On this date in 2001, God signaled the beginning of a new phase in this rapidly fading age of man: the “last hour.”

A short time later, the world witnessed the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have since seen war in Syria, Iran’s relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons, and the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel. Russia pushed into Europe, seizing parts of Georgia and Ukraine while threatening to take more. We have also seen worrying signs of deeper instability: the global financial crisis, the European debt crisis, pandemic lockdowns and intensifying trade wars. Politically, the world shifted—with eight years of Barack Obama in America, the Arab Spring, the rise of China to global dominance, Brexit, the refugee crisis and the rise of Donald Trump. Meanwhile, astonishing and sometimes unsettling new technologies have transformed the way we live, work and even think.

Our world has shifted from the relative stability of the Cold War into an age of greater chaos, conflict and relentless crises too numerous to list.

In the next few days, we will see more momentous events: Israel’s war on terror expanding, the inauguration of a new German government, and the election of a new pope. The fact that these events are happening around the anniversary of the last hour is significant.

This new phase is described in vivid detail by the Apostle John in his epistles. You need to understand this deeply to know how close Jesus Christ’s return truly is!

1 John 2:18 in the Revised Standard Version reads, “Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour.” Last hour is the correct translation of the Greek in that verse, rather than last time, as the King James Version reads.

God began to reveal this truth about the last hour on May 5, 2001. The September 11 terrorist attacks that came about four months later were a physical sign of the urgent time we had entered. That horrific terrorist attack powerfully reinforced this new revelation.

These are unique times. The last hour isn’t mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. There is only one last hour—this little sliver of time Christ has given His people to finish delivering His warning to the world. We must deliver a soul-scorching warning to the nations of Israel as they stumble and collapse. God is cursing them.

While there are many crises in the world in the last hour, the biggest one happened inside God’s Church. Those charged with delivering God’s message turned against Christ and sought to suppress it!

God has revealed, through John’s epistles, that the primary warning about antichrists is within God’s own Church! “They went out from us”—this is prophecy for the last hour.

When God revealed this truth to me, we were engaged in a court case fighting for the books and booklets authored by Herbert W. Armstrong against those who sought to destroy them—revelation from God! They wanted to totally blot out God’s truth so nobody could read and study it. They became vile antichrists by actively supporting Satan the devil—the ultimate sin!

We had already entered the last hour when, in 2003, we received the victory in our legal battle to print Mr. Armstrong’s writings. This was a watershed event. Today we offer these books and booklets free. Undoubtably many of you have read some of these works.

I believe God used the copyright victory to show clearly who the very elect are and who the many antichrists are. Anybody who fights against Christ’s very elect and tries to destroy their work of proclaiming the truth is an antichrist.

But the great shame in that court case was not just those who fought against us—but the tens of thousands who were neutral and have remained neutral in this last hour!

Our copyright victory clearly showed who were the Laodiceans: those members of God’s Church who didn’t come to help us in our court battle. The Laodiceans aren’t antichrist, but they are not fighting for Christ. They didn’t even want the revelation God gave to Mr. Armstrong. “They went out from us”—the court case revealed that tragic result as no other event ever has!

The history of the last hour shows us that it is not enough to be neutral. We either fight to deliver God’s message or we are not following Christ!

What an honor to fight for Christ and to conquer the devil at this time! But what a shame to be neutral in such a momentous time as this!

A lack of spiritual urgency in the face of global crises is a failure to rise when the world needs you most! It means being asleep when Christ knocks at the door. It means being neutral between Satan and Christ.

If you lack spiritual urgency, these last hour crises in the world should jolt you into action! My free booklet on this subject can help you gain the spiritual urgency you need to get into the battle—and to fight on the right side. Read it online, or request a free copy.