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.

Things are progressing so quickly in the area of people-control technologies that I must admit I simply can’t keep up. A book by Tom Horn and Terry Cook called Beast Tech is among the most recent information encompassing that technology from the perspective of Bible prophecy. But, even their excellent research and presentation can’t keep up, and the authors would be the first to admit it, I’m sure.

This is because 1) the technologies themselves are achieving breakthroughs almost hourly, and 2) the Internet is such an instantaneous medium that the slower-moving book industry lags behind to some extent. Being a writer of books, though, I will defend our own medium by saying that the research is usually more reliable and comprehensive than the “Wild West” the many ungoverned verbal gun-slingers have made cyberspace.

When researching and writing on anything taken off the Net, one must proceed with caution. Many, even within the professional ranks of the world’s top journalists, are occasionally fooled by the imaginations of these cyberspace outlaws who deliberately send out false information or ill-intended directives. This is particularly true of those operating within some of the diabolist nations of the world like Iran, Russia, China, and most of the nations in the Middle East.

Unfortunately, for the past number of years, the United States has fallen under that term of “nefarious news making” in the eyes of many who believe they have seen movement away from truth toward a Joseph Goebbels-type propagandist dissemination of information. This is particularly true with what has been going on regarding all of the NSA, the IRS, and other agencies’ misdirection, and outright lies fed the American public. All the while, those organizations, along with the most previous presidential administration, assured that action was being taken to stop the unconstitutional activities. Yet we learn almost daily that these anti-constitutionalist actions were being ratcheted up for purposes that can only be described as political.

It appears that this was joined wholeheartedly by mainstream media and leftist pajama-bloggers for purposes of covering the former president’s lack of forthrightness, and for paving the way for one particular future presidential candidate as the 2016 election drew nearer. It seems that one gigantic election campaign was underway very early–even before the mid-terms of 2014 had taken place.

And, make no mistake: I’m not so naïve as to lay all of the destructiveness to American liberty at the feet of any one political party. This is a devilish system put together with the acquiescence–even with the eager cooperation—of those central planners, regardless of political affiliation, who make their careers and retirement fortunes within the DC Beltway. –The so-called deep state.

Government’s growing determination to lie to the U.S. populace, aided and abetted by the sycophantic press, makes the developing super-snooping, controlling technologies all the more virulent in the liberty-suppressing efforts to hornswoggle we the people. The dangers are already past the forewarning stage.

Supercomputer capacities for gathering every minute detail of our lives from birth to death now exist. The all-knowing information storage and policing implementation control center is a done deal.

Known as the Utah Data Center, the facility located near Bluffdale, Utah, recently completed, it is supposed, is the brain of America’s most secretive, clandestine service, the National Security Agency (NSA).

The NSA has become the biggest, most covert, and, I would conjecture, most intrusive intelligence agency in U.S. history. It intercepts, deciphers, analyzes, and stores tremendous amounts of the world’s communications as they transmit from satellites and flash through international, foreign, and domestic network cables that are underground and undersea.

According to experts who have studied about the facility, when its final phase is completed, it will be five times larger than the U.S. Capitol building. It has code-breaking capabilities that represent breakthroughs that are astonishing, and that are astonishingly invasive of the American way of life. The potential for unconstitutional intrusion was so great that initiatives known as the Total Awareness Program, meant to use these very technologies introduced by the George W. Bush administration, was voted down by Congress in 2003.

That vote, apparently, has been circumvented. The center will, through the stunning technologies developed, handle financial information, stock transactions, business deals, foreign military and diplomatic secrets, legal documents, and confidential personal communications. All will be heavily encrypted.

Again, I am, admittedly, very comprehension-challenged as to just what all is wrapped within this complex. I do know, however, based upon the very Word of God, that just such a system is on its way for the consummation of the age. It is clearly outlined in Revelation 13:16-18. Tribulation technology is tightening the noose around the measured amount of human freedom that is left in this decaying world. Jesus’ return to planet earth is the only hope for what seems to be liberty’s last gleaming.

The hour is late in human history. Things–strange things—are manifesting, with frequency and intensity.

We’ve often discussed the birth pang-like convulsions prophesied by Jesus in His Olivet Discourse. They are front and center today on an hourly basis, and reported in a steady stream throughout the alternate cyberspace news outlets. Wars, rumors of wars, deceivers and deception, signs in the sun, moon, and stars, famines, pestilence, earthquakes in many places, the seas of both oceanic and human sorts roaring–for the student who observes the times from a Bible prophecy, futurist perspective, the signs are all there. We are nearing the moment of Christ’s return.

We are given very strong hints that something wicked this way will come as the end of the age approaches. Paul the apostle said, “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).

Jesus told the priests and others who came to seize him for His crucifixion that the time was their “hour, and power of darkness” (Luke 22:53b). At that moment that mystery of iniquity–of lawlessness–had arisen to the point that absolute evil looked as if it would overcome absolute goodness. The world would put Christ to death. The occult powers of Satan’s realm were intent on forever erasing the name of Jesus from human history.

Supernatural powers of darkness have arisen at various times down through the eons of earthly time. The crucifixion, the demonically inspired crusades undertaken in the name of Christ, the inquisitions, the Nazis and Communists…the dark powers perennially assault the only goodness to be found in this fallen world. Satan wars against God’s creation, man.

As we have looked at many times, Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus tells us: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). It seems that the more these forces of darkness intrude into the lateness of the age, the more humankind looks at them with increased fascination, as if mesmerized. It must have been like that when the first woman, Eve, gazed upon the serpent and wanted to know more.

Considering the successes of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Steven King’s Carrie, as well as myriad other beastly tomes such as JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the evidence appears to prove that there is an insatiable lust for things conjured from the evil fountains of the fallen mind. Zombies seem to be the latest from the dark muses that inhabit the minds of certain writers of fiction.

At this late hour on God’s prophetic timeline, it becomes increasingly obvious that the dark minions are in the process of breaking out of the fiction inhabiting the writers’ and readers’ psyches. The goblins and ghouls are presenting live–or would that be dead—presentations in which humans are active participants.

But more disturbing than the conjuring of fictional minions of the nether world is the satanic rage ignited by the 2016 presidential election. It is a hellish insanity that seems to have engulfed America, with mainstream media fanning the flames like a blacksmith’s bellows.

Again, the lateness of the prophetic hour means that the time is very near when the Holy Spirit’s restraining influence will remove from this rebellious world (2 Thessalonians 2:7). The vileness that will pour through that portal is something you don’t want to experience. Nor will you, if you know Christ for salvation (Romans 10: 9-10).

There is a growing lament as we get more deeply into 2017. The 120-degree temperatures in the desert southwest are bringing to the surface again the sophistry of global warming/climate change. Let us revisit the topic, as I find it entertaining.

In thinking on former Vice President Al Gore’s travels in his carbon footprint-spreading private jet while he preaches the globalist gospel that has at its center “global warming,” it is impossible not to enjoy a good guffaw at his and the climate-change Charlies as the temperatures invariably fall, as does freezing precipitation wherever and whenever they hold their meetings.

I’m sorry to invoke schadenfreude here, but when one writes on topics as serious as ours usually are in these commentaries, one must take one’s laughs when one can–especially when they are handed to one on a silver platter…well…a white platter, perhaps is more to the point. Such a time of enjoyment over the misfortune of a group of Mr. Gore’s fellow ideological travelers presented itself not many years ago, as I hope you remember.

A shipload of “researchers” made its way into the summertime of the Antarctic. Strangely, mainstream news sources as of this writing still have not explained the purpose or mission of these mates as they neared their destination. I suppose it is cynical to hazard a guess as to why the mainstream media hasn’t reported the purpose of the mission, but the reason for the laxity of forthcoming journalistic honesty became obvious as the global warming hunters became landlocked–well—ice-locked, to be exact.

It seems that, like Mr. Gore, his ideological kinsmen–and kinswomen—don’t have a lot of luck in finding the elusive global warming they seek.

Could it be a curse cast by Mother Earth for their attempting to become too familiar with her intimate weather cycle doings? Mr. Gore certainly seemed during that time to have stirred some sort of irate behavior by the goddess he and his fellow environmental elitists so doggedly revere. Or, could it just be that global warming is a phony-baloney pursuit to extract from the rest of us confiscatory carbon emissions taxes to fund the one-world order they seek to build and rule over? –The scam that President Trump thankfully got America out of recently.

Hmmm…ya think?

At any rate, the following excerpted story is a hoot, in my estimation. You might remember having heard about it a number of times, but it is simply too delicious to not repeat here.

Somewhere far, far to the south where it is summer, a group of global warming scientists are trapped in the Antarctic ice. If you missed the irony of that situation, it is because much of the mainstream media have glossed over that rather inconvenient bit of hilarity. As an example, here is an Associated Press story that avoids mentioning the real mission of the scientists aboard the icebound Russian ship:

The Snow Dragon icebreaker came within 7 miles (11 kilometers) of the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy, which has been stuck since Christmas Eve, but had to retreat after the ice became too thick, said expedition spokesman Alvin Stone. The Akademik Shokalskiy, which has been on a research expedition to Antarctica, got stuck Tuesday after a blizzard’s whipping winds pushed the sea ice around the ship, freezing it in place. The ship wasn’t in danger of sinking, and there are weeks’ worth of supplies for the 74 scientists, tourists and crew on board, but the vessel cannot move… The scientific team on board the research ship — which left New Zealand on Nov. 28 — had been recreating Australian explorer Douglas Mawson’s century-old voyage to Antarctica when it became trapped…

Um, there is a bit more to the expedition than merely following in the footsteps of a century-old voyage. But what that mission really is, AP won’t say. If AP is vague about the mission’s purpose, Reuters provides even less information… The expedition is being led by Chris Turney, “climate scientist”, who has “set up a carbon refining company called Carbonscape which has developed technology to fix carbon from the atmosphere and make a host of green bi-products, helping reduce greenhouse gas levels.” The purpose of the expedition is “to discover and communicate the environmental changes taking place in the south.” It seems they found out what the “environmental changes taking place in the south are.” (“MSM Glosses Over Irony of Global Warming Scientists Trapped in Antarctic Ice,” NewsBusters, 12/30/13)

Ah, so now we see the mainstream media’s reluctance to flat out state why the scientists are in the Antarctic. Anything to avoid an inconvenient (but accurate) headline like this:

GLOBAL WARMING SCIENTISTS TRAPPED IN ANTARCTIC ICE

They were reported at the time to have plenty of heat, food, and lots of snow from which to make water, and the ship wasn’t in any danger of being squashed, apparently. Plus, a Russian icebreaker, which also got stuck, and yet another icebreaker was sent to free the global warming research vessel from the fifteen-foot-thick ice pack.

In on-going updates, reports told of how the global warmists were rescued by several carbon emission-gushing helicopters and icebreakers (yet another of one which also got stuck in the growing ice). The global warming “scientists” were soon happily on their way to less hostile environs. So, no harm done with the schadenfreude.

Antichrist is going to rule the whole world at some point before Christ returns–right? That is the thought of many who have studied Bible prophecy throughout the decades. It is not an accurate assessment of what is scheduled, however.

Much of the thinking regarding the all-encompassing rule of the beast of Revelation chapter 13–Antichrist—is based upon the prophetic passage: “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads” (Revelation 13:16). It certainly appears from this portion of Scripture–Revelation 13:12-18—and others that the entire world of earth-dwellers comes under Antichrist’s beastly rule. But this is not the case.

There is a fancy term that defines why the simple word “all” doesn’t necessarily mean “all.” The term is “synecdoche,” which, according to the World English Dictionary, is a figure of speech in which a part is substituted for a whole or a whole for a part, as in fifty head of cattle for fifty cows or the army for a soldier.

This means for our purposes here that the use of the expression “He causeth all” is a synecdoche, or representative of many people throughout the earth, but not necessarily every single individual on earth or every nation. The Bible might include a synecdoche in terms of geography, but never in matters dealing with the soul. In other words, when Paul wrote that “all” will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, he meant that literally everyone who is born again will be changed in that atomos of time that will be the moment of Rapture. When John wrote “He causeth all,” he meant “all” in the synecdochical sense.

All of that explanation is to say that Antichrist will have absolute power over much of planet Earth, but not all of it. He will not, according to Bible prophecy, be allowed to spread his tyrannical hegemony to the Middle Eastern nation of Jordan, for example. That prophecy is most interesting when considered in light of the news story released some years ago.

The Obama Administration and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan have both reportedly sided with Israel in its demand to retain control over the Jordan Valley in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians…

Israel has long insisted that, even if it surrenders the bulk of Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”), it must retain control of the Jordan Valley as a buffer against future external threats, and as a deterrent and protection against Palestinian aggression.

Jordan wants Israel in the Jordan Valley to prevent further influx of Palestinian Arabs into the Hashemite Kingdom. Jordan’s Palestinian majority has threatened the Bedouin-backed Hashemite monarchy in the past, including in the 1970-1971 Jordanian Civil War. (Ryan Jones, “US, Jordan Agree: Israel Should Control Jordan Valley,” Israel Today, 12/09/13).

There has been over the decades an almost comfortable arrangement between Israel and Jordan. The late Jordanian King Abdullah, and now his son, have always received a degree of protection from Israel, the much-hated Arab enemy.

Of course, the geopolitical reason for the arrangement is that Jordan and surrounding area gives Israel a buffer zone against attacks that could otherwise be launched, giving the Jewish state a much shorter warning time. However, the real reason for the peaceful arrangement doubtless derives from heavenly directive. Jordan is scheduled to escape the deadly Antichrist regime’s tyrannical grip during the time of Tribulation. There are interesting aspects of this apparently heaven-given arrangement we will examine momentarily.

Let’s look first at the prophesied rise of Antichrist in the region and the lead-up to the matter of Jordan escaping his murderous control. Daniel the prophet gives the beast of Revelation 13 the title “the king”:

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. And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant. (Daniel 11:21-22)

And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. (Daniel 11: 36)

He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. (Daniel 11:41)

Daniel switches from ancient wars and conquest, as recorded in chapter 11 prior to verse 40, to suddenly bring the reader to the end of the age and the Antichrist’s appearance and rampage across the pages of end times history. This vile king of fierce countenance overtakes many nations, but Daniel foretells that Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon escape his terrible land grab.

Moab, which is in essence modern-day Jordan, it is fascinating to consider, isn’t mentioned as part of the coalition in the Gog-Magog war of Ezekiel 38 prophesied to attack Israel. It is also interesting that Edom, part of modern Jordan, is the place the Lord will come from at the Second Advent in great fury. Bozrah was that area’s capital. Here is what Isaiah said about that area when Christ returns to do battle with Antichrist and earth’s rebels:

Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. (Isaiah 63:1-4)

Another fascinating point of prophecy to consider, seeing as how Jordan and its relationship with Israel is currently arranged as it is, is that nation’s apparent treatment of the Jews as Antichrist’s full fury storms against them as given in Revelation chapter 12. The remnant of Israel will escape into the wilderness while Satan’s forces rage after them. It will be in the middle of Daniel’s seventieth week, the last half or three and a half years into the time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7). All Jews are told to flee Jerusalem, for Antichrist’s full fury will come against them.

The remnant of Israel will flee, many believe to Petra, the ancient, rose-red city. And that is, guess where, in the Jordanian desert area, somewhat south of the place known in ancient times as Bozrah.

Whether the hiding place is Petra or another, it almost will certainly be in the area of the Jordanian valley, and Christ will make a stop there, as we know, to save God’s chosen people–the remnant (all) of believing Israel.

Jordan is proving to be one more indicator of this late date on God’s prophetic timeline.

I remember writing a few years ago a piece on Israel. It was the morning that was the first day of the Pre-Trib prophecy conference in Dallas–the 23rd such conference, according to Dr. Tim LaHaye, the founder of the forum. that year’s conference was on Israel and that nation’s destiny.

We have addressed this subject on a number of occasions on Rapture Ready, but it is one that never grows stale–at least not with me. So, it was that the insights gained during that conference while listening to Dr. David Hocking made the trip worthwhile, even if I didn’t sit through many other sessions.

Israel is the prophetic signal–if one were to choose just one specific sign–that should prove to any rationally oriented mind that: 1) God’s Word is true, and 2) This generation is very near the end of the dispensation of grace.

Dr. Hocking, one of the most knowledgeable scholars and speakers on Israel, spent 45 minutes or so laying out the case for Israel being the one nation that is guaranteed to be such forever. In the process of his presentation, he, without having to say so, built the foundation to show that the God of the Bible is the one and only God. He told how he had opportunity to witness to a cabbie who had driven him from the airport to the hotel. He said the cab driver made the mistake of asking what he was doing in Dallas. Dr. Hocking told him he was speaking at a conference. The cabbie, a Muslim a native of the Middle East, asked him what he was speaking on, and the conversation that followed was one of great interest. The shuttle van’s driver said something about Allah being in charge of everything, and Dr. Hocking went into depth–for the brief duration of the ride from DFW to the hotel, how there is only one God and His Name is Yahweh. He didn’t say–or I don’t remember him reporting that he did so–how the conversation ended. But, David spoke the following morning with his head still attached, so I presume the driver didn’t consider the infidel’s offense of sufficient magnitude to take jihad action. Or, maybe Dr. Hocking didn’t mention Mohammed, which seems to be the red line for employing the scimitar, like in the case we remember involving the writer Salman Rushdie from some years back.

Again, David Hocking’s presentation was on Israel and her destiny. That topic continues to be at the heart of what is going on, prophetically, in the world today. One question Hocking addressed was the question of whether Israel today is fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Is the modern state of Israel a literal fulfillment of Bible prophecy?

The more academic of Bible prophecy scholars–the seminarians–mostly hold that Israel being back in the land God gave the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is “preparation” for fulfillment of prophecy, in their view, but not literal fulfillment of any specific prophecy. I was rather surprised, and pleasantly so, to learn that David Hocking considers it literal fulfillment, not merely preparation for fulfillment of prophecy from the futurist point of view.

Dr. Hocking certainly fits into the fold of academia, but his overwhelming, evidence-laden exposition on modern Israel being prophecy fulfilled in our time proved, to me, at least, that the academic purists within the pre-Trib view of eschatology camp are out of sync with what God predicts for Israel.

Now, for a commercial. That’s what my book, Cauldron: Supernatural Implications of the Current Middle East, is about, in its essence. It is a treatment–and, if I may say so, a very reader-friendly treatment–of why Israel is at the center of world geopolitical controversy and has become a nation blamed for the threat of global nuclear war–thus, even though it is that tiny Jewish state, itself, that is constantly threatened with destruction from its enemy neighbors.

The book covers the current, precarious state of world peace. It goes back to the book of Genesis to find the beginning of the supernatural hatred being waged against modern Israel at this very hour. It deals, often in minute detail, with some of the international intrigues being plotted for the wind-up of human history.

The bottom line is summed up scripturally with the prophetic words, “He who keepth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” To put it another way–“Israel forever!”

All directions in God’s Word to humanity–the Bible–point outward from God’s touchstone city to the human race. That is, Jerusalem is the topographical center of the world from God’s Holy perspective.

Therefore, north, south, east, and west, in terms of Bible prophecy, can be determined by considering that all-important city as the starting point.

We will look in this commentary at the kings of the east prophecy. That prophesied group of potentates, then, must be viewed as if we are standing, perhaps, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and looking eastward. This is how we can know that the kings of the east referred to in prophecy yet future are those kings or national entities of China and the Orient in general.

Here are the nucleus scriptural references to the kings of the east prophecy:

And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. (Revelation 9:13-16)

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

We note with interest that the Euphrates River seems to be the boundary dividing the Occidental world from the Oriental. God tells through prophecy that this boundary harbors some powerful and tremendously evil demonic actors that are incarcerated until time for the prophesied invasion from that Oriental world. As a matter of fact, these are so powerful that they will imbue this force of two hundred thousand-member military with the capability of killing one-third of the people of the world.

I’m aware that there is a train of thought that puts forth that one-third of a specific number of combatants who are to die in the overall campaign of Armageddon will be killed by this force from the Orient. To me it reads that one-third of those living on the planet will be killed.

That there are supernatural elements involved within this murderous capability cannot be denied. It is reasonable to presume, I believe, however, that nuclear weaponry might be employed in accomplishing that grisly task.

The prophecy concerning the kings of the east becomes particularly fascinating, I think, when looking at geopolitical military rearrangements taking place today.

To preface these considerations, I urge us to remember that the demonic minions that will be the catalyst to galvanize the destructive kings of the east force are presently under God’s restraining power. These evil entities are held back until a particular “hour, and a day.” There is a specific moment when they will be unleashed to cause the two hundred million-man force to kill one-third of everyone living on the planet.

I have always considered it a point of fascination that since the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, there hasn’t been a single incident of a nuclear weapon discharged in any sort of military conflict. There have been nuclear tests of every sort, above ground and below. But, not a single nuclear warhead of any sort has been fired as part of military action.

My friends, this lack of employing nuclear weaponry has taken far more than diplomacy, human fear, in trepidation, or whatsoever else. This has been the obvious, restraining hand of the God of Heaven. Just like in the case of the evil angels being restrained somewhere beneath the Euphrates, the nuclear, war-making genie has been kept in the bottle marked “For Tribulation Only.”

As a matter of fact, the nuclear factor has been used, I’m convinced, by the Lord Himself, to prevent man from self-destruction. If nuclear weapons were not at the ready at every moment of every day, the human race might have long ago ended most if not all life on earth with conventional weapons only slightly less horrific. Man has–some would surmise–retained the common-sensibility, at least to this point, to refrain from all-out war, since those two, small-by-comparison nuclear bombs that ended World War II.

North Korea forges ahead with production of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to far-distant points. This, despite a president who has vowed that such development will not be allowed to be brought to the point the NK weapons can be used against the United States. There seems shaping a showdown of monumental magnitude at some point soon.

Yet, as many who read these commentaries know, I’m convinced there will be no earth-shattering event such as nuclear war take place until the Rapture has occurred. I’m convinced that Jesus’ words in the days of Noah and days of Lot prophecy in Matthew 24:36-42 and Luke 17:26-30 indicate it will be business as usual–even better than usual–right up until He next “reveals” Himself to a rebellious world. This will be Rapture, not Second Advent when He will come back to earth to put an end to Armageddon and the threatened, complete destruction of all life on earth.

Meantime, it is an almost certainty in my spirit-mind that there will be no complete disarmament of the nuclear powers. These weapons of mass destruction will doubtless, in my opinion, be used during the Tribulation, as part of judgment and wrath poured upon the evil and rebellion that will be against the God of Heaven.

The North Koreans might be restrained in some fashion from unleashing their nukes on the rest of us for now. They will, however, likely have them at their disposal when they rage across the dried-up Euphrates under demonic influence. China and the rest of the Oriental diabolists will, the prophecy says, kill one-third of people left on the planet at that time. Certainly, nuclear weaponry could accomplish fulfillment of that prophecy.

It is interesting to think on the fact that there seems to be no nuclear weaponry used on Israel as the Gog-Magog forces descend like a cloud to take great spoil. It is a conventional force that makes the assault, apparently. At that point there is either great restraint so they can enjoy the “spoils” they intend to take, or there is restraint on the Gog-Magog forces of some other sort, preventing use of nuclear weaponry. There are those who believe that this is because there has been nuclear disarmament at this juncture, and there are no nuclear weapons available. I do not agree.

God, Himself, will unleash His own form of “nukes” at that time, destroying all but one-sixth of the invading force.

The assault from the kings of the east seems to have no such encumbrances of nuclear restraint. The attack seems to come later than the Gog-Magog attack as the wind-up of the campaign of Armageddon looms.

One thing is sure in my view of these matters. We are witnessing things shaping for prophetic fulfillment in the arena of the kings of the east in regard to the nuclear factor.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio–Pope Francis, 266th pontiff of the Catholic Church–seems to take the world by storm, as they say. He is, of course, the 112th pope since twelfth-century Irish Bishop, St. Malachy, “prophesied” that the last pope would be number 112 from the time he made the “prophecies,” as we’ve all learned about by now.

Obviously, he hasn’t overtly taken the official name “Petrus Romanus,” Peter the Roman, as Malachy predicted would be the moniker of the final pope who would preside over the Catholic Church during an era of the greatest time of trouble in its history. Let’s think again briefly upon what Malachy said he foresaw. Malachy’s biographer, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, reported in Life of Saint Malachy that St. Malachy wrote briefly, in Latin, on each succeeding pope of the future, and then gave the document to Pope Innocent II, who had it placed in Vatican archives, where it remained for several centuries. It was rediscovered in 1590 and published.

Some scholars who have studied these predictions carefully claim that Malachy was remarkably accurate about succeeding popes right up through Pope Benedict XVI, who abdicated his papal throne in 2013. Others who have looked into these things have found that in most cases regarding the Malachy prophecies, the bishop’s predictions were too oblique, too veiled, or couched in esoteric description to be validated as having been fulfilled to any great extent. Our bottom line conclusion must be that, while most of Malachy’s “prophecies” about the popes are questionable as to absolute proof that the bishop was accurate in every case, there is little doubt that the 112th pope from the time he wrote the predictions is a strange pope to be sure.

The world at large literally loves the guy. His popularity really jumped on a global scale–and especially in the view of national and international mainstream media, when he implied that there might be many ways to God and Heaven, and declared that Christians must be more tolerant of things we don’t embrace or understand. At least, that was the gist of his statements.

The pope made it clear in a number of statements in various speaking forums that the Catholic Church and all of Christendom must cease condemning and excluding from God’s kingdom homosexuals and those who hold other religious views than those that are Jesus Christ-centered.

That sentiment, even among a growing number within so-called Christian churches, is a visceral part of all of humanism’s elite and their mouthpieces. The Christian Bible and its harsh, restrictive, “one way to God” is intolerant, bigoted, homophobic, and bordering on fundamentalist insanity that desires to bring the world to Armageddon. (The pope didn’t say that; I did, based upon his stance of his years as pontiff that has won him great accolades.)

America’s former president was perhaps the most recent of the global leaders to express this pope’s elevated standing in his opposition to biblical restrictions. Barack Obama said: “I have been hugely impressed with the pope’s pronouncements.” He described Pope Francis as “somebody who lives out the teachings of Christ [who, by the way, claimed He is the only Way to God, the Heavenly Father]. Incredible humility–incredible sense of empathy to the least of these, to the poor.”

In his interview with the CNBC business news channel, Obama was asked about Francis’ comment that the Catholic Church has become too “obsessed” with issues like gay rights and abortion. Obama said: “[Pope Francis is] somebody who is–I think first and foremost–thinking about how to embrace people as opposed to push them away; how to find what’s good in them as opposed to condemn them…And that spirit, that sense of love and unity, seems to manifest itself in not just what he says, but also what he does. And, you know, for any religious leader, that’s something–that’s a quality I admire” (http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/10/02/obama-pope-francis-cnbc-abortion-gay-rights/2911067/).

Sure sounds good, doesn’t it? Unity–that’s the ticket for the coming Antichrist system. Unity means to embrace all belief systems as acceptable to God’s prescription for living on planet Earth, according to the globalists elite. This is the route to “peace.”

We are to embrace those religionists who behead women for having been raped. We are to accept as brothers those who murder anyone with whom they don’t agree.

Pope Francis once met with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. He wasn’t prepared to give the Israeli prime minister an audience, however. Yet, he was pushing the peace process so Palestine can have its statehood on Israel’s tiny land mass.

The pope gave the Palestinian leader a special pen. He said when handing it to him, “Surely, you have a lot of things you have to sign.”

Abbas responded, “I hope to sign a peace treaty with Israel with this pen.”

My thought was, upon reading about the pope’s generosity, the first beast of Revelation chapter 13 will have a sidekick who will–like Mr. Big himself–push the peace that will be the covenant made with death and hell (Isaiah 28:15, 18).