My Antennas Are Up: Russia, NATO, World War III and the Sixth Trumpet

MY ANTENNAS ARE UP. SOMETHING ABOUT THIS DOES NOT FEEL RIGHT TO ME. I have one of those gut feelings tonight, and I have lived long enough to know that when something in my gut keeps telling me to pay attention, I had better pay attention. I have ignored those feelings before, and more than once I regretted it. Now, let me be clear about something. My gut feeling is not Scripture. I am not claiming God whispered tomorrow’s headlines in my ear. I am not calling myself a prophet. I can certainly be wrong. But I have learned over a lifetime that when my experience, what I am seeing with my own eyes, my understanding of human behavior, the geopolitical situation, and my study of Scripture all start causing those internal warning bells to go off at the same time, I do not ignore them anymore. Right now my antennas are way up, and my gut is telling me very strongly to pay attention.

THE CIA DIRECTOR JUST MADE A VERY UNUSUAL TRIP TO MOSCOW. CIA Director John Ratcliffe made an unusual and unannounced visit to Moscow, and reports indicated the aircraft associated with his visit departed Russia later the same day. We still do not publicly know exactly what was discussed. That gets my attention because the last known visit to Moscow by a sitting CIA director was William Burns in November 2021. Burns went there to warn Vladimir Putin against invading Ukraine. About three months later Putin launched the full scale invasion anyway. Now here we are again with another CIA director making an unusual trip to Moscow at a very dangerous moment in this war. Maybe they are trying to keep communications open. Maybe they are trying to negotiate something. Maybe he delivered a warning. I do not know. But I am watching it very carefully.

I BELIEVE PUTIN MAY BE LOOKING FOR A WAY TO TEST NATO. Russia has suffered enormous battlefield losses, the war has dragged on far longer than Putin expected, and Russia continues to deal with manpower and military problems. At the same time Russia is testing preparations that could support another mobilization, and I keep looking at Kaliningrad and the Baltic region. If Putin ever decides to deliberately instigate a direct confrontation with NATO, I do not think he picks the strongest NATO countries first. I think he looks for what he believes is the weakest point in the Alliance, and that means I would be watching Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kaliningrad, and the Baltic region very closely.

THE REAL TEST WOULD BE ARTICLE 5. Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty is the heart of NATO collective defense. An armed attack against one member is supposed to be treated as an attack against them all. So if Putin did something in the Baltics, the real question might not be whether Russia could defeat NATO conventionally. I do not believe it could. The real question might be whether NATO really means what it says. Will America fight for Estonia. Will Germany fight for Latvia. Will Britain, France, Poland, and the rest of NATO risk their own soldiers and possibly their own cities for Lithuania. In other words, Putin could be asking the Alliance one simple question. Do you really mean it.

AND HERE IS ANOTHER POSSIBILITY THAT REALLY BOTHERS ME. WHAT IF PUTIN BELIEVES THE UNITED STATES CANNOT HANDLE SEVERAL MAJOR WARS AT ONCE. This is speculation on my part, and I want to label it exactly that. I am not saying Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are sitting around one table with a calendar planning the opening day of World War III. I have no evidence of that. But their military and political cooperation has been getting closer, and American military leaders and strategic analysts have been warning about the danger of simultaneous crises involving these countries. Maybe Putin looks at the United States and thinks America is already stretched thin. We have commitments in Europe. We have commitments in the Middle East. We have major responsibilities in the Pacific. We have limited stocks of some of the very expensive missiles, interceptors, aircraft, ships, and weapons needed to fight modern high intensity wars. Perhaps he thinks the United States simply cannot fight everybody at the same time.

NOW IMAGINE THE NIGHTMARE SCENARIO. Suppose Russia deliberately creates a NATO crisis in the Baltic region. Then, while America and NATO are moving forces and attention toward Europe, China decides that this is its opportunity to move against Taiwan. Suddenly the United States is facing two major nuclear armed powers in two completely different theaters. Japan would most likely become deeply involved because of its alliance with the United States, its geography, American bases on Japanese territory, and the direct threat that a Taiwan conflict would pose to Japan.

THEN ASK WHAT NORTH KOREA MIGHT DO. North Korea has been drawing increasingly close to Russia while maintaining its relationship with China. If the United States were suddenly tied down in a war involving Russia in Europe and China around Taiwan, would Kim Jong Un sit quietly and watch. Maybe. I hope so. But I certainly would not bet my family’s future on it. North Korea could threaten South Korea, strike Japan, create another military crisis, or simply force the United States to devote still more forces and weapons to Northeast Asia.

AND THEN THERE IS IRAN AND THE MIDDLE EAST. Iran has its own interests and its own confrontation with the United States, Israel, and Western powers. Again, I am not claiming that Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, and Pyongyang have secretly agreed to start World War III together. That would go far beyond the evidence we have. But these governments share an interest in weakening American power, reducing Western influence, and changing the international system in their favor. Their relationships are not identical and they do not always trust each other, but the strategic danger is obvious enough to deserve attention.

SO WHAT IF THEY DO NOT NEED A FORMAL CONSPIRACY AT ALL. That may actually be the more dangerous possibility. Putin does not necessarily need a signed agreement from Xi Jinping saying China will invade Taiwan at the same moment Russia moves against NATO. These leaders can watch one another. They can recognize opportunity. Russia creates a crisis. China sees America distracted and acts in its own interest. North Korea sees China and Russia tying down American forces and decides this is its moment to create trouble on the Korean Peninsula. Iran sees American attention and weapons divided between Europe and Asia and decides it has more freedom to act in the Middle East. Nobody necessarily has to coordinate every move. Each country simply takes advantage of the chaos created by the others.

THAT IS WHAT A TRUE MULTI FRONT WORLD WAR COULD LOOK LIKE. Europe erupts around Russia and NATO. China moves against Taiwan. Japan becomes involved because events in the Taiwan Strait threaten Japanese territory and American bases. North Korea creates another crisis against South Korea or Japan. Iran and its allies increase pressure in the Middle East. Suddenly the United States and its allies are trying to fight or deter major threats in Europe, the Western Pacific, the Korean Peninsula, and the Middle East simultaneously.

THERE IS SOMETHING ELSE I THINK ABOUT WITH THESE MEN. Putin, Xi Jinping, and other senior leaders in this confrontation are men with historical ambitions and a strong sense of legacy. I sometimes wonder whether leaders who have spent much of their lives pursuing enormous national goals begin thinking differently when they realize they do not have forever. They want to see their plans come to fruition. They want history to remember them as the man who restored Russia, reunified China, broke American power, or completed whatever mission they believe history has assigned to them. I cannot know what is inside another man’s heart. But ambition, age, legacy, ideology, and nuclear weapons can be a dangerous combination.

I BELIEVE NATO COULD DESTROY RUSSIA CONVENTIONALLY, AND I THINK PUTIN KNOWS THAT. If NATO brought its full conventional military power to bear, I believe Russia could be devastated very rapidly. Putin knows the difference in economic power, technology, air power, logistics, intelligence, naval power, and the size of the combined Alliance. That is exactly why I do not think his objective, if he deliberately creates a confrontation, would necessarily be to defeat NATO conventionally.

MY WORRY IS THAT ESCALATION ITSELF MAY BE THE PLAN. This is the part that keeps bothering me. What if Putin creates a limited confrontation with NATO. NATO responds. Russia begins losing badly in conventional combat. Then Putin threatens the use of tactical nuclear weapons. Maybe he demonstrates one. Maybe, God forbid, he actually uses one against a military target. Then he tells NATO and the rest of the world to stop, negotiate, give him an acceptable settlement in Ukraine and elsewhere, or the next step will be worse. In other words, create a crisis so horrifying that the world begins begging for peace.

PUTIN MAY THINK NUCLEAR COERCION CAN GIVE HIM WHAT CONVENTIONAL WARFARE HAS NOT. That is the strategic logic that concerns me. If Russia cannot achieve its objectives on the battlefield, perhaps Putin believes nuclear intimidation could force the world to sue for peace on his terms. He may believe that once one tactical nuclear weapon is used, Western governments will become so frightened of escalation that they will pressure Ukraine and NATO into giving him what he wants.

MY WARNING IS THIS. I DO NOT THINK IT WOULD GO THE WAY PUTIN EXPECTS. Nuclear war is not a poker game where somebody pushes his chips forward and everybody else calmly folds. Once the nuclear threshold is crossed, nobody can guarantee what happens next. One tactical nuclear weapon could produce retaliation. Retaliation could produce another escalation. Another escalation could produce a strategic strike. A warning radar could be misunderstood. A missile could be misidentified. A commander could believe he has only minutes to act. Communications could fail. Governments could panic. Events could begin moving faster than the men who started them can stop them. That is how civilizations die, and that is why I see nothing but horror if this gets out of control.

THIS IS WHERE MY STUDY OF THE SIXTH TRUMPET KEEPS COMING BACK INTO MY MIND. Those of you who have followed my writing know that I have written considerably about what I call the Sixth Trumpet War. My interpretation is that the Sixth Trumpet describes what mankind will eventually call World War III. I want to make it very clear that these are my interpretations based upon my study of Scripture. My foundation is the Bible itself. Not YouTube. Not TikTok. Not somebody’s sensational prophecy book. Not some guy yelling into a microphone telling me that every earthquake means Jesus is returning Tuesday afternoon. I thank God for the ministries and teachers He has placed in my life. I thank Him for every blessing, every teacher, every ministry, and every bit of insight He has allowed me to gain. But ultimately I always have to come back to one question. What does the Bible actually say.

REVELATION TELLS US ABOUT FOUR ANGELS BOUND AT THE EUPHRATES AND PREPARED FOR AN APPOINTED MOMENT.

Revelation 9:14-16, KJV: “Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.”

MY INTERPRETATION IS THAT THOSE FOUR ANGELS ARE BEING PREPARED FOR ONE PARTICULAR MOMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY. I believe those angels are being held for an appointed time. A particular hour. A particular day. A particular month. A particular year. I believe that appointed moment is associated with the beginning of the Sixth Trumpet War, the war I believe the world will eventually know as World War III. I do not believe these angels are simply wandering around history causing random trouble. I believe they are restrained until their appointed time, and when that time arrives they are loosed.

THE PURPOSE DESCRIBED IN SCRIPTURE IS TERRIFYING. The Bible says they are prepared “for to slay the third part of men.” One third of mankind. That is not Iraq. That is not Afghanistan. That is not Ukraine. That is not another little regional war. That is a catastrophe unlike anything mankind has ever experienced.

REVELATION TELLS US HOW TERRIBLE THAT WAR BECOMES.

Revelation 9:18, KJV: “By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.”

AND WHERE ARE THOSE FOUR ANGELS BOUND. THE EUPHRATES. Look at that part of the world. Look at Israel. Look at Iran. Look at Syria. Look at Iraq. Look at Turkey. Look at the conflicts and great power interests throughout that entire region. Look also at the history of drought, dams, declining downstream flows, water disputes, and enormous water stress throughout the Tigris and Euphrates basin. Water levels can rise and fall from year to year, and I am not going to point at every low riverbank photograph and declare prophecy fulfilled. But the Euphrates has gone through enormous changes, and thousands of years after John wrote Revelation that river still sits in one of the most geopolitically dangerous regions on planet Earth. That is something worth thinking about.

I KEEP ASKING MYSELF WHETHER THOSE FOUR ANGELS ARE GETTING CLOSE TO THEIR APPOINTED MOMENT. Maybe the answer is no. Maybe we are years away. Maybe everything settles down tomorrow. I pray it does. But when I look around this planet today I see nations and leaders doing things that would have seemed almost unimaginably reckless not very long ago. Russia and Ukraine. Russia and NATO. Israel and its enemies. Iran. China and Taiwan. North Korea. Nuclear powers staring at one another. Proxy wars. Cyber warfare. Terrorism. Political hatred. Economic instability. Weapons becoming increasingly destructive. Human beings becoming increasingly convinced that compromise is weakness and that their enemies are evil. Sometimes I wonder whether forces are moving behind the scenes that mankind itself does not understand.

AGAIN, THESE ARE MY INTERPRETATIONS. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM JUST BECAUSE I SAY THEM. Open your Bible. Read it. Study it. Pray about it. Ask God for discernment. Decide for yourself. My foundation is Scripture. I am grateful for ministries and teachers, but I do not want my faith resting upon YouTube videos or somebody else’s book about the Bible. I want it resting upon the Word of God.

NOW IMAGINE WHAT HAPPENS AFTER A WAR THAT KILLS ONE THIRD OF MANKIND. Imagine surviving it. Imagine cities destroyed. Families gone. National economies collapsed. Food distribution shattered. Power grids damaged. Governments barely functioning. Hundreds of millions or even billions dead. What do you think the survivors would want more than anything else. Peace. Not peace five years from now. Peace immediately. Peace at almost any price.

THAT IS WHY I BELIEVE THE AFTERMATH OF THE SIXTH TRUMPET WAR COULD BECOME THE ENTRANCE RAMP FOR THE ANTICHRIST. A frightened and exhausted world could become very willing to surrender enormous authority to one leader promising order. Someone appears and says I can stop the wars, restore trade, stabilize currencies, distribute food, restore security, settle the Middle East, and bring the nations together. Just give me the authority necessary to do it. After World War III, how many people would simply say take it.

I ALSO WORRY ABOUT HOW EASILY FRIGHTENED PEOPLE CAN SURRENDER FREEDOM FOR PROMISED SECURITY. There are already significant numbers of young people, even here in America, who have been persuaded that socialism, communism, or some form of highly centralized government control is the answer to mankind’s problems. I strongly disagree with them, and my heart breaks for people who have been misled into believing that. But imagine how much more attractive centralized global authority could look to an entire generation standing in the ruins of a catastrophic world war. A world government could stop this. A world government could make everybody safe. A world government could make sure this never happens again. That is how frightened people can think.

THEN WE COME TO THE FINAL SEVEN YEAR PERIOD.

Daniel 9:27, KJV: “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

I BELIEVE THAT FINAL PROPHETIC WEEK REPRESENTS SEVEN YEARS. So I have said this before and I will say it again. When you see the prophetic covenant involving Israel confirmed, the agreement that begins that final prophetic week, pay attention. According to my understanding of Scripture, that is the clock. Seven years. Yes, I said seven years until the return of Jesus Christ. Not because I picked a date. Not because somebody on YouTube calculated the dimensions of a pyramid. Not because somebody found a numerical code. Because I believe that is the prophetic chronology Scripture presents once that specific covenant is confirmed.

I ALSO BELIEVE AMERICA MAY STILL HAVE AN IMPORTANT ROLE TO PLAY IN PROTECTING ISRAEL.

Revelation 12:14, KJV: “And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”

MY INTERPRETATION OF THE GREAT EAGLE. I personally believe those two wings of a great eagle may ultimately represent the United States helping protect Israel during those final events. Scripture does not say United States of America, and I am not going to put words into the Bible that are not there. That is my interpretation. But it gives me hope that America may still have a very important role to play during the final years before Christ’s return.

SO TONIGHT I PRAY FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Lord, I pray for our President, our national leaders, Congress, our intelligence community, our military commanders, and the men and women making decisions tonight whose names most of us will never know. I pray for every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, Guardian, and Coast Guardsman standing watch. Give them wisdom. Give them courage. Give our commanders discernment. Keep foolish men from making irreversible decisions. Prevent misunderstandings from becoming wars. Prevent wars from becoming nuclear wars.

AND IF TERRIBLE DAYS EVENTUALLY COME, LORD PREPARE THIS NATION. Give our defenses the ability to intercept everything they possibly can. Protect our military. Protect our cities. Protect our families. Protect us from the terrorism, sabotage, and chaos that could follow such an attack. Preserve this nation with the minimum possible loss of life so America can continue accomplishing whatever purpose You still have for her. But most importantly, turn America’s heart back toward You.

WE SHOULD PREPARE, BUT WE SHOULD NOT PANIC. I do not care how many missile defense systems we build, how much food we store, how many generators we own, or how many batteries, radios, medical supplies, weapons, or gallons of water we put away. All of those things may help preserve the body. None of them can save the soul. Jesus Christ can.

PREPARE INTELLIGENTLY AND PREPARE SPIRITUALLY. Have some food. Have water. Have medicine. Have backup power if you can. Have communications. Have a family plan. Know where your children are going. Know where your parents are going. Know what you will do if electricity and cellular communications disappear. But above everything else know where you stand with God. None of us is promised tomorrow whether World War III begins next month, twenty years from now, or never happens in our lifetime.

AND THIS IS MY WARNING TONIGHT. SOMETHING DOES NOT FEEL RIGHT. The CIA director makes an unusual trip to Moscow and apparently leaves again the same day. Russia continues preparing for the possibility of greater mobilization. The Baltics remain an obvious pressure point. The Ukraine war continues. Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are cooperating more closely than they once did, and American strategists are openly discussing the danger of simultaneous crises across several theaters. Nuclear weapons sit behind every strategic calculation. The Middle East remains dangerous. The Euphrates is still exactly where Scripture said it would be. My understanding of Revelation tells me that somewhere in God’s timetable are four angels bound at that river, prepared for an appointed moment when the Sixth Trumpet sounds.

MAYBE WE ARE NOWHERE NEAR IT. MAYBE EVERYTHING SETTLES DOWN. I PRAY THAT IT DOES. But this one is strong in my gut right now. Very strong. And I have learned in my life that when my gut starts screaming at me to pay attention, I pay attention. I have regretted almost every time I did not.

SO I AM WATCHING. I am watching Russia. I am watching NATO. I am watching China. I am watching Taiwan. I am watching North Korea. I am watching Iran. I am watching Israel. I am watching the Euphrates. But most importantly I am watching Scripture, and I am praying.

MATTHEW 24:42 SAYS IT VERY SIMPLY.

Matthew 24:42, KJV: “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”

WATCH. PRAY. PREPARE.

And may God have mercy upon all of us.