We most assuredly live in biblical times. The convergence of signs is like that of the grand finale of a fireworks show that noisily illuminates the sky with its bright display of colors. Yet sadly, many believers and pastors turn their heads and walk away from the spectacle, telling themselves and others, “There’s nothing to see here.”
I also believe the words of Proverbs 1:20 apply here:
“Wisdom cries aloud in the street; in the markets she raises her voice.”
The myriad of signs, along with the voices of many students of Bible prophecy, sound the alarm regarding the nearness of the Tribulation. Wisdom continues to cry out with the message that Jesus is coming soon, but so few are paying attention.
A few months ago, I wrote about the blindness of our day in How Can You Not See? I still wonder how those who know Scripture can remain asleep and unaware of the signs that point to the nearness of Jesus’ appearing.
Now my question has progressed to: “How much longer can it be before Jesus catches us up to meet Him in the air?”
Below are several reasons that cause me to ask this question.
The Rush to Divide Israel
When I look at Israel on a world map, I need to put on my reading glasses, and even then, it’s difficult to discern the nation’s boundaries. Most countries this small receive little or no attention on the world stage. However, almost all the world leaders are now focused on both Israel and Jerusalem.
The Bible predicted this would happen at the time of the end (Zechariah 12:1-3). The U.S. and other nations have become preoccupied with settling the Palestinian matter, believing this will magically bring peace to the entire region.
During his speech at the UN, President Biden called for a two-state solution as the path toward peace in the region. When he met with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu seemed willing to go along with it to a limited degree, perhaps as part of the deal with Saudi Arabia that Netanyahu now predicts will become a reality sometime in early 2024.
The rush to divide Israel tells us that the Tribulation period is ever so near because it will be during this time that the Lord will judge the nations that cut up His Land (Joel 3:1-3). Those with a passion to provide a state for the Palestinians are fulfilling biblical prophecy; God said this would happen at the time of the end.
The Push for Digital Currencies
Another telling sign that speaks to the nearness of the Tribulation is the push for digital currencies.
During the September 2023 meeting of the G-20 nations in New Delhi, India, the leaders: “agreed to a plan to eventually impose digital currencies and digital IDs on their respective populations, amid concern that governments might use them to monitor their people’s spending and crush dissent.” This pact includes a pledge “to build the necessary infrastructure to implement digital currencies and IDs.” [1]
The antichrist needs such a system in place by the midpoint of the Tribulation in order to control buying and selling throughout the world (Revelation 13:16-18). He won’t be able to do this if it’s possible for people to use cash or write checks for their purchases.
In America, the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is coming by way of the Federal Reserve’s FedNow, which has gone live. Many major banks are now participating in the program, which makes the transferring of money immediate.
David Bowen, in his article, FedNow Goes Live, Paving The Way To A Central Bank Digital Currency on the Harbingers Daily website, wrote this about the matter:
The Federal Reserve claims this is the alternative to a CBDC — a Central Bank Digital Currency. But really, this is a stepping stone to a CBDC. Once the public gets more comfortable with the speed of FedNow and the system is accepted as the standard procedure, you’ll get a Central Bank Digital Currency.
The inevitable collapse of the economy in the U.S. will speed up the path to a CBDC in America, which will quickly become a unified worldwide currency during the Tribulation, if not before it starts.
The Threat of War
After we are in glory with Jesus, He will open seven seals on what I believe is His title deed to all the kingdoms of this world (Revelation 6:1-8). The text tells us that war will be a factor in the killing of one-fourth of the earth’s population.
Do we see such a deadly conflict on the horizon? Yes, we do.
Michael Snyder recently wrote this on his blog concerning this threat:
Most Americans have absolutely no idea how close we are to the unthinkable. Even though leaders all over the globe have developed a really bad case of war fever, the vast majority of us here in the United States are entirely convinced that everything will be okay somehow. Most of us believe the talking heads on television when they assure us that our politicians have everything under control and that it is extremely unlikely that a nuclear conflict will happen. But on the other side of the globe, they see things very differently. On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the United Nations that the world is being pushed to the brink of the “final war “…[2]
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently stated “that the U.S. is conducting a ‘war’ against Russia” with its support of Ukraine.[3] In the past several weeks, I have read many accounts of Russian officials warning the U.S. of a nuclear attack because of its support of Ukraine’s war effort.
Gatestone Institute senior fellow and China expert Gordon Chang said this regarding the possibility of a war between the U.S. and China:
We’re much closer to a nuclear exchange than Americans think. China is preparing to go to war…. China is surveying the United States for nuclear weapons strikes, so we’ve got to realize the gravity of this. The problems inside the Chinese regime right now indicate that Xi Jinping in the rocket force, which controls almost all of China’s nuclear weapons, he’s now installing officers who will obey his orders to push the button when he gives it. [4]
It’s remarkable that Biden’s support of Ukraine has not yet boiled over into a Russian attack on America. Just this week, we heard news of U.S. Abram Tanks heading to Ukraine and Biden’s plan to supply the nation with long-range missiles. Unless Vladimir Putin has the patience of Job, these things will lead to a direct attack on America.
UFOs and Aliens
This may seem like an unusual sign of the end times; however, the wide acceptance of extraterrestrial life, along with many governments acknowledging their existence, demonstrates the increased activity of Satan to explain our sudden disappearance.
I have watched a few prophecy updates from Pastor Brandon Holthaus on this matter; his insights demonstrate the progress that the devil has already made in perpetuating this deception. In one of his videos, he quoted a U.S. Navy pilot as saying that “UFO sightings are an everyday occurrence.”
A short clip of an interview I heard on Twitter last week confirms the wide acceptance of alien life among the elite of our day, or more likely, their willingness to perpetuate the deception. Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author and confidant of Klaus Schwab from the World Economic Forum (WEF), predicted the end of human-dominated history because of an upcoming alien invasion. “History will continue with somebody else in control,” he said.
Why has Harari changed from advocating Artificial Intelligence (AI) and transhumanism as the future of mankind to that of one dominated by extraterrestrials? Does this surprising turn in his thinking not show just how far the Luciferian globalists are willing to go in preparing the world for our disappearance at the time of the Rapture?
Did you also notice that Harari, like so many others, naturally assumes that the aliens are far more advanced than humans in both intelligence and technology? They must create this illusion so that people believe they are capable of making tens of millions instantly disappear.
The Seven-Year Commitment
On September 18-19, 2023, a majority of member nations at the UN committed to a seven-year plan of accelerated growth to implement the 17 Strategic Development Goals (SDGs) of Agenda 2030. Although significant, let me quickly point out that this is NOT the covenant that the antichrist will make with Israel as prophesied in Daniel 9:27.
What this demonstrates is the determination of the world’s leaders to set up a one-world government that controls the lives of those it will enslave. It’s very clear that both the WEF and UN long for this totalitarian regime and want it in place by 2030.
It also tells us that things are going as well as the globalists would like. Although they achieved some progress through the COVID-19 scare and are seeking to make climate change a factor in bringing the nations together, things are not progressing as well as they had hoped.
On the fifth page of the document, we are told that there is an “urgent need to take the actions necessary to reverse declines and accelerate progress to achieve the 2030 Agenda and implement the SDGs.” [5]
Author and friend Terry James addressed this shortfall in his excellent article, The Crisis. He credited the Lord’s resistance with stalling the elite’s objectives to achieve their desired dominance. The calamity they need will come via the Rapture, which will happen according to God’s timing, not theirs.
The disappearance of so many people will give the globalists the emergency they crave. As the alien deception takes hold after the Rapture, the nations will readily join together to fight what they regard as a common enemy. In his interview, Harari stated that a united world would have a much better chance of resisting an extraterrestrial invasion.
The following quote from the UN’s SDGs meeting seems to say that an emergency such as caused by the Rapture would lead to greater control by the UN:
On that page, the UN openly admits that one of the purposes of “the Summit of the Future” is to “put in place a stronger international response playbook for complex global shocks, maximizing the use of the Secretary-General’s convening power in the form of an Emergency Platform.” [6]
There’s a sense of urgency in the statements coming from the UN. Is it because they are falling behind on their goals? Or do they know a great crisis looms in the future?
Days of Lot and Noah
The Lord predicted that end times would resemble the days of Noah (Matthew 24:36-39) and of Lot (Luke 17:28-29), and that is precisely what we see.
The Bible doesn’t provide us with details of the violence in Noah’s day, which was one of the factors that led to the flood (Genesis 6:13). However, I believe that the abortions, sex trafficking, and sacrificing of young children in satanic rituals in the U.S. must at least rival the violence prevalent in the world before the flood. These things also tell us that the wickedness of our day far exceeds that of Sodom and Gomorrah. It’s not even close.
I believe the U.S., in particular, is dangling by a very thin thread over a pit of destruction; we have long passed the day where we as a nation should have collapsed economically or ignited a deadly war with Russia or China. The Lord is sovereignly holding back these things until the time is right for His judgment.
There’s coming a day when all of us who trust Jesus as our Savior will instantly vanish, and not long after that, all of God’s current restraints will suddenly evaporate, and sudden destruction will fall upon the earth (1 Thessalonians 5:1-10).
How much longer can it be before we appear in glory with our Savior (Colossians 3:4)? I believe it’s very close.
On the other hand, I don’t know for sure how much longer it will be until Jesus takes us home to glory. Perhaps we will face increasing affliction in the coming months or during 2024.
However, we must also avoid thinking that the Rapture cannot happen today or in the very near future. Such is the new date-setting error of so many Christians today who assume that it won’t happen in their lifetime.
Maranatha! Perhaps today!
***
I provide a detailed defense of the Pretribulation viewpoint in: The Triumph of the Redeemed-An Eternal Perspective that Calms Our Fears in Perilous Times. I demonstrate, using an abundance of quotes, that the belief in a thousand-year reign of Jesus dominated the church during its first three hundred years. The historic view of the millennium is a literal view of Revelation 20:1-10 that places it between the Tribulation and the eternal state. There’s no such thing as a “historic premillennialism” that denies a literal interpretation of this text.
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Sources:
[1] By Bryan Jung, “G20 Announces Plan to Impose Digital Currencies and IDs Worldwide,” September 12, 2023, on The Epoch Times Website at: https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/g20-announces-plan-to-impose-digital-currencies-and-ids-worldwide-5489947
[2] Michael Snyder, They Are Openly Admitting That We Are On The Brink Of “The Final War, September 19, 2023 at: https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/they-are-openly-admitting-that-we-are-on-the-brink-of-the-final-war/
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Michael Snyder, While Barely Anyone Was Watching, Leaders At The UN Made A 7 Year Agreement To Implement A Single Global Agenda, September 21, 2023, at https://endoftheamericandream.com/while-barely-anyone-was-watching-leaders-at-the-un-made-a-7-year-agreement-to-implement-a-single-global-agenda/
[6] Ibid.