2026: As It Was in the Days of Lot
Perhaps some who read my thoughts about what I believe to be the most relevant prophecy at this moment might say I’m “flogging a dead horse” and “there he goes again with that ‘days of Lot’ prophecy.”
That “dead horse,” I must say, has, stunningly, arisen and stands front and center at this 2026 moment. I believe its coming to life is most significant as we observe all other signals flashing before us.
And, of all places on Earth for it to be standing, it is God’s chosen land, Israel, where its resurrection is now manifesting for all the world to observe.
The prophecy comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, of course: the same words you have read here many times over the months and years.
“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:28-30).
We’ve looked at this as meaning it will be business as usual in general when Jesus next catastrophically intervenes in the wicked affairs of humankind. That is, the Lord will rapture believers at a time like it was in Lot’s day, with things of life going along as usual, but with great wickedness and blasphemy against God. Destruction then came upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and sudden destruction will come on the days in the future that will be like those days millennia ago.
I believe we are in times almost exactly like those ancient days. “Prove it,” the naysayers might charge. Well, I’ll let the news that has just broken provide the proof:
Israeli authorities are promoting a large-scale gay event at the Dead Sea on social media, which has caused criticism and bewilderment among Christians.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel announced the holding of a large-scale LGBT festival on the coast of the Dead Sea – in a territory traditionally associated with the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The corresponding announcement was published in the official account of the ministry on social network X.
It states that in June, for several days, the Dead Sea area will become the venue for the largest LGBT festival in the Middle East with round-the-clock entertainment programming, hotels, and concert venues.
[One German cardinal has urged clergy at the coming event to conduct blessings upon LGBT couples.]
According to media reports, the event involves creating temporary infrastructure in the desert area, including hotels and recreation zones, as well as holding concerts and various events, including those declared as “family-friendly.”
At the same time, this initiative has caused resonance in Christian circles. Social media users drew attention to the symbolism of the festival’s location, which in biblical tradition is associated with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah due to the extreme wickedness, sexual violence, and pride of the inhabitants (Genesis 19).
Some clergy and Christian public figures expressed the opinion that holding such an event in this region is perceived as a challenge to Christian values and biblical understanding of morality.
“Why here? They are mocking God,” said Father Michael Lillie, a priest of the Orthodox Church of the Nativity of Christ in Youngstown, Ohio. (“Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces LGBT festival near Sodom and Gomorrah, News,” News of Orthodoxy – the Union of Orthodox Journalists, https://spzh.eu/en/news/92652-israels-ministry-of-foreign-affairs-announces-lgbt-festival-near-sodom-and-gomorrah)
In America, we’ve witnessed a minority that makes up the gay community turn our culture toward homosexual dominance. Gay pride saturates our cities, states, sports events, and every other strata. We have looked recently in this column at how a so-called Christian worldwide organization chose to approve homosexual pastors and leaders for their churches. This took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2009, and the very day this organization mocked God’s prohibition against such anti-God activity, a tornado swooped from a sky that seemed clear to destroy the church steeple where the ordination was taking place, breaking apart the cross atop the structure.
That city and area have since, as we know, been the center of attention; even the governing authorities seem to have gone to the dark side.
And now the very heart of the God of Heaven’s touchstone to humanity, Israel, is about to embrace Satan’s most vile wickedness against God’s governance.
I’ve always wondered a bit why the following Scriptures equate God’s chosen nation and people to earth’s most wicked area of antiquity.
“Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:10).
“And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” (Revelation 11:8).
God’s most virulent enemy, Satan, can certainly be seen at work with great intensity here in America and around the world. The devil especially seems to be targeting God’s chosen land and its people with his iniquitous end-times efforts.
Christ’s prophecy about the days of Lot is front and center in the news. If the Church is still here in June when this Sodom-like festival takes place, it will indeed be an event during which to be looking up, as Jesus commanded!
“For when ye 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).
—Terry
What Makes Today Different?
Most Christians believe that today is no different than any other previous period in human history. They remind us that there have been earthquakes, wars, severe famines, and pestilences throughout history. “So, what makes today unique?” they ask.
Israel. The existence of Israel as a nation alone signifies that today is a time like no other. The Lord told Isaiah that Israel would become a nation again in just one day (Isaiah 66:8), and on May 14, 1948, and just as He predicted so long ago, the Jewish state miraculously emerged after a 2,000-year absence. Nothing like that had ever happened throughout all of human history.
Many voices in the past pointed to Israel’s reemergence as a harbinger of the last days.
Irenaeus (AD 130-202), an early church leader and prominent theologian, wrote Against Heresies in AD 180 to combat the spread of Gnosticism. Writing 110 years after the Roman army under Titus destroyed the second Jewish temple, Irenaeus wrote that there would be a third temple that the antichrist would defile. He believed that at His Second Coming, Jesus would cast the defiler into the lake of fire, just as John wrote about in Revelation 19:19-20.
Later in life, Isaac Newton spent several years studying the books of Daniel and Revelation, writing copious notes. Six years after his death, others used his handwritten notations to publish his two-volume work, Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John. Newton’s detailed study of these books led to his prediction that Israel would again become a nation over 250 years before it happened. He recognized the necessary link between Israel’s reemergence as a nation and the fulfillment of future Bible prophecy.
In the early 1900s, many Bible scholars scoffed at C.I. Scofield because he wrote about the Gog/Magog battle of Ezekiel 38-39 with Russia leading an invasion of Israel. At the time, there was no Jewish state, and Russia was a Christian nation. Like Irenaeus and Isaac Newton, Scofield and others of his day knew that Israel would again become a nation because the Bible said it would happen in the latter days before Jesus’ Second Coming.
The events in Israel since 1948 also signify that our homegoing is ever so close. Based on their study of God’s Word, both Irenaeus and Isaac Newton believed there would be a Jewish temple in the last days. Although Israel doesn’t yet have control of the Temple Mount so as to start its construction, the Temple Institute in Jerusalem is training Levites to serve as priests. And the Israeli government is building and planning infrastructure to support the vast number of visitors who will come to see the future temple. It’s only a matter of time before a temple appears in Jerusalem in fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
The passion that currently exists within Israel to build the temple is what we would expect leading up to the seven-year Tribulation when antichrist will fulfill prophecy by defiling it (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15-16; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-8).
The current Middle East war also signifies that we live in the last days. The over-the-top determination of Iran and its proxies to destroy Israel is not rationally driven, but is, rather, demonically inspired. Before 1948, Satan inspired Hitler and the Nazis to kill all the Jews and thus prevent the formation of the Jewish state, which was already in the works. Since May 14, 1948, he has continued his dogged determination to wipe out Israel and thus thwart the Lord’s plans for Jerusalem and the Jews.
The heightened antisemitism of our day also signifies that our time is rather short before the Lord appears to take us up to glory. The Bible warns that there will be another holocaust during the second half of the seven-year Tribulation. What we already see in our day will become increasingly violent until it reaches its height during the last half of the Tribulation.
Israel’s existence puts all the other signs of the last days in perspective. The many signs warning that the seal judgments of Revelation chapter 6 are ever so near take on added significance because we know this is a time like no other, as the world’s attention on Jerusalem continues to grow, just like the Bible said would happen in the last days (Zechariah 12:1-3).
Israel’s existence also alerts us to the convergence of all the other signs, warning the world that the Tribulation period is rapidly approaching. For us, nothing has to happen prophetically between now and when we meet Jesus in the air.
As the signs of the last days continue to multiply, we know that it’s just a matter of time before our Savior appears and takes us to the place He’s preparing for us in Heaven (John 14:2-3).
Maranatha!
-Jonathan