Trump vs. the Prince of Persia?

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was on the Newsmax This Week on Capitol Hill program with host Tony Perkins. They were discussing the agreement with the Iranian regime President Trump announced late in the week previously—the agreement the president declared to be a “great deal.”

The senator is one of this president’s most ardent supporters, particularly in foreign policy, and even more specifically in terms of Trump’s declaration that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon. Trump has said emphatically that Iran—neither through developing one through nuclear material enrichment nor through receiving such a weapon by being given it by or purchased from a source such as Russia, North Korea, or some other such entity—will never have a nuclear weapon in its military arsenal.

I, myself, have held out hope that there are numerous unknown elements in this “deal” that will indeed accomplish great things for America, Israel, and the world. So, I was surprised that Lindsey Graham, who is supposedly deeply in the president’s inner circle of knowledge about the “deal,” was so on the cusp of being highly critical of this arrangement the president has apparently made with the terrorist regime.

Graham and Mr. Trump are close personal friends; they often play golf together and are supposedly on the same page in most all things regarding America’s military involvements around the globe.

Senator Graham said something to the effect that he loved President Trump as a close friend, but that America’s security and that of Israel takes priority over all else. And there are things in this agreement, he intimated, that he isn’t certain about. He will have to learn the final agreement’s details.

I’ve always somewhat respected Senator Graham because of his pro-American, conservative stance. But I’m also a bit wary because he is a close associate of those in government who are involved in the military-industrial complex. These are too quick, I believe, to get the US involved in foreign conflicts. Many accuse this agglomerate of being in it largely for the US tax dollars that fund their ambitions.

All of that said, I believe it’s time to assess, in terms that matter, what these intrigues might mean in thinking on Bible prophecy.

A long-time Christian friend from India recently expressed in an email to me his, and I presume many of his fellow countrymen’s, fears about what this agreement with the Iranian regime might entail.

Whether it is my friend’s words or some he gathered in his news sources, here is what he sent.

We all know what Trump did, namely deserting Israel. People are talking of reasons unknown to us. Some say it is fulfillment of prophecy in the last days.

U.S.-Iran agreement to extend the ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. That is not victory. Not if winning is still the main metric of victory. That is a wounded serpent being allowed to crawl back into the rocks to reload, rebuild, rearm, and reactivate. That is why this proposed deal is so dangerous. A ceasefire with a defeated enemy is one thing. A ceasefire with an undefeated terror regime is something else entirely. It is not peace, it is a pause button, just as Obama’s 2015 Nuclear Deal with Iran only allowed them to get closer to a nuclear weapon.

Trump’s Iran peace deal is not resolution, it is reload time. It is not the end of the war; it is the intermission before the next act. There’s a reason why Iran is mentioned in the Bible and the United States is not. Trump is preparing to send billions of dollars to Iran if this ‘peace deal’ goes through, and that is bad, bad news on any level, and on every level. Today we bring you everything you need to know about what will possibly be the worst deal America has ever struck with a foreign adversary…

My concerned friend from India expresses fears from his part of the world. It is a sort of fear that one can sense growing.

Senator Graham suggested there must be clarification to assuage such fear—or, I sense he was saying the deal must be scrapped and other avenues pursued. (Graham reportedly has since softened his opinion of this fourteen-point plan in making a deal with the Iranian regime. He now, the report says, has endorsed fully that document.) Talk-show host Mark Levin (“on the other hand”), who is Jewish and a Trump supporter for the most part, also sees the current situation with negotiations with Iran’s untrustworthy regime as problematic.

As for this writer, I know that our God has placed Donald J. Trump in this, the most powerful geopolitical position on Earth. And I do believe this president is a negotiator who’s unparalleled in the history of presidential diplomatic undertakings. However, it comes to the forefront of thinking in the spiritual and prophetic sense—this is, if looking at it as a human president dealing from his own thinking and stratagem, a very dangerous negotiation. In other words, if God in Heaven isn’t at the center of the negotiations in this case, Mr. Trump and the “great deal” he has, he believes, made is destined to fail.

This, in that case, is President Donald John Trump vs. the prince of Persia (Daniel 12). It is “the art of the deal” vs. “the black art of deception.”

The supernatural dealer in deception has been at it a long, long time, Mr. President. Be sure you are on God’s side, not merely negotiating from your own experience as a dealmaker.

One other element that has prophetic import is that this is being praised as the greatest “peace deal” of all time. If Middle East peace can be achieved, it will be like no other negotiation in history, it is being touted.

To me and to other prophecy watchers from the pre-Trib perspective, this boast harkens to the apostle Paul’s warning in God’s Word: “When they cry peace and safety, sudden destruction comes” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

Regardless, God is always in complete control, and this “deal” hasn’t and won’t take Him by surprise. We as believers can take great comfort from that reality because it all means Christ’s call to us might be the next voice we hear.

Paul tells us of this comfort in his revealing of the mystery of the Rapture of the Church:

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 

“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 4:13-18).

—Terry

Wtjames1@swbell.net

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Our Stability in Perilous Times

I’m not sure how they do it; I know I couldn’t. During the past several years, I have listened as both pastors and believers plan years, even decades, in advance, seemingly oblivious to the dark clouds that threaten to crush all such dreams in the very near future.

The problem is not with the planning or the setting of goals, but with the underlying belief that the next event on God’s prophetic calendar is Jesus’ far distant return to wrap up human history and inaugurate the eternal state. There’s no thought of the Lord’s intervention in their lifetime either to take them home to glory, or to intervene in a world in the throes of lawlessness, corruption, and violence driven by the “reprobate” mindset that Paul so well describes for us in Romans 1:28-32.

I cannot look at our world apart from what the Bible tells me about the Rapture, yes, the Rapture, without falling apart. It’s our “blessed hope” that enables me to retain my sanity amid the vile wickedness of our day and the daily disappointment I feel with our nation’s elected leaders.

It’s my hope of meeting Jesus in the air that also sets my heart on eternity when fears besiege me in the dark hours of the night. Despite over five decades of eagerly waiting for an event that has not yet happened, I have discovered that there’s unspeakable comfort in knowing that it will happen, that there will be a time when Jesus will give me, and all who believe in Him, immortal and incorruptible bodies (1 Corinthians 15:50-55). Jesus is the substance of my hope amid a world that is growing darker by the moment.

Eternity Amnesia

Our expectation of the pre-Tribulation Rapture is the best cure for what Paul David Tripp describes as “eternity amnesia.” Although he doesn’t mention Jesus’ appearing in his discussion of this malady, for me it’s the only remedy for it. Here is a sample of what Tripp wrote about this disorder in his book, New Morning Mercies:

“You and I simply cannot live as if we were put together to live without forever. But so many people try. They put all their hopes and dreams in the right here, right now situations, locations, possessions, positions, and people of their daily lives…. They demand that a seriously broken world deliver what it could never deliver even if it were not broken….

“Your eternity amnesia makes you unrealistically expectant, vulnerable to temptation, all too driven, dependent on people and things that will only disappoint you, and sadly susceptible to doubting the goodness of God. Recognizing the eternity that is to come allows you to be realistic without being hopeless, and hopeful when things around you don’t encourage much hope.” (emphasis added)

There’s no better way to avoid “eternity amnesia” than that of anticipating the time when we will meet Jesus in the air. That’s why Jesus instructed believers to “watch” and “be ready” for His return. Even amid the long delay, now about two thousand years, He knew it would result in a needed glory awareness versus that of forgetting His precious promises of forever.

Blindness to the Signs

There’s another problem that results from adhering to the widely held belief that removes the possibility of Jesus’ imminent appearing; it blinds people to what’s really happening around them. They see the same dilemmas that we do, but they place their hope that, somehow, the darkness of our day will reverse itself, resulting in a greater sense of normality. Such normality bias blinds multitudes to the dark clouds that threaten to squash all their dreams and aspirations.

A multitude of signs tell us that the time described in Revelation chapters 6 to 19 is rapidly approaching. I just want to focus on one of them, the vast preparations currently underway to put in place the beast system that will enable the antichrist to control all the buying and selling worldwide. Besides AI, this will require a massive amount of computing power, and today, it’s being put in place. The evidence is right before our eyes, quite literally for me.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw five semi-trucks carrying large, oversized loads. It was the sight of the huge box that appeared on each of the trailers that caught my attention. I had often seen them during the past several months, but it was the sight of five of them in a row that alerted me to their local source.

I soon discovered that the gigantic white boxes were coming from Hennig, a company in nearby Machesney Park, Illinois. Hennig specializes in enclosures to house massive diesel and gas backup generators as well as the switch gear needed for data centers and large hospitals. A business, just a few miles from my home, is building a piece of the infrastructure for these massive data centers, which are necessary for the fulfillment of Revelation 13:16-18.

We live in a day like no other. There has never been another time when believers have witnessed so much evidence pointing to Jesus’ soon appearing. There have never been so many reasons to avoid the trappings of “eternity amnesia” and live in expectation of Jesus’ soon return. Yet sadly, a great many Christians ridicule our hope in His imminent appearing and live as though this life is all that they have, even though they profess to believe in eternity.

For me, the Rapture also provides stability during the perilous times in which we live. It not only keeps my heart focused on eternity, but explains so much of what I see around me, even that of what I see on the roads where I live.

-Jonathan

 

When Innocence Disappears

In thinking about this article, something that both saddened and angered me came to mind.

Years ago, I heard a well-known actress talking with a TV show host; I believe it was on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. (So, it has been a long time ago—back when I still had eyesight.)

The famous actress said that when she was a very small child, she remembered sitting on a curb by her home waiting for a family who lived nearby to come by and pick her up to take her with them to Sunday school.

She said she remembered being excited because she would be together with her friends. But it was also a good memory because she enjoyed learning all about Jesus.

She said her father, one of the most famous actors in the history of cinema, would always mock her for wanting to go to Sunday school. He would say things like, “If you want to believe those silly fairy tales, go ahead.”

In telling it, she gave a little laugh, but I saw on her face the probability that the memory wasn’t one she cherished.

That same actress grew up and has been part of many movements that are ungodly, even unpatriotic. I still think of the little girl sitting on that curb and what might have been.

She has said at one point that she became a Christian, but one would be hard-pressed to see any public evidence of that conversion.

All children, although—due to the Fall—they’re born into sin like all of us, are innocent in the holy eyes of God until they grow to spiritual maturity, or the “age of accountability,” as I’ve heard it called since my own early childhood.

That little girl’s innocence disappeared from her life, we can presume, unless she indeed asked Jesus into her life, even at that early age. (I continue to pray that she is saved.) Her excitement and joy as expressed on that TV show might mean she had done so at that early point. I, myself, was saved through confessing Jesus as Savior at only six years of age.

But, again, from her public record, other than her later saying she had become a Christian, I see no evidence of her conversion.

So how does the title of this commentary relate to the prophetic picture?

Loss of innocence—as humans grow without the presence of the Holy Spirit, who lives in those who have accepted Christ as Savior—leads to progressive sinfulness. That is, the person, apart from God, lacks true moral guidance in life. This condition leads toward evil, not godly goodness. Paul, the great apostle, said in this regard: “But evil men and seducers shall [grow] worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13).

Certainly, we can understand this loss of innocence growing into absolute evil when reviewing the history of the lives of Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, or mass murderers Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and others. However, considering that all of humanity has, since the death of innocence in Eden, been moving ever farther from God’s governing goodness, we can’t ignore the frightening reality of where it’s all heading. The prophetic future is bleak almost beyond comprehension.

I believe there is no more profound example of how evil humankind has come than the millions upon millions of babies who have been murdered in the wombs of their mothers, and even outside the mothers’ wombs once born. America is at the forefront of this anti-God horror, with perhaps seventy million such abortions committed to this point.

And for those who might read this who have aborted their child, please know there is forgiveness of God upon repentance (asking for forgiveness, accepting Christ, and turning from this evil). The baby you have lost will, upon your repentance, be awaiting you in Heaven, with absolute love from God the Father.

And the evil in our very nation has progressed to a level that makes the actress’ childhood experience mentioned earlier come to light dramatically, in my view. This news item makes the point:

Despite her love of Christianity, a young Maine girl has been prevented since 2024 from going to church, attending religious holidays, being “exposed” to the Bible or other scriptural literature, and even having Christian friends — all because of a judge’s order in a parental rights case.

The draconian restrictions have been in place for some 18 months as Emily Bickford and her daughter Ava, 13, wait for a decision on an appeal to the state’s Supreme Court eight months ago after Portland District Judge Jennifer Nofsinger issued the shocking ruling in late 2024 as part of a dispute between the girl’s parents.

Not only has the ruling impacted the lifestyle and pursuit of happiness by both mother and daughter, on its face it appears incompatible with the founding principles of the United States.

The right to worship granted by the First Amendment is not in the grip of any judge to grant or abolish, the Portland mother told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview this week.

“That is not theirs to take away,” Bickford said. “It’s in our Declaration of Independence. Our forefathers knew we had inalienable rights given by God. God gave us the freedom to worship him, and there’s no government that can take that away from us.” (“Exclusive: Girl Kept from Church, Bible, and Christian Friends by Portland Judge Awaits Appeals Court Ruling,” Breitbart, Rapture Ready News, June 9, 2026)

America’s innocence since its birth, when most of the founding fathers had Christianity at the center of their thinking, has all but disappeared. In place of the loss of innocence has come the deaths of nearly seventy million babies, whose murders have been condoned by America’s national government. The results have been the coarsening of culture—the destruction of much of America’s founding innocence.

This is but a prelude to the ramifications of what’s to come due to the satanic influence embraced by those who reject the offer of redemption—the forgiveness of sin offered through God’s grace gift through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

When the innocent (all who are God’s children through acceptance of Christ) disappear in one spectacular moment, evil will make life hell on earth for all who are left behind. Only the guilty will then inhabit this judgment-bound planet. Jesus Himself said it will be the worst time of all human history (Matthew 24:21).

The Rapture is imminent. It can happen at any second. All signals show that the time of Tribulation Jesus described is about to begin. The Rapture—the disappearance of innocence (Christians)—will have to take place before judgment falls, like in the days of Lot in Sodom.

Here is how to go to the safety of Jesus Christ in the clouds of Glory and be eternally in the grip of God the Father as His child:

“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

Wtjames1@swbell.net

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Israel Versus the World

Like many of you, I’m confused and quite troubled by the things President Trump agreed to with the June 14, 2026, signing of the sixty-day Memo of Understanding (MOU) with Iran. What I’m hearing about its content from trusted sources such as Amir Tsarfati amounts to a total reversal of the president’s stated objectives for going to war with Iran in the first place and a betrayal of the Iranian people.

Tania Koenig wrote the following in an email that came from the ministry of her and her husband William Koenig.

Iran’s Real Reading of the MOU

The words coming out of Tehran are the real interpretation of the paper. Tehran Mayor Ali Reza Zakani reportedly stated: ‘Our war with America continues and does not end with the memorandum of understanding. Our war with America is an existential war. The Islamic Revolution in Iran undermined the structural order America established after World War II.’ That is not the language of peace. It is the language of a regime accepting a pause while preserving the war.

Not only has the MOU emboldened Israel’s enemies, but it has also led to much discord between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Although I’m saddened to see the discord between the two leaders, I know it’s setting the stage for what lies ahead. And it’s not good news for anyone who appeases the enemies of the Jewish state.

What follows is a brief summary of what the Bible says about Israel’s future, which helps me put the events of the past weekend into the perspective of prophecy. I will start with the ultimate deliverance of Israel and work backward to the present.

God Will Deal with Those Who Oppose Israel

God spoke often of this day through His prophets of old, and later enabled the Apostle John to see it (Revelation 19:11-21). At His return to the earth, the Lord will wipe out the armies of the nations that have persecuted Israel and the Jewish people. Through the Prophet Joel, He explains His motives for such drastic action:

“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, and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it” (Joel 3:1-3).

What’s the Lord’s motive for obliterating the world’s armed forces? The nations’ role in dividing the Land He gave to Israel, along with their mistreatment of the Jewish people. It will be the ultimate fulfillment of what God promised Abram long ago in Genesis 12:3, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you.” At the end of the seven-year Tribulation, the Lord will return with overwhelming force in defense of His people.

A Covenant with Death

Backing up a bit further, Scripture explains why Israel will face imminent destruction at the time of Jesus’ Second Coming. It will begin when Israel agrees to a covenant with the antichrist that will include “the many” (Daniel 9:27). That agreement will start the clock ticking on Daniel’s seventieth week, the seven-year Tribulation. In Isaiah 28:15, the Lord referred to it as “a covenant with death.”

At the moment, Israel’s leaders are expressing much anger with the deal President Trump is pursuing with others on their behalf. What will change in the future to cause their acceptance of the antichrist’s future covenant with the many?

Somehow, the antichrist will gain Israel’s confidence, whereas the President now has lost the trust of its leaders and the majority of its people. Since the antichrist’s identity will remain hidden until after the Rapture (2 Thessalonians 2:3-8), we can only speculate about what might happen between now and the fulfillment of Daniel 9:27.

Could the Gog/Magog war be a factor in this? I initially wondered if war with Iran would leave Iran in a weakened position, unable to lead this invasion of Israel in the near future. Now it appears that just the opposite is true; among other things, the outcome has financially strengthened the nation.

We Live In the Last Days

According to God’s Word, the period of time leading up to Jesus’ return will be a time of great adversity for the Jewish state and people. Tragically, the current mindset of Israel versus the world will only get worse.

Although much suffering lies ahead for the Jews, the Lord promised long ago that a stunning reversal of attitudes will occur after Jesus’ return to the earth.

 “But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, declares the Lord of hosts. For there shall be a sowing of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong” (Zechariah 8:11-13, emphasis added).

Verse 13 encapsulates how today’s antisemitism and hatred for all things Israel will change into an attitude of blessing for the nation. Although a future Jewish remnant will suffer greatly, they will later repent and live to see Jesus’ return to Jerusalem and His reign over all the nations atop Mount Zion.

Zechariah 8 closes with this amazing picture of life in Israel during the Millennium:

“Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’” (vv. 22-23).

The words “stunning reversal of fortunes” fall far short of adequately describing the difference between today and the time described in the above verses.

Although quite disheartening, President Trump’s backing away from his previous wholehearted support of Israel aligns with what the Bible tells us about the last days. Considering all that Scripture says about how the Lord will deal with those who mistreat His people, failing to stand with Israel against Iran could be a dangerous course to pursue.

-Jonathan