Author’s note: Again, this series was first posted in 2007. The dated news, however, reminds that things of prophetic import are becoming ever more swiftly into view in 2026.

The rebelliousness of the creature called man is, in my view, manifest blatantly for the student of God’s truth to discern in a particular news story that occurred this past week. The media and politically correct crowd’s uproar over the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff making the comment—when asked his personal opinion—that he thought members of the same sex in the military who engage in sex with each other are committing immoral acts was quite telling. The voracious feeding frenzy to start the drumbeat for having Gen. Peter Pace removed from his position in the Pentagon has fueled new vitriolic invective against those who hold to such “unenlightened” prejudices.

God, incidentally, is obviously included in our ranks. His Word, the Bible—the instruction manual for the creature, mankind, whom he made from the dirt upon which we stand—says about homosexuality:

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was [fitting]” (Romans 1:26-27).

The Creator’s Word against homosexuality is even more powerful in an Old Testament prescription for those who engage in that activity. (If it makes you angry, get mad at God, not me. I don’t make the rules. He does.)

“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood [shall be] upon them” (Leviticus 20:13).

I know what will be one of the objections: This was for the Israelites, not today’s people. Really? Well, in giving the prescription for living, God hasn’t changed for any people at any time. Jesus, we have established, is Creator of all things, and by His power holds all things together. This, God’s Word says about the Lord of all creation:

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8).

The problem is, as we’ve seen this week with this one issue, fallen mankind will not have the God of Heaven rule on Planet Earth. Since the Fall, man has determined to do what is right in his own eyes. This is an attitude for catastrophe. Human government is fatally flawed. These have tried to create a utopian Earth for millennia. All efforts to do it their way—apart from God—have met with abject failure.

The earliest attempt of human government, which followed the Flood of Noah’s antediluvian era, was Nimrod’s attempt to build the tower to Heaven (read Genesis chapter 11). The Lord knew this would end in disaster for mankind, so He came down and separated the one-world builders by giving multiple languages, thus driving them to diverse places around the globe. But man has spent the millennia since that time circumventing God’s intervention. The one-world drive is again being pursued in a concerted effort by the powers elite.

When things reach a certain point of depravity, God always has intervened. A prime example was when He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. (Read Genesis, chapter 19, to learn about both the depravity and the Lord’s intervention.) Which gets us to the thing about end-of-days scenarios I would like to explore.

Jesus Himself set the prophetic stage for a future time when He will again intervene—catastrophically—into depraved man’s playhouse of lasciviousness. He said:

“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” (Luke 17:28-29).

This is a description of a society, a culture, a generation going forward with business as usual. Jesus prophesied that it would be just like this when judgment from Heaven would fall, at the time of His end-of-days intervention. It is not, however, a description of the Tribulation era when Jesus comes physically to earth, as foretold in Revelation 19:11. At that time, as many as two-thirds of the earth’s population will have died in the apocalyptic judgments. It will not be business as usual, like the Lord describes here. The things that transpire here, though not as disastrous as things will get later in man’s last grasp to rule himself, will still be calamitous. And the possible scenarios presented are mesmerizing.

Let us look at my postulations, based upon the pre-Trib view of the Rapture, which, of course, we at Rapture Ready are convinced is the correct view, from God’s perspective.

Jesus’ description of Lot’s being removed from that condemned city is almost certainly a picture of the Rapture of the only good God sees on this earth—born-again Christians—the Church Jesus began building, and which was born at Pentecost (in Acts, Chapter 2). Lot, Abraham’s nephew, although not a perfect example of living a godly life, was nonetheless considered a “just” man in God’s eyes. That is, the Lord saw Lot as righteous, a believer–one who accepted God’s governance over his life, accepted God’s salvation plan. Lot and his family lived in a society that was, well, much like ours. It was wicked to its black core. Incidentally, homosexuality had, in that society, become accepted as—even expected to be—part of life in Sodom.

God removed Lot, and His wrath began to fall upon that wicked, ungovernable people. Jesus indicated that this is exactly what will happen near the time of His coming again. It will happen at the Rapture—at least seven years before He comes back and touches down on the Mount of Olives. The first part of God’s wrath, I’m convinced, will be His removal from the consciences of earth-dwellers. The people left behind will have rejected God’s governance.

Now, raptured saints will perhaps, from the balcony of Heaven, be given a God’s-eye view of whether the rebels’ claim that they don’t need God to govern them is true.

Millions will vanish in a millisecond—an atomos of time—the prophecy tells us. This nation, the United States of America, which had at the same time more gospel light than any other nation of history and access to more filth and depravity than even ancient Rome at its decadent, orgiastic worst, will experience an implosion that, upon its contemplation, staggers the imagination.

We will look at my scenarios in this regard next week.

—Terry

Again, I state that the end-of-days scenarios I lay out in this essay are speculation based upon my years of prayer, study, observations, and thought. I’m sure there are many who view things to come in a much different way, even among those of us who hold to the premillennial, pre-Tribulation view. So, I present this for your consideration as a likely possibility, not as set in biblical stone.

First, let’s look at the way the world is configured.

The United States of America is the world’s lone superpower. Whether looking at military, economic, societal, technological, or whatever category we want to look at, America stands alone at the top of the nation-heap. I use the word “heap” because this world is built upon garbage—filth from the heart and mind of its father, the devil. Boy! I know how cynical that seems. But God says no one is good but One: “And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God” (Mark 10:18). 

Since sin entered the world, humanity has been fallen. Humankind must have redemption found only in God, the Son. People must be born again or they cannot even see the kingdom of God: “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

Jesus’ words here have dual meaning to me: 1) those who refuse Christ by rejecting their need for a new, spiritual birth will not go to Heaven upon death; and 2) they cannot even understand Heaven and things of God without the new birth into God’s family. I base the latter assessment upon the following words of the Apostle Paul: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

This is going to sound even more off-putting, but it is true, nonetheless. Christians are the only “good” in this downward-spiraling world. Now, am I saying that I, in my fleshly efforts, am better than the one who does not claim Christ as Savior and Lord? No, absolutely not! I must say that, in one regard, I am like Paul—not his lovely Christian side, rather the other. Paul said: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not” (Romans 7:18).

Only through Christ is anyone viewed as “good” in God’s sight. Only through Jesus does a person become fit to inherit an eternal home in Heaven.

All humanly born and humanly devised matters are due for God’s judgment and for eternity apart from God because He cannot abide sin. Sin must be dealt with, and Jesus is the way sin is forever eradicated.

When it comes to the future, all hinges upon the person and presence of Jesus Christ as Redeemer.

So, why all that to get to the speculation of what will happen from here to eternity? Because Christians are the key in my stream-of-consciousness, unfolding scenarios for the end of days. God’s final wrath and judgment will not begin falling until the only good there is in this world is removed. This truth is found in the words of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9).

When Christians are removed in the Rapture (read 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), the things on earth will change dramatically. We get a prophetic glimpse of the removal of Christians from the planet in Paul’s additional words to the Thessalonians: “And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7).

The word “he” in verse 7 refers to God the Holy Spirit removing from His office as He interacted with humankind during the Age of Grace (Church Age–which is this present dispensation). The Holy Spirit, resident in the Church during this dispensation, will, in the moment of Rapture, no longer work in the same way as now. He will interact with humans much as He did during the time before the Church was born at Pentecost (Acts, chapter 2). (I know some believe the Church was born on the shores of Galilee earlier, when Christ called forth the first disciples. I disagree.)

The Holy Spirit living within Christians is the only “good” to be found in people. The Rapture will take that “good” to be with Jesus Christ for eternity.

All who are “born again” (see John 3:3) will go to their heavenly homes (dwelling places) Jesus has been preparing for them since He ascended to the right hand of God the Father (read John 14:1-3). These will include everyone–dead and living—who has accepted Christ for salvation of their souls. No good people will be left on the planet–that is, none that are “good” in God’s holy view.

With the Holy Spirit no longer acting to influence the consciences of humans in ways as powerful as He does at present, human actions and reactions will be exponentially accelerated for the worse.

We will begin to explore likely scenarios for the period immediately following the Rapture in next week’s commentary.

—Terry