Why The Rapture Must Happen      

Much has been discussed and written about speculation leading up to this calendar date. That the Rapture must happen during this year’s Jewish Feast of Trumpets observation is the central subject of the frenzied conversation.

To be honest, I’ve not looked very deeply into the Feast of Trumpets observation, as to its meaning and all attendant to that observation. I do have a general working knowledge of that tradition and others held by the orthodox Jewish community, but have come to believe and accept through my study and seeking to know Truth Imparted by the Holy Spirit that the Rapture is not linked to any Jewish day of observation, so far as its timing is concerned.

Some, who are much more in-depth scholars in these Jewish holy days say the Feast of Trumpets this year was to be September 16-17, not September 23-24. But here we are at this posting, on September 22.

In my deepest contemplation and heartfelt desire I would love, despite my skepticism, for the speculation that the Rapture will happen at this time to be correct. I, like most of us who believe the preTrib Rapture to be the correct view from what the Apostle Paul and Jesus Himself has Foretold, always am “looking up” (Luke 21:28) and ”looking for the blessed hope” (Titus 2: 13). We are “watching” Mark 13:37. We believe the Rapture of the Church –all born-again believers—can happen at any moment. It is an imminent event.

So, do I believe it can happen on September 23 or 24 of 2025? Yes, absolutely. I definitely believe it can happen on this much-talked-about date.

Do I believe it “will definitely take place” on this date? No, I do not. It could happen as I’m writing this almost a week earlier!

If the Rapture does occur on the date being speculated by many, then it will make no difference to believers who have been Raptured about whether it happened on the date predicted. –Other than that, we who name the Holy Name of Jesus will be Eternally Celebrating Joyous Bliss! But if it doesn’t happen on that date so many are invested in, I’m concerned that the Faith of some will be shaken.

This has always been the deleterious results of past date settings regarding the Rapture. Many have gone into deep crises of their Faith in God’s Promises over such failures.

So with that as preface, I would like to spend the balance of the commentary somewhat examining why it is necessary for God to Rapture the Saints of this Church Age. –Why He will be absolutely True to His Word and will do so –I believe very, very soon.

The tremendous ramping up of evil taking place today as humanity proceeds further toward God’s Judgment against sin and rebellion is most relevant to the premise implicit in the title of this commentary:

Why the Rapture must happen.               

When looking at the black-and-white films the Allies shot within the Nazi death camps following victory over Hitler’s Germany in World War II, it is difficult to comprehend that level of evil. The images of walking skeletons that were the Jewish “survivors” of those camps remain etched in the memory of anyone who has seen those videos.

Upon viewing those films, one instinctively senses that there has to be eternal punishment for anyone who perpetrates such absolute evil.

The same level of pictorial record doesn’t exist for the genocidal rampages inflicted on their own people by Josef Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, and the murderers of the other despotic regimes in modern times. However, eyewitness accounts and some photographic evidence make it hard to fathom that those beastly tyrants were restrained in their butchery.

The Bible nonetheless bears witness that God the Holy Spirit governs the consciences of human beings. In biblically prophetic terms, this truth is most evident in Paul’s second epistle to the Thessalonians: “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8).

Paul the apostle was saying in this prophecy that evil was at work in a big way, even at the time he was writing the letter. Still, the Holy Spirit was then restraining and would continue to restrain that evil until the Holy Spirit removes as restrainer of evil. Then all hell will break loose as the Antichrist is revealed. The spirit of Antichrist is already present in the world–and was manifest even during John’s day (read 1 John 4:1-3). The mystery of iniquity about which Paul prophesied and this spirit of Antichrist are intertwined and interlinked in the ancient web of lawlessness we call evil.

Jesus foretold what will happen once the restrainer (the Holy Spirit) removes from governing the wickedness that is in the hearts and minds of people of the post-Rapture world: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21).

The Lord prophesied just how bad things would become: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:22).

God will shorten the days of that time of great Tribulation, because if He let things go on to their ultimate conclusion, without the return of Christ, every being of flesh and blood on the planet would be destroyed. Such is the mystery of iniquity that exists today, and will become exponentially worse once the restraint on evil is no longer in place. Then, the ultimately evolved man–as evolution would have it—will step to the forefront of fallen human history. Antichrist will inflict horrors on the people of earth in ways Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and the rest of history’s madmen could not have even imagined. His regime will be the most bloodthirsty of all time.

Lawlessness is everywhere we look today. Whether considering the Middle East and the unspeakable evil of satanic forces like Hamas, the absolute wickedness of mutilating children fostered by the so-called Trans Movement, or thinking on America and the devil-inspired anti-Semitism of youth groups indoctrinated by U.S. universities, the evil the Bible deems the mystery of iniquity is swelling like a great caldera that is about to explode across the world.

Evidence of that growing global-wide lawlessness is compiled hourly through such reports as follows.

As recent as 2019, The Economist’s Safe City Index placed Amsterdam at the top in Europe and fourth worldwide, behind only Tokyo, Singapore, and Osaka, but a new debate hosted by local broadcaster AT5 has revealed that seven in ten panel members avoid certain parts of the city because they now feel unsafe.

That figure rises to 85 percent among women, while half of the women surveyed reported experiencing some form of harassment, with some subjected to intimidation, being followed, or assault.

The issue has gained urgency after several high-profile crimes, including the murders of two 17-year-olds: Rivaldo, shot dead on a soccer field, and Lisa, who was brutally murdered by a 22-year-old asylum seeker as she cycled home. Multiple sexual assaults have also rocked the city in recent weeks, and police were on high alert after recording three explosions in five days last week.

Headlines at the time read: explosions-rock-amsterdam-as-dutch-capital-continues-to-reel-from-recent-teen-girl-allegedly-murdered-by-asylum-seeker

[Source: Amsterdam used to be the safest city in Europe; now a majority of its citizens are afraid to go out at night, Rapture Ready News, September 12, 2025]

The youth, guilty of the majority of such lawlessness in inner cities across the world, have been taught by cultural inculcation that they have been held down by the affluent, so their actions are justified. It is no more than simply–the inference is–Robin Hood robbing the evil sheriff of Nottingham.

Can there be much doubt that if they will commit such bold acts now, when the Holy Spirit is no longer restraining such evil thinking and actions, even America will quickly become a hellish existence in which anything goes?

It is almost as if the U.S. federal governmental powers that be have taken Paul’s 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 passage to heart. It seems they anticipate a time when draconian measures will become necessary to restrain the evil that is coming. Antichrist’s restraint will be even more draconian, but his own evil will far surpass all other iniquity of history, the Bible foretells.

Judgment of such rebelliousness awaits implementation by the God who must bring back the Righteousness lost in Eden. Our Holy Heavenly Father is the only One who can cleanse humanity of this satanically-borne infection called sin.

Only those who are born again through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ –God’s Son who has taken away the sins of the world—are not subject to God’s coming Judgment of those left behind on Planet Earth at the Rapture.

This is the purpose of the Rapture. To rescue all who are in God’s Family through belief in Jesus. We are “not appointed to wrath,” which the world of left behind rebels are about to experience during the Tribulation (Revelation 3:10).

God must remove all who are Righteous from the planet’s surface and those who have died while in Christ’s Saving Grace, before His Judgment and Wrath must begin cleansing this fallen world. He will then, at that time, again begin Dealing with His chosen nation, Israel, to bring a remnant to Accept their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus will Return to the planet’s surface, destroy all enemies of God, and set up His Millennial Kingdom.

Ultimately, God will purge all sin, bringing His Creation called man , and all of his Creation back to Perfection that was lost when iniquity was found in Lucifer, and when sin and death entered through Adam’s disobedience.

It will all begin with the Rapture of the Church, which has been being Constructed by the Lord Jesus since His death, burial, and Resurrection and His sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

This is why the Rapture must Happen. It is about to do so. Here is how to be sure you go to the Lord Jesus and be Rescued from the coming Judgment and Wrath to come.

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

–Terry

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Is This a Foreshadowing of Revelation 11?

Although only ten at the time, I remember the shock of hearing about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Although the 1960s were hardly a time of righteousness in America, we were a nation united in mourning the death of our president. Even in my staunchly Republican home, we grieved as we watched Kennedy’s casket travel down the streets of Washington, DC, on a horse-drawn carriage.

Much has changed in the past sixty-two years, and the startling difference is yet another sign that we live in the last moments of human history as we know it.

Consider the response of many to the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk. Many continue to grieve his death, of course. Yet perhaps just as shocking as his murder are the abhorrent celebrations of it. It’s not just a few, but a great many people continue to cheer the killing of a man with a wife and two young children. It’s appalling and repugnant, but it’s also a reality of the time in which we live.

A recent story on the PNW website asks, Why Did So Many Teachers Cheer The Assassination? The article documents many incidents of public school teachers telling their class that Charlie Kirk deserved to die, along with other detestable expressions of joy over the martyrdom of a man who dearly loved Jesus.

Prophetic Implications

Do you know that the Bible tells of a future time of celebration over the killing of two of God’s spokesmen?

At the start of the seven-year Tribulation, two mysterious witnesses will appear in Jerusalem, and for three and a half years, they will proclaim God’s message to the Jews as well as to a lost world. We learn of their fate in Revelation 11:7-10:

“And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.”

Can you imagine people giving gifts to their children, spouses, and friends because the antichrist murdered two men on the streets of Jerusalem? They will watch video streams of the two dead bodies while throwing parties to celebrate the silencing of these spokesmen. Later, they will also watch the Lord raise the pair from the dead and bring them up to Heaven (Revelation 11:11-12).

What we see in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder is a world that’s well along the path to what we read about in Revelation 11. A shockingly high percentage of those on the left believe it would be okay to kill President Trump, Vice President Vance, and other political and Christian leaders who express opinions that oppose their beloved LGBTQ+ agenda and supposed right to kill the unborn. Is this not a foretaste of the world’s future response to the killing of God’s two witnesses?

How Close Are We?

With each passing week, we see more evidence that life as described in Revelation chapters 6-18 is ever so near. How close must we be to this dire time in human history?

Another prophetic aspect of the Revelation 11 account is the modern technology that makes it possible for the entire world to watch events unfold on the streets of Jerusalem. Today, we don’t question whether or not this is possible. But what did believers living at the end of the first century AD think when they read that the entire world would watch the Lord raise the bodies of the witnesses from the dead?

The conditions depicted in the seal judgments of Revelation 6 seem so close to reality that many say the riders of the apocalypse are already galloping across the earth. They are not, of course; the coming disasters will be much worse when these prophecies come to life after the Rapture.

Twenty-five years ago, the activities of the antichrist in Revelation 13 likely seemed like science fiction to many. I did not understand how he could exercise such total control over all buying and selling. Today, the global elite possess both the technology and the desire to make all that we read about the mark of the beast a reality. After Jesus takes us home and removes the restraining force of the Holy Spirit, the antichrist will rapidly move the world toward the scenes that John saw and recorded in Revelation 13.

One Last Thought

The celebrations over the killing of Charlie Kirk reveal the presence of what the Apostle Paul called a “debased” or “reprobate” mind in Romans 1:29-32. Although we don’t typically regard this passage as Bible prophecy, his words in verse 32 depict today’s world:

“Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”

As I wrote in last week’s post, we live in a day like no other. How much longer can it be before Jesus appears to take us home? How is it possible to miss the close parallels between the time in which we live and how the Bible described the last days?

Maranatha!

-Jonathan

The Rapture Paradox

A woman from the Netherlands, who years ago was a frequent visitor to www.raptureready.com once proposed we address a troubling thought she lived with as a Christian. It is a paradox I believe many Christians who look for Christ to come for believers in the rapture have considered, at least to some extent.

The writer those years ago sent an article about the growing Islamic population in Europe and the threat Islam represents not only to Israel, but to the rest of the world that is not Islamic. She recognized that Israel being at the center of world controversy indicates the lateness of the hour, prophetically speaking. She put it this way in her email:

Every time I see these articles, I am on one hand horrified at the treatment of the Jewish people, but on the other hand full of anticipation as I know that with each event that pushes the Jewish people back to their homeland of Israel, the closer the rapture is for Christians. I do feel badly that I am excited for the rapture though, as I know what that means for those that will be left behind… Should we be as excited as I am to know that we can (I believe “will”) be raptured any second? I know this gives me an urgency to share the gospel with friends and neighbors, but I still always feel guilty for the anticipation and excitement I get when I see the current events played out daily.

This dichotomy within the believer’s thinking is, I believe, not unusual for those who truly look for Christ’s any-moment call as prophesied by Paul the apostle:

“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 Thess. 4:16-17).

Christians who believe the pretribulation rapture is truth from God’s Word, yearn–without need to apologize–for the blessed hope that is found in Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). At the same time, they know that when that call from their Lord comes, those left behind will soon endure a time of horror, about which the Lord Himself foretold:

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matt. 24:21).

Those left behind will, the Christian knows, include perhaps close friends and beloved family members. So, the paradox of wanting the rapture to take place, and at the same time dreading it for those who will stay on this planet that will endure God’s judgment and wrath is, to some, troubling.

The article this writer sent with her email those years ago encapsulates just a small part of the building evil that the Lord of heaven will judge with His righteous wrath. The matters the article involved point to the satanic rage represented within Islam, the number-one Israel-hating entity on the planet. Hatred for Israel, and the desire of the international community to force the Jewish state to divide the tiny portion of its God-given land in order to come up with a formula for peace with its Islamic neighbors, will lead to Armageddon, God’s Word says:

“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land” (Joel 3:2).

The article the emailer sent contained a speech by Geert Wilders, a Dutch Member of Parliament for the Netherlands. He synopsized with stunning description how Israel’s Islamic enemy was systematically infecting Europe, thus threatening world stability–or what little of it that remains.

Wilders, who was chairman of the Party for Freedom, the Netherlands, spoke at the Four Seasons, New York, introducing an Alliance of Patriots and announcing the Facing Jihad Conference in Jerusalem. He announced that Europe was in dire straits as it was undergoing Islamization. America and the world, he warned, faced the same fate as Europe if the threat wasn’t confronted and defeated everywhere it exists.

Wilders said that entire city sections throughout Europe were taken over by Islamists one street at a time. Local governments and police forces were often so intimidated that they dared not go into those areas to govern. Women, treated no better than slaves, according to the speaker, were covered from head to toe in tent-like attire, sharia law took precedence, and women in sections of the cities not part of the Islamic communities more and more were hearing hate-filled shouts of “Whore!” from those of the Islamic populations.

(http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/wilders.asp)

That news report was from a decade and a half ago. Today, the Wilder’s prediction is manifest in hourly news reports while American cities and states, such as Texas, are experiencing what can only be described in my view as an Islamic invasion.

In 1991, the Muslim Brotherhood issued a confidential memorandum that outlined the strategy for the group in North America. It details a plan for the “Enablement of Islam in North America,” understood as “establishing an effective and a stable Islamic Movement led by the Muslim Brotherhood which adopts Muslims’ causes domestically and globally, and which works to expand the observant Muslim base, aims at unifying and directing Muslims’ efforts, presents Islam as a civilization alternative, and supports the global Islamic State wherever it is.”…

The aim of Islamists is not integration into our society, nor to isolate themselves within their own enclaves, but rather to energetically integrate America into Islamist culture. Far from a Muslim “Benedict Option,” the Islamist strategy is political and confrontational…

Islamists oppose the American sense of nationhood and form of government and seek to replace constitutional and national governments with the global Islamic state…

The digital age means the annihilation of distance. Thanks to the internet, Islam’s reach and networks have globalized. Immigrants talk regularly with relatives on the other side of the world and establish international revenue streams. This new technology presents Islamists with an opportunity they never enjoyed a hundred years ago.

Those advocating for stricter Islamic practices can use the power of digital connections to reach and reeducate Muslims around the world. Videos from conflicts in far-off places can be broadcast instantly to millions of Muslims in the West, encouraging them to see themselves as participants in the same struggle.

The 1991 memorandum indicates how Islamists exploit this situation by encouraging Muslims to think of themselves not as members of a Western polity but as internationally interconnected engineers who are building one global Islamic state. Islamists will not permit Muslims to blend into America’s purported melting pot. Source: The Islamist Threat to American Communities, by Nathan Pinkoski, May 7, 2025]

Israel and its being targeted for extinction by Islam, which has infected so much of the American radical leftist anti-Semite insanity with hatred, is the sure sign that the tribulation is in view. The rapture of the church is, therefore, an event that must be very near to occurring indeed. That being the obvious case, what should be the Christian’s foremost priority? The answer is that it should not be considered a paradox for the believer, but an exhortation, a call to duty.

There is nothing anyone can do to hurry or delay the coming of Christ for His saints in the rapture. The timing of that great event is out of our hands. Therefore, longing for the blessed hope (Titus 2:13) to rescue us from the terrible time to come (Revelation 3:10) doesn’t conflict with our concern and compassion for those who will be left behind if they don’t come to Christ for salvation. It is time for those who name the name of Christ to recognize the lateness of the prophetic hour, witness to those around us of the truth that Jesus Christ is the one and only Way to salvation, and live in such a way that we can earn our Lord’s commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

— Terry

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We Must Be So Very Close

We live at a time like no other. We live in biblical times.

The Bible says that the last days would look exactly like what we see all around us today. How can anyone miss how closely world events align with what God prophesied for the days leading up to Jesus’ glorious return to the earth? The many distractions of modern life effectively blind the multitudes, and even most believers, to the multitude of signs pointing to the rapid approach of God’s judgment upon the planet.

We are witnessing the convergence of signs at an ever-accelerating rate. It borders on the surreal. Below are just a few of the reasons for believing that the start of the Day of the Lord could happen at any moment, which means that our homegoing is even closer to reality.

The lawlessness and corruption of our day already far exceed what I thought possible before the Rapture. Paul described the antichrist as “the man of lawlessness” and wrote that the “mystery of lawlessness is already at work” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 7). The disregard for civil authority that we see today is extreme, no doubt, and fulfills a key aspect of the apostle’s warning concerning the “perilous times” of the last days (2 Timothy 3:1-9). The ramping up of anarchy and violence, as evidenced by the murder of Charlie Kirk, points to the soon arrival of the “lawless one” on the world scene.

We know that he cannot begin his reign of terror until after the restraining work of the Holy Spirit ends with our departure from planet Earth. How much longer can it be before Jesus comes for us?

The Bible says God will judge the world in real time. According to 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3, there’s coming a time when the world will experience the “sudden destruction” that will mark the beginning of wrath during the Day of the Lord. The Old Testament prophets wrote of an extended period of God’s vengeance upon the earth that they referred to as “the Day of the Lord.” This time will culminate with Jesus’ return and thousand-year rule over the nations.

Someday soon, God’s patience with the wickedness and killing of the innocent in both America and the world will end. The Lord Jesus will take all born-again believers out of this world, and His wrath will fall upon those now promoting the violence and mayhem of our day.

Modern technology not only makes the mark of the beast possible, but it also makes it highly likely. With the advances in artificial intelligence (AI), the creation of huge databases, the arrival of digital currencies, and other advances in technology, the day of a cashless society with governments possessing the ability to control the buying and selling is not only possible but highly probable. It’s remarkable that even those who might scoff at our belief in the mark of the beast (Revelation 13:16-18) tell us that the day is coming when those in authority will be able to dictate all monetary transactions.

Twenty years ago, I thought that the antichrist would need a huge army of loyalists in every nation to control all the buying and selling. About ten years ago, I began to see how he could use recent technical advances to accomplish it. Now, even those who don’t believe what John wrote in Revelation say that such a time surely lies ahead for the world.

The clamoring of the nations to divide Israel and Jerusalem tell us the antichrist will soon arrive on the world scene. The purpose of the September 22 UN meeting is to carve out a Palestinian state in the Land that God gave to the Jewish people. Just as technology has advanced in readiness for the unveiling of “the man of lawlessness” after our departure, so has the world’s attitude toward Israel and Jerusalem opened the door for his arrival.

The meeting in New York later this month will not yield the covenant that kicks off Daniel’s seventieth week (Daniel 9:24-27). However, the antichrist will someday bring all the sides together in agreeing to a package that will guarantee Israel’s security and bring peace to the region. The fact that this happens after the Rapture shouts with the message that we will be going home soon, very soon.

The UFO mania underscores Satan’s prepping of the world to believe “the lie” regarding our sudden disappearance. During the past twenty-five years, there’s been a growing consensus of belief that alien life is real. Just this year, the belief in small UFOs has grown to that of gigantic alien spacecraft either heading toward the earth or already here. The devil is actively conditioning the world to believe that the Rapture will be an alien abduction.

These unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) have grown from compact objects to gigantic ones capable of housing a multitude of people whom the aliens could beam up from the earth. I don’t think this is a coincidence; Satan knows that his time is short, and as a result, he’s actively preparing people to believe anything but the truth regarding our sudden disappearance.

The widespread unawareness that judgment is coming is precisely what the Lord predicted for the time just before He again intervenes in human history. When speaking about the signs of the last days, Jesus used those living at the time of Noah’s flood and those in Sodom as examples of the unawareness that would characterize the last days (Matthew 24:36-39; Luke 17:26-30). God’s judge will come as a “thief in the night” for those left behind because they have no idea that they live in the last days.

Is this not what we see today? Not only do most pastors ignore the many signs of the rapidly approaching sudden destruction of the Day of the Lord, but they also actively deny the Lord’s soon intervention in our world. Sadly, it’s not just the world that’s soundly asleep, but many saints are also totally unaware that they may soon meet Jesus in the air.

These are just a few of the great many signs that together proclaim the nearness of the Rapture.

I am still in shock over the murder of Charlie Kirk. It comforts me to know that Charlie is with Jesus whom he loved and served, but it also makes me long all the more for the day Jesus appears to take us home. When Jesus comes, He will administer justice in our world and continue to do so until He returns in great glory and sets up His righteous kingdom over all nations.

Maranatha! I pray He comes soon, very soon!

-Jonathan