Holocaust was approaching, and nobody seemed to notice. It was 1936 and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime was putting forth its best public relations efforts through the Olympics, held that year in Berlin.

The Führer’s rhetoric and Josef Goebbels’ glowing propaganda presented a dichotomy to the world’s diplomats. On the one hand, there were growing armaments and militarism within the German industrial complex that caused potential Nazi victims to cast a wary glance Germany’s way. On the other, the world was–on the surface–welcomed with open, though swastika-banded arms to partake of the growing glory of the rising Third Reich.

Journalists of the world for the most part were swept up in the vacuum of movement into modernity that promised bigger, greater things through technological wizardry. The Hindenburg flew dominantly and majestically above the landscape of earth, and Germany welcomed all to a transparent view of life in Deutschland. Only, things were not so transparent, as promised to the duped, journalistic world.

War debt–reparations for the havoc the German aggressors wreaked in World War I hyper-inflation–and the fear of a Communist takeover of government had long broiled and brewed just beneath the surface. The German people were ready for their savior. They believed they had found him. The Führer needed a scapegoat to bring the national psyche into a synthesis of sorts–an internal enemy upon which to focus. The choice he came up with consisted of two antagonists: 1) the communists and 2) the Jews. The communists represented an ideological and militaristic threat that came from regions east of the homeland. The Jews represented an economic threat, and a threat to the purity of the Germanic race.

The house of Israel, like in so many eras of mankind’s anti-Semitic history, drew the attention of demonically inspired leaders. Under Heinrich Himmler’s evil scheming–aimed at centering hatred of the Jews around which to rally the Nazi regime–the Final Solution was formulated and its implementation begun.

Six million died in the genocide we know as the Holocaust. The resultant national battle cries of the reborn Jewish state–“Never again!”–have again brought God’s chosen people to growing world hatred of them. Their stance of defending their right to exist enrages enemies and even supposed allies the world over. Anti-Semitism is literally exploding across the planet. Hatred by Muslim nations across the world is a foregone conclusion. Therefore, its most troubling growth is found in the geopolitical West.

We remember a time not long ago that in a single week eight synagogues were attacked in France. A mob of more than four hundred enraged thugs firebombed a synagogue in Cacelles. A Jewish supermarket and pharmacy were attacked, looted, and greatly damaged. Those who attacked shouted slogans and carried placards. They chanted the same slogans written on the placards, which read “Death to Jews!” and “Slit the Jews’ throats!”

Stone-throwing protesters burned Israeli flags in the Barbes neighborhood of the capital that same weekend. In Germany, Jew-haters threw Molotov cocktails into the Bergische Synagogue in Wuppertal. It was the same synagogue previously destroyed during Kristallnach, the Nazi’s all-out assault that was the beginning of the attempt to eliminate the Jewish Race in November of 1939.

“These are the worst times since the Nazi era,” Dieter Graumann, the then president of Germany’s Central Council of Jew [said]. “On the streets, you hear things like ‘the Jews should be gassed’, ‘the Jews should be burned’ – we haven’t had that in Germany for decades. Anyone saying those slogans isn’t criticising Israeli politics; it’s just pure hatred against Jews: nothing else. And it’s not just a German phenomenon. It’s an outbreak of hatred against Jews so intense that it’s very clear indeed.”

There are so many reports of such hatred against Jews that it would take several articles to list them all. And, America has  experienced vandalism and other acts of anti-Semitism, such as the destruction of headstones in Jewish cemeteries and worse incidents.

The point is that anti-Semitism is growing at an alarming rate while the world lurches toward man’s darkest time. Jeremiah the prophet called it the time of Jacob’s trouble: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jeremiah 30:7).

Indeed, the Lord will preserve Israel. It will be the apex nation during the Millennium! Today, however, holocaust is approaching, but not many seem to notice. Jacob’s Trouble is definitely simmering, and soon it will boil over to scald all who are left behind when Christ calls the church home to Heaven.

Planet earth is again in an era much like that time leading up to World War II. Beyond that, one senses that the time of the thawing of the Cold War era is at an end and that the prospects for nuclear winter, as John F. Kennedy once proposed was setting in to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, is again in the offing.

Author Herman Wouk wrote about the time leading up to the Second World War in his novel, The Winds of War. A 1983 television miniseries based upon that book chronicled, through a fictional family and others, the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. The nearly fifteen-hour-long productions captured the essence of the geopolitical atmospherics of the time. The Winds of War was the perfect title for Wouk’s novel and for the miniseries.

Such a story could be written about these times presaging the buildup to an even more troubled time of human history. Much of our news today deals with  North Korea and potential nuclear conflict in the part of the Middle East where Israel must deal with hate-filled enemies. There still seems a general sense that the truly dangerous powerhouses of potential war-making are still in the Cold War thaw. Nothing could be more misunderstood.

Actually, thanks to the  totally out-of-control former American presidential administration, the United States is the only nuclear powerhouse which was continuing the Cold War thaw. While Russia, under a macho, ego-driven former KGB thug, was and is going at breakneck speed to increase Russia’s nuclear arsenal–and every other element of their military complex– Mr. Obama wanted America’s total nuclear stockpile reduced to around 300. This, he strove to do unilaterally. China, at the same time, was and is developing a nuclear submarine force and many other military assets–funded, may I say, by the US Treasury.

Both Russia and China have been flexing their burgeoning military muscle power. Russia has sent nuclear bombers near borders of northern Europe and along some coastal areas of Alaska, to test, it is thought, 1) defensive warnings and capabilities of those military powers Russian planners consider top enemy; and 2) to see just how far they can push, as is Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin’s proven way of being a bully.

China is constantly making incursions into areas of the Pacific and other places that the Chinese leadership and military strategists know are considered territorial waters that represent danger zones for producing potential conflict. Russia has built and continues to upgrade a huge complex in preparation for command and control in case of nuclear war, according to experts on such matters.

The National Defense Control Center (NDCC) replaces (is an upgrade of) the central command of the general staff, a nerve center that monitors all military threats to Russia and utilizes state-of-the-art technologies to deal with such concerns. The facility is the counterpart to the US National Military Command Center, the Pentagon’s monitoring and response center to military nuclear threats.

I attended the twenty-third annual Pre-Trib Prophecy group gathering at Dallas several years ago. Current events were top priority in the discussions and presentations during those sessions. Dr. Thomas Ice, the group’s director, gave a presentation in which he addressed things going on in the Middle East as they might portend things to come.

I inferred that Dr. Ice believed that while modern nations aren’t mentioned by their contemporary names in the Ezekiel 38-39 prophesied Gog-Magog war, developments in the region involving Russia, Iran, and other present-day national entities are almost certainly preparation for that end-times invasion. We are witnessing the winds of war–the Gog-Magog War, and the war called Armageddon. That is what I took from Ice’s presentation. And, I concur completely, as anyone who reads these commentaries is aware.

A major point I took away from those meetings is that we are to understand our roles as Christians in today’s world as we see these wars and rumors of war in our headlines. It is God’s desire that we play a most important role, collectively and individually. To do less is to shirk our responsibilities. Sadly, many within the Church are asleep. We are in the “think-not” time about which Jesus forewarned as recorded in Matthew 24: 44.

The banquet speaker for the Pre-Trib group that year was Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas. He summed the purpose we as believers are to serve as these winds of war blow across this end-times landscape.

He used the analogy God’s Word uses, and with which most are familiar. He said we must be salt and light. There’s nothing new in that exhortation.

However, his in-depth explanation was most interesting–particularly the part about being salt.

Dr. Jeffress said that there is no hope–humanly speaking–for America, or for the world. All is dying, decaying. That is, there is nothing any politician or political process can do to save this nation or any other. All are passing into the dust bin of history. Salt, he said, cannot “permanently preserve” food–for example, meat. All it can do is to “delay” the decay of the meat. The meat is destined to desiccate.

Our purpose in the case of the Church–all born-again believers–is to act, individually and collectively, as a preservative agent. We can act only to delay the decay, the degeneration into the sin-darkness of mankind’s eventual, God-rejecting, human history.

This is the answer to the question: Why should Christians get involved in the political process? Why even bother to vote? The answer is that we are commanded to stand in the struggle against the gathering darkness. We must fight to the very last second just before we go to be with the Lord, whether in death, or in the Rapture. We are to act as preservative against immorality and all other evil, taking on the whole armor of God as given in Ephesians chapter 6.

We are to be light in this darkening sphere. We are to preach and teach the gospel and all other principles within God’s Word. The Founding Fathers implanted much of that Word within our Constitution. It is therefore, a Christian’s duty to stand for those founding principles, always putting God’s holy letter to mankind–the Bible–at the center of all our thinking and actions.

The winds of war are blowing. It’s time to be good soldiers of the cross in every respect.

Study of powerful leaders throughout history has always fascinated me. The fact that such study intrigues others, too, is demonstrated, I think, by the obsession with Adolf Hitler my cable TV system seems to harbor. It’s all Hitler, all the time–or so it seems.

I can’t seem to pull myself away from the presentations, despite the fact that I have “viewed” these same documentaries multitudinous times–and me totally blind since 1993! Perhaps that is one reason they still fascinate. Most of the documentary film of the rise of Hitler and his diabolical regime, up to and including World War II, replays in my mind’s eye almost like I was physically seeing it all again.

So, you see, I’ve been “fascinated” with this most terrible tyrant, literally, for numerous decades.

However, it isn’t just the grisly history of der Führer that piques my interest. It is leadership throughout history, from the times of Nimrod and the building of the Tower of Babel, to Nebuchadnezzar, to Alexander the Great, to Julius Caesar and all of the beastly Roman emperors, to the more modern era of Stalin, Mao, Mussolini, Tojo, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Nasser, Hafez al-Assad, Saddam Hussein, Khomeini, Vladimir Putin, et al, that draw my interest.

My fascination is not with the horrors of war. These are heart wrenching and not in any way intellectually stimulating or edifying–at least not for me. The intrigue that enthralls comes from the fact that these human beings are allowed power over the people. This power is given to them by the people themselves, through acquiescence.

But, it is the fact that the Lord of Heaven allows that they attain such power that continues to truly spellbind me, I think.

Allowing the millions upon millions of people enslaved and murdered by these seem incomprehensible to reconcile with the great character of the one and only God I know and love through the Lord Jesus Christ–His Son—who made my own soul’s reconciliation possible. The question that most of us who name the name of Christ have when considering the evil of this world is: Why does God allow such to take place?

How can the Lord of Heaven seemingly sit by and watch while these atrocities–this genocide—take place throughout the eons of history? We sometimes forget when thinking on such things that our God has provided leaders of the sort that are people after His own heart, as the Bible puts it. David comes to mind, as do some of the “good” kings of Israel and Judah during the alternating times of good versus bad kings throughout certain periods of the history of those Northern and Southern kingdoms of the Jewish people.

Other great leaders of the world’s nations, who were not necessarily people after God’s own heart, have ruled the people under their authority with benevolence. Such societies and cultures have thrived, most often, under such rulers.

Certainly, in these modern days when nuclear weapons could end civilization with the press of a few buttons, God’s staying hand on the leadership of the nations of planet earth is all the more important to recognize. To place the blame on the Almighty is to place blame wrongly. He has kept us from destroying ourselves, despite our best efforts to do so, restraining evil that comes from our own sin-blackened hearts.

There is coming a time, and I believe very soon, when that restraining influence will remove–according to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. We can see indications that our collective rebellion has already caused the Lord to somewhat take his Mighty Hand of restraint off this world. We can see it through the more than obvious confused thinking that this end-times era has wrought among the leaderships of the nations on a global basis.

In my view, our own nation demonstrably manifests this restraint being removed. There are many instances of the apparent reprobate (upside-down) thinking I could mention. I will mention only the fact–to reiterate for the hundredth time—the former US president and his secretary of state moving heaven and earth to placate the blood-vowed enemies of America and Israel whom they call the “Great Satan” and the “Little Satan.” At the same time, the Obama Administration moved ever farther away from Israel, our staunchest and most trustworthy ally on the planet.

Sin-insanity has infected the highest echelons of US and other earthly governments. Leaders can’t seem to find their way to their cocktail parties, much less to the table of common sense, while they interact diplomatically in these strange times, which are almost certainly near the very end of the age. So, why has the Lord allowed such leaders in such high places–those who are showing themselves in most cases to be the very minions of Satan? I believe that at least part of the answer resides within what God has told us as follows:

For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? (Romans 9:17-24)

It is not out of the realm of possibility to wonder whether we are witnessing the empowerment of a force that will one day kill one-third of the world’s population.

I’ve conjectured a number of times in this column about developments in China we have seen taking place over the decades since the Cold War supposedly ended. Remember that as part of the era when the Berlin Wall was removed when President Ronald Reagan told the leader of the Soviet Union, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” the brutal murder of many Chinese protesters took place in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

While the cameras of the world’s news services were focused on that scene, with the mostly college-age people mounting their protest, the Chinese government had its thugs smile, put up their hands in front of the cameras, and force coverage to cease. The massacre then began.

Too easily–too quickly–the news organizations dropped the matter and moved on to other stories they could better manage to control. They certainly have never been able to successfully make headway with the communist Chinese regimes since the time of Mao Tse-tung. Mao, himself, told the international news conglomerate that his massive nation could easily field an army of two hundred million troops. The boast never held water in the eyes of many because that number of troops could never, because of the tremendous cost, be outfitted with modern war armaments. At best, they would have to fight–at least most would have to fight–with sticks and stones.

Yet, Scripture tells us the following:

And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. (Revelation 9:15-16)

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. (Revelation 16:12)

There will be a two hundred-million-troop army come from the East–the Orient–which China dominates more with each month that passes. We can count on it. God’s Word says so.

The argument that the Chinese could never have the wherewithal to outfit such a gargantuan force is out the window. As I’ve questioned before, guess who has made it possible for that regime to completely militarize? Guess who has made it possible for the thugs who gave us the Tiananmen Square massacre to now fully arm a force of two hundred million?

The answer is still the same. America, through its trade imbalances and other economic and diplomatic malfeasance, has given the most dangerous regime on the planet carte blanche to build its military power to the point it can fulfill the Revelation prophecy. One of the theories is that if we just bring the inscrutable Chinese dragon into the civilized world of international commerce, it will begin acting like a good global citizen. Some even say it is working.

former President Barack Obama is one who apparently believed it is working. He went to Beijing courting Chinese President Xi Jinping, offering him more US wealth if he would just put aside hostilities against the occidental world and become a good, global, economic citizen. It was a characteristic of this president–he offerd to make love to our most dangerous enemies, while treating our most loyal and honorable ally–Israel–with his utmost disrespect. We recall that during those days his secretary of state, John Kerry, was reported by sources to have called Israel’s prime minister a “chicken ****.” It was one of the rare times this administration truly lived up to its promise at its outset of being “transparent” for all the US citizenry to see. The White House denied the allegation, but Kerry nonetheless apologized for the remark.

It is also transparent–to this writer, at least–that Mr. Obama was part of setting the stage for the “kings of the East” assault force to, during the Tribulation, invade across the dried-up Euphrates and lay waste to one-third of the earth’s population.

Do I think he knew this prophetic scenario will be the outcome of his bending over backwards to provide the economic power necessary to generate that sort of military power? No, of course not. He, like most of today’s world leaders, was being used as a pawn as he was moved around on Satan’s chessboard as the devil prepares to do final battle with the returning Lord of Lords.

Thankfully, the outcome of that conflict is a foregone conclusion. Jesus wins!

Most have heard the saying: “What goes around comes around.”

This has, for example, been the philosophizing mantra for those on the losing end of sporting events and political contests. The notice is given to let the winning side know they shouldn’t gloat. They might soon be the losers rather than the winners in a subsequent contest, so they shouldn’t be too boastful lest they suffer obloquy equal to that which they are dishing out to their defeated foes.

Another application of this saying is to give a stern heads-up that if you treat someone badly, the same thing will come around to you in the same manner.

In Bible prophecy, this saying might also well be applicable–but with a different nuance of meaning. What goes around comes around can be said of some specific, recurring prophecies I would like for us to consider. For our purposes in this commentary, I want to mention one particular area in the matter of Bible prophecy that has stirred controversy on a number of occasions.

Some who are adamantly–even angrily—against the notion of the pre-trib rapture have often thrown fiery darts my way. The darts are laced with reasons that the pre-trib view cannot be correct. The dart throwers usually add that I’m leading someone to Hell by telling them about a pretribulation rapture.

These angry flame-throwers’ accusations–saying that we who hold that God’s Word put forth that the Church will be taken out of this rebellious world before God’s wrath must fall—utilize Scripture in ways that confuse the reader. This confusion, however, is the fault of the under-studied reader-student–never the fault of God’s Holy, Inerrant Word.

(I’ve never figured out what, exactly, teaching the pre-trib rapture could have to do with “leading” someone to Hell, but the charge is often there, nonetheless. And, they sometimes include that I, too, am going to Hell for teaching false doctrine.)

The example of this “confusion” I will address is Jesus’ words given in the Olivet Discourse, about the time He terms “great tribulation” (KJV). The following is the Lord expounding on this prophecy.

“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand 🙂 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 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 24:15-21)

This is one of the primary cases in Bible prophecy in which the principle of dual reference is employed. Dual reference, as I define it, is when a prophecy has an immediate–and sometimes a later–future application.

Those flame-throwers I mentioned very often use the above prophecy to point out that we “pre-tribbers” are totally mistaken in our dispensational view of things. This prophecy, they say, was fulfilled in AD 70 when Roman Emperor Vespasian sent his son, General Titus, to destroy Jerusalem and the Jewish temple. It does not, they proclaim, indicate that there will be a time at the midpoint of the Tribulation when the forces of Antichrist will attack the city and sanctuary and make the Jews flee for their lives. We are full of prunes, they charge, because this is a prophecy long ago fulfilled.

Jesus did indeed predict and describe a time that would come within thirty something years when the Jews would have to flee for their lives. We don’t deny that in any way whatsoever. However, the dual-reference principle employed by the Holy Spirit-guided writers of the Bible–in this case, His disciple, Matthew–to look down through the ages and dispensations to prophetically offer an end-time fulfillment of Jesus’ words through this account.

The prophecy was fulfilled in 70 AD. The second application of this dual-reference prophecy will also be fulfilled in the middle of the seven-year era we know as Daniel’s seventieth week, the last of the prophesied seventy weeks of Israel’s playing out its divine destiny (Daniel 9:24). Each week within the seventy weeks equals seven years in prophetic terms, for a total of 490 years. When Jesus was crucified, the 490-year prophecy for Israel’s destiny to be fulfilled was interrupted at the sixty-ninth week (at the 483rd year). The seventieth week will begin to complete the last seven years of the 490 years when Antichrist confirms the covenant with Israel and her enemies.

Daniel the prophet foretold this end-time application of this midpoint-of-the-Tribulation assault by Antichrist as recorded in the following passage:

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)

The principle of dual reference is easily discernable by the consideration of history. Just a couple of instances come to mind where this principle can be ascertained.

John wrote as recorded in Revelation 13:16-18 that there would be a mark on the hand or forehead as part of an economic system of buying and selling that will, during Antichrist’s regime, enslave most if not all the people of the world. Such a system was in place at the very time John was writing the Revelation while imprisoned on Patmos.

The ancient Roman Empire economic model was to stamp the hand and the forehead of people interacting within the marketplaces of commerce. When the shoppers had their hands full, the mark plainly showed on their foreheads that they were approved for transacting business. When they exchanged coinage with the merchants, the mark was visible on the hand as the exchange of coinage for goods was made.

The Holy Spirit obviously inspired John to note that what goes around comes around. The revived Roman Empire of Daniel chapters 2, 9, and other prophetic places in God’s Word will have characteristics of the ancient form of that would-be world order. The principle of dual reference can be sensed in such historical detail.

The final thing I would like to mention in regard to this principle that flows throughout Scripture is the matter that has long been a point of interest. Jesus said that the gospel will be preached into the whole world before the end comes–meaning the time just before His Second Advent (Revelation 19:11). There are arguments amongst the great academicians–the seminary scholars—and even among laypersons about the meaning of the Lord’s prophecy. That foretelling is as follows:

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:14)

The word “kingdom” in this prophecy constitutes, in my view, a matter the more erudite among us have squeezed into an overly examined term. These seemingly want to define the term “kingdom” very narrowly so as to exclude the Church Age or Age of Grace.

I don’t believe this is the case. I see here the principle of dual reference at work yet again.

We of the pre-trib camp sometimes mention that the gospel has literally been preached to the whole world. Thus, in that electronic means from short-wave radio to the most sophisticated satellite technologies have been beamed to every place on the globe, the gospel being part of the information disseminated.

We say that, therefore, Jesus’ words have been fulfilled. The academic purists say that this isn’t what Jesus meant, and use Greek and Hebrew to dazzle us to prove we are wrong.

However, it is clear to a plain ol’ layperson such as myself: This is yet another case of something akin to dual reference. The prophecy, in my opinion, is for this dispensation–the Church Age. It is also for the time of Tribulation–Daniel’s seventieth week.

We have the satellite technologies and other means. The Tribulation-era people will have an even more sophisticated mode of getting the Gospel. It is God’s supernatural technology that will reach every nook and cranny of that devastated world.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. (Revelation 14:6-7)

All of fundamentalist Islam has one goal: world dominion. North Korea constantly badgers South Korea and threatens to send its several launch-ready, nuclear-tipped missiles in our direction. China seeks hegemony over all its Asian sphere of influence. Iran declares it will have its nuclear program, while at the same time promising to wipe Israel off the planet. And Vladimir Putin threatens everyone who opposes his way of doing things with the launch of Russia’s 5,000 nuclear missiles. President Obama’s administration responded to all this by drastically cutting America’s military capability, even to the point of unilaterally depleting US nuclear weaponry until it exists no more.

It’s enough to cause one to wonder if there is even a modicum of possibility for one to exist much past the next few years.

There has never been a weapon developed that hasn’t at some point been used, is the saying I’ve heard many times. I don’t recall any case of the neutron bomb being employed in warfare or, for that matter, the hydrogen bomb. However, the very use of these weapons of mass destruction in testing them means they have at least been used in the psychological aspects of potential warfare. This, in fact, is a part of hostilities between the great superpowers known as MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). I guess they, in this manner, have been used to prevent warfare so horrific as to threaten the end of all flesh on planet earth.

Jesus told us about this possibility, didn’t He?

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:22)

He was speaking about the Tribulation era–the last seven years of human history just before He will return in the Second Advent. That is the instant He will break through the blackness of the last moments of the war of Armageddon as described in Revelation 19:11. So, at least those of us who believe the Bible and in Jesus Christ for salvation, are assured there will not be all-out nuclear warfare that will end life on earth. From the description of some passages in Bible prophecy, however, it certainly does appear that nuclear weaponry will likely be unleashed to some degree.

For example, Zechariah the prophet foretold:

And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. (Zechariah 14:12)

That description can, of course, mean that this is a supernatural affliction of some sort that the Lord will use against Israel’s enemies. Most who know the science of these horrific weapons in today’s nuclear arsenals, though, think Zechariah here described the effects of nuclear war on the human body. Particularly, I’ve heard it expressed, this describes almost perfectly what would be the effects of the neutron bomb–a weapon that is designed to destroy flesh and blood, but not other materials, such as buildings, etc.

Those of us of a certain age remember well all the threats of nuclear war. Those of my generation remember the old “duck and cover” television and movie theater public service announcements. These were for us kids, telling us to “duck and cover” if we heard air raid sirens or saw the bright flash of a hydrogen bomb.

We laugh at these ludicrous exhortations now. We were to jump off our bicycles and jump in a ditch or behind a garbage can when a 10-plus megaton hydrogen weapon discharged over our town!

We survived all those years of the Cold War. Our leaderships of nations who possessed those bombs were of sufficient sanity to know that there would be no winners, only losers, in such an exchange. Judging the madness surrounding this generation, we must seriously ask the question: Are today’s leaders capable of avoiding use of these civilization-ending horror weapons?

If we look at North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the answer is a resounding no, I think. But, even that paunch-bellied little tyrant must know somewhere in the back of his evil brain that he would end up melted into the glass parking lot his domain would become if he decided to launch his very limited nuclear arsenal.

On the other hand, the macho Vladimir Putin is quite another matter. He threatens nuclear war almost routinely these days.  And, he has probably the most plentiful stockpile of such weaponry on earth. He once said, when he was opposed in the matter of trying to pull Ukraine back into the Russian orbit like when the Soviet Union existed.

“We hope that our partners will realize the recklessness of attempts to blackmail Russia, and will remember the risks that a spat between major nuclear powers means for strategic stability.”

The Russian president has bragged about his arsenal of more than 5,000 nuclear weapons when talking with other leaders. He remains particularly chagrined over the sanctions imposed over his treatment of Ukraine. Falling world oil prices–due in part to fracking taking place in North Dakota and other places, which are diminishing Russia’s leverage in petroleum markets in the region he wants to dominate–are also contributing to his bellicose attitude and to not-so-subtle threats these days.

The difference between days of the Cold War and these times is that there has been no superpower willing to stand up to the Russian strong man, like when Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, et al, were willing to look Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and the likes in the eye and draw lines across which no dictator dared cross. That is, not until one Donald J. Trump, who seems to have the resolve his most recent predecessors have lacked.

Which brings us to the title of this commentary: “Rapture or WWIII.”

My own studied and prayerfully considered opinion is that while threats (rumors) of war and even hostilities like we are witnessing from North Korea, Iran, and occasionally other volatile players around the world will continue, there will be no world-rending war this side of the Rapture of the church. When the church is taken into Heaven by Jesus Christ, madness upon planet earth will likely be more the norm, rather than the exception. We can already see that trend developing, even at this late hour as the Lord of Heaven slowly, measurably, takes His Mighty Hand off the affairs of rebellious mankind.

When the Holy Spirit removes and sin is allowed to run wild, the notion of Mutually Assured Destruction will no longer inhibit the thinking of power mad dictators.

Undoubtedly, it will be threatened, all-out, nuclear war that will bring the false man of peace to his earthly throne. Antichrist will supposedly have the answers to stop the coming holocaust. But, he, of course, will ultimately throw fuel on that conflagration.

The true Prince of Peace–the Lord Jesus Christ–will then ride to the rescue.

Prophetic undertones flow with increasing swiftness just beneath the surface of civility in America. That stream has surfaced in many places around the world and is coming at us. We can sense it; we can see it in news reports and hear it in the constant punditry that tries to analyze its nature and future course.

Two specific prophecies come to mind to form sort of one conclusion–at least, in my thoughts–when considering some particular reports I’ve gotten through both normal news services and in private briefing.

The prophecies to which I refer are the following:

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be…fierce…” (2 Timothy 3:1-2, 3).

“And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:4).

There is a term that has long been familiar to most of us. It is most often used to brand one person or the other as acting alone, and usually has derogatory connotation. The term implies, for example, that a perpetrator of a robbery acted alone.

The term is “lone wolf.” The perpetrator, we say, is a “lone wolf,” in such cases.

It is an appropriate term in those instances. The wolf is feared in the wild as a predatory animal. Wolves are beasts. They more often than not hunt and do their predatory killings in packs. The “lone wolf” in nature is usually one that is separated from the pack for one cause or another. He does his killing–his nefarious activity–as a solitary, individual beast.

In the case of the actual animals, the wolves, they do what comes naturally and haven’t the conceptual level of functioning to know better. As a matter of fact, since the Fall of man in the Garden of Eden, they have no choice but to act the way they do in order to survive. They are hungry; they kill.

There is another sort of beast, and this is that sort to which the prophecies mentioned above relate–to which today’s punditry more and more refers in analyzing reports from the Middle East.

I was listening to some such punditry one morning when a so-called “expert” on the Middle East was asked by the morning show host what he meant by using the term “lone rat.” The guest was referring to those individual terrorists sent out from ISIS–or urged by ISIS–to go to families’ residences in America and slaughter the family members. Those to be murdered and beheaded are family members of the Americans in the region–especially family members of American soldiers–who are assisting in any way in opposing the ISIS butchers.

News media types use the term “lone wolves,” but the “expert” was calling them “lone rats,” because the wolf is a noble animal compared to the likes of the murdering thugs of radical Islam.

The information from the daily briefing I receive read at the time:

U.S. Army Soldiers and their families were warned that ISIL called on its followers in the U.S. to use social media to “find the addresses of service members, show up [at their homes] and slaughter them,” according to the Army Threat Integration Center (ARTIC). “ISIL has called on lone offenders in the U.S. to use the ‘yellow pages,’ social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to find the addresses,” states the ARTIC published Sept. 25. [1]

With the current open-borders policy that calls it a politically incorrect matter to profile those, or even oppose their entering the nation illegally, our article title is, tragically, quite appropriate. Actually it is a little weak as a title. The title “Beast Spirit among Us” might have been more correctly put, “Beasts among Us.”

I have long been bent toward not accepting the conspiratorial rants that say terrorists are now sitting in every city ready to set off suitcase nukes. And, I still think that sort of hyperbole is counterproductive. But, with our formerly porous borders and what went on in the Obama Administration, with thousands daily pouring into the nation with no checks whatsoever–including no health checks–I’m looking at the words of the conspiracy-laden rants with just a bit more concern. We must wonder what kind of deadly plotters are among us.

The apostle Paul, in his “perilous times” prophecy, said that men in the very last days will be ”fierce” (KJV). Even that term is looking mild, when we consider the YouTube videos of the beheadings carried on by the beasts in the Middle East. We remember the lone rat who beheaded a person in America’s heartland and about another such rat who was jailed for threatening to do the same.

The Antichrist is termed a “beast” in Revelation 13. Certainly, the Antichrist spirit is right here, right now–not only in Syria, Iraq, and those regions, but here in our midst. The deadly beasts this spirit spawns are likely still scurrying through our borders, while the party of resistance prefers that we look the other way, hoping to create political advantage through adding new voters to their side.

The president of the United States promises upon his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of this nation. Within that Constitution is the responsibility to provide for the common defense. To fail to live up to that oath is to invite impeachment. The former president failed in this duty. Thankfully, the president holder of that office is doing all within his power as president to see the people of America are protected. God’s Word, the Holy Bible, puts it in even stronger terminology, and uses a word even the Islamist terrorists understand very well, as we know:

“But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Timothy 5:8).

Endnotes:

[1] http://www.armytimes.com/article/20141003/NEWS/310030070/)

[1] http://www.armytimes.com/article/20141003/NEWS/310030070/)

Jesus’ prophecy, given upon the Mount of Olives just before His crucifixion, is that which presents things to come with the most profound gravitas, to use a word once bandied about in the American political melee of some years ago. Certainly, the direct foretelling by the Creator of all things must command attention of those of us who have believed in Him for our souls’ salvation. There can be no greater security and comfort than that found in God, Himself, telling us the end from the beginning, as He has done in His love letter to mankind, the Holy Bible.

The bottom line, of course, is that regardless of all we might see happening around us–this planet seeming to be coming apart at the seams—God is victorious. We who belong to Him, through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, are victors! To put it on a more personal level, some who read this might remember that I experienced clinical death in 2011–on Good Friday, of all days—and was instantaneously in the presence of a jubilant throng of cheering, young people.

They bid me to come to them. Each of the first two times in their presence, my heart having stopped each time, I started to join them, totally fixated (and joyfully so) on their bright, broadly smiling faces. Each time, though, I returned to the cath lab, where the members of the cardiologist team were working on me.

The third time I went to that realm, I did join them and we were running, as if in a victory lap. They were thrusting their hands in the air, and they were looking at me as I ran with them. We were celebrating a victory of monumental importance. Then the procedure was successful, and I was back again on the cath-lab table. (Incidentally, I haven’t had one moment’s indication of heart trouble of any sort since that day the “widow-maker” struck. Thanks be to our Lord!)

So, we who know Christ for salvation are victors, ultimately. That is one message I’m convinced I was given in that experience. Jesus, in His Olivet Discourse, told of some pretty frightening things to come. I believe we are witnessing these things as never before running concurrently at the very moment of your reading this essay. Thus, the title of this article. I primarily want to deal, as indicated, with three things Jesus said we should look for during the season when His return to planet earth at Armageddon nears.

The following quite familiar prophecy is what I want to look at for a bit:

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:5-8)

The “triad”–as I put it–that foretells Tribulation (the last seven years of human history leading up to Christ’s return) is wrapped in this prophecy. This issued from the very mouth of God. Therefore, if the end of this Earth Age is near, we should see evidence of what He predicted in things taking place all around us.

The first matter of the three is the prophecy that deception will mark the era of His soon return. Jesus prophesied that many would come in His name. These deceivers would claim that they were Christ themselves, in some cases. I believe that even more profoundly to consider is the thought that many would come claiming to know Him as their Lord, and would even preach and teach under his banner, but would be liars of first order.

At this moment, we don’t have to look at just the growing cults around us to discern the deception involved in ministries and religions claiming that He is Christ, but denying the power of His lordship–even of His deity. And, the “deception” goes much deeper than that of how Christ is viewed and His message extolled. Deception will, I believe Jesus was saying, be the rule rather than the exception of days leading up to His coming to put an end to the devilish deportment of mankind.

One example, in my view, is the “transparency” promised by Barak Obama during the presidential campaign leading to his first election. We were to experience the most “transparent” administration in history. Yet he bypassed the Constitution in a lawless way at every opportunity–and, in secret, used that infamous pen to institute executive orders to fundamentally change America into something other than what the Founding Fathers intended.

The only “transparency” shown was when he spoke publicly, as do his secretaries of state, and telegraphed every military move that were to be made against the likes of ISIS (ISIL, as he would have it for whatsoever secretive reason). He then announces proudly what he has done to the world–to be “transparent,” I suppose.

Deception of every sort is everywhere we look today.

The second of the “triad foretelling Tribulation” I would like to consider is really a spin-off of the first. “Wars and rumors of war” come upon mankind from the deception surrounding the Holy name of Jesus and the truth of His deity–that He is the only Way to God the Father and eternity in Heaven.

Being called “intolerant” and hate-filled rhetoric and/or bigotry open societies and cultures to demonic invasion. Keeping people from coming to Christ, through deception or anything other brings satanic incitement and murderous intent to the human heart. Wars and rumors of war are the results–the harvest of millions dead in war across the world.

We are witnessing these exact fruits of rejecting Christ at this very moment. The monsters of ISIS reportedly beheaded children and infants as the beastly horde rampaged –for the fun of it, and to terrify those in their path into bending to their demands that their victims agree with their satanic view of religion. This degree of atrocity continues in many parts of the world at the time of this writing.

The third of the “triad” is the growing threat of pestilence–one of the signals Jesus said would point to His coming again being very near. The black death (Buebonic Plague) is a horrific disease reportedly again on the scene. That disease has those who study  pandemic outbreaks worried that it could do what it did to medieval Europe and beyond. Pestilence might not yet be at the level of forewarning the end of the age as are the first two indicators, but many reports come to my attention, and, I’m sure, to yours that tell of any number of budding pestilences. The opening of American borders to practically uninhibited entrance to illegal peoples whom no one knows about, as far as their state of health, makes Jesus’ words in this prophecy particularly relevant, in my thinking.

How long might it be before we experience, literally, an explosion of such viral and bacterial detonations in the U.S. and across the world?

We can take comfort. These are, Jesus assured, “the beginning of sorrows,” the time just before He returns to put an end to the madness. Again, the love and comfort are there in the Savior’s words: “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).

We who know Christ are already victorious through our Lord!

Mulling over the astonishing end-times stage-setting we are witnessing for the coming Tribulation, I came to a realization that one of the most prominent signals given in Bible prophecy is strangely on the periphery at the moment. Every other signal God’s Word gives for the end of the dispensation of grace and the beginning of Daniel’s seventieth week (the Tribulation era) is front and center. But, the prophecy about the entity I call for purposes of this essay “Antichrist’s Incubator” is almost so low profile at present as to be virtually invisible.

I’m referring to the entity we have long considered the reviving Roman Empire.

The European Union (EU) is at present not much written about as being the matrix out of which will come planet earth’s final diabolical dictator. However, the subject has previously long been at the heart of eschatological profferings. Dr. Dave Breese, for example, did a great deal of study, writing,and speaking on the subject of Antichrist and his origins as coming from the area that is now known as the EU.

About the only mention of that area of the world of consequence during these days of Mideast turmoil, Russia-Trump collusion fake news, and the North Korean nuclear threat is that More than 6,000 people joined members of the British parliament in demanding that American evangelist Franklin Graham be banned from the U.K.  This demand is made over his views on homosexuality and Islam. And, of course, Britain is supposedly withdrawing from the EU, so even that news isn’t about the EU.

Back-burner status of the EU has opened up the study of things to come in a way I would have thought not possible just several years ago. Middle East machinations have simply overwhelmed the headlines, causing many prophecy observers to push all else from the headlines so far as consideration of traditional eschatological viewpoint about the first beast of Revelation is concerned. Antichrist’s point of origin has changed in the minds of these observers–at least in the viewpoints of a considerable number of those who didn’t have an alternative view all along.

To clarify, there are those who have believed all along that Antichrist will come from the Middle East–will be a Muslim. Others held to the view that Daniel 9:26-27 indicates that Antichrist will be a European–out of the revived Roman Empire— but now believe the son of perdition will be an Islamist. This change in viewpoint for these came because of the stunning movement of ISIS that, of course, has now been rolled back.

I have a degree of  due respect for these alternate views to the traditional premillennial, pretrib model. Certainly, there is a strong case that Antichrist will spring from Middle Eastern roots. My close friend, Phillip Goodman, of Bible Prophecy as Written, for example, has a superb work on the subject –The Assyrian Connection (1993). He is one of the most excellent scholars of Bible prophecy on the scene today, and I heartily suggest you get the book and read it.

My own view continues to be that the first beast of Revelation 13 will emerge from the area surrounding Rome–from the European Union. I do believe he will be of Middle Eastern genetic extraction, however. Bible prophecy plainly teaches he will be “the Assyrian.”

However, I am equally convinced that this most horrific tyrant of human history will be born and raised in the area of Rome. There is no doubt in my mind that Bible prophecy also plainly teaches this regarding this man of sin. Further, the title of my essay, ” Incubator,” carries with it, in my prayerfully considered thinking, a more sinister possibility than his merely being born somewhere in the heart of Europe. It carries also the conjecture–and I’m about to get into trouble with some here—that his genetics will also include that which isn’t human at all.

Jesus said things will again be like they were in the days of Noah when he next catastrophically breaks into the affairs of fallen mankind (Matthew 24 and Luke 17). He spoke of the judgment of that time upon a world filled with iniquity when people were carrying on with business as usual despite the wickedness of the time.

The most pronounced wickedness, I believe, was that mentioned in Genesis 6 about the fact that the genetics of man were contaminated by fallen angels, who “married” human women. The results of this union were the Nephilim offspring, part human and part supernatural (demonic).

Jesus, remember, said things will again be like in those days. He was talking about at the time of Rapture, I’m convinced. Here’s the application I wish to make to my title: “Antichrist’s Incubator.”

The son of perdition–Antichrist—will, I’m contemplating, possibly be a Nephilim, a part-human, part-demonic entity. This won’t necessarily be by a “Rosemary’s Baby” sort of sexual union, but, perhaps, the result of genetic manipulations in man’s laboratory settings, under demonic “inspiration.”

Antichrist’s Incubator, in this sense, might well be considered in this, admittedly, strange manner.

I bring this conjecture forward because God’s character and justice demand that He allow every human being ever born to have his or her trial for their comportment in life conducted before His throne. The trial will either be a time of distribution of rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ (Bema) or for eternal punishment and separation from God at the Great White Throne judgment.

However, the angels who rebelled are allowed no such trial, just as they have no chance for redemption. Thus, the “corrupted flesh”–the Nephilim offspring of fallen angels—had no chance for redemption, but was doomed without remedy in the Flood of Noah’s day.

The first and second beasts of Revelation 13 also have no trial. Antichrist and the false prophet are the first to be cast into the Lake of Fire. They do not stand before Christ at the Bema or before God at the Great White Throne. Their fate is sealed before these judgments.

It is theologically reasonable, therefore, to believe that these two individuals are not fully human, rather likely are Nephilim–the result of a union between the seed of mankind and the seed of the fallen ones, the angels who rebelled, just as happened in the days of Noah.

Today we are witnessing the incubation of Antichrist and his future partner in crime in the sense of the world being prepared for their appearance upon the world stage.

All of this said, take heart. If you know Christ for salvation, you won’t be here to see them emerge from their incubation chamber –where ever they are spawned. Christ is about to say, “Come up hither!” (Revelation 4:1). Even so, come Lord Jesus.

An oppressive angst pervades many within the Body of Christ today. I must admit falling victim to that spiritual darkness on occasion while overlooking the societal landscape across the global horizon. There is much over which to be, for lack of a better term, anxious. Part of the oppressiveness is wrapped up in the fact that the world at large–in the U.S. in particular– seems to not notice. Much more troubling is the impression that most within Christianity are observably in denial that there is anything amiss on planet earth.

Rarely is heard from the pulpits of America mention of social ills, like the murder of babies in the womb, the abominable sexual perversions taking place and glorified on the entertainment venues of the nation, the increasing intrusion of anti-Christian thought and activity into the American culture.

There is still little push-back against an ever-spreading tyrannical movement to eradicate constitutional safeguards. There is increased effort to instead shackle freedom the Founding Fathers sought to give us at every level.  In spite of the tremendous efforts of President Donald J. Trump to deal with the so-called “swamp,” despotic change agents at work in our nation are doing all within the power they are constantly usurping from constitutional law to open our borders to some of the most dangerous elements on earth. They still strive to invite, for political votes to be gained, the vicious, drug cartel debris mixed amongst whom is almost certainly the likes of the agents of ISIS and others of Islamist fanaticism. Border patrol enforcement was, before Mr. Trump’s election, hamstrung with a presidential administration-implemented reduction in services and mandated that officers act as babysitters for illegals who streamed by the thousands across our southern borders. Thankfully, we have seen improvement, but severe problems still persist, with many in Congress refusing to make necessary changes to protect our borders.

Again, despite President Trump’s continuing best efforts, America’s infrastructure of domestic tranquility, of civility, is crumbling because of contrived agitation and deep-state governmental overstepping, as racial strife ramps up and we are more divided than ever in our recent history. The federal judiciary in particular seems to have lost its collective mind as decision after decision comes down on the side of perversions and anti-godly causes. We are a nation that has, as the apostle Paul put it under divine inspiration, been turned over to vile affections, and to reprobate minds (Romans1: 26, 28).

For a time there was a certain fear, it seems to me, of an impending financial disaster. There is always concern among the American populace when they believe their pocketbooks are about to be affected. This administration has put into place significant executive orders to improve the economy.

I, personally, believe that we might be about to see an economic boom, not bust, in alignment with Jesus’ days of Noah, days of Lot prophecy of Matthew 24: 36-42 and Luke 26-30. People will be buying, selling, planting, marrying, etc., at the time Christ next catastrophically Intervenes into the affairs of mankind, according to Christ’s own words.

The reckoning is coming, however, make no mistake. The Lord, Himself, I believe, is holding up the total plunge into the abyss of Tribulation. He is not willing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But, His patience is not infinite. Judgment and wrath are building. They will come when the Church–some amongst that body kicking and screaming, perhaps—will be called into Christ’s Presence.

This is a message the world doesn’t want to hear. Sadly, neither do many among the Body of Christ. Tragically, neither do the majority of Christian preachers want to mention these things. Nonetheless, it is a message we are commanded to declare. God is causing at this moment the siren of eternal warming to wail more surely than did the sirens of warning during the Blitzkrieg in London during World War II. They scream of the blood that will flow once judgment and wrath must finally fall.

If we, who are God’s prophetic sirens, don’t shout out the message that the end is coming and that God wants all to come to repentance, God’s Word says the blood will be on the prophets’ head. It is a most serious commission, and we intend to continue to project God’s call.

Ezekiel the prophet was a siren during his time, and told of the seriousness of the matters involved.

“Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” (Ezekiel 33:1-6)