An interesting email appeared in my in box the other day. It set me to exploring in a slightly different direction things that looks to constitute a major quandary in trying to understand certain prophecies, juxtaposed against realities of these strange times.

The emailer–Dan—put his queries this way: “I do have one question that I have asked many, but to date no answer. I am still wondering how under the New World Order, led by the revived Roman Empire, [is the rising of the Islamic threat to Israel and the rest of the world going to be squelched]? Is this part of the “Covenant” that the Beast will confirm after the Rapture, or does a PS 83-type war need to take place first?”

–A couple of very good, and most relevant question, to be sure…

We have only to think about how Islam has made inroads into Western Europe–and, in fact, into this nation–to understand the seeming insurmountable problem the world faces with that religion, as implicit within Dan’s email queries. Only twelve short years ago, America was viciously attacked by the same religious zeal that over the years since has set our hourly news headlines ablaze. More than 3,000 people, the majority of them U.S. citizens, were forced to jump or be burned alive in the towering infernos, or die where they were on the hijacked planes and in the Pentagon, when nineteen Muslims carried out the orders of Osama bin Laden on America’s most tragic day in history.

Yet Islam is like a protected species adopted by the leftist do-gooders of the eco-freak sorts who think humankind should–except for them, I suppose–be eliminated, so that Mother Earth can return to her pristine condition. It is the same perverted, intolerant mindset that says it is the right thing to do to marginalize Christianity because Christians are intolerant, while embracing a religion whose “holy” book demands that all who will not bow the knee to Allah are legitimate targets for elimination by the most heinous methodologies available.

The Obama administration and its slavish mainstream media–both news and entertainment—have done all they can to try to convince us that Islam is a “religion of peace.” We have seen the president and his underlings go to extreme absurdities to blame anyone and everyone except Islamist terrorists for their dastardly deeds. We remember vividly the Benghazi murder of the American ambassador and some genuine American heroes, and the totally disproved claim by the White House and State Department that it was an anti-Mohammed YouTube video that caused a spontaneous riot, thus incited the good people of the area to commit the murders. That episode serves as prime example.

An insanity of sort pervades the minds of those who continue to insist that Islam asserts no threat to civilization, and that if we just embrace that religion, whose adherents refuse to assimilate, and who rather create enclaves within our own republic ruled by sharia law, they will love and accept us as fellow Americans and live at peace with the world. The truth is that the best thing one can say about that belief system is that at least you have a choice: bow the knee to Allah or die.

So, to get back to my emailer’s question. “How under the New World Order, led by the revived Roman Empire, [is the rising of the Islamic threat to Israel and the rest of the world going to be squelched]? Is this part of the “Covenant” that the Beast will confirm after the Rapture, or does a PS 83-type war need to take place first?”

The title of this commentary is “Why Islam Might Buckle.” Therefore, one can—correctly–presume that I infer that this unyielding religious system that harbors at its spiritually black center the murderous terrorism with which we are all too familiar will succumb to outside forces, or by implosion. It appears at this particular moment in history that such a thing as Islam buckling to any sort of pressure short of being defeated in war is nearly an impossibility. It is on the march across the Middle East, and around the world. The very civilization it wants to behead if their victims don’t bow the knee seems blind to the dangers of the scimitar-wielding juggernaut.

Will it be a Psalms 83 war that will cause Islam to buckle–to cease to be a threat? My own thoughts include the belief that Psalms 83 is an imprecatory prayer, not a prophesied war. It is a plea by the chosen people for the Lord to vanquish their immediately surrounding enemies (enemies within the Mideast region). It is a plea that I believe will be answered by God when He destroys all but one-sixth of the Gog-Magog forces who attack, according to Ezekiel, chapters 38-39.

I know all of the arguments presented by the growing numbers who believe Psalms 83 will be an actual war. If I’m wrong, I will profusely apologize for not seeing it coming. I have considered all of the thinking by those such as my good friend Bill Salus–who is an absolutely brilliant thinker and writer, in my estimation. However, I must listen to the inner voice speaking to my own spirit. I simply can’t see Psalms 83 as a war, but as a prayer that will soon be answered when God decimates Russia, Iran, and “many people with thee” (Ezekiel 38:6).

That said, I do believe that the Gog-Magog war will effectively eliminate Islam as any future threat–will take it off the table of war-making.

But, there is one other thought I would like to interject that could, in my thinking, cause Islam to buckle, as my article’s title would have it. God will send “strong delusion,” He says as recorded in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. This will happen post-Rapture. The Holy Spirit will withdraw as restrainer of evil. The minds of mankind–of all races and belief systems–will be open to unimaginable influences from Satan and his minions during that most horrible of times in history.

It is my belief that Islamists will be “deluded,” if you want to term it as such. That is, even the minds of Satan’s own religious deception will be profoundly affected by the delusion of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, thus will be easily persuaded to go along with Antichrist and allow the rebuilding of the Jewish temple atop Mount Moriah.

Certainly, anything that could change the mindset of the imams of Islam would necessitate supernatural action of the most profound sort. God’s prophetic Word says that just such profound, supernatural action is forthcoming!

One thing sure… Islam will one day buckle.

The year 2016 more than lived up to the anticipation it harbored back when I wrote my Nearing Midnight commentary at the beginning of last year. I want to present that article here, with the caveat that I anticipate even more profound prophetic unfolding in 2017.

Piercing the Perils of 2016

Never in my own memory has a new year appeared at its beginning to be more prophetically interesting. Never–in my thinking, at least–has one portended more perilous times, as the apostle Paul would have it. Yet I wouldn’t trade my time on this darkening planet with anyone of any other generation.

The fact that the Lord of Heaven has put me here at this strange, ominous, yet immensely fascinating time in history makes it all the more intriguing–even riveting, in terms of wanting to know what happens next. He has put you here, too, at this time when the final curtain is about to fall. He has trusted you to be an actor in at least part of the final scenes of this great, cosmic play called human history. No illustrious personages of the past–not Julius Caesar, not Napoleon Bonaparte, not Alexander the Great, not even Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or Ronald Reagan were so privileged. We are about to serve as active members of a most especially commissioned cast who populates the end-times stage.

There is about to occur a schism–a separation–of cataclysmic proportion. It will rend one part of humanity from the other. It will not be a natural catastrophe that will inflict the humanity-dividing rift. It won’t be great political upheaval in America and around the world that will cause the tearing apart of life upon the troubled planet. Those things will certainly happen. But it won’t be acts of nature or of man that will bring about the very last scene of the age. That last act will be orchestrated by the Master Director of all Creation–by the Lord God of Heaven who is the final judge of good and evil.

The excitement presaging that grand climax of the age is building. Momentous events, written on the pages of Holy Scripture, are about to come alive. The final curtain will rise when Jesus steps out on the clouds of glory and calls all believers–His Bride, the Church, to Himself. If you are a believer in Christ alone for salvation, you will catch the grand finale as you watch from the luxuriant balconies of Heaven.

We see the drama building all around us for the tumultuous scenes set to play out during the times just ahead. The year 2016 is cloaked in the fog of malevolence this world continues to wrap itself in–an increasingly anti-God, anti-Christ vesture that embraces humanism forewarned about by the psalmist.

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. (Psalms 2: 1-3)

A quick scan of the news just the past week exposes, I believe, the arrogance of those the Scriptures call “earth-dwellers” who incessantly strive to break asunder the governance God rightfully placed upon His creation called man. The reports are laden with prophetic indicators.

One such report is seen in the prideful claims by a U.S. State Department spokesman, as the boast involves the increasing call for “peace and safety,” While the situation in Syria grows intensely worse by the hour, with the Syrian people torn violently between the forces of Syrian dictator Basher Al-Assad and the hordes of ISIS murderers, Secretary of State John Kerry is lauded as bringing about a peace that just isn’t happening and will never come to pass.

State Department spokesman John Kirby wrote under the headline, “Bringing peace and security to Syria”: “Under Secretary of State John Kerry’s stewardship the United Nations passed a U.S. sponsored resolution to create a road map for Syria.” Again, the problem is that like in all of the humanistic efforts at bringing true peace, the only “peacemaker” is kept out of the peacemaking. Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, is denied at every turn by the president of the very country that speciously purports to be making the peace. (President Obama, remember, upon his very first week in office, proclaimed that the United States is not a Christian nation.)

The president of the United States of America, in effect, proclaimed regarding the governance of the God of Heaven: “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.”

We can believe what that omniscient, omnipotent, governing authority has to say about such arrogance and willfulness. The message is chilling for the planet’s inhabitants who will be left behind when the great schism aforementioned takes place.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. (Psalms 2: 4-6)

Details of what is about to take place in 2016, of course, lurks in the murkiness of an ever-increasing pall of trepidation. But, for those who are secure within the unshakable, impenetrable shelter of their Lord and Savior, there is no reason to fear. Piercing that black uncertainty is an effulgence that lights the path to the brightest of all possible futures. It is that Blessed Hope of Titus 2: 13!

These days, it seems, we are more and more frequently given reports that a 100- year storm has occurred. These are happening about every other year, and many prophecy watchers believe that these great storms have biblically prophetic overtones.

Certainly, I have to admit that there appears to be some relevance, these storms to how Israel is treated. White House correspondent Bill Koening is one Bible prophecy student who writes on these kinds of weather and other occurrences with regard to, particularly, America’s dealing with Israel. John McTernin is another writer on these matters that I find fascinating.

We remember Hurricane Katrina, for example, when the Bush administration had pressured the Jewish state to move Jewish Israelis in order that so-called Palestinians could move in. Katrina entered the Gulf of Mexico during this time and the results was that thousands of Americans along the Gulf Coast and beyond were forced to leave their homes. The storm was one of the worst in U.S. history.

With major tornadoes in many areas and flooding along U.S. rivers having seemed to increase over the past number of years, some have attributed the virulent weather to climate change or global warming. Others have seen the significance of these 100-year-type storms as relating directly to the treatment the Obama administration has given Israel over the past eight years.

We remember that close to the very first thing the president did was to snub the Israeli prime minister, leaving him after a few minutes of their meeting in the White House to go to the family’s private dining quarters. Mr. Obama has continued with his coolness to Benjamin Netanyahu since that very first meeting. At the same time, Obama has made nice at every opportunity with the leaders of the Muslim world, while giving lip service to support for the Jewish state. As a matter of fact, Obama is on record as saying right up front of his eight years in office that he intended to “put space” between America and Israel. This, ostensibly, to develop better relationship with the Arab states so that there could develop a greater chance for establishing peace in the region.

It was the old George W. Bush effort revived–trying to show the Muslims and the world that we were really their friends. The question to ask, of course, is: Have relations improved? No, they have grown worse.

The 100-year storm to which I refer as given in this commentary’s title is the international, diplomatic storm in which Israel currently finds itself. The first such storm it faced happened almost a half century before it became a nation in 1948. Israel was promised territory for establishing a nation in the region of its traditional homeland when the British issued the Balfour Declaration, written by British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour and issued by the government led by Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

That promise read:

Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917.

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

While there is little doubt that there was a genuine desire to establish a Zionist safe haven with the declaration, it is even more certain that the action was primarily taken–in the view of most historians–to give the British access to the Suez territory for hegemonic purposes.

When British General Edward Allenby entered Jerusalem, there was relative peace for a time. The Arabs of the region began to create strife against the Jews shortly thereafter, determined to not allow the British to put their geopolitical plans into action.

British General Louis Bols, put in charge of Jerusalem, disliked Zionism and rather than see to it the Balfour Declaration accomplished establishment of a Jewish homeland and protected the Jews, looked the other way at the Arab atrocities.

The betrayal by the British instigated a regional conflict–an ethnic storm that is raging today. And now, one hundred years later to the year, there has been set in motion another storm, instigated by Britain–and sadly–by the United States of America.

The Palestinian Authority has since 2015 pushed to change the language by which UNESCO speaks of Jerusalem and the holy sites, so that they are referred to almost exclusively by their Muslim names. The U.N. and its Israel-hating membership has done all within that body’s power to de-legitimize Israel as having any historical ties to the Temple Mount, or to the region, for that matter.

And now the Security Council resolution condemning settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, unopposed by Israel’s allies, America, and Britain is a betrayal of the worst sort.

Secretary of State John Kerry said on December 28 that the only chance for Israel to live in peace in the future is to accept a two-state solution. Implicit within his words is condemnation of Israel as the sticking point to peace in the region. Also, I infer, he is, along with his boss Barack Obama, threatening to abandon Israel altogether if Netanyahu refuses to give land for peace.

This last-ditch effort of the Obama administration to intimidate Israel comes as too little, too late, for their nefarious plans. Donald Trump has reassured Netanyahu and the Jewish people that the betrayal will not stand. Maybe, for a time at least, there is to be a ray of sunshine beyond this 100-year storm.

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.