Many who are Christians are at least somewhat familiar with one particular Scriptural formula for coming to Christ in becoming a believer. It is known as The Roman Road to Salvation.

It has often been used for many years to show those who haven’t heard the reason salvation is needed, and how it is obtained. The following is that scriptural road map:

• Romans 3:10: “As it is written, There is none righteous, no not one.”
• Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
• Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
• Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
• Romans 10:13: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

These Scriptures mean that none of us are worthy, nor can we earn the right to go to Heaven when we die. But Jesus loved us so much that He died for us to pay the price for our sin so that we can be with Him forever. All we have to do is ask Jesus to come into our hearts and be our Lord and Savior and follow Him.

In similar fashion–but, perhaps somewhat more circuitously–I believe there is a Roman road of prophecy that can help the student of Bible prophecy receive understanding of things involved with developments of several years ago.

With the announcement on Monday, February 11, 2013 by Pope Benedict XVI that he was resigning as pope effective February 28 of that year, came considerable concern and curiosity about what it might mean, prophetically. Most who email me, of course, are vitally interested in Bible prophecy. They know, to one degree or another, about the supposition that the next pope will be the last pontiff.

This prediction comes from the twelfth-century Irish Catholic bishop, St. Malachy, who was said to have had a vision in the year 1139, in which he received foreknowledge of the 112 popes that would reign in the line of papal succession from that point until the final pope. Although some aspects of the names of the popes from that time until now have been somewhat nebulous in terms of accuracy, they have in many cases been considered to be close enough to the “prophesied” names to validate St. Malachy’s prognostications. The last forty-five popes, I’m told the research shows, have been almost precise in their accuracy.

So, we at that time awaited the installation of the next pope to see if the Malachy “vision” that the last pope is to be Petrus Romanus (“Peter the Roman”) would prove to indeed be the case.

While preparing for being a guest on a nationwide radio program, the program host and I discussed a number of things in our preliminary phone conversations. As part of our talking through the pope and end-times matters before doing the program, we agreed that we couldn’t be absolutely dogmatic about whether Rome was the city about which the prophecies in Revelation chapter 17 foretell. The Vatican, headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, as everyone knows, sits upon the “seven hills of Rome.” Therein resides the almost universal belief among Bible prophecy students that the Catholic Church will be a major player in the last days.

That prophecy about the end-times city that will play a profoundly deleterious role in the consummation of the age states: “And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth” (Revelation 17:9).

Although I still maintain that we can’t be absolutely dogmatic that the city referred to is Rome, I remain personally convinced that this is the case. I believe there is a scriptural road map of sorts that we can explore that might present strong evidence that the city given in Revelation 17: 9 is Rome. Therefore, let’s look at what I term “The Roman Road of Prophecy”:

Daniel 9: 26-27 and the ties to Rome. The wind-up of this Age of Grace (Church Age) is encapsulated in the prophecy given Daniel (Daniel 9:26-27). The great prophet was told to write that the “prince that shall come” would confirm the covenant (agreement of peace between Israel and its enemies) for seven years. This prince would come out of the people who would destroy the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (the Jewish Temple). These were the Romans. Regardless of their regional makeup, they were Romans, whose leaders were Emperor Vespasian and his son, General Titus–of Rome. Romans fulfilled part of this end-times prophecy in A.D. 70., beginning earlier, around 33 A.D. with the “cutting off of Messiah” (Daniel 9:26). All of human history, from the confirming of the covenant by this Roman prince (the Beast of Revelation chapter 13) through Christ’s return, would, the Daniel 9: 26-27prophecy indicates, conclude in almost total devastation for planet Earth. This prophetic area of Scripture puts the city of Rome at ground zero for the wind-up of human history.

Luke 2:1-3: Rome holds sway over the world. During the prophesied time of Israel’s Messiah being born, Rome was the power center of the then-known world. “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that the entire world should be taxed. [And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.] And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem [because he was of the house and lineage of David]; To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child” (Luke 2:1-5). Again, Rome is in the prophetic spotlight while the Savior of the world makes His appearance in the flesh upon a judgment-bound planet. Revelation 17:15-18: Rome represents the focus of God’s judgment at wind-up of the age. God’s Word uses a drunken, debauched prostitute as symbol for the end-times religious system that is located–you guessed it—in Rome, whose tyrant regime had exiled John the apostle and prophet to Patmos. There, John was given the Revelation:

“And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:15-18).

Can there be much doubt that Rome was the city that reigned over the whole Earth at the time of John’s exile? Bible prophecy tells us in these passages that Rome will be at the center of world rebellion “until the words of God shall be fulfilled.” A corrupt religious system will be prominently ensconced atop the seven mountains.

Make no mistake: With its expansive reach and influence, the doings of the Roman Catholic Church in the coming months are worth watching for the observer of Bible prophecy.

This week’s commentary is a reminder for those who believe in Jesus Christ as defined by the following scriptural description of the term “Christian”:

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

Tragically, if the reader hasn’t genuinely confessed sin and asked forgiveness of the God of Heaven, and adopted this faith prescription from God’s Word, this essay cannot apply to his or her life. Thankfully, all people everywhere are invited to come to belief in the Son of God, who came to Earth the first time specifically to die so that anyone who accepts Christ’s shed-blood antidote for sin’s deadly venom will be saved from the eternal fires of Hell, and will instead live forever with the Father in Heaven. My prayer is that the reader, if he or she hasn’t done so, will do so right now–for this is the only moment guaranteed to you. You might not have a follow-up second of life. Your last heartbeat might come before you finish reading.

Paul the apostle reported God’s words on the tenuous nature of life and the importance of immediately making the decision in the matter of salvation: “For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

With the gospel message offered, as the Holy Spirit draws, we will proceed with additional good news, something that some accuse is a rarity for a prophecy writer’s commentary. The mention of prophecy often conjures in the imagination darkness and foreboding–a very bleak outlook for America and the planet we call Earth. When considering the troubling course we see narrowing in the distance, while we examine today’s issues and events under the microscope of God’s prophetic Word, we must be truthful and faithful in giving the forewarnings of the watchman (Mark 13: 37).

But, while nearing midnight, the world keeps turning. There is coming a moment after the gore and terrible dangers of the battle at twilight’s last gleaming–like Francis Scott Key wrote—the dawn’s early light. The flag of the United States of America is under attack, and the nation is staggering. It might well fall this time, unlike during the time of its birth as given in the “Star Spangled Banner.”

But, as much as we all love this nation, we look toward a heavenly home, built by the Lord Himself (see 2 Corinthians 5:1; John 14:1-3)–a world without end (Ephesians 3:21). The matters to think upon for you and me as God’s children involve a glorious dawning of unimaginable things to come. Paul the apostle puts it this way, as we have all read many times: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

While I often express in this column frustration over the fact that the majority of Christians are today inward turned, not at all thinking of things of God, and are asleep in the pews because they get only pabulum from the pastors in the pulpits for the most part, I am of the conviction that this is a malaise that is an important indicator of exactly where we are on God’s prophetic timeline. Jesus said the following: “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8b). This said, each child of God–whether on fire for the Lord, or living life oblivious to the things of God–needs to know that when Christ’s call “come up hither” (Revelation 4:1) is heard, every truly born again (John 3:3) believer will go instantaneously to be with the Lord. He will then take us to the home He has been preparing for us (John 14:1-3).

Even if the child has not been watching for His coming for them in the clouds–in the Rapture—each and every one will go in that stupendous atomos of time to be with Him, forever!

I know the foregoing will be angrily disputed by many. There is an erroneous visceral belief among many who know the PreTrib view of prophecy to be truth from the Bible. That mistaken belief purports that the watchful Christians will go to be with Christ when He calls, and the slothful, Earth-minded Christians will stay behind to–well, I’m not sure to do what.

Those holding this view just cannot accept the full scope of what the Bible says about God’s love for His family. Christ did it all on the cross at Calvary, so what can we do to make ourselves more secure in Christ?

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4 that ALL will go in that twinkling of an eye. The Word of God didn’t say that some will stay and some will go. Here’s the thing: God knows who is and is not His child; we, His children, are not privy to that knowledge.

My friend, Dr. Dave Breese, used to say that the Lord Jesus will not leave part of His Bride, the Church, here on Earth to be bloodied and bruised during the most horrendous time of human history. He will take a perfected Bride home to the Father’s house. Jesus did the cleaning-up when He shed His precious blood at Calvary two millennia ago. He cried “It is finished!” –And, it was! The translation –the transformation from mortal to immortal–that will take place in that stunning, glorious, split second will make every one of us worthy and acceptable in the heavenly city!

Now, let me say that the child of God living like the devil, with unrepented-of sin, will pay a tremendous price at the Bema Seat (judgment seat of Christ). Make no mistake: there will be an eternal instant when all will look into those eyes of absolute love and understand their Lord’s disappointment. We will at that moment want more than anything we’ve ever wanted to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good, faithful servant.”

The dawn’s early light will one day shine its rays of glory. It will happen as Christ breaks through the dark, death-decaying clouds at Armageddon (Rev. 19: 11). He will defeat all of His–and our—foes. Antichrist will be thrown in the lake of fire, with the false prophet. Satan will be chained for one thousand years. Jesus will clean up Planet Earth.

But, that’s not the really good news for you and me. Just consider…you and I are here at this strange time, and in this foreign land, for purposes the Lord, Himself, has determined. We could have been placed here at any time in history. But, He chose us to serve Him, and now, while all around us breaks the most stunning prophetic possibilities imaginable. For example, no other generation has seen Israel reborn and as hated by the entire world of nations as has our generation –exactly as prophesied. Something is up –and it is big!

We will see the “dawn” at the close of Armageddon described above as we descend on gleaming, white, heavenly steeds as Christ leads the way.

However, for believers of this Age of Grace, “Dawn’s early light” is scheduled to break brilliantly and instantaneously much earlier–during this darkening hour we presently face. We do not have to wait at least seven years for that other “dawn” as Christ returns at the end of the Tribulation. The Rapture is very near! Serve Him as if He could call in the next second. He just might! Take heart!

Crises and potential crises surround us during every waking moment. Except for those who are oblivious to what is going on in this nation and world today, the cultural and societal pathway ahead disappears into the anxiety-laden darkness of the unknown. Rather than take on the entire world and its problems in this regard, I will, for our purposes in this commentary, stick to analyzing the fearful future of this nation I love.

Most in America–and sadly, in the church (born-again believers) –falls into that category of the oblivious. Therefore, the crises, from their perspective, don’t exist. All the forewarnings of coming disaster seem issued to ears that will never hear and presented to eyes that will never see. Yet, at the same time, the crises, themselves, do create undercurrents of worry. Even the otherwise diverted masses notice, at least for fleeting moments, when societal dangers disrupt their world of shopping and entertainment–for example, when attacks by terrorists and others upon people going about their daily lives take place. Then, it is back to buying, selling, building, marrying, and giving in marriage, and the thousand and one other things that matter most to them.

Crises dominate the horizon politically, economically, and morally. As a matter of fact, they intertwine in such convolution as to now be inseparable so far as discerning where one aspect begins and the others end. There has developed, because of the incessant progression of assaults by evil actions, desensitization that affects the masses like a venomous bite by a deadly serpent.

The analogy is more than coincidental. It is a precise description of what has happened. The serpent of Genesis, chapter 3, has successfully injected much of America’s population with the same sort of morality-paralyzing toxin that separated man from God those many millennia ago. We have indeed reached the point of becoming a people like those at whom Isaiah the prophet pointed the finger of condemnation: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).

This crisis of moral decay was brought home to me nearly 8 years ago as I listened to the minister who was selected by the 44th president to read a prayer during the Obama inauguration on January 21, 2009. He, we are supposed to presume, prayed to the God of Heaven for Him to bless the gay lifestyle in that prayer for inclusiveness and tolerance in America.

This is the same administration that has made homosexuality and those who fight for the right to openly display the debased, debauched activities of that community in a very public way as the equivalent of the black community crusading for those people’s civil rights. This is the same political entity that will pull all the levers of governmental power at their disposal to protect the young of wildlife, thus to impose as much control as possible over individuals and businesses, under the guise of environmental concerns. These will, at the same time, do everything within that power to facilitate the murder of babies in their mother’s wombs for the sake of placating a voter base that desires to expediently get rid of unwanted fruits of their pleasure-seeking indiscretions.

While America sleeps, liberties are eroded one at a time, and the powers that be viciously seek to marginalize all who would disagree with their seizing by “executive action” constitutional powers the founding fathers built into the nation’s safeguards through checks and balances. Even those who have until recently adamantly opposed such a power grab seem now to be shrugging shoulders and going along with the mainstream media mantra that it is just the new norm.

But the dumbing-down of the American public and apparently, too, many of those constitutionally elected to represent it, in convincing that the new norm is just the hope and change that is the natural progression of such an advanced, sophisticated culture –thus the moral implosion that continues to take its toll– isn’t the real crisis.

The real crisis is wrapped up in the following: the Church in this crucial hour is asleep, and if there is no preacher, how shall they hear? (Romans 10:14).

The Lord of Heaven might have just about reached the limits of His patience with a nation peopled by a populace that has lived the most materially–and even spiritually blessed—existence in the history of mankind. However, we can take hope that with the lord’s direct Intervention –in my view– into America’s election this year, we might have indication that America will yet have a moment of turning from the slide toward the abyss.

Until this apparent turn back to God because of the prayers of those who are called by His Holy Name, Proof that we might be near the outer limits of God’s tolerance for national rebellion was evident in the fact that there seemingly has been a collective mindset developed like that forewarned by the apostle Paul.

Please consider with all gravity the Word of the living God. I believe it is the equivalent of Isaiah’s finger pointed at my beloved United States of America:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things.

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1: 21-32)

Do you remember the Mayan Calendar hub-bub of 2012?

The end of the world was scheduled for Friday, December 21, 2012, according to the Mayan calendar, as analyzed by some. Many scenarios of what supposedly would happen on that date for months–even years— were predicted by the purveyors of doom for Planet Earth. The Mayan “prophecy” went basically as follows.

The Mayan civilization was extremely advanced in mathematics, engineering and astronomy. They also had an incredible understanding of time and space. Various calendars were in use to track time in linear progressions within cycles. The “Great Cycle” of the “Long Count” calendar equated to 5,125.36 years. The Current Great Cycle was due to be completed on the winter solstice of 2012, December 21. So, it was interpreted that on that day, the Great Cycle would end, Time would end, so the Earth would end as well.

The Mayan “Long Count” concluded on the very day the sun lined up with the center of the Milky Way galaxy. It was said that this stellar event occurs every 25,800 years. The end-of-the-worlders predicted that a number of cataclysmic things would occur at 11:11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on December 21, 2012.

A polar shift of planet Earth would occur, bringing about every sort of tectonic plate shift imaginable, thus oceans washing over all the land masses and perhaps the earth, itself, ripping apart in some way. This was the direst of the predictions, I suppose.

Well, not exactly, on second thought. There was also some sort of planet that was hidden from view from astronomers by our sun, according to some who held to the December 21, 2012, date with destruction. That body might suddenly be in direct collision course with the big blue marble on the Mayan prophecy date in question it was postulated. Such a collision would eclipse even the polar reversal in terms of the severity of impact upon life on Earth.

There are many who prepared for such an eventuality as predicted. Some bought/built underground shelters and did many other things to survive. At the time I heard of these things, I missed something in their thinking, I’m afraid. How does one survive an Earth-size, even moon-size object colliding with Earth? Or for that matter, how in the world–pardon the pun—does one survive when the big ball on which we live suddenly turns upside down? Oh, I’m sure there were the experts who would chide such an ignorant perspective as mine as completely not understanding the physics of such a thing, should it happen.

They would be right. I didn’t even come close to comprehending what would be the chances of survival in such an event. I remain dumbfounded over those who believe a Mayan prophecy–or any other such soothsaying of a now extinct civilization. I am as perplexed over their believing such “prophecies” as many of those doomsday believers were and are now berating and non-accepting of Bible prophecy. To most of these, Nostradamus, or even Rasputin, are given almost mesmerized validation, while Jeremiah, Isaiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel–and especially Jesus Christ—are pushed to the back of the line with regard to credence given to those considered to be prophets.

To determine which of the prophets should be given the label of the true prophet, one needs only to consider history of the Jews. The Jews–the nation Israel—exist despite millennia of attempts to scour their likes from the planet’s surface. That attempt continues. Yet, the nation Israel–the Jewish race—is at the center of attention, a blessing to all of mankind, while being hounded and hunted throughout the eras of human history.

Biblical prophets have both chronicled this traversing of history by the eternal Jew and have foretold their place at the very end of the age and beyond. In every instance, the foretellings can be traceable as 100 percent on the mark, right to the present moment.

Here’s what a couple of God’s prophets, one an Old Testament prophet and the other a New Testament prophet, have to say about the Earth and its longevity: “But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:17-18).

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Get it? It is a world that will never end! It will be changed; it will be transformed at some future point. But, it is a world without end!

Here we are at the end of November, 2016 and prophetic possibilities are popping all around us. Israel is in the process of –as usual– being pressured as part  of trying to divide God’s land, meaning that Joel 3:2 is on the cusp of coming to pass. The “covenant made with death and hell” of Isaiah chapter 28 might not be far distant in the making.

Paul’s “perilous times” (2 Timothy 3:1-5) words describe American culture and society to a “T,” as they say. The “days of Noah” are here, with God’s message of repentance being mocked by rebels of a judgment-bound world. Debased human behavior like in the days of Lot proliferates, so that it now seems to be more the norm than the aberrant.

Many within the ranks of those who are antagonistic to or who ignore the God of Heaven seem to instinctively sense something ominous is brewing. Something isn’t right, and a visceral fear streams just beneath the surface of civility. The behavior of mankind–especially in America—demands correction of some sort, although neither the problem nor the correction can be discerned. A reprobate mind like that forewarned in Romans 1 prevents clear analysis in trying to understand the matters involved.

Ominous predictions like the prophecies of the long-dead French seer Nostradamus pique the interest of many every time his name is mentioned. In the minds of some, at least, a nebulous justice of some sort must demand a penalty for the base things infecting this generation. Guilt feelings fester in the collective consciousness to a degree.

Things going on in the Middle East trouble these who are unsure about the source and the reason for their uneasiness. Israel is most often given by mainstream press outlets as the number-one culprit in fomenting hostilities in that incendiary part of the world. However, the usually-pointed-at Israel doesn’t seem an underlying cause of things taking place in Syria, with the massacring of his fellow Syrians by dictator Bashar al-Assad.

There is good reason for fear of things developing in Damascus. It is a city of biblically prophetic import like only two others. Jerusalem is slated for both great turmoil and magnificent glorification, according to Bible prophecy. Babylon–whether the actual city within Iraq or whether figurative, as given in Revelation chapter 18–will suffer destruction as none other in history.

Damascus is prophetically scheduled for similar devastation. With all other signs of the return of Jesus Christ on the end-times horizon, the current developments in this, the oldest occupied city on the planet, is most relevant for those who are “watchmen on the wall.” The fate of the Syrian capital just might be nearly the top indicator of how near is the Rapture of the church.

The verse of great interest among those who watch for Christ’s return is, of course, the following: “The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap” (Isaiah 17:1).

According to the signals given in prophetic Scripture, the present generation of Earth dwellers looks to be in the last of the last days before the first phase of Christ’s Second Coming–the removal of all born-again believers from Planet Earth. This prophetic utterance by the prophet Isaiah has recently and dramatically arisen to prominence amid all of the other indicators pointing to the end of days. Damascus’ destruction fits somewhere within the general time frame of the very end of the age. Whether we have reached that parentheses in God’s prophetic program is the question, when considering news of the current tumult in Syria.

The Syrian dictator, President Bashar al-Assad, it is thought by some of the most in-the-know diplomatic types, senses that his time is about up. He will soon go the way of, at worst, Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi, and at best, Hosni Mubarak. Many of the “experts” believe al-Assad will choose to bring the entire Syrian people down with him rather than abdicate rulership or flee to escape his comeuppance.

The international community powers that be view warily al-Assad’s activities within his capital city and nation. Russia’s asserting itself within the affairs of Syria and the region greatly adds to the portentous uncertainties for the immediate future.

Al-Assad has certainly witnessed what happens to former tyrants in his part of the world in recent times. The question is not without merit. Might the Syrian dictator himself invoke his own “Samson option,” of sorts, and become the instrument of prophecy in making Damascus the “ruinous heap” it is destined to become?

This election year has made manifest the satanic nature of the mainstream media in America. The practitioners of supposed news gathering and dissemination have thrown off all pretense of unbiased journalistic endeavor in the news business.

We have just entered, I am convinced, a time long ago prophesied. We are about to witness an unstoppable, super-accelerated movement into the beginning of the darkest era of human history. Every signal points to America and the world gushing toward the establishment of the regime of the most despotic dictator who will ever rule on earth.

Adolf Hitler, during his rise to power, had his media, the most effective propaganda machine that had existed to that time. There has developed a similar although much more powerful media machine–worldwide—that has for months and years been preparing the way for the lawless one–the first beast of Revelation chapter 13.

Lies have been laid down as truth for so long and in such profusion that they are now accepted as fact by massive numbers of people. Billions throughout the world are increasingly eager to embrace any government–any leader–offering things that will take care of their needs with little to no effort on their own parts.

In the United States, the end-times media conglomerate has been profoundly successful in deluding the American populace. The tipping point has been reached, and sufficient numbers of such like mindset can now vote themselves largess from the public treasury–as Alexis de Tocqueville forewarned in 1835.

Although alternative media now disseminates news alongside deluding, mainstream media, the alternative news journalism is demonstrably inadequate to serve as antidote to the poison polluting the thought processes of the masses. And the alternative media are woefully inadequate to counteract the distortions and lies, because they, too, are steeped in thinking from the mind of the great deceiver–the father of lies.

Judgment is coming. Bible prophecy clearly lays out the fact that this rebellious world must and will be judged for its blasphemous, anti-God, Antichrist-spirit-filled rage. I believe that judgment is slated for sooner rather than later, according to the swift movement forward of global world order as mentioned above.

The Lord of Heaven never proceeds with His judgment and wrath before first issuing forewarning of His actions to come. The mainstream and alternative media of this nation and world report signs of the times, but not from God’s omniscient perspective. As mentioned, their perspectives are skewed by the fallen minds that are influenced heavily by the father of lies.

God will always forewarn of impending judgment. That’s why we are  in business–the Lord’s business–of getting prophetic truth out in these closing hours of the Church Age. You are interested in learning truth about things to come, or else you wouldn’t be coming to this website on a regular basis. You see the power grab by the world’s elitists that is leading to America’s demise and the forming of a globalist order that is destined to be ultimately ruled by Antichrist.

That’s where you come into the picture in these absolutely crucial days just ahead. You are a fellow watchman on the wall. You believe and want to obey Jesus Christ, who said as recorded in Mark 13: 37: “What I say to one, I say unto all. Watch.”

We are thankful to have such brothers and sisters in Christ to help in serving as God’s heavenly media. The Lord has chosen this and other prophetic forums to be His “forewarning news service” in this, what must certainly be the very last days of this Age of Grace.

We have an awesome responsibility as we watch the satanic forces of this planet attempt to quench freedom’s light and enslave peoples everywhere. The Creator of all things views our mission in this regard as an eternally important matter. Ezekiel the prophet stated the gravity with which the Lord considers our duty in these troubling although exciting days: “But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand” (Ezekiel 33:6).

So, how do we “blow the trumpet”? By doing exactly what we are doing. We sound the warning of judgment and wrath to come, something the world’s media will never recognize, much less about which they will “blow the trumpet” of forewarning.

Thank you for being part of this all-important effort in our Lord’s Royal Service.

News pundits are pontificating in every direction about what President-Elect Donald J. Trump’s priorities will be come January 20, 2017.

We are told about building the wall on our southern border. There is much talk about repealing and replacing Obamacare. We hear about the new president’s intention to power up the faded U.S. military and to do away with many of the executive orders that he believes have helped bring the American economy and social structure to an unacceptable status.

The new president’s priorities are, of course, important. We welcome new direction as we sense reprieve from the God of Heaven this election has brought. The prayers of God’s people, as I’ve pointed out previously has, I believe, helped win that reprieve from what seemed impending judgment.

Perhaps correction would be the most appropriate term. God’s people prayed that God would hear from Heaven and would put the nation on a course correction.

This, He seemingly has done.

He intervened a century ago to make a profound course correction following the raucous Gay Nineties and the debauched era following World War I termed the Roaring Twenties.

Writer John Steinbeck captured this corrective era in his novel, The Grapes of Wrath. And, it was indeed an era when the crops of corrective judgment, whose seeds of refusing to follow the God-designed course for America had been planted more than a decade earlier, came to fruition.

Again, the tremendous Dust Bowl of the 1930s, I’m convinced, was a corrective measure while God prepared the American people for the Second World War–a conflict God didn’t cause, but certainly used to temper and harden this nation to make it ready to meet its destiny.

That destiny was primarily to bring modern Israel to birth on May 14, 1948. Also, to spread the gospel to the world through advancing communications technologies. The United States was blessed, economically, from that point, making it the wealthiest and most technologically advanced nation that has ever existed.

So, while Mr. Trump’s political agenda is important, even critical, to achieving worthy, laudable goals in turning America in the right direction, Heaven’s priorities are truly the matters for which God’s reprieve have been so mercifully given.

Of course, the Church (all born-again believers) should take this reprieve as a mandate to recapture moral ground–to roll back some of the social evils the Obama administration has brought forth–most through executive fiat. It is that very Church which has, in my estimation, allowed this slide toward the moral abyss through her acquiescence.

However, that said, I am convinced that the same two major issues are involved in this God-given reprieve.

Heaven’s post-election priorities again involve 1) seeing to it that the gospel message is carried forth throughout the world; and 2) that the nation Israel continues to have the most powerful nation on the planet as an ally and protector.

It is beyond argument that God doesn’t need the United States to protect Israel. But, it is also beyond argument–to my way of thinking, at least–that the Lord has used America to act first as midwife in birthing Israel into modernity and then to act as guardian during decades since that rebirth. The Lord of Heaven has chosen America for this specific function, it is likely, for as long as the planet remains in the pre-Tribulation era.

There will come a time when Israel will be under the wrathful hand of Antichrist and the rest of the world. God will intervene directly at that time. Daniel the prophet, passing along the angel’s words, puts it this way:

“And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” (Dan 12: 1)  

So, while we watch the unfolding of post-election aftermath, let us view things through the prism of Bible prophecy. We are not about to go into an era that offers prospect of the Church building Heaven on earth as the Kingdom-Now purveyors would have it. All is further stage-setting for the Rapture of the Church and the appearance of the son of perdition . 

But, it is a reprieve from Heaven we are witnessing and living, so let’s keep in mind Heaven’s priorities.

The Great Commission is still the top priority. Bringing as many lost people as possible into God’s family before the time of Tribulation is our post-election mandate.

In presenting this week’s commentary, I must be careful to preface my thoughts. This is to make clear that I fully realize that the nation of which I am a citizen has no special, private, import, or status within God’s prophetic dealing with mankind, so far as its people being a restraint against the influence of evil is concerned. I can say only that I believe America is, very likely, the nation in which the highest number of Christians reside.

By “Christians,” I mean people who are “born again” in the sense of the words Jesus spoke on the matter of salvation as recorded in John 3:3-7. As a matter of fact, the United States has descended from being the most Christ-centered to, perhaps, the most base nation on the planet, in terms of exportation of the world’s entertainment filth. With the constitutionally legalized murder of more than 4,000 babies in the womb per day, we have spit in the face of the Almighty, telling Him that His love for the human race means nothing in view of expediency in the matter of lust for pleasure.

That established–that America is no longer the shining city on the hill to be admired–the United States still possesses the residual vestiges of greatness. The nation retains, I believe, remnants of the Christian ethic sufficient to be an influence in these closing days of the Age of Grace.

What I am saying–at least it is my intention to say–is that the born again within this nation do, indeed, have a special and private duty to perform in these times that look to be very near the first phase of Christ’s Second Coming. Because of American Christians and their position within present history as the Church Age closes, I’m convinced that we can examine a specific prophetic section of God’s Word and receive insight as to precisely where we stand as a generation on Heaven’s prophetic timeline. That specific prophetic section is found in the following verses:

And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 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. (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8)

The reference “he who now letteth” in this passage is to God, the Holy Spirit–the third Person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit, Paul is prophesying, has been and is acting as restrainer of evil in the present world. God, the Holy Spirit, will continue to restrain the end-times evil until God removes from acting as the restraining influence during this Church-Age dispensation.

We who believe in the pretribulation, premillennial view of Bible prophecy hold that the Holy Spirit indwells each born again (saved) person during this Age of Grace (Church Age). Christians are thus known, collectively, as the church. The church, indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, is the Body of Christ, individually and corporately. It is this body of believers who act as salt and light for a world of corruptive evil that would otherwise bring about total decay, causing every area of human existence to implode.

The Holy Spirit will, therefore, the above prophecy informs, live within and exert influence through believers in Jesus Christ until the moment God no longer acts as restrainer of this world’s evil. This truth provides the answer to the question that is being asked prolifically in one form or another: When will all of the evil that is threatening America and the world bring civilization crashing down?

Some of that evil that looms threateningly over our daily lives brings worried glances from even the most ardent skeptics of Bible prophecy. An economic storm of unprecedented magnitude hangs angrily above America, with national debt that just turned $20 trillion as the Democrat Party–chief among contributors to the fiscal madness asks us once again to put its ultra-liberal candidate into the presidency.— (The Republican Party, it must be said, contributed mightily to the staggering debt load as well.)

It amazes even the global gurus of finance as to why the world isn’t already crushed by the impending economic crash. Iran’s leadership tells Israeli leaders practically every day that they intend to wipe the Jewish state from the face of the earth. They do little to hide the fact that they are in the process of bringing into reality nuclear weapons that can make their destructive wishes a fait accompli.

With such an avowed, blood-thirsty enemy, missiles trained on Israel and, some believe, on the very brink of producing atomic weaponry, it astonishes many observers that the Israeli Defense Force hasn’t already risked initiating all-out war by destroying Iran’s nuclear production facilities.

Absolute evil pervades every strata of society. The days like those of Sodom and of the antediluvian times of Noah inflict debauchery and violence that only a decade ago would have seemed far distant. Islam is allowed to usurp, in some cases, the U.S. Constitution, favoring Sharia Law in order to show tolerance. At the same time, Christianity is pushed to the margins of society and held up as intolerant by the tolerance police–through the insane institutions many of the federal courts have become.

Yet, the world holds together, while seeming to be on the very cusp of “Implosion,” as the title of Joel Rosenberg’s book would have it.

The Restrainer is at work. I believe that’s the answer to why the implosion has not happened, bringing total devastation to this judgment-bound earth. When the Restrainer removes and the church is called to be with Christ, I’m convinced the impending horrors that have for so long engendered the questions about the end will fall instantly upon a Christ-rejecting world.

Are you Rapture Ready?

This time of year always reminds me of the issues of life and death. My dad died near this date in 1992. My pain from His passing from this life, while diminished over the twenty-four years since, continues to evoke a sense of emptiness–a void that nothing can fill.

Jesus, while on earth in the flesh, the Bible tells us, experienced in His Spirit every human emotion that involves suffering. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Where death of a loved one is concerned, we can be assured our pain is understood by God Himself, because Jesus wept over the death of His friend Lazarus (John 11:33-35). Life and death, then, constitute an issue very close to the heart of the Creator of all things, the Heavenly Father.

More than any other matters involved in the issues of this presidential election, I believe it was life and death that were most important to consider in exercising not just our right, but our duty, to vote. I believe with all that is within me that America’s slide toward national oblivion began in earnest with the imposition of abortion as a legally sanctioned death-style by the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Since that time, a holocaust of immense magnitude has brought the deaths– I believe the murder— of 58 million human beings in the wombs of their mothers. Abortion is the nucleus of the national sin around which this all-important issue involving life and death revolves.

However, the gravity created by many corollary aspects within life and death as an issue also contributes to sucking the American soul ever more deeply into the quicksand of decay. As a result, the removal of the protective hand of Almighty God from our nation can, I believe, be easily observed taking place on a daily basis.

Sociologists who compile such statistical information report that America has a homosexual population of no more than 5 percent. Yet, the gay agenda has overtaken American society and culture as if gays constitute the 95 percent majority of our population, instead of the other way around. Since the days of the Moral Majority’s efforts to stem the tide of national immorality, there has been so little such organized opposition to the roughshod overrunning of America’s social structure as to make opposition virtually nonexistent.

These two issues, abortion and homosexuality, represent ways diametrically opposed to life. They are devoted to death. They are directly devoted to rebellion against the Giver of life.

Abortion is outright murder of the innocent (the shedding of innocent blood, as God’s Word puts it [Proverbs 6:16-19]). Homosexuality, when carried to its ultimate outcome, means the elimination of human life from the earth. Rebellion against the God who created us–manifest most egregiously in our culture through these two great sins–is the cause for all of the other problems resident within the issues that so trouble us, individually and governmentally. Whether talking about the sins of fornication and adultery within our heterosexual numbers or any other anti-God transgression one can list, rebellion–doing what is right in our own eyes—festers at the heart of humanity’s death wish. And, a death wish fallen man indeed has, because there is no sign of let-up in the march down the broad way to perdition.

Rebellion brings loss of common sense at some point. It produces a reprobate mind (Romans 1:26-27), the scripture informs. We are witnessing the insanity in handling the problems that are proliferating, thus the meltdown of social, economic, and all other elements within human affairs in these troubling times. We face, as a nation and as a world, certain destruction because of our refusal to follow the prescription for life offered by God’s love letter to mankind–the Bible.

“For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). The moral issues, then, most directly affect our lives, according to God’s own Word. Of course, in thinking upon this presidential election, I realize that those lost in rebellion-transgression can never recognize that the moral issues are most directly relevant to our well-being as a nation.

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Sadly, tragically, much of God’s own family–born-again people—have become so blinded to the lies fed them by the social architects and engineers who say man can build heaven on earth that most missed what truly matters as they approached the voting booths this November.

I will not be so arrogant as to scold the readers of this commentary for whom they voted in this presidential election or for any other office in this or any election. But, I will suggest that you think carefully in hindsight on what your candidate claimed was his or her position, according to party platforms and/or stated positions on these matters that are so close to the very heart of our God.

America has always presented voters with choices on the issues that affect our quality of life. The founding fathers saturated their writings with Judaeo-Christian principles while formulating this great experiment in liberty. They intended for “we the people” to stand upon solid moral ground. Christians should seek that solid ground in this election just past and in every election, even when faced with having to vote in many cases for and against spiritually fallen individuals as candidates.

Although eroded and under constant assault, our process still produces Judaeo-Christian options that offer the quality of life–i.e., options that are not in opposition to biblical principles. Such was the case in this election. We can be assured that we will be held accountable for the options we choose when we–and I believe it could be soon— stand before Christ at the judgment seat.