In this sermon, the speaker discusses the current state of the world and how it is heading towards a tipping point. They emphasize the importance of being prepared for the changes that are coming, both physically and spiritually. The speaker highlights the need to secure basic necessities like water, food, and money, while also warning about the dangers of the modern banking system. They urge listeners to not get caught up in worldly concerns, but to focus on their faith and be prepared for the storm that is coming.

All right, I want to do a message here on could things get rough before the rapture. And basically, one of the most common attacks against those who hold to the pre-tribulation rapture position, which is how we believe here at Bible Believers Fellowship, one of the most common attacks is that we are cowardly and want to escape the world before anything bad happens to us. And of course, people that are against the pre-tribulation rapture, they will point to the martyrs and the early Christians and how that they suffered. And they say that modern Christianity created the theory of the rapture to get away from persecution. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. That is a lie. Okay, I am very much aware of church history. I've spent many years studying it. The fact of the matter is that this time of this supposed great tribulation, and I say supposed because that's not actually what it's called. It's called the time of Jacob's trouble. It is a time when the nation of Israel is basically going to have God pouring out wrath against the world and also specifically against that nation to correct them, to bring them back in line. Okay, you read the Old Testament sometime. God did that the whole way through the Old Testament. He would bless the nation when they had a good king and then they would get a bad king and his wrath would turn against the Jewish people. And so it will be in this coming time of Jacob's trouble. You can listen to the other studies. I can't cover it in real great detail here, but the word Jacob is another word for Israel in the Old Testament. Now let me just say this. I want to just set the record straight. I can't speak for all that hold to the pre-tribulation rapture position. I will say that there are probably some modern Christians that are Laodicean that probably aren't even saved that are hoping to escape this world before anything bad happens. Okay, I can't speak for everybody that believes in a pre-tribulation rapture, but what I can tell you is the true understanding of Scripture, the true pre-tribulation position has never taught that God's going to take us out of here before it gets bad. Okay, this time that is coming, the Great Tribulation, if you want to call it that, we'll go with that term. That time period in the Old Testament is going to be, it's not going to be man's wrath being poured out on people. It's God's wrath and a lot of people try to come up with the thing that God's wrath doesn't start till the last seven vials, the last seven vial judgments. Well, that is when God's wrath really is poured out, but if you read your Bible, you know that Jesus Christ is the one in Revelation chapter 6 who opens the very first seal which is the Antichrist. So, God is the one who causes the tribulation from start to finish. It's true that his wrath gets worse with the seven vials, but his wrath actually begins at the very beginning of this time of Jacob's trouble. The very first seal is when God's wrath really begins. Okay, God is the one that unleashes the Antichrist on the world. Now, that's certainly not a nice little peaceful thing to do to unleash Satan manifest in the flesh, essentially, on the earth. Why is God doing it? Well, to pour out his wrath on this wicked planet. Okay, not on the bride of Christ, but on the lost world and on unbelieving Israel. Okay, now if you want to listen to the other studies, I get into more detail there, but in Revelation chapters 4 through 6, you see John being called up to heaven. Okay, and there he sees a group. You read about it in Revelation 5 that's redeemed by the blood of the Lamb out of every kindred, people, tongue, nation. That's clearly not Old Testament Jews. We're talking about New Testament Christians born again by the blood of Jesus Christ are in heaven before the Antichrist is unleashed in Revelation chapter 6. So, yes, the pre-tribulation rapture, there are some people that say, well, you can't really prove it from Scripture. You absolutely, positively can prove it from Scripture. Yes, you can. Again, listen to the other messages. Okay, but the question arises, will times get bad before the rapture? In other words, is it just going to be nice and peaceful here in America and everything's great? And all of a sudden, the rapture hits and we leave? Well, that is a possibility. I can't rule that out completely. But when you start to look at the way things are heading, you can see that things are starting to get pretty bad. And we are at a tipping point where we're going to see life on earth, especially here in America. We're going to see it changing very soon. And so that's the purpose of this study. I want to show you what the Bible says is coming and then how much of it are we actually going to get to see or how much of it could we see? That's the purpose of this study here. Okay, and then what we're going to do in this study is, first, I want to look at this topic in two ways. Okay, first, we're going to look at the physical, what is coming to this earth, what is already happening, what's going to get worse. And we're going to see how the Bible actually predicts a lot of this stuff. Then I want to look at the spiritual. Okay, so number one, the very first and the biggest problem right now in the world is the economy. All right, America is now over $27 trillion in debt. Okay, and some statistics actually go even higher than that. Most nations around the world are either bankrupt or on the verge of being bankrupt, of going bankrupt. And the truth of the matter is, we would already be in the Second Great Depression if it weren't for welfare, unemployment, and food stamps. I mean, there are millions and millions, I think it's over 30 million Americans right now that are on unemployment. That's not good. The more people that are on unemployment, the more burden it puts on those that are already working. The more money has to be printed up, and it's fake currency, the cash is not real money. Okay, listen to the gold and silver message if you want more information on that. But the truth is, a major financial collapse is imminent. We can't keep going on like this. Our industry has been shipped out overseas. Everything's being made in China or other countries right now. We have lost our industrial base. Okay, the thing that got us out of the First Great Depression was the fact that we had a very strong industry here in America. The war industry really turned this country around. We don't have that anymore. All right, so a financial collapse is definitely coming. Now, what is the purpose of that? Okay, can we, again, when you look at any of this stuff, you have to filter it through the Bible. Does the Bible give any kind of a clue that there would be a worldwide economic collapse in the end times? And the answer to that is yes. And it's interesting because up until recently, again, listen to the gold and silver message, I can't get into all the fine detail here, but the banking system is only a few hundred years old. And never in history before were they walking around with paper money. Paper money is a joke. Why? Well, what's the difference between a $1 bill and a $100 bill? Nothing. It's just a different number that you print on it. It's the same amount of ink, the same amount of paper. Okay, so you can create the illusion of wealth. Now, what's the difference between a piece of gold that's worth $1 compared to a piece of gold that's worth $100? See, you can't artificially generate that. So, paper currency is always doomed to fail because you just print up more and more and more. Eventually, you have hyperinflation where the currency is devalued and it's not worth anything. But does the Bible predict this? And the answer to that, obviously, is yes. Revelation chapter 13 talks about this cashless society where people have to take the mark of the beast. And the Antichrist causes all to take the mark. And that no man might buy or sell save he had the mark. So, yes, there is a cashless society coming. Now, you can't bring in the cashless society until the current system of money is collapsed. And that's why you're seeing it not in just America, not in China, not in Russia. You're seeing it in every country. Every country, their financial system is on the brink of totally falling apart. The second big problem is war. America is currently fighting two useless wars in the Middle East that have cost this country over $1 trillion. I think it's $1,300,000,000 dollars since 2001. And there's no end to these wars in sight. I mean, what is victory in Iraq and Afghanistan? Okay. And what was the big thing about going over there? It was about 9-11 and Osama bin Laden was supposedly the big guy that we had to get. We've been over there now for almost nine years and we still haven't caught the guy. There's a problem there. But now there's continuing talk of war with Iran and North Korea. And I've got news for you. Iran and North Korea are not the same as Iraq and Afghanistan with a bunch of poorly equipped insurgents running around and guerrilla warfare going on. Iran and North Korea have powerful militaries, well-trained, and I have talked to people that are in the military. I know our pastor, Pastor Jesse Dulesky, was a sergeant in the Marine Corps. He was in Iraq and he said, well, he was first in the Army before he joined the Marines. And he said the Army is a joke. And the Marines are better, but not by much. Okay, so we're not prepared to go against a major country with a major military power. And basically, I think that if we would ever start a war with Iran and North Korea, it would probably trigger World War Three. And of course, read about that in the Bible. You have a lot of war in this time of Jacob's Trouble. So that is certainly, again, you read the Bible, look at Bible prophecy. These predictions that I'm making, if I told you that we're going to have international space travel or something like that in the next year or two, well, you just say I'm crazy because it's not mentioned in the Bible. Okay, it's not something, it's not one of the specific prophecies that's given. But the fact is, war is definitely a prophecy, which is spoken of as being in the end times. Okay, but what about this thing of war? Well, Matthew chapter 24, verses six and seven says, And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. Now, those verses in Matthew chapter 24 were specifically given by Jesus Christ to the Jews of his day. Now, if you are a lost Jew and you're looking at the world right now, you would have to realize that you are going to go through this time period of Jacob's Trouble. A Christian is not going to go through that time, but we can see those same signs coming. And at some point in time, that tribulation Jew, the Jew that goes into the tribulation, they're going to see more and more things coming to pass. And they're going to go into that time. But for a Christian, we're going to see more and more come to pass. And at some point, we're going to be taken out of here. He who now let us will let until he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked be revealed. Okay, the Bible talks about there in second Thessalonians. And what's going on there is the thing that is keeping the Antichrist from showing up, this new world order system, the one world government that's coming, the thing that is stopping it from fully coming to pass is the body of Christ is still here on this earth. It's interesting, when Paul was persecuting the Christians, and back when he was called Saul, Jesus met him on the road to Damascus, and he said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Now, Paul never attacked Jesus Christ physically. So why would Jesus say, why are you persecuting me? Very simple, because he was persecuting Christians, and Christians are part of the body of Christ. And so the Christians back then in the first century were part of Christ's body. And so are we today. If you are saved, if you are born again, you are part of the body of Christ. Now that body of Christ, when it is complete, when it is finished, will be leaving here before Jesus Christ opens up that first seal and unleashes the Antichrist. So you can't have two Christ's on earth at the same time. You will have Jesus Christ, he's on earth right now in the form of the body of Christ, but in the time of Jacob's trouble, you will have the false Christ, the Antichrist, showing up. And nowhere do these two Christ's show up at the same place physically. The first time that they actually show up in the same area is at the battle of Armageddon, and Jesus actually casts the Antichrist and the false prophet into the lake of fire before he touches down on the earth. But again, that's a whole big other study. Sign number three. First, you have the economy going bad. You can see that happening. War and rumors of wars. Definitely see that in the news. Number three, you have the weather. The last 10 or so years have seen some of the most extreme weather in history. We had Hurricane Katrina. You had the massive earthquakes in Chile, Haiti, China, and countless other places. And it caused those areas billions in damage. And you saw thousands of people dying as a result of those earthquakes. The tsunami that hit Thailand in 2004. Wildfires in California. You had the volcanoes erupting in Iceland. I think I heard that there's actually more of that now going on. Severe winter storms all over America in areas where they don't even usually get snow. This past winter, 2009 into 2010, there were severe blizzards all over North America. It was incredible. And the list goes on and on and on. So the weather is getting worse and worse progressively. Number four, you have Christian persecution. Okay, now, the body of Christ is going to be persecuted. And that's going to, when we leave, it's going to get that much worse for the saints that are in the tribulation. You're going to have a lot of people. Right now, there's this thing, something else I want to address very quickly here, is the teaching of a split rapture. Now, I do believe in a split rapture. But my belief is a little bit different than what some people teach. Some people teach, particularly people into the holiness movement, they teach that your old nature is eradicated, and you don't sin anymore after you get saved. I know that a lot of the old time Nazarenes believe that. That's nonsense. Okay. Paul struggled with sin. Read Romans chapter seven. He certainly struggled with sin. Your old nature is not eradicated. You still have your sinful body of flesh, a saved man or woman is capable of doing all the same sins that a lost person can do. Okay, it's just your judgment is different. At that point, you're no longer judged as a child of disobedience, you are judged as a son or a daughter. Okay. Again, another study. But the fact of the matter is, you're going to see you're seeing already there again, it's already taking place, the thing of hate crime laws. And these hate crime laws are getting more and more and more pointed at Christians. And what's going to happen is right now you have the modern church is filled with lost people. They have a head knowledge of the things that you need to say to act like you're a Christian. But you push a lot of these people on salvation issues and trying to get them to confess that they're a sinner, which, you know, Jesus didn't come to save the righteous, he came for sinners. But yet you push some of these people on that issue, and they'll get mad and they'll act just like somebody who doesn't even go to church. And why is that? Well, because they're lost. The majority of people in churches today are lost. Okay, it's not about them. The ones that are saved that are sinlessly perfect, that have the old nature eradicated, they'll leave at the rapture and the carnal Christians stay here. No, that isn't it at all. The born again Christians, the ones that are saved, washed in the blood of the lamb, they're the ones that are going to be leaving the ones that are not self righteous, the ones whose righteousness comes from Jesus Christ. Okay, they are the ones that will leave. Tell you a quick story to kind of further drive home this point. We were out going door to door the one Saturday morning, and we ran into an older man and he was out front doing some work out in front of his house. And we said to him, you know, if you were just out here today asking people, if you die today, do you know for sure where you would go? And he said, Yes, I do. I'd go to heaven. And you know, the next question, the follow up question is, well, how do you know that? And most of them will say because I'm a good person. This guy, we said, Well, sir, how do you know that you'd go to heaven? And he said, Well, years ago, I would have told you it was because I was a good person. But he said, The fact of the matter is, I realized here in the last couple of years that I'm not a good person, that I'm just a miserable, wicked sinner. And it's it's only because of the blood of Jesus Christ washing my sins away. That's the only reason I'm getting into heaven. See, that was the right answer. Okay. And a lot of these self righteous church people out there, they will never admit to being a sinner. No way. I'm a good person. I go to church, you know, and everything else. It doesn't cut it. Okay. Only the saved blood bought sinners are going to be going to heaven. And what's going to happen is when the actual rapture takes place, the catching away of the body of Christ, you're going to have millions upon millions of professing quote unquote Christians that were never part of the body of Christ. You know, the Bible talks in Revelation chapter three towards the end there about the Laodiceans that are lukewarm and either hot or cold. And God says, I'll spew the out of my mouth. Now that's interesting, because if you have something that comes that's spewed out of your mouth, then that means that it was in your stomach. Now, if something is in your stomach, that's foreign matter. It might be it might have the appearance of being in the body. But in reality, it's not part of the body. Okay, that's a very interesting picture of a modern professing Christian. They have the mind to know what to say I'm a Christian. I love Jesus, everything else, they might be able to even quote scripture and things. But the fact is, they've never come to that point where the they died in themselves. And they say, I'm a sinner. I deserve to go to hell. I have to put my faith totally in Jesus Christ. They never come to that place. They just learn how to go to church and go through the routines. But they have no interest in spiritual things. They're not born again. The Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. You have to be a new creature. And you see a lot of these people there again, modern Christians. Well, I got saved. And yet they still go on living just like they did before their conversion, their quote unquote conversion. So will there be a split rapture? Absolutely. The saved, born again, Christians are going to go up, and everybody else is going to stay down here. And what's going to happen at that point is millions and upon millions of professing Christians are going to realize that they weren't saved. And a lot of them are going to go on and take the mark of the beast because they're so used to conforming to the world. It's just going to go it'll be par for the course. And you have Timothy LaHaye's books, which I can't stand the left behind series. And he actually has believers whom he calls Christians, which is another problem. But he actually has believers taking the mark of the beast and being okay. Well, I got news for you. Revelation 14 says that if you take the mark, you go to hell. If any man takes the mark, they are gone. Okay, so there again, salvation switches from faith, grace, my grace through faith, and that not of yourselves is not a not of works. It goes from that to being now faith plus works. You have to have the faith of Jesus Christ, and you have to keep the commandments. And also, you cannot take the mark of the beast. Again, listen to the other messages. I'm getting off my point here. One other point I want to make quick about the modern apostate churches is that they are destroying the traditional Christian hymns and replacing them with worldly fleshly music. They're also replacing the true word of God, the King James Bible with hundreds of corrupt Catholic counterfeit Bibles. Okay, the NIV, New American Standard, English Standard Version, all of them, Revised Standard Version, all those things, they are all based on the Roman Catholic text, the Nestles text. Okay, again, another study. But my point I'm trying to make is these modern apostate churches, they're doing things that if they had the Holy Spirit in them, they wouldn't be doing. Okay, it's more than just deception. Okay, now, as Christians, what should we do about these things? You know, you have economic collapse, you have war, you have horrible weather, and you have persecution coming. So what should we do about it? Many Christians will try to use the following verses to prove that people shouldn't prepare for rough times. Okay, and I'm going to read a couple verses here. And this is what people will quote, that are trying to get out of rough times, trying to say that we won't go through it. Matthew 625 says, Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold, the fowls of the air, that for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, nor do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. Verse 32 there is very interesting. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Now Matthew chapter 5 through chapter 7 is basically the Sermon on the Mount. And Jesus basically offered the kingdom of heaven. Matthew, the book of Matthew, is the only book in the Bible that has that phrase, kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is the physical, visible kingdom here on this earth. And Jesus came as the King of the Jews. He offered that kingdom to the Jews and they rejected him as their Messiah. And therefore salvation went to the Gentiles to provoke the Jews to jealousy. But now, that doesn't mean Jesus offered the kingdom there to them with the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 through Matthew 7, and you see a lot of that in there. It talks about Jerusalem being the city of the Great King in Matthew chapter 5. The kingdom, the earthly kingdom, was being offered to these people. And of course you study what the Millennial Kingdom is going to be, the Lord's going to take care of them. Jerusalem will be the headquarters of the world empire run by Jesus Christ. So Israel is going to be the most favored nation at that point. And Jesus Christ will take care of his people. So that's why you're reading this thing about he's going to prepare for them. He's going to provide for them. You cannot take that and make that into church-age doctrine. You can't rip the verses out of there that were offered first to the Jews back then in Jesus's day. They rejected. So those promises were put off until the Millennial Kingdom at the end of the tribulation. But you can't take those promises and rip them out of context and stick them down today and say, Jesus will take care of me. I don't have to have a job. We're going to see about that. But he says here in verse 32, and I made a point of it, for after all these things do the Gentiles seek. Now again, go through the book of Matthew and you'll see, go not into the way of the Gentiles, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It's a whole thing there. If you do not rightly divide the word of truth, if you do not study it dispensationally, you're going to make a mess out of the book of Matthew. So if you're listening to this, more than likely you're a Gentile. You're probably a saved Gentile if you're listening to this. So who was the apostle of the Gentiles? Well, that was Paul. Okay. Second Thessalonians chapter three, verses 10 through 12. I want to read those quick and we're going to see about this thing about not working. Paul says, for even when we were with you, this we commanded you, not suggested, he commanded you that if any would not work, neither should he eat. Okay. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies. Now then that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness, they work and eat their own bread. Are you supposed to work as a Christian living in the church age? Yes. So you can't abandon these verses that Paul gave to the Gentiles that he's writing to the Gentiles. Okay. He's the one that wrote to you today to give you your instruction. You can't abandon that and run back to the Sermon on the Mount and try to prove that you don't have to work. Okay. Don't fall for that. First Thessalonians five, eight, we'll see some more. Or I'm sorry, not first Thessalonians, first Timothy five, eight. We're going to see some more instruction here for Christians. It says, but if any provide not for his own, especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. So yes, you are supposed to work. First Timothy six, 10 and 11. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Now why I threw that verse in there is to show you that it's not all about money. Okay. It's not that you are just to work all the time. You're to be a workaholic and care only about your career. No, you're still supposed to put spiritual things before money. But notice it doesn't say money is the root of all evil. It's the love of money. So you are to have a job, you are to be a good worker, but just don't get too caught up in that. First Timothy six, 17 through 19 says, charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. Okay, again, it's simply saying if you are rich, it doesn't say charge them that are rich in this world that they give it all away and that they're in sin. It doesn't say that. It says that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches. Even the richest man on earth can be wiped out financially very quickly, especially today. There was the whole Bernie Madoff thing where you had people investing money with this guy and all of a sudden he basically said, oh, sorry, I lost it all. And I remember reading an article about a woman that was a multimillionaire and she basically went to having nothing. And she had to sell her mansion and she had to sell her exotic cars and everything else and ended up having to get a job and she was retired. So yeah, you can have your financial wealth wiped out very quickly. But it's basically just saying their first Timothy chapter six is saying, watch out for the thing of the love of money. But if you have money, you should be it says here, verse 18, that they be rich and good works ready to distribute. If God has blessed you with a lot of money, then you can take care of missionaries and people like that, that need help financially. So it's fine to have money. Okay. But I just want to say again, the importance of spiritual riches is there. But Paul's instructions to Christians today is that we are to work and provide food for our families. You can't take the verses out of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew five through seven. You can't steal those and apply them to you today because you're too lazy to have a job. To assume that God will provide all of our needs when you can see rough times ahead and yet you're not willing to prepare for them is kind of foolish. Okay. I mean, think of it this way. You see a storm coming out on the horizon. Now, do you close your windows of your house and your car? You say, well, no, because, you know, Jesus might come back before the storm hits. Well, then again, he might not. My point is, there's a storm coming. Okay. The economy is ready to fall apart. War. We could go into World War III here in the next couple of months. Maybe not. Maybe it'll be all right. Maybe it won't. I don't know. Weather is always very tricky. I mean, this summer could be a very bad summer for weather. And of course, Christian persecution. You can see the storm clouds on the horizon there, too. So, seeing the rough times ahead, is it a sin to prepare for that? And the answer to that is, of course not. It's wise to prepare for that. The fact of the matter is that it only becomes sin when you over-prepare and you start to abandon the hope of Jesus Christ coming back. The blessed hope, as it's called. When you abandon that, and you say, I'm not looking for Jesus anymore. Now I'm looking for the Antichrist to come. And I'm going to have to prepare to live for seven years. That's when it becomes a sin. Because now your focus is off of Jesus Christ, and now it's on the world. Okay. It's perfectly fine to prepare for rough times coming, as long as you don't lose focus of the spiritual. The fact that Jesus Christ could come back today. He could come back tomorrow. And you need to be found doing his will for your life. Bible calls us in 2 Corinthians 5 verses 18 through 21, we are called to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ, and we're given the ministry of reconciliation. Now, seeing rough times coming, you can prepare. Yeah, sure. No problem. But as long as it does not overtake the ministry of reconciliation that we were appointed to. Okay. Now I just want to say, on this note of the thing of preparing, there's a whole movement of people out there who see these uncertain times ahead. And the news media now is calling them preppers. Okay. And they're trying to make them look like it's kind of a fringe group. And although there's a lot of people, yeah, but you know, they're kind of a little off. But the fact is, that even the Department of Homeland Security has just tons of information on their website, telling the American people to make survival kits, and how to survive various types of disasters. I mean, you can go on there, www.ready.gov. Okay, the Department of Homeland Security, which I am not in agreement with a lot of their things that they stand for. But the fact is, even the government is telling people, you should prepare for these times. Okay, you are not paranoid for design deciding to be ready in case something bad comes along. There's no sin there. Now, we're going to go with some of the physical things here. What should you prepare? Okay, because I do want to see, you know, if we are still here, and I can't say, I can't tell you when the rapture is going to happen. If anybody tells you that they're lying to you. Nobody really knows when this time is going to happen. Okay. But seeing the rough times coming, seeing the economic collapse on its way, seeing possible world war, seeing natural disasters that can just destroy a whole area. And it might be weeks, it might be a month or two before help comes. Okay. You need to be prepared for these times. Okay, the storm is on the horizon. Get ready to close the windows. Okay. Look for Jesus Christ to come back. Yes. But you need to prepare for some of this stuff. You don't have to go hog wild and build a bomb shelter or something like that and spend 1000s of dollars. You don't have to do that. But there are some basic things that you can do to prepare in case this stuff happens before the rapture. Okay, your first and foremost, most important thing that you needed to have is you need to have water. A good supply of clean drinkable water is an absolute necessity to have in your house. Okay. One gallon per person per day is what they say is survival amount. Okay, this water, of course, is going to be necessary for to drink and also for sanitation. Now, how do you store it? Okay, you're going to need to store it. Because you aren't going to be guaranteed that electricity will be there for you to get it out of your faucet. You basically you can purchase large five to eight gallon blue food safe plastic containers. And then you can fill them with good drinkable water. You can add a teaspoon of pure Clorox bleach. Okay, don't get scented. It has to be pure Clorox bleach, just a little tiny bit of that to these large containers. And the water in those containers will be good for about a year. Okay, right around a year, different people say a year, maybe a little less, maybe a little bit more. But after a year of being stored, you can pour the water out, dump it, use it for something, and then refill it. Okay. Of course, if you take the cap off and you smell the water in it, and it has a funny odor to it, you don't want to use it. But I've had water in plastic containers for well over a year, and I've drank it and it's fine. It's absolutely fine. You can also use if you don't, if you don't have the money to buy a bigger five to eight gallon food safe blue containers, you can also use two and three liter soda bottles for water storage. And there, of course, you only want to use a few drops of the bleach. These can be placed in closets, back behind everything in your closet. The idea is you want to keep your water in a dark area, because sunlight is what causes bacteria and algae to grow. So you want to keep them in a dark area. Avoid plastic milk jugs. They're not a good idea. The plastic material in those is very cheap. It breaks down and they crack very easily, and then they begin to leak. If you are hooked up to a city water system, try to get some good spring water that is non-fluoridated. Okay, fluoride is super toxic. It's bad stuff. You don't want it in your water. Okay, secondly, you have your water. Now, what do you need next? Well, what you need next is food. Now, there are a number of different types of options here. Canned foods are okay, because they have a fairly long shelf life. Okay, now you want to avoid acidic types of canned goods like tomatoes and products like that, because they can easily, they can more easily corrode the metal, and they can make you sick. Okay, canned soups are good, but they often contain MSG. In fact, almost all the time they'll have MSG. And again, MSG is toxic. It's not good for you. If you have nothing else to eat, okay, go ahead. You know, you can eat it. It's not going to kill you the first time that you use it, but it's really not that good for you. You should try to avoid it. But also, canned soups are also very high in sodium. They're very high in salt content, so it's not very good for you. Canned meats like spam will also last very long. They have about a five to six year shelf life, but again, they're not very good for you. And a lot of experts say that if you're going to be storing canned goods, that you should begin to rotate your stock, which means that you'll be eating canned goods a lot. They're not good for your health. So, canned goods are an option. I mean, most of them are going to have a shelf life of two to six years. So, they will last for a decent amount of time. The other option that you can use, and there are many options, but I'm just giving you two here, dehydrated foods. They can have a shelf life of up to 30 years if they're dehydrated properly, if they're sealed in a bag called a Mylar bag. It's sort of a silver bag. And if they contain oxygen absorber packs, oxidation is what destroys food, specifically so with dehydrated food. So, if it has an oxygen absorber pack in it, sealed in a Mylar bag, you're looking at probably 10, 20, 30 years, again, depending on the type of food that's dehydrated. If you purchase a dehydrator, try to buy fresh fruits and vegetables to dehydrate. Okay, you can process them yourself, you can make your own dehydrated food. Your best bet is to prepare dehydrated foods that can be used in soups. Okay, we eat a lot of that. Celery, carrots, onions, I mean, things like that. Potatoes, you can chop up potatoes into little cubes, dehydrate them. They rehydrate very well when you put them in water and boil them for a little while, they will rehydrate back to the same consistency as a fresh vegetable. But you're going to need a lot of water, of course. If you're going to have dehydrated foods, you have to mix that with water to get them rehydrated. Okay, as far as food is concerned, let me just say this, too. You must keep in mind that food prices could eventually just go through the roof as a result of hyperinflated currency, which I mentioned earlier. The dollar bill right now is worth only a few cents. I mean, it's getting bad. Just to give you some statistics here, in March of 2010, food prices in the United States went up 2.4% in one month. That's not good. In the last year alone, fresh vegetables have gone up 56.1%, fresh fruit up 28.8%, eggs nationwide have gone up 33.6%, and beef and veal 10.7%, and finally dairy products up 9.7%. So food prices right now are skyrocketing, they're going up. Also, if a major catastrophe hits, it will cause foods in the stores to be wiped out within hours. Okay, here in the Northeast, whenever there's a big snowstorm forecast and the people panic and they run out and they get milk, eggs, and bread. I have no idea why they do that, but I've gone to the store different times before a snowstorm, and the bread shelf at a big store, excuse me, a big store, there'll be five shelves of bread, 20 feet long shelves, and it'll be just clean, totally bare, because people are so afraid of a snowstorm coming. People will just, they'll panic, they'll run to the store. Well, if a major catastrophe hits, you have a major earthquake and everything's wiped out, electric and everything else, people are going to panic, and they're going to go to the stores and just take everything that they can. I mean, Hurricane Katrina, that's what happened down there. So you can't just say, okay, we'll go to the store as soon as the whatever hits, the hurricane, the earthquake, the, you know, whatever. You can't, you're not going to get to the store and get what you need at that point. That's why it's good to have some things in reserve that you can, according to the Department of Homeland Security here, they said that you need to have enough food to be able to last for at least three days. And, you know, I would say a lot longer than that, but that's Department of Homeland Security. Okay. Third, you need to have first aid. Okay. Keep a good supply of Band-Aids, of healing ointment, things that you can treat minor burns with. It's a good idea to have a first aid kit. Any kind of medications that you'll need or things like that are also very important to have because you can't rely on these systems if things break down. Okay. What about money? Well, if you know anything at all about the news, you will see that the banking system is constantly being bailed out. And many banks have closed in the last few years here. Your money really is not safe in the bank. Okay. There again, listen to the message on gold and silver for more information on the banking system. And I would suggest instead of having a savings account, you can invest, if you have the money, invest in something like gold coins or gold bullion or silver or even copper coins. Okay. In a time of war, the value of copper goes through the roof. And the Bible certainly says there's war coming. That's definitely a prophecy given in scripture. So, I would say, you know, save copper coins. Okay. Especially anything, a penny that is pre-1982 is 95% pure copper. 1982 to the modern times, they're 97.5% zinc. Very little copper in a penny anymore. But any penny that you pick up that is pre-1982 is worth at a minimum two cents, just to show you the value that copper is going up. But again, that's another study. But now, what I'm trying to say is you still, you shouldn't just totally eliminate a bank account. Okay. You should have a bank account. You need one to pay your bills and things like that. But I wouldn't keep a lot of money in there. Okay. It's not safe in there. Study what happened in Argentina. It's a pitiful thing to see these videos of these people, these elderly people that had all of their life savings. They were saving up for retirement and they had it all in their big banks down there. And at the height of their economy, the people of Argentina were actually wealthier per family than people here in America. But their banking system collapsed. And you had, I've seen video of people, elderly people crying, saying they took everything. All my life savings, I worked hard all my life for my retirement, and now it's all gone. Okay. That could easily happen here in America. We're not above that. Basically, there are three dangers of the modern banking system. Number one, you have the danger of a run on the bank. Now, that's what happened in the first Great Depression. Basically, people panicked. They knew that the banking system was going to collapse. They ran into the bank and they said, I want all of my money now. And if you study the banking situation, the banks actually don't have your money. When you deposit money into the bank, they spend that money. And they keep enough money in the bank to handle small withdrawals here and there. But if everybody comes running into the bank and says, I want all of my money right now, the bank does not have enough there to cover those withdrawals and eventually the bank has to close. Okay, that's what a run on the bank is. That's what happened with the first Great Depression. Now, after the first Great Depression, they passed a law called the Glass-Steagall Act. The Glass-Steagall Act was put in place so that the banks, there was a limit to what they could spend. They had to keep a certain amount of money in the bank. Now, under Bill Clinton, the Glass-Steagall Act was lifted. So now the banks can go crazy again, spending all of your money, all of your hard-earned money. And so a run on the bank is possible again, just like in the first Great Depression. It's just incredible that they would have done that. The second danger of the modern banking system is what's called a bank holiday. Now, this is what happened in Argentina. Basically, the government came out and they said, the banking system is in trouble. We need to fix things up. So for the next month, you aren't going to be able to get any of your money out of the bank. And then, of course, it went to, I guess at first it was a week or so, and then it went to a month, and then it went to permanently. Your money's gone. That's entirely possible here in America. They could say, the economy's in rough shape. I'm sorry, you aren't going to be able to take your money out for a week or there will be a waiting period. They're already starting to do that. I've actually read some banks across America, there are people that are trying to take out large withdrawals, thousands and thousands of dollars to buy a vehicle or something big. And the banks actually tell them, you can't take that much out at once. So it's very possible that a bank holiday could happen here. And eventually that would lead to the banks totally closing as well. Number three, the third problem with the banking system is hyperinflation. Now this happened in Germany, the Weimar Republic, where you had this paper currency got to the point where they were printing so much of it, and they weren't even close to 27 trillion, by the way, like we are right now, our national debt. They are printing so much of this currency that all of a sudden it just becomes worthless. It gets to the point where they've printed so much of it that now real goods, like a loaf of bread, instead of it costing you a dollar or two, now it's going to cost you two or $300 of this hyperinflated currency. That's also a possibility. That could also come here to America and see at that point, the only thing that's going to survive that is physical gold and silver and copper. That's the only thing that would survive that hyperinflation scenario. And of course, a run on the bank and a bank holiday, as long as you are keeping your silver or your copper or your gold, if you can afford it, I certainly can't, but if somebody can afford that, if you're keeping it in your home, in a safe or someplace that people aren't going to find it, then your money will be protected. Your wealth will be protected. It's not a money-making scheme that I'm trying to get people to do here. I'm just simply giving you the facts. The banking system is going to collapse. It's going to be part of the economic collapse that will bring in the cashless society. Next, light and electricity. The power can go out in the event of a natural disaster, or if there would be some kind of a nuclear attack here in America, any kind of a thing, the electricity could go out. Can you survive without electricity? Okay. Some people buy a generator, and that might be a good idea. I personally don't have one. That's kind of an extra thing, not really a main objective for you. If you live in an area where that might be feasible and you have the money, well, it might not be a bad idea. Flashlights, lanterns, and batteries. Okay, you're going to need batteries to power your flashlights. There are, of course, wind-up generator types of flashlights now. The same with little lanterns. Basically, you can run them for a long, long time, and they don't need batteries. That's also a good idea to have. Numerous times we've been without electricity here. We live out in the country, so we have a lot of trees. You get a big windstorm, big snowstorm, knocks a couple trees down across the power lines. Electric goes out for a couple of hours. We've had it out here for, I think, three days at one time, and you appreciate your flashlights and your lanterns, let me tell you. A battery-powered or hand-crank radio. That's also a good idea to have if something major would happen, and there's no electricity, and you really have no way of knowing what's going on. The phone lines are down. A hand-crank radio would be another good idea. Okay, you might also want to consider some sort of a non-electric toilet system. Okay, there's a thing that you can get called a luggable loo. It's basically a five-gallon bucket with a toilet seat lid, and there again, electric's out. If it's out for a long time, you need to consider things like that. Also, be sure to have a good supply of toilet paper. There again, if you're buying for your weekly needs, you might have a real problem sometime. Also, if you live in the north, can you heat your home without electricity? If the electricity goes out for a while, would you be able to heat your home? Would you be able to survive? That's something else to think about. A wood stove or kerosene heater or something that does not require electricity. Okay, on to the next section, and this is one of the most important, and many people would say one of the most controversial, and that is protection. The very fact of the matter is, I actually heard an interview of a man that was in Chile during the earthquake down there, which happened just a few months ago, and he said within one hour, rioting and looting broke out. Okay, within an hour. You see, anytime you have a chaotic event happen, the criminal element says, the police are going to be busy with all sorts of things, and they probably won't be able to come after me. So, the criminal element rushes out into the streets and says, what can I take? And that's reality, and you've got to face that. It's not that I want you to be armed so that you can be some kind of a murderer or something like this. No, you just have to realize that if things break down, it reverts back to the law of the jungle very quickly. Okay, and of course, Hurricane Katrina, you can study that. There were massive amounts of looting down there, and violent gang robbers just going around to people's houses and just stealing what they could. They were even going against the police, these huge groups of gangs. So, law and order can break down very quickly. And so, what kind of protection should you consider? Well, the very best system that you can consider, of course, is a firearm. And your very two best firearms for personal protection are the end of food gathering. There again, if it comes to that, if you live in a country area where you can procure food, wild animals, and things like that, your two best bets are going to be the 12-gauge shotgun and the .22 semi-automatic rifle. Okay, now your .22 semi-automatic rifle, the two very best, most well-known, are the Ruger 10-22 and the Remington 597. The Ruger 10-22 has been made now for almost 50 years, and there are lots and lots of accessories that are very reliable. They're a good gun, and they have large capacity magazines. They're standard, they have a 10-round magazine, and the larger capacity magazines you can buy are 25 and even up to 50 rounds. Another thing with the .22 semi-automatic rifle is that the ammunition is very cheap. As of this recording, they call them a brick, basically a box of 500 rounds, plus or minus. Some of them are 525 or a little bit over 500, but it's right around $20, $20, $25, right in that range there. Okay, they're very accurate. .22 long rifles are very accurate. They have almost no recoil, very low sound, but they're powerful enough. With hollow point bullets, they're powerful enough to stop larger animals, smaller animals. Again, multiple rounds for larger animals, and of course, if you have somebody that's attacking you, seeking to do you bodily harm, and you have to protect your family, it's not about going out being the aggressor and going out and fighting people and trying to take what they have. I'm not advocating that. I'm advocating if law and order breaks down, the police cannot get to you, and there are bands of rioters coming around, at that point you have to stand up and you have to fight, okay, for your life, for your personal defense. That's what I'm advocating here, personal defense. I'm not advocating violence of you being the instigator of the violence. I'm not advocating that. I'm advocating people defending themselves and their families. Okay, so a .22 semi-automatic rifle is legal, still, most, I don't think there's any states where it's banned at this point. Maybe some cities in America, I know it would be banned in some cities, and you probably want to get out of the city too, if that's where you're at. But secondly, the other type of gun that I mentioned is a 12-gauge shotgun. Okay, now these come in basically five different varieties. You have a pump action, you have single action, you have bolt action, you have lever action, and you have semi-automatic. The bolt action and the lever action, there aren't many companies that make those. Most of them are older, so I would avoid those. The single action shotguns come in three varieties. You have a single barrel, you have a double barrel side-by-side, and a double barrel over and under. Okay, good guns, very reliable, but they're slow to reload. Okay, now the most popular, two most popular types of shotgun, 12-gauge shotgun, are your pump action and your semi-automatic shotgun. Pump action shotgun, you have the Mossberg model 500 and 590, Remington 870, and Winchester 1300. Okay, they're very reliable, very tough guns. You can really abuse them and they'll take a lot of abuse. There again, many of them will have a shot capacity of three to eight or even nine rounds. The Benelli Supernova pump action shotgun is also another good one. Semi-automatic shotguns, basically you have two types. You have the tube type of loading, just that looks like a pump action shotgun, plus you also have the magazine fed. Okay, and there are many hunting shotguns that are the tube fed type of semi-auto. The magazine type, Russia makes one called a Sega 12, and also a very good gun, but these are much more expensive. Semi-automatic shotguns are much more expensive than pump action. If I would recommend one, I'd say a pump action Mossberg 500 or Remington 870. Those are going to be your best two bets. Also, you have different types of ammunition for the 12-gauge shotgun. You have small little pellets down to number 12 size, which is used for skeet, for clay pigeon shooting, all the way up to double lock buck. Okay, zero zero buck shot is what it would look like on the side. That's more of a defensive type of load. It's a much bigger pellet and it will do a lot of damage. Okay, also you have slugs. That's what they're called, different. There are many different types of slugs. You can research this if you want to find out more information on it, but these slugs are very large diameter, big lead bullets, and they will basically stop anybody. If you are trying to protect your home, that's your best bet. 12-gauge shotgun and a 22 long rifle semi-automatic. Those are your two best. Right now, 250 rounds of number six birdshot will cost anywhere between 70 and 100 dollars in my area. Now, I can't speak for all over America. It might be more expensive in your area or even cheaper. Handguns, rifles, and other guns. Handguns should be avoided unless you absolutely need to have something that's small and portable and concealable. Again, this is a whole big thing that you can get into. The spiritual principle is there. Jesus told the disciples about selling their garment and buying a sword, and he didn't do that just so they could have a sword to cook fish with or something or clean their fish. That wasn't it. Jesus was telling them, you're going to have to be able to defend yourselves. Not fight to establish a Christian nation. There again, I would avoid some of the patriot notions about retaking America and things like that. You don't see that anywhere in scripture. The purpose of a firearm is purely defensive. But don't get too caught up in this stuff. I'm just offering you some suggestions here. Handguns, there's some positives and negatives there. Larger caliber rifles are typically used for hunting big game. They're very powerful. They're very loud. They kick very hard. There again, if somebody is listening to this and they're just thinking about getting into guns, I would avoid the big caliber rifles. They're very expensive as well. AR-15 and AK-47 type of quote-unquote assault rifles, they're very expensive. And the ammo used to be cheap, but now it's also very expensive. And in all honesty, a 12-gauge shotgun in close range, which is what you'll be dealing with if people are trying to get into your home, a 12-gauge shotgun is far more effective. Okay, now you say, well, I don't want anything to do with guns. I just don't want a gun. Sorry, you can't convince me. Well, okay. There are other options. Pepper spray. There are different types of pepper spray and even the very largest ones are under $50. So if you don't have the money for a gun and you really can't have a gun in your area, I would suggest pepper spray. Most pepper sprays, I know that there are types that are used for bear repellent. Oh, they're very powerful. Also, Cold Steel Company makes one called Inferno. Again, very powerful. It basically will take out anybody that's coming towards it. And essentially it's going to put them down. It's not going to kill them. Usually it wears off within 24 hours, but it will put them down and put them out of commission if they're trying to hurt you, and you'll be able to get out of there. So those are different options. But one other note, whatever weapon you choose, make sure you know how to use it. Okay, if you are going to get a firearm, if you don't have one, you do need to know how to use the thing. Go to a target range, maybe even get some instruction. That is something that you need to think about. And by the way, if you are a pacifist and you don't believe in any of this, I just want to tell you that if you study history, over in Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge, when they took over there, the communists, they went after the pacifists first, because they know the pacifists wouldn't fight back. So they took care of the pacifists. So there again, you can't prove pacifism for right now in the church age. You're going to have to steal verses, again, out of the Sermon on the Mount, out of the Millennial Kingdom type of verses. You're going to have to steal those to apply them to today to prove that you're not supposed to fight. So I would recommend that you take care of those things. Water, food, your money, get that squared away, first aid things, your light and electricity, have a flashlight around. There are a lot of other things that you can prepare, but those are things that you need to prepare. There is a sense there we are on this earth, we are on this planet, and there are some things that we have to do while we're here. Don't get caught up in it. Don't start to get fooled into thinking that you're going to have to survive for seven years, because you're not going to if you're a Christian. But the storm is coming, and I'd be a deceiver if I told you not to be prepared for it. Okay, but now, finally, let's finish up here. Is there anything we can do spiritually to put off these rough times? Okay, and the answer to that is yes. Proverbs chapter 28 verse 2 says, For the transgression of a land, many are the princes thereof, but by a man of understanding and knowledge, the state thereof shall be prolonged. Okay, when you understand this stuff, and when you understand the Bible, when you're doing the work of the Lord, righteousness exalteth the nation. Another place it says in scripture, but sin is reproached to any people. The thing that preserves a country, the reason that America has been around for all of this time, is because of righteousness here. As long as God's work is being done, God is keeping the doors open. Now, the doors are starting to shut. You can see that. If you do any kind of evangelism, you can see people getting more and more hardened to saying, no, I just don't want to hear about that. Don't tell me about that. People are getting harder and harder to the gospel. They don't want to hear it. But the doors are still there. They're still open. There's still work being done here in America. So, there again, this whole post-tribulation rapture thing, it gets people into the survivalist mindset, and they begin to forsake the things of the Lord. Don't fall for it for that reason. Prepare, yes. On a basic level, you should prepare. The government even tells you to prepare. Okay, but don't get carried away with it. Okay, and if you want to see, by the way, more spiritual application as far as what to do when times do get rough, when times do get bad, listen to the message here at Sermon Audio. Listen to the message, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. I have a lot of scripture cover, a lot more in there about God preserving the righteous. But now let me finish up here by saying, what will be the world condition when the Antichrist shows up? Because we're in heaven before the Antichrist is revealed, but when the Antichrist shows up, he's going to be showing up in the world that we left, just left, okay? Daniel chapter 8 verses 23 through 25 says, And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences shall stand up, and his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. And he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and practice and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through his policy also, he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand, and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many. He shall also stand up against the prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hand. The Antichrist, when he comes, is going to tell the people that his policies are going to bring about peace, but he will be a man of war. Daniel chapter 11 verses 21, or verse 21, And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom, but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. So the Antichrist is going to come with the promise of peace, and of course it's not going to be real peace, it says there in Daniel 8, by peace he shall destroy many, basically is what it says there. So he's going to come with the promise of peace. Now why is that? Well, if he came to a world that was at peace and offered peace, very few people would accept him. But if the Antichrist comes in a time of war, in a time of just horrible times of economic ruin and world war and everything else, and the Antichrist comes and he says, I'm going to bring peace, well everybody's going to accept him at that point. And I believe that that's going to be what happens there. So having said that, then what will be the condition before the Antichrist shows up? It will be one of war, of everything being wrecked, and we're heading right into that right now. First Thessalonians 5 verses 1 through 11 explain more in detail for what's going to happen here. It says, but of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. Okay, speaking verse, chapter 4 verses 16 through 18 there in First Thessalonians is speaking of the blessed hope, the catching away of the body of Christ. And Paul is saying, you don't need me to explain it. Verse 2, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night, for when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as prevail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. You see, they're looking for peace. They're looking for safety. It's a bad time. They're saying peace and safety. We want peace and safety. And it says there, they shall not escape. Very interesting. The body of Christ is going to be leaving at some point during this time. How bad is it going to get? I don't know, but we will be leaving at some point. First Thessalonians 5.4, but ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, yet that the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them. See that there? You have the whether we wake or sleep. It says we should live together with him. Verse 11, wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do. So we are to comfort ourselves. We are to comfort each other as Christians and simply say, while the world is looking and they're saying, I think that we're coming out of the economic recession. I think that we're, things might get better here. Maybe we won't have war. Maybe, they're ignorant of what's coming and they're calling for peace and they're not going to escape. But we know that at some point in time, Jesus Christ is going to come and we know what the purpose of the day of the Lord is, this coming time period of that Daniel's 70th week of the time of Jacob's trouble. We understand what that is. We understand that there's going to be more war. We understand that prophecy is being fulfilled. We have been given a more sure word of prophecy. So we can see this stuff coming. The world can't. And they're calling for peace and safety. That's what they want. They want, you know, more and more people are pushing for this thing of global economy and global religion and everything else. They're calling for the Antichrist kingdom and they'll be prepared for when the Antichrist comes. But how bad is it going to get before the rapture? That I don't know. But like I said, you see the storm coming, get prepared for it, but not to the point where you stop looking for Jesus Christ. Okay, now there's one other possibility I just want to say here before I close. And that is that there's a very great possibility that the rapture of the church could actually take place during this World War Three scenario or another worldwide catastrophe. And the fact is, when the body of Christ is complete, we're going to be leaving. So if this thing does happen during a major chaotic event, it could be a lot of people won't even notice the rapture. I mean, you're going to have masses of modern Christians that get left behind because they were never truly born again. And of course, they'll be part of the cover up. They'll say, oh, no, it wasn't the rapture because we're Christians after all. So it could be that the rapture might actually happen and the majority of people don't even recognize it because there's so much else happening. That's a possibility. But what is the trigger for the rapture? Well, I don't know when the rapture is going to happen. But the thing that will cause the rapture is when the body of Christ is complete. God is long suffering. God is patient. He's not willing that any should perish. And that's why this whole thing hasn't kicked off yet. You know, you look at the world condition right now, you look at the abortion, you look at the sodomy, you look at war, you look at death and disease and everything else. And you think, why is God letting this continue? And the reason for it is because there's somebody out there yet that needs to be saved. Some soul out there needs to be saved. That's what your main priority is. Yes, there are rough times coming. Yes, it would be a wise move to prepare for them. We might have to be here another year or two. I don't know. But the fact of the matter is, I don't think we're going to be here much longer. And the thing that's going to get us out of here, if you say, well, would you like to get out of here soon, Brian? Yes, I would actually. Well, what's the ticket then? What's the way that we get out sooner rather than later? That last soul. And when that last soul is saved, we're leaving. OK, so that's it for this message here. If you have any questions or things I didn't cover, again, please feel free to contact us. I know this wasn't a real super spiritual message or anything. I didn't have lots and lots of scripture like I usually try to do, but this is just something that I wanted to put together to kind of clear up some of the confusion that Christians are somehow weak and cowardly and that we're just trying to get out of trouble. No, we're going to be getting out of the wrath of God. That's what the thing's about. It's not about escaping the wrath of man. We're always going to have the wrath of man down here. It's about escaping the wrath of God because we are the body of Christ. We are the bride of Christ. So get busy for the Lord. Let's get that last soul saved so that we can go to be with Jesus Christ. That's it. Thank you for listening.