Evil Days: A Serial Baby-Killer Will Soon Go Free

The war on our legal system has been going on for many years. The left has worked to strike down the death penalty in one state after another. In the states that still have capital punishment, it now takes about 30 years to put a criminal to death.

The media have an annoying fixation with any case of someone being released from prison under the “wrongly convicted” category. It doesn’t matter if there is more important news. They will always find time for a story about someone who spent 20 years for a crime he didn’t commit. The liberal media never talks about it being 90% sure that the court has the right man or woman. Nor does it ever mention that the person released had a long list of prior convictions.

The press is in love with the mantra that our prisons are full of innocent people. Because of our supposed inability to be certain about someone’s guilt, they argue that we shouldn’t administer the death penalty or long sentences. This mind set has turned our prisons into revolving doors. Someone who was sentenced to two life terms for a double murder can be out in 20 years.

Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York has taken law enforcement to a new low. He has established a pardon board that would set free the Manson Family. After springing two notorious cop-killers and a gunman who killed a Bronx prosecutor this year, it is now set to release a serial baby-killing mom.

Marybeth Tinning, 75, who was convicted of murdering her 4-month-old daughter, admitted smothering three of her other kids and is suspected of killing yet another five, could be freed from prison by next month after parole members gave her a get-out-of-jail-free card in July.

In 1974, Tinning had tried to murder her first husband with a fatal dosage of barbiturates that she had mixed into his grape juice. Joseph Tinning declined to press charges against his wife. She went on to murder her own kids and several that the couple had adopted.

The law finally caught up with this angel of death, but most of her crimes went unpunished. Because she was only tried for one murder, she only received a sentence of 20 years to life.

She was denied parole three times due to her lack of remorse. At the 2011 parole board hearing, Tinning said:

“After the deaths of my other children… I just lost it,” Tinning told the board Jan. 26. “(I) became a damaged, worthless piece of person; and when my daughter was young, in my state of mind at that time, I just believed that she was going to die also. So I just did it.”

What I find the most appalling is the number of people who side with people like Marybeth Tinning. At her last hearing, she was supported by people from Georgetown University Law Center and people she worked with in prison, describing her as the “most loving, most generous, caring person that they have ever met.” When she gets out, these Georgetown lawyers can go over to Tinning’s house for a tall glass of grape juice.

The meltdown of the legal system is taking place all over the world. In Sweden, three young men were convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in a flat in the city of Västerås and broadcasting the crime on the internet. The three Somalis were each sentenced in April for rape against a child to eight months of youth detention. The judgment was appealed, and a judge chose to severely lower their penalty. Two are now sentenced to five months in juvenile detention, with the third released having served only four months.

The reason why criminals are getting away with horrendous acts of evil is because all mankind shares a common fault. Unless you are a child of God, by trusting Jesus Christ as your Savior, your spiritual father is the devil. Because we live in a time where there is little moral difference between a judge; jury; and the accused, lawlessness abounds.

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44 NIV).

–Todd

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Thief in the Night

No scriptural proof-text in God’s Word more clearly points to the first of the two phases of Jesus Christ’s Second Coming than does the following: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). We who hold to the pre-Trib Rapture viewpoint are often accused of being deceivers. We are condemned by our detractors as leading astray Christians alive now–if they live to see it–who will be required to endure the tribulation, thus to wash their robes clean in preparation for inheriting God’s Kingdom.

We are castigated for foisting upon innocent, gullible believers a “secret rapture” that will somehow lead these Christians to take the mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:16-18).

I’m not precisely sure of their “reasoning,” but I think they claim this because they are convinced that the ones who fall for the Rapture viewpoint won’t be able to recognize Antichrist when he comes to power. We who teach the pre-Trib rapture, so the accusation goes, would have falsely led these people to think the Church would not be here when Antichrist is on the world scene.

Almost all who are antagonistic to the pre-Trib Rapture doctrine teach that the “elect” will have to endure part or all of the seven-year tribulation era. Those who hold to a post-Tribulation Rapture, or a no-Rapture position, believe that Christ will come back at the end of the Tribulation, at Armageddon. They hold to the notion that that is His only return in the Second Coming. Other views have Christ returning when the earth is perfected and made ready, but we won’t go there in this essay.

Let us look at only the pre-Trib Rapture and the post-Trib Rapture positions for the purpose of exploring what is meant by the “thief in the night” references in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 and 2 Peter 3:10.

These two viewpoints–the pre-Trib, and the post-Trib–offer the greatest contrast to examine in consideration of the second advent of Jesus Christ, within the overall belief that Rapture will, according to Bible prophecy, happen before Christ’s foot actually touches down on Planet Earth.

The pre-Trib view of Rapture says that Christ’s Second Coming is in two phases, separated by at least seven years. The post-Trib rapture view says that the Rapture and Christ’s coming back to the Mount of Olives will occur almost simultaneously–certainly with no more than a matter of days separating the two events. The post-Trib position says there is no “secret” Rapture. Christ’s coming again will be fully seen in the heavens by all, including Christians who will be watching for Him to break through the darkness of that hour.

We agree that the Rapture of the Church (all born-again believers in Jesus Christ for salvation since the Church Age began at Pentecost) will be anything but a “secret.” The world will instantly go into cataclysmic chaos at the moment that stunning event takes place. The imagination is hard-pressed to fathom the ramifications of what will happen when millions suddenly vanish. Every child below the age of accountability will be gone in that mind-boggling instant of time. I am convinced that all babies (including those in the wombs of their mothers) will be instantly in the presence of Christ in the clouds of glory.

Every corpse of every dead Christian will be raised to join with his or her soul to meet Christ in the air in that atomos of time. The Rapture will be mystifying, and to some an inexplicable phenomenon, but it will not be a secret. It will happen before the eyes of a stupefied planet of left-behind earth-dwellers. This declaration that Jesus will call His Church to be with Him seems audacious to many. But, it didn’t seem so to the Apostle Paul. He was quite confident–even adamant—in his prophecy concerning the “mystery” he had been given by the Holy Spirit to instruct all believers down through the Age of Grace (Church Age).

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

He explains what will take place next, in that stupendous fraction of a second:

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. (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)

Jesus Himself told of this “mystery” Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 15:51. The Lord explains what happens after believers–both the bodies of the dead and those who are living–are caught up in the air to be with Him:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1-3)

So, the Rapture will take place. Believers and the bodies of those who died during the Church Age will be “caught up” in one single moment of time. “ALL,” not “some,” will go instantly to be with Jesus, who will then take them into heaven, where He has been preparing their dwelling places since He ascended from the Mount of Olives.

Again, the pre-Trib position on this joyous event is that it is imminent (could happen at any moment), and will happen before the Tribulation Period begins. The post-Trib position says that it happens at the end of the most terrible time in human history, just as Jesus Christ is returning from heaven at Armageddon.

The pre-Trib view holds that it will occur at an unknown time. It will be a stunning, sudden, and unannounced-to-the-world-at-large break-in upon business as usual on Planet Earth. The post-Trib proclaims that it will occur following all of the horrors of the judgments outlined in Revelation. The pre-Trib view says that the world at large (left-behind earth-dwellers) won’t see it coming. The Rapture will cause all left on earth to wonder what
has happened. The post-Trib view says that all eyes will behold Christ’s coming again to a hellish planet, and the living and dead saints will then be gathered to Christ.

The defining thing to consider in thinking on the two diametrically different views of the Rapture and Second Coming is wrapped up in the term “thief in the night.” The Apostle Peter again uses this mysterious term, first used by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:2:

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peters 3:10)

Peter is saying here that the day of the Lord–that time when God and His Christ, His Son, takes over this fallen planet—will begin like a thief in the night. It will be a sudden, catastrophic break-in upon a world doing business as usual. (Read Luke 17:26-29 to understand how things will be going along as usual when Christ comes back.)

This description hardly fits the post-Trib view, or any other view that says Christ will Rapture His Church during a time of unprecedented trouble (Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 24:21). This indicates that it will be a total surprise, because a thief in the night doesn’t announce his coming with great, cataclysmic fanfare. The break-in is swift, stealthy–a totally unexpected event.

Peter foretells in these passages that the “day of the Lord” will then run its course, until the remaking of the heavens and the earth. The Rapture will begin this “day of the Lord,” which will then run at least 1,007 years.

This is the first phase of Christ’s Second Coming. The Rapture occurs like a “thief in the night.” The second advent, when Jesus’ foot touches down on the Mount of Olives, is the second phase.

There are those who say with vehemence that it is blasphemous to equate Christ’s coming again as being like the break-in of a thief in the night. How dare we liken their Lord to a “thief”!

Really? Here’s what Jesus, the Creator of all things, said about this matter:

But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. (Matthew 24:43-44)

Looks like a pretty good case for the Lord’s sudden intervention into the nefarious affairs of this increasingly wicked world, does it not? That thief-in-the-night moment could happen, literally, at any moment. Certainly, signals of the Tribulation are beginning to come to pass.

And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28)

–Terry

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***BLESSED HOPE PROPHECY CONFERENCE!***

The BLESSED HOPE PROPHECY FORUM, hosted by Prophecy Watchers with  Gary Stearman last October, was among the most dynamic conferences in which I’ve participated. You don’t want to miss this year’s conference! You definitely need to take part in this one, either by attending in person, or by signing up for Live streaming.

Rapture Ready will help host the live streaming this year! By signing up to receive the conference through the Rapture Ready website you will be contributing to the furtherance of God’s Prophetic Word in these times so near our Lord’s Return.

This year’s conference will be held October 12-14.

Held again in Norman, Oklahoma, it is in a central location within driving distance convenient to those of you in surrounding states who wish to receive the very latest, most dynamic briefings on developments pointing to Christ’s soon Return. The Oklahoma City Airport is a central hub that makes flights easily accessible from any point in theU.S.

I will be one of 33 speakers giving full, PowerPoint presentations on every topic imaginable involving Bible prophecy. My own session will be titled “DECEIVERS AND THE END OF DAYS”. I hope to meet you there —Terry James.

You will be inspired and informed by such speakers as: Gary Stearman, Dr. David Reagan, Jan Markell, Bill Koenig, Dr. Thomas Ice, Billy Crone, L.A. Marzulli, Bill Salus, Dr. Mark Hitchcock, and many, many more.

 Some of the topics that will rivet your attention include: Will Christians Face Any of Gods Wrath?; Will the Church See the Antichrist?; Who Are the Deceivers?; Can We Still Believe in the Rapture?; Is the Rapture Found in Matthew 24?; Should Christians Celebrate the Jewish Feast Days?; Is the Psalm 83 War Biblical?; Is the Return of Christ an imminent event?;  What Became of the Dinosaurs?; What did L.A. Marzulli discover on his latest top-secret trip to a new, unexplored Nephilim location?; What will heaven be like?; What lies in the near future for Israel? For Russia? For Iran? And for America?

 Please begin making plans as soon as possible to be blessed by this unique prophecy conference!

Get all the details by following the link below.

Conference 2018

Have You Ever Been a Republican or a Member of the Republican Party?

The hatred of anyone who is a conservative or a member of the Republican Party has become so extreme, it’s quickly becoming a now or never moment for people on the right. The Republican Party has ranks that are larger than most any political groups, and yet we are attacked by groups that only have less than one 10th of our numbers.

During the dark days of the 1950’s Red Scare, it would be a career-ending move to admit to being a card-carrying communist. Despite the risk, numerous writers, actors, and directors were willing to stonewall Washington committees that were seeking to identify their party affiliation. Today, if a member of the Hollywood club admits to being a conservative, they are the ones seen as un-American. Any actor who comes out of the closet as a Republican will quickly find himself blackballed by the entertainment industry.

It is very odd that nearly all the major studios are run by liberals. Since the nation is 50/50 on the Republican/Democrat split, you would think that the bias of studios would also be equal. In fact, liberals control 90% of Hollywood.

Actor James Woods is a rare conservative who has been active on Twitter. On July 4th, his liberal agent, Ken Kaplan, dropped him as a client. “It’s the 4th of July and I’m feeling patriotic,” the email from Kaplan began. “I don’t want to represent you anymore.” Woods fired back, “Dear Ken, I don’t actually. I was thinking if you’re feeling patriotic, you would appreciate free speech and one’s right to think as an individual. Be that as it may, I want to thank you for all your hard work and devotion on my behalf. Be well.”

At this point, Woods can just as well consider himself retired. Once a person identifies themself in the conservative camp, their career is at an end.

It is interesting that liberals are the ones who had been moaning for decades about the investigation in the 1950s over the influence that communists had in Hollywood. The House Un-American Activities Committee destroyed hundreds of careers by asking the basic question, “Have you ever been a communist or a member of the Communist Party?”

The liberal media have now become Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, and conservatives are the ones who have to be secretive about their party affiliation. Conservatives are one of the largest voting blocks in America, but we keep finding ourselves marginalized because we don’t have the will to fight back.

When Tim Allen was on Jimmy Kimmel Live on 3/17/17, he talked about going to President Donald Trump’s Inauguration. He jokingly said that “being a conservative in Hollywood is like being a Jew in 1930’s Nazi Germany.” Allen should have been more forceful in his remarks because he quickly became the Jew in the story by having his top-rated Comedy show cancelled by ABC for his conservative views.

Over many years, we have become a punching bag for the left. Today, the most celebrated form of comedy is political attacks on conservatives. If a comedian makes a sick joke about Trump, Yahoo.com will post it as news. If you mock leading Republicans at a correspondents’ dinner, they give you your own show, just like Michelle Wolf.

Cringe comedy is a specific genre of comedy that derives humor from being socially offensive. Sacha Baron Cohen is perfectly set for this form of vile humor because he seems like someone who is incapable of experiencing shame. He will say or do anything for a laugh. Cohen has recently generated news by duping several Republicans into fake interviews on a show called “Who Is America?” Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Republican state Rep. Jason Spencer, former Illinois Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, and Senate Republican Trent Lott were some of his targets.

In his show, Cohen spends most of his time trying to paint Republicans as gun-loving, racist hypocrites. Since it is off limits to go after the true clowns in politics: Hillary Clinton; Maxine Waters; Nancy Pelosi; and Barack Obama, we end up with a very predictable plotline. The debut of “Who Is America?” attracted only 327,000 total viewers and a 0.1 rating among the key demographic of adults age 18-49, according to Deadline.

Showtime’s highly popular “Billions” delivered 1.4 million viewers when it launched in 2016, according to Deadline. The network’s anti-Trump “My Cartoon President,” an animated lampooning of the administration, averages roughly 310,000 viewers, according to Variety, which puts it in the same league as “Who Is America?”

What makes a Republican such an easy victim is that they don’t realize that the world is a constant battle zone. The left is empowered by Satan, and he fights to win.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

–Todd

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Missing Dave Hunt

Circumstances involving an email arose the other day,  revolving around a request that I address a question in Bible prophecy. A dear ministry friend had just received the email asking what I meant by something I wrote in a commentary that my friend posted on her website. The question was about Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 24 regarding the days of Noah and days of Lot–Matthew 24:36-44.

This prophecy is one I consider most relevant to this very moment in which we find ourselves. I believe the Lord was talking specifically to the present generation. We have covered the prophecy a number of times in recent weeks. I am convicted in my spirit that we stand upon the very precipice of its fulfillment.

Here is that prophecy:

But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” (Matthew 24:37-42)

Jesus followed up the exhortation to be watchful with a second exhortation reinforcing the first: “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44).

After responding to the emails from my friend and her website follower, I began to think back on one of the great prophecy teachers I’ve been privileged to call friend and Christian brother. It is Dave Hunt to whom I refer, as the title of this commentary suggests. I’m sure that most all who read this article know about this superb speaker, writer, and teacher of God’s Word.

Dave went to his heavenly home a few years ago. His ministry is The Berean Call, which continues today.

The question of whether the Rapture of the Church is in Jesus’ Matthew 24 Olivet Discourse has long been a somewhat contentious matter among students of Bible prophecy. Most often, the seminary line has it that there is no reference whatsoever to the Rapture in that account, although some within that high realm of Bible academia believe the Rapture is within the prophecy Jesus gave.

I, of course, don’t belong to that high realm, but do believe with all that is within my spirit that Jesus was foretelling not only the Rapture, but a pre-Trib Rapture, meaning that the Rapture will happen prior to the Tribulation era, that great time of worldwide judgment and wrath prophesied by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, Paul in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, the prophet Daniel in 9:26-27, and John in the Book of Revelation.

The preachers and teachers of this present day continue to neglect Bible prophecy, and almost never express any thoughts whatsoever on the Rapture of the Church. These spend even less time presenting their parishioners with any teaching on the pre-Trib view of the Rapture.

It is with this lament weighing heavily that–upon dealing with the above-mentioned email–Dave Hunt came to mind.

Dave conducted a session at the Pre-Trib Study Group in Dallas on the Matthew 24 prophecy in 1998. I sat in on that early-morning session and was validated in my spirit by Dave’s facing the study group head-on with his lecture.

Many there that morning were of the higher academic sort–good brothers, sisters in Christ all. But, many–probably most–believed the Olivet Discourse held no mention of the Rapture. That prophetic utterance by the Lord, most held, was and is for Israel only.       

I looked into my computer and found my files on that session. I have both a transcript of the session and the audio file. I’ve had fun going over both since entertaining the email interaction mentioned above.

Dave Hunt gave a masterful rendering of  Matthew 24 that morning in 1998. He began with his terrific sense of humor in full force, although most of us were still trying to come to our senses as we sipped on black, caffeine-soaked coffee.

Dave said:

Well, if the truth were to be known, which is not easy, Tommy [Dr. Thomas Ice, Pre-Trib study group director] scheduled me at this early hour, hoping nobody would show up to here my heresies, and I was hoping the Greek scholars wouldn’t be here, to bombard me with errorist indicatives and that kind of stuff. Furthermore, I knew Tommy was throwing me to the lions this morning, and my name isn’t Daniel, so I got cold feet and decided to change the topic. He said the topic is “Is the rapture in the Olivet Discourse?” Well, I’d like to talk on the topic “The pre-trib rapture in the Olivet Discourse.” I couldn’t quite handle that question. I couldn’t justify why there ought to be any question at all. Why the pre-trib rapture, or the rapture, or the church, or anything else was in the Olivet Discourse.

Dave defended his–and my- belief that Jesus was indeed speaking of the Rapture and even more so to the pre-Trib Rapture in the days of Noah, days of Lot portion of His Olivet Discourse.
We are at a time in human history that Jesus described perfectly, as only the God of all creation could. Again, I believe that Donald J. Trump was put in the presidency of the United States for just this hour. We are, I believe, entering a time of building, buying, planting, socially intensive activity like marrying and giving in marriage, unprecedented in the annals of mankind. It will be just at such a time–“a time you think not”- that the “Son of man is revealed.”

Jesus Christ’s “revelation” to this rebellious world will come in the form of the Rapture of all born-again believers, both sleeping in death and those alive, when He calls, “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).

–Terry