Oct 30
Year-End Fund Drive
The last fund drive of each year is a good time reflect on what the site has accomplished.
In 2006, RR has:
- achieved the ranking of being the #1 prophecy site on the internet
- been featured in more than 500 news articles
- increased its bandwidth capacity four-fold, and
- extended its lead as the largest site for prophecy, with more than 12,000 files.
- The accomplishment I'm the most proud of is how the media turns to RR whenever a major event occurs that is related to Bible prophecy.
One of my primary goals with Rapture Ready has always been to stay focused on activities that have a lasting effect or meaningful value. My years of experience in working on the site have taught me there is often a huge disparity between the desire to contribute to the Kingdom of God and the willpower to do so.
For many people, the only way to know if they are committed Christians is to ask them what they have done in Jesus' name. Having a general interest in prophecy is not enough.
A great number of people look forward to the return of Christ and have a deep fascination with Bible prophecy. Yet when asked if they attend church services, share their faith with others, or support ministries that spread the end-time message, all too often, their answer to one or all of those questions is "no."
The many years of operating RR has brought me in contact with many individuals who have conflict of interests. I only need to look at my own family to find a good example.
For the past few years, my mother has been in declining health. Ever since my dad died in the mid-1980s, she has lived up in Storm Lake, Iowa, by herself. My brother, Jerry, and I have been the only children out of six who have regularly looked after her. Unfortunately, we both live in the Omaha, Nebraska, area--about three hours away from her. For several years, Mom's brother lived with her off and on, an arrangement we saw as a positive thing because it meant she had someone there to keep an eye on her.
At the beginning of 2005, my mother's health deteriorated to the point that she should no longer work. To treat her heart condition, she has to buy drugs that cost several hundred dollars each month. Because her Social Security funds fall far short of my mother's needs, my brother and I have had to occasionally chip in to keep her from going to the poor house.
My uncle is financially blessed from various investments and three retirement pensions. Despite his knowledge of and proximity to his own sister's need, he has done absolutely nothing to assist her. When I confronted him about his lack of common sense, he made some lame excuse about needing to support his grown children, who are both in their 40s.
We continued to tolerate my uncle living with my mother up until we learned that he was smoking in the house. In addition to a heart condition, my mom has respiratory problems. When we learned he was smoking despite Mom's protests, we kicked him out of the house.
An interesting thing about my uncle is that he and I share a deep interest in Bible prophecy. Every time I've met him, he has always wanted to tell about the latest sign that the end times are near. I've gone to prophecy conferences in various cities, and I've run into him at some of them. Sadly, his interest in prophecy is all for nothing.
There is no ambiguous terminology that one can use to describe my uncle's failure to help his own sister. The Bible is very blunt about someone who forsakes his own flesh and blood: "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel" (1 Tim. 5:8).
My uncle has no spiritual conflict because the god he worships permits him to be void of any moral or ethical responsibilities. He just expects to transform from one care-free existence to another.
The example of my uncle is good reason it is vital for us to be involved in advancing the Kingdom of God. We can claim all we want about being true believers, but until we back up our words with actions, the validity of our commitment remains in question.
If you have never shared your faith or supported a ministry like Rapture Ready, I think you need to reexamine your priorities. James 1:23 states, "But prove yourselves doers of the Word and not merely hearers who delude themselves."
"End-time believers" should imply that we are people of action. If the tribulation hour is truly drawing near, it is our Christian duty to be active in warning people about the need for repentance. That is the main reason this domain is on the internet.
The best way to contribute to Rapture Ready is through a regular donation. Paypal subscribers and people who have their banks send funds to our PO Box have become the bedrock of the site's operation. If you're interested in signing up, you can find the link on the Donation Depot page. Donations can also be sent to our PO box at:
Rapture Ready Min.
PO Box 125
Bellevue, NE 68005
--- Todd
South Korean Media Interview
A visit to my office from South Korea’s public broadcasting group (KBS) stimulated thoughts about the perilous times in which we find ourselves. Fears of what North Korea’s President Kim Jong Il might do with nuclear weapons, should he be allowed to continue to develop them, was the obvious point of the visit. Particularly, the South Korean press, like the press worldwide, wants to know what those who examine Bible prophecy have to say about what the future might portend.
There is good reason to be concerned.
As it stands now, the nations in possession of nuclear weapons technology are the US, the UK, France, Israel, Russia, Pakistan, India, China, and now North Korea. Other nations are pursuing the acquisition of nukes, with Iran being in the lead in the drive to become nuclear powers.
More than 40 additional nations are involved in “peaceful” nuclear power projects that could be turned into weapons research and development, according to the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Many within the diplomatic community who deal with nuclear arms control issues believe the developing situation in the spread of nuclear technology presents a more dangerous condition than that of the Soviet and US arms race during the Cold War. This is because there were only two powers to be concerned about, and because the mutual destruction that was assured if nuclear conflict began was a deterrent to both sides, who had at the controls people who thought about such an eventuality. There are tyrants and madmen today who seem to exhibit no such thought processes. At least not a thought process governed by concern for the people they hold under their despotic thumbs.
So, the people of the Korean Broadcasting System came to visit to discuss the matters involved –those of Bible prophecy as it might relate to the current issues and events of their region and the world.
According to a network spokesman, “KBS is currently drafting a special edition documentary film on religion and society. A part of the film will be dedicated to religion and society in America.”
Like so many of the media who seek interviews with Todd and me, KBS developed an interest in talking to us after checking out the raptureready.com site. We will have photos of the visit posted on the site in due course.
The Korean peninsula represents a threat to disrupt world peace. Not since the early 1950s have things in the region presented such potential for armed conflict. And, this time the threat is nuclear, thanks to Kim Jong Il, much more so than was the Korean conflict of that earlier time.
China is the key to war and peace, however, just as that massive nation was the key to war and peace in that earlier Korean “police action.” If China chooses to put its controlling thumb on the dictator Kim Jong Il, things will settle there. It is my view, at this juncture, that this will happen. China is in rapid development as an economic world power, and even more importantly from their perspective, as a world nuclear armaments power. They aren’t likely to allow hostilities they can govern to go out of control while they seek to become so much more powerful among the nations of earth. They can exert exponentially greater hegemony at a later date once their power is consolidated in the Orient and is fully developed. The Chinese are quite patient--and make no mistake, they are building for a future effort at world domination.
God has forewarned of this force, which I’m convinced is China, once it reaches its maximum power. It will bring with it all of the Orient, which will by that time have come under its great influence, if not its total domination.
Bible prophecy says about that juggernaut that will invade toward Megiddo for the final battle of the war called Armageddon:
“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared” (Rev. 16:12).
“And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them” (Rev. 9:15-16).
It continues to amaze me that the secular media around the world expresses far greater interest in matters of Bible prophecy than does the clergy. And, I must say that most within evangelical Christian circles seem the least interested in these crucial times in which we live, and which might be the very end of the Church Age.
Again I come back to Todd’s contention that it is apathy within the Church body –as much as the nation Israel being at the center of world anxieties-- that comprises the primary signal of exactly where this generation might stand on God’s prophetic timeline.
--Terry
