Year-End Donation Drive

The year 2021 is almost in the history books. I am truly grateful to everyone who has contributed to the site in any way. I’m very certain that with your help, we can achieve even more for the cause of Christ in 2022.

Rapture Ready did very well in traffic for this year. Our monthly traffic is now 2 million, up from 1.5 million in 2019. Our ability to use ads to maintain our visibility brought many new people to the site. I figure that the total number of people who have an understanding of RR is around 3 million. Many of these people will have a far greater interest in our content in the days that come after the rapture. I pray that the main server lasts long enough for people to find the mirror sites and use them to make endless copies of RR.

I need to point out that the only sites Rapture Ready currently operates under are the pages that fall under the RaptureReady.com domain name. The links that go to Rapture Forums, Rapture Ready Radio, and Rapture Ready TV are all maintained by people not directly connected to RR.

We had a couple of people run afoul of the rules on Rapture Forums this past quarter, and they contacted us for an explanation. RR once had its own forum, but we had to shut it down when the software became too problematic to fix. I wish we’d never bothered with having a forum because it was 10% of our traffic and 90% of headaches.

Over the years, there have been several sites that called themselves Rapture Ready. All the major search engines solved that problem by shadow banning any site that has a true Christian message.

I realize that allowing people to use your name for some other project is very rare. Most people would never share a link to anything that didn’t put money in their pocket or give them glory. One time I did a search of various ministries that had their head person speaking at a prophecy conference. None of them mentioned that they were going to be at the conference because it wasn’t their conference. This selfish mentality is partly to blame for why prophetic gatherings are dying out.

I had thought that 2021 was going to be a nightmare with the Democrats in full control of the White House and Congress. God is still in control, and He keeps the devil on a short leash. People are starting to realize that replacing Trump with Biden was a mistake, and Vice President Kamala Harris has become such a joke that she is regarded in some polls as the worst VP in American history.

Because of my knowledge of Bible prophecy, I know that our luck will soon come to a conclusion. Biden may drop dead of a heart attack, and we could end up with the worst President in American history. Our proximity to the tribulation should always make us mindful that we are strangers in a strange land. Here at Rapture Ready, we are going to do the Lord’s work until he calls us home, which I know we all hope is very soon.

There are three ways you can contribute to Rapture Ready: You can send a financial gift via our P.O. box address, you can make a one-time donation, or there is a frequency option that allows you to make monthly donations. If you’re interested in signing up, find the input links on the Donation Depot page. Donations can be sent to our P.O. box at:

Rapture Ready
P.O. Box 969
Benton, AR 72018

---

Comfort One Another…

This is for those who are believers in Christ and who believe what God’s Word says about things to come. Not that I intentionally want to leave out those believers who don’t study God’s prophetic Word, or those who are lost because they haven’t accepted God’s grace offer of salvation through Christ’s sacrifice.

However, without a firm grasp of what the Bible has to say about things to come, and without acceptance of God’s grace gift by those who are spiritually lost, Heaven’s message contained herein cannot assuage the intensifying fear spreading across the globe.

Because of the dire prospects facing the inhabitants of planet earth, many, perhaps most, turn inward and do their best to ignore the darkening foreshadowing that intrudes upon their lives.

That intruding evil includes such things as supposedly the worst pandemic since that of 1918. And the variants of that disease just keep coming, according to the would-be world controllers who want everyone forced to take vaccines that are at best experimental.

Their effects in preventing or making the disease less life-threatening are yet unproven. And the vaccines are not held to the same degree or level of lab testing as others of history. As a matter of fact, some claim they aren’t vaccines at all, but ingestible of unknown materials.

There is credence to this charge, because full disclosure of ingredients is not forthcoming. The vaccine producers are protected against any liability from the proliferating cases of adverse reactions being experienced across the globe.

Because of the COVID paralysis, the nation and world face dire economic prospects. Supply chains for goods are severely disrupted. Deliveries are greatly delayed or not being made at all because of people who refuse to take the vaccines losing their jobs for not complying with governmental and company mandates.

Millions are walking off of their jobs in protest of the threat of loss of personal liberty. Their children are facing diminished education because of the COVID-spawned tyranny.

Education, itself, is in a darkly evolving trajectory. Critical Race Theory and other evil inculcation has caused upheavals across the country, with parents standing up against the cancel culture in schools and the insane rules and restrictions coming from leftist, radical school boards.

Inflation has raised its ugly head to levels near the time of the Carter administration’s “malaise” of the 1970s. This is predicted to get much, much worse as the economy shuts down, fewer products are on the shelves of stores, and inflation explodes.

Energy costs, already increasing day by day, are projected to get much worse in the near future. Gasoline prices at the pumps are entering uncharted territory in rising costs per gallon.

Threats from the “open borders” policy of the Biden administration bodes ill for American life in more ways than can be adequately analyzed. The invasion is being used by those of the leftist mindset to distribute the hordes of illegal aliens in order to, they intend, change the voting of future elections in their favor.

People thus look for hope in direction other than the darkening horizon. But, sadly, most look inward, as stated previously, not in the direction they should look in seeking a brighter prospect for their lives.

Sadly, too, even the pulpits of America are filled by pastors who point congregants to cope with their daily troubles in societal and cultural ways–to the exclusion of prophetic hope.

Teaching to cope is well and good, if done with Christ at the center of the messages on how to best get along in this life on a deteriorating, disintegrating planet. But people in the pews and across the nation and world virtually never are shown the magnificent future that awaits those who truly understand the majesty and promises wrapped up in the name that is above every other.

In that name resides a future of incomprehensible life and prosperity beyond imagination. His is the only name that can comfort the demonically savaged souls of these closing days of the age.

Preachers who are truly messengers of Jesus Christ should be shouting from the elevated platforms of their pulpits. We should be doing the same at every opportunity.

All the things surrounding us that point to planet earth’s most wicked time of destruction are a holy siren of alert. Jesus is about to step onto the clouds of glory and shout, “Come up here!” When we see all these things we have seen–and continue to see—we are to look up and lift up our heads. For He is on the way for His own. This is the ultimate promise from the Creator-God—from Jesus Himself.

What promise! What incomparable comfort!

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:16–18)

—Terry

Inflation Is Starting to Bite Hard

The government and liberal media have done an amazing job of managing a person’s perception of inflation. As prices soar higher and higher, we are told all is well and there is nothing to worry about. And so far, the public has remained calm about inflation.

For several years we were warned that inflation was too low. They said our greatest fear should be deflation, which would somehow destroy the global economy. The Fed came up with a 2% target that they hoped to reach. When inflation went above the target range, we were told not to worry because the inflation is only “transitory” and prices would soon return to normal.

When the official inflation number came out last month that showed a 6.2% rise, it became clear that inflation is getting out of control. The left is starting to look like Kevin Bacon’s “All is well” character from Animal House.

Cargill CEO David MacLennan has changed his mind about “transitory” inflation and now believes it will be more persistent with higher food prices in 2022. He blamed elevated food prices on snarled supply chains, labor shortages, and adverse weather conditions, among other things.

There is clearly some type of demonic delusion at work that is blocking people’s ability to understand financial reality. A New York Times writer faced some brutal backlash after she mocked the “inflation hysterics” that she said were actually favoring the poor. Sarah Jeong, a member of the New York Times editorial board, tweeted that inflation was actually hurting rich people and not poor people as regularly reported in the media.

“All the stuff you see about inflation in the news is driven by rich people flipping their [explitive] because their parasitic assets aren’t doing as well as they’d like, and they’re scared that unemployment benefits + stimmy checks + 15 minimum wage + labor shortage is why,” Jeong said, adding the acronym for “just my thoughts.”

Several people known for their understanding of economics blasted her:

“This is idiotic. Asset prices have risen sharply. Inflation is squeezing at the middle of the income spectrum; wage growth is outpacing inflation at the bottom, and people at the top are enjoying asset price spikes,” replied Josh Barro of the Business Insider.

“This is absolutely idiotic gobbledygook. Those most worried about inflation are those whose wages have been eaten up by inflation. The rich, who have their money in assets like stocks and real estate, are making bank,” responded Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire.

“I am once again begging non-econ pundits to talk to econ people before saying this stuff. Stocks are way up. Real estate is way up. Crypto is way up. Every financial asset is way up. REAL WAGES ARE DOWN,” replied Noah Smith, former Bloomberg Opinion Columnist.

“My grocery bill has gone up 25%, which is fine! I can afford it! But not everyone can. I don’t [care] about myself. But it’s a big deal if people can’t afford to buy milk, bread, ground beef, applesauce and yogurt for their kids and have to make choices,” responded writer Emily Zanotti.

The price of several basic food commodities has outpaced the reported inflation rate. Many of them are input costs for various other products. The grains are used in animal feed, which is why meat prices have risen sharply. Here is a list of some of the price increases for items over the past 12 months:

Oats 175%
Cotton 57%
Wheat 30%
Corn 40%
Sugar 30%
Canola 92%
Coffee 71%

The largest factor in driving up inflation is the creation of money and debt. Over the past year and a half, the amount of currency in circulation has increased by 40%. Despite all the talk about tapering, the Fed is still adding $120 billion each month. Congress just added a $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending bill, and it’s working on passing another bill with a $1.7 trillion price tag.

A big factor that is preventing the public from being alarmed over inflation is the stimulus money. The amount of money in checking and savings accounts went from $1.2 trillion to $3.6 trillion. During the Pandemic, people who own stocks saw a $5.6 trillion rise in the value of their holdings.

What will pop the bubble is people finally realizing that inflation is destroying the value of their money. That 6.2% inflation rate number is false. Economists that use the exact calculations used during the 1970s say the real rate of inflation is over 10%. If you had $20,000 in your savings account this same time last year, inflation just stole $2,000 from you.

I’m sure a lot of Christians would react to inflation by saying, “I don’t need to worry about inflation because Jesus is coming soon.” I take the nearness of the rapture into consideration for all adversities. When Jesus said we should “watch” because we don’t know the timing of the rapture, it implied that we should be mindful of anything that leads up to the end times. Since economic hardship is the mother’s milk of prophetic progress, we need to take steps that could buy us time for a monetary meltdown that could come before the tribulation hour.

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:13).

–Todd

---

Diving into the Cultural Cesspool

Billy Graham once told of being invited to a banquet at which celebrities from Hollywood and other segments of society would attend. The evangelist said a certain person was speaking and told an off-color joke. Billy said he, himself, smiled while all the other guests were laughing uproariously with delight over the joke.

At that moment, Graham said, he looked directly across the large banquet table from where he sat. His eyes immediately met the beautiful, famous, violet eyes of a friend. It was those of Elizabeth Taylor, one of the legends of Hollywood history.

They were staring almost sleepily at him. Her beautiful features were a mask of disappointment as she almost imperceptibly shook her head negatively, showing her disapproval.

“You shouldn’t be condoning by your smiles such ungodly conversation,” was her meaning.

Billy said he never forgot that lesson: that the believer is under constant surveillance by the world around us. It was a lesson well-learned, taught by a person, although his friend, who was by all accounts caught up in a wicked, show-business.

We sometimes—at least yours truly does—get frustrated and even angry when the media types, whether in news or entertainment, attack a minister or other Christian for one perceived misstep or another. As a matter of fact, there doesn’t even have to be a true misstep. The media people will just make up things while supposedly reporting the story.

Yet those within their own ranks who do truly wicked things, more often than not –unless there is a political purpose in condemning those acts—refuse to report the incident. Those among their own ranks are given passes, with no reportorial consequences.

We know that it is Satan and his minions, both human and supernatural, who are at the heart of fomenting such unfair, hypocritical vitriol against those who claim the name of Christ.

But is it really unfair?

The very fact that there is such a hypocritical stance in being held to a different set of standards offers proof of the fallen state–the depravity of man.

The world is becoming an increasingly stench-laden cesspool. The difference between good and evil, between the godly and ungodly, is painfully discernable. The good seems to be losing–the wickedness seems to be winning.

It is by “witness” that we present the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have no choice in this time of growing corruption at every level of human activity but to be in this cesspool environment.

We cannot be effective witnesses if we close off our ears, eyes, words, and actions from all that is going on around us—i.e., we must be in the world, but not of the world. It is our commission to go unto the entire world with the Good News–the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This was why Billy Graham told the true story of his own failure–or perceived failure—by Miss Taylor. Perhaps the greatest evangelist of modern times, Billy was not wrong in being among those hedonist banquet goers. He was wrong, he thought, by appearing to not condemn the speaker’s dirty joke.

His friend, Liz Taylor, was holding him to a different standard–a much higher standard. And, Graham concluded, this was not unfair. Christians being held to a higher standard by the lost of this world proves they are convicted of their sin. They might cast their condemning mockery in our direction, but all it proves is that they are without excuse. They know the difference between godliness and ungodliness.

By all accounts, Elizabeth Taylor truly loved her friend and admired his always adhering to Bible truth. She was rightfully disappointed when she saw him smile–out of the awkwardness of the moment, no doubt, but smile he did, nonetheless.

Now this takes us to the point that brings out another failure of recent days within the community of believers. And, to me, it is an egregious failure because it opened the great cause of Christ to media mockery of every sort.

Everyone knows of the chant that went viral and remains at the forefront of the political world. “Let’s go Brandon,” is the chant, produced by a reporter interviewing a race driver after his victory. The background chant that was heard in her interview with the driver was one I won’t put here, but most readers know its verbiage. It was invective against the present occupant of the White House.

The unedited version–the one the reporter quickly changed to avoid embarrassment of her network—is now heard at many college football games and in other venues. A word that not long ago would never be spoken –or rarely so—in so-called mixed company, now is used brazenly among many of the fairer sex, as well as by the male population.

For me to even state such shows the generation of which I’m a part. There seem to be no guardrails, and it is troubling to me.

Now we hear the congregation of a church with a national and international audience chanting the so-called cleaned-up version of the original chant. The media has played it incessantly. The media, which is itself proving every news cycle to be as wicked as any part of this debased culture, is pointing to the fact that this church, representing the Christian community that claims God’s message that you must be saved, is using the same ungodly language as found on the streets that church claims as sinful.

This is a fair accusation. The media in this case is right in condemning the hypocrisy.

To have allowed the congregation to get the chant started was bad enough, in my view. But to let them continue, while broadcasting before a national and international audience, was a horrendous thing.

We are to be in the world. We have no choice. But to be of the world is something to be avoided at all cost.

The church body in question has done the equivalent of diving headlong into the cultural cesspool. I hope there is repentance forthcoming for this body of believers and its pastor, both of whom have been followed and respected across America and throughout the world.

— Terry