Without Excuse

An epiphany struck while listening to a radio talk show host I sometimes listen to during weekday mornings. The words that sparked the revelation came from a cut from a TV program the radio host played. The cut was from the ABC program The View.

I don’t know which of the four main View women hosts did the speaking –that is, I don’t remember the name given of that View host. It was, of course, either Sunny, Joy, Sara or Whoopi. And the words that ignited my thinking in writing this commentary should have been unremarkable – that is, if I weren’t a student of Bible prophecy from the preTrib perspective.

But the words the woman spoke, interspersed without any sort of emphasis or context, among the rest of her statement, making the words unremarkable at best, struck like that bolt of lightning that struck the Statue of Liberty’s torch a couple of weeks ago.

Sunny, Joy, Sara, Whoopi, and the rest were making fun of those who had made statements that the eclipse of April 8 or the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s destruction were signs from God. They ridiculed those who said that these things and other things happening, like the earthquake that shook New York City, was Judgment from the Almighty or portended Judgment about to be meted out by Deity.

In the middle of the couple of paragraphs of the harangue the particular host of the show was making, she said amidst the audience’s laughter and applause something like “the rapture” didn’t come…”

This stunned me. Here, one of the three most non-Bible-centered people one could think of was, although as merely a casual mention, referencing the next prophecy to be fulfilled, we who study from the preTrib view believe. If Sunny, Joy, Sara or Whoopi understands that the Rapture is an element in God’s Prophetic Timeline, then every American must surely have at least a cursory acquaintance with the term.

In thinking further, my dear friend and mentor, Dr. Tim LaHaye, and his co-author, Jerry Jenkins, came to mind. The Left Behind books, in what was the top-selling series of Christian fiction in publishing history, saturated America and the world with the term that Whoopi or one of the other women of The View casually threw in there when mocking everyone who had predicted that the eclipse and surrounding hoopla was a signal of Judgment from God.

Some of the entertainment world –the late-night hosts on television, and others, also scoffed at those who mentioned that the eclipse, etc., had prophetic or Heavenly judgment overtones. These had also joked about Biden’s designation of Transgender Day of Visibility on the day Easter fell this year. They, observably in my view, delighted in pulling this off against the Christian world and their perceived view of its judgmental foolishness.

The most ungodly among our populace, who dominate the airwaves with their celebrity, have made certain that the unbelievers know of Heaven’s failure to follow up on any Judgment that believers in Christ expect. They accuse that we look down on them with feelings of superiority, and God’s lack of judgmental response is reason, they obviously believe, to celebrate with good-natured fun-poking.

All of the joking and mocking proves one thing: the lost world of people, particularly in this nation, is without excuse. Satan, through being prince of the power of the air, does his devilish work of deceiving the masses through use of his minions who have information dominance in this fallen world. So there can be no doubt that the lost, especially the lost here in America, have heard or read time and time again about God’s coming Judgment –and even more importantly, about His Redemptive Plan for mankind through the Sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The devil has convinced the masses that God’s Intervention into the physical world is good to use as the butt of jokes. God is, at most, an existential being, Satan lies. God set things in motion, and it’s been hands-off for the most part since that time. But the God of Heaven has a different View, and Judgment is on the way.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:18-21).

The God of Heaven is, first and foremost, not a God of Judgment and Wrath but of Love and Mercy. He Desires that all come to Him for Repentance and Forgiveness. He has moved Heaven and Earth to bring all people into His Eternal Family. Here, again, is how to be Forgiven and thus go in the Rapture when Christ Calls believers or go directly to Heaven when life on this sphere is finished.

“That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

–Terry

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The Prototype Anti-Semite Never Gives Up

Last Saturday, April 13, 2024, I prayed as I read reports of weaponized drones, cruise missiles, and deadly rockets heading toward Israel. I know that a large number of other believers also prayed for the safety of God’s chosen people amid the attack from Iranian soil.

The Lord answered our prayers. How else can one explain the success rate of Israel’s iron dome in stopping the Iranian missiles or the ones that fell harmlessly from the sky before reaching their targets?

I was already convinced of God’s supernatural protection of Israel amid the unprecedented attack when I read a social media account of a letter written by a man who had previously worked in Israel’s defense industry. Below is a quote from the letter that he wrote to his rabbi:

The large number of events that had to be handled at precisely the right time doubles the chance of making a mistake.

With all the high technologies, the expectation was for a breach in the defense of the skies of the State of Israel. Even if we got 90% protection, it would be a miracle. What happened, though, is that everyone, I mean everyone – the pilots, the system operators, and the technology operators – acted as one man at one moment in total unity. If this is not an act of God, then I no longer know what a miracle is.

This man’s letter put into words what I already thought but did not have the expertise to express the wonder of God’s defense of Israel as he did. He also compared the success of Israel’s defense system against the rockets to the 1967 Six-Day War when the Lord also intervened to bring success to the armies of Israel.

We know that the repeated failure of Israel’s enemies will not stop them from attacking Israel because Satan himself is the force behind the anti-Semitism of the Arab world, which is also sweeping through the world. The devil is the proto-type anti-Semite with a history of never giving up on his opposition to the Lord and to His chosen people.

Satan Failed to Stop God’s Plan of Redemption

The devil’s original opposition to the descendants of Jacob arose from his opposition to God’s plan of redemption for the human race by means of the promised Messiah, who would arrive as a descendant of Judah and then King David. The book of Esther reveals how God thwarted his plan to wipe out the Jewish population long before the birth of Jesus.

From 1 Corinthians 2:7, we learn of his instigation of the Lord’s crucifixion. His resurrection from the dead signaled Satan’s ultimate defeat but did not deter his opposition to God’s people, which now includes New Testament saints.

Satan’s Current Failures Point to the Rapidly Approaching Tribulation Period

After the British Balfour Declaration in 1917, it became apparent that Israel might become a nation again someday. In the decades that followed, the devil did all he could to stop that from happening. Many people thought Hitler might have been the antichrist, and indeed, he possessed many attributes of the coming man of lawlessness.

The demonic-fueled hatred of the Jewish people over the past century doesn’t make a bit of sense unless the Lord still has a purpose for them and a kingdom. Why else would Satan be so obsessed with ramping up anti-Semitism throughout the nations surrounding Israel as well as throughout the world?

Although the situation looks dire for Israel at the moment, the Bible assures us that it will survive the ongoing threats to its existence. Why am I so sure? If the current efforts to destroy Israel were to succeed, there would be no need for Satan’s man, the antichrist, to make a covenant with Israel and then break it after three and a half years. What’s happening now in Israel tells us that this time is ever so close.

Someday, Israel will agree to his terms offered by the coming man of lawlessness. Even though they will experience a victory over their current enemies, it will not stop them from relying on a power other than the Lord’s in their efforts to secure a respite from its almost continual warfare.

Satan Will Meet His Doom after His Last Attack Against the Jewish Nation

Even after watching Jesus destroy the antichrist and set up His kingdom on the earth, the devil will not give up on efforts to destroy Israel. That’s why I say he’s the prototype anti-Semite who will never give up until Christ throws him into the lake of fire.

In Revelation 20:7-10, we see that even a thousand-year imprisonment will not stop him and the forces allied with him from one last, albeit suicidal attack, on Jerusalem.

The Lord will allow him to pursue this folly in order to test those who have only known life in the perfect environment of the Millennium under the rule of a totally righteous and just King. Sadly, a great multitude will again fall for Satan’s lies. Under the spell of his anti-Semitic rage, they will attack the “holy city,” Jerusalem, in an effort to overthrow Jesus’ rule of the nations.

It will not really be a fight. Fire will suddenly destroy all these latter-day haters of Israel.

Although the ongoing hatred of Israel and the Jewish people grieves us, we recognize its source and trust God’s sovereignty in bringing about His purpose to restore a kingdom to His repentant people after the Tribulation.

There’s no force that can thwart His promises to Israel and also to us as New Testament saints. Our future rests in the hands of a sovereign, all-powerful, and holy God whom we trust with our lives.

-Jonathan

God’s Greatest Restraint

Despite all the wickedness across America and the world, God the Holy Spirit continues remarkable Restraint as Paul the apostle foretold.

“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only [the Holy Spirit] who now [Restrains] will [Restrain], until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked [Antichrist] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him [Antichrist,] whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (2 Thes:7-10).

New World Order architects are nearing the precipice of bringing into being the Antichrist regime Satan has long sought to inflict upon humanity. They have employed the fear factor of a worldwide pandemic with the COVID scare. They have convinced governments of the Western world like those of Canada, Australia, and, yes, the United States of America, to put into place things to bring their populaces into compliance with bizarre implementations which in just the recent past would be considered insane. Like, for example, the Biden administration’s declaration that the day we celebrate Resurrection Day this year to be the Transgender Day of Visibility.

This wicked declaration brought the following response from Franklin Graham, son of the late evangelist Billy Graham.

“On the most significant day of the Christian calendar, when the Church around the world celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ who died and shed His blood for the sins of mankind, the Biden administration uses this opportunity to flaunt sin, to glorify sin, and to celebrate sin.

“The Bible says, ‘…they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them!’ (Isaiah 3:9). Judgment is coming,” he added. “Instead of celebrating sin, we need to confess our sins, repent of our sins, and ask for God’s forgiveness.”

The all-out assault on morality has, for certain, had its deleterious effects. Our public school systems, in considerable measure, put in front of our children the so-called “wokeness,” which defies God’s Divine order in the matter of the trans-movement and in other absolute reprobate ways that reflect where this generation stands in relationship to Romans 1:28.

The Holy Spirit continues to restrain such assaults by Satan and his minions, both demonic and human –the evil forces described in Ephesians 6:12. Those who observe these late prophetic times as Watchmen on the wall see the Psalms chapter 2 derision God is sending upon the Ephesians 6:12 minions. These New World Order builders, despite their Great Reset and Build Back better efforts, can’t complete their Satan-inspired blueprint construction this side of the Rapture of the Church. The Holy Spirit, Resident within all believers, continues to Restrain.

That said, it is not this Restraint against the satanic evil of which I write in thinking upon presenting this commentary. The absolutely remarkable Restraint to which I refer involves God’s unfathomable Mercy.

The God Who Created all there is –Who Holds in His Mighty Hand the very matter of which all things consist, hasn’t completely destroyed the anti-God rebellion that is constantly thrown in His Holy Face. This is truly remarkable Restraint!

Jesus Himself spoke of His Father’s unfathomable Mercy and restraint. When He was being horribly abused by those who were about to crucify Him, He said that He, Jesus, could Speak the Word and His Father would send legions of angels to save Him. That God the Father hasn’t completely destroyed all of this fallen world system is beyond human understanding.

I, as father of sons, can’t imagine the Restraint the Heavenly Father exercised at that most crucial Moment in human history. I couldn’t, like Abraham, be obedient in offering up my son for sacrifice. I just haven’t that degree of faith –although I sure wish I did have the kind of Faith that can remove mountains. I have to be honest and say I just couldn’t let the evil forces of this world come against one of my children without bringing all I could muster to stop them.

Our God, however, has within His Holy Person the ability to Invoke Mercy, through His Restraint, that is… well… unfathomable.

Nonetheless, there is a sense among those who “Watch” as commanded in Mark 13:37, that God’s Restraint based within His great Mercy is very near Its Limits. This Age of Grace (Church Age) is about to end, and the age that will be marked by His terrible Judgment and Wrath is about to begin.

The Rapture of the Church will be Heaven’s Demarcation that will bring about God’s Dealing with the likes of absolute evil and wickedness to which this world has come. Jesus said it will be the worst time of all human history (Matthew 24:21).

You don’t want to be part of those left on this Judgment-bound earth when Christ Calls God’s people to be with Him in the Clouds of Glory.

Here is how to be certain that you will go to Jesus when He Calls.

“That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

–Terry

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Depraved Minds and the Fulfilling of Jesus’ Prophecy

Perhaps the most frightful sign of the last days comes from the lips of Jesus Himself. In Matthew 24:21-22, Jesus spoke these words regarding the last three and a half years of the Tribulation:

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”

It’s been almost two thousand years since Jesus said humanity would face extinction apart from His timely return to the earth at the end of the Tribulation (Matthew 24:29-31), and today, we see more clearly than ever how this might happen. We understand how the wars, famines, and judgments of God will contribute to this terrible death toll.

The other factor will be the antichrist. In preparation for his arrival, Satan is even now leading people down a path to accept the killing of a multitude of believers and Jews, especially during the last half of the Tribulation.

The Roman Road to Depraved Minds

Many of us are familiar with the “Roman road to salvation,” which uses verses from the book to present the Gospel. There’s another much different highway that I refer to as “the Romans 1 road to depraved minds.” What makes today different from Paul’s day is the widespread popularity of this road, especially among those in authority, elected and otherwise.

The downward journey to a depraved mind begins with the refusal to acknowledge God, His attributes, and His eternal power (Romans 1:18-27). This downward trek, according to Romans 1:28, leads to futility in thinking that ends with the Lord giving them up to a “debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” The word in the Greek, adokimos, applies to something, such as a metal that doesn’t endure testing, thus proving to be unfit, or “reprobate,” as the King James Version translates it.

What happens to those with depraved minds that “fail the test?” They become incapable of making morally sound decisions and, in most cases, even rationally sound ones:

“They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:29-32).

We live in a culture dominated by those who have successfully traversed down the Romans 1 road to a “reprobate mind.”

If there’s a spokesman for this brutal and murderous group, it would be author and World Economic Forum (WEF) advisor Noah Yuval Harari. He repeatedly declares that the majority of humans on planet Earth are “useless eaters.” As such, he advocates a significant reduction in the world’s population. A report on the Natural News website sums up all that I have read and heard from this prophet of death.

Harari talks about “useless human beings” who do not have meaning or purpose. He said the greatest fake news is the Bible. He said Christianity is wrong, that humans are here on Earth for “nothing.” “Jesus Christ is fake news,” be balked. He believes there is “no great cosmic plan” that humans have a role to play in. Instead, he views humans as “useless eaters” who can be hacked and manipulated using digital surveillance under their skin.

He also believes in culling the population. “What do we need so many humans for?” he is quoted as saying while promoting his latest book.

An Example of Reprobate Thinking

If there’s an arena today where we see numerous examples of “reprobate” thinking, it’s among the climate alarmists of our day.

John Kerry, who until recently was the “climate czar” for the Biden administration, is the best example of those who tell us that we must eliminate fossil fuels in order to save the environment. Can you imagine the impact this would have on farming?

The high death toll that would surely result from such a policy has not stopped globalists from advocating a disastrous reduction in planting and harvesting crops as a necessary step in reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. The call to kill millions of cattle in the name of “saving the planet” is a clear result of reprobate thinking that would lead to the starvation of multitudes.

The phrase “fossil fuels” itself is bogus. John Rockefeller coined this term a century ago so he could sell his oil and gas at higher prices due to its alleged scarcity.

Experts estimate that the natural gas reserves off the coast of Israel exceed a trillion cubic feet in just one location! The amount of oil consumed in one day alone throughout the world requires an astronomically high number of prehistoric animals to generate. These sources of energy are most certainly NOT “fossil fuels.” It’s utterly impossible for decaying dinosaurs to account for gigantic deposits of oil, natural gas, and coal that are present in our world.

The Lord provided these rich reservoirs to sustain the earth’s current large population. Without these fuels, billions would die of starvation. Used properly, they do not harm the environment nor do they raise temperatures to unsafe levels.

Climatologist Dr. Pat Michaels, in a panel discussion on “Climate Myths” moderated by John Stossel, said:

It’s warmed up around 1 degree Celsius since 1900, and life expectancy doubled in the industrialized democracies! Yet that temperature ticks up another half a degree and the entire system crashes? That’s the most absurd belief! . . . Eliminating all fossil fuels would reduce the average earth temperature by .14 degrees Celsius. That’s a very small change for putting humanity back in the Stone Age.

The Apostle John wrote that the “spirit of the antichrist” was already active in his day (1 John 4:3). How much more do we already see this in the promotion of policies that would kill billions of people if fully implemented? These things come from depraved minds given over to the influence of our enemy.

That’s the downside of seeing Jesus’ words come to life in our present day. For us, it indicates that the Rapture is ever so close. Never before have New Testament saints witnessed so many things that point to the soon arrival of the Tribulation period.

-Jonathan