Once-in-a while, my writer’s cognition takes me into the realm of imagining what would happen if…

Now, I am aware of the bromide of precaution: “’If’ is for children.” Nonetheless, “what if?” is the conduit through which the imaginations of nonfiction writers as well as fictionists have been transported throughout history.

With full recognition and acknowledgment of this precautionary heads-up, I want to think a bit on “what if” regarding a prophetic matter most of us are deeply concerned about.

We are, after all, “children of God,” so, if “what if” is for children,” I feel secure in proposing this “what if” to you.

As you see, the title is “Rapture…What If…?”

While I know this will be read mostly by children of God, I write it with the hope that readers in this category also know they are royal ambassadors of the court of the heavenlies. Therefore, I hope you will share the thoughts herein offered within your spheres of influence as people charged to carry out the Great Commission.

Writing about this “what if” is so important to produce and disseminate at this time because history might well be nearing the prophetic moment that instantaneously dooms millions—particularly in America—because all in this nation will have heard the Gospel. Beyond that stupendous event, some will have no chance to be saved from damnation. They will be lost for all eternity.

Most every signal of the colossal, world-rending change that is on the very brink of striking the inhabitants of the planet is flashing brilliant red. Within the past few days, I’ve received a number of emails listing many such ominous signals bombarding this generation. These are almost identical and come from a number of websites, without any of these sites giving attribution to the original source.

The best I can tell, they originate with Michael Snyder, a blogger with whom I’m sure many are familiar (http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/10-plagues-that-are-hitting-our-planet-simultaneously).

(I must note here that Mr. Snyder does not accept that the Bible teaches a pre-Tribulation Rapture.) The following is a very brief list of some of these signals.

1) Locust swarms as large as cities are destroying entire agricultural crops within thirty seconds of alighting.

2) Rampaging weather events are taking place, such as what’s going on in Australia. After fires that killed a half-billion animals and many people, rain deluged the area in record amounts. Winds in excess of two hundred miles per hour created dust storms that blotted out the sun. Jackson, Mississippi, received record rainfall and flooding.

3): Major earthquakes are occurring around the globe and increasing in magnitude. Those who keep up with them report that there are too many to record individually at times.

4) Volcanoes are erupting simultaneously around the world. The gargantuan Mount Merapi in Indonesia, for example, sent lava and ashes more than two thousand meters in the air and forced people to stay clear of its zone of devastation.

5) The coronavirus is potentially one of the most devastating diseases the world has experienced. It threatens entire national economies as well as the health of citizenry.

6) African swine fever has wiped out much of the pork sources, which threatens food supplies around the world.

7): The H1N1 swine flu kills people rather than the animals, and has already taken the lives of more people than the coronavirus in China.

8): The H5N1 bird flu, which killed many a few years ago, is said to be recurring and threatens to cause even more deaths than before.

9) The H5N8 bird flu is thought to be more virulent than even H5N1 bird flu. It is appearing all over the world, and experts are surprised by it popping up in Germany recently.

My long-time friend and colleague, Dr. Joseph Chambers of Paw Creek Ministries, has weighed in on how near to the Rapture today’s flashing-red-light issues and events must surely place this generation.

I’m thrilled at the many signs of Christ’s soon return. The Rapture is evident, but so are the many great events of the end connected to the Rapture and His return to reign on the earth. Let’s look at the times in Scripture where the writers are using the term, “last days.” This very term mean, “the last of the last.” This is where we certainly have arrived.

Let’s talk about:

1. The days of Revelation: Hebrews 1:1–6
2. The Day of Great Wealth: James 5:3
3. The Day of Great Wickedness: 2 Timothy 3:1–8
4. Time of Many Scoffers: 1 Peter 3:3
5. The Time of Technological Inventions: Nahum 2:3–6
6. The Time of Great Awakening: Acts 2 17–21
7. Infectious Diseases: Matthew 24:6–7

So, with the explosion of prophetic indicators converging at this time, the thought I intend to present in this commentary revolves around “what if” the people of the earth are now about to be catastrophically jolted by the most calamitous event of all time. Specifically, the likely scenarios of post-Rapture America are most troubling to consider. For the moment, I want us to think on one of the situations that would develop in the United States if the Rapture of the Church should take place at this present hour: What if the Rapture happens right in the middle of this presidential election year?

As the days leading up to November 3, 2020, pass, the nation becomes more divided than ever in the view of America’s future. Should we continue to go the way of socialism? Should we allow the people into the public treasury, thus buying votes for the give-away society and culture that Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez propose and that the Democrat Party and mainstream media seems to want? Or should the United States embrace getting back to the way the Founding Fathers intended—the Constitutional republic they framed that caused Benjamin Franklin to quip, “We have given you a republic…if you can keep it.”

By every estimate, it looks as if the president will win the election by, at a minimum, a near landslide. The opposition is so crazed in their abject hatred for the man who occupies the Oval Office that they have gone off track and are headed for a crash. That’s the way even James Carville, the Clinton-era Democrat guru who gave us the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid,” has described his own party’s current condition.

But “What if…?”

What if, just before the day of the election, the Rapture occurs—catastrophically affecting those who are left behind?

More than half of the president’s voter base would be gone in that instant. What a thing to consider!

There would be no doubt about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election if that scenario played out. The disappearance of most of Trump’s supporters would be a dream come true for the “resisters”—the “let’s-change-America” masses. It would be an absolute nightmare for those who support bringing America back to the constitutional republic Ben Franklin and the Founding Fathers envisioned.

But, the political consequences would be small potatoes compared to the consequences for the individual souls left behind to face the horrors soon to come in America and upon the entire world.

And, this is the message I intend to deliver. As I mentioned above, I hope you will convey the message as a real possibility that might come to pass; it is your job as a royal ambassador.

As an ambassador for Jesus Christ, according to all the signals, you are about to be called home. So, it is incumbent on you to proclaim the message while you remain on this fallen planet.

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Things shaping up in terms of prophetic stage-setting, particularly regarding Israel, should strike us as crucial. By this, I mean things prophesied for the time just before Christ’s Second Advent are in precise configuration for the very dénouement of the Church Age.

Nothing could be more crucial now than preparation in the Jewish mind and spiritual heart for constructing the Third Temple.

Increasing noise of constructing that end-times edifice is coming from that nation’s leadership.

Consider the following excerpt from an article that originated in that prophetic nation.

Israel’s defense minister and head of the New Right party, Naftali Bennett, spoke to a Yeshiva (male seminary) in northern Israel on Wednesday criticizing a political rival who Bennett claims doesn’t treat Israel’s state institutions as playing an integral role in the Redemption process.

Bennett then lamented what he sees as a current attitude of lawlessness in Israel saying that the reason that the Second Temple was destroyed was because everyone “followed their own rules.”

“We need to understand the big picture” Bennett said, adding “today we are in (the era of) the Third Temple.”

Bennett then reminded the captive audience about the history of the Kingdom of Israel, saying “we have had a state twice where we ruled as a united people. The first time it only lasted 80 years—King David 40, then King Solomon 40. After that, we separated.”

“The second time, we were sovereign for only 74 years during the Hasmonean dynasty” he added. 

Bennett, then [touched] on the present, saying “Now we are at 72 years. The Jewish nation has never been able to maintain a united rule for more than 80 years.”

The Defense Minister concluded saying that he will not let “anyone tear apart the state of Israel.” (David Sidman, “Israel’s Defense Minister: We Are Now in Era of Third Temple,” Breaking Israel News, February 13, 2020)

The defense minister’s assessment is one I hadn’t considered. Israel has never gone more than eighty years with a united leadership—that is, with a connected government. They are but eight years from a record in that regard.

What does it mean? I haven’t a clue. But the timing of all things is a fascinating exercise in considering Heaven’s timeline for bringing a close to this Age of Grace.

One of the great Hebrew eschatological scholars of our time wrote a compelling piece on the coming Third Temple some years ago.

The significance of Israel’s reinstituting the Sanhedrin may be another event that leaves in place the possibility of how the Lord will work out His will with His people. Almost sixty years after a 1900-year absence, the nation of Israel came into existence. Jewish people from the four corners of the world have made aliyah to live in the Land. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem has reconstructed the instruments for Jewish Temple worship; Jewish men determined to be descendants of Aaron, known as the Kohanim, are being trained in ritual practices to serve as Temple priests; and now we have the establishment of an authoritative body to speak to the nation of Israel on matters of Jewish religion. This is significant in light of such passages as Zechariah 12:10 and Hosea 5:15, which speak of a time when the people of Israel will be led into the acceptance of Jesus as their Messiah. The existence of a religious authority for the entire nation will facilitate the multitudes coming to faith. (Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Ariel Ministries Newsletter, Fall 2004/Winter 2005, p. 4)

One of today’s foremost scholars in end-times prophecy, Dr. Thomas Ice, concludes the following about the timing of rebuilding the Temple atop Mount Moriah:

In spite of contemporary turmoil, Israel’s Third Temple will one day be rebuilt.… Daniel 9:24-27; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Revelation 11:1-2; 13:14-15. Few observers of world events ever thought Israel would become a nation again, but it did occur in 1948. Yet, there will be a rebuilt temple by the middle of the seven-year tribulation in order to facilitate the fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

I have often taught that the long-awaited permission for the Jews to rebuild their Temple will likely be part of the covenant between Antichrist and Israel that starts the seven-year tribulation after the rapture. It appears to me that the Temple will be rebuilt and supervised supernaturally by the two witnesses during the first half of the tribulation. Since one of the two witnesses will most likely be Elijah, this would mean that the ministry of Elijah should tell us more about the ministry of the two witnesses. Malachi 4:4-5 says, “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. An he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.” Perhaps the ministry of Elijah, where he will help the Jewish people “get right with God,” before the return of the Lord will involve their Third Temple, until commandeered by Antichrist.

Regardless of how the Lord works out the details, His plan will be brought to pass. In the meantime, many of the current events now taking place in and around Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are setting the stage for what will be a string of events that will usher in the second coming of Christ. Meanwhile, the church is looking for the rapture, where Christ will take us in an instant to be with Himself for all eternity. (Dr. Thomas Ice, “Is It Time for The Temple?” Rapture Ready archives)

The building of the Third Temple is as good as done. God has pronounced its rebuilding, and nothing can stop or inhibit its construction. It’s all within His perfect timing.

In the days to come, The Mount of Hashem‘s House Shall stand firm above the mountains And tower above the hills; And all the nations Shall gaze on it with joy. (Isaiah 2: 2)