For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.
Book of Revelation Decoded: Bible Prophecy and Today's Headlines
About this episode
James Lasher, staff writer and editor at Charisma Magazine, joins Philip Cameron to unpack his new book, "The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man's Commentary," designed to make the most misunderstood book of the Bible accessible to every believer. Lasher, a Marine Corps veteran turned Christian media journalist, shares how God called him to write the book during a season of personal wilderness, spending long evenings alone in a hotel room while separated from his family and consuming eight to twelve hours of daily news through a biblical lens. The conversation connects today's most urgent headlines — the October 7th Hamas terror attack, the surge of antisemitism, Turkish forces in Syria, Hezbollah, Iran's existential threat to Israel, the rise of AI, and the push for digital currencies and global governance — directly to the pages of Revelation. Lasher explains that "it is a book about Jesus Christ and his coming back," not merely an end-times timeline, and that the Book of Revelation itself promises a blessing to every reader. He urges believers to replace fear with anticipation, grounded in 2 Timothy 1:7 and the victorious return of King Jesus. Pick up "The Revelation of Jesus" at mycharisma.com or amazon.com.
Part of our Prophecy collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“The Lord spoke to me as clearly as you're hearing my voice. He says, 'Is that your son?' So I went down into the place, and there's like 30 cribs all in rows, and I picked this wee fella up, naked from the waist down, covered in his own waste. And I said, 'I don't know who you are, but I will not rest until I adopt you.'”
“He has a vendetta against the nation of Israel. If he can destroy that nation, he can break God's covenant. That's what he thinks he can do. But we know God is not going to let that happen. We have the Word of God. We have his promises, and where does that lead us to? The return of King Jesus.”
“The Lord did not give us a spirit of fear. He gave us one of victory, of power, of a sound mind, and that is what Revelation ends in — the victory of Jesus Christ. We need to have an awareness. The Bible says, 'When you see these things come to pass.' That's awareness. So we will be watching for His coming, not with fear, but with anticipation and motivation.”
More by James Lasher
What's Discussed
James Lasher, editor at Charisma Magazine and author of 'The Revelation of Jesus,' explains how God led him to write a plain-language commentary on Revelation during a personal wilderness season spent in hotel rooms, monitoring world news eight to twelve hours a day. Lasher connects current events — the October 7th Hamas attack, global antisemitism, Iranian aggression, the rise of AI, and digital currency movements — to specific prophecies in Revelation, arguing that today's headlines are prophetic every single day. He emphasizes that Revelation is fundamentally a book about Jesus Christ and His victorious return, not merely a fear-inducing end-times chart. Lasher encourages believers to seek wisdom and discernment through prayer and Scripture, replacing anxiety with anticipation of the harvest. The book is available at mycharisma.com and amazon.com.
- Writing 'The Revelation of Jesus' in the Wilderness
- Revelation as a Book About Jesus, Not Just End Times
- Seven Churches and the Church Today
- Competing Rapture Theories Explained
- Old and New Testament Prophecy Converging
- AI, Digital Currency, and the Beast System
- Israel, Antisemitism, and Prophetic Fulfillment
- Replacing Fear With Anticipation of Christ's Return
Scripture in this episode
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Hey, welcome to Daily Faith. My name is Philip Cameron, and I am so happy that you could join us today, for I believe that something is really important. We are living in the most incredible days in the history of mankind. Prophets sat in dim lit rooms with quill and parchment and wrote things that they were seeing that they had no concept of what they were talking about. And we are living in the days they spoke about.
Philip:We are living in prophetic days. And we have a guest today, his name is James Lasher. He is an editor at Charisma Magazine, and he's written a brand-new book entitled "The Revelation of Jesus." And it's going to open up the Book of Revelation to you, and I know you'll want to get this book. You need to find out what's happening and what these things that are taking place, and I don't know if you know this, but you're watching on the news every day a fulfillment of prophecy. There are things taking place that are mind-boggling as far as Bible prophecy. And you are going to want to stay and watch and listen to what James is going to say about where we are in the grand scheme of things.
Philip:Before we do that, I want to talk to you about something that's really important to my heart. Thirty-seven years ago, my dad made me go to Romania. It was during the time when the Berlin Wall fell down, and there was a dictator in Romania called Ceaușescu. And he was a dictator who killed countless of his people. And one of the programs he had was to force breed women to have children. And one of these children happened to be in an orphanage in a town called Timișoara, Romania. And my dad had seen this on the news in Scotland. He was sick, he'd had cancer surgery, he was recovering, and he called me up and says, "You've got to come to Romania with me. You've got to come to Romania. You've got to take me to Romania."
Philip:And I said, "Dad, you're sick. I'm busy. Leave this thing alone." And so after a wee while, he called me. He says, "Well, if you won't go with me, I'll go myself, and if I die on the way, it is your fault." And that was the last straw, and I ended up canceling church services I was speaking at, flew home to Scotland. The local press wrote about this cancer-stricken pastor going to Romania, and our town turned out and gave truckloads of stuff. And I went there into orphanage number two in Timișoara.
Philip:I didn't want to go in the building. He literally forced me, grabbed me and says, "You can't embarrass these people. They live like this, and you can't go in there." The smell and the mess was just unbearable. And I walked around the place and went up the stairs, against my will again, into dormitory five, salon five. I can see it written on the door as I'm talking to you. And in that room with 30 other kids, there was one little boy standing and looking at me. And the Lord spoke to me as clearly as you're hearing my voice. He says, "Is that your son?"
Philip:So I went down into the place, and there's like 30 cribs all in rows, and I picked this wee fella up, naked from the waist down, covered in his own waste. And I said, "I don't know who you are, but I will not rest until I adopt you." And it took me a year, but in the year, I discovered that they had no toilets, so I replaced the toilets, and the roof leaked, and I replaced the roof. And the beds were painted with lead paint, metal beds, and with horsehair mattresses. So I replaced all the beds and the mattresses and became addicted to caring for these kids, and that was 37 years ago.
Philip:Most recently, well not recently, the last 25 years, we've been in a country called Moldova. It is the poorest country in all of Europe, highest level of alcoholism, and one of the great sex trafficking engines of the world. And girls that you will see in a few moments, if the trafficker gets them, they are worth $300,000 a year in income, each girl. That's what they create. And so we have an amazing place called Vatra Village where we take them out of the mess they're in. Some come from bankrupt families in every way, alcohol abuse by their father. And we take them to this amazing place called Vatra Village.
Philip:And they come to us with basically the clothes on their back and maybe a few things in a bag. And we tell them as soon as we see them, we say, "You are not a mistake. If you are born, God has a plan." We put them back in school, share the gospel with them. And the ridiculous thing that's taking place with these kids is that orphans are turning into sons and daughters, and then sons and daughters are turning into missionaries. And all through the summertime, they go out into villages and share the gospel. And the kids they reach, they put them in an evangelical church. It's the most amazing thing you've ever seen.
Philip:Along with that, they do their own videos, and they write their own narratives, and they do the whole thing by themselves, and I get a video pre-made, sent to us overnight, and that just happened to us. And I want you to meet a young lady called Angela, an amazing kid. We met her first in the most horrendous of circumstances, from a family of abuse, you couldn't believe it. Unsure, afraid, timid, beaten, and we told her that God had a plan for her life, and boy, has God had a plan for her life. My daughter Melody just came back the other day, and while there, she met with Angela and made a wee video that I want you to watch.
Watch this. I'm going to introduce you. Angela, come here for just a second. And you'll see Angela is due to have a baby in August? Yes, in August. In August. Yes. So today we're out in the village doing VBS with our team, and this place is in the middle of nowhere, but we are here because we have a very special connection to this church, and that is one of our girls who used to live in our houses now serves with her husband in this church. As we were driving here today, I just thought how incredible this is. This is the fruit of Orphan's Hands.
The girls that come into our house come from terrible families, just history of abuse, neglect, abandonment, and they come to us broken, in need of a lot of love. So today is just a reminder of the important work that we do, how we're changing not just a life, but future generations. And so, like I said, it's not just Angela that we reached when she came to us, and she came to know Jesus, and she's just radiating joy all the time, as you can see from this video. But for her family, for her child, this is a continuation, and that's what I love about what we do. We're changing Moldova for the future to come. And so I wanted you to have that reminder the same way that I did today, that what we are doing is lasting.
Do you have anything you want to say, Angela? What I want to say is that I am really blessed that God put me in the ministry, so now I have the opportunity to serve the kids in this beautiful village with my husband. I can say thank you for everything. But she's just telling me they've decided that they want to move out here, which I'm telling you is in the middle of nowhere, so they can be close to the kids, close to the church, so that'll enable them to minister better to those within the church. So I just want you to see the fruit of your giving and the fruit of your generosity.
Philip:Oh my goodness, boy am I so proud of Angela. If you had seen the wee girl that came into our homes, broken, abused, and faith transformed her life, and now she is a pastor's wife in a wee village that you'll never see or never hear about. But she is there proclaiming the gospel. All of this that you see, Vatra Village, the homes that we have, the support, the outreach that we conduct constantly, is the result of people just like you giving $1 a day.
Philip:You can change a life for $1 a day. Someone gave $1 a day that allowed us to provide the facility to rescue beautiful Angela. And now Angela and her husband are in a village reaching other kids that the people that gave the dollar a day will also get the reward for. A dollar a day won't change your life. You sure can't buy a gallon of gas for $1 a day. You can hardly buy a Coke for $1 a day. But $1 a day will allow us to go into the highways and byways, and using these young kids that the world has forgot, that have suffered horrendous things, that they are the missionaries. They are the carriers of the gospel. So you sitting in your home could be a missionary through them, and $1 a day would really help us.
Philip:We are opening right now two new houses for smaller kids between the age of four and 16. We bought a farm with two homes on it and a barn and an orchard, and we're going to turn the barn into a youth camp, and we're going to turn these two homes into a place where young kids between the age of four and 16 can come and be rescued from these terrible situations, these alcoholic homes, fathers that are violent beyond anything I could ever convey to you. And each of these homes needs 300 people giving $1 a day.
Philip:One of our homes, Promise House is what we call it, we're hoping to have it ready by September. And we need the sponsorship in place by then to allow us to open these doors for more kids to come and know the gospel of Jesus. Maybe you have young folk that are unsaved, lost, grandkids that are breaking your heart. You could sow a seed today and say, "I want to make possible for a young child to hear the gospel through these orphans. And by doing so, I'm asking God to move supernaturally in my family." If you do it, it'll change your life, I promise.
Philip:The address is really simple. Make a check to The Orphan's Hands, P.O. Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. You can go online to dailyfaith.tv. There's a giving page there. You can transfer your gift through the computer or your phone, and by doing so, you are helping something spectacular take place in people's lives. You can also go to theorphanshands.org. Real simple, orphanshands.org, and there's a whole bunch of videos and a whole bunch of information to let you become aware of what we're doing.
Philip:You can also call us. I'm an old-fashioned guy. I'm a dinosaur when it comes to all these computers and things. 833-DAILYFAITH. Just dial that on your phone. Spell it out, and someone will pick up the phone and speak to you today. Thank you for doing that, if you would. God will bless you for it.
Philip:James Lasher has written a book, and I can't wait to hear. It's called "The Revelation of Jesus," and it deals with one of the most confusing, disruptive books in the Bible, and it is because we are living in those days, and I'm excited to have him with us. He is a staff writer and editor at Charisma, and I just can't wait for you to meet him. James, welcome to Daily Faith today. I'm thrilled to have you with us.
James Lasher:Well, thank you so much for having me. Really, it's great. I appreciate it so much. Thank you.
Philip:Well, first let me ask you this question. I always want the backstory whenever I meet someone because I've written books and I know what it's taken me to get off my you-know-what and actually do something about it. You've got to believe in something. You've got to see something. And what is the backstory to having you write this book about the Revelation of Jesus?
Writing 'The Revelation of Jesus' in the Wilderness
James Lasher:It was God sending me into the wilderness. I had just gotten the job at Charisma and I was living in hotels while traveling between states to see my family on the weekends. And so I had a lot of time on my hands throughout the week. I'd go to work and then go home to my hotel, and I'd get to see my pregnant wife and my very young daughter at the time, to see them in Georgia. I'm here in Central Florida, and during that time I'm working in media. I see the news headlines eight to 10 hours a day minimum. If there's breaking news, sometimes it's up to 12 hours a day. You're just paying attention to what's going on in the world and writing content on that.
James Lasher:And I'm so blessed to be at a Christian media outlet to look at the news through the biblical lens, and Revelation has always been my favorite book of the Bible. And the entire Word of God is wonderful. I'm not disparaging any other books by saying, ever since I was a young kid, it's just always grabbed my attention, my imagination, because there's so much imagery in it that is different from other books of the Bible. And so the Lord was like, "Start taking notes." And I'm like, "Well, okay." As I was just having quiet time, which again, I had plenty of throughout the evening in a hotel room by myself. And so I just started writing it out.
Revelation as a Book About Jesus, Not Just End Times
James Lasher:And when you see what's going on in the world and you really apply the biblical lens, and really it was me dying to what I thought I knew about things, and I'm like, "God, you show me what's going on in the world today because I want to get out accurate news articles. I want to give accurate commentary. What does the Bible have to say about this?" And so as I'm reading the Book of Revelation, you go through the different parts of it. You go through the early writings in it where John establishes, "Hey, I wrote this. How did I write it? The Lord took me up in the Spirit and gave me visions." And who would recognize Jesus better than the beloved Apostle John? He walked the steps with him, and he saw him on the cross, and he saw the resurrected Lord. He knows what Jesus looks like.
Seven Churches and the Church Today
James Lasher:And then he establishes authority as an apostle. He said, "You'll be blessed by reading it." And so I'm reading it during a rather low point in my life because I did not like being separated from my family five days a week. And so as I'm just going through the chapters of the letters to the churches, I'm like, "Well, some of these churches really sound like what we see around the world today." Yes, they were definitely written to the churches back then, for one, the seven churches that they're written to. But it is so applicable to the church today. Each and every day you see a corrupt church, a loveless church, a persecuted church around the world. You see a devoted remnant church that still honors and obeys the Word of God. And I'm like, "Well, Lord, this is starting to blow my mind. What are we doing here?"
James Lasher:And He's just kind of teaching me how to look at the world through a biblical lens, and I believe this is me. That's part of the blessing that the Book of Revelation promises the reader. It says, "If you read the words of this book, you will be blessed." That's John writing, inspired by the Holy Spirit. And then, as I started seeing people's reactions, working in media, you see how people kind of treat different books of the Bible. You see how they treat different prophecies and what the general kind of consensus is. Obviously, nobody agrees hardly on what the Book of Revelation is in the Christian world. There's just so many competing theories. You've got pre-trib, mid-trib, all these different theories and everything that people believe. There's mid-trib, pre-trib, and post-trib.
Competing Rapture Theories Explained
James Lasher:And so as I'm getting deeper in the book, the Lord's like, "This book, yes, it is about the end times." I'm not saying it's not, but it is a book about Jesus Christ and his coming back, because we just have so much imagery about his mightiness. And when you look at so much of the prophecy in the other books, which I started to do, I'm like this is the time in the Book of Revelation where everything just starts coming together. The Old Testament, the New Testament, all these prophecies going back to even before Abraham, but in the Book of Genesis it all just started making sense when you give it to God.
James Lasher:Jordan Peterson, I watched him one time in a video, and we all know who Jordan Peterson is. He began as an atheist and has come to faith through this. And he showed an example of a graphic of how the Bible was written and how it all came together and it all fits together like a massive jigsaw from centuries apart and everything else. And that is one of the strongest arguments that we have, that the Bible is not just a book, it's a divine manuscript given by God himself.
Old and New Testament Prophecy Converging
Philip:Absolutely. We're living with all this stuff going on with Russia and Iran and this upsurge of antisemitism in the world. All of that is clearly prophetic. This is all part of what's going on. Tell us, someone's watching today, and they're thinking, "Man, this is an interesting subject. I'd love to get this book." What will they learn from reading your book?
James Lasher:Well, it's in the title. This is a common man's commentary. I'm not approaching this with, oh, doctorates and using... I really try to break it down because I'm a caveman. That's what I always tell people. I am rough around the edges. That's why the Marine Corps was a great fit for me. The Lord really used it to help straighten me out and teach me discipline and responsibility and a work ethic. But really, a lot of times in my experience, I see people really try to overcomplicate what the Bible is trying to say. And I'm like, let's just get back to what does the Bible say, and let's look at it from just the most simple perspective as we can. Yes, there are, of course, deeper things.
James Lasher:I actually tried to avoid going into the Greek of it. I think there's maybe only one or two times I do, which is very important. I'm not diminishing that, but let's just start with one foot forward, because so many people are kind of resistant to reading the Book of Revelation, and the whole point of this book is get in the Word of God. Read the Book of Revelation. I honestly think my book is best read in conjunction with the Bible, because what it sounds like to me is the best thing we can do is to get the Word of God, of course, and open the Book of Revelation and have your book almost as a commentator along the way to explain things that we just haven't seen.
James Lasher:Absolutely. There's a lot of confusion we see today when we have all this advancing technology, for one. We've seen the AI revolution just skyrocket in the last few years. And so it begs a lot of questions in the Book of Revelation. Well, how can there be a world system that is controlled by the Antichrist? The beast system, that many. Well, let's read what's technology doing today? Let's ask the questions and then connect the dots through a biblical lens, and I address that. AI is surging. We have digital currencies now. There are global government movements trying to push those, and what does all that pretty much lead to? And that is control over these assets. There's no longer privacy on the internet. There's no longer personal possessions. I believe one of the global leaders said, "You will own nothing and like it."
AI, Digital Currency, and the Beast System
James Lasher:And so I believe that COVID was one of those experiments that the governments made. And Paul writes about that global deception in the last days. And that's what they're working on. And this is a tough topic for a lot of people to accept, that the headlines today are prophetic every single day. And it's almost because you have nostalgia, which is one of the key things about my generation. People miss the way things used to be. And they have to come to grips that it's not going back. Whenever we've had a new technology take off, there is no going back from it. The internet revolutionized worldwide communication. AI is now doing the very same thing in its own way, and it's only moving forward. We can't go back to the way things were.
James Lasher:And so when you see things like the October 7th terror attack, there is no going back for the nation of Israel from that. And we've seen, like you mentioned earlier, this just rabid, you could argue, satanic antisemitism around the world, which Old Testament prophets prophesied. And so where does that lead us to? It leads us to the pages of Revelation, and it tells us how the dragon, and this is Satan that it's talking about, Lucifer, that fallen angel, the devil of old, he says he has a vendetta against the nation of Israel. If he can destroy that nation, he can break God's covenant. That's what he thinks he can do. But we know God is not going to let that happen. We have the Word of God. We have his promises, and where does that lead us to? The return of King Jesus.
Israel, Antisemitism, and Prophetic Fulfillment
James Lasher:And there's just so much more going on. Just real quick, Israel is currently hated globally by many countries. The US, with the current administration, is like the last bastion of people supporting them from major powers. You have Turkish forces in Syria, which borders Israel. You have Hezbollah to their north. You have Hamas in Gaza. You have Jordan, who is not an active threat to Israel right now, but they are very set against Israel taking control of the Temple Mount of the West Bank, which we know is Judea and Samaria. You have the current war with Iran, who is historically Persia. They exist to destroy Israel. I couldn't write this myself as a fictional work. Only God could've done all this.
Philip:Someone's watching this now. They are thinking, "I feel it in my bones that there's something taking place." Give us some advice for these folks. Tell me, where should their heart and their mind and their spirit be?
Replacing Fear With Anticipation of Christ's Return
James Lasher:It all points back to Jesus. Now, he might've made some errors later in life, but do what Solomon did. Ask the Lord for wisdom. Ask the Lord for discernment on what is going on today. And in those prayers, never cease praying. Never cease reading the Word of God. You could read a passage in the Bible in any book, not just Revelation, and he will just put something new on your heart every time, whatever point you're at in life. And a lot of these news headlines, it's fear-based and everything, but the Lord did not give us a spirit of fear. He gave us one of victory, of power, of a sound mind, and that is what Revelation ends in, is the victory of Jesus Christ.
Philip:We need to have an awareness. The Bible says, "When you see these things come to pass." Yes, that's awareness. So we will be watching for His coming, not with fear, but with anticipation and motivation. Because the Bible says, "The fields are white in the harvest, and the laborers are few." And I feel that there are folk watching that need to avail themselves of this book, that will help put another piece of that jigsaw puzzle I was talking about into place to let them see that we are literally in the last days. It's time for a harvest of your family. It's time for a harvest of our nation. We need to turn back to God. And I believe we are right now getting that last chance before really big stuff happens.
Philip:You can get a copy of this book. I really urge you to do this today. You can get it through this address. It's mycharisma.com. Mycharisma.com. You can also get it on amazon.com. And you can go online right now on Amazon or Charisma and check it out, "The Revelation of Jesus" by James Lasher. And I think that you will be enriched and educated. Knowledge is power. And so James, listen, I want to thank you for taking the time to be with us on our little program here today at Daily Faith. And as it goes around the country, I hope that God uses this to let you know it's time to look up because your redemption draweth nigh. Thank you, James.
James Lasher:Thank you so much.
Philip:Thank you for watching Daily Faith today. We appreciate your time. Pray with us about helping our new homes in Moldova. We'll see you again. Bye-bye.
For over 25 years, the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova. From providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They champion the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons, and in the process, orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their Heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus. God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now, no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ.
The Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in The Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and the Ukraine. If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 833-DAILYFAITH. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Common questions
Why did James Lasher decide to write a book about Revelation?
Lasher says it started during a difficult season when he was living alone in hotels, separated from his pregnant wife and young daughter five days a week. Working 8–12 hours a day in Christian media, he was constantly watching news headlines, and God prompted him to start taking notes as he read Revelation during his quiet time each evening — connecting what he saw in the world to what the book was saying.
What makes Lasher's book on Revelation different from other commentaries?
Lasher describes it as a 'common man's commentary' — he deliberately avoids heavy academic language and rarely dips into the Greek, because he believes people already overcomplicate the Bible. His goal is to get readers into the Book of Revelation itself, and he says his book works best read side-by-side with the Bible as a plain-language guide alongside the text.
How does Lasher connect today's news headlines — AI, digital currency, antisemitism — to Bible prophecy?
Lasher argues that advancing technology like AI and digital currencies are laying the groundwork for the kind of global control the Book of Revelation describes under the 'beast system.' He also points to the surge of antisemitism and the military encirclement of Israel — by Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Turkish forces in Syria — as direct fulfillments of Old Testament prophecy that feed directly into the pages of Revelation.
What does Lasher say Satan's endgame with Israel actually is?
According to Lasher, the Book of Revelation identifies the dragon as Satan, and Satan has a specific vendetta against the nation of Israel — believing that if he can destroy it, he can break God's covenant. Lasher is clear, though, that God's promises mean that won't happen, and it all ultimately points toward the return of Jesus Christ.
What advice does Lasher give to people who feel anxious or fearful about end-times prophecy?
Lasher says the antidote to fear is prayer, wisdom, and staying in the Word of God — pointing to Solomon as a model for asking God for discernment. He emphasizes that God did not give believers a spirit of fear but one of power and a sound mind, and that Revelation ends in the victory of Jesus Christ — so the right posture is anticipation and motivation for the harvest, not dread.
Topics
lasherbook of revelationbible prophecyend timesisrael prophecycharisma magazineantichrist beast system