9 Aug 2026

“Something Has Got to Change…”

An article this past week struck an observational nerve. The commentary I read dissected the many troubling and disgusting assaults being inflicted by nefarious afflicters against this republic.

The bottom line the writer left the reader with is: “Something has got to change.”

The author went to great lengths to describe how so many constitution-eviscerating assaults are active in destroying this republic given us by the founding fathers. And it certainly is difficult to find reasons to argue against his findings.

Some of his description included how our constitutional republic was created based on conditions that no longer exist. The American population was 95 percent Christian. The implementation of “patriarchy” was widespread and embraced as the most solid foundation for society. Meritocracy was absolute. Cultural identity was rooted in Western civilization without any deviation or distraction.

Marxism, the author declared, did not exist. Atheism was rare. Degeneracy was shunned or punished. Shame was an effective social tool. Psychopathy was easy to identify and remove from within the smaller population. Women were expected to raise families and care for the home. Men were expected to protect and feed those families, perhaps even die for them.

He implied that the Christian ethic and even worship have been pushed aside by the general populace, and mentioned a founding father’s indictment against such evil.

As John Adams stated in 1802:

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

The author offered that the inclusivity demanded and legislated into the voting processes –allowing every sort of ideology and even religious aberration to corrupt governmental structure – had so negatively affected our way of life that something was going to have to change.

He particularly wrote about the voter ID laws that Congress seems reluctant to pass to assure election integrity.

He charged that 80 percent of the American voting public wanted the voter ID changes, while the 20 percent that leaned radically left were getting their way in preventing passage. He wrote in this regard the following:

Is representative democracy even possible when a large portion of the population is actively fighting to burn our republic to the ground by any means necessary? How can our elections and our government maintain integrity when people who want to destroy everything are allowed to vote or take political office?

Maybe that 20% of militant leftists and Neo-Cons should NOT be allowed to vote. (“Election Integrity: Is Representative Democracy a Foolish Fantasy?” by Brandon Smith, ZeroHedge, July 19, 2026)

Our republic is indeed under assault, as is all of humanity. The things mentioned by the author are but the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Satan is fully engaged, with the help of his demonic and human minions to bring his Antichrist son of perdition to head up the new world order longed for throughout the decades by those infected with the lust for power.

There is a need for change, and because of the evil that seems to be taking over in every sense, it is about to take place, and Heaven will be the changemaker! That change will take place in a twinkling-of-an-eye moment we call the Rapture!

It will take place instantaneously–at least it will begin to change from the moment all believers in Jesus Christ are instantaneously caught up into the Clouds of Glory.

Daniel 9: 27 describes the beginning of the changes on Earth, with the making of a false covenant of peace between Israel and its millennial-long enemies. Satan’s man of sin will have the answers—although false answers—to the great fear that will have fallen on all who were left behind when the moment of mass disappearances took place.

Most people on Earth at this moment believe this to be fanciful foolishness and radical religious fearmongering.

But it is from the Word of God, who cannot lie. It is the change that is going to take place, and the signs of these troubled times indicate that removal of believers (the Church) might take place at any second.

Again, here is the apostle Paul’s prophecy about that stupendous change about to take place, given him by the Holy Spirit of God.

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (I Corinthians 15:51-55).  

You want to be part of this change into immortality. Here is how to assure that you are with those who go to Christ 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).

—Terry

Wtjames1@swbell.net


The Last Gasp of Antisemitism

It used to shock me, at least to some degree. I couldn’t understand how people could respond in such a way. After living for many centuries in pristine conditions without many of the perils that so often besiege us today, people rebel against the Lord. You might think only a few would rise up against Him and His people, but a great multitude of people will do so.

You probably recognize that I’m referring to the scene that John witnessed and wrote about in Revelation 20:7-10:

“And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

Can you imagine people living in a perfect environment revolting in such a way? During the Millennium, there will be no wars of any kind or even the slightest hint of fraud in governmental affairs. Jesus will be King over all the earth, and as such, He will enforce the laws of His kingdom with total righteousness. With creation restored to what God intended it to be, people will live for hundreds of years (see Isaiah 65:20).

More Than Forgetfulness

I believe that those who participate in this revolt will be those born during the Millennium. Regardless of what they might have heard of life before the start of Jesus’ thousand-year rule, it’s still difficult to imagine this happening. This insurrection speaks to the nature of the unregenerate heart more than forgetting anything they might have heard about life when Satan was the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2) or when he was killing people under his rule through the beast and false prophet.

I compare it to people in New York City voting for a Muslim as mayor so soon after the horrific events of 9/11. And why would a city with the Statue of Liberty elect a communist to rule over them? How could a city with such a large Jewish population put an antisemite in charge? This is not just about forgetting what happened twenty-five years ago or an unawareness of what Mamdani believes; it’s about rejecting God’s truth in favor of the many lies perpetrated by the devil himself.

This same level of deception will reappear when the Lord releases Satan from his thousand-year imprisonment. The insurgency that follows will demonstrate the hopelessness of the human condition apart from the saving grace of the Lord Jesus. Eric Sauer, in his book The Triumph of the Crucified, put it like this:

Thus will it become clear that, not only is man unable to create ideal conditions, but also that when they exist they cannot improve them. So this most brilliant period of human history will become the most catastrophic proof of the lost condition of the sinner, and it will be proved irrefutably that God was right when, in the matter of human redemption, he absolutely excluded man’s own strength.

The uprising at the end of the Millennium verifies why we need a Savior who saves us to the uttermost and does so in a way that leaves no room for human boasting (Ephesians 2:1-10). From start to finish, our redemption is all of the Lord’s mercy and sustaining grace. Jonathan Edwards once said, “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, He changes us from the inside out.

I am no longer surprised by what I read in Revelation 20:7-10 because of what I see of the unregenerate heart and the battle I experience inside me between my flesh and the Spirit. But there’s another element to this uprising that also ties into what I see happening today.

Could It Be a Replay of Satan’s Great Lie Throughout History?

Although it’s clearly a revolt against the Lord’s rule, the text highlights that it’s the world versus the “beloved city,” which is Jerusalem (Revelation 20:9). It’s a replay of what we witness today, that of Satan generating antisemitism in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, barbaric attack. The father of lies turned something that should’ve garnered worldwide support for Israel into a rallying cry for multitudes marching in support of Hamas in cities across the earth. He is the master of deceit.

The mention of “Gog and Magog” in Revelation 20:8 highlights what I believe is the antisemitic element in this end-of-days rebellion. Ezekiel 38-39 identifies these entities as hotbeds of hostility against Israel, which results in their leadership role in the invasion of Israel. I’m not saying this is the fulfillment of the prophecy found in Ezekiel, but rather that it points to its anti-Zion motivation.

Could this be the devil’s last gasp at using a lie that’s working so well today? Will he again seek to stoke violent antisemitism shortly before his demise? He has used this tactic throughout history in an attempt to thwart God’s redemptive purposes for the Jewish people and Jerusalem. It’s not a stretch to imagine that he will again rally the masses, and with an anti-Zion fervor, one that will lead to the quick demise of all those that follow his ruse.

Why would the devil again lead a rebellion that’s doomed to fail? I’m not sure I know the answer.

What I do know, however, is that the Lord will use it to demonstrate the utter hopelessness of the human condition apart from His saving power and sustaining grace. Even under conditions far more perfect and pristine than we can imagine, people will revolt against the Lord and His people. All they will need is Satan promising something better should they somehow prevail against Him.

-Jonathan

jonathanbrentner@yahoo.com

2 Aug 2026

And in Conclusion… :: By Terry James

This commentary will be a bit personal, so I must warn that included is information I believe the Lord wants presented, but that the writing of it might be taken as self-attention-gathering allure. Please know that’s not what I intend.

While working in advertising many years ago, I served as creative director in a couple of ad agencies. We, of course, worked to put our clients’ businesses in the best possible light, and create allurements aimed at potential customers of our clients’ products and services through regional and national print and broadcast venues.

We constantly searched the recesses of our brains for the cleverest, yet on-the-mark lines of copy (word pictures) to attract customers for our clients and to demonstrate to our competitor ad agencies just how good we were at the business of advertising.

Annual awards were presented for such narcissistic endeavors. I loved the business of advertising, but, being younger than the agency heads, I never got caught up in the higher level of the business where the top guys would gather to accept the awards.

The one time I wish to relate here, in which the part I loved–the creative process—was involved, is captured in the title of this commentary. I’m sure the phrase has been used many times since that moment long ago. But it was the first time it was used, and we all sat around the ad agency’s creative environs wishing we could have thought of it.

It was emblazoned across a billboard. I can’t remember the ad agency that came up with it, or which funeral home it was created for, but it was, at the time, absolutely the perfect slogan for a funeral home: “And in conclusion….”

I guess that thoughts of funeral-type things are always close to the surface of our thinking, particularly the older we get.

My eighty-fourth birthday is the day after we post this article, and I’ve been listening to the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham, who died considerably younger than I am at present, as I write it on Tuesday, July 28. So the slogan from long ago came to mind in a most poignant way.

Here I sit, thinking on, praying on, and writing about the biblical conclusion of things–Bible prophecy.

It comes to mind the many great friends that have gone to their heavenly rewards, some considerably younger than I am now. Like Dr. Dave Breese, truly one of my most beloved friends, who helped me get started with my first book—Storming Toward Armageddon.

Dave, one of the most eloquent and brilliant spokesmen for God’s Word, was just seventy-three when he was called into Heaven.

I think of my wonderful friend Dr. Tim LaHaye, who was sixteen years older than me. I remember this because the first time Tim and I met, he figured the age difference with a smile. Tim is certainly now enjoying the tremendous rewards of heavenly life–eternal life!

Then I think on the great preacher and teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee, who inspired so many of us with his down-home but tremendously powerful teachings. He was…well…he was eighty-four when he passed into that heavenly dimension! Eighty-four!… Well…I’m now 84!

Time to think of what the slogan I remember so vividly from those many years ago really encompasses! “And in conclusion….”

This is not meant to be read like my own impending epitaph. I trust the Lord has me here yet for His own purposes. I won’t go into the widow-maker heart attack and heart stoppages way back on Good Friday, April 22, 2011, and the miraculous trip to Heaven and back three times. (Well, I guess I just did go into it again but just can’t help myself.) It’s a witness, and I will always interject it when opportunity permits.

And the witness–the main reason I believe I’m still topside of the soil, as I like to say—is to tell that God is warning the world that the end of this age (Age of Grace or Church Age) is about to come to an end. This means that the worst time in all of human history, as Jesus Himself stated (Matthew 24: 21), is about to come upon rebellious humankind.

The Tribulation will be the last seven years that will put an end to humankind’s rebellion against God. It will be Daniel’s seventieth week.

The telling of this terrible era of Heaven’s punishment against earth’s rebels, found mainly in the book of Revelation, detailing twenty-one judgments in a series of three specific acts of God’s wrath: seven scrolls, seven trumpets, and seven bowls, will be God saying, in effect, what that billboard advertisement presented all those years ago.

And in conclusion…

The Lord is indeed slow concerning His judgment. He is not willing for anyone to perish in their sin. He pleads for all to come to repentance. But His patience is not without limits, and it is obvious to any true student of Bible prophecy that this generation is bumping up against the very end of this age of God’s patience.

The Rapture of all believers, lifting them (harpazo) into the presence of Jesus Christ, who will receive (paralambano) them unto Himself where they will be with Him forever.

Now this is the way those of us who study and put forth God’s Word –particularly His prophetic Word—want ultimately for all who will heed Heaven’s call. This is the end of all things as God wants them to be because that end is really the Beginning.

Accept Christ and the redemption God offers through His Son’s death, burial, and resurrection. The words of that slogan I remember will then have a wonderful, not a fearful, meaning.

And in conclusion…

–Terry

Wtjames1@swbell.net


Maintaining a Heavenly Focus

We live in the last moments before Jesus’ appearing. The Lord gave us a great many signs so we could recognize the season of His return for us, and this is it, no doubt about it. But is it possible to become overly preoccupied with what’s happening around us, the signs themselves?

As many of you know, Amir Tsarfati has stepped away from reporting the news each day. I very much miss his accurate perspective of the current war, but I increasingly understand his decision. In a recent post on Telegram, he said, “The world is captivated by what is happening. I am captivated by Who is coming.” I know from experience that it’s far too easy to also become captivated by the 24-hour news cycle and lose my focus on Jesus Himself.

I’m not suggesting that we bury our heads in the sand, but at the same time we must realize that not all Christian sources of end-time news are the same. Some don’t believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture, and that significantly changes the way that they report current events. They lack the perspective of 2 Thessalonians 2:3-8, that of the Restrainer holding back the unveiling of antichrist and the rampant lawlessness he will bring with him after the Rapture.

As Amir so aptly stated, we must not become “captivated” by what we see, even though they are genuine signs of the last days. I might add that we must not allow others to needlessly alarm us when they report the dire news apart from the perspective of Jesus’ imminent appearing.

In Titus 2:13, Paul defined “our blessed hope” as “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” We see this same focus in Philippians 3:20-21:

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” (emphasis added)

I wrote the following in my book, The Triumph of the Redeemed:

The Greek word for “await” in verse 20 points to an “intense anticipation” or an “excited expectation” of a future event.[i]

Luke used the same Greek word for “await” in Acts 17:16 to describe Paul’s restless “waiting” in Athens for Silas and Timothy to rejoin him. After the apostle’s distressing experiences in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea, we know he intently watched and longed for a reunion with his fellow laborers. This is the same passionate yearning of the soul with which the apostle characterizes the waiting of the Philippians for the Lord’s appearing.

Paul used that same word, properly translated as “eagerly await,” in other texts referring to the Rapture (1 Corinthians 1:7; Romans 8:23-25). The apostle taught all his converts to look for the Lord’s appearing (1 Thessalonians 1:8-10). Jesus is our hope. Without this perspective, the alarming news of our day often generates fear rather than hopeful expectation.

One of my favorite Rapture passages is Colossians 3:1-4:

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Although the text doesn’t mention Jesus’ appearing until verse 4, it sums up our need for a heavenly focus on our Savior during these perilous times. He is our “life,” the reason we have hope as the storm clouds appear on the horizon. For me, these verses are the best remedy for feelings of fear or even anger brought about by reading about the widespread fraud, deceptiveness, and violence of our day.

Another reason for avoiding an undue reliance on the daily news cycle is its deceptiveness. It’s an extremely unreliable source for what might happen next. Solomon’s wise words in Proverbs 27:1 remind us of the uncertainty of thinking we know what lies ahead: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” Even when what we read is an accurate portrayal of what happened or what someone said, it often turns out to be a faulty indicator of what the next day will bring our way.

I pray Jesus comes very soon to take us to the place He’s preparing for us.

In the meantime, don’t let the daily hype of current events take your eyes off the source of our hope, Jesus. The Lord sovereignly controls all things, and at just the right time, He will take us out of here.

Maranatha!

-Jonathan

jonathanbrentner@yahoo.com

[i] Colin Brown, ed., Dictionary of New Testament Theology Vol. 2, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1969) p. 244.