Terry James

Rapture Near :: by Terry James

Published on: by RR2

“How near do you think the rapture might be?” This or similar questions issue from people, both believers in Christ and nonbelievers. The queries come during question-and-answer sessions at prophecy conferences, and from interviewers such as my History Channel interviewer last June during filming for a series of documentaries on prophecy (The Nostrodamus Effect).

Foreboding Feelings
Despite innate skepticism, even within believers, one senses that there flows just beneath the surface of decorum in posing the question a visceral trepidation that there will be such a thing as “the rapture.” While those who attend prophecy conferences and secular media types seem genuinely to want an opinion on how near the rapture is, there is almost zero interest in that great event within Christ’s church in general. This singular reality is, by itself, a factor worth examination while contemplating the question: “How near do you think the rapture might be?” More about that in due course.

Strange Goings-On
To begin considering matters involved, the question can’t be adequately entertained to any degree of understanding without analyzing our strange times—this bordering-on-bizarre generation that Jesus himself was most likely prophesying in the Olivet Discourse and other places in Scripture.

America presently has a collective nervous twitch. Worry about the diseased economy is the instigator of the societal surface spasms. Uncertainty about what direction—and how quickly—will be movement into the changes President Barack Obama promised and is trying to deliver has, rather than put minds at ease, caused a form of national schizophrenia. The schism separates Americans in crucial areas of politics and morality, which are in most aspects inextricably linked.

Those divisions threaten to raise the national temperature to a fever pitch. There is a sense that, as radio talk-show host Glenn Beck says, a powerful crisis event lurks in the immediate future. It will be the crisis, Beck believes, that will cause government to snap its voracious, all-consuming, lust-to control jaws shut on liberty.

So, it is more than a matter of curiosity that leads me to think upon the many issues and events swirling about this generation that seem almost certainly of biblically prophetic significance. This, while there is the obvious disconnect of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the most part, from those foreboding issues and events that are everywhere we look.

Money worries and  changing national/world order

Pocketbook issues almost always lead the way with the adult American citizen. This is a fact, whether talking about those who produce income or those who don’t. And, therein lies much of the division in America today. The great political—and cultural—schism, like it or not, is provably engendered and perpetuated by those who work, pay taxes, and contribute to the nation’s economic progress, versus those who don’t work, but receive the taxpayer-funded largesse of growing government that is devoted to taking care of and growing exponentially its voter base from cradle to grave. This is not to say society—particularly private charity—should neglect the truly needy, those who can’t work because of physical or mental incapacity.

Cynical? If so, it is cynicism steeped in provable statistics, the presentation of which isn’t the thrust of this essay. Such thought—at least in a general sense—is necessary, however, in order to understand the role the riches of this fallen world play in setting up today’s prophetic alignment and the nearness of the rapture.

Control/Power the Goal
The wallet issue that is front and center—that is most intensely focused on—is the “healthcare for everyone” debate. Universal coverage so that no person will go without healthcare is the proclaimed great concern the politicians parade before the sycophantic mainstream media microphones and cameras. But, in the cabals of behind-the-scenes power politics, it is ever-increasing governmental control—not equitable health care for all Americans—that many within government seek. Congressional leaders, as we know, have not been leading the way en masse to give everyone the same premium healthcare system they themselves enjoy.

Control, then, is the operative word in thinking on the question: “How near might be the rapture?” Control of economy, of monetary matters, is the thrust that impels human leaderships within government toward the time of absolute power that will corrupt absolutely. The Antichrist regime is the ultimate government that lurks in the dark haze of the prophetic future.

In the twinkling?

Glenn Beck, although I’m convinced he hasn’t a clue of what will be the true paradigm shift that will fling open the gate to enslavement, is on the mark in sensing that there hovers an unprecedented moment of crisis somewhere just ahead. That crisis just might be created on Planet Earth in the twinkling of an eye, as-a-matter-of-fact!

The Rapture will, with unbelievable swiftness, sweep everyone left behind on earth into its vortex of soul-rending calamity.

Love of Money Key to Satan’s Scheme
“It’s the economy, stupid!” is the infamous slogan spewed first by Democrat operative James Carville as a rallying cry for Bill Clinton’s presidential bid. The declaration was picked up and echoed, seemingly with glee, by mainstream news pundits and other media types. The electorate’s almost total absorption with money matters, as those matters affect their day-to-day lives, continues to plague attempts at bringing about consensus in America that we come together as one mind, one people.

Money is the central point of interest, but it is also the societal element that most widely separates we the people. Therein lies the nucleus of the problem for Lucifer’s plot to usurp the throne of God. He knows it isn’t possible to usurp the heavenly throne, but he observably has a blueprint for ruling on earth. Jerusalem and Mt. Moriah are his ultimate objectives in this regard, but more about that later.

Humanism is at the heart of Satan’s plot for achieving the installment of his man, Antichrist, on that earthly throne. He will succeed in doing so for a very brief time. To accomplish this, economy is the ingredient within the human condition that must be brought into governance under Lucifer’s authority in order to close the great schism that monetary chaos has produced and continues to perpetuate. The chasm must be breached–not in order to make life better for humanity, but to give Satan a system of buying and selling that will enslave ALL mankind.

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Revelation 13:16-17).

To avoid any misunderstanding, I am not saying that the people and their obsession with pocketbook issues is a good thing in order to throw the proverbial monkey wrench into Satan’s plans to rule on earth. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, the Bible tells us, and Americans are obsessed, probably more than any civilization that has ever existed, with money and the deadly materialism with which it infects this generation. Point is, economy–monetary intrigues–will power the engine of humanistic drive from this point forward, as never before. Anyone with any sensibility to look at what has been happening over the past months with regard to the economic dynamics shaping things in America and the world should be able to know that doing business has forever changed. The economy of the United States continues to be deliberately dismantled–and I believe it is being supernaturally accomplished–by forces determined to restructure the world for setting up the ten-kingdom governance prophesied for the time just before Christ’s return to planet earth.

“And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast” (Revelation 17:12-13).

One World Economic Order
In considering the question of “How near might be the Rapture?” I view the rush toward one-world economy almost the equivalent in order of importance to Israel being front and center on the end-times stage. A flood of other end-times-type issues only slightly less consequential than those two mentioned rage through this generation. It is difficult to prioritize them for purposes of determining their order of importance in looking at how near might be Christ’s call to the church as prophesied in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. I believe, however, that one prophetic symptom of our day has developed that stands out as being almost equivalent to Israel and the drive for one-world economic order in pointing to the nearness of the Tribulation hour: The mesmerized church.

Church Deluded
Despite the claims that the church–all blood-bought believers in Christ for salvation–is rising to meet the challenges of this troubled age, one is hard-pressed to document any such massive movement. It seems just the opposite. Anti-God movements are on the grow, aided and abetted by news and entertainment media. Rather than opposing things going on that run counter to God’s Word, there has developed entertainment-oriented, mega-church organizations that do their best to emulate the world’s glitz and glamour. They teach and preach a feel-good, do-good pabulum that surely makes the Lord of heaven want to wretch. As a matter of fact, God said it would be just this way as the time of Christ’s return nears: “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:14-16).

Antichrist Spirit Pandemic
The Antichrist spirit is alive and infecting everything in todays world system. No big surprise, right? But the demonstrable fact that it is alive and well at this very moment within so-called Christian church organizations across America is a staggering reality to consider.

Here’s what John the apostle, through divine inspiration, had to say two thousand years ago:

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1 John 4:1–3)

End times church Sickens God
The Laodicean church is symbolized as the church that will at the very end of the Church Age (Age of Grace) literally make the God of all creation sick at His stomach. The Lord describes through John that organization’s true character, and why He is sickened: Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. (Revelation 3:17)

Jesus spoke to the very things that mark the Laodicean church in foretelling the end of the age. The prophecy is prominent—is, as a matter of fact, the very first characteristic Jesus lists in His Olivet Discourse for the time just before His return: And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the [age]? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. (Matthew 24:3-5)

Only one who denies that God’s Word is truth can miss the importance of the Lord’s words here. Jesus is speaking to the deception that will be tied up in false teachings and false prophesying at the time just before He returns. Please understand that I’m not meaning next that all large, even mega-churches, are evil. Some still adhere to Bible truth in their preaching and teaching. However, the “if-we-can’t-beat-’em-we-will-join-’em” false religionists of recent years have expropriated the church’s personnel and presented a compromised message before the senses of the glitz-mad American public. The tactic has worked. The mega-church super-complexes under whose roofs the masses continue to swell mark this generation, almost certainly, as the Laodicean church. I believe these church entities are organizations or multiple level of organizations filled not with the Holy Spirit, but with the spirit of antichrist.

A primary tactic chosen by most of these organizations to draw the masses is to give people an entertainment spectacle every time they sit in the plush theater pews. Nothing wrong with being physically comfortable while sitting, but to be always spiritually comfortable sitting under preaching and teaching that should point to the more abundant life conviction of the Holy Spirit is devastating to the soul. The compromise is in the “Let’s talk about it,” feel-good, do-good message of “God loves you, and would never condemn you to a hell, which in any case, doesn’t exist.” God DOES love us—so much so that He sent His only Son, Jesus the Christ, to die as the once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sin in which we are otherwise lost forever.

The thesis-antithesis-synthesis psychobabble theologizing—“Let’s talk about it” compromise—is proof that these organizations of religiosity deny that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation—to reconciliation with God the Father. They are of the Antichrist spirit. These believe they are indeed “rich, and increased with goods, and think they have need of nothing; and know not that they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked,” in God’s holy view.

True Church’es Willful ignorance Breaking God’s Heart
Troubling as these unredeemed type of churches are in these fleeting days of this age, the overt, deliberate ignorance of things of God’s prophetic Word in those true Christian churches who still adhere to Jesus as the only Way must be heart-wrenching to the Lord of heaven. Most Christians are without any understanding of the times in which we find ourselves.

To those who study the times in light of Bible prophecy, the seminaries, pastors, teachers, and Christians in the pews of America are observably, for the most part, happily ignorant of the astonishing fact that Israel is being put in the position of Zechariah 12:1-3—that the Jewish state is being forced toward a peace from which will come Antichrist and the Tribulation.

Christians by and large have no idea that the European Union is shaping to be the matrix out of which Antichrist will come, that the Russian/Iranian/Turkey/other nation alignment is configuring for the Gog-Magog war of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39.

Today’s church can’t discern that powerful spiritual as well as geopolitical dynamics are forcing the economies of America and the world into a one-world mold that will eventuate in the ten-kingdom rearrangement of Revelation 17:12-13. They don’t see that we are in the “perilous times” of Paul’s forewarning in 2 Timothy, chapter 3. They don’t understand that this nation and the world are filled with the spirit of Antichrist, and that God’s judgment and wrath must be near.

As they go through their routines of life, Christians today are doing anything and everything except heeding the words of forewarning of our Lord: “And what I say unto one, I say unto all, watch” (Mark 13:37). He said also: “For when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption draweth near” (Luke 21:28).

A Big Surprise coming!
Jesus said one thing more. He forewarned that a great many believers will be caught by surprise at the time of His return in the Rapture: “Be ye also ready, for in an hour ye think not, the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 24:44).

Seems to me we are in such a “think not” time at present.

Chief Doctrine of Devils :: by Terry James

Published on: by RR2

I get emails almost daily from those who say something like: “I used to believe in the pre-trib rapture. But, now, after much study and prayer, I no longer believe that way. I know now that I was just following the teachings of others, and not searching out these things myself.”

This is a pattern of email that comes from a template of sorts. These who have “seen the light” are, in fact, listening to and reading those who make hatred against pre-trib rapture doctrine their specialty. These who parrot their  teachers’ diatribes against the belief that Jesus will take His own out of the “time of testing” (Rev. 3:10) always follow up with something like: “You are leading people to accept Antichrist, because they won’t recognize him when he appears.” Then they point me to links where I must go in order to get my thinking corrected.

My request to those who want to correct my theology on such matters: Please don’t send me any more of these. My truth on the things involved come from the words of the apostles Paul and Peter–from the Lord Jesus, himself. I don’t care to hear how the gurus of preterism, or some other erroneous teachers in the area of Bible prophecy, have the answers. The Holy Spirit is my guide; I’ll stick with Him.

Doctrines Not of God
This generation is living through many issues and events that are observably stage-setting for fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Therefore, it doesn’t surprise that one of the end-times signals we see on the scene today is manifestation of “doctrines of devils”: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Tim. 4:1).

Heart of Evil Doctrine
To get to the very beginning of doctrines of devils, we go back to the first time Lucifer perpetrated such a doctrine upon the first woman of God’s creation called man. Like all doctrines from the serpent, it mocked God and set the woman, her husband, Adam, and ultimately the rest of us on a course directly in opposition to the Creator’s truth:

“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:1-5).

Satan’s hissing words of deception and lies come at us like they came at Eve. He twists and obfuscates God’s promises, warnings, and commandments. “Did God really say that?” is the appeal to the so-called reason, the rationale, of mankind.

“Can God be trusted?”

The chief “doctrine” of the “doctrines of devils” is the question with which Satan continues to plague human beings. Now, the devil’s slyly questioning end-times assaults gush over the born again. The troubling truth is that the majority of the Church is falling for the serpent’s doctrine of evil.

Doctrines of devils primarily concentrate on two things. First, they try to convince that God’s Word isn’t really truth. It is subject to interpretation, thus a person can make it fit his or her generation and personal situation in ways that do not condemn his or her actions. This theology/philosophy advocates for situational ethics (no absolute truth instead if it’s more convenient–if the situation warrants–it’s okay to do it).

Satan’s deluding methodology in foisting this deception is to give his teachers the Antichrist instrumentalities of spiritualizing, allegorizing, and symbolizing truth that is meant to be presented as literal.

Secondly, doctrines of devils tell the sinner that there is no consequence for sin. The serpent used both of these seductive lies on Eve, and has been using the same deluding doctrine ever since.

Some Examples
Several key samples of doctrines of devils are intertwined within issues on the scene today. While getting the truth to the unsaved world is important, telling those who have unregenerate minds (minds that are unable to understand spiritual truth) is a different mission than that of telling those saved about the doctrines of devils that confront God’s children each and every moment. The only truth we should put before the unsaved from God’s Word is: “Ye must be born again,” the message Jesus proclaimed (John 3:3).

These examples are based in doctrines of devils, and those who have Christ indwelling them (God the Holy Spirit), if they are obedient and not determined to exert their own will, can know the good vs. evil wrapped up in the issues involved–i.e., those who are truly Christians can know the right and wrong of these examples that follow. As a matter of fact, Christians are commanded by the Lord to understand. For those who do not have regenerate minds that Christ brings to believers, the only hope for helping them with understanding the right and wrong of such matters is to appeal to their reason and to their sense of conscience. Trying to appeal to the fallen mind is almost always a losing proposition.

On the other hand, the Christian’s only excuse might be to some slight extent that he or she is not getting truth from the pulpits and church classrooms. The excuse is almost non-existent, however, because Christians in America are exposed constantly to the truth, due to the ubiquitous means of communications in this nation. More to the point, Christians have the written Word of God–the Bible—to study.

The fact, of course, is that Christians are so wrapped up in the cares of this world that the majority spends no time in private study of the Holy Scriptures. This is why the doctrines of devils are so effective in leading the Church, as a whole, down the primrose path to apostasy. Most cannot, or choose not to, discern right from wrong in the key moral issues of our time.

Abortion
Despite the fact that men and women of God such as Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Tim and Beverly LaHaye, and many Christian organizations, have for decades  appealed to the family of God–Christians—to stand up in opposition to the abortionists, who have now seen to it that nearly 50 million babies have been slaughtered since Roe vs. Wade in 1973, the Church remains asleep, for all practical purposes.

The people of God act more like the people of their father, the devil, falling for the deluding doctrine that it is the woman’s right to choose whether her child lives or dies. Satan still whispers in the ears of the willfully ignorant: “Yea, hath God said?”

Even the believers in Christ for salvation are held captive under the luciferian lie that human beings have the God-like right to choose on such matters as life and death. Christians continue to wallow in that ignorance, despite the fact that murdering babies by the millions have brought horrendous consequences. Mothers are torn asunder physically, mentally, and spiritually. America suffers the complete reversal of its God-blessed early years, as families are ripped to shreds and morality is turned upside-down.

Homosexuality
A most abominable doctrine of devils, according to God’s Holy Word, homosexuality is in process of bringing America to the final stages of her being a dominant nation-state force on the world scene. The turning upside-down of even Christians’ thinking on this sin that the Lord finds most egregious is thrown in God’s face laughingly, mockingly, by the great deceiver. We have come to call this death-style a “gay” lifestyle. The Body of Christ scarcely gives a glance at this blasphemous sin, except for a collective raised eyebrow upon hearing of  the Catholic priests or the occasional Christian ministers who get caught in scandal involving homosexuality.

Doctrines of Devils–Prophetic Application
Satan’s modus operandi is the same, then. He continues to whisper, sometimes shout, through the militancy of pro abortionists and pro homosexual protesters that there are no consequences for these things, which aren’t even sins. God’s Word is suspect, is the luciferian whisper. The Bible is neither inerrant nor the final Word on how humankind should conduct life. The Bible is merely a good book that can be viewed any way the reader sees fit, as is most convenient.

This brings us to the matter of God’s promises. Satan’s lies are meant to convince that God’s promises are no good. God doesn’t–isn’t–even capable of keeping His promises. Therefore, if He does exist, God is no more meaningful or important than the individual human being. So, just do what is right in your own eyes.

The deception goes further. Jesus didn’t resurrect. He isn’t coming back, literally. If anything, He left us with the Christ-spirit, which teaches us how to live happy, peaceful lives–free of guilt. God will not judge sin, if indeed there is such a thing. The only part of the Bible that can be trusted is that part that says God is love. If He loves people, He could never condemn them–could never judge them with wrath. Revelation–the book of God’s wrath and judgment on sin—therefore has no place in the canon of Scripture. This lie that there is not judgment and wrath coming to a world of rebels is the chief doctrine of devils for these days that look like the end of the Age of Grace.

Devil’s Hatred of Rapture Teaching
The chief “doctrine of devils” is that God’s Word isn’t the final Word. The Bible can be picked and chosen over in order to come to one’s own conclusion of what it says. Just like in the Garden of Eden, Satan proposes that we look at God’s Word with an extremely skeptical eye.

This “doctrine” has been foisted upon and accepted by much of Christianity today. The most observable manifestations of this acceptance is, as has been pointed out earlier, the mega-church movement, with its chief movers and shakers often joining in  ecumenical efforts to save the world through social programs.

These accept the lie that God’s Word isn’t to be taken literally in all cases. This is especially true in the case of the Bible putting forth Christ as the one and only Way to salvation. It isn’t hard to see, then, that these false teachers would be scoffers at the notion that Jesus would come in the rapture for His Church.

It is interesting to note, too, that these same preachers and teachers who are caught up in the religiosity of the times do not see the nation Israel as being God’s chosen people. They, for the most part, believe modern Israel–the Jewish people—is no longer inheritor of God’s promises. God, they believe, has abandoned Israel, and modern Israel isn’t in any way a part of God’s future plan. All prophecy, in fact, is subject to man’s own response to doing social good. Man can change prophecy by doing good. Prophecy is in the Bible, so most of their thinking goes, only as a warning of how things might turn out if people refuse to do good works such as save the hungry, stop doing things to cause global warming, eliminate nuclear weapons, etc.

The chief doctrine of devils tells us to ignore prophecy, so far as taking it literally. Rick Warren, for example, says in his Purpose-Driven Life that Jesus always diverted the attention of His disciples from thinking about prophecy. Jesus, He implied, just didn’t want to talk about thing to come.

An appropriate question to ask him and others of his viewpoint is: What about the Olivet Discourse? It is recorded in three of the Gospels. It is in-depth, and gives specific things that will be in view while the end of human history nears, just before His second advent. The Lord tells His disciples throughout the centuries to watch for these things (Mark 13:37).

Paul the apostle and Jesus himself give specific prophecies that promise the Christians will be personally taken to Heaven by Jesus. Some will be alive when they are suddenly taken from this world after being instantly changed into immortal bodies. Those who are dead in Christ (have died believers in Christ) will be resurrected and given immortal bodies, and will join with all believers of the Church Age with Jesus in the atmosphere above Planet Earth.

The chief doctrine of devils, which calls God a liar, denies that Israel is God’s chosen people, and that the Church is destined to instantly go to be with the Lord. Many Christians in these apostate times believe this doctrine from the father of lies so strongly that, as stated in the beginning of this article, they incessantly, and more often than not with scoffing, angry invective, assault our belief that God’s Word is to be taken literally in the matter of God’s prophetic promises.

They refuse to see that the Lord of Heaven has determined two prophetic programs that dovetail into one. Israel and the Church will ultimately fulfill God’s plan for bringing out of His creation called man a people that will love Him unconditionally. His family will one eternal day be complete. His Word will be proven absolutely, literally true in every aspect of His promises to those who love Him.