Signs that we are very very close to the Rapture and Tribulation - Part 3

This is the 3^rd and final part continuing to explore a list of prophetic and current world events that provide further proof that we are living at the very end of end times and extremely close to the rapture and tribulation that is about to come upon the whole earth. If you have not read Signs that we are very very close to the Rapture and Tribulation - Part 1 and Signs that we are very very close to the Rapture and Tribulation - Part 2, please do so before proceeding to read this.

Supernatural Phenomenon and A‘lie’ns

Have you ever wondered why we have to struggle so much in this world? It is not just our own mortality and frailties that we battle against; nor the other people who sometimes wish to do us harm. There is a much bigger enemy at play here. Ephesians 6:12 states, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” So what are these wicked spiritual forces? At the very top of this evil family tree is satan, aka lucifer, aka the devil. Satan was created as a cherub (among the highest/ most powerful/beautiful order of angelic beings) with the capability of free will. Pride overtook satan and he wanted to be like God rather than serve God. God cast satan and the fallen angels, who were influenced by satan, down from Heaven. He is the chief adversary to God, although of no match to God in power. Fallen angels, although not at satan’s level in their hierarchy, are still extremely powerful and serve satan. Genesis 6:4 accounts the fallen angels desiring human women and taking them and having children with them. Their offsprings are the nephilim, the giants, known in the pre flood days. We have grown up hearing stories about false ‘gods’ in several cultures such as Zeus, Hercules etc. These are not mere ‘myths’ but accounts of fallen angels or their offspring manifesting and falsely claiming themselves to be ‘gods’ all over the world. Along with punishing the wickedness running rampant all over the world among humans, the purpose of the flood during Noah’s time was to also annihilate the evil Nephilim walking the earth. Some scholars speculate that demons are the disembodied evil spirits of the dead nephilim creatures who are constantly looking to inhabit a body. While others conclude that demon is just another word for fallen angel. Knowing the technical classification of each category of satan’s minions is not as important as recognizing the reality that a horde of evil entities exist in our realm under satan with their primary purpose to cause you physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual harm with the ultimate goal of making sure you do not get to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and be eternally separated from God. So, what does any of this have to do with the end times?

John 8:44 describes of satan as, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.” 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 further affirms, “No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.” Contrast this with Jesus’ words as recorded in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Since we know that satan is a liar, hates God, hates his creation, he will use whatever mode of lie to masquerade himself as truth. Satan knows that the end times are fast approaching with the rapture being imminent and potentially happening anytime now. The natural, scientific, and predictably mundane that humanity is used to will suddenly give way to various expressions of the supernatural. Many sceptics will turn to God for explanation and truth. Satan will use whatever lies and trickeries at his disposal to turn as many people away from the truth. One such deception, that is ever increasing in popularity, is the growing talk of a‘lie’ns and their soon arrival.

While growing up, I have heard bits and pieces of the whole alien concept. For the longest time, the talk of aliens was dismissed as tin foil hat conspiracy theories. News reporters often dismissed any unusual gravity defying phenomenon in the skies as weather ballons or offered up other silly excuses with laughter. Government officials publicly denied, ridiculed, and mocked at inquires of ‘aliens’. Fast forward to present age. United States congress, along with many other governments, are holding multiple hearings attributed to unidentified flying objects (UFOs), or per modern terminology, unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAPs). Even millions are currently being spent on specific governmental programs to further study this topic.  Well respected pilots are testifying under oath in congress; officials with top clearance are confirming that the US government has in its possession ‘crafts not made of this earth’ and remains of ‘bodies that are not of human origin’; classified videos from decades are slowly being declassified and released for public consumption; news reports are discussing the topic in a more serious tone, and so on and so forth. So what changed? As mentioned earlier, the enemy knows the time is short and the rapture is near. Top governmental officials also know that something otherworldly exists that defy explanation. There are many luciferians at the top level of government, Hollywood, other influential institutions who are deceived puppets of the devil and his minions with or without their conscious knowledge. Satan and his spiritual and human cronies know that the best way to disseminate shocking information is not all at once; but in gradual phases. This is why the government did not confirm of ‘aliens’ decades ago but allowed little nuggets of information to be thrown around here and there. This is why the satanic driven Hollywood industry started making movies from decades ago to slowly plant the idea of ‘alien’ existence into the human mind and slowly desensitize people towards it. As L.A. Marzulli, a biblical expert in supernatural phenomenon, often states, there are several rungs to this disclosure.

You may have noticed that I keep putting the word alien in quotation marks. It is because what satan is trying to sell through the government, Hollywood, news media, etc. regarding a‘lie’ns is simply a lie. These are not intergalactical little gray men traversing through millions or billions of miles, evading countless giant rocks and other flying objects towards their spaceship, to finally arrive at earth to observe or help humans, or at worst, destroy us and take over our planet. Instead, they are mostly interdimensional spiritual beings belonging to satan who can take on whatever form and appear in and out of our dimension with ease. They will even create and utilize ‘aircrafts’ (with materials not made on this earth as confirmed by our government) and allow dummy avatar bodies to occasionally crash on this earth to throw us off the truth even more. Do you really think such supposedly highly advanced intelligent beings, who are able to travel billions of miles through the galaxy avoiding countless number of obstacles, are not advanced enough to evade a rocket from mere humans that crashed its superior vehicle? Many well reputed pilots have put their career and reputation on the line with oath under penalty of perjury before congress to describe their experiences with UFOs / UAPs. Many videos show these ‘crafts’ pulling off physics defying stunts such as traveling at estimated speeds of several thousands of miles per hour, making abrupt stops, then proceeding to turn to whatever direction it chooses and shoot up and vanish towards the sky, or down into the depths of the ocean, without slowing down one bit. Any creature with a physical body would get crushed by the gravitational force (G-force) and explode on impact by partaking in such a speedy maneuver.

Many may think of angels as gentle, humanlike creatures. While there is a class of angelic beings who have physical characteristics that may loosely fit these attributes, there are many more categories of angelic beings who have a far more majestic, awe-inspiring, and even fear evoking physical form. This is potentially why many instances in scriptures denote that when a good angel appears to humans, they always start off by saying ‘do not be afraid’ to not startle and frighten them. Ezekiel 1 describes one category of angels as the following. “As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction as the creatures went. Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around. When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose.  Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.” Could Ezekiel be describing what we call a UFO or UAP? I bet he is.  

Some of the good angels and fallen angels do share a similar appearance. So, if confronted with a supernatural being, how can you tell them apart? As mentioned earlier, satan and his fallen angels can and often will disguise themselves as angels of light. As Paul writes in Galatians 1: 8, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!” The gospel means “good news.” In its essence, the gospel is the belief in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s sinless life, death, and resurrection and trust in His sacrifice alone for the forgiveness of our sins and eternal salvation. If any being, human or angelic, were to present some other message, we are to reject it and know that they are of the enemy!  Satan and his forces shudder at the name of Jesus. Scriptures are replete with examples of Jesus casting out demons and them fleeing upon hearing His name. You can find many instances even now of possessed individuals shrieking at the name of Jesus. This is further proven by accounts of so many people who have experienced ‘alien’ abductions. Many victims have gone on record stating that these ‘abductions’ and ‘experiments’ and occurrences of ‘sleep paralysis’ and various types of demonic attacks stopping as soon as they call upon Jesus’ name to rescue. You can easily research this and verify based on numerous testimonies even among atheists. This is because these alien abductions are rooted in the same source of satanic spiritual wickedness. Research data presented at the MIT Cambridge MA conference in 1992 regarding abductions highlighted uncanny similarities alien abductions and satanic ritual abuses have in common. Since it is a very long list, I will not be able to detail it in this article. I encourage you to read the Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) and Alien Abduction comparison on your own so that you can see for yourself without a shadow of doubt how similar they are and conclude what the source is. As we approach the end, we will see increasing supernatural manifestations take place. There are already many false new age teachers, via deceiving spirits, coming up with various excuses to explain away the rapture. One such theory is that in the near future, the aliens will come and take away the ‘bad’ people aka Christians to be reformed. Another theory is that ‘mother earth’ is reaching it’s breaking point and will soon cleanse itself of negative energy aka Christians. Whatever false theories they may come up with, we can definitely expect an increase in all this a‘lie’n talk and further unveiling of the supernatural.

Natural Disasters and Pestilences and Signs in the Skies

Jesus described the following signs as well as an indicator of the end of the age. “And there will be massive earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrible sights and great signs from heaven.” (Luke 21: 11). He goes on to say, “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves.” (Luke 21:25). Matthew confirms this in chapter 24, verses 7 and 8 quoting Jesus “and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains” and later in verse 29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken”. Revelation 16 also describes in detail fearful supernatural signs such as painful and festering sores breaking out on people who take the mark of the beast, seas and rivers turning into blood and killing the creatures in it, people getting seared by the intense heat from the sun, Euphrates river drying up to make way for kings of the east (possibly China), massive earthquake such as the world has never seen, islands flooding away and mountains not being able to be found, and hailstones weighing about 100 pounds falling on the people. There are various other references that indicate extraordinary supernatural phenomenon taking place in nature throughout scriptures especially during the tribulation.

While there have always been earthquakes, floods, diseases, unusual signs in the heavens, etc. throughout history, recent worldwide phenomenon shows that they are appearing a lot more frequently and at a much greater intensity. Even secular sources are observing that a lot more earthquakes are being measured at a higher Richter scale magnitude at a much more common rate than before. Floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, etc. are getting bigger, arriving more regularly, and occurring at diverse places during unexpected seasons all over the world that have not been the case historically resulting in unpreparedness and mass human casualty. Despite the advancements in the medical world, pestilences and diseases are plaguing humanity worldwide and increasing. Not too long ago, we witnessed what Covid did to society. Whether one thinks it was artificially manufactured or occurred naturally, what is undeniable was the effect it had on people physically, mentally, and emotionally. It also showed just how quickly governments all over the world can coordinate and come together and implement similar rules and ‘restrictions’ on society at a worldwide scale, just like the future mark of the beast. More ‘pandemics’ have already been projected by the ‘experts’ in the coming years. We can certainly expect more restrictive protocols that may not necessarily be backed by actual data, but instead can be used as a mean to implement control measures by the governments. After all, a crisis is the perfect recipe that will allow the higher powers to control the masses. Similarly, despite advances in food production and preservation technology, studies show that famine and global hunger have increased. With rising costs and dwindling resources, we can expect this trend to continue to go up. Moreover, we are starting to notice unusual and perplexing signs and patterns in the sky more often. Strange orbs and interstellar objects that NASA cannot explain, increasing discoveries of asteroids that could potentially come close or collide with the earth in the upcoming years are managing to make headlines more regularly in the news. As the scientific community and experts are racking their brains to understand and provide solutions to some of these issues described above, bible prophesy upholds that they will keep on increasing all the way through the end of tribulation.

Rapture Date Setting and Mocking, False Teaching

Unless you have been living under a rock, you probably heard of the big September 23^rd/24^th rapture prediction this year. Whatever their intentions were, it was yet another instance of man trying to play God, predict a day that God clearly hasn’t revealed to us in scriptures, and yet again…failed. Some sincere believers, though misguided, had good intentions and were relying on somewhat reasonable theories such as the Jewish holiday, Rosh Hashanah (also referred to as the Feast of Trumpets) falling on September 23^rd/24^th of this year, having a possible rapture connection due to the mention and association of the word 'trumpets' in rapture passages (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 & 1 Corinthians 15:50-53). They were probably even more excited by the fact that this year’s Rosh Hashanah dates coincided with the United Nations high level general debate dates (when every country’s delegate makes a speech at the UN). One of the UN's main themes for this year, as mentioned in the previous blog, was peace and security. These words were mentioned by almost every nation’s delegate during their speech as well. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4, “Now as to the periods and times, brothers and sisters, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord is coming just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction will come upon them like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, so that the day would overtake you like a thief.” I can see why a well-meaning believer could connect the Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets) Jewish holiday happening during the exact same time this year while the whole world (UN delegates) was saying peace and security could potentially have lead to the sudden destruction/possible rapture as indicated by Paul. However, there were others (also possibly sincere and well-intentioned) who were convinced that this was the year of the rapture due to receiving dreams/visions, which they obviously have misinterpreted, and even finding 'confirmations' in mundane things like seeing the numbers 923 on a license plate or billboard etc. (which they decided was a September 23 affirmation in their head). I can see that (and I can definitely relate) there is a general exhaustion among believers who are tired of the trials of this present evil world and longing to be with the Lord. They were grasping at straws and looking for any sort of confirmation(s) to believe and convince themselves that those were the dates of the rapture. Although their desire was authentic, using these sorts of random personal 'confirmations' like it was scripture was a bit immature and silly. There is also another category of so-called believers that say sensational things like ‘Jesus told me for sure these are the dates'. Some of these people may even possibly be genuine Christians who received a false revelation/dream/vision from a deceiving satanic spirt, as mentioned earlier in the blog, and did not do his/her due diligence and compare it with scriptures. Others, maybe charlatans posing as believers who saw this as an opportunity to make extraordinary claims and cash in on as much YouTube revenue and popularity as possible through views/clicks before the supposed rapture date. Whatever each person’s intention was, only God knows. However, what this failed prediction, just like the previous ones, have done is cause some embarrassment, discouragement and even discredit to Christians who are actually watching for the signs logically based on scriptures and current event fulfillment of those prophecies. Strangely enough, this is also a prophetic sign of the end.

So, what does the scriptures say? Jesus mentions “many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people” (Matthew 24:11). I bet some of the people I mentioned above definitely fell into this category. False teachers twist the scriptures and subvert the intended message into whatever that would benefit themselves and ultimately satan. Similarly, 1 Timothy 4:1 writes, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” It is probable that a good number of the dreams/visions/confirmations that some people received regarding the rapture dates were directly orchestrated by satanic forces. Satan knows that the time is near for the rapture. He also knows that if a ‘high watch date’ passes, this could potentially discourage a lot of immature believers, and thus, they would stop looking for the signs and potentially retreat to themselves and not do anything productive and useful for the Lord out of disappointment. Furthermore, 2 Peter 3:3-4 & 8-9 states, “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?” … ^“But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” One day soon, the mockers will see that what these crazy Christians have been saying have finally happened. The wise ones will repent of their sins and unbelief and accept and turn to Jesus Christ as their Savior, while the foolish and stubborn ones will continue to deny proof right in front of them and continue to mock and eventually run out of chances to get right with Jesus and be eternally separated from God.

So, what is the application? I believe that the best methodology to discern the end times involves a more reasoned, nuanced, balanced approach heavily rooted in scripture. Should we abandon watching for the signs of the times completely? Certainly not! Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself has provided us with signs to look for in the scriptures along with Old and New Testament writers. Several chapters in the bible, and even whole books like Revelation, are devoted to listing specific prophecies that detail exactly what the end times would look like. If we were meant to be kept clueless about the end times, those scriptures would not have been provided to us by our Lord Jesus Christ and other writers inspired by the Holy Spirit. Just to shut the book saying that 'nobody knows the day or the hour', so I am not even going to try and discern the times is pure laziness and irresponsible. Matthew 16:2-3 even has Jesus rebuking the Pharisees and Sadducees for their lack of discernment in seeing the times. Conversely, we should also not be going off the deep end and looking for prophetic fulfillment in everything we see from a license plate to a peanut butter jar. We are to use logic and discernment and always compare it with scripture. A wiser approach would be to only rely on scriptures to study prophecies listed in the bible and watch for their general fulfillment through current events etc. All the prophecies in the scriptures predating Jesus' 1st coming was fulfilled exactly as they were written. Thus, we can rest assured that all the prophecies describing the end times and Jesus' 2nd coming will also be fulfilled exactly as they were written.

I will take a moment to note that it will not only be in the area of end times bible prophecy that false teachers will arrive to subvert the truth in the last days. They will attack all solid doctrines of the bible. For example, false teachers are already on the scene preaching a gospel that is not of the bible. They will say things like all paths lead to God, you have to earn your salvation through your works, you just need to be a good person etc. They will come up with ridiculous and blasphemous statements like Jesus approves of all type of lifestyles equally and will accept people who rejected Him as God into His future eternal kingdom, and that Jesus would even support and champion all the new age, woke, current societal ideologies if He was walking on the earth today and put the 'bigoted' Christians in their place. There are many so-called 'pastors and priests' who endorse the false prosperity gospel and will even sell you 'holy oil' for $9.99 if your order now so that you can be healed and get rich etc. I can go on and on, but I think you get the point. For a detailed explanation of the gospel and to know how you can forever be with God for eternity, please read my blog What must I do to be saved? How can I go to Heaven?

As mentioned over the last 3 blogs, we currently have several prophetic signs converging together like it never has before in previous generations. The soon coming to end of 6000 years given to man, the 2000th anniversary of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection fast approaching, regathering of the Jews (after close to two millennia of being scattered all over the world) in the reestablished nation of Israel, increasing wars and rumors of wars and cries for peace and security, current technology capable of implementation of the mark of the beast, rise in lawlessness and wickedness and persecution, unveiling of supernatural phenomenon like the alien deception, natural disasters, pestilences, strange signs in the skies etc. growing in frequency and intensity, false teachings and last days mocking etc. are all end times signs that scriptures talk about in detail that are coming together in our generation like never before. While fulfillment of just one or two of these events could be seen as happenstance, the convergence of all these signs certainly points us to being the final generation that will see the rapture and Jesus' 2nd coming. There are other signs as well that the scriptures indicate that this present age is about to wrap up. I hope these blogs have been of value to you in discerning the times that we are in. 2 Timothy 4:8 mentions that “in the future there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” Do not let anyone or anything to steal that crown as we look for the joyous occasion of our Lord’s coming.

As Jesus instructed (Luke 21:28), “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” Maranatha!