Todd Strandberg Archives

master-plan The master of all master plans is the need for every person in this world to find salvation in Jesus Christ. In Romans 6:23, this is written: “for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (NKJV). Unless our goals in life tie into the Kingdom of God, we’re not being productive with our time. Christian ministries seem to be doing everything today but saving souls. They tell people to how to live happy and fulfilled lives, but do little to prepare them for eternity. Until someone comes to faith in Christ, he or she really doesn’t have a working plan. People may be pursuing a goal that temporarily allows them to have the world by the tail, but at the end of their lives, all their accomplishments will come to nothing. At Rapture Ready, everything we do relates to the plan of salvation. Some of our articles may feature seemingly unrelated topics, but they all work together to lead people to Christ.

Rapture Ready Master Plan
Within the framework of the ultimate master plan, we have been working on an objective for the master plan for Rapture Ready. It involves a realization of what will happen as a result of the rapture. When the Lord Jesus comes to earth to remove the Church, I strongly believe the rapture will generate the greatest panic in human history.

Unlike other events in the past, the world will instantly realize the danger it is in. When the Great Flood occurred, most people just thought it was an unusual rain event. They didn’t realize their predicament until their lives were in peril. The supernatural nature of the rapture will present a crystal clear message.

The intense need for information will cause millions of people to turn to the internet for answers. Because Rapture Ready is so closely related to the subject, a huge number of people will find their way to this domain. Currently, only about 0.00115% of global internet users visit our site. I would not be surprised if 20 percent of the post-rapture population eventually reads an article from RR. The only limitation will be the ability of servers hosting RR to distribute data to the eager public.

You folks who happen to read this page ahead of the blessed hope are part of a very unique group of people. The vast majority of site’s visitors will come in the post-rapture world. This is why we have made it our master plan to address the needs of those left behind.

Future Focus
When Rapture Ready started out in 1987, it had a capacity of 500,000 bytes of information for a whole month. Today, we often send out 5 billion bytes of data in a single day. Our total monthly capacity is now over 4 trillion bytes of data.

Another big change has been the number of people who can access the site. In the 1980s, only a handful of people were connected to the internet. Today, web access has gone from being a novelty to a common necessity equal to phones and TV. The web has reached some of the poorest nations on earth. Someone living in India can go to a cyber club and use a computer to view our site.

My first modem could download data at a rate of 1200 baud. A consortium has just finished a network that can transmit data at 100 million bytes per second. The rate of progress mankind has made in the past 20 years likely will continue for many years. With there being no limitation on how fast computers can become, any connectivity goal will eventually be reached.

We at Rapture Ready have been relying heavily on the growth of net capacity. Our hope is that someday the web will become so powerful that a single server could instantly transmit data to the total global population. The search company Google has made it possible for vast numbers of people who understand its cache feature to access the content on RR. Google has vast data centers around the world that store a record of all websites. A person could just click on the “cached” link in search result for “Rapture Ready” and find a stored version of the site.

We’re still looking forward to the advance that will come in the future. We are satisfied that if the rapture were to happen now, tens of millions of people would be able to draw upon RR as a resource of biblical knowledge.

Flying Under the Radar
The time we have here on earth is very brief. Nothing here should be considered more important than goals related to eternity. Unfortunately, the Church has a chronic problem with its priorities. The carnal concerns of this world have crowded out the necessities that pertain to the age to come.

Christian organizations take in hundreds of millions of dollars each year, and yet they have almost zero impact on the world. Some ministries tell people the Lord Jesus is coming soon, and then make financial plans as if God’s return is for some other generation. Rapture Ready is solidly based on the idea that the tribulation hour is near.

The fact that we have a much larger web footprint than several well-known ministries put together is proof that our commitment is not just in words. We have been so active in producing content for the public that we have become one of the internet’s best-kept secrets. I’m sure Satan is aware of our endless productivity. If you do a search for an article that attacks his kingdom, you will find many are hosted on this site.

For right now, Rapture Ready is flying under the radar of public attention. When the rapture occurs, millions of people will realize they’ve made a terrible mistake and will wish they had discovered this domain many years beforehand.

Now That We Have Your Full Attention
Rapture Ready ranks as the most popular prophetic site, but I have no delusions about how shallow the level of interest can be for most visitors. Over the years, I have noticed that our traffic tends to rise and fall based on world events. If something of prophetic nature happens in the Middle East, people will flock to RR. The lack of activity causes their interest to wane.

On an average day, 67 percent of the people who visit RR spend less than 30 seconds on the site. The folks who spend more than an hour on RR only amount to 2.5 percent. After the rapture transpires, I have no doubt that our visitor duration rate will dramatically improve. Many people will download whole sections of the site to study in great detail. I can only speculate how wide a reach the site will have in the aftermath of the rapture. What will add to the site’s usefulness as a witnessing tool is the undivided attention it will have from terror-struck people.

The tribulation will be a time when people will be forced to make urgent decisions about their eternal destiny. You will either choose Satan or God. Because it will also be a life and death decision for most individuals, RR will be a vital instrument in helping untold numbers of people make the right choice.

Your Role in the Master Plan
In the days that follow the rapture, end-time knowledge will instantly become a very important commodity. There will be no experienced ministers sharing the truth. Everyone will be lost or in desperate need of the truth. Finding good resource material will be no small task. At any given moment, only a few thousand copies of any book, video, or tape is available for sale to the public. It would take years to print millions of copies of a book. I seriously doubt that authorities will stand by and allow the mass printing of prophecy books to take place.

The internet is the only logical way of disseminating large amounts of information to millions of people in a short period of time. Someone could bundle up the whole RR site into a zip file and within minutes send it to friends all over the country.

I fully realize that many people who read this article will be on the wrong side of the rapture. This is where you have the opportunity to fit into the Master Plan. In fact, you can consider yourself deputized as ambassadors for Christ. Terry and I will be gone in the rapture, so there will be nothing more we can do to promote the end-time message. You don’t need to pick up where we left off by adding new content to the site. There should be enough material on the site to lead people to the truth. Your mission will be to share these articles with as many people as possible. You can do so by creating mirror websites of RR. You can also save the site onto CDs, DVDs or thumbdrives. Or, you can send people the content via email attachments.

The most import thing is to keep the Good News flowing. The Bible says the last days will be a period when it will be very difficult to hear the Word of God: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11).

— Todd Strandberg

I’m very keen to read every negative email sent to Rapture Ready. Reading all the letters that disagree with the site helps me better understand why people have trouble with the end-time message. I use this information to help me refine the advice we offer to the public.

At the heart of many emails is content I identify as the “Sucker’s Bet.” The people who send us these messages view us “Doomsday Christians” as wasting our lives by endlessly waiting for a Lord who is never coming. They base their opinion on the idea that Jesus hasn’t come in 2000 years, so this complete lack of activity should prove that He is not coming at all.

Some of these people bet they will have the satisfaction of watching me squander my life on a meaningless quest. But I’m not sure where they see the payoff. If I outlive them, there is no payoff. If they outlive me, some other Christian will carry on the bet. The only wager I see is their hope that Jesus doesn’t come back and bring their carefree existence to a premature end.

What is a “Sucker’s Bet”? It’s a gamble that someone makes based on a false view of the odds. Someone believes he has a higher likelihood of winning than he actually does. In most cases, the sucker does not realize he is being put at a disadvantage. It’s not until these people come up shorthanded that they realize they run afoul of the rules of logical thinking.

Games of Chance
The genesis of deception begins with the failure to understand that the world is filled with people who are constantly scheming ways to deceive us. A wise person uses critical thinking to assess all questionable situations. I can think of three popular games of chance that perfectly illustrate that things are not always what they appear to be.

Milk Bottle Toss — If you have ever been to a carnival, you may have seen the “milk bottle toss.” The game may have other names, but it usually involves trying to use three or four beanbags to knock down six small metal bottles that are stacked in a pyramid. What makes this a sucker’s bet is the fact that the three bottles on the bottom of the pyramid are much heavier than the ones on top. While the three lighter-weight bottles on the top row can be easily knocked over, toppling those on the bottom requires a direct hit.

“Let’s Make a Deal” — Back in the late 1970s, several TV game shows offered people the chance of winning big prizes through a random selection. In one of these setups, a contestant was told to chose from five boxes, with one containing the top prize and the others containing prizes of lesser value. After the person made his or her selection, the host would often open three of the remaining boxes, giving the impression that the contestant now had a 50/50 chance of being a big winner. Because the host knew which box contained the keys to the shiny new Buick, the contestant’s chances were still only 20 percent. If the host offered him $5,000 to pass on the opportunity to win the car, the wise choice would be to take the money and run.

The Claw — Another “Sucker’s Bet” is the claw vending machine you might see at a mall or at the entrance of a supermarket. The game features prizes–usually plush toys such as teddy bears–heaped inside a clear case. The player puts coins into the machine, activating a joystick that controls the claw for a short time. The catch is that the player can move the claw back, forth, and sideways–but not up or down. As popular as the machines are, they are commonly considered to be rigged. In many cases, the claw lacks the mechanical strength to extract a prize. Inside these one-hooked-bandits is a control box that controls the grip strength and “pay-out” odds. A survey by a British group found that a typical machine is set to offer only a reasonable chance every fourth try. Having played one of these games before, I’ve noticed my chances were comparable with what they would be if I were blindfolded.

Know the End-Time Odds
I believe people who scoff at prophecy are making a “Sucker’s Bet” because they fail to realize that prophecy is in an advanced state of fulfillment. Most of these people make assumptions about end-time prophecy without even studying the evidence.

For centuries we’ve had general signs that pointed to man’s prophetic destiny. While atheists promise a utopian society, the reality is that we are moving closer to the type of self-destruction the Bible warned about.

All bets should have been off when, in 1948, Israel became a nation. The Bible predicted its rebirth, and for several centuries it seemed impossible that this would happen. On several occasions, the Jews almost never had the chance to regather as a nation. Hitler came very close to wiping out any hope of a future Israel.

The critics need to realize that the Bible was correct about the Jews. It didn’t predict the Moabites would be reformed as a nation. Of all the thousands of civilizations that existed, Israel is the only nation that has come back from the dead. When the Romans destroyed the State of Israel in 70 AD, I don’t think any observer would have been willing to wager that people would be back.

The odds of improbability don’t just stop at Israel. Bible prophecy predicted a number of other events that are in the advanced stages of coming true. The Word of God warned that China would rise to be a world power; it foretold of Europe forming a single government; it said the world would someday have a global integrated financial market; and it predicted the diplomatic struggle we see today over who should control Jerusalem.

Jesus said something that makes it all the more risky to bet against prophecy. In Matthew 24:34, He told us, “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” There is no consensus on how long “this generation” would last, but because many key prophetic events are in the late stages of development, it would be logical to place us close to the end of that generation.

Betting Against Yourself
Ironically, the Bible prophesies that one of the signs of the end-times is people making “Sucker’s Bets.” The more these people mock, the more they are pushing the prophetic clock closer to doomsday

.”Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with {their} mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? Forever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation'” (2 Pet. 3:3-4).

In a way, these folks are placing bets against themselves. They may verbalize their opposition, but all their chips are on helping to fulfill prophecy. If the end-time message is false, there should be no need for any great concern.

When I respond to people, I reply to the real issue they are secretly addressing. People usually write me because they are bothered by events that confirm Bible prophecy. I point out to them that prophetic fulfillment is the real reason they’re mad at me, and I warn them by saying, “If my luck with the end-time signs doesn’t run out soon, yours will.”

— Todd Strandberg