March 16, 2026
Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Life Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, March 16, 2026, and this is episode #7 in Series 2026. This episode is titled, “Jesus Christ Is Coming Back.”
Before we get into our message, let me share a resource that will help you to draw closer to Jesus every day. It’s titled The Daystar Devotional and is a compilation of daily meditations I’ve written based on a Scripture verse for the day.
If you’re looking for daily encouragement in your walk with Christ, The Daystar Devotional will provide just what you’re looking for. Daily readings will give you fresh insight into Scripture verses that will inspire you, encourage you, and strengthen you as you face the daily challenges of life. The Daystar Devotional is a powerful tool for growing in your relationship with our precious Lord.
The Daystar Devotional is available in both print and ebook formats at the links below or in the show notes.
The Daystar Devotional (Print)
The Daystar Devotional (eBook)
And now, let’s dive right into this week’s message: Jesus Christ Is Coming Back.
A lot has been said recently about the return of Jesus Christ in the cataclysmic event called the Rapture. So much, in fact, that the fact that Jesus hasn’t returned yet has caused the mockers to increase in number and intensity.
But just because Jesus hasn’t returned yet doesn’t mean He won’t. To think that His delay is permanent is deception, and it is where the great danger lies.
For you see, my friend, Jesus Christ promised us that He would return. Before He went back to Heaven after His resurrection, Jesus said this to His followers: “In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14: 2-3).
Since Jesus is God, He cannot lie. He will keep His Word. He will return.
Let me be as clear and as simple as I can.
The Bible prophesies the return of Christ in an earth-shattering event called the Rapture. Let’s read about this in 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.”
After the Rapture, the Bible prophesies that a seven-year period of intense human suffering will come upon the earth. This seven-year period is called the Tribulation and will occur during the rule and under the rule of a man called the AntiChrist.
Why is he called the AntiChrist? Because he will oppose everything the true Jesus Christ stands for and, in fact, the AntiChrist will attempt to replace Christ. The AntiChrist will proclaim Himself as God. Behind the AntiChrist will be Satan himself who will, in effect, use this man to perpetrate the worst horrors the world has ever known.
Listen to what the Bible says about these horrors in the Message Translation where the AntiChrist is referred to as “the Anarchist:”
2 Thessalonians 2: 3-5 and verses 9-12 (The Message Translation):
“Before that day comes, a couple of things have to happen. First, the Apostasy. Second, the debut of the Anarchist, a partner in crime with Satan. He’ll defy and then take over every so-called god or altar. Having cleared away the opposition, he’ll then set himself up in God’s Temple as God Almighty . . . The Anarchist’s coming is all Satan’s work. All his power and signs and miracles are fake, evil sleight of hand that plays to the gallery of those who hate the truth that could save them. And since they’re so obsessed with evil, God rubs their noses in it—gives them what they want. Since they refuse to trust truth, they’re banished to their chosen world of lies and illusions.”
The Bible further describes the day of the Rapture in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 1, verses 2 and 3. This is Paul writing:
“You know as well as I that the day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars. He won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would. About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other—“We’ve sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!”—suddenly everything will fall apart. It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman.”
Did you hear that, my friend? The day of Christ’s return will come as a huge surprise to those who are not looking for His return. Some translations describe his return as unexpected as the intrusion of a thief in the night.
Moreover, in Revelation 4: 8, we read of the holy angels who are now worshipping the Lord and proclaiming the promise of His return: “Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty— the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.’”
The question then is not if Jesus will return. He Himself said He would. Nor is the question when will He return.
The question is a far more important and momentous one: Are YOU ready for His return?
You might be thinking, Dr. MaryAnn, this sounds like hogwash to me. Why should I be paying attention to the return of Jesus Christ? Why should I care? I don’t even believe in Jesus Christ. Christians have been talking for years about the return of Jesus, but He hasn’t come back yet. So what’s the deal?
The deal is that your position regarding the return of Jesus Christ will mean the difference between whether you escape the Tribulation or whether you won’t.
Why should you want to escape the Tribulation? Because during the Tribulation, as the Bible states in Matthew chapter 24 verse 21, “…there will be greater anguish than at any time since the world began. And it will never be so great again.” (Matthew 24: 21 NLT)
Sobering words, no?
So what will happen during the Tribulation?
The Bible describes the scenario in several places. Let’s take a look at a few of them:
2 Thessalonians 1: 7-9 NLT: “He [Jesus] will come with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power.“
Revelation 6: 12 (describing the vision of John the Apostle in approximately 95 A.D.): ” . . . there was a great earthquake. The sun became as dark as black cloth, and the moon became as red as blood.”
Revelation 9: 10-11 – “Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen to earth from the sky, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. When he opened it, smoke poured out as though from a huge furnace, and the sunlight and air turned dark from the smoke.
“Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions. They were told not to harm the grass or plants or trees, but only the people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were told not to kill them but to torture them for five months with pain like the pain of a scorpion sting. In those days people will seek death but will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them!
“The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. They had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked like human faces. They had hair like women’s hair and teeth like the teeth of a lion. They wore armor made of iron, and their wings roared like an army of chariots rushing into battle. They had tails that stung like scorpions, and for five months they had the power to torment people. Their king is the angel from the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon—the Destroyer.“
So, my friend, you can see from these few Scripture verses that the Tribulation will not be a picnic. It will be horrifying. Over half of the world’s population will die. In Revelation 6: 8 NLT, the Apostle John prophesies that one-quarter of the earth’s population will die: “I looked up and saw a horse whose color was pale green. Its rider was named Death, and his companion was the Grave. These two were given authority over one-fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword and famine and disease and wild animals.” Then later, in Revelation 9: 15 NLT, he tells us this: “Then the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were turned loose to kill one-third of all the people on earth.”
That’s over 80% of the world’s population that will die!
These verses give just a few examples of the horrors that will befall those who are alive during the Tribulation. You don’t want to be one of them.
But, if you do not accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you will be one of them. Only those who receive Christ into their lives will escape this time of unfathomable anguish, but those who do not follow Christ will not.
So what is your choice, my friend? Do you want to live through the Tribulation and probably end up living forever in hell? Or do you want to believe that Jesus loves you, and that He died and rose from the dead to take the punishment for your sin so that you could live in Heaven with Him forever? The choice seems like a no-brainer.
You might say, “I’ll just wait and see, Dr. MaryAnn. If I end up in the Tribulation, I could always accept Jesus then.”
Yes, you could. But it will be extremely difficult. Why? Because the Bible says that those who accept Christ during the Tribulation will not be allowed to buy or sell anything unless they take the mark of the beast. And they won’t take the mark of the beast.
The Beast is the AntiChrist, also known as Satan personified. The mark is a digital I.D. that will be placed on or subcutaneously implanted into one’s forehead or hand. This mark will identify that person as a follower of the AntiChrist. Those who refuse to take the mark in order to follow the true Christ will be identified as traitors and will be executed, most likely by being beheaded.
In order for you to buy food for your family during the Tribulation, you will need to pledge allegiance to Satan and worship him as god. And once you do that, you relinquish every opportunity to be saved and to go to Heaven. Listen to what the Bible says:
“Then a third angel followed them, shouting, ‘Anyone who worships the beast and his statue or who accepts his mark on the forehead or on the hand must drink the wine of God’s anger. It has been poured full strength into God’s cup of wrath. And they will be tormented with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb. The smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night, for they have worshiped the beast and his statue and have accepted the mark of his name.’”
Why will those who take the mark of the beast be doomed forever in hell?
Because accepting the mark of the beast will alter your DNA. If your DNA is altered, you will no longer be human but transhuman. And transhumans cannot be saved because Jesus died only for humans, not for transhumans.
My friend, please hear my heart. I don’t want you to go to Hell. It is a place of eternal torment from which you will never be able to escape. Can you even fathom what eternal means? It means never-ending. Forever without hope.
Have you ever felt hopeless? Well, multiply that to the nth power and you will get only a glimpse of what eternal hopelessness feels like.
But you can avoid all of this simply by believing in Jesus Christ and in His love for you. How hard is that to do? How hard is it to believe that God loves you so much that He was willing to take the punishment for sin that you should have taken?
God does not want you to go to hell, my friend. He doesn’t send anyone to hell. People send themselves to hell by refusing to believe God.
Listen to what God’s heart for you is: “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Thessalonians 5: 9.
The Tribulation is the time when God will pour out his wrath on a sinful world. The Bible tells us that the Christ-Follower is not appointed to wrath.
Friend, you don’t have to be here for the Tribulation. You can escape the hell that is about to be unleashed on the earth. All you have to do is receive the love Jesus has for you, a love so profound and so perfect that He gave His very life for you. Won’t you do that now? Won’t you accept Him now? Pray this simple prayer with me:
Lord Jesus, I need You. I don’t want to be here for the Tribulation. I want to spend forever with You in Heaven. I believe that You are the Son of God Who died for me and rose from the dead and paid the price for my sin. I receive You now as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for saving me. Thank you for taking the punishment for my sin. Make me like You, Jesus. In Your Name I pray. Amen.
If you sincerely prayed this prayer from your heart, you are now a born-again child of God. Welcome to the Family of God! Write to me at drmaryann@maryanndiorio.com, and I will send you a free PDF e-booklet titled After You’re Born Again.
In closing, I want to remind you that my featured book for this week is titled The Daystar Devotional: Encouragement in Your Walk with Jesus. Get your copy now and learn how to experience God’s will for your life every day by following His principles for a successful life. Get your copy at one of the links below.
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Until next time, remember that God loves you just as you are and just where you are. But He doesn’t want you to stay there. As you walk with Him, He will help you to keep on winning with the Word.
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Copyright 2026 by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD. All Rights Reserved.
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