Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one … lift off! No, this is not the usual countdown for a NASA rocket. This is the countdown to the Rapture.

On the prophetic timetable, the very next event to happen is the Rapture. For that reason, these are not just the times that try men and women’s souls; these are the times in which the fulfilled prophetic signs become God’s warnings to men and women about the future of their souls.

Since the Holy Bible repeats the pattern that God follows before He judges or punishes mankind, then true believers know that just as it was before The Flood in Noah’s days, just as it was before fire and brimstone rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah in Lot’s day, and just as it was before many other biblical events took place, God will not begin Daniel’s 70^th week (The Tribulation Period) without warning people that the most horrific times in human history are about to begin. Thus, through many prophetic signs, God constantly is warning 21^st century people that He once again is about to judge or punish mankind … indeed the entire Earth!

Because God does not want anybody to perish, He will do all that He can to ensure that born again, saved believers in Jesus the Christ will be redeemed/delivered/rescued/saved from God’s wrath (judgment) that is soon to come upon this Earth. Indeed, God will do whatever must be done in order to keep His enemy from plucking the Body of Christ out of His hand, which means God will do whatever it takes to shake loose any existing complacency, stinking thinking, and wrong behaviors that have an iron grip on so many of today’s Laodicean-like church members.

The increase in these and other strangleholds is why the Body of Christ is living in a time when the CHURCH Age is coming to an end. For sure, these end times also are why the Body of Christ must stay alert, watching for the promised cloud-gathering sign to be fulfilled, because when all has been said and done, because God has given sufficient warnings, there will be no one who will be able to say that he or she never had a clue! Therefore, because the Rapture can happen at any time, true believers also must do as their Savior tells them to do. They must “…look up, and lift up [their] heads; for [their] redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28, KJV).

Now, since the time of Jesus the Christ, there have been hundreds of prophecies that have been fulfilled, but those that have been fulfilled in the 21^st and 20^th centuries should cause people to stop and take notice. For example, globally, the prophesied signs that pertain to an end time societal breakdown are being fulfilled, daily.

God prophetically warns through His Word that, as the end of the Church Age draws near, there will be an increase in the number of people who will have no regard for the law or morality. These people will be greedy, selfish, violent, immoral, hedonistic and rebellious. Consequently, all of these lawless and immoral people will have something else in common—problems with a total breakdown of the family and great despair (see 2 Timothy 3:1-4, 6; Mark 13:12; and Matthew 24:12).

Add to the behaviors listed above the fulfilled sign of an increase in the number of people who practice homosexuality. Daily, homosexuals in all walks of life are openly expressing their “gay” lifestyle. Moreover, there are many learned individuals who maintain that because homosexual men and lesbian women were born this way they do not choose their “gay” lifestyle. Indeed, even some men and women who say they are “called” of God to preach and teach His Word now are saying that homosexuals and lesbians have a divine right to be who they are for they are gifts from God (reference here is to the You Tube video clip in which “Being Gay is the Gift of God” is the discussion topic on Oprah’s Spirituality 101).

Add to this increased lawlessness, immorality and homosexuality the use of drugs, which rapidly is increasing among the lower class, middle class, and upper class individuals. The Apostle John writes in Revelation 9:21 that, even during the Tribulation Period, the left behind lawless and immoral people: “Neither repented…of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” (KJV). The word “sorceries” in this verse is the English translation of the New Testament Greek word “farmakeiva,” which is transliterated as “pharmakeia,” and pharmakeia means pharmaceuticals or drugs. Thus, in these end times, no one can say that there is not CURRENTLY already an out of control drug problem for which there seems to be no solution.

Moreover, what today’s true believers are able to discern is that all of these aforesaid societal problems are the very same societal problems that were witnessed in Noah and Lot’s days, and these same societal problems were the reasons why God cleansed the world with The Flood and then later totally destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and all the humans, animals and vegetation in those cities. What today’s true believers also are able to discern is that since these same transgressions are running rampant again, the end result will be the same: God is going to judge or punish the people who neither obey His commandments nor believe in Him or His Son. Again, God forewarned the people in Noah and Lot’s days about the very judgments or punishments that would come upon them, and yet the masses did not heed God’s warnings!

Besides these increased societal signs, God has fulfilled in our time other prophetic signs: the rebirth of Israel; an increase in media covered global-political events; an increase in upheavals in nature; an increase in rampant diseases and epidemics; an increase in spiritual apostasy (increases in doctrinal and moral departures in the CHURCH and increases in the number of people who will turn from the Lord to Satanism … see 1 Timothy 4:2-3, 2 Timothy 3:5, Matthew 24:12, and 1 Timothy 4:1); an increase in the number of people who mock the end-times prophecies; an increase in false Messiahs, false prophets, and false teachers; an increase in technology; a knowledge explosion; and an increase in the desires to want to use  nuclear weapons. The fact that all of these prophetic signs are and have been happening simultaneously in our time should shake loose any complacency, stinking thinking, and wrong behaviors that might have a stranglehold on believers in Christ.

Whether we want to believe it or not, time is running out. The Rapture of the true CHURCH is the only prophetic event that needs to be fulfilled before the Temple is rebuilt, the Antichrist signs a peace agreement with Israel, and the Tribulation Period begins with its seven seals’ judgments and ends with Jesus the Christ’s bodily Second Coming—when every eye sees Him coming in His glory, and He sets His feet down on the Mount of Olives. The Rapture countdown, thus, has begun, and every living person who is not in the Rapture will be left behind to suffer during the Tribulation Period. Yet, no matter what some people believe and teach, God does not want any person to have to experience the Tribulation Period, because He knows that the Tribulation Period will claim countless lives!

Furthermore, because the Tribulation Period is designed in such a way to shake the left behind uncommitted and disbelieving out of their lethargy so that they finally will accept Jesus the Christ as their personal Savior and Lord to whom they totally surrender; and because the Tribulation Period is designed in such a way so that the uncommitted and disbelieving who remain uncommitted and disbelieving will receive their just punishment for deliberately choosing the Antichrist as their god, these are the reasons why God constantly is warning the world, but specifically the Body of Christ, that the Tribulation Period’s horrific times are right around the corner. The Tribulation Period’s seven seal, seven trumpet and seven vial judgments upon the whole Earth also are why God wants Christ’s Body to continue to “…look up, and lift up [their] heads; for [their] redemption draweth nigh.” God, thus, forewarns this world’s masses, and especially the Body of Christ, because He wants true believers to be on the alert and prepared for His cloud-gathering sign so that they will not be caught off-guard!

The only way anybody who is still alive will be able to be delivered from the wrath of God that is to come upon this Earth is for a divine intervention to take place. That divine intervention for the Body of Christ is the Rapture.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one … lift off! Once again, the countdown to the Rapture has begun, so let’s make sure we are Rapture ready so that no matter whether we are alive or dead when Christ comes back in the clouds we will be caught up to be with Him forever more!