Feb 27

The March to May Donation Drive

In the time since our last donation drive, we have achieved a number of major accomplishments. The site's ranking among other prophecy ministries is the most noteworthy.

According to a service that tracks all web activity, Rapture Ready has now become the #1 prophecy site. We were able to achieve this goal despite having two of our main functions on different domains - RR News and the RR Message Board.

The media continues to show interest in the site, and there has been an amazing amount of attention from Great Britain, where RR has caught the eye of four media outlets. In December, a film team from BBC filmed Terry and me for an April documentary. In January, RR was mentioned in a British documentary called "The Source of All Evil." BBC radio stopped by last week to interview me for a March program. And another company is in the early stages of production of a documentary it is putting together.

On this side of the Atlantic, the Dallas Observer asked for my input for an article that appeared in mid-February. A & E has been running a program that talks about the Rapture Index.

As we add new web pages to the site, the search engine keeps pointing people to our domain. The lack of free end-time related information on the internet shows that there is plenty of room for us to expand the site.

We are progressing towards our goal of translating articles into Japanese. I have to admit, it has been quite a challenge to accomplish this task. We had thought the project would cost around $4,000 to translation 10 articles. The size of some articles has bumped the price tag up to around $7,000. Because the translation service calculates fees by word count, the first article, which was short, came to around $400. The next one translated was just over $1000. Rather than cough up the money all at once, we'll just take our time and eventually get all ten articles translated.

When I last mentioned our plans to add Japanese articles to the site, few people asked me why I didn't consider using programs that automatically translate English text into other languages. I've tried a free version of this software at Altavista.com, and I the found translation to be of such poor quality we could never use it on the site. You can't tell people something like, "Me think Jesus you need savior repent go now."

Another costly project is going to be the reformatting of thousands of pages on the site. Now that the average screen width size is larger that 1000 pixels, the pages containing the RR stripe in the left column have presented a major problem. This background image repeats across the screen, making it difficult for some people to read the text.

Over the years, the look of the site has been updated dozens of times. When we had just a few hundred files on the site, it was easy for me to make the changes. Now that we have more than 11,000 files, an update will require us to hire a web design firm to help make all these changes.

Every major project we take on requires us to ask for assistance from dozens of people to cover the cost. For example, the $1000 Japanese article would require 20 people to donate $50 each.

Because we constantly lose supporters, I have to make these regular appeals to maintain a balance in our funding. Even though we have a base of more than 100,000 visitors, we're lucky to receive help from a fraction of that number.

The opportunity to contribute to the Kingdom of God is not a constant thing. Over the years, we lost supporters to death, poor health, and financial reversals. We've even lost a few supporters from the area affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Rapture Ready didn't get to be the top-ranked site by accident. This site is the result of people realizing that they are part of the Great Commission.

An easy way to support RR is with an automatic monthly donation. The PayPal subscription service and allotments set up through a bank are convenient ways to send funds to the site. 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

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Endtime Perplexity

Believers in Jesus Christ, in terms of the majority, don’t recognize the crucial prophetic times in which this generation finds itself. To prove this, just ask almost anyone you know –outside of the very few Christians you know who might consider prophetic issues-- and watch the blank stares, the smiles, with accompanying gesticulations that indicate they don’t worry, or even think about these things. Observe, while they quickly go onto other subjects, like "what’s for dinner," "who’s getting married," "who’s getting a divorce," "who’s living with whom," or a thousand and one other more generationally appropriate topics –in their view—than where we are at present on God’s prophetic timeline.

When the Christian who is truly a student of what God has to say about things to come stops to analyze the flood of prophecy-laden matters deluging this generation, he or she quickly realizes that we are at the very door that will open into the tribulation. But, he or she knows – if prayerfully diligent in studying God’s prophetic Word, (i.e., is led by the Holy Spirit to truth) and is thus discerning in analyzing world conditions-- that another door is about to swing open. That is the door that leads through the fabric of space and time. The door that will be opened by Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ IS that door! After all, He said”…I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

And, the things for the discerning Christian to consider are staggering in numbers, and in prophetic relevance.

Of these many things of prophetic import we could think upon, none is more glaring at this moment –in my view—than signals of Christ’s coming again wrapped up in the title of this commentary article: “Endtime Perplexity.”

The prophecy was given by Jesus in His Olivet Discourse, as recorded in the following:

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring” (Lk. 21:25).

Review, for just a moment, the dynamics shaping up endtime world conditions while this generation rages toward Daniel’s 70th week –the seven years of tribulation, when God’s wrath will begin falling upon incorrigibly rebellious mankind.

Israel is at the very center of the last-time perplexity, just as Jesus and the Old and New Testament prophets foretold. Think of it! Everything of great significance, so far as world conditions are concerned, points right back at Israel!

1) Hamas is in control of the Palestinian drive for statehood. The terrorist organization is on record, determined to expunge Israel from the region. These are blood-vowed to kill every Jew they find.

2) Iran’s leadership is threatening to develop (might already have) the ability to produce nuclear weapons. The purpose is to annihilate Israel –and any other nation that gets in Iran’s path.

3) The U.S. is in turmoil over the Bush Administration’s wanting to approve United Arab Emirates' (UAE) purchase of American seaports. (A truly profound issue that has created great perplexity, both within the U.S. and abroad.)

4) Islamic hate-filled doctrinal differences perplex American military planners in Iraq, while the Muslim madmen kill each other and bomb centuries-old religious sites in reprisal for perceived inequities and wrongdoings. The seas and waves of humanity are indeed “roaring.”

5) Islamic fascist-like, rage-filled terrorists protest by the hundreds of thousands, inciting millions to attack and destroy even their own possessions in Europe and other places. Christ’s words “nation (ethnos –or ethnic entities) shall rise against nation…” have been fulfilled to some extent in our time. Certainly, there can be no doubt that this is happening en masse across the world.

Again, Israel is the chief reason for the incitement. Anyone who supports Israel in any fashion comes under the radical Islamic threat of sword applied to the neck. Then there is the cry for “peace and safety.” But there is total disregard for the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ. At the risk of being castigated as “touching the anointed,” I must say that even the major players among pastors and leaders of churches in this Laodicean era have a P.E.A.C.E. plan for saving the world from perplexity.

It won’t work, of course. Peace –even if used in clever, marketing terms of acronym—will fail. Only the Prince of Peace, and His godly, Heaven-sent peace will bring the raging seas of humanity under control, like He did the storm-driven waters on the Sea of Galilee those millennia ago.

Christians, it is past time to awake from the slumber under which the Church of Jesus Christ has –for the most part— been put, since allowing Satan and his minions to pull their deception over the spiritual eyes of many individual believers. We are at that point–in attitude--at the end of the age, about which Jesus forewarned:

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

To me, this is among the most foreshadowing of the perplexities about which our Lord prophesied: the question of why Christians will not awake in this endtime era, and look around at all that points directly at the truth that we are, as a generation of earth dwellers, on the very cusp of the apocalypse, of tribulation. This should make us, rather than be filled with only thoughts of earthly things, busily engaged in activities spiritually ripe with great anticipation of the "blessed hope" of Titus 2:13. He could come at any second, and all of the things of this fallen world instantly will no longer matter to the Christian of the Church Age. We will stand before Him, and see Him face to face, and give account for our attitude toward Him, and activities for Him, when back on Planet Earth.
--Terry