What incredible times we live in — like no previous generation. The world is heading pell-mell for a conclusion though nobody knows the timing on this. But we are privileged to look at signs that are like clouds forming on the horizon. In the 1970s there were only a few events that were prophecy-related happening. There were minor shakings but sometimes connecting the dots was even a stretch!

Fast forward to today and there are so many prophecy-related events happening daily and hourly that it presents a major dilemma for those of us watching the signs of the times to know just where to focus. As I post stories daily on my website, I agonize that I must leave off so many as space and time won’t allow readers to zero in on all that is happening!

It is a privilege and a challenge to be born for such a time as this. Very little that is predicted to happen in the “last days” is good news and who wants a steady dose of bad?But if one can “look up” one can bear the heartache of looking around as the signs of the times explode on our news outlets.

The Bible asks us to be “watchmen” (Ezekiel 33). We’re to be sounding an alarm. Trouble is ahead. Time is short. And I have never felt such a sense of urgency and the realization that time is, indeed, short.

I am watching signs “converge.” They are stunning and breathtaking. But most pastors will not talk about them!

LifeWay Research is a Nashville-based, evangelical research firm that specializes in surveys about faith in culture and matters that affect the church. They report that a third of America’s Protestant pastors expect Christians to be Raptured — or taken up in the sky to meet Jesus — as the last of the last days begin. Over 36% believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture. In spite of this glorious good news, their pulpits remain silent.

Over 50% of Protestant pastors, according to the survey, believe in a literal Antichrist — but their pulpits are silent.

Most pastors hold to the basic teachings of Christ’s Second Coming — but their pulpits are silent.

This same survey says almost 50% of Protestant pastors believe in a coming Millennium and hold to premillennialism. At this time we finally do away with the curse and fallen human nature — but their pulpits are silent.

Pastor Tom Hughes leads The 412 Church in San Jacinto, California. He has written a thoughtful article titled, “Five Reasons Pastors Don’t Teach Bible Prophecy.” He writes, “Prophecy fills the Bible. End time prophecy touches every person alive today. Jesus taught on it. So did John, Paul, Peter, James, and Jude. Yet only a small percentage of churches teach this crucial part of God’s message to our generation.

“Some pastors don’t teach it for theological reasons. They don’t believe it, don’t think it applies to us, consider it symbolic, or whatever. Others believe we’re probably living near the end of the age, but still refuse to touch the topic. They see it as an elective part of God’s curriculum. Take it or leave it.”

Hughes continues, “That’s not how Jesus saw it. He reprimanded the Pharisees and Sadducees for not discerning the times. ‘When it is evening you say, it will be fair weather, for the sky is red; and in the morning, it will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening. Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.’ ” (Matthew 16:2-3 NKJV)

Hughes concludes, “More than a quarter of the Bible is prophecy — much of it yet to be fulfilled. How can we give congregations a well-rounded understanding of scripture if we leave out such a vital part of it?”

He then goes on to list these five reasons pastors may not be sharing these issues in the pulpit:

1) They don’t understand prophecy.

2) They fear offending members of the church.

3) They sense this will scare people.

4) People might not tithe if they think we’re close to the end.

5) There is fear in looking like the “loony-tune fringe. The Harold Campings have done great damage.

The prophecies of the first coming of Christ were fulfilled. They stand as evidence that the Bible can be trusted. Prophecies of His second coming work the same way, except we get to witness these events in our time, often with our own eyes.

The nations of the world seem moved, as though by a hidden hand, into exactly the right positions on a global chess board. What an amazing thing to see it happening before our eyes! It builds faith and draws our attention God-ward. And it is a fantastic evangelism tool.

I think the church is headed into the home stretch of her history! I base that not on emotions or wishful thinking. I base that on what I see happening daily. Man can live for a week or two without food. We can live only days without water. But our spirits are crushed within hours without hope.

We have the good news of the ultimate hope — the “blessed hope.” (Titus 2:13) His glorious appearing. Pastors, please don’t remain silent! Share the only good news out there.

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It’s been an amazing year. If you follow any of the Bible prophecy sites, blogs, and media programs, you know they have been overwhelmed with stories that are foreshadowing the time the Bible calls the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, also known as the Tribulation.

I know there are those who believe there are no signs for today. I was called on the carpet by a seminary professor –a Baptist, no less — for heralding signs. He says there are no signs until the Tribulation. Nothing that is happening today is relevant. How tragic. What a disservice he is doing to his seminary students who will be ill equipped to deal with very dark headlines.

So after sifting through hundreds, in fact, thousands of headlines in the last year, I have come up with 18 stories that I feel most represent the herald of His coming:

1) Israel’s worsening isolation. (Zechariah 12:3) The Left in America under Barack Obama abandoned her some years ago. With the defeat of Canada’s Stephen Harper, Israel was left only with some evangelical Christians spread around the world. She has no superpower backing.

2) The “days of Noah” are back. (Matthew 24:37) Everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes. (Judges 17:6) Lawlessness is the order of the day. Evil is glorified. The White House was adorned with the colors of the homosexual rainbow and Hillary Clinton has a campaign ad with homosexuals engaged in debauchery as she celebrates their actions.

3) The disillusionment with today’s politician is setting the stage for a “man with a plan” who will not be a politician but who will have the answer to all the world’s problems. We don’t know his name. We know his title is Antichrist. He may be the only one who can stabilize the ISIS crisis being planned for a naive Western world.

4) The rise of strong delusion. (II Thessalonians 2:10-12). Simply put, God sends a strong delusion to those who choose not to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those who take delight in mocking and rejecting Him, He will condemn, confuse their thinking, and cause them to believe fables. And they do! Islam is good and peaceful; guns are evil; climate change is more dangerous than jihadists; Israel is the bad guy and the Palestinians are the new heroes in the church today; ISIS isn’t Islam; Muslim refugees are peaceful and will help the Western world. This is an “Alice-in-Wonderland” world. Christians don’t fit. The Mad Hatter rules.

5) The further decline of America. She is not in the Bible in the end-times. Russia and Iran are the primary players in the Mideast now. America’s influence for good is vanishing under Barack Obama. America will blend into global government.

6) America is being given over to paganism. A few months ago the Hindu goddess Kali appeared on the Empire State Building in New York City. Twenty years ago this was unthinkable. It is now cool.

7) Israel is being prepared for the Antichrist. She is surrounded by enemies. She has Hezbollah, ISIS, Russia and Syria to the north and East and Hamas to the south in Gaza. Iran boasts daily that she will dump nukes on Israel. At some point she will cave to these threats and call on the Antichrist to make a peace treaty — particularly in light of the loss of American support.

8) Gog is now on the move. If Magog is Russia, Vladimir Putin has re-built her from the days when Ronald Reagan reined her in. Russia is advancing in many places. All the Gog-Magog nations are aligning and are in the news: Iran, Russia, Turkey, Libya, and more. Prominent Bible-players are moving around as though they were on a chess board.
See Ezekiel 38-39.

9) Israel has been bombing the suburbs of Damascus taking out concealed weapons. The Bible foretells a time when Damascus will become a ruinous heap. (Isaiah 35:1)

10) Christians are mocked as never before and Jews are fleeing to Israel at a pace not seen since post WW2. (Matthew 10:22) Only Islam is glorified, honored, and protected. In the Iraq/Syria region, a Christian is slaughtered every 5 minutes, yet few show any concern. Christianity is being erased from the region of its birth. All of this intensified in 2015.

11) The technology giants want to suppress the truth and marginalize Christians. From YouTube, to Google, to Facebook, to Twitter, and more, the gospel message is censored and evil is glorified. They are preparing the way for “Mark of the Beast” technology. This was on overdrive in 2015. This ministry came under the gun and was censored more than once. Stories reveal that Windows 10 actually spies on emails, credit cards, and more.

12) There was a cry for a global religion from Pope Francis to the Parliament of World Religions in Utah in late 2015. If the world is ever to be one, religions also must be united. Pope Francis revealed himself to be an apocalyptic figure in 2015. We cannot “pin the tail of the False Prophet” on him quite yet, but even conservative Catholics are troubled by this Jesuit Pope. In fact, this Pope represents Marxism, environmentalism, the new world order, global government, sustainable development, the Jesuit agenda, unity of faiths, a global constitution, a global court, and a departure from Catholic traditions. He is surely a harbinger of a global religion.

13) Globalism went on overdrive thanks to Barack Obama, the United Nations, Pope Francis, and a consortium of worldwide Leftists. John Lennon, who “imagined” all of this decades ago, would be proud!

14) The push to make cash illegal intensified in 2015.The move to a cashless society won’t happen overnight. Instead, it is being implemented very slowly and systematically in a series of incremental steps. All over the planet, governments are starting to place restrictions on the use of cash for security reasons.

15) Israel’s Temple Mount has been a focal point for turmoil this year. With stage-setting for fulfillment of Bible prophecy during this Church Age winding up, it should be of no surprise that there has been tension on Mount Moriah. That may be the most contested 35 acres on the planet.

16) This was the year Bible prophecy was mocked and attacked more than ever! Believers in our “blessed hope” were called “End-time Eddies and Esthers.” While this has always existed, now more and more prominent teachers are telling us not to waste our time on doom and gloom.

17) Liberal, Godless Europe imploded. Leaders like Germany’s Angela Merkel lost their minds, put their people at huge risk as terrorists took advantage of the “refugee” situation, and have made Europe a time bomb. The Antichrist will take advantage of this as well.

18) This was the year evangelicals began accepting the gay agenda and some asserted that Allah and Jehovah are the same. The voices from the religious Left encouraged this. The great end-time falling away has much of the church going over a cliff with results that cannot be rectified. Finding a solid church became a believer’s biggest challenge in 2015.

Things are not falling apart — they are falling into place. Can you hear the hoof beats of the four horsemen of the apocalypse in the distance?

I won’t be silent about the signs of the times. If Jesus chastised the Pharisees for not knowing the signs of His first coming, why would we not be expected to be aware of today’s apocalyptic signs?

Wake up, look up, and rise up.