"NEARING MIDNIGHT" UPDATES FROM TODD STRANDBERG AND TERRY JAMES.

March 16, 2015Donation Drive March to May
We live in a time of profound prophetic activity. I’ve been studying Bible prophecy nearly forty years, and I’ve never seen so many news events with a direct connection to the last days. Here are some recent headlines I grabbed from Rapture Ready News:
Obama’s Threat of War Against Israel
Anti-Israel Divestment Push Gains Traction at US Colleges
Jordan’s King Calls Fight Against Islamic State “a Third World War”
“Jews Using Holocaust to Suck the Blood of Germans,” Egypt TV Host Says
Iran Renews Vow to “Annihilate” Israel
The tide of current events has become so negative in recent days; I can sense a spirit of weariness sweeping over the Body of Christ. With the devil making such stunning progress, too many Christians are becoming passive spectators of world affairs. I’m reminded of the footage of the people who stood on the shore and watched the great Indonesian tsunami roll in their direction. By the time they realized what was happening, a wall of water was crashing onto the beach. Because Bible prophecy has warned us about what is happening at this time, Christians should be motivated by these end-time signs.
The most impressive accomplishment noted during the last three months would have to be the dramatic increase in Rapture Ready’s global audience. From the very beginning, the vast majority of traffic to Rapture Ready has been from people living within the borders of the United States. The numbers from the rest of the world were so low, I just naturally used terms like “our nation” or “the president” in my writing. I now have to be more mindful of national context because the explosion of Smartphone technology has given billions of people direct access to our site.
I can easily see this growth from looking back seven years into the site’s data log. In 2008, the non-American traffic was around 11 percent. Last month, it had reached 22 percent. In 2008, we had 851 visits from the Philippines and 716 from China. Today, we have a monthly visit rate of 10,000 from the Philippines and 6,500 from China. The only downside is in the Islamic world; from 2008 to 2015 the visitors from Turkey and Saudi Arabia has actually gone down.
Some of the articles that we have had translated into other languages are starting to appear on the most active file list. In February, the Spanish version of “The Pretribulation Rapture” page was the second most read article on the site. Back in 2008, there wasn’t a single non-English article in the top 50 most-read list.
Rapture Ready needs your fervent prayers. I am totally convinced that the reason RR has been so successful is because I periodically ask saints to prayerfully intercede for this Web ministry. It has long been my hope that God would use this site to be a valuable resource for those who find themselves on the wrong side of the Rapture. The Internet is clearly the greatest global platform for free expression. It concerns me greatly that there is a growing effort to clamp down on the Internet and stifle free speech.
I know that the Antichrist will eventually have total control over all Web content. Because God always provides a warning before judgment falls, I believe that there will be a window of opportunity before Big Brother is allowed to outlaw all prophetic sites. I’ve taken a number of steps to give the content of Rapture Ready the best chance for survival in the post-Rapture world.
Because it is so easy for an autocratic government to block any given domain, I’m asking saints to prayerfully intercede for this humble site. I believe the reason why we need to seek God’s protection, especially at this time, is because our mission here on earth is coming to an end.
In the meantime we still need your monetary support. If I knew when the Rapture was going to take place, I could stretch out the budgeting and leave the Beast system a pile a bills. Because only God knows the timing of the Blessed Hope, we need your help in reaching as many people as possible.
“Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven” (Luke 6:23).
We have three ways you can contribute to Rapture Ready: You can send a financial gift via our P.O. Box address, you can make a one-time donation, or there is a “frequency” option that allows you to make monthly donations. The PayPal option has proven itself to be the most reliable method for offering long-term support.
The Authorized.net option does not update account information, so your pledge of support will end at your card’s expiration date. If you’re interested in signing up, the input links can be found on the Donation Depot page. Donations can also be sent to our P.O. box at:
Rapture Ready
P.O. Box 969
Benton, AR 72018
--Todd

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Antichrist AssumptionsDeclarations about Bible prophecy’s most evil (likely human) character are slashing through this time of end-of-the-age stage-setting. I say “likely human” because there is a looming question mark within my own cogitations about whether Antichrist will indeed be strictly human. Those who continue to hold to the beast of Revelation chapter 13 as eventually emerging out of the revived Roman Empire are increasingly being viewed as in error. Many prophecy watchers now see that evil entity as a Muslim in waiting somewhere in the foreboding future. The deadly violence that is growing by the day, with ISIS (or ISIL) at the core of militant Islam’s rage across the region that beastly horde infects, is proof that it will be an Islamist Antichrist who will one day soon be the man of sin of 2 Thessalonians 2: 3 –the Muslim Antichrist chroniclers declare.
These eastern-leg Antichrist adherents hold that the Bible prophecy students and scholars who have for centuries interpreted Daniel 9:26-27 as indicating the prince that shall come is to be of Roman geographic origin have been and now are demonstrably wrong. The horrific events of today’s Islamist, genocidal rampage as proof, is implicit within their railing against the long-held Roman Antichrist view. These give as their scriptural proof the fact that the world’s final, evil dictator is referred to as “the Assyrian.” And, there is absolutely no denying it. God’s Word does indeed call this coming tyrant “the Assyrian.”
One such adherent to the Muslim Antichrist view gave the following Scriptures as proof the view is the correct one.
Isaiah 10:24-25 - Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: "O My people, who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian. He shall strike you with a rod and lift up his staff against you, in the manner of Egypt. For yet a very little while and the indignation will cease, as will My anger in their destruction."
Isaiah 14:25-26 - That I will break the Assyrian in My land, And on My mountains tread him underfoot. Then his yoke shall be removed from them, And his burden removed from their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
Micah 5:3-6 - Therefore He shall give them up, Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; Then the remnant of His brethren Shall return to the children of Israel. And He shall stand and feed His flock In the strength of the LORD, In the majesty of the name of the LORD His God; And they shall abide, For now He shall be great To the ends of the earth; And this One shall be peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land, And when he treads in our palaces, Then we will raise against him Seven shepherds and eight princely men. They shall waste with the sword the land of Assyria, And the land of Nimrod at its entrances; Thus He shall deliver us from the Assyrian, When he comes into our land And when he treads within our borders.
The modern territories that encompass those geographic areas out of which the Assyrian (Muslim) Antichrist will come conquering like in ancient times--according to the adherents' view--include the following: Israel, parts of Iraq and Iran, Armenia, sections of Egypt and Turkey, Syria, and Jordan.
"The beast" will, they proclaim, emerge from the Middle East, not Europe. Scripture and current geopolitical, religious, and military trends are in agreement, they declare. Antichrist will be Muslim --or at least will initially hold to the religion of Mohammed and Allah as long as doing so is to his advantage while he acquires power.
Now to look at another currently metamorphosing geopolitical matter of possible eschatological import. It is a development that the Muslim Antichrist adherents --at least some of the major adherents--have come down hard on in recent days. I refer to the sudden, meteoric rise of Alexis Tsipras as prime minister of Greece. He is a young, physically attractive, charismatic leftist who has ignited the anti-austerity fire under the kindling that is the Greek populace. Some describe his appearances in conducting public rallies as very much like those conducted by the young Adolf Hitler while he was in the process of emerging during the 1930s within a Germany, whose people were suffering dire economic circumstances.
I state again here, so there is no mistake. I am not indicating that I believe this man is the one who will be Antichrist. I am simply stating that his seems to me to be the sort of man--under similar circumstances--who will one day erupt on the scene of a world quite desperate for an economic savior. --For one who will bring peace to a world about to explode in man's final war...
Alexis Tsipras, as I wrote previously, is in my view, an archetype of the man who will be Antichrist. Point is, he could, even if not likely--again in my view--be that man himself. It is possible, based upon surrounding global circumstances and upon his origins.
This is not possible, according to the Muslim Antichrist adherents. Tsipras is Greek, not of Middle Eastern extraction. However, it was recently pointed out to me by an Egyptian Muslim scholar, no less, that the name Tsipras is not Greek, but Turkish. The professor wrote: "This causes a misspelling in several Western languages that adopt direct transliteration from Greek (Tsipras/Τσίπρας)." In fact, in Turkish, this name is written Çipras.
Turkey, of course, is the present state in the vast geographical area encompassed by ancient Assyria.
Alexis Tsipras, as is obvious, is not in a direct way part of the region once known as Assyria. He is a Greek citizen, now elected to the nation's highest governmental position. He resides smack in the middle of the area from which the Roman Empire was spawned. Yet, his ancestry, it has been determined through research, is from that region with which Antichrist is associated according to the prophets Isaiah and Micah.
The new Greek prime minister thus fits the Daniel 9:26 prerequisite. He has an ancestral resume compatible with Bible prophecy regarding the prince that shall come.
I concluded quite some time ago, after studying the son of perdition's genealogy --admittedly only in a cursory way--that Antichrist will be a Roman by geographical residence. At the same time, I've believed he will come from the Middle East--be an Assyrian--by ethnic extraction. This is precisely the model presented by this archetype named Alexis Tsipras or Çipras, as our Egyptian professor has informed.
I again emphasize that I am not saying I think he will one day be Antichrist. I would never make such an assumption, as we as believers of the Church Age have no basis upon which to make such a claim. We are to look for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, not the beast of Revelation 13. We will be kept out of that time when Antichrist wreaks havoc on a judgment-deserving world.
We are, however, commanded by the Lord Himself to "watch.”
We will keep doing just that while the road to Antichrist's regime continues to be paved by current issues and events.
--Terry