Books are published and videos produced that deal with God’s judgment upon those who curse Israel. Some put forth that the Lord answers each attempt at forcing the Jewish state to give up land for peace by sending direct violent, natural phenomena—that is, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.

These books and videos are produced by strongly devoted Christians, most for whom I hold considerable respect. They view these correlations between nations dealing with Israel and such geophysical rampages as documentable in every case.

Most begin their premises with the familiar pronouncement recorded in Genesis chapter 12:

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis12:1–3)

Some hold that presidents have paid the price for dealing with the Jewish people in a way that might be viewed as a “curse.” for example, Franklin D. Roosevelt died of cerebral hemorrhage after deciding the U.S. would not help in the formation of the Jewish state in its God-given land. Harry S. Truman was made president upon Roosevelt’s death in 1945. Truman was raised by a mother who was a strong Christian believer. She instilled in him the biblical truth that Israel is God’s chosen people.

Truman, in 1948, supported Israel’s rebirth, defying most everyone in his cabinet and the U.S. State Department. Thus, some who believe that God deals directly in the matters involving Israel hold that Roosevelt was removed because of his treatment of Israel. Truman, they believe, was blessed because he took Israel’s side. In fact, the polls and all political watchers wrote Truman off in the 1948 election, believing New York Governor Thomas Dewey would win the election.

Truman’s smiling face as he held up a newspaper the morning following the election tells the story, so far as those who think the curse vs blessing applies today are concerned. The headline read “Dewey Wins!” Of course, Truman won against all odds.

We know the end of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. They came to their demise in the most ignominious way imaginable. They brought the entire German people down, dividing their nation. Similar disasters have befallen most all who have come against the Jewish race and Israel in a way intended to destroy them.

Coming into our day, those who write the books and produce the films point to events that prove their postulation that God deals directly in many cases with anti-Israel actions.

George H. W. Bush and his secretary of state, James Baker, held Israel at arm’s length, viewing the Jewish state in many cases as the problem in the Middle East. On one occasion, while the Bush Administration was trying to force peace on the region by trying to make Israel give up land, hurricane-force winds drove the Atlantic into the Bush home at Kennebunkport, Maine.

The son of Bush 41, President George W. Bush, it is pointed out, by trying to force Middle East peace at Israel’s expense, opened the divine door for Hurricane Katrina. That horrific storm occurred at the same time Jewish people were forced to leave their homes within territory won by Israel after the nation was attacked. Many in America were, approximately at the same time, forced to move from storm-stricken areas.

Now, what am I saying? Am I, with my commentary title’s question, pooh-poohing the proposition that these storms and other disastrous-type occurrences might have any correlation to leaders and nations dealing with God’s chosen nation and people?

No, as a matter of fact, I have quoted in my own books excerpts from some of the books by those who have written on the matters just mentioned. Most of my inclusion of those quotations have been positive. I do believe there is credence in many cases to the supposition that there is documentable evidence to support these writers’ position.

However, as I’ve asked in the title of the commentary: Is God judging? That’s a point to consider, because there are inconsistencies. Not every move against the Israeli people or Israel has thus far resulted in such direct judgment.

For example, Iran continues to declare their death wish for Israel. The entire U.N. is against the Jewish state—except for a very few. America, herself, was led to be against Israel by the previous administration.

There isn’t always, or even most of the time, direct, heavenly action against the diabolists who come against Israel.

So, Is God truly “judging” at the present time?

I will accept that it might merely be a matter of semantics. But, I view these events—the disasters thought to correlate to dealing nefariously with Israel—as not judgments, but warnings—very dramatic warnings in some cases. They are harbingers of things to come.

The truly God-directed judgments that are coming are stipulated throughout the old and new Testaments. Revelation particularly lays out the judgments of God in no uncertain terminology. God is going to bring the whole world into the place called Armageddon specifically because of the way the nations of the world have dealt with Israel—with the Jew.

For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3: 1-2)

To my way of thinking, the number-one societal/cultural manifestation that points to the fact that this generation is at the very end of these last days is the wickedness that’s in every direction one looks. Evil permeates not just our lives through the never-ending crimes that assault us in every way imaginable, but also our very imaginations—individually and collectively—constantly delve and wallow in every sort of evil.

I find myself mesmerized, for example, time after time after time by the horrors of Adolf Hitler and his rampage against the Jews and all of humanity, while listening to the recounting of that beast’s short but unbelievably brutal time on the planet. There seems no end to the documentaries just on Hitler, alone, that fill hours upon hours of television fare. Likewise, I’m intrigued far more intensively than I should allow myself to be by the TV channel offerings that present factual accounts of murders, rapes, and other vileness man perpetrates upon man.

Entertainment venues are devoted to bringing us accounts of violence—both fictional and factual. So are the hard-news journalists who bring us their versions of the “news” during this late hour of the age. In that regard, we can hear reports of every sordid kind of local evil within the thirty minutes allotted for local news every evening.

So, not only are we bombarded by evil from our surroundings that could take our very lives, but our fallen imaginations—already wicked in and of themselves—are also encouraged to relish in the terrors suffered by others through the mayhem presented hourly on our computer monitor, TV, and movie screens.

Beyond that given above, we now face a burgeoning wickedness by a religion that threatens all of humanity in the name of their god.

Islam, headed toward 2 billion in number, is purported by the woolly-minded of the American left to be a religion of peace that has as its objective to bring all people into tranquility so that fighting and dissensions will end. It is more than overtly obvious, however, that that tranquility is intended to come through the death of anyone and everyone who won’t bow the knee to Allah. It is the same for all luciferian planning. It’s bow the knee to whatsoever regime, be it secular or religious, or lose the head…or be removed by the equivalent means of dispatch.

Antichrist will be the ultimate such beast, we are told. We are seeing his rise today that is swift and certain.

Evil continues to dominate the cultures throughout all of humanity. Jesus prophesied that the very last days before His return will be like in the days of Noah. Here is what God’s Word records about that time: “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

Paul the apostle prophesied that evil men and seducers will grow worse, deceiving and being deceived. We certainly see the truth of that foretelling in every direction we look today. Although Islam and all it entails manifests the absolute evil that is leading this generation to another juncture in human history when God must again take wrathful action as He did with the antediluvians, we must look within ourselves to see the true manifestation of the wickedness that separates humankind from the Creator.

When we are born again, we have a new, eternal, life in Christ. Old things have passed away, and all things within our souls have been made new. We are to live in that glorious light while we progress toward our heavenly home. We are instructed how to begin living in that light, putting the evil that continually plagues fallen man behind us as the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to do so.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you” (Philippians 4: 8–9).

I once received a purported news item. The emailer wrote that he didn’t know if the report–actually, one that was nearly a month old–was legitimate. I could see that it most likely wasn’t, right off the proverbial bat. I asked Todd, my partner in raptureready.com, to check it out, as he is good at fact checking on phony-baloney news prompts we get. The story indicated that the Vatican had apparently gone completely bonkers. One of its highly positioned spokesmen had reported, according to the “news blog,” that Jesus was reneging on His promise to come back for his “people.”

Perhaps you saw this item long ago.

The “news source” reported that Cardinal Giorgio Salvadore told Waterford Whispers News (WWN) that Jesus was perhaps not coming back to get His people after all, although He had promised to do so as recorded in the Bible, John 14:1-3.

The Vatican defended Jesus’ broken promise, claiming “he was probably drinking wine” at the time when he made the comments. “Having the ability to turn water into wine had its ups and its downs,” added Cardinal [Giorgio] Salvadore. “We all make promises we can’t keep when we’re drunk. Jesus was no different.”

The church said it will now focus attentions on rebuilding its reputation around the world, but will keep an optimistic mind for the savior’s second coming. (“’Jesus Not Coming Back by The Looks Of It’” Admits Vatican,” Waterford Whispers News, April 18, 2014)

Now, I know that Catholics for the most part see nothing wrong with imbibing a bit on occasion–that includes the priestly class. However, for a potential pope to say that Jesus used His supernatural ability to turn water into wine, then saying that Jesus imbibed a bit too much, Himself, thus making Himself a liar, is something I knew was beyond the pale for even a Catholic. It would be especially astonishing for one of such high rank in that church to state–publicly, at least.

Sure enough, Todd informed me that this was pointed to in his research as a phony- baloney report. Of course, based upon the water-to-wine reference, where the Lord Jesus Christ was suspected of being drunk, promising to return, although He never intended to return, I was certain this was a false accusation against Catholicism. No one in such a position as a cardinal would ever publicly make such a charge, even if he himself was snockered. At least, I don’t think such a cardinal exists…

Another thing that rang hollow about the story was the so-called cardinal implying the church now believes Jesus won’t really return, and urging all parishioners everywhere to just live life in a satisfactory way, according to church dictates. The fact is that the Catholic system of eschatology has never expected Christ to return –at least not in the sense the Protestant Bible puts forth. It is up to that system–the Catholic Church—to build the kingdom for Christ to one day come back and rule. Jesus will just have to wait until then, is the way I take their belief system. That is why, they claim, Peter was given the “keys to the kingdom.”

Now, I know that some Catholics believe in Christ’s return in much the way that even we Pre-Trib adherents believe. Some even embrace the imminent coming of Jesus in the Rapture. But, these are by far in the minority within the Catholic system.

That system has infected Protestantism with the humanistic, Kingdom-Now theological travesty. Reform theology clutches tightly to this view of how God will, through the papal system and humanistic effort–bring all things to culmination and rid humanity of sin and death. And now, at this late hour in this Age of Grace or Church Age, it seems that every Protestant denomination, even the formerly most stalwart of the Pre-Trib Rapture-teaching churches, are, overtly or through attrition of sound doctrinal belief, beginning to deny that Christ might return at any moment. They are too busy building their elaborate edifices and multi-thousand-member congregations during this Laodicean generation to look up and recognize the signals of Christ’s return that are exploding around them.

We are in the time of denying that Christ will return as promised, as given in this most relevant Scripture for our day: “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Pet. 3:3-4).

Planet earth is a world fallen and in raging rebellion. Those who God’s Word in KJV terms “the earth dwellers” acknowledge His existence only to provide opportunity to mock and blame Him for the consequences of their own sinful proclivity to collectively destroy all they touch. Mankind was given immense ability to create, being made in the image of Almighty God, their Creator. Yet the ultimate result of that creativity since the Fall in Eden has wrought the ultimate ability to decimate. The proof of this fact of history is the discovery and unleashing of the atom.

We don’t have to think upon the great nuclear powers with their arsenals of mega tonnage and pinpoint missile capabilities to wage mankind’s final war. The world now hunkers under the fearful threat of the nuclear sword that might be swung by a half-crazed dictator in North Korea or in scimitar fashion by rogue terrorists literally everywhere we look within the Islamic world.

The question that truly amazes–astonishes—me is the fact that the God of Heaven obviously has His mighty hand upon that potentially planet-ending sword–even thus with the daily hatred that is heaped upon Him. As I often hear it expressed, if one or the other of those of us who are sorely vexed in this increasingly wicked generation had our way, we would have already have swung that proverbial sword ourselves.

That sort of swashbuckling short-sightedness shows our fallen foolishness in our anger and…well…vexation. It certainly doesn’t display the divine character of the Living God that indwells each of us who name the Name of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. We can only thank Him that He–not we—is in complete charge. Our God’s divine character is indeed an awesome, majestic wonder to think upon. So, let us do just that for the balance of this commentary. We look upon that divine character at the very beginning of God’s love letter to His human creation called man.

“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Gen. 1:31). The Creator said everything was “perfect” –which is God’s only definition for “good” in His holy lexicon. Soon, the serpent entered the garden and that perfection was disrupted when Eve fell under Lucifer’s seduction and Adam partook of the forbidden fruit, bringing sin and death. Now there was only God who was “good” –“perfect.” “And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God” (Mark 10:18). Jesus was and is God, and He was speaking of the Triune Godhead.

Man, who was made in perfection, in God’s image, changed from the perfect creature that walked in harmony with His Maker to a fallen creature that would soon shrivel, die, and return to the dust from which he was made. God’s holy character is unchanged these millennia later. That character is clearly seen throughout His Word. Nothing shows just how magnificently unassailable the changeless personality of the Creator is more clearly than do His prophetic promises. Bible prophecy thus takes on ever-deepening significance as we move toward the consummation of this age and the ultimate destiny of His creation. His character is all-important, in every respect imaginable.

His divine character is tied inextricably to His prophetic promises. The ultimate promise relevant to sin-infected mankind, which is shriveling, dying and returning to the dust from which man was made, is that God would send a Savior to redeem us fallen creatures. Prophecy goes on to promise that human life–as well as all of God’s creation—will be returned to its pristine, pre-Fall condition–that is, all but the fallen ones, both human and angelic who do not have Christ as redeemer. The human, unrepentant rebels have rejected god’s grace offer of salvation, and the angels who fell in the original rebellion gave up all right to the presence of Almighty God, thus are unredeemable–lost forever.

For our purposes here, I propose that no prophetic issue more profoundly points to God’s character and prophecy being inalterably linked than does the Rapture. This great event, scheduled next on God’s calendar of prophetic promises, is a salvation matter at its very core. The Rapture promises to keep us–saints of the Church Age or Age of Grace–out of the very time of God’s wrath and judgment against the rebels who have rejected His Son, Jesus Christ (read Revelation 3:10).

There is no greater point of faith in this regard, in my view, than to consider God’s embrace of children below the age of accountability. This age is known only to the God of all creation. It is the age, or spiritually cognitive level of functioning, reached when a person realizes he or she must accept or reject Christ for redemption from sin.

Until that point–with each individual it is different—the person’s name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. When the person understands and makes the decision to accept Jesus for salvation, that person’s name is written in permanently. If the decision is to reject, the name is blotted out, the Scripture says (Rev. 3: 5), until at some future time he or she accepts Christ as Savior. When the person does this, his or her name will then be written in the Book of Life forever.

This is all part of the divine character of God. He will let no person go into hell, into judgment and wrath, separated from Him forever, without giving opportunity to be saved from sin’s deadly ruin. Thus, the Rapture of children below the age of accountability is all-important in considering God’s prophetic promises. Each and every such child, even those just conceived and those growing in the womb, will instantaneously be in the presence of Jesus Christ at the moment of Rapture–just as they are if they die before reaching that age that only God knows.

I believe with all that is within me that when the Rapture happens, God is going to make a thunderous statement about when life begins. He will let this rebellious world know in that instant His holy opinion about the murder of the unborn that has been conveniently termed “pro-choice.”

Our own individual walk with the Lord should reflect that godly character at every moment of life. He has restored us to be conformed to His image, to strive to be more like Jesus moment by moment.

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6: 8).

I thought it a good time to again look at how this generation shapes up with regard to the Bible prophecy puzzle. I define “prophecy puzzle” for purposes here as the agglomerate, major prophecies given for that portion of the wrap-up of human history prior to the Millennium.

Next, we must think on what prophecies are major and which are minor. This will doubtless be considered a judgment call by some measure, but it is nonetheless a distinction that should be attempted, even though yours truly might be branded as presumptuous by some for venturing into that arena.

I will, however, risk the obloquy.

I’m sent daily many news items or purported news items that are unfounded speculation. Most who send these—and I appreciate being kept informed by those who send pertinent items—believe the information relates directly to Bible prophecy being fulfilled in our time. For example, items referring to children and/or animals being micro-chipped for purposes of finding them in case they are missing frequently are such items of interest I find in my inbox.

While such electronic implantation is indeed of interest, it does not, in my view, equate to people who agree to this implantation saying they agree to receive the mark of the Beast prophesied in Revelation 13:16–18.

Such concern is legitimate to a degree, I agree, with regard to Bible prophecy yet future because it does show humanism’s progression toward the implementation of that Antichrist system of control. However, again, in my opinion, it does not rise to the level of being one of the major prophetic developments taking place in our day. It is not one of the prophetic puzzle pieces I am writing about here in our attempt to fill out the end-times big picture.

So, what are the major pieces of the end-of-the-age puzzle, and how do they fit within the picture we are seeing develop through our daily news headlines? Just where do we stand on God’s prophetic timeline late in 2017?

I will attempt to analyze these puzzle pieces from their ascending order as I view them—i.e., from the least significant to the most significant. Again, these are judgment calls that will no doubt engender not-so-gentle disagreement.

Daniel 12: 4 Every direction one turns, the explosion of technology greets the senses of this generation. Moore’s law observes that over the history of computing hardware, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. I’m told by someone I consider a computer expert that this “law” no longer applies. The technology is rapidly reaching its limits at the “molecular level.” Now, whereas I fully admit to my ignorance of exactly what that means, I do know that this, if true, means the advancement of knowledge in this particular area of computer science is nearing its maximum development, barring unforeseen breakthroughs.

When considering this bit of information alone, the prophet Daniel’s words have never been more in view. The information age, with the basic knowledge of mankind doubling and redoubling every few months and years for a long time now, has been a part of this generation. It is a major puzzle piece of the big picture.

Ezekiel 38–39

We have written many times about how the development of the Gog-Magog coalition almost certainly seems to be in the making.

Russia, “Rosh,” as given in the KJV of the prophecy, is cozy with Iran, “Persia.” These entities are in cahoots to threaten Israel and many other nations in the Middle East and elsewhere.

“Rosh” even has an arrogant, ruthlessly ambitious leader that forever more seems to fit the “Gog” character prophesied to lead that diabolist horde in attempt to plunder the land to their south.

Putin, in particular, is in the headlines on an hourly basis, and seems to be pushing all nations of the world into the end-times milieu, most fundamentalist, Pre-Trib prophecy scholars agree.

The natural gas deposits that Putin controls give him leverage over Europe and all within his sphere of influence. Without the natural gas, Europe will quickly descend into hardships beyond imagining.

Israel is the one fly in Putin’s ointment. The Jewish state apparently possesses gas deposits greater than those under the Russian leader’s thumb. Problem is, they are under water, just off the coast, and as of now there is no practical way to get the gas to Europe and others who could benefit from the resource.

Want to bet that Israel will soon announce technology that can deliver that product to whomever wants to buy it?

Then, I believe, there will be some major action by their hostile neighbors to the north. Regardless, the Gog-Magog prophecy is a puzzle piece ready to fill out the end-of-the-age picture.

Revelation 13:16–18

Gog—the leader of Rosh, will think an evil thought. It will involve plunder—riches. It will be in large part about economy.

The whole world more and more today concerns itself, collectively, with matters of economy. It is only by God’s staying hand, in my and others’ views, that the world system, starting with the United States economy, hasn’t come crashing down.

Some leaders of this nation and the nations of the world seem to want to implode the economy of Planet Earth, as a matter of fact. But, this has not been allowed. I believe that is because it is the Rapture, not the devices and ambitions of the powers-elite that will bring the world system of economy—and everything else—cascading down around the ears of the rebellious earth dwellers, as God’s prophetic Word calls them.

It will be the Lord’s decision and timing, not theirs.

The tremendous angst portrayed daily in national and world headlines regarding monetary matters presents the picture of this major piece of the prophetic puzzle. The things involved are shaping for the moment when the world’s last and most evil tyrant will step onto the stage of history and institute the marks-and-numbers system that will somehow glorify his name and that of his father, the devil.

2 Thessalonians 2:3

That man of sin—the Antichrist—can’t appear to institute that devastatingly brilliant marks-and-numbers system of absolute control until the apostasy is full blown. That means the church of Jesus Christ will be first taken from the planet to receive rewards and to dine at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Apostasy, the Greek word apostasia, has two definitions, and I believe both are in play in this prophecy (I suggest you get our book published some years ago, The Departure, to ascertain the meanings offered here): 1) The “falling away” means the departure of the church from earth; 2) The “falling away” means the departure from the truth as given by God. The Bible is the prescription for living by which man should comport himself in order to live in true, godly peace.

Sadly, even a large part of the true church is caught up in apostasy in these closing days of the Age of Grace. We have only to flip through the television channels at any given hour to see devotion given not to God, but to the individual. The “prosperity” message rings from practically every “Christian” channel. God promises prosperity to His children, especially for dollars sown to the ministry clanging out the message.

The perversion of the truth regarding God’s provision is ubiquitous. The gospel message is on the very back burner—ahead only of Bible prophecy. Such anxiety-producing thoughts as sin and coming judgment for a wicked world does not facilitate the euphoric sense of self-help the wealth-and-health purveyors slyly present in their slick, God-is-Sugar-Daddy stream of gobbledygook. The world’s love of money is thus validated by the twisters of truth within the church structure. It is a key puzzle piece of the end-times picture.

Zechariah 12:1–2

Israel is the most profound end-of-the-age puzzle piece. This tiny state, although hounded and threatened with extinction and surrounded by the hatred of not only its immediate Islamic enemies, but by the entire world in a growing anti-Semitic campaign, stands strong even as its once-staunch ally, America, backs away, even embraces, those who would eliminate the nation if they could.

But, they can’t. The God of Heaven is on their side, despite the Jews’ blindness to His Son, Jesus the Christ.

Zechariah the prophet gives us the greatest single puzzle piece that tells us precisely where this generation stands with regard to the nearness of Christ’s return.

Daniel 9:26–27

Daniel further presents the single most amazing element within Zechariah’s great prophetic message. The peace process that will ultimately produce that “covenant made with death and hell” (Isaiah 28:15, 18) is, at this late hour, on the drawing board of history for all to witness. The no longer mentioned Roadmap to Peace isn’t the final product, but it is at the heart of formulating the process that will produce, I believe, the instrument Antichrist will use to, “through peace, destroy many” (Daniel 8:25).

That covenant will be the final puzzle piece to bring the age to a close. It will finalize man’s rebellious antagonism to the God of Heaven and will initiate the worst era of human history, according to Jesus, the greatest of all prophets.

Noah, the movie, was, I believe, an instrumentality meant to put into the psyche (or, if you prefer, the darkest regions of the reasoning process) of mankind the fiction the serpent wants to create. God’s Word is the lie; Lucifer is truth–that is the intentioned brain-washing end goal.

Specifically, the use of the Genesis 6 account, in a perverted way, puts forth in this film that the “watchers” are the angels kicked out of Heaven and confined to earth as stone-like creatures. They intermingle with humankind, but, ultimately, do good instead of evil, repent, and are redeemed and allowed back into Heaven. It is interesting that rather than deny that there was war in Heaven and the fallen angels were kicked out, the Hollywood story-tellers twisted it in this way.

The bad, supernatural guys become the good, supernatural guys, and do their work now for the Lord, as before their “fall.” It is plainly part of fulfilling the prophecy that near the end of human history the fable-makers will call good evil and evil good. This sets up in the minds of the moviegoers who are without a clue of Bible truth that these same “watchers” possibly interact with mankind today and have good intentions to help humanity muddle through this dangerous world.

There are many, many things to which I could point that are part of the end-times stage being set for the wind-up of the age. Like, for example, the way God becomes withdrawn in the movie, becoming the existential deity agnostic philosophers have long claimed God to be. I could point to the egregious treatment of both the Lord and Noah as being vindictive, heartless, and even murderous–for example, when Noah is portrayed as wanting to murder his daughter-in-law. We could dwell to an endless extent on the hellish lie-proposition put forward by the movie that God destroyed all upon the earth because mankind had been environmentally evil–that He wanted to restart the earth only so the animal life could return to an environmentally safe and pristine state.

However, I believe the most important matter for this essay is to point out that the way Hollywood treats the fallen angels in this film is crucial to earth’s prophetic future. The UFO phenomenon plays strongly into my thoughts. Also, the New Age intrusion into these strange times is critical to observe for the Christian. I am convinced that the very deception Jesus prophesied is upon this generation. Noah, the movie, under the guise of “innocent” entertainment, is part of the mesmerizing, hypnotic process that will make people following the Rapture susceptible to the “lie” during that post-Rapture time.

God’s prophetic Word tells of that time in the following scriptural passages. Antichrist is mentioned first: “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” (2 Thess. 2:8-10).

Next, the prophecy speaks to the lie that will deceive the post-Rapture world of earth-dwellers: “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:11-12).

Panic and mayhem will explode when millions vanish in a blink of an eye. There will be an outcry for explanations of what happened. This is where the inculcation Satan has been foisting on the world will pay off for the serpent.

We have all seen the documentaries and movies on UFOs, the “space brothers,” and other such claims by those looking for some explanation of how life got here. Alien seeding of planet earth is preferable to the biblical creation account to the fallen minds of mankind. Evolution, to the willfully ignorant, is more believable –that all we see around us just happened to happen, totally by chance.

However, evolution is falling out of favor with the modern, “rational” mindset. The “space brothers” will fit much more nicely into the 2 Thessalonians, post-Rapture time. We see what might take place following the disappearance of millions of Christians, when the second beast–the false prophet–performs a seemingly supernatural feat before the eyes of the left behind world:

“And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” (Rev. 13:13-14).

I’m of the thought that the “fire” called down might be the “space brothers” the entertainment industry has been inculcating moviegoers with for decades. These might be the same “ascended masters” the New Age gurus have been promising for those same decades. Noah, the movie, is, in my opinion, part of the end- times hypnotism taking place in preparation for Antichrist’s arrival. It will be the time, I believe, as given in the following:

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 12:7-9).

It is all preparation for the horror of the Tribulation that is rushing toward this fallen world: “Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time” (Rev. 12:12b).

With the ever-increasing effort by Satan to hypnotize the masses with all of the aforementioned, it is a comforting –and legitimate—thing to say that Jesus’ words should ring more urgently than ever in the true Christian’s spiritual ears.

“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).

There is no more appropriate time that God’s prophetic warning through the apostle Paul applies than at this very moment in human history: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Tim. 4:3-4).

This generation is in a time of deep, dark, deception. Jesus Himself, before giving the many signs of His Second Coming, forewarned of one specific danger in answer to His disciples’ question about when He would come again to earth. The Lord gave answers while they sat atop the Mount of Olives looking down on the Temple and Mount Moriah: “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matt. 24:4).

The very end of the age will be a time of great deception, Jesus emphasized. His Holy Name will even be at the center of the deception, He warned. The believer –the born again—was to avoid being deceived, He instructed.

We are examining the Hollywood entertainment offering of a supposedly biblical nature. Noah, film-maker Darren Aronofsky’s high-dollar film, surpassed by far what the movie money gurus expected, grossing over $44 million out of the starting blocks. They had expected perhaps $30 million would come into their coffers from theatergoers.

Many Christian pundits predicted the movie would fall flat because of the total disregard the producers of the film showed for fidelity to truth of God’s Word in its account of Noah and the Flood. That was the hope of many within evangelical Christianity, once the content of the story presented was exposed to the viewing public.

Noah, although by all accounts a technically brilliant film, and one with superb acting–with Russell Crow, a Hollywood heavyweight, as Noah–was an almost complete fabrication–fiction from the get-go. There was little similarity between the story line of the movie and the biblical account.

Was this innocent misunderstanding in a Hollywood attempt to provide entertainment –or something other? This is what I would like us to consider. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi master-propagandist in Hitler’s regime of genocide, had the understanding and technique down pat. You could persuade, could mesmerize an entire nation’s public through on-screen inculcation. All we have to do to know this is true is to watch the black-and- white films shot of the hypnotic looks on the faces of the German people while they watched Goebbels’ films and listened to the Fuehrer’s rants at the massively-attended Nazi rallies.

Hollywood’s capabilities are technologically improved a thousand times over. The special effects, blended superbly with the stories presented, rather than overtly hypnotize the viewers, subliminally infuse into their psyches the worldviews those who control Hollywood worldly thinking desire to infuse.

Lucifer –Satan—is the father of lies, the Scripture tells us. Fiction, although not overt lies in the dictionary sense, nonetheless, are lies in the ultimate, literal sense. That is, fiction is not truth, although it might purport to portray truth. It has been termed the “willing suspension of disbelief”–i.e., the willing are willfully accepting of the lie.

This is what happened to the first two humans, isn’t it, according to the Bible?–If, of course, you believe the Bible. The serpent, remember, created a “suspension of disbelief” moment. He presented a half-truth fiction: “Ye shall not surely die.”

The serpent is still up to creating fiction based on lies meant to do their deadly work on the human mind and soul. He is the father of such… In the movie Noah, first shown in 2014, the suspension of disbelief is rampant. According to the reviews I’ve read –both from secular sources like Rolling Stone and the New York Times, and religious forums— the story from beginning to end is filled with scenes contrary to God’s account. The moviegoer was to put aside his or her preconditioned notions that what the film presented was false theology and history. They were to believe –without thinking too deeply about it–that the story of Noah and the Flood really could have happened as the Hollywood version has it. Regardless, what’s the harm? After all, it’s just a movie –good, Hollywood-quality entertainment.

Especially in the Western world, there is a concerted campaign to dumb down people in every sense. The principalities and powers of Ephesians 6:11-18 and the flesh-and-blood powers–the would-be, one-world order builders—are using every method available to hypnotize, in Joseph Goebbels fashion—the masses. They are determined to bring all back to Babel.

We will examine just how far along we might be in that process in next week’s commentary–Lord willing.

In 2014, Noah did what many Christians hoped it would not do in the movie’s first weekend in the theaters. It was far and away the most watched, beating out the second- place entry, which had led to that point. Noah knocked off Divergent, grossing more than $44 million at the box office, as compared to Divergent’s $22.6 million, according to studio estimates from Rentrak.

Despite calls by a number of ministries for a boycott of Darren Aronofsky’s film, moviegoers turned out in proverbial droves to see what the hoopla is all about. The hoopla, itself, generated greater interest than otherwise would have arisen to give the filmmaker the ticket-sales victory that was achieved. A number of critics, professional and otherwise, predicted at the time that the movie, after the big box office in its week of release, would be the big loser in the second week of its run and beyond. This prediction is based upon the opinion of those making the forecast that Bible-believing people who flocked to the theaters were so turned off by the film’s hit piece on God and Noah that the word will spread and subsequent days of the run will suffer immensely.

I remember back then not being so certain… I must preface this essay by saying that this is a blind guy writing about a movie he never saw, and whose sound track he’s not even heard to this day. I haven’t “seen” a movie–or anything else—in more than twenty years, due to retinas that no longer function. So, I must offer analysis based upon what others who have, in fact, seen the film are saying about it. In that regard, I assure that I have read everything of pertinence, by way of reviews, that I can find.

Before you delete from your cyberspace files my effort, however, I will tell you that I possess/offer perhaps some small degree of gravitas in the matters involved in the Genesis story of Noah.

I have written or coauthored somewhere around thirty books, many of which deal in-depth and directly with the story of the Flood and with the Genesis chapter 6 account of what really happened during that antediluvian time. I say “what really happened,” because what I’ve learned from the plethora of reviews of Aronofsky’s Noah–both religious and secular reviews–is that it diverges from the real story so greatly as to defy any claim the movie makers had to this being a Bible-based film. As a matter of fact, the movie might have better been called Divergent, the name of the film it dethroned during its debut weekend.

All of that said, this is not an opinion piece on the many literal aspects of the making of this Hollywood version of what happened during those pre-Flood times. We should expect no more or less than what the movie-going masses got from the world’s glitter capital for their big-ticket bucks. What is crucial, in my view, is to try to dissect the intricacies of what was going on with this film and what has gone on since with all other efforts to inculcate this generation.

We–Americans in particular—are face to face with Ephesians 6:12–the battle that’s not with flesh and blood, but with powers and principalities in high places. It is spiritual warfare of the first order as we rage toward the end of this decaying age.

The same supernatural entities that caused the Lord to finally have to destroy all flesh in the Flood of Noah’s day are at their nefarious work at this very moment. They are doing all within their considerable power to reeducate, inculcate, hypnotize each and every individual on the planet who hasn’t put on the whole armor of God.

Sadly, that is an enormous number of human beings–a massive majority of people who don’t know Jesus Christ as Savior. Perhaps even more depressing is the fact that this great number of people who aren’t prepared to stand against Satan’s last-days assault because they haven’t been fortified by their pastors and teachers in their churches includes Christians. They haven’t been trained to fight the spiritual battles they face, using God’s armor, given in Ephesians 6:11-18. Neither are they aware of the devices being used to attack them.

We are witnessing at this late hour in man’s Church-Age history plans by the supreme enemy being laid at every juncture. None of his schemes are cleverer than the preparation he is laying for what comes next in the battle of good versus evil.

We will look deeply into this scheme next week–Lord willing.

Today’s sense of impending nuclear exchange hearkens somewhat back to when I was a teenager. I remember sitting in the high school library looking at a daily newspaper. The headline was about Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premiere, threatening the use of hydrogen bombs if his plans for eastern Europe were resisted by the West.

Rumor had it amongst us high schoolers that nuclear war would commence on this particular Friday I was in the library thinking on such possibility. The world would end this very day, so the tale was told.

I guess I was sort of into issues and events of the times, just as I am these many decades later. Although a kid, I was concerned, but certainly couldn’t let on to my fellow students–especially not my macho pals, who all were saying “bring it on” to the Ruskies.

They seemed to have no fear or regard for what would happen if ol’ Khrushchev decided to nuke America. I did think about it and was, frankly, quite worried.

Now we have a 30-year-old, north Korean despot even uglier than was Nikita, threatening to send his newly developed, nuclear-tipped missiles to Guam and even to somewhere within the U.S. homeland. I haven’t paid much attention during the current “crisis” to the threat, even though issued by a true lunatic rather than the calculating, totally aware Khrushchev–i.e., the Soviet dictator realized what it would mean for him, personally, should he be so foolhardy as to initiate nuclear war. I’m not certain Kim Jong-un has the same degree of realization.

Being three-quarters of a century old currently might make the difference in my degree of concern–then, in 1958, versus now. Even though sense of my own mortality at 16 was almost nonexistent, I was fearful. The present threat has many people today thinking like I did back then. The current nuclear threat doesn’t concern me at all, although my knowledge of my own mortality now is with me every waking hour.

What’s the difference in the young Terry’s concern and the old Terry’s lack thereof, do you think? It must be more than merely naïveté about geopolitical, diplomatic interaction that might bring on or avert nuclear catastrophe that caused me at 16 to worry. It can’t just be that I can now, through reasoning ability guided by experience, assuage fear because I’m much wiser at this advanced age about how nuclear-armed states always pull up short of using those weapons of mass destruction.

One thing sure…I have no such confidence in those human agents who have their fingers on the nuclear triggers. I have no doubt whatsoever that one day those triggers will be pulled.

Preparation is underway in every direction one looks. Nuclear war is looming like the mystical Sword of Damocles over this powder-keg world.

Pakistan and India threaten each other with their nuclear stockpiles. The big, nuclear-muscle boys–America, China, and Russia–look warily at each other through satellite-computer guardians 24/7.

Israel stands ready at all times to invoke the Samson Option. If it looks like the use of nuclear weapons is all that will stop an attack that would mean the end of the Jewish state, they will go to any such length necessary.

And this brings us to the title of our commentary today: Ezekiel 38-39 and Nukes.    

Iran stands on the brink of developing nuclear capability even more threatening than that of the North Koreans. Previous U.S. presidential administrations–particularly those of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama–made “deals” they promised would make the whole world safer from nuclear proliferation–from nuclear war. The deals they made with both North Korea and with the Iranian regimes, however, have brought us to now having to act perhaps precipitously, or else face certain nuclear war in the not-too-distant future.

Iran, as Bible prophecy students know, is the nation that occupies that area that was ancient Persia. Persia is foretold by the prophet Ezekiel to mount an all-out assault against Israel as part of the Gog-Magog coalition.

It is strongly expected that North Korea has provided the Iranians with nuclear warheads or with the technology necessary to produce nuclear weapons. Iran is far advanced in missile technology and it is only a matter of time until they will be able to fit nuclear warheads to those missiles–presuming they haven’t done so already.

The Trump administration has led the way in imposing sanctions on Iran to stop development of their missile program. If it can’t be halted, Israel will almost certainly at some point take military action to try to destroy Iran’s nuclear development capability.

America’s most recent action has caused the Iranian regime to ramp up its call for the destruction of America and Israel. The following tells of that rogue nation’s anger:

DUBAI – Iran’s parliament gave initial approval on Sunday to a bill to boost spending on Tehran’s missile program and the elite Revolutionary Guards in retaliation for new sanctions imposed by the United States.

Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the outlines of the bill to “counter America’s terrorist and adventurist actions” as some chanted “Death to America,” the state broadcaster IRIB reported.

The measure came in retaliation to legislation passed by US Congress and signed by US President Donald Trump in early August to impose new sanctions on Iran over its missile program. (“Iran eyes more funds for missiles, troops after US sanctions-Middle East,” Jerusalem Post, 8/13/17)

With one of the primary Gog-Magog force members about to go nuclear, there should be reason for greatly increased worry. Like the North Koreans, they are a regime blood-vowed to destroy its enemy. In the case of North Korea, it is South Korea–and America–that constitutes the enemies that inspire the blood vow. With Iran, of course, it’s Israel and America that must be obliterated.

However, in the case of Iran, we know from prophecy that they are going to act on their blood-oath. In North Korea, if they are a factor in bringing the world to nuclear Armageddon, it will be much later, in consort with the “kings of the east” of Revelation chapters 9 and 16.

So, why am I the calm (old) Terry as opposed to the 16-year-old, fearful Terry in the high school library, reading magazines and newspapers instead of studying in study hall? The danger is imminently more grave now than then.

The answer, of course, is Bible prophecy. The old Terry knows and believes what God’s Word has to say about what will be the outcome of all this nuclear saber-rattling.

Bible prophecy tells me that Iran is not destroyed by the time of the God-Magog attack, which is yet future. Israel is not destroyed at that time–or ever.

Bible prophecy tells me that Iran, Russia, Turkey, and all the others of that force come in a conventional –not nuclear attack. Something has obviously happened by that time to cause nuclear weaponry to not be used–at least not in a world-rending way.

The other nations, we are told by Ezekiel in chapters 38 and 39, are there, too. They send only a diplomatic note of protest when they see that great, satanic, Gog-led force descend toward Israel. Nuclear weaponry, again it is obvious, hasn’t yet been used in a world-destroying way by that time.

Again, Jesus said it will be business as usual at the time of His “revealing.” That is, people will be doing business as usual, according to the Lord’s Days of Noah/Days of Lot prophecy (Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17:26-30). At the time of the Rapture, therefore, there will have been no world-shattering nuclear conflict–or major catastrophic event on a global scale, either.

If only that worried, 16-year-old Terry had studied Ezekiel 38-39 in that study hall in 1958…

A prophetic picture emerged in my mind some years ago when considering Russia’s rumbling and snorting along the borders of Ukraine and within Crimea.

“And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.” (Dan 7: 5)

Now, I am aware that this refers to the empire combination in prophecy known as Medo-Persia. However, the scripture points starkly to the nature and the power of the beast we know as the bear. It is this I would like to address somewhat in this commentary.

I have a friend living in Montana who told me that the Grizzlies, when out of hibernation, sometimes amble into the sparsely populated neighborhoods looking for something –anything—to eat. She has an apple orchard near her and the thousand pound plus animals come down to shake the trees for the apples. She is concerned for her little dog, and, of course, for herself, during these times when the Grizzlies, and even Black bears, are ravenous, having just emerged from their long winter’s naps. She has a friend that has had her front door knocked off its hinges with one blow by a giant Grizzly paw. Another friend, she says, had to shoot a Grizzly with a high-powered rifle through a window when it tore the window out, frame and all.

The bear is one of the top predators and certainly one of the most dangerous of all of earth’s animals.

The Russian behemoth has been well-assigned its animal lookalike. As of late it is again living up to that kindred spirit it shares with the massive Grizzly. The old Soviet Union certainly was as voracious as its animal lookalike, gobbling up Hungary, and every other nation within its sphere of influence.

We are witnessing at this time the Russian bear coming out of hibernation following its long winter when the cold war ended and it went for a time into a more or less dormant stage, thanks to the strong stance taken by leaders like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. They stood with the equivalent of high-powered rifles, ready to deal with the Soviet bear should it raise to devour much national flesh in the geopolitical sense. Reagan and Thatcher –and anyone like them, are long gone. The bear is out of its cave, and it is hungry to reestablish its territory.

Vladimir Putin, of course, represents the head of that bear, in my analogy, with massive jaws, terrible teeth, and a hunger that, I believe, will not be satiated until the bear has its fill. Bible prophecy tells us that Rosh –which we believe to be Russia—will eventually look southward toward the Middle East in order to satisfy its appetite. You don’t put down a thousand-pound bear with a flyswatter. You use a high-powered rifle to defend against such a powerful beast. Until the Trump Administration changed the way things are done, those of the former administration were intent on using a flyswatter on Putin’s overtly obvious ambitions, as he began what I’m convinced will be a continuing attempt to reestablish the Soviet bear’s territory.

Putin has said he believes the West cheated and did great injustice to Russia –to the U.S.S.R—when Reagan and the others forced Gorbachev to cower under the threat of the so-called Star Wars Missile Defense initiative. This KGB Colonel hasn’t forgotten that perceived injustice –just like Adolf Hitler never forgot how, in his thinking, Germany was mistreated in the forced surrender of Germany following World War I.

Putin is continuing to act much like the Fuehrer acted in beginning to annex and threaten to invade surrounding territories. He still has thousands of Russian troops gathered along the Ukrainian borders. There is no doubt in my mind that he will invade full-force someday, if he isn’t granted what he wants without firing a shot.

President Trump and some within congress are proposing increased sanctions to hold the bear’s ambitions in check. Those sanctions, however, won’t affect Putin’s decisions –guaranteed. It might make additional hardships on the Russian people, but, Vlad Putin and his cronies will still have the multiple mansions, the limos, the perks –like in the case of all dictators. And, as long as Putin controls the natural gas of his region and of Europe, he isn’t worried about sanctions.

Israel’s massive natural gas deposits to his south do concern the Russian leader, however. These threaten his hegemony, and, like any tyrant, he will do whatsoever it takes to eliminate the opposition –especially as long as he receives no resistance, militarily.

Mr. Trump, I’m convinced, will oppose the Russian bear’s aggression. however, Bible prophecy foretells a time when the world will send only a diplomatic note of protest in opposition to the bear’s design.

You don’t swat a Grizzly with a flyswatter. Ezekiel chapters 38-39 tell us the result of such weak leadership.