Author’s note: I decided to reach way back in time in my files of articles I’ve written to present this week’s commentary. I’ve done so because the current Catholic pope continues to declare during 2025 that there are many ways to Heaven–to be saved.

There is no matter more important around which to put forth biblical truth than that involving redemption of lost souls. There is one way to God and eternal Life. Jesus Christ is that only way! He said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but by me” (John14:6).

The following article was first posted on September 11, 2006.

History’s Most Troubling Name

Many names come to mind when thinking of individuals who have caused great consternation among the generations of earth-dwellers over the millennia.

We can immediately bring them to the surface of our thoughts. Adolf Hitler stands pretty close to the top, so far as people who have troubled humanity during their time is concerned. His was perhaps the most genocidal regime ever, although if we could hear from some of the other generations of human history–for example, that under the regime of Antiochus Epiphanes—we might hear good evidence for those tyrants being the worst ever. Christians under some of the Caesars and holy Roman emperors could also tell horror stories, giving names of dictators who bedeviled them.

Josef Stalin, the Soviet dictator, is another who has troubled the minds of historians and the rest of us in more recent times. He murdered, it is estimated, between 30 and 40 million of his own people, based upon his paranoid concerns that they were out to topple his rule.

Mao Tse-tung, the beast from China, Pol Pot, of Cambodia, and the man on trial for crimes against humanity, Saddam Hussein, the incarcerated Iraqi strongman known as the “Butcher of Baghdad,” are other troublesome names of recent vintage. And we might throw in guys like Iran’s late Ayatollah Ruhollah Kohmeini and even its current tyrant, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as candidates for the most troubling names in human history.

It is such an agonizing thing to do, writing about the next troubling name after bringing to mind all of the above horror-blighted names of history, that I can scarcely do it. But I must, because it is a name that is growing in disrepute, and in hatred among this present generation. The person whose name I will write about is dividing the peoples of earth, just as He said His name would do.

It is doubly agonizing for me to write, because evidence of this growing hatred is already well underway, even in the heartland of America. It is, as a matter of fact, manifesting itself in my own community. So, I didn’t have to go to distant sources or lands to make the point that we’re indeed nearing midnight of this Church Age (Age of Grace).

Proof of the growing antagonism to the name is observable in the portion of an article from a newspaper very near my own home. That’s right. Right in the heart of the Bible Belt. And, I must tell you that Arkansas was just listed as one of three of the states that have the most people who believe the Bible is the Word of God, a supernatural book directly from the mind of the Creator.

Little Rock city directors should apply discretion in the words they use when praying before board meetings, Mayor Jim Dailey said Tuesday night. Dailey’s statement followed the board’s receipt of a memorandum from City Attorney Tom Carpenter in which he cautioned board members about using certain words in prayers.

Prayer to open a board meeting is not unconstitutional but can cross the constitutional line of separation of church and state if the prayer emphasizes one religion over another, Carpenter wrote.

In the memorandum, Carpenter advised board members to avoid phrases such as “In Christ’s name we pray” or “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost” (“LR directors discuss prayer options,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Sept. 7, 2006).

The above report, I realize, doesn’t equate with people considering the name of Jesus in the same castigating way people view Hitler, Stalin, et al. But, again, marginalizing the name of Christ is taking place in the heart of the Bible Belt. The world at large is on the fast track to bring that Holy Name into hated status on a global scale. The being with the worst of all names–Satan—wants the name of Jesus to become the equivalent of the worst, most terrifying figures of history. Satan has sown in the minds of people that Christianity should be seen as narrow-minded bigotry and hatred, as proven in the Crusades, where, Christ-haters imply, many were murdered in the name of Christ.

The tactic continues to work. Tragically, it is becoming a tactic that even convinces some pastors in churches who fall for and preach the line that thinking there is one way to God is foolish at best and hatred at worst. By preaching and teaching that there are many ways to God and Heaven, that the Bible is actually just a book written by men in order to show us how to just get along, these preachers and teachers are calling Christ a liar–putting His Holy Name in the category of the many tyrants of history who led people down the pathway to destruction.

But the Scripture says: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

There is coming a time at the edge of eternity that is awesome in its prospect. Every human being who has been born on this fallen planet will give absolute acknowledgement of the name that is above every other, the blessed name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ:

For it is written, [As] I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. (Romans 14:11)

In the imagination, the Apostle Paul could well have been sitting watching a heavenly jumbo screen of some sort while penning what has come to be recorded as 2 Timothy chapter 3:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their’s also was. (2 Timothy 3:1–9)

It does seem that Paul was permitted to look at some kind of prophecy jumbotron screen and see directly into this present hour. Certainly we’ve witnessed and/or endured much during these volatile times that we could use to make the case the great apostle’s words here project for our spiritual understanding of God’s dire prophecy for the end of the age.

Let’s have a brief look at some of this “perilous times” future wickedness Paul presents.

Here again I’m going to stay for the most part America-centric in considering Paul’s prophecy about these vexing days in which we find ourselves. That’s because this nation is the apex of all in recorded history, in terms of so-called civilization’s progress. God’s Word tells us that to those whom much is given, much is required.

Our nation has been materially blessed beyond all others of human history, and spiritually blessed beyond all but Israel. America’s responsibility to the God of Heaven is, I suspect, therefore held in Heaven’s most profound contempt for straying from His heavenly directives for conducting life on earth.

About these perilous times, Paul says the following:

“For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud…”

Social media frames this perilous-times characteristic as much as any that come to mind.

We start with the photo-taking phenomenon that arose quickly with the coming of the social-media platforms. The nation seems alive with the prideful sin of narcissism in this matter of taking one’s own picture for all the cyber-universe to “enjoy.”

Following hard on the heels of the selfie came the millions of autobiographical stories of the social-media users. These self-aggrandizing pieces, putting forth everything from personal wealth exaggeration to fabulous descriptions of many romantic and other adventures were and are mostly prevarication to the max.

America has led the way in all of this Hollywood-inspired hype. Those who watch the lives of the movie personalities and their fantasy world then mix and weave such reports within their own wannabe lives’ fictions to present throughout cyberspace.

The perilous aspect of all this is that it invades the very souls of men, women, and children, taking them far from reality, and particularly from the fact that they are, rather than perfect people, individuals who need a Savior from the sin that is carrying them down the broad way that leads to destruction.

“…blasphemers, disobedient to parents…”

God is blasphemed in this nation in that America has degenerated from a time–one in which I was raised—when Christian parents had their children in church and oversaw their teaching of God’s Word, to this current moment when the young are, in many cases, turned over to their devices. This parental failure instills in tender minds that they, under the tutelage of cyberspace inculcation, can determine their own course of life.

Whenever they are then confronted with a parental recall to reestablish control, the children rebel, resenting in the strongest terms their devices being restricted or taken away.

“…unthankful, unholy…”

Statistics from the Barna Group and other organizations show a turn from Christian concepts within the American family. Same goes for every other aspect of life in the nation. All we have to do is observe the daily news reports, even from within our own hometown news sources, to understand that we’re an unholy generation.

The Apostle Paul’s forewarning from God in Romans 1:28—to any people who turn their backs on God—rings an alarm for our nation today. It seems we’ve reached the point in many ways that show God is turning this generation over to a reprobate mind. (As evidence of the upside-down thinking, I offer the wokeness insanity we’ve lately been subjected to.)

“…without natural affection…”

This perilous-times characteristic is one I’ve covered many times in this column. My thoughts haven’t changed–because God doesn’t change.

Abortion–shedding the blood of the innocent—is a matter I believe angers God to the extent few other sins reach. The denial that life begins at conception is the lie from Satan for which the world is about to pay a tremendous, wrathful price, I’m convinced.

Abortion, in which a mother deliberately allows the murder of her child while in her womb, is at the very heart of Paul’s forewarning. It is an act “without natural affection,” as is homosexuality. I believe the Lord is going to display for the entire world to see exactly when life begins, in His holy view.

I believe every child will go to be with Christ when He calls in the Rapture—including each and every child just conceived.

Homosexuality is another characteristic Paul forewarned when he labeled it as being “without natural affection.”

Satan constantly strives to take humankind away from belief in God’s order of things. One is the lie that same-sex relations in the matter of sexual pursuit are every bit as legitimate as heterosexual relationships. Another is the insanity of reprobate thinking that people can be whatever gender they think they are, not the one God gave them at birth.

This is a generation steeped in that perilous-times characteristic “without natural affection.”

“…trucebreakers, false accusers…”

There is no better (or worse) example we could consider in thinking on this characteristic than the political process in America today.

Truce-breaking is at every level in this, perhaps the lowest-rated job endeavor in America. Traitorous politicians make and break “deals” without a moment’s concern for whom the action is harmful, whether to opponents or to friends, for that matter.

But it is the area of false accusations that stands out most egregiously in these times. All we have to do is consider the many lies told about former and future President Donald J. Trump to understand we are witnessing Paul’s end-times characteristic termed “false accusers.”

As a matter of fact, the false accusations have become so prolific that they’ve morphed into a malady that refers to a psychological disturbance. We all know about the “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

“…incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good…”

This characteristic can readily be understood in these end times. The word “incontinent” here can mean “addictive” or “in a state of agitation.” This is a precise picture of the tremendous use of illicit as well as prescription pharmaceuticals that saturates today’s American society and culture.

Many of those who exhibit this characteristic rage against those who want only a peaceful existence as they go about their lives. Christian values are particularly targeted by those who want no governance, especially not from the God of Heaven.

“…heady, highminded…”

There are perhaps many ways to look at this characteristic presented by the great apostle. However, I choose to assign this one in particular to American academia.

The colleges and universities of higher education have joined together to try to inculcate young adults to want to change this nation from its founding principles–principles that are influenced by God’s own hand in dealing with the founding fathers.

To paraphrase the Apostle Paul again, “Thinking themselves to be wise, they have become fools.”

Through denying the God of Creation, they teach anti-God, humanistic rebellion. Thereby they continue with the lies from Satan, the father of lies.

And it’s not only the higher institutions infected by the venom of rebellion. The public education system in America suffers this inculcation of evil at every level.

“…lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”

The one matter that stands out to me in this regard revolves around the churches in the nation that have defected from the true faith.

These have embraced the Sodom-like culture of this late, prophetic hour. They proclaim such lies as “the times have progressed,” thus making changes in order to accommodate is necessary to draw in and retain those who seek to know God.

The current pope, as a tremendously wicked example, proclaims there are many ways to God and eternal life. All religions, he has recently declared, have their route to salvation. He and those who teach this are calling the Lord Jesus Christ a liar.

Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but by me.” (John 14: 6)

That you and I are within these perilous times at the precise moment prophesied for when Jesus calls all believers in the Rapture is abundantly clear. You don’t want to miss that call. To do so means you will endure the worst time of all human history, according to Christ Himself.

Here is how to instead go into the clouds of Glory to enjoy the wonders God has prepared for those who love Him.

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) 

Author’s note: This article was written a number of years ago. It is lengthy in comparison to articles normally presented in this forum. But the Rapture and God’s Word about that great event next on God’s prophetic timeline is of primary importance. Thus it is good to revisit this more in-depth treatment, which is meant answer all who dismiss this wonderful promise by our Lord to keep believers out of the time of history’s worst era, the Tribulation (Revelation 3:10).

Rapture: Answering the Critics

This generation is full of scoffers, mocking the prophesied return of Jesus Christ to earth. This is as the great Apostle Peter said it would be at the end of the Age of Grace (Church Age):

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)

God’s prophecies are 100 percent accurate, so it doesn’t surprise in the least that there is scoffing and mocking today, exactly as one of God’s prophets said there will be as time nears the Lord’s return. Many signals are occurring simultaneously, and with phenomenal frequency and intensity, pointing to where we are on God’s prophetic timeline. Chief among these are all of the geopolitical dynamic intrigues surrounding Israel–God’s prophetic timepiece. The sneering at the thought that there could possibly be a Rapture just throws fuel on the fire of the end-of-days deluge–the end that is coming in with a flood of last-days indicators as described by Daniel the prophet:

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. (Daniel 9:26)

Daniel was describing what would happen from the time the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would die for the sins of humankind, until the very end of human history at Armageddon. Great, convulsing, prophesied issues and events would, near the very end of the age, he said, gush through the generation alive at the time like a flood.

Daniel’s End-time Flood

One of those predicted events of the end-time flood is the level of anger that will be against believers who proclaim that one of the most stupendous events of all human history will one day–perhaps very soon—take millions upon millions from the earth’s surface in a fraction of a second.

We receive each week any number of emails declaring that the truth we champion regarding Bible doctrine and prophecies–particularly the pre-Trib Rapture of the Church—is everything from ludicrous to heretical. This criticism gets especially intense whenever the raptureready.com website is written of or spoken about in a major media outlet. That is to be expected, because there can be no spiritual discernment among the lost. Believers in Jesus Christ can understand, while those who do not belong to God’s family through belief in His Only Begotten Son cannot understand:

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:11–14)

Defense of Rapture to Lost and Saved

Trying to explain or defend the Rapture to the lost is, therefore, fruitless. There is just no way they can understand or believe this doctrine unless and until they repent, and ask for and accept God’s grace-gift offer of salvation through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross at Calvary nearly two millennia ago. We can go through the vast body of scriptural text, laying out the Bible facts, as we are confident God’s Word presents truth about the Rapture. But, unless and until one is capable of spiritual discernment from the Holy Spirit, a person, no matter how intellectually brilliant, can never come to believe those facts. They might even understand the facts in a purely cerebral sense, but to the point of knowing the Rapture is a cataclysmic event in the future of one particular generation of earth’s inhabitants.

So, our efforts to explain the Rapture will meet with quite limited results, seeing as how there is a great spiritual-discernment disconnect when explaining to those who don’t know Christ for salvation. This we accept, thus can move ahead with limited frustration in putting the truth about prophecy and the Rapture before these as best we can.

Dealing with the Body of Christ–all born-again believers—is quite another thing, when it comes to our frustration meter. It becomes a bit more disconcerting when our efforts to put out truth about prophecy and the Rapture are met with the same arguments, no matter how thorough and cogently we organize and present what God’s Word has to tell His children about these matters.

Hard-shell Rapture Detractors

There are, of course, the die-hard Preterists (believing that most all prophecy has been completed or should be spiritualized) and the Reformed Replacement Theology enclaves (those who declare God’s promises have been taken from Israel and given to the Church). These make their livings throwing mudballs–usually with stones at the centers—at those of us who proclaim that Jesus will come for His Church BEFORE the Tribulation era–the last seven years of human history that culminates at Armageddon. These, who refuse to see two programs of God’s dealing with humankind, Israel, and the Church–these two dovetailing into one magnificent prophetic culmination—castigate us who believe God deals with humans dispensationally (the ages of Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, the Church, Tribulation, Millennium, etc.).

Sometimes, it seems fruitless to try to break through the thick spiritual iron wills of these. But, these are not the most troubling that seem to fit the 2 Peter 3:4 description, so far as scoffing is concerned.

More concerning are those who, despite being given, time after time, the same in-depth explanation from God’s Word about the pre-Trib Rapture, continue to come to us with the same arguments to the contrary. This, despite the fact that they visit the Rapture Ready website and can read over 15,000 articles on matters of God’s truth, many dealing specifically with eschatology.

These are Christians who just seem to have it in their determination that they must go through–endure—the Tribulation, about which Jesus said the following: “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 Tribulation, if we can imagine, will be worse than the concentration camps, torture chambers, crematoriums of Hitler, or the most terrible days of the inquisitions with all of the devilish methods of torture. Yet, there seems to be a need–they deludedly think—for some Christians to go through that time, during which Antichrist will do his dead-level best to kill every person who refuses to worship him.

Anti-Rapture Example

I’ve chose one letter from such a Christian. It is a simple and mild letter, no mudball throwing. But, it represents the most troubling of all of the critics of the Rapture of the Church, in my view, because it shows an almost willfulness against accepting God’s promises, summed up by this passage: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

Here is what she wrote, in part.

I know that the Tribulation is going to be extremely bad and even worse than I can imagine but I sincerely believe I along with you and other Christians that are living at the time, will be going thru the bad. I am prepared mentally and will do whatever comes my way to either get thru or stand up and say no when needed. If I am one that is to [be] beheaded then so be it. I know GOD will be holding my hand and whatever comes my way, HE will see me thru. If I can be of any use to GOD to help save people then I am prepared to do as HE wants. I have many family members that are not believers now and pray daily that will change. I do believe that many souls will be saved. I know that I am a sinner and do not like verses of the Bible taken out of context. The whole book or at least the chapter needs to [be] read and understood not just a verse here and now to prove a theory that did not even come into being until a couple of hundred years ago.

How is every eye going to see JESUS return if HE comes back in secret. Just don’t believe any are going to be “raptured away.”

The Bible states that HEAVEN will be coming down here not us going up there.

Tragic Misconceptions Unscriptural

The Christian sister makes a number of statements of misconception that are dealt with through hundreds of the thousands of articles on the Rapture Ready website. This is my problem. Many criticisms of us who hold to the pre-Trib Rapture are issued by those who obviously have never mined the rich resources available before making their arguments.

She writes that she is sure she will be going through the Tribulation in order to stand for Christ and help God save people out of that horrendous time. She charges that she has disdain for those who twist Scripture out of context, with those (like us, I presume) using scattered and sporadic verses to make our points.

She, at the same time, provides no Scripture for any of her criticisms of the Rapture “theory,” as she puts it. However, most who make this charge do so, using passages from Revelation that they declare show saints in the middle of the Tribulation. Thus, they conclude, the Church is right there, taking the brunt of Antichrist’s rage and God’s wrath.

Dispensational Discernment Required

Indeed, believers will populate that era by the millions. It will, many who study that period believe, be a time of the greatest coming-to-Christ event in history.

What she–and the others—fail to recognize, or even consider, is that God deals with humanity, including His children, in dispensations. There are saints of the Church Age at present, and there will be saints during the Tribulation. Neither will be together in the same dispensation.

Jesus told us He would build His Church upon the gospel message the Apostle Peter had just given, telling Jesus that he believed Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God:

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:17–18)

Do you see that? The gates of Hell–Satan—will not prevail against the Church. That’s all about the Church Age saints.

The Revelation tells quite another story for God’s saints. The following is speaking, of course, about Satan’s great tyrant, Antichrist, during the Tribulation era: “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations” (Revelation 13:7).

The Church will not be “overcome” by Satan, because it won’t be here. The Tribulation saints (those who accept Christ after the Rapture) will be overcome to a large extent–lose their physical lives for the cause of Christ.

Myth-making against Rapture

Our Christian critic-friend proves she has at least done some study, but not from God’s Word. She has read the books and literature of those who incessantly and speciously claim that we who believe in the pre-Trib Rapture have learned our “false” doctrine from a nineteenth-century witch, who somehow influenced John Darby to later perpetrate the hated Rapture theory.

The most ludicrous of the criticisms is that we base our view that there will be a Rapture upon Margaret MacDonald’s vision in the 1800s. It makes me almost nauseous to have to even address this–for the thousandth time, when, if the critics would just read what is already written on the subject on the site, it should quell their proclivity to make such ridiculous claims. But, I will briefly answer again, these who are so intellectually and spiritually lazy.

The Rapture, the catching up (harpazo) was revealed by Paul the Apostle. It is a mystery he gave us through Holy Spirit inspiration, as recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:51–55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18.

The Rapture was not the concoction of John Darby, who picked up this teaching and gave it improved order of presentation centuries after the doctrine was believed and taught by the early church fathers (in the first two centuries AD.)

The Rapture isn’t built on one or two verses, but on an entire body of Scripture. When viewed in totality, and in context, the doctrine flows with prophetic signals we observe occurring in the world today—i.e., the world isn’t getting better and better, as the Kingdom Now people believe (that the Church will make the world better until Christ can return to set up His throne). The pre-Trib Rapture view puts forward that the world will grow worse and worse. The Church will be removed from earth, then God’s judgment will begin to fall on rebellious earth-dwellers.

Which do we see happening today? The world getting better and better? Or are things looking worse and worse? Read the daily headlines or watch the hourly news, and you will have your answer.

Two Phases of Second Coming

Again, Paul shows us the mystery; he reveals the mystery of the Rapture in 1 Corinthians 15:51–55. The mystery he is expanding upon is the wonderful promise Jesus made in John 14:1–3. Jesus is coming for us—before God’s wrath must fall.

A foreshadowing of that principle is seen in Genesis 19, when God said He could do nothing in the way of sending judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah until Lot was first removed. Lot represented the only righteousness God recognized. It was Lot’s faith—as puny as it was—that kept him and the other few believers of his family from the time of God’s wrath (again, Revelation 3:10).

Our critic asks how all eyes can see Christ return if He comes secretly in some Rapture.

She declares she just doesn’t believe anyone is going to be raptured away, and she states Christ will be coming down to earth, rather than Christians going up to Him.

Again, she and those who fill her head with anti-Rapture rhetoric fail to (or willfully refuse to) see God’s dispensations in dealing with humanity. In the case of the return of Christ, Scripture makes it clear there are two separate returns at least seven years apart.

Jesus will return at some unknown time in the Rapture. He likens that coming to a thief-in-the-night experience for those on earth. They won’t know what has happened, and they certainly won’t see Christ. Paul says it is a moment in time when all believers (the Church) will meet Jesus in the air:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17)

Jesus will come the second time, following at least seven earth years, at the close of the Tribulation era, known also as “Daniel’s seventieth week.” This time He will come all the way to the planet, and every eye will behold Him.

There will be absolutely no doubt about this re-entry and landing:

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.

His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (Revelation 19:11–15)

Scriptural Proof Required

As stated before, each of these things intended to deny the validity and credence of pre-Trib Rapture are dealt with at great length, and in tremendous depth, throughout the Rapture Ready website. All opposing views are carefully dissected, and with Scripture given at every point along the way in addressing any and every question. But, it DOES take determined research to seek out truth found in the articles–truth that is God’s Word, not merely ours.

And, here is the crux of this dear lady’s problem in not discerning truth about Christ’s coming for the Church–for her. She presents not one Bible verse to back up any of her assertions, declarations, or suppositions/postulations. She simply parrots things critical of the Rapture doctrine she has read or heard from those who mock, without anything of spiritual substance to back the criticisms.

My intention is not to pick on her. I want only to use her method of criticism–a method used in almost every instance by those who listen to the anti-Rapture crowd—as an example to show there is no foundation to the denial that the Rapture is a doctrine taught in God’s Word.

This is our answer to such critics. Study the Word of God. Make your criticisms from His Word–as the dear woman says—not from just a verse or two here or there, but from the whole context of the matter, whatever the matter happens to be.

I’ve studied most all of the positions and variations involved in these arguments for decades—which gives away my age, I guess. The pre-Trib view of prophecy is absolutely the only one that makes sense in the totality of scriptural context, and in terms of what we see unfolding today in geopolitics, global socioeconomics, and religion.

Salvation–Rapture Inseparable

The Rapture is an issue incontrovertibly linked to salvation—something Jesus did on the cross, which puts us in God’s family, when we truly believe. That faith keeps us from the time of God’s wrath—both in the coming Tribulation and in eternity. Wrath and judgment must fall upon rebellious humankind because of sin. Jesus paid the price for that sin. He said on the cross, “It is finished.” Sin was forever paid for at that moment, for those who would accept his sacrifice—the only sacrifice God will accept—the precious blood of His Blessed Son.

We are told we as Christians, while in the flesh, will have tribulations (troubles). Certainly Christians have had troubles down through the years. Persecutions—genocide, martyrdom, etc. These horrors are still happening in some places around the world. But, this was not, and is not, God’s wrath and judgment, but was, and is, satanic rage against God’s people. The Tribulation will include satanic rage, but it will be within the horrific storm of God’s wrath and judgment.

Christians (those who have been—as our critic says—saved following the Rapture) will certainly suffer satanic rage, but not God’s wrath. Many will be martyred, as in the times of the early persecutions—like Christians are being martyred in some nations today. But, we are told that we (Paul denotes the difference between Christians of the Church Age and those who aren’t in God’s family by the use of pronouns) aren’t appointed to wrath, but to salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are told by Paul to “comfort one another with these words.” We’re not to fear, but to comfort. (Read 1 Thessalonians 4:18 and 5:9–11.)

We will be kept out of “the time of testing” (the apocalypse or Tribulation), John was told by Jesus (Revelation 3:10).

Rapture Ready or Not…

Now, you might not agree, and that’s fine. If you know Christ, you are going instantly to Him anyway, when Jesus says “Come up hither,” as He did to John (Revelation 4:1–2). You will have no other choice, if you are in God’s family.

But, please don’t ever think—or claim—that there is only scattered verses here and there, or that there is no tremendously deep body of scriptural evidence and proofs beneath the truth of the pre-Trib Rapture.

Again, you can disagree, but, please don’t accuse us of not knowing about the other views, and, don’t just blindly accept what opponents falsely say when they lie, proclaiming that we just believe in something a nineteenth-century Englishman said, or that we follow some woman who dabbled in the occult. That isn’t true, and you should look more deeply into the evidence upon which we base these understandings than just to take the word of those who make such shallow and deceptive accusations.

Put this Scripture in a place where you can memorize it–and make it your model truth for avoiding the pitfalls of intellectual and scriptural laziness.

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)

Fear is on the rise in America and the world at the beginning of 2025. It is a dementia-like fear that comes upon humankind almost like nervous milling about that stirs within the wildebeests of the Serengeti just before predators set them to flight. There are many reasons this is so. But one in particular especially agitates the simmering fear. It is the culprit more than all of the other reasons combined for the building anxiety today.

Before we address that reason for fear of things to come, let’s look at the many other causes that make fear levels rise across the nation and world. Those causes involve myriad issues and events. We and others who consider our times in light of Bible prophecy continually attempt to analyze those matters and present our findings to anyone and everyone who will stop, look, and listen.

For the masses of humanity in third-world regions, such as vast areas of Africa, Asia, and other bleak places, panic is a daily search for the next bite of food and swallow of untainted water. We see the frail bodies, the distended stomachs, the flies on the faces of those whose wide, searching eyes look to the cameras filming them for their next life-sustaining morsel.

These suffering souls are not often demonstrative with their fear because their circumstances have denuded them of energy, and have robbed them of the ability to know how near to starvation they have come. The world turns a blind eye, for the most part, to the plight of these emaciated hordes. The group of people who are looking the other way too often includes even those of us who are watchmen on the wall for the signals of Christ’s return.

Starvation, nonetheless, is one of the sure signs of where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline. That millions of people are caught up in growing famine dramatically forewarns that the black horse of the Apocalypse will one day, perhaps soon, ride forth. But growing famine is not the greatest reason for the geometrically progressing worry around the globe.

Thinking on fear burgeoning within the civilized areas of the world, we briefly review the more familiar causes. These involve topics we’ve exhaustively examined in recent days:

• Iran is on the verge of possessing nuclear weaponry. Israel can’t and won’t let this happen. The potential for war—nuclear war—breaking out in the Middle East is not just possible, but likely, considering the realities involved.

• North Korea is a loose cannon that already has nuclear capability, according to some experts. Even China, its chief governor in the nation-state sense, can’t seem to control the North Korean madmen and their threats.

• Strange signs in the heavens and in the planet’s atmosphere have inhabitants looking up with growing fear of what’s coming on the earth. Consider the recent sudden appearance of the inexplicable drone swarms.

• Terrorists threaten to blow up things and kill people in every part of the world. New York and other major American cities and their large, densely congregated populations are in the bull’s eye for attack by terrorists with possibly horrific weapons, including those that are nuclear, biological, and chemical.

• The United States of America daily experiences assaults from within, chipping away at individual rights and national sovereignty. The US Constitution is under perpetual assault, and the system of checks and balances is out the window. Congress shrinks from its responsibility to the American people, while there is observably a power grab of unprecedented proportions. Morality plummets, while entertainment madness infects old and young alike, taking thoughts of preserving the republic far from the citizenry. U.S. leadership in economy, diplomacy, and most every other category is on the skids. Corporate America has become a sick, dying entity—thanks to elected officials who seem intent on the government owning/running private enterprise. By their constant striving to meld the American economy with the socialist economic structures of Europe, they are destroying this nation—whether wittingly or not. These, by running up multi-trillion dollar deficits, are giving away hope for future generations to know the prosperity of past generations of Americans. The neo-Babel builders herd America’s great wealth, technology, and influence toward end-times Babylon—the long-anticipated New World Order.

The leaderships of most top-tier nations are violating at every turn God’s prescription for interacting with His chosen nation, Israel. The world’s diplomatic community, of course, has no idea of the prophetic ramifications of dealing treacherously with Israel, so it has no qualms about trying to force a peace that can never truly be made this side of Christ’s Second Advent. However, there is a sense of extreme danger that even the international community of nations feels in dealing with Israel and its enemies in the “Roadmap to Peace” plan. Most fearful of all—from the perspective of those of us who watch the stage-setting for biblically prophetic things to come—is the fact that the church as a whole is oblivious to America’s dealing treacherously with Israel. Most in this late hour, in fact, think the church has replaced Israel as inheritor of God’s promises given to the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Today, much of the church is in total prophetic ignorance, and is so fat, lazy, and lethargic that I almost wonder if she can be lifted at the Rapture, even by the Lord Jesus.

All of the foregoing, however, does not account in total for the almost tangible fear about the future. The one, all-encompassing reason for the fear that is driving people to look anxiously at what’s ahead for themselves and their children is the spirit that pervades this generation of earth-dwellers. It is the spirit of Antichrist.

The world has cast God aside. This has been happening in the US since 1963, when prayer, Bible-reading, and things of a religious nature—meaning Christianity—were suppressed in public schools. Today, the crops sown in that decade are being reaped in the generation that saw American leaders assassinated, its economy bankrupted, a war that eventually took 50,000 American lives, and a drug culture develop that continues to plague the nation.

To deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh to seek and save the lost is to invite another one to step in and fill the void that exists when attempts are made to keep God out. We have seen and heard the raves, like for example back during the 2008 presidential election,  with media using words like “messiah” and “savior” to describe the type of adulation attributed to a political candidate. One day, the one called “the Beast” will step into the spotlight of end-times history to fulfill the role of that long-prophesied Man of Sin.

Because Christ is denied, fear terminally infects all of humankind today. It is an insanity born of Christ-rejection. It is the development of reprobate spiritual dementia in a world of people ripe for God’s judgment:

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Romans 1:28).

There is an antidote for the madness that infects humanity in these end of days:

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Jesus Christ is the antidote to the fear-insanity rampant today. He is coming to above earth soon to call all believers to Himself in the Rapture. —Perhaps today!

Here is how to hear that call and go to Him and not be left behind to suffer the worst time of all human history.

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)

Author’s note: I am amazed at the Lord’s omniscient consistency in managing humanity—now in a fallen state—keeping all things within the boundaries of His holy will.

By that I mean that no matter how people try to go in directions prophetically prescribed, God’s Holy Word is validated as absolute truth.

This week’s commentary was initially posted January 1, 2018. My thinking at the time was that now things were lining up precisely as I had believed them to align. Luke 17: 28-30–as many readers know—is the prophecy by Jesus Himself that I am convicted is the most important for this end-of-the-age moment.

Then, over the following years, with the Trump 2020 loss, all seemed to come completely apart with the direction things went as the world grew darker and “business as usual” seemed no longer in view.

But here we are at the beginning of the year 2025 and things seem suddenly back on the heavenly course I believe Jesus gave for this time so near His calling His Bride, the Church, into His presence.

I am amazed! But should not be… 

Unheralded Prophecy in View

We’ve been over it before in this column. However, things are shaping so rapidly it again needs our attention. Prophecy watchmen on the wall should pay close attention.

The seminaries consistently ignore this prophetic indicator altogether. Or they steadfastly say it is to be applied to Jews alive during the Tribulation. It is not for the Church.

I say–and have done so for years–that the prophecy is specifically for our time–that is, the Age of Grace. I’m referring to Jesus’ foretelling of the time of His next intervention into the affairs of humankind. He described those days as being like the days of Noah and the days of Lot.

The prophecy involved is so important for us to consider as this new year begins that we will include it here it in its entirety.

In the Matthew Olivet Discourse account, the Lord says no one can know the day or hour of His coming. He next informs of what this time will be like and what to look for in being watchmen.

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. (Matthew 24:36-42)

Jesus further expands in the Luke account:

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:26-30)

We have looked numerous times at these words of Christ. We’ve noted that the time of which He spoke in prophesying these matters could not be the time of His Second Advent. The world will be almost totally destroyed when Armageddon is raging. Perhaps as much as three-fourths of the earth’s population will have died as a result of God’s wrath and Satan’s evil through the Antichrist’s reign. it will not be business as usual.

This prophecy about Christ’s “revealing” indicates plainly that it will be a time of buying, selling, marrying, planting–all of the activities that indicate business as usual. I maintain that because Christ doesn’t emphasize things that are mundane; He was talking here about a time when business was much better than usual.

As long as five years ago, we expressed in this Nearing Midnight column our belief that it would be a time of economic boom, not bust, that would mark when the Rapture of the Church would occur. It would be the “think-not” time because the world, economically speaking, would be doing quite well.

Of course, not all the world is doing well at present, economically or in any other way. This has always been the case. The poor will always be with us, the Lord, Himself, told us.

However, for the part of the world where economies have the capability to thrive, the world, Jesus said in this prophecy, will be doing quite well at the time He is next “revealed.”

Almost every economic indicator is moving upward in America at this moment. This nation is the economic engine for the rest of the world. The better the US does, economically speaking, the better the other nations who have the capability to thrive will do.

I’m dumbfounded at the fact that the true, Bible-teaching seminaries of America see this prophecy as being only for the Jews of the Tribulation. It seems to be a blindness they suffer.

However, I do know why the tremendous economic potential that has burst onto the scene is unheralded by the mainstream news media. They hate Donald Trump, plain and simple.

Now, I’m not so foolish as to think that the economic upswing is one built on sound economic principles. We are in a tremendous financial bubble that continues to grow by the hour. At some point it is going to burst. It simply defies the fiscal laws for it to continue without imploding.

However, it will not come to that point of implosion, I’m of the belief, until the Lord says so. He is allowing it to move exactly toward the prophetic point the Lord Jesus foretold in the above scriptural accounts.

As I’ve expressed many times, this president is God’s chosen man for this hour, a builder, an entrepreneur extraordinaire. But, the mainstream news prevaricators refuse to report the tremendous economic growth the nation is experiencing. To do so would move in the opposite direction of trying to bring America down so that the globalists can usurp its wealth and power to construct the world order they wish to establish. They want desperately to destroy this president’s efforts to restore the United States to its former, leading status.

Antichrist’s global platform will be constructed, I believe, when the Rapture occurs and this phenomenal economic bubble explodes and comes down around the ears of an unsuspecting world.

The year 2018 could be the time. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

***********

No, but perhaps today! the year is now 2025. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

I preface this with the assurance that I believe President-elect Donald J. Trump is God’s man for this late prophetic hour. Despite his sometime audacious demeanor, I have no doubt he is precisely the person God has brought to the forefront of what I believe to be the final moments of this Age of Grace for Heaven’s great purposes. And, I’m convinced he truly is a friend of Israel–one who intends to again bring America to genuinely embrace that nation in a manner like before the Obama and Biden administrations that, in my view, acted treacherously against the Jewish state.

At the same time, I’m convinced Mr. Trump might likely be instrumental in bringing about the conditions that will ultimately cause God to gather all nations to the killing field of Armageddon.

I’m aware that this seems incongruent, but such has been the case throughout the biblical history of God dealing with men in leadership positions. The Lord uses men–sometimes terribly flawed ones—to accomplish His holy will and to bring about prophetic fulfillment.

Hopefully I can make clear how it seems that “your favorite president”—as Trump, tongue-in-cheek, calls himself—will both be God’s man for this prophetic hour and at the same time instrumental in bringing about humanity’s most destructive war.

It is just like Lucifer the fallen one to use a word–a concept—that is soothing, pleasant, thus desirable, to obfuscate or camouflage something devastatingly evil. This was Satan’s ploy in seducing the mother of us all in the Garden. He promised Eve that if she ate of the fruit of the tree of good and evil, she would not surely die, as God had said. He said she would gain knowledge—God-like knowledge.

We know the result of that deception from the father of lies. Other than the peace offered by the Lord Jesus Christ, the world hasn’t experienced a moment of true world peace since that seduction and disobedience.

We are told, “and through peace he shall destroy many” (Daniel 8:25). Peace is the operative term being offered to the world’s diplomats by the father of lies today to seduce them into bringing about humankind’s final war. And the peace proposition with which Satan lures rebellious, anti-God forces is front and center as Donald J. Trump prepares to take office on January 20, 2025.

To my way of viewing developments at this early stage of putting his administration together, a trap is being set for Mr. Trump—a kind of trap he doesn’t seem to be aware of. It’s the one Daniel the prophet foretold as given above: “and through peace he shall destroy many” (Daniel 8:25). 

It is a matter of discussion that many prophecy watchers from the pre-Trib view have pondered ever since Trump’s major foreign policy achievement in his first term as the nation’s forty-fifth president. The Abraham Accords, the 2020 normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab countries that were Trump’s signature foreign policy effort, will be among the top priorities of his administration. Achieving permanent peace in the Middle East has been the burning desire of every president of the modern era, with the exception, in my opinion, of Barack Hussein Obama.

The prophecy watchers of our ilk believe the nucleus of any agreement that will bring about Daniel’s prophesied destructive peace will have to include Israel’s land being divided. The Arab-Muslim world will accept nothing less than a state that divides Israel’s land and Jerusalem. And the people within those forces so hate Israel that they will not be satisfied even with a divided Israel. They want Israel erased from the land from the river to the sea.

This dividing is also prophesied to come to fulfillment, which we have covered many times in these articles.

I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3: 2)

While there will yet be a future dividing of God’s Israel, the world has long since divided and partitioned God’s land. The world of rebels will pay the price for that treachery at the time of Armageddon.

The trap being set is at this point only a hint of what is to come as the administration comes together and begins to move into the process of peace-making. Most among the Trump brain trust for the new administration hold to the position declared by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has declared that Israel and Jerusalem will never be divided.

This begs the question: Will Mr. Netanyahu continue to be prime minister, if, as is thought probable by those of us who think the new effort at establishing the Abraham Accords will eventuate in offering the Palestinians some of God’s/Israel’s land in order to agree to permanent peace? –A “peace that will destroy many” eventually, according to the great prophet Daniel?

The following touches on the trap I propose might be in the process of being set to turn the new US presidential administration from no two-state solutions to an offering of land for peace, opposed by Mr. Netanyahu, most of the Israeli people, and, currently, most of Trump’s people.

WASHINGTON — Massad Boulos, President-elect Donald Trump’s advisor on Middle Eastern and Arab affairs, said that the United States would have to discuss laying out a “roadmap” to Palestinian statehood if it hopes to establish relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Saudi officials have long made it known that they would not establish ties with Israel absent progress toward a Palestinian state. But for Boulos — a Lebanese-American billionaire and the father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany — to emphasize the point is significant because other Trump appointees, in addition to Trump himself, are seen as close to the Israeli right, which rejects Palestinian statehood.

“I think the issue of a roadmap that would lead to a Palestinian state is an important part of the discussions between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” Boulos said in a wide-ranging interview last week with Le Point, a French magazine. “It is certainly a very important point.”

Boulos, 53, framed the focus on Palestinian statehood in terms of expanding the Abraham Accords, the 2020 normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab countries that were Trump’s signature foreign policy achievement in his first term.

Trump has spoken repeatedly about expanding the Abraham Accords. In the interview, Boulos said that many additional countries would initiate ties with Israel if Saudi Arabia did so.

“It is important to remember that Saudi Arabia is not demanding the creation of a Palestinian state today, but it is asking for a vision and a road map for it, that’s all,” he said. “Today, the president’s priority is to resume discussions on the Abraham Accords, with, of course, Saudi Arabia first. Because we know very well, and the president has said it, that once we agree with Saudi Arabia on Israel, there will be at least 12 Arab countries that will be immediately ready to follow suit.” (Massad Boulos, Trump’s new Middle East adviser, touts roadmap to Palestinian state, By Ron Kampeas/JTADECEMBER, Jerusalem Post)

We can all be thankful for the new direction America is apparently pointing with the election of Mr. Trump, who promises a change from the moral and governance madness experienced over the past number of years. But we can also watch and pray while we work toward pointing out that the satanic trap we might be witnessing being set will be recognized by the new president. I hope some of the Bible prophecy-astute pastors who have Mr. Trump’s ear—the bullet damage of which God used, I believe, in shaping his reelection—will as strongly as possible warn him of the dangers involved in dividing God’s land.

Author’s note: While preparing for the speaking session at the Branson Prophecy Watchers conference Saturday December 7, 2024, my topic “Rapture Ready!” brought me to revisit this article. I wrote it a number of years ago, but never has the topic been more relevant than at this late hour of the Church Age.

We are on the very cusp of looking our Lord in His omniscient eyes when He calls believers into His presence at the Rapture. What does it mean to be “worthy” in our God’s holy eyes?…

Lately, emails and articles I’ve been receiving are trending toward the thought that Christians not living exemplary lives as believers will miss being taken in the Rapture of the Church, should they not be fully “repented up” and ready to go. These will be “left behind,” as the LaHaye and Jenkins novel title puts it. First, it is perhaps best to consider what is meant by the “exemplary life” in terms of prerequisites for making it to Heaven in the Rapture.

Those who insist that one must be living the exemplary life usually frame that as “living a life of holiness” or “living righteously.” By this, I presume they mean for the most part that one must be doing “good works” rather than living life in the “broad way” along which the pedestrian world moves. I would, of course, agree that the born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ should be doing exactly that every day. There’s no question that God’s Word calls us to that model for life while upon this fallen planet.

However, the question is now raised—and it is closely akin to the question raised whenever the declaration is made that one can lose one’s salvation: At what point does one “lose” salvation? What particular “sin-point” is reached that causes the salvation meter in Heaven to go “TILT,” removing the sinner’s name from the Lamb’s Book of Life? Or, for our purposes here, at what point does one sin enough to be taken off the list of those who hold tickets into Heaven, who will be lifted to be with Jesus Christ in that millisecond known as the “twinkling of an eye” when Jesus calls: “Come up hither!” (Revelation 4:1-2)?

Those who believe the names of the redeemed can be removed from the Lamb’s Book of Life, of course, use the following Scripture as one that prove their position is true: “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels” (Revelation 3:5).

This is proof, say the “conditional security proponents,” that one’s name can be removed from the Book of Life. But, let’s have a closer look to examine whether this is true.

Those who hold that believers’ names can be erased from this blessed Book of Life insist that the born-again must “overcome” sin. In their belief dictionary, this means we must stay sin free—that is, either live above sin or stay continually “repented up” in order to keep our names in the Book.

They miss the point entirely as to who actually does the overcoming. It isn’t the believer who overcomes all sin, but the Lord Jesus who died in order to take sin away from those who believe so that we are no longer separated from God the Father in the eternal sense. This is seen, for example, in the following: “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4-5).

It is simple belief in the Savior who takes away the sins of the world that makes us overcomers. We still sin and come short of the glory of God, but His precious blood shed at Calvary covers all of our sins–past, present, and future. We overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil–all sin in this earthly sphere–only by belief in the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16). Our overcoming is only through God’s great grace, through faith. We can never overcome by our own power.

When we sin, we break fellowship with our Lord, but we never break the eternal, family relationship. We do the following to take steps toward making right the sinful break in fellowship that we have caused. First, we must realize and admit that we are not sinless, because repentance cannot truly be made unless we confess that we have sinned. Upon such confession and repentance there is given blessed remedy: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9).

God’s Word shows us that our salvation and our ability to overcome is totally based on what Christ did for us and our faith in Him alone. This brings us to the matter of “Being Rapture Worthy.”

Going to Christ when He calls as Paul outlines in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, and given by John in Revelation 4:1-2, is a salvation matter. We know that from the overall gospel message and from the total context of God’s dealing with His family. Remember when Jesus prayed that beautiful prayer to His Father, as the Lord faced the cross (John 17)? Read it again, and you will see that it is absolutely clear that born-again believers are forever secure in the Father’s hand, based upon what Jesus did on the cross.

We know with absolute certainty that we are once and forever in God’s family because of the words of the One who created all that exists: “My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is able to pluck [them] out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:29).

Paul confirms that the Rapture is a salvation matter as follows: “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).

The Rapture will be Christ keeping us from the hour of temptation or Tribulation (read Revelation 3:10). The Tribulation is the time of God’s wrath–to which Paul tells us we are “not appointed.” However, there are many who insist that Christians who haven’t properly confessed their sins will go through that time of God’s wrath (and the entire seven years of the Tribulation will be God’s judgment and wrath). These use the following verse to make their case: “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36).

The key word they hold forth as relevant here is the word “worthy.” Does this word not mean that we as born-again believers must be good enough to stand before Jesus in that raptured throng? Does this word not mean, therefore, that if we fail to live up to God’s standards while on this Earth, we will (at some point in God’s holy view of what it takes to fall from being Rapture ready) lose our ticket in that translation moment, thus not be taken when the shout is heard, “Come up hither!”?

Like in examining the issue of salvation, in looking at the term “overcoming,” we now look at the word “worthy.” What does it mean to be “worthy,” as given in this Rapture example? Again, the answer is wrapped up in the same name as before: “Jesus.” Jesus is the only person “worthy,” in God’s holy eyes, to be in the heavenly realm.

Remember what Jesus said to a man who addressed Him as “Good Master”? “And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God” (Luke 18:18).

Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, was not seeking to chastise the man for addressing Him in this way. The Lord was confirming through this question that He is indeed God, the only good, the only righteousness. Righteousness is the only ticket to Heaven–either through the portal of death, or through the Rapture. Only through Jesus–being born again into God’s family through belief in Him–can a person enter the heavenly realm.

Jesus spoke to this all-important matter by addressing Nicodemus: “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

God’s Word says about fallen mankind: “As it is written, There is none righteous no not one” (Romans 3:10) and, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

So, Jesus is the only person “worthy” to enter Heaven. It is through Him that any of us are worthy to stand before Him in that heavenly realm. That is the truth found in the Scripture in question.

On a less magnificent scale, the word “worthy” in this passage means that we should be in a constant mindset of prayerful repentance. We should always want to be found “worthy”–cleansed of all unrighteousness, as stated in 1 John 1: 9, so that we will hear our Lord say to us on that day, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

Prophetic stage-setting continues at a torrid pace. No signal of the nearness of the Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week) is more observable than the dynamics revolving around the nation Israel.

Anti-Semitism is coming to a boiling point again like in the times of Nazi Germany, beginning with Hitler’s persecution of the Jewish race. America’s universities are at the center of the rise in hatred for the Jews.

We witnessed the October 7, 2023, evil perpetrated against the gathering of young people celebrating in Israel’s southern region. The evil was as heinous as one could imagine even in thinking about times when the Nazi regime was mass murdering God’s chosen people.

It doubtless took satanically engendered rage to do the things the Hamas beasts filmed themselves doing that day.

Yet the world didn’t turn against Hamas and the other terrorist organizations that cheered those wicked ones on. Rather, the hellish activity quickly spread like an infection, bringing about anti-Semitism to the supposed rational, Western world. The malicious evil went viral and had college students joining protests against Israel for fighting back against the Hamas murderers, baby killers, and rapists.

Why is this happening? That’s the question of many—not only Jews, but Christians and all sane-thinking people as well. Why is God allowing this evil to raise its wicked, satanic head?

The answer, I believe, is found within the following:

“We are telling our Jewish brothers and sisters that Israel is your home… We are bracing ourselves and calling for a mass immigration from Europe”, announced Israel’s Prime Minister, Netanyahu. And they were not just words – a while ago the Cabinet approved a ₪180 million ($46 million) plan to finance the absorption costs of thousands of potential new immigrants, following numerous anti-Semitic attacks, along with political and economic troubles in the Ukraine, France and Belgium.

Netanyahu broadcasted his message via social media; “I would like to say to all of Europe’s Jews, and Jews everywhere, Israel is the home of every Jew.”

Not everyone is impressed with these remarks – European leaders insist that they can protect their Jewish communities, and many Jewish people just don’t want to leave. But many others are packing their bags nonetheless, feeling they have no choice…

“They shall come trembling from the West…”

“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt’, but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’” (Jeremiah 16:14)

The miracles of God’s promises to Israel continue to unfold; the good, the bad and the ugly. In very many places, the Scriptures prepare us for the fact that God was planning to bring His people back to His land by hook or by crook. With anti-Semitism spiraling out of all control around the world, many Jewish people are now deciding that they would be safer in war-torn Israel under the protection of the IDF than they are in Europe, and are escaping while they still can. (“God Is Gathering His People Back to Israel, ONE FOR ISRAEL Ministry)

And now the most religious of the Jewish community in Jerusalem are calling officially for all Jews to return “home.”

The nascent Sanhedrin in Jerusalem has made an official ruling, calling on Jews outside of Israel to come home.

“We are the beis din (rabbinic court) of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem), and we have poskened (officially ruled) that all Jews around the world have an obligation and chiyuv (religious requirement) right now to do whatever is in your power, to come to Eretz Yisrael (the land of Israel), and that is the mitzvah of Torah (Biblical requirement). And that is the mitzvah of today, especially because of what’s happening around the world and the dangers that all the Jews are in around the world. It’s necessary now more than ever to come to Eretz Yisrael, and we as a beis din have poskened that all the Jews have to come as soon as they can back to eretz Yisrael.”

The Sanhedrin’s ruling was intended for Jews worldwide, so it was recorded in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, French, and Spanish. (“Sanhedrin Announces Ruling: All Jews Worldwide Must Come Home to Israel Immediately,” Israel365 News, Biblical News, November 27, 2024)

To those who “watch” as commanded by Jesus (Mark 13: 37; Luke 21: 28):

God’s feathering of His chosen people in order to begin the process of bringing a remnant out of the time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30: 7) becomes more obvious with every passing hour. This means, of course, that the Rapture, which must take place before the Lord’s final dealing with Israel in this way, must be even at the door, as Jesus put it.

You want to be a part of Christ’s call in that glorious event, not left behind to go through what Jesus said will be the worst time of all human history.

Here is how to go to the Lord when He steps upon the clouds of Glory and calls all believers to Himself.

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)

Most educators in higher academia who make space in their thinking for the existence of deity believe that entity to be existential—i.e., any such God who might exist has, at best, created the world and left it to evolve or whatever, as through some natural process. It is a hands-off, not a hands-on God who inhabits their worldview.

While it’s unlikely that any exploration of these ideas will penetrate the hard shell of their intellect, I nonetheless believe it a worthwhile endeavor. That is, it’s worthwhile to look into God’s Word, overlaying that holy template upon the issues, events, and ongoing developments which, to those who truly “watch,” as Jesus commanded, prove the nearness of Christ’s return.

As one who has done so for decades, I can with certainty confirm that the God I serve attends to the minutest detail of every life, including what the academicians would term the “lower forms.”

I was thinking about Jesus once stating that God clothes the flowers of the fields with glory not even Solomon in his kingly attire and wealthy splendor could match. I remembered that beautiful, radiant face of Ethel Waters, her eyes seeming to project light from Heaven itself while she sang “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” at Billy Graham crusades: “His eye is on the sparrow…and I know He Watches me…”

Jesus’ words:

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:29–31)

Our God is not an existential God, as even some of our founding fathers believed. He is hands-on, giving attention even each person who has ever lived—attention the depths of which far exceed any degree the finite mind can fathom.

The title of this commentary is meant to encapsulate the Heavenly Father’s complete oversight of this world, many of the inhabitants of which neither accept nor want to accept His governance. But He governs regardless.

God’s restraint has been governing in recent months in ways starkly observable to those who “watch” as commanded in, for example, Mark 13: 37: ”And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch.”

We have, for example, watched God deal in derision with the “powers and principalities”—the globalists that comprise the human element of Satan’s Ephesians 6:2 cabal. Despite all-out efforts by that so-called deep state entity to destroy God’s obviously appointed man for this late hour of the age, Trump triumphed and is now in position as president, just as the Lord determined. His restraining hand was starkly on display when He spared Mr. Trump that day in Butler, Pennsylvania. I believe His hand continued to be on display as the many-pronged attack from Satan’s forces came against Trump, and failed miserably in changing the minds of voters–except, perhaps to change minds in direction opposite to what Trump-haters desired.

We know the result. The people voted overwhelmingly to return this supposedly universally hated man to the most powerful governmental office on the planet.

Only God’s hands-on activity could have bent the election in direction it went.

We who “watch” through the lens of Bible prophecy are convicted through Holy Spirit influence. We understand that all God is doing with His hands-on shaping—the stage-setting we see that indicates the Tribulation is near—means that Christ is at the very door He will open to welcome all believers into His glorious presence.

It will be the Rapture of His Church. That “twinkling of an eye” moment when we will hear our Lord shout, “Come up here!”

Then there will be God’s recompense.

For Raptured believers, it will be a glorious time of recompense.

God’s just-gathered family will stand before their Lord at the judgment seat of Christ to receive rewards earned in life while on earth.

About this, God’s Word says:

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)

For those left behind on the earth, however, the recompense will be filled with punishment from God’s cup of wrath that will be beyond anything ever experienced by humanity. It will be recompense for wickedness of the sort that caused the Lord to completely destroy all the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, once righteous Lot and the few with him were removed from that doomed region.

The recompense will be for such activity as reported in a recent news item that proves we are living in the days like Lot’s day just before God’s judgment and wrath fell.

“Children, boys and girls, are being sold for sex,” Tara Rodas, a whistleblower from the Department of Health and Human Services, told Congress. “Just last month I spoke with a care provider in Florida who told me about cases of migrant children as young as 8 with sexually transmitted diseases.”

Rodas, a former deputy to the director of the Federal Case Management Team at the Department of Health and Human Services, had been working on spotting red flags for child trafficking among the underage migrants who were being wrongly released to sponsors,

“Today, children are being sold for sex. Some children, girls and boys, will get sexually transmitted diseases. Some girls – as young as 12, 11, or even 10 years old – will give birth to children of their own. Forced labor and prostitution among underage migrants have more than tripled,” she warned, under the Biden-Harris administration…

Tara Rodas had watched as underage migrants were turned over to non-family sponsors with no tracking or accountability. No welfare checks were conducted on those children and the word of the sponsor was considered enough. But some of those sponsors were the worst of the worst.

Children were handed over to “traffickers, members of transnational criminal organizations, bad actors, bad, bad, bad people” after the Biden administration “stripped all the vetting out of the process.”

And Rodas said that “after nearly 3 and a half years of sounding the alarm, no significant action has been taken to rescue children.”…

Alicia Hopper, a consultant on human trafficking, described “a young girl who arrived at the border in the custody of individuals claiming to be her family was bruised, disoriented and in pain. Medical examinations revealed that she had been raped, yet she was sent back to her abusers because no verification was done to confirm her guardianship.” (“Open borders tripled child prostitution” | World Israel News, Daniel Greenfield, Frontpage Magazine, November 26, 2024)

God neither slumbers nor sleeps. He is restraining evil and has anti-God forces in derision, despite the abhorrent things reported above. The Rapture is next on His agenda to bring this Age of Grace to a close. Then will come recompense, and God’s process of prophetic fulfillment will unfold precisely as He has promised.

Even so, Come, Lord Jesus!

Observing these times so near the end of this quickly fleeting age conjures thoughts about Lot’s days in Sodom. This, of course, has been an ongoing train of thought for me, as those reading my articles can attest.

Those ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, the remains of which archeologists are just now digging up from the south end of the Dead Sea region, had at their black hearts a term that believers in Jesus Christ don’t often give much thought to: unrighteousness.

Unrighteousness isn’t merely the lack of righteousness. It is the diametrical opposite, contrary in every respect to righteousness as defined by God. It is a determined, conscious—and even militant, in some cases—effort to move in a direction other than toward God and His holy prescription for living.

They need no deity to govern their comportment, the lost sinners declare.

But here is what God in Heaven, through Paul the apostle, has to say in regard to the soul:

For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. (Romans 4:2–8)

So righteousness in God’s holy perception isn’t based on doing good rather than evil works, but rather on genuine belief in His way of salvation. Jesus described that way:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14: 6)

Getting back to Abraham’s nephew who lived in Sodom, I remain convicted that we’re living in the time Jesus described as being like “the days of Lot” (Luke 17:28-30). Moreover, I believe Jesus might have had our very nation in mind when He told of a coming day that would be like Lot’s day–that time in the future when God’s righteous people will be removed from a place of wickedness and evil, as Lot and his family were removed from judgment-appointed Sodom.

The United States of America is the most materially blessed, technologically advanced nation in history. In that level of attainment and achievement, America likely matches Sodom as that city existed in ancient times.

The people who will be evacuated in that future removal will be God’s people because of their being like Lot himself. Here the Apostle Peter delivers God’s message, reporting the facts about why Lot was removed from the doomed region.

And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. (2 Peter 2: 6-10)

Lot was righteous in God’s holy view. He and his family were removed from among the unrighteous people Lot had dwelt with in Sodom. Jesus said it will be just like this for His people in a future time. His people are righteous because they/we have believed in the Holy Name of the Only Begotten Son of God.

Certainly God’s people live today within a Sodom-like society and culture among a generation that has turned their backs on God’s prescription for life on earth. The reprobate minds of Romans 1:28 have long ago been reached, according to the wokeness and debauchery we’ve been witnessing.

My thoughts lately, in consideration of the Rapture and America and the world’s likeness to the days of Lot, turns to percentages. The question: Percentage-wise, have America and the world reached relatively the same configuration as Lot and those few taken out of Sodom, as compared to the number of those left behind to be judged and destroyed during those business-as-usual, but wicked days of evil? In other words, has this nation and the entire world reached the time when God will take the righteous from among the unrighteous so He can begin bringing His prophetic blueprint–the establishment of Jesus Christ upon His millennial throne—to fulfillment?

When will the only righteousness to be found on earth be removed? Seems to me that we might not be far from knowing the answer.

Even so, come Lord Jesus!