The message I sense that’s the most important to address is that we–humanity—are now on the precipice of history’s most dangerous moment.
It is the most dangerous because of the warning of the very God of all creation. They are the words of Jesus when He walked in human flesh upon the streets and hills in and around Jerusalem. I would get tired of repeating them so many times in these commentaries. But I dare not stop repeating them, because I sense this prophetic message involves what I’m convicted the Holy Spirit wants all of humanity—both the born again and the unsaved—to know.
And it is dangerous particularly to the unsaved—all of humanity who are of the age of understanding (age of accountability) who don’t know Christ for salvation of their souls. It’s also dangerous, in a sense, to the born again (all who know Jesus for salvation), because we’re commanded to “watch” (Mark 13:37) and discern this late hour of the Age of Grace (Church Age). To disregard this command by the Lord is to disobey God.
Again, I’m convicted that the world of humanity is exactly at the time Jesus spoke of in warning of His next catastrophic intervention into this world of advancing wickedness. And the conditions the Lord said will be manifest immediately before He calls the Church into Heaven are nothing like some Bible prophecy pundits who deny the pre-Trib Rapture are presenting.
And, it isn’t my purpose to be disrespectful to the people who are misreading and falsely reporting on what Paul the apostle and even the Lord Jesus prophesied regarding the very end of this Age of Grace. My purpose is to present the truth so Christ’s warning is conveyed by the Holy Spirit to the understanding of humankind.
Those Bible prophecy writers and pundits to whom I refer have taught for years that we are seeing the economy and all else get worse, and that we should prepare to enter history’s worst time–the Tribulation (Daniel’s 70th week). They accuse that Christians have been led astray by those of us who preach, teach, broadcast, and write that Christ will call all believers in the Rapture to Himself and safety before that terrible time of Tribulation begins. Christians, these anti-pre-Trib Rapture proponents declare, therefore won’t recognize Antichrist and won’t be prepared to “endure unto the end” (endure until the Second Advent of Christ at the time of Armageddon).
For the past months, in particular, the pre-Trib Rapture opponents have had us look at economic conditions so dire that we should, they declare, recognize that the world will be swept into unprecedented depression at any moment. They say this is the beginning of the world of humanity going into the prophesied Tribulation. Indeed, things were looking extremely bleak in that regard. All the secular economic gurus agreed that depression is on the way. It cannot be avoided or averted.
My own take has been focused not on what men say, but on what the Lord Jesus Christ said about the end of this age. And, please understand, I have no delusions of grandeur that I’m an Old Testament-type prophet, or even one who has had a “word of knowledge,” as some claim to have. I just read what our Lord says about the end things and believe Him. Therefore, the Holy Spirit directs as I adhere to God’s Holy Word. Any Christian can do the same.
I’ve written that I believe there will be no great economic disaster on a worldwide scale, neither will there be a world-rending nuclear conflict.
The Lord, through His Word and my prayerful consideration thereof, made it known to me that the economy will, at the end of this age, be in a business-as-usual condition rather than in great depression. I’ve written on it probably until folks are tired of reading it: I believe Jesus said it will be business even better than usual at the time He was referring to in Luke 17:28–30.
Here again is that prophecy:
Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:28–30)
Again, I believe the Lord was saying here that at the time He next interrupts the affairs of humankind business will be booming, not in a state of depression and calamity. Sodom and Gomorrah, when Lot lived there and served as a city administrator and judge, was the envy of the entire region. Business was booming–while just beneath the surface of civility, the twin cities were probably the most wicked and debauched on earth. Jesus said it will be just like that when He next reveals Himself to humanity. The righteous (represented by Lot) will be removed, then destruction will befall those left behind.
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