The Confessionals - 760: They Lied to You About the Rapture

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

Please pray for Tony's wife, Lindsay, as she battles breast cancer. Your prayers make a difference!If you’re able, consider helping the Merkel family with medical expenses by donating to Lindsay’s GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/b8f76890Description:In episode 760: They Lied to You About the Rapture, Tony is joined in studio by Pastor Alan DiDio, whose radical encounter with Jesus launched him into a lifelong mission to understand and teach the truths of Bible prophecy. What began with a powerful dream just days after his salvation, standing in a field as a storm brews and a clock strikes 11:59, became the catalyst for a 25-year journey into the most controversial and misunderstood event in eschatology: the Rapture.Together, Tony and Pastor Alan confront the confusion, mockery, and division surrounding the Rapture, both inside and outside the Church. They tackle biblical patterns of supernatural disappearances, the reality of glorified bodies, the parallels between Enoch and modern believers, and why the disappearance of millions will be more than a sci-fi headline, it will be a tipping point for human history. They also address the dangers of spiritual apathy, red-pilled pride, and the false security many Christians place in end-times theories rather than the Word itself.Become a member for ad-free listening, extra shows, and exclusive access to our social media app: theconfessionalspodcast.com/joinThe Confessionals Social Network App:Apple Store: https://apple.co/3UxhPrhGoogle Play: https://bit.ly/43mk8kZMy New YouTube ChannelMerkel IRL: @merkelIRLMy First Sermon: Unseen BattlesSasquatch and The Missing Man: merkelfilms.comMerkel Media Apparel: merkmerch.comSPONSORSSIMPLISAFE TODAY: simplisafe.com/confessionalsGHOSTBED: GhostBed.com/tonyAlan DiDioWebsite | YouTube | New BookCONNECT WITH USWebsite: www.theconfessionalspodcast.comEmail: [e-mail] ADDRESS:Merkel Media257 N. Calderwood St., #301Alcoa, TN 37701SOCIAL MEDIASubscribe to our YouTube: https://bit.ly/2TlREaIReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/theconfessionals/Discord: https://discord.gg/KDn4D2uw7hShow Instagram: theconfessionalspodcastTony's Instagram: tonymerkelofficialFacebook: www.facebook.com/TheConfessionalsPodcasTwitter: @TConfessionalsTony's Twitter: @tony_merkelProduced by: @jack_theproducerOUTRO MUSICJoel Thomas 

Hey everybody. Before we get to this week's show, I want to give you an update on my wife. She is battling breast cancer. She has it on both sides. She has it under her arm and she has it in her neck. And because she has it in her neck, the doctors needed to do an MRI on her brain this past Monday to make sure it wasn't in her brain. And thankfully, the report came back that it is not in her brain. So they're still considering this a localized regional thing on her body. So please, guys, just continue to pray for my wife for complete healing. And the reason why I'm talking so quiet is because my kids are in the next room and I'm not trying to let them hear about this stuff because they don't know what she has. So please just continue to pray for Lindsay and complete healing

in her body in the name of Jesus. This was all circulating around the base that a giant had been killed but no one was supposed to talk about it. I saw three long, bony fingers reach up underneath the door, curl up to grab it, and then disappear. When he came over to me, dude, he slithered over to me. And this giant comes out of the cave and they're all frozen. And he starts running and firing at this giant. With a giant move, he's got a spear in one hand, and he's running really fast. And spears, Dan, holds him up like this.

Somebody else. Shoot him in the face. Shoot him in the face. They basically decapitated. Got sparser, got sparser, got sparsum, when he got about... Feel something pulling at my leg. And I look over and there are two small gray entities. And they're literally, I'm getting pulled off the bed. I reached my hand into this bush and I touch air. Couldn't breathe and I couldn't move. Because I know I'm seeing a monster. Welcome to the show, everybody you're listening to The Confessionals podcast. I'm your host, Tony Merkel. Thanks for being here. If you have a crazy wild experience, you want to share with me on the show, go ahead and shoot me an email.

My email address is Contact at theconfessionalspodcast.com. That's contact at the confessionalspodcast.com. Or go to the website, the confessionalspodcast.com. Hit the contact section and you can reach me that way as well. Either way works for me, just get a hold of me. Listen, friends, if you want more shows on a weekly basis, we got you covered on that front. Every Thursday, we come out with bonus shows for members only to the website. that login gets you access to our social media network. It's an app that we came out with for members exclusively where they have access to a social media app that's designed for people like you. And that is where we house our extra content. So if you want to become a member, you get access to extra shows every week and you get access to a whole social media network. So go to the

professionals podcast.com slash join, become a member, and enjoy all the perks today. Now, we have Alan Didio coming on the show today. He just released a book called They Lied to You About the Rapture. He came in studio with his family, had a great conversation with him. We explored the idea of the rapture, where it comes from, what it means, and why so many people are divided on it. Let's get to Pastor Alan Deio right now. Alan Deio, how are you, sir? Never been better. So good to be here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. So I didn't tell you I was going to do this, but I have to do it because I know. It's not bad.

But I told you this in Texas. You and I were in Texas for the filming of the counter, Troy Brewer's new show. And I told you this, and I don't think you believe me. So I got to tell you again and maybe break it down without rushing with the filming. And I said this phrase to you down there. I'm going to say it again, you've changed my life. And I mean that. When I found you, I was scrolling on Instagram and I saw you talking about portals to hell.

That's right. Yeah, I remember that. And it was probably the 10th to 50th time that I saw that reel popping up my feed before I realized, maybe I should reach out to this guy and see if you're willing to come on the show. And with my self-consciousness, I usually go, if that's the case, I go to their account to see how many followers have to weigh it to mind to see if they'd even give me the time of day and you had over 100,000

and I was thinking, oh, he's not going to answer. But I'll try anyways and not recognizing in the moment that I feel like the Holy Spirit was prompting this whole thing, right? I reached out and you guys reply and you and Evan hop on with me to record the first time.

And the very first time you and I sat, it was digitally over Riverside and you were the first person in all of my podcasting, which back then I think it was like 600-some episodes, that decided that you were going to spend time with me to get to know me before we started recording. And you literally said, well, we don't have to record right now.

Let's get to know each other first. And we spent about 30 minutes just talking. And it was more about me sharing who I was. And it was super refreshing. And then in that conversation, you say, hey, you should come out to our media. You know, you tell me about armed media conference. And I had no idea what that was, but I was like, I'm going to go. He invited me.

And from there, I've met, you know, Larry Raglan, Signorelli. I'm so sorry, by the way. I love him. He's a great guy. But it was just that the kindness that you showed me. and then inviting me out to our media changed the trajectory of my life. It really has.

Because when I had moved down here, I had a friend who was a pastor in New York. He was a listener to the show. And him and his wife felt like God was telling them that they needed to move down here to help me. And they sold their business, their house, and moved down here two years ago. Wow.

And they've been a huge help personally going through a lot of the stuff with Lindsay. And I would love for one day for him to actually work with me and work for me. But in one of our first meetings here, he just came down trying to get the know of him and stuff. He's sitting where I'm sitting, I'm sitting where you're sitting.

And he says, you know, I really feel like this show has room to grow in a direction, where it's really focused on the spiritual side of, you know, scripture and things like that. And at the time, I was not, I wasn't ready to hear that. I was like, no, like this guy who I don't even really know is coming down here trying to change my show, how I pay my bills and feed my family. I'm like, who is this guy? You know, and it irritated me. And then, you know, years goes by and, you know, enter you guys into my life. And what has happened from that,

the show and me personally like so the show has been uh shifted because i shifted you know and now you know we still do you know what we've always done focusing on things but i i i focus on the supernatural aspects of things and i try to find the redemptive part of it yeah it's not always possible uh sometimes in people's stories and experiences and stuff or where they're at in life they don't want to hear it or whatever. But I tried to swing things in that direction. And honestly, man, honestly, it's all started with that phone, that Riverside call with you guys. Wow. And so I just want to say thank you because I am so happy the direction of my life is gone, the show, and it all spawned from that first conversation with you guys. So, well, let's thank you.

It doesn't have anything to do with us. You could just, we could just see the grace of God on life and the favor of God on your life. And we were just, we felt a kindred spirit. And so we wanted to connect with you. And it's been truly an honor to see you behind the scenes. And you're the same person off camera as you are on camera. And that spoke a lot to us. And so we were always looking for genuine people to connect with. And especially in ministry. And it's been, it's been amazing seeing what God's doing in your life. Well, it's been, it's been amazing seeing it myself because it's something that I was just like, for instance, the preaching stuff. I've told the audience that I started preaching, that's 20 years delayed of disobedience, right? So

I'm just, it's been absolutely amazing. And it's, it's actually been amazing to see the people that God has kind of brought up next to me and learning from you guys on the next stages and phases of my life, how to conduct myself. You can learn what not to do. You can learn what not to do. What to do and what not to do, I guess. It's one of the things that I need to start learning not to do and start doing, I got to get myself a suit coat, man. Like, I'm this T-shirt guy. You don't need a suit coat. I'm surrounded by all these guys who, they got a sport coat.

And I'm just... How many of you watching thinking, Tony does not need? He does not need a suit coat. That's probably true. But some occasions, like, when we were filming the counter, I was thinking, I wish I had a sport coat right now, you know? But I'm a shirt right in, man. I'm a T-shirt guy.

You be you. But anyways, so you have a new book. I'll pull it up here. They lied to you about the rapture. Wow. Yeah. And if that's not a clickbait title, I don't know what it is. That's the idea, right?

Right? So with the rapture, we're going to get into plenty of topics today and stuff and let you kind of unleash here. But I, growing up, I guess probably one of my more tangible encounters with the idea of the rapture was the left behind series. Oh, yeah. And it's scared the snod out of me. Like I didn't, I didn't read them. My mom read all of them and she was just talking about it. And I was just like, oh, Lord. Like, I don't want to be left behind. And it kind of through cultural, whether it's secular or Christian cultures, you get these different perspectives about the rapture. And some of them, you know, even from the Christian side of things, may not be the most accurate, right? Yeah. And so what spawned the writing of this book? And maybe even a better question. or launching pad would be from, and I just learned this recently, you were once an atheist and you had an encounter with Jesus and Satan, I guess in a dream. Was that, is that? No, no, no,

in real life. Okay. All right. So, and then we're not going to go through that. That's fine. That's fine. That's fine. Yeah, for sure. But that spawned a dream about end times, right? Yes, yes. So could you lay that out and stuff? Because I'm assuming that probably had a genesis of that where you are today. Well, first of all, Chuck Missler called the rapture. If you remember with Chuck Missler? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He called the rapture the most preposterous belief in all of Christianity. And there's no reason to believe it except for it being in the Bible because it's so crazy if it weren't in the Bible, there'd be no reason to believe it or have any hope in it. So that certainly is true. It's a wild thing. So I'm excited about getting into the details of what this

means because we talk a lot about portals. You know, we talk a lot about the thin veil between this life and the next and the transition between in there. The rapture is like the greatest, greatest event transcending those different dimensions. But I had just been born again. I'd just been saved. So I hadn't been propagandized, right? I hadn't been told anything about rapture. I wouldn't even know what that meant if you said it to me. All I had was an insatiable hunger for the word. I was reading the Bible hours every single day. And I had this dream within a week of being saved where I was, and it's one of those dreams, by the way, that stuck with me for a quarter of a century now, that even when I think about it now, it makes the hair on my arm stand up because I don't know if you ever had an impactful dream like that.

And I know a lot of people that dream every five minutes and they're always having some kind of vision or something. I don't know if they eat too much pizza before they go to bed or what the situation is. But that's not me. I'm not that kind of person. But this one marked me. And let me go ahead and say, too, that I put no stock in dreams or visions or prophetic words unless they bring us back to the word, right? the word. And that's what this dream did for me, where I was, I was standing in an open field near my childhood home. And it seems like the entire neighborhood was out for a celebration.

I don't know if it was a Fourth of July celebration, but that's what it felt like to me. And everyone's cooking out, having a good time outside, beautiful weather. And I hear this sound in the clouds. And I turned to look and there's these dark storm clouds. And back behind the storm clouds is a clock with Roman numerals. And the clock said it was 1159. And the second hand was quickly speeding around it. It was almost midnight. And then all of a sudden gravity loosed its hold on me. And I started to rise, me and a few others started to rise up off of the ground. And I knew, Tony, at this moment, I'm about to see Jesus. That's what I knew that I'm about to see face to face, the one who saved me, the one who redeemed me, the one who died for me, the one who rose for me,

the one who makes intercession for me every single day at the right hand of the father, I'm about to see him face to face. And the joy of that was quickly eclipsed when I looked down and saw so many people completely unaware of what was happening and being left behind. And then I just, it was like a flash, I woke up and these words were on my lips. Jesus is coming. And, that birthed a passion in me for the end times or what we call eschatology, which is the study of end things. And I just became hungry for the word and what it has to say about Bible prophecy and about the return of Jesus. And so for 25 years, I've studied it intensely. And I've noticed over the last, I don't know, five to 10 years, certain subjects regarding the end times,

particularly the rapture of the church, have become the subject of ridicule and of mockery. not just in the church, but in Hollywood. Hollywood mocking it, ridiculing it, making movies, making fun of it. And I thought, well, I want to write a book that inspires people. Not that interjects fear, right, which is what can happen when you're talking about these things. And by the way, if you're not ready to meet Jesus, you probably have a good reason to be afraid, you know. But if you are one of his, if you belong to him, there's no reason to be fearful. And there's no reason to sensationalize these things.

They're sensational all by themselves. So I wanted this to be something that would encourage people that would clarify the issue, answer a lot of the difficult questions, answer a lot of the lies, even on my own side that people have, and give people hope because I think hope is worth defending. So this dream spawned this lifelong now, mission and study, and you were new into the faith at that point. So it wasn't like you had heard about the rest and things like that. I hadn't read the late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsay. I hadn't watched Left Behind.

I didn't know what the Left Band series was. So you, so when you start your studies then, and you're having these confirmations through your studies from that dream, that had to be a pretty surreal thing for you. Like, it had to be like, holy cow, like this was literally a dream from God. Yes. And I'm so green, by the way. I don't know anything about the Bible. I had no experience with it, no teaching. The only time ever went to church was when there's, you know, Easter lilies or Christmas.

poinset is decorating the hallway. And when I did go to church, somebody's wearing a robe and lightened candles and there's not a lot of word generally going on in that kind of environment. So I didn't even know to look up books on the subject. I just thought, well, I'm going to read the Bible. I'm going to find out what the Bible has to say. And so I walked away after reading the Bible, after going through the entire Bible, focusing on the end times, walked away with this particular understanding. And I thought, this has to be, this is it. And I was so excited about it.

I just assumed everybody in the church agreed on the subject. A little that I know there was so much schism and division. You know, when you're first born again, you just think everybody agrees. You know, we all love Jesus. Yeah. Why would we be so divisive? But apparently that's not the case for love for us. Apparently, like, after the love of Jesus, there's a lot of arguing on everything else.

And me being, you know, sarcasm is my personal love language. Gotcha. I say there are four love languages. No, there's five. And sarcasm is my love language. The more sarcastic I am with you, the more I love you. Awesome. And so I would try to contribute to the conversation with my gift for sarcasm and I realized that it didn't always help.

Yeah. So I generated more heat than light a lot of times at the beginning. And I'm still a work in progress. Thank God. His grace is sufficient for me. But I'm doing my best now to kind of bridge the gap and build bridges. Because if you disagree on, and we'll talk about this probably in this conversation, the rapture is one thing. and every Christian should agree that there is a rapture,

and we'll talk about what that means. But then there's the timing of it. When is it going to happen? And that's where Christians disagree. And you can. And you can be in good company. You can disagree with me. And you're still going to heaven.

So it's not a point to divide over, but it's such a fun conversation to dig into. And that's the thing. So growing up, the pastor that I was under when I was a kid, Sunday nights, he would hold Bible study. And for years, it was him going through revelation. And I was just, I didn't understand any of it. And I just got to a point where I was thinking myself, okay, if these guys who are just,

they're smarter than me can't agree, there's no hope for me. Thank God that it's not a salvation thing. I'm out, you know, and that's how I lived for a long time. And now the topic is starting to come back around, I feel. And with your book, I feel like this is a great opportunity, not for me alone, but for the world to start really learning what is the end times. What is the rapture? What is the tribulation, mid-trib, post-trib? What are these things? And your book does a great job analyzing the things and answering these questions. So you just brought it up. And I think it's a great point to maybe hit on is what is the rapture? Like what is it that people should start expecting when it comes to this idea of rapture? Yeah, and I'm glad you said that because we're so war-weary in a sense that we're so polarized as a society. We're always bickering and arguing. When we get to a subject like this and there's bickering and arguing, we're like, okay, you know, wash my hands.

Whatever. So however it pans out is fine with me. But let's talk about what the rapture actually is and where we can all probably agree as believers. The Bible talks about how Jesus died for us and he rose for us and he's coming for us. but that he has redeemed us, spirit, soul, and body. And there is coming a day when this body, this physical body, is finally going to be transformed. And I'm going to have a body like his.

He has an immortal body. This is what would be fascinating for your audience, I think. Jesus' resurrected body is a type of the resurrected body we're going to receive. So we see him after his resurrection passing through walls. He doesn't need a door. He can go right through the wall. we see him eating food. So he is both spirit.

He has a body. He tells him, come and touch my side. Here, you can see, he still has the scars from this life, but he's able to pass through walls. He's eating food.

So there's this interesting dynamic of what our glorified bodies will look like. Plus, it lets us know that our bodies are valuable. God cares so much about your body that even if you weren't to return for 100 years, after your body is buried, it is disintegrated, he's going to bring it all back together. He's going to take every molecule, every atom, and put it back together because he's determined you're going to live in that body for the rest of your life. You say, well, I don't know if I like my body.

Well, don't worry, you'll like this version. You're going to like this version of your body. There's no cricks in the knees or bad backs, no gray hairs. Yeah, praise God. So there's coming a moment when, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, we shall be changed. and those who are dead will be raised, those who are alive will be transformed, and we will receive our glorified bodies.

This is the pinnacle of Christ's redemptive work for our bodies. And so as believers, we know that from 1st Corinthians 15, from 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, that is a promise. And so people often flippantly say, oh, there's no rapture, and how can you believe in the rapture and it's a lie?

The rapture is actually simply the fulfillment of that promise where we're going to be glorified. And that's coming. That's an exciting thing to think about. the timing of the rapture, however, is where people divide, and that's what we'll probably get into here. I don't want to keep going.

No, you're fine. You're fine. You can keep going as much as you want. We're here to hear you. When it comes to the idea of rapture, is there certain groups of, like, or maybe denominations that outright say, no, rapture is just not a thing? Because if that's the case that you know of,

I wonder how they get around the rapture of other people in scripture that's already been written. Yeah, there's already been multiple, multiple types. Yeah, right types. Of raptures, Enoch, for example, which there's a whole chapter in the book called Enoch's Lost Prophecy. And when it comes to Enoch, which is a mysterious figure, and everyone tries to claim him, you know, even pagan cultures try to claim him. Inokian magic tries to claim that. That's when you know the person was actually real.

Yeah, yeah. So everybody wants to claim Enoch. as their own. And there's all kinds of works and sources and books. Yeah, exactly. But the Bible has a very interesting prophecy from Enoch that I talk about in the book. But he, the Bible said he walked with God. Can we walk through this just for a second? Because Enoch is such a unique figure. Enoch, I believe it was 65 years of age when he gave birth to his son. The Bible said when he gave birth to his son, something happened in that moment that caused him to walk with God. And this walk with God was so extreme and so dynamic.

And we know that he was a preacher of righteousness because Jude speaks to what he was preaching. That by the time he was 365 years of age, the Bible says he was and he was not for God took him. In essence, he's on a walk with God and God says, we're closer to my house and we're already yours. How about you just come on home with me? And without death, Enick is trying. Can you imagine getting that close? We're closer to my house than yours. What a picture that is.

Well, we've got, and, you know, in Christianity today, we're always like, how close to the world can we get and still get to heaven? Instead of how close to heaven can we get and still be walking around on this planet, you know? And so Enick got so close to God, he did not die. He was just translated into heaven. And he's been there with him forever. Another instance of that is Elijah. Elijah is supernaturally taken up in a chariot. And we've talked about this in past discussions.

Why do angels need a chariot and a charity fire? And what does that look like? Some sort of UAP comes down and takes Elijah up to be in heaven. It's fascinating story. But he's taken up. Jesus is taken up. Philip has kind of an interesting in the book of Acts where he's translated from one place to another, but he's not receiving a glorified body in that moment.

But we have all these strange instances in Scripture, and there are more that we could talk about. But something happened in Enoch's life at the birth of his son that I talk about. in the book where this prophetic event happens that changes his life so dramatically that it changes his walk with God to the point that he eventually is taken off of this planet. Now another thing to remember about Enoch, he's Noah's grandfather.

So as the storm clouds of the flood are looming on the horizon, there's a man walking with God and God says, I got to get him out of here. And he's gone before the flood takes place. Interesting thing about Enick. That is wild. That's absolutely wild.

Yeah. And no, I mean, Enick is, is, is he the same Enick that wrote Enoch? Well, we don't know. What did they say? Yeah. Theory. That's the theory. Okay.

That is the same. They call it like a pseudopicryful work that it wasn't Enoch, but it's written in Enoch's name and it's based off of Enoch's teachings. Okay. And so there's, there's a lot of mystery surrounding the books of Enich, which one are legitimate, which ones are not. And I have actually in my studio fragments of what was found of the book of Enok in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Wow. And so a lot of people look at the book of Enok and the book of whenever you buy it online, it's about that thick, you know. Yeah. And people think, well, it was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, so it must be accurate. They found three paragraphs in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Interesting.

They didn't find this in the Dead Sea Scrolls, you know. So, and there's a lot of strange things in there that aren't necessarily biblically accurate. Right. So there's a lot of. And there's a lot of So there's a lot of reason to question. However, what the Bible has to say about Enoch is fascinating, and that stood the test of time for centuries. And so we know about this prophecy that came whenever his son was born, which I talk about in the book that transformed his life. And we know that he preached righteousness. We know that he was taken. He did not see death.

And we know that he was a man of faith. Is he going to be one of the people that come back as the witnesses? And so in the book of Revelation, we have a seven-year period. of tribulation where the wrath of God is being poured out. God sends messengers into the earth during that time. First, there's 144,000 Jewish evangelists. These are people like John the Baptist. So can you imagine 144,000 John the Baptists?

Imagine how much trouble John the Baptist caused. Anybody who doesn't know, talk about 144,000 very radical people. Yeah, yeah, walking in power. And they start to evangelists. And then God sends two witnesses into the earth. And so there's a lot of speculation about who these two witnesses are. So you want to walk through some of the contenders. Yeah. So we've got Elijah and Enoch, because those are two people who never died.

And the Bible says it's appointed under man wants to die and then the judgment. So the theory goes that they've got to fulfill their quota two. They're going to have to die. And the Bible says these two witnesses are killed in the streets. So let's kind of take a, let's take a panoramic. view here just for a second. The Bible predicts that there are going to be two witnesses who preach that

they're going to be martyred in the streets of Jerusalem and that the whole world will watch them. So the Bible speaks of this like worldwide communication, that everyone would be able to see this moment at the exact same time.

And the Bible says that they'll be raised after they're killed. So there's a kind of of a prediction there. Will that be a witness thing worldwide? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. And the Bible says that they will all give gifts to one another. So there'll be a way to send gifts to one another across the world. Wow. So the whole world's watching. Yeah, exactly. So there's technology where the whole world can view it. And there's a way where the whole world can send gifts to one another. And the Bible predicted that that would happen. But that they so hate God and they so hate the message of the kingdom that they're going to kill these two and they're going to send gifts to one another as if finally, finally, the voice of God. is silenced in the earth. And so people say, well, maybe it's Elijah and Enoch, because they

haven't died and that'll fulfill their quota. Some say it's Elijah and Moses, because Moses' body, we don't know what happened to Moses' body. Some say it's probably two people we've never seen before, but a walk in the spirit of Elijah and Moses or Elijah and Enoch. And so I think it's probably two people we've never seen before. And the same way, John the Baptist was walking in the spirit of Elijah, right? Yeah. And he was referenced as Elijah will come. And it was talking about the spirit that was on his life, the anointing that was on his life, the message that he was carrying. So these two witnesses could likely be just two people we've never seen before, but they're walking in that witness, that same anointing.

Wow. I've never heard that before. That is wild. Although I'm rooting for Elijah and Enoch personally. That's what I'm reading for. Seriously. I hope you're wrong. Because that would be fun to watch, you know.

But so we're talking about. the end times, the rapture, but when it comes to tribulation, that is something that is often, that's what really I've always heard the debates about and the arguments. And for years, I've had people say, you need to do a show on the rapture or end times or tribulation, all this stuff. I'm like, I'm not the guy to do that show, but you are. So what is the tribulational period. And I know you're pre-trib. But what does that even mean? And why would somebody even land on a mid-trib or post-trib? So when you hear the phrase pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, tribib, trib, is referring to tribulation? So when is the rapture of the church going to take place when he

catches up believers? It's going to happen pre-before the tribulation is going to happen in the middle of this seven years of tribulation or at the end. Now, the tribulation are seven years. It's called Daniel's 70th week, there's a prediction in Daniel that there will be 69 weeks of years, that the Messiah will be cut off, there'll be a period of time, and then there'll be a 70th week, and that many people often connect with the time of Jacob's trouble. Will there be one more week of years, seven years, where God deals with the nation of Israel? It's a time where he wakes up Israel and shakes up the earth. And when you read Revelation chapter 6 and Matthew chapter 24, which are parallel,

then we see that this is a time when God is speaking specifically to the Jewish people in the nation of Israel. Now, there's a lot of contention right now in the church, in the podcast sphere, about Israel, about dispensationalism, and the rapture of the church, and all this stuff. And most of it misses the mark. Most of it creates just straw man's for everybody to attack, and none of it actually gets to the root of the matter. God has made some promises to the nation of Israel that he's going to fulfill. God has required the nation of Israel to do some things that they haven't done. That is a result, judgment is going to come on the entire nation, not just the Jewish

people, on the entire nation, and he's required things of the entire world, and judgment's going to fall on the entire world. So it's not just unique to them. But there's certain things that he promised he would do for Abraham, certain things he promised he would do for Moses, certain things he promised he would do that he is going to fulfill, that he is going to bring it to pass. And so that seven year of tribulation is God fulfilling his promises and bringing it into sin, bringing it into wickedness. Now, what a lot of people have done is they've looked at the nation of Israel. We're a red-pilled society right now,

and we were red-pilled about what's happening in the deep state of our own country, and we've been red-pilled of what's happening in the deep state of other countries, including the nation of Israel. And so what people have done is that they've just taken one red pill after another, and I think we've overdosed a little bit. And so when you overdose, you're supposed to take one of those suckers. When you take the whole bottle, you start to see, you know, delusions. And you kind of misinterpret things, and you see conspiracies in everything.

And so what people have discovered is how there are wicked aspects of the Israeli government. And that is absolutely true. The Knesset is not a form of government that loves the kingdom of God. and loves Christianity. And that's absolutely true. However, you have to separate the government of Israel from the concept of a Jewish state and the land for the people of Israel. So generally in the church, it's one thing or the other.

And you just have to buy in and love everything Israel does and love everything the Jewish people does. And that's not true at all because they're lost if they don't know Jesus Christ, just like all of us are lost if we don't know Jesus Christ. They're wicked without Christ, just like we are. And so doesn't mean a wholesale endorsement. of everything Israel does. We need to hold their feet to the fire

and hold their accountable for things that they do that aren't right. But it does mean that we support a place for the Jewish people to call their home. And that's entirely biblical. And so there's been a lot of attacks from the red pill culture

against the concept of dispensationalism that God is going to fulfill what he said he was going to fulfill for the nation of Israel. And that's what the tribulation is all about. It is the direct wrath of God being poured out on the nation of Israel and the world.

not unique to them. I'll tell you, when it comes to the red-pilled idea, it's like you have the probably about eight, ten years ago now. It was really strictly, you know, if you're red-pilled, there was no definition behind it other than you're red-pilled. But now it's like there's the conservative red pill. Are you red-pill? Antisemitic red pill? Yeah. Yeah. And I have a friend, she has a really popular Instagram channel. It used to be called My Tintfoil Hat. Now she's changed, it because she's really felt like God's told her no more of the conspiracy going hard on that stuff and waking people up. Now let's wake them up to me. And so she's been really shifting gears. Wow. That's good. And she made a post just a couple days ago that is on this topic. And she said, I asked Chachapit, if you were the devil, how would you get red-pilled people to follow you or something like that? And some of the the things that it's spit out, was like playing on the person's ego. And you, you know, and you wind up separating

yourself from the church and in community because they don't know, you know, they don't understand you, and it isolates you. And then it starts building on your pride. I know. Let me tell you, I know. And I see that so much in this red-pilled community. It's just like, there's a lot of theories going around right now on different topics. And it's all ego driven and it's all prideful. And if you're a Christian who is, it considers yourself a red pill type person, not saying that's bad, but you do need to check yourself on where your pride is laying in because if it's not in Christ, then you're out of line. And so when we're seeing a lot of people who are just becoming so prideful in this supposed knowledge that they have, that there's no room. And then they

start questioning, well, if you don't believe what I believe, I question whether you're even a Christian, totally negating Romans 10-9. Like the definition of what salvation is. And then maybe this is me getting frustrated with it. But then when somebody says, I've had people say it to me, and I'm like, if you say that to me, then I don't even think you understand what being a Christian means. And I question, do you know Christ? Come on, Tony. Because it's like, your definition of your salvation should not lie on how deep you can go with red pill conspiracy thing. Come on. And so it's been weighing on me the past week, and you brought to the red pill. No, it's true.

I mean, a revelation from God should lead us to love and compassion. Yeah. Not to angst, to arrogance, and to shutting people down. Right. And you're exactly right. That's exactly what we're seeing. And if you're not being compassion, this is a sign. If you find yourself being agitated with others, maybe you're stepping outside of the grace of God.

Yeah. If you find yourself frustrated and condemning and attacking, which they're an entire thing. ministries, ministries, that do nothing but attack. They're basically tabloids. If your ministry falls apart if you're not attacking someone because you don't have anything else to say, you probably don't have a ministry. That's great. Can you say that again for the cameras? If your ministry falls apart, if you're not attacking people, because that's all you do, you don't have anything else to talk about, you probably don't have a ministry. Wow. And they're not trying to cite Paul referencing or calling out someone. And Paul established that church.

He knew those people, and he spoke specifically to that situation. That was salvivic in a sense that it dealt with a core salvation issue. So if you've established that church, if you know those people, then maybe you need to speak to that situation if it's a salvivic issue. But random people online, I don't think Paul would be proud. They're not your flock. And you're stepping in as this authority in their life when they haven't even given you that. Self-proclaimed. Yeah.

Yeah, that's wild. All right. So before we go down to that hole, let's bring it back. tribulation. Say, all right, we're pre-trib, we're out. What does that look like for everybody else? Well, it's dark. I mean, imagine the light that the church is in the earth. Not, sometimes when you say the church, people think of the hypocritical church. And to think of religious people. Yeah. That's not the church. The church are the ones who are pushing forward light and the darkness. the church are the people building hospitals. The church are the people who are compassionate.

You know who was when Hurricane Helene hit? Who showed up first? Church. It was the church. It wasn't an organized atheistic organization. It was the church that showed up first. So we're the ones, the church is the ones who are here with compassion and with truth, who are both loving while at the same time saying, now that will harm you, we need to do this instead.

And there's been so many globalists who have said we would be able to accomplish this if it weren't for those biologists. believing blankety blank Christians that are hindering the globalist agenda because, you know, they're not going to listen unless it's got a chapter and verse. Well, you got that, you got that right. So the church is a speaking of light that is preaching grace, also talking about the judgment of God, but offering grace. And all of a sudden, that's gone. It's gone.

The people who are on the front lines bringing hope and healing and help, the people who are there to encourage you, running suicide hotlines, gone. And now all you have left is the voice. of the devil in the earth, which is why God, by the way, has to raise up 144,000 Jewish evangelists. So imagine the light is gone. The representation of Jesus and the earth, his body, gone. And a lot of these people, by the way, if you want to talk about infrastructure, they run some of the nuclear power plants. They fly in airplanes, which is why you have kind of the left behind image of planes falling out of the sky. Thanks for bad memories, man. Scares me all over again.

PTSD, right? PDSD. But there's some truth to that because, because they're just gone. And a lot of the people, a lot of truckers, by the way, who love the Lord, listen to my program, listen to your program,

they're the life's blood of this nation. And they're gone. Their trucks aren't, though. Right. But who's going to drive them? Right.

It's not exactly something that anybody can just step into and do. It's, that's work. Yeah. And so who's delivering the fuel now? So imagine when the storm comes in and stops delivery for a week,

that causes major problems. Yeah. Now imagine just the infrastructure and people who run it gone. And now there are some nations who have a Christian population of, you know, 3%. They won't really feel it. But what happens when a Christian nation that has a large percentage of millions upon millions upon millions of people and they're gone? Yeah. Well, that's going to impact the infrastructure, the economy dramatically, which is why some people say America is not specifically mentioned in Bible prophecy.

And so could it be the reason is. is because it's off of the world stage at the moment of the rapture of the church because it's no longer a global player because of it. Well, I mean, as a Christian, that's probably the best form of seeing the United States be eliminated off the world stage that I could be on board with, you know? There's several other ways that could happen. It could happen in other ways, but all those other ways, I'm still here. Strategically placed EMPs, you know, or terrorist attack, economic collapse, all that stuff.

Yeah, this is the most ideal situation for us anyway. Yeah, yeah, that's definitely ideal. So we got the tribulation happening and it sounds chaotic. And there's also the spiritual side of things. You know, like when the Christians leave, who leave or what leaves spiritual intercession? And I think we overlooked that I did for many years of my life into podcasting, how much spiritual intercession is important in our lives. And the people who are praying, like the power.

of prayer. I mean, obviously, with what my wife's going through right now, it's like I'm relying heavily on that. But that is something that I feel like throughout all time, we underestimate as a whole when it comes to what prayer is and how much of a tool that is in the spiritual warfare aspect of things. That's all gone. Yes. It's all removed. And so you have the real life side of things, and then you have the spiritual side of things, and it's all coming to a head. And, Yeah, I don't think I'd want to be part of that for sure. And values. So you got principles, values, prayer.

When you see these college kids on campus and they're talking about an atheistic worldview and I don't think we need God in order to have laws. We think this is right. This is a law because we all agree that that's the way it should be. It benefits society. And they have the luxury of that because they're living in a Christian society where they're sheltered and protected by Christian values that allow for all points of view. and protect the innocent and all these. Western civilization is rooted on a biblical foundation, and now all of a sudden, that's gone.

And you don't have that luxury anymore. You're going to have a major catastrophic event that takes place. The rapture of the church would certainly be part of that, but something's going to happen, whether it's a war or whether it's more than likely a war, the Ezekiel 38 war. But something's going to happen that's going to make the whole wide world hungry for a leader. I quoted in my last book, Henry Spack, who was like a leader of the UN.

And he said, give us a leader who can lift us up out of the economic morays we find ourselves in. Send us such a man, be he God or the devil, and we will receive him. This is what a leader of the UN said. Send us such a man, be he God or the devil, and we will receive him. And so there's going to be a moment. Imagine what happened in 2020 and how everybody just lined up. up with whatever the government said, something's going to happen. Imagine when people are not just sick, but they're hungry. And someone has the answer, well, that's what's going to happen. And they're not going to have someone telling them, don't do that, you know, because that voice has been gone.

Whoa. Wow. Wow. Wow. Yeah. I mean, you see definitely the things lining up with what you're talking about and what we've been through recently in recent memory as almost an example of how it could look. Like a blueprint. Right. A trial run. Absolutely. So there are people listening right now who maybe aren't Christian. They don't believe any of this stuff. They're maybe even getting annoyed that they're hearing it. And for those kind of people, one of the things that they would offer up, and I know you've heard this before, and this is one thing that I want to say that I really enjoy about you is I feel very comfortable talking to you just in a real way, knowing that one, more than like, you're going to have an answer, but two, if you don't have an answer, there's no pride and ego involved. You're like, oh, you know what? I don't have that answer. But this one, I mean, it happens all the time with me and just in general being a Christian. Why would a loving God put his own creation through such a terrible situation? If God is real, why would he set up a system that allows for such terrible things to happen to the things that he says he loves?

I love that question because first of all it shows that the person asking it has a spark of the divine in them. There's a sense of compassion in them and a strong justice motive in them, right? And so they want to see justice. They want to see what's right being done. And so you got to first ask, where does that come from? Yeah. What straight line are you comparing anything to? Do the cows wonder where the justice is?

Does a bird wonder why whenever they're good? No, they don't. They don't. You are uniquely created in the image of God. And whenever someone asks that question, that shows me, there's some real compassion in their heart. And they really are hungry for answers. So I think it is a great question. Also, the same people will ask, how could God allow Hitler to do what he did?

And they say, God should judge evil. And yet when we look at the tribulation, when God is going to judge evil, they say, why would he do that? Well, you want him to judge evil. He's going to judge evil. And often when we ask the question, why doesn't God judge evil, which isn't necessarily what you were asking,

we'll come back to that. We forget that we ourselves are included. We're thinking of someone else, and we don't realize that we're included in that category. But when we're dealing, why does God allow such horrendous things to happen? It comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of, who God is.

God loves us so much he gave us the ability to choose against him. Now he could have made us automaton's. He could have made us robots that will do what he says to do. What he says to do,

but would that be love if he did that? You could get rid of all marital issues by just locking your wife up and you never have to worry about divorce. You just chain her up in a tall tower somewhere and you'll never get divorced. But that's not love.

Right. Love gives her the ability, even though it would break your heart to leave. And so God gave man dominion in the earth, Genesis chapter 1. And then man immediately hands it over to Satan. And so why would God do this?

Number one, because he loves us. And he wants us to have a choice. Number two, he's allowing us that choice for a certain period of time. He's giving us a certain period of time to make those decisions. and then he's going to fix every wrong decision we've ever made. And so we look at so many things as definitive,

like the pain we're dealing with or suffering we're dealing with. Those are finite and they're temporary. He's going to fix it all. But right now, he's given us the authority in the earth. And so that's the reason why when we talk about portals and things like that, and we talk about opening doors of access, God does not have room according to his word to just come down and do whatever he wants because he's a man of his word, he's a God of his word, he's going to allow us to invite him or not invite him to come in.

And so these things happen because he's put a system in place where he has allowed will to be just one of the greatest demonstrations of his love. And that means you'll be sinned against. That means things will happen to you. That means we live in a cursed world right now. But that's not the end. There's coming a time soon and very soon. Well, all of that will be wiped away. He has a plan.

So the argument is not that this is the best world possible. The argument is that this is the best way to the best world possible. And we're on our way there in God's divine plan. And the best thing you can do is yield to his will and to his way so that he can protect you. He wants to protect you. He wants to love on you. He wants to bring healing and deliverance and all these things. And we're living in a dark world.

The curse, Satan, sinners. You know, we're surrounded by all this. stuff. And so we've got to invite him in to come and move in our lives. And there's ways to do that. And that's what the Bible is. It's basically a manual on how to invite God into your life so that he has permission to move. So a lot of times why does this bad thing happen? It's because God didn't have permission to do any otherwise. I mean, we kicked him out of the schools in the 60s, right? We kicked him out. And what is happening? The stats are startling, by the way. If you look at the stats of when prayer left schools, when the Ten Commandments left schools, and then the

then violence and drugs and all this stuff. Yeah. Because we didn't give him permission anymore. And so when we ask why, we need to look in the mirror. And that's the reason why. And that's not to condemn you. That's just the reality of the situation. Yeah.

God wants to help you. You just got to let him in. That's great. I felt like that was a timely question to have you, to bring up to you when I just had you describe the tribulation, you know, because it was just like, well, I know people are going to say, how could a God who loves me? So I'm glad you tackled that now.

You know what the word hell means, by the way? There are certain translations of the word, but one of the translations of the word means to ask for. Really? Yeah, to ask for. And so the judgment of God is like a Rube Goldberg device. You know what a Rube Goldberg device is? You ever played Mousetrap before?

And so you spin the wheel and the ball goes down the steps and then it rolls over here. And then eventually it's one thing after another is like Ferris Bueller's Day Off. you know, this mechanism that leads to another thing that leads to another thing, leads to another thing. So the judgment of God is that. It's not that God is pouring it out and is doing this to you. He said, if you go left, you're going to enter into destruction.

If you go right, you'll enter into life. We go left and we trigger this Rube Goldberg device of mechanisms of things that start working against us. And often that's what we're dealing with. It's not God directly doing these things for you. He's trying to lead you down another. path, but we ask for it with all of the terrible decisions that we've made. And with not just us personally, but generationally. We're just kind of born into this Rube Goldberg mechanism that's

already moving against us. So we've got to start triggering another device that brings life and that brings healing. It's wild. You said that because I just had that conversation with my son taking him to school this morning. We were talking about sin and generational sin. And I was telling him how, you know, there is, there comes a time in a generational line where, because you're born into situations where it's not great and it was designed and built or, and the environment was designed and built way before you arrived by other sin that had been committed. It was just generational things that were passed on learned behavior. It all spawned from a girl that was being meaned them at school. And I told me, your first grade, and I was like, you know, this is learned

behavior. This is something that is a constant thing in his life at school with this one person. And I said, this is stuff that isn't natural. I said, this is the environment she lives and this is what she's learned. And I said, it comes a time where you have to take accountability for your own life and you can literally change future generations by taking that accountability and cutting off the generational things you were born into. And I told him, I said, that's what I'm doing. That's what I'm trying to do. I said, you know, my life, the lining of my life was predetermined in a sense where it was just like, listen, you were going to get cut a really bad slice of bread no matter how you cut it. But at some point, you got to take that responsibility unless you want to pass that

responsibility on to the next generation. That's right. And so that's a conversation I had with the first grade of this morning. I knew a gentleman who was having, this morning. This morning. I knew a gentleman who had chronic illnesses. I'm just over and over and over, something different, but it was always just, it was always something. And it come to found out that his father was involved in the occult. And he had some jewelry from his father from the occult that he would wear or be connected with.

And so he went and took that piece of jewelry and threw it into a river. And immediately all the symptoms left left. So we have to realize it's just, we're just surrounded by danger. Yes. We're just surrounded by it everywhere. And sometimes someone will go visit a psychic. And that's on a Tuesday in 1994. And then on a Wednesday in 2004, something bad happens to them.

Like something's been working since then to invade their life. And then like, God, why did you let this happen to me? Well, no, no, no. You opened the door for that. It wasn't God doing that to you. And so we're just got to recognize that we're just surrounded by these mechanisms that are at work. And we've got to do what we can to cancel the negative and active. the positive. Okay. So when it comes to

Rapture, I know you tackle this the idea of two second comings. Like is there two second comings or is it the phase of one second coming? It's such a great question. And I wrote it, there's a whole section on this where I answer just a lot of different questions. And one of the objections I kept hearing over and over again, kind of in a snide way. There aren't going to be two second comings

and they'll mock the rapture. There's not two second comings. And so I started thinking about that. It was so strange. I never thought of it as two second comings. And I dug a little bit further. And so now I asked them, how many first comings were there?

How many first advents were there? Well, what do you mean? There was only one. Okay, when did that happen? Was it when Mary received the word and she conceived? Was it when he was born in a manger? Was it when at 12 years of age, he was confounding the teachers in the temple.

Was it when he was baptized by John in the Jordan River? Or was it when he was crucified? Was it when he was raised from the dead? Was it when he visited Mary in the tomb? Or was it when he visited Thomas? When was the first coming? It was like, no, no, no, there's only one. It just happened in phases.

You're exactly right. There was only one first advent and it happened in phases. First, he revealed himself to the remnant, a very small number of people, and then to the masses. And the second coming is going to be the same way. It's going to happen in phases over a period of time, just like the first advent, first to a small remnant, and then to the masses. And even if you want to get technical with it, after the resurrection, he visits Mary, and he says, Mary, don't touch me. I'm not yet ascended to the father. Then a few days later, he meets with Thomas and them, and he says, now come and touch my side.

Well, what had happened? Well, he had ascended and come back. Is that a second coming? No, it's just the first advent, right? It's just kind of bookends of when these events take place. And so the rapture and the second coming are all part of the day of the Lord and their bookends to that moment where it starts with him taking his people to safety before he pours his wrath out on the earth. He pours it out. He does what needs to be done.

And then we come with him at the end of that to rule and reign with him here on the earth. So we're taken and then we come back with him. when we come back with him, what does that look like? Because I hear different things from different people. And personally, my favorite that I hope happens

is that when we come back with him, he almost deputizes us to, hold on, let me get really weird with you before you say yes. Okay, yeah. Don't say yes too quick with Tony Marco. Yeah, exactly. But part of that, you know,

executing judgment is, is all this chaos here and stuff. And like, we're, we're going to have an opportunity to lay some smack down. Do you think that's possible? Because I would love that. On the human side of me, I would love the opportunity to have a perfect body that can't die and come and just let's go. Go crazy.

And Jesus says, say, Tony, get on your own horse. Yeah, yeah. He's just like, guys, go play, have fun. Let me know when you're done. And I'll twitch my finger and it'll be all done. Right. Well, here's what we know was going to happen, right? Here's what we know from reading and revelation.

And also Isaiah speaks to this in great detail. Jesus returns. He speaks one word out of his mouth, a sharp two-edged sword out of his mouth, smites the nation. He speaks one word. So there's really nothing left for us at that moment. In that battle, at the Battle of Armageddon, there's not much left for us to take care of because he just spoke one word and they've been vanquished. He sets his foot on the Mount of Olives.

The Mount of Olives splits in half. and the Bible says that water flows and it causes the dead sea to live again. Now, this was 2,000 years ago, thousands of years ago when this was written, it was only discovered not too long ago that there is a reservoir of water underneath the Mount of Olives and that there is a fault line in the Mount of Olives as well. And should that shift exactly what the Bible says could happen, could happen exactly like that. So it's wild. And so we just returned with him. Well, we're just kind of the part of the celebratory welcoming party. We're watching him take care of business.

So I think that's going to be just as good. Oh, yeah. And ring side seats, you know. And we get to see Satan bound and all that, all that fun stuff. Yeah. From the comfort of our horses. Yes, exactly. But there is this idea of he's giving us rule over cities.

And depending on how you lived in this life, how faithful you were, how diligent you were, how much you walked in wisdom, will determine your assignment now here on this earth. And so you'll be given, we'll be this. will be this strange crop of people who have these glorified bodies. Remember, there are people who survive the tribulation who have given their lives to God. And they're going to continue in their normal bodies and have children and have families. And the Bible says, we're going to live on earth with Christ having his kingdom in his throne in Jerusalem. People will come every feast to celebrate in Jerusalem. Those who don't come are going to get rain. So there's a thousand years of rain. fascinating during that time where we're ruling and reigning with him.

So there'll be cities of people who weren't alive during the tribulation. And a thousand years, a lot of people are going to be born, especially in a perfect society where there's not a curse any longer that you have to operate under. And you're going to show up and they're like, oh, he's one of them. There's one of them right there because they've heard about it. Maybe they haven't seen one before. And you'll be there to judge a rule or take care of business there in that place. you'll also judge angels, which is wild to think about. Very wild.

So there's this entire thousand-year reign where we're going to see what it's like with Christ as king. And even at the end of that, with Christ ruling in the perfect society, just to show how ornery some people are, that's not going to be enough for them. How many of you know people like that, by the way, where nothing is enough? Yeah. Nothing's good enough. No boss is good enough. No job is good enough. And there's going to be people who survive the tribulation. and the Bible says Satan will be loose for a season at the end of that period to sift out again to give people a choice to be able to make a decision.

It's find the real ones. Let's find the real ones. And that'll be that that last moment to perfect the society and the culture that we have here. And then, of course, Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire as well as all those who follow him. Looking forward to that. Yeah. So you're saying like territorial type. Yeah.

So it's kind of funny because it's almost like, the opposite mirror image of what we see in the Daniel 10 with the spirit prince of Persia and it was like this territorial spirit that had this authority that would that we see that whole spiritual warfare unfold and so it's like now that's our now that's us yes that's what so when you think of the prince that's i don't know that i've ever heard anyone word it like that when you think of the prince of persia who withstood the angel from bringing the answer to daniel kind of lording over that area. Now that's Tony Merkel.

Jeez. Let's go. See, that's what I like to hear. That's cool, right? That's what I like to hear. Wow, what a great way to look at it. So, and that's one thing that I feel, let me just take a side here and we'll go back.

We'll go to the Philadelphia experiment. Oh, gosh. So I really feel, so when we were at NRB, that there was a single, the day that there was a roundtable, I felt the Holy Spirit tell me, just tell my story in the morning.

And then when I was sitting at the round table, I felt the Holy Spirit say, just read my word. So I have just tell my story, just read my word. And then Joseph starts speaking to me, Tony, you're a man of the word, you're a man. I'm like, okay, this is like literally God trying to tell me something. And since then, I felt like the Lord really defined. So he created me to be a good storyteller.

I'm pretty good at that. And I think part of it is just hearing so many people's stories. I understand just naturally what a good story is. And I also am engulfed in this supernatural environment with what I do that I've found that at times I see things in scripture, more with the supernatural lens than some of the other people around me typically.

And I took all that and the last time I preached and Jack can attested this, I think it was just, I was just telling his story. I was just, with a point of radical faith, I was just telling these stories and working people through so they could see literally what

that looks like. And I don't know if that's going to be the formula for me moving forward forever or what, but I think it's a good foundational Just like read his word, know his word, tell his story. That's it, you know. So anyways, the Philadelphia experiment, you make an interesting parallel between the Rapture and the Philadelphia experiment.

Could you go into that a little bit? Have you done any shows on the Philadelphia Experiment, by the way? I have never done a show on it. I've talked about it on the show. Have you ever met Derek Gilbert, by the way? We've talked sparingly, digitally, never in person. Oh, you should have him. He is an encyclical.

of the weird of all things strange and unusual. All right. Before you go any further, you brought out there, he is, and this is changed now, but he was one of the people that I've been aware of since 2017 when I was driving truck. He was on Skywatch. Oh, yeah. And he was also one of the people, him, and it's not everybody, but him, Heiser, and a couple other people, I was intellectually intimidated by, and I never wanted to have on the show because I was scared to even hold a conversation with them. And I finally got out of the boat with Heiser on that.

But the week that I was supposed to record with him, I had health issues. And then he had cancer and passed away. I never got that interview. So you bring him up just reminds me, he got to get Derek Gilbert on the show sometime. You've got to. Oh, my goodness.

I mean, he's one of those guys that's the same behind the camera. I mean, even better behind the camera. He's just a sweet guy. He and his wife are amazing. They love Jesus. And again, I was on a program. with him recording little inside baseball and they asked me about Evan was there they asked me about the Philadelphia experiment and I just blanked like and so I know Derek knows everything yeah so I said

now before I dive into that Derek you know something about the Philadelphia experiment perfect would you sum that up for us and he just and actually he had just been to some conference where they talked about the Philadelphia experience of course yeah he just been to the site yeah in the you know I'll be just obviously Derek Gilbert would have been there days before I mentioned this to him. And he just went off and talked about the Philadelphia experiment. And what a wild experiment that was. We're in 1943.

They're experimenting with cloaking devices, camouflage, and ways to make ships invisible, particularly to bombs that are detecting magnetically detecting other ships in the water. So they're trying to create these cloaking devices to make the ship, in essence, invisible. at least to these bombs that are in the ocean. And as the story goes, they activate this device.

And there's this fog that envelops the ship. And then as the fog clears, the ship is gone. And it's some, I don't know how many hundreds of miles away. Far down in Virginia. Yeah, down in Virginia. And the crew members, and it was 10 minutes. They showed up in Virginia 10 minutes earlier than they left their location where they previously were. Time travel.

Time travel. And the crew, some of them are infused in the hull of the ship. And then it disappears from there and it goes back to where it was. Now this is, and there's several different ways the story goes. And there was a movie made about it called the Philadelphia or the final countdown in the 80s, the final countdown. I think Def Leppard wrote their song just for the movie. Really? I think so, actually. Yeah. The final countdown was just a movie about the Philadelphia

experiment. And what fascinating, Me was how fascinated culture was with this supposed disappearance of a ship. So we have the ship that just disappears. And the parallels between when you read the book of Revelation, there's this church that has this promise that it's going to disappear and it happens to be called the Church of Philadelphia. And so is there going to be another fascinating story that takes place essentially where another Philadelphia experiment where the church just is gone? Looking forward to it. Yeah, I am too. I am too.

And that's not an escapist mentality. It's not that I'm scared of the Antichrist. A lot of people will try to frame it that way. You've got that mixed up. The Antichrist is scared of me. The Antichrist is scared of us because the Bible says greater is he that is in us than he that's in the world. And it's talking about the Antichrist spirit. The Antichrist spirit is scared of the church.

And that's the reason why Second Thessalonian says that that Antichrist cannot take his place until a restraining force. There's something holding him back that gets removed. And when that's removed, he's able to take his place. And that's what the church is in the parallel. There's a whole chapter on the Philadelphia experiment comparing it with the church at Philadelphia. So you've got to check that out. I was encouraged to see that chapter. Yeah. Got to put a little weird in it. Yeah, of course, of course. When it comes to this, and you kind of started hitting on it a little bit, it seems like there are different types of Christians when it comes to this. And some of them tend to get lazy with their duties.

Yes. And it's just like, whatever. You know, I'm free trip. I'm not going to be here for it. I don't care. Bring it on. Bring on the rapture. And it kind of just really negates their foundational duties as a Christian, doesn't it?

Absolutely. So when I say, when the book is titled, they lied to you about the rapture. It sounds very controversial. Actually, the book is very healing. If you were PTSD from, you know, crazy rapture, fear-based rapture, teaching. It'll be very healing for that. That's why I can hold this conversation. Yeah, exactly. But you're exactly right. The main lie that I address is the lie that comes from our own camp that says, I'm not going to be here anyway. You know, what do I care? And I can just bury my head in the sand

and not engage because I'm going to be gone anyway. I don't believe that. I don't think that's true. We've been commanded to occupy until he comes. And we're consistently warned throughout scripture, throughout the New Testament, particularly, to watch for him and what it means to watch for him. When you read First Cessalonians in chapter four, the first part of chapter four really goes into what it means to be ready to meet Jesus. And that's all about occupying until Jesus comes and being prepared, being active, being engaged, whether you think you're going to be here or not, you're going to be tested on how well you did as if you were going to be here. You know, in the same way when you're in a college course, if you're, you'll be tasked with building

a business and having a 20-year plan. Well, that business is a business. probably never going to be a reality. And it's only going to last for that semester. It's going to be done. The project's going to be done. But you're going to be graded on how you planned and how you prepared even generationally. And the same is true for the rapture of the church. We're called to engage this culture and we'll be judged by how we engage this culture and how we planned and prepared for the future because that's important.

So with this, and I've heard, I forget who, I've heard people talk about the idea of, you know, our prayer, maybe I'm misunderstanding, but the idea that our prayers could delay the coming. And it does kind of make sense to me in the sense that, I don't even want to say kind of like I'm unsure, but the idea of, and I told you before we started recording that I had been for a while really just chewing on Exodus. And the Old Testament and the idea that the Israelites were in the wilderness and what all that was. But so many times, God just wanted to just wipe them off the earth. And it took Moses, like God would need reminding, but he reminded the promise.

Yes. You promised. And he's like, okay. You remember, God is not in control, as we talked about earlier. He's given us control. And so when we intercede on behalf of another, this Rube Goldberg device that is a law that he's set in motion can be super. proceeded through our prayers, but it has to be done legally, and that's by engaging God through intercession. And so people have made the point that I think is fascinating that, you know, the Bible

even says, pray that it's not winter when you have to go into that thing. And even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus is the prayer. Now, when we get to Enoch's loss prophecy, we were talking about he gave birth to a son and something happened there. Well, he named his son a prophecy. His son's name is actually a prophecy. His son's name was Methuselah. Methuselah means when he dies, judgment comes. And so we know that the moment Methuselah dies, judgment's coming on the earth.

The whole world is about to be consumed in judgment. Can you imagine? I mean, that's your child's name. And you don't know when he's going to die. So every time he has a fever, you're like, is this it? Is this the moment when he falls down and hits his head? Is this the moment? So this is what happened.

When we're talking about Enoch's walk with God, the concept of eminence is what transformed Enoch's life and mind to get so close to God that he's able to be taken off this planet. But when we're looking at this gentleman, this guy named Methuselah, who his life represents the judgment of God, what is Methuselah known for? He's known as the oldest man to ever live in the Bible, 969. years. 69? Okay. Yeah. It was 969.

Something like that. So it's interesting that the guy who means judgment's coming. Yeah. Turns out being the oldest guy who ever lived because God. I have a lot of time. God doesn't want to judge the earth. You know, he's trying to give us as much time as humanly possible. And so, yeah, there's a lot to our prayers.

I don't know that we, when you're dealing with an imminent event that can happen in any moment. Right. I don't know that we can delay the rapture of the church. But we should pray that we can engage as much as we can, as long as we can. we can as effectively as we can. So maybe that would be even, that would be a great prayer is to pray that with the time left, whatever that is, let me be the most effective within those walls of time.

Yes. And the rapture of the church should not rob somebody of that. It shouldn't make you less effective. It should make you more effective. Same. We know that if the Lord Terry's, if he delays this coming, we're going to die. That's going to happen. So what does that mean?

Does that mean you shouldn't live right or eat right? or exercise? Why would you exercise or eat right if you know you're going to die eventually? You know how it's going to end. You know it's going to end bad. Well, because as long as you're here, you want to be as strong as you can, as effective as you can, for the kingdom of God. So the same is true with the rapture. It should make us want to live holy and be effective. That makes total sense. Total sense. All right. So I want to kind of bring it in for landing with this, which is taking it into our culture today. And this is more perspective. I know you've seen it. I know you've seen it. the rise of the Christian faith in culture.

We see, you know, I talk about it a lot. I'm sure you do too, the idea that Gen Z is really looking for faith and spiritual existence. And a lot of them are turning to the church in Jesus. And, you know, I learned about which talk at your conference two years ago. But we're also seeing it in the higher up. I mean, the celebrities, like big, like Tucker Carlson. Russell Brand. And even recently, Rogan, there's a clip going around of him who is, they were, he was, I don't even know who he was talking to, but they were talking about the idea of Bing Bang,

and he's like, listen, like, you're telling me, I have to have a belief in one miracle that something existed and just poof, it is this bang. He's like, I'm picking Jesus. Yeah. And it's like, there's this conversation happening. And I've heard Rogan talking about Nephilim on the show. I'm like, bring me on, coach, put me in, you know. But it's, there's, there's, there's It's like, why do you think that's happening now? Is that a sign of the end? Well, there's stats in the book, and you didn't know I had this open to this page. Really?

Yeah. Oh, shoot. I saw you had it open. I didn't. Because I knew at some point this was going to be appropriate. Because I think this is fascinating. It's a chapter about falling in love with his appearing. Because I don't want a generation to be scared of his appearing.

That's not what I want. I want people to fall in love with it. Be excited about it. Be passionate about it. And there's an interesting study that was done on the U.S. population. Four in ten adults in America believe we're living in the end times. 55% are convinced that Jesus will return someday. Imagine that 55% of adults in America, not Christians, of adults.

What percentage do you think are Christians in America? It's not 55%. No. So there's a lot of people who aren't even saved who believe Jesus could return someday. 29% of individuals from non-Christian religions. share the belief we're in the end times. And here's where it gets crazy. 9% of atheists and 14% of agnostics

also entertain the idea that we're living in the end times. Wow. So there is something happening in the world where everyone in society has this sense that we're on the edge. They are seeing evil manifest all over the world. We're seeing wickedness. We're seeing evil manifest all over the world.

and deception and the lies. And just we're becoming more and more aware of how wicked this world is. And I think they're waking up to that and waking up to the reality that, well, if that's true, if there is wickedness, there must be righteousness. And who is the most righteous who has ever lived? Jesus. The fascinating thing about Jesus is that we have here a man who lived, who walked, who spoke, who says he is the image of God.

And when we look at him, he in no way diminishes what we think God should be. He elevates it. That's a miracle. Put that tag on anyone else and say they're a representation of God. And they're going to in some way diminish what we think God should be. But when we look at Jesus, he elevates what we think God should be. He brings it into a clear picture. That's a miracle all by itself.

And so as people are grappling with these issues that wickedness is real. Evil is real. Demons are real. This is purely demonic what's happening in this culture or around the world. And we get this sense that, man, we're on the cusp of something. We're on the verge. Even animals can sense when an earthquake's about to take place. I think humans can sense when there's a spiritual earthquake about to take place.

And they're like, if this is real, then where can I find answers? And there's really only one person offering them. It's Jesus. And people will say, well, that's so narrow-minded to say that Jesus is the only way. he's the only one in the running. There is no other person offering saying, I'll take your sins on myself. I'll suffer for you.

I'll go to hell for you. And you can have my righteousness. You can have my, nobody else is offering that. So it's not like it's a narrow-minded thing. He's the only one in the running that's making this offer. And the world is starting to wake up to that reality and saying, yeah, I'll take Jesus.

Yeah. That seems more likely to me. That's what Rogan was saying, that Jesus rose and that from an infantisanal dog, there was an explosion and all of a sudden, you know, everything was created. So there is this awakening taking place. And I think part of it is through a fascination with the end times, which is why I wanted to write the book. So I'm glad you did.

point him to Jesus. Yeah, I'm glad you did. Rapturebook.com is where they can get it. Rapturebook.com. And there's a lot of stuff. We're going to do an in-time Q&A and Zoom meetings so you can come and be with us and do Q&A. There's a glossary in the back of the book. So if you look up terms, you're like, I don't understand any of this stuff.

We're going to make the book of revelation make sense to you in this book. Awesome. They lied to you about the rapture. Rapturebook.com. Everybody can go get it. They should get it. And this was a fascinating conversation. And I was just going to end it now.

But you brought up something I have to just comment on. Did you know we had an earthquake here just two days ago or something like that? I preached that very day. So I apologize for that in Tennessee. I was preaching in Tennessee. Where was that earthquake? I was thinking because you have the Oak Ridge Laboratory here, by the way. And earthquakes are not common to Tennessee.

like, not like this. Yeah, this was a big one. And, um, I, I, apparently we are on a fault line and, and, and, and, but you don't feel them. And, uh, I was standing in my house and. Oh, you felt it. Oh, yeah. I was getting, what day of the week was that? Was that Friday?

Yeah. What, what day was that? I don't, I don't remember. It was just recently, though. And I just remember I was getting ready to leave and Friday night or Saturday. It was a boom. And it was just like this big boom. And then it was like this like a reverbing.

I thought, I didn't know what it was. It sounded like an explosion. And then it sounded like there was a helicopter. Because of Oak Ridge, we have the end, Fort Campbell, we have helicopters that usually fly over our house and pairs at least a couple times a month. And it sounded like one of those helicopters was hovering over my house, like just, like right over my house with the propellers going, whoa, whoa, whoa. That's what it sounded.

This is boom. Whoa, whoa. And I was like, I'm like, what is that? I run outside because I'm thinking, what did I do? Yeah, they're coming for me. What did I do? They found us. I don't know how, but they found us.

We're getting ready to talk about the rapture. Now you want to handle me? You know? And so I go out there and I go back inside and Lings is like, I think that was an earthquake. And you ran out of the house. You left us here. But it was a 4.1 magnitude of Earth date. Yeah.

And back in 1973, the largest happened at 4.3 in Alcoa, which is like five miles, not even five miles. And where it actually happened was in Greenback, which is probably about 20 minutes south of here. And I felt it about 20 minutes north of here where the house is at. And they felt it down in Georgia. And so I have been seeing people saying, is this a scroll being unsealed? I don't know. All I know is that I didn't like it. And I don't want happening again. Because, you know, an interesting stat is that someone once said earthquakes don't kill people. Poorly built structures kill people. Right.

Structures that aren't built to withstand it. That's the problem, not the earthquake itself. Yeah. And so when you're building your life in these last days, make sure you build it so that it can withstand the shaking, you know. Make sure it's on the solid rock of who Jesus is. And make sure that if you run out of the house, you don't leave your family. Absolutely. Alan Didio.

Thank you for coming in studio. It's been great. My pleasure. Thank you. Thank you.