1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

The snare of the net has been foretold throughout God’s Word, so when it comes to pass, we’ll believe and heed the warning. In the end, many will fall into it as part of the beast system. We all see this net is currently spreading quickly across the globe today – and it’s a sure sign of the times we’re in for those who are watching. However, the encouragement here is that He also told us that He wouldn’t allow those of us who are in His name to get snared in it; He’ll pluck us out of it – and I’ll show you where that is in several places. It’s more proof of a pre-tribulation rapture, for those who are watching.

Psalm 57:6 “They have prepared a net for my steps; My soul is bowed down; They have dug a pit before me; Into the midst of it they themselves have fallen. Selah.”

Psalm 140:5 “The proud have hidden a snare for me, and cords; They have spread a net by the wayside; They have set traps for me. Selah.”

Psalm 25:14-15 “The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. My eyes are ever toward the LORD, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net.”

The ruler of the world has nothing in Jesus, which means the ruler of the world has nothing in us, the body of Christ, as we’re abiding in Him:

John 14:29-30 “And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.”

The many scriptures about the snare are worthy of a deep dive study of who will and won’t be bound into the snare.

Ecclesiastes 9:12 “For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them.”

God has given us another real-life illustration of what the net will look like in His creation: a crafty spider’s sticky web with its prey tightly wound in it. The spider catches its prey, injects and immobilizes it with the venom from the fangs of its jaw, then consumes it. In my mind’s eye, it’s very much a picture of the way it’s going to happen in the end. When the appointed Day comes, and the “web” has covered the globe to a point where there is nowhere for us to be safe, He’ll deliver us, lest we be delivered into evil, and snared and entangled into sin, captivity, and death.

Job 8:12-15 “…Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless. What they trust in is fragile; what they rely on is a spider’s web. They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold.”

As someone who watches for prophecy in the scriptures, I often find prophetic, singular verses tucked in. It’s my belief that these are signs of our current evil age:

Lamentations 4:18 “They tracked our steps so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end was near; our days were over, for our end had come.”

Psalm 56:6 “They gather together, they hide, they mark my steps, then they lie in wait for my life.”

Psalm 17:11-12 “They have now surrounded us in our steps; They have set their eyes, crouching down to the earth, as a lion is eager to tear his prey, and like a young lion lurking in secret places.”

Seeing those words jump right out of the Bible gave me goosebumps. The setup for this is already here today, and it’s easy to see how many different ways the “sudden destruction” could happen as the young, prowling lions lay their trap to steal, kill and destroy. Their web will give way when it’s leaned on for strength, but our strength will be found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalm 17:13- “Arise, O LORD, confront him, cast him down; Deliver my life from the wicked with Your sword.”

God gathers us for good, but the fowler gathers for evil. The net spreads itself far and wide, gathering up everyone who has unwittingly gone into its path. Long ago, Habakkuk asked God why He would allow these things to take place:

Habakkuk 1:14-17 “Why do You make men like fish of the sea, like creeping things that have no ruler over them? They take up all of them with a hook, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their dragnet. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their dragnet; because by them their share is sumptuous and their food plentiful. Shall they therefore empty their net, and continue to slay nations without pity?”

Going back to the beginning of Habakkuk 1, God had told Habakkuk that even if He did tell him what He was going to do, Habakkuk wouldn’t believe it. He was questioning God about why He was allowing all of the injustice to continue taking place. I personally love how patient God was with Habakkuk’s questions in this passage. The description of God’s plan also sounds similar to what’s happening in the nations right now. (Notice in verse 11, it switches from “they” to “he.”)

Habakkuk 1:5-11

“Look among the nations and watch—Be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe, though it were told you.

“For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty nation which marches through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful; their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead; their cavalry comes from afar; they fly as the eagle that hastens to eat.

“They all come for violence; their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. They scoff at kings, and princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, for they heap up earthen mounds and seize it. Then his mind changes, and he transgresses; he commits offense, ascribing this power to his god.”

This could be frightening, but we can find encouragement in what else we see written here: Habakkuk’s response was one of hope. Through faith in God, Habakkuk knew that those in the Lord, the Holy One, would not die. He professed his faith – that God had appointed the transgressors for judgment, but he knew that God only has everlasting life for us, not death. It’s the bitter and hasty nation (v.6) which God has marked for correction:

Habakkuk 1:12 “Are You not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, You have appointed them for judgment; O Rock, You have marked them for correction.”

Habakkuk “stood himself upon the watch and set himself on the rampart” to see what God would say to him, and to see what he himself (Habakkuk) “would answer when he was corrected.” The wording here deserves extra attention and thought. What is God saying to those of us who are watching? Habakkuk is ready to receive God’s message:

Habakkuk 2:1 “I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.”

This is what the Lord answered Job with: a promise often seen in various ways repeated throughout the Word of God: the just shall live by faith.

Habakkuk 2:2-4 “Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.”

The vision has been made plain for this appointed time, right now in the year 2026. It’s speaking to us loud and clear now because we’re near the end, and this vision will not lie. It’s the truth – there is a bitter and hasty nation which will march through the breadth of the earth; however, truly, the just will live by faith: those abiding in Him, filled with His Spirit, have been given His mind –the mind of Christ– and won’t be caught captive in the violence or the snare. The blood of Jesus has set us free for eternity; we’ll be delivered from the hands of our enemies; the just will live by faith.

For those who doubt a pre-tribulation deliverance, think of it this way: The beautiful United States of America has been a desired and safe refuge for many, from all over the world. It was founded and built upon the Lord’s precepts. Because of this, a strong Justice System was set into place as a foundation. A Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution called “Double Jeopardy” says that those who have already paid for a crime cannot be tried, much less pay for the crime, for this ever again.

In the same just way of that clause, we simply cannot be retried and face punishment and death for crimes that Jesus has already paid that cost for. Our Just God would never do that. Though Jesus had committed no crime, He willingly was beaten, mocked, spit on, pierced, and killed to redeem us from the curse He already knew was going to come for us. For those who have received Him, there is no record of wrongs – though our sins were as scarlet, they’re now as white as snow. We can never face death again, so this can only mean we must be delivered from death into life if we’re still alive and remain on the earth when the appointed time for sudden destruction comes.

1 Thessalonians 4:17 “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.”

The tribulation is for those who have not received His blood sacrifice. We can liken it to the fig tree that doesn’t produce fruit because there was no one-of-a-kind sacrificial wasp to lay her eggs and then die inside the buds, providing nourishment for her eggs to mature. In the same way, those without the Sacrificial Lamb are not productive. The ax is at the root of the tree, and they’re still facing judgment: judgment seals, and then judgment bowls, which will be poured out upon them. They’re marked for correction and rebuke, but we’re marked and sealed with His Spirit, and a guard has been placed around us. As the body of Christ, we’re only appointed to suffer once for sins – the suffering which He already took for us– so He can bring us to God for eternal life.

We’re told not to fear; only those left on Earth will fear when the earth is violently broken and shaken. (Just a reminder, those abiding in Christ cannot be shaken, as ours is a Firm Foundation).

Isaiah 24:17-20 “Fear and the pit and the snare are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall be that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he who comes up from the midst of the pit shall be caught in the snare; for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken. The earth is violently broken, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall totter like a hut; its transgression shall be heavy upon it, and it will fall, and not rise again.”

We keep watch for His coming – not watching for iniquity. We’re watching for our Deliverer. (Just a reminder that God says those in Christ cannot be consumed or cut off):

Isaiah 29:20-21 “For the terrible one is brought to nothing, the scornful one is consumed, and all who watch for iniquity are cut off—who make a man an offender by a word, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just by empty words.”

These things happen only to those who dwell on the face of the earth, which is why we must be delivered away from it, to stand before the Son of Man:

Luke 21:34-36 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Our table is being prepared by the Lord even now, but the table of the enemy is a snare and a trap to them:

Romans 11:9 “And David says: ‘Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them.’”

God has promised from the beginning that He’d deliver us from this snare:

Psalm 91:3 “Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.”

It’s already done; the Lamb has overcome! Therefore, we also have overcome through Him. As God is outside of time, we can stand in our hopeful expectation and faith that we’ve already won:

Psalm 124:7 “Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.”

Here is David’s Song of Deliverance in 2 Samuel 22:47-51. The Hebrew word for exalted means “lifted up, raised up, heaved up, set on high”:

“The LORD lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let God be exalted, the Rock of my salvation! It is God who avenges me, and subdues the peoples under me; He delivers me from my enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me; You have delivered me from the violent man. Therefore I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the Gentiles, and sing praises to Your name. He is the tower of salvation to His king, and shows mercy to His anointed, to David and his descendants forevermore.”

For those who want to make certain you won’t be caught in the snare: believe on His name, the Lord Jesus Christ, confess that you’re a sinner who needs the Savior, that He died on the cross to save us and rose on the third day, and you will be saved. Amen!

We’re also told the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). The LORD does, after all, hold the keys to death and Hades. Once you do fear the Lord, rather than men, then you don’t at all need to fear His wrath, because you’re no longer appointed to it. You’ve passed through death into blessed, everlasting life (John 5:24).

Blessings!

Angela

I have always been leery of those Bible teachers who have a new ‘revelation’ — seeing something in Bible prophecy that they had never seen before.

I am also keenly aware of the dangers inherent in interpreting Bible prophecy in light of current events. It is a good attitude to have, I think, but it does tend to close one’s mind to alternative explanations.

In that regard, what should rightly be accepted as interpretational can subtly shift over from interpretation to doctrine. And interpretation and doctrine are two entirely different animals.

‘Doctrine’ is defined as “a principle or position or the body of principles in a branch of knowledge or system of belief.”

‘Interpretation’ is defined as “a particular adaptation or version of a work, method, or style.”

Doctrine is iron-clad; a ballet teacher teaches the identical doctrine of classical ballet to two students in the same class, but how they INTERPRET that doctrine is what separates a Mikhail Baryshnikov from a Rudolf Nureyev.

Doctrine is constant, but interpretation changes with understanding.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).

According to Bible prophecy, the reign of the antichrist rests on the existence of three central pillars: a global government, a global religion, and a global economy.

The prophet Daniel identifies the antichrist as being of “the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary” (Daniel 9:26).

History tells us the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple took place in AD 70 under the command of Titus, later Emperor Titus of Rome. Hence the interpretation that the antichrist comes to power through some form of a revived Roman Empire that serves as a de facto global government.

In this generation, the countries of the old Roman Empire united under the banner of the European Union, uniting Europe as a single empire for the first time since the fall of Rome.

The second pillar, that of a global economy, is necessary to fulfill John’s prophecy that he will have the ability to restrict persons from normal buying and selling at the individual level.

Such economic control was never possible prior to this generation. If you doubt it exists now, imagine if your Social Security number were deleted. You couldn’t work, open a bank account, get a loan, or make a major purchase.

Elimination of cash (a work already in progress) would completely exclude a person from any economic participation.

Of the third pillar, the global religious system, the Bible reveals the following:

1) It will claim authority over Christianity. “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb…”

The references to ‘the lamb’ are pretty much self-explanatory. It is a reference to something ‘like’ Christianity, but a counterfeit… “he spake as a dragon” (Revelation 13:11).

2) It will share political power with the first beast. “And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him” (Revelation 13:12).

3) Participation will be mandatory. “cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” (Revelation 13:15)

4) The method employed by the false prophet’s religious system as the penalty for refusing conversion is decapitation.

“and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast” (Revelation 20:4).

For more than a thousand years, most interpreters saw the Church of Rome and the papacy as the third pillar of the antichrist’s platform.

The Vatican claims authority of Christianity and has always been as much political as religious. But that is where the similarities stop.

600 years ago, the papacy tried to enforce conversion and sometimes executed those who refused. The papacy also believed the world was flat 600 years ago.

It is safe to say that when the Pope believes in a flat earth, the papacy will launch another Grand Inquisition.

There is in existence another religion that fits John’s description like a glove. Islam claims to be the third revelation from God.

It claims its existence from Abraham, acknowledges the Divine inspiration of the Bible, but claims that Abraham, Moses, and Jesus were all Muslim prophets.

It is Islam’s claim to be the third and final revelation from God, from which Islam derives its claim of authority over Christians and Jews.

Islam is not just a religion but is equally a political system carefully defined by Sharia law and fulfilling points 1 and 2 much more perfectly than does the modern Vatican.

Islam is the religion of the sword. The word itself means ‘submission,’ and Islamic law authorizes the death penalty for unbelievers, fulfilling point 3 as a matter of existing religious doctrine — not a new doctrine forced upon an existing system by a mad pope.

And the penalty of choice for refusing to submit to Allah is decapitation, fulfilling point 4.

None of this has to be developed and imposed upon Western religionists as new religious doctrine by a new pope, as previous interpretations required — it already exists. And it is already practiced by one-fifth of the human race.

As noted, Islam claims to be the wellspring of Judeo-Christianity, claiming Islam predates both. Islam claims Allah is the same God worshipped by Christians and Jews and that the Old and New Testaments were corrupted by scribes.

Christians and Jews scoff at this claim, since the Koran’s Allah bears no resemblance to the God revealed in Scripture.

God is love. Salvation is a gift of grace through faith. As a matter of accepted doctrine, it cannot be imposed by force.

Salvation through Allah comes through martyrdom in the jihad, after conversion to Islam either voluntarily — or by force.

Daniel provides another glimpse into the religion of antichrist. He says that he will be an atheist, but that he will pretend to be religious in public.

“Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.”

Then Daniel gives a letter-perfect description of Islam — as Islam describes ITSELF.

“But IN HIS ESTATE shall he honour the GOD OF FORCES: and a god WHOM HIS FATHERS KNEW NOT…” ‘A god of forces, and a god his fathers knew not’ cannot be applied to the Roman Catholic Church or the Papacy without the RCC formally renouncing Scripture, God and Jesus.

For 1600 years, interpreters looked to the Vatican, and for 1600 years, the argument seemed valid. Until the arrival of the generation to whom the prophecy was written.

“And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are CLOSED UP AND SEALED TILL THE TIME OF THE END. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; BUT THE WISE SHALL UNDERSTAND” (Daniel 12:9-10).

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on February 26, 2006. Jack went to be with the Lord on March 14, 2013.

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