Fires of Forewarning

I am hearing it proclaimed in the strongest terms that God is judging California and punishing that area with the horrific fire because of the wickedness, the evil, it embraces. I want to disagree. I say that God is not yet judging, not in the sense that His judgment produces punishment from Heaven.

Indeed, the portions of that state that is, as of this writing, literally being devoured by the fires, fanned by 100 mph winds in some cases, is the center of wickedness the likes of which might make the people of the ancient places of Sodom and Gomorrah and Pompeii blush.

One writer writes the following in that regard.

There is so much anger about the unprecedented fires that are ravaging the Los Angeles area because there is a widespread belief that they could have been prevented. Some are blaming mismanaged forests, some are blaming the extreme incompetence of our leaders, some are blaming “climate change,” and some are blaming budget cuts. But could it be possible that the real reason why Los Angeles is burning is not related to any of those factors?

What is the one thing that sets Los Angeles apart from any other city in the world?

Needless to say, it is the entertainment industry…

Most people living in the Western world consume entertainment that originates from Los Angeles almost every single day.

Most of us are literally opening up our minds and pouring in filth on a regular basis, and that has had absolutely devastating consequences.

Of course, much of the filth that the entertainment industry produces openly mocks God and misuses His name.

Sadly, the entertainment industry was even mocking God at the Golden Globe Awards just 48 hours before the fires hit.

So they Mocked God on Sunday at the Golden Globes, Couple days later Their Houses burn down…

The entire planet has been corrupted by the movies, television shows and music that come out of Los Angeles. On top of all that, L.A. is the epicenter for the global pornography industry…

[Source: Could There Be A Reason Why Los Angeles Is Burning That Nobody Really Wants To Talk About? by Michael, End Of The American Dream, January 12, 2025]

President Trump said recently that the area destroyed by the fires looks as if they had been hit by a nuclear attack. It sure seems like the judgment of God is being visited on America’s Pompeii, doesn’t it?

No. I think not. I believe what we see happening –the fiery devastation ravaging America’s arguably the most desirable place to live in terms of environment— is actually an expression of God’s Love.

Now that seems almost as wrong in reasoning as the Woke thinking that comes out of California, that state of upside-down reprobate insanity!

Here I want to say that we are to have love and concern for the people who are suffering so desperately from these catastrophic fires. And they are catastrophic, with entire neighborhoods across a vast expanse having been completely burned to the ground. Let us reach out in compassion, knowing that ours could, but by the Grace of God, be the circumstance these in the path of the wild fires are suffering.

That said, I’m of the like opinion –I believe Holy Spirit-Given opinion– proffered by my friend Tom Hughes, whose ministry is located in the state of California.

He likened what is going on in the case of these raging fires in California to the terminal health dilemma of someone to whom he once witnessed about the Saving Power of Jesus Christ.

The man had only a couple of days to live when he went to visit him, Tom said. The man wanted to know that if there was a God, why was he suffering such pain.

Tom lovingly and gently told the cancer patient that God had blessed him all his life with a successful life and wonderful family. Despite all the opportunities to accept Christ, the man had rejected God’s Offer. The pain was given to call the man one more time. The pain was necessary as a strong measure because God knew that the place the man was going without Christ was many times worse than the pain from cancer he was suffering at present. In other words, God was using the pain to call him one last time to Salvation.

That talk Tom gave this terminally ill man might sound harsh, but it is true that the Lord sometimes works His Love and Mercy even through the pain of life.

Thankfully, the man did accept Christ before passing into the Lord’s Presence just several days later.

The following is the link to Tom’s recounting this Conversion Experience.

https://youtu.be/kDvItdgONFM?si=OEvKS0bITAoc0Oj7

Tom Hughes said:

“It’s the same thing I see going on right now in America. You see it in the heart of Hollywood. God is shouting to people. Hey, you better turn to me. The Bible tells us what’s coming during the Tribulation period…

Wow, folks. God is screaming to us. He has blessed this country with great things –with so many good things, and instead of turning to the Lord, they are turning from Him. And God is shouting to us because He knows the pain is coming [when His true Wrath must punish those who reject His Son].

For anybody…if you don’t know the Lord, ask Him to forgive you. He will forgive anybody who will come to Him.”

Amen! The fires are a Merciful Call to Repentance –perhaps a last, Loving Call to accept God’s Order rather than the anti-God way of wokeness and rebellion.

What coming such painful Calls to Repentance might we expect as the nearness of the Tribulation grows closer by the hour? Once Jesus Calls all believers to Himself in the Rapture, the pain will grow infinitely worse as God’s Wrath pours out on God-rejecting mankind.

You don’t want to be part of that Wrath and of Antichrist’s unprecedented evil.

Here is how to accept Christ and be kept from that worst time of human history. Also, to keep you from the eternal, truly horrific fire –the Lake of Fire— following the final punishment of lost mankind at the Great White Throne Judgment.

“That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10). 

                –Terry

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The Perils Facing President Trump

Last Monday, we watched as Donald Trump again became President of the United States. Optimism abounds; many believe he can change the disastrous, vile, and anti-biblical policies of the previous administration before it’s too late to avert the Lord’s wrath and/or the end of America.

I’m exceedingly thankful that Trump is now our President, and I witnessed more reasons for hopefulness while watching Trump’s first day in office than I anticipated. He is far from perfect, and I disagree with him on some matters. However, if Harris had prevailed last November, we would even now be experiencing an accelerated erosion of our freedoms, Biden’s political prisoners would still be languishing in prison with no hope of an end to their torment, and our tax money would continue to flow to wars, corrupt tyrants such a Zelenskyy, and those who are here illegally and seek to harm us.

Even with the positive and heartwarming scenes that emerged from Inauguration Day 2025, the US faces a future fraught with danger. The following perils facing the newly elected President are not exhaustive, but they are the ones I consider to be the most daunting.

The Threat of WWIII

I remain convinced that the Lord is currently restraining the breakout of a deadly nuclear war that will result in far more casualties than what happened during the last century as the result of wars and communism/socialism. During his last months in office, President Biden appeared to do all that he could to provoke Russian President Vladimir Putin into attacking NATO and the US.

As President Donald Trump steps into the Oval Office, the threat posed by the Russia/Ukraine war still exists. Some believe that WWIII has already begun via this conflict. Will the President be able to calm tensions in a war that has already claimed so many lives? The heavy loss of life seems to have hardened Putin’s heart against accepting any peace agreement that doesn’t give him a decisive victory.

The other key flashpoint is China’s threat to invade Taiwan. I expected this to happen during the final days of the Biden administration. This could easily result in a war with horrific consequences.

The latest news is that experts expect Iran to possess a nuclear bomb within two months. If that happens, its leaders will seek to use it against Israel and US interests in the future. Iran’s recent twenty-year pact with Russia complicates this alarming development.

A Deeply Divided Nation

In response to the Pharisee’s accusation that He cast out demons by the power of Satan, Jesus responded, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand” (Matthew 12:25). His words apply to what we see happening in the US. We are a deeply divided nation and in many ways, a nation at war with itself.

The policies proposed by President Trump and his cabinet choices will wreak havoc among the deep state and cost them billions, if not trillions, of dollars. His ongoing efforts to expose the hidden wickedness of the elite in Washington, DC, puts him at odds with many who yield considerable clout in both the media and Congress.

Trump’s naiveness regarding the depth of the deep state’s powers hurt him during his first term as President and resulted in betrayals by many of his trusted advisors. As he seeks to delegitimize those who hate America and seek to destroy him, we can be sure they will put up a fight with no regard for the consequences, even if it means the destruction of the US. They are exceedingly evil and will continue to use deadly force to maintain their stranglehold on America.

Economic Devastation

I have written often about the dangers of America’s national debt and out-of-control spending. It now stands at $36.2 trillion and is growing at a rate of one trillion dollars every one hundred days. If not for the Lord’s restraining hand, this surely would’ve long ago plunged the US and the world into an economic depression far worse than what happened in the 1930’s.

A priority of the incoming President is that of bringing the spending under control, but is it too late? Is this a ticking time bomb that’s set to explode in the near future?

The massive debt levels in the US and throughout the world tell us that the third rider of the apocalypse is ready to ride (see Revelation 6:5-6). The day is rapidly approaching when Jesus will open the third seal and bring economic woes upon the entire world. Does this not signify the nearness of the Rapture?

Illegal Immigration

Even those of the outgoing Biden administration have admitted that because many enemies of the US have entered our country through Mexico during the past four years, we face the likelihood of a devastating terror attack perhaps worse than 9/11. There are credible reports that hundreds, if not thousands, of Chinese men of military age, without spouses or children, have entered our country.

It’s likely that President Trump’s deportation program to rid the country of the illegals will have already begun by the time you read this. His program, though just and absolutely necessary, will cause much strife and perhaps spark violence in the months ahead.

The Push to Divide Israel

Although President Trump is a friend of Israel, he faces a worldwide mindset that seeks to divide Israel and thereby bring about the Lord’s wrath upon the nations. The prophetic words of Joel 3:1-2 are ever so close to reaching fulfillment:

“For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land.”

Though these verses speak to the gathering of the world’s armies at the time of the Second Coming, they aptly depict the current mindset that seeks to divide the Land of Israel and, as a result, kindle God’s wrath. The world’s uncanny obsession with Jerusalem has already begun the fulfillment of Zechariah 12:1-3.

The current determination of the nations to divide both Israel and Jerusalem was set in motion by Saudi Arabia in 2024. These countries plan to meet at the UN during the first week of June 2025 with the goal of formulating a seven or ten-year peace covenant with Israel. It’s possible that they will agree to impose upon Israel a seven-year peace treaty with plans to formally ratify in September of 2025. It’s possible that we see the buildup to Daniel’s seventieth week (Daniel 9:27).

What will be President Trump’s role in the scheduled meeting of this group set for June 2025? Any acceptance of the dividing up of the Land or Jerusalem will surely bring God’s wrath upon the US.

Of course, if this turns out to be the antichrist’s peace accord with Israel, we will be with Jesus before the man of lawlessness steps onto the world stage and ratifies it.

I wish President Trump well and pray daily for his safety and wisdom as he deals with these perils. These dangers, however, also tell me that the seven-year Tribulation is rapidly approaching.

I have no illusions that political solutions, however just and correct they might be, will alter the world’s mad rush to a one-world Marxist government under the antichrist. My hope for the future rests one hundred percent with Jesus and His imminent appearing.

At any moment now, the Father will send Him to fetch His bride.

Maranatha

-Jonathan

 

Peace: Still the Mantra in 2025

While thinking on the inauguration of the 47th president of the United States on this 20th day of January 2025, I reflect on things more than a decade earlier.

I wrote in January of 2010 the following. Peace is more than the absence of war in which blood is shed while weapons destroy and death tallies their toll. Peace is contentment, with prospects for a future free of worry that conflict will disrupt tranquility. There is neither contentment nor tranquility upon this fallen sphere:

Conflict is everywhere one looks. Unsettling issues assault the eyes and ears—the senses—of the world community. Anxieties and perplexities inundate societies and cultures, nations, and continents. The voices of humanity cry “Peace! Peace!” when there is no peace. As much as I would like to bring tidings of great joy—having just celebrated the birth of Christ—I cannot do so from the perspective of what is going on here on Earth. The year 2010 just ahead looks bleak for a world of inhabitants who, by and large, reject the only One who can bring peace. The rejection portends the ascent of evil that is prophetically scheduled to grow worse, according to the apostle Paul: “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).

That forecast certainly has proven accurate. But it is God’s prophetic Word, not this poor messenger’s predictive acumen, that made the 2010 prognostication an easy one. The times here at the beginning of 2025 have changed only in that the outlook for peace this darkening world seeks flees farther distant by the hour.

While seducers are on the scene in this generation at every level of human interaction, deadly conflict lurks just around the geopolitical corner in the region of planet Earth foretold to be the host geographical area of man’s most horrific war. The prince of Persia foments rage against God’s chosen nation, inciting the likes of Iran’s Islamic leadership to create weapons that can destroy Israel, thus hoping to derail God’s prophetic plan to install the King of all kings upon the throne of David. Alliances form that make the wary student of Bible prophecy know that the prophet Ezekiel’s Gog-Magog coalition is coming together. One day the “evil thought” of Ezekiel 38:10 will come to a Russian leader’s mind. All hell will break loose in the most volatile region on Earth.

Politicians in America and in other nations lie to their publics, promising resolution to civil and economic strife and perplexities that have no chance of improvement, based upon those leaderships’ self-serving motives and intentions. They seduce the publics they are supposed to serve, and instead rule with deluding words that flow from the mind of the great deceiver himself—the father of lies.

Religious leaders—even supposed Christian leaders—move their flocks in directions away from, not toward, the God of Heaven and His prescription for living a peaceful life on this ever-darkening planet. Indeed, the seducers of religiosity grow worse and worse, and the gospel light dims for America as it has been dimming for so long in Europe, out of which the American republic burst under God’s great providence.

Still, the self-delusion that man-made peace can prevail over this sin-blackened world persists. The cry for peace and safety is exponentially ratcheting up in the region prophesied to host the worst and final war of the age—Armageddon. That cry for peace and safety predicted to characterize the end of the age is front and center in today’s headlines.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to the 79th session of the UN General Assembly on September 27, 2024, laid out the opposition to peace God’s chosen nation faces in this time so near the end of the age:

Mr. President, Ladies and gentlemen, I didn’t intend to come here this year. My country is at war, fighting for its life.

But after I heard the lies and slanders leveled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight. I decided to come here to speak for my people. To speak for my country, to speak for the truth. And here’s the truth: Israel seeks peace. Israel yearns for peace. Israel has made peace and will make peace again. Yet we face savage enemies who seek our annihilation, and we must defend ourselves against them.

These savage murderers, our enemies, seek not only to destroy us, but they seek to destroy our common civilization and return all of us to a dark age of tyranny and terror. When I spoke here last year, I said we face the same timeless choice that Moses put before the people of Israel thousands of years ago, as we were about to enter the Promised Land.

Moses told us that our actions would determine whether we bequeath to future generations a blessing or a curse.

And that is the choice we face today: the curse of Iran’s unremitting aggression or the blessing of a historic reconciliation between Arab and Jew.

But, that cry for peace isn’t working—not yet, anyway. One day, the “prince that shall come” (Daniel 9:27) will confirm such a covenant of peace that will temporarily induce euphoria for a fearful world. But the present Israeli prime minister isn’t fooled into thinking such a covenant is at hand. His words haven’t changed since back in 2010. He said at that time: “There’s no more time for excuses. It is time for action.” Netanyahu also said that Israel’s most important challenge is Iran’s attempt to get nuclear weapons.

We have witnessed since that time now fifteen years ago not the trending toward peace between Israel and its enemies but a severe ratcheting-up of terrorism and war-making. The Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, have thrown fuel on the fire of Middle Eastern volatility.

Iran continues to be at the center of all of it, with the new president of the United States, as of today, January 20, 2025, promising quick and devastating action against Iran’s nuclear threat, and against the Hamas perpetrators of the most heinous evil against the Jewish state since Hitler’s holocaust.

All of this gloom for this new year is depressing, you say. What a downer to begin 2025! The hope in all of this is glorious beyond imagination, however. It is the “blessed hope” of Titus 2:13 who remains in complete control. For the student of Bible prophecy, whose Lord is the King of kings, all of the foreboding for this world that is passing away means Christ’s return to make all things right on planet Earth must be near indeed. The Prince of Peace is about to intervene dramatically into the disastrous affairs of humanity.

—Terry

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Note the Difference

As the fires rage in the Los Angeles area, the casting of blame continues unabated. Die-hard environmentalists insist that climate change is the primary culprit. Those making such a claim overlook the vast array of other factors that have contributed to the ongoing disaster.

Water mismanagement was a key factor. Fire hydrants with no water or low water pressure clearly made matters much worse. In his January 12 morning message, Jack Hibbs highlighted this critical factor by pointing out that California had received record rainfall during the past two years but let most of it drain into the ocean rather than store it. The video of firemen carrying water from their truck to the fire with small vessels due to no fire hoses is a sight I won’t soon forget.

When I lived in the Los Angeles area in the mid to late 1970s, I noticed how the authorities controlled the vegetation and forests on the foothills that surrounded the area. I saw several large breaks in the landscape where they had stripped the land bare of all vegetation and trees so as to slow the momentum of fires once they started. During this time, a fire left a light dusting of ashes on the sidewalk outside my apartment, but the firefighters were able to contain the blaze mainly to the foothills because of such careful protection of the environment.

Fifty years later, the lack of preventative land management allowed the fires to grow with unstoppable force by the time they reached the populated areas.

It’s Not the Apocalypse

Some are using the language of the book of Revelation to describe the devastation left by the fires. I hear the word “apocalyptic” used to describe the widespread devastation.

The word “apocalypse” is a transliteration that comes from Revelation 1:1, “The revelation of Jesus Christ” (my emphasis). In the Greek, the word denotes an appearing or manifestation. The last book of the Bible reveals the person, might, and character of the Lord Jesus on all its pages.

While for many, the word communicates the horrors of what the world sees on the videos that continue to stream from Southern California, what we see is not yet the unveiling of the Lord and His wrath upon the world. It’s not the apocalypse. That cannot happen until after the Rapture.

In addition, the horrific scenes from Los Angeles do not rise to the level of carnage that will mark the seven-year Tribulation. The seal judgments that will come early in this period will result in the death of one-fourth of the population (Revelation 6:1-8).

The Great Day of Wrath

There’s another noteworthy aspect of the Tribulation that sets apart the judgments of the book of Revelation from the disasters that we continue to witness in California and elsewhere. Please note the world’s responses to the horrific events that will mark the start of the Tribulation:

“Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?'” (Revelation 6:15-17, emphasis added).

Not only will the horrific events of the Tribulation exceed what we now witness in terms of devastation and death, but people will correctly identify them as the “wrath of the Lamb.” I have heard a great many explanations for the fires that continue in the Los Angeles area, but I have yet to hear government officials, the elite, or the rich attribute them to “God’s wrath.”

Though people will recognize the Lord’s hand of judgment during the Tribulation, the vast majority of them will refuse to repent of their sins (see Revelation 9:20-21). If there’s any similarity between now and then, it’s that what we see warns mankind of its urgent need to turn to the Savior.

It’s Not a Coincidence

Although it’s not the apocalypse, I believe God has a purpose for the unmitigated disaster that’s unfolding before our eyes in Southern California. He has allowed incompetent government officials, DEI hiring practices, serious lapses of judgment, fierce Santa Ana winds, and evil people starting fires to lead to this deadly calamity. It’s not a coincidence that the fires not have not only struck at the heart of America’s entertainment industry, which has long polluted minds with trashy films but also at what has become the headquarters of a multi-billion-dollar porn filmmaking industry.

Perhaps it’s also not a coincidence that the fires started soon after Hollywood verbally mocked God at the Golden Globes award ceremony on January 5, 2025.

It’s difficult for me not to see God’s hand in bringing together the many factors that contributed to the dreadful images that continue to stream our way from the West Coast. It’s not the Day of the Lord wrath, but we would amiss not to see it as His warning of what lies ahead for those who refuse to respond to His gracious offer of salvation.

It’s understandable that people would compare the Los Angeles fires with the judgments they read about in the book of Revelation. It’s important, however, to note the key difference. What we now see is not yet the “wrath of the Lamb” but rather a warning of its impending arrival and a call for repentance.

There’s coming a day when many will correctly identify the dreadful events of their day as the “wrath of the Lamb,” but then it will be too late for them to escape the Lord’s fury.

-Jonathan