Some of the readers of my commentaries very generously contributed to a fund to help those folks–the family of a great personal friend of mine who is part of a team that heads a major prophetic ministry in Oklahoma City.

When I was last in that city, someone with me pointed out a company that manufactures and sells tornado shelters that was very near the TV studio where we taped some programs. It was a stark reminder of the fact that we were right in “tornado central.” Without a “fraidy hole” (as we in the south call them) to go down into, one is on his or her own. People are subject to the vicissitudes of the winds that come sweeping down the plains in springtime, as the musical, Oklahoma would have it.

As we point out constantly and consistently in these commentaries, there is a storm brewing. It is a supernatural storm, and it is a certainty. It will strike. It can be clearly seen gathering on the prophetic horizon.

Whether considering matters involving geopolitics, socioeconomics, religion, or any other aspect of the human condition, the forecast looks bleak indeed. No shelter of the human-manufactured sort can protect against the boiling, chaotic tempest that the Lord Himself predicts for times just ahead.

Daniel the prophet forecast the storm that approaches:

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27)

Jesus zoomed in more specifically to forewarn about the power and destructiveness of the coming supernatural storm:

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)

The entire book of Revelation, of course, is a detailed, blow-by-blow description of that coming Tribulation tempest. John outlines twenty-one specific destructive aspects of the storm in a series of seven scrolls, seven trumpets, and seven bowls of judgment.

Again, there is no human manufacturer that could produce a safe place against what is certainly scheduled to be the worst time of destruction the planet has ever known (and that’s saying a lot, considering all life was destroyed by water in the Flood of Noah’s day). But, thankfully, there is a superhuman shelter that is readily available to each and every person alive today.

In thinking on that shelter, my own ruminations caused me to wonder more deeply about God’s promises.

Jesus prophesied that the time He next intervenes into the affairs of mankind–revealed by His catastrophic interaction–the world will be exactly like it was in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot. (We read of that prediction in Matthew 24: 36-42, for example.)

Like in those two instances, God’s children–those who are righteous in His holy eyes–who are alive at the time of the Rapture will be taken out of harm’s way. The terrible storm of His judgment will then fall. All believers will go into that supernatural storm shelter prepared for them in Heaven, while there is great chaos and carnage on the planet that is ripe for God’s wrath.

Many new believers who were left behind when the Rapture happened will come out of that Tribulation storm, some as martyrs and others as flesh-and-blood survivors to repopulate the millennial earth during the reign of Christ upon His Second Advent.

And, there is a second supernatural storm shelter that will be provided during the Tribulation tempest itself. I believe the following prophecy and promise applies to both the saints who will be raptured and to another group of believers –the believing remnant of Jews who will find shelter through God’s divine direction. This protection will likely include Tribulation-era Gentile believers to some extent, too.

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be over past. For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. (Isaiah 26:20-21)

Jesus, Himself, points the way to the supernatural storm shelter. It is the ONLY way to assure that we can be safe while the coming Tribulation tornado ravages a judgment-deserving world.

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

Sin infection spawned from man’s disobedience has metastasized globally at this late point of the final dispensation leading to Christ’s return. It is not far-fetched to think of things that are happening in such biological terms, or to express them as such, while two major players in Bible prophecy bring the terminal situation into focus.

The European Union (EU), thought by many observers of prophecy in Scripture to be the global nucleus out of which will come a revived form of the Roman Empire in accordance with Daniel 9:26-27,  continues front and center in relevant news. The most central national entity of eschatology for the wind-up of human history, Israel, is, of course, always the key player in today’s news of prophetic portent, in my estimation. Of all developments in the milieu of end-times things going on, it is as if some master pharmacologist has upon his lab table a petri dish within which broils a deadly mixture prophesied to explode in a breakout of human history’s deadliest era.

Effervescing within that dish are the virulent ingredients that threaten to take peace from the earth in the form of war unlike there has ever been on planet earth. That war will not be brought about by the players most often believed to be the instigators of man’s final war. Quite the opposite.

Armageddon will be brought about by the One the false religionists of the world of Christendom proclaim could never judge sin harshly. He is love, and no loving God could react with such hateful, punitive action, these purveyors of prevarication promise. Here, again, is what God’s Word says about the very end-times things that are taking place within that petri dish I use as analogous symbolism.

“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, 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: 1-2)

That, my friends, is Armageddon that the Lord is prophesying through Joel. The nations of the world are going to pay a terrible price for their rebellion against Him and for the treatment of His chosen people, the Jews–Israel.

The intention to divide God’s land–land He gave to Israel forever–is at the heart of the prophesied simmering brew. The world–including much of Christendom, is turning against Israel in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) piling-on. This, of course, involves economically punishing Israel because they refuse to give up land in order to give the Palestinians a nation within current Israeli borders–land won by Israel in several wars that already belonged to them by divine promise in God’s holy eyes.

The EU, out of which the one who will be Antichrist will emerge, many prophetic observers believe, has consistently spoken out of both sides of its official mouth. Its spokesmen seem to obliquely defend Israel, while at the same time holding the Jewish state responsible for the hold up to a peaceful solution to the Israel-Palestinian so-called problem. A news item within recent years makes the point.

Without the Israeli-Palestinian conflict there would be no Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, the European Union’s envoy to Israel said Monday, arguing that the best way to fight BDS is to take steps to advance a two-state solution…

“The most effective antidote against the BDS movement is to solve the Palestinian issue. If there were no Palestinian issue, there would be no BDS movement,” [EU] Ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen said at a conference in Jerusalem…

Earlier during the conference, which was organized by the Yedioth Ahronoth daily newspaper, Faaborg-Andersen expressed the EU’s desire to see Israel thrive and said the union completely rejects any efforts to boycott Israel. “Let me make one thing 100 percent clear: The European Union is against BDS. Our policy is totally opposite of BDS. Our policy is one of engagement with Israel.”…

But it is important for Israel not to be seen as undermining a two-state solution, he said. “If more effort is put into showing a will to move forward and to obtain progress in this process, it would greatly weaken the BDS movement.”

(Source: The Times of Israel , Boycotts will disappear when Israel advances peace, EU envoy says, by Rapheal Ahre, March 28, 2016)

The all-out effort to “divide” God’s land–that given Israel in perpetuity– is underway. Even though America’s present president has chosen to support Israel in most every respect, the Jewish state remains at the center of this dangerous petri dish mixture. Certainly the world must be near the time when the final prophecies will begin manifesting. That means the Rapture of all born-again believers is even nearer!

I solicited from readers of this column a couple of essays ago information on the apparently entrenched entity within the White House termed Q. The responses I am receiving are many. I’m surprised at the passion involved within the matter.

Many sent their thoughts adamantly supporting the validation or credence of Q. Some who emailed said they wished and/or hoped such an entity exists and is acting on behalf of the president and the nation the way Q and the Qanon  believers indicate–although they aren’t certain of the reality of Q.

Others sent emails imploring me not to get caught up in the whole Q  matter. These exhorted–some in quite pointed ways–that Q and all attendant to things involved was foolish at best and, at worst, counterproductive to my heavenly assignment as “watchman on the wall.” I should, they advised, just deal biblically with everything of prophetic nature in these closing days of the Church Age.

Regardless of how those of you who sent the emails responded with information, thoughts on Q, or advice to avoid the topic and all involved, I thank you very much, each and everyone who answered the solicitation. You  have been most helpful. Please continue to send things you think are relevant.

I’ve had so far only one epiphany. Whether an actually working entity within the secretive echelons of the U.S. governmental and political process or merely the apparition of a clandestine cabal implanted to make the so-called resistance worry about their fate, Q is part of the end-times big picture. Therefore the matter is worthy of investigation.

Again, I think this phenomenon can be placed within the Scripture the Apostle Paul was given by the Holy Spirit to frame our particular time in human history: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

That there is indeed a mighty struggle going on at the highest levels of America’s government and the governments of the entire world there should be little question. For the spiritually attuned student of Bible prophecy, there should be absolutely no question in this regard.

With the U.S. and the world just prior to the 2018 presidential election going fast and furiously in the direction dictated by the globalists who nefariously dealt within those geopolitical stratospherics, the intervention can’t be missed. The satanic blueprint for the return to Babel was impossible not to ascertain by the clued-in students of Bible prophecy.

The Deep State (those in government determined to bring America into that one-world configuration) had, with the election of Donald J. Trump their part of the devil’s blueprint suddenly snatched from their grasp, in my view. America continues to be at the heart of any internationalist cabal’s planning. This nation must be brought into the construction process. The  diabolical minions of the prince of the power of the air–Satan–must siphon the financial assets and resources of America in order to successfully build upon the Antichrist platform the devil wants to construct.

I wrote about the vital importance of America to the globalists’ ambitions during 2010 and early 2011. Remember that at that time it looked like a total implosion of the American and world economies would happen any day. Experts were saying we would wake up one morning and find the financial world had collapsed.

Excerpts of that writing those years ago are as follows.

So, we come to our present hour. America is the apex nation of the world. That is, it is the most materially blessed nation and one of the most spiritually blessed nations ever to exist. This, despite the fact that it has degenerated in many ways to become perhaps the most wicked in human history. The United States is so blessed with material wealth that every nation on earth is inextricably linked to its economy in one way or another.

It is true that its dominance is under threat and is eroding quickly. The economic meltdown and unavoidable implosion of America’s monetary hegemony is imminent. But everything of global financial significance still hinges on the health and fate of the American dollar. This is to the great consternation of the people Glenn Beck rails against as wanting to bring the dollar down so that a new monetary regime can be brought to bear on the hapless citizens of what they envision as a Babel-like one-world order.

Despite incessant assaults, the American economy hasn’t collapsed. It should have by now, but it hasn’t. It is, despite ominous signs ahead, business as usual–just as Jesus said it would be at the end of the age. If America’s economy crashes–-as Beck says it will very shortly—the entire world will collapse to rubble. The business-as-usual element of Christ’s prophecy about it being like the days of Noah and Lot would be out the proverbial window.

If the U.S. economy collapsed, taking the world’s buying and selling capability into the darkest times in history, it would take years–if ever–for everything to recover so that things would again come into business-as-usual configuration. Yet the devastating, world-rending collapse is coming. It cannot be stopped. I completely agree with Glenn Beck and Hal Lindsey in seeing that coming economic catastrophe in the immediate future. However, I disagree that the folly of man or the deliberate manipulations of human diabolists will bring the fearful disaster. And the disaster will not happen until God’s prophetic timing allows. It will continue to be business as usual despite increasing harbingers of economic calamity. Perhaps conditions will even look like they are improving. But if so, it will be smoke and mirrors–-a sham “recovery.” The damage is done. Recovery is impossible. (“Scanning a Fearful Future, raptureready.com)

Today, in 2018, news headlines hourly report of the great economic boom that is in progress at the present. America’s and the world’s economies haven’t collapsed.

We are buying, selling, building, planting, marrying, etc.–everything that indicates economic boom, not bust.

Jesus said it will be just like that when He next makes His presence known to the world. Again, we read about that break-in as a thief in the night in Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17: 26-30.

I wrote further in that series of articles in 2010 and 2011.

This all means that Jesus Christ is poised to do exactly what He foretold. The prophetic signals and conditions prevalent in America and the world should have the attention of every believer. Jesus is about to fulfill His glorious promise as recorded in John 14:1-3.

The Rapture, I believe Jesus is telling us, will be the sword of judgment that pierces the building, festering boil of humanistic rebellion. When the Church is taken to heaven, the minds of those left behind who want to control will no longer have restraint on their thoughts and ambitions. There will cease to be a governor on man’s conscience, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8, because the Holy Spirit will allow the evil within mankind to do its dastardly work.

This will be the time–during the chaos of the days immediately after the Rapture—that all of Mr. Beck’s fears will come to fruition. Neither patriots nor anyone else will be able to save America and the world.

The Church, with the Restrainer resident within each believer, will continue to be salt and light–to exert influence over America’s societal and cultural conditions. That influence, although observably becoming less and less effective, will be sufficient to prevent all-out, Nazi-like persecution against Christians in this nation.

When the Church-Age saints go to Christ upon His call to them (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; Revelation 4:1-2), America and the world will be devoid of the Church’s buffering influence. Those who accept Christ during the Tribulation will undergo the most horrific persecution of human history.

It is at this time–the disappearance of all born-again believers in the Rapture–that the Deep State within America and the world community of nations will collectively, quickly, become the Beast State.

That transformation will come within the “twinkling of an eye”:

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

We, as the American people, stand upon the precipice of a great chasm. The chasm is a dark abyss into which every major empire has leaped. The fallen nature of man since Eden’s catastrophe has reacted to the abyss like shards of scrap iron to a powerful magnet’s tug. The immense gravity created by societal and cultural corruption has been irresistible to avoid.

America’s collective fallen nature has become profoundly manifest since just before the 2016 presidential election. So profound, in fact, that observers of prophetic stage-setting for the final throes of cultural and societal decay wonder in amazement. How does the United States–certainly no longer “united”–manage to avoid falling off that precipice upon which we as a  societal order perch, apparently contemplating collective self-destruction?

The chasm, gateway to the abyss that pulls at our nation with greater strength each day, separates “we the people” from the other side, where is found God’s divine protection and peace. That great divide, the creation of our own sinfulness and made infinitely destructive by the prince of this world system, consists of political forces admittedly intent on changing America into an entity totally unlike that envisioned by the founding fathers–men who relied to a great extent on the God of Heaven for direction in the nation being brought to birth.

The Lord of Heaven directly intervened again in 2016. It was so obvious that the truly spiritually attuned member of God’s family couldn’t miss it. Others could only wonder in awe at what had happened–a total political neophyte descending, literally, a high-rise escalator to announce his intention to run. That candidate, now as president, continues to baffle the elite, political class with his achievements and accomplishments in America’s behalf. And, most of that cabal hate everything about him–and they demonstrate each and every day that they hate us who support him, by the way.

America is–it is apparent to me, at least–being held back from tumbling into that abyss where every major civilization has fallen. But, most who sense as I do that this is the case believe it to be only a temporary reprieve from falling victim to the beckoning leap into national destruction.

A quick scan of the American political landscape demonstrates, for those with spiritual senses activated, things shaping yet again that will require Heaven’s intervention–if we are to remain on the cusp of destruction rather than tumbling to our demise as a culture and society.

The lies against Judge Kavanaugh, in my opinion, blatantly shine prophetic light on Paul’s “perilous-times” indicator for the end of the age. Evil men and seducers have indeed grown and are growing worse and worse. The “perilous times” signal Paul calls “false accusers” is right in our faces–again, in my opinion.

The murder of babies in their mother’s wombs, even the leftist TV pundits admit, is at the heart of hatred for Judge Kavanaugh. They resist with such insane ravings and lies because they fear that Roe v Wade will be overturned. Thus will end their right to use abortion as the remedy for the unwanted consequences of  their unbridled lust for pleasure.

My prayer is that every Christian–and all others who read this commentary–will recognize the critical nature of the midterm election this November. It is absolutely essential that we as believers again go to the Lord as we did before the 2016 presidential election. We need to follow God’s prescription for invoking his intervention. That prescription, of course, in 2 Chronicles 7: 14.

I am persuaded beyond any doubt that Christians across America followed that Rx preceding the election of Donald J. Trump. The election was a miracle to us who asked that God provide that miracle. To those who went insane following that election, it was a tragedy of tragedies. Their losing candidate, if victorious, would surely have continued leading America into that abyss upon whose ledge we remain poised.

Instead of making the U.S. the socialist Utopia the Alinsky ideologist envisioned, their globalist blueprint and construction were put on hold.

Please know this. The midterm elections will require another miracle. We must–MUST–again invoke the Lord’s help. The abyss awaits and Satan and his minions–both demonic and human–stand ready, if they regain the controls necessary, to push the nation into that evil, destructive black hole from which there is no escape.

We are facing one of the most important elections in the history of our nation. The leftist forces, party-wise and media-wise, are insanely fixated upon grabbing power at any cost. There is now no tactic that is too egregious.

In one case with which you are by now familiar, the siblings of Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona’s 4th Congressional District were recruited into making an attack ad against their own brother. Satan and his minions have the entire nation suffering with ideological infection that is steeped in evil spirituality that is now emerging to the surface as it has  seldom done before.

If the Democrats win the House or Senate, they will bring the federal government to a standstill. There will be one impeachment hearing after another. With congressional committees under the control of the Democrat party, every one of Trump’s cabinet members could expect to be dragged before numerous witch-hunt hearings.

Political chaos in Washington, if the election was to go the way mentioned above, will likely lead to financial chaos on Wall Street.

As example: The 1973 Arab oil embargo only caused the Dow Jones to decline by 16 percent. The 1974 Watergate scandal, on the other hand, caused the Dow Jones to plunge by 26 percent. Fomenting chaos at the highest level of the U.S. government–the presidency–is obviously the proven strategy the devil and his minions intend to use as long as they are not in total control.

Absent God’s staying hand, in such a case as the change-America-at-any-cost  powers getting full control of the reins of government, the nation would almost certainly tumble into the abyss reserved for those who have turned their backs on Him.

It is our prayerful hope that God may intervene with yet another miracle in the November 6 election. Each of us who names the Name of Jesus Christ can do three things in this election process:

1) Pray for God’s intervention in the election in accordance with 2 Chronicles 7: 14.

2) Vote God’s way when you go into the booth (as the Holy Spirit Leads).

3) Urge others to be sure to vote and to vote for candidates who hold to godly and constitutional principles.

You and I as members of God’s family stand at a crucial juncture in American–and human–history. How we conduct our lives at this time is absolutely critical to carrying out God’s message to those who face certain, unbelievably horrendous futures if they aren’t forewarned.

Ezekiel the prophet tells under divine inspiration that the blood of people who don’t know  of God’s salvation will be upon the heads of believers (prophets) who know about things to come but fail to inform those who are lost.

We at Rapture Ready are determined to stand as watchmen on the wall in these times so near to Christ’s calling His Church to be with Him. We want to hear our Lord say, “Well done, good, faithful servant.”

Once upon a time I wrote in an early draft of a book manuscript about the spirit of Antichrist as given in the Bible. It was more or less a question positing whether this passage might have something to do with anti-Semitism to some extent. Here is the Scripture.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” (1 John 4:1-3)

My cogitation revolved around whether the words:”in the flesh” might somehow include/involve the fact that Jesus came into the world through Jewish ” flesh.” After all, Christ came into the world through the Jewish race. Satan has always wanted to have the world deny that the Jew has any special place in God’s plan for humanity.

The Jew has been hunted and hated throughout history. Adolf Hitler said the Jew is sub-human, and much of the communist world would agree with the Nazi thought in that regard, history shows. They were mistreated–brutally–by Stalin and subsequent dictators and held as the scapegoat for all problems the dictators themselves created and perpetuated. This is still going on in our time in Russia and other places. Anti-Semitism is on the grow in virulence and scope in Europe in a way that has not been seen since pre-Nazi Germany.

Islamist hatred is not only on the grow as violently as at any time in history, it is accepted with hardly an objection by the rest of the world. Our most previous president, in my view, was culpable in looking the other way as burgeoning anti-Semitism exploded around the world. As I was saying, I wrote in the manuscript about this question–and it was in an inquiring, speculative tone, intended as mere examination, not as adamant postulation. I wondered if denying that Christ came in Jewish flesh somehow figured into the matter of anti-Semitism, because Antichrist, himself, will certainly champion great hatred for God’s chosen people.

Bible prophecy is replete with foretellings of how Antichrist will persecute and murder those of the Jewish race during the Tribulation–i.e., might denial that “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” mean, in part at least, that the Antichrist spirit has at its core hatred for the Jew because that is the “flesh” through which God chose to usher His only begotten Son into this fallen world?

This went over not at all well at the publisher with whom I was under contract to do the book. I was told this was false teaching–or as I recall, that was the tone and threat I inferred the response to mean. The words were rather strongly put that I must cut that portion or they couldn’t be a part of such heresy. Well, again, that was how I interpreted the charge and subsequent threat.

Someone at the publishing house had a quite sensitive spot which I had obviously touched, not able to understand that I wasn’t challenging the standard take on what constitutes ”the spirit of antichrist.” I know that the meaning is, primarily, that there is a visceral denial among those of this lost world that God came to earth in the flesh to die for the sin of mankind and to redeem mankind. Still, He did enter this world through the Jewish flesh.

I find the fact that Christians who truly have a pre-Trib, pre-Millennial view of Bible prophecy seem the only core entity that doesn’t display animus for Israel. Most of the world sees Israel as the cause of the problems with regard to the so-called Palestinian question. That the Jewish state is illegitimate, and the illegal occupier of land belonging to the Palestinian people, is the never-ceasing mantra. Those who aren’t openly hostile to Israel either give nods of approval to those who say Israel is the problem or say nothing at all as that nation is verbally pounded and hounded from every quarter.

So-called Christian organizations–even those churches claiming to be evangelicals–join in the satanic stream-of-consciousness insistence that Israel no longer is inheritor of God’s promises made to that people. These enthusiastically join the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction” (BDS) movement in their denial that the Jews are God’s chosen people.

Okay, I might be way off the mark in my ruminations about the Jewish race–about Israel–being a part of John’s warning in this antichrist spirit passage. But, the Jews are indeed being hated today like throughout all of history. That anti-Semitism is on the rise can’t be denied by anyone other than those who are cerebrally incapable of realizing it, or who are liars.

Every indicator points to the likelihood that the one called Antichrist is about to step out of the shadows of this rising hatred and into the spotlight for doing his dastardly deeds against God’s chosen people, the Jews.

Thankfully, born-again believers will have to exit the world stage first. The antichrist spirit so prevalent today is proof-positive that the time of that exiting–the Rapture– must be near indeed.