Pitchers of Pride in this Pre-Trib Rapture Time :: By Terry James

“America’s pastime,” as baseball is termed, seems to also properly define this nation’s obsession as we approach July 4, 2026. By that, I mean the obsession with pride.

And I’m specifically referring to gay pride, which is made by the mainstream media today to look like America’s pastime so far as keeping this social perversion constantly in their stories.

Despite baseball’s popularity as a sport in the US, it is but a small part of American life, with most people having little to no interest in the sport. The same is even truer of the gay pride activities in our nation. In fact, a significant majority of the US population would even look at things involved with gay pride as being an abnormality—an obsession that for most of American history been relegated to salacious comportment to be shunned. Yet the mainstream media continues to make this wickedness akin to a religious worship requirement for all of us.

And now the great sport of baseball, which has given us beloved American stories such as that wrapped in the movie The Pride of the Yankees, has become interlocked with the once-shunned aberration of homosexuality now known by the perversion of a word once having an entirely different meaning—the word “gay.”

Baseball itself has, with the infusion of so-called analytics nonsense, become a perversion of what it once was. And I am one who, as a boy, and later while I could still see – Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and all the greats- before being blinded by a hereditary retinal disease – loved every second of every inning.

My uncle and aunt used to take me to Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis to see ol’ Stan the Man Musial and the Cardinals—on Sundays. This was a thing my mom opposed because Sundays were to be for Sunday school and church, not sports activities that took me away from Seventh Street Bible Tabernacle in Pekin, Illinois. But she sometimes relented because I was “the only child” those almost eighty years ago, and her brother insisted I see his favorite team. (Thanks, posthumously, Uncle Jesse and Aunt Deloris!)

Baseball now has, in my blind guy way of “seeing,” become unrecognizable. The analytics, to me, are nothing but wokeness foisted upon the sports world. It is political correctness, a thing that has been used to help change America into being also unrecognizable in comparison to the 1940s and 1950s when I went with my uncle and aunt to see the Cardinals.

But it is much more than that. It is prophetic stage-setting for the biblical description of the time of Tribulation Jesus Christ described through the prophet John in the book of Revelation. And the evil intrinsic to this change from America’s Judeo-Christian conception is ensconced within one of two pillars of Satan’s attack to make the change happen.

The two pillars are found in the Apostle Paul’s “perilous times” warning of 2 Timothy 3.

Paul prophesied that, in the last days, perilous times will come. The one term he gives in that prophecy regarding the evil today is wrapped in the statement: “For men shall be…without natural affection.”

The first of these two pillars of evil we see full-blown today is abortion, when mothers let their children be murdered in their wombs, and the second is homosexuality, which God’s Word calls “unnatural” and “an abomination.”

This wickedness represents “without natural affection.” And the current powers that be in Major League Baseball are in the middle of the attempt to change the national pastime into perilous times like Paul described.

Their going along with the gay pride evil, by strong-arm urging all the MLB teams to wear the rainbow caps to show support for that perversion, tells where this generation places us within these perilous times:

California State Senator and rabid gay activist Scott Wiener is the epitome of a typical woke cry-bully. He is perhaps best known as an advocate for the “kink community” and his defense of gender treatments (hormones and sex change surgeries) for children. He is also a militant supporter of sexualized LGBT propaganda in public schools…

[Senator Wiener’s words:]

“On San Francisco Giants Pride Night — also the tenth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre — several players defaced their Pride caps with a biblical passage that has been hijacked by homophobes to ‘take back’ the rainbow from LGBTQ people. The players could have displayed this passage any night of the year but chose to do it only on Pride Night.

The Giants, sadly, took no action in response, which is inconsistent with the Giants’ longstanding support for our LGBTQ community. Major League Baseball then warned the players that MLB rules bar defacement of uniforms. The Giants should publicly commit to enforcing rules around uniform defacement and should not effectively create a homophobia exemption to those rules…”

The state senator acts as if the players broke some kind of law. Baseball club rules are private business arrangements, not statutes that require the frantic complaints of a homosexual Karen. That said, Wiener’s response to this event is quite revealing.

Biblical scripture references are not “defacement,” at least not of anything sacred. But to Wiener, the act is the same as if someone burned a Bible or a Koran. The woke seething over such a minor thing makes it clear that the LGBT movement is not a civil rights movement; that ended decades ago. Today, the LGBT movement is a political supremacy movement, and prominent athletes have every right to openly oppose it.

The pride event featured a number of LGBT promotions, including 10 same-sex married couples renewing their vows before the first pitch (what this has to do with baseball is unclear). Interestingly, the crowd turnout for Pride Night games has been crashing in the past couple years. (“Democrat Politicians Seethe after Baseball Players ‘Deface’ Pride Night with Bible Verses,” Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge, RR News June 18, 2026)

The three pitchers on the San Francisco Giants team who had placed Bible Scripture on the Gay Pride caps undoubtedly are in for persecution in these perilous times. But bless them for standing against the perversion of God’s lawful righteousness. The Lord’s pride is no doubt upon these athletes, one of whom had the Genesis 19 verses reference on his cap. (Genesis 19:1-25).

Here is the bottom line of that story of God’s judgment and wrath:

“Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground” (Genesis 19:24-25).

Pray that America awakens from continuing down the same path as Sodom and Gomorrah.

Wtjames1@swbell.net

Is Left Behind Theology Being Left Behind? :: By Jan Markell

Since I was old enough to understand it, I’ve believed, taught, and written about Dispensational Theology. I just call it “Left Behind Theology.” Critics say it is a modern invention that came along in the 1800s. Please, read the Bible. The prophetic angle of Dispensationalism represents one-third of the Bible.

Simple Definitions

Dispensationalism teaches a literal Antichrist, a literal “Time of Jacob’s Trouble” or Tribulation, a literal Rapture, a literal Second Coming, a literal thousand-year Millennium, and distinct roles for Israel and the church. Israel has a glorious future. God has made promises to her and will fulfill them, and the church has not replaced her.

A dispensation is the divine administration of a period of time–seven dispensations in God’s plan for humanity. God works in different ways with different people during different periods of time. Things were different pre-flood and post-flood. One could say there were different rules for different periods of time.

Since the 1970s, Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth and the Left Behind book and film series by Tim LaHaye have been the face of Dispensationalism. Millions of people read and viewed these products and finally put a name to what they already believed just by reading the Bible.

The other option — Covenant Theology — does not see the promises to Israel as literal, but fulfilled in the church. It teaches Amillennialism, or we are in the Millennium now and have been since the cross.

Leave It to Tucker Carlson

But now this theology — since it represents the truth — is under brutal attack. And wouldn’t you know, Tucker Carlson has provided the platform to trash it. His guest, J.D. Hall, should be careful throwing stones.

According to “Ministry Watch,” Hall embezzled thousands of dollars from his church in Montana, was convicted of DUI, domestic abuse, and more. But he is Carlson’s spokesman to trash the truth for nearly two hours.

You can watch the painful ordeal here, but buckle up. Sadly, it has almost one million views on YouTube. Only conspiracies and lies can attain those numbers.

Christian Zionism Has Corrupted Christianity??

Hall denigrates Christian Zionism, as does Tucker Carlson, who insists “a lot of people have died because of Christian Zionism.” The program is titled, “Origins of Christian Zionism, How it Corrupted American Christianity and Why It Is Finally Collapsing.”

But think about the accusation: Christian Zionism has corrupted Christianity. That suggests standing by Israel has a cancerous effect.

Ray Fava, an under-30 online host and writer who loves to attack Dispensationalism, states, “J.D. Hall’s appearance on Tucker Carlson has shifted the conversation on Christian Zionism and Dispensationalism, as Hall has emerged as one of the best at articulating how Scripture disproves the premise of God’s chosen people not being the universal church.” He represents Covenant Theology as does J.D. Hall. The church is the new Israel.

Fava suggests that J.D. Hall and Carlson “destroyed Dispensationalism.” It would take much more than these fools to accomplish that. It is wounded as I acknowledge below.

Blame it All on Darby and the Scofield Bible!

It is no surprise that The Gospel Coalition writes an article titled “The Rise & Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle Over the End Times Shaped a Nation.”

John Nelson Darby gets all the blame by them, as well as the Scofield Bible. Darby would be shocked to hear what he is being credited for today! But even Al Mohler takes a swing at Darby as he further describes Dispensationalism’s rise and fall.

The early church was Dispensational and premillennial. Sadly, the Reformers held on to the eschatology of Rome, and few got these issues right; thus, millions of church attendees are being misled in thousands of churches.

The Firewall

But it is true that Dispensationalism is bruised. That should be expected since it provides a theological firewall against the raging antisemitism exploding around the world.

Thankfully, God has raised up some modern spokesmen, theologians, authors, and more, who are pushing back. Some include the above-mentioned Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye, along with Dr. Mark Hitchcock, Dr. Ron Rhodes, Dr. Jeff Kinley, Gary Hamrick, Jack Hibbs, Amir Tsarfati, Terry James, Barry Stagner, Dr. Ed Hindson, Dr. Dave Reagan, Dr. Erwin Lutzer, Todd Hampson, Brandon Holthaus, Tom Hughes, and many more. The list is long, and I am leaving out many who should be included.

God knew we needed good theologians to share the truth today as we hurdle pell-mell into the very last days.

Replacing the Truth with Unsound Doctrine

Sadly, the 45-and-under evangelical has pretty much abandoned Israel and Dispensationalism. They more readily embrace Covenant Theology and even Anglicanism. Many embrace the Palestinian cause and have no clue that Yasser Arafat invented the people and Palestinianism.

They suggest writers like me represent “doom and gloom” and have misplaced loyalties that actually put Israel before Jesus! They say I am putting a damper on their future by suggesting the Rapture is imminent.

Leading to the Ultimate Abandonment

All of this is leading to the ultimate Israel abandonment spoken of in Zechariah 12:3, when Israel simply becomes the world’s “burdensome stone” and not the end-time marker and signal that time is running out and Jesus is coming soon.

Israel is the clock; Jerusalem is the minute hand; the Temple Mount is the second hand.

Learn the truth in my short interview with David Tal below. We offer far more hope, truth, and real facts than Tucker Carlson/JD Hall baloney.

www.olivetreeviews.org