Introduction: They Will Be Shocked

There is a phrase that echoes through the New Testament like a thunderclap: it will come like a thief in the night. Jesus said it. The Apostle Peter said it. The Apostle Paul said it. Three witnesses — in three different books, writing to three different audiences — all delivering the same divine warning: when the judgment of God falls upon the Earth in the last days, the unprepared will be completely blindsided.

That is what this blog is about. Not to frighten those who know Christ, but to sound the alarm to those who do not. Because right now, in 2026, we are watching the stage being set. The signs are not subtle. They are loud, unmistakable, and increasing in frequency — like labor pains before birth.

As Minister Cedric Powell has observed: the people of this world are doing exactly what people always do when they are warned of coming danger — they are ignoring it. Don’t take pictures with the buffalo. And people do it anyway. Don’t take pictures with the snow leopard. And people do it anyway. God has warned the world about the consequences of rejecting His Son, attacking His people Israel, and living in rebellion against His Word. And yet, the world does it anyway.

But the Word of God says they will be shocked. Let’s look at exactly what Scripture says — and then connect it to what we are seeing on Earth right now.

Part I: Three Voices, One Warning

Jesus — Matthew 24:37-39

“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.”

Notice what Jesus does NOT say here. He does not say people were living in some unusually wicked or dramatic era of evil. He says they were eating, drinking, celebrating — business as usual. They were consumed with the pleasures of everyday life while a righteous man named Noah was building an ark. They were too distracted to hear the warning. Sound familiar?

The Apostle Peter — 2 Peter 3:3, 8-10

“Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires… But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.”

Peter wrote this roughly 2,000 years ago. Yet you can scroll through any social media platform today and find exactly what he described: scoffers. People who mock Bible prophecy. People who ridicule the idea of divine judgment. People who say, “That’s just a fairy tale,” while the world burns around them. Peter saw them coming. And he gave us the reason they will be shocked: they are following their own desires rather than the truth of God.

The Apostle Paul — 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4

“For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. When people are saying, ‘Everything is peaceful and secure,’ then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape.”

Paul’s language is precise and clinically accurate. A pregnant woman does not go from zero to delivery in seconds — but once active labor begins, there is no pause button. Contractions get closer and more intense until the birth. That is exactly what we are watching on the world stage right now. Each prophetic event arrives faster and with greater intensity than the last.

So why won’t these people see it coming? Paul answers the question in verse 4: “But you aren’t in the dark about these things…” The implication is clear. Those who ARE in the dark are there by choice. They are disconnected from God by sin, blinded by their rebellion, and willfully ignorant of what His Word plainly states.

Part II: Understanding the Intifada — And Why It Went Global

To understand the prophetic significance of what we are watching unfold, you need to understand a word that has migrated from the Middle East into the streets of American college campuses, European cities, and social media feeds worldwide: intifada.

The Arabic word intifada literally means “uprising” or “shaking off.” In the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it refers specifically to two violent uprisings against Israel — the First Intifada (1987–1993), marked by widespread civil unrest, stone-throwing, and economic boycotts; and the more deadly Second Intifada (2000–2005), which featured suicide bombings deliberately targeting Israeli civilians, killing nearly 1,000 Israelis in buses, restaurants, and public squares.

For decades, the intifada was a regional conflict. But in recent years — and especially after the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023 — a dangerous new slogan took root: “Globalize the Intifada.” According to the American Jewish Committee (AJC), this phrase is widely understood as a call for aggressive resistance against Israel and all who support it. Critics, including antisemitism scholars and Jewish advocacy organizations, have documented that the phrase effectively encourages the export of the violence associated with the Second Intifada to Jewish communities worldwide.

By 2025 and into 2026, this was no longer theoretical. Jews were being harassed on university campuses, surrounded outside synagogues, and targeted at public gatherings. The slogan had moved from a protest chant to identity — printed on clothing, embedded in music, woven into political discourse. What began as a chant at a rally was being globalized in practice, exactly as its proponents intended.

This is precisely what the prophet Zechariah described when he said God would make Jerusalem “an intoxicating drink” and “an immovable rock” — something the nations of the Earth would become obsessed with to their own destruction (Zechariah 12:2-3). The global intifada is not just politics. According to Scripture, it is prophetic fulfillment.

Part III: The Rise of Antisemitism — Hatred Wearing a Microphone

There has been a dramatic and measurable surge in antisemitism over the last four years. But what makes this current wave unique is not just the volume of hatred — it is the platform. People who once whispered conspiracy theories about Jewish power in dark corners of the internet are now broadcasting those same theories to millions of followers on YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram.

Two figures in particular have emerged as the public face of this right-wing antisemitic turn: Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson.

Candace Owens: From Conservative Commentator to Named Antisemite of the Year

Candace Owens was once considered a rising star of conservative media. She hosted a show on The Daily Wire and was seen as a prominent Black conservative voice. That all changed in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Since then, her rhetoric has escalated dramatically, and the documentation of it is extensive.

In a July 2024 podcast episode, Owens engaged in what the Anti-Defamation League described as Holocaust distortion and denial. She later hosted a live X broadcast titled “The Truth About Zionism” — an event that, according to the ADL, veered firmly into antisemitic territory. In that broadcast, she declared there was “a group of people in this country who can just keep lying on people…trying to ruin people’s lives and there’s just no accountability, because then you just get to flip it and say, oh, it’s antisemitism.”

She falsely suggested links between Israel and the JFK assassination. She has accused Israel of involvement in the September 11 attacks and even in the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. She has called Israel a “demonic state” and a “cult nation,” and has urged her followers to read a notorious 19th-century antisemitic pamphlet. In December 2025, she accused Jews of orchestrating the transatlantic slave trade and called on Black Americans to redirect their anger away from white Americans and toward Jewish people.

The institutional response has been swift but telling: YouTube suspended her for claiming “Jewish people control the media.” StopAntisemitism named her “Antisemite of the Year” for 2024. Australia and New Zealand denied her entry visas based on her “capacity to incite discord.” The Daily Wire parted ways with her in March 2024.

A 2025 AI-driven study by the Jewish People Policy Institute, analyzing over 3,000 videos, found that by May through November 2025, roughly 75% of Owens’ videos mentioning Jews were classified as antisemitic. That is not fringe commentary slipping through the cracks. That is a sustained, deliberate campaign.

As the Apostle Paul warned in Romans 1:28-30, when people abandon God, their hearts fill with “wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.” When you watch what is being done to Christians who support Jews — people like the late Charlie Kirk and his widow Erika — you see this scripture come to life in real time.

Tucker Carlson: The Reluctant Antisemite Who Keeps Providing the Platform

Tucker Carlson is a more complex case, but the pattern is equally disturbing. Carlson, the former Fox News host who now runs his own online platform, has been more careful in his language — he has even said on camera that blaming Jews for everything is “against my Christian faith.” But what he does instead is arguably more dangerous: he provides an uncritical platform for those who do not have that reservation.

In October 2025, Carlson hosted Nick Fuentes — a self-described white nationalist and Holocaust denier — on his show for what PBS News described as a “friendly conversation” about Jews. When Fuentes named “these Zionist Jews” as the primary enemy of conservatism, Carlson did not push back decisively. Ben Shapiro, the Jewish co-founder of The Daily Wire, publicly condemned Carlson, writing that he would not stand for “cowards like Tucker Carlson who normalized their trash.”

Carlson has also accused pro-Israel conservative Ben Shapiro of being more loyal to Israel than to America — a classic antisemitic trope that has historically been used to ostracize and endanger Jewish people. He has suggested without evidence that Jeffrey Epstein was an Israeli intelligence asset. And in a December 2025 interview, he returned to what analysts at Aish describe as a “recurring obsession” — the claim that Jews impose their will on non-Jews.

The same AI study that tracked Owens found that by the second half of 2025, approximately 70% of Carlson’s Israel-related content had turned negative. Evangelical Christian Zionist leader Laurie Cardoza-Moore did not mince words: “Tucker Carlson’s antisemitism does not reflect the values of the Trump administration,” she wrote, calling on the president to ban him from the White House.

Here is what must be understood from a biblical perspective: whether these individuals realize it or not, their rhetoric is being used as a tool of the antichrist spirit. Paul wrote in Romans 11 that the gospel came “to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.” Those who hate the Jewish people are not simply engaged in political commentary. They are in direct opposition to the God of the Bible — and His Word does not leave the consequences of that position ambiguous.

Part IV: Iran, the Ayatollah, and the Death of Mahsa Amini

The Silenced Victim That Exposes the Lie

On September 13, 2022, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman named Mahsa Amini — also known by her Kurdish name, Jina Amini — arrived in Tehran with her brother to visit relatives. Within hours, Iran’s so-called “morality police,” known as the Guidance Patrol, arrested her for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly.

Three days later, on September 16, 2022, she was dead.

Eyewitnesses who were detained alongside her reported that she was beaten in the police van. Her family stated she had bruises on her legs and held the authorities directly responsible. The Iranian government claimed she died of a heart attack; a UN fact-finding mission later concluded that Iran was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to her death. The UN Human Rights Council’s investigation described the state crackdown that followed as including “crimes against humanity” — a monthslong response that killed more than 500 protesters and saw over 22,000 detained, with documented cases of sexual violence against those arrested.

The protests that erupted across Iran in response to Mahsa’s death gave birth to one of the most powerful protest slogans in modern memory: “Woman, Life, Freedom.” Iranian women burned their hijabs in the streets. Women cut their hair in public acts of defiance. The world watched — and those protests were met with tear gas, metal pellets, and live ammunition.

Now here is the question that exposes the moral bankruptcy of the social media voices pushing the global intifada: where was the outrage for Mahsa Amini?

The same accounts that flooded their timelines with content condemning Israel — calling it a “genocidal” state — said virtually nothing about the Iranian regime murdering a 22-year-old woman for the way she wore a scarf. They organized no campus protests. They wrote no viral threads. They pressured no members of Congress. They did not show up for Mahsa Amini. They did not show up for the 500 Iranians killed in the streets. They did not show up for the 22,000 who were detained.

But they showed up for Hamas.

This is not about Palestinian rights. This is about hatred of God, hatred of His people, and the willingness to align with any force — no matter how brutal — that stands in opposition to Israel and to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It reveals their hand completely.

And it is worth noting: it was President Donald Trump who finally took decisive military action against the Iranian regime — something no previous American president had done in over four decades of Iranian aggression, terrorism, and state-sponsored murder. The same people who said nothing about Mahsa Amini had a meltdown.

Part V: The Zechariah Prophecy — God Has Already Written the Outcome

Zechariah 12 is one of the most strikingly precise prophecies in all of Scripture when measured against modern history. Written over 2,500 years ago, it describes a time when Jerusalem would become the center of global controversy — a “burdensome stone” (KJV) or, in the New Living Translation, an “intoxicating drink” — so all-consuming that the surrounding nations would become obsessed with destroying it.

“On that day I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock. All the nations will gather against it to try to move it, but they will only hurt themselves… I will make the clans of Judah like a flame that sets a woodpile ablaze or like a burning torch among sheaves of grain. They will burn up all the neighboring nations right and left, while the people living in Jerusalem remain secure.” — Zechariah 12:3, 6

Since Israel declared statehood in May 1948, this prophecy has been playing out in real time. In 1948, five Arab nations simultaneously attacked the newly formed state of Israel and were repelled. In 1967, Israel fought off the armies of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in six days and tripled its territory. In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year — Yom Kippur — and still could not destroy Israel.

And then, in 2025-2026, the pattern continued. The 12-day Israel-Iran war demonstrated what Zechariah described as God sovereignly defending His people. Operation Roaring Lion, launched in March 2026, bore a name that carries unmistakable prophetic weight: JESUS is the Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5). These are not coincidences. These are God writing His story on the world stage, exactly as He said He would.

Verse 10 of Zechariah 12 contains a remarkable prediction that has not yet been fully fulfilled, but is drawing closer: “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son.” This is a description of a national revival in Israel — a moment when the Jewish people will recognize Jesus as their Messiah. That day is coming.

Part VI: The Seven Years of Tribulation — Forewarned Is Forearmed

The Apostle Paul gave us one of the most detailed and sobering descriptions of what awaits those who reject Christ in the last days. What he described in 1 Thessalonians 5 is not distant speculation — it is an urgent warning to people living right now.

Those who are left behind when Christ returns for His church will enter what the Bible calls the Great Tribulation — a seven-year period of judgment unlike anything the Earth has ever seen. The Book of Revelation describes in detail what this will look like. Consider what God, through John, described in Revelation 13:16-18:

“He required everyone — small and great, rich and poor, free and slave — to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name… His number is 666.”

This is a one-world economic system controlled by the Antichrist — a dictatorship so total that refusing the mark means you cannot buy food, rent shelter, or earn income. And what happens if you refuse? Revelation 20:4 gives the answer with stunning clarity:

“I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus and for proclaiming the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”

Beheading. Not a metaphor. The guillotine or its equivalent will return as the instrument of execution for those who refuse the mark of the Beast. You will face a choice no human being should have to face: take the mark and secure your physical survival — or refuse it and face execution, but secure your eternal soul.

This is what 1 Thessalonians 5:3 means when it says there will be “no escape.” God is not making a threat. He is describing the consequences of a world that has chosen to reject His Son. He does not want anyone to be destroyed. Peter made that clear: “He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent” (2 Peter 3:9). But He will not override human free will. The door of the ark was open for over 100 years. Noah preached. People listened — and then went back to their banquets.

Part VII: The Root of It All — Romans 1 and the Anatomy of Rebellion

The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans contains what may be the most comprehensive diagnosis of spiritual blindness ever written. In Romans 1:18-32, Paul traces the journey from rejecting God to complete moral and spiritual collapse. Read these words carefully — and then look around you:

“God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness… For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”

There it is. The reason the people Paul describes will be shocked when judgment arrives is not because God failed to warn them. It is because they suppressed the truth. They saw the evidence of God in creation. They heard the message of the Gospel. And they chose their lifestyle over their Creator.

Paul goes on in verses 28-32 to describe the internal state of those who reject God: their lives become full of “wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip… They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning.” When you look at the social media accounts of those leading the charge against Israel — the conspiracy theories, the mockery of grieving Jewish families, the celebration of terrorist attacks — you are watching Romans 1 in motion.

And Paul makes one final, chilling observation: “They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.” That is not ignorance. That is defiance. And defiance of God has only one long-term outcome.

Conclusion: The Door Is Still Open

If you are reading this and you are not a follower of Jesus Christ — if you have been among those caught up in the tide of antisemitism, or you have mocked the warnings of Scripture, or you simply have never given serious thought to your eternal standing before God — I want you to hear this clearly:

You are not reading this blog by accident.

God is patient. Peter told us that the reason judgment has not yet fallen is not because God forgot His promise or lost His power. It is because He is waiting. He is giving more people the opportunity to repent and turn to His Son. Every day of warning is a day of grace.

The events described in Zechariah 12 are unfolding in real time on your news feed. The global intifada is here. Iran’s regime has murdered its own people for the crime of wearing the wrong scarf. Antisemitism is being mainstreamed by podcasters with millions of subscribers. Operation Roaring Lion has begun. The labor pains are intensifying.

But none of this has to end in judgment for you personally. The same Bible that describes the wrath coming upon the children of disobedience also says this:

“For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us. Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10

The ark is still open. But the day is coming — suddenly, like a thief in the night — when the door will close. Make sure you are on the right side of it.

Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation (NLT).