The Rapture Barrier

The granddaddy of all questions related to Bible prophecy is this: “When is Jesus coming back for the Church?” Thousands of people have wasted their lives trying to calculate the unknown date. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t receive an email from someone who claims to know the date for the Rapture.

Jesus told His disciples that they would not know the hour of His return. Because the Lord repeated himself four times in the space of a few verses and added the story about the 10 virgins to illustrate the point, there can be no doubt the Rapture will be a surprise event.

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew 24:36).

“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:42).

“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44).

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

As we get closer to the Tribulation, it is likely that events related to Bible prophecy will be preempted by the Rapture. We know from (2 Thessalonians 2:4-7) that some type of removal needs to take place before the Antichrist can be revealed—so we won’t see him on the world stage talking about his idea for peace between Israel and the Muslims.

If all the world’s central banks laid out a plan for an economic system that would based on microchip implantation, Christians with the most basic understanding of the mark of the beast would know it’s time to start packing their bags.

The “think not” factor is the only explanation I can come up with to explain why so many situations around the world are now locked in a holding pattern. Here are five examples:

1. The Nation Debt Crisis

Most Western nations have a huge problem with deficit spending. Because it is so easy to spend now and pay later—the world is drowning in a sea of IOU debt. Japan has a debt bubble that has no historical comparison. The debt-to-GDP ratio is a mind-blowing 330 percent. At the moment, the Bank of Japan owns 35 percent of Japan’s government debt and at the current pace of buying it will hit 63.3 percent at the end of 2020.

The pattern set by 100 other nations, should have already caused Japan to experience hyper-inflation, causing the value of the Yen to plummet on currency markets. But for years now, the opposite has happened. Just last week, Japan announced it was unable to generate inflation. This financial miracle seems to have allowed the Japanese to endlessly print money without any consequences.

2. Third world Countries in Freefall

For the past several years, Venezuela has been in a continuous economic downturn. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does. Right now, riots have become commonplace, and government food stores are empty of basic goods. A group of army members were so hungry that they stole several goats and butchered them for food. With people starving, you would think there would be a revolution. Brazil is another nation locked in a meltdown mode.

3. The Nationalist Parties Are Spinning Their Wheels

Another festering problem in Europe is the growth of nationalist political parties. Despite having frustration with illegal immigration as a natural ally—time and time again, these right-wing parties fail to grab power. The election occurs; yet they always come up short at the ballot box. Austria just had an election where Alexander Van der Bellen of the Green party defeated the Freedom Party. Van der Bellen had previously stated that he hates Austria. On two occasions, he compared the nation and patriotic citizens to fecal matter, and yet, he still won.

4. America’s Major Hurricane Drought

One odd holding pattern involves the tropical storms of the Atlantic. For some unknown reason strong hurricanes have stopped hitting the continental United States. This month marks a record 127 months since a major hurricane has made landfall in the U.S., according to (NOAA), which keeps data on all the hurricanes that have struck the U.S. since 1851.

The last major hurricane (defined as a Category 3 or above) to hit the U.S. mainland was Hurricane Wilma, which made landfall in Florida on Oct. 24, 2005. We set this record two seasons ago. What makes this calm even more mysterious is that during the last year records for worse ever hurricanes was set in four other regions of the world.

5. The Preservation of Key Christian Leaders

You can even get the sense of this holding pattern in the longevity of our top Christian leaders. Billy Graham’s daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, recently told a gathering of pastors that her father—the 97-year-old legendary evangelist’s vital signs are great, and there must be a reason why God is keeping him alive.

Lotz, who has previously said that she believes the Rapture will occur during her lifetime, reasoned that the fact that her father is still alive might have something to do with the return of Christ. This statement may be viewed as wishful thinking until you consider that the top names in prophecy such as Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, and Tim LaHaye. They are each advanced in years and have all been at death’s door at some point in the last couple of years. A pattern of preservation, it seems to me, emerges.

This log jam of world events might just turn out to be a fluke. If, however, it is related to the Rapture, a resolution—that great Harpazoevent, almost certainly must be in the near future. We are already at the point where people are starting to wonder about the strange development of individual events that they see taking place. Any longer of a delay should make folks understand that it is the hand of God at work.

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

–Todd

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Peace Quest Continues

Today’s date of posting this “Nearing Midnight” article is the 72nd anniversary of D-Day. The allied forces on June 6, 1944, wanted to accomplish two things as they steamed toward the coastline of France. They were intent on defeating and destroying the Nazis’ ability to make war. Thereby, they were determined to establish peace that had been taken from the world on a global scale–primarily by the Germans–for the second time in less than a half century.

In reality, however, planet earth has never completely escaped–that is, has never been totally free–of war in recorded history. And, that includes the earliest biblical history. Cain first went to war with his brother, Abel, over jealousy that created rage that ended in the first murder. Man has been killing man ever since, with the slaughter continuing to manifest even on our city streets on a growing scale. I give you as example the streets of south Chicago on which during weekends in particular the black-on-black killing is horrendous.

The governmental authorities, both those in the city of Chicago and the present federal government, at whose heart sits the current presidential administration, hardly even acknowledge that a problem exists in the inner cities. The news conglomerate dutifully also ignores the deadly problem.

There is a satanic cover-up on the war that is raging, taking peace from life in America. The same forces covering up our domestic conflict are dedicated to the cover-up directed at keeping the world at large from knowing about the true causes and effects of the war going on in the Middle East. And, that conflict is destined to bring all of mankind to history’s final war of this quickly fleeting age. God’s Word tells us that it is the quest for such a peace that will eventuate in the most terrible time in human history. Jesus said as recorded in the Olivet Discourse that it will be a time so terrible that it would destroy all flesh on the planet if He did not return to put an end to the warfare.

Daniel the prophet said the peace that the world will seek will be indeed produced and enforced by the “prince that shall come” (Daniel 8:25; 9:26-27). It will be, the prophet Isaiah said, a covenant made with “death and hell” (Isaiah 28:15, 18). It all involves the Middle East, and, as I said, the news media, as well as our government–and for that matter, the governments of the world–refuse to even acknowledge the true causes and effects of the conflict that makes the quest for peace necessary.

This peace is in the making this very moment while you and I consider these matters in this commentary.

This quest for peace, as I and other prophecy observers have mentioned many times, is the number-one signal of where we stand on God’s prophetic timeline. We are watching God’s prophetic Word in the process of fulfillment, as we are seeing other prophesies in process of fulfillment. The Gog-Magog forces, for example, are coalescing; the religions of the world are beginning to amalgamate, agreeing that there are many ways to Heaven; the effort to establish one world order is on the move through Agenda 21, 30, and in other ways.

But, again, it is the desire for a Middle East peace, with Israel held up as the sticking point, that the world intensely desires. The world’s diplomatic community and the global news conglomerate refuse to hear or propose any narrative other than that which declares the tiny Jewish state guilty of holding up the peace process.

The following news excerpt proves the point, in my view.

The Arab league supported on Saturday France’s Middle East peace initiative and all international efforts to create lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians, AFP reported… Speaking before the ministers, [Palestinian president Mahmoud ] Abbas said that the time has come to “mobilize Arab and international wills” towards creating a Palestinian state, however said in order to do so Israel would have to make serious policy changes. Abbas called for NATO forces to replace the IDF in the West Bank as part of any peace deal that leads to the creation of a two-state solution. He also rejected the idea of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. (“Arab League supportive of French peace initiative,” JPOST.COM ,TOVAH LAZAROFF, 05/29/2016)

The pressures are great on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to give in to world diplomatic insistence that Israel give land for peace. That is something, of course, God says will, when it eventuates, bring total war upon the whole world (see Joel 3:2.) This will be the cause and effect of that great, fearful conflict we have come to know as Armageddon. It will be the result of seeking a false, deadly peace, rather than that lasting and perfect peace that can only be instituted by the Prince of Peace.

–Terry

Facebook’s Bias Against Conservatives and Christians

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, recently met with a small group of conservative leaders at the company’s headquarters to address public revelations that the social media giant had suppressed conservative news content.

The focus of the meeting was the Trending Topics scandal; first reported by the online tech journal, Gizmodo, in which former Facebook workers claim to have routinely suppressed conservative news stories from a list that appears on Facebook.

The Gizmodo report set off a firestorm of protests from conservatives who have long complained of liberal media bias at Facebook. Zuckerberg and company gave a standard answer that there was no intention to push publishers out or quash anybody’s opinion. Any exclusion of content was to prevent people from supposedly gaming the system.

Glenn Beck, a conservative radio and TV host, author and founder of The Blaze, attended the meeting and said that the meeting went well:

“Here’s Facebook, a much larger global corporation, sitting down with conservatives and saying: ‘I think there’s a problem, and one of the problems is you don’t trust us, and we want to work with you to build that trust,’” said Beck.

Not all conservatives welcomed Facebook’s overtures. The Drudge Report ran a headline titled, “Glenn Beck to Grovel at Zuckerberg’s Feet.”

The Federalist called the meeting a “textbook con job.” Matt Schlapp of the American Conservative Union, which organizes CPAC refused to attend. Rush Limbaugh thinks the bias is “Gonna keep happening” and “There’s nothing that’s gonna change it.”

The reason why liberal organizations will continue to express a bias against conservative and Christian groups is because they have no interest in our welfare. Facebook is just like any other left-wing dominated media outfit which adheres closely to the liberal agenda. Even though the evangelical Christian population is ten times larger than the LGBT community, the latter group gets far more attention.

Facebook wouldn’t be a $300 billion company if that tiny band of sexual deviants were their primary clients. With over 85 percent of the U.S. population claiming to be believers in Jesus Christ, our interests should be what’s trending. Whenever I see a Christian leader’s name on any news list, there is always a negative reason for that placement.

The greatest indication of priority imbalance is the fact that over the years I have seen the promotion of religious holidays I didn’t know exist. When December 25th comes along, I commonly see “Happy Holidays” as a vague textual reference to Jesus’ birth. The visual representations are even more mysterious; images of snowmen, decorated stockings or penguins with red hats.

Liberals are so clueless about the basic elements of Christianity; they make flawed, embarrassing statements about Bible prophecy all the time. During the primary race, a writer for a liberal political website said that a vote for “Rapture Ready” Ben Carson is a vote for a candidate who thinks we’re approaching the end of the world—as we know it. Since Carson is a Seventh Day Adventist, he’s not someone who is looking for the Rapture. (The world coming to an end is another bogus claim based on an assumption.)

When Carson warned that apocalyptic minded Muslims “would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons if they gained possession of them,” he was accused of Isalamphobia. Immediately after the liberals went after Ben Carson, they proposed that Christians are the ones who are seeking to nudge God into bring about Armaggedon (not the crazed radical Muslim jihadists).

What has allowed for this bias against conservatives and Christians to flourish is our neglect, and unwillingness to stand up for our rights. If even a tiny portion of the Body of Christ would make known their dissatisfaction with being excluded or—unfairly misrepresented by these dark agents of the devil—Facebook would have no choice but to concede to a backlash. Imagine if we all spoke up! The demons would go running back to their unholy hideouts (for a while, anyway).

I don’t rely on any social media sites to propagate Rapture Ready’s content because I know the bias against Christians is only going to get worse in the coming days. The key problem is that a great number of believers lack a respect for their own faith. Because too many Christians don’t care about how the world treats them, a liberal minority has taken control of all forms of media. Consequently, we have been pushed aside.

While we here on earth, our duty is to represent the King of kings. It’s one thing to suffer persecution for being a Christian. It is another thing to have this occur because we foolishly allow it to happen.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also’” (John 15:18-20 NIV).

–Todd

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Where’s the Comfort?

Pre-Trib belief antagonists are on the rise. Rapture critics, even among those who claim to believe in the eventuality of a Rapture, just not the pre-Tribulation view of that event, purport to present evidence on every side that our times trumpet the obvious: The world is about to enter the Tribulation. Christ’s call to believers, they say, just isn’t going to happen before Christians suffer at least part of the terrors of that beastly era.

They offer that anyone with knowledge of issues and events going on should recognize that the New World Order bunch is transforming America and the world into the kingdom of Antichrist. All is about to come together for the Gog-led invasion into the Middle East. As a matter of fact, many hold that World War III has already begun.

Advanced computer and other control technologies and instrumentalities are in place for locking everyone on the planet into fiscal bondage and physical slavery to the final empire as prophesied by Daniel.

Those of us who believe there is coming a supernatural Rapture-escape from these judgments on sinful mankind are just living in fantasyland is the collective message I infer from emails and articles that increasingly assault my senses. That I, and all of you, should begin prepping with food, water, gold, silver, and finding a good bunker in which to hunker down during these upcoming days seem to me to be the things these Rapture naysayers are presenting. Seldom do I hear coming from our opponents on the question of the Rapture the admonition to be trying to witness with all our might the gospel of Jesus Christ. I guess there will be plenty of time for that once the Antichrist regime is firmly in place.

While the Pre-Trib proponent holds at the heart of his effort winning as many souls to Christ as possible so those saved won’t go through that time of horrors, many of the anti-Rapture antagonists want to do things to make sure they are more comfortable while trying to survive that hellish time.

Coincidentally–or perhaps not–these just happen to, in some cases of TV and other ministries who openly disdain the thought of Rapture, offer for sale all of these things for survival. The packaged food items invariably are proclaimed to have shelf lives of three decades or longer. So, we can, if we survive, have these supplies to partake of well into the Millennium, I suppose. This, based upon the general theme that they believe the seven-year Tribulation, not the Rapture, is imminent. There have been over the past few years a number of debates taking place on whether there will be the Pre-Trib Rapture or not. The best I’ve heard was the one at the Pre-Trib study group meetings when Dr. Mark Hitchcock completely destroyed the anti-Rapture arguments of the Bible Answer Man.

There are some such debates scheduled for prophecy conferences in the near future. These will perhaps offer new food for thought, but I doubt whether they will change minds on either side of the controversy.

Personally, I believe the time for debate on this matter is past. It is time now to just offer the assurance of that soon to come exhilarating moment when Christ will say “Come up here!” (Revelation 4:1).

There are so many scriptural assurances of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture that we could fill many articles with them. As a matter of fact, we have done just that on the Rapture Ready website.

I wish to mention only one Rapture factor here, because I believe it is the most reassuring of all truth in God’s telling His children that they are not appointed to His wrath. Here we interject the question proposed in our title: Where’s the Comfort? By that we ask: What comfort is there in the argument that Christians will go through the Tribulation?

Paul the apostle first assures us of this fact: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9). But, it is the next thought from the mind of God that should cause warm reassurance in the spiritual heart of every believer: “Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Get it? We are to “comfort” ourselves, not wring our hands looking for these things to destroy us or to look for Antichrist. We are to be looking for our “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13).

There is no comfort –nor is there directive in God’s Word–to be had in anticipating going through the time of God’s wrath and almost certain martyrdom (probably by beheading). There is no comfort in looking for the worst dictator in the planet’s history to hunt us down and lop off our heads.

Here is what God’s Word promises instead of the dreaded scenario proposed by the Rapture antagonists: 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 4:15-18) —

–Terry