Mt. 24:4 “And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘See to it that no one misleads you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and they will mislead many people…. 11 And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people…. 23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘He is over here,’ do not believe him. 24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. 25 Behold, I have told you in advance. 26 So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them.”

September 20, 2025

The Lord moves on me to keep the faithful watchers abreast of what is really happening as the times keep unfolding. As much as things may appear to be new, in reality, the same predictable patterns simply keep repeating themselves, and need just to be perceived for what they are in their latest iteration.

I begin with Matthew 24 once again. The outstanding theme of Jesus’ end time discourse is His warning against being misled, that is, deceived. He discusses many things in this discourse, yet He begins with His number one concern which is this theme of deception. He opens with it, and then returns to it twice more in His explanation of the end. In other words, He is giving three witnesses to the importance of this matter as if to say, “Only if you get this right will you be correctly positioned for the rest of what else is to come.”

In particular, Jesus warns against deception regarding two things: 1) the rise of false personages (false christs, prophets, and other anointed ones) and 2) the peddling of false expectations as to the when and where of His return. A common thread exists between these two warnings as to the “why” behind our susceptibility to being deceived in these two areas. We specifically want to address the prophetic nature associated with these deceptions by those who are well-meaning lovers of the Lord, but whose gifting has otherwise been compromised.

As we look into this then, we want to understand that not everyone peddling false expectations has evil motives. We are talking now about those who really believe they are hearing from the Lord and seek the Lord diligently for His mind on things. They have no intent to deceive anyone and would be ashamed if they thought they were so doing.

However, the truth is, if mixture exists in the heart of such prophetic watchers, then that mixture will open them up to “hearing things from the Lord” that are in fact contrary to the Mind of the Lord and which are provably indefensible from the written Word of God. They will “hear words” and “dream dreams” and “see things” as if from “Jesus,” but which in reality, are products of their already set beliefs and desires for what they want or expect to come to pass.

Once again, in this article, we are applying this form of deception to two specific things: 1) the rise of political saviors, and 2) false expectations pertaining to the when and where of the Lord’s return. Both of these are emanating immediate manifestations which are converging on this season and week, so we want to discuss them. We begin with the second deception first.

False Expectations of the Lord’s Return: Brother Joshua of South Africa

So an obscure man in South Africa has now garnered world attention for predicting that the rapture will most certainly occur on either September 23 or 24, 2025 (less than five days from this writing). The man, going by the name “Brother Joshua,” has given his extensive testimony, outlining his humble peasant background, and has shared the various dreams and visions he has had the last 10 years in which ultimately “Jesus told him” of this date for the rapture. Let’s proceed to expose the clear reasons this prediction must be rejected as false.

At the top of the list is that Jesus tells us “the kingdom does not come with observation” (Lk. 17:20). In other words, the initial coming of the king as a thief to begin setting up His manifest kingdom is not a naturally apprehendable event. This initial coming is not to be confused with His later full arrival which “every eye shall see,” with which no rapture is associated (Rev. 19).

Prior to that final arrival however, the Lord’s coming “as a thief” is only perceivable to those who are ready and qualified to be taken. This means that, not only the world, but those among God’s people who are unqualified and unready will not perceive it. This imperceptibility embraces the concept of unexpectability. That which cannot be naturally perceived also cannot be naturally expected. The two ideas are inseparable.

This speaks to Jesus’ repeated point that His arrival comes in “an hour such as you don’t think.” Again, this means more than meets the ear. It is not just that you won’t expect it, it is that you cannot expect it. He is speaking to the natural man here. His arrival cannot be naturally expected, as if by an observable, calculable point of time on a clock, because He comes from a dimension beyond naturally apprehendable time and sense.

Thus Christ’s coming, which marks our translation (or “rapture”), is an event that comes to us from the inside out. It originates in the spirit from the heavenly realm in the form of a spirit-frequency trumpet blast. Once heard and received in the spirit, it changes the entire body to become like His body. This is absolutely contrary to the natural capacity to perceive and expect, all of which is attuned to the outside life.

This does not mean that, as the hour draws near and the very day arrives, those to be taken will not know it as if to be caught by total surprise. When our internal translation is imminent, those ready and qualified will inwardly know it by the spirit. This is much like the sons of the prophets, all of whom had a spirit knowing the very day Elijah was to be taken, which Elijah and Elisha themselves both knew also—that day, and that day only.

But such spirit knowing on that day will not be communicable to the outer ear by the outer voice of any man or messenger. As Jesus put it, “He that has ears to hear, let him hear.” He is not speaking of objective natural hearing. He is speaking only of inner spirit hearing, which but few in the church have cultivated, never mind the world. Only those attuned in the spirit will spiritually know to expect the hour of their taking, one that comes not with observation. Again, Paul says, “Eye has not seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for those that love Him.” This applies to the rapture.

If this is understood, then the reader will easily understand why any and every public prediction of the naturally perceivable return of Jesus on a certain naturally expectable date must be immediately judged as false. The fact of such a prediction immediately proves its falsity. No prophet or messenger or angel, neither any supposed dream nor vision nor word sent out to the public will God use to communicate a time that the public can embrace by natural hearing the call “to be ready for Jesus.”

Said another way, if you heard about this prediction over the airwaves—by news, by grapevine, by YouTube, by messenger, by angel—you can safely ignore it. When God is ready to take you, my friend, it will only be because He told you directly by His Spirit to your spirit on that very day, and no earlier. It will be sent to you privately, by “subspace channel.”  On that day, you will see Him the same way Steven did, but no one around him did. You will see Him the same way Daniel did, and later Paul, but no one around them did.      

I’m writing this especially for the younger up-and-coming generation whose ears and eyes into spiritual reality are not as developed and who still quickly respond to purported spiritual messages on the wings of natural hearing. There is no way to count the multitudes who are believing in this and similar predictions based on social media hearing. A public prediction heard over natural airways that tickles the soul amounts to nothing but rumor, the exact kind of rumoring Jesus warned against believing.

Those of us more seasoned have already experienced similar predictions in our youth, and seen the devastating aftermath of humiliation that occurs after each such prediction fails. Who among the older generation can’t remember Edgar Whisenant’s “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988”?

Or how about the Korean-led globally-advertised rapture prediction for October 28, 1992? (The telephone poles plastered with those signs were so glued that it took over a year after the failed prediction before many of the signs disappeared!) Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!

Then what about Family Radio’s Harold Camping and his predictions about September 6, 1994 (then later May 21, 2011)?  The fact is millions of people were snowed by these predictions here and everywhere. And of those, numerous committed suicide after the predictions failed.

What then about Brother Joshua? What do we make of him?

It is not my heart to dishonor this brother, whom I otherwise take as sincere and genuine in his walk with the Lord. However, anyone who listens to him carefully will discern intrinsic problems with his prediction. The factor giving Brother Joshua such credence is the story he weaves of his conversion and certain supernatural signs leading him to his visions. But his prediction of the rapture, supposedly given directly from Jesus Himself, is seated on a provably false interpretation inherited from unanointed men in the 19^th century and carried thoughtlessly ever since.

I’m speaking specifically of the completely unsupportable concept of a 7-year tribulation. No scripture speaks of a “7-year tribulation.” That unanointed interpretation was superimposed on the 7-year multilateral treaty in Daniel 9:27 to claim that the tribulation lasts seven years. Daniel says that in the middle of that seven years (or “week”), the abomination of desolation will be set up. Yet Jesus clearly says that the great tribulation will not ensue until Daniel’s abomination of desolation is set up.

Putting all this together means the great tribulation does not begin until the mid-point of the 7-year treaty, meaning it lasts only 3 ½ years, agreeing with every other scripture citing it as 3 ½ years. This means that the idea of a “7-year tribulation” does not exist.

Yet Brother Joshua claims “Jesus specifically told Him” that the 7-year tribulation will begin immediately after the complete church wide rapture on September 23 or 24, to then end in 2032. Furthermore, this single error is superimposed over the broad common error that teaches that “the entire church will go up in the rapture,” which is patently false as thoroughly demonstrated through the ministry of Brother Earls as well as our own writings.

Beside the fact that these naturally-voiced visionary predictions amount to no more than prophetic rumor, the intrinsic errors mixed into a message purported to come straight from Jesus precisely exemplify why many sincere prophetic believers yet utter false prophecies. It is because their hearing of Jesus is conducted through the matrix of their own natural predilections. Human favoritism toward pre-packaged eschatology as well as of cultural affinity (read, nationalism) poisons more prophecies than one can shake a stick at. This is what we meant above in saying:

They will “hear words” and “dream dreams” and “see things” as if from the Lord, but which in reality, are products of their already set beliefs and desires for what they want or expect to come to pass.

No one, already having a personal stake in a matter toward a favored outcome, can issue a true prophecy about that matter. And when it comes to such matters as national interest and influence, one must first become absolutely stripped of personal identity and interest in that nation in order to objectively prophesy from the Spirit about it. This is the common thread that leads us to our second theme today:

End-Time Political Cultism and the Assassination of Charlie Kirk

The fever-pitched hype attending the rapture prediction is of the same breed as that driving the martyrdom narrative behind the Kirk assassination. Again, we are still writing under the overall umbrella of end-time deception. Let’s talk about this.

The reader must understand that the spirit behind the magnification of the Charlie Kirk assassination is not the Holy Spirit. The only martyr the Holy Spirit has ever exalted is Jesus Christ. Thus those speaking out on social media about Charlie Kirk are not speaking from the Holy Spirit. And many (if not most) believers advocating for the causes of Charlie Kirk via prayer and prophecy are not being led by the Holy Spirit, but by another spirit altogether.

That is, the spirit fanning the flames of the Kirk saga is the spirit of political cultism dressed up in Christian garb. Such cultism is what has arisen on the wings of the political re-ascension of Donald Trump, of whom Charlie Kirk was a wholesale advocate. And those of our faith caught up into the quasi-“Christian” maelstrom of it all do so from the same predilections just discussed above. We must expose this prophetic deception that conflates political righteousness with spiritual righteousness, and political assassination with spiritual martyrdom, for this is the core element steeped in Christian nationalism leading the world to its great no-win conflagration between international “good” and “evil.”

The generations since Christ have witnessed many battles between national and international good vs. evil. Those battles have run in cycles to yield but temporary winners at one time or the other. All the combatants of those fleshly battles have then eventually died, as have their causes. That includes the chief proponents of the good or the evil (depending whose viewpoint is assessing it). And fighting in the flesh over fleshly good still leads no further than death, no matter how many Bible verses are attached to it or how many “prophecies” attempt to breathe life into it. No one earns any merit in heaven for fighting either a war of weapons or a war of words on the side of perceived political good.

Out of all those generations however, the Father has cultivated to Himself through His Son a set-apart people. That people has obtained eternal life which outlasts this lifetime. Their ticket to that eternal life is the gospel message. The gospel is a transcendent spiritual message bringing men to eternal life out of the carnal life marked by the fleshly war between good and evil. It stands on its own power, and cannot be mixed with any other message without losing its power and becoming corrupted.

Now the gospel has good effects on carnal national life. But that is a side benefit, not its focus. The gospel is not about promoting a good life that will still die, but rather it promotes only an eternal life that will never die. However—and this is where the end time deception among nations begins—those who promote the gospel can easily be deceived and misled into promoting the carnally beneficial side effects of their message rather than their message. When this happen, their message corrupts and they become drawn into the fleshly war between good and evil. They move from being proponents of the gospel and eternal life, to becoming mere proponents of good with a religious tinge.

Good that is carried out on the stage of national and international affairs can be called “political righteousness.” Political righteousness in turn carried out to its extreme produces political cultism and political savior worship. Under political cultism, men move from worshipping God to worshipping an advocate of national or international good in some form (e.g., “free speech”). And they will proceed to fight a war of carnal words (if not weapons) to advance that hero’s cause. (Welcome back to the crusades.)

The conversion of the gospel from a medium of eternal life to one of advancing political righteousness spells the ultimate end time deception, for now men can no longer tell the difference between the two. Thus political righteousness garbed in the language of the gospel becomes its own brand of religious righteousness—indeed, its own religion.

And that is what has happened in America. Political righteousness has been converted to a religion, draped in banners and symbols of the gospel. But it is only a disguise. It “looks” like a lamb, but still carries the voice of a dragon. It does not lead to eternal life. It only leads to an exacerbated state of intra-national civil conflict and international warfare—an endless war between good and evil that no flesh finally ever can win. Another cycle in another generation just carries on further, while the preceding proponents pass on in death. (“When will they ever learn….?”)

It is exactly for such political righteousness and its civil religion that Charlie Kirk lived and died. He was not a spiritual martyr. He was not a Stephen or a Paul or a Peter following the footsteps of the cross (—none of whom were exalted when they died). Kirk was not even a Billy Graham. He was the victim of a political assassination on the behalf of questionable “good” over the turf issues inside a kingdom of this world—the very “affairs of the flesh” Paul advocated against becoming entangled with (II Tim. 2:4).

None of the arguably “good” policy changes (depending on the beholder) effected due to Kirk’s advocacy are the fruit of anyone’s eternal conversion or spiritual transformation. There is no groundswell of national repentance and brokenness behind them sprouting from the ground up.

Those changes are instead the fruit of raw top-down political power exercised in the hands of a single man (with whom there is no “free speech”), a power as easily reversible once that man leaves power or else changes his mind. Based on their own human American predilections, the intercessors and prophets prophesied this scenario into being, and God has given them what they asked for. But what they have asked for will come back to haunt and persecute them. That is how “good” political power, i.e., political righteousness, always ends up.

As a politically righteous prophet, Charlie ended as a victim of his own message. For as he advocated it should happen, so did it happen—to him:

“[The death penalty] should be public, it should be quick, it should be televised.”  

This is precisely what John the Revelator meant when prophesying of the end,

“He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword.

Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” Rev 13:10 NKJ

If we are to be martyred, it ought to be for the sake of proclaiming the eternal gospel and its cross. It ought not be for the sake of racially-baited political swordsmanship wherein we have taken sides in a carnal war that can never be won but leads only to death. Apprehending and living by this distinction is what marks the patience and the faith of the saints. (John’s word of patience here is not a commendation of those saints led to this kind of death, but a warning to resist the urge to fall into the same temptations as these saints fell.)

Conclusion

The common thread takeaway from these converging events of Brother Joshua’s to-be-failed rapture prediction and the politically cultic glorification of the Kirk assassination is that, despite all their draping in biblical language and the aura of supposed Holy Spirit visitation, both events are founded in human interpretation and carnal cause-mongering that will leave their hearers deceived, disappointed with God, and led to see their love grow cold. It is events like these that will contribute to the ultimate great falling away predicted by Jesus.

If you have read this far without being put off, then know that you do not have to be among that number who will depart their first love. You rather will be astute enough to understand that these failed predictions and political ideologies will continue to roam the earth, seeking to bait God’s people into more and more distraction. You will recognize them for what they are, and you will be delivered from their snare toward the true inner preparation for the Lord’s inner return. You will have passed His test of your true inner devotion and loyalty in preparation for the real translation still to follow. 

Please meditate carefully on these words therefore, pondering them until you fully realize the true forces generating and operating behind these events, and you are released from all angst regarding these situations.

See you on the 25^th!

Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island

First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org

09/25