BREAKING: The U.S. government is now pushing the idea that the current vaccines will need to be upgraded (source).  The watchmen have been saying this would happen for most of this year.  It's the final slippery slope leading straight into the Tribulation.  Even now you cannot buy or sell without a mask.  Expect that in 2021 you will not be able to buy or sell unless you can provide proof of immunization.  This is not the Mark of the Beast, but is inevitably leading to the post-rapture Mark of the Beast.  You would have to be blind not to see this now, and sure enough, most are blind.  The readiness of the world to receive the mark and worship the beast is now apparent to the powers that be, so they are moving full speed ahead.  And simultaneously, an unprecedented global media purge has been underway this past month in an effort to stifle and censor all opposition to the coming antichrist system.

Beyond the dystopian, post-apocalyptic reality that has been 2020, why do we know this is the time?  There are a multitude of reasons and none of them stand apart.

1. First and foremost, we know because Jesus promised He would return quickly (Rev. 22:7, 12) and we know that His coming is near (Rev. 1:3).  Soon to God is not necessarily soon to man, but it is soon.  We are now just about one decade away from the 2,000-year anniversary of when Jesus literally ascended into Heaven, having promised He would return to receive those who have faith in Him (Jn. 14:1–6).  God is never late, nor is He early.  He arrives precisely when He means to.  The One who promised is faithful, and since He Himself declared that His coming was near and would happen quickly, those who say His coming is delayed are mistaken (2 Pt. 3:3–12) and even wicked (Mt. 24:45–51).

2. We live during the unique period of human history in which the stage is set for events described in the Book of Revelation to unfold.  According to the Bible, human beings have been on the planet for six or seven millennia.  Secular estimates suggest we have been here much longer than that.  Either way, for just the last 150 years or so—a small fraction of the time humans have dwelt on the earth—there has been an incredibly unique surge in technology, population growth, and religious apostasy, as well as an unprecedented march toward global government.  It was just at the turn of the 19th century that the world population finally reached one billion, and now it stands at nearly eight billion—an eightfold increase in 200 years.  Add to that the development of electricity, motorized transportation, air travel, space travel, telecommunication, computers, the internet, weapons of mass destruction, and bioengineering.  It doesn't matter if you believe in God or not, we happen to live during an extremely unusual, unprecedented, and narrow window of human history.  That's not an accident.

3. The nation in focus throughout the pages of Holy Writ is none other than Israel.  Israel ceased to be a nation in 722 BC, but was reestablished in our generation—in 1948 to be exact.  That's also no accident.  The Prophets of the Bible, including Jesus Himself, foretold that this would happen.  Israel is a super sign pointing to the supremely unique time period in which we live.

4. Just as Israel is the nation central to the Bible's narrative, so too Jerusalem is the city at the heart of the biblical story.  Jerusalem has been controlled by various Gentile empires since the 6th century BC, but in 1967 it fell back into the hands of the Jews.  Again, it's not an accident this has happened in our time.

Now we're starting to zero in on the target.  Major signs are happening this very decade.  This should absolutely terrify you if you have not placed your faith in the Son of God.

5. Everything is now ready for the construction of the Third Temple.  The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 BC and the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.  The short-lived Third Temple will be erected during the seven-year Tribulation and will become the focal point of a global, apostate religious system wherein the antichrist is worshiped.  Instead of turning to the all-sufficient sacrifice of Christ in the aftermath of the rapture of the predominantly Gentile Church, the Jewish nation will attempt to reinstitute the insufficient Levitical system of the Old Testament in a futile effort to atone for sin.  At the time I write this, the cornerstones of the Temple have already been prepared, the blueprints completed, the Levites and Kohanim identified, and the priestly garments and vessels constructed.  All that remains is the green light.

6. A prophetic sign that the Bible foretold would occur in the sky as a warning of the nearness of the rapture of the Church and the subsequent global judgment transpired with perfect precision in September of 2017.  For those who would downplay the significance of this sign, the Bible itself calls it “great” (Rev. 12:1) and Jesus said that exactly such signs as this one would occur leading up to His return (Lk. 21:11, 25; cf. Gen. 1:14).

7. The biblical identity of Israel as the unique nation-state of the Jewish people was restored in July 2018 when the Jewish Nation-State Law came into force.  The law also reestablished the biblical festivals, the Sabbath, and the biblical calendar in Israel.  Hebrew became the official language and the official name of the country was changed from the “State of Israel” to simply “Israel.”

8. The technology and impetus for the Mark of the Beast are now here.  As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, draconian laws have been put in place globally, controlling who can buy and sell, who can travel, and even who can leave their home.  Millions of people are being closely tracked and controlled like livestock.  Megacorporations loyal to the premise of technocratic global government have suddenly become massively powerful.  Whereas masks were required to enter most non-residential buildings and business premises in 2020, in 2021 it is widely expected that some sort of personally-transportable record proving immunization will be required to buy or sell.

9. A series of astronomical signs (note: not astrological) foretold in the Bible subsequent to the Great Sign in September 2017 seem to have occurred this past December, concluding as early as next month.  These signs seem to portray Revelation 12:3–5, which pictures the casting down of Satan and his angels, followed by the resurrection and rapture of the Church.  Before the Church is raptured, the enemy stands ready to devour God's people.  We see the forces of evil getting ready to strike: millions of churches have been shuttered worldwide since the outbreak, and Christians are being threatened, jailed, and censored all over the world.  The enemy doesn't want to stop there.  He is planning to destroy the Body of Christ, but God has promised us a Red Sea moment—a death-defying escape just in the nick of time, when there is no visible way out and our fallen enemy is going in for the kill.

10. Simple arithmetic shows we're close.  Jesus said that the end-times generation would live to see all of the events described in His Olivet Discourse fulfilled.  That includes His physical second coming to the earth—an event that occurs at the very end of the Great Tribulation.  His promise that “this generation” would not pass away comes in the context of His Parable of the Fig Tree.  The fig tree is a national symbol of Israel.  The withered fig tree, which had been proverbially “cut down at the roots” was replanted and began to put forth leaves in 1948.  But how long is a generation?  Psalm 90:10, which itself has end-time connotations, defines a generation as 70 to 80 years.  Israel turned 70 in 2018 and turns 80 in 2028.  Israel will be 80 until the Spring of 2029.  Could The Parable of the Fig Tree and Psalm 90:10 be connected?  It is plausible.  Perhaps even probable.  It is a simple and straightforward timing solution that adds weight to the convergence of all of the other signs we see.  2027, 2028, or 2029 are also the likeliest 2,000-year anniversaries of the initiation of Jesus' ministry when He was baptized by the Holy Spirit and declared a jubilee (Lk. 4:16–19).  That means that if the departure of the Church were to occur this year, Jesus would return right around a jubilee, 2,000 years after He was anointed by the Spirit as the Messiah.

God has been screaming through everything for the world to repent (“repent” means to change your mind—to convert from unbelief in Christ to belief in Him for salvation).  In His sovereignty He established Trump-Pence as the leaders of the United States—a clear testimony to the coming trumpet call of God that will awaken the dead and rapture the Church, as well as the subsequent trumpet judgments that will bring utter devastation upon the earth.  Trump was born during a total lunar eclipse, 700 days before Israel was reestablished.  That means he was 777 days old when Israel was 77 days old.  Trump was inaugurated President when he was 70 years, 7 months, and 7 days old.  Do you really think that's coincidence?  No.  It's the sovereignty of God.

And now we see the rise to power of one Joseph Biden.  There has never been a president with the name of Joseph.  Joseph became second in command of Egypt.  He became as Pharaoh to the people.  His life more closely resembled Christ's life than any other Old Testament figure.  Just as an American Pharaoh has risen to power, so to the true King from Heaven—the heavenly Joseph—is about to reign with a rod of iron.  But before He does, a wicked and counterfeit king, a master of intrigue, will rule the world as the Pharaoh from hell.  The antichrist will be revealed after the Church disappears.  Both God and the antichrist are biding their time—waiting for the right moment.

The time is near.  Today is the day of salvation.  You are not promised tomorrow.  The world tells you to trust in anything but Christ.  Progressive Christians tell you that Jesus was good, but not needed.  Legalistic Christians will tell you that Jesus is not enough.  Both camps—the worldly, progressive Sadducees, and the legalistic, judgmental Pharisees—deny the gospel in the same place: they both deny the atonement.  Salvation is a free gift, but it must be received.  Jesus is the Way.  Jesus is the Door.  Jesus is the only Name given among men by which we must be saved.  He took on flesh, lived a perfect life, died as your spotless propitiation, and then rose again.  If someone offered you a million dollars would you say “no thanks?”  Would you count yourself unworthy of such a great gift?  The gift of salvation is much greater than a million dollars.  As a matter of fact, a hundred million dollars is like toilet paper compared to the priceless gift of the Cross.

Don't say “no thank you” to such a great gift.  Don't forfeit forgiveness, eternal life, and everlasting heavenly pleasure simply because of pride.  How long does it take to call upon the LORD?  How long does it take to believe?  Ten seconds?  Five seconds?  Your pride and a brief moment of time are the only cost, yet billions—literally billions—refuse to surrender either.  God loves the inheritance-receiving Jacob and despises the inheritance-rejecting Esau.  Don't be an Esau.  There is simply no time left.