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Welcome to the NBW Ministries podcast advancing the clear, accurate and urgent gospel message. Your host, Dr. J.B. hickson, is an author and pastor who provides commentary and insights on current events through the lens of Scripture. Dr. Hickson interacts with various experts on cultural, theological and political issues while proclaiming God's word to a world in desperate need of the truth. If you enjoy today's podcast, be sure to forward it to others. And now, here's your host, J.B. hickson.
B
Hey, good morning, folks. It's J.B. sitting here in my studio beneath the sky, nestled neatly beneath the tall timbers of colorful Colorado. Thanks so much for joining us on this Wednesday, February 25, 2025. We're excited to have my good friend Mondo Gonzalez from Prophecy Watchers back with us for the program today. Always a delight to talk with him, One of the smartest and funnest guys I you'll ever meet. In fact, that's a rare combination. There are a lot of smart people out there, but they're not, you know, not that friendly, not that fun to talk to. And then there's a lot of fun people that aren't the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. Mondo is that rare commodity. Super smart, super nice, super gracious, and just a lot of fun to talk to. So we'll bring Mondo on here in just a moment. But as we wind down the month of February, want to remind you of a, of a few things here at month's end that we haven't really spoken of for a while. First of all, I want to remind you about our rapture kits. Made a big splash with these many months ago, and they're still selling like crazy. We have to keep reordering, but this is a great tool to leave behind when the rapture happens. And if you know anything from listening to NBW Ministries and other Bible prophecy type ministries, you know that it's, it's going to be close. I mean, it seems like the trumpet's going to sound any moment now. We, we can't set a date, but boy, things are lining up. So we need to be thinking about those who don't know the Lord and are left behind. And this little box is something you leave on the table by your front door or anywhere in a prominent place in your home. It says if millions of people suddenly disappear, open immediately, they take it, they open it. And it's got all sorts of resources in there for them. A thumb drive with some video messages, including my message one minute after the Rapture. It's got a Gospel presentation. It's got a book of mine on the Gospel Unplugged. It's got a Bible, a brand new unopened Bible. It's got all kinds of resources in there to help them navigate through the tribulation period. Hopefully they'll trust in Christ. And then it has the preparedness guide as part of this Rapture kit so that they can hide out from the terrors of the Antichrist. But check it out on our website. It's a great tool to help, you know, for those who are left behind after the Rapture and and lots coming up on the calendar. Be sure and stay in touch with us. You can download the free NBW Ministries app and that's the best way to stay in touch with us and to reach out to us. We've got our prayer board, we've got our events calendar, we've got our livestream link so you can livestream all of our livestream stuff that we do, typically on Sundays or sometimes when we're on the road you can get to from our app. So just if you don't have it yet, go ahead and download it. We love to see all the activity out there on the free NBW Ministries app. Just Google NBW Ministries app or go to the App Store or Google Play Store. You'll find it very easily. We've got a Substack is growing like crazy. Thank you to Morgan for all the work that he's doing as our social media director and production manager and of course sometimes co host. We love having Morgan on Crossfire Friday and then our testimony Tuesdays sometimes. But but he gets all the credit for helping us expand our footprint out there through Substack. So if you have not subscribed to Substack, even if you already are subscribing to our YouTube channel or our Rumble Channel or some of these other, you know, Apple Channel or Roku and all the other platforms that we are on subscribe to Substack. It's got some extra content that we put out there, an occasional article of mine, and we link up to other substack, you know, channels and so forth. So it's a hot commodity these days and you're missing out if you don't sign up for Substack. And while you're on our website or app, be sure you sign up for our email newsletter that comes out two or three times a week with updates, activities, livestream links, new content, those types of things. It's a great way to stay in touch with us. And lastly, don't forget all the free content that's on our online store. Just go to the knotbuyworks store and click on the free section. Tons of free PDFs of of content there that you don't need a credit card. You just put them in your cart and it'll automatically email them to you after you check out. So check all those things out. And before we bring on Mondo, our verse for the day comes from Proverbs 25. Proverbs 25 says this. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. I love that verse. Many of you probably do too. It's a famous verse. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. Proverbs 25:11 and I don't think it's an accident the Lord put that verse on my heart today in Proverbs 25 when we're going to be talking to Mondo Gonzalez because he is such an encourager. So thankful for Mondo as a friend and all of the great folks there at Prophecy Watchers. So without further ado, let's go now to Mondo Gonzalez. Well, welcome back to the program, Mondo.
C
It is always good to be here with you, jb.
B
Well, I mentioned in my intro, which you haven't heard, but I just, I talk about how, you know, you've got that rare combination of extremely smart, but so fun and gracious and fun to talk to. And that's rare, you know, to get, you know who I'm talking about. There's those really smart people who, you know, love to read their works, especially in academia, but then, you know, they're just not that thrilled fun. Let's just be honest. Right? But then you got really fun people that you'd love to just, you know, twice a month go out and have dinner with. But yeah, they're not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. But anyway, you are a great friend. My, my friend. Love talking to you. Don't get to do it nearly enough. Why don't we start with just a quick update on Mondo Gonzalez and prophecy watchers and your world.
C
Yeah, we, we're excited. You can see behind me here that you're going to be there. It's, we got our upcoming conference in June, which you'll be in Colorado, your neck of the woods. And so it's always good to hang out. And of course, Colorado is one of my favorite places, so that'll be good. And it's, it's to me, all of Us, like we were just talking about titles for, for messages and it's like, how do you even come up with a title three months in advance? There's so much going on.
B
Yeah.
C
And so this is on the agenda. We also have our other conference coming up in, in, in December in Branson and that'll be again another great time. It's beautiful decorated so people can keep that in their, in, in the back of their mind for, for an agenda because you've been there. It's, it's a wonderful place. And I'm, we're going to be taking a trip to Israel in May. Lord willing that any that happens with Iran is over by then. And we have another trip planned for January of 2027. People can check that out. Just go to israel2027.com and they can see our trip there. There's a lot going on. We, the other thing that's FASC Prophecy Watchers is a lot of people know about our Psalm 19 project and we're getting ready to move some of our best equipment down from Oklahoma, which is okay, to a remote site in New Mexico. So I was there a few weeks ago and we were checking it out and the, this is on a 7,500 foot elevation up in the mountains. Perfect like perfectly. You can't get any dark, darker skies than this in the, in the country. It's one of the rare dark earth, dark, uh, sky corridors. So that'll be happening. So look forward to some, some even better images. I'm excited to see what we can get in these, these places. So just some interesting thing, fascinating things happening here at Prophecy Watchers.
B
Yeah, I, I, I love that theme for the conference. I hadn't seen it till just now, but you know, the Rapture in the Rockies. You know, I've often said that when the Rapture happens, I'm going to get there before most people because we're up at such high elevation where we live. If I'm home now, of course my luck, the Rapture will happen and I'll be in, you know, I don't know, the deserts of Nevada or something, I don't know which, you know, I'm not complaining. Lord, I'll go wherever whenever it happens. I'm happy that it's happening hopefully today. But, but anyway, yeah, that's beautiful. It's always great to have you guys here in our home state and looking forward to that. But yeah, so one of the things I love talking with you about is just, you know, you've got your finger on your pulse, you know, of a lot of prophetically significant events. And so let's just dive in on what, what's kind of on your radar and, and what you think, you know, catches your eye.
C
Yeah, there's no doubt there's several things, as we know really, from, from Davos earlier this month, you had a lot going on. You know, Trump basically going there and blasting all the global leaders in his own way. And what was, but what also was interesting was just right after that is Jared Kushner showing up and sharing the, the Gaza plan. You know, he, you know, the real estate plan. He's an interesting character, you know, to watch. You know, I, I, I've been saying that if I had to, if I had to, if somebody forced me to guess who the Antichrist was right now, it would be Jared, not Trump. But interestingly, you know, he's just working behind the scenes. He's been involved in all, all of, all of the background, of course, the Board of Peace that has been instituted in all of this is it. I find it fascinating. You know, you got 30 some countries coming in and participating. Of course, Jared Kushner's part of the inner circle with Trump and a few other, Marco Rubio and a few other people. The one thing that I find most fascinating is that Trump is a lifetime chairman. So whether he's in even after his departure from, from, I guess, the presidency, he's still a lifetime person. And so what I think, what that tells me is that there's a lifetime chairmanship there. So whether that's him or Jared Kush Kushner next, you know, being Jewish, there's a lot of influence there, of course. So we're watching all this and, you know, my, my position as you know, I don't, I don't believe that there's is some peace Covenant in Daniel 9. 27. I believe that's the Mosaic covenant, but people misunderstand. I, it's not that I'm saying there's no peace, because 1st Thessalonians 5 says that exact thing when they're saying peace and security, sudden destruction comes upon them. And of course, in Revelation 6. Four, the first thing that happens after the, the departure of the first horse is the second horse, the red horse, and it says clearly he will take peace from the earth, which implies, it says clearly that there is peace. So I, I think that this whole discussion is still very prophetically significant. It's not just, just not based on Daniel 9. 27, which has another way to put, be influenced in there. So I find all of this very interesting. The other thing too, and this is something that I think is important that I'm watching, is just recently in all Israel News, they had an article that came out discussing, there's a guy, his name is Muhammad Tawidi.
B
Hold on, before you get to Taweedi, I wanna, I wanna just reflect on a couple of things from the Board of Peace.
C
Yes, yes, let's do it.
B
I love, I love what you said about this, the so called peace treaty, and I've even called it a peace treaty. But really what it, what that covenant is, that is confirmed in Daniel 9:27, is it's an agreement between the, the future Antichrist and Israel to sort of reinstitute sort of their sacrifices and sacrificial system and all that. And indeed the first three and a half years of the tribulation, as bad as everything's going to be with some of the judgments and all that, as far as Israel is concerned, they're going to still be left, left alone and be able to do their stuff. And a lot of implications of that, what we could talk about and have talked about in other contexts, and I love some of your thoughts on all of that. But at the midpoint then of course he breaks that covenant, sets himself up as God demands they worship him and all hell really breaks loose at that point, they flee and so forth. So. But there's no doubt that the tribulation is going to commence within a broader context of global peace. Right. And so that's what's significant about this. And you know, as far as Trump, when he steps aside, as you said, or steps down, I forget what you departs. We got to be careful about that because remember what Steve Bannon said earlier last year after the election? He emphatically said, I've played the clip for 10 minutes. He went on and on in an interview emphatically saying Trump is going to be president again in 28. Emphatically. And then you overlay that with what Trump said during the campaign at a TP USA event when he said, sort of enigmatically, you beautiful Christians, if you just vote for me this time, you'll never have to vote again. This is the last time you'll ever have to vote, you beautiful Christians. So I don't know what's going on there. It's really weird. But there is a whole contingent out there that thinks Trump is going to be president again in 28. So that's kind of interesting. But yeah, I thought, you know, you pay a billion dollars and you can be a lifetime member of this Board of Peace. Last time I checked, there were still no European countries that have signed on. And I don't know if that's changed unless you count Turkey, which I'm not sure they really count as a European nation. But so it's, it's a really bizarre. And Trump's sort of cryptic statements that, hey, we believe that this can go beyond Gaza, it can become, you know, we can rule the whole world or something like that. So. But you definitely see that Board of Peace as if nothing else intriguing as it relates to Bible prophecy. Right?
C
Yeah. And the other thing that's been happening, no doubt at Davos and right in the same time is there's no doubt that he is intentionally marginalizing the U.N. you know, he, he took us out of 31 different specific U.N. agencies, but by extension 66 committees. So. Which includes a World Health Organization. And, and what's happening is, and of course, he has mentioned even the idea of wanting to see the UN become irrelevant because in his mind it's very anti American. So in his America first policy, that would make sense. But you look at some of these, the desperation. The Secretary General just came out. Guterres just came out three days ago, begging the world, all these nations to pay up. That many of them now seeing the, the, what's happening with the United States and its, its leadership, they aren't paying their dues. And so he's talking about hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, even more of shortfall. And in fact, there's a, there's a rule within the UN that you have to refund the money, but they're refunding money that they didn't even get yet, but according to the rules. So now they're having to send money back based on the rules to these countries of these particular, basically groups when they haven't received the money to begin with. So it's, it's bankrupting them, which of course all of us are going, hey, that's great. But so the additional thing is, so this, you have the marginalization and the, the basically the calling out of the worthlessness of the UN and there's no doubt, think about it, even the UN Security Council has shown itself to be quite selective with Russia veto power, China veto power. So Russia can, these things can come through for Ukraine in the Security Council. Well, Russia just vetoes it. And it's the same thing. United States isn't immune either. Where we have vetoed things that have been in our favor and nobody else's. So it's shown itself to be corrupt in that regard. It's really not a genuine accountability situation at all. So the thing about the Board of Peace, though, is Trump is presenting it as an authoritative body, as you mentioned, to extend beyond Gaza to help bring peace in other parts of the world, taking the place of the UN which has shown itself to be irrelevant.
B
Yeah, I mean, and look, the Board of Peace has, suffers from the same problem that the U.N. let's be honest. It's a, it's got credibility issues. It's got, got, I mean, you got Mark Rowan, who was, you know, contributed a million dollars to Trump's campaign. Now we know what a million dollars gets you. It gets you a seat on one of the most potentially significant powerful boards in world history, Jared Kushner, who you mentioned, Steve Witkoff. I mean, these guys never met a two state solution they didn't like. And that's certainly not biblical. Right? So, and speaking of Jared, I thought it was interesting. He does come up a lot as a candidate for the Antichrist. But don't you think that the Antichrist is not going to be Jewish?
C
Well, okay, this, that's a great thing because in, in my Daniel 9 presentation, as well as my article, people can see it prophecy watchers.com daniel9 I made it real easy. But I, I think that's, I, I went back and forth and saying, you have, you have many people in our camp that he's going to be a Gentile, and you have many people in the camp that he's going to be Jewish. And I said, whoa, that's like a false dichotomy to me because, and here's the example that I use. And so this is where I just did a little research. And for example, in the Bible, Paul the Apostle, he was a Roman and he was Jewish. He said, I have Roman citizenship, remember? He said, I didn't, I was born this way. And so to the pro council, the other guy or the, the centurion said, well, I bought mine. So the second thing is, if you look in history, there's at least 10 Roman emperors that were not, that were not ethnically Roman or Italian. Some of them were Croatian, but they're still the Roman Emperor. So, so what All I was saying was it doesn't need to be either or. You could have a guy that's the Roman Emperor that is ethnically Jewish or ethnically Croatian or ethnically French. That's not, that's, to me, it doesn't need to be an either or. So in that mind this guy, whoever he is, is no doubt the leader. Again, pick a Roman emperor, Constantine as an example. You have others that were emperors that were from Syria. So they were ethnically Middle Eastern, but yet they were still the Roman Emperor.
B
Were any Roman emperors Jewish?
C
No. Nothing.
B
No.
C
But.
B
No, that's a fascinating point. That's why I love talking to you about, and I do remember now that we, we've talked about this before, but I think sometimes we sort of get tunnel vision about some of these theological issues. The same thing is true of geography and, and as you've pointed out, even with the ten kings and the ten regions and all that, you know, people say things like, you know, America is America in Bible prophecy. I don't think we are in terms of geographically, but that doesn't mean that a, say New York City, which is the seat of economic power right now, could become the seat of economic power during the beast system, even though America isn't a sovereign nation at that time. So it's, and then, you know, you're talking about the five toes on each foot. You know, how far does Europe spread? Is it, you know, Eastern Europe? Is it, you know, five Western Europe? I mean it's, it's, we, we get tunnel vision, especially since so much of, at least in my case, and I think in yours too, of my foundational teachings about this come from mid 20th century dispensationist scholars like Wahlberg and Pentecost and McLean. And it's like it was a whole different world then. They didn't even envision anything about the geopolitics of today. So that's a good point. I've always been in the camp that the Antichrist is gentile, the false prophet is Jewish, and there are arguments for that. Obviously the Antiochus Epiphanies parallels would certainly lend itself to more of a gentile Antichrist. But. Yeah, what does that actually mean? I mean, does that mean he couldn't have Jewish ancestry and be, you know, be a Roman emperor? Yeah, yeah, very interesting. Yeah. Speaking of peace though, what do you make of this? You were about to talk about in this Imam of Peace.
C
Yes, the Imam of Peace. Well, the reason why it's, it's, he's coming up is he's a very well known Muhammad Tawiti. He's got almost a million ex followers. He actually lives in Australia, he was born in Iran. So he, and he, he went to school in different places within Iran and Iraq, spends a lot of time in Canada. So here's a guy. Why is this important? Because he is the Imam of peace. And it's interesting that some of the things that he's been discussing, especially with like Israeli podcasters, again all Israel News, they, they had an article recently in the last week or so, and he's on there describing that, hey, Islam doesn't have, it's pure Islam. He's very anti radical according to his own words, that Islam itself doesn't have a, a claim to the Temple Mount. In fact, Jerusalem doesn't appear once in the Quran. That's well known. And so he's making these comments. And so what he was doing in there was he actually was saying that in fact the Dome of the Rock itself is an impediment to peace. Now he wasn't turning around and saying let's blow up the Dome of the Rock, but he was simply making a statement that the Dome of the Rock currently sitting on what he would say was the location of the second and first temples, that it's, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's an obstacle to ultimate peace. And so the, what it reminded me of and the reason why it's important is because if you go back to the summer of 23, there was a lot going on as it relates to normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. And at the time, I remember talking about, at the time that Saudi Arabia was saying these things not only publicly, but many of their, you know, the Saudi Arabian royal family is pretty diverse now. It's obviously pretty big. It extends a lot of, I don't know if you want to call them dukes, earls, whatever. Not that they use that language, but sheiks, so, and royal people. Well, many of them were on social media giving the history of Jerusalem and they're talking how, what do we care about Jerusalem? We have Mecca, Medina, we, the, even in the Quran. In the Quran, you know, Surah 5, it says very clearly that the, the land of Israel was given to the Jews. It says that in the Quran. So what they're doing is they're, they're saying if we go back to the purity of the Quran in separation or distinction from the modern Palestinian motives or whatever, or, or the, the Muslim Brotherhood, all their terrorist motives. He said pure Islam recognizes the Jews are the people of the book and they're the people of the land. And so you, we saw that happening in the summer of 23. Well, part of that conversation as well was Saudi Arabia coming in and, and talking about normalization with Israel. That's a big, that's huge, that's A huge deal. And one of the things that they were saying was, well, we. Part of that normalization is we will have our ambassador of Jordan. They have us. They have a Saudi Arabian ambassador to Jordan.
B
That.
C
That. That ambassador would take over custodianship of the Temple Mount, which is currently given to Jordan in 1967. The walk, the waqf, they handle that. And it's deliberately under the monarchy, the Jordanian monarchy. Well, Saudi Arabia is saying, well, we'll take over that. And. And in the midst of all that conversation was they were very willing publicly, in taking over the custodianship and to change the status quo of the Temple Mount in order to have that normalization and the peace. So all these things, which is why 100. I think all that progress that was happening, I mean, we were. It was happening. Boom. It was like July, then August, and then September. They were getting ready to fight. And then October 7th happens.
B
Yep.
C
And so Hamas said quite clearly that they saw the writing on the wall and the status quo changing, which is why they decided to. This plan, they had it planned for a long time, different potential dates to implement it. That's one of the reasons why they pulled the trigger when they did is to disrupt the Saudi Arabia normalization with Israel, which they saw coming as on a fast train. They knew that Israel would have to respond. Of course, that would force all the Muslims and the Arabs to have to come to the defense of Israel's response.
B
Yeah, well, it's never about what it's about, so. Yeah. Now, in hindsight, it sure seems like that's exactly the way things went down. I remember that day well. We were at the prophecy Watchers conference in Norman and news broke. I remember that night, one of my contacts and friends who's got his finger on a lot of this stuff, some military sources and stuff, and he's usually just a few minutes ahead of breaking news, you know, and he texted me and he said, hey, this just happened.
C
And.
B
And I immediately went on Fox News and CNN and just to see if anyone was reporting it. Nothing was reported. And it was only like five minutes before I went to bed. And sure enough, the next morning, woke up, and turns out he was right. He kind of broke the story to me anyway. But, yeah, that was really something. By the way, speaking of that hotel, do you see their ceiling just collapsed with all the pipes? Wow.
C
Wow.
B
I mean, it's like, glad we weren't there when that happened. But by the way, how'd you guys fare in this latest ice storm?
C
You know, the. The Ministry, thank. Praise the Lord, We. We didn't have any issues. And my pipes froze at my house, which was. It was good. I mean, I did all the right things. I, you know, opened it up and let it put some heaters in the attic and. And slowly it faded back and. And we had. We were out for about 12 hours before they thawed. And so it was. So that's good. So no. No broken pipes for me.
B
Oh, good. Which is good.
C
Just frozen, but we were able to deal with it.
B
Well, it's. It's amazing. I mean, it's. All that global warming. I don't know what to make of it.
C
It's really. I know.
B
Here we are. Yeah. Well, hey, so, yeah, that's interesting about Tawadi. How do you say his name to Taweedy?
C
Taweedy. Muhammad Taweedi. Like Taweedy bird, I guess. Yep.
B
So awesome. So, yeah. So let's. The next pandemic, I mean, are we really gonna have the control of iris Scamdemic Part 2?
C
You know, it's.
B
It's.
C
To me, I think I just, I have my list here. It's. It's kind of fun to put together a list of just all of the practice rehearsals and discussions. Probably the most famous was event 201 in October of 2019. This was at John Hopkins. The reason why it was so amazing is John Hopkins was involved, but the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation was of all. I mean, I, I'm, I believe actually you've even written about this.
B
Oh, yeah, yeah. We have a whole section of it in Spirit of the Antichrist Volume one.
C
So, so you have this, this background where, as we know, they, they did the rehearsal and then on a coronavirus and then boom, here we go. Just a few months later, it comes out. So all that to say is people think, oh, well, you know what? And this is. I'm seeing this, jb, is that, well, Trump's elected. That means all of our, all of our problems are. Have gone away. We don't need to worry about any of this anymore because, you know, unfortunately, you know, they, they even Christians, they're. They're wise enough not to call Trump a savior, but they lean towards him being a political savior, political type saver that God has raised up. And there's no doubt I like some of the things that Trump is doing, but the idea of turning a blind eye, that all of a sudden all these issues or all these people, the World Health Organization, etc, that they've just gone away is not the case. And so even Right now, starting from last year, even into what we see with Davos, they are talking, they're having again, just here's the thing. The latest one is pediatric pandemic network drills.
B
All right?
C
So when you, when you look at what they're doing, they talk not about it if it's always. It's not about. It's not about if. It's always when the great, the next great pandemic. But one of the things that they've been doing is discussing and notice pediatric. See, they realized that if, what's, how do you control. Well, you control through emotion. That's just a classic thing. If children start dying, people will not react negatively towards controls or censorship or as we saw the, the, these tyrannical draconian rules because they'll just say, how can you, how can you be against these when kids are dying? So I find it fascinating, this is not accidental, that now all of a sudden it's all about pediatric pandemic.
B
Yeah, I mean I, I've said for a while, you know, sometimes you'll run across Christians who, who thankfully, you know, you know, have woken up the whole violation of our rights and the, and the, the clampdowns and lockdowns really did awaken a lot of people that, hey, you know, this is not right. There's something fishy here. This makes no sense. And so you'll hear people to say, well, they'll never get away with that again. We're ready, we'll see them coming. And I've said, every time I hear that, I go, I never underestimate the stupidity of the American people. I mean, all it's going to take is to ratchet up that fear. And man, people will roll over and boy, nothing incites fear like innocent children, right? And this, this notion. So yeah, in our, in my spirit, Antichrist volume one book on chapter nine. I give, I think it's 16 smoking gun evidences that this was pre planned some 22 years in advance. And it's, it's pretty stunning. And I think now that we're so far from that, that memories start to fade and people forget. I mean none of us will probably forget just the, the feeling of just abnormality and all that was. Everything just changed right in our day to day life. But the history of it and really how it came about and what was really involved and who was the main guy that Foushee, remember he said, you know that right when Trump got elected, he's like, you know, this guy's gonna be having to face a pandemic, like, like he knew something we didn't, and Bill Gates and some of these others. So, yeah, you always want to watch the, the exercises, the training seminars and all of that. And, and often that telegraphs what could be coming down the pike. So assuming that is part of. I, I see that not as the only weapon in our arsenal, but part of a poly crisis type thing to just sort of bring America to its knees and get us to sort of sign on to some type of, you know, world government. You know, how, how do you see that unfolding? Do you think it's like I do, that it is part of a multi tiered thing, or is it kind of the next big thing that could happen? I know you're not.
C
Well, you know, it's, there's, there's two things I'll say to that. The first is, you know, when you, when I have all these, like, again, I have all these lists of, of these preparations, nobody. I'm not against preparing for, you know, for any sort of pandemic. I, I don't think that's the point. But that's not, that's not really the point because it is good for. I mean, I'm glad that the, you know, maybe not the cdc, because they're corrupt, but maybe it's getting better, but I'm glad that they at least think ahead of what could happen in preparation. Okay, that's fine. That's all, that's reasonable. But that's not what we saw, right? That's not exactly what we saw. So in, in watching all this, I absolutely think that they're smart enough now that they realize that they had their opportunity, they did their dry run, and they saw the ways even, let's be honest. How. When did it start? It started under Trump.
B
Oh, no question. Yeah. I mean, yeah, he's the one that told Christians you couldn't worship Jesus in church on Easter Sunday for the first time in, in American history.
C
Yep. So, and obviously we know about, you know, operation warp speed and everything else and all that. And again, who knows? Who knows what? I don't know. I don't read hard, so I don't know what Trump's motive was, you know, whether he was, whether he was trying to trick people and control them or what, or even trying to get him vaccinated. I don't know. I don't know. But nevertheless, it happened then. And I think he was just relatively naive. I mean, again, I could be wrong. But nevertheless, what do we see? We saw that that was a kind of A unilateral crisis on its own in the sense that it wasn't coupled with, with anything else going on. It was an election year. Of course, you had other things going on. But America caved. The world caved. When the world goes in unity towards something, that's a red flag. It's. That's First John 4. The world listens to itself and the world hates us. And so when you see the world going a direction, if it says the world says to go left, I'm automatically going right, you know, or somewhere else, so. But I think now you bring up a good point. Maybe I can ask you, did America learn anything?
B
Yeah, no, I, I don't think we did. In fact, what's really fascinating, you were talking about Davos and the World Economic Forum. Another thing that, that came out of that, that didn't get a lot of attention, was when Trump said very proudly, as he's done without wavering since the pandemic, he bragged just a couple weeks ago at Davos about doing warp speed. It said it was the greatest military feat in world history. And he's continuing to brag about warp speed, which the death shot has killed millions of people. I mean, even doctors that were once in favor of it are now in droves coming out against it. The heart conditions, all the problems with it. And he just, he's tone deaf to that, apparently. And again, I'm not piling on Trump here. Like you said, we don't know his heart, we don't know his motives, but at some point, when something of that significance and consequence happens, either you need to own it and say, you know what? I regret it, but you certainly don't need to continue bragging about it as if it's a good thing. And, well, he is, just as recently as two weeks ago, you know, see,
C
that's a great phrase, that, tone deaf. Because one of the things that was really one of the most shocking things to me is when he was out on the campaign trail, as we know, and, and he would talk about warp speed, he's, he'd get booed, I know,
B
by his own people.
C
By his own. By the people in the crowd that love him. These are the people that were there.
B
Yeah.
C
And then there, there was. He went to one of his advisors and he said, I don't understand why, why are they, why are they booing? And you're like, are you tone deaf? Are you, are you seriously, you don't understand? Are you that tone deaf or naive or blind to the fact that of all of this. And it's almost. And the fact that he asked the question was so revealing to me. Again, either he was playing a game which it seemed very genuine that he was confused because why would you go. And if you really knew your base then and, and they're booing you, why would you still go brag about it? It's shocking to me.
B
Yeah, I don't get it. I, I really, I wonder about it. So you mentioned something a moment ago from First John. I'm preaching this year through the Gospel of John and I made the comment recently that when John uses the word world cosmos in Greek, it's almost always negative. He's about, you know, not the, the planet. He's talking about the, the world, the people of the world that are under the curse of sin. That this IS system domain 1st John 5. I think it just says the, the whole world is under the sway of the wicked one. So, yeah, we definitely see the world sort of, I don't know, tremoring right now in so many ways. Morally, socially, geopolitically. There's just so many things converging. One of the big ones at the time that we're recording this that is in the news is Iran and the US Is sending troops over there. There's been a couple of standoffs there between Iranian drones and the US Military. Are we about to go to war with Iran, do you think?
C
Well, it's interesting to me that one, one of the things that, that if you see what, what Trump did when he set up the, when he built up carriers down in the Caribbean. Okay. So he obviously was, he doesn't, I don't really, as far as I've seen, he doesn't do those things for no reason. So when he makes threats, which he's made threats, he made threats against Venezuela and then ultimately. But what he did is he was very patient. We saw the same thing if you go back six, eight months ago or maybe even longer with the first war, the 12 day war with Iran and Israel, he had sent over some carriers and just patiently waiting. And then it was really kind of crafty when they went and bombed. They like Netanyahu was talking about coming to the United States to, for another meeting and the Iranians were like, oh, they're pretty crafty, too sneaky. But so it's hard for me to believe that. Well, Trump has said, look, number one, we need to talk about, I have them listed here. We need to talk about ballistic missiles, we need to talk about proxies, we need to talk about the Nuclear issue and of course the killing of all the protesters. Well, so he put those out there kind of as the gauntlet of this is what we're going to talk about. Well then recently the, the Iranians have said quite clear, we're not talking, only thing we're talking about is the nuclear issue. We're not talking about protesters about ballistic missiles. And of course Israel has their own perspective, which understandably they, thousands of missiles were sent against Israel. So they have a very keen interest, existential interest in looking at the ballistic program. So the fact that right now, of course, as we know, they recently Iran asked for, for the, the, the meeting between the United States and them to be moved from basically I forgot, I don't know, it wasn't in Iran but over to Oman. So that was a big deal. We're going to move the place, the meeting. Well then just today, a few hours ago, the meeting's been called off because Iran has said we are. The United States is not operating in good faith respect. It's like, dude, you guys are killing people. You guys are terrorists. So what do we know? There's over 30 some countries, all of the European Union, which add that in, that's another 27 countries, has just recently, a couple few days ago, the European Union changed their designation for the Iranian Republican National Guard or their Guard, the elite guard to be terrorists under a terrorist organization. That's huge deal because sanctions now you have other things. So the world is squeezing. But it's hard for me to believe that, number one, Iran has too much pride. They are not going to capitulate to Trump's demands and he's not going to give in either.
B
Yeah. So, yeah, it's definitely talk about pride. I mean it's two prime examples there. What I don't understand though, and I don't claim to have the kind of knowledge and expertise to, you know, to even have an opinion about these geopolitical events. I mean, that stuff is so, I mean, there's generals and war, you know, people and politicians that know a lot more about all this than I do. But it just seems like when we wanted to take over Venezuela, we sent in an elite team, used directed energy weapons, bragged about it. The press secretary of the White House even bragged about it. And it was all over like that in, in 10 minutes, basically. And there were people on the ground, soldiers in Venezuela are, you know, talking about they've never seen anything like it. There's never seen a weapon like this. It was completely debilitating. Why don't we just go in and do that in Iran, where thousands of innocent people are being slaughtered. If there was ever a reason for the US to, you know, invade, that seems like a logical reason. I don't understand the rationale to, to get Venezuela but not save people by taking over Iran. I mean, do you have any thoughts on that?
C
Well, there's two things. Number one is that, well, there's, there's, there's, there's several considerations. One is geography. To, to get into basically Venezuela was, was far quicker in the sense of distance to get over to basically Tehran, where the Khomeini is and all the. That's, it's just farther distance. It's actually, you know, again. But the second thing is Iran is, is a formidable military. Now, not compared to the United States for sure, but certainly in comparing to Venezuela, Venezuela has got nothing. Venezuela is not out there with ballistic missiles and everything else. So to go in there, the risks. I don't, I don't, I'm not saying we would lose the war, but the response would be far greater because if, if we go in there and if we launch this, if you remember, remember what happened when the United States bombed with the bunker busters? Well, it was, I don't know, a week later. And then remember, the, Iran had to respond, so they sent some missiles and some drones at some of the US Bases which did nothing. And in fact, in fact, they told the United States, hey, by the way, we're going to be sending some drones over to the base. And so we evacuated. So you could tell it was simply to save face.
B
Right? Right, right.
C
Yeah, right. And so they didn't want a war with the United States. But I agree with you that the, there's no doubt if we truly cared and Trump has said, hey, I believe the regime should change, but we're not going to be the instruments of that. So he kind of gives mixed signals because he wants to be this, he wants to have peace, but yet over here he's bombing and he's making threats. Now, granted, I think that no doubt they just killed, you know, up to 80,000 of their own people. And so he has mentioned, and I think he's gone public to say that help is on the way. Of course, you have the biggest warmonger and war hawk in the, in the Congress, which is Lindsey Graham. Senator Lindsey Graham.
B
My goodness.
C
I mean, you can't get any worse than that.
B
Oh, yeah, he is boy. And people knew his background and his private life and let's just leave it at that. I Mean, they would be, they would be shocked. But speaking of warmongers, another thing that's, you know, all of this is really contradictory and confusing and it's hard to make sense of it. But Trump's board of peace, you know, he invites Putin to be on the board of peace. And, and Putin's out there slaughtering Ukrainians. And, and Europe was largely in lockstep against Russia in favor of Ukraine. Never mind what the real issues are there, but just the official narrative is we don't like Putin. He's out. You know, he's a warmonger, and yet Trump invites him to be on the board of peace. I mean, I don't, I don't understand. It's hard to know whether you're coming or going in some of these, these issues. Don't you think?
C
Oh, 100. And this is, this is the, this is kind of the animatic nature of, of some of Trump's behavior. It could be called erratic, at times inconsistent, but yet there's, this is where you have the, the irony. There's a consistent inconsistency there, which is just, just pretty crazy. But again, you know, we come back ultimately, as we, we do is all this, all this posturing. It's, it's prophetic. It, again, at the end of the day, Jesus is Lord. The gospel is still being put out there. All these things are showing that these things are heading, whether it's Trump or Biden in the, in the, in the White House, it does not matter. It is, we have a, There's a destiny that's going to happen at this point. And so to me, it just, it's encouraging in that sense to go, here we are. Let me, let me just say this. For example, we know the story of, in Luke, chapter two, with, with Simeon and Anna. Right. So there's Jesus, baby Jesus. Simeon gets to see it. Oh, I've seen the Lord's anointed, and now I can die in peace. And then, of course. So you think all these amazing things. It's kind of high point. And then you wait 30 years.
B
Yeah.
C
For, for him even to start his ministry. So here we are. We can't get we can't get hurried. We see these things that are prophetic and they're not going to happen. I'll be, I'll be accomplished in, in six months.
B
Yeah.
C
So to me, there's, there's, we get to watch however long it takes. But it's a play by play of watching all this unfold. But I, I think the biggest Thing is, will Trump do it? I almost think that he has to say. He has to because he's got to save face. He's got to say he's brought people there. He, he, this is what Lindsey Graham said. Well, I hope he does something because he told the people, help us on the way, the protesters. And after he said that, he got another 20, 000 killed. So are you going to give him the help or not?
B
Yeah, yeah. Well, that's, he's, he's fomenting war for sure. Yeah. You know, we're out of time, and we didn't even get to talk about Moat Book and AI and all that. But by the way, I tried to join Moat Book, but they said I was too real, so I couldn't join. But anyway. But no, you know, I coined a phrase some time ago, some years ago, called, you know, everybody knows about normalcy bias. You know, we've talked about that and it's common, common phrase now. But I, I talk about abnormalcy bias, which is very popular mistake that people in the prophecy world make. And that is we see all of these things and we see what's really happening from a biblical prophecy perspective. And so we think, man, it's going to be tomorrow. It's going to be tomorrow. It's going to be tomorrow. I mean, think back to October 7, 2023. Everybody was like, oh, this is World War 3 is going to start, or the Ukrainian war with Russia. It's like, oh, this is going to be Gog and Magog. And so. But we need to recognize that God's the arbiter of the timetable. As you said, He's Lord, he's sovereign. And on that note, let's just remind people if you're, if you're stumbling upon this video, it's got a lot of interesting material that Mondo's talked about. And you don't know Jesus as your Savior. Today's the day you need to place your faith in Christ, because that's what matters most is, are you a part of the family of God? Are you born again by faith alone, in Christ alone? So trust in him today. Mondo, always great to talk to you, my friend. Can't wait to see. I'm sure our paths will cross in some of these upcoming events, but thanks for your time today.
C
Amen. It's always good to be here.
B
All right, God bless everyone. Have a great rest of the day.
A
This has been the NBW Ministries podcast with Dr. J.B. hickson. You can learn more about NBW by visiting notbyworks.org or through the free NBW Ministries app available in the App Store Store or Google Play Store. Thanks again for listening. And remember, it's not by works of righteousness we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. Titus 3, verse 5.
C
Sam.
Podcast: Prophecy Watchers
Episode Title: Is the Rapture Closer Than Ever? The Signs Say Yes | Mondo Gonzales and J.B. Hixson
Date: April 29, 2026
Hosts: Dr. J.B. Hixson (B) and Mondo Gonzales (C)
Main Theme:
Dr. J.B. Hixson sits down with Mondo Gonzales from Prophecy Watchers to discuss whether prophetic signs indicate the Rapture is drawing near. Their conversation weaves current global events, biblical prophecy, geopolitics, the peace process in the Middle East, and the role of globalism, always connecting back to the urgency of the gospel and watching for Christ’s return.
Board of Peace: Recent global developments include Trump establishing a "Board of Peace" as an alternative to the UN, with Jared Kushner a prominent figure.
“If I had to…guess who the Antichrist was right now, it would be Jared, not Trump. But interestingly, he’s just working behind the scenes.” (C, [09:17])
“Hey, we believe that this can go beyond Gaza, it can become…we can rule the whole world.” (B, [12:02])
Daniel 9 and Misconceptions:
“It’s not that I’m saying there’s no peace, because 1 Thessalonians 5 says that exact thing…when they’re saying ‘peace and security,’ sudden destruction comes.” (C, [09:17])
Discussion: Is the Antichrist Jewish or Gentile? Mondo sees the popular dichotomy as a false one.
“You could have a guy that’s the Roman emperor that is ethnically Jewish or … Croatian…That doesn’t need to be either/or.” (C, [17:27])
JB’s Perspective: He previously thought the Antichrist would be Gentile, the False Prophet Jewish, but now acknowledges the ambiguity:
“What does that actually mean? … Does that mean he couldn’t have Jewish ancestry and be…a Roman emperor?” (B, [18:54])
“In fact, Jerusalem doesn’t appear once in the Quran…he was simply making a statement that the Dome of the Rock…is an obstacle to ultimate peace.” (C, [20:41])
“That’s one of the reasons why [Hamas] pulled the trigger when they did—to disrupt the Saudi Arabia normalization with Israel…” (C, [24:36])
Pandemic “Dry Runs”:
“It’s not about if. It’s always when—the next great pandemic…It’s all about pediatric pandemic [now].” (C, [28:49])
Christian Response:
“Never underestimate the stupidity of the American people. All it’s going to take is to ratchet up that fear…people will roll over and boy, nothing incites fear like innocent children, right?” (B, [29:49])
Political Naivety:
“Are you that tone deaf or naive or blind to…all of this? … If you really knew your base…and they’re booing you, why would you still go brag about it? It’s shocking to me.” (C, [35:28])
Stand-off with Iran:
“If you see what Trump did…he doesn’t do those things for no reason. … It’s hard for me to believe … Iran has too much pride. They are not going to capitulate to Trump’s demands…” (C, [37:12])
The Geopolitics of War and Peace:
“Trump’s Board of Peace…he invites Putin to be on the board…Putin’s out there slaughtering Ukrainians…It’s hard to know whether you’re coming or going in some of these issues.” (B, [43:03])
Avoiding “Abnormalcy Bias”:
“God’s the arbiter of the timetable. … We need to recognize…things are heading there, but not as quickly as we might think.” (B, [45:40])
Encouragement and Gospel Emphasis:
“Are you a part of the family of God? Are you born again by faith alone, in Christ alone? So trust in Him today.” (B, [46:59])
On the uniqueness of the times:
“How do you even come up with a title three months in advance? There’s so much going on.” (C, [06:36])
On Trump, Kushner, and the Antichrist:
“If I had to…guess who the Antichrist was right now, it would be Jared, not Trump.” (C, [09:17])
On prophecy conference themes:
“When the Rapture happens, I’m going to get there before most people because we’re up at such high elevation…” (B, [08:23])
On control through pandemics:
“If children start dying, people will not react negatively towards controls…because they’ll just say, how can you be against these when kids are dying?” (C, [28:50])
On prophetic patience:
“Here we are. We can’t get hurried. … Simeon gets to see…Jesus…and then you wait 30 years for Him even to start his ministry.” (C, [44:59])
For deeper resources or to connect with the hosts, visit Prophecy Watchers and Not By Works Ministries.