In my previous article, Prophetic Allusions, I made mention of the difficulty many have regarding the optical illusions of life these days. The world they live in (in whom Satan now controls) has pulled the wool over their eyes. The optical illusion they suffer from is believing that this life is the only reality and that the end of the age is still way off into some distant and unknowable future. They go through life suffering from varying shades of uniformitarianism, or the belief that things tomorrow will be like they were today, as they were yesterday. An appropriate comparison would be that of either The Matrix or “Vanity Fair” from Pilgrim’s Progress. It is a false reality pulled over the eyes of the unbelieving world.
While it is impossible in our present reality to fully understand the inter-dimensional machinations surrounding us on a daily basis, it would be the height of folly to pretend it doesn’t exist. Since at least the turn of the 20th-century, there has been a mushrooming fascination with the occult by the unsaved world. This is due largely to the advent of fiction books, television, music, and movies. Juxtaposed to this is the academic, business, and governmental world’s almost militant atheism, forcing us to live as if the spiritual world does not exist. In these regards, the world is becoming increasingly spiritually divergent.
The Gray Zone
What is happening is that we live in a world that will tolerate anything and everything except Christianity. Even then, it will only tolerate Christianity if it is completely watered down and corrupted. Other than that, if you profess to be a Bible-believing, born-again Christian, you are relegated to the kook or fringe category.
But why is that? There are far crazier belief systems out there than what Christianity presents. If all religions are equal (as many post-modernist experts propose), why single out Christianity? Clearly, there is something about the truth-claims Christianity makes that separate it from every other belief system out there.
But what does it mean to live in an increasingly spiritual, but less Christian world? This is where we are seeing the incremental indoctrination of the occult world so that we are increasingly desensitized. We see a world that is being given over to a debased mindset, unable to come to the knowledge of the truth (see Romans 1). The Apostle John, in 1 John 5:19, states matter-of-factly that this world (in its present form) has been given over to Satan.
“We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
Allow me the opportunity to explain (or summarize) in the most basic of terms what this looks like. According to the Bible, when Lucifer rebelled against God, he took with him a third of the angelic hosts (Rev. 12:3-9). Since the total number of angels is uncountable (Heb. 12:22), a third still represents a significant number (probably numbering in the billions to trillions). The wicked angels are separated into different classes of demonic hosts that continually interact unseen with humans in our physical reality. Specifically, these dark, malevolent forces are prohibited from manifesting in complete physical form (for fear of the abyss – Luke 8:31, 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6). However, they seem to have no issue skirting the divine prohibition by means of a form of spiritual hybrid warfare (i.e., gray zone tactics). This means they do anything and everything just below the threshold of physically manifesting.
Hybrid warfare is an emerging but ill-defined notion in conflict studies. It refers to the use of unconventional methods as part of a multi-domain war-fighting approach. These methods aim to disrupt and disable an opponent’s actions without engaging in open hostilities. (Source)
These wicked angels are continually operating under the premise of deception, disinformation, and doubt. These wicked angels are continually stirring the world into a myriad of negative directions and actions by stirring vulnerable humans into chaos, hatred, anger, depression, anxiety, fearfulness, hedonism, lasciviousness, and many other forms of sinfulness. They set up imaginary strongholds of lies and deceit, and this is why they fight so hard against the truth. They are creatures of intense, murderous darkness, yet they are held at bay by God the Holy Spirit who uses (is using) the body of Christ in the present. This is why these demonic forces stand so vehemently opposed to only two groups of people on the earth – the Church and Israel.
It should be understood that the same demonic forces that stand unseen behind the Ku Klux Klan are the same demonic forces that stand behind Black Lives Matter, Neo-Nazis, Isis, Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, leftists, and the countless other violent and wicked groups operating in our world today. The same goes for any religion that is not grounded in the one true Gospel of Jesus Christ – groups like Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, New Age, Paganism, Satanism, Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, and countless other faux-Christian cults. These groups all have their own demonic deities hiding behind a façade of religious piety and “hidden knowledge.”
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
At the present time, these forces seem to be at odds, somehow working feverishly against each other. This, too, is a façade. It is a misdirection that Satan has carefully orchestrated to make the world think that there are many paths to redemption. This is why the post-modernist view of relativism is far more deceptive than, say, Satanism. At least Satanism comes out and says what it is. Relativism hides behind a veneer of soft-spoken, well-intentioned academics and liberals, preaching that all truth is relative. That is a lie from the pit of hell.
Relativism – the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to the culture, society, and historical context and are not absolute.
In other words, your truth is just as valid and true as my truth.
Which, of course, is absurd.
Jesus cannot be both just a man, and also a God-Man. He is either one or the other. He is either God come in the flesh to save mankind, or he is just a man pretending to be God, and cannot save anyone (including himself). This is an absolutist position. As born-again believers, we absolutely believe that Jesus is a God-Man, and the Bible is very clear on this absolutist position.
“For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist” (2 John 1:7).
“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).
“I and My Father are one” (John 10:30).
The Rapture Gap
Again, the seeming present discord amongst the demonic hosts is being orchestrated to confuse and prevent the world from knowing what is true. However dark things appear in the present, they pale in comparison to what will happen one second after the Rapture of the Church. These demonic forces are still restrained to a certain degree in the present; they will not be once the Church is removed.
Were it not for the Restrainer (the Holy Spirit-sealed Church – 2 Thess. 2:3-8), this world would have been given over wholly to darkness millennia ago. As we see in Revelation 1, the resurrected and glorified Jesus walks amongst the churches (equaling the church epochs), and they are represented as lampstands (i.e., light-bearers) in a darkened world. The Church was designed to be the salt and light during this age of grace, something we seem to see diminishing the further we progress into the Laodicean Era.
However, one second after the Rapture occurs, the light will have completely gone out from this world. The world will once again be enshrouded in absolute spiritual darkness. The demonic forces will no longer be prohibited from physically manifesting, and they will be realigned to work together as one, with a singular purpose of bringing the entire world together under the control of their master, Lucifer. He will, in turn, imbue his authority into one man, The Antichrist (aka The Lawless One, the Little Horn, the Rider on the White Horse, etc.) Some ask, why bother studying about the Antichrist? We won’t be here to find out who he is. True, but for the record, there are 27 chapters in the Bible devoted to this final, wicked Gentile ruler. Clearly, the Bible has a lot to say about this individual.
There are two often overlooked reasons as to why God uses the mechanism of delivery known as the Rapture (Greek-harpazo, English-caught up).
The first is because it is intended to disrupt life on this earth. When Christ first came, His birth was relatively non-eventful as far as the world knew. Most had no idea the Messiah had even come at all, save some frightened shepherds and an entourage of wise men from Parthia. Neither is the Rapture intended to be a gradual transition into judgment, as was the case in Noah’s day (building the ark over a hundred years). The Rapture is meant to throw the world into a tailspin instantaneously, thus causing the enemy (Satan) to have to be in reaction mode, and thus creating the perfect-crisis scenario those left behind have to contend with.
The second reason is the practical (or functional) purpose. His return for His church is designed to disrupt the world and cause them to choose a particular path. Just like the Great Flood was the practical justification for building the tower of Babel (just in case God flooded the world again), the Rapture will ultimately cause the world leaders to want to come together under a global government.
The top three single nations in the world today are the United States, China, and Russia. At least two of these are presumably overseen by territorial, demonic princes (Dan. 10:13, 20). Out of the three, the US is clearly the newest. However, since WWII, the US has remained the top military and economic superpower on the planet. Meanwhile, both Russia and China have been spending much of the past century jockeying to see who can overthrow the US from being king of the hill. As of late, that job has been getting easier and easier. Since 1962, the US has been aggressively removing God from within its borders. Consequently, we have seen the continual eroding of US power and authority from the global stage.
In terms of stage-setting, the world already has a semi-functional global government: the United Nations (UN). However, the UN lacks the political will, economic authority, and military power to compel anyone to do anything without the US supporting those globalist agendas. Since the US is bound by its own constitutional system of checks and balances, it is hindered from joining any global alliance which attempts to supersede the authority of the Constitution; thus, the UN’s ambitions have remained neutered for the time being.
This is a bit of speculation, but it might be that what we are seeing today is the final piece of stage- setting. In just the past few months, we’ve seen a rapid, transnational, global “pandemic” (COVID-19 hysteria) (pestilence), violent racial and religious tensions (ethnos against ethnos), political polarization, corruption, the hard swing left by many governments (including our own) towards socialism (deception), and military unrest around the world (wars, rumors of war). These might be the necessary birth pangs, or even Braxton-Hicks contractions that are designed to weaken the foundation of the world’s greatest superpower.
The world cannot fall under a singular government as long as the United States remains its sole superpower. So, given the global distress and perplexity regarding seemingly unsolvable problems, to the erosion of American economic, military, and political power, the world seems like its gearing up for a “reset.” It doesn’t take a genius to see that the destruction of the nuclear family, the removal of God’s blessings from our shores, and the monumental increase in our national debt means regime change is on the horizon. When the Rapture does happen, it might not take more than a nudge to get America to collapse to her knees.
Once the US collapses, it does not mean it (the nation) ceases to exist. It simply ceases to exist as it was founded (i.e., a constitutional Republic). It will get rolled up into whatever the new global government becomes…which will happen quickly. Thus, the more the world can become destabilized prior to the Rapture, the shorter the gap in time will be between the Rapture and the official start of the 70th Week of Daniel (i.e., the Tribulation) (Dan. 9:27).
However long (or brief) the post-Rapture chaos ends up being, the chaos (crisis) will be necessary for the rearrangement of geopolitical powers. Satan is currently using our present turmoil in the form of a twisted, global, Hegelian-Dialectic circle. The crazier the world gets, the more people will demand governmental control and oversight over their lives (trading liberty for safety). The more control the governments get, the less likely they will ever hand it back over to the people. Instead, the government will continue to commission large, transnational tech companies to continue creating and selling them back increasingly Orwellian equipment.
The government (whoever runs it next) is then increasingly using this invasive technology to rein in the chaos. Right now, our government is still semi-benevolent in the likes that it is trying to do well. But we are one election away from all that power being in the wrong hands. This Hegelian cycle will continue to escalate up to and through the Rapture of the Church. Trust me, the disappearance of millions-billions of people will make our present-day 5G systems, biometrics, drones, digital footprints, artificial intelligence, and contact-tracing seem like child’s-play. This technology is simply moving at lightning-quick speeds to even keep up with all the tools the US Government has at its disposal.
Our present turmoil, violence, and lawlessness is being designed to drive the world toward a singular, totalitarian, global government. The sooner Satan can get everyone under one government, the quicker he can get one man to ultimately rise to the top to control it all. Personally, I believe the Rapture is the ‘perfect crisis’ the world will use to form the final world government. However, the US could collapse beforehand, or head into a second civil war. If Trump wins reelection, he may be forced to execute some form of martial law to rein in the lawless in blue cities and states.
The economic, political, and military collapse of the United States will leave a giant power vacuum the global leaders will have to fill. The European Union (EU) currently lacks the political will today to step into any kind of meaningful global leadership role; they are content to let the US lead from the front. History has shown us that great empires in the past can go from obscurity to great power status, seemingly overnight. The Macedonians under Alexander the Great, the Khans, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Third Reich are examples of how quickly nations can rise up. This gap between the Rapture and the Tribulation will probably be just long enough for the world to reorganize under a revived European power structure. They will have harnessed and harvested what they could from what is left of the United States (bringing it back to Europe) and will start re-establishing their authority.
My thoughts, as mentioned previously in the Antichrist Zeitgeist, were that Satan will seek to break Bible prophecy by choosing someone who is NOT from the boundaries of the old Roman Empire. This is where I think he does select a “Barack Obama-type” leader to head this newly empowered global United Nations. The UN will have to relocate to Europe, however, as much of the US will be turned back into the “wild west.”
After the Rapture, the Europeans will begin scrambling their tepid forces, presumably allowing the United Kingdom or France to take the helm. The remaining US Forces (EUCOM) still stationed in Europe at the time will quickly be absorbed under the authority of a newly renamed Euro-Army (formerly known as NATO), as transatlantic travel will presumably come to a halt.
However, in the absence of the US, I believe it is here that Russia, Turkey, Iran, and the rest of the Gog-Magog federation launch a preemptive and failed assault into Israel. It does not seem that Satan even wants this to happen because, presumably, he knows how it will end. This is why I believe God puts the ‘hook in the jaw’ of Gog and leads him there to attempt it anyway.
With the United States in shambles, the EU will have had no one to turn to for help. They will be in no position to stop this monstrous Gog-Magog military federation from doing anything. [Interestingly, these future Gog-Magog nations are presently in varying forms of disarray now, and/or have no desire to become part of a global new world government.] This attack will force this newly established Euro-global government to react (Ezekiel 38-39) by protest. With the Magog Federation distracted, the EU military will start raiding the US for planes, tanks, weapon depots, and nuclear sites to beef up their own armies, navies, and air forces, while Gog and Magog gather on Israel’s northern border.
With the spectacular Magog confederation defeat, the world will be even further destabilized, with only China remaining on the far side of the world. The global order at this point is shifting rapidly, and somewhere along the way, Satan’s original candidate is going to either die or become unable to serve in that Antichrist position. This will cause someone from within the EU to be thrust into the spotlight. This will be the man who later signs the peace deal with Israel, officially starting the 70th Week of Daniel.
With the Restrainer removed at the Rapture, the demonic hordes will no longer be bound to the realm of the unseen. I believe they will begin manifesting physically and will embolden the remaining leaders into rapidly consolidating resources, manpower, and technology to assume control over the entire earth. Remember, demons are fallen or wicked angels who were present at the earth’s creation (Job 38:1-7), and they know where all the hidden treasure is buried. They know where all the hidden resources are, and they know the secrets to unlock every form of technology such as quantum physics to bring things online quickly.
Conclusion
Far too many Christians today live their lives as if the world was a playground instead of a battleground. We are at war. We need to be prepared for whatever eventuality comes to pass. That means if the US collapses before the Rapture, we are just as prepared as if it happened after the Rapture. So if I may, I’d like to put some predictions out there for you to consider. These are not gospel, they are not divinely inspired, and they are simply working theories I have. So don’t sell the home and move to the mountains based on my thoughts here. Simply consider them and adjust yourself as necessary (if necessary).
- Trump wins the 2020 election – the US begins to tear itself apart (red v. blue civil war). I would expect some form of martial law to be declared as he attempts to rein in the lawlessness. This means be prepared. This means use Bible prophecy to share the Gospel. That’s why Bible prophecy exists. (John 13:19, 14:29)
- Trump loses the 2020 election – Democrats, leftists, and progressives begin rapidly attacking conservatives and Christians, and systematically dismantling the country. This means be prepared. This means use Bible prophecy to share the Gospel. That’s why Bible prophecy exists. (Mark 13:11)
- The Rapture happens – At that point, it won’t matter to us what happens on the earth. However, our goal is to take as many people with us. That means we prepare today by sharing the Gospel with as many of our lost friends, family, and strangers as possible. (2 Corinthians 6:2)
Yes, there is a war raging all around us. Yes, the demonic forces and Satan himself hate you with every fiber of their spiritual being. You, believer, are a child of God. You are an inheritor of all the glory, honor, and privileges Lucifer wanted for himself. You are untouchable unless God allows you to be touched. And even if you troubled, persecuted, or killed for His name’s sake, it is for His glory, and your reward will be far greater than anything this world could ever give you.
Yes, the times are getting darker, but we were foretold they would. It is time for us to awaken out of our slumber and get busy for the Lord. We are not like those who sleep and are drunk at night; we recognize the season, and we can see the end from here. We only have a little while longer – perhaps days, months, and even a few years, but the Day of Christ is rapidly approaching. It will come, and nothing can prevent His soon appearing for His bride, the Church. Pray, study your Bible, share the good news of Jesus Christ, and lastly, stand and fight. The demonic hordes, as fearsome as they might appear, are nothing compared to the God we serve. They war now by spreading lies and hate, but our weapons are so much more powerful.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled” (2 Corinthians 10:4-6).
Even so, Maranatha!