My partner in raptureready.com, Todd Strandberg, and I were exiting a restaurant in Atlanta some years ago with some family-close friends. A man tried to grab my daughter, who protested and moved away from him. It was a few seconds before I, being blind, realized what was going on. The man–about 40-50 years old—wanted to help her in the taxi so he could then panhandle us for money. He was quite persistent, and so were we. No “gold” would be sifting from us to him this night, especially after having, uninvited, grabbed the girl we dearly love.

Some will no doubt e-mail to say we were unfeeling or even un-Christian in our refusal to hand over the money. He was hungry and we didn’t feed him. Didn’t Jesus prophesy something about that somewhere? He will tell those who fail to feed the hungry to depart into everlasting darkness?

I assure that if he were hungry, we would have taken him back into the restaurant and bought him a meal. He wasn’t hungry, but wanted the “gold” that he could manipulate from us through his quite disturbing technique of panhandling.

This incident set in motion much cogitation. When my memory of the unpleasantry at last co-mingled with another of my pet peeves, the thought congealed. Both of these–which are among my least favorite things, are wrapped up in one and the same term, though one is physical and the other cerebral/spiritual.

The term I want to look at is “panning”.

The word “panhandling” means asking strangers for money. It comes from a time when prospectors handled pans in the process of “panning” for gold. They would sift the water and gravel, until only the gold was left glimmering in the pan. Gold, of course, was a means of exchange in the mining towns of the day when the gold rush was taking place in California and other places. “Panhandling” has come to mean, in more modern times, begging for money rather than working for a living. It is quite annoying to experience panhandlers.

And, this is where the two pet peeves conjoin for yours truly. The term “panning” is at the heart of the irritation. Time and time again I hear the same thing from those of the theologically wishy-washy sort. Whether doing interviews on radio or television, or whether in group or individual discussions, when the subject of Bible prophecy is discussed, a common declaration inevitably spews forth from someone. It is issued with a smile or chuckle, and is supposed to end conversation on the topic; you can tell by the finality of tone as the chuckle comes with the words: “I’m a pan-millennialist. I believe it will just all pan out in the end,” is the declaration that the one speaking it obviously believes to be both brilliant and original.

I’ve heard it a hundred times, easily. And, I’m not exaggerating. “It will just all pan out in the end…”

This, to my mind, is spiritual panhandling. It is taking the easy way out. It is being too lazy to study God’s Word on the matters of eschatology, endtime things. The activity implied by the declaration “it will just all pan out in the end” surrounds the individual with the slovenly attitude: “I just don’t want to think about it, because it isn’t important.”

Oh? Is it not? Let’s look for a moment at what is said about prophecy yet future, relative to what should be the Christian’s attitude.

Jesus gave a broad overview and even some specifics during His Olivet discourse. This teaching on what would happen from the time of the temple’s destruction and Jerusalem’s devastation until He returns in the second coming was recorded in Matthew, chapter 24, Mark, chapter 13, and Luke, chapter 21. The prophecies were given without hesitation, with parables being used only sparingly, for effect–i.e., they were meant to be taken literally, and they were powerful in their future ramifications for those who would endure them.

Jesus said, after laying out what would happen from then to the end of the tribulation:

“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matt. 24:42). “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.” And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (Mk. 13:35-37).

The Gospel of Luke then captures the most profound words Jesus spoke in this regard, in my view. The Lord was speaking directly to our time, I’m convinced:

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Lk. 21:28).

Jesus asked a quite disturbing question. It gets right to the heart of the feel-good, do-good gospel we are hearing today from the panhandlers of God’s Word, who smilingly predict a growing movement toward some great revival they “feel” is coming. This, while every indicator states that Christians are looking more and more like the fallen world around them.

These same purveyors of the pablum that the Church is making the world better and better says that Jesus didn’t want His people to worry or think about prophecy–which incidentally is at least 27% of the Bible.

These false teachers must be cocooned within Jesus’ troubling question: “…when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Lk. 18:8b).

Those who hold to the “it will all just all pan out in the end” mindset are dangerously close to the attitude Jesus said would mark the Laodicean church –the church for which the Lord reserved His greatest condemnation:

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Rev. 3:13-19).

Panhandling in the Bible prophecy sense is lukewarmness, which makes God sick. It does me, too.

America declared independence from its British masters 237 years ago. The struggle that ensued was mighty, and painful, even to the point of loss of many lives. The result of the savage war for independence was a republic that the patriot Benjamin Franklin was overheard to say the American’s people at last had, if they could keep it.

It was almost as if Franklin could look down through the decades of the nation’s future and foresee the difficulties the United States would encounter. And, encounter them we have –and we are continuing to encounter them.

There is one primary reason we the people who make up the United States of America are slamming into things that beg the question: Can we keep this republic the founding fathers handed us? The reason: We have, as a whole, again declared our independence –this time from the God of Heaven.

We have determined to allow a small segment of our society to create a culture where any god but God rules. We consider banning the Creator’s name from every public venue as perhaps the fair thing to do. We have, through our acquiescence, made the Supreme Court the absolute master of most matters involving faith.

It has been permitted to legislate from that bench the way we must carry our beliefs in public. The Supreme Court’s decisions –for the most part—boil down to allowing any name but the name of Jesus Christ to be uttered in public schools and other governmental and public forums.

At the same time, the federal courts look the other way while certain state courts install religious inculcation within public school curricula. Of course, the religious inculcation involves the Islamic, or native American, or any other religion, rather than the one, true way to God and Heaven –the belief in Christ for salvation of the soul.

While God has been incrementally removed from public schools and governmental institutions, so has rational behavior, previously guided by the moral compass provided by God’s Word, gone the way of common sense that has deserted every civilization that has rejected the Creator of all things. The result is an increase in illicit drug use among even the very youngest among our numbers. Sexual deviance and hedonism have corrupted most every neighborhood in the nation, not just inner-city areas, where crime and illegitimacy made them to be considered America’s cultural cesspools.

The evidence that this nation is beginning to reap the whirlwind to which we have sown the seeds of anti-God legislation comes to the surface of today’s headlines in a dramatic display of satanic influence.

One such proof of what has been the results of all of this is the recent beating death of Delbert Belton, a WWII veteran who was a hero-survivor of the Battle of Okinawa, one of America’s most hard-won victories against Japan. The two black teenagers beat the 89 year-old man, who died later in a Spokane, Washington hospital.

America is no longer the independent bastion of liberty that was envisioned, declared on that July 4th 237 years ago, then won through much patriotic bloodshed.

Franklin’s concern seems very close to coming to pass. It looks like we the people might not be able to keep that republic he and the others sought to assure by the institution of the United States Constitution. This is because we have, as a people, through our malfeasance, failed to take steps to stop the erosion of freedom in this once great nation.

The most manifest point of malfeasance by we the people is our incrementally turning our backs on God, and on His one and only way to redemption. That redemption–whether for individuals or entire civilizations can be found in only one source. Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the father but by me” (John 14:6).

He said further about those who looked to Him for redemption: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free… If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:32, 36).

All true liberty, thus freedom, must be centered in Jesus Christ. The further individuals or nations remove from Him, the more enslaved they become. The ultimate end of such alienation from the God of Heaven will be the regime ruled for a brief time by the world’s most horrific tyrant –Antichrist (read Revelation, chapter 13).

Am I suggesting that we must turn this country into a Christian theocracy? No, but I’m putting forth the Bible truth that all men, women, and children must be free to come to the Savior for salvation. There should be no governmental impediment to that ability to hear God’s truth –and His call. This freedom is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, but has, through deliberate misinterpretation, been overridden by the U.S. Supreme Court.

America –as any people—must turn to Christ. There is no other way to true freedom –liberty found only in the Son of the Living God. Let’s declare our dependence upon Him. That’s our only hope. That’s America’s only hope.

Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf while sitting out a jail term. He dictated to Rudolph Hess about “my struggle,” as the book title’s translation from German to English goes. The Apostle Paul told Christians about our struggle in this world. Strangely, it is the same struggle faced by arguably the most infamous mass murderer who ever lived.

The source of this struggle is at the heart of everything we do in this life. It is the source that must be dealt with, and that is why we see the many signals of the end of the age taking place around our lives, our neighborhoods, our nation, and the world. The increasing intensity of the conflict, and the wave after wave of assaults by the source point directly to Christ’s soon return.

“And, when ye shall see all of these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption draweth nigh” (Lk. 21:28). This prophecy by Jesus should alert every believer who is attuned to God’s prophetic Word and who is keeping up with local and world conditions that these things, in combination, and with the frequency and intensity with which they are increasing, constitute a sure signal that we are at the end of the age; the world is on the brink of the beginning of the tribulation.

Spiritual warfare is the struggle; Satan is the source that keeps it stirred –indeed, is stepping up the conflict. Our struggle, like Hitler’s, is wrapped up in the following: “For we wrestle 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).

The all-important difference between the fuhrer’s struggle with these dark powers in high places and the wrestling match experienced with them by Christians is that those who know Jesus Christ as Savior can’t be possessed by them. Hitler obviously was possessed by them, and he welcomed their guidance and influence.

He once told of being alone in his office when he came face to face with the “ultimate man.” From this supernatural visitation, the Nazi form of the Aryan Uberman (superman) was born. We know the result of that encounter. The terrors of Dachau, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and other hellish chambers of horrors were spawned.

There isn’t much I agree with the Catholic Church about, but regarding Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin being possessed by demons, I can find common ground. I found one interesting report in this regard:

“Adolf Hitler and Russian leader Stalin were possessed by the Devil, the Vatican’s chief exorcist has claimed. Father Gabriele Amorth who is Pope Benedict XVI’s ‘caster out of demons’ made his comments during an interview with Vatican Radio. Father Amorth said: ‘Of course the Devil exists and he can not only possess a single person but also groups and entire populations. I am convinced that the Nazis were all possessed. All you have to do is think about what Hitler – and Stalin did. Almost certainly they were possessed by the Devil. You can tell by their behaviour and their actions, from the horrors they committed and the atrocities that were committed on their orders. That’s why we need to defend society from demons’” (Nick Pisa, “Hitler and Stalin were possessed by the Devil, says Vatican exorcist.” The Daily Mail, August 28, 2006).

We don’t have to think very hard or look very long to find Hitler-like atrocities in our own time. Consider the executed Saddam Hussein and his now-deceased notorious sons. They committed heinous crimes against humanity that can only be described as demonic. Consider the militants of Islam who send their own children out with explosives strapped to their bodies to murder Jews and others. The struggle against the rulers of the darkness of this world isn’t getting any easier. It is observably increasing with frequency and intensity –the birthpangs that Jesus foretold in His Olivet Discourse.

Those rulers in high places are at the heart of the Iranian plans for the rest of us. The nuclear program is, no doubt, directly from the mind of the Prince of Persia, against whom the prophet Daniel’s angel wrestled.

This struggle that is growing daily is one of the reasons I wrote my novel, The Rapture Dialogues: Dark Dimension. We must be aware of these creatures, who Jesus Himself foretold will again attack humankind like they did just before the Flood: “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man” (Lk. 17:26).

We wrestle as never before against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. The struggle is a powerful signal that we are at the very end of the age.

Middle East war will explode not long after Christ’s church is taken home to God’s heavenly house. That is not to say that meanwhile there will not be military conflicts in the Mid-East region. The explosive potential for armed conflict is constantly present. At the moment, for example, Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons, while its leaders call for Israel’s total annihilation. The Hamas terrorists are now in “legal” control of the drive toward a Palestinian state. The escalating violence in Syria as the dictator Bashar Al-Assad tries to cling to power and Israel’s determination to prevent the terrorist organization’s murderous plans in use of chemical and other weapons of mass destruction against Israel’s people threaten an expanded conflict in the region.

The Muslim Brotherhood has Egypt and the entire Arab community of nations in an uproar and verging on upheaval that could instigate World War III. That the violence could ignite that much wider conflagration is the fear of diplomats within the international community.

But no matter when war becomes full-blown on Earth, all Christians who have lived or died during the Church Age will, immediately following the Rapture, enjoy peace, joy and fulfillment beyond any that can be imagined this side of heaven. That peace will be true and everlasting!

Believers of the Church Age will, of course, stand before the Lord to be judged at the BEMA judgment seat of Christ. But, it will be a judgment of rewards, not a judgment of sins committed in the earthly life. The Lord Jesus took all of those sins to the cross with Him when He died for those who believe in Him. His sacrifice on that awful tree of crucifixion paid the sin debt in full.

Paul the Apostle gives an illustration of the race that must be run, at the end of which are the BEMA judgment and rewards that will be given. (Read 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Corinthians 9:25-27; 2 Timothy 4:7-8.) He uses the example of an athletic contest. The Bible says that this judgment is one for the works done in the earthly life. Anything and everything done with the pure motive of honoring Christ will be richly rewarded in ways we cannot begin to fully understand right now. These rewards will be given in the form of crowns.

The Bible says also that unconfessed sin can result in loss of rewards at this judgment. Works done just to look good in the eyes of other people will not be accepted by the Lord as works done for Him. These works will be destroyed and only the works done with pure motive will remain.

But the BEMA judgment has nothing to do with salvation. The believer is forever secure in God’s family at the moment he or she accepts Jesus Christ as Savior. The believer will be forever with Christ in Heaven!

Sadly, and tragically, those who have rejected the Holy Spirit’s call to salvation through Jesus Christ will face another, most terrible judgment. It is called the great white throne judgment. It will take place at the end of the millennium.

Everyone at that judgment will be lost. That is, they will have rejected God’s offer of salvation and will be forever separated from God and Heaven. This judgment is for eternal punishment. Those judged will be given punishment in accordance with the evil things they have done in the earthly life. This isn’t my idea or some preacher’s idea. It is a warning straight from God’s holy, absolutely true Word.

The great, loving God doesn’t want this for anyone. He has moved Heaven and Hell to bring all men, women and children to himself. He gave His only son, Jesus Christ. What greater thing could He give? But God created us with a free will. That is, we can choose to love and obey Him, or not. It is up to us.

God’s Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, calls all people to salvation through the shed blood of Jesus, who died for us on the cross. God desires with all His heart that you come to Him. But, the cross is the only way you can come to Him. There is none other.

Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior right this moment. He will change your life forever. He will give you peace that surpasses understanding, even while the world rages around you.

Choose heavenly peace, not earthly war. Troubling issues and events about Mid-East war and peace, as well as worry over all other prophetic signals of these last days, will then encourage you rather than frighten you.

When you see all these things begin to come to pass, you can then, “…stand up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).

The midnight of world history is quickly approaching. Our generation has heard the hoof beats of the four horses of apocalypse for some time. It was once a distant thunder. But, that thunder now grows louder by the hour. Middle East war looms despite the talk of peace that seems impossible to achieve. More and more the world community puts the blame on Israel for the lack of progress toward making earth a safer place.

Middle East oil looms as the ever-growing factor that draws the world’s attention to the region. Religious hatred is the fuse to the Mid-East bomb that could be lit at any moment. The Bible says there will come from the Middle East a certain sort of peace. But, it will be a peace that destroys many people. What a strange peace that will be.

The one the Bible says will approve and guarantee the peace with “many” will appear to be the rider on the white horse. He will be the one for whom everyone has been looking. The “many” with whom he covenants to guarantee a seven-year treaty of peace will be the same “many” he will three-and-a-half years later try his dead-level best to completely destroy. He will seek, like Hitler, to murder every Jew in the world. He will attack Israel with viciousness unmatched by any in history.

All the armies of the world will gather at Armageddon. Those troops will turn from fighting each other and join forces to try to stop Christ from returning from heaven to earth. The sun will have gone dark, while at the same time heating up many times hotter than normal. Men will be “scorched” or “burned” by the heat. Antichrist will direct military fire at the returning King of kings. This will indeed be mankind’s midnight hour!

The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists agrees with true Bible prophecy watchers. Mideast midnight is approaching. But this fact shouldn’t worry the Christian who truly seeks to understand God’s truth. God’s truth includes the “whole word” of the Lord, not just parts of the Bible. As we’ve mentioned before in many books and commentaries, fully 28 percent of the Bible contains prophecy. About one-half of that prophetic word has already come to pass. About one-half remains to be fulfilled. In other words, 14 percent of prophecy in the Bible will yet come to pass.

God can’t lie. And therein is contained a wonderful prospect. Earthly war will soon pass into history. Peace will fill the whole earth! Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords will break through the blackness of the Mideast midnight hour. He will speak, and the raging godless human forces of earth will instantly be defeated. A new era will begin. The time of fallen human history will be vanquished, and King Jesus’ millennial reign will begin.

So, Bible prophecy ultimately presents a picture not of gloom and doom, but of glorious, joyous peace. These times in which we live are deceptive. That is, we are lulled into believing that everything is great. Christians in many places around the world are in great trials. They are murdered by the hundreds and tortured by the thousands, according to Voice of the Martyrs and other organizations who keep watch on Satan’s war against the saints. However, Christians in America today are, for the most part, as caught up in this false feeling of security as are those who do not know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

Most who name Jesus as their Lord today hear little about the coming time of tremendous tribulation for Jews and Christians (people saved during the tribulation) during the last seven years of human history. Many pastors and teachers, for one reason or another, refuse to teach these all-important truths from God’s Word. Usually, the reason this is because the pastors and teachers aren’t taught these things in the seminaries they attend.

God the Holy Spirit gave the Apostle Paul something to say to our generation about that unfaithfulness to God’s Word: “They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths” (2 Tim. 4:4). We have grown comfortable with the “feel-goodisms” and “do-goodisms” coming from our pulpits. We don’t care to hear that horrors might be just around the corner. We want to hear about heaven, but not about hell; about how to love each other, not about how to witness to those who are lost and bound for an eternity apart from God.

This is exactly how the Bible says it will be at the end of the age. It will be earthly business as usual, with little thought for our true purpose as Christians. That purpose is to plant the seed of the Gospel so that God will reap a harvest of souls. Christ said: “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Lk. 12:40). The Lord was talking to Christians. Certainly, His church as a whole is in a time when looking for His coming in the Rapture isn’t popular.

We are told that He will return to the Mount of Olives after coming in the clouds with power and great glory. But the Bible also tells of an earlier return, not “to” the earth, but “above” the earth, in the air. The Apostle Paul prophesies as recorded in 1 Thessalonians 4:16: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

That will be the “Come up hither” of Revelation 4:1. It will be Jesus Christ’s call to all Christians, both dead and alive, to meet Him in the air. He will take them home to His Father’s house (read John 14:2-4). It will be God the Father’s call to suppertime. Christians will go back to the Father’s house in heaven to enjoy the marriage supper of the lamb.

You don’t want to miss that meal. It will be heavenly!

Even after the devastating September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., by Middle Eastern terrorists, people today continue to be lulled to sleep, especially in America. For the most part, Americans are well-fed and have plenty of material things, like houses, cars and clothes. Everyday life goes on, and we are fairly comfortable with it.

When we look at the world situation today through Bible prophecy, however, it becomes clear that this Earth Age is quickly approaching its end. Even non-religious experts who watch world conditions see that the end might be near for mankind.

One of the most highly respected of these earth-watcher organizations is made up of the world’s top atomic scientists. They have a unique way of pointing out where they think we are on history’s timeline.

Some of the world’s top scientists have, since 1947, been setting the imaginary “Doomsday Clock” to warn the world how near man might be to atomic destruction. These scientists put out a publication known as “The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.” The first issue in June 1947 had on its cover a large clock. The small hand (hour hand) was set on 12 and the big hand (minute hand) was set on 7 minutes to 12. In other words, the clock was set at seven minutes until the midnight hour. The atomic scientists believe that when the hour and minute hand both reach 12 midnight, man will have completely destroyed himself through atomic warfare.

Scientists still watch world conditions carefully. They particularly keep an eye on nuclear arms developments and treaties that promise to eliminate such weapons. Whenever things look favorable for eliminating nuclear weaponry, the scientist move the minute hand farther from the 12 on the Doomsday Clock. Whenever things heat up in the arms race, they move it forward toward the 12.

Since the Doomsday Clock was first created, its hands have seldom been out of the fourth quadrant (the last 15 minutes on the clock’s face.) The minute hand has come very near the midnight hour. For example, the hand moved to 3 minutes until midnight in 1949, when the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb. The minute hand of the Doomsday Clock was moved to 2 minutes until midnight in 1953 following America’s late 1952 explosion of the first hydrogen bomb, with the Soviets quickly matching the feat.

The clock’s minute hand has been moved back somewhat on occasion. For example, when the US and the Soviet Union signed a partial test ban treaty in 1963, the scientists of the Atomic Bulletin moved the hand back to 12 minutes until midnight.

The Doomsday Clock has continued to be manipulated farther or closer to midnight throughout the decades since the atomic age was born with the first bomb’s explosion in 1945. It is very apparent that those who should know believe this world sits upon a nuclear powder keg. All-out war could be right around the next corner.

Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 24:21 forewarns, “ For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.” The Doomsday Clock’s minute hand has been warning of nuclear threats to the world for some time. But that imaginary clock’s second hand, if it had one, would indeed be smoking from the heat of the many prophetic signals today. Movement of that symbolic indicator of the last time grows more frightening with each tick.

We who carefully watch for prophetic issues and events have covered these end-time tribulation-type matters many times over the past months and years. But, it is good to remind ourselves here of these things of major prophetic importance. Again, these are:

• Many wars and rumors of wars around the world
• Israel at center stage and in a peace process, yet threatened with annihilation by its Islamic neighbors, and viewed as a “cup of trembling” by the international community of nations
• Rome reviving in the form of the EC and the international community
• Movement toward one-world order
• Development of technology that can make it possible to control the masses
• The coming together of all religions, and Christ being blasphemed
• Existence of a global economic structure
• Occurrences of strange weather patterns and weird sightings, such as UFOs, apparitions, and stigmata of various sorts
• People having the last days characteristics outlined by the Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy, chapter 3

Daniel the prophet said many end-time issues and events will come upon the world like a flood until all things prophesied are fulfilled. Jesus indicated that all of these things will be happening at the same time in the days just before His return to earth.

People have for centuries been witness to a few, scattered, similar issues or events during their time on earth. But ours is the only generation to see all of these major prophetic signals happening at the same time.

And, the chief signal is: Israel, God’s timepiece, is again a nation in the land of promise.

War is on the way –unprecedented war, during which Israel will be at its center. God’s Word says of that time: “That day [is] a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick Darkness…” (Zep. 1:15).

This describes the tribulation era, leading toward the final battle of Armageddon. The greatest of all wars must come to Planet Earth before there can be true peace. Make peace with the Prince of Peace now. Ask Him to save you from sin and make you worthy to escape the terrors that await. Jesus Christ is the only Savior, who can secure you for all eternity.

God’s warning through Paul the apostle is clear about the matter. The endtime generation will experience a great increase in false doctrines that seduce the people of that era.

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth” (1 Tim. 4:1-3).

We remember the book, The Da Vinci Code. Of course, the blasphemous blockbuster novel was purported to be no more than fiction. Fiction, however, can provide venues for the devil to get across to the totally gullible generations alive today the not-so-subtle proposal that Jesus was a charlatan. And people today definitely have “itching ears” wanting to be scratched by the deceivers and lust for fables rather than for God’s truth (read 2 Thes. 4:1-3). The Da Vinci Code certainly filled the bill, according to sales and public clamor wrought by the attention it received.

Satan didn’t confine his assault to one frontal attack, in the case of The Da Vinci Code, but to two. The first attack was presented as fiction, with the underlying Luciferian question: “Yea, hath God said?” The second was also fiction, but presented as fact: an alternative history of things involving Jesus Christ. The second of the two-pronged assault brings to mind the old Indian saying, “you speak with forked tongue,” does it not? That is the satanic attack we will look into a bit further.

As example of the Luciferian method of assault, “The Gospel of Judas,” was an attack on the veracity of the Bible and upon the Lord Jesus Christ that I want us to look at in this limited space. The seducing spirits have used this false gospel to have a field day inflicting hellish havoc upon non-Christians and Christians alike. Tragically, the weakness and apathy within Christian seminaries, pulpits, and pews make the Christians mentioned susceptible to the lies wrapped up in “The Gospel of Judas.”

Rather than going into the historical archaeological find surrounding this artifact, let’s look at its spiritual roots. The false belief comes from the Gnostic religious form that sprang up shortly after Christ’s ascension. Gnosticism is the belief that salvation comes through gnosis, the Greek word meaning “knowledge.” Gnosticism puts forth that one must be an insider of the secrets of the universe in order to be saved. The Jesus of the Bible is very different from the Jesus of the Gnostic’s. In the Gnostic view, Jesus did not come in the flesh to die on the cross in order to make atonement for the sins of the world. He, according to this false gospel, came to reveal the secrets concerning higher knowledge about the existence of the unknown God. Gnosticism puts forth that each and every person has a divine spark of this God in them.

Herein lies the power of seducing spirits –the minions of Satan, who once whispered to Eve, “…ye shall be as god…” The fallen human being finds this to be quite soothing to “itching ears.” This means people can each–as their own god– “do what is right in their own eyes.” Lucifer told Adam and Eve that they would be like God, or know as much as God knows. This is to the fallen human being what Dr. Henry Kissinger said great political power is to those who wield it: “the ultimate aphrodisiac.” Gnosticism is a philosophical religion emphasizing redemption through knowledge.

As my good friend Dr. Larry Spargimino said: “In ‘The Gospel of Judas,’ Jesus sounds more like a New Age guru than a Galilean fisherman.” The Gnostic version of Jesus says the same thing Lucifer told Adam and Eve –that the power of knowledge is salvation, because it establishes the human being as worthy of salvation and godhood.

Judas, in this blasphemous gospel, is identified as the thirteenth spirit, who was appointed by God to be the agent of releasing Jesus from His physical body, in which He was trapped since the incarnation.

Dr. Spargimino says about this Hell-sent gospel: “Gnosticism has some very aberrant beliefs about God. In Gnostic thought there is a dualism. There is a good God and a bad God. And they are in a continual struggle against each other. In some forms of Gnosticism, the bad God is equated with the God of the Old Testament. One of the allegedly evil things that He did was to create the world” (Dr. Larry Spargimino, Southwest Radio Church Ministries).

This equating God’s creating the world to evil is based upon the Gnostic proposition that the world and all material things are evil, i.e., God is blamed for the sinfulness of man. From whom should we suspect such upside-down thinking comes?

Again, as well outlined in the Scripture given above (1 Tim. 4:1-3), this is a departure from the faith, and is giving heed to seducing spirits!

“The Gospel of Judas” glorifies Judas, not Jesus. One professor of religion–who is in no way a proponent of fundamentalist-evangelical thought—pointed to the devil in the details of “The Gospel of Judas.” “The idea of this gospel is that Jesus, like all of us, is a trapped spirit, who is trapped in a material body. Salvation comes when we escape the materiality of our existence. And, Judas is the one who makes it possible for Jesus to escape, by allowing for his body to be killed” (Bart Ehrman, religion professor, University of North Carolina, quoted by Larry Spargimino, Southwest Radio Ministries).

Again, I ask the question, from whom should we suspect such upside-down thinking to come? We are living at a time when people will not endure sound doctrine, but give heed to all sorts of feel-good, do-good doctrines that do not have the true Gospel at their core– another sure signal of where this generation stands upon God’s prophetic timeline.

Peace is perhaps the most prevalent issue on the minds of mankind in these volatile times. The rumors of war that look to be much like those prophesied by Jesus in His Olivet Discourse (Matthew Chapter 24) are on the increase, when thinking upon things brewing in the Middle East. This region threatens to break out in violence between Israel and her enemy neighbors at any moment, an action that could swiftly progress to a much larger conflict involving atomic weaponry. This must be avoided at all costs, therefore every effort at peace is explored by the internationalist powers that be.

Some efforts at squashing war before it can get started are genuine. Others look suspiciously to be simply re-positioning in ways that will help those involved secure advantage for themselves in one way or the other. That’s how I view most peace initiatives taking place in the region in and around the so-called “holy land.”

The endeavor to quell the likelihood of conflagration in the Mideast is often found in disseminating rumors of peace. These strange, diametrically opposite war and peace matters–and their genuine/self-serving re-positioning stratagem–are wrapped up at one and the same time in the “Roadmap to Peace.”

Time and time again we hear the various tactics about to be employed in order to bring the antagonists to the table of peace. These “rumors of peace” are, indeed, for preventing war in the region. But, the reasons for wanting that peace is not merely so people of the region will get along, thus enjoy a life free of fear of any moment attack. The reasons are more steeped in 1) making sure World War III doesn’t spring from such conflict; 2) that the parties involved in the peace-making (the “Quartet”) continue to have maximum access to the massive petroleum reserves; 3) that a presence is maintained by the American/European/Russian referees that keep Israel and her enemies separated.

We who observe conditions in that region from the perspective of Bible prophecy note that the peace plan never seems to get installed. Peace never eventuates from the actions of the diplomatic community.

George W. Bush promised a peace agreement involving establishing a Palestinian state before he left office. But, other than the rumors of peace, nothing developed in that peace coming to fruition. And the days of the current presidential administration are dwindling with nothing more substantial than rumors of peace in prospect. We are dealing with rumors of peace at the same time we are dealing with rumors of war. Peace is defined as:

1. The normal, non-warring condition of a nation, group of nations, or the world.

2. An agreement or treaty between warring or antagonistic nations, groups, etc., to end hostilities and abstain from further fighting or antagonism: the Peace of Ryswick.

3. A state of mutual harmony between people or groups, esp. in personal relations: Try to live in peace with your neighbors.

4. The normal freedom from civil commotion and violence of a community; public order and security: He was arrested for being drunk and disturbing the peace.

5. Cessation of or freedom from any strife or dissension.

6. Freedom of the mind from annoyance, distraction, anxiety, an obsession, etc.; tranquility; serenity.

7. A state of tranquility or serenity: May he rest in peace.

8. A state or condition conducive to, proceeding from, or characterized by tranquility: the peace of a mountain resort.

9. Silence; stillness: The cawing of a crow broke the afternoon’s peace. (Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2006).

Those definitions pretty much cover the meanings of the word “peace” in human terms. But fulfillment of the definitions to any great extent is far, far from this generation–like it has been from every generation of the past.

True peace in this fallen realm, you see, is not possible in the physical or even psychological sense. We are at every point dealing with mere “rumors” of peace. Here is why: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not” (James 4:1-2).

“There is] no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked” (Isa. 48:22). All of fallen mankind is wicked. There is none good, no, not one, the Scripture tells us. The only “good” is in Jesus Christ, who came to take away the sin of the world. When the individual turns over his or her soul to Christ for salvation, He then can bring true peace that is absolutely elusive under any other prescription for conducting life on this decaying planet. Even those who are Christ’s (have become born again into the family of God) must submit moment by moment to Christ, to receive God’s peace within their innermost being.

“And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7).

All efforts at achieving peace are just rumors of peace unless those efforts have Jesus at their center. Whether thinking on the individual life, from which all war-making begins according to James 4:1-2, about society, geoeconomics and geopolitics, or any other frame of reference concerning the human condition, if Christ is left out of the equation for achieving peace, there will be no peace.

Considering modern Israel and the rumors of peace in particular, here’s what God’s Word says about His daughter, Israel, and the world’s dealing in the process of peace involving that nation: “For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when [there is] no peace” (Jer. 8:11).

Thankfully, Christ will one day–perhaps very soon—return to bring true peace, rather than the rumors of peace in our daily headlines today.

An e-mailer addressed an ongoing matter that is perplexing, in that Christians read the same Word from God –the Bible–yet the message the children of God take from the same passages they read can be so different as to be troubling. Nowhere in the Holy Scriptures is this divergence of inferred meanings more pronounced than in those pertaining to prophecy yet future, particularly those involving the rapture of the Church.

Here are the e-mailer’s words, with a few redaction’s for the sake of not wanting to violate privacy, or to cast aspersions on specifically named people.

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

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

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

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

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

To know who is right–these like the radio host to whom the e-mailer refers, who believe the pretrib rapture is a lie from the pit of hell, as they sometimes put it–or we who teach the pretrib rapture, it is best to just examine what is going on all around us these days.

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

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

Is God indeed finished with Israel?

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

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

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

Take a string on a globe and put it on Jerusalem. Run that string straight up from Jerusalem. Does that string bisect any major city? Moscow! Persia, the prophetic Word of God says, will be a key partner with that leader and his nation, Rosh, the ancient name for the area that now is covered by Russia. These and a coalition called “Magog” will invade toward Israel, according to Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39. Do we see any collusion between Persia (Iran today) and Rosh (Russia today)?

There will be a coming back together, the Bible says, of the ancient Roman Empire (the last empire of Nebuchadnezzar’s metallic man-image as seen in the Babylonian king’s night-vision –Daniel chapter 2). Do we see that development taking place in our news today? Yes. The European Union.

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

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

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

Why do they hate the pretrib view and the rapture teaching in considering things to come? I’m convinced it is because Satan hates Israel and the Lord’s plan to save remnants out of Israel and out of His creation called man in general.

These who hurl invective are deluded, in denial. I don’t doubt their salvation. But I do doubt their faithful adherence to God’s prophetic Word. They prefer man-made eschatology, and that is given not by the Holy Spirit, but by Lucifer, the fallen one. One prophecy in particular speaks to the rapture revilers’ attitude toward Christ’s coming in a sudden, unexpected intrusion upon a world that will be conducting its nefarious business as usual: “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Pet. 3:3-4).