There are many in America, it is more than obvious, who are only minimally aware or not aware at all of the enragement spawned by the 2016 presidential election. Because I am so intensely aware of the rage ripping at the heart of the nation, those who don’t seem to even notice the damage being done irritate me to distraction. My only comfort comes from the knowledge that God has it all under control. –That, and the conviction that a reconstituted silent majority will manifest its own enragement when it’s time to enter the voting booths during this year’s mid-term elections.

Then, I come to my spiritual senses and realize that politics are of a temporal nature that render effects on the human condition fleeting at best. Only investment in things of God will triumph at the end of the day. Humanistic influences—be they constituted of political or any other man-centered ingredient—are of no lasting consequence.

Still, we must endure present circumstance, so it’s best to do so by, as calmly and thoughtfully as possible, analyzing things as they exist.

Always, it is our purpose at Rapture Ready to probe with the sharp, revealing Word of Bible prophecy. Doing so makes possible the understanding of even the absolute insanity exhibited by the political left, pumped up in its enragement by ideological steroids injected by mainstream news and entertainment media.

It takes no more than a modicum of effort to get to the very center of the anger. The winner of the 2016 presidential election is the object of rage for hatred central—the political party which, it seems, becomes more radical by the day.

To get right to the proof of the pudding, as the term goes, we look at an individual party member that more than most others represents the radicalized left in the matter of hatred for the duly elected president.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is the apex mover and shaker in the so-called resistance. We remember her inflammatory rhetoric upon her learning of White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders being ejected from a Washington, D.C., restaurant because she worked for the Trump Administration.

Waters said, “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them! And you tell them that they are not welcome, anymore, anywhere.”

Despite some within her political party making limp attempts to distance themselves from Waters’ lunacy, the enragement just continues to mount. Waters, rather than back down from her incitement, continues to throw fuel on the fires started by the so-called Antifa movement, an organized group of haters equating the Trump Administration to the fascist government of the days of Benito Mussolini, axis partner with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis of World War II.

The enragement will soon reach a dangerous level, it is feared by those who observe from the perspective of students of history.

World Net Daily (WND) columnist Dennis Prager said the following:

“Because of the ever-descending moral and intellectual state of the mainstream news media, there has been no outcry against the leftists who call President Donald Trump and all Americans who support him Nazis. Indeed, members of the media now regularly do so.

“Without that outcry, this labeling will only increase; and this steadily increasing drumbeat of hysteria is likely to lead to one result: violence against conservatives,” he warned.

“It is not plausible to foresee any other outcome of left-wing normalization of the terms ‘Nazi’ and ‘white supremacist.’”

A WND report presented the following regarding the political rage that is building. Veteran political adviser and longtime columnist Pat Buchanan warned inflammatory rhetoric sometimes is followed by very real violence.

“The left, to the point of irrationality, despises a triumphant Trumpian right and believes that to equate it with fascists is not only legitimate, but a sign that the accusers are the real moral, righteous and courageous dissenters in these terrible times,” he explained.

It has happened before, he pointed out.

“After Dr. King’s assassination, a hundred cities, including the capital, were looted and burned. Scores died. U.S. troops and the National Guard were called out to restore order. Soldiers returning from Vietnam were spat upon. Cops were gunned down by urban terrorists. Bombings and bomb attempts were everyday occurrences. Campuses were closed down. In May 1971, tens of thousands of radicals went on a rampage to shut down D.C.,” he said.

And Buchanan cited the left’s frequent comparisons of Trump to Nazi Germany, which “are absurd.”

“Does anyone truly believe that the centers where the children of illegal migrants are being held, run as they are by liberal bureaucrats from the Department of Health and Human Services, are like Stalin’s Gulag or Hitler’s camps?” he wrote. (WND.com, July 3, 2018)

Again, while humanistic rage and political enragement are troubling, it is incumbent upon the spiritually-attuned to consider the real battle being waged. We find that battle in Ephesians 6: 12—We struggle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

We get right to the heart of the cause and effect by considering the following:

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

Satan—the devil—is enraged. So, too, are his minions, both demonic and human. However, we are not to fall victim to the enragement of minions who want to throw off the bonds of Heaven’s governance. Jesus is our strength and our fortress. We are told: “Greater is he who is in you, than he who is in the world.” (1 Jn 4: 4)

While those who truly grasp the lateness of the hour and what the issues and events of these strange, troubled times mean, there is the overwhelming majority that hasn’t a clue. This is neither surprising nor unexpected, because the vast part of the world’s population is in spiritual darkness–without Christ, therefore without the Holy Spirit to guide thinking and comportment.

There are millions upon millions of others who are within Christendom–that is, who claim to be under the umbrella of Christianity. Most of these, statistics bear out, would not qualify as “Christian” under the definition of being “born again.” That is, they haven’t truly “believed” as given in Romans 10:9-10:

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

It is not my place–nor the place of any other person to say who is and isn’t “saved” on an individual basis. However, we are to definitely hold to what the Bible tells us are the qualifications for becoming a child of God who will spend eternity with Him in Heaven. In the sense of discernment, we can say that those who hold to those biblical qualifications are “saved” and those who do not hold to those qualifications are not.

We will deal in this essay with those who fit within the category defined by the above prescription for being born again. I would like to get even more specific.

Among those who are truly born again, there are many views of how things will play out, prophetically speaking. At the same time, there are also many who don’t know and many who don’t care about prophecy–what God has foretold about their future. They are too busy living out their increments of life one heartbeat and breath at a time.

Sadly, the latter by far constitute the majority. That is, most don’t know about Bible prophecy, and most don’t care. They are aided and abetted in their willful ignorance by the pastors and Bible teachers within their church bodies in this disregard for the prophetic portion of God’s Word. That prophetic Word is almost one-third of the Scripture the Lord has given us through His Love Letter to mankind.

Even more specifically, I want to concentrate for the moment on the doctrine of the Rapture of the Church–that twinkling of an eye moment Paul wrote about as recorded in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians 15:52-55.

Of those who have truly been born again, there are few in number who know about the Rapture in concrete terms or who grasp that there will come that moment of being called into Heaven by their Lord. In America, even those who do understand that the Rapture is an event prophetically scheduled according to the Bible resist embracing the promise intrinsic within the doctrine of that imminent call from Christ. That is, rather than desire to hear Christ’s call, “Come up here,” (Revelation 4: 1) these want to first live life on earth and fulfill all of the anticipated pleasures it offers. It is primarily this group of believers to whom I address the thoughts that follow.

Notice, please, that I wrote as a qualifier, “in America.. It is in America that this attitude of not embracing the Rapture among Christians is most pronounced. Proof of that statement is made clear through the thousands upon thousands of sermons that are preached each week. The number of prophetic messages amongst those thousands of sermons are infinitesimal. People don’t want to hear that Christ’s call is imminent. The pastors–in overwhelming numbers–demonstrate that they don’t want to delve into that portion of Bible truth–even if, indeed, they in fact believe that the Rapture is an imminent event.

Not desiring the Rapture is, for American believers, as natural as breathing. Life in the United States is not bad, and for the most part, pretty comfortable. Compared to living as a Christian in, say, the Middle East, Africa, or other parts of the world, being a Christian requires that no heavy price be paid. That is what I mean when I say it is as natural as breathing.

Christians in America, unlike their counterparts in less blessed, heavily oppressed, persecuted parts of the world, rather than worrying about whether they will be able to provide food for themselves and their children for the day, look forward to their upcoming marriages, vacations, or new purchases that will satisfy their latest comfortable lifestyle aspirations. These physical and psychological wants and needs are the natural outflow from abundance. Longing for the Rapture is a spiritual–supernatural–exercise that requires, for most, effort that seems to offer no tangible, immediate gratification. Such effort is just too taxing for most of America’s Christians and their pastors. It takes them out of their comfort zone, much as does prayer and Bible reading.

When American Christians in this category do think of the Rapture–which, again, they in fact believe is a thing that will happen, but somewhere in the hazy years of the future–they fear it will take them away from the pleasures of this earthly life. That event will, they think, snatch them from their comfortable American lifestyle. It will present a completely changed paradigm–one that will cause them to lose homes, family closeness, friendships, other relationships, and their “stuff”–all of which provides familiarity and pleasure.

This is especially true among the younger people. Their disinterest in prophecy in general and in the Rapture of the church in particular is more than obvious in the make-up of prophecy conferences. I can’t see any longer, due to a retinal disease, but am told that the conferences are almost without exception attended nearly exclusively by those with gray hair.

Now, I’ve been perhaps too harsh on Christians in America. However, we are approaching the very end of this Church Age. The perhaps overly stern exhortation is to focus attention on the reality that we might within months, weeks, days, or even hours, look our Lord in His holy, omniscient eyes. He said He was going to prepare a place for us and would come again and take us there with Him (John 14:1-3). That “place” is something we can’t even begin to fathom in its wonders and luxuriant surroundings. All of the relationships in this life we thought we might lose in the Rapture will be magnified in their joy and intimacy a million times over. We are going to find that all earthly treasures we so valued are as refuse compared to things the Lord has prepared for those that love Him.

I sense that the newlywed couple who belong to Christ will find their relationship with each other dazzlingly more intimate than anything planet earth could have nurtured. The “stuff” left behind will be instantly forgotten when we behold the heavenly treasury that holds us spellbound. The best days of our lives in this earthly confinement will seem as a time of terrible, debilitating paralysis. The Rapture will instantaneously bring life unencumbered by gravity and all laws of what we know as physics. The Lord put us here to enjoy the many good things He provides. There’s nothing wrong in living life to its absolute fullest. But, this is not our home. We are but travelers in a foreign land. We are here for, at best, 70, 80, 90, or 100 years, then we slip these surly bonds.

We, as God’s children, should not resist the doctrine of Rapture, but anticipate that glorious instant when the whole purpose of our being born into this universe reaches fruition. We will at that incomprehensible moment understand what it means to be joint heirs with Christ. Even so, Come, Lord Jesus!

Progressive is the term for the mind-set most lauded by media today. The word “progressive,” of course, is the label media and “progressives,” themselves have pasted over the word “Liberal” in order to distance themselves from the many failed policies of liberalism. Even those of the progressive mind-set recognize that those failed policies within the arena of American politics and government has been proven to be…I don’t know how else to frame them… insane.

We’ve all heard that one definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing again and again, even though it fails every time. Nothing more aptly describes the liberal mind-set in American politics and government than does the policy begun by the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration in 1964.

Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” to create his “Great Society,” was to eliminate poverty and assure that every citizen become more equal in achieving a prosperous life. A noble thought, right? Well, yes. I’ll concede that many –including the president, himself, most likely really wanted that to happen. With Liberals –I mean– Progressives– it’s always the good intentions that count. But, it didn’t happen. It still has not happened.

Our government has now spent more than $22 trillion in exactly the same manner since 1964 –over and over again. Poverty is worse, and the welfare state has created and perpetuated a class of totally dependent people –people that for the most part are healthy, able-bodied, and who would be capable of doing for themselves –if not for the slothful element government has encourage and exacerbated.

I mention this economic fact only to show the insanity of the Liberal —excuse me– I mean the Progressive thinking to which we are subjected every hour of every day. This mindset goes far, far, beyond economic madness, as we will see.

Such thinking is prophetic. Paul foretold just such a mindset and where it would lead as the end of the age and the return of Jesus Christ nears.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened… And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient…” (Rom 1: 18-21, 28)

Reprobate thinking, as we have seen before, is upside-down thinking. It is thinking which can neither see a problem in a clear-headed way, nor can it formulate a reasonably effective solution to a problem. Thinking that excludes God produces a reprobate mind –one that will –for example– keep throwing trillions of dollars that don’t exist (because we are broke) at a problem which that money only makes worse, not better.

The Progressive mind-set demonstrates time after time, again and again, over and over, that it wants to carry on with life apart from governance from the God of Heaven. Humanistic government on an ever-increasing grasp for power and control is at the core of the Liberal –excuse me– the Progressive way of thinking.

The Creator –God– has said that marriage is for one man and one woman for life. The Progressive says that this is a new time and place and Biblical thinking is old fashioned –outmoded. We must Progress…

But, nature itself –the way male and females of all species capable of reproducing are constructed, show plainly that it is male-female, not male-male or female-female that constitutes the sexual union God –or if you prefer– nature intended.

Paul the apostle, in His letter to the Romans, again put’s a scriptural finger on the rebellion that festers within the Progressive mind-set.

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.” (Rom 1: 26-27)

God says plainly in His Word what He thinks about the killing of babies in the womb. He speaks clearly about shedding blood of those who are a threat to no one, because they are, in human terms, “innocent”.

“These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood…” (Prov 6: 16-17)

The Progressive says that, in effect, God –if there is in fact a God– doesn’t know what He is saying in His Word. Life in the womb isn’t life –at least, not yet human life. The Progressives have the right to choose whether the child in the womb is to live or not. They have the right to choose what is convenient for their own life, and this includes the right to choose to execute a defenseless baby before it takes its first breath for expediency’s sake.

Entertainment media is the incubator for the Progressive mind. In these last days every thought of the heart is only on evil continually, as in Noah’s day. The entertainment calls good evil and evil good, and the progressive mind becomes more reprobate by the hour.

Now, let me say as a caveat that political conservatism deserves little more praise than does progressivism. Humanism rules at the heart of all political and governmental entities upon this fallen and soon to be judged planet. The greatest desire of all who name the Name of Christ should be to wage a campaign to win the hearts and minds of mankind for the Lord we serve.

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2: 14-16)

Jesus Christ, Creator of all that is, once asked and asks the question still:

 “Who do you say that I am?”

Nothing any person does in life is more important, more crucial, than answering this question. One’s response determines an individual’s ultimate destiny, where that person will spend eternity after this short life on Earth is over. And it is indeed a short life lived in our physical bodies. God’s Word, the Bible, speaks truth about the matter:

“The days of our years [are] threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength [they be] fourscore years, yet [is] their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psa. 90:10).

Again, God’s Word says:

“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14).

Jesus asked that most profound question to ever confront mankind. He asked His disciples directly: “…whom say ye that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). When Peter answered,

“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16), the Lord said, “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 16:17).

Jesus went on to declare that He would build His church upon that very foundation. All who truly believe and confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God will become children of the heavenly Father. This truth is confirmed by the inspired words of Paul the apostle following Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

The question posed by Jesus when He asked, “Whom say ye that I am?” is the one every individual has to answer. It is not an option. One must either accept that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, or reject Jesus Christ, thus declaring that Jesus was not and is not who He claimed to be. Believing upon Jesus Christ and His redemptive sacrifice on the cross at Calvary for the sins of mankind (Jn. 3:16) means a person will be saved from sin, which separates the souls of men and women, boys and girls, from God, Christ’s Father. Not believing upon Christ means eternal separation from God in a place of torment called the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:11-15).

To accept Christ’s sacrifice is to recognize and admit you are a sinner who needs salvation. You must totally believe Christ died for you. You must ask that Jesus come into your soul and become Lord of your life. By inviting Him to come into your life, you agree that you desire to turn from your sinful life and depend upon the Lord to direct your life as He deems best. Jesus instantly comes to dwell within your soul through God the Holy Spirit. This is called being “born again” (Jn. 3:3). You are then a child of God, saved once and for all – for all of eternity. The Holy Spirit dwelling within you begins helping you grow under new management – King Jesus, the Lord of Lords!

Future Secure Forever

Your future is secure because God holds onto you forever, not because you are holding onto Him! This is most important to recognize and remember. Christ does the saving of your soul. Your part is to simply and genuinely accept the grace gift, the sacrifice for redemption God offers through His beloved Son, the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Jn. 1:29; Rev. 13:8).

We know with absolute certainty you are once and forever in God’s family because of the words of the One who created all that exists. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father’s hand” (Jn. 10:29). Jesus was speaking about all people who have lived on Planet Earth who have or will in the future accept Him as God’s once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the world.

He was telling us, through the Mighty Word of the God of Heaven, that it is impossible for the heavenly Father to ever let a single born-again child of His slip from His omnipotent grip.

The Apostle Paul, under direct inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, nailed down eternal security of the born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He wrote:

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”(Rom. 8:38-39).

Paul said further, “…for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Tim. 1:12).

Insecurity of Believers

Many who are true Christians today hold that the Bible teaches that people saved by the matchless, unfathomable grace of God can lose salvation if they backslide to the point that sin rules their lives. They reject the Bible truth “once saved always saved.” Many of these who believe, preach, and teach insecurity of the believer (that one can lose salvation) declare at the same time that a Christian called “carnal” can be re-redeemed, restored to the family of God upon repentance. They accept part of the truth found in Hebrews 6:4-6 but deny the truth of the other part. That Scripture says:

 “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”

We will examine this terribly flawed interpretation of this Truth next week.

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Commiserating with Lot

June 25, 2018

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is the story of a man–but it is much more. It is a story of mankind.

The man is Abraham’s nephew, Lot, who chose to take the greener pasture when his uncle gave him the choice. That greener pasture was, of course, the land of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was much more appealing in lushness and the entertainment and other attractions it apparently offered.

The story of Lot, of Sodom and Gomorrah, is also a dramatic picture of all of mankind in its fallen state. The story foreshadows how the human race always chooses the ways of the world that take people farther and farther from their Creator.

Lot, despite being among the lost, debauched thousands of Sodom, was nonetheless considered righteous in the eyes of that Creator -the God of Heaven. There is one thing more we know about this nephew of the great progenitor of the people that would become Israel. Lot was sorely vexed. The story of the sorely vexed Lot can be found in the 19th chapter of the Book of Moses–Genesis.

There, we remember, God sent two angels, first to Uncle Abraham, then to Lot in the debauched city of Sodom.

Here is what the Apostle Peter wrote in regard to our vexed protagonist, Lot. The context is God dealing with egregiously rebellious mankind in righteous judgment.

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. (2 Peter 2:1-10)

Now, Peter points out–under divine inspiration and without any doubt–that ol’ Lot was indeed vexed. The definition of vexed in one instance is the state of being extremely irritated or frustrated to the point of a sense of being oppressed.

I use the word sorely, because it has always been a KJV term that amuses me. Some in biblical stories, for example, have been described as “sore afraid.”

I have no doubt that Lot, living among these ravenously homosexual men who threatened the angels who came into Sodom, was not only vexed, but sorely vexed.

Now, I want to say here that while watching things going on all around us in today’s society and culture I am sorely vexed.  It seems that fully half of the American people are immersed in activity that can be construed as anti-God. Government, media–both news and entertainment–seem bent on tearing down most every moral pillar to which our national life used to be tethered. And, we who oppose that tearing down are called the irrational, ignorant morons that are holding up progress.

We who think boys, not girls, should be Boy Scouts, who believe males should not be allowed in restrooms that are designated for females, who hold that God knows best when saying that marriage should be between a man and a woman, not a man and a man or a woman and a woman, are hated and vilified. Those doing the vilification and hating see themselves as the supreme moralists. And, their side has the public airwaves for the most part. They have Satan’s propaganda machinery that, without ceasing, preaches their Sodom and Gomorrah-like comportment as being the way life is meant to be lived.

This being the case, all of my vexation instantly turns to a shudder of realization when thinking on the future for those in such rebellion. The words issued by Peter above are yet–perhaps very soon–to once again come to fulfillment.

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government.

In George Orwell’s 1947 novel, 1984, the dictatorship that controlled much of Oceania rearranged news to fit the moment. The propaganda machine rewrote history on a daily, even hourly, basis to fit the narrative Big Brother wanted the hapless victims of the regime to receive. I believe one of the terms used for this journalism was “Newspeak.”

There was inflicted upon the citizens of this regional superpower the technique called “doublethink,” in which everything that was reasonable and good was to be thought of as bad and evil, as long as it fit the Big Brother model for life in Oceania.

I’m getting the same feeling as when I read that novel for the first time so many years ago while in college. We are being fed, it seems to me, a line of Newspeak aimed at creating doublethink, while this generation closes in on the very end of the age.

The term that comes to mind for what is being foisted upon a dumbed-down world of those who would rather be entertained than informed is something like “Spiritspeak.” The world continues to be moved toward a time of an unholy peace–peace that Daniel the prophet called “peace that destroys many” (Daniel 8: 25). Isaiah the prophet calls it a “covenant made with death and hell” (Isaiah 28: 15).

Not to long ago the world’s most noted spiritual leader spoke into the ear of the world this Spiritspeak. He gave his personal if not papal blessing to one of God’s chosen people’s proven enemies. The pronouncement came upon the Vatican’s decision to formally recognize Palestine as an independent state. Although not a “spiritual” dictate from Pope Francis, it was issued in Spiritspeak language, with the Pope, in a warm embrace, declaring the Palestinian Authority head, Mahmoud Abbas, an ”angel of peace.”

The pronouncement was given as the Vatican is making moves to align with the European Union in getting firmly into the peace process in the Middle East. While the Obama administration and State Department tried to make it appear that were stepping back from that process, the Pope and the EU were bringing pressure to bear on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the proposed two-state solution to the millennia-long conflict.

President Obama, practically at the same time Pope Francis was calling Abbas an “angel of peace,” was again undercutting the newly-re-elected Israeli prime minister as was his usual way. In his own Newspeak way, Obama at that time said the following in speaking to Al-Arabiya, the Saudi-owned, pan-Arab television station:

“What I think at this point, realistically, we can do,” Obama said, “is to try to rebuild trust – not through a big overarching deal, which I don’t think is probably possible in the next year, given the makeup of the Netanyahu government, given the challenges I think that exist for President Abbas – but if we can start building some trust around.”

One doesn’t have to be expert at reading between the lines; Obama put it right out there when he was president. Abbas was the one who has to put up with the subterfuge and with the sabotage against peace by Netanyahu. But, the president interjected, he hoped trust could be established, despite the Netanyahu government’s evil mindset.

Both the pope and the U.S. president attempted to rewrite history in this Spiritspeak that is from direction other than from Heaven. God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). The Pope and president tried to dupe us all into accepting the equivalent of Orwell’s literary device known as doublethink.

God says such a phony peace as they want established will end up destroying many throughout the world. These “leaders” tell us such peace is man’s salvation.

We can know of the unholy Spiritspeak taking place that calls good evil and evil good, simply by understanding the real history of the PA leader, Mahmoud Abbas. Although admittedly presented from a pro-Israel viewpoint, the following opinion piece from the time surrounding the pope and president trying to rewrite history  is true, as an examination of real history of what is written here will verify:

The only path forward for a two state solution to the conflict is for the Palestinians to be given statehood only after they have made peace with Israel and not before. Abbas and his predecessor, Yasir Arafat, have repeatedly refused Israeli offers of peace and statehood.

To this day, he refuses to sign any deal that recognizes the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn. That alone should be enough to deny Abbas the title of “angel of peace.” But that isn’t the only reason.

Abbas was a longtime deputy to arch-terrorist Arafat and played a role in organizing and financing many acts of brutal terrorism. But unlike other world leaders who might have employed violence in his youth and then became a statesman, Abbas has never really changed. He is the same man who wrote a doctoral thesis that centered on Holocaust denial at Moscow’s Patrice Lumumba University that was published in 1984.

Just as important, though he occasionally makes statements about wanting peace when speaking to Western audiences or the international media, his official PA media incites hatred against Jews and Israel on a regular basis. (Jonathan Tobin, “Sorry, Your Holiness, You Are Dangerously Wrong,” Jewish World Review, May 18, 2015)

It seems beyond ironic that Abbas, in the year 1984, had published his thesis denying the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. It seems that Spiritspeak was particularly active that year, in preparation to the lead-up to the end-times unholy peace.

Emails continue to come to my inbox that in effect put forth that the view of the Pre-Trib Rapture of the Church is leading people to be unprepared to face what all evidence around us plainly indicates is coming. “New developments,” as one writer puts it, now show that our Pre-Trib view is wrong and we are doing God and those who come to the website great disservice by teaching such error.

We who teach the Pre-Trib Rapture are ignoring those frightening threats to our families and nation, this emailer charged. Such threats as things we see  government agencies doing aimed at usurping our liberties, for example, obviously intended  to  one day put martial law into effect. They plan to do this, the emailer believes,as soon as a false flag event of sufficient magnitude can be created to make such intrusion upon our liberty seem justified.

My email correspondent then recommends numerous teachers I should seek out, those whom he has found to have the truth. I recently interviewed with one of these teachers on his TV program. (We discussed the Rapture to some extent, and the host seemed in agreement with me at the end of our interview, by the way.)

We have always received diatribes against our belief in the Pre-Trib view of the Rapture. But, recently, the “new evidence” slant on the rants has increased significantly. One particular element of the “new evidence” is interesting enough that I sensed it should be made the nucleus around which to build this week’s commentary.

Although the interesting element wasn’t framed by the exact term “unfair,” that was the tenor of the accusation against the Pre-Trib view of the Rapture. The Pre-Tribulational Rapture is an unfair proposition–rather, would be so, if the Pre-Trib view were true, which, of course, it isn’t, according to the “new evidence” that is now overwhelming against that possibility. That was our emailer’s proposition.

The writer said he had studied the accumulating evidence and now must admit that he agreed with his new teachers. He believes that “the pre-trib rapture needs a new and updated research. At this point it seems to me that to hold to this doctrine would suggest that the people in the very country that are supporting and directly or indirectly are causing some of the greatest calamities upon the face of the earth are the people who have not as yet suffered tribulation for Christ’s sake, yet feel imminently prepared to be raptured.”

He asked rhetorically: “What if the Christians in Iraq, Syria, and Northern Africa subscribed to the pre-trib doctrine? They were beheaded, martyred, not raptured…How do we reconcile this to the doctrine, I humbly ask?”

Although a bit confused by the expression of his thought –and I don’t mean to ridicule or be unkind–I presume he means that Christians in America who believe in the Pre-Trib view of the Rapture support an American government that is causing most of the problems in the world. He goes on to imply (I infer), like such anti-Pre-Trib emails always do, that since believers in the rest of the world are dying martyrs’ deaths or at the very least suffering great persecution, Christians in America cannot expect to be Raptured. This –again, I infer that he believes based upon his words–would be unfair–that is, run counter to God’s righteous character.

He apparently now believes that all Christians must suffer during at least part of the coming Tribulation–the last seven years of what Jesus called the most terrible time in human history (Matthew 24: 21). His premise about the nature of the Rapture of the Church, like all other such railing against the Pre-Trib view I’ve received, demonstrates misunderstanding of the believer’s position in Christ.

The following was, in part, my reply to him. I’ve edited it to some extent for making the point of this commentary.

I’m responding because I want to–for the thousandth time at least—say that the Rapture of the Church is not a matter of rescue from physical troubles so much as it is a salvation issue. The Rapture is directly linked to belief in Christ for one’s salvation during this Church Age. We are not to be called to be with Christ because we are deserving of rescue from a planet headed into Tribulation. We will be called to Him because of God’s prophetic program. He will call the Church –His Bride—to Himself, then God again will begin dealing with Israel in all of His covenant promises to that people. This is what the Bible teaches about this prophetic truth.

Always the questions emailers such as you bring up is this: Why should American Christians not suffer, while the rest of the world’s Christians are suffering greatly –even to the point of martyrdom?

Let me turn it around. Why is it necessary that any Christian suffer martyrdom or tribulation in order to be in God’s good graces in terms of eternal security? Does the fact that millions of Americans have lived and died as believers in Christ mean that because they have not suffered through the seven years of Tribulation and martyrdom they will have to come back to life and go through those terrible things in order to be worthy to enter Heaven?

Millions of believers have suffered and died, and are doing so even now, and it is terrible–tragic. However, that suffering has nothing whatsoever to do with the Rapture. The Rapture is a positional matter for the Christian. His or her position in Christ as Savior–as Redeemer- during the Church Age (Age of Grace) is what the Rapture is all about. The Rapture is a salvation issue, not an insurance policy of some sort against physical hard times and/or physical death. It is a matter of the soul.

Christians in America might yet suffer persecution and death. There are no promises in that regard. But, there are promises that Christians –in America and all over the world–will never suffer God’s wrath or the seven years of His judgment. Wrath and judgment and dealing again with Israel is what the Tribulation entails.

You mention that “new developments” have you rethinking that these indicate Christians will go through at least part of the Tribulation. God’s Word – His truth — is unchanging, no matter current circumstance. His prophetic program remains the same as He planned in eternity past.

This blog web site and our Rapture Ready website, raptureready.com, has many articles on the Rapture, containing all of the Scriptures relevant to the fact that the believer will be kept out of the very time of God’s judgment that is surely coming to a world of wickedness and rebellion. (See Revelation 3: 10.) The Pre-Trib Rapture isn’t unfair; it is truth from the Word of God.

The section of our website www.raptureready.com in which we put our weekly commentaries is “Nearing Midnight.” Our purpose is to chronicle issues and events of the current times in order to forewarn that the call of Christ to His Bride, the Church (all those who are born again –John 3:3) is near.

We can say this with certainty because of the many signals given off by those issues and events. These look to be the prophetic signs of the coming Tribulation period–human history’s last seven years leading to the return of Christ to planet earth at the time of Armageddon. Jesus said: “And when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your head for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21: 28).

Paul the apostle wrote about this moment of redemption: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4: 4: 16-17).

John, “the beloved disciple,” wrote from his exile on Patmos about his vision of that moment of redemption:

After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. (Revelation 4: 1)

This shout from Christ, Himself, is likened to the moment when the midnight hour of human history has been reached. The black, boiling clouds of the Tribulation will have shrouded the whole planet in a veil of God’s wrath because of man’s rebellion. We see that moment as represented in the parable of the ten virgins.

And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. (Matthew 25: 6)

Despite all the seminary-degreed protests to the contrary, this is the same moment Jesus prophesied in the Olivet Discourse, in what I believe is the most profound declaration about this midnight hour at which time He will next catastrophically intervene into man’s history. I refer to the Lord’s foretelling the coming judgment at the time of the Rapture, as given in the following. Note that Jesus prefaces His prophecy by saying:

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. (Matthew 24:36)

The Rapture is an unknown time; it is imminent–can happen at any moment. The Second Advent can be counted down, because a precise number of days are given to the time Christ returns at Armageddon. The Lord then gives a description of what the world will be like at that unknown hour–unknown by anyone but His Father.

But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. (Matthew 24: 37-42)

Most of my theologically degreed friends–and I love them as my Brothers in Christ–say that Jesus was addressing the Jews, not the Church. This, therefore, has to be His addressing the time of His Second Advent at the end of the seven years of Tribulation. However, I believe, as did my good friend Dave Hunt, that the Lord would not speak confusion into prophecy. At the time of the Second Advent at Armageddon, as many as three-fourths of the world’s population will have been killed through the terrible judgments given for that era. People will not be doing the things people in societies and cultures do during normal times. And, the time of Tribulation will be by far the worst in human history, according to the Lord’s own words (Matthew 24:21).

Dave Hunt spoke to these matters many years ago at a forum I attended. He started his presentation by talking about the title of the topic he was assigned.

[My] topic is “Is the Rapture in the Olivet Discourse?” Well, I’d like to talk on the topic “The Pre-Trib Rapture in the Olivet Discourse.” I couldn’t quite handle that question. I couldn’t justify why there ought to be any question at all. Why the Pre-Trib Rapture, or the Rapture, or the Church, or anything else was in the Olivet Discourse. (“The Pre-Trib Rapture: Is It in the Olivet Discourse?” Dave Hunt, Pre-Trib Study Group, Dallas, Texas, December, 1998)

Dave Hunt, one of the most thorough and brilliant students of the Bible of my acquaintance, talked then about how the Olivet Discourse is declared by the seminary doctoral hierarchy to not address the Church or the Rapture in any way whatsoever. He went on to say that the Olivet Discourse, as he understood it, came about in response to specific questions the disciples asked Jesus. They wanted to know when the destruction of the temple and city would take place, and what would be the signs of His coming, and of the end of the age. Dave said Jesus responded with the many signals He gave. Jesus didn’t say that He was referring to His Second Coming at the time of Armageddon. Dave asked: Why is it necessary to adamantly say that it couldn’t be the Rapture Jesus was talking about in answer to their questions?

A common reason given for the Rapture not being referred to in the Olivet Discourse, Dave Hunt said, was that the disciples there with Jesus couldn’t understand about the Rapture, because they didn’t understand about even the Church at that point.

Dave reminded that Jesus told the disciples at another time that He would go away, but would come again and receive them unto himself, and take them to Heaven, where He will have prepared dwelling places (mansions) for them (John 14: 1-3). The disciples didn’t understand this, either, but it was about the Church, and Jesus told them about it. Dave said this coming for the disciples (the Church) couldn’t be the Second Advent, because He will return at that time of Armageddon with the saints–including the disciples to whom He was speaking. The disciples didn’t understand that, it is true, Dave said. But, Jesus was nonetheless speaking about the Rapture. The common sense of the things Jesus was saying fit perfectly–as Jesus’ teachings always did.

Dave Hunt concluded:

I don’t believe that His response had to be limited to what they understood. But I think He could tell them things that they didn’t understand, and not necessarily in a way that they would understand… I can’t think of any reason—rule of logic or exegesis—that would say the rapture can’t be in the Olivet Discourse.” (Ibid.)

Jesus expanded on His “days of Noah” analogy to the time when He would return at the Rapture:

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17: 29-30)

Be alert! Keep your head up and senses attuned to what the headlines are saying to your spiritual ears. The midnight cry might be the next words you hear.

The hour is late, according to practically every biblically prophetic indicator. Most every geographic region, and in many cases specific nations, are coming into sharper focus in lining up for prophetic fulfillment.

The Gog-Magog coalition (Russia, Iran, Turkey, etc.), China as king of the kings of the east, and, of course, Israel, all stand poised as if on some strange starting line. These are like tense athletes ready to launch into full competition, yet they stand at that starting line, with tremendous tension building, as if awaiting the starter’s pistol to fire. When it fires, it will be a deadly competition that will end at Armageddon.

That seven-year course of murderous interaction leading up to the finish line seems as near as the next major crisis. The Tribulation could begin at any time, it seems. Only the lack of a peace agreement with Israel at its center stands as somewhat of a time constraint, preventing Daniel’s seventieth week from initiating.

All of that said, it is more than just odd that end-times Babylon of Revelation 18 is nowhere to be seen. Babylon–the ancient place in Iraq where the great city once stood–is there, of course, but, rather than being built as we thought when Saddam Hussein began a small restoration project on the site, it, in fact, has been threatened by the likes of ISIS and other disruptive forces. Those forces have already destroyed much of the antiquities near the site, with no apparent resistant force to stop them.

It could be, of course, that the fulfillment of the final prophecies involving this region is far off yet. However, the Lord, I’m convinced, is telling those who are paying attention that all of these things are on the very cusp of fulfillment, not somewhere in the distant future.

There must be a land (nation) and a city of unprecedented power, influence, and opulence on the scene by the end of that prophesied seven years to wrap up history prior to Christ’s Second Advent.

I’ve read Mark Hitchcock’s book on the topic, as well as a number of other books on the subject of the city known as Babylon the Great. Most have it that the city will be quickly built with modern building methodologies and equipment. This, to me, is becoming less likely every day.

Yet that nation and city must be there before Christ’s return, as given in Revelation chapter 18 and other places. There is nothing “spiritual” about the prophecy. The land and the city will be “literally” destroyed in an hour, the prophecy says. To me it is doubtful that building such a city of great opulence and influence could be accomplished during the Tribulation–as the tremendous geophysical destruction from God’s judgment and wrath, it seems logical, will make such construction prohibitive.

The one factor that is a big unknown is the amount of time that will elapse between the Rapture of the church and the signing of the covenant that will initiate the seven years of Tribulation. If this is an extensive period of years, it is possible, perhaps, for a city such as given in Revelation chapter 18 to be constructed. Still, logic dictates that it would take a very long period to have the merchants of the earth grow rich from the delicacies that Babylon the great will offer.

I think it is time to reconsider whether it has been America the whole time that this prophecy references.

Despite every economic and other problem that has been thrown at America–even with the Obama presidency, the most destructive (purposefully, I’m convinced) in its history–America stands far above the rest, $20.5 trillion deficit and all. Like the earlier prophecy says about that ancient city and land (Jeremiah 51:7), America has been a “golden cup” in the hand of God–i.e., this nation has seen to it that the gospel has been disseminated to the world. It has served as midwife in the rebirth of Israel into modernity, and has acted as its earthly protector (realizing, of course, that God, Himself, is its ultimate protector).

Sadly, however, America has also become–like that doomed land and city–the most sinful in all of mankind’s history. Like it or not, the United States fits the model, and there seems no such other that has even the most remote chance of one day fitting the model, if we are talking about a relatively near-term fulfillment of the prophecy in which Babylon the Great is involved.

Let us think a bit more about this nation that alone fits the description of the region in which resides Babylon the Great. The United States stands at the center of the world, whether the other nation-states of the planet acknowledge or deny the fact. America is the envy of the world community for the materialistic good she possesses and produces, thus giving her great wealth and great power. It seems the globalist elitists of that world community are determined to do incrementally what they can’t do any other way short of all-out nuclear war, in which there can be no winners. They want what America has. They want the wealth redistributed, to create for themselves a power base of working class to support their needs to establish a worldwide humanist empire.

Does this sound like the ravings of a conspiracy nut? Maybe so. But if it’s a conspiracy theory, my rave is biblically based. It is not a conspiracy, in my view, of a group of world leaders from around the globe who seek to create a world order dictatorship. I’m of the opinion that most of these people believe they have altruistic intentions. They sincerely believe, for the most part, that building such a world, totally controlled by the globalist-elite thinking they can provide, is the way to world peace and prosperity.

However, the real maestro in this plan to create the new world order we heard the first President Bush talk so much about is none other than the greatest of all deceivers–the father of lies. His moving through the minds of men to build a world apart from God is not without precedent. We see that influence in the following:

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 1:1-4)

This account of civilization that developed in due time following the great Flood reflects the fallen mind of mankind. It is a mindset that has not changed over the many thousands of years since. It is an early attempt at one world order, without consideration for God the Creator’s input in determining the governance of culture and society.

The Bible records God’s dealing with that early rebellion of the globalist-elites’ attempt to establish their humanistic kingdom:

And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:5-9)

The Creator dealt with these one-worlders by confounding their language. He erected instant language barriers between the people working on the tower of Babel and other projects in the area so that they couldn’t complete the projects. God then supernaturally scattered the people who had become as one culture into the whole world.

The God of Heaven is on the brink of again intervening into the murderous affairs of rebellious mankind. The destruction of Babylon the Great, like the destruction of the Tower of Babel, will lead to the end of man’s attempt to usurp the throne of God. But, this time it will be a fix that will install the Prince of Peace on His earthly throne.

I know I’ll be in trouble with the seminary types, but, based upon evidence in view and Scripture, I have to be open minded to the possibility that we are living in that mysterious place whose chief, doomed, city is called Babylon the Great. One thing sure: We shall see, perhaps sooner rather than later. I find the following most interesting, upon considering Revelation 4:1. (And, keep in mind, the book of Revelation is not strictly chronological in its presentation. The call might refer to a time considerably earlier than this city’s destruction.)

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. (Revelation 18: 4-5)

Unlike the teenagers of the movie Rebel without a Cause (starring James Dean), who didn’t know why they were rebels, there is a growing population among this generation that are rebels with a cause. That cause is an ancient one, led by the most hate-filled of all rebels. The cause is twofold: hatred for mankind in general and for the Jewish race in particular.

Satan, the original rebel, determined that he had no equal. He could not abide the Creator bringing into existence a creature that would share his (Lucifer’s) importance in the eyes of God. Iniquity was found in him, and he determined that he, himself, was equal in glory and magnificence to the Creator, thus was as powerful and would magnify himself and put himself above the throne of God. Isaiah the prophet tells the story.

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (Isaiah 14 13-14)

This rebel has had as chief among his causes to destroy the creature that he saw as his rival for preeminence. Once cast from Heaven, he entered the garden of Eden and set about to do just that. Our history books are replete with a record that traces the old serpent’s trail. He has observably inflicted great damage, as is witnessed by our daily news headlines. He has had no problem enlisting in his cause a large number of those who share in his rebellious hatreds for anything and everything that the God of Heaven has set in place.

We, each and every hour, see his influence and his recruits’ acquiescence to and embracing of Satan’s hatred for all things godly. Without reservation, I include in his army of rebels those who rage against anyone who opposes the inflicting of homosexuality on our society and culture. I include anyone who believes it is preferable to murder babies in the womb so that life can be more convenient for those who don’t want the babies–only the carnal pleasure involved in procreating them.

Homosexuality and abortion each bring to the war against humanity the insidiously clever methodologies Satan employs in conducting the battles that he and his army wage daily. In each “cause”–homosexuality and abortion–the destruction of human life and prevention of human life through the perversion of sodomy are presented as nothing more or less as the right of the individual to choose what is right in his or her own eyes. Who is this God that He should interfere with man’s business?

Part of the cause Satan has inspired his army of rebels to push in the war on mankind involves the whole matter of population control. Abortion and homosexuality aren’t doing away with mankind quickly enough. Here again, the evil genius of the master manipulator–Lucifer the fallen one–is seen at work. Mankind must be taken off the planet so life can be better and survivable.

Officials within the UN are pushing the notion that the human population should be reduced in order to effectively combat climate change. The long standing notion was continually pushed by Christiana Figueres, the past Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). In 2013, Figueres had a conversation…regarding “fertility rates in population,” as a contributor to climate change. (UN Climate Change Official Says “We Should Make Every Effort” To Depopulate The Planet, Rapture Ready News, 4/8/15)

The other major assault in Satan’s never-ceasing war against God and mankind is inspiring hatred against the Jewish race. This hatred is an easily traceable anger that began in Eden.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

This, of course, is when God promised that He would send a Savior to redeem fallen man from sin. Satan and his schemes to oppose God at every turn and exalt himself to position above the God of Heaven, according to this promise, would be thwarted by this person who would eventually be born into God’s creation called man. This happened when Jesus was born through the virgin birth to a young girl from the house of Israel. The Jewish people were chosen to bring the Christ into the world.

Satan hates all of mankind, but his hatred has been, throughout the ages, particularly focused on the progeny of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel). This is just as the prophet Zechariah foretold, as recorded in Zechariah 12:1-3: Hatred is becoming more violent the closer we get to the wrap-up of this dispensation (the Age of Grace).

This rebellious spirit against Israel, through whom the Savior was born, leaps at the observer more and more often through incidents such as reported in the following newstory a number of years ago.

They were dressed in their team’s colors and chanting passionately and excitedly–the only problem was they weren’t in the stadium cheering on their team. Bosnian soccer fans who were in Vienna, Austria on Friday for a match between Austria and Bosnia-Herzegovina changed “Kill the Jews” alongside pro-Palestinian demonstrators in central Stephanplatz square before heading to the game. It was a frightening spectacle that proved anti-Semitism is still a jarring reality in Europe.

At first they stood calmly and shouted “Free Palestine” back and forth. Then, one can hear a single voice among the protestors shout out “Kill the Jews.” The calls to violence swelled as the other protestors joined. In a swarm of rage, they began to jump up and down shouting “Ubij, ubij Zidove,” which means “Kill, kill the Jews.” (Chilling: Bosnian Soccer Fans Join ‘Kill the Jews’ Chant in Vienna, The Guardian, Courtney O’Brien, Townhall.com)

The army of rebels is growing, and so is the scope and virulence of their cause–to fulfill Satan’s end-times assault on Israel and, incidentally, on true Christians.

We remember how Vice President Dan Quayle was raked over the coals by mainstream media types who delighted in going on incessantly about each and every verbal gaffe he made. Actually, Quayle was an attractive young man who spoke well and was quite accomplished in life, serving, of course, as senator from Indiana before joining the first Bush-Quayle campaign.

But, he is forever stigmatized as the guy who couldn’t spell potato. For that and other insignificant verbal stumbles, he was assaulted in the press and through entertainment shows day after day.

The same thing was done earlier to Gerald Ford, who was Richard Nixon’s vice president, then president when Nixon resigned. The mainstream news and entertainment venues made fun of Ford at every opportunity–like when he tripped exiting an airplane and was caught by a Secret Service agent or someone. Another time, he hit a golf ball off the tee and it went awry and hit someone among the onlookers.

Chevy Chase of Saturday Night Live launched his comedy career mimicking Ford and his supposed clumsiness during those years. In actuality, Ford was, in his younger years, a superb athlete, starring at the University of Michigan in football.

With Barack Obama’s V.P., we had a vice president who made gaffes that made Quayle look like Shakespeare and Ford look like Mikhail Baryshnikov, the Russian ballet star. But, the media hounds, because Joseph Biden is of the same untouchable political ideology as they, said nothing more than, “Well…that’s just Joe…” It’s much like they saw him as an eccentric, old uncle who amused them, but nothing about which to get political.

During his time in office, Mr. Biden weighed in on the nation of Israel, and his advice to Jews and their place in the world was…well…classic Old Joe…  The following news item at the time tells the story.

Vice President Joe Biden told a gathering of prominent American Jewish officials last fall that they should look to Israel – and not the United States – as the ultimate guarantor of their community’s long-term safety.

The surprising remarks, which were made during a Rosh Hashana celebration attended by government officials and members of Congress, were reported by Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg in a recent article about the future of European Jewry.

“I had the great pleasure of knowing every prime minister since Golda Meir, when I was a young man in the Senate, and I’ll never forget talking to her in her office with her assistant – a guy named Rabin – about the Six-Day War,” he said. “The end of the meeting, we get up and walk out, the doors are open, and … the press is taking photos … She looked straight ahead and said, ‘Senator, don’t look so sad … Don’t worry. We Jews have a secret weapon.’ ”

Then Biden recalled asking Meir what the secret weapon was.

“I thought she was going to tell me something about a nuclear program,” Biden said. “She looked straight ahead and she said, ‘We have no place else to go. We have no place else to go.’ ”

“Folks, there is no place else to go, and you understand that in your bones. You understand in your bones that no matter how hospitable, no matter how consequential, no matter how engaged, no matter how deeply involved you are in the United States … there’s only one guarantee. There is really only one absolute guarantee, and that’s the state of Israel. And so I just want to assure you, for all the talk, and I know sometimes [President Barack Obama] gets beat up a little bit, but I guarantee you: he shares the exact same commitment to the security of Israel.” (“Biden Told US Jews that Israel – Not America – Guaranteed Their Security,” Jerusalem Post, By JPOST.COM STAFF, March 30, 2015)

If a politician–or anyone else of notoriety from another ideological mindset–had said something about, for example, African-Americans and their ties to the continent of Africa, hinting that they should just go back there, I’ll just leave it to the imagination what would happen to that person.

But, it was Joe Biden who said it, talking about the pariah state, Israel, so there’s nothing to see, here.

Biden knew Barack Obama’s feelings about Israel. The president’s attitude was made transparently clear to all of us, as his administration’s hash tag at the time had it. He obviously was determined to completely change American policy toward the Jewish state. Biden was being disingenuous in part of his remarks when he advised those Jews at the gathering on Rosh Hashana that they should think about going to Israel–one supposes, in order to avoid some sort of coming trouble. His disingenuousness, however, did not include his advice that Jews think about leaving.

We remember the late journalist, Helen Thomas, who, in a moment of senility, said the Jews should “get the h*** back to the nations they came from.” This is a mindset that today pervades media and many within the deep state that bedevil the Donald J. Trump Administration. They, unlike old Joe and Ms. Thomas, just haven’t come to the point they can no longer govern verbalization of their dislike for Israel.

Actually, the advice to think on going to Israel to those of the House of Israel is prophetic in its import. There is coming a time when hatred for the Jews of the world will be greater than any previous time in history. Read Jeremiah 30: 7, for example.

Jesus, Himself, said it would be a time worse than any that has ever been, or would be again. He was speaking primarily of the time of Tribulation as it would be for Israel. Read Matthew 24: 21.

We see that hatred building today across America and the world.

Advice Old Joe Biden gave totally misses the mark, as any well-grounded Bible prophecy student will understand. Israel–as all of mankind–should not put our reliance for safety in security provided by the nations of the world. God is our only place of safety and refuge.

“Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4).