The only way to make sense of what is happening around the world today is to know what is going to happen tomorrow. God has seen fit to tell us a great many things about the future. There are hundreds of yet-to-be fulfilled prophecies in the Bible.

We reserve a few minutes Sunday morning to suggest news, or trends, that seem to be predicted by a literal, futurist reading of the Bible.

To avoid sensationalism, we are careful to use recognized, reliable sources for news.

We’re not saying the things we report are the fulfillment of prophecy. We’re saying that they are the things you’d expect to be happening in the build-up to the future seven-year Great Tribulation.

Newsweek posted an article titled, Putin Appointed ‘Chief Exorcist’ as Kremlin Whips up Satanic Panic.

Excerpts:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been named “chief exorcist” by the head of the country’s Orthodox Church as the Kremlin seeks to redefine the goals of its invasion of Ukraine.

Aleksey Pavlov, assistant secretary of the security council of the Russian Federation, is now calling for the “desatanization” of Ukraine, saying that there were “hundreds of sects” in the country where citizens have abandoned Orthodox values.

“I believe that, with the continuation of the special military operation, it becomes more and more urgent to carry out the desatanization of Ukraine,” Pavlov said, according to state-run Russian news agency Tass.

“Using internet manipulation and psychotechnologies, the new regime turned Ukraine from a sovereign state to a totalitarian hypersect,” said Pavlov.

Pavlov said he is particularly concerned about the “Church of Satan,” which allegedly “spread across Ukraine” and “is one of the officially registered religions in the United States.”

He said that the Kiev government is forcing citizens to abandon Orthodox values, and is working to “reformat” the minds of Ukrainian citizens, to force them to abandon centuries-old traditions, to ban the true values that the Orthodox faith, Islam and Judaism carry.

When Putin said in September that he had annexed four territories in Ukraine following sham referendums, he accused Western nations of “outright Satanism.”

Since then, the term has been used more frequently on Russian state TV, while Putin’s staunch ally, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, has branded the conflict as a holy war against Satanism.

Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, called Putin “a fighter against the Antichrist.”

Kirill said that Putin is fighting against the manifestation of globalism, and “the name of the one who will claim global power will be associated with the end of the world.”^[1]

The Great Tribulation is presented in detail in chapters six through nineteen in the Revelation. In chapter thirteen we are told that Satan “gave [the antichrist] his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the [antichrist]. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the [antichrist]; and they worshiped the [antichrist], saying, “Who is like the [antichrist]? Who is able to make war with him?” And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.
Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.”

The antichrist will be aided by a character we call the false prophet. He “performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth – by those signs which he was granted to do.”

When was the last time a conflict was described as a holy war, with Satanic influences, involving the antichrist and the end of the world?

I’m not suggesting that Putin is the antichrist, or that the head of the Russian Orthodox Church is the false prophet. I am saying that the rhetoric coming out of Russia is not at all unusual in the prophetic light of the Book of the Revelation. We expect religion and politics to be in tandem during that awful time.

We are witnessing the stage-setting for the seven year Great Tribulation that is described in the last book of the Bible. We will not, however, be on Earth during that terrible Time of Jacob’s Trouble.

The resurrection and rapture of the church are imminent. It could happen any moment; nothing needs to happen before it.

Jesus will come, in the clouds, and raise the dead believers of the Church Age. He will transform the bodies of living believers to glorified, resurrection bodies. We will join Him in Heaven while the earth endures one final seven-year campaign of severe evangelism.

Are you ready for the rapture? If not, Get ready; Stay ready; Keep looking up.

Ready or not, Jesus is coming!