While we investigate constantly the many signals that future Bible prophecy is on the verge of fulfillment, there remains the truth of the matters involved: Tremendous change must take place in order for that fulfillment to actually transpire.

The United States of America, for example, must fade from view. It is far from that prospect at present; in fact, our nation is front and center at every level of international interaction.

Under the Trump administration, the nation has become that much more at the center of world affairs. The US president is a powerful force, with a personal presence and personality that when other leaders are in his company, they are changed from their otherwise contrarian demeanors.

This is not to just laud Mr. Trump. It is fact. Even the Chinese dictator, Xi Jinping, when in the direct presence of Mr. Trump, has been almost acquiescent in past meetings in Florida and other places. The president has proven “stage presence,” which seems at the very least to impress, and in some instances, to intimidate.

In major meetings with other world leaders, America is front and center in determining the direction of those gatherings, because Donald J. Trump is there and seems to personally take charge. The other leaders—at least, those of the Western world—seem to acquiesce to his suggestions and proposals. Of course, their demeanors often change once they’re no longer face to face with the president. In many cases, they go back to their contradictory ways.

The point is that America is in a stronger position for leadership in the world than it’s been in many, many years. This cannot stand from the standpoint of Bible prophecy.

As we’ve looked at many times, America is found by name nowhere in Scripture. We concede it could be there by implication, like when we infer that the “young lions” said to be among the nations who protest the Gog-Magog invasion (Ezekiel chapter 38) could refer to America as offspring of England. But that is a weak position in trying to make the point that America is in Bible prophecy for certain.

So there must be a radical change in this matter alone. America, the most powerful nation ever to have existed in terms of economic, technological, and military achievements in the history of mankind, must suffer profound diminishment, at the very least.

And, Mr. Trump and America are at the heart of another significant change that must take place. It involves history’s most important nation from Heaven’s perspective—Israel.

Israel, in its own right, stands as the most powerful nation among its Middle Eastern counterparts. It has nuclear weaponry and technological capability to engage in war the likes about which none among the diplomatic world can fully know—i.e., the weaponry that the Israeli military possesses is a highly protected secret.

On top of that, Israel is now, under the Trump administration, backed up by the world’s only superpower, the United States of America.

This is perhaps the greatest factor that must undergo dramatic change. The change must take place in the most astonishing way possible, because Israeli political and military leadership, regardless of whether conservative or liberal, hawkish or dovish, are in agreement. They know they are surrounded by those who hate the nation and who don’t want the Jewish state to exist. Therefore, Israel must never give up its vigilance against this surrounding enemy. It must always have the very best defensive and even offensive capability in order to avoid annihilation.

Iran, of course, is Israel’s number-one threat. The ayatollahs are constantly promising to wipe the Jewish state from the Middle East map.

Israel will, it’s stated by those in the know, immediately introduce the so-called Samson Option if it’s ever about to lose in a military conflict. To start war with Israel would likely be to light the fuse that will ignite World War III.

A current news item shows the powerful position in which Israel stands, with the help of President Trump and the world’s only superpower.

If Israel indeed decides to take out Iran, the Trump administration has just made it much easier

That’s because the U.S. State Department approved an Israeli request to buy eight KC-46A Pegasus aerial tankers reports the Middle East Forum. This includes support equipment, spare parts, and training. The entire deal is valued at $2.4 billion. The first aircraft shipment is set to arrive in 2023. (David Sidman, “Trump Agrees to Provide Israel the Technology It Needs to Take Out Iran,” Breaking Israel News, March 5, 2020)

Just considering Israel and America’s positions in current issues and events brings us to conclude that major changes are coming. America must fall or be diminished from its superpower status. Israel must somehow give up its great defensive and offensive military capabilities in order to meet prophetic pronouncements by the prophet Ezekiel.

Ezekiel said Israel will be in “unwalled villages” at the time of the Gog-Magog attack from its north. This means the Jewish state will not be capable of defending itself. Ezekiel says that God promises to do the defending of His chosen people. And, it will be an offensive show of power unlike any in history, prior to Armageddon itself.

Almost certainly, the Rapture of the Church will bring about the conditions for these profound changes that must take place. Those changes could be initiated…well…in the “twinkling of an eye.”

American stock-market gurus are astonished and baffled. The Dow and other financial/economic averages have plunged in unprecedented fashion. It is not a crash, as in the 1929 stock-market crash. But it has never gone from an unprecedented high to a 10 percent loss in such short order.

The stock market has since somewhat rallied, but still is tremendously down.

It is all, of course, because of a panicked selloff by those whose whole reason for being revolves around making money, the love of which, God’s Word says, is “the root of all kinds of evil.”

At the core of the panic is the coronavirus. The spreading disease—of which little is known as far as its cause and ultimate effects—is feared to eventually bring to a standfill the consumption of products around the world.

It is thought that factories will be unable to produce goods and parts to sell to other manufacturing entities, because workers either won’t, due to illness, be able to attend work, or because workers are afraid to be around other people. This, it is feared, will ultimately bring on a major depression—or something even worse.

The hyperbole is rampant. At the heart of it all are the Democrat Party leaders, the mainstream news media, and the Trump haters, all of whom see in the hyperbole political advantage as the US presidential election date comes into view.

Leaders of that party weighed in almost immediately, accusing President Donald Trump of being inadequate to handle the crisis. They charged that he is doing too little, and compared the coronavirus to Hurricane Katrina of the George W. Bush era. A number of mainstream broadcast networks and cable channels saw their program hosts join in with their Democrat guests. The tenor and tone of their analyses seemed to be that this disease will be Trump’s Katrina.

This refers to the charge made against President Bush that he was inadequate to handle that crisis, so many people died and great dangers existed that wouldn’t have if a Democrat had been in office.

One host urged her guests to just start calling it the “Trump Virus.”

It remains to be seen, of course, just where this outbreak will end. The stock market has fallen, as stated above, and, indeed, unless things turn around and there is a bounce-back of the bottom of the fall, things could severely damage an economy that has been perceived as booming.

My own take has been, as most who read these commentaries know, that the Rapture will occur at a time of economic uptick, not during a global fiscal disaster.

My belief hasn’t changed. I still contend that the Lord Jesus prophesied it will be business as usual, or even better than usual, when He next catastrophically breaks in on the affairs of mankind.

It will be catastrophic for those left behind. But it will be glorious beyond imagination for those who go to be with their Lord in that electrifying instant of Rapture.

All the experts I’ve heard lately say that America isn’t in real danger of the outbreak at the moment, but things could change. They expect measures taken by this administration to keep the coronavirus from becoming pandemic within the borders of the United States.

The experts also say almost as one that it will take many months, perhaps even years, to develop a vaccine that is highly effective against the disease. This is quite troubling to consider.

God has His mighty hand on it all, and that is the spiritual prompting upon which I base my optimism that the resolution to the problem will be forthcoming sooner rather than later.

The following news item speaks to that internal, spiritual prompting I sense.

Israeli scientists are on the cusp of developing the first vaccine against the novel coronavirus, according to Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis. If all goes as planned, the vaccine could be ready within a few weeks and available in 90 days, according to a release.

“Congratulations to MIGAL [the Galilee Research Institute] on this exciting breakthrough,” Akunis said. “I am confident there will be further rapid progress, enabling us to provide a needed response to the grave global COVID-19 threat,” Akunis said, referring to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

For the past four years, a team of MIGAL scientists has been developing a vaccine against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), which causes a bronchial disease affecting poultry. The effectiveness of the vaccine has been proven in preclinical trials carried out at the Veterinary Institute. (Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, “Israeli Scientists: ‘In a few weeks, we will have coronavirus vaccine.’” Jerusalem Post, February 20, 2020, https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Israeli-scientists-In-three-weeks-we-will-have-coronavirus-vaccine-619101)

It is within prophetic purview to conjecture whether the Lord might be about to bring forth evidence of why Israel is His chosen people. It will be fascinating to watch developments.

The Lord has said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:1–3)