10 Apr 2023

America’s Justice System Is in Shambles

The rule of law in the US is in a state of rapid disintegration. In many cities, the police don’t even bother to arrest certain criminals because leftist district attorneys will quickly let them go. Many people don’t serve jail time because they simply refuse to return to court to receive their sentence.

A California man was recently arrested 10 times in 31 days. They had him pose for 10 different mugshots. Since he only aged for less than a month, they should have film by just using the first one.

Keith Chastain’s first arrest was on Feb. 19, and his tenth was on March 21. He was booked by Clovis police six times and other agencies four times.

Chastain, 38, faces 18 felonies and 15 misdemeanors. Charges include six stolen vehicles, vandalism, DUI, possession of a controlled substance, fraud, and more, according to authorities.

One reason why we should put people in jail is so they cannot commit crimes against innocent people. I would be furious if I learned that someone who had stolen and wrecked my car had been released from jail nine times. After the third time he got arrested, they should have kept him in jail to save the bother of booking him again.

Even federal prisons have a revolving door for criminals. When disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti suffered two back-to-back convictions for fraud and extortion, I thought he would spend the rest of his life in prison. A few months after going to prison, he was let out because of Covid-19. He was living it up at a friend’s house.

In Dec., Avenatti was convicted a third time for embezzling millions of dollars from four of his clients and given another 15 years, which adds up to 25 years. The way the system works, he could be free in eight years. If Avenatti is a good boy, a judge will likely cut 10 years off his sentence. A parole board could let him go at any point.

The indictment of Donald Trump over hush money payments he made to Stormy Daniels, by Manhattan District Attorney (DA) Alvin Bragg, is a massive miscarriage of justice. The payment, at best, was a misdemeanor, and it was out of Bragg’s authority. With the backing of public opinion, a DA could indict a ham sandwich.

While Bragg is busy going after Trump, the City of New York is being overrun by criminals. It was support from George Soros-type organizations that allowed him to become DA. He has decreased criminal cases by 40% and has sided with the criminals over their victims.

A newsstand operator was being attacked by a deranged man. He stabbed the attacker and killed him. Bragg sent the guy straight to Rikers Island. Parking lot attendant Moussa Diarra saw a man looking into various cars to see what he could steal. Diarra told him to leave, and the thief pulled out a gun and shot the attendant in the face and chest. Diarra managed to grab the gun and shoot this dirtbag. The poor attendant woke up in the hospital handcuffed to his bed, and the crook was out on the street doing the exact same thing at a new location. Bragg dropped the charges in both cases after massive public protests.

America has tried to solve its crime problem by locking people up. At 3% of the population, we have more people in prison than any other nation. It is extremely expensive to house convicts. The shortage of beds creates a natural drive to come up with any excuse to let a convict go. Here in Arkansas, we have a 5,000-bed shortage. The new governor is planning on spending $500 million on new prisons.

Our former governor Michael Huckabee granted clemency to Maurice Clemmons. His criminal history includes at least five felony convictions in Arkansas and another eight felony charges in Washington state. He was released from police custody after posting bail for a pending charge of second-degree rape of a child. At one point, Clemmons was ordered to serve consecutive sentences totaling 108 years. Clemmons had applied for clemency after serving 10 years of his sentence.

It was only a week after his release that Clemmons killed four police officers. He just walked up to them in a coffee shop and shot them in the head. Two days later, Benjamin Kelly, a lone Seattle police officer, confronted Clemmons on a Seattle residential street, and when Clemmons attempted to pull a gun, Kelly shot him dead. The last I checked, death did not have a parole or clemency option, so Clemmons’ luck may have finally run out.

We cannot fix our justice system without addressing the moral problem in America. In the 1950’s we would have a mass shooting event once a decade. Today, they occur every few days. The most wonderful thing about the rapture is meeting Jesus. Leaving this corrupt world behind has to be the second-best thing about the blessed hope.

“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


Today’s Daniel Dilemma

Increasingly during these strange times, we watch foreshadows of past prophecy spread across our nation. I say “strange times, because things are taking place that are antithetical to all we have embraced as a constitutionally secured republic founded on Judeo-Christian principles.

By “shadows of past prophecy,” I’m referring to there being nothing new under the sun, as written by the writer of Ecclesiastes.

The clouds of wickedness that plagued generations of antiquity as reported by God’s prophets now are a metastasizing sin-stain shadow of evil spreading across America.

Particularly, I believe we can look at Daniel’s time in Babylon and make application to some extent to what’s happening in a specific area of this nation. Daniel‘s case regarding his being thrown into the lion’s den is a point of connection I hope to make to today’s situation in regard to those who hold to Christ-centered truth.

The old prophet–by this time, Daniel was well along in age—was under the rulership of the Medes and Persians. Babylon had been defeated. Daniel was still held in high regard as a great prophet by Darius and his court–for the most part. He was, however, jealously hated by a certain cabal within the king’s advisory council.

We remember that they tricked the king into making a decree that, within a designated time frame, anyone found worshipping any God other than the deity who was personified in the king would be put to death. The king signed the decree, and under Persian law his decree couldn’t be changed, even by the king himself.

We know how it ended. Daniel was thrown into the den with ravenous lions. Not only did the Lord protect him by shutting the mouths of the hungry beasts, but the king, who obviously had great affection for Daniel, had the conspirators against God’s prophet and all their families thrown to the lions–whose appetites were apparently then satisfied.

Point is, Daniel was in the middle of a dilemma—an environment—that was more or less legislated by the powers of evil of that day. The prophet stood strong–rather, knelt faithfully—and continued to worship like he had every day of his time since he had been brought to Babylon as a captive at around age fourteen.

What is the connection, Daniel’s dilemma, to today in America? The comparison congealed in my thinking upon reading what is happening in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The city, once humorously spotlighted in the Mary Tyler Moore show, has observably descended from being that more or less happy site of Americana. We have seen the twin cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul–particularly Minneapolis—come increasingly under that dark shadow of spreading wickedness. Here are a couple of excerpts of news that report just how the metastasizing evil has invaded and wrapped the prophetic tentacles of the soon-to-come Antichrist regime around this American region.

The Minnesota chapter of Hamas-linked CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) is demanding that mosques in Minneapolis can broadcast the Islamic call to prayer five times a day versus the already allotted three times a day.

Referred to as the Adhan, the Islamic call to prayer is intended to show “power and control over a country.” The Adhan declares the supremacy of Allah of Islam and is considered a “warlike declaration.”…

The terror-tired group wants residents to not only hear the eardrum-shattering disturbance in the late mornings and afternoon but also in the early morning and evenings. For this to happen, the Islamic supremacists are demanding that the city’s noise ordinance rules be changed just for them…

Like many other Islamic groups and leaders, CAIR hopes that Minneapolis, which boasts a large Somalian migrant community, can set an example for Muslims across the country, locally and nationwide, on how to Islamize their communities, cities, and states.

CAIR has always been clear about its intentions to make the United States Islamic. CAIR Founder/Chairman Emeritus Omar Ahmad stated, “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith but to become dominant…The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.” (“Minneapolis Moves Closer to Becoming First U.S. City to Blast Islamic Call to Prayer Five Times a Day, Starting at Dawn,” RAIR Foundation, Rapture Ready News, April 3, 2023)

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Minneapolis Public Schools are hosting a “gender resource fair” featuring a drag queen story hour event and a doctor who will speak on the importance of “supporting young transgender children.”

Loring Elementary, which teaches kids from preschool to the 5th grade, will be hosting the event on April 13. They are urging parents to bring their “gender creative young ones” to the event where they can be indoctrinated into a satanic lifestyle that includes chemical castration and the mutilation of their sexual organs…

Minnesota is on its way to becoming a sanctuary state for “gender-affirming care,” meaning children can be taken to the state to be drugged and mutilated without regulations, with a transgender state representative pushing these policies:

Transgender Minnesota state representative Leigh Finke struggled to define the term “gender-affirming health care” while defending legislation that would allow kids to receive “gender-affirming health care” without any restrictions in their state…

Finke has introduced legislation that would make Minnesota a sanctuary state for “gender-affirming health care” for children across the country, meaning that kids could be brought across state lines to be chemically castrated with puberty blockers and then have their genitals mutilated…  (“Minneapolis Public Schools Will Host ‘Gender Resource Fair’ to Promote Drugging and Mutilating Children,” Big League Politics, Rapture Ready News, April 3, 2023)

This American city is becoming increasingly hostile to Christians and Bible truth. Yet at the black heart of the satanic assault centered in and around Minneapolis, there remains Rock-solid (the Rock being Jesus Christ) ministries that are examples of Daniel look-alikes. As a matter-of-fact, the world’s leading Christian radio ministry holds forth Gospel truth with nine hundred affiliate stations at its core from the Minneapolis area.

Jan Markell and Olive Tree Ministries serve as proof that God’s hand, like in Daniel’s day, is as powerful and in complete control as in the day the great prophet served unyieldingly as God’s man in wicked Babylon.

Daniel, by serving God no matter the conditions surrounding him, turned his satanically-engendered dilemma into a prophetic ministry of destiny. Like that prophet of yesteryear, there are ministries today in the midst of growing, end-times evil that are turning such dilemmas as that suffered by Daniel into dynamos of service to our Lord.

As believers we can each do the same in our own individual areas of service. As a matter of fact, we are commissioned by Heaven’s authority to do so.

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. (Ephesians 6:13–18)

Note: New World Order: Worlds in Collision and the Coming Rebirth of Liberty, the just-released book by Terry James and Pete Garcia, is now available. Go to the following to read more and order: https://www.raptureready.com/2023/04/08/powerful-new-book-by-terry-james-and-pete-garcia-just-released/

3 Apr 2023

Satan Will Win for a Short Time

One of the most common complaints I hear from friends and family is their frustration over evil people always coming out on top. Years ago, some friends predicted that Hillary Clinton would eventually go to jail. I told them it will never happen because she is protected by Satan.

A good example of how powerful the devil is in his ability to protect humans can be found in the waning days of World War II. As Germany was losing the war, many Germans realized Adolf Hitler was a madman who needed to be stopped by any means. At least 42 attempts were made to take his life, and all failed in preposterously inconvenient ways.

Once you read some examples of these attempts, you would have to conclude that some unseen agent was protecting Hitler from harm:

An Iron Cross recipient at Nuremberg was going to stab Hitler in front of 1,000 soldiers at an assembly. Hitler had a cold that day and decided to go home early.

A bomb that was intended to blow up the Nazi leader in mid-flight failed to go off because cold weather hindered the reaction of the chemicals in the bomb.

An infantry captain made plans to explode a bomb while he demonstrated a new army winter overcoat to the German leader. The day before the bombing was to take place, a British air raid destroyed the uniforms. One general tried to kill Hitler with a concealed bomb that was to be detonated by acid. Unfortunately, Hitler left the building before the acid could act.

A bomb finally did go off next to Hitler. The Fuehrer was spared by a heavy desk that shielded him from the blast.

Another way that Satan wins is by being able to attack his enemies. I wince at the idea that Donald Trump is on the side of good. I can’t stand his arrogance and childlike behavior in political matters. I voted for him in two key elections because he was the far lesser of two evils. The best thing I can say about Trump is that Satan is clearly out to destroy him. The Don has had a special prosecutor investigating him for two years, he was impeached by Congress twice, the Jan 6th investigation is all about the former president, and now several state DAs are trying to dream up crimes that might apply to Trump.

Nearly every one of major status connected to Trump has had their lives turned upside down. His National Security Advisor, personal lawyer, several support lawyers, business manager, his friend Roger Stone, and campaign manager were all taken down when the FBI applied its vast resources against them. This situation is so ridiculous, I don’t think there has ever been more criminal investigation against one man in world history.

The left has turned over every legal stone, and they have failed to find any major crime on Trump’s part. There is a strong possibility that God is mocking the left by blinding them from finding anything that could convict Trump.

It’s not just Trump that gets special treatment. The IRS paid a ‘chilling’ visit to Matt Taibbi’s home during House testimony. Matt is a rare reporter that is known for giving truthful coverage of a news story. The IRS sent some of its goons to intimidate him. It is disgusting to have a branch of government think that it can scare people by just paying them a personal visit. Taibbi should ask if they were there to hand him his refund check.

The rivalry between God and Satan is often seen as a battle between two equally skilled chess masters, playing against one another to see whose plan will be victorious. This vision is totally fictitious. There never was a real contest between God and Satan, and there never will be.

God is in charge of everything that happens. His level of control is so absolute, He sets the stage for everything that will happen in the universe. How can Satan compete against a Being who knows every move he is going to make ahead of time? God does more than just rule the chessboard. He controls both the white and the black pieces.

The devil is so hopelessly outwitted, God published in the Bible many of Satan’s fatal mistakes far ahead of the time he made them. There are still some blunders yet to come. The Holy Word predicts that the devil will attempt to destroy the Jews and that he will make a stand against Jesus at the Battle of Armageddon. Both will end in total failure.

There are scary days ahead when Satan will be granted a lot more power than he has now. Luckily, the Church will escape the worst of these days. Tribulation saints will suffer greatly, but they are encouraged by the fact that Satan will completely lose in the end.

“And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and sulfur, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).

— Todd


Scanning a Fearful Future XI

“Scanning a Fearful Future Part X” (the conclusion of the series) was completed early in 2011. We’ve revisited that series of articles on two additional occasions, I believe.

Likewise, we posted this article—a follow-up to that series—in September of 2022. I am convicted so strongly of the relevance of thoughts it contains that I must again put it before our readers. Again, I’m convinced that now, in April 2023, it’s time again to look ahead—”scan”— the ever-deepening march of humanity toward the consummation of this Genesis 6-like age.

Many prophecy watchers won’t agree with my take on the matters I present here because it’s not scripturally provable. But I don’t claim it is; admittedly, the thoughts I put forward are conjecture rather than necessarily Holy Spirit-prompted.

I do believe, however, that my thinking is legitimately evidence-based, considering my long-time Bible-centered observation and dissection of these wicked times.

My only reluctance in dealing with these matters stems from the frequently expressed realization that my thinking—like that of many of my colleagues—is too often—Amero-centric. That is, we too often consider our nation to be at the center of everything when we look at prophetic progression.

With all that as a preface, I nonetheless must once again say I see America as perhaps key to the wrap-up of the Church Age (Age of Grace).

Is America in Bible prophecy? That, of course, is among the questions often asked. Always, my answer is: No—not by name.

Is America the Babylon prophesied in Revelation chapter 18? My answer to that has evolved over much study to be “perhaps.” But, again, it can’t be proved to be that condemned city/system of evil that has afflicted all the world with sin. However, America is, almost undoubtedly, a part of that commercial and cultural system.

My belief that America fits within the final system of wickedness is confirmed with each news report. As stated on several occasions, considering the use and abuse of the most vulnerable among humanity is evidence of how far from the heart of God humankind has “progressed.”

The fact that such upside-down thinking and conduct are said to be “progressive” proves how culture in America has the “reprobate mind” of Romans 1:28. Those who claim to be “progressive” are, in fact, moving in the direction opposite of Heaven’s command to the human race. This mindset is inflicting on the very young the evil that can be churned only through minds attuned to the god of this world.

As stated before, history attests that every major civilization on record has come to its inglorious end while engaging in child sacrifice and unspeakable abuses by the adult generations during those times of collapse and demise.

Time and time again, we’ve looked at abortion in America today and have concluded that murder in the mothers’ wombs is, in the majority of cases, used as contraception to cover for sexual misconduct and/or irresponsibility. The practice can be likened to sacrifice upon the altar of convenience—like the pagans, and even Israel, once sacrificed infants upon the white-hot, stone hands of Moloch.

And now parents are dressing children as young as age four as transvestites and parading them in honor of LBTQ… etc., etc., rainbow, Genesis 6-like activities.

We have reports of all that went on with the Jeffrey Epstein island evil involving under-aged girls, and even of pedophilia among younger children who were abused in horrendous ways by well-known people. Yet the national media has swept all such reports under the proverbial rug of forgetfulness. And America has been at the direct center of all this anti-God activity. The most blessed nation in history—in terms of material blessings and perhaps second (only to Israel) in spiritual blessings—has become perhaps the most debauched, lascivious, licentious nation ever.

This brings me to the crux of this subject.

As some know, I believe Jesus prophesied the time of the Rapture. I don’t mean, of course, that He told us the day or hour, as He Himself said only the Father knows that. But I’m more convinced than ever that He gave conditions precisely as they’ll be when He calls believers into His presence.

“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 4:16-17).

And here is where I know I’ll receive some degree of resistance regarding my Amero-centric perspective on Jesus’ words of Luke 17:29–30.

“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:28-30).

Here Jesus likened the time He will next intervene into the affairs of humankind to the days when Lot lived and worked in Sodom. The very day Lot went out of that wicked city (out of which the angels led Lot and his family), judgment from God fell and totally destroyed both Sodom and its sister city, Gomorrah.

In this Luke passage, Jesus was referring to that moment–the Rapture. As we’ve looked at many times, He couldn’t be referring to the very end of the Tribulation, when as many as three-fourths of the earth’s population will have died during the seven years of God’s judgment and wrath. At that time—the time of His Second Coming (Revelation 19: 11)—it won’t be business as usual, as given in this prophecy. The few rebels left on the planet will be hiding in caves from God’s King who is coming through the scrolled-back blackness on the bright clouds of glory.

Now, to bring it down to our present closing hours of this age, I propose that the Lord might have had in mind a particular people and nation as He described how things will be at the moment of the Rapture.

Here goes my Amero-centrism again.

America today is the greatest nation in all of recorded world history in terms of spectacular advancements and achievements. It is the apex nation in this regard. No other has come close—that we know of…

We hear constantly that all the world is about to collapse in financial catastrophe, and even perhaps explode in nuclear war. These predictions have been around for years. Yet the world is buying, selling, marrying, planting, building—all the things Jesus prophesied for the time when, like in Lot’s time, God’s people will be removed from the earth.

While Europe is quickly dissolving in energy-crisis mode and the financial systems of the world seem about to collapse, Americans are still, like the folks of Sodom, living in ways Jesus described: we’re buying, selling, building, etc.

I maintain the Lord might well have had in mind this very nation we call America as the model for the future time of the removal of God’s people.

Our nation fits as the super-achieving, productive society and culture of Christ’s analogy. And certainly, at the same time, our society and culture align with the wickedness of Lot’s day.

Scanning a fearful future, to the Christian, is really to be scanning a fantastic future! All of this points to the blessed hope of Titus 2:13: Believers are on the very cusp of coming into the joint heirship with the Son of God we are promised.

“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

—Terry