Revisited – Zola Promoted! 

Author’s note: In thinking on the many Heaven-Sent friends in ministry I’ve known over my many years, my spirit is convicted to once again post my memory of an especially gifted and powerful brother for the Great Cause of Christ.

I wanted this re-posted commentary to be relevant to these times and wanted it to be about a recognized personage that most of you will, I believe, remember well because of his profound presence through his TV ministry “Zola Levitt Presents.”

Nothing of the past could be more relevant to this present time than matters involving God’s chosen people, the Jews, and His chosen nation, Israel. Zola Levitt personified God’s Love for His nation and people. It is with a most Beloved memory that I present again this commentary about someone I look so forward to being with again one Eternal day.

This article was originally posted on April 24, 2006.

Zola Promoted!

It was at the Sherlock Bali prophecy conference at Branson, Missouri, a number of summers ago. Several of us were standing around the hotel lobby just outside the main conference room where the lectures and presentations were taking place. My great friend, Zola Levitt, was finished with his presentation and was making his way through the lobby.

Someone of our group had just asked where in the Bible it explains when the Old Testament saints will be resurrected. About that time, Zola grabbed me, and smiling, with that little laugh he always had, answered the question instantly when one of us asked it directly of him. He went into detail. He was one who was tremendously qualified to go into detail. There were few with the knowledge Zola had. Then, when he was asked when he might be coming out with another book, he patted my back and said, “Ask Terry; he’s my publisher.” (Zola wrote many chapters for me in my books of compilation.)

That bit of kindness, I assure, could have caused a mighty swelled head –if it hadn’t caused such a lump in my throat from the emotion in my humbled heart.

That’s just the kind of friend Zola was. I loved him very much and will, for all eternity. He was and is my brother forever.

Zola, of course, died last Wednesday, April 19, after a brief battle with one of the most virulent forms of cancer. He had been diagnosed in February of 2006.

When asked about the cancer that –barring a decision by the Lord to perform a miraculous physical healing—would end his life on earth, Zola, with that typical little humorous chuckle he was famous for, said, “If the Lord wants to give me a promotion, I certainly don’t object.” He wasn’t being flippant. He meant it with all his heart.

Zola received his promotion last Wednesday. Now his assignments will far exceed even the things to do for God’s service he was assigned while in this mortal flesh. His gifts were far beyond those given most of us. Perhaps that was because God knew His servant, Zola, would make full use of what he was given.

Zola Levitt certainly did that, and the world is a more eloquent realm for his having performed his services as a very special royal ambassador.

Iran Leader Uses Prophetic Language

Thinking about Zola made the recent, vitriolic talk by the Iranian leader all the more significant. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ranted about the thing Zola Levitt loved most, second only to His Lord and Savior–the nation Israel. About God’s chosen people, the Iranian tyrant said: “The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm” (“Iran Leader: Israel Will Be Annihilated,” April 14, 2006, Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press writer).

Those who follow the “Zola Levitt Presents” TV program or “The Levitt Letter” know Zola many times addressed Israel as the “fig tree.” He specifically dealt with the following prophecy, given by the Lord Jesus himself:

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors” (Matt. 24:32-33).

Those of us who recognize Israel as the key indicator of the lateness of the hour know that far from being “a rotten, dried tree,” like the Iranian dictator proclaims, the nation Israel is putting forth the new growth of its modern nationhood. It is the most productive nation in the Middle East by far and takes second place to no country in the world, so far as contributing to the advancement of civilization is concerned.

So, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vile words are the antithesis of God’s prophetic truth. Israel is, rather than a dried-up tree, a live, vibrant one that is the center of the world of nations, especially from the viewpoint of international media and the international community. The Iranian president’s declaration that Israel “will be eliminated by one storm” will one day be proven satanically false by a Persian tyrant’s own forces. We see the prophecy concerning this in the following:

“Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land” (Ezek. 38:9-12).

We are told what will happen in this “storm” against God’s chosen people:

“And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.

“And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone” (Ezek. 38:18-22). 

The modern-day Persian leader, Ahmadinejad, is deceived and deluded by the same creature that leads all who oppose God in the direction opposite of the Lord’s ways. My great friend Zola knew there is only one way, and that is Jesus Christ, who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

That’s why the newly promoted Zola Levitt, even before his elevation to a higher position, always ended his time before us with words about the Prince of Peace: “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.”

–Terry

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We Are So Close to Jesus’ Appearing

It almost feels a bit surreal. I have been aware of the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy at least since my seminary days in the late 1970s. As a young pastor, I spent many Sunday evenings teaching through the book of Daniel, highlighting its prophecies. During the past ten years, I have often written about the peace covenant that the antichrist will make with Israel (Daniel 9:27).

Now, as I watch the world clamoring to bring peace to the Mideast by seeking to impose a peace accord upon Israel, I wonder, “How much closer can we get to the Tribulation without the Rapture happening?”

Just this past July 28-29, the nations met at the UN to agree upon a resolution aimed at bringing peace to the Middle East. The US and Israel didn’t send representatives to the meetings, but almost every other country attended. The result of this assembly was a document entitled, “New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution.” The formal UN vote on the document is set for this September at its annual gathering.

The Prophetic Implications

In many ways, this conclave and resulting declaration are what we might expect to happen during the period of time leading up to the start of Daniel’s seventieth week.

First, the document uses the phrase “peace and security” five times. The words “peace” or “peaceful” occur twenty-eight times, while “security” appears twenty-four times. We are living at a time when the words of 1 Thessalonians 5:3 are coming to life:

“While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”

In the context of 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, the apostle refers to the devastation that will come upon the world at the beginning of the “Day of the Lord,” which happens after the Rapture. The world’s cries for “peace and security” tell us that our remaining time on earth is rapidly ending. Jesus is coming soon.

Second, the late July get-together of nations signals the future fulfillment of Zechariah 12:2-3:

“Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it.”

I believe the “siege of Jerusalem” is a reference to Armageddon, which happens at the end of the Tribulation. However, the recent conclave in New York appears to be a warmup to what’s ahead as the nations gathered to impose their will upon Israel. Do they really believe that taking land away from Israel will bring security to the nation? It didn’t work so well with Gaza.

Third, the text of Daniel 9:27 implies that the antichrist will take an existing covenant and make it stronger. It’s highly unlikely that the statement recently approved in New York will be the text that kicks off this last week of years, or what we know as the seven-year Tribulation. However, the fact that there’s such a declaration of peace already in place is a momentous step toward the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy.

Roadblocks

Although the July 28-29 UN agreement is noteworthy, it faces at least a couple of roadblocks that, at least for the moment, keep it from resulting in the covenant of Daniel 9:27.

First, Israel will never agree to its terms. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has often stated that a return to the pre-1967 borders, which the New York declaration demands, would be suicidal for Israel.

In Isaiah 28:14-18, the Lord referred to Israel’s future peace accord with the antichrist as “a covenant of death” and chastised its future leaders for agreeing to it. By the time Israel comes to terms with the antichrist, its leaders will accept the terms of the covenant. That won’t happen with the current UN plan, but it will when the antichrist comes to power.

Second, Israel can stand firm in its resistance to the UN accord because it has the strong backing of the US and President Donald Trump. We saw this in response to French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement that he would recognize a Palestinian State in September. The Trump administration quickly voiced its disapproval of Macron’s intention to recognize a Palestinian state.

Reuters quoted Secretary of State Marco Rubio as saying that the United States “strongly rejects (Macron’s) plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN general assembly.” In a post on X, he said about Macron’s statement, “This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.”

President Trump has repeatedly voiced strong disapproval of the willingness of France, Canada, and other nations to formally recognize a Palestinian State. With his staunch support, Israel can emphatically say no to any UN imposition of terms that claim to “guarantee” its peace.

The Missing Piece

The covenant of Daniel 9:27 cannot happen until the antichrist appears on the world scene and is capable of assuring Israel that he can guarantee its future peace, at least for seven years. So, what needs to happen to take us from the calls to recognize a Palestinian State to the start of the Tribulation?

The Rapture is the missing piece to the puzzle. According to 2 Thessalonians 2:3-8, the man of lawlessness can’t make himself known until the Lord removes the Restrainer, which happens when He takes us up to Heaven. We won’t be here when the antichrist inks his deal with Israel.

Once the Rapture happens, the other events leading to the Daniel 9:27 peace covenant will rapidly take place. A greatly weakened America will create a void, leaving Israel without the protection of a powerful ally. The Bible doesn’t provide us with the details of how the Gog/Magog invasion of Israel might lead to the Daniel 9:27 peace accord or even if it will, but I believe that after the Rapture, prophetic events will accelerate even faster than their current rapid pace.

As you know, a powerful 8.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Russia on July 28, the last day of the New York meeting and its formalization of its intent to divide the Land God gave to Israel. Perhaps the timing of one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded was a coincidence, but I think it displayed God’s displeasure of what happened at the UN that same day.

We live at a time like no other. So many signs herald the rapidly approaching start of the seven-year Tribulation, and before that, our departure. Regardless of what happens at the UN this coming September, the New York declaration tells us that Jesus’ appearing is not only imminent but could possibly happen very, very soon.

Maranatha!!

-Jonathan

 

 

 

 

Big Brotherism

We’re witnessing an assault—including that of the most violent sort—by communist-style revolutionary evil in America. It all smacks of being directly out of the Karl Marx playbook. The young candidate for mayor of New York City, who has basically sewn up the Democrat nomination, is currently the chief archetype example of this radical leftist assault.

Marxism, communism, Nazism, fascism…these evoke thoughts of tyrants and dictatorships. Well, Marxism and communism might be wishful utopianism to some within political ideology circles in these days of movement toward socialism. But for the most part, thoughts of these isms generate study-related memories of the likes of Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Mussolini, and other humanity-destroying beasts.

The matters involved within the recollection include revolution, war, torture, gulag, genocide—any systems of governing that should be avoided at all costs. Fear and apprehension over dictatorships were the very reason the United States Constitution was written. Specifically, the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, spell out the rights of each citizen that government cannot usurp. These rights, the shapers of the Constitution meticulously wrote, are “inalienable.” That is, they are given by God, thus can’t be taken away by people in government.

Another ism has developed that threatens our inalienable rights. Its ominous construction continues at a torrid pace and will ultimately be worse than any of the aforementioned isms. As a matter of fact, it will be all those tyrannical nightmares rolled up into one system of utter decimation. George Orwell and Aldous Huxley, authors of well-known novels, played upon fear of such governments in their futuristic books, 1984 and Brave New World. The swiftness of developments lately makes their works of fiction look ever more prophetic.

Orwell used London and Britain in 1984 as the genesis of a world of ruthless control. “Big Brother is watching you” is a phrase the author used with grave effect. It continues to be used by those who warn of the exponentially encroaching surveillance technologies. Again, Orwell’s vision was almost prophetic in the biblical sense.

A friend who is a well-known journalist in Great Britain emailed me a number of years ago with the following troubling, though fascinating, information:

I was putting together some slides for one of my presentations yesterday and discovered that Britain has 1.5 times as many surveillance cameras as China! We now have cameras that talk to people, bossing them around in the streets! They are being installed in twenty cities. They are also getting listening devices. Some places also have face-monitoring systems so they can scan for people the authorities are interested in.

The average Briton is now filmed about three hundred times per day! We also have camera cars patrolling the streets, filming whatever takes their fancy and harassing motorists.

We are years ahead of America in plans to put GPS systems in cars, etc. They also want even more speed cameras, speed-averaging cameras—you name it. All of them are being linked into one enormous grid. The records of journeys are logged and kept. As you drive down the main highways, your number plates are scanned every few miles. Our son and I spent a day in the control room where all this information is monitored—an astonishing operation, with screens showing all the main roads. The EU is now planning to store all e-mails, log every web page visited, every phone call, etc., which Britain has done for years.

My friend told me—has told the world—that cameras are trained on his home from right across the street, atop a telephone-type pole.

It isn’t hard to imagine what that surveillance system is like these years later with the exponential developments involving AI (artificial intelligence).

It’s just a matter of time until all of England is under a surveillance system much more sophisticated and intrusive than our 1940s author, George Orwell, could have imagined. All of Europe is following suit, and we can see developments hourly of evidence that America is coming into Big Brotherism’s orbit of control.

The whole world is on track for super-sophisticated tracking. And a familiar name pops through the inky blackness of cyberspace to make this a readily observable fact: google.com.

Who in the world knows as much about you and your private thoughts as Google? That’s the question Katherine Albrecht, radio talk-show host and one-time spokeswoman for Startpage, a search engine that protects user privacy, posed to American Internet surfers a decade and a half ago.

“It would blow people’s minds if they knew how much information the big search engines have on the American public,” she told WND. “In fact, their dossiers are so detailed, they would probably be the envy of the KGB” (Chelsea Schilling, “Life with Big Brother: Killer Way to Slay the Google Beast!” WorldNetDaily, 1/27/2010).

Albrecht detailed how Google and other search engines gather and maintain dossiers on everyone who uses the service. Despite legislative efforts in Congress to regulate Google and other such intrusive cyberspace entities, the information continues to be released to governments—for example, to America’s Homeland Security Agency—when information is requested. It seems the Bill of Rights is cast aside, even with efforts to legislate against invasive intrusion. Such ability to collect data on their victims was merely the dream of people like those in Stalin’s secret service and Hitler’s Gestapo.

Albrecht said Americans unwittingly share their most private thoughts with search engines, serving up snippets of deeply personal information about their lives, habits, troubles, health concerns, preferences, and political leanings.

“We’re essentially telling them our entire life stories—stuff you wouldn’t even tell your mother—because you are in a private room with a computer,” she said (ibid.).

Big Brotherism, of course—in our view at Rapture Ready—is another way of defining the ideology that is heading up the drive toward establishing the regime of Antichrist, found in Revelation 13:16-18. With the government groping for control in ways that totally disregard the wishes of US citizenry, more often than not throwing constitutional safeguards to the winds of political expediency, the ideology becomes ever more manifest through our daily headlines.

All of this shows how near we must be to the Tribulation hour—thus, we’re that much closer to Christ calling His Church to be with Him (John 14:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

As believers in Jesus Christ and believers in God’s prophetic Word, and knowing how all this points to the any-moment call of the Lord to His Church in the Rapture, we should be ever more faithful in warning those who will be left behind if they don’t accept the salvation offered by Christ.

Here is the message so vital at this late hour of this Age of Grace.

“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

***Pakistani Christian Ministry Need***

The Pakistani minister that you, our RR family, have so generously supported in the past brought to my attention a need in his ministry work at this time.

Prophecy Power: Strength From God To Face Your Future, my Sunday School quarterly-size book, which the minister translated into his Urdo Language, has once again been reprinted thanks to the generosity of a wonderful Rapture Ready friend.

However, the distribution of that little book needs additional funding in order for the continuing delivery of God’s end times Message to take place throughout that spiritually dark region.

If you are able and willing to support this much needed distribution effort, please go to my blog website and see where to send your donation. Any help will be much appreciated.

Here is the link: Please donate to this Gospel witness effort in Pakistan « Terry James Prophecy Line 

This is a vital Mission in reaching out with the Gospel, using God’s Prophetic Truth at the center of the Message. As always, I’m Thankful for you, my Sisters and Brothers, for your compassion and generosity. I know your Rewards will be Great when our Heavenly Crowns are handed out during that Time before the Throne.

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Will the Destruction of Damascus Happen Before the Rapture?

It happened almost overnight. The world’s perception of Abu Mohammad al-Julani changed from that of a wanted terrorist to the respected president of Syria. A year ago, the United States had a ten-million-dollar bounty on his head; it regarded him as one of the most wanted terrorists in the world. Now it recognizes him as the president of a legitimate Syrian government.

The fawning of world governments over this desperado, who now wears a suit, is proving misguided, although few, if any, recognize their error. Julani is still the same murderous thug who led a lengthy and bloody revolt that ended late last year with him as the new leader of Syria.

According to a Reuters news report from June 30, 2025, Julani’s forces “massacred 1,500 Alawites,” which is an ethnic group that lives along the Mediterranean Coast of Syria. The Syrian government is also behind the recent mass killings of the Druze, another ethnic and religious group within its borders.

Julani’s attempt to massacre the Druze people led to recent Israeli attacks against his forces. Israel’s defense of this people group included the bombing of government buildings in Damascus. Amir Tsarfati reported on his telegram page that in an attempt to avoid the airstrikes by the IDF, the Syrian forces disguised themselves as Bedouins in an attempt to continue their murderous assault apart from the detection of the Israeli armed forces.

The Syrian government’s massacre of innocents has extended beyond Arab ethnic groups. As reported by Amir Tsarfati on Telegram, Syrian “Jihadists killed Pastor Khaled Mzher, shepherd of the (Good Shepherd Evangelical) church, along with all his family members, siblings, their children, his father, and his mother (20 bodies) in the Syrian city of As-Suwayda.”

The Prophecy of Damascus’ Destruction

Although the mainstream media ignores the horrific massacres ordered from Damascus, we know that God sees all the bloodshed as well as the great grief of those dealing with the murder of their loved ones.

Do the accounts of the killing of innocents in Syria point to the nearness of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the destruction of Damascus?

An oracle concerning Damascus.
Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city
and will become a heap of ruins” (Isaiah 17:1).

The capital city of Syria has never suffered such a fate since the time Isaiah recorded these words about 2,700 years ago; it has remained a viable inhabited city ever since the days of the prophet. As the horrific bloodshed instigated by the Syrian government continues, is it possible that we are nearing the day when the Lord will reduce Damascus, the Syrian capital, to “a heap of ruins?” I think so.

The picture in Isaiah 17:1 of Damascus reduced to rubble reminds me of pictures from Gaza after Israeli bombs left large sections of its cities in total shambles. This has already happened to parts of Damascus as the result of Israeli bombing, but the city as a whole remains intact. At least for now.

The Bible doesn’t tell us how or when God will completely destroy the large and populous city of Damascus, making it totally uninhabitable. A nuclear blast could do this, but how would that happen?

Will It Happen Before the Gog/Magog Invasion?

Many Bible prophecy experts believe that God’s judgment will fall on Damascus before the Gog/Magog war (Ezekiel 38-39) since Ezekiel doesn’t list Syria as one of the invading nations. Syria’s absence is also conspicuous because, with its current leadership, it would surely join this all-out assault on Israel. One of the nation’s leaders recently stated that their future agenda is to “liberate Jerusalem.”

The primary path of the Gog/Magog invaders will be through Syria onto the mountains of Israel, which makes its exclusion from the list of nations in Ezekiel 38 all the more noteworthy and strongly suggests that Damascus’ destruction happens first.

Will It Happen Before the Rapture?

At first glance, Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Damascus seems rather obscure. It’s curious that of all the many prophecies concerning nations besides Israel recorded in the Old Testament prophets, this one catches our attention, and we realize that the city has remained viable ever since the prophet recorded the Lord’s promise of its total destruction.

Will we see the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning Damascus’ demise before the Rapture? It’s possible, and oh, what a sign pointing to the nearness of the Rapture that would be! If we are here to witness it, we will know that our remaining time on the earth is exceedingly short.

I believe it’s more likely that Jesus will take us home before the destruction of Damascus and the subsequent invasion of Israel described in Ezekiel 38. What we see today, however, provides us with considerable evidence that God’s patience with Syria may come to an end in the near future. Soon afterward, His wrath will fall on Damascus, the Gog/Magog invaders of Israel, and then to the rest of planet Earth during the Tribulation period.

It’s just like God, who loves to predict still future events from ancient times, to leave this prophecy concerning the destruction of Damascus as a gem for us to find. The prophecy explains Syria’s absence from the list of the Gog/Magog invading nations. And should the world blame Israel for the city’s demise, such a perception would certainly motivate them to attack Israel soon afterward.

Because the Rapture is a signless event, we cannot say for sure whether or not it will happen before or after Damascus’ destruction. Regardless, what we see happening in Syria is yet another sign pointing to the nearness of the time when we will meet Jesus in the air.

-Jonathan