The rebelliousness of the creature called man was, in my view, manifest blatantly for the student of God’s truth to discern in a particular news story of several years ago. The media and politically correct crowd’s uproar over the U.S. chairman of the joint chiefs of staff making the comment –when asked his personal opinion– that he thought members of the same sex in the military who engage in sex with each other are committing immoral acts was quite telling. The voracious feeding frenzy to start the drumbeat for having that general removed from his position in the Pentagon fueled vitriolic invective against those who hold to such “unenlightened” prejudices that eventuated in a full acceptance, even embracing of homosexuality in the U.S. military today.

God, incidentally, is obviously included in our ranks of the”unenlightened”. His Word, the Bible –the instruction manual for the creature, mankind, whom he made from the dirt upon which we stand—says about homosexuality:

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was [fitting]” (Rom. 1:26-27).

The Creator’s Word against homosexuality is even more powerful in an Old Testament prescription for those who engage in that activity. (If it makes you angry, get mad at God, not me. I don’t make the rules. He does.)

“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood [shall be] upon them” (Lev. 20:13).

I know what will be one of the objections: This was for the Israelites, not today’s people. Really? Well, in giving the prescription for living, God hasn’t changed for any people at any time. Jesus, we have established, is Creator of all things, and by His power holds all things together. This, God’s Word says about the Lord of all creation: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Heb. 13:8).

The problem is, as we’ve seen with this one issue, fallen mankind will not have the God of heaven rule on Planet Earth. Since the fall, man has determined to do what is right in his own eyes. This is an attitude for catastrophe. Human government is fatally flawed. These have tried to create a utopian earth for millennia. All efforts to do it their way –apart from God—have met with abject failure.

The earliest attempt of human government, which followed the flood of Noah’s antediluvian era, was Nimrod’s attempt to build the tower to heaven (read Genesis chapter 11). The Lord knew this would end in disaster for mankind, so He came down and separated the one-world builders by giving multiple languages, thus driving them to diverse places around the globe. But man has spent the millennia since that time circumventing God’s intervention. The one-world drive is again being pursued in a concerted effort by the powers elite. When things reach a certain point of depravity, God always has intervened. A prime example was when He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. (Read Genesis, chapter 19 to learn about both the depravity and the Lord’s intervention.) Which gets us to the thing about end-of-days scenarios I would like to explore.

Jesus himself set the prophetic stage for a future time when He will again intervene–catastrophically—into depraved man’s playhouse of lasciviousness. He said: “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” (Lk. 17:28-29).

This is a description of a society, a culture, a generation going forward with business as usual. Jesus prophesied that it would be just like this, when judgment from heaven would fall, at the time of His end-of-days intervention. It is not, however, description of the tribulation era when Jesus comes physically to earth, as foretold in Revelation 19:11. At that time, as many as two-thirds of the earth’s population will have died in the apocalyptic judgments. It will not be business as usual, like the Lord describes here. The things that transpire here, though not as disastrous as things will get later in man’s last grasp to rule himself, will still be calamitous. And, the possible scenarios presented are mesmerizing. Let us look at my postulations, based upon the pre-trib view of the rapture, which, of course, I m convinced is the correct view, from God’s perspective.

Jesus’ description of Lot’s being removed from that condemned city is almost certainly a picture of the rapture of the only good God sees on this earth…born again Christians… the church Jesus began building, and which was born at Pentecost (in Acts, Chapter 2). Lot, Abraham’s nephew, although not a perfect example of living a godly life, was nonetheless considered a “just” man in God’s eyes. That is, the Lord saw Lot as righteous, a believer –one who accepted God’s governance over his life, accepted God’s salvation plan. Lot and his family lived in a society that was–well—much like ours. It was wicked to its black core. Incidentally, homosexuality had, in that society, become accepted as, even expected to be, part of life in Sodom.

God removed Lot, and His wrath began to fall upon that wicked, ungovernable people. Jesus indicated that this is exactly what will happen near the time

of His coming again. It will happen at the rapture –at least seven years before He comes back and touches down on the Mount of Olives. The first part of God’s wrath, I’m convinced, will be His removal from the consciences of earth-dwellers. The people left behind will have rejected God’s governance. Now, raptured saints will perhaps, from the balcony of heaven, be given a God’s-eye view of whether the rebels’ claim that they don’t need God to govern them is true.

Millions will vanish in a millisecond –an “atomos” of time– the prophecy tells us. This nation, the United States of America, which had at the same time more gospel light than any other nation of history and access to more filth and depravity than even ancient Rome at its decadent, orgiastic worse, will experience an implosion that, upon its contemplation, staggers the imagination.

We will look at my scenarios, in this regard, next week.

Again, I state that the end-of-days scenarios I lay out in this essay are speculation–postulation based upon my years of prayer, study, observations, and thought. I’m sure there are many who view things to come in a much different way, even among we who hold to the pre-mil, pre-trib view. So, I present this for your consideration, as, in my view, likely possibility, not as set in biblical stone. 

First, let us look at the way the world is configured.

The United States of America is –for the moment, at least– the world’s lone superpower. Whether looking at military, economic, societal, technological, or whatever category we want to look at, America stands alone at the top of the nation-heap. I use the word “heap” because this world is built upon garbage–filth from the heart and mind of its father, the devil. Boy! I know how cynical that seems. But, God says there is none good but One: “And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God” (Mk. 10:18).

Since sin entered the world, man is fallen. Mankind must have redemption found only in God, the Son. People must be born again or they cannot even see the kingdom of God: “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” (Jn. 3:3).

Jesus’ words, here, have dual meaning to me: 1) those who refuse Christ by rejecting their need for a new, spiritual, birth will not go to heaven upon death; and 2) they cannot even understand heaven and things of God without the new birth into God’s family. I base this latter assessment upon the following words of the Apostle Paul: “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 Cor. 2:14).

This is going to sound even more off-putting, but it is true nonetheless. Christians are the only “good” in this downward-spiraling world. Now, am I saying that I, in my fleshly efforts, am better than the one who does not claim Christ as Savior and Lord? No, absolutely not! I must say that in one regard, I am like Paul. But it is not his lovely Christian side, rather is the other. Paul said: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not” (Rom. 7:18).

Only through Christ is any Christian viewed as “good” in God’s sight. Only through Jesus does a person become fit to inherit an eternal home in heaven. All humanly born and humanly-devised matters are due for God’s judgment and for eternity apart from God because He cannot abide sin. Sin must be dealt with, and Jesus is the way sin is forever eradicated.

When it comes to the future, all hinges upon the person and presence of Jesus Christ as redeemer.

So, why all that, to get to the speculation of what will happen from here to eternity? Because Christians are the key, in my stream-of-consciousness unfolding scenarios for the end of days. God’s final wrath and judgment will not begin falling until the only good there is in this world is removed. This Bible prophecy truth is found in the words of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thes. 5:9).

When Christians are removed in the rapture (read 1 Cor. 15:51-55 and 1 Thes. 4:13-18), the things on Earth will change dramatically. We get a prophetic glimpse of that removal of Christians from the planet in Paul’s additional words to the Thessalonians: “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2 Thes. 2:6-7).

The word “he” in verse 7 refers to God the Holy Spirit removing from His office as He interacted with mankind during the age of grace (church age –which is this present dispensation). The Holy Spirit, resident in the church during this present dispensation, will, in the moment of rapture, no longer work in exactly the same way as now. He will interact with the human creation much as He did during the time before the church was born at Pentecost (Acts, Chapter 2). (I know some believe the church was born on the shores of Galilee earlier, when Christ called forth the first disciples. I disagree.)

God the Holy Spirit, living within Christians, is the only “good” to be found in people. The rapture will take that “good” to be with Jesus Christ for eternity. All who are “born again” (see John 3:3) will go to the heavenly homes (dwelling places) Jesus has been preparing for them since He ascended to the right hand of God the Father (read John 14:1-3). These will include everyone–dead and living–who have accepted Christ for salvation of their souls. There will be no good people left on the planet –that is, none that are “good” in God’s holy view.

With the Holy Spirit no longer acting to influence the consciences of humans in as powerful ways as He does at present, mankind’s actions and reactions will be exponentially accelerated for the worse. We will begin to explore likely scenarios for the period immediately following the rapture in next week’s commentary.

Time has arrived, I believe, to put together a postulation introspective on biblically prophesied things to come, in scenario fashion–i.e., to offer, in a stream-of-consciousness way, based upon trends in today’s news, a possible course the world might take while we trudge through the end of days toward Armageddon and Christ’s second advent. 

As always, when entertaining such thoughts in a public forum, I must state up front that these are nothing more or less than speculations on my part. However, the speculations are undertaken with considerable years of study, writing, and most of all, praying about matters foretold by Jesus and the Old and New Testament prophets. Although I have not received a “word of knowledge” or been given a vision or dream in the Old or New Testament sense, I do believe my thoughts are given here with Holy Spirit-directed thought and insight.

So, where do we begin? Well, maybe at the beginning, the moment when linear time seems to have been introduced for this marvelous story of God and man to begin its run through history. I say it is good to begin at that point, because we have–it is obvious to any student of Bible prophecy who is alert to present day goings-on—come to the point that the very one who created time for mankind is now under satanic attack as a liar and/or a lunatic. Jesus, you see, is the creator of this thing called time, of the being called man, of all that is. The Scriptures say:

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Clear enough, right? God, not evolution, or any other method born of man’s sophistry, brought this world into existence.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (Jn. 1:1-4).

About Jesus, the Apostle Paul wrote: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Col. 1:16-17).

Jesus himself said: “…I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (Jn. 14:6).

The Bible says that Jesus Christ is God, himself. He said that He and His Father are one. That is, they are the same. When the pious Jewish religious leaders asked Him if He was God, Jesus said: “…Before Abraham was, I am” (Jn. 8:58). This refers to His being the God of His people of His promises –the Israelites, as seen in Exodus 3:6.

The world of entertainment, e.g., “The DaVinci Code” fiction of a few years ago, has been saying Jesus was a mere man who faked His crucifixion, living on to father a child with Mary Magdalene. Entertainment, under pseudo-archaeological auspices, have told us that they have found the ossuaries and even the DNA of Jesus’ relatives, and possibly of Jesus himself in a tomb near Jerusalem. Jesus addressed this matter in part when He said during His Olivet Discourse: “Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. 24:25-27).

Matthew 24:25-27 is, I realize, Jesus’forewarning of false christs and false prophets that will deceive all but God’s elect during the tribulation era. Just like in all other endtime signals of significance that are in view today, however, the lying–saying Jesus is not the soon returning God of Heaven–is already underway for setting up prophetic fulfillment to come.

The prominently observable fact that the deity of Jesus is under attack is, in other words, a profound signal that we are bumping up against the very end of this Age of Grace. The attack is scheduled, prophetically, to become even more hateful as we degenerate toward the end of days. Having laid the groundwork for showing that Jesus Christ’s deity and God’s veracity are under attack from our great enemy, the devil, and his supernatural and human minions, we will next examine the many developments and what they portend for the future, so far as concerns Bible prophecy. Next week, we will begin looking at end-of-days matters that are in our daily, even hourly, news–overlaid by God’s always 100%-accurate Word, the Bible.

There is a scent of endtime things in the air. The media seems to sense this odor that presages apocalypse, while the churches that name the name of Jesus Christ, for the most part, are apparently oblivious to the last days in which this generation, I’m convinced, finds itself. Or, as DR. Mark Hitchcock puts it, there seems to have been a shift of prophetic gears.

Until very recently, I got media inquiries and requests for interviews on a regular basis.  There has been a lull for some reason, as of late. But, I suspect the flood-gates will soon be opened prophetically, and the interview requests will come again in profusion. And, that is with good reason. Journalistic types –whether one agrees with them so far as world-view is concerned—must be given credit for having talented “news noses” for things that have happened, are happening, or seem about to happen. Again, there is something in the air. The newshounds know it. It’s something that portends paradigm change in this troubled world.

As pointed out in last week’s column (Part 1 of “The Beginning of the Last of the Last Days”), that shift seemed to have begun surging through the breach in the dam separating good and evil. Instead of the steady, but controllable flow from the dark waters of Daniel’s prophesied endtime flood of issues and events, there now gushes a torrent into civilization. I, like Dr. Mark Hitchcock, as mentioned in last week’s commentary, believe that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 represent the explosion that produced the breach in that dam.

We pick up where we left off, loosely using Dr. Hitchcock’s seven indicators of this shift, to frame the last days picture of Daniel’s flood (Daniel 9:26).

3. The modern nation Israel has been under the microscope since its rebirth in 1948. Its existence in the heart of the Holy Land has continued to grow as a bone of contention. That people have been the target for major war-making in several horrific attacks, in addition to the attacks upon its birth on May 14-15, 1948. There was the Nasser-led attack in 1956, the 1967 “Six Day War,” and the 1973 Yom Kippur War led by Anwar Sadat and his Egyptian forces.

Israel continues to be assaulted in vicious attacks, with rockets loaded with explosives being launched against it at every opportunity. The relentless campaign by the terrorist organizations of the Middle East are testimony that Israel is at the center of the flood that is sweeping the world toward Armageddon.

Dr. Hitchcock has stated it correctly: “Israel and Jerusalem will become more and more of a burdensome stone to the nations in the days ahead as the world faces increased threats of terror (Zech 12:1-2).” (Prophecy Update – News & Information for the End Times – 9/13/06).

4. The United States of America was caught in the explosion that was September 11, 2001. As a matter of fact, this nation was and continues to be at the center of the bull’s-eye in the terrorists’ determination to bring satanic chaos into all the world, until all people on the planet agree to worship the terrorists’ god. America supports Israel’s right to exist; indeed, has and does defend that tiny nation. It is little wonder that Satan directs the minds of the genocidal maniacs into their religious rage to convert or die. Most troubling is the inexplicable tolerance which the world in general extends to these bloodthirsty avengers of fanatic Islam, while at the same time seeming to have disdain and hatred for true Christianity, whose God wants only peace –real peace—for mankind.

5. A most disturbing ramification of the attack on 9/11/01 has been the changing mindset of both government and citizenry about protection against dangerous, liberty-suppressing movement toward Big Brother technology implementation. Fear of future terrorist attacks, even worse than occurred on September 11, 2001, has seriously eroded American’s vigilance against those tendencies that might produce freedom-damaging measures that will eventuate in enslavement.

Again, using Dr. Hitchcock’s words: “Since 9/11, there’s been a dramatic increase in surveillance, searches, and security. Almost immediately after 9/11, all kinds of talk erupted about national ID cards, biometric scanners, etc. This situation is ripe for a person to come on the scene and adapt this developing technology to exercise iron-fisted control over the world” (Prophecy Update, 9/13/06).

6. Globalism is another side effect of the breach that was created when the planes struck in New York City, Washington, D.C., and in that Pennsylvania field. International anxieties and fears have begun bringing the world together in a rush of cooperative initiatives. We saw these in action when the threats against the London subways occurred. Instant global restrictions were instituted when it was learned that as many as 10 passenger jetliners were the targets for terrorists, who intended to destroy them while they headed for the United States.

Daniel was given the prophetic preview of a coming final world kingdom with King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2) and with his own vision (Daniel 7).

The humanists are determined to circumvent language and cultural barriers, as well as erase national borders in their drive to go back to the tower of Babel (Genesis 11). Ten kingdoms are prophesied to be formed, with powerful heads of each, who will give their power and authority to the beast –Antichrist (Rev. 17:11-12). One world is Satan’s goal, over which he intends to establish his demonic rule. He has his minions –both supernatural and natural—hard at work to bring his supreme tyrant to that throne.

7. Peace is the issue that has been thrust forward on the world diplomatic stage as never before, due to the prophetic shift that took place on 9/11, unleashing Daniel’s last-days flood. The tyrant mentioned above, which Satan will, according to Bible prophecy, put on his throne for a brief time (2 Thessalonians 2; Revelation Chapter 13) will offer that peace the world is so desperately searching to find. Whether it’s the “Roadmap to Peace” proposed by President Bush and Tony Blair or some other formula that will be the nucleus of this endtime peace, a peace is coming. But God says it will be a peace that will be destructive beyond any war of history, save Armageddon itself (read Isa. 28:15, 18). Actually, this peace brought by the rider on the first horse of Apocalypse (Rev. 6:1-2) will set in motion man’s final war, which will climax at the place called Megiddo. It will bring about Armageddon.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 seem the first salvo by General Satan against all that is godly in this world. Christians –all who believe in Christ, and Him alone for salvation of their souls—are God Almighty’s royal ambassadors while living here on earth. There is coming a moment in time when the King will withdraw his royal diplomats who preach and teach true peace from the Prince of Peace. Then, the Lord will make war against the godless. I didn’t say this; God says it in His Word. You can count on what He has said in His Word, the Bible, because He cannot lie.

Almost certainly this generation looks to have entered the last of the last days.

Most every indicator points to the likelihood that this generation stands at the very end of the age, when considered from the dispensational view of Bible prophecy.

I will confess at the outset of writing this commentary that I borrow heavily from my good friend, Dr. Mark Hitchcock, in considering these matters. He has expressed thoughts along the same lines of what I was thinking when I began to create the story line of my novel, The Rapture Dialogues: Dark Dimension.

The heart of the story for the novel series (three novels, I prayerfully hope), I determined, would involve the defining moment in modern history when things began to gush like a flood, in fulfillment of the prophet Daniel’s forewarning: “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” (Dan. 9:26).

The prophecy that Daniel was given for the consummation of man-made governmental control of this fallen world foretold that things would begin winding up for the big finale with the death of Israel’s Messiah. The end would begin with the destruction of the city and the sanctuary (Jerusalem and the Temple on Mt. Moriah). A prince from the people who destroyed the city and the sanctuary, the prophecy said without giving a specific timeline, would come on the world scene. History’s conclusion would then, according to the prophecy, rush in a growing tidal wave of devastating events until it became a flood, and this flood would make all things of Planet Earth desolate.

So, I will get back to telling you about what was my thinking on a watershed event, or events, I might use to build into the novel’s story line before I began writing. It came to me to consider something of our time that is a constituent part of these last days which might seem to have caused a breach in the walls of civilization. A powerful schism-producer that allowed the torrent to grow into a gush that will irreparably burst the dam separating good from evil.

While Dr. Mark Hitchcock expresses it in a different way than I do, we both agree that Daniel’s flood seems to be about to crash through that ever-weakening barrier. The crack in the dam, we believe, has already occurred.

Dr. Hitchcock wrote a number of years back:

“Five years ago, in the solemn wake of September 11, I made the statement in one of my books that it appeared that the events of 9/11 and its aftermath had a major stage-setting effect on the events of the end times. That a kind of ‘prophetic shift of gears’ had occurred on that day. That many of the major players in the Biblical end time scenario appeared to be rapidly ‘shifting’ into place. As I look back over the last five years, and gaze ahead to what’s looming on the horizon, I believe this statement even more today than I did five years ago” (Prophecy Update – News & Information for the End Times, 9/13/06).

I like the way Mark used seven distinct indicators to illustrate the “shifting prophetic gears,” as he puts it. I, myself, liken it to a breach in the endtime barrier seemingly inflicted when those fuel-laden passenger planes crashed into the World Trade towers, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania. I will loosely use Mark’s indicators to frame my contention that this generation is witnessing the beginning of the last of the last days.

1. I’ve said many times that since Israel was reborn as a nation May 14, 1948, the Middle East has been the focus of the whole world. All we have to do to realize this is to ask ourselves where the news cameras and microphones always turn when things heat up in the Mid-East region. No matter what they had been trained on before the heating up occurred, the cameras and microphones always turn back to that troubled land.

Oil, of course, is the catalyst for this concern, thus the region demands attention, rationale would have it. But ancient, satanic rage and hatred is the true catalyst that galvanizes the fears of those who suspect World War III will break out at or near Jerusalem. The attacks of 9/11/01 put Israel and its enemy neighbors who harbor Islamic fanatic terrorists that are blood-avowed to murder every Jew and anyone who befriends the Jew, directly in the last-days spotlight of Bible prophecy.

Those attacks seem to have torn a gash in the fragile fabric of civilization. Indeed, World War III–Armageddon—might have already begun.

2. The Islamic fanatic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 –in less than two hours of murderous carnage—brought through that breach, and into the open, the Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 Gog-Magog forces. Again, Mark Hitchcock says it well: “As one reads the names of the nations that will invade Israel in the end times in Ezekiel 38:1-7, it looks like a ‘Who’s Who’ of Israel’s enemies today, especially Iran. The close, developing ties between Russia (Rosh) and Iran (Persia) have been greatly accelerated since 2001″ (Prophecy Update-News & Information for the End Times, 9/13/06).

Not many will argue that at this time, with Iran’s ruling Mullahs angrily expressing desire to kill every Jew, and with their terrorist-sponsoring regime trying as hard as possible to produce atomic weapons, Daniel’s last-days flood rages onward toward the apocalypse!

Weariness sets in at the end of each day for most of us. Under normal circumstances –i.e., if we are basically healthy in body and attitude—we awaken each morning with a fresh outlook, ready to begin the day. This approach to life, I realize, can vary with us, individually, from time to time, with even the most optimistic among us. 

In our minds, many of us begin a new “day” (clean page in our lives) on January 1 of each year. It is, for many, a time of resolutions, promises, and a new determination to make the new year better than last. And, we don’t have to put too much effort into reflection to know that this year could be improved over the one just expired. Again, some are excepted from that generalization.

On the other hand, from a prophetic perspective –and, after all, that is most generally the theme of this column—things are scheduled to get worse from this point forward. Much worse, as a matter of fact. Think with me for a moment in terms of dispensations, which, despite detractors from dispensational viewpoint, is precisely the way God deals with this earthly realm, so far as human history is concerned.

This present dispensation–the Age of Grace—or “the Church Age” as some would have it, can be likened unto a single day in the life of the human race. According to all of the signals given in God’s prophetic word, we are in the late hours of this single day God has given humankind to live upon this mortal sphere. Like in the literal 12-month periods we call years, we don’t have to reflect long or hard to know that the next dispensational day could stand improvement over that which is now passing into history.

Those who look at current issues and events –at history of the last 2000 years in general—must conclude, if looking through a prism of reality, that ours has been a day of bloody conflict and rage. Just as the Apostle Paul prophesied: “But evil men and seducers shall [become] worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13).

Paul’s forewarning is fulfilling in our time. Dictators abound, whether looking at North Korea, Iran, Syria, or –some are convinced—China and even Russia, evil men and seducers are indeed growing worse and worse.

It might be difficult to imagine these types getting worse than the likes of Nero, Ivan the Terrible, or even Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tse-tung. But, the technologies available to today’s mass murderer dictators are so ghastly that they cause the swords, arrows, bullets and bombs of the past to pale by comparison. For example, the now executed Iraqi genocidal maniac, Saddam Hussein, murdered 180,000 people in one chemical/gas attack. Basher Al-Assad of Syria is thought to have murdered even more of his own people in that heinous fashion.

There are those in the world today who would wreak even greater havoc, had they the capability. And indications are they might soon have the means. So, as we look to a new year, with a clean slate upon which we can write a better personal history than 2013, let us remember that we are in a fatally flawed–even deadly–world.

There is a Person –and only one Person—who can guide us into a better future. We celebrated His birth just a couple of months ago. His name is Jesus. Jesus is calling out a people for himself from this quickly downward-spiraling world. He, alone, can see to it that we who name Him as our Savior and Lord will awaken into a bright new day, rather than move into the next dispensational day reserved for God’s wrath –the seven-year tribulation era.

Here’s what Jesus Christ tells all who will heed His call for redemption: “Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful” (Rev. 21:5).

Let us put Christ at the forefront of our lives while thinking on the new year. He truly assures a new beginning –both now, and for eternity.

Dictators feed on weakness. Hitler did so when Neville Chamberlain brought home to England the document he excitedly waved to the crowd and cameras, declaring: “We have peace in our time.” Stalin did it when he began the purges of the 1930s, eventually murdering at a minimum 30 million of his fellow Russians while the political and military leaders around him did nothing out of fear of what he would next do to them.

Fear, then, is the key to weakness. Franklin D. Roosevelt had it right when he pronounced, “We have nothing to fear but fear, itself” during the time of the Great Depression and the lead-up to World War 2. Fear-engendered weakness is the bane of mankind, and there is only one who can deal with it effectively.

Jesus said: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim 1:7). Tragically, the diplomatic world, as all other entities of the humanistic kind, will never take this truth into account in dealing with international crises, or any other kind of crisis. Satan is the chief ruler of the darkness of this world, and he more often than not blinds the minds of men and women to the truth that God, alone, has the answers to the problems festering and bubbling upon Planet Earth.

Thus it is with no great wonder that we observe the goings-on in diplomatic circles, while they attempt to deal with the likes of the young North Korean dictator and his possibly lighting off nukes in this fearful world. For the “international community” to have done otherwise than come up with absolutely toothless sanctions against North Korean regimes surprised no one. That they did formulate such an impotent action certainly didn’t surprise the Iranian Mullahs, who, no doubt, carefully viewed the matter at the time of the “sanctions” with much pleasure.

The Iranian dictators, you see, like all other tyrants, feed on fear and fear-mongering. They are of their father, the devil, and that father of lies–Satan—knows that fear sucks the life from humanity, replacing it with a vacuum, a void into which dictators and demons always rush to fill. Make no mistake, the King of Persia, against whom Daniel the prophet and the messenger who brought him prophetic truth from God struggled, is alive and well in the Middle East. That demonic force’s fellow minions strike fear into the rest of the world, making Paul’s forewarning more true than ever in our day: “For we struggle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12).

Bible prophecy predicts a time when the world’s diplomats will show their weak-spined impotence. It will be at the most fear-filled moment in history for the nation Israel. We who study current issues and events through the magnifying glass of God’s prophetic Word believe that future time of Israel’s greatest danger will involve many of the devilish antagonists that are Israel’s avowed enemies today. And the assault will include some who today pretend to be the friends of efforts for world peace.

When the force comes like a great juggernaut toward Israel, the Neville Chamberlains of the time will protest. And, that is all they will do, in taking action against the blood-lusting force of evil. God’s Prophetic Word reports this future attack, and the diplomatic protest this way: “And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?” (Ezek. 38:11-13).

This apparently unstoppable force will, thankfully, be stopped. We believe the force to be led by the nation Russia, leading its confederates –including Persia (Iran, today) and many other of Israel’s enemies, to wipe that Jewish state from the map, then take the spoils of war. The intended spoils, no doubt, will mainly be the vast oil fields of the whole region. God, himself, the Ezekiel 38 and 39 Gog-Magog prophecy says, will destroy all but one-sixth of these forces.

Actions by the diplomats today, in dealing with the North Koreans, and next, the Iranians, is a foreshadow of things to come. They are not only setting the stage for the future leader called “Gog” to think his “evil thought,” and bring his coalition against Israel. The diplomatic actions in this regard, by the UN, and even the Obama Administration, in my view, are paving the road for Antichrist to one day take the opportunity to feed on the fears of the people of earth. The people left behind, following the Rapture of the Church, will, for the most part accept the peace made with death and hell (Isa. 28:15, 18). They will take the path of least resistance, and it will mean hell on earth for a God-rejecting world.

Jesus is the answer for escape out of such a future. He offers freedom from fear, and eternal life with God the Father.

There is so much hyperbole about the Holy Land. Does it belong to the Palestinians or to the Jews? Does Israel have any rights to that region of the Middle East, or are they intruders? Exactly what makes the Jews think they have a right to any part of that geographical region?

Israel is blamed today by almost all of the world community as being the culprit in fomenting war against the hapless, helpless Arabs of Palestine.

What is the truth? Who is right in the millennia-long, bloody saga of the Jews versus the rest of the world in the matter of the right –or not—to the land that is strangely, violently, in the news every hour?

The answer to this boils down to a belief. Is God’s Word –the Bible—truth, or is it literature filled with flawed history that is little more than fiction? Either the Bible is God’s Word, or it is a volume that has stirred wars for no good reason.

I have received hate e-mails telling me that we Christians who are of the evangelical/pre-trib belief ilk are the true hate-mongers and progenitors of war in these volatile times. We want to bring on the tribulation, Armageddon, etc., so that we can be snatched off the planet at the rapture. We are a blood-thirsty lot of people who want those who don’t agree with us to get their come-uppance…

Nothing, of course, is further from the truth. We want peace and happiness to reign on earth. It’s just that we know God’s Word on the matters involved says the only way that will happen is when Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, rules over the planet at a specified future time –the millennium.

We can do nothing to hasten, retard or prevent this from happening. We simply believe our mission is to tell the world what the Bible says –to forewarn of things to come so that people will seek Christ and the redemption from sin He gives. The philosophers through the ages have said they seek truth. God’s Word, the Bible, has the only truth there is. It is a love letter from the Creator of all things. So, it is –in our view—time to sit up and take notice when God speaks into our time. He has done so in no uncertain terms when it comes to the matter of the contested land of the region the world historians and geographers call Palestine, but that God called Canaan, and, later, Israel.

Now is time to review but a few statements God made about that land. It is either truth –or a lie. Take your choice. But, keep in mind, if you reject what the Bible says, and it indeed turns out to be truth, not lie, there is a tremendous price to pay for your rejection.

God’s words about the land He gave Israel (which includes much of the region we call the Middle East):

1) God’s first promise to Abraham about a nation Genesis 12:7a:

“The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.'” Genesis 17:7-8: “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

2) To those who say God’s covenant with Israel concerning the nation/land is conditional, consider these words from God:

Psalm 89:30-37: “If his sons forsake My law, and do not walk in My judgments, if they violate My statues, and do not keep My commandments, then I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. But I will not break off My loving kindness from him, nor deal falsely in My faithfulness. My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. His descendants shall endure forever like the moon, and the witness in the sky is faithful.”

Jeremiah 31:35-36: “This is what the Lord says, ‘He who appoints the sun to shine by day, Who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar — the Lord Almighty is His Name; Only if these ordinances vanish from My sight,’ declares the Lord, ‘will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before Me.'”

Space doesn’t permit me to add the many, many such promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We are seeing the bloody turmoil today because Satan is determined to make God a liar. If the old serpent, the devil, can destroy Israel, he will –he deludedly must believe—make his own defeat, as prophesied by God, of no effect as well. He can yet set his star above the throne of God.

Yet, Israel is firmly back at the heart of its homeland after nearly 2,000 years of dispersion, just as God said they would be: “‘Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, and they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit. I will also plant them on their land, and they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them, says the Lord your God” (Amos 9:14-15).

All of the machinations of John Kerry and the other internationalists who put pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to give up the West Bank, or whatever other territory that belongs to Israel, will, ultimately, only bring destruction upon the enemies of God. And that is the classification of anyone who wants to divide God’s Promised Land.

Their desire to tear apart what God has put together and Promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is what will bring all of this rebellious world to Armageddon according to Joel 3: 2. “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.”

This generation has witnessed stage setting for the last days, as predicted by Jesus and the Old and New Testament prophets. None is more relevant than the prophetic stage-setting we are watching in this crucial hour of last-time human history.

The prophecy of relevance has been in the stage-setting process for decades, even centuries. But, the 20th and 21st centuries have moved ahead preparation for this particular foretelling as perhaps no other era. The process is part of dynamic rearrangements that will eventuate in configuring the world for man’s most horrific military conflict –the war called Armageddon.

Jesus himself gave the prophecy as part of the Olivet Discourse while sitting with His disciples overlooking the Temple Mount: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation…” (Matt. 24:6-7).

The prophecy we need to look at in this most fascinating time in history is the prophecy Jesus gave that foretells that nation will rise against nation in an unprecedented way just before He returns to set up His Millennial Kingdom on Planet Earth. When giving only a cursory glance at these words, we think that yes, that’s certainly true. Many a nation has risen against another nation just during the past several decades. There have been many wars, and other wars are looming. But, is this the kind of “nation against nation” reference Jesus specifically gave in His discourse upon the Mount of Olives?

To answer this, we must look at the Greek language –the language from which the New Testament was translated into English. Jesus was in actuality saying that these uprisings would be unusual, in that they would be based in ethnos –the Greek word, here, for “nation.” They would be ethnic in origin. They would pit ethnic, or racial group, against racial group.

It is equally true that ethnic factors have been the cause of many wars throughout the centuries. The Arabs and Jews –as a matter of fact, many ethnic peoples against the Jews– marked the conflicts of Old Testament times. Almost without exception, those early wars were “ethnic” in origin.

Things have not changed. Arabs and Jews still have the ethnos factor at the heart of their differences. And, never in history has the conflict been more virulent –in rhetoric, if not in fact. The Islamic nations –mostly Arab—are blood-vowed to push the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea and to wipe the Jewish race from the planet. Some Arab leaders of the past and other leaders –e.g., the Iranian—continue to want all Jews expunged from the region, and even off the planet. They have made it their national policy, through their oratorical invectives. There have been conflicts in the century just passed involving peoples of the Caucuses, the Balkans, etc., and horrific slaughters in Africa, and other places –all based upon ethnic differences.

Now, this hemisphere is experiencing the early effects of ethnic struggle. The latest is more and more pitting those of Mexican descent against, particularly, Caucasian types, while the protests over immigration laws escalate. These uprisings aren’t spontaneous, but are fomented, obviously, by those who have ulterior motives –other than to see that illegal immigrants get a chance to start new lives in the most materially blessed nation in human history.

I have my personal thoughts on the politics of all of this, which I will keep to myself, except to say that some political entities are showing a total disregard for their national well-being by wanting to just ignore the laws on these important immigration matters, and extend unlimited amnesty to those who have entered America illegally.

Point is, Jesus said that a great, swelling uprising involving ethnic strife would grow to be a major crisis during the Tribulation era –that last seven years just before He returns to put an end to all of the conflicts at Armageddon (Rev. 19: 11).

Ethnic disturbance we are witnessing each day in our headlines is, in my view, something to watch closely, so far as being observant for prophetic signals is concerned. The unrest constitutes yet another indicator of where this generation might stand on God’s prophetic timeline. We can say with a degree of certainty based upon study of God’s Word, and belief in the Pre-Trib Rapture of Christ’s Church, that because of the burgeoning ethnic unrest, in conjunction with all of the other indicators we see interjecting themselves with growing intensity and frequency, Jesus’ shout, “Come up here!” can’t be far distant. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.