Author’s note: I sense it good to again present this salvation roadmap. Never has the truth of God’s saving grace been more urgent or more important than now, so near the Rapture of believers into the presence of Christ.

Salvation

Salvation is rescue from something that is death-dealing in nature. That is, it is the plucking from a deadly situation or circumstance and placing in a position of safety. This is what God offers to all of humankind. He offers salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Salvation from what?

Each human has been born under the penalty of sin, since Eve was seduced into eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and Adam knowingly disobeyed by joining the woman in eating that fruit.

God warned the first two people that if they disobeyed by eating fruit from this tree, they would surely die. Lucifer, in the form of the serpent, put the question of whether to believe the Creator in their minds by asking, “Yea? Hath God said?”

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1–5).

With that disobedience—just as God said—sin and its consequence, death, entered the world. The man and woman lost fellowship with God. They began aging and degenerating toward death. Human beings now needed salvation from sin and death.

God loves His creation called humanity, and wanted to have the people become part of His eternal family—to live with Him forever in Heaven. The Creator, in His grace and mercy, said He would redeem them; He would bring into the world One who would save them from sin and death.

He cursed the serpent, Lucifer, who became known as Satan, and the devil, and said to him:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. (Genesis 3:15)

Sin had begun its life-sapping work, and the man and woman had to be ejected from the Garden of Eden. Many Bible scholars believe this was done to keep them from the Tree of Life that grew in the Garden. If they had access, they would eat its fruit, and rather than eventually dying, they would grow increasingly grotesque in every way. Angels were placed at the Garden’s entry to keep them from returning.

God shed the blood of His creation for the first time when He provided animal-skin coverings for the naked man and woman. This was the first of the blood system of sacrifice that would foreshadow the awful price that would be paid for sin upon the cross at Calvary, when God’s only begotten Son died there.

John the Baptist announced Jesus’ purpose when Jesus approached while John stood at the Jordan River, baptizing people.

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)

Jesus lived on the earth for thirty-three years, then was sacrificed by crucifixion—the cruelest of all executions of the day. Jesus became sin for all of humankind on the cross that day. God the Father could not look upon Him while Jesus took all sin upon Himself for all men, women, and children.

Jesus’ true agony of that moment, when He became the horrendous thing His Father could not look upon, was recorded by the Gospel writer Matthew.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46)

Matthew recorded the moment when Christ completed His mission on the earth:

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30)

Jesus Christ, the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world, had fulfilled the supreme sacrifice.

Jesus spoke of that salvation mission while preaching, teaching, performing miracles, and ministering during His time here as the Son of man—the only sinless human ever to walk the earth’s surface.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:14–18)

The question often arises: What about those who haven’t heard of Jesus? This was asked of the late Dr. Tim LaHaye, and when he started to answer, he was allowed only a few seconds. He was put on the spot by the host, who asked a question that called for a profound answer.

Dr. LaHaye had only a moment to answer the TV host’s assertion that it isn’t fair of a God to send anyone to Hell if they don’t hear the message. Dr. LaHaye used Scripture in a split-second decision in answering, then was abruptly cut off from continuing with his answer.

The Scripture in question is Romans 2: 12:

For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.

Tim was saying, I think, that the totality of Scripture teaches that people are without excuse who have the understanding that there is a creator who judges sin. This is true whether Gentile or Jew.

Implicit within Dr. LaHaye’s response were things he never got to explain. I knew him well, and he would have made his case something like the following, had he been given time.

God’s precepts are one upon another, remember, and often truth comes from an entire body of scriptural proof, rather than from just one or two verses.

Paul was addressing, particularly, the Jews, who labored under the Mosaic Law (although by that time, the Law was not in effect because of the Cross), juxtaposed against the Gentiles, who didn’t have the Mosaic Law.

Keep in mind that God’s Word says:

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth [it] not, to him it is sin. (James 4:17)

Scripture says also:

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:13–17)

All of this adds up to the fact that Jesus Christ, alone, is the way to redemption. But, He must be lifted up so that all will be drawn to Him. If there is no preacher to preach, then there can’t be faith, because faith comes by hearing (the Gospel). Just as an infant is innocent in God’s eyes, because the child can’t “hear”—i.e., understand—so are those who haven’t understood (truly heard) that Christ is the way to salvation.

However, even among savages in the darkest places where the Gospel hasn’t reached, if they “know to do good, and do the opposite,” they are not guiltless. God will hold them accountable for the light they have, which the Law would have provided for more civilized peoples.

The key here is that Jesus fulfilled the Law when He said “It is finished!” and gave up His spirit to death. Remember, Jesus once asked those around Him, “Why callest me good?” He then said, “There is but one good, and that is God” (Matthew 19:17).

Jesus was, of course, saying He was the only good, because He is God. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to cover the sin debt owed by fallen humankind. So, when the savage knows to do good, he is given that light by the Holy Spirit. He still chooses or rejects Christ, who is the only good.

The simple explanation is that people are accountable to the extent that they have been given light (understanding). But, that doesn’t unveil the whole Gospel story, regarding its application to those who haven’t had a preacher or teacher.

The Bible speaks to savages and the so-called civilized as well. Here are some relevant salvation Scriptures that cover every person who has been or will ever be born.

I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:14–18)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power  and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:16–20)

Here once again is how to come to salvation, thereby to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)

A strange silence of sorts set in immediately following the election of Donald J. Trump as 47th president of the United States. To me it was an eerie sense of stillness, kind of like the atmosphere felt just before a tornado-carrying storm I once experienced in Mississippi.

Within forty-eight hours of the election, two leaders of America’s most dangerous, nuclear-weapons-laden, antagonist nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping, reached out to congratulate Mr. Trump for his victory in quite conciliatory language.

At the same time, Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau and spokesperson for the terrorist organization, issued a call for peace. He emphasized “immediate cessation of the aggression, particularly in Gaza.”

Suddenly an atmosphere of peaceful calm seems to pervade the world that just days ago looked to be about to explode into nuclear war. What’s going on?!

Even the completely insane-acting leftists have dialed back hate-filled rhetoric.

President Joe Biden, who just before November 5 was calling all of us who supported Trump “garbage” and saying he wanted to slap our (derrieres), was kind-sounding and generous in his public congratulations to his successor. His press secretary was almost overly accommodating in promising the smoothest transition of presidential power in the history of the republic.

The Trump-haters who were screaming “Nazi!” and “fascist!” in Trump and his supporters’ direction suddenly are no longer to be found–at least not on the surface. What, indeed, is going on?!

Part of the answer, at least to the question of the Biden and Harris forces being so subdued, and even the so-called deep state (the intelligence services that want to keep Trump out of the White House at any cost) seeming to say nothing, is because of the unanticipated election numbers. Donald Trump won both the Electoral College and the popular votes. This produced what is perceived as a mandate for Trump to implement the policies he proposes. The nation has spoken with no uncertainty.

This completely threw Trump’s haters into disarray. They simply, at least for the moment, are stumped as to how to again begin dismantling the nation’s movement back toward its founding principles.

Had Trump won only the Electoral College voting, the mobs of rampaging rioters would have likely been turned loose in order to deceptively protest the injustice they want perceived as being inflicted on those in the majority constituting the popular vote.

Now those, who like Barack Obama, want to “fundamentally transform America” by opening borders to all comers and do all the other Sodom-like things they foisted on us, are temporarily stunned. They must find another tact than burning down their own cities, etc.

All of this peacefulness simply means that Donald J. Trump has been again put in the most powerful office on the planet for the Lord’s very special purposes. No person, political party, or any other force put him there. We even witnessed God’s hand in the assassination attempt. Trump himself said he felt an invisible hand slap him to the floor at the moment when the bullet missed his head by no more than an inch.

I don’t claim to know exactly what the Lord is up to with the sudden developments we see coming one after another. But I do know He is fully aware of each movement in this fascinating end-times act we’re a part of.

The calm we’re in the midst of at present is leading to a sort of peace that will result in the act intolerable to the Almighty. It will be the satanically inspired act against Israel by the world’s nations that will bring God’s destruction upon all anti-God forces of the earth.

Although I’ve continued to support Donald Trump for president, I nonetheless wonder whether he will be instrumental in the prophesied act that will cause God to judge in such world-rending wrath.

Already it is conjectured that Mr. Trump will revise the efforts for peace in the Middle East–the effort he was involved with when forced from power by the loss in the 2020 presidential election.

The Israeli-Palestinian peace plan advanced by President-elect Donald Trump during his first term will likely be back on the table when he returns to office, according to a former senior aide who reportedly has been tapped to help lead the transition team.

The Trump peace plan envisioned Israel being able to annex all of its settlements in the West Bank while granting the Palestinians a pathway to a semi-contiguous state on the remaining territory. The plan was swiftly rejected by the Palestinian Authority, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the plan with reservations. His settler allies, who are now part of his coalition, rejected the proposal due to its inclusion of a potential Palestinian state.

In an interview with CNN, Brian Hook, who served as Trump’s special envoy for Iran, is asked to respond to an assertion by Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister that normalization with Israel is off the table without the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Highlighting the 2020 peace plan, Hook tells CNN, “much of that work is still relevant today,” adding that the proposal contains all of the conditions Riyadh is seeking in order to normalize with Israel.

However, Hook acknowledges that no one is “in much of a mood” to discuss a two-state solution following Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.

“There are many Israelis right now who are focused on other things, specifically keeping them safe from this kind of evil terrorism that they endured on October 7,” he says.

Citing three sources familiar with the matter, CNN reported yesterday that Hook will lead Trump’s transition team at the State Department. (“Trump official suggests 2020 Israeli-Palestinian peace plan will be back in play,” Jacob Magid, The Times of Israel, November 7, 2024)

It is the peacefulness of all these doings that makes one uncomfortable. It will be a covenant of false peace that divides God’s chosen nation Israel that will bring His wrath and judgment, according to Daniel 9:27.

It will be the dividing of God’s land, Israel, that will bring the world to Armageddon according to the prophet Joel (Joel 3:2).

We are told that when there is a cry for peace and safety, sudden destruction comes (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

Antichrist will come in as a peacemaker, but by that peace he will destroy many, the prophecy says (Daniel 8:25).

Now, I in no way am saying Donald J. Trump is to be Antichrist. And, there is no doubt in my thinking that he genuinely wants to bring all these wars, including that of Russia vs. Ukraine and Israel vs. the entire Israel-hating nations of the Middle East, to an end.

However, like past presidents and other leaders placed in power by Heaven’s edict to rid the world of war, to get to the peace, Mr. Trump seems perhaps poised as the world’s most powerful leader of these times to put into motion prophecy that will bring real peace—the only peace that will truly put an end to war on this fallen planet.

That will only happen when Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, breaks through the black clouds of war at Armageddon.

He is the only Hope–the Blessed Hope—for peace on earth, and for peace in the human heart through salvation of the soul.

Here is how to receive that peace:

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

Think-Not Time to Be Rapture Ready!

Let me say up front that this article is dedicated to appealing to our Rapture Ready family, asking that you help fund our efforts now, so late into the Church Age.

That funding is very much needed at this time. This is in large part because of pressures exerted by Internet-control authorities who, within their ability, make it as financially difficult as possible for us to go forward in presenting God’s message for this late hour. Obtaining the revenue to adequately meet our needs has become increasingly problematic.

This is something we must inform you of because the downturn in revenue comes at the time of an upturn in costs. We’re at a time when the prophetic picture is powerfully shaping up in pointing toward the great event we look for with great anticipation.

It is time to be Rapture Ready! We must present the message of salvation and of Christ’s any-moment intervention into this world so opposed to God’s righteousness.

So many within the Christian community across America now see this time of the election of Mr. Trump as a return to sanity and to movement toward America as founded. Todd and I agree that this is a positive development. Our God has so obviously intervened—from the moment when the former and future president missed being assassinated by mere inches—to Heaven’s influence having the anti-God forces in Psalm 2 derision as the political season unfolded.

We also see this as a dangerous time of possible miscalculation. By this, I mean many I’ve heard from think this election and a turn toward a less ungodly America, with the coming to power of this new administration, indicate that the Rapture must now be farther off than we had expected. Now we are going to see a time of peace and prosperity–a return to cultural and societal norms and moral sanity. The Rapture has been put on hold, is the sense I get from some of the Christian world.

While we welcome the turn of events in this election and the thought that voters have seen the light to some extent with regard to wanting a course correction, we must warn that this growing belief that now things will move back toward “Making America Great Again” creates a time our Lord warned about.

Those of you who are in our Rapture Ready family–as others who hold to the pre-Trib Rapture view within God’s family—have looked at all the portentous issues and events of these times as foreshadowing the Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week). And this is the correct observation. The Tribulation is almost upon this generation.

Just considering the matters involving God’s chosen nation and people–Israel—is, within itself, enough to prove where we stand on God’s prophetic timeline. Hatred for Israel and the desire of the world of diplomats to divide that land–and even eliminate Israel as a nation—prove we’re bumping right up against the end of this quickly fleeting age. So it is wise to see all the stage-setting we’ve observed coming with such frequency and intensity as showing how near the Rapture must be.

But, again, there is now a growing sense expressed by many that maybe the Rapture will not occur for quite some time, based on the political turn of events.

This is foolish, and we implore those who think this way to reconsider. The Rapture is right at the door. And the very attitude we’re getting from those who miscalculate where we are in God’s timing for prophetic fulfillment is itself prophetic fulfillment. It is fulfillment given in the tremendous forewarning by our Lord, Himself. Don’t miss it. It is profound at this late moment of this closing Age of Grace:

Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. (Matthew 24:44)

This is a think-not time unlike any we’ve seen in the past. It’s as if all things have been brought to a providential pause. All the massive developments toward the Tribulation seem to some to be on hold. But we must not be apathetic or unaware. Jesus declared it’s at a time such as this when He will intervene through human history’s most dramatic event at this point–the Rapture of the Church.

So we ask that you help with donations at this end-of-the-age hour when Satan is coming with increasing vehemence against God’s ministries such as Rapture Ready. Thank you, as always, for being part of our Rapture Ready family. Your support, we believe, will be credited to your heavenly bank account. Like you, we want to hear our Lord’s words: “Well done, good, faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23).

There are three ways you can contribute to RR: Send a financial gift via our PO box address; make a one-time donation; or make monthly donations. If you’re interested in signing up, find the links on the Donation Depot page. Donations can be sent to our PO Box at:

Rapture Ready
P.O. Box 969
Benton, AR 72018

With the 2024 presidential election at the door as of this writing, it’s fascinating to consider the strangeness of developments leading to this election day.

I’ve written many times over the past months considering the obvious imposition of Heaven’s influence, if that’s the right term, on the political process going on in America. Most of the restraint we’ve witnessed has been quite serious, of course. Consider that moment in Pennsylvania when a bullet struck former President Donald Trump’s ear.

Less than an inch existed between the bullet whizzing by and Mr. Trump’s skull. That inch made all the difference between life and death for the former president, and for the entire course of America—and, for that matter, for the world. All would have changed dramatically and traumatically, with untold consequences, had the assassination been successful.

But the assassination wasn’t allowed to happen.

I couldn’t see it because of being blind now for more than thirty years, but by all descriptions I’ve been given, the turn of his head at the precise moment made the difference in life and instant death. Mr. Trump said very recently that he now knows it was the hand of God that spared him. He said he felt as if an unseen hand slapped him to the floor at that next moment. He believes it is for the purpose of “Making America Great Again.”

I can’t agree that was necessarily why he was saved from the assassin’s bullet. But I agree wholeheartedly that it was God’s own hand, and it was done for such a great purpose that it isn’t possible to fathom at this point in the unfolding events.

The supernatural was again manifested when a second assassination attempt was stopped. The sniper was found in time, despite being in place for hours almost in plain sight. All authorities missed the would-be killer in his place behind a fence just yards from where the former president would soon be stroking a putt on the golf course green. But God didn’t miss spotting the man with the rifle, and He prompted, I have no doubt, an agent to look at that barrel sticking through the fence in the direction of the approaching presidential party.

The supernatural has been a part of this entire process of cultural and societal development for many years, particularly recently.

For example, the economy has been predicted by some of the top experts in fiscal matters to totally collapse due to untenable printing and spending of money in this nation and across the world. The American economy, according to the experts, should have long ago collapsed, bringing down the entire world in its crushing fall.

I’ve been hearing about this impending calamity for literally ten years at least. Todd Strandberg and I have discussed it at least for that long, sitting just feet apart in my small office here in the humble hovel. But the collapse hasn’t happened, even though the signs of imminent collapse are in every direction.

This is a supernatural manifestation of Heaven’s governance over an out-of-control world of inept and even evil people in charge in the “high places of powers and principalities”—the Ephesians 6:12 bunch, consisting of both demonic and human minions.

It isn’t yet the moment for that collapse on God’s prophetic timeline. It will not happen until He says so. He is supernaturally holding things up, I’m convinced, until the Church is called into Heaven by the Lord Jesus Christ. It will be business as usual, according to Jesus’ own words (Luke 17:28–30) until that time. And, let’s not forget, the primary “business” is that of the Great Commission Jesus left for believers to accomplish.

And then there is the sense of supernatural influence and even direct imposition of the Almighty’s authority in dealing with His chosen people and nation. We’ve looked at how Israel has been able to defeat its enemies through technological genius without bringing on all-out Mideast and even global war. And it is the God-given genius of the Jewish scientists and others who introduced the computer corruption (Stuxnet worm) into Israel’s nuclear weapons facilities to stop Iran’s progress in producing an atomic device.

Then, very recently, the Heaven-given genius was again on display for all to see when Israel’s scientists and others produced technology that caused hundreds of pagers and other devices to explode at once, disrupting the Israel-haters’ plans to inflict great harm. While the technology wasn’t supernatural, the genius given by Heaven to pull off such a feat no doubt was.

And, without meaning to insinuate a macabre sense of humor, we can view this with a bit of levity, despite the death and injury caused. We remember reporting just recently how an Islamic cleric who champions the Muslim terrorist factions declared that Israel had always used being in league with ancient “genie” supernaturalism to always thwart efforts to destroy the Jewish people and nation. He said this use of “genie magic” had been the case since the times of King David’s reign.

And now there is the following bit of news that, in my opinion, adds great and warranted humor to the matter of “sensing the supernatural.”

It’s not working!

Self-proclaimed ‘Reddit Witches’ are complaining that they are finding it difficult to cast negative spells on Donald Trump because he has “some kind of protection around him.”

Yes, really.

A post on the far-left website appeared in a subreddit called ‘WitchesVsPatriarchy’ and features one of the witches bemoaning the fact that their spells aren’t working on the Donald.

“Some other witches have mentioned that doing spells directly against Trump are not as effective as we might hope as he seems to have some kind of protection around him,” laments the witch.

She suggests casting a spell against Project 2025 instead, a Heritage Foundation policy document that wasn’t even created by the Trump campaign and which they have disavowed repeatedly…

The witch then encourages the rest of her coven to perform “uplifting kinds of spells to help Kamala & the Democrats,” which is presumably needed given their increasingly dire poll numbers. (“Witches Complain They Can’t Cast Spells on Trump Because He Has ‘Some Kind of Protection around Him,’” Paul Joseph Watson, Modernity, 10/23/24)

Certainly there was “some kind of protection around him” on July 13, 2024, at Butler, Pennsylvania when that bullet missed entering his skull. That same not “something,” but “Someone,” continues to restrain and have in derision the evil of this world. And that “Someone”—the God of Heaven—will continue to do so until His people, all believers in His Son for salvation, are taken (paralambano) into the clouds of Glory in the Rapture.

You want to be a part of that moving from judgment-bound earth into the presence of the Lord Jesus in a “twinkling-of-an-eye” moment. Here’s what you need to do if you haven’t yet:

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

The term “apocalypse” as related to the coming Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week) means the “unveiling” or “revelation.” Particularly, it is the revelation of Jesus Christ in all of His power and glory, and in His judgeship over all of the world evil since Lucifer’s rebellion and the Fall of humankind in the Garden of Eden.

I’ve addressed many times the next step in Christ’s coming judgment over this fallen world. Jesus, Himself, used the word in giving what I believe is the most important prophecy for believers of this Church Age (Age of Grace):

Also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:28–30)

According to the Lord’s own words, the son of man will be revealed the very day that something occurs like it did in the days that Lot lived in the wicked city of Sodom. Again, the apocalypse—the unveiling or revealing of Jesus Christ—will take place when something happens just like it did in the days of Lot.

That “something” that brings about the revealing of Jesus in His power as Judge of the world’s evil has everything to do with Lot’s removal from Sodom. Here is what Lot was told in that regard before he and his family were taken from the doomed city:

Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. (Genesis 19:22a)

The angel charged with taking Lot and his family to safety because the city was about to be destroyed said they must be removed before the destruction could be carried out. Jesus is telling future believers in the Luke 17:28–30 prophecy that there is coming a time when we must be taken out of the wicked place we’re living in before He is revealed as Judge. The Lord said the place out of which we will be removed will be dealt with in judgment, just as Sodom and its left-behind residents.

Christ’s judgment–His revealing in his power as Judge—will begin at that very moment. The Apocalypse —that unveiling of power and authority—will begin the process of God destroying the present evil system of satanically inspired, humanistic government. In its place, through seven years of purging by twenty-one specific judgments—seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls—will come the Second Advent of Christ, the King of all kings, and His thousand-year reign on a restored, Eden-like earth—the Millennium.

Each week, I receive emails and phone calls in which I’m told: “I’ve never felt like this before. There’s something that makes me think we might not even reach the November 5 election.”

That sense of impending something-or-the-other indeed seems on the minds of many believers who are paying attention. I must admit, I’ve had those “feelings” in recent days.

Of course, we can’t go too far down the road on “feelings,” because such sensations most generally are a mere reflection of human emotion. We’re confronted with all sorts of troubled symptoms of these times. Like old Lot, whom the Bible tells us was “vexed from day to day” with the ungodliness all around him in Sodom, we sometimes can see only a bleak future for ourselves and those we love.

Certainly there seems a time immediately ahead that is portentous. There are so many symptoms that look exactly like the Lord Jesus described when He answered His disciples’ question: “What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the age?”

To the believer who observes from the pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy, it’s as if the time of the Apocalypse is very near indeed. God’s judgment–Jesus Christ revealed in His divine office of Judge—must be about to, like in the days of Lot prophecy, rain down a fire and brimstone-like cataclysm upon the ungodliness all around us.

We’re approaching Apocalypse, to be sure. Israel’s front-and-center positioning on this end-times geopolitical landscape isn’t happenstance or coincidence. The way the world is dealing with God’s chosen people makes it clear that this age of God’s grace and divine patience is about to end, and that the time of His apocalyptic judgment is poised above a planet ripe for the Almighty’s wrath.

So, in my estimation, it isn’t altogether beyond spiritual reasoning to look with trepidation at the very near future. It is an ominous picture, to be sure. However, it isn’t a picture filled with trepidation for believers. The darkening angst we rightfully have is for those who haven’t come to salvation.

As a matter of fact, for the believer in Christ’s sacrifice as the only Way to God the Father (John 14:6), the immediate future is bright with God’s glorious promise.

Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9) 

We will, at any moment, in the “twinkling of an eye,” look into the eyes of our Lord and Savior. So, while we approach Apocalypse, let’s look at all the fearful signals happening in every direction as being but reminders of Jesus’ promise.

And when ye shall see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28)

If you haven’t come to Christ for salvation, here once again is the way to make sure you will not be left behind to suffer the worst time in human history, but will go into the clouds of Glory to be with Jesus when He calls:

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

Author’s note: This article was originally posted in 2010. The thoughts expressed are even more relevant today, while issues and events are literally exploding all around us, pointing to the soon-coming time of Tribulation (Daniel’s seventieth week). 

One of the most false and cutting accusations launched at the belief that the Bible teaches that a person cannot lose his or her salvation when truly born again (John 3:3) is: “If you believe once saved, always saved, you are saying that people can live any way they want without fear of punishment.” Or so the line of condemning criticism goes.

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

A person who is a child of God cannot sin without severe repercussions if repentance isn’t forthcoming. But that person will never be kicked out of God’s family. Never.

A kindred sort of accusation is thrown at those who believe in the Pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy. The Pre-Tribulation view, of course, is the one we at Rapture Ready believe God’s Word teaches. It is the view that Jesus Christ will call all who are born again to Himself before the Tribulation, which is the last seven years of history leading to the Second Advent (Rev. 19: 11).

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

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

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

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

The Christian whose spirit is attuned to the Holy Spirit’s desire for the lost doesn’t want to see them “get what’s coming to them” either during the Tribulation or upon death. Rather, we want to do all within our power to keep them from having to go through the coming time of God’s judgment and wrath. That’s what Christ’s Great Commission to His disciples before He ascended to sit at the Father’s right hand is all about, you see. That is what God’s love–love that those who have Christ indwelling them possess–is all about. (Read Matthew 28:18-20.)

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

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

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

The apostle Peter gave the heart of the reason Christ hasn’t raptured His church: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).

The purpose of Bible prophecy is to show the love of God to a lost and otherwise doomed world. God is not willing that anyone should perish (die in his or her sins) but that all should come to repentance (accept Jesus Christ as the one and only sacrifice for sin that God will accept).

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

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

*** Important Notice! ***

God The Holy Spirit is turning on the Light of God’s Truth in Pakistan and other areas of the Spiritually darkened world.

Again, I’m appealing to you, who understand through Holy Spirit Enlightenment just how late is the prophetic hour, to help us print and distribute the little book Prophecy Power: Strength From God To Face Your Future to the people of Pakistan.

Pastor Anil Jasper worked diligently to translate the Sunday school quarterly sized book into his native language. The results have been powerful in helping turn on that Light of understanding about Jesus and His soul-saving Sacrifice. Anil reports that the book distribution is reaping great rewards in terms of his people accepting Christ –something that might not have happened if not for the presentation in our little book.

Please consider again supporting this effort, as time looks to be short, according to all prophetic stage-setting signals in the world today. We want to one day hear the words from our Lord: “Well done, good, faithful servant.”

Please go to the following to read more and contribute.

https://terryjamesprophecyline.com/2024/10/04/please-help-in-our-pakistan-missionary-effort/

Lucifer, now Satan, the chief prevaricator (liar), while looking into that mirror of iniquity, as reported in Isaiah 14:14, was struck by the sin of pride. There was none other as wonderful as himself, he concluded in that moment of total rebellion against Almighty God. It’s therefore somewhat amazing that he now does all he can to obscure his existence from humankind, whom he deceived into joining his rebellion at the Fall in Eden.

Much of humanity denies there is a God—at least that there is a deity with the right to govern them. People, likewise, for the most part, relegate the devil/Satan to esoteric lore and mythology. They don’t believe in a creature that roams about, perpetrating evil.

Satan relishes this view he’s managed to instill in people’s minds. If there’s no devil to fear, then the whole concept of biblical governance is out the window. Folks therefore don’t need a Savior from any original sin. It’s all myth, and people will face no other authority in some nonexistent, eternal judgment.

Satan’s entire plan of attack against God’s dealings with humans, then, is to get their thoughts off the fact of his influence in their affairs. The only right and wrong there is, the devil incessantly whispers, is whatever someone thinks is right and wrong. All is relative to the individual’s desires and aspirations.

The total non-involvement of any deity in decision-making isn’t even in the realm of day-to-day behavior. However, there are physical consequences that come with this individualism. Therefore, in the cause of the need to not suffer harmful chaos, there must be a collective will. Individuals must submit their wills to the collective to achieve and maintain the best possible quality of life—at least as determined by the majority.

And this brings us to where we are now in the process of life on this planet in 2024. Particularly, it brings us to where we are in the United States of America in the political world as we move toward the November 5 presidential election.

There are basically two sets of collectives as described above—both with fallen mindsets the devil has managed to influence from the time of the Fall in Eden. I’m talking about political collectives—the Democrat and Republican parties.

Both parties have at their base the mindset infused by the original prevaricator—the “father of lies”—the “old serpent,” the devil and Satan. All who are honest will attest that we’ve witnessed lie after lie over the years of observing the political process in America. So both political parties are guilty of the lies at every point along the many political campaigns, and even when there were no campaigns in progress.

But one of these American political entities by far leads in lying. This is my humble opinion, but that view has congealed throughout a long personal history of observation.

The number of lies being told now and over the last two decades or so has grown exponentially. And the latest process of political prevarication reminds me so much of Lucifer’s original lie to himself that I can’t do anything else but pass my observation along to you.

The Republican side of this political divide continues to hold to conservative values of the nation’s founders. The US Constitution continues to be at the center of the platform they adhere to. The Republican Party, for the most part, rejects proposed and forced change in the traditional national way of life Americans have lived throughout its history.

Democrat Party “progressives”—those who comprise the driving force of Democrat ideological change in the “transformation of America” Barack Obama boasted about—champion causes far from the traditional Judeo-Christian principles upon which America was founded. And this is where the luciferian lying becomes manifest, in my opinion.

Like that old serpent, the Democrat Party campaign to win the 2024 presidential election completely lies about themselves, and more so every day that passes.

Their candidate for president, Kamala Harris, whom President Joe Biden appointed “Border Czar” as vice president, and who was lauded by mainstream media at the time, now says she was never “Border Czar” or in charge of the border matters. This, the Democrat Party officials and even mainstream media blatantly lie, because the millions of illegals who have crossed the nation’s borders are now a tremendous political liability. They want no part in being seen as responsible for this dangerous and destructive invasion that has angered so many Americans.

The outright lies are in every direction this political entity speaks while trying to deceive the American voters. And, to get to the point I’ll try to make, their lies are Lucifer-like in this way.

Satan wants to divert people from thinking there is a devil. He doesn’t want to be recognized as that old serpent the Bible says brought humankind to this state from the time in Eden. He uses sleight-of-hand to get people to look in directions other than at the wickedness he is perpetrating. He wants us to think it’s not really happening.

In the same way, the Democrat Party and this presidential team are trying to get us to look in directions other than their record over the past four years.

The Democrat Party’s elite speakers, during their nominating convention, hardly talked at all about anything they’ve done to make us better off than we were when they took over. (And they took over under very suspicious electoral circumstances, might I add.)

Rather than talk about dangerous border security issues, a horrendous economy, the violence and chaos particularly within the “blue” cities and states, or the war-making that has exploded across the world due to weak American leadership, they spoke of love, unity, and good feelings in general terms. In other words, they’re doing everything they can to divert attention from their destructive policies and actions that have brought this nation to one of its lowest points in history.

The Democrat Party candidate, the most radically progressive among them, is now attempting to deceive American voters into believing she is for many traditional American values that her opponent has proven to champion and make secure during his presidency. She and her comrades in the party tried to make their convention entertaining and all smiles, with no talk of things plaguing America and the world. They declared the theme of their meetings to be full of joy. The sycophantic mainstream media ran with that declaration of “joy” for weeks following the Chicago meetings. It was a Lucifer-like ploy, to be sure. It was a deception like that old serpent’s that is meant to have voters think what they’ve endured over the past four years never existed. There is no devil…

But championing the murder of more than sixty million babies in their mother’s wombs is evil. It is real. And this party is champion of that evil. Homosexuality and Sodom-like wickedness are evil. And this political party and its adherents are champions of that wickedness.

There is a drive to bring America into the globalists’ New World Order. I believe this nation is the holdup to their determination to establish a world government Satan intends to use as his son of perdition’s Tribulation regime. I am of the studied opinion that the party of luciferian prevarication—those at the top of its leadership—is working hand in hand with the Ephesians 6:12 minions, both demonic and human, to accomplish this satanic purpose.

All of that said, I equally believe Jesus will, any moment, begin the heavenly process of bringing this wickedness to an end. It will start with the Lord calling all believers to Himself in the clouds of Glory. The Rapture is imminent!

You don’t want to be here when the devil and his Antichrist have their seven years of rule over the earth. Here’s how to instead go to the Lord Jesus, where He has prepared heavenly dwelling places for God’s children:

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