LIVING IN PROPHETIC TIMES

By Rev. Kevin Jessip and Troy Anderson

Today, little more than a year into the Biden presidency, America is facing out-of-control inflation and is on the verge of World War III.

Largely the result of appeasement of Russian President Vladimir Putin by western leaders for decades, the tragic Russian invasion of Ukraine – which has shocked the world with its relentless bombings of civilians and even a children’s hospital – has brought the world to the brink of thermonuclear holocaust.

Putin recently put his nuclear forces on “high alert,” and assumed personal control of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal in one of several hundred underground bunkers. Experts say we’re in one of America’s gravest nuclear crises.

Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and a former CIA analyst, wrote in his article, “The Nuclear Crisis Nobody Knows,” that the Biden Administration and their media allies are “desperately trying to cover-up the greatly elevated nuclear threat from Russia.”

“What I think is going on is we’re in the worst nuclear crisis that is probably more severe than the Cuban Missile Crisis because the Biden Administration is keeping our forces on DEFCON 5, which is the lowest readiness level, while I believe the Russians are at the equivalent of DEFCON 3 or DEFCON 4, what they called ‘Increased Combat Readiness’ or ‘Threat of War Readiness,’” Pry said in an exclusive interview. “So, that makes us more vulnerable to a surprise attack because we have not mobilized our forces while they have mobilized their forces.” 

In his essay , “The Nuclear 9/11 In Our Future,” Pry wrote that America’s cultural aversion to “thinking about the unthinkable” and intelligence community biases could virtually guarantee failure to warn of a “Russian surprise nuclear attack, adding a nuclear 9/11 or nuclear Pearl Harbor to the long and recent list of spectacular intelligence failures.”

Pry explained that “Biden doesn’t want to be responsible for another foreign policy national security blunder that is a thousand times worse than Afghanistan by bringing us to the verge of nuclear war with Russia over Ukraine, a nation where we have no vital national interest at stake.”

Seth Baum, executive director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute, says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the possibility of nuclear war a “prospect worth taking extremely seriously.”

“My country, the United States, supports Ukraine, making it a potential target of a Russian nuclear attack,” Baum wrote in a BBC article.

In evaluating the risk, Baum says an important parameter is Putin’s mental state. “Nuclear war is more likely if he is angry, temperamental, humiliated, or even suicidal,” Baum says. “Other factors include whether Ukraine succeeds in fighting off the Russian military, whether NATO gets more involved in direct military operations, and whether any major false alarms occur.”

Retired U.S. Army Chaplain (Col.) David Giammona says if Putin gets into a bind, and believes he’s going to lose power or prestige, there is a “strong possibility he could use a nuclear deterrent against us.”

“America is on the brink of World War III, especially if Russia decides to go into the Baltic states, China decides to invade Taiwan, or Turkey decides to reestablish the Ottoman Empire,” says Giammona, an end-times expert, scholar, and author. 

“We are watching biblical prophecy unfold for the new world order to come to pass and ultimately the Antichrist to rule the world.”

2 Timothy 3:1 says, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.” 

We’re there. These are those times.

A recent Lifeway Research found nearly nine in ten pastors see at least some current events matching those that Jesus Christ said would occur shortly before he returns to Earth.

In Matthew 24, Jesus’ disciples asked him about signs of his return.

“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars,” Jesus said. “See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

The Bible has several lists of signs regarding Jesus’ impending return, including the Olivet Discourse passages of Matthew 24-25, Mark 13, Luke 21.  

Could the Russian-Ukraine war be part of what Jesus called the “beginning of sorrows” – events that precede the Tribulation, a seven-year period before the return of Christ when much of the world will perish in war, plague, and cataclysmic disasters?

Nuclear 9/11: Turning Tragedy into Triumph   

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has resulted in a drop in church attendance and loss of religious freedoms, as well as the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset”  that prophecy experts believe could lead to a technocratic world government and digital-based economic system in which you couldn’t “buy or sell” unless you take the “mark of the Beast” (Revelation 13), it seems that we as a nation are headed toward tragedy unless God intervenes and turns tragedy into triumph. 

We all know that this is true, and we’re going to share what Scripture says is the solution. 

Beginning in the book of Jeremiah, God had called the prophet into his service, and Jeremiah had to go and speak to a nation that had rejected God. They had reimaged God into a different kind of deity and had brought in false religions and false practices.

God, through Jeremiah, repeatedly called them back to himself for four decades. God told them over and over, “If you don’t come back to me, I’ll allow your sins to correct you. If you will not be corrected, then a tragedy will befall this nation.”

America is often called a Christian nation, but if you’ve been watching, and even more if you’ve been discerning by the Holy Spirit according to God’s Word, you will know that we really are a post-Christian society and that we are in a downward spiral. 

There are the following three kinds of people in every nation: the rejecters of God, the religious toward God and the relational with God. If those who are relational with God dwindle, a society very quickly gets into a bad spot. 

So how do we turn tragedy into triumph?

After Israel had rejected the Lord, broken so many commandments, brought all these defiling practices into their society and broken the Father’s heart, “[God] said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to me.’” (Jeremiah 3:7)

Isn’t that wonderful? God says, “Just acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God. If you will do this, if you will truly confess your sins, if you will come to me with your whole heart, I will heal you.”

Paul captured the right response to this in his writings, with a heart of anguish and repentance. 

“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25). 

Today, we must hear this word of Christ: “Return to me!” This is it. It’s simplicity.  

Despite all that America has done and is doing right now that is rushing us toward judgment – the Word of God still says, “Turn and repent. Return to me.”

‘Return to Me’

Amid America’s rush toward judgment, we at  have embarked on the same five-step biblical process that the ancient Israelites undertook when they were facing destruction and the judgment of God. This process involves what we call the “Five Rs: Repentance, Reconciliation, Restoration, Revival and Reformation.

On September 26, 2020, about 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for The Return national and Global Day of Prayer and Repentance. It was the first day of national repentance in America since the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.

At The Return, we called out to God to “return” to us, humbling ourselves in prayer, for our personal and corporate sins and for the future of our nation and world. About 42 million people in 180 nations in 90 languages watched the broadcast, making it the largest livestreaming viewership in Christian history. The Return was the first step involving the first “R” – “Repentance.”   

Then on January 8, we undertook the second step at the 10,000-seat Strawberry Festival Amphitheater in Plant City, Florida. This event, involved the second “R” – “Reconciliation.” 

About 8.5 million people watched The Renewal, making it the second-largest livestreaming viewership in Christian history. 

This faith-focused day of heritage, history, praise, worship, and prayer was dedicated to the renewal of the covenant the Pilgrims made with God four centuries ago in The Mayflower Compact, which was dedicated to the “Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith.”

In history, only two nations were tied together by covenants with God. God made a covenant with Israel, but America made a covenant with God. But America has broken its covenant with God. As we know, from the Bible, God takes covenants very seriously. This has brought our once blessed nation under the judgments of God.

Yet, if you look at American history – the Revolutionary War, Civil War and World War II – it’s often at times when it seems there is little hope that God intervenes in miraculous ways. 

We believe in this darkest hour of American history that we’re about to see the greatest move of God ever, as dark and light converge in this epic battle of the end times.

At The Renewal, Regeneration Nashville Pastor Kent Christmas issued a remarkable prophetic word: 

“For this year, sayeth the Lord, is the beginning of the final harvest,” Christmas said. “This is not revival; it is a movement to bring in the souls of men from every country. For America is not the only country that I am reaching for. I will renew my covenant with her first, says the Lord, but it will be the beginning of the release of the glory of God.”

We’re now planning three more even bigger events than The Return and The Renewal, the third one focusing on Restoration, the fourth one on Revival, and the fifth one on Reformation. 

We believe the fifth event, The Return Israel in Jerusalem, through the power of the Holy Spirit, will usher in global revival – the promised outpouring of the Spirit described in Joel 2 and Acts 2: 

Acts 2:16-21 says:

“Now, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood   before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls   on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

Will God Relent from Judgment? 

After God used Moses to deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and while Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, the Israelites, seeing that Moses was delayed in coming down the mountain, broke their covenant with God by asking Aaron to fashion a golden calf out of their jewelry so they could worship the idol. 

Angered by their idolatry, God told Moses what was happening, saying: “Now therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation” (Exodus 32:10). 

However, Moses pleaded with God, asking him to turn from his “fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to your people” (Exodus 32:12). So, God relented from the harm that He said he would do to His people. 

God changed his mind. He did not let his anger wax hot and kill those people. So, there is a point where we can remind God of His covenant and that He can relent from judgment. 

With The Return, The Renewal, and the upcoming events, we’re asking God to relent from judgment, to continue keeping America and the world safe from nuclear war, and to give us more time to bring in the “final harvest.” 

Much of what America is doing today, and has been doing for decades, is rushing us toward judgment. The Bible tells us to turn from our wicked ways and repent of our sins. 

Joel 2:12-14 says:

“‘Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing.”

Rev. Kevin Jessip is the co-founder and president of The Return International, president of the Global Strategic Alliance, and chairman of Save the Persecuted Christians. He’s an advisor to national and global leaders within the business, political, and faith communities. After years as an executive for one of the world’s largest publicly traded companies, Kevin was called into a deeper ministry, where he began as a youth evangelist over four decades ago, to become a dedicated leader for national and global repentance. Find out more at www.gsaministries.org, ww.thereturn.org and www.therenewal2022.org

Troy Anderson is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated investigative journalist, bestselling co-author of The Military Guide to Armageddon, Trumpocalypse and The Babylon Code, former executive editor of Charisma magazine and Charisma Media and reporter at the Los Angeles Daily News. He’s the executive editor of The Return International and vice president of Battle Ready Ministries. Find out more at www.troyanderson.us , www.battle-ready.org and www.thereturn.org.