The Final Countdown

If the hour is as late as the hour is as late as the hour. Welcome to the program. You know, we look at news, views, truths. We try to help you, well, understand the times, contend for the faith, become watchmen on the wall, and I have a fellow watchman joining me for the hour, and we're going to be talking about, well, that was just a little tease there, but some of the things we will talk about are troubling times and how do we cope in the midst of all of them. My guest for the hour, many of you may know Don Stewart, an internationally recognized Christian apologist, speaker, and author, has over 70 books. Many of you may know him from, well, Calvary Chapel, his channel. We'll say more about his channel outreach as we move along into the programming, and this is the first time I've had Don on the program, though I am actually a follower of his. I watch his online teachings because they're excellent. Don Stewart, welcome to Understanding the Times Radio. Thank you, Jan, and by the way, I'm a big fan of yours too, so that'll be a great hour.

Fan club here. Don, here's what I want to hit you with right away, because I heard you on one of your teachings online. You made a fascinating statement, and you were talking about, because you do a lot with his channel, and you do a world news briefing that's tremendous, and you talked about when you started out, this would be a number of years ago, Chuck Smith was with you, and you were trying to fill an hour a week of cutting-edge news that related to the Bible and related to end-time issues. You had a hard time today. The story is quite the opposite.

Talk to us about that. Yeah, Jan, it was about eight or nine years ago when Pastor Chuck and I did this program on his channel called World News Briefing. It was one hour a week where we looked at the events that took place in the week and how they fitted in last day's Bible prophecy. And let me tell you, when we first started, it was hard to get enough stories just to fit the one hour.

Now, I was fortunate Pastor Chuck talked very slow. That really did help getting the hour done, but at first it was like, we got this one, that one, but what I noticed then as the year started going by, we not only filled the hour, it got to the place. Pastor Chuck hadn't been with us now for six years, he's been with the Lord, but the last year, year and a half, Jan, I would have like 150 extra stories that it never got to in one week. Now it's to the place where I've got more each day, so it's really incredible how things have happened exponentially.

Exponentially. It's amazing to set up the time of the end. Yes, quite frankly, I don't know how you do it, and I try to keep up daily too, but I don't have the daily. I know you've got, is it three or four times a week now you're on history? Five times a week.

How many? Five times a week. Five times a week.

Monday through Friday. And how many stories do you think you cover during those five presentations? Well, I'll put it this way, I have to give 10 headlines each story, each hour, so that's 50 a week or 200 a month. I ended the month of August, I haven't counted September yet, the end of the month of August.

We're one of about 250 stories I didn't even get to, so I probably get to 15 to 20 stories per hour. We can start doing the math, the multiplication of something going on with respect to last day's Bible prophecy. In other words, they're everywhere, so my problem every day is you can imagine, Jan, is figuring out what not to say because so much is happening.

We may have a little bit of that issue this hour, and again, we could have a two to three hour program here, but we've got about 57 minutes. You talk about writers and teachers, say from 100 years ago, even more, who wrote about what the last days would be like, and they had very little evidence to talk about back then. 100 years ago, 200 years ago, Israel certainly wasn't back in her land. By faith, they believed things would be fulfilled, and here we are with hundreds of pieces of evidence, and people still doubt, including many, probably 90 percent of our churches. Jan, that's the sad thing. What happened was, I was putting together a book.

I've always wanted to do this. Fortunately, with the technology today, you could get all these old books reprinted, so what I did, I got about 40 books, anywhere from 100 to 400 years ago, that dealt with the last day's Bible prophecy, that looked at it the same way we do. It's going to be literally fulfilled, just as the Bible said, and read what they said at their time in history, and literally it was amazing. The faith that they had, that these things that we see right now would take place, even though recognizing, when they wrote these things, Israel had been out of the land for 17th centuries, 18th centuries.

I mean, it was just mind-boggling to me. It just was an incredible faith builder. I wondered, would I have that much faith if I was living at that time? I could tell the audiences today, Jan, I don't have to have faith.

I just have it open my eyes, because it's right there. We're not being sensational as we're recording here. We're not trying to be sensational.

We want people to have their faith increased because of what the Bible has predicted, and it's coming to pass. As you say, and I'm kind of quoting you here, I love it, players are moving into a position. They're backstage now, setting the stage for the final countdown. Let's talk for a few minutes down, and I'm going to play some sound clips throughout the hour to sort of complement our discussion, but let's talk for a little bit about these players who are moving into position.

They're backstage now. They're setting the stage for the final countdown. I would have to say that the thing that's leaping out the most to me in the last two to three months or so is global instability, global rioting, global anarchy even. We even had it in Minneapolis, and I referred to this before, when President Trump came to speak here. This is a couple of months now, complete anarchy in the great Midwest. Would you agree?

I would totally agree with that. Remember Jesus talked about, as in the days of Noah, what's going on? Lawlessness, violence. That will be an increase at the time, and we see lawlessness to a degree, Jan, today, and violence that we'd never, ever seen before, and it's getting worse and worse.

Yeah, this is something that is literally to us, the last three years, been mind-boggling to see as this has been on the increase. So, I always like to say, you just look around and watch how people now are breaking human laws and God's laws, and because, as Timothy says, Paul to Timothy, they're going to hate that which is good. They're going to oppose that which is good, 2 Timothy 3, 1 to 5. Indeed, and I think some of them are longing for a world leader to bring some stability. Now, I think there are a few who are trying.

Let me rephrase that. They're trying to be this global leader. I think Emmanuel Macron would love to be a global leader. I don't think he'll be that global leader. I think even Pope Francis is trying to be a global leader.

Those are two who come to mind, but I think the world is longing for someone to step out of the shadows and say, you know what? You've got turmoil in Hong Kong. You've got turmoil in Iraq.

We could go down an alphabetical list. As I said a minute ago, we had turmoil in Minneapolis, the Great Heartland. Someone could come out of the shadows and calm all of this down. Well, he will one day.

Yeah, he will. The scripture talks about him coming out of obscurity and then to the place where he's going to be a world ruler, and he's going to be the person. They say, this is the one we've always been waiting for. We thought we had this person. We thought we had that one.

They didn't make the cut. This one is. He is the mouth-speaking great things, the wonderful orator, the person that's got all the answers, and we're going to do whatever he says. I want to play a clip here, Don.

It's of yourself. I believe you're dialoguing here with Jack Hibbs. You're pointing out in this clip some headlines that are startling. You're going to talk about, is Putin the new king of the Middle East?

Well, my goodness to my audience. Again, that leaps right out of the Bible. No, Vladimir Putin's not in the Bible, but a leader from the uttermost north is in the Bible, and now we've got a headline asking if Vladimir Putin is king of the Middle East. You're also going to talk about the fact that war with Iran could possibly collapse the global economy. Again, folks, all I'm saying is headlines are a herald of his coming, and some of the things that are going on, they're setting the stage.

The players are gathering behind the curtain, and the curtain is about ready to go up. Many of you know I do a program on his channel called Breaking News an hour a day, five days a week from 10 to 11, where every program I have to come up with 10 headlines. Now, if my math is correct, 10 headlines is 50 a week times four is 200 a month times four is 800 headlines since we last talked, Jack.

So what I want to do at the beginning is give you a little smidgen of some of the things that not only answers this, but that's been happening in the last four months that are literally mind-boggling, and I'm sure we'll get excited about that. This is from last night, Jack. Israel's security cabinet called into an urgent session bracing for a direct cruise missile or drone attack by Iran. This is from yesterday. Earlier, Benjamin Netanyahu said, we're pondering a preemptive operation to prevent Iranian cruise missile strike, a preemptive operation in Iran.

Note that. Now, recently, two missiles set an Iranian tanker on fire near the Saudi coast, and Israel blames the alleged tanker attack on who? Israel, US, and the Saudis. There is also a huge Iranian guard base rising near Baghdad for missile drone attacks on Israel. This will happen in the last couple months. In fact, this last couple weeks.

Get these next two. Russia and Iran have special forces that conduct for the first time a joint exercise in eastern Syria. This is Russia and Iran. And then now, Turkey and Russia agree on Syrian Kurdish YPG withdrawal. Turkey and Russia are now going to do joint patrols in Syria. So did you get that? Turkey and Russia, Iran and Russia.

All right. And there was another headline. Turkey, Russia, and Iran filling the vacuum. Is Putin the new king of the Middle East is a headline recently. Israel and the Gulf states working on a historic pact to end the conflict between them.

Another historic first, official Saudi delegation enters Israel praise on the Temple Mount. This is something you'll be interested in, Jack, too. What the Saudi attacks tell us about the future of conflicts and really interesting things happen when the Saudi Arabia when their oil refinery and the oil fields were hit just a little while back about the future of warfare between drones and cruise missiles.

This is a game changer, literally. And then MBS said that's Mohammed bin Salman, by the way, war with Iran would collapse the global economy. That was Don Stewart, my guest for the hour with Pastor Jack Hibbs on the popular Happening Now presentation.

Folks, I hope to be doing Happening Now with Jack Hibbs on Wednesday, January the 22nd, if you happen to be in the Southern California area. Don Stewart, wow, you said a lot there. I mean, obviously, Gog Magog shaping up there as you were outlining. And I saw the headline is Putin, the new king of the Middle East. My goodness. I just had to react to that.

I mean, kind of react in a good way. Because again, it's leaping out of the Bible. Yeah, what we have here, Jan, and Ezekiel 38, the leader, his name is Gog, that's his title, he's going to be the chief prince of Meshach and Tubal, and that's a country we believe it's referring to modern day Russia, not because it sounds like Russia, the country of the farthest north from both Babylon where Ezekiel was and Israel is, but the leader from this particular country is going to be there. So what are the odds, I always ask the question, that in the last days, in the days we live in 2019, a leader from this particular country would be the one who would be gathering all these other nations together in the Middle East as kind of the sheriff, he's the good guy that plays good cop, bad cop with him.

But anyway, he's the person everyone looks to, he is the one person and he's from this country, the one that the Bible predicts, again, you can't make this stuff up. And it's just amazing to see this. Let's just hit a few other bullet points here. Issues that I think have come to the forefront, certainly in the last 20 years, in some cases more recently than that. And you talk a little bit about it, the rise of technology to allow an awful lot of things to be fulfilled.

I think that's stunning here, particularly in the last few years. Yes, indeed. Janet, one of the things that got me, I remember when I was first a Christian, I became a believer about almost 50 years ago in 1970. And reading Revelation 13, you find out there's going to be a mark in the right hand of the forehead in the last days, no one can buy or sell without. I'm thinking, okay, great, but how can something like that be monitored worldwide? I mean, it's a worldwide mark, you have to have people standing in front of every business transaction. But we don't wonder now, do we? Tim Cook of Apple said the next generation of kids won't even know what cash is because of the society where everything's done digitally. So that right now assumes the world that we're just coming into right now, written 2000 years ago, when commentators in Revelation looking at that would scratch their heads and say, well, this can't be taken literally, there's no way you can monitor these transactions worldwide. Well, we know better now.

Absolutely. You're listening to Understanding the Times Radio. I'm Jan Markell. I have on the line from Southern California, author, commentator, Don Stewart. You can learn a lot more about Don on his website, educatingourworld.com, educatingourworld.com. You can catch him on his channel programming, which is his channel.com, which has tremendous viewership. As a matter of fact, I'm hoping to be ministering to the Proximity Bible Conference, Prophecy Conference, late January.

His channel, I believe, will be televising that live. Don, let's just hit a few more topics here. You obviously refer frequently, as do I, that Israel is the super sign.

I want to spend just an extra minute on that. The fact that the news out of the various Jewish publications, Jerusalem Post, many other times of Israel, are often talking about the efforts to rebuild the temple. It would be the third temple. The fourth temple would be in the Millennium. And of course, we know that the Antichrist goes into this temple and defiles it halfway into the Tribulation. And I think what's caught your eye and mine would be, in the last five years or so, the efforts at rebuilding that temple, the priests, the garments, the utensils, etc., already. Yeah, what's interesting, I actually got into the whole subject back in 1982 on a trip to Israel, where Pastor Chuck Smith and I met some of the activists who wanted to build a third temple.

I didn't even know these people were around. And at the time, they were telling us, with the Israeli public, Jan, it was only like less than 10% of the people even wanted to see something like that. In other words, they didn't see a temple being necessary.

But that's all changed during the years. And like you said, in the last few years, there's sort of something springing up, particularly within the younger Israelis. This is our Temple Mount, it's the center of our nation, where everything was, first and second temple. How dare it be defiled by these people who won't even let us pray on the temple, won't let us take a holy book there, won't let us worship there. A groundswell, I believe, from their hearts is saying, look, we need to build a temple again. And so we're seeing that happen. The preparations being made, which again, is one of our signs of the end.

Right. Going back to you having a discussion here with Pastor Jack Hibbs, and I want to play this clip. And before I do, the reason I find it intriguing, again, is you make a poignant point here, that Israel's future is both horrific and fantastic. And Don Stewart, sometimes those of us who believe, as we do, get seriously criticized for suggesting that Israel's future is horrific.

That comes out of the Bible, folks can't help it. Ultimately, it has a glorious future. The fact, again, that the stage is being set more than ever. God is the God of the Bible, and he's the God who knows the future, and who wants us to know the future.

This is you and Jack Hibbs at Happening Now. Which reminds me of just the situation of a group of people in Israel. The globe is basically saying that we just want peace. Israel. They keep moving in this direction, and they just flat out wind up replacing a strong man like Netanyahu.

We know from the Scriptures that there's going to be one that comes who offers Israel peace if the population of Israel wants peace in any way, shape or form. And by the way, this is true if you're a strong man, you're in great danger. The greatest way to have peace is to have strength. If you're strong, you will have peace. Because nobody picks on a strong man. But if you're perceived to be weak, you have spelled your doom. Now we know regarding the Bible, Israel's future is both horrific and fantastic in that order.

Horrific, then later fantastic. But this could be a move. We're watching the groomers of wars and rumors of wars being talked about. We're seeing the United States being almost singled out as a nation that is hated by Russia and China tonight.

And you think about that prospect. And then you see a nation like Israel who is who's had unprecedented success now flirting with change that could just be one more step in setting up the end time scene. There's no doubt about it. I can't point to you tonight exactly that this prophecy from this chapter is being fulfilled, and that's being fulfilled, and this is that.

I'm not going to say that. I will say the stage is being set more now than any time in my history. Any time that I can think of regarding Middle East history is an amazing moment. People to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This is the reason why we're doing happening now is to give you that understanding. Wow, the God of the Bible knows the future. That detail he's communicated to us. Oh, yeah, but the greatest detail of all is your salvation. That's in Christ Jesus. Folks, you need to be tapping into Pastor Jack Hibbs happening now on YouTube.

It's usually every month. Pastor Jack Hibbs and Don Stewart were most recently, and I'm playing some clips from some of their discussion. Don Stewart, give me your thoughts on the instability of Israel's elections as we speak. What we know, Jan, is something that's really unfortunate for Israel. Last December, basically, they decided to dissolve their parliament, the Knesset, and so last January they did. They had elections in April that were supposed to set things straight.

No one could get a party together. To get 120 seats, you have to have at least 61 seats to form a coalition. Netanyahu got 60.

That's all he had. What happened afterwards is another election in September, September 17th. They do it again, and as we're doing this program right now, there is no parliament yet in the future, and it may vote for a third election of Israel. The problem, of course, with that is they've got a caretaker government.

They need to do things. People don't want to invest in a country that doesn't know who's going to lead it. Is it going to go right? Is it going to go left? So the instability in Israel is a sign of the end. One of the signs is the spotlight of the world on Israel, but right now instability, I guess, would be the key word. Any idea where it might be headed?

Well, that's a great question. You can look at both ways. You can see if Netanyahu stays as prime minister, and he can't stay forever, obviously, then they have strength. I tell you though, one thing, if it goes the other direction, the leftists take control. Look at what happened in the past, Jan, as you know what the generals that were ruled, Rabin and Barak and Sharon, that was disastrous, wasn't it? So they want another general, ex-general now in Gantz, and they've had three strikes and you're out, I think, so far, but they look like they may be trying for number four. Yeah, I am very concerned.

I really am. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime minister ever. There's some years of interruption there, but he started in the 90s and then interrupted by a few years and then up until present, but it's looking extremely questionable what the future is here. And I think I had an email from Amir Sarfati saying it looked like Benjamin Netanyahu would be out in the near future.

Just keep watching, folks, and continue to pray. Don Stewart, let me ask you a question. I believe you've even written a book. Don Stewart's written about 70 books. Check those out at his website, educatingourworld.com. I think you've written a book, Don, about the Ark of the Covenant, am I right? You've written so many, it's hard for me to keep track.

Yes, I have. In Search of the Lost Ark, The Quest for the Ark of the Covenant. I want you to talk to me about it here for a moment or so. Where do you believe it is? Obviously, we've heard all kinds of theories, and I find it fascinating. In a 1982 movie is what awakened the world to this Ark of the Covenant, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Well, if Hollywood had some of it right, there certainly was supernatural power in that Ark. Where do you think it is? I believe it still exists. I believe it's under the Temple Mount. I believe you do.

Yeah, I sure do. For a variety of reasons, it was placed there. I remember Second Chronicles 35.3 tells us Josiah put the Ark back in there. We're also told the hold of the prophetess told Josiah he's not going to live to see it, but Jerusalem is going to be destroyed. The Temple is going to be destroyed, this and that. Now, what are you going to do if you have the most sacred object ever created, ever made, the Ark of the Covenant containing the Ten Commandments?

What are you going to do? Were you going to hide it someplace? We're told that Solomon, when he built the Temple, originally had all these underground passages to put the Ark in there just in case something like this would happen. Josiah was warned ahead of time that the city and Temple would be destroyed.

He was a godly king. And again, after the Babylonian captivity was over, after all that, after the destruction of the city and the Temple when they came back, Second Temple had no Ark, none whatsoever. You know, Zerubb will build a smaller addition, Herod expanded it, but the Second Temple had no Ark at all, so it's been missing for some 25-2600 years. But I think there's some indications, Jan, in Scripture that it may indeed show up again. Revelation 11-19 talks about this is during the Great Tribulation period.

The two witnesses, you know, are raised back from the dead after three and a half days. There's an earthquake in Jerusalem. And then in heaven, the real Ark, which the one down here is based upon, is seen in heaven.

So why do you say that at that time? I'm just curious, because we know there's going to be a Temple at that time. So I've just thought Jeremiah 3-16 says there'll come a day when they won't remember the Ark anymore.

Well, that's not yet today. They're still looking for it. It's not a slam dunk, but I actually think it may be found. And can you imagine, here's the Ark of the Covenant with the Ten Commandments actually found here in the 21st century. Apparently, some rabbis say they have seen it underneath the Temple.

Do you think that's possible? Yeah, we've talked to them, too. They have said that. There's a passageway, which is now the Muslims have been cemented over years and years ago, and they've said they've seen it. Then they come back and say, well, this is Rabbi Goetz.

He saw it in a vision. We try to get a straight answer out of them. No, Chaim Richmond of the Temple Institute, he just told me, he said, it's safe. Just know it's safe. He wouldn't say anything else. I just left it at that. Okay.

Well, here's where I'd like to go. I think, Don, in my second half of the program, both you and I talk a fair amount of time. And I've heard you give a recent message, at least I heard it online recently, and that is kind of how should we live in light of being a part of these last days? And if God wants us to know the future, I mean, what practical steps can we take as we see the day drawing near? And we've already referenced, I did anyway, that we can understand the times. And the sons of Issachar were men who understood the times.

I think God was pleased with that. And you stress that. We need to understand what's happening. And sadly, what I hear from a lot of people, because our times are bleak, they're kind of tuning out instead of tuning in. I'd like to talk about when we get back here particularly, how can my audience live in light of being perhaps a last generation?

I think it's fairly safe to say we may be a last generation before the church is caught up and taken to be with the Lord. And I think that perhaps we can even be an encouragement to my audience at the same time. Folks, you still can order some CDs and DVDs of my annual conference, which was back in September. We had a wonderful time, and I don't want to dwell on that.

That's a couple months ago now. And our speakers were JD Farag, Robert Jeffress, Amir Sarfati, Pastor Jack Hibbs, yours truly, Laurie Cardoza Moore. We had some speaker interviews also on all the DVDs and CDs. Give us a call if you'd like to get those.

They're beautifully and professionally packaged and high definition, etc. I don't want to say any more than that other than have you saved the date, Saturday, September 26th, 2020. For our next event, we'll have details outlined for you in our forthcoming newsletters on air here on our website. So keep listening, keep watching. I'm coming back with Don Stewart in just a couple of minutes.

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God has everything under control. End-time instability is predicted, and so we emphasize the words in Isaiah 33-6, God is the stability of our times. We have some outstanding programming planned for you in the new year. Tune into Understanding the Times radio on air or online, and pray for our staff to remain strong and focused on issues that will help you understand the Times. We are all called to be salt and light, and to delay the decay, and to spread the good news until He comes.

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Here are Jan Markell and Don Stewart to wrap up this week's program. This is what we find in the Bible. We find the Lord predicting ahead of time events so we can know again that He exists, He knows the future, and of course He is in control of the future. So we find in this particular instance the prediction of a release from a captivity they weren't even in yet, the name of the king who will allow the captivity to, you know, to end, all literally fulfilled just as the Bible says. Now I ask you, some of you mathematicians in there, if you want to think about it, odds that this could happen by chance? You don't even know they're going to be in a captivity. You don't know if they are. They'll ever come back and the cities will be rebuilt. You have to have all these factors.

Think of all these variables. And then eventually it's a man named Cyrus, of all people, who is the one who allows it to be rebuilt, the city and the temple. Welcome back. Well, we're talking about that theme this hour with Don Stewart, author, commentator. I would say more about how to reach him as we go out of the program.

You certainly can catch him on his channel, hischannel.com. Our topic for the hour, and I don't do this every week, as you know, we hit all sorts of current event topics and do paranormal updates and all sorts of things on this program. But this hour, I wanted to talk about some of the issues as it concerns Christ's return. One out of every 30 verses in the Bible mentions the subject of Jesus Christ's return or the end of days. Of the 216 chapters in the New Testament, there are well over 300 references to the return of Jesus Christ. 23 of the 27 New Testament books mention his return. Jesus Christ often spoke specifically about his own return to earth. And throughout the centuries, Jesus' disciples and followers have adamantly believed, written, and taught that Jesus would someday return to earth because the Bible teaches it. That's why. Between 25 and 30 percent of the Bible teaches this very topic.

If that is the case, then how should we live as end-time believers? We're going to talk about that here in this closing segment. But first, I want to go back to Don Stewart. Don, listen to you teach online, and folks, you can find him on the YouTube channels. Again, already referenced his channel.

Daniel 12. Let's talk about it for just a moment. There it says that knowledge will increase. Okay, a lot of people have said for years, well, that's scientific knowledge, that's encyclopedia-type knowledge. Maybe not. Maybe instead, it is actually eschatological knowledge that will increase in the very last days. You believe that. I believe that.

Talk to us about that. Daniel 12-4, Jan. He was told, Daniel, close up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many will dash about and knowledge will increase.

Well, that phrase, dash about, is used in Amos 8-12, and it's the idea of trying to find the answers to certain questions. Only at the time of the end, the knowledge will increase where these things make sense, and that's knowledge about Bible prophecy, the book of Daniel in particular. But it's only in the last days we'll get it, and we're seeing things just in recent times, Jan, that Daniel didn't see, John the apostle didn't see.

We're seeing it take place literally right in front of our very eyes. I think, Don, that perhaps Hal Lindsey's book of almost 50 years ago ignited something. It certainly ignited me as a young person trying to understand all of this, and I think that sparked an interest that maybe wasn't quite as prevalent before that because folks couldn't understand the topic.

You're right. Hal's been a good friend of mine, and same here. When I read The Late Great Planet Earth and I was just dumbfounded by the evidence that was there and how it set the stage for the time of the end, and again, piggybacking on what Daniel said, Daniel was told that he's not going to understand. Daniel in 12 eights, as I heard, but I didn't understand one of these things going to take place, and he's told you won't, Daniel, only the people at the time of the end. And so when Hal wrote this, hard to believe it has been 50 years, it is telling us that we are living in times, the stage is being set, the events that take place for the coming of the end. And we talk about the end, not the end of the world, the coming of God's kingdom into the world.

You know, there'd be a new heaven and new earth someday, but it's the kingdom of the Lord coming to this earth, and it's exciting to watch the things take place right in front of our eyes, where now we can understand what's going on, understand the times, because of the events we see literally being fulfilled. Then it goes on to say there, though, in Daniel 12, verse 9, that the wicked won't understand. I look at the wicked around the world, and we've got some wicked in our country, we've got some wicked in Washington. Not only do they not understand, but they're acting like complete fools because they're dumbed down. They're almost Romans 1 mentality, but the wicked won't understand. They don't understand anything. In the various European capitals of the world, they don't understand anything. Yeah, we're seeing that more and more. Here's so-called intelligent people, intelligent men and women, they don't have a clue what's going on.

No, not a clue. And that was predicted. Daniel 12, 10, the wicked will never understand. And here's one of the passages I love to zero in on. The wise will understand.

How will you understand if you take the Bible seriously, literally? It's laid out for us just like when Christ came the first time. They should have known he was coming. We here should also know the second time he's coming. The signs are there. If we take it at face value, we can know. We play another clip here.

It's you and Pastor Jack Hibbs. I think it's most recent happening now. And in this clip, you're talking about, and I want to discuss it with you, you're obviously referring to the rapture, but could there be a gap after the rapture? And if so, how long might it be?

And what might be happening? I mean, could the gap be hours? Could it be weeks? Could it be months?

Could it be years? There's going to be a need. Again, there's going to be a need for a man with a plan to come on the scene to settle down the chaos that's going to be happening. After the church is raptured, or when it's raptured, does the seventh week of Daniel begin immediately? This is a good question because do we assume the great tribulation, the final seven-year period, the time of Jacob's trouble happens at the same time simultaneously with the rapture? There could be a kind of an interval in between. And people debate that sort of thing, whether it could be a time of days, weeks.

If there is some time, I can't see it being a real long period of time, although we don't know. That, I think, is unclear from Scripture. But when the church age ends, God begins to deal with Israel. That's one reason I believe that Ezekiel 38-39 battles in the tribulation sometime because at that time, since the people recognize that God is working again on the side of Israel supernaturally, it may begin immediately, it may not. What's your take on that? Do you know?

Have any thoughts? It's my opinion that when the rapture takes place, experienced, sensed, visibly known by the world, that when the rapture happens, does the clock start ticking that next day or at that moment? I personally believe that a clock starts ticking.

I'm not going to say the seven years begins then because we know that the seven years begins with a treaty that's signed. CNN's going to be covering it. It's going to be on the news. No, no, no, really.

No, really. The world will see it happen. The Antichrist, he'll be the politician who arises out of chaos. He is going to bring peace, an agreement, a piece of paper, think of it, between Israel and its neighbors.

That's awesome. It's not Israel and the Canadians. It's Israel and its neighbors, and he's going to broker this seven year treaty. They're going to sign it.

It's a real international document. The Bible tells us in Daniel nine that in the middle of that seven year agreement, he's going to break it. I think that when the rapture takes place, a clock starts ticking.

I don't know if the seven years starts happening shortly after that. I agree with Don that things will happen rapidly, but the moment the rapture takes place, I just can't imagine the world just yawning and ho hum. There's going to be some.

This is my opinion. I believe after the rapture that there's going to be some sort of a demonic glaze that falls over people's minds in some way, shape or form. Will they blame it on aliens? Those people were taken away because of evolution. That's what some evolutionists are saying. Did you know that? That the next step of evolution will not be over thousands of millions of years?

It will be in an instant and it will be removing idiots from the world. And the idiots, according to their evolutionary theory, are believers in God. You're listening to Understanding the Times Radio. Jan Markell have on the line from Southern California, apologist Don Stewart. Don Stewart, I want to go back to what Pastor Jack just said.

This was the happening now most recent one. He just said that a demonic glaze could fall over the minds of people, and I think he's pulling that out of the Bible. At the same time, it will be the greatest time of revival in the history of the world. Yeah, it's going to be the best of times, the worst of times, Jan. It really, really will, because there'll be innumerable number of people we know from the book of Revelation in heaven that have come to faith during the great tribulation, the tribulation of saints. But then again, it's the worst time that world's ever going to see.

Jesus mentioned that, and unless God intervenes, there'll be no flesh saved, we're told in Matthew 24. So yeah, that's what's coming, the best and the worst of times. Okay, but what about the gap? How long do you think it could be? Hours, days, weeks, months, years?

I can't see it. It's a very long period of time, and the reason being, what would you call the people who believe during that time? We've got the New Testament church, mostly the tribulation saints.

I mean, I'm sure we can figure out a name for them, and God can. It seems to happen fairly soon after that. I don't know how soon. I've talked to my good friend Andy Woods, who's also a brilliant prophecy teacher and that, and we've talked about that, and no one really knows, but we have to allow for some possible gap of time, but there's nothing specifically told us in Scripture. So my goal always is this, 1 Corinthians 4 says, don't go beyond that which is written.

It's not written, I don't know, so I'm just going to say I just don't know. But it will be a time of chaos. There will be a need for sort of a Mr. Fix-It to come on the scene and restore order out of chaos. I don't think anything will function properly. Some global leaders will be gone, so governments may not even be functioning at all, at least some.

Probably most governments are quite pagan, but every now and then you might have more righteous ones. People are going to be crying out for answers, they're going to be crying out for stability, and I think someone will come along and offer that, I think, quickly. And you know, Jan, what's sad too, there'll be a lot of church leaders still left behind. Yes, yes. They're going to tell us everything's okay, this is God's work, God doing it, so don't worry about it.

Not pointing people to Jesus, but pointing, well, he's going to bring some leader on that's going to lead us into the millennium from their point of view, and that'll be, of course, the final Antichrist, and so it could very well be the false prophet, could come from the church, could be Jewish, or could be the Pope, we just don't know. Right. You often point out, sometimes folks don't quite understand why we might say this, and that would be that we need to be so thankful, we even need to be humbled, because of the times that we're privileged to be able to be living in. Now let me qualify that, because people are listening here in radio land and saying, Jan, privileged to see the horrific things on the news broadcasts every day, the bloodshed, the rioting, the natural disasters, which tear the heart out of almost every viewer watching them. We're supposed to be excited and humbled and feel privileged to see these things.

As a matter of fact, yes. Why don't you explain that? Yeah, because we've been warned about these things ahead of time. The Lord has always told his people when a judgment is coming, what to expect, and he's told us this, what's going to happen at the time of the end. So it doesn't take us by surprise. Remember on the night of Jesus' betrayal, he says, I have many more things to say to you, but you can't bear them now. Well, he's revealed a lot of these things to us in the New Testament, so when they do appear, when they do happen, we're not taken by surprise. When we see people turn their back on the faith, when we see people call evil good and good evil, when we see things that are done in the world today that in our wildest nightmare, I guess, we couldn't imagine, we're not surprised because the Bible warns us about these things. As we see them happen, we know, Jan, because of the stage being set, we're getting closer and closer to the time of the end.

Here's what I want to do. Don Stewart and folks, you're listening to Understanding the Times Radio. Jan Markell and I talked to Don for the hour. Both of us want to be an encourager to believers, even though it's kind of, as I've already said, watching the times can almost feel like blood sports sometimes because these are tough times. They're very serious times. I kind of came up with a mental list, Don, about how to live as end-time believers. I want your perspective on it here. Just a few bullet points I came up with.

Please speak into it. If we're going to be end-time believers, how should we live? We should expect, I think, to be mocked and to feel alone.

That comes right out of the Bible. I think we should expect to look at headlines as a herald of His coming, to be alert, to be watchful, not ignorant of the times, to know, as Don Stewart has already said, things are going to worsen. They're going to worsen.

They're going to ultimately get better, but they're going to worsen. To be grateful that we are part of this generation, to seek to understand the times. We've said that now at least three times.

In other words, don't tune out, but tune in. We need to stick to the Bible because people are coming up with new ideas, new theologies all the time about signs in the sky, etc., date setting. We need to stick to the Bible. Realize that many churches will not support you.

Be patient, waiting, and use the time wisely. Resist being disillusioned. All of us had thought Jesus might come back 10 years ago, 20 years ago, some would say 50 years ago, so you've got to resist being disillusioned.

Don, you take some bullet points here. Also, Paul tells us there's a reward for all that love is appearing. Look forward to it. Look forward to the time when the Lord comes, but also to realize, like you said, Jan, we're not going to be in the majority. We never will. Remember Jesus said, when the Son of Man comes, will He find the faith on the earth?

By asking the question, He answered it, didn't He? It's not going to be a great number of people that do believe, unfortunately. I mean, there'll be a great number number-wise, but in proportion to the people of the world, we should expect people to love us, to say, oh, here comes the answer here. On the contrary, we should expect persecution, expect tribulation. Jesus said, think it not strange when these things happen to you, they happen to me, too. So I think we need to get a realistic view. Again, when we read the Bible in total, we know, and your list was excellent, what we're going to see, not to be disillusioned, and one of the things I mentioned, not to go beyond that which is written, which I just stick with the Bible. All these people that tell us, it's going to happen this day, it's going to happen that day, date setters, and then when that happens, it never comes to pass.

They make fun of Christians, you Christians don't know, you Bible experts don't know. We're grouped with them, and that's unfortunate, but there are some solid voices out there. Now, I'm afraid they're few and far between that are really doing a great job, a serious job, of explaining things and not being sensationalist.

So, like you said, the facts are sensational enough. We don't have to go beyond and make them something they're not. Well, in the end, we win, and I think that's important to keep in mind. In the end, of course, churches raptured to heaven, but even those who reject the Lord are left behind and come to faith in Jesus Christ during the tribulation, and I think we need to keep emphasizing that, Don, is that we've already said it once, but a great, great revival during the tribulation, but oh my, the price those believers are going to have to pay is almost unthinkable. That's another point that I think we have to make is don't wait, folks, don't wait. A couple of other bullet points here, know that God has everything under control.

I think, and this is again, how should we live knowing that we may be the last generation? Understand that every time you see a calamity, understand that God does have everything under control. Don Stewart, you bring out the fact many times that in the end, we win, but we do need each other, and we need to be, as you say, encouraging one another.

These are such discouraging times. Hebrews 10, all the more as you see the day appearing, encouraging one another. Christians need to get together with other Christians to pray with one another, to encourage one another, to support one another, to realize it's going to be difficult times. The world's not going to love us, they're not going to hate us, even though what we're doing, we're doing for them.

You know, we want them to come to know the same Jesus we know. It's going to be difficult times, but the key we always come up with is in the end, we win. The Lord Jesus comes back, we're going to come back with him, he's going to set up his kingdom, and we're going to be part of that, so we can keep our eye on the prize and not get distracted, because the enemy will like to distract us every way, shape, or form. Look beyond what this world system is telling us, beyond what's going on right now, and keep your eye on what we're here for. We're to be salt and light, we're to preach the first coming of Jesus Christ, the gospel. That's our main message, that Jesus has already come, died for the sins of the world, come back from the dead, offers eternal life for those who believe, those who don't believe, there's punishment coming to them. That's our message, and the signs of the times and that to me is always, I use that as a springboard as a basis to preach the gospel to people, that you can know who you are, you can know why you're here, you can know what's going to happen to you when you die. None of us are born with that knowledge. We don't know our identity, we don't know our purpose, we don't know our destiny.

Word of God tells us what it is, and that's the great message that we have. Here's what I want to wrap up with Don. Check out his programming five days a week on his channel, hischannel.com. Visit his website, educatingourworld.com, and he's author of about 70 books.

I follow him online as much as I can. Don, I want to spend the closing few minutes here, because there are 10 things that need to be in existence for us to really be having the discussion that we've had here now for going on almost an hour. Let me just go through them.

You've provided me this list. 10 things that have to be in existence. Number one, the nation of Israel has to exist in the last days. Number two, they will have been scattered throughout the world. That has happened. Number three, at some future time, the people of Israel will return to their ancient homeland in the last days.

That has happened. Number four, the people will return after being away for some time. Number five, their returning numbers will be large, like an army. Number six, the land to which they will return will have been decimated. How many times have I quoted Mark Twain on this program? Back in the mid-1800s, he said there's not a cactus is alive here, so I think he saw some scorpions.

That's about it. Number seven, though they return to a desolate land, once back in the land, they will create great wealth. Number eight, when they return, they will form a state, some sort of a political entity. Number nine, the borders will include the mountains of Israel. And number 10, they will come back in unbelief in Jesus as their Messiah. All 10 are in play as we speak. Obviously, this is a super sign. This is the miracle of all time that a nation like this could come back. But even more incredible than that, Don Stewart, is every point that was predicted, I just gave 10, it's all come to pass.

Yeah, and think of the odds, Jen, of that happening by chance. This is just gathered from Ezekiel's chapter 37 to 39, when the Lord talks about the time of the end. Ezekiel 38, twice in the same verse, says, in the last days at the end time. So we know it's not the return from Babylon, the time of the very end before the Kingdom of God comes to earth. He tells us what the world's going to be like at that time.

And this is the list I got just from reading those chapters. Okay, they assume that Israel's going to exist, they've been gone for a long time, they've been scattered throughout the world, they're going to come back, but specifically in the last days, and etc., etc., large numbers, a land decimated by war, they'll create great wealth. That's going to cause the reason for the invasion by these countries, because they've got something these other nations want and they need. Their borders will include the mountains of Israel, which it does now, but they come back in unbelief of Jesus, because we read in Ezekiel 39 at that time, after God wipes out these armies, that they'll realize the God of Israel is on their side working for them. Now here's the question I always ask unbelievers, how could all this be known 2,600 years ago by the prophet Ezekiel?

How could that happen by chance? And the obvious answer is, it can't. This is the living God telling us what's going to happen. Let's just visit Ezekiel 37 through 39 for a minute or two, because we still have some time here.

And I've heard in one of your teachings, and you teach on the Gog-Magog War very effectively, and I've heard you talk about it extensively with Pastor Jack on happening now, and I often make the statement, Don Stewart, that Bible prophecy might have a shelf life. In other words, this Gog-Magog alignment, it wasn't even possible 40 years ago. We're in the season as we speak, Don, where the Iranian overthrow of the Shah happened 40 years ago, almost to the day, back in 1979. Back then, Iran was pro-West, pro-Israel. The invasion with Iran couldn't have happened back then. Turkey was a moderate, sort of a pro-Western nation, still as a member of NATO, but was certainly more stable some 40 years ago, and not any longer, because now they're trying to go back to the Ottoman Empire. So all I'm saying is things shift around, but as we speak, is the perfect setup for Gog-Magog.

It amazingly is. For the first time in history, the countries now in the geography with modern-day Iran, modern-day Russia, are in a military alliance. Never happened before in the history of the world. As you mentioned, Iran was Israel's best friend 40 years ago when the Shah was running the show. Now they're Israel's worst enemy. Turkey is where the Israelis took their vacations up until a few years ago, but now with Erdogan, they've become a mortal enemy. And what we see, Jan, which is amazing, already four different times, the leaders of Turkey, Iran, and Russia have gotten together to talk about how they're going to fix up the whole Middle East in that particular area, in each of the capitals of their countries. This is unheard of, but some of the headlines we see, these are the three countries that are going to set the stage and exactly what the Bible predicted 2,600 years ago. Where do you put the timing of this Gog-Magog war? So it's obviously realistically and geopolitically, and as these nations are aligned as we speak, there are other nations in this coming war, but the primary players, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and we've got Libya probably, maybe Sudan, and then the Bible says many nations with you, so there could be some other nations as well. But where do you put the timing of this war?

Dr. Steven Connors That's a great question. When I taught this whole subject, there was like 14 different views, and obviously if there's 14 different views, it's not that clear. I think it happens after the rapture of the church, specifically because of what I just mentioned in Ezekiel 39, because God is dealing specifically then, the people realize, with the nation of Israel, so that takes it after the church is out of here sometime. So most likely to me, it'd be the early part of the final seven years, the seventh week of Daniel, the time of Jacob's trouble.

I think that's got the least amount of problems or least amount of issues, where to put it, but good people differ on that, but that's just where I'm at right now. Dr. Cheryl Stauffer I asked my previous guest this question here just a week or two ago, and that is, do you feel, and my own personal opinion on the Antichrist, is that there's probably been an Antichrist alive and well in every generation, because the devil doesn't know when the end of the end is, so he's always got somebody ready to go? Dr. Steven Connors Yeah, there has to be. 1 John 2.18, many Antichrists at that time, but one Antichrist is coming. The devil doesn't know who the final Antichrist is, only God does. Dr. Cheryl Stauffer Are we waiting for anything other than the Rapture, which really is a signless event, but are we waiting for anything?

Dr. Steven Connors Not really. It can happen at any time. Like I said, some things may happen, but we're not waiting for anything. The Lord could come back tonight for us.

Wouldn't that be great? Like you said, perhaps today, right? Dr. Cheryl Stauffer Perhaps today. Can you wrap us up then? We've got a couple of minutes, and I would encourage you to challenge any skeptic in my audience. Dr. Steven Connors I would love to, Jan.

Thank you. The Bible tells us that the God of the Bible knows the future. He makes these basically claims for himself. Isaiah chapter 46 verses 8 and 9, Isaiah 48 verses 3 to 6, basically says, I know the end from the beginning. I know what's going to happen before it takes place.

So you can know that not only I exist, I'm in control, and you can believe in me. In a nutshell is what he is saying. What we've talked about very briefly in this short hour can be multiplied a thousand times.

There's so many more things we could have talked about, but here's what you need to know. If you're a skeptic, look at the Bible and try to answer the question, how could all of this happen by chance? How could they know in the last days there would still be a nation of Israel, when by all odds it should have gone off the charts long ago? How could they know they would come back to the land that's been devastated by war and create great wealth, where it's now noted as the eighth most powerful country in the world, the fifth when it comes to technology? How could they know this?

And, Jan, there's no way anybody could know this by chance, by luck. After a while, you see a pattern. You see that the Bible predicts something, and sooner or later it comes to pass. So for the skeptic out there, here's the bottom line. If you want to know the answer, if you really want to know the truth, John 7 17 said, Jesus said, if you want to know the doctrine, whether I speak of God or speak of myself, you can know. And that's what we're here to tell you today. You can know that you have eternal life. You can know there's a God in heaven. You can know your sins are forgiven.

And that's the great news of Scripture. Don Stewart, thank you for all you do. The name of your program on his channel again? Breaking News. Breaking News, five times a week. And the website is educatingourworld.com. I'd like to go out of the program. I say this real often, so some of you got it memorized. That's okay.

It's a good thing to memorize. When the time was right, the sea parted. The walls fell down.

The lions went hungry. The sun stood still. The waves were calm. The stone was rolled away. The clouds were parted. The Lord ascended. And when the time is right, the King of Kings will return. God is never early. He's never late. He is always right on time. And His plan for you is good. I want to thank you for listening.

We'll talk to you next week. It is end of year. And if you would like to remember this ministry with a tax-deductible gift, send it to Olive Tree Ministries at Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311. That's Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311. You can text to give or just donate online at our website, OliveTreeViews.org. That's OliveTreeViews.org. Call us central time at 763-559-4444.

All gifts are tax-deductible. We believe that headlines are a herald of His coming. Look up as your redemption draws nigh. Everything is falling into place.