The intense prophetic dreams of a Kentucky pastor have recently attracted over 1 million YouTube viewers. Pastor Dana Coverstone of Living Word Ministries in Burkesville, KY has had a series of dreams that – if true – are highly disturbing in their accuracy. Here is the video at my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWpNqXaWU4E
The caveat of “if true” is the key aspect in examining these prophetic dreams. From my perspective, there are two issues that seemingly contradict. The question is: Can they be reconciled?
Pastor Dana’s initial dream in December spoke of the pandemic with its chaos, and the subsequent rioting we’ve seen in the aftermath of the George Floyd incident. Assuming the pastor had this dream in December as he says, then its accuracy is right on.
The dream of things to come this fall is downright horrendous. It speaks of terrible anarchy throughout the nation, along with Christian persecution. Again, assuming this dream is from God, how do we respond?
Given Scripture and the requirement for prophecy to be completely, accurately fulfilled, the first issue we have to deal with is how this potential lawlessness works in conjunction with the Days of Noah necessity in Matthew 24:37-38 that life will be normal:
“For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,”
If things are supposed to be going along swimmingly when the Rapture comes, how can there be such disorder?
But wait, there’s a second consideration. What about earlier in this chapter in Matthew 24:9-10 where it speaks of tribulation as part of the birth pains?
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.”
Is this referring to just Israel or to the entire world? Are Christians affected by this? Since the passage talks of kingdoms and wars and nations, it certainly appears to reflect a worldwide situation.
As a longtime volunteer with Voice of the Martyrs, I’ve seen the persecution of our brothers and sisters in Christ and grieved over it. I’ve also long pondered how we in America could escape the tribulations that those in the 10-40 Window endure. Will we really leave this earth without the sorrows that Jesus says we’ll have? Are the tribulations we endure only a result of having too much wealth?
If not; if we in America will be subject to physical persecution that could easily come as a result of the anarchy detailed in Pastor Dana’s dream, that would not surprise me in the least.
But again, how do we reconcile a Days of Noah condition with anarchy and persecution of Christians that may be coming down the pike as the dream suggests? How does the Rapture and the subsequent Tribulation play into all this?
First, the Tribulation. We have to recognize that tribulation and THE Tribulation are two different things. We know that lawlessness must arise. It will reach a fever pitch once the Rapture occurs and the Holy Spirit—the Restrainer—is removed. However, events on earth typically take time to develop. They don’t normally happen overnight. Thus, we’ve been seeing the Romans 1 mindset playing out for some time. We’ve been seeing the 2 Thessalonians 2 lawlessness increasing, particularly over this last year. We have no reason to suppose that Christians won’t see a significant increase in tribulation before Jesus snatches us out of here.
Where does this leave us? How do we get to “normal”? Here’s a question: Whose normal, and what kind of normal, was Jesus referring to? That of Christians or of the secular world?
If the “normal” of eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage is for Christians, then we definitely have a conflict of Scripture to resolve. However, what if that refers to those other than Christians, i.e. the pagan world? What’s normal to them may not be normal to us in unusual times.
During the rising persecution of the early church in Rome, what do you think the average citizens were doing? Did they care much about those crazy Christians who wouldn’t say, “Caesar is god”? I don’t think so. These citizens simply went about their lives eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.
Do we really have a contradiction as to when and under what circumstances the Rapture might occur? I don’t think so. I think we could have this anarchy that destroys America, while Christians become a target. I think in the soon aftermath of that, life for non-Christians could quickly get back to “normal,” i.e. the new normal. That wouldn’t be the case for us, but maybe it doesn’t have to be in order for the intent of accurate prophecy to be fulfilled.
Of course, all this hinges on the veracity of Pastor Dana’s dreams. Are they from God? Joel 2:28 says that in the last days, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Was that only for the time of Pentecost and the 1st Century? I think God has given dreams and visions all along to some people. Perhaps they’re increasing now. I personally believe that during the Tribulation is when the greatest fulfillment of this will happen, but that doesn’t negate God giving certain prophetic dreams now.
Can the Rapture occur with the confluence of accurate Scripture plus a God-given dream of anarchy and persecution? I think so. How we read and interpret a passage may be partially right, but God may have a slightly different twist in mind. We have to be careful about being dogmatic (and I’m as guilty as anyone!) about prophetic events and how they’ll play out. It’s probably the rare individual who gets it all right. God has the last say, and what we know may not be so.