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Feb 4, 2013
Is Now the Time to Bug Out?

It is common knowledge that America faces economic calamity with its massive national debt now at $16.5 trillion. For the past few years, I have been warning that we can't running trillion dollar deficits forever with eventually suffering a financial meltdown. I've been amazed at how large the debt balloon has become, but it doesn't change the fact that the balloon will someday explode.

The possibility of an economic collapse has caused the number of survivalists/preppers in the U.S. to absolutely explode in recent years. It has been estimated that there are now approximately 3 million preppers in the United States, and “Doomsday Preppers” is currently the highest-rated show on the National Geographic Channel. In the survivalist camp, the phrase "bug out" is used to refer to a time when it becomes necessary for people to escape to a safe location.

In the past few months, I've learned that dozens of well-known people in the financial and prophecy communities have made plans or have already left the country. Some of the locations that they've moved to include Belize, Costa Rica, Argentina, Honduras, Singapore, New Zealand, and the Channel Islands.

The general view is that the U.S. is becoming a dictatorship, and they want to leave while it is still possible. In their minds, they see themselves sitting under a palm tree in some remote paradise while the rest of us are being marched off to concentration camps.

This escapist mentality is shared by former Fox News commentator Glenn Beck. He recently announced his desire to build somewhere in the U.S. a self-sustaining utopian community that would be based on the writings of Ayn Rand. Never mind that Rand believed selfishness was a virtue and that she was an avowed God-hater.

According to Beck’s website:

Glenn believes that he can bring the heart and the spirit of Walt’s early Disneyland ideas into reality. Independence, USA, wouldn’t be about rides and merchandise, but about community and freedom. The marketplace would be where craftsmen and artisans could open and run real small businesses and stores. The owners and tradesmen could hold apprenticeships and teach young people the skills and entrepreneurial spirit that have been lost in today’s entitlement state.

At this stage, I don't see the merits of moving to another country or building a commune here in the U.S. We don't know how bad things will get here at home, and we have even less of an understanding of how bad it might get in some of these other countries where people have been relocating.

A country like Honduras might seem nice now, but the situation could quickly turn dicey in the aftermath of a financial collapse. The U.S. economy has $15 trillion GDP, and Honduras's GDP is a mere $35 billion. If America goes down, who will buy all those bananas that Honduras sells to its Yankee trading partner? It doesn't make sense to move to a nation that has only had free elections as a recent development. Honduras has had more military juntas than legitimate presidents. I wouldn't want to bet on freedom withstanding a global financial crisis. Since authoritative rule hates any form of freedom, Glenn Beck's utopian village would have even worse odds of maintaining its independence.

One of the moderators on our RR message board pointed out that most people who go to another country to escape the evils found in America leave after a couple of years. They quickly realize that even tropical paradises have their problems. Software guru John McAfee found this out when he moved to Belize because of a distrust for U.S. officials. When McAfee's neighbor turned up dead, he had to flee back to America.

The time may come when it is wise to relocate to some other nation. If the U.S. turns into a dictatorship that prevents me from freely operating Rapture Ready, I would have no reservations about moving to some other nation that still honors liberty.

It would be no problem for me to operate RR in any location that has Internet access. However, I would lose some of my effectiveness by not having contact with fellow believers. Last year, I went to five events. If I lived down in New Zealand, the expense of travel would limit me to one or two trips.

The bug-out that I'm looking for is the Rapture of the Church. When Jesus calls us home, we will no longer have to worry about the threat of economic hardship and political oppression. Having the option of an imminent rescue should give us the courage to resist tyranny right up the very end.

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 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. Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-1 .

--Todd


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Dawn’s Early Light

This week’s commentary is a reminder for those who believe in Jesus Christ as defined by the following scriptural description of the term "Christian":

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Romans 10:9).

Tragically, if the reader hasn’t genuinely confessed sin and asked forgiveness of the God of Heaven, and adopted this faith prescription from God’s Word, this essay cannot apply to his or her life. Thankfully, all people everywhere are invited to come to belief in the Son of God, who came to Earth the first time specifically to die so that anyone who accepts Christ’s shed-blood antidote for sin’s deadly venom will be saved from the eternal fires of Hell, and will instead live forever with the Father in Heaven. My prayer is that the reader, if he or she hasn’t done so, will do so right now–for this is the only moment guaranteed to you. You might not have a follow-up second of life. Your last heartbeat might come before you finish reading.

Paul the apostle reported God’s words on the tenuous nature of life and the importance of immediately making the decision in the matter of salvation: “For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

With the gospel message offered, as the Holy Spirit draws, we will proceed with additional good news, something that some accuse is a rarity for a Nearing Midnight commentary. The name of this section for our Rapture Ready website–Nearing Midnight--conjures in the imagination darkness and foreboding–a very bleak outlook for America and the planet we call Earth. When considering the troubling course we see narrowing in the distance, while we examine today’s issues and events under the microscope of God’s prophetic Word, we must be truthful and faithful in giving the forewarnings of the watchman (Mark 13: 37).

But, while nearing midnight, the world keeps turning. There is coming a moment after the gore and terrible dangers of the battle at twilight’s last gleaming–like Francis Scott Key wrote—the dawn’s early light. The flag of the United States of America is under attack, and the nation is staggering. It might well fall this time, unlike during the time of its birth as given in the "Star Spangled Banner."

But, as much as we all love this nation, we look toward a heavenly home, built by the Lord Himself (see 2 Corinthians 5:1; John 14:1-3)--a world without end (Ephesians 3:21). The matters to think upon for you and me as God’s children involve a glorious dawning of unimaginable things to come. Paul the apostle puts it this way, as we have all read many times: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

While I often express in this column frustration over the fact that the majority of Christians are today inward turned, not at all thinking of things of God, and are asleep in the pews because they get only pabulum from the pastors in the pulpits for the most part, I am of the conviction that this is a malaise that is an important indicator of exactly where we are on God’s prophetic timeline. Jesus said the following: “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8b). This said, each child of God–whether on fire for the Lord, or living life oblivious to the things of God--needs to know that when Christ’s call “come up hither” (Revelation 4:1) is heard, every truly born again (John 3:3) believer will go instantaneously to be with the Lord. He will then take us to the home He has been preparing for us (John 14:1-3).

Even if the child has not been watching for His coming for them in the clouds–in the Rapture—each and every one will go in that stupendous atomos of time to be with Him, forever!

I know the foregoing will be angrily disputed by many. There is an erroneous visceral belief among many who know the PreTrib view of prophecy to be truth from the Bible. That mistaken belief purports that the watchful Christians will go to be with Christ when He calls, and the slothful, Earth-minded Christians will stay behind to–well, I’m not sure to do what.

Those holding this view just cannot accept the full scope of what the Bible says about God’s love for His family. Christ did it all on the cross at Calvary, so what can we do to make ourselves more secure in Christ?

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4 that ALL will go in that twinkling of an eye. The Word of God didn’t say that some will stay and some will go. Here’s the thing: God knows who is and is not His child; we, His children, are not privy to that knowledge.

My friend, Dr. Dave Breese, used to say that the Lord Jesus will not leave part of His Bride, the Church, here on Earth to be bloodied and bruised during the most horrendous time of human history. He will take a perfected Bride home to the Father’s house. Jesus did the cleaning-up when He shed His precious blood at Calvary two millennia ago. He cried “It is finished!” –And, it was! The translation –the transformation from mortal to immortal--that will take place in that stunning, glorious, split second will make every one of us worthy and acceptable in the heavenly city!

Now, let me say that the child of God living like the devil, with unrepented-of sin, will pay a tremendous price at the bema (judgment seat of Christ). Make no mistake: there will be an eternal instant when all will look into those eyes of absolute love and understand their Lord’s disappointment. We will at that moment want more than anything we’ve ever wanted to hear Jesus say, “Well done, good, faithful servant.”

The dawn’s early light will one day shine its rays of glory. It will happen as Christ breaks through the dark, death-decaying clouds at Armageddon (Rev. 19: 11). He will defeat all of His–and our—foes. Antichrist will be thrown in the lake of fire, with the false prophet. Satan will be chained for one thousand years. Jesus will clean up Planet Earth.

But, that’s not the really good news for you and me. Just consider…you and I are here at this strange time, and in this foreign land, for purposes the Lord, Himself, has determined. We could have been placed here at any time in history. But, He chose us to serve Him, and now, while all around us breaks the most stunning prophetic possibilities imaginable. For example, no other generation has seen Israel reborn and as hated by the entire world of nations as has our generation –exactly as prophesied. Something is up –and it is big!

We will see the “dawn” at the close of Armageddon described above as we descend on gleaming, white, heavenly steeds as Christ leads the way.

However, for believers of this Age of Grace, “Dawn’s early light” is scheduled to break brilliantly and instantaneously much earlier--during this darkening hour we presently face. We do not have to wait at least seven years for that other “dawn” as Christ returns at the end of the Tribulation. The Rapture is very near! Serve Him as if He could call in the next second. He just might! Take heart!

--Terry



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Zechariah 12:3,9:
And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.


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