To many who think about Bible prophecy yet future, the thought is that the Tribulation will be an era completely against all restrictions imposed by religious order. It will be a free-wheeling, anything-goes time of hedonism and evil deportment of every description.

To an extent, this will be true. But immediately following the removal of the Church, a religious system will develop that harnesses all people left behind with religiosity beyond any that has ever before existed. We understand this by the following words John was given in his Patmos vision:

“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).

This worship will be demanded and directed by the second beast of Revelation chapter 13: the False Prophet.

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (Revelation 13:15).

So those left behind on earth after the removal of the Church in the Rapture will be, rather than free of religious restrictiveness, harnessed with the threat of death if they refuse to obey the most severe religious system ever imposed upon humanity. It will be a worldwide religion with Satan’s Antichrist as the object of worship.

Those who view Bible prophecy especially from the pre-Trib viewpoint have watched for numerous religious belief systems to come together in an “ecumenical” arrangement. That is, many different religions will, we believe, form a religious amalgamation Satan will use, through the False Prophet, to bring about the Revelation 13 system of worship. That system will require that people either worship the Beast (Antichrist) or die.

Additionally, many who investigate this prophecy believe the Catholic system of religious dogma will somehow be at the center of that ecumenical formation the closer the time nears to Christ’s call for the true Church to join Him in the clouds of Glory. This is because of what we believe is Catholicism’s false worship system with, for example, there being a number of mediators between God and man.

The tremendous spread of that system—which places a man (the pope) in place of Christ on earth—also gives reason to believe Catholicism will be at the center of the false worship system of Revelation 13.

I believe it is more than merely an interesting coincidence that in every direction we look at the world’s cultural horizon, we see the stage being set for the fulfillment of prophecies surrounding Christ’s soon return. At the same time, a profound matter of ecumenical movement involving the Catholic Church comes dramatically into the mix.

The Vatican Apostolic Library, one of the world’s most prestigious repositories of religious scholarship, has confirmed it now provides a dedicated prayer space for Muslim academics visiting its collections. This move has ignited passionate debate about the growing ties between the Vatican and Islam.

The revelation emerged from an interview between Italian newspaper La Repubblica and Father Giacomo Cardinali, the 48-year-old Vice Prefect of the Vatican Library. Speaking casually about the institution’s role as a global research hub, Father Cardinali disclosed: “Some Muslim scholars have asked us for a room with a carpet for praying, and we have given it to them.”

The comment, embedded in a broader discussion about the library’s digitization efforts and extraordinary collection, has since reverberated through Catholic and interfaith circles worldwide.

The decision represents a historic departure from Vatican tradition. As the center of the Catholic Church, Vatican City State has never before hosted non-Catholic places of worship within its borders. The world’s smallest sovereign nation—with a population of approximately 800 residents—consists entirely of Catholic citizenry and clergy. The establishment of a prayer space for Islamic worship, even in the context of academic hospitality, marks an unprecedented accommodation in the Vatican’s 95-year history as an independent state.

This makes Father Cardinali’s seemingly casual announcement all the more significant, as it introduces for the first time a designated space for non-Catholic religious practice within the walls of Vatican City. (“Vatican Opens Muslim Prayer Room Sparking Fierce Debate,” Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, Israel365 News, October 19, 2025)

The great angst this has created is that Islam and the Catholics’ supposed Christian views are incompatible. Allah is the only god in Islam, and the thrust of Allah’s supposed dictate is to rid the world of all infidels and make everyone a Muslim.

Yet here we witness the ecumenical movement defying all odds while these two massive, worldwide religious entities apparently are coming together in what some have termed “Chrislam”—the merging of Christianity with Islam.

So, one more element of the stage being set for the terrifying Tribulation is coming to the forefront for us to plainly see. The previous pontiff, Pope Francis, said on numerous occasions that there are many ways to Heaven other than just through Jesus Christ. He said, too, that even atheists will be in Heaven. The Vatican has not disavowed this satanic lie in any way, I have heard. Islam, therefore, I must presume, fits within the Vatican’s view of what constitutes Christianity.

With the preponderance of evidence that God is on the verge of instructing His Son to bring His family to Him from the earth, such developments as this movement into end-times ecumenism is a major signal of where we stand on God’s prophetic timeline.

It was a great reassurance recently to hear Dr. David Jeremiah given time by Fox Network to answer questions by Fox News religious correspondent Lauren Green about true Christianity:

Q. Lauren Green: A lot of people are trying to earn their way into Heaven. Why is that not the right thinking?

A. Dr. David Jeremiah: That is the answer of every religion except Christianity, which isn’t a religion—It is a relationship!

If we try to reach God by way of works, nobody can do it. That’s why He sent His Perfect Son, Jesus Christ, who never sinned and was crucified on the cross for us.

If we put our trust in Him, He has promised to wash away our sins!

Here is how to make certain you have your sins washed away and will go to Heaven.

“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). 

Author’s note: This article was first published on Monday, June 12, 2006. Considering we are, I believe, in the time that’s “as it was in the days of Noah” foretold by Jesus (Luke 17:26), I believe it’s good to again think a bit on the obvious invasion from the evil dimension the world faces.

We know of the violence taking place in the world today. It might even be equal to the violence of those antediluvian times. However, the other primary evil of Noah’s day is a bit harder to equate to this day and time.

The other “evil” I refer to is the corruption that had infected the entire world and caused God, following the death of Methuselah, to destroy everyone on earth except Noah and his immediate family.

Most who study the Genesis record–myself included—believe the genetic contamination that had corrupted all flesh came from the fallen angels who had sexual relations with human women, producing the Nephilim. That “corruption” doesn’t seem to be the tack of Satan in this day and age. I, at least, haven’t heard of such corruptive intermingling (except within the fiction coming from the entertainment industry).

But we can be sure Satan’s intention remains the same: He wants to corrupt God’s order of things, especially the order of things related to humanity.

The devil continues to do his worst in this regard. We see this effort at every turn. You don’t have to be either a male or female; you can now be whatever you wish. More than one hundred genders are possible, I’ve heard.

The AI phenomenon is now experimentally employed to meld in some way with human flesh–particularly with the brain—to create superintelligent beings that, some scientist types claim, are beyond human. Hormone infusion and surgical invasions are used to attempt to recreate humans in bizarre ways that confound rationale.

So, the corruption of the order God created is under assault. We know this from Ephesians 6:12 and the struggle against the principalities and powers in high places the Apostle Paul described.

This all tells us God is about to again intervene into the affairs of humankind and all the evil corruption like He did in Noah and Lot’s day. I therefore present this article again, written long ago, but more relevant than ever as we “look up” for our Lord’s call to “come up here!”      

Last-Days Invasion

We just observed D-Day in honor of the Allied forces who invaded parts of Europe, the action that began in earnest the drive toward victory over Hitler’s Nazi military in 1944. Last week, I wrote about how June 6, 2006, was honored by much of the media to hype a movie, The Omen, which was released that day.

The “D” seemed to stand for “Devil-Day” in that 6/6/06 instance, rather than for the D-Day celebration in remembrance of sacrifices made by Allied troops invading Normandy and the other beaches on June 6, 1944.

I would like to continue dealing with thoughts about the present invasion taking place. This contemporary assault is infinitely more deadly than the dangers faced in that long-ago invasion of France. It is infinitely more dangerous because it is–in truth—supernatural. In other words, it involves eternal matters. It involves the spiritual world rather than the physical. I should say it involves the spiritual world MORE than the physical world, because the two are intricately intertwined.

Again, I see two primary areas of Holy Scripture involved in this warfare. Both emphasize the supernatural dangers and spiritual nature of the warfare:

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

So, Satan is the general leading this end-time assault. He leads some quite terrifying forces in his stalking back and forth upon the earth:

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

With but a modicum of effort in searching through the Word of God about end-times things, we can see how the contemporary assault by Satan and his forces of evil links to the devil’s past efforts. And, we can see where it is all leading in this wind-up of human history.

These last-days things are fresh in my mind while I promote my novel, The Rapture Dialogues. The subtitle, Dark Dimension, says it all. The end-time warfare is with extradimensional, not extraterrestrial, beings. We can identify these supposedly unidentified flying objects if we open our minds and hearts through spiritual discernment written about in 1 Corinthians 2:14.

The link between the human, fleshly elements of this conflict and the supernatural or spiritual elements is undeniable if we properly analyze and dissect the matters involved.

Jesus–the Greatest of all Prophets (because He is God), said the following:

“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 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 17:26-30).

Jesus said history would repeat itself. Things will happen almost precisely like they did in Noah’s day before the Flood and in the days of Lot and the destruction of Lot’s hometown, Sodom, and nearby Gomorrah. What happened that was so grievous to the Lord that He determined to erase these societies from the earth’s surface?

I believe it was sin, of course, speaking in general terms. Sin always ultimately brings God’s wrath and judgment. The wages of sin is death, Scripture tells us. But I see a much more specific sin that lies at the heart of the civilizations mentioned in those judgments of the antediluvian world and ancient Sodom and Gomorrah.

The link is strong between the fleshly, or physical, realm and the spiritual, or supernatural, realm in these cases. That is made clear in the following:

“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities” (Jude 1:6-8).

Do you see that linkage? It is the phrase “going after strange flesh” that connects the human to the supernatural in considering the matter of this end-time invasion Jesus said will be a recurrence of soul/flesh-corrupting things that happened in antediluvian and ancient times.

In the matter of the supernatural realm, we see in Genesis 6:1-3 that the “sons of God” went after “strange flesh.” That is, a number of angels who fell with Lucifer in the great rebellion and were cast out of Heaven saw the “daughters of men” (human women) and came down and cohabitated with them—producing hybrid offspring of the natural and the supernatural. Going after “strange flesh,” then, means doing something that is against the order God established.

These offspring were “men of renown,” the Scriptures tell us. These were doubtless the creatures from which Greek, Norse, and Roman mythologies derive, to some extent.

Genesis 19 tells the full story of the “strange flesh” Jude alludes to in verses 6–8. This is expounded upon by Paul the apostle in Romans 1. The “strange flesh” is men going after men and women after women in the sexual sense–burning in their lusts one toward the other, and receiving in themselves the payment for their sin, which, God’s Word says, is a fitting punishment.

The end-time invasion Jesus prophesied is, I’m convinced, well underway. Key among the elements of Satan’s assault is a return of the dark, spiritual beings in high places–the extradimensional, not extraterrestrial, beings, again trying to corrupt the “seed” of humankind through the sightings, encounters, abductions, ghostly appearances, visitations, stigmata phenomena, and all of the rest of these strange things reported even by documentaries like those on the Discovery and History channels every week. The prime-time invasion will, I’m equally convinced, take place in the Tribulation era (Daniel’s seventieth week), as outlined in the “strong delusion” of 2 Thessalonians 2.

On the human level, the corruption is taking place through “going after strange flesh”—doing a thing totally against God’s established order. Men, again, are lusting after men, and women after women on a scale like in those ancient times, while Hollywood and many in government and media promote this lifestyle that’s deadly to the continuation of the human race.

All of this indicates just how near this generation must be to the time Christ will step out on the clouds of Glory and shout, “Come up here!” The final war called Armageddon that will result from this satanic invasion approaches rapidly. The rapture of those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior cannot be far distant.