End Times Extremes and the Rapture :: By Terry James

Each and every hour, new and more highly pressurized dangers fill these end times with extremes. These occurrences aren’t necessarily unprecedented. However, these slam into our environment –our life’s surroundings—on a stepped-up pace and impact that seems unprecedented –at least from my perspective, and, I believe, from the vantage point of all who truly “watch” as Jesus instructed as recorded in Mark 13:37.

The end of the age signals of God’s again beginning to deal with this fallen world in Judgment is, I observe, even recognized by those in news media. Being blind now since age 51 or so, I often just listen to audio-only forums –radio, podcasts, talk shows of the political sort, etc., to get the very latest unfolding of issues and events. These news purveyors are forced into painting word pictures rather than relying on the screen graphics to explain to the viewers.

It is clear to me that many of these broadcasters and podcasters are flummoxed, are frustrated, not being able to explain the upside-down world matters about which they inform their publics. Their secular world views and perspectives are out of whack, and they struggle, like their audiences, in their search for answers to why the world seems to be going crazy.

One such recent incident was the murder of Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of the Turning Point USA political forum that attempts to reach younger people with a conservative message of hope for the nation and world.

When he was shot and killed while speaking to a college campus audience in Utah, the reaction to his death was dumbfounding to many of the admittedly more conservative media sorts to which I listen. These broadcasters and podcasters reported, with astonishment in some cases, that the cyberspace forum TikTock was full of myriads of young people praising the assassination in the most vulgar terms imaginable.

Even though those reporting this evil know that the leftist ideology is full of such hate, they were stunned and in disbelief that such hatred would be manifest in such a blatant display.

These seemingly insane people were wildly elated at their young peer’s assassination for no other reason than that he spoke to them and debated with them on geopolitical issues, and disagreed with their ideology. Most of the program hosts I heard couldn’t fathom that, in America, such attitude by an entire generation could be so fanatically disposed as to cheer the violent death that took a young father from his wife and two young children.

There were a few such media pundits who implied that it was a lack of religious training, with prayers and Bible reading taken out of public-school classrooms, that might have had something of an influence on these raving, young haters. And I was surprised that a very few conservative talk show hosts expressed that they believed demon activity to be involved. Mark Levin, to my surprise, talked about Charlie Kirk’s strong Christian witness. Levin, a Jew, gave Charlie’s message in a most reverential tone. It was the Gospel of Jesus Christ in every detail.

However, the news forum hosts failed in most cases to indicate they understand that their own peers –the mainstream news types—were in large part responsible for the outrageous, bloodthirsty rants on TikTok and other leftist forums.

To make that charge against their colleagues would, it might be thought— make them themselves (the conservative pundits) complicit. –“Thus, because they had not adamantly opposed the so-called liberal press in its always covering up for leftist hatred, even trying always to turn their audience’s attention to the responsibility for the evil to be the fault of one Donald John Trump and his supporters.

This devil-controlled mainstream media –news and entertainment– have indeed “seduced” the young of an entire generation into becoming as wicked as the father of lies, who foments such evil as murdering anyone who disagrees with you.

God’s Holy Word tells, through prophecy, exactly the cause and effect of the ultimate influencer –Satan’s master plan to bring all into his hellish sphere.

The Apostle Paul prophesied:

“But evil men and seducers will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13). 

The media agglomerate in general encourages violence by refusing to point to those really responsible for the often deadly actions perpetrated by violent protesters. They thereby are seducers –seducing those who fall for their lies. For example, I believe most will remember that with an area of Los Angeles burning in the background and chaos all around that city due to an enraged leftist horde, a mainstream network reporter stood in front of the camera telling us that what she was covering was a “mostly peaceful” protest.

A number of people died in that and similar riots around the nation during that time frame, and it was all inspired by the media slanting coverage against anyone and anything that supported conservative legislative and executive actions. Mainstream media, through their heavily biased reporting, caused the leftist ideologues –especially many among the college-age youth– to go insane with rage. Added to this was the constant race-baiting that enflamed the core populace of many large American cities.

The insane leftist (communistic) demand in the face of this lawlessness was –and continues to be—to defund the police. And the crimes, and especially violent crimes, in the large cities run by leftists, continue to explode. So much so that the president took it into his own administration’s hands to clean up Washington, D.C., the one city in the U.S. under the ultimate authority of the federal government. The results have been spectacular. The number of murders that were ubiquitous throughout certain areas of D.C. was suddenly eliminated almost completely –within only a matter of weeks.

Still, the insane calls to defund policing authorities within the large cities are demanded by those leftist mayors and city councils. Some even threaten to go to war with any federal forces that might be used to quell the lawlessness and bring back sanity for the people who must live within the violence their streets have attracted and nurtured.

Just as the end times extremes within the political and cultural milieu are plainly made manifest for all who observe these fleeting days of this Church Age through the Prophetic Lens of God’s Prophetic Word, so too is the manifestation of the geophysical.

Those within the leftist ideology examined above have been deluded by the seducing forces foretold by Paul the apostle. Those so seduced believe in the global warming-climate change hoax. –Thus, even though scientific studies have concluded time after time –and through daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and decades-long studies and observation that there has been no global warming, other than normal such cycles found throughout earth’s history.

And yet the scientists and weather experts are seemingly stumped that suddenly there are weather phenomena, as well as unusual earth convulsions throughout the planet. They attempt to explain and to allay concerns, even fears, that something inexplicable is happening to the physical environment.

There are explanations such as the sun adjusting as it has apparently done for millions of years, or that the earth’s molten iron core gyroscope is transitioning through yet another phase, and offer many other suppositions beyond my understanding.

I do understand that God’s Prophetic Word offers the explanation of how the geophysical and astrophysical environmental endangerment will manifest at the time Christ’s Return approaches. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ, the Creator of all that is, told his disciples immediately surrounding him at the time, and through His Forecast at that time, prophesied to all of us now alive who are observing these end times environmental manifestations.

“Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven” (Luke 21:10-11).

Jesus foretold further about how environmental turmoil, both humanistically and geo-physically speaking, would increase with troubling intensity as time for His coming again nears…

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken” (Luke 21:25-26).

Just a quick glance at weather-related news on any given day proves the ratcheting up of strange, endangering atmospheric phenomena in many areas of the world. I’ve chosen only two such reports because of limited space in this rather lengthy commentary. I could have included a great many such reports from around the planet.

Strong Winds, Baseball-Sized Hail Pound Central Kansas
Severe thunderstorms slammed Wichita and other parts of Central Kansas with damaging hail and wind gusts Wednesday evening. See how hail as big as golf balls and baseballs rained down during the wild weather, making a mess of roads, damaging vehicles, and knocking out power to thousands of customers.

Severe floods collapse buildings, kill at least 6 people in Bali, Indonesia
At least six people were killed after torrential rains triggered severe flooding across Bali, Indonesia, between September 9 and 10, 2025. The floods inundated large parts of Denpasar, caused the collapse of multiple buildings, and left several people missing, while hundreds were evacuated to safer areas.

[Source: Rapture Ready News September 11, 2025]

Many such reports now flood my news sources daily. Strange weather and earthquakes and other anomalies indicate, I believe, the end times extremes Jesus forewarned for the immediate days leading to His Second Advent.

All of this can be summed up in the words a friend said recently to me. It is a statement I seem to be thinking, if not audibly stating rather regularly to myself. It is a statement I’m sure you, the reader, have thought and perhaps stated.

“I’ve never seen it like this before” or “It’s crazy, all the things going on…”

This is exactly the time of extremes Jesus, I believe, was thinking about when He instructed:

“And when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Promise of His Coming :: By Terry James

Author’s note: The article for this week was first posted Monday, September 20, 2010. My reason for reposting it this week might seem rather unusual–perhaps even odd.

Let me explain.

Upon awakening early the other day, as is my usual way, the first moments of clarity came to me out of nowhere and wouldn’t leave.

The thought was that I had been saved at the age of six. Since I was born in 1942, that made the year I was born again 1948.

The thought wouldn’t leave. I was “born again” the same year–1948—Israel was “reborn” as a nation into modernity.

Somehow, that all congealed into the need to write or find an article I had written on the importance of the rebirth of God’s chosen people, Israel, to the nearness of the Rapture.

Researching my personal article archives led me to the following.

Promise of His Coming

A biblically prophetic reality that perfectly fits our present day, and that has been looked at a number of times, is the warning given by the Apostle Peter, especially to the generation alive at the end of the Church Age:

“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation’” (2 Peter 3:3-4).

In almost every case of looking at this prophecy, the point has been exclusively dwelt upon that both the religious and nonreligious of the world mockingly chide those of us who believe Jesus Christ will return to the earth. This prophecy has observably come to pass in our time.

However, it is the phrase “promise of his coming” I would like to consider here.

Like the 2 Peter 3:3-4 prophecy, so many other things developing in these troubling although exciting times testify mightily to the evidence that God absolutely keeps His Word. Scripture promises, for example, that ultimately, no matter how scattered and oppressed the Jewish people have been throughout history, Israel will be a nation forever.

“Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord” (Leviticus 26:44-45).

Israel was restored to the land after centuries of the people being removed from their own land and being persecuted unmercifully in the nations to which they were scattered. They were regathered and established again as a nation in a single day, just as foretold.

“Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. ‘Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth?’ saith the LORD: ‘shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb?’ saith thy God. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her” (Isaiah 66:8-10).

That miracle rebirth took place May 14, 1948, following perhaps the house of Israel’s most horrendous persecution, which it suffered under the Nazis. No other nation has been so torn apart and scattered to the winds of history, then regathered, having its original language restored. The Lord proved He alone is God. His promise to Israel goes into the future for His chosen people:

“’Also I will restore the captivity of my people Israel, and they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit. I will also plant them on their land, and they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them,’ says the Lord your God” (Amos 9:14-15).

Israel’s God is God! There is no other God. He continues to prove who He is through Israel. This, doubtless, is one extremely important reason He chose that people: to demonstrate the absolute veracity of His Holy Word. That same Word—who is the very Person of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:1)—has made a promise of staggering importance to His other chosen people.

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).

His coming again for God’s other chosen people–the Church (every born-again member of Christ’s body during this Age of Grace)—is assured. It is 100 percent certain because He continues to prove His faithfulness through the nation Israel and by keeping every prophetic promise He has made.

Jesus tells us who constitutes His chosen Bride:

“Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Revelation 3:10).

He promises:

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).

Jesus is coming. It could be the very next moment!