Aug 8

The Greatest Sign for the Rapture

If you were to ask any Bible scholar to name the greatest end-time sign, the most common answer probably would be the rebirth of Israel. Without the state of Israel, many key prophetic events never could happen.

When it comes to the greatest sign for the rapture, I firmly believe apathy is the most reliable indicator of the "blessed hope's" nearness. Because apathy is something of an anti-sign, most people fail to realize how much the Bible talks about this subject.

The Lord Jesus told the disciples several times that He would come at a time they would not be expecting Him. Paul gave the same warning, telling believers they needed to be ready because the final hours would come like a thief.

"Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Mat. 24:44).

"But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief" (1 Thes. 5:4).

The state of apathy is confirmed by the number of emails I receive from frustrated Christians who write me to express how perplexed they are over the general lack of awareness. Here is a sample message:

"I am sad because I have very few people with which I can share this immense joy that we are so close to going home that it is so palatable in the air. I am angry because of the lack of people to share this immense joy with. It is not that the other Christians aren't able to see the time which is at hand. It is that THEY DON'T WANT TO SEE!!!! They are too preoccupied with living in the world, and they don't want to be bothered by the fact that Christ is coming back soon."

I think the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake is a defining moment in end-time apathy. The Dec. 26 earthquake generated a tsunami that was the most deadly disaster of its kind in all of history. It killed well over 240,000 people. The magnitude of the earthquake ranged from 9.0 to 9.3, making it the second-largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph.

I was totally shocked by the muted reaction from Bible scholars. I expected a poor response, but nothing could have prepared me for little or no action at all.

If the quake had occurred in 1994 rather than in 2004, the prophetic community's reaction would have been completely different. The deadly event would have been heralded as a major sign of the end times. A few months after the disaster, the shelves of Christian bookstores would have been well stocked with books that used the quake to highlight this glaring sign of the times.

I don't get frustrated by the lack of concern. Because apathy is one of the latter-days prophetic indicators, it obviously will increase as we get closer to the end.

With apathy appearing to have reached a saturation point, it would seem reasonable to conclude that we are very near to the rapture. The trick is getting other Christians to realize this fact.

Because time is rapidly running out, we need to ask ourselves, "Am I part of the crowd that is apathetic?" The test of our productivity level is how our lives relate to helping to fulfill the Great Commission.
-- Todd

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From USA to USE – One Moment Away

The United States positioned in the crosshairs of so many America-hating diabolists around the world continues to be a major topic explored by governmental, media, and Bible prophecy-based punditry. American news media continues to step up the pace of reporting government warnings regarding homeland security. WorldNetDaily.com reported August 1, 2005 that there is growing angst in government about threats to the US of weapons of mass destruction.

In comments during a visit to Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California this week, [Homeland Security Secretary Michael] Chertoff said the foremost concern for the nation's security now is the threat of a larger chemical, biological or nuclear attack.

Chertoff joins the growing list of public officials – including President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Chertoff's predecessor at Homeland Security, Tom Ridge – who have strongly hinted that nuclear terrorism has moved center stage as the No. 1 security threat facing the U.S.

Joseph Farah, in his G2 Bulletin, an online newsletter, writes the following:

WASHINGTON – Intelligence gathered from captured al-Qaida documents and interrogations of captured operatives has provided the US with some specific information about Osama bin Laden's favored dates for his decade-long plan for an "American Hiroshima" nuclear terrorist attack – and one of those dates arrives this week.

One of the most frequently cited dates is Aug. 6, the anniversary of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. Saturday marks the 60th anniversary of that attack, so this Aug. 6 would have special significance….

This commentary is being written well in advance of the August 6 anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, and you will be reading this article on August 8 or later. So, it will be interesting to know just how significant the anniversary might be to the terrorist, bin Laden. if, indeed, he is yet living.

Considerable evidence suggests the Mullahs of Iran and al-Qaida leaders are in close cooperation to bring America down with nuclear terror strikes. Rumored to have as many as 25 nuclear weapons, Iran continues to shuffle its underground nuclear development program while the Bush Administration threatens action through the UN. The Israelis are more and more put in the position that they will at some point be forced to deal with the Iranians, with bunker-buster bombs sold to them by the United States. This would, most agree, ignite the entire Middle East region in perhaps an unstoppable conflagration.

The United States of America has inserted itself in the middle of all of this –or been dragged into it by circumstances, according to how you view the matter. This nation thus is certainly as much a target as it was pre-9/11. The Islamic terrorists hate America even more than in the era before the 9/11 attacks, if anything. Some prophetic observers have opined that this is likely how America will become a non-player in end-time things. The nation will have been removed from its status as superpower, because it isn’t mentioned by name –or even by reasonably clear implication—in prophecy yet future.

I don’t disagree with that assessment. America is notably absent when one carefully studies the conclusion of geopolitical matters of the end time. As I’ve written before, the question is when, not if, the US will lose its great status as the most powerful nation on the planet.

Again, I come to the thought that America isn’t likely to suffer a cataclysmic fate, such as that threatened by Al-Qaida, Iran, North Korea, or even China or Russia. This isn’t optimism or the result of my grandiose opinion of US military defense capability.

My studied position–from Bible prophecy and principles--is that judgment of the type this nation and the whole world deserves is reserved until the time following the rapture of the Church.

God is giving this nation and world forewarnings, but not full-blown judgment as of yet. The earth is shaking, the waves are roaring, there are strange sights in the heavens –and these troubling winds of latter-day history are destined, I’m convinced, to accelerate as the great apocalyptic storm called tribulation approaches. But, we are not yet in that storm, and the signals we see are only warnings, not judgment.

God’s staying hand, not man’s diplomatic maneuverings or America’s great arsenal to deter aggressors, is why the cities of America and the world haven’t yet seen mushroom clouds rising into Earth’s atmosphere, while cities and their populations are vaporized and incinerated.

When millions vanish, America could be forced, as a matter of having to reorganize and reconfigure, in order to survive as at least a semblance of its former self. The USA will, I tend to believe at this point of thinking on these things, voluntarily join with the European Union or the hybrid of what that entity will have become, lending its military power to the newly formed geopolitical behemoth.

Will the United States of America at that time, between the rapture and the confirming of the covenant of peace prophesied in Daniel 9: 26-27, meld with the EU to become the United States of Europe?
--Terry