Author’s note: This week’s blog post was first published on September 15, 2008. Today the problem of those who “revile” the Rapture hasn’t abated. As a matter of fact, according to the weekly comments I get, almost exclusively from those who are presumably born again, the invective against the Rapture is on the increase, not on the decline.

So addressing again, at this particular time, this denial of Christ’s promise to rescue His Church, as He did in giving John His guarantee as recorded in Revelation 3:10, is altogether appropriate. 

An emailer this past week addressed an ongoing matter that is perplexing, in that Christians read the same Word from God—the Bible—yet the message the children of God take from the same passages they read can be so different as to be troubling. Nowhere in the Holy Scriptures is this divergence of inferred meanings more pronounced than those pertaining to prophecy yet future—narrowing the problem, thinking about the Rapture of the Church.

Here are the emailer’s words, with a few redactions for the sake of not wanting to violate privacy, or to cast aspersions on specific people.

Hello Terry, I just wanted to ask you a question, and possibly have you post this on your “Interesting Email” for other visitors who have possibly had a similar experience. I listen to [a well-known Bible teacher and radio program host] every morning on my way to work. I consider him to be a “true born-again Christian,” and really enjoy hearing his teachings. He seems very knowledgeable of God’s Word. I have never heard anything from him that contradicts the word of God. However, on a recent radio program, he was teaching on the millennium… [He] was expounding on “premillennium,” “amillennium,” and “post-millennium.”

I know that he has a theological education of these issues [that] exceeds most layman’s understanding, but there was something that he said upset me during this broadcast. He happened to bring up the pretribulation rapture, and to me, he sounded as if he had contempt for the theory of a pretrib rapture.

Now, here is where my question comes in. Why do most theologians today seem to have this contempt, if I may call it that, for any teaching on a pretrib rapture? To paraphrase [the radio host’s words] on this, he said that he has never been able to find even one shred of evidence of a pretribulation rapture in the bible, and from the sound of his voice when he said it, I guess I formed my own opinion that he had contempt for this theory. Anyway, the point I am try to make here is that I realize Christians do not have to agree on this idea to receive salvation and enter the kingdom of heaven as long as they are grounded in sound doctrine concerning the true meaning of salvation: that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, and no man can come to the Father except through Him and His blood sacrifice on the cross. I just don’t understand why a pretribulation rapture theory seems to provoke people to the point of becoming hostile of this theory, and sometimes, even toward the Christians [who] believe it. Personally, I believe that the pretrib rapture can be found in Scripture if a person will just read God’s Word with an open heart and mind, along with prayer for the Holy Spirit to guide them.

This question by our Rapture Ready friend involves things that have always puzzled me, too, and I’ve written about matters attendant to the subject on a number of occasions. Why the vitriol, the seeming hatred for the pre-Trib view, even for those of us who teach the Bible from a pre-Trib Rapture view?

I believe it flows from satanic rage that affects even the born again.

To know who is right—these like the radio host to whom the emailer refers (who believe the pre-Trib Rapture is a lie from the pit of hell, as they sometimes put it) or we who teach the pre-Trib Rapture—it is best to just examine what’s going on all around us these days.

A large segment of the Rapture revilers say all prophecy was fulfilled with the AD 70 destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by Titus and the Roman legions. Some believe the world has, since that date, been in the Tribulation. They spiritualize and allegorize all prophecy we see as yet future.

They believe modern Israel isn’t God’s chosen, that God is finished with the Jews, and that the Church now has been given the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Is God indeed finished with Israel?

God’s Word says Israel will be a nation just before His Son returns. His chosen people will be hated. It will be at the center of all the world’s national chaos and controversy. Is this happening, or not?

There will be a false peace made between Israel and its enemies that will affect the whole world, God’s Word says. Do we see any peace process in progress that involves Israel, its enemies, and, in effect, the entire world?

There will be a great power due north of Jerusalem and Israel whose leader will “think an evil thought.” Do we see any sign of such a power due north of Israel?

Take a string on a globe and put it on Jerusalem. Run that string straight up from Jerusalem. Does that string bisect any major city? Moscow!

Persia, the prophetic Word of God says, will be a key partner with that leader and his nation, Rosh, the ancient name for the area that now is covered by Russia. These and a coalition called “Magog” will invade toward Israel, according to Ezekiel 38 and 39. Do we see any collusion between Persia (Iran today) and Rosh (Russia today)?

There will be a coming back together, the Bible says, of the ancient Roman Empire (the last empire of Nebuchadnezzar’s metallic man-image as seen in the Babylonian king’s night-vision). Do we see that development taking place in our news today? Yes. The European Union.

Many like the radio host/teacher the emailer mentions believe this world will be made better and better until Christ comes back to assume the earthly throne. Do we see the world getting better and better? Or is the world getting worse, according to the daily and hourly news headlines, just like prophetic Scripture predicts?

There are another dozen or more signals I could mention to draw the comparison between the beliefs the preterists and other anti-Rapture teachers hold and the pre-Trib/dispensational view we hold. Space does not allow.

The preponderance of evidence, both biblical and literal (things in the news), comes down thunderously on the side of the pretribulational, premillennial view of eschatology.

Why do they hate the pre-Trib view and the Rapture teaching in considering things to come? I’m convinced it is because Satan hates Israel and the Lord’s plan to save remnants out of Israel and out of humankind in general.

These who hurl invectives are deluded, in denial. I don’t doubt their salvation. But I do doubt their faithful adherence to God’s prophetic Word. They prefer man-made eschatology, and that is given not by the Holy Spirit, but by Lucifer, the fallen one. One prophecy in particular speaks to the Rapture revilers’ attitude toward Christ’s coming in a sudden, unexpected intrusion upon a world that will be conducting its nefarious business as usual:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (2 Peter 3:3–4).

Jesus, I am convicted, spoke to this very end-times moment in which we now live in telling about His end-of-this-Age-of-Grace, sudden intervention into the intolerable wickedness of humankind. By the use of the adjective “intolerable,” I mean in the eyes of our Holy God.

Jesus described the time of that future intervention, as we’ve looked at many times in this column. He said it will be like it was in the days of Noah and, more specifically, in the days of Lot, when He will next bring catastrophic judgment to the earth like that with which God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Following Lot and his family being taken by the angels’ hands and removed from the doomed city of Sodom to a place of safety, sudden destruction fell from above, decimating that whole region that had become intolerable to Heaven’s sense of righteousness.

The people of Sodom and Gomorrah undoubtedly no longer recognized as wickedness the evil that occurred every day and every night. They had, apparently, willfully immersed themselves in the absolute immorality that had totally polluted their society and culture. I think it’s fair to say this was the situation at that time because God destroyed all those living there, except for Lot and his family, with Jesus saying that Lot was “righteous in God’s eyes.” And that—God seeing Lot as righteous—obviously, we can conclude, was why Lot wasn’t so judged along with the others.

We leap forward now to our own time, examining and considering these days that almost certainly mirror those days of antiquity. If these days in which we live are the days about which Jesus prophesied —the time that will be like the time when Lot was removed so God’s judgment and wrath could fall—we must think on God’s method of removing the righteous so God’s sense of justice and righteousness can deal with the evil and wickedness of this world.

I choose not to go into all of the evil we’re witnessing all around us, and at every level, in this article. We’ve gone over these anti-God matters many, many times for, literally, years. I choose rather to think with you on a matter that’s among those of greatest interest to believers in Jesus Christ—the born again for salvation.

The Rapture of all born-again believers is inseparably linked to Jesus’ prophecy about the days of Lot in that Luke 17:26–30 account. The born-again believers in Christ for salvation of their souls are the righteous who, like Lot, will be removed at the Rapture (the twinkling-of-an-eye moment) when Jesus calls them into the clouds of Glory. This great event is, therefore, also linked inseparably to the sudden destruction that, like in the days of Lot, completely destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Apostle Paul was shown the mystery that is the Rapture of the Church. Paul was also given, through Holy Spirit revelation, prophetic truth about the terrible judgment that will immediately begin to fall upon those left behind—those committed to the evil and wickedness of this fallen world.

The following is Paul’s warning in that regard, linking sudden destruction to the Rapture of all believers.

But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:1–3)

The great apostle had, as recorded in the chapter just preceding this in 1 Thessalonians 5, gone into detail about the Rapture. He then gives the above prophecy, saying no one knows exactly when, but when the Rapture occurs, sudden destruction will come. This, of course, is exactly what our Lord said in the days of Lot prophecy.

At the same time the earth and those left behind are experiencing God’s judgment and wrath and the coming rule by Satan’s final dictator, Antichrist, all who have gone to Christ at the moment of Rapture will experience a “dynamic destiny.”

Here is the “mystery” the Lord told his immediate disciples—and what He later revealed to Paul, and, through His recorded words in the Bible, gave the great message of comfort for all of us who follow Jesus as our Savior and Lord:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1–3)

And the Apostle Paul was further given, through Holy Spirit enlightenment, an exciting promise of the dynamic destiny of every believer at the moment of Rapture forward into eternity:

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. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9)

Again, Paul addresses the sudden destruction/dynamic destination matters, bringing them to a most comforting conclusion:

For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. (1 Thessalonians 5:9–11) 

Of course, if you don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ (haven’t accepted His grace gift offer for redemption from sin that separates your soul from God and Heaven), then you are, tragically, appointed to the wrath of God and His judgment for your sinful condition.

Here is how you can assure that you will not have to go through the Tribulation, or be eternally separated from God and Heaven:

That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)

There is a powerful monetary tide sweeping the world toward what Jesus called the worst time of human history (Matthew 24:21).

One prophetic element stands out in considering the seven-year Tribulation era, with regard to the Antichrist regime. That’s the economic platform prophesied to be at the heart of the Beast system.

With so many signals in view that point to the brewing Tribulation tempest, we should expect—if we’re reading the end-times signals correctly—that this heart of the Beast should be well along in its construction. We’ve covered all the indicators found within current issues and events that we believe are signals like those given by Jesus and the prophets. National and world economies have been dealt with in our efforts to make prophetic sense of the dynamic rearrangements taking place in recent years, months, weeks, and days.

America’s staggering weight of debt and swift economic decline is front and center in pointing to the fact, we believe, that this is the generation that stands at the end of one dispensation–the Church Age—and upon the precipice of the next—the Tribulation. Each hour seems to bring additional confirmation that the Tribulation storm is about to break upon an uncomprehending world. Such confirmation is present in abundance in the realm of geopolitics and global economics.

America, as we’ve pointed out many times, is at the center of this global economic turbulence. President Donald J. Trump’s administration has made it a priority, of course, to bring the US back into fiscal sanity. The cutback in profligate spending to fund causes the world over is being stopped. That effort has thrown the rest of the world–particularly the nations of Europe—into a panic. For example, take a look at this reaction by France’s president:

Now [French President Emmanuel Macron] feels he has to go full hawk in response to US President Trump, as on Wednesday in a nationally televised address he claimed Putin is now threatening all of Europe and has declared, dubiously, that Russian aggression “knows no borders.”

Macron pulled out all the stops, and appears to be making himself into the European version of Russia’s Medvedev, going maximal no limits jingoism. “President Putin is violating our borders to assassinate opponents, manipulate elections,” he claimed in the remarks.

“We need to prepare,” the French president said, amid a broader European push to ‘fill the gap’ in the wake of President Trump suspending all US arms shipments to Kiev, as well as intelligence-sharing. On Sunday during a London security conference of European leaders, UK PM Kier Starmer presented a plan of up to 30,000 UK peacekeeping troops for Ukraine, supported by France.

“I want to believe that the US will stand by our side, but we have to be ready for that not to be the case,” Macron said in reference to shifting Washington policy. (“Macron In Anti-Russia Rant Says France Considering Expanding Nuclear Umbrella To Europe,” Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge, March 6, 2025)

Since Bible prophecy clearly states that the Antichrist government, thus the economic engine that will power that absolute dictatorship, will emerge from Europe, we need keep our prophetic antennae pointed in that direction. We must be especially alert to news involving movement within Europe to cause significant changes to the global economic structure.

Prophecy scholars and others have long pondered why the US, the most powerful nation in history, isn’t mentioned by name–or even by significant reference—in God’s Word. We continue to flounder in attempts at finding an exact answer for that question. However, with the recent astonishing changes nationally and abroad, the answer seems to be in the process of forming.

Monetary manipulation is at the root of the change taking place. The American dollar must be removed as the currency standard so that a global currency not underwritten by any national monetary unit can be established. This is precisely the Beast economic order I’m convinced Bible prophecy describes as outlined in the following:

And he caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (Revelation 13:16–18)

This speaks to me of a computer system–a hybrid Internet—run by highly advanced AI, whereby all citizens of the global economic order will be absolutely controlled at every level of life. Probably, it will consist at its heart of electronic funds transfer (EFT)—a system of special drawing rights (SDR). Anyone refusing to toe the mark of the Antichrist’s regime will face having his or her SDR account blocked or removed completely from the system. Fear of starvation is a mighty motivator to comply.

Pressures are mounting for a completely changed global economic order. Even the king of the kings of the East, China, is at the center of the dynamics driving the changes.

Most economists who are honest will admit that the current building economic heap of debt cannot continue to accumulate. They are amazed, in fact, that everything hasn’t already collapsed into total, worldwide depression. I again offer my belief that it will be the Rapture that causes the ultimate implosion and collapse.

The great world leader called in Revelation “the Beast” will be there to implement a satanically inspired economic scheme that will at first offer hope–that will for a time “cause craft to prosper” (Daniel 8:25). But Antichrist’s plan will achieve what it will be designed to do: enslave most of the world in electronic bondage.

Jesus offers the opposite of what the counterfeit, Antichrist, will produce. Jesus promises: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). We must at every opportunity lift up the holy Name of Jesus before the eyes of a world headed into the terrors of the Tribulation.

Signals are in every direction that Christ will at any moment step onto the clouds of Glory and call all believers to Himself. Thus Christians will be kept out of that time of Tribulation, which will come upon all the world to judge those who have refused to accept God’s great gift of salvation.

Here again is how to receive that gift:

That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation. (Romans 10:9—10)

Believe me, this is an article I’d rather not write. My grandfatherly heart would much prefer avoiding the stories herein encountered, which I believe the Holy Spirit prompted me to address as I considered topics for this week’s post.

Many times I’ve written about the Apostle Paul’s “perilous times” prophecy found in 2 Timothy 3. I’ve always included the sign Paul termed “without natural affection”—most often along with all the other signs given in this prophecy—in general terms.

I’ve defined “without natural affection” in prophetic terms as mothers’ acceptance of abortion–the murder of their children while still in their wombs. This evil, when examined almost clinically as a symptom of the anti-godliness of the age, didn’t touch the most sensitive tissue of my spiritual heart.

I guess considering this prophesied sign of the very end of the age was somewhat akin to a forensic physician doing an autopsy. One just treated it as a prophetic matter of dissection, but without application of the process to being a personal, flesh-and-blood reality.

This examination of Paul’s “without natural affection” sign hit me much differently. As I alluded to above, the stories I encountered touched the grandparental tissue of my spiritual heart.

Truly, this generation has continued to experience all of the symptoms Paul said will be present in the days leading up to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. In America, this symptom is manifesting with women of certain political, ideological, reprobate thinking doing bizarre things to their bodies to prevent even the capability of having children. I won’t go into the details, but these insane acts are almost as terrible as the acts of those who engage in self-immolation in order to demonstrate for one cause or another.

The abortion movement has, in effect, ingrained into the mind of many young women that birthing children is an evil act, or at least, an act they see as abortion being an after-the-fact, birth-control option.

Discarding a baby, the abortion culture has infused into their thinking, is no more than removing unwanted refuse. The abortion mentality is a spiritually reprobate mindset that is “without natural affection.”

The following news item makes the case, I think, that we’re witnessing the Apostle Paul’s perilous times as perhaps never before.

A newborn baby is dead after an American tourist, who was on a study abroad trip, reportedly threw the child out of a Paris hotel’s window just moments after giving birth to it. A witness to the horrific incident reported to French police that they discovered the corpse at the Ibis Style hotel in the 20th arrondissement of Paris on rue des Realizes.

Authorities reported that the incident occurred around 6 a.m. Monday morning and that the child had been tossed from the establishment’s second-floor window. According to the witness, they heard screaming and were quick to raise the alarm.

Emergency services rushed to the scene in order to help the infant and rushed them to Robert-Debré Hospital, in the 19th arrondissement. It was also reported that a young woman, believed to be the child’s mother, was taken to the hospital.

Emergency services rushed to the scene in order to help the infant and rushed them to Robert-Debré Hospital, in the 19th arrondissement.

It was later confirmed by the Paris prosecutor’s office that the mother was on a study abroad program along with other students from the US. Law enforcement also confirmed that the baby had been thrown from the window “with the umbilical cord” still attached. It was reported by a local outlet that despite doctors’ best efforts, the baby perished…

The news of the dead child comes after a Russian mom was accused of giving birth in a Turkish airport bathroom and leaving her newborn submerged in freezing toilet water as she left to catch a flight home. Ekaterina Burnazkina, 29, has been charged with attempted murder after she allegedly abandoned her baby in an Antalya Airport restroom in October 2024.

The baby girl was discovered by a cleaner just 12 minutes later, narrowly avoiding a tragic death. Surveillance footage allegedly captured Burnazkina entering the facility on her own, only to emerge and rejoin her family as if nothing occurred. It was reported that Burnazkina pleaded for the return of her child in court. (“American Tourist, 18, ‘Throws Newborn Baby Out of Paris Hotel Window with Umbilical Cord’ Still Attached,” MSN, Jack Hobbs, Rapture Ready News, February 24, 2025)

The “without natural affection,” perilous-times indicator now manifesting worldwide isn’t just confined to woke America, as the story above proves. Those so against childbearing now term mothers who are with child as “inseminated persons,” so reprobate is their level of anti-God, cognitive malfunctioning.

This is but another reason I strongly believe all children will go to Christ when He calls believers in the Rapture. The children are innocent in God’s holy eyes. The world has treated them with contempt in far too many instances. The Lord, I’m convicted, will make a great heavenly statement about when life begins, and what He thinks about abortion and all other abuse of the children born into this fallen world.

Abortion, like all other sins, is forgivable. And our loving God is waiting to forgive the repentant. Here is how to be forgiven of this and any and all sins, to be forever in Christ’s presence and Heaven either when entering that realm through the portal of death, or when transported instantaneously into the clouds of Glory at the Rapture.

That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)

The stunning swiftness of moves made by this newly elected—or would that be re-elected—president brings into question just where the stage-setting for Antichrist’s ultimate base of power stands.

I refer to the fact that Mr. Trump has left America’s western European allies standing on the sideline and gawking from a distance as he enters negotiations with Vladimir Putin. The American president has unilaterally taken on the peace initiative in seeking to put an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.

His administration’s operatives, in preparing the way for the peace probe taking place, have stated that European nations will be consulted, but may not be present at the direct negotiations between Trump and Putin. This, to my way of thinking, is no doubt insulting to those governments. But I think it perhaps somehow will be instrumental in making Europe the most powerful governmental and military power to exist on earth.

This is a possible future reality when considering the Bible prophecy truth that the one who will be Antichrist will come from Europe—that is, from within the region surrounding the ancient city of the Caesars. Daniel the prophet gave us clue to this eventuation:

And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:26–27)

The “prince that shall come,” of course, refers here to the one who will be Antichrist. That prince, Daniel prophesies, will “confirm the covenant” with Israel and “the many.” This is the peace that begins the seven years of Tribulation. That prince comes out of the Roman Empire, whose capital, of course, was Rome. We know this will be a man from Rome, because it is the Roman Legion, led by General Titus, that in AD 70 destroyed the city and the sanctuary, as given in this prophecy.

Europe will be central to the ascension of this, history’s last and worst dictator. He will also be the most powerful tyrant to ever rule on earth. He will cause all, no matter their status, to obey him, or else die through execution or starvation.

So, in surveying the present status of this geopolitical nucleus out of which that future Antichrist will arise, it’s more than interesting to witness the almost inconsequential regard with which European leadership is being treated.

This announcement by the US president frames the situation.

TRUMP’S ULTIMATUM: THE U.S. HAS GIVEN EUROPE THREE WEEKS TO AGREE ON TERMS TO END THE UKRAINE WAR! IF WE DON’T, THE U.S. WILL WITHDRAW FROM EUROPE! BOOM!

It’s happening. President Donald J. Trump is DONE playing games with NATO and the corrupt Ukrainian war machine. The message is clear: either Europe agrees to terms and ends this disastrous war in Ukraine, or the United States pulls out of Europe completely. No more free rides. No more U.S. troops babysitting Europe while their leaders drag their feet. Trump is a man of action, and he just put NATO and Ukraine on notice. Three weeks. That’s all they have. If they don’t sign the deal, America is out. (“Trumps Ultimatum: The U.S. Has Given Europe Three Weeks to Agree on Terms to End the Ukraine War!,  amg-news.com, American Media Group Telegram, February 22, 2025)

And I believe this treatment of Europe we’re witnessing at this time in actuality is beginning a process that will result in establishing Antichrist’s power base.

The prophecy Jesus the Ascended Lord gave John to write foretells the power of this future “beast,” as he is called.

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? (Revelation 13:4)

Perhaps we’re watching through our hourly news at present the foundational moments of the construction of such awesome power as described here.

The Europeans now understand that America’s president isn’t playing around in the matter of the seemingly endless war between Russia and Ukraine. He has pushed that leadership aside, obviously considering them as blocking progress in bringing the bloody war to an end.

They’re now looking into what happens when America stops providing the greatest amount of money and military assets for Europe’s defense, which has been the case since World War I. Donald J. Trump has indicated in strong geopolitical, diplomatic language that things will change in this regard. The following report further provides some food for thought.

US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine has yet to be made public, but it is already abundantly clear that he expects Europe to play a far bigger role in the continent’s future security and the fight against Russian aggression. With the United States now looking to scale back its transatlantic commitments at a time when an openly revisionist Russia is embracing an expansionist agenda, European leaders must urgently adjust to the new geopolitical realities and prioritize security.

The Trump administration has moved rapidly to underline its expectations regarding an increased European role in the continent’s defense. Just days after his inauguration, Trump used an appearance at the World Economic Forum to reiterate his call for European NATO members to increase defense spending to five percent of GDP…

The starkest message so far has come from US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “Safeguarding European security must be an imperative for European members of NATO,” he told a February 12 meeting of Ukraine’s Western allies in Brussels. “Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine.” (“Europe Must Prepare to Defend Itself in an Increasingly Multipolar World,” Mykola Bielieskov, https://www.atlanticcouncil.org)

Increasingly, European leaders are seeing the handwriting on the wall, as the following validates:

The USA has, among other things, declared that Europe cannot count on American support for peacekeeping forces in the event of a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

European leaders fear that the USA’s President Donald Trump will make a peace agreement with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, over the heads of Ukraine and Europe.

Europe is aware that its relationship with the USA has entered a new phase, according to Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The Paris meeting was unanimous that a “significant increase in defense spending is absolutely necessary,” he summarized.

There is no point in getting irritated about our ally USA saying “spend more, get stronger, become more resilient,” said Tusk.

Leaders from Germany, the UK, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, and Denmark, as well as the EU and NATO, participated in the meeting. (“Europe after the Meeting: Must Build Up,” Sweden Herald, February 17, 2025)

This president, I believe, could well be fulfilling, unwittingly, the end-times movement toward Europe’s development of a unified military power base. When the Rapture occurs, America will be in disarray perhaps more than any other nation due to Christian influence within government and military being no longer here.

I believe the probability is strong that a greatly weakened US, because of disunity, will at a future time have to join with a powerfully unified European defense consortium. This coalition will then possess America’s awesome nuclear arsenal, along with all of its technological war-making assets. This would certainly bring to fulfillment the prophecy: “Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?”

These sudden and forceful dynamic rearrangements involving Europe indicate, I’m convicted, how near might be Christ’s call in the Rapture to believers of this Church Age.

It is time as never before to deliver to those who don’t know our Lord, Christ’s soul-redeeming message:

That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)

All during the Obama and Biden administrations, I considered the decline of America—deliberately perpetrated by those administrations in conjunction with the globalist cabal, i.e., these worked tirelessly to take down United States from the awesome American world hegemony the nation exerted for more than a century.

Now, everything is in such obvious change from the downward trajectory wrought from the four years Biden debacle that the ravenous media-haters of Trump can’t regain their balance in order to dig in against his prolific “winning,” as he terms it. And I must admit that I am off balance, too. What is this head-and-neck-twisting change in direction, with America again being looked to by even America’s enemies as standing at the top of the nation ladder, as they seemingly look to the new US leader for direction?

As I’ve related here before, I thought that with the coming of the first Trump presidency in 2016, the stage was being set for fulfillment of Luke 17:28-30. It seemed that Trump, the business mover and shaker, would bring the US and, in effect, the world back to a business-as-usual configuration. It would be, as Jesus said, “as it was in the days of Lot.” And that did to some extent happen. Business was beginning to boom.

Following the drastic downturn in the national and global economy during the Obama administration, I thought Trump and his immediate actions portended America’s return to dominance, with the dollar returning to prominence in being intricately linked to all other economies of the nation states. Then the shock set in when Donald Trump, in what I still consider a stolen election, was removed from office. This, in my estimation, took this nation and the world’s economy in general out of the business-as-usual time the Lord said will be the circumstance when He next intervenes, like He did in Lot’s day.

The country and the world did indeed then begin to degenerate under the Biden administration, particularly in the area of economic well-being. Then another shock–at least to those who so hate Donald J. Trump. He won the 2024 election–and with a healthy mandate to implement all of the many promises he made during the presidential election campaign.

Can anyone who is paying any attention at all deny that Trump has attacked the amazing number of things he promised to accomplish, and with lightning-like swiftness? And his actions go far beyond anything we could have anticipated.

Trump said he would bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war-making, and in short order. No one in the upper-crust diplomatic community believed that, for example, Russia’s Vladimir Putin could be brought into a reasonable negotiation mindset.

But Trump was almost immediately on the phone to Putin and reported that the former Soviet KGB agent-turned-president of the Russian Federation was willing to negotiate a settlement of the Ukraine matter. The power that continues to be exhibited by this unusual man called Trump now seemingly places America’s position again at the nation-state apex level of interaction.

For example, in the situation in Gaza, Trump, apparently even without the foreknowledge of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, announced America might take over there and clean up the mess so that the people of the area, after being exported from the region, could return to their home that would be almost resort-like.

The announcement, mentioned casually during Netanyahu’s Oval Office visit, took everyone by complete surprise. The mainstream media and all Trump-haters melted down, furious over such colonial audacity.

Trump said that Jordan and Egypt, he believed, would accept these Palestinian refugees for the time it takes to clean up the deadly ordnance and damage done by the Gaza war–damage caused by Hamas and their years of evil in control of the region.

The king of Jordan and the Egyptian leader both said they would not take these people into their countries under any circumstance. That was their initial and official statements.

Now, after being on the phone with Donald Trump, both have, it seems, relented, saying they would take some of these people–beginning with the very young, the elderly, and the infirmed.

Fact is, this complete change of mind by the Jordanian and Egyptian leaders is due to the man who is obviously the world’s top leader, just as America’s presidents have been touted to be, but have rarely attained such heights of power-wielding.

Additionally, the leaders of both Jordan and Egypt, as well as others of the Mideast, have indicated they are willing to consider funding the cleanup of the Gaza–a thing they previously scoffed at even considering. –Thus, it is conjectured, because they don’t want America having such presence and influence in their part of the world.

So Mr. Trump has begun shaping things in the way he apparently intends. He, it is thought, never intended to send American assets, economically, militarily, or otherwise to get Gaza cleaned up and Hamas completely out of the region. Some believe he used brilliant threat of American presence to get those in the region to do what needed to be done. His negotiation prowess is almost supernatural.

Now, we come back to earth. We ask: What is this all about, prophetically speaking? I haven’t a clue of the details.

I do, however, have a clue of a general nature from God’s Holy Word. There will be a peace arrangement that will come out of the region surrounding and involved with God’s chosen nation, Israel. This, I’m convinced/convicted, is precisely what is going on. This is all to prepare the geopolitical Middle East stage for the peace that will bring on Antichrist at some point, the man of sin who will confirm the covenant with Israel and the many. This is foretold for the last seven years by Daniel’s sixty-nine weeks of years and Daniel’s seventieth-week prophecy that leads to Christ’s triumphant return.

In all of this, Donald J. Trump is at the center. And…no, he will not be the Antichrist.

Again, I haven’t a clue of the details, but having witnessed all the things, including that miraculously foiled assassination attempt surrounding this strange human being (and one cannot deny he is out of the ordinary), I can conclude with certainty in my own thinking that he is God’s man for this equally strange end-times hour.

So whatever America’s ultimate fate, this nation, too, based on the power it now demonstratively is beginning to exert, is being used by heavenly prerogative as a stage-setting instrument to help bring God’s foretold things to conclusion. And that conclusion appears to be coming very quickly!

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

One of the falsest and most-cutting accusations launched at the belief that the Bible teaches that people can’t lose their salvation when they’re truly born again (John 3:3) is: “If you believe once saved, always saved, you’re saying people can live any way they want without fear of punishment.” Or so the line of condemning criticism goes.

The absolute assurance of eternal security, of course, engenders no such thought within the mind truly regenerated by the saving power of Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that the Lord convicts His children in their spirits, and that habitual, unrepented-of sin will result in severe penalties—even physical death, in some cases. The Heavenly Father’s patience is longsuffering, but it is not infinite.

A child of God cannot sin without severe repercussions if repentance isn’t forthcoming.

But, that person will never be kicked out of God’s family. Never. Here is God’s own promise in that regard, given through Paul the apostle:

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38–39)

A kindred accusation is thrown at those who believe in the pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy, which, of course, is the one we at Rapture Ready and the Prophecy Line blog believe. It is the view that Jesus Christ will call all who are born again to Himself before the Tribulation (the last seven years of history leading to the Second Advent; see Revelation 19:11).

The angry diatribe against the pre-Trib Rapture view—by even genuine Christians, in many cases—usually goes something like this: “People like you, who believe that the Lord is going to rapture them before the Tribulation, think you can live however you want, because you think and teach falsely that you’re going to be rescued before God’s judgment and wrath fall, no matter what.”

Non-Christian accusers who castigate those of us who hold the pre-Trib Rapture view have their own version. It goes something like: “Christians who believe like that don’t care anything about making the world better. You even hope for things to get worse and worse. You wish for earthquakes, famines, pestilence, war in the Middle East, and for Armageddon to hurry up and get here so you will go to your pie in the sky and watch the rest of us get ours.”

Although the first criticism is absolutely not true, I have to admit that, regarding the second, too often I’ve sensed—even heard—such sentiments from some who believe in the pre-Trib Rapture. And, it is entirely the wrong attitude for the Christian to hold. There are no excuses for wanting the Christ-rejecting world of non-believers to receive God’s judgment and wrath. It is only by His unfathomable grace that every one of us isn’t headed into that time of unprecedented horror.

No matter how—to use Lot’s King James Version word—“vexed” we become by the debauched, debased actions of the lost world around us, our job as Christ’s children—His representatives here on earth—is of a completely different nature than wanting to see them “get what’s coming” to them. The changed nature produced by being born again should make us do just the opposite of wanting them, in our vexation, to get what we see as coming to them.

The Christian whose spirit is attuned to the Holy Spirit’s desire for the lost doesn’t want to see them “get what’s coming to them” either during the Tribulation or upon death. Rather, we want to do all within our power to keep them from having to go through the time of God’s judgment and wrath.

Like God Himself, we shouldn’t be willing for anyone to perish, but we should want everyone to come to repentance. That’s what Christ’s Great Commission to His disciples before He ascended to sit at the Father’s right hand is all about, you see. That’s what God’s love—love that those who have Christ indwelling them possess—is all about. (Read Matthew 28:18–20.)

In the same vein, that’s what Bible prophecy is all about. Prophecy given in God’s Word has purpose—profound purpose. It has at its center the commission from the Lord to warn of God’s judgment and wrath that will come upon all who oppose Him. It isn’t the hatred of God for the lost people of this fallen planet that drives prophecy. It is the love of God that powers His prophetic Word. It must be the Christian’s desire, therefore, to study Bible prophecy and put forth those warnings out of a spirit of God’s love, not through an anger-filled abhorrence of those who are lost.

Christians who do study prophecy—and they seem to be few these days, I’m sad to have to say—are often heard wondering about when Christ will call the Church (born-again believers) in the Rapture. Everything seems so ripe for Him to pluck His people from this sin-darkened sphere.

Nothing and no one can change God’s timing for His next catastrophic intervention into earth’s history. It will happen exactly on time, as He has determined since before the foundation of this world. However, as believers, we might look to ourselves for the Lord’s—often in our view—delay in calling us, as outlined in 1 Corinthians 15:51–55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18.

Again, the Apostle Peter gave the heart of the reason Christ hasn’t yet raptured His Church:

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9).

The purpose of Bible prophecy is to show the love of God to a lost and otherwise doomed world. God isn’t willing for anyone to die in their sins, but He wants everyone to accept Jesus Christ as the one and only sacrifice for sin that God will accept.

The Lord is “longsuffering.” The reason, I’m convinced, that the Lord seems so “slack” to many in His coming is because those same people have neglected their duty to share the love of God with the lost—the lost whom God loves so very much that He sent His only begotten Son so they would not perish.

It is well past the time for God’s people to invest in getting the message of the love of God to those who otherwise won’t hear the warning of deadly things soon to befall this Christ-rejecting planet. Considering these times that are so dramatically signaling the coming Tribulation, Bible prophecy can and must be used as a productive tool for evangelism.

While the newly elected president declares a golden age ahead for America–an eventuation I, like you, wish I could foresee but cannot—the world around this generation continues to darken. We are in a time Jesus spoke of, I believe, while He and His disciples were approaching a man with whom I can somewhat commiserate.

The man had been blind since birth, while I lost my eyesight at around age 51, so my suffering with the affliction of darkness had been much less than this man’s.

Here is that account:

And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. (John 9:1–8)

This story of Jesus’ encounter with the blind man touches me as few other stories about our Lord’s interaction with people while He was in the flesh. The man no doubt had spent his life unable to do what society would consider productive work. Perhaps he spent his entire life begging for sustenance from passersby.

I, on the other hand, had very good vision until, at age 50 or 51, retinitis pigmentosa (a hereditary retinal disease) invaded my central vision and quickly caused total blindness. So I can in no way fully appreciate the degree of suffering this man endured.

Today I know people blind since birth who have accomplished far more than I did when in full possession of visual acuity. But in that culture in Christ’s time, there were no such technological marvels to give the blind the means to accomplish great things, as I have witnessed.

I, myself, am using one such technological marvel while composing this week’s commentary. It is a word-synthesis program called JAWS (Jobs Accessible Word System). A young woman, blind since birth, taught me how to use this phenomenal computer-based system nearly thirty years ago. Liz is as close to my heart as a daughter, in that regard.

All this I mention is to reveal that God, in this encounter between Jesus and the blind man, has put at the center of my spirit what He desires for my life. In regard to the key phrase in the scriptural account above is the following:

I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

Also, Jesus’ answer to His disciples about the man’s or his parents’ guilt that caused the blindness keeps my thoughts focused each and every day regarding the purpose for the time I am allowed to live here and now at the end of this Church Age–the dispensation of Grace. The Lord gave the reason this man was allowed to suffer total blindness:

But that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

This truth that Jesus gave at the time of the encounter with the blind man He healed has powerfully spoken to me personally. Time is limited; soon there will not be any opportunity to serve Heaven’s purposes–to serve the True, Living God. And we are here to serve Him. That is our great overall purpose—yours and mine.

One moment, perhaps much sooner than any of us can imagine, our time on this sphere where we have been placed by Heaven’s appointment will be over. We will be called into God’s presence, either through the Rapture, to be with Christ forever, or through the portal of death, at which time we must answer for the days of light and life we were given to accomplish Christ’s Great Commission–spreading the salvation message in order that souls will be redeemed.

In these times that certainly look like night is about to fall and the Tribulation is about to begin, it is wise for us, as believers, to work in the way Jesus worked to accomplish His Father’s will.

The Lord knew His time to do that earthly work was rapidly approaching the final moments. He was about His Father’s business in a mighty way and, as we know, He said with finality while on that old rugged cross, “tetelestai,” meaning, “It is finished!”

That is what you who come to Raptureready.com and Todd, Jonathan, editor Cindy, and yours truly are all about–finishing the work we have been put on earth to do in our God’s great cause: the saving of souls of men and women, boys and girls.

Rapture Ready–which is your website as well as ours—is devoted to carrying out our Lord’s Great Commission. Because of monetary requirements on the rise and attempts by some to interfere with our efforts, increased funding is very much needed to carry on with this work. We thank you with all the thankfulness possible to our Lord and gratitude to you our wonderful RR family for your love and generosity as we do our very best to serve the purpose we believe Heaven has assigned this website that is so Christ-centered and focused on the Lord Jesus’ any-moment call to you and to us. We ask for and will apply with all due diligence the donations you send, under the direction of our Heavenly Father.

So let us together forge ahead in full service while there is still time and light to share, even as we see the nighttime of Tribulation approaching.

Here is how to contribute to this effort on behalf of Jesus Christ, who died and rose again so that we can, on one eternal day (perhaps today), hear Him say, “Well done, good, faithful servant.”

There are three ways you can contribute to RR: You can send a financial gift via our P.O. Box address; you can make a one-time donation; or there is a “frequent” option that allows you to make monthly donations. If you’re interested in signing up, find the links on the Donation Depot page. Donations can be sent to our P.O. Box at:

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Great disservice has been done to the pre-Trib Rapture truth of God’s Holy Word. People such as Harold Camping and others have, by setting dates, thrown disrepute on the fact that Christ will call all believers into the clouds of glory before the dark and terrible time of the Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week).

By making predictions of the exact date when the Rapture will happen, such as found in the book by Edgar C. Whisenant titled 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988, some have contributed to fulfilling the Apostle Peter’s prophecy:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (2 Peter 3:3–4) 

We seem to have a growth of pre-Trib skeptics within Christianity today. That’s because the erroneous date-setters have skewed truth in the Bible that Jesus said no one knows the time except His Father.

Now, some might say these skeptics are doing little or no harm. All believers, if the pre-Trib view is biblically correct, will be raptured. The only prerequisite for going in the Rapture to be with the Lord is to be saved–that is, believe in Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross at Calvary. It isn’t necessary to believe in the pre-Trib Rapture to be saved. Those who believe in another view of prophecy are “in Christ,” so will be evacuated from this fallen planet when Christ shouts, “Come up here!”

This is, of course, true. One doesn’t have to believe in the pre-Trib Rapture to be saved.

However, the first thing I would say in answer to that reasoning is that we who are in God’s family–are saved—are to strive to understand things God wants us to understand:

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

The pre-Trib Rapture of the Church is built upon an extensive body of Scripture. The Rapture is a clearly presented doctrine, and even most pre-Trib naysayers admit that the Rapture is in God’s Word. However, they, in most cases, adamantly deny that it is a pre-Trib Rapture that the Bible presents.

They give all sorts of arguments for when it will occur, all pointing to the Rapture taking place during the Tribulation, the time when Antichrist will be ruling as history’s last, most despotic dictator.

But these ignore—or convolute through twisting—God’s promise to keep believers out of that terrible time of God’s wrath:

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. (Revelation 3:10)

This promise to spare believers of the Church Age, or Age of Grace, is seen while Jesus in His ascended form is revealing prophetic truth to John, who wrote the Revelation. Jesus here is talking to the seven churches. That’s the churches now in the dispensation of the Church Age. Jesus is telling believers of the Church Age that He will keep them out of the Tribulation.

Most who come against the pre-Trib timing of the Rapture refuse to accept that God deals with humankind in dispensations. And therein lies much of the problem with them not being willing to “rightly divide the word of truth,” as found in 2 Timothy 2:15. Unless this concept of dispensations is understood, the pre-Trib Rapture cannot be easily discerned.

And this matter of not understanding dispensational truth, I prayerfully hope, brings this article’s title into proper focus. Looking at prophecy yet future through the pre-Trib prism procures discernment. The pre-Trib viewpoint provides accurate perspective on issues and events as they might pertain to things to come. For an example, we only have to look at the prospect of nuclear war at this moment in history.

As I mentioned above, we, as a generation alive on the earth, are in the Age of Grace, or Church Age dispensation. Within the pre-Trib view, a nuclear war or even a World War III that would decimate the planet just isn’t foretold in God’s Word.

Yet rumors of nuclear war are abounding at present. Even writers on Bible prophecy are warning that nuclear war is about to break out at any moment. These writings are coming from those who are, in some cases, avidly against the pre-Trib Rapture viewpoint. These also, in most cases, deny that God deals with humanity in dispensations, as I’ve mentioned.

As of this writing, I have before me several articles proclaiming that China is on the verge of attacking the United States. The drone sightings, the huge balloons shot down some months ago, the sightings of Chinese subs off the coasts of America…all of these things indicate that China is scoping out our defenses in order to launch nuclear attacks.

I heard just hours ago a U.S. representative voicing that all of the illegals pouring into the nation, many of them young Chinese men of fighting age, portends an attack from the Chinese war machine that is about to take place.

And these kinds of warnings have been going on for several years.

I can say with authoritative confidence based upon God’s Word that such war-making by China is not in view for this dispensation. Here is what I mean.

Any such massive nuclear attack would bring equally massive retaliation by this nation. America has submarines under the ocean waters of the world–including waters near China. Each of the subs has as its nuclear repertoire MIRV ballistic missiles, each with multiple warheads armed with nuclear ordnance. These would obliterate the Chinese mainland when launched upon America being attacked.

So the world would be drastically and profoundly damaged if this scenario was played out.

Jesus told us (Luke 17:28–30) that when He next catastrophically intervenes into earth’s evil, all will be going along as it was in Sodom at the time Lot and his family were removed. There would be no destruction preceding that removal. People would be, as we are at present, conducting the business of life as usual–buying, selling, planting, etc.

Massive nuclear exchanges involving earth’s military powers simply are not scheduled this side of the Rapture.

We can logically understand that China will be a power as part of “the kings of the east” found in chapters 9 and 16 of Revelation. At that time, they will indeed destroy one-third of all humankind, the prophecy says. So they won’t have been destroyed, but will be greatly enhanced militarily.

So looking, dispensationally, at the fearful things to come through the pre-Trib scope of the Bible’s prophetic radar, we get an accurate—even precise, in some cases—picture from God’s great and perfect perspective.