Economic emergencies in the news turned my thoughts to Rome and its place in the final unfolding of Bible prophecy. Following the trail of great world empires to today’s news headlines leads inescapably to the conclusion that the birthplace of the Caesars figures to be at the very center of end-times turbulence.

Daniel the prophet gave a sweeping panorama of the major empires that would appear in the time of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and conclude with the world system of government being broken to dust (Daniel 2:26-45). This prophecy of humanistic dominion over the world and its dramatic end came through Daniel’s interpretation of the king’s night vision about a gigantic, metallic man-image.

Those who have studied the appearing, dominion, and destruction of each succeeding kingdom within the prophecy almost without exception believe the iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar’s man-image to represent the Roman Empire. That powerful empire divided into the two legs–the western leg, with Rome as capital, and the eastern leg, with the capital being Constantinople (now known as Istanbul).

Rome is most important to think upon in Daniel’s overall prophetic unveiling because it is the “people” out of whom the one called “the prince that shall come” will emerge to step onto the stage of history as dictator of earth’s final human government (Daniel 9:26-27). This brings us to some logical conclusions, I think. Since most all other indicators are now on stage for human history’s final act, should Rome not be front and center as the end-times spotlight illuminates?

To set that stage again–as we have done so many times in these commentaries —here are some of the main signals that we are near the end of the end times:

The Kings of the East–Revelation 9 and 16–China and the powers of Asia are on the rise as potentially earth’s most powerful entities. Gog-Magog –Ezekiel 8-39—Russia, Iran, Turkey, and others have formed alliances that continue to grow in strength. The European Union (EU)–Daniel 9 is forming the revived Roman Empire. The U.N.–Psalm 2 personifies mankind’s globalist desire to throw off God’s restraints. Israel–Zechariah 12-14–is at the center of hatred, both its Arab neighbors and the UN as a whole seeking to destroy God’s chosen nation. Cries for peace–1 Thessalonians 5:3–are coming from the international community which is attempting to impose peace on Israel that would divide the land God gave the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

There are many more specific signposts that indicate the present world is at the end of the Age of Grace (Church Age). So, with all of the stage-setting for Christ’s return in view, should Rome, the geographical as well as historical system that will produce the world’s last and most terrible tyrant, not be front and center?

The answer of course, is yes, it must–and that geographical entity just happens to be at the center of one of the great end-times indicators not mentioned above, but most important to consider.

The love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). This world system, whose would-be masters love the power wealth can generate, is caught up in what I believe is the catalyst for bringing Antichrist’s regime to its prophesied position of satanic control. Most who believe they are destined to control the world don’t have a clue that the great upheaval in economics they are struggling with is the result of the master manipulator–Satan himself—fomenting the tumult. The only way to ever reestablish any degree of control from this point is for there to take place a complete rearrangement of all matters monetary.

This rearrangement can’t happen as long as national sovereignties exist–as long as there is relative liberty left on the planet. Therefore, it will take a crisis of monstrous proportion to bring everyone into compliance with controls of a completely changed world–a new economic world order.

Rome is at the very center of the great economic storm. Its financial stability has come under great stress over the past decade and it’s economy –like that of all of Europe and much of the world—is in sharp decline with danger of imploding.

At the same time, Pope Francis and his strange handling of Vatican orthodoxy, changing things almost as radically as Barack Obama has radically transformed America, adds increased surreality to the influence this prophetic reviving empire has on end times stage-setting.

I firmly believe that the Rapture of the Church is the crisis that will convince the world–the western world, at least–to forfeit what little freedom there might be left, and give power and authority to the Beast. Antichrist, son of Rome, Satan’s ultimate dictator, will derive his power and control through a perverted economic system as foretold in Revelation 13:16-18.

Rome’s place in prophecy is taking shape before the eyes of God’s watchmen on the wall.

It seems at least forty years ago that I read Salem Kirban’s novel, 666. A major portion of the fictional account of the times at the end of the Church Age dealt with the Ezekiel chapters 38-39 Gog-Magog attack into the Middle East by Russia and all of the nations the prophecy foretells will storm toward Israel to destroy that nation and plunder the land.

Ezekiel prophesied a vicious coalition of anti-God, Israel-hating hordes that will rage in full fury, taking peace from the earth. Among the chief people mentioned who are to be part of that assault is “the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands” (Ezekiel 38:6b).

Author Kirban portrayed with powerful imagery, I thought, the warlord the Bible calls “Gog” and many of the other characters God’s Word forewarns will attempt to inflict murderous damage on the chosen nation and on the world. His account was particularly interesting, in retrospect, because he seems to have been somewhat prescient with his fictional presentation that the attack would be undertaken with ancient, not modern, weaponry–i.e., Kirban’s novel account had the Gog-Magog forces storming over the land using the literal war-making tools Ezekiel reported in his vision of that future invasion.

And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. (Ezekiel 38:1-3)

I say Kirban was seemingly prescient, because his novelistic scenario included a technological breakthrough, as I recall, that had neutered conventional weaponry. The engines of modern warfare–as the author would have it— could no longer be employed. It was something along the lines of what has come to be known as EMP (electromagnetic pulse) technology–a weapon touted to have the capability of frying the electronic circuitry of modern machinery.

So, in the author’s story, Gog led his forces down toward Israel, where, of course, the evil ones met their complete destruction when the Lord intervened, as the prophecy says He will do when the actual attack occurs.

Turkey‘s history is replete with accounts of its cavalry exploits. Its armies are famous–or in some cases infamous–for their use of horses in warfare. Its horsemen are legendary in, for example, firing arrows while at full gallop. Even today, some of the finest horseflesh is found in the region Ezekiel calls Togarmah.

While I find fascinating the fact that Kirban could look a bit into the future to anticipate progression of modern weaponry, I’m still of the opinion that the weaponry Ezekiel saw in the vision God gave him was the weaponry of today, not actual horses and accoutrements. As a matter of fact, I’m not fully convinced that EMP truly is capable of doing what I’ve read time after time in emails it will one day do to, for example, America’s power grids and its sophisticated tools of war.

Such “warnings” have been issued as attacks about to strike for decades. I’m not saying some such things can’t happen, but it’s becoming akin to the little boy who cried wolf. It is incumbent upon us who are watchmen to weigh carefully things that are shaping that will likely be prophetic in nature–then report with responsible accuracy.

Certainly, Turkey has the history and the ability to raise a cavalry that could do battle if modern war machinery was rendered useless. Does that scenario look to be the likely unfolding of Bible prophecy regarding the Gog-Magog assault? I, at least, don’t think so. The world is facing a truly massive event as given in the Ezekiel 38-39 prophecy. Any threat horseflesh might present seems puny in comparison to the horrendous carnage described.

One development that should be most mesmerizing to the observer of things taking place for the wind-up of this present dispensation does involve Turkey, the region Ezekiel called Togarmah. Until very recently, Turkey was one of a few of Israel’s friends in or around the Middle East. The relationship has changed in ways that can only be described as portentous.

Following Prime Minister Erdogan’s Islamist AK party landslide election of several years ago in Turkey, that region began a metamorphosis with prophetic undertones.

Already the nation in the region with the largest army, it has worked toward doubling that military.

Presently, Turkey’s army has over 500,000 troops. Its army is larger than France, Germany and England combined. It reportedly intends to add another 500,000 paid soldiers.

It is a legitimate question to ask: Is Turkey in the process of preparing for the fulfillment of its Magog moment?

A power vacuum exists today that was foretold almost two thousand years ago. Its effects on this generation and beyond are profound, and are destined to make an even more deleterious impact on America and the world in the days just ahead. The apostle Paul prophesied the following:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come… [Men] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof (2 Timothy 3:1, 5a).

Many pastors within Christianity today, I am sorry to have to say, are complicit in helping fulfill this prophecy on an hourly basis.

First, let’s define the term “Christian pastors.” Within the context of Paul’s prophecy that I wish to examine here, I refer to those pastors who truly preach and teach that Jesus Christ is the only way to redemption, to reconciliation with God the Father. All others who claim to be clergy within Christianity I completely disregard, because God’s Word discounts them as false prophets, as defined by the following Scripture, to give but one example:

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. (2 Peter 2: 1-3)

Again, to be clear, when I say “Christian pastors,” I’m referring to genuine pastors: Bible-believing preachers who lift up Christ as the only way to salvation.

Some will say that Paul’s “perilous times” warning of men who would display the end-times characteristic of “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” applies to the false teachers of Peter’s prophecy, not to true preachers called by God to be shepherds of His flock. I agree that Paul’s 2 Timothy prophecy applies to those interlopers who deny Jesus Christ as the only way to redemption.

However, the accusation against those who have a “form of godliness, but deny the power thereof” can apply as well to God’s true shepherds. The condemnation is in some ways even more to the point than when leveled at the false preachers and teachers. It’s my contention that Christian pastors today–and, sadly, I believe this includes the majority of them–deny the power of God when they deliberately cast aside prophecy given in the Bible that is for time yet future.

We have written in these commentaries, and many others have written and spoken on the fact that God’s Word, the Bible, consists of at least 27 percent prophecy. Half of that prophecy has been fulfilled; half is yet to be fulfilled. Although it can be proven through study of the Scripture and by examining history that the Bible is always accurate in putting forth prophecy in past instances, pastors–preachers and teachers—consistently and persistently ignore preaching and teaching things to come.

By this willful disregard for presenting this vast body of scriptural truth, men of God–called and anointed by the Lord as guardians of His truth and shepherds of His flocks–deny the great power wrapped up in the astonishing reality that our God is the only One who knows the end from the beginning–and in excruciating detail, might I add.

For the most part, preachers of today seemingly avoid the prophetic Word at any cost. And, in God’s holy economy, the cost must be astronomical. These shepherds of God’s precious people are denying those people the assurance of the hope that He promises. Jesus Christ, their Lord and Savior, is the fruition of God’s magnificent plan for their journey into forever. With the knowledge of Christ’s return plainly given as imminent in God’s love letter to mankind, the born again should be living victoriously, not with cringing fear or, even worse, in almost complete apathy.

The prophetic Word says:

Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus 2:12-14)

The majority of those who aren’t informed about what is going to happen next in this judgment-bound world, or who are totally unconcerned about things of God, are fed pabulum rather than meat for living life in the way the Lord intended. These are as often as not force fed the prosperity, name-it-and-claim-it false teaching that is anathema to truth from the Word of God. The only ones accumulating wealth are the preachers of such spirit-dulling poison.

To the pastors and teachers who do in fact teach doctrine and sound biblical principles, may the Lord bless you to the extent to which you remain faithful to break the Bread of Life in the way it should be fed to your flocks. But, if you don’t include prophecy as an important and generous part of your messages–that Jesus is coming again, and might come at any moment–you are falling far short of deserving full commendation. You are denying the true power of God. You are exhibiting only a form of godliness.

Respectfully, please pay attention, you who are the truth-bearing pastors of our Holy God. These are the times to which all of Bible prophecy has pointed for millennia. These are perilous times. Signals are rampant that this generation is the generation that will almost certainly see the Lord’s return in power and glory. Israel and the peace process, with all nations beginning to turn against that state, dear pastors, is the number-one signal that we are bumping up against the very end of this swiftly fleeting age. Christ’s shout, “Come up hither,” is imminent!

You will be held accountable at the judgment seat of Christ for how you treat His whole Word in feeding your flock. Jesus spoke to the great power and importance resident within prophecy while addressing the churches. John recorded what the resurrected Lord directed him to write:

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw…Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. (Revelation 1:1-2, 7-8)

Reports were that shortly before he died Christopher Hitchens, the well-known atheist, told friends and the press that if he were to make a last-minute deathbed conversion, they should not believe it. It would be his delirium, not his rational mind doing the converting, he told them.

Reports were, too, that when the deathbed was his obvious fate, as he lay dying of complications due to advanced throat cancer, he remained unrepentant and apparently unafraid of whatever came next.

Hitchens long prided himself in his ability to debate, debunk, and debase all claims of religion in regard to the afterlife. He particularly seemed to take enjoyment from intellectually dismantling the Bible and Christianity. There is no God, he consistently claimed, lacing much of his confutation with acerbic wit intended to dissect Christianity with a laser-like argumentation scalpel. He seemed to delight in humiliating his debate opponents with ridicule. Many people–Christians whose God the British, self-styled intellectual denied— prayed for him. The prayers were that he be healed both physically and spiritually.

A special day of prayer for him was arranged, which he summarily dismissed, as the following news item released as he lay dying reported.

Author and outspoken atheist Christopher Hitchens, undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, skipped Everybody Pray for Hitchens Day Monday. “I shall not be participating,” said Hitchens, author of the book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. ‘[Incantations,] I don’t think, have any effect on the material world’” (“Atheist Hitchens Skips His Prayer Day,” Drudge Report, 9/21/2010).

Hitchens’ fellow Brit, also an intellectual known for his derogatory views on religion, talked about the afterlife from the view of one who has lived at death’s door for many years. “Heaven is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark,” the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking said in an interview.

Hawking, 69, was expected to die within a few years of being diagnosed with degenerative motor neuron disease at the age of 21, but became one of the world’s most famous scientists with the publication of his 1988 book, A Brief History of Time.

“I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first,” he told the Guardian newspaper. “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark” (Nia Williams, Paul Casciato, ed., “Heaven Is a Fairy Story for People Afraid of the Dark,” Reuters, 5/16/2011).

Christopher Hitchens was, and Steven Hawking is, looked upon by the world as possessing genius. This is particularly true of Hawking, who is held up by some as almost the equal of Albert Einstein in terms of his cerebral brilliance. In his book, The Grand Design, published in 2010, Hawking stirred controversy among some religious leaders. The physicist declared in the book that there was no need for a divine force to explain the creation of the universe. God, in other words, isn’t relevant. As a matter of fact, in the minds of many of the world’s scientific “geniuses,” there is no god. Evolution is their religion, and man, himself, is god.

The Lord of heaven says the following about all of this: “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good” (Psalms 53:1).

The world when David penned those words was likely almost tame compared to the lawlessness of our time. The intellectuals of these end-of-the-age days are at the head of the line of rebellious humanity. God’s words through David more nearly reflect this generation than David’s.

God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God. (Psalms 53: 2-4)

The genius of this world is but condemned foolishness in the eyes of God. His view of wisdom is all that matters. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. (Proverbs 9: 10)

When looking at the black-and-white films the Allies shot within the Nazi death camps following victory over Hitler’s Germany in World War II, it is difficult to comprehend that evil had the tethers of restraint during the time of that horrendous regime. The images of walking skeletons that were the Jewish “survivors” of those camps remain etched in the memory of anyone who has seen those videos.

The same level of pictorial record doesn’t exist for the genocidal rampages inflicted on their own people by Josef Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, and the murderers of the other despotic regimes in modern times. However, eyewitness accounts and some photographic evidence make it hard to fathom that those beastly tyrants were restrained in their butchery.

The Bible nonetheless bears witness that God the Holy Spirit governs the consciences of human beings. In biblically prophetic terms, this truth is most evident in Paul’s second epistle to the Thessalonians: “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8).

Paul the apostle was saying in this prophecy that evil was at work in a big way even at the time he was writing the letter. Still, the Holy Spirit would continue to restrain that evil until He removes His Intervening Action as restrainer of evil. Then all hell will break loose as the Antichrist is revealed. The spirit of Antichrist is already present in the world–and was manifest even during John’s day (read 1 John 4:1-3). The mystery of iniquity about which Paul prophesied and this spirit of Antichrist are intertwined and interlinked in the ancient web of lawlessness we call evil.

Jesus foretold what will happen once the restrainer (the Holy Spirit) removes from governing the wickedness that is in the hearts and minds of people of the post-Rapture world: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).

The Lord prophesied just how bad things would become: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:22).

God will shorten the days of that time of great Tribulation, because if He let things go on to their ultimate conclusion, without the return of Christ, every being of flesh and blood on the planet would be destroyed. Such is the mystery of iniquity that exists today, and will become exponentially worse once the restraint on evil is no longer in place. Then, the ultimately evolved man–as evolution would have it—will step to the forefront of fallen human history. Antichrist will inflict horrors on the people of earth in ways Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and the rest of history’s madmen could not have even imagined. His regime will be the most bloodthirsty of all time.

Lawlessness is everywhere we look today. Whether considering the Middle East madness, the union thugs of Greece who not too long ago threatened to destroy all civility because of the austerity measures voted, or thinking on America and the on-going, unbridled so-called protesters organized by thugs in places like Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore, Maryland and Chicago, the evil the Bible deems the mystery of iniquity is swelling like a great caldera that is about to explode across the world.

The youth, particularly within the inner cities, have been taught by cultural inculcation that they have been held down by the affluent, so their actions are justified. It is no more than simply–the inference is–Robin Hood robbing the evil sheriff of Nottingham.

Can there be much doubt that if they will commit such bold acts now, when the Holy Spirit is no longer restraining such evil thinking and actions, America will quickly become a hellish existence in which anything goes? There are growing concerns that a breakdown of society within the U.S. is inevitable. Such concerns were once voiced by –of all sources— a Russian diplomat. Imagine! The Russians are worried about America becoming a tyrant state because of the signs of coming anarchy.

With the demonstrated ineptitude –or intentional actions– of this president that is swiftly taking the United States down the path to who knows where, it seems the Restrainer’s Hand might already be in process of removing God’s Protection. That removal will be total and complete when Christ Calls the Church Home in the Rapture (Rev. 4: 1).

Many Americans broke out in celebration when Al Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden’s death was announced Sunday night, May 1, 2011. The demonstrations of glee weren’t nearly as wild as the scenes from almost every Muslim nation the day the twin towers in New York fell. There was no firing of AK-47 weaponry into the air, but it was ebullient demonstration nonetheless.

President Obama was said to have turned to an aid and remarked: “We got him!”

There was the same sort of reaction recently when the terrorist known as Jihad John was said to be killed in a pinpoint bombing. The terrorists was infamous for beheading people, including Americans, on camera and putting the murders on YouTube.

How did you react when you heard the news? My only reaction was to think that now Osama and Jihad John face not the seventy-two virgins promised to all Muslim men faithful to Allah once they assume room temperature, but that they confront something far different. Their deaths gave no pleasure, no sense of retribution or vengeance–but neither did I then or now have any regrets that they are gone from this world.

Had I lost a family member or dear friend in the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon, or the crash of the airplane in Pennsylvania that day, or if one of the people beheaded were personal relatives or friends, perhaps I would be satisfied to the point of elation at the news of their deaths. But, I don’t think so.

The satisfaction I receive is that of knowing that they can no longer add their demented thought processes to those of their fellow Islamist madmen. To me, there is no joy in the demise of anyone, except in knowing that, in each of these cases, they won’t be in on planning future murders in the name of Allah. This is indeed a significant volley in the war declared on terror by George W. Bush following September 11, 2001. Killing Osama Bin Laden and Jihad John, however, can’t change the fact that they and their henchmen murdered thousands of people.  It can’t alter the fact that thousands of U.S. service men and women have died or been wounded in pursuit of dealing with the evil these men and others perpetrated and their fellow terrorists continue to carry out.

These terrorists’ deaths don’t stop the trillions of dollars and counting cost of the military action against radical Islam the U.S. has and is footing. In this, the two now dead terrorists have been successful–helping achieve their vow to bring the great Satan to its knees, economically speaking. So, their being killed isn’t reason to declare victory, even though it is obviously a cause for celebration by those who are so inclined.

There are thousands, even millions, to take their place. There is little time to spend reveling in these two, demonically driven men’s deaths. Their assassinations are that sort of violence on which the jihadists feed. Violence feeds Islamist war-makers like the warm Gulf waters feed a hurricane.

Am I saying that Osama Bin Laden and the one termed Jihad John should not have been dispatched? Of course not. I am saying that to vigorously celebrate their being killed should not be allowed to become, either individually or collectively within the American psyche, a visceral bloodlust to render evil for evil. Especially, this should not be the mindset of the Christian, in my view. Such action should be taken only in order to try to make civilized society safe from such beastly activity as carried out by these murderers and their ilk. The Bible condones such action by duly authorized governments because this is a sinful, murderous world, and such killers must be stopped to promote the general safety of peace-loving people.

Hypocrisy and worse is front and center in all of this taking down of these terrorists, while the mainstream media takes no notice. The present American president operates within a political philosophy that disdains capital punishment, no matter the crime–primarily, I believe, because he thus wins the hearts, minds, and votes of minorities who view themselves as victims of injustice. Yet he and his political associates see nothing wrong with the taking out of the two terrorists in question, because it was the politically expedient thing to do. Executing a man–within the American judicial system, for murdering a person–is something the liberal mindset considers barbarism. They slap each other’s backs, however, for the good fortune–or well-executed plan—in sending Osama Bin Laden and Jihad John on their eternal journey. Their poll numbers might benefit from the action taken.

Such duality of thought shows a trend toward the same sort of madness carried on by the fanatic Islamists. Fanatic Muslims see nothing wrong with killing, when it serves the best interest of their cause and is sanctioned by their “holy book,” the Koran. It is justice of a grossly perverted sort by which that self-indulgent mindset operates.

So, those who name the name of Christ should not find carnal enjoyment in the deaths of Osama Bin Laden, the one called Jihad John, or anyone else. They are gone, and I am glad. They presented danger to those I love, as well as to everyone who might fall under their unalloyed evil plotting. But, I take no pleasure in their deaths–only a degree of solace. The Lord of heaven Himself has set the example for what should be the Christian’s attitude in such matters: “’As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways!’” (Ezekiel 33:11).

Note: I was re-reading my recounting of the clinical death I suffered on Good Friday of 2011. This prompted me to want to again share the Testimony that I believe is in that strange though wonderful trip into that realm, which I believe with all that is within me was a Heavenly one.

The experience still affects my every waking moment. It continues to be as real to me as the moment my heart stopped on those 3 occasions.

            –Terry

Please bear with me in reading this week’s commentary. I don’t like to get “up close and personal,” as ABC sportscasters used to say in announcing an interview with one athlete or the other. It’s just not professional, in my view, for purposes of communicating in forums such as ours. But, personal I am going to get for this one. Hope you don’t mind.

Staying with the ABC sports analogy, I was doing my three- or four-times-per-week workout on Good Friday just past. I had done the warm-ups for the usual fifteen minutes or so, and the barbells (UGH!). Done were the push-ups–seventy of them, except very cheap ones (fooling myself, mostly, that I was doing them right). Then were accomplished the knee-lifts while lying on my back for five minutes. Doing the Body by Jake sit-up machine next had completed that part of the workout.

Then it was time for aerobics. I have this rowing machine with one hundred pounds on the back of it that is an excellent leg-press device, which is also used to do some upper-body stuff. I did all this in the usual fashion, the workout now flowing toward its one-hour and twenty-minute conclusion. I decided to skip the treadmill and go straight for the recumbent bike–to just sort of chill out, or cool off, or however one chooses to term one’s winding-down regimen.

A burning pressure began, then, just behind my sixty-eight-year old sternum. It was a pain I had felt slightly three days earlier while just sitting around working on something on the computer. At that time it had been mild, and I had thought of it as a case of a little more than usual heartburn–indigestion. I think I even popped a Tums or something.

This time, the pain worsened by the second, until it was a severe pressure gnawing at my chest, as if something wanted out of there.

I walked around, just knowing it would shortly ease. But it didn’t.

“Think you better call 911,” I said to my wife. She took one look at me, knowing that that was the very last thing I would ever do–want an ambulance. It almost was…

The medics arrived ten minutes later, I was told. I was conscious and answered their questions, even as in pain and as out of breath as I was. This, even though they tried feverishly to find a pulse.

“Can’t find one,” one of the guys said to the other, who joined him in frantically searching.

Meantime, I’m thinking, “No pulse…What does that mean? One is dead when there is no pulse…”.

They strapped yours truly to the gurney and we were off, the pain in my chest becoming excruciating. One of the rescuers put some nitroglycerin beneath my tongue, while saying to the dispatcher, “Think we have a coronary going…”.

The ride was rough. Ambulances of that sort aren’t built for the patient’s comfort; they just want to get you there. I felt every bump in the brief ride of ten minutes at most. I felt us stop, heard the door open, felt them jerking the gurney forward. I heard a high-pitched noise that sounded like a transition from one function to another within some sort of computerized system. Sort of like bprrrript.

I saw them, then. I was with them, and they were all beautiful young people in their twenties, it seems in retrospect. They were smiling brightly. Their faces glowed effulgently–not like something ghostly, but with the fresh glow of youth of those in perfect health. They beckoned me to join them.

I wanted to just be with them–to talk, and to enjoy that ambience, I remember. I had no thought of what had gone on before–the pain, the ride. This was real. It was real, and I loved it, and I could feel the love of these young people as we faced each other.

Then I remember thinking, “wait,” and there was something going on. I was in a nightmare. I was being transported with chest pains. I felt my bare chest with my fingertips, thinking, “Oh, no. I am on this gurney. I’m not in that beautiful–real place.” I was back in this nightmare–only this was reality.

People were working at high speed. They said I came back talking. I don’t remember what I said; neither did they.

One guy said, “We hit him with the paddles.” (Can’t remember if that’s what he called them.) I questioned that remark. “Paddles?” I asked.

“Yes your heart stopped,” he said.

The pressure again began building, agonizing–a fire thrusting to get out from behind the sternum.

Suddenly there was again the computer-like prompt. I was with the beautiful, young people, whose smiles were brighter than any ever displayed in toothpaste commercials.

Again there was regret, as I found myself on the table where they prepared the angiogram to find out the position of the blockage.

Then, I was with those youngsters again, only this time the memory becomes fuzzy, but I do know I was among them, talking with them in a serenely joyful place.

Back to the ER and the flurry to save my life. I had been hit with the defibrillator for the third time. My heart had completely stopped on three occasions, but now I sensed they had things under control.

A doctor, one of the most highly regarded interventionist cardiologists in the state, just happened to be down from the Arkansas Heart Hospital, which is twenty minutes away in Little Rock. He was only one room away, and was on my case and finished with the procedure within forty-five minutes.

I was told by this doctor that 50 percent of all who have the sort of heart attack I had die before getting to the emergency room. Most that do get to the hospital don’t make it. The attack was in an artery that is the most crucial. They call the blockage the “widow maker.”

Now, what do we make of this? What do we do with it?

Well, the Lord will bring you to Himself when He chooses is one lesson reconfirmed within my own faith. He wants something else to be done through me. Certainly, I believe writing this commentary is one of those things.

Was I in heaven? I don’t know. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, Paul the apostle tells us. I didn’t see Jesus, and He is my Lord.

But, we are all one in Christ, the Lord Himself tells us in John chapter 17. So, in one sense, I could have been with the Lord by being with those people who appeared to be in the full bloom of youth. And, I sensed the absolute peace and joy their demeanor–collectively—projected. Christ is within us and we are one.

But, there’s another side to this reality that seemed more real than the earthly nightmare to which I returned three times. The Lord didn’t show me that other side (the hellish side), but the thought pulses strongly within my spirit as I write this. Just as heaven is a place to be longed for with great anticipation, hell is just as real, and a place to be shunned at all cost. (Read Jesus’ own words on the subject in Mark 9:43-48.)

The choice of whether to accept Jesus Christ as Savior is your choice. The time of death is not yours to make. Even if by suicide, the death will not have taken God by surprise. Believe in Him today with every fiber of your being. Heaven is real. So is hell. Only accepting God’s love gift of His Son’s shed blood on Calvary can cleanse you or me from sin–the soul-destroying thing God cannot permit to come into His holy, majestic presence.

Jesus is the only way to heaven (John 14: 6). You and I must come to Him to ever be a heavenly citizen. The alternative is the nightmare world about which Jesus forewarned.

Here’s the only formula for going to heaven when you die, or at the Rapture of the church:

“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. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:9)

Homer’s protagonist in The Odyssey and the adventures through which the unknown author moved him are brought to mind with the many voices from the diplomatic world singing the same refrain without ceasing–even though egregiously out of tune. These days, I am reminded of how deadly such allurement can be.

Odysseus, the wandering Greek hero, is given instructions for how to safely negotiate his return home. One of the chief obstacles he is told that he will face on his voyage is that of passing by the island of lovely Sirens, the half-human, half-bird female creatures that lure mariners to their death on the island’s rocky shoals with their irresistible song-call, promising to reveal the future.

Odysseus follows his instructions and has his crew aboard the ship plug their ears with bee’s wax. He tells them to tie him to the ship’s mast and instructs them not to loosen the restraints, no matter what.

Odysseus is the only one who can hear the Sirens’ song, and he is driven mad with desire to be set free to go to them. But, his faithful crew just ties him all the more securely to the mast, and they move safely past the island to face the obstacles of the rest of their journey.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on a voyage perhaps not as Homeric, but certainly one through which he must negotiate his way with extreme care, if he is not to run the Jewish ship of state aground on some very deadly shoals. He is hearing the not-so-lovely “Sirens” from many directions calling for his government to give into international pressure–thus to assure a future of peace for all concerned. So far, he has remained securely lashed to the mast, and his government has kept the bee’s wax in their discerning ears of better sensibility.

The lyrics of the song the geopolitical Sirens sing are confusing, to apply the most generous description of their attempts at allurement. But the fact that the chorus spews insanity in their efforts to seduce Netanyahu to throw caution to the wind is the most realistic assessment of their attempt at seduction. The latest of the alluring words, it is hard to have to say, has seemingly induced the Israeli prime minister to change His own tune for the moment. One has to wonder what to make of this particular alteration in the siren call to Benjamin Netanyahu and his response, while he and his crew while they try to negotiate some of the most treacherous Mideast waters in history.

The Siren call further confuses. The globalist sirens are once again, and with greater volume and intensity, singing a familiar, deadly refrain in a not-so-veiled threat to the Netanyahu government.

The international community diplomats, as has been their tendency over recent decades, warn that if the Israeli government fails to present a new peace plan soon that is acceptable, they will consider officially endorsing instituting a Palestinian state within 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital. It is within this framework that Netanyahu is pressured to withdraw from the West Bank.

Perhaps it is just because Benjamin Netanyahu has learned to play the diplomatic games of his enemies’ methodology of delay and obfuscation, but the prime minister is indicating he might be hearing the siren call.

Responding to questions at the Center for American Progress think tank in Washington, Netanyahu said a negotiated peace deal would be better than unilateral steps by Israel to impose a solution to the conflict. But he indicated a unilateral approach might be possible under the right conditions.

“Unilateralism … I suppose that’s possible, too, but it would have to meet Israeli security criteria and that would also require, I think, a broader international understanding than exists now,” he said.

However, the prime minister stressed, even if Israel does pull out of the West Bank – whether as a result of an agreement or in a unilateral move – it will have to keep its security presence in the territories. (Netanyahu doesn’t rule out unilateral pullout from West Bank, Yael Friedson, Roi Yanovsky, Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report, Nov 11, 2015).

It should be considered truly a miracle of biblical proportion if our Odysseus–Mr. Netanyahu, strapped to that mast while the Israeli ship of state plows through the turbulence–doesn’t go stark-raving mad while listening to the cacophony coming from the beckoning Sirens who want to usurp what little land Israel possesses.

It seems to me that the wild-eyed beckoning by supposedly the brightest planet earth has to offer–the diplomatic elite—makes the case that they, themselves, suffer from madness of the sort that drove the mariners of Homer’s tales onto the rocks of destruction. Their wailing is enough to drive anyone crazy.

These are hearing the seductive words of the one being who, since iniquity was found in him, has wanted to usurp anything that belongs to the God of heaven. It is a deadly song they are listening to. It is a deadly song they are singing to God’s chosen people. It is a Siren call that will bring all nations of earth to Armageddon.

Forewarning of the fate that the nations of earth face leaps from Bible prophecy. Those who make Jerusalem and Israel the object of hatred will pay a terrible price. And make no mistake, the city and nation (Jewish people) are inextricably linked: “And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth are gathered together against it” (Zechariah 12:3).

To “burden themselves” with Jerusalem and with Israel (Judah) in this case means to come against the city and people in a hostile sense. God is saying through Zechariah the prophet that at the end of the age, near the consummation of His dealing with this earth system, all nations of earth will make Jerusalem and His chosen people the center of their anger and aggression. The aggressors against God’s city (Jerusalem, the apple of his eye—see Zechariah 2:8) and the Jewish people will result in devastation for those attackers.

Perhaps it’s just the old advertising guy in me, but I want to coin a new word—”Israelicide”—for what the nations of the world are in process of doing. The word means two things in my thinking: 1) to commit satanically inspired genocide against the Jewish race; and 2) the collective suicide of Israel’s enemies whose coalescing unity of mind curse Israel.

It doesn’t take a historian’s knowledge to understand that the Jewish race–the nation of Israel—has been hated and harassed as no other people throughout the millennia. Although some—like Iran’s dictator, the so-called supreme leader—claim that the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jews never happened, that it’s all fabrication by the hated Zionists, the world knows the horrific truth about genocide against God’s chosen people.

The record of the demise of those who made the Jews the object of their hate was made manifest before the eyes of the peoples of all nations. Germany was completely defeated and divided. The remains of Hitler and his henchmen lie strewn in ignominy, their memories detested by all but those of like heinous anti-Semitic hatred. They committed Israelicide, in both meanings of my term.

The promise to Israel’s patriarch, Abraham, remains in effect: “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee” (Genesis 12: 3a). Nations of earth are in the process of committing Israelicide, in my view, collectively insisting that Israel is the central problem in the Middle East. It is the Jewish state that in the opinion of most of the diplomatic world is holding up progress in the Roadmap for Peace.

Those same diplomats, along with their mainstream news media cohorts, point accusatory fingers at Israel upon each retaliatory strike they make to try to keep their enemies at bay. At the same time, the murder of innocent Jewish citizens, including children, even infants, by Israel’s enemies is hardly mentioned by the diplomatic community or the mainstream journalists of the world.

Prophesied events are being set up on an hour-by-hour basis. The Islamist countries are in incendiary turmoil, as the headlines continually remind us. These nations have Israel encircled on all sides except on the side of the Mediterranean–the sea into which a number of the leaders of Arab states plus Iran’s mullahs have vowed to push the Jewish state. There is good reason to believe that all of this upheaval is being orchestrated by various elements in cahoots with the Muslim Brotherhood, in preparation for an ultimate effort to erase Israel from the earth.

Some are convinced this will all play out in a war they believe is predicted by a prayer recorded in Psalm 83. While I think that prayer will be answered in the Gog-Magog attack of Ezekiel 38 and 39, certainly, one can’t deny there are powerful dynamics moving and shaking in the land around which end-times Bible prophecy is centered.

The militant Islamists of the Arab nations and Iran are bent on committing Israelicide, there is no doubt. They have declared their intention loudly and for a long time. The Bible says Israel’s enemies will do just that, but in the sense of the second meaning of my newly coined word, not in the sense of the first definition. They will commit Israelicide.

Some day, such an attack will be their final death knell. For certain, Israel’s Middle East and northern enemies will pay the price for their hatred as recorded by the prophet Ezekiel: “Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.” (Ezekiel 39:4-5).

Global economic chaos is driving the distress and perplexity of the nations of planet earth. The words of the greatest of all prophets, Jesus Christ, echo in cavernous reverberation with each succeeding news report from the capitals of earth’s monetary centers.

“And there shall be…upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring” (Luke 21:25b).

Jesus’ Olivet Discourse spoke to conditions exponentially moved beyond norms. In other words, the “distress” and “perplexity” that nations will be experiencing as His Second Coming nears will be beyond any ever known by people of earth. And, in biblical terms, “seas and waves” refer to the masses of peoples. Jesus said that because there will be unprecedented distress and perplexity among the nations, the peoples populating those nations will be “roaring.”

All one must do to understand that the roots of the upheaval rocking America and the world at this very moment involve economics is to think on the acceleration of events in the headlines since September 11, 2001. It has been a decade of powerful disturbances beyond any experienced before.

America launched retaliatory action against those in the Middle East deemed complicit in the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. Iraq was “liberated,” and Saddam Hussein paid for his tortures and murders. But, from that action–which seems to be at least the beginning of fulfillment of Zechariah chapter 5—has come the unleashing of worldwide jihad.

The U.S. economic engine, which has made the nation the most productive industrial power in history, runs on the petroleum most easily accessible in the regions surrounding Saudi Arabia. Manipulative money brokers, in my mind, have managed to–for reasons of their own—prevent drilling and refining of this nation’s reserves, making America vulnerable to the economic danger we now face.

Compounding the dangers, some of our “leaders” have engaged in financial skullduggery. By damaging U.S. infrastructure through the banking debacle and politically engineering the trillions of dollars run up in debt—while selling the nation by offering Treasury bonds to perhaps America’s most dangerous enemy, the Chinese—they move America ever more swiftly toward third-world status.

The explosion of revolution throughout the, for the most part, oil-rich nations surrounding Israel paints the end-times picture. That incendiary anarchy that has ignited fires of unrest in the U.S. and in various capitals of Europe shows the world to be in distress with perplexity, the sea and waves roaring.

It is true that the twentieth century was one of tremendous turbulence. World Wars I and II brought death, destruction, pestilence, and starvation of monumental proportion. The economic abyss that was the Great Depression certainly was preached by ministers as akin to the biblically prophesied apocalypse—and it was even claimed to be so by many pundits of the times.

However, the crashing of the World Trade Center towers to the streets of New York City on that terrible Tuesday morning seemed to have unleashed demons that continue to cause destruction more violent than that wrought during the entire previous century. That cascading avalanche is increasing with destructive force while it roars through our time with each hour that passes.

The toll in loss of human life thus far in the twenty-first century hasn’t come anywhere near the death-dealing inflicted in the previous century. But, so far as the humanistic powers that be are concerned, the potential for apocalyptic-like carnage has reached near critical mass. To the money masters–the economic titans–the bottom line is not the human toll, but the fiscal Armageddon to be avoided while controlling the ongoing economic avalanche and using it to best effect for their own nefarious purposes.

Concern over the great monetary upheaval overrides all else with the globalists elite. The seas of human populations must be maneuvered in puppet fashion to bring in their idea of how the world system should run.

All of the above is to say that, in my view, Jesus’ words point precisely to the world conditions developing around this generation at this very hour. It is oil and the wealth it represents that Satan is obviously using to try to bring about the destruction of the human race. That destruction is Satan’s bottom line (1 Peter 5: 8).

But, of course, it will never happen, because Jesus said of the final seven years of this earth age, the Tribulation: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24: 22).

I’ve mentioned the bottom line for the humanists who want to control the world through manipulation of economics. I’ve mentioned Satan’s bottom line–his desire to destroy all of mankind. Now we look at God’s bottom line, for this is the one destined to be achieved for all who will accept His Son as the only cure for the deadly soul disease from which they suffer.

God wants the souls of all people to be saved out of their lost condition, thus from His judgment and wrath that must fall upon earthly wickedness. This is why Christ hasn’t yet come for His Church in the Rapture. About this, the apostle Peter writes: “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 Pet. 3: 9).

Sadly, not all will accept God’s offer of rescue from the coming seven years of horror we term the Tribulation, or from the lake of fire for all of eternity. However, it isn’t our worry to know who will and won’t believe. It is the duty of each who names the name of Jesus Christ as Lord to make sure the message is proclaimed that Jesus died, was buried, and resurrected so that all who believe in Him will have everlasting life. We must let the lost world hear the message that Christ might come at any moment for His own in the Rapture!

That’s the Christian’s bottom line for these end times.