Donation Drive September to November

It has now been 39 years that Rapture Ready has been an online resource for end-times information. I started the site sometime in September of 1987 while I was an airman stationed at Offutt Air Force Base. My computer was an Apple II clone made by Franklin Computer Co. It featured all green text, and there was no mouse.

A few weeks ago, I was talking with Terry, and I actually thought we were only coming up on our third decade. I did some quick math in my head and realized the big 4-0 was coming up. I was also shocked that I’ve been retired from the military for nearly as long as my 20-year service.

There was no grand opening for the site because, for the first few years, few people cared what I posted in the global newsgroups system–now extinct. When the graphic Internet came along with the 1994 release of Netscape Navigator, I switched to posting the site on a stand-alone domain.

The changes I find most amazing are Rapture Ready’s growth. In the early days, I could go on a two-week trip and come back without anyone noticing my absence. Today, I have to check something related to the site at least six times a day. The traffic went from zero to one thousand in the ’90s, to tens of thousands in the 00s, and to hundreds of thousands in the past few years. Today we measure our traffic in millions of hits.

I was recently watching a YouTube video, which made me realize that the current AI craze could be very helpful to the site. It has long been obvious that once the rapture takes place, there will be no one left to manage the Rapture Ready domain. I once jokingly asked for someone to volunteer to stay behind to manage the site.

For decades, computer programs have required manual labor to tell them what to do at each stage. We input the information, and the program would produce results. Now, there are AI agents that will quickly be able to act as free agents. They will do work that once required humans.

Computers would have to advance by many orders of magnitude before I would ever let one run the site unsupervised. There is one simple task that AI could do at any time. Once the rapture occurs, there will be a massive surge in our server traffic. An AI agent could help by significantly increasing the site’s bandwidth.

We are currently on a server that can handle ten times the daily traffic load. We could program AI to upgrade our host plan if traffic surges past a given level. We could tell AI to go crazy with credit cards if news of millions of people missing hit the news feeds.

Another way AI is helping RR is by enabling a vast amount of money to be spent on creating better chips. Servers are getting more and more powerful because AI is used to advance the technology that makes them run. It used to take several years for a new generation of a software program to be released. Because AI helps design itself, these releases come out every few months.

We could be approaching the point where bandwidth is no longer a factor. It has been several years since I’ve had to deal with any limits on my personal internet use. We will eventually reach the point where web hosting providers will have equally endless resources.

Our first use of AI will likely be a plugin that will answer people’s questions. Visitors who are new to prophecy don’t know where to go. RR runs on WordPress, and the latest version has options for AI providers like OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini.

We have a page that explains how to create mirrors of Rapture Ready. Because the post-rapture world will be a time of panic, people might be too distracted to share the contents of this site. Also, time will be very limited. All prophecy sites will likely be scrubbed from the internet within a few days.

As we get closer to the tribulation hour, every Christian needs an end-times mindset. If you truly believe the rapture is drawing near, you should be more focused on endeavors that will contribute to the Kingdom of God.

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

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“Burdensome Stone” Blocking Pernicious Peace

Israel has long been at the center of observation as we watch issues and events unfold in Bible prophecy. God’s Word tells us that Israel, His chosen nation and people, will be at the center of hatred by the entire world at the climax of history leading to Christ’s return.

We’ve looked numerous times at the key Scripture that provides this truth for the wrap-up of the age:

“The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zechariah 12:1-3).

While the evil coming against Israel and the Jewish people alive today might, to much of the world, be inexplicable, it is all understandable from the perspective of biblical prophecy. Well, it is at least becoming clearer with each passing day.

We watched what happened on October 7, 2023. The Muslim terrorists of Hamas invaded Israel with a heinous and ferocious assault on Jews and attending Gentiles as well, during the celebration by young people. Here is Google’s brief statement about the attack:

On October 7th, 2023, the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented terrorist attack on Israel—The Nova Music Festival was one of the central targets of the attack, where at least 364 civilians were killed and 40 hostages were reportedly taken.

The very fact that Google grossly underreports the numbers and atrociousness involved in the murderous assault by Hamas points to the purpose of this commentary. The reporting was thus light for the most part throughout all mainstream news media throughout the world.

The weeks that unfolded from the assault brought world sympathy—not to Israel, but to the people of Palestine. For much of the reporting, the emphasis was that peace could come of this if the Jewish state would give Palestine a state within its territory—i.e., give up land for peace, which has been a decades-long lament by the Islamists surrounding Israel. The anti-Semites throughout the world claim that genocide is perpetrated by Israel against those the Jewish state has to defend against when Israel is viciously attacked.

Israel and the Jewish people, from that October 7, 2023, point, have become the recipient of anti-Semitism that might soon rival that of the days of Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s.

The following story shows God’s prophetic Word coming into focus at this very time:

The foreign ministers of eight Muslim countries on Sunday condemned Israel’s rejection of a roadmap for implementing US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, accusing Israel of obstructing efforts to end the conflict as Hamas and US officials held talks in Cairo on the framework. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates said Israel’s opposition amounted to a “direct repudiation” of the peace plan that “jeopardizes its implementation, and fundamentally undermines the collective efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace.” (“8 Muslim countries blame Israel for ‘obstructing’ Gaza framework,” World Israel News, August 17, 2026)

Make no mistake: Even though President Trump hasn’t made the stipulation, at the heart of that protest is the demand that Israel give up part of its land so a Palestinian state can be established. Israel, with territory about the size of New Jersey, is expected to allow an Islamic nation within those tiny borders, a thing that would put those who hate Israel and Jews the most—Islamist terrorists—within God’s chosen nation.

The Lord, of course, has described this satanic development for the end of things leading to Christ’s Second Advent. Nothing takes our Lord by surprise. As a matter of fact, Zechariah the prophet was commissioned to let this generation of believers know that He—God Himself—is directing all of this. His magisterial orchestration is bringing all into view as we anticipate Christ’s call to all believers in the Rapture.

Israel is becoming increasingly hated, as are the Jewish people. They are accused of being at the root of all of Earth’s troubles that might lead to a final nuclear war. Before all is finished, a peace of sorts will come from this war.

It will be a pernicious peace—that is, a peace that will destroy many (Read Isaiah 28:16–18). It will be the false peace made in the covenant of Daniel 9:27.

But the real peace will be made by the Prince of Peace, the returning King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords, to put an end to war-making at Armageddon (Revelation 9:11).

Our God is absolutely faithful to do what He has promised, and He has promised to put His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, upon the throne for the millennial (thousand-year) reign.

“It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations of Jeremiah 3:22-23).

His faithfulness extends to all individuals whom He calls to repentance. And He calls everyone to repentance.

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31b).

—Terry

Wtjames1@swbell.net

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Then the Rains Came

Although we have come to expect such sights, it was still quite shocking to watch the recent celebration that ensued after the Massachusetts governor signed a law permitting the murder of children up to the time of birth. How much longer can it be until the Lord returns for us?

The barbaric atrocity of abortion is just one sign of an increasingly widespread mindset whereby the masses approve a wide range of evil behavior (see Romans 1:28-32). I have long read about the lawlessness that the antichrist will bring with him after the Rapture. However, I never imagined I would see so much of it before our departure.

As I thought about these things this morning, my attention turned to 2 Peter 3, where the apostle wrote about the scoffers who would come in the last days. In particular, I thought about what the apostle wrote about the Noahic flood:

“They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:4-7).

I find it more than a little informative that the predicted mocking of the last days would include a purposeful forgetfulness of another time when God judged all of humanity. The Lord also linked those days to the time just before the flood of Genesis 6-8.

The Days of Noah

In Matthew 24:37-40, Jesus compared the time before His return to the “days of Noah.” The Lord’s comparison was not just with the evil of the world before the flood, but with the complete unawareness that judgment was imminent. They lived as though nothing could possibly interfere with their lives and future aspirations. Then the rains came.

Those outside the faith don’t believe that the flood recorded in Genesis ever happened. Although most Christians accept the account’s authenticity, many don’t believe the Lord will again judge humanity as He did in Noah’s day. They believe that the next event of God’s prophetic calendar is the end of the age and the Second Coming, when Jesus wraps up history and judges the living and the dead. They find alternative interpretations for the Scriptures that predict Jesus’ dramatic intervention in human history to destroy Satan’s kingdom and gloriously inaugurate His worldwide reign over all the nations.

Just as the Lord predicted through His apostle, the scoffing of the last days, in which we now live, includes a disbelief in Jesus’ warning concerning the fast-approaching time of God’s wrath that lies ahead for the entire earth and an unawareness of what lies ahead for the world.

The Rains Will Come

I imagine that the waiting was difficult for Noah and his family as they built the ark in preparation for something that had never happened before. Can you imagine the mocking they endured? The day came, however, when the rains arrived just as God said.

We live at just such a time, do we not? We know that the start of the Day of the Lord is ever so near, which will begin with sudden destruction upon the world soon after the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11). We recognize the many signs pointing to the start of this time of God’s wrath upon the earth and look for the Rapture to occur soon. We believe the judgments recorded in Revelation chapters 6-18 are real and imminent.

Yet we wait and wait. That’s where the message of 2 Peter 3:4-7 hits home. It’s not just a warning about the scoffers of our day; it’s an encouragement to all of us who long for Jesus’ appearing. The passage assures us that just as the rains came to the ancient world, so they will surely come to the world of our day. Those who now celebrate the murder of innocent children will pay a great price after Jesus takes us home to glory. The rains will come.

I understand how the realization of Jesus’ imminent appearing troubles those who have loved ones caught up in today’s rebellious mindset. I share that concern for many of my close family members, and I plead daily for their salvation.

Unlike Noah’s day, when the closing of the ark’s door sealed the fate of unbelievers, a great multitude of people will come to saving faith after God’s wrath begins to sweep through the earth. The good news is that they will receive eternal life and experience a future resurrection despite missing the rapture. The bad news is that most in this group will experience martyrdom for their faith. I often pray that my unsaved family members will have the opportunity to turn to the Lord then, should they not do so beforehand.

Until the day we meet Jesus in the air, we pray and warn others as the Lord gives us the opportunity. We know that just as the rains came to the ancient world, so they will come to the unbelieving world.

Maranatha!!

-Jonathan

jonathanbrentner@yahoo.com

Watchers on the Wall Alert!

“When you see all these things,” Jesus said. It was a warning from the Creator of all that is. We’re to be especially alert, He was saying, when certain things come into view. We—those who name Christ as Lord—should, individually, serve as watchers on the wall while we observe biblically prophetic progression.

But Jesus gave one word that, to this generation of those who “watch,” should add profound emphasis to Christ’s command. Jesus, God Himself, said God’s children should “look up and lift our heads” when we see certain things “begin” to become observable during our time on Earth. Here are the words of this important command from the Lord Jesus:

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

Jesus was speaking to His immediate disciples—the men who followed him throughout His ministry. He was speaking to just a few of them on that day some two thousand years ago. However, He was also speaking, in the prophetic sense, to those who would be alive during some future time to witness things those men on the Mount of Olives asked Him about that day.

Jesus dumbfounded them by saying the beautiful Temple they were looking at on Moriah would be destroyed. He further implied the consummation of things of the earth.

They said:

“Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3b).

Jesus, the greatest of all prophets—because He is omniscient and eternal and knows the end from the beginning—gave His immediate disciples as well as us today the answer to the windup of this quickly fleeting Age of Grace (Church Age).

The Lord gave a profound commission that day: Recognize when “these things begin to come to pass.”

God in the flesh (the Second Person of the Godhead, both God and Man) gave specific things to look for. I am convinced that this is the generation that will be part of the consummation of the age He described.

Things we see happening are prophetic developments. This is what my friend, the late Chuck Missler, used to say is “the time of the signs.” If Chuck were still on Earth today, his excitement would no doubt be uncontrollable considering the matters of prophetic import now unfolding.

Jesus Gives Signs

The Lord answered His disciples on Olivet (and us, now) about when to look up for Him (our redemption) because He would be drawing very near. That is, He would be about to call to the Church (all believers in Him for salvation/redemption)

Signals the Lord gave are at this moment blazing across our headlines.

Here is Christ’s answer to the disciples’ questions:

“Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:4-8).

Deceivers

We don’t have to look very hard to see that deceivers and deception are in every direction. Religiously, many are on the scene giving false teaching—all proclaiming they have (come in the name of) Christ. But many deny the power of Christ (His deity). This fits Paul’s “perilous times” prophecy (2 Timothy chapter 3).

Wars and Rumors of Wars

There are still living members of forces who fought in the greatest war of all history to this point. World War II is proof that horrific wars have “begun” to happen, thus fitting Jesus’ warning of what to look for at the end of the age. And rumors of wars, as we easily observe, are there to “watch.” The greatest fear is of world-ending nuclear war, thus end-times cries of “peace and safety” fill our headlines daily.

Nation against Nation

The word for “nation” here, as we’ve looked at many times, is the Greek Word ethnos, meaning “ethnic.”

Even now, many wars around the world are raging, involving ethnic differences. Ethnic hatreds are at the center of Middle East wars and rumors of wars. The conflict between Israel and its neighbors has been centered in ethnic differences for thousands of years.

Even in the United States, there are ethnic conflicts, as we saw in the George Floyd death, and even within sports, such as the attacks of some women against others in the Women’s National Basketball Association.

Famines, Pestilences, and Earthquakes 

We’ve long seen films of children with their stomachs distended because of starvation as appeals are made to feed the hungry in Africa and other places.

The COVID matter, as a pestilence, literally shut down the world’s top economic nation to some extent. Its ramifications still reverberate throughout the world; again, much involved is steeped in deception for the purposes of the love of money and power.

Great, cataclysmic earthquakes are reported almost daily, with 7.0 or higher on the Richter Scale becoming more the norm than the aberration. Witness: the recent 7.4 earthquake in Colombia.

Naysayers charge that this has always been the condition of humankind; it’s just that now these things can be reported instantaneously across the world. That might be true to an extent, but could the Lord Jesus not have known of the prolific distribution of information that would be available at the end of the age?

As a matter of fact, yes; He could have such knowledge when He spoke on the Mount of Olives that day two millennia ago.

Daniel the prophet was given a message from the throne room of God, where certainly Jesus in His preincarnate form resided when the message to Daniel was sent to the prophet:

“O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Daniel 12:4).   

So, Jesus wants the watchers to be informed of the critical hour so near the time of His return so God’s message of grace—the salvation offered to all fallen humankind—can be put forth as a critical alert.

Be assured: The things we’ve begun to see come to pass—described by our Lord two thousand years ago and recorded for us today—are not coincidental. There is no such Word as “coincidence” in God’s prophetic vocabulary.

It is incumbent upon us, no matter our status in the world’s activities as we live our given increments of time, to consider our number one job to be watching in these quickly passing days. Our witness for Christ is our top priority!

“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. 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” (Mark 13:32-37).

—Terry

Wtjames1@swbell.net

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Tribulation Technology and Smartphones??

As students of Bible prophecy, we are aware of how modern technology points us to the fulfillment of several Tribulation events. For example, in Revelation 11:9 we learn that after the antichrist kills the two witnesses, people from all over the world will “gaze at their dead bodies.” Television, satellites, and 24/7 news networks explain how it’s possible for people all over the world to watch events unfold on the streets of Jerusalem in real time. They will also be able to view this morbid scene on other electronic devices any time they wish to do so.

When it comes to one person controlling all the buying and selling worldwide, just twenty-five years ago I imagined it would happen through an exceedingly large number of participants in every nation who would willingly enforce the dictates of the antichrist. Today, AI, gigantic databases, data centers, and the coming central bank digital currencies not only make it possible, but also likely. The elites already tell us that they plan to use this technology to both monitor and control how people spend their money.

During the past couple of months, I have spent many hours studying Jesus’ words in Matthew 24:15-18 where He refers to the defilement of the temple at the midpoint of the Tribulation. Although there are similarities to His words in Luke 21:20-25, where He predicts the destruction of the temple in AD 70, it cannot be the same event as the “abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel” (Daniel 9:27, 12:11). The significant differences in the texts verify that these passages refer to different and rather distinct events. One happened in the distant past; one awaits a still future fulfillment.

In both texts, Jesus warns the Jewish people that what they “see” will prompt them to the presence of imminent danger. In Luke 21:20, it’s the sight of “Jerusalem surrounded by armies” that alerts the people to the perils that lie ahead for them, such as happened in AD 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, which led to a time of intense persecution of the Jews.

In Matthew 24:15-16, the spectacle of impending peril is far different; there the Lord begins His warning with these words, “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” In this text, it’s the sight of the one we know as the antichrist, the “man of lawlessness” inside the “holy place” of the temple that alerts the Jews to danger. Despite this occurring within a small enclosure in the temple building, the Jews will “see” it take place and know to immediately flee.

But what makes this far more interesting is the examples of places where Jesus says they will observe the defilement of the temple’s holy of holies. Some will be on the housetops when they see the “abomination” take place, while others will be in the fields when they see it (Matthew 24:17-18). The Lord is not telling them to instantly flee when they hear reports about the defilement from someone running to tell them about it or read about it the next morning; it’s when they watch it happen in real time.

It was not until several weeks ago that it occurred to me that Jesus was implying that people working outside in the fields would somehow witness the abomination as it happens and know to flee without even picking up their nearby coat. The same is true with people on rooftops; they will see it take place and recognize the necessity to immediately run for their lives. Does this not imply smartphone technology or at least some other modern technology?

How else would it be possible for those in the fields to “see” it happen? And lest one thinks that rooftops belong only to the first century AD Jerusalem, I discovered that many of its homes today also have outdoor space on their roofs. It’s more common in the “for sale” listings of higher-priced houses in Jerusalem, but it’s a reality, nonetheless.

The scoffers of our day claim that we interpret prophecy with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. In other words, they argue that the news of our day determines what we believe about Bible prophecy. However, Jesus instructed us to watch for His coming, which necessitates evaluating current events in the light of what Scripture says about the last days. Might that also include recognizing the role that modern technology will play in the fulfillment of Bible prophecy? I think so.

It’s our understanding of God’s Word that alerts us to the season in which we live. Just as the cues Jesus gave to the Jews that enabled them to recognize imminent danger, so He has also told us what to watch for as we see the day approaching. Just as with Israel, the Lord not only warns us about what is coming, but also provides us with signs so that we might watch and know what lies ahead for us.

And today, what we see screams with the message that He’s coming very soon to take us to the places He’s preparing for us.

-Jonathan

jonathanbrentner@yahoo.com