Earth’s Final Hours

God indeed cares about the one-third of the Bible being neglected. Did you know that approximately 27% of the entire Bible contains prophetic material? Did you know that half of that has already come true, and scholars say that half remains to be fulfilled yet in the future? That means that out of the Bible's 31,124 Bible verses, 8,352 of these verses contain prophetic material. Did you also know that 1,800 verses in the Bible deal with the second coming of Jesus Christ? In fact, in the New Testament, one out of every 25 Bible verses refers to Jesus' second coming. Knowing that, would anyone dare to say to God that what He wrote in Scripture is worthless, is not important, and shouldn't be studied?

If you're saying that, just take your scissors and cut that part out. I want you to know that God brags about His prophetic statements as being proof that He exists. And welcome to the program. I'm so glad you can join me this week. And I have two very special guests that are joining me within a moment or two. They are the Prophecy Pros authors Jeff Kinley and Todd Hampson. We carry their fairly new book, The Illustrated Guide to Tough Questions About the End Times.

This is a practical illustrated book, as Todd Hampson is an illustrator and this feature makes the topic even easier to understand. So here's where we're going. We're going to talk about some content in the book and some current events this hour. And once again, events are happening at breakneck speed and you can choose to try to understand them from a biblical perspective or do what most of the world does, ignore them and hope the troubling news will just go away.

But what if the stories that are making headlines don't go away, in fact, even become more intense? I'm going to quote something that one of my guests wrote. Todd Hampson writes this. He says, The events of 2020, including the COVID-19 manmade, excuse me, I mean, gain of function virus was released, as was lawlessness, violence, deception, deep political corruption and other moral evils on a broader scale than we had ever seen or been made aware of. Todd says at this time, these signs were happening globally. It was as if we entered a medium boil phase, whereas those of us paying attention to signs that lined up with end time conditions used to be able to identify just about every significant prophetic stage setting event fairly easily. He says, I now literally cannot keep up. And then he concludes in this paragraph, 10 years ago, globalism was a conspiracy theory. The conditions needed for the Ezekiel 38 war seemed impossible.

Technology had not yet reached the mark of the beast level, and America was sick but still fighting. In 2021, all of that has changed. We are trending toward a rapid boil and could be there any moment. Gentlemen, welcome back to the program. Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure to join you.

Jen, great to be with you again. Thank you. I have your book in front of me. One primary point and chapter, of course, is why should we care about Bible prophecy?

I'm going to stop there. And I want you both and it's very well outlined in this book and in other things that you write. Why don't you both give me a paragraph? Why should my audience care about the subject we're going to talk about for almost an hour today?

Jeff Kinley? Jen, I would just say not only is the Bible full of prophecy, but God could have chosen to end his book any way he wanted to. I mean, he could have chosen to end by saying, now you guys love each other and be kind and be good Samaritans.

He didn't. He ended it with a book that's 95 percent prophecy, because as we read through the New Testament and we see this in the Old Testament as well. But God wants his people to know. He doesn't want us to be confused about the future or to have conjecture about it. He wants his people to have that sense of confidence.

As I read 2 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians, that's what Paul was saying as well. We don't want you to be disturbed. We don't want you to be uninformed.

We want you to know. Thank God that he loves us enough to give us a book that gives us a heads up on history and also lets us know how he's going to wrap this whole narrative up. Todd Hampson, a paragraph from you, please. For me, I come from an unchurched background. The key apologetic for me that woke me up to the fact that the Bible is from God was fulfilled prophecy. If people don't study Bible prophecy, they're missing out on a huge faith builder if they're already a believer.

And also they're missing out on a huge topic that they can use to witness to other people to lead them to Christ. That also gives us confidence that all the prophecies that have been fulfilled were fulfilled literally. So we can also conclude that all future prophecy will in like manner be fulfilled literally.

And that gives us great hope, especially in crazy times like we're in right now. I opened with a little clip there from John Ankerberg. Your book here on page nine certainly backs up what he was saying. And just a couple of bullet points here. You write, Prophecy makes up about 28 percent of the entire Bible. Remove this from the Bible.

And you have essentially gutted a significant portion of scripture's supernatural character. And you say, consider one out of every 30 verses in the New Testament contains prophecy. Point two, there are eight thousand total prophetic verses. Three, twenty three out of twenty seven New Testament books mention the second coming of Jesus. Four, for every time the first coming of Jesus is mentioned, the second coming is mentioned eight times. Five, the first prophecy concerning Jesus Christ is found in Genesis 3. Fifteen and six, there are three hundred and thirty three prophecies concerning Jesus Christ. Only one hundred and nine were fulfilled at his first coming. That leaves two hundred and twenty four prophecies yet to be fulfilled.

You want to comment on that? That's on page nine of the book, The Prophecy Prove's Illustrated Guide to Tough Questions About the End Times. One thing that it does, Janet, it tells us once again how prophecy informs the scriptures. And therefore, if it's in the Bible, then we as Christians should be studying it. These are not buffet items on the Christian faith agenda here.

These are some core issues. In fact, Paul even said in Second Thessalonians chapter two, verse five, he says, Do you not remember that while I was with you, I was telling you these things? And these things here are things about the tribulation, about the man of lawlessness, about the coming apostasy. These are all core church planting core issues. As I've traveled to a lot of churches, I found that many of them have been uninformed even since the very beginning. I think it just highlights really the importance and the priority that God places on his prophetic word. I recently ministered at a prophecy conference, Behold, He Comes, Jack Hibbs event back on September the 11th. And I'm addressing this question to you, Todd.

It's actually a comment followed by a question. I came away with five things that were really impressed upon me. I would have to say they're not newly impressed.

Let's say they were reinforced. Number one, there is a remnant who love to understand how things are aligning and moving at lightning speed. Number two, many attendees from good churches all over the country.

They may be good churches, but they will not address the topic we're covering this hour. Number three, we are in the times when things are accelerating at lightning speed, spurred on by, again, the pandemic, government overreach, vaccine mandates that are threatening our liberty. Many refuse to cave to government demands, but they are being shut out of jobs, churches, and even family. Number four, they are clinging to the blessed hope, but they are mocked for doing so. And number five, many feel isolated and misunderstood even in their own church and family.

Even in light of our times, those they care about cannot connect the dots and figure out that we are in Earth's final hours. Todd, those were five things I took away from the conference I was at. And you gentlemen had a conference not that long ago. Are you hearing similar things?

We really are. I'll ping pong around a little bit on a few of those points, but Jeff and I also get frequent emails. There's one Jeff received recently about a woman who was feeling that isolation, that she had studied prophecy and she knew it was true, but nowhere she would turn was she hearing about Bible prophecy. Then she stumbled on our podcast. She just talked about how she suddenly felt like she was back with family, like she wasn't crazy and that she was seeing things correctly. Furthermore, she shared a text message with us that her son texted her one day walking home from school.

He texted his mom and said, mom, can I walk home from school today? Cause I want to listen to the Prophecies Prose podcast. So there is a remnant of believers. It seems we're all spread out and not together. So it's important that we fellowship using technology or conferences or any way we can to encourage each other and to reach those people who are seeing the things that were in the Earth's final days, but they're not really getting a good fellowship team around them.

Any way we can connect with them and encourage them because things are accelerating at a rate that we have never seen before. And this is all fresh in my mind because I was interacting with, there were several thousand in attendance. I couldn't interact with them all, but I heard from plenty of them to hear their frustration, even some of their anxiety. Jeff Kinley, not so much anxiety about current events, which they get because they're following folks like us, but anxiety that they are treated as outcasts.

Absolutely. And that's the other feedback that I get that Todd gets is that these are displaced believers. They're wandering remnants. They feel like strangers in their own homes. And when I say homes, I mean their own churches. Sometimes when they approach their pastors on this subject, they're relegated to the corner of the church over there. So these people then have to reach out to be able to be fed concerning Bible prophecy.

Now here's the encouraging thing, Jan, as Todd said, we get a lot of correspondence from a lot of people, but again, they're disconnected from one another. They're starting, I believe, to appear at these prophecy conferences, one like you were just at. My prophecy conference schedule has exploded over the next nine months, and we're seeing people just fill up these rosters to hear Bible prophecy. So it's almost like we're recruiting from the body of Christ at large instead of seeing these individual pockets of strong prophetic preaching in the churches.

Now I will say this, too. There are some pastors who are waking up to this and are starting to host prophecy conferences and bring in speakers like ourselves. There is hope out there, but there's an awakening happening, Jan, among the body of Christ.

It's just not happening like it should happen. You're listening to Understanding the Times Radio, Jan Markell. Here I have on the line Todd Hampson and Jeff Kinley as they are co-authors of the new book We Are Carrying the Prophecy Prose Illustrated Guide to Tough Questions About the End Times. It's got a couple hundred pages of outstanding questions, charts, graphs, as Todd is an illustrator.

Very, very easy to grasp and understand. Gentlemen, I'm just moving slightly into some current event issues, and as I do that, I'm watching evil escalate. I just want to play a soundbite. It happens to be of Dr. David Jeremiah, and the context is actually the Great White Throne, but I love the way Dr. Jeremiah concludes this two-minute clip because he's talking about the fact that God is going to deal with evil. If he didn't, well, he wouldn't be God if he didn't ultimately deal with evil, and I want to come back and open up a different wing of discussion here about some of the government overreach, things that are going on right now.

As it concerns some of the mandates and all. Just as there are no unbelievers at the judgment seat of Christ, there are no believers at the Great White Throne. All unbelievers of all time will stand before the judge of all the earth and give an account of themselves. And the Bible says, and the books will be opened, and they will be judged out of the books. And the books aren't listed in the book of Revelation, but if you read the scripture carefully, you begin to pick up on some of them. There's the book of their life, what they did with their life, their words, their conscience. But the most important book is the book of life, and the Bible says in Revelation chapter 20, and if their name is not found written in the Lamb's book of life, they will be cast into the lake of fire and suffer forever and ever. So there is the future of ones who do not know Christ.

Right. So what about the future of Satan, this horrible, terrible, harassing, infusing creature? Well, let me tell you about Satan and his buddies. At the end of the tribulation, at the battle of Armageddon, the false prophet and the beast are cast into Hades. I'm just telling you what the scripture says right there.

Sure. Then, a thousand years happens, Satan is still there. He's bound, but he's not been cast into the lake of fire yet. At the end of the millennium, the Bible says he joins his two buddies in the lake of fire. They actually are in health for a thousand years before he is, and they become the first inhabitants of hell. And the Bible says those who have rejected Christ and have followed Satan in his ways, who have taken the mark of the beast in order that they might escape the judgment, they will be cast into that lake of fire along with Satan and the false prophet and the beast.

And that's a very uncomfortable thing for people to say. But I like to remind everybody that if God did not do that, he couldn't be God. If God could passively stand by and watch the evil that we're beginning to see even in our world today and do nothing, he would disqualify himself as the God of the earth. He must do right. And even though we know he does right with love and mercy and justice, he also does right with judgment. And at the end, his judgment will be poured out. Gentlemen, we have been watching evil escalate for 30, 40 years, and I think we're even watching it escalate more in the last couple of years.

Let me just give a couple of illustrations here, and then I want your feedback on it. I think that the events of both 2020 and 2021 have shed light on the things to come in the Bible, and they're obviously not all a very pretty scene. But right now, we've got government overreach going on. They're pushing a dependence on government type of mentality, number two, and that's going to lead to dependence eventually someday on the Antichrist. Right now, it's just going to be dependence on government eventually to the Antichrist. Number three, a perceived crisis has led to this pandemic. Number four, we have become a fear-based society globally. Number five, there's a longing for things to return to normal.

People want to eat, drink, and be merry. Next point, Christians that long much more for eternity have grown weary of this broken planet. Some are clinging to life as we know it. They do not have an eternal perspective, and they want to live their full life now. That's usually an age-related issue. Speak to me about if you are perceiving this government overreach, et cetera, this escalating evil.

Yeah, 100%. I don't see how anybody could not look at our times. I think some people are so busy and want to focus on just their daily lives that it's almost like a car accident happens and they don't want to look at it. They want to intentionally look the other way, but there are some evil things happening. And I think the Lord has peeled back the veil so that we can peek at some of this evil. You think of many verses that says evil will be revealed. And recently I took a fresh look at the book of Habakkuk, and I can identify so much because in chapter one of the book, he's saying to God, God, do you not see this evil that's going on?

Why are you not acting? Why are you letting evil reign free while the righteous suffer? And then in chapter two of Habakkuk, God pulls back the veil a little bit and takes Micah figuratively to a higher point where he can see the bigger picture and assures him that there is coming a day when evil will be punished. As a matter of fact, verse three of chapter two, it says, for the revelation awaits in a point of time. It speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it.

It will certainly come and will not delay. And then by the time Habakkuk gets to chapter three, he has this great song of praise where he's confined to the fact that, okay, for the moment we have to watch this evil prevail, but I now have assurance and know that one day God will set everything straight. And like you said, and like Dr. Jeremiah said, that's God's character. God has to punish evil. We talk a lot about God's grace in modern churches, but we forget that the other side of that coin is God's wrath. If God did not have a wrath to punish evil, then he wouldn't be God and his grace would not be valuable. He has to, by nature at some point, either through the death of his son and our sins on him or through people's own sins, they must pay for their sins. So God's wrath is coming and he extends mercy and grace as long as he possibly can. And I believe that's why we see evil prevailing even in these times when we're attempting to continue to reach people for Christ. One day soon, he will set everything straight.

Jeff, I'm sticking on this subject here for a minute or two because I raised this moments ago. There are some very concerned that we've got this government overreach, which is extremely troubling and developing a dependence on government eventually that will morph into a dependence on the Antichrist. The church is gone at that point because we're not going to experience the Antichrist. But let me go back to something I raised earlier, and that would be that some are concerned the COVID vaccine is the mark of the beast. We have a real problem with that in that we don't have a beast. The Antichrist is not here.

My question to you would be, it can't be the mark of the beast without a beast. It couldn't be a precursor. In other words, government overreach is setting the stage. People are acting out of fear.

As I said earlier, they're literally lining up around the world wanting to take this injection. To me, this is tribulation-esque. Give me your thoughts.

Absolutely. In fact, as you read Revelation 13, and I think that's very important, Jan, to really say what the Bible says. And when people start seeing these conspiracy theories and people are literally have knocked on my front door asking me, is this vaccine the mark of the beast? When you read Revelation 13, it says that the mark will be on the right hand on the forehead.

He uses the Greek word epi there, which means on top of, not huper, means under the skin. So he could have said that, which certainly would have caused us to think it could be. But as you said, the Antichrist has to be in power for the mark to be implemented.

But here's what I think is going on. We forget sometimes that Satan has an end times agenda of his own. He's been trying to jumpstart Revelation for thousands of years because he wants to have control over the world and he wants to be worshiped by humanity.

So he's tried to get this ball rolling many, many times. But what's happening now, I think, is we're in a process where the whole world for the very first time in a serious way and really all of human history is being groomed for the last days. Things are happening right now, Jan, that have never been able to happen. When has the whole planet been talking about one single thing? When have all the nations come together and said, yes, we're on the same agenda? Now, they're not one nation together yet. They're not a coalition of nations like they'll be during the time of Antichrist.

But they certainly are acting out. It's almost like they're going through a trial run of what this will be like. I believe that the spirit of Antichrist, spirit of the mark of the beast, is certainly embedded in the way that they're forcing it on people. It's disrupted our lives. It's divided people. It's been deceptive in the way it's been rolled out. It's been destructive in the way that it's killed some people.

But beyond all of that conversation about the vaccine, the bottom line is it's a worldwide thing that every person is being told, you cannot buy, you cannot sell, you cannot travel unless you do what this government tells you to do. And that is the spirit of Antichrist. Yes, the spirit of Antichrist is absolutely alive and well. And this is why I called all of this tribulation-esque. I made that word up, but it is like it's leaping out of the book of Revelation. Again, the church isn't going to be here to see some of the details of the book of Revelation. Church disappears after Revelation 4.1. I really appreciated that analysis.

I'm going back to how we opened the program. I raised this question at the Behold, Here Comes Prophecy Q&A, and I'm going back to the churches here. All of us hear from so many people who are in churches that want to ignore this or even put eschatology or Bible prophecy down. But here's the question I have.

I'll give it to you first, Todd. Let's say folks are in a very biblically sound pulpit and church, and they're giving the gospel message and the message of salvation, but they are putting down all the issues we're talking about, end times, et cetera. They have no time for this, or they teach amillennialism or preterism or kingdom now. The rest of the pulpit is sound, but this topic is way off the wall. Do you think folks should stay or leave such a church? Remember that pulpit is sound except for this issue we're talking about.

That is a tough question, and I have definitely fielded that question several times. The personal take that I take away, and some of it depends on your personal calling. For me, I've been advising people, you need to pray about it. For one thing, the Lord may want you at that church to be an influence, whether it's a grassroots kind of thing or you're leading a Bible study, or you have a relationship with the pastor or the teaching pastors that you can talk with them about it and get their take. But if it's taught in a militant way and it's really bashed in your sideline, kind of like Jeff was saying earlier, if you're just stuck in the corner and all but kicked out of the church for believing in pre-trib and that the signs are valid, we're seeing the shadows of the tribulation cast on us now, then that's something to pray about.

Do I go somewhere else? The key thing is Hebrews 10.25 says, do not neglect the assembling of ourselves together. It doesn't say you all have to be perfect Christians who all agree on all these issues, but I do think it's something that each individual believer has to really pray about and wrestle with. And I wish there was an easy cookie cutter answer, but I think it's really individual to each believer. I encourage believers to be a peaceful, loving, helpful influence as much as they can. And then if they get to the point to where there's really no harmony and no fellowship and they can't fellowship there, that it's not peaceable and there's not even a debate about it, then that might be a time to go, especially if there's other options. Some people are in areas where there's not too many options of solid churches to go to. Jeff, I think you were in the pastorate at one time.

Why don't you weigh into this? Absolutely. For 30 years, I was a pastor and taught through the whole Bible, Genesis to Revelation. So certainly prophecy was a part of that spiritual diet that I gave. Yet now as people are coming to me, they're saying, okay, what do we do?

And what I tell them, Jan, is simply this. I say, number one, you need to go to your pastor, number one, and talk to him and see if there's even an open door there. 80% of the churches in America are under 200 people. Many of those pastors are bivocational, haven't received any sort of formal training. They may not feel qualified themselves to tackle some of the things that they perceive that Revelation would throw at them. If the pastor is not willing to do that, then perhaps you have to ask yourself, can I be an agent of change in this church?

Will he give me permission to start a Bible study or start a Sunday school class or some sort of community group where we could begin to talk about these things? And then it comes to a point, Jan, where I've told people there's what I call a tolerance of conscience. And you get to a point in your conscience where in your spirit, you're so disturbed, you just simply can't go on under a certain administration in the church. And so you have to seek elsewhere. Now, I think that's a last resort.

And if your church is preaching the Word of God, you certainly don't want to leave for an unbiblical reason. But at the same time, there comes a point where we are trying to wake up the bride. This is not just a side issue or just something on the buffet, as I said earlier. But this is something that we're facing right now. We're going through it right now. So a pastor who wants to be seeker-friendly or relevant should be teaching about Bible prophecy because it's perhaps the most relevant thing that we're facing as a nation.

Amen. We're carrying a number of books, including a couple more by Todd Hampson. We're carrying Jeff Kinley's book, Aftershocks, Christians Entering a New Age of Global Crisis.

It's in our online store. It's in our various newsletters, Print and E. You can call my office at any time for any of these books. We have a couple of books from Todd Hampson, The Non-Prophet's Guide to the End Times. And that would be a book and a workbook if you're looking for a Bible study. And then we have The Non-Prophet's Guide to the Book of Revelation.

No workbook to that, but an outstanding book as well that you could use for group studies. I don't want to dwell on that because, folks, I'm not here to make a sale. I am here, though, to get good items into your hands so that you can better understand the times and become watchmen on the end time wall. We still have another 30 minutes to deal with the topic of just what in the world is going on. We've got current events breaking on a used to be weekly level.

Pretty soon it became a daily level. Now it's every few minutes that are significant, that can be even leaping out of the Bible because the Bible, well, the tribulation events are casting such a shadow here on this church age. So we're going to talk about some more of those issues. I'm coming back in just a couple of minutes. Please don't go away. We hope you'll stay in touch with us online through OliveTreeViews.org. That's OliveTreeViews.org. You can call us Central Time at 763-559-4444. That's 763-559-4444. Write us through the mail at OliveTree Ministries and Jan Markell, Post Office Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota 55311. That's Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota 55311.

All gifts are tax deductible. In an age of fake news and false teaching, thank you for trusting Understanding the Times Radio. This ministry, as well as Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills, California, and Pastor Jack Hibbs presented a powerful Prophecy Conference back on Saturday, September 11. Speakers included Pastor Jack Hibbs, Amir Sarfati, Jan Markell, Pastor Barry Stagner, and Michelle Bachman. We are now offering DVDs of this insightful day.

Included as bonus features are a Prophecy Roundtable discussion, interviews of speakers, and more. They are now shipping. You can find these DVD products in our online store at OliveTreeViews.org. That's OliveTreeViews.org. The cost is just $20 plus $6 shipping in the U.S.

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Sign up at our website. Let's spread the good news that He is coming soon. And let's occupy until He comes. I think it's very important for people to heed the warnings that God is giving to nonbelievers right now concerning the fact that their future is not going to be bright. It's going to be filled with chaos and tribulation and pain and suffering.

But there is a way out. And salvation and safety are found in the name of Jesus Christ and His cross. He is the antidote, Jan, to fear that we mentioned earlier. He's the one that takes all that fear away. When you know Him, you're safe in His arms. You're safe inside the ark.

Not a drop of water of God's wrath can touch you. If you think life has changed, you are right. The Bible said the last days would be just what we are witnessing today. We frequently ask if the church today is equipping church members to be last days Christians.

If not, we ask, why not? Here is the conclusion of today's programming. The Bible is about 30% prophecy. I'm sure you all know that. You just have to count the pages.

Now, that's unique, absolutely unique. You will not find prophecy in the Koran. You will not find prophecy in the Hindu Vedas and the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, the Book of Mormon, the sayings of Buddha or Confucius.

You're only going to find it here. And I'm not talking about cheap Gene Dickson psychic predictions or Nostradamus in French verse. We're talking about world shaking and world shaping events that have been witnessed by the whole world, that have been written down centuries and even thousands of years before they happened. This is in fact the great proof of God's existence. Oh, thank you, Dave Hunt.

Yes, it is proof of God's existence. And yet, as my guests and I would attest to, a lot of churches are either ignoring it or teaching it in the wrong manner or making fun of it, all sorts of things that are not helpful in these closing days and hours. We are very active on social media. Find us on Telegram, on Facebook, on YAB, on Instagram, on Rumble, on YouTube.

If you'd like to join in some conversation, that is the perfect place to do it. I want to move back into my programming here because I'm so privileged to have, well, they're called the Prophecy Pros with me. Check out the Prophecy Pros podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.

Again, Prophecy Pros podcast. And they've come out with a book that we are carrying, the Prophecy Pros Illustrated Guide to Tough Questions about the End Times. And it's a quick little couple hundred pages, very easy to read. Todd Hampson has inserted a bunch of charts and graphs, which is his specialty. If you're just trying to figure this out or a longtime student of the topic, I think you'll find the book very, very helpful. Find it in my online store, OliveTreeViews.org. Call my office, get on our newsletter lists, et cetera. Gentlemen, we spoke a little bit during the break and I want to set the stage here for a short discussion and I'll do it as quickly as possible because I really want to give you the platform here.

But I wrote a magazine that we put out four times a year. This would have been my summer edition and I just titled it Why Many Churches Today Can Never Understand the Times. And it's because, number one, there embracing amillennialism that would teach that the millennium began at the cross and we're in the millennium now, which of course is not possible because the millennium is going to be near perfect and the world's a mess. Or they could be teaching dominionism or kingdom now or post-millennialism or latter reign.

Things just keep getting better and better when in fact mankind does not have the ability to improve a decaying sinful planet. Or number three, they could be teaching preterism. All prophecy already happened. Who knew we missed it?

It happened in 70 AD. Proponents of that, well, we know Hank Hanegraaff is. There are many other proponents.

Or I think we'll stop there. Those are, I think, the most troubling. There are some more. But Todd, speak into this for a moment because I know you would concur that there are theologies that are in sound churches, but the ones I'm naming are steering people astray as it comes to better understanding the last days.

They really are. There's many warnings in scripture, whether it's Jude or Matthew 24, 2 Peter 2, and 1 John 4 that warn about false doctrines in the last days. I think one of the biggest needs in the church right now is just discernment. There's such a high level of biblical illiteracy that people don't really have enough of a framework to evaluate what they hear.

So they hear somebody who maybe is a good speaker who speaks authoritatively and they just kind of take their words. But in terms of end-time prophecy, yeah, I think things like Amillennialism, Dominion Now theology that essentially says we're supposed to Christianize the world by taking over different areas of government and industry. I would just encourage believers to find the verses that back that up. If you can't find specific Bible verses as a total framework that backs that up, then that should be your first indicator that that's a false doctrine. Furthermore, the more you study Bible prophecy, it forces you into the word so that you can see what the Bible does say about the last days. And this is one of those issues where someone's salvation is not dependent on their beliefs, but it can really throw them off in terms of a way that will massively negatively impact their lives and their decisions and their outlook. We believe that prophecy was fulfilled literally, so future prophecy should be interpreted literally.

And that gives us a very clear framework of what God says the last days are going to look like. And Amillennialism unfortunately does not fit into that, nor does anything that does away with God's purpose for the Jewish people. You have three covenants essentially. You've got the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, and then the Davidic covenant. The Mosaic covenant was conditional in terms of, hey, if you do these things, you're going to be blessed.

If you don't, you're going to be in trouble. And those things happen. But the Abrahamic covenant and the Davidic covenant are abundantly clear that they are permanent, unconditional promises to the Jewish people that God has to fulfill. And the only way that that can happen is if there is a literal future, as it says in Revelation, a thousand year millennial kingdom where all of the promises to the Jewish people come true.

You can reach Todd Hampson at ToddHampson.com and Jeff Kinley at JeffKinley.com. Jeff, you speak into this, please. I mean, to the Amillennialist, nothing is taken literally. Jesus is never going to rule from Jerusalem. There's no special role for modern day Israel, as Todd just suggested. Her rebirth is of no significance. The church is the new Israel, which is replacement theology. And yet here's my point. Amillennialism is the basis of most denominations, which makes your job and mine really tough.

Absolutely. And it comes down, Jan, I think to this particular question is how do you interpret the Bible? How do you approach the Bible? Because the way that God has written the scripture, he wrote it in plain language so that the average person could understand it. And it's just like a pilot taking off for a destination.

If you're off one degree, you begin this thing, you're going to miss the whole runway, the whole city, perhaps whole state by the time you get to your destination. But if you take a literal approach to scripture and you find out, wait a minute, all literally all of the scriptures previous to Jesus' birth were fulfilled exactly as prophesied of the scriptures fulfilled concerning Israel's rebirth. I mean, the existence of Israel herself is the game changer.

She's the Rosetta Stone that really helps us understand all of Bible prophecy. If God is flashing this neon sign, the check engine light is coming on. He's saying, hey, pay attention to what I've done, my prophecy fulfilled through Israel. That to me tells me that you cannot bring yourself to a conclusion saying, well, the millennial kingdom is just a symbolic thing, even though he repeats the number 1000 some like five times in Revelation 20, that is somehow a symbolic number. I think God meant what he said, and he says what he means.

So when you just take the Bible simply and literally like that, I think you come to the conclusion of a pre-millennial view and I think also a pre-trib view. Yes, indeed. Talking to Jeff Kinley and Todd Hampson, authors of a new book we're carrying. There are two occasions Jesus Christ returns. I want to visit that for just a moment.

And I want to play a short clip by Dr. Mark Hitchcock. Here he's talking about the Battle of Armageddon. And of course, that concludes with the second coming. And he's going to make a very, very interesting conclusion to this little one minute and 30 second clip.

And I want to talk about it when we come back. Let's get now to the Battle of Armageddon itself. Jesus Christ, along with the family of God, his redeemed, returned to this earth and there is conflict.

So who's fighting whom? God tells us there in Revelation chapter 16 that all the nations are going to be gathered to Armageddon. In fact, there's a fascinating passage there in chapter 16 that says that the Euphrates River will be dried up to make way for the kings of the east.

Now we don't know who that is. Some people have surmised, well, that's China because, you know, some are an army of 200 million. But all we know, they're invaders from the east.

The way is open for them to be able to come into the land. So all the nations of the earth are going to be gathered there together in that place. But it says whenever that Jesus returns that they're going to see Him, they're going to turn to fight against Him. You know, it's interesting, the rapture is going to be an event that happens in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. The second coming of Christ, it says every eye will see Him. And my friend Dr. John Walvoord used to teach the second coming might last for 24 hours. Think about as the earth rotates, everybody will see Him. Now he could reflect it all the way around the earth.

Everyone could see it in a moment. But it may be a dramatic event that takes 24 hours as people begin to see Jesus coming and He comes to the earth. And these armies are going to turn to fight against Him. And of course, you talk about being futile, but it's going to be man's last attempt to rid themselves of God. And Jesus is going to return and destroy the armies gathered there.

And reign victorious over that. And so there's a period of time and all the world will see. Jesus comes and confronts those enemies who have been empowered by the evil one to defame Him and His glory. Jeff Kinley, that to me was an interesting conclusion there by Dr. Mark Hitchcock, actually quoting John Walvoord that maybe the second coming is going to last 24 hours. What's possible the Bible doesn't clarify? No, it doesn't say exactly because there are many components to the second coming.

There's Christ touching down the Mount of Olives. There's the Battle of Basra. There's the Battle of Jerusalem. There's the Battle of Armageddon.

There are many different campaigns, if you would say, the Armageddon campaign. So we really don't know exactly all the chronology. And to me, when we talk about the end time, sometimes people say, well, you know everything that there is to know. No, there's a lot we don't know. There's specifics that God has hidden, just like He put the mystery of the church in the Valley of Prophecy so the Old Testament prophets couldn't see it.

There's some things that we don't know. What we do know for sure is that Jesus Christ will burst through the clouds and that the Bride of Christ will be riding on white horses along with the angelic host behind Him. And the Bible tells us in Revelation 19 that He is coming for two reasons. He's coming to judge and to wage war. And there's only one word that comes out of His mouth. We don't know what that is, but it says by the word that comes out of His mouth, He will completely annihilate His enemies.

And you mentioned the word futile in that clip, and it is a futile battle. But think about Satan and how Satan is not only deceptive against the people on the earth, he's self-deceived as well. I believe Satan really believes that he can overcome the Lamb, that he and the false prophet and the Antichrist will be able to actually do battle with God.

He thought so in the beginning when he tried to overtake the throne of God, back in Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28. I think he'll think that he can overcome the Lamb again, but of course, he's going to be soundly defeated and cast into the abyss for a thousand years. Well, at the second coming, every eye will see him is my understanding. He's returning to bring retribution in that second coming. The second coming has more to do, I think, with Israel and God's judgment upon the nations. The rapture has everything to do with the church, of course. So I think the big difference between the rapture and the second coming of the rapture, only believers will see Jesus Christ.

At the second coming, every eye will see Him. Did you want to comment any further about anything Mark Hitchcock said, Todd Hampson? Just, that's fascinating, and I agree with what he said. One thing that came to mind as he was saying that is how, with the first coming events, in hindsight, everything was crystal clear. And I think the same thing is going to happen with second coming events. We can know enough of the high points to put the puzzle together, to know generally what it's going to look like, but I think we're going to be consistently amazed, even more so, in hindsight, how we see how it all came together.

That's going to be a fascinating thing. But the key point I'm trying to make is we can put the general puzzle pieces together right now, and we can know a general order of events and why he's doing what he's doing. And to me, as you referenced, Jan, the biggest difference is the difference between Israel and the church. The key purpose of the tribulation is to win his people back. And at the end of the tribulation is when the remnant of Jewish believers, still alive and protected, will call on his name and corporately, as it says in Romans chapter 11, all Israel will be saved. And that's what ushers in, the return of the Lord.

Can one of you address the issue here? Satan is only chained at the end of the tribulation. His cronies, we referred to a few minutes ago, his cronies are cast into Hades. At the end of the tribulation, Satan is only bound. So I don't quite understand, and I know understanding the mind of God is pretty difficult, but Satan gets a reprieve. He's going to be judged at the end of the millennium. His two cohorts of the tribulation, false prophet and the beast are going to be thrown into Hades at the end of the tribulation. Any thoughts on, and you talk about it in your book, that's why I'm bringing it up here, why Satan gets a reprieve.

He doesn't deserve one. Well, he certainly doesn't. One thing I would say is that truly there is mystery here. God doesn't just come out and tell us, here's why I'm doing this. So we have to use a little bit of sanctified speculation here.

I would just say two things, Jan. I think one thing it proves is that for us right now, and that's one of the reasons that God gives us prophecy in the future to inform our lives right now. And one of the things that we learned from that, that Satan gets the second coming, someone has called it, is that he deceives the nations again to prove that even in a perfect environment where Jesus Christ himself is ruling over the earth, that people will still choose to do what is evil.

They can still be deceived. To me, that really does sort of blow out the whole post-millennial viewpoint, is that somehow we can usher in a perfect kingdom for Christ to come back to. The second reason I would say is that it speaks to the total depravity of the sin nature, and the fact that even in that perfect environment, we ourselves cannot be changed. We can't change ourselves. God has to do a supernatural change of us from within. And of course, there'll be believers coming in from the tribulation period, and they'll be having children and that type of thing to populate some of this rebellion at the end.

But aside from the mystery itself, I think it does prove the fact that not only can the sin nature not be changed, but a perfect environment can't change humanity. And then just finally, it's just the fact that Satan cannot change. He is a damned individual, if you will. He's corrupted to the core. There is no good within him.

So there's nothing about him being in a pit for a thousand years that changes his basic nature. You say in your book that the studying prophecy never breeds fear, only faith. And yet I think the number one excuse for avoiding the topic is that it's called frightening. It's even called terrifying.

That could be said for those, quite frankly, who are going to be left behind. Terrifying indeed. Terrifying post-Rapture world. But you feel that eschatology never breeds fear. It only breeds faith. And yet if somebody were to just sit and read through the book of Revelation and they don't have a pre-Tribulation Rapture perspective, it could be cheerful.

You have to admit that. Yes, absolutely. And I think that's key. And just to make it clear, we don't believe in a pre-Trib Rapture just because we want to get away from the scary stuff. We believe it because we believe when you study all of the framework and all the puzzle pieces of scripture, that's exactly what it points to for specific scriptural reasons and also just logical reasons. But I do think the enemy has done an incredible job of confusing the issue, getting people's eyes off of the book of Revelation because of all the different views and because there are people that teach.

It's so confusing, nobody can really know it. And if the average lay Christian hears a Christian leader saying that, then of course they're not going to think that they're smart enough or spiritual enough to figure it out, which is so far from the truth. So I think it is key to know the book of Revelation in chapter one. It says those who read this book will be blessed by reading it. It's the only book in the scripture that includes such a blessing, but the enemy has done a great job of getting people's eyes off of it. And I think there are some scary things in there, but I think it used to be almost standard, at least in my early years of being a believer, I only heard about the pre-Trib view and it was encouraging.

It was always uplifting. And then it was scary when I heard of other views and that we may have to face the Antichrist and resist the Mark of the Beast and all this kind of thing. But I think the pre-Trib rapture is what gives it great hope. And the fact that it forces us to look at God's sovereignty and the fact that he never flinches, he's in control, he's not pacing back and forth in heaven wondering what to do, and that our future gets better and better and better. We get raptured, we go to the Demacy where we receive rewards, then we get to go to the millennial kingdom, and then we go finally into the eternal state. So literally it just gets better and better and better. So the more biblically heavenly-minded we are, the more earthly good we're going to be and the more joyous and happy and courageous we're going to be as well. For the unbeliever, things don't get better and better.

I'm going to play one more clip here. It happens to be again Dr. David Jeremiah, and he will explain why for the unbeliever things aren't going to go quite so well. There are 25 different titles for Antichrist in relation. 25?

25. He's called The Man of Sin, The Lawless One. You can just go right through and all of these titles are meant to give us a little glimpse into his character, his personality. He is the most wicked, most awful person.

I mean, take Hitler and Stalin and Mao Zedong and all those people, wrap them all up to one and then multiply them and you won't even come close to the awful character of this man. And he's going to gain control of this world and everyone will be under his domination because if they aren't, they won't be able to function. So David, our audience curiosity, my curiosity is where does this man come from? What can you tell us about him based on biblical revelation?

I believe he comes out of the European coalition. The Bible says that early in his career, he takes power over three nations and then with those three nations, he gets power over the European coalition and then ultimately he comes to power over all the world. When we talk about the false prophet in a few moments, you'll learn that his strategy for gaining control of the world is to provide a license for everybody to basically be alive.

We call it the mark of the beast, but basically this license was set up to control the economy of the world and the way you qualified to be able to eat and sell and buy and all of that was to worship the beast who is the antichrist, the beast from the sea. And so that's where we get the mark of the beast and he gains control over all the world. Here's the key thing that he does. He makes a covenant with Israel at the beginning of his career and he promises to protect them from all of their Arabic enemies. And so Israel goes back home and they kind of disarm.

They use all of their inventiveness and try to rebuild their economy. And the Bible says while they're at peace, he comes in and he breaks the covenant that he had made with them. So the peace treaty is negated. At the end of three and a half years, he comes in and he violates their temple. See, when he makes the covenant, he says, you can continue your worship.

At the end of the three and a half years, he says, that's it, no more. I'm going to be worshiped now. You don't worship anymore. And what the Bible calls the abomination of desolation, the antichrist actually goes into the Jewish temple.

I mean, this is hard to comprehend. He goes into the Holy of Holies. He removes all the furniture and he sets up a statue in the Holy of Holies, which is an idol unto himself.

And he requires the whole earth to bow down and worship. Jeff Kinley, you referenced a few minutes ago, the spirit of antichrist being so alive and well, which it obviously is lawlessness is one of the big things we're watching. We're even watching utter complete lawlessness coming out of Washington, D.C., which I think some people don't think about. I think they think lawlessness is burning down buildings. It can be political lawlessness as well, diplomatic lawlessness as well. I'm sure you would agree.

Absolutely. And you mentioned the fact that non-Christians really don't have this hope that we have as believers who believe, especially in a pre-trib rapture. And I would say to any person who doesn't know Christ is listening to this program right now is that your best life is about to be a thing of the past when antichrist gets on the scene, that this whole COVID chaos and catastrophe that we've been through, that we're continuing to go through is a day at Disney World compared to what the tribulation is going to be like. God is about to unleash his wrathful fury upon you and upon planet Earth. And antichrist is going to, he's called the beast for a reason, the word Therion means a wild, ravenous beast. And if fear had a name for the future population of planet Earth, his name would be antichrist. And so I think it's very important for people to heed the warnings that God is giving to non-believers right now concerning the fact that their future is not going to be bright.

It's going to be filled with chaos and tribulation and pain and suffering, but there is a way out and salvation and safety are found in the name of Jesus Christ and his cross. He is the antidote, Jan, to fear that we mentioned earlier. He's the one that takes all that fear away. When you know him, you're safe in his arms. You're safe inside the ark. Not a drop of water of God's wrath can touch you.

Communicate with my guests at ToddHampson.com or JeffKinley.com. Todd, you want to weigh in on all that, please? That's an important point that was brought up in that clip. And one thing that comes to mind for me is you were talking about how people say the book of Revelation is scary. And definitely when the Antichrist steps on the scene and the global government takes over and all that, it's going to be scary. But again, you can't avoid looking at the tough spots just because they're tough spots. When you go to a doctor, if you have cancer, you want the doctor to tell you you have cancer.

Or the analogy I use in one of my books is that when people see a fence around an electrical box and it says, danger, keep out, they don't say, oh, that's just a scare tactic or that's making me scared so I don't want to obey that or look at that. Everything that we read in Scripture about how horrific it's going to be during those seven years is God's danger, keep out sign. He already did everything possible to keep us from that time and to keep us from eternal judgment.

He put his own son on the cross to bear our sins, and Jesus stretched his arms out as if to say, I'm open to anybody who wants to come to me. Please come to me. I will take that for you. You don't have to go through that. So I just want to encourage just piggybacking off of what Jeff said. Anybody listening to this, don't brush off the scary parts of Scripture because they're scary. See those as God's danger, keep out sign.

And then let that point you to the fact that he already paid the price so you can stay out of that. And all you have to do is come to Christ, receive him for your salvation, and you will be caught up in the rapture and you will go to heaven. Jeff Kinley, is it okay to have this world is not my home outlook? As many people will say, folks like you are so heavenly minded.

You are no earthly good with your silly. This world is not my home, but it isn't our home. In light of the few short years or decades we have on this earth, in light of eternity, eternity should be all we're thinking about. Just from a philosophical standpoint, no matter what someone believes, this life on earth is a temporary thing.

It's just a mere dot on a huge, almost everlasting timeline. But as Christians, Paul said, Philippians 3 20, our citizenship is in heaven. I mean, the hotel stop on the way home. Jesus is in heaven right now. John 14 says, preparing a place for us. And the most exciting thing we could do is to long for his return so that he might take us there. Now, in the meantime, we're to be busy about the Lord's work. We're not lazy Christians because we know he could return at any time. So as Martin Luther said, if a new Christ was returning tomorrow, I would still plant a tree today.

In other words, I would still be about my daily business, expect to live here, but at the same time, be ready. And so yes, we're to be busy, be working. The body of Christ ought to be the most active group of people on planet earth right now, sharing the gospel, encouraging other believers, because as the scripture says, he could come at any time. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining me for this program. Folks, what I want to do is I'm going out of the programming. I'm going to read what I read in my closing of my message back on September 11th, Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills, California.

Behold, he comes. I closed with this short saying, and there's so many requests for it. And you can request, we will send it to you in a Word document. Sandy wrote it, sent it to me some five years ago.

I'd like to close our programming with it. And it's called I'm Taking a Trip. She writes, I'm taking a trip to a foreign country, a country I have never seen before.

This will be much different than previous trips. I won't need to pack any clothing, no glasses, no medications. My passport has been purchased and authorized with a great price. The tour guides on this secure flight will be courteous and swift, and I will pass through security like a breeze. I guess this is a round trip flight and there will be a layover celebration before I will be returning with an enormous tour group made up of many horse riding folks. There's still room on this flight and I hope you will be coming, but you had better hurry as standby is filling up, as red eye is filling up too. Time is running out. Indeed, time is running out. Be ready to depart in an instant and keep watch on the overhead screens because you do not know what time or what gate we will depart from. A new name will be given to me in this country, so my name tag will change, but you will still be able to recognize me by my beaming smile.

1 Thessalonians 4 17, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. I want to thank you for listening, folks. We'll talk to you again next week. We'll see you next time.