While ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), formerly ISIS, rampaged toward establishing its intended caliphate, some who propose that the prophesied Antichrist will come from the Eastern leg, not the Western leg of the ancient Roman Empire proclaimed they have their candidate for who will be the man of sin in view.

The late Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was one that some thought fit the description of the son of perdition, according to the proclamations.

A number of written and stated beliefs declared that the first beast of Revelation 13 will be a Muslim. A number of books, even by born-again former Muslim terrorists, have for several years been saying Antichrist will soon emerge as the Mahdi—the messiah figure prophesied in the Koran.

Headlines for the several years just past seemed to have validated that Islamist power was supernaturally growing as it set its sights on destroying Israel. What the military powers of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Hafez al-Assad, Anwar El Sadat, and all of the Arab hordes couldn’t do, the relative handful of ISIS terrorists seem to have been doing. For a time, they were able to move aside militaries of the region–like the American-supplied and trained new Iraqi armed forces. They were establishing sharia or Islamist law everywhere the butchers invaded.

The Trump Administration has taken a more strident and successful tact against militant Islam. Despite ISIL being in full retreat for now, there is still adamant belief by Eastern-leg prophecy pundits. These still make their point that soon history will prove the Antichrist to be not from the Western European sphere involving Rome, but a man of terror the Muslims claim will climb from a deep well somewhere to rule the world and make all bow the knee to Allah or lose their heads.

“See,” the Eastern-leg pundits say: “Islam’s primary means of execution is beheading. Revelation, chapter 13, plainly says the first and second beasts will demand the first beast be worshipped as God, or heads will roll.”

Everything, these say, points to prophecy shaping rapidly in which Islam will rule the day—will indeed establish a global caliphate.

So, let’s think on this punditry for a bit.

What does the Bible say about Antichrist and his rise to power? We should be able to appropriate a considerable degree of perspective on what we see developing in the Middle East presently and what the Bible has to say about this prince that shall come.

First, we look at the most familiar biblical truth on the man who will be Antichrist.

Daniel the prophet, under divine inspiration, gave us the following piece of the puzzle as we seek perspective:

And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:26)

Most everyone of the pretrib, premillennial system of eschatology agrees that this is referring to the destruction of the Jewish Temple and to the city of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Whether we look to historians such as Edward Gibbon (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) or to the great Josephus, the Jewish historian, we learn that the forces that destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple were those of Emperor Vespasian, who sent his son, General Titus, to do the job.

These men were born near and raised in and around the city of Rome, not Mecca, Medina, or Constantinople. Their troops were from the legions of Rome, even though claims are being made that Rome enlisted many from the conquered regions of the Middle East.

The Scripture, nonetheless, points directly to the Romans.

Next, we ask: What characteristic will this beast, who will ultimately become the world’s last and most evil dictator, first exhibit when he comes on the end-times scene?

Again, we go to the prophet Daniel.

And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many. (Daniel 8:25 a,b,c)

And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. (Daniel 11:21)

He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province. (Daniel 11:24a)

Get it? This coming Antichrist, Daniel tells us, will appear at first to be a peacemaker, although he will be the greatest deceiver of all time, second only to his father, Satan, in deceptiveness and ferocity. Revelation 6 foretells that he will come riding on a white horse and with a bow, but with no arrows in his quiver. This indicates plainly that he will come as a false peacemaker.

Now, what do we know about the Islamist Mahdi? According to the Koran, he will come lopping off the heads of all who won’t bend the knee as he sweeps with his supposedly divine scimitar across the world. He will come from his well of hibernation with hatred for everyone and everything that doesn’t agree with him or the Koran.

But, doesn’t Revelation say the means of execution during that horrible period known as the Tribulation will be beheading?

Yes, indeed it does so. Remember, however, that many regimes throughout history—not just Islamist ones—have used beheading to instill fear within the general populaces. Remember, too, that the apostle Paul himself was thought to have been beheaded—by the Roman Empire.

Daniel foretold that long before the prophet Mohammed, or Islam, or Constantinople—the Eastern leg of the Roman Empire— finally came on the scene, Antichrist (the prince that shall come) will be from Rome. The prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70, hundreds of years before Mohammed was born.

The Koran predicts a violent entrance of their messiah into the world, and certainly, the Muslim world seems intent on bringing that Mahdi in. For example, consider the many people recently crucified as ISIS attempts to establish its caliphate across the region. This is anything—false or otherwise—but a “peaceful” entrance onto the world scene, as Revelation and Daniel prophesy for the true Antichrist when he rides onto the stage of history.

However, we can see the geopolitical road being paved for that first beast of Revelation 13. That means that Christ’s call to His church—“Come up hither!”—must be very near at hand, indeed.

Prophecy coming to fulfillment was on full display while America’s number-one Christian preacher–in terms of numbers he draws to his events—gave the many thousands in attendance his version of “hope” for their lives.

Joel Osteen wrapped up his confirmation of this “hope” that resides within each by having them repeat his gleefully shouted words.

(I paraphrase, because I couldn’t find a transcript of the TV program.)

He said with a toothy smile, while holding up a Bible, “Repeat what I say!

He then proceeded:

“I am favored by God!” (The audience jubilantly repeated the words.)
“I am special!”
“I am destined for something great!”
“I am important!”
“I am deserving of all things good!”
“I will overcome all problems!”
“I will defeat all depression!”
“I will take control of my own destiny!”

You get the point. This went on for many such “”I wills” and “I ams.” The many thousands were in rah – rah ecstasy by the time the head cheerleader concluded.

I heard no mention in Mr. Osteen’s sermon, I guess you could call it, of any of the “I wills and I ams” giving glory to the one who makes hope possible. I heard nowhere America’s most popular pastor of the moment mention the biblical ”hope” that is in reality at the heart of the Christian’s glorious destiny–salvation from soul-destroying sin through the shed blood of the only begotten Son of God.

Instead, I heard the glorification of self, and how good everyone is, and how deserving everyone in attendance was to receive the very best God is obligated to bestow.

More troubling, as the program came to an end, was the perception that the “I wills and I cans” the mesmerized thousands shouted, repeating Osteen’s words of self-praise, reminded me of the “I wills” of Isaiah 14:13-15: “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”

Jesus, resurrected and at the right hand of His Father, gave John, who penned Revelation, a vivid picture of the church that will, literally, make Him sick. That church was the last one the Lord addressed while going through the seven churches of the Church Age: And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. (Revelation 3:14-17)

The Laodicean church bases its thoughts and actions on terms of 1) self-glorification and 2) physical prosperity, i.e., wealth. This end-of-days’ church is “lukewarm”; that is, it is tepid so far as teaching and preaching the gospel. This church preaches and teaches that people are good and deserving of God’s total blessings and adoration. It does not teach and preach that people are not good, that they are lost in sin, thus need a Savior.

The Laodicean church teaches and preaches that all is well, if money and physical comforts are in abundance. That prosperity is the key to a glorious future is the message sweet to the taste of those who sit in its luxuriant pews. It appeals to self, the same as did the serpent to Eve in Eden.

Another prophecy of Jesus comes into view when we consider the great moral degradation that has taken place in the last half-century. The prophecy is in line with the Laodicean church that, in my opinion, constitutes the majority of so-called Christendom today. Jesus, in His Olivet Discourse, forewarned first and foremost of deception which would mark the time just before His return. Many would, He warned, come in His name, proclaiming themselves to have Christ within themselves–to belong to Him. They would be deceiving themselves and those who followed them, according to what I see in my study of Paul’s words that in the last days evil men and seducers would come, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:13).

Again, the apostle Paul put his prophetic finger on our time, and, I’m convinced, the sugary, feel-good sermonettes, the likes of which preachers like Mr. Osteen pour into the itching ears of today’s Laodiceans: “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 Timothy 4:3-4).

Questions that must be addressed are: Where is the proof that this coming forth of a more sinner-friendly church has done harm rather than good? What’s the harm in embracing all sinners and bringing them into the fold, without the condemnation that the Bible passages on sin throws at them? Isn’t Jesus a Lord of love and all-inclusiveness? Isn’t that accusation of Christianity’s “intolerance” the thing that brings the disdain of the world for the very name of Jesus Christ?

All that has to be said to answer the above is: Churches of America have indeed increasingly moved away from pointing at sin as requiring condemnation and sinners as requiring redemption. The result has been that the increased inclusiveness–this greater toleration of sinfulness, in concert with every imaginable evil gushing from Internet debauchery–has produced a society and culture rivaling that of Sodom and Gomorrah.

One article outlined some problems stemming from the church shirking responsibility in America.

The divorce rate has doubled, teen suicide has tripled, reported violent crime has quadrupled, the prison population has quintupled, the percentage of babies born out of wedlock has risen sixfold, couples living together out of wedlock have increased sevenfold, and gay marriage is now a legalized reality in a number of states, with many believing the end is not in sight. (Bert M. Farias, “The Great Deception in American Church,” Charisma News)

Paul prophesied as recorded in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that the Restrainer, resident within the church, would one day be removed from planet earth. Antichrist and complete lawlessness will then rule the world when the true church–all born-again believers—are called into Heaven.

The Laodicean church now on display, as forewarned by Jesus, Himself, surely must be a major indicator of where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline.

One of the most telling signals of these last days I want to point to in this essay flashes daily in the spiritual eyes of observers of these prophetic times.

We are bombarded, of course, by things surrounding the nation Israel, which is the number-one sign of where we stand on God’s prophetic timeline. We see the violence that seems to be rising to the level, perhaps, nearly like it was in the days of Noah. The moral depravity hits us between the eyes hourly with homosexuality on the way to becoming the preferred lifestyle, not merely an alternative lifestyle, if Hollywood, the media, and the political left have their way.

We have become worse as a generation, just in America, than some of the most pagan of societies of past ages. I refer to the murder of more than 59 million unborn babies who have been sacrificed on the altars of convenience since Roe v. Wade in 1973. Abortion is indeed a religion of sort for those who worship the god of self rather than the God Who is the giver of life.

All of that said, I can think of no signal, sign, or attitude that more strongly signifies the lateness of the prophetic hour than that of the current, irrational anger toward Jesus Christ.

Those of us who hold to biblical values for maintaining sane, moral society and culture are accused of waging war on women, are said to be sexists, are called extremists of every description, or are designated homophobes and Islamaphobes. If we want an America like the Founding Fathers gave us and for which millions have fought and died, we are called judgmental and full of hate speech. We are insensitive, inflammatory, and in need of being locked away or sent for re-education/training.

The progressives brand us with all of the phobias they have coined or invented. They equate our belief system with irrational, schizophrenic behavior that is intolerant and that must be judicially dispatched so everyone else can forge ahead into a new age free of Christian restrictiveness.

They are absolutely right in one respect. It is the Christian worldview that is the holdup to wickedness being given free rein and/or reign, make no mistake. Paul foretells in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that it is the Restrainer–the Holy Spirit, resident within each believer–the Church, that is indeed holding back evil.

Islam is not considered in the liberal mind as being part of things gone awry. This is because the same father of lies directs this sort of thought process like he directs the perverted theology of Islam. Muslim thought and action are, for example, given almost complete non-culpable status around the world by a large portion of those within our political system and by mainstream news media.

This same spiritually dark thinking was made manifest in the Benghazi matter when a video–which practically no one viewed—was blamed for an uprising that murdered the American ambassador and others. The truth is that it was Muslim hatred–Islamist terrorists— that planned then perpetrated those ghastly murders.

One example of this was a number of years ago when the Nigerian Christian schoolgirls were abducted in Chibok. Rather than blame the Boko Haram Muslim terrorists, the Obama administration line was leaked that it was the Christian government of Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan that was to blame for the abduction. It was proposed that if that Christian government had been less restrictive and more accommodating to those of Islam, the (group) would not have acted as they did.

That American president from the very beginning made it clear that he viewd America as a non-Christianity-oriented country. He announced right after taking the oath of office that this is no longer a Christian nation.

Now, I’m not saying I disagree with his assessment. America certainly is moving fast and furiously away from the docks of Judeo-Christian moorings to which this ship of state was safely attached by the Founding Fathers. But, it was Obama’s administration’s constant and consistent support of or silence about judicial action against Christians that was so starkly disturbing. I will just mention a few very brief examples here of the hatred by governmental agencies and others for Christian, Bible-based thought. These were from several years ago, but the Christ haters still strain at the bits to punish and destroy Christian businesses.

I could cite dozens, and I’m sure you’ve read or heard dozens of examples yourself.

A Methodist church in New Jersey was sued for not offering its facility for use during same-sex weddings. A judge ruled against them. (LifeSiteNews.com]

Christian photographers, Elane Photography, in New Mexico was approached by a same-sex couple looking to hire a wedding photographer. Elane Photography politely declined, citing their Christian faith. The studio was sued by the couple under the state’s antidiscriminatory laws, and the couple won. (Amicus Brief in Elane Photography v. Willock; cited by Eugene Volokh on November 2, 2012 in Freedom of Speech)

Twin brothers, Jason and David Benham, were preparing to launch a show on HGTV entitled Flip It Forward. In the show, the brothers would be helping families in need renovate their homes. But when their staunch Christian beliefs were brought into the limelight by Right Wing Watch, HGTV cancelled the show before it ever had a chance to air. Their crime? A strong stance against homosexuality, abortion, and radical Islam. (Terresa Monroe-Hamilton, “The Silencing of American Christians,http://www.rightsidenews.com/2014050934250/life-and-science/culture-wars/the-silencing-of-american-christians.html; published on May 9, 2014)

These post-Christian-era bastions of “toleration” call Christian “homophobes” and “Islamaphobes,” and accuse Bible-believing people of being “haters.” But, it is becoming increasingly obvious that they, themselves, are victims of the reprobate thinking–the turning toward insane ways of thought, as given by the apostle Paul in Romans, chapter 1.

They are “Christophobes.” They fear and hate anything to do with Jesus Christ. They see what is represented by His Holy Name as inflammatory and intolerant.

This doesn’t surprise. As a matter of fact, it is a major signal of where we are at present on God’s prophetic timeline.

Jesus said: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.” (John 15: 18-21)

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.