Without Excuse

 Without Excuse – Terry James - https://terryjamesprophecyline.com/2024/04/21/without-excuse-2/ An epiphany struck while listening to a radio talk show host I sometimes listen to during weekday mornings. The words that sparked the revelation came from a cut from a TVprogram the radio host played. The cut was from the ABC program The View. I don’t know which of the four main View women hosts did the speaking –that is, I don’t remember the name given of that View host. It was, of course, either Sunny, Joy, Saraor Whoopi. And the words that ignited my thinking in writing this commentary should have been unremarkable – that is, if I weren’t a student of Bible prophecy from the preTrib perspective. But the words the woman spoke, interspersed without any sort of emphasis or context, among the rest of her statement, making the words unremarkable at best, struck like thatbolt of lightning that struck the Statue of Liberty’s torch a couple of weeks ago. Sunny, Joy, Sara, Whoopi, and the rest were making fun of those who had made statements that the eclipse of April 8 or the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s destruction were signsfrom God. They ridiculed those who said that these things and other things happening, like the earthquake that shook New York City, was Judgment from the Almighty or portended Judgment about to be meted out by Deity. In the middle of the couple of paragraphs of the harangue the particular host of the show was making, she said amidst the audience’s laughter and applause something like “therapture” didn’t come…” This stunned me. Here, one of the three most non-Bible-centered people one could think of was, although as merely a casual mention, referencing the next prophecy to be fulfilled,we who study from the preTrib view believe. If Sunny, Joy, Sara or Whoopi understands that the Rapture is an element in God’s Prophetic Timeline, then every American must surely have at least a cursory acquaintance with the term. In thinking further, my dear friend and mentor, Dr. Tim LaHaye, and his co-author, Jerry Jenkins, came to mind. The Left Behind books, in what was the top-selling series ofChristian fiction in publishing history, saturated America and the world with the term that Whoopi or one of the other women of The View casually threw in there when mocking everyone who had predicted that the eclipse and surrounding hoopla was a signal ofJudgment from God. Some of the entertainment world –the late-night hosts on television, and others, also scoffed at those who mentioned that the eclipse, etc., had prophetic or Heavenly judgmentovertones. These had also joked about Biden’s designation of Transgender Day of Visibility on the day Easter fell this year. They, observably in my view, delighted in pulling this off against the Christian world and their perceived view of its judgmental foolishness. The most ungodly among our populace, who dominate the airwaves with their celebrity, have made certain that the unbelievers know of Heaven’s failure to follow up on any Judgmentthat believers in Christ expect. They accuse that we look down on them with feelings of superiority, and God’s lack of judgmental response is reason, they obviously believe, to celebrate with good-natured fun-poking. All of the joking and mocking proves one thing: the lost world of people, particularly in this nation, is without excuse. Satan, through being prince of the power of the air,does his devilish work of deceiving the masses through use of his minions who have information dominance in this fallen world. So there can be no doubt that the lost, especially the lost here in America, have heard or read time and time again about God’s comingJudgment –and even more importantly, about His Redemptive Plan for mankind through the Sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The devil has convinced the masses that God’s Intervention into the physical world is good to use as the butt of jokes. God is, at most, an existential being, Satan lies.God set things in motion, and it’s been hands-off for the most part since that time. But the God of Heaven has a different View, and Judgment is on the way. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known ofGod is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Becausethat, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:18-21). The God of Heaven is, first and foremost, not a God of Judgment and Wrath but of Love and Mercy. He Desires that all come to Him for Repentance and Forgiveness. He has movedHeaven and Earth to bring all people into His Eternal Family. Here, again, is how to be Forgiven and thus go in the Rapture when Christ Calls believers or go directly to Heaven when life on this sphere is finished. “That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believesunto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).