On November 9th, 2016, I awoke to find that Donald Trump had been elected President of the United States. My first reaction was shock; I found it hard to believe this had happened. I had been sure that for better or worse, Hillary Clinton was going to be elected.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so surprised. I had seen this coming, after all. Several months earlier, I had a vision in which Trump became President – immediately followed by protests and riots in every major city in America. But I had never thought that this vision would come true!

Surely, I had thought, the American people aren’t that dumb. Surely, people wouldn’t be stupid enough to vote for someone who had said (quite openly) that he would “close up” the Internet, spy on people, and ban all Muslims from entering this country.

Surely, I thought, someone who had called immigrants from Mexico “rapists and drug dealers” wouldn’t’ get enough votes to be President. Surely, even the most hard-hearted among us wouldn’t vote for someone who had bragged on tape that he had kissed women without their consent – and worse.

Surely, no one would vote for someone who had lost millions of dollars in failed business ventures. Surely, the American people weren’t this stupid!

A Hillary Clinton Presidency would be bad enough, I figured. Under Hillary, we could expect the alliance of global corporate interests to continue to gain power, military expenses to increase, more wars, and few positive changes in our economic or social institutions. In short, it would be “business as usual.”

But a Trump Presidency would be worse; for here was a man who clearly cared about nobody other than than himself, who had less knowledge of our governmental systems than the average citizen, and who was unwilling to take advice from anyone.

And even if Trump wasn’t as bad as he appeared, his rhetoric in itself was polarizing enough to create a very hostile climate in this country. We Americans were a dull lot, I figured, but not this stupid!

Clearly, however, I had underestimated just how foolish we Americans can be. Apparently, we are ready to promote any lunatic entertainer that comes our way, as long as he hates the same people we do!

Thankfully, we haven’t reached the level of violence and destruction that I saw in my visions – at least not yet. But I fear worse things are on the way.

In other visions, I have seen the total collapse of the American economy (and indeed, the global capitalist economy as a whole), the breakdown of the electrical grid, and a series of environmental disasters that could wipe out as much as a third of humanity.

I am not the only one who has foreseen these things, and I believe that all of these things are likely to happen very soon – possibly within the next generation. My visions of the end-times can be divided into four phases, and we are already well into the first of these.

What will it take, I wonder, for more people to wake up? And can anything be done to avert the coming disasters?

The good news is that none of the remaining cataclysms have to happen. We have time to stop them, if we will make the necessary changes now.

Here are a few things we can do, as individuals, to stave off the coming collapse:

Cut down on the amount of meat we consume. The meat industry is enormously expensive. The amount of animal feed needed to produce one portion of meat is enough to feed up to 10 people! If we Americans cut our meat consumption by even 10%, the number of people living in poverty would be reduced substantially, and it would be far better for the environment as well.

Stop supporting the military-industrial complex. The loss of lives (of both soldiers and civilians) in war is well-known; what’s less frequently mentioned is the cost that military-grade weaponry has on the environment, and how much money could be re-directed toward education and job creation – if only we would stop our maniacal pursuit of war! Anything we can do to slow this down will be helpful.

Limit the amount of time we spend engrossed in technology. Many Americans spend an enormous amount of time on their phones, on the computer, watching TV, or using similar technologies. I am as guilty of this as the next person; but I fear that we’re reaching a point where people won’t know how to survive without the technologies we now have. If we can train ourselves to use these things less, we will be better prepared if and when the time comes that they’re gone.



Pray for those who are oppressed or hurting. It’s been said before many times, but there really is power in prayer – especially when it’s done in the right spirit.

Challenge dualistic thinking whenever it appears. Ours is a culture full of dualisms. Whether it’s black vs white, young vs old, liberal vs conservative, gay vs straight, or male vs female, we can’t seem to resist the urge to divide people into opposing groups. Unfortunately, the church has done much to encourage this sort of division, emphasizing the most dualistic parts of the gospel message ( sheep or goats, saved or damned, etc). We seem to have forgotten that “God desires all to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4)! But all of us, regardless of how much we are involved with the church, can help promote a message of oneness and challenge unnecessary dualisms.

Whatever we do, we should not lose hope. It’s been made clear to me, many times, that love and grace will prevail in the end – regardless of whatever happens in the meantime.

On the same day that I found out Trump had been elected President, I also saw a vision of Jesus, Mary, and a whole host of angels and saints watching over us. We are still in in control, they seemed to be saying. Nothing can happen that will change that!

(Coming Soon: Why Did Jesus Have to Die? Atonement Theory in the 21st Century)