Donation Drive September to November

It has now been 39 years that Rapture Ready has been an online resource for end-times information. I started the site sometime in September of 1987 while I was an airman stationed at Offutt Air Force Base. My computer was an Apple II clone made by Franklin Computer Co. It featured all green text, and there was no mouse.

A few weeks ago, I was talking with Terry, and I actually thought we were only coming up on our third decade. I did some quick math in my head and realized the big 4-0 was coming up. I was also shocked that I’ve been retired from the military for nearly as long as my 20-year service.

There was no grand opening for the site because, for the first few years, few people cared what I posted in the global newsgroups system–now extinct. When the graphic Internet came along with the 1994 release of Netscape Navigator, I switched to posting the site on a stand-alone domain.

The changes I find most amazing are Rapture Ready’s growth. In the early days, I could go on a two-week trip and come back without anyone noticing my absence. Today, I have to check something related to the site at least six times a day. The traffic went from zero to one thousand in the ’90s, to tens of thousands in the 00s, and to hundreds of thousands in the past few years. Today we measure our traffic in millions of hits.

I was recently watching a YouTube video, which made me realize that the current AI craze could be very helpful to the site. It has long been obvious that once the rapture takes place, there will be no one left to manage the Rapture Ready domain. I once jokingly asked for someone to volunteer to stay behind to manage the site.

For decades, computer programs have required manual labor to tell them what to do at each stage. We input the information, and the program would produce results. Now, there are AI agents that will quickly be able to act as free agents. They will do work that once required humans.

Computers would have to advance by many orders of magnitude before I would ever let one run the site unsupervised. There is one simple task that AI could do at any time. Once the rapture occurs, there will be a massive surge in our server traffic. An AI agent could help by significantly increasing the site’s bandwidth.

We are currently on a server that can handle ten times the daily traffic load. We could program AI to upgrade our host plan if traffic surges past a given level. We could tell AI to go crazy with credit cards if news of millions of people missing hit the news feeds.

Another way AI is helping RR is by enabling a vast amount of money to be spent on creating better chips. Servers are getting more and more powerful because AI is used to advance the technology that makes them run. It used to take several years for a new generation of a software program to be released. Because AI helps design itself, these releases come out every few months.

We could be approaching the point where bandwidth is no longer a factor. It has been several years since I’ve had to deal with any limits on my personal internet use. We will eventually reach the point where web hosting providers will have equally endless resources.

Our first use of AI will likely be a plugin that will answer people’s questions. Visitors who are new to prophecy don’t know where to go. RR runs on WordPress, and the latest version has options for AI providers like OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini.

We have a page that explains how to create mirrors of Rapture Ready. Because the post-rapture world will be a time of panic, people might be too distracted to share the contents of this site. Also, time will be very limited. All prophecy sites will likely be scrubbed from the internet within a few days.

As we get closer to the tribulation hour, every Christian needs an end-times mindset. If you truly believe the rapture is drawing near, you should be more focused on endeavors that will contribute to the Kingdom of God.

There are three ways you can contribute to RR: Send a financial gift via our PO Box address; make a one-time donation; or make monthly donations. If you’re interested in signing up, find the links on the Donation Depot page. Donations can be sent to our PO Box at:

Rapture Ready
P.O. Box 969
Benton, AR 72018

 

 

Donation Drive August to October

For over 38 years, Rapture Ready has played a significant role in Bible prophecy. I sincerely appreciate everyone who has contributed to the site in any capacity.

Recently, I received an unusual complaint from someone who found a message on a bathroom wall promoting our humble domain. The note read, “Your wife loves my website, RaptureReady.com. I am coming soon – Jesus.” I took the opportunity to clarify that we do not endorse graffiti as a means of promotion.

If someone wanted to alert others about the end times, RaptureReady.com would be an excellent link to post in a public forum such as a men’s restroom. Every article on our site is freely available for anyone to access and share with other people.

We once included a humorous message at the bottom of the main page: “Many people have asked if they could reproduce content from Rapture Ready. I always respond, ‘Absolutely!’ In fact, readers are welcome to share this information through mail, email, airmail, conversations, billboards, carrier pigeons, pony express, smoke signals; by phone, television, telegraph, teletype; using Braille, sign language, messages in bottles, drum beats, books, CDs, radio, and even telepathy for those New Age enthusiasts. The only copyright I request is that if you reproduce our work, please do it correctly.”

Regarding donations to support RR, I’ve always aimed to keep requests minimal. As most of you already know, we only post our financial needs every three months.

We don’t maintain a donor mailing list. If you haven’t donated to RR in the last quarter, you won’t receive another thank-you letter until your next donation. Many ministries inundate new donors with solicitation letters. I once reached out to several radio-based Christian organizations, and I was quickly overwhelmed with junk mail.

As search engines become increasingly influential in determining who visits our site, they can affect our donor base. While our traffic and financial support have remained steady, the number of new donors has mysteriously declined. We suspect that Big Brother is pointing more people to the site who are hostile or indifferent to the Christian faith.

Yes, we want to reach the lost, but believers are the lifeblood of any Christian ministry. If we attract too many atheists, it could lead to our eventual demise.

Rapture Ready has a significant mathematical counterbalance: we only need support from a small fraction of our visitors. Years ago, I noticed that our donor base consisted of just 0.1% of our audience.

When the Blessed Hope occurs, RaptureReady.com will become an immensely valuable domain. Some tech companies are currently valued in the trillions of dollars, but the worth of RR extends far beyond mere currency, as it explains Bible prophecy from beginning to end. Please help us sustain this beacon of hope.

There are three ways you can contribute to RR: You can send a financial gift via our P.O. Box address; you can make a one-time donation; or there is a “frequent” option that allows you to make monthly donations. If you’re interested in signing up, find the links on the Donation Depot page. Donations can be sent to our P.O. Box at:

Rapture Ready
P.O. Box 969
Benton, AR 72018