A Message, A Miracle, A Movement: The 40-Year Legacy of Endtime Ministries

Dave Robbins: This year, Endtime
Ministries celebrates 40 years
since my father-in-law Irvin
Baxter wrote his first book “A
Message for the President.”
It was really what set the stone
for everything that we do here
at Endtime Ministries, and it is
what launched the ministry all
the way back in 1986.
So I have my wife, Jana, joining
me today for this edition of
“The Endtime Show.”
♪♪♪
Dave: Good afternoon, everybody.
I’m Dave Robbins with Endtime
Ministries, and thank you all so
much for joining my wife and I
today on this edition of “The
Endtime Show.”
And it’s really a celebratory
edition of “The Endtime Show”
for us because we’re celebrating
40 years since my father-in-law
Irvin Baxter wrote his first
book “A Message for the
President,” and that’s what
really started everything here
at Endtime.
So, Jan, I know that you were
here from the very beginning
pretty much and–where we’re
back in that little room in our
old church up there on 8th
Street in Richmond, Indiana.
But I wanted you to join me
today because I’ve only been
here for 22 years, you’ve been
here for well over 30 years and
you can recount all of the
miracles and stories and
different things that we’re
gonna talk about celebrating
these 40 years.
So thank you for
joining me today.
Jana Robbins: Well, I’m
glad to be here.
Dave: Absolutely.
And so what I wanted to do to
start this off today is as we go
through here my wife’s gonna be
doing much of the talking, but I
wanted to start off today to
really help you to understand
the significance of my
father-in-law’s book “A Message
for the President.”
You know, it’s real easy
to–when people–there’s all
kinds of different
interpretations of the beasts
and the timelines and all
kinds of different things
in Scripture.
About 30% of the Bible is Bible
prophecy, but there are so many
things that you can say,
“Well, it’s like this.
No, it’s that.”
And there’s some
confusion sometimes.
However, I wanted to–the
significance of the book that my
father-in-law wrote that started
it all was something that God
gave him.
You know, in John 14:29 Jesus
said, “I tell you these things
before they come to pass, that
when they come to pass you
would believe.”
Well, in–Irvin Baxter started,
you know, te–God started
revealing him these prophecies
all the way back in 1968, 57
years ago now, and–but he would
teach some of these things and
some people would say, “Well,
Irvin Baxter, that’s
your interpretation.”
Or you start talking about the
beast and they–you know, they
mean–there are nations that
would on the earth at the time
when the ancient of days or
Jesus Christ would come and
people would say, “Well,
Irvin Baxter, that’s
your interpretation.”
Because many people had
different interpretations of it.
But just like Jesus said, “I
tell you these things before
they come to pass, that when
they come to pass you would
believe,” what Irvin Baxter
needed, and God knew this, was
for Irvin Baxter to foretell
something that God gave him and
then that event would be
undeniably a fulfillment of
Bible prophecy–that everybody
could look at what God gave
Irvin Baxter and say, “You
know what?
That’s undeniable.”
And that’s what this book
was all about.
That’s the significance of this
book because my father-in-law,
Irvin Baxter, started teaching
these things years before 1986.
God started giving him
these things.
Just almost on a monthly,
weekly basis, he was showing
him prophecy.
It was just an–it was just like
God was giving him a complete
miraculous revelation of
different things.
But there came a time in the
mid-’80s where that kinda
dried up.
My father-in-law, very
Spirit-led man.
But this pivotal time when God
was gonna show him something to
publish that would soon come to
pass, that time was coming and
God knew it.
So in the mid-’80s, God had to
show Irvin Baxter this.
So what he did, he dried up the
revelation of these prophecies.
God was just showing him over
and over and over, but then it
kinda stopped.
It paused, if you will.
And so–but God knew the timing.
God knew that Irvin had to write
this book and published it
before this event happened.
Well, that’s what happened in “A
Message for the President.”
In the mid-’80s, my father-in-
law started really asking God,
“Why did you dry up this
prophetic revelation that you
were giving me just over
and over and over?”
And God said, “Irvin, I will
not–” He spoke to him in a
prayer and he said, “Irvin, I
will not show you anything else
until you publish what
I’ve given you.”
And so my father-in-law thought,
“Well, okay, I don’t understand
all the prophecies, but God’s
given me a lot of stuff.
I’m gonna write a book.”
Well, he had never
written a book.
In high school, he didn’t really
like writing, studying history,
believe it or not; and those are
the two things really mainly
that–in writing–those are the
things that God used him to do
the rest of his life to
influence globally people’s
belief and perception on
Bible prophecy.
So he started writing “A Message
for the President,” but it was
just like–you know, he would
write on it a while and
then–you know, if you’ve ever
tried to write a book, you’ll
know what I’m saying.
But he would write on it a while
and then life would happen and
then he’d get back to it.
But God knew, “Irvin, you’ve
gotta get this done now because
the prophecy is gonna be
fulfilled in a few years and I
need you to put it in a book
because I want people to believe
the things that
I’m telling you.”
So this book, very,
very pivotal.
And so in 1986 he told his wife
Judy Baxter, he said, “Look,
Judy,” he said, “I’m gonna
write this book.”
And he said, “I’ve gotta
finish this book.
God’s got his foot in my back.
He’s pressing me.
So I’m not gonna take
another bite of food.
We’re gonna go on a fa–I’m
gonna go on a fast, and I won’t
eat again until I
finish the book.”
And my mother-in-law, wonderful
partner of his and great
supporter, she said,
“You know what?
I won’t eat another
bite with you.
We’ll both fast together until
you get the book done.”
And he said, “I found out one
thing, a very important life
lesson: that the more days you
fast, the faster you’ll write.”
And so he said, “I
was just typing.”
And this is back before the days
of–really there was no computer
at this point.
He didn’t have one, so he was
typing on an old typewriter or
she–he was actually writing it
out pen and pen–pencil and
paper, and then giving it to her
and she was typing it out.
Well, at the end of the 12 days,
he finished the book and he
said, “Look–” They just put the
last period on the end of the
last sentence.
He looked at his wife and he
said, “I’m done.”
She said, “Let’s go eat.”
And they went and got something
to eat, but the book was
finished in 1986.
Well, all of his friends, when
he found out what he was gonna
put in the book that he–because
of the healing of the deadly
wound in Revelation 13, we–he
knew that those nations–the
seven-headed, ten-horned beast,
that the heads on that beast
represented nations.
It tells us that back in Daniel
9–back in Daniel chapter 7, but
that one of those beast or one
of the nations would be wounded,
nigh unto death; and that that
deadly wound would be healed,
and when that deadly wound was
healed all the world would
wonder after this beast.
It would be–lead us into the
new world order.
And he knew that the wound
happened in Germany.
And if you go through the
book–I’m not gonna take time to
go through the entire chapter,
but–because we don’t have much
time here, but what he knew was
that they–he started seeing
many articles and different
things that led him to believe
that the Berlin Wall and the
Iron Curtain through the nation
of Germany after World War II,
that that was the wound.
Time magazine, Newsweek, all
these major periodicals were
calling it a palpable wound that
must someday be healed in the
nation of Germany.
So through all of his research
and everything, God was showing
him, “This is the wound, Irvin,
and this wound it–according to
Scripture is gonna be healed.
The Berlin Wall is gonna
come down.
Those two Germanys will–the two
Germ–the East and West Germany
will reunite and that will be
the–something about that will
be the catalyst that would
launch us into the new
world order.”
So he put that in a
book in 1986.
Well, his friends were saying,
“Irvin, don’t do that.
The Berlin Wall is a symbol
of the Cold War.
You are–you’re gonna ruin
your ministry.
No–your ministry is gonna be
swept into the dustbin
of history.
Nobody’s gonna have you preach.
They’re gonna think–you’re
gonna–they’re gonna think that
you’re just some kind of a
fly-by-night prophecy guy that’s
just trying to
sensationalize stuff.
Don’t put that in the book.”
He said, “Look, I know it’s
the Word of God.
God’s got his foot in my back.
He’s pressing me to do this.
I’m gonna publish the book.”
So he did that in 1986.
Three years later, in 1989,
President Ronald Reagan stands
before the wall and he says,
“Look, Gorbachev.
If you want peace like you say
you do, tear down this wall.”
The very famous speech.
And Gorbachev said,
“You know what?
I’m going to.”
The wall came down 1989.
It was unbelievable.
The symbol of the Cold War the
Berlin Wall came down, the two
Germanys reunited.
And 20 days later, Mikhail
Gorbachev, Pope John Paul II,
and George H.W. Bush
came out of their meetings
talking about the birth of the
new world order.
It is exactly from the
prophecies of the Bible, what
Irvin Baxter put in his
book in 1986.
It was fulfilled 3 years later.
And so everybody around the
world, news stations, and people
were saying, “How in the world
did you know that this was
gonna happen?”
He said, “It’s in a prophecy
of the Bible.
God showed me that.”
Well, he put–he published that
in this book, and it was the
same–it was the moment that
Irvin Baxter and Endtime
Ministries needed 40 years ago
to put us on the map.
Jesus, again, said, “Well, I
tell you these things before
they come to pass, that
when they come to pass
you’ll believe.”
Irvin Baxter needed a moment
like that in his life.
He needed that pivotal event to
happen so people would say,
“This guy has heard from God,
and he knows what’s going on.”
So that was the book “A Message
for the President,” and that’s
what started this 40-year run.
Now we’re in 2026 and God has
performed miracle after miracle,
and it’s one–it’s these types
of miracles for 40 years.
And so with that said–and, you
know, these books have been–are
all over the world.
And so if you have one of
these–I know they’re selling
for a lot of money on eBay.
And so I’ve got two of
the originals.
I think my wife has one.
So just a very, very important
book in the life of Endtime
Ministries, and I’m so thankful
to be a part of this because
I’ve seen miracles.
My–that’s the year I graduated
high school, 40 years ago.
I wasn’t married into the–to
the Irvin Baxter family yet.
That didn’t happen till 1988,
couple of years later; but I was
around when all of this was
happening.
Irvin Baxter was my pastor.
And wow, this is what really set
the stage for everything that
was coming.
So I wanted to share that with
you because we’re celebrating 40
years right now of “A Message
for the President” and the
miracle of Endtime Ministries
because this really–this just
started it all and then many
things happened.
Now, my wife, Jana, was here
during all of this and mo–the
vast majority.
And, of course, she was raised
in Irvin Baxter’s home, raised
in his church, and then–so she
knew him before 1986 and then
post-1986 when the prophetic
message and the prophetic
ministry of Irvin Baxter really
began to consume his life.
Prior to the book, it was just
Pastor Irvin Baxter, Jr. He
pastored a church.
Once he wrote the book, then
life pretty much shifted for
your dad.
Didn’t it, Jan?
So kinda give us an idea of what
it was like all the way back in
the beginning with the
transition with your dad from
pre the “Message for the
President” book and then post
that right there in the
early years.
Jana: Well, I was a sophomore in
high school, so I can recall
some things just because of the
fact that he was just a pastor,
a guy that dabbled in prophecy.
Plus, he was a pastor doing
other things besides prophecy,
but he was–it was just, you
know, daily life as usual.
But then when he wrote the
book–God told him, “I’m not
giving you anything else till
you write, share what I’ve given
you with others.”
And he obeyed.
And then he tried to get
somebody to publish the book.
Nobody would publish it.
So he had to self-publish it
because they were like, “We’re
not publishing the kinda things
that are written in this book.”
‘Cause it was pretty strong meat
in a lot of places, but he–once
the Berlin Wall came down in
’89, that’s really–he traveled
some and was
distributing the books.
But once the Berlin Wall came
down in ’89, his phones rang off
the hook.
And so–then it–that’s where we
start to see a shift, and it
really didn’t really pick up
until he decided to launch
the magazine.
Dave: Yeah.
So–but I kinda remember back
then once he started getting
interviewed and all these
different things happened he
thought, “Man, this is like
a–somebody started a fire in a
wheat field and now this thing
has really taken off and the
wind’s blowing.”
And it’s like God was just
breathing on the whole thing and
everything took off.
And I remember your dad, he used
to come out and play softball
and volleyball and just–like a
normal pastor would, but then he
started to shift towards–he
started doing conferences and
all kinds of things like that.
And God just consumed his life,
and he was happy.
He was happy to give up his life
for the cause of this ministry,
what it would turn into today,
this great radio, television
global ministry.
And he was happy to do that
because he sensed the presence
of God, and it was the will of
God in his life.
And he said, “God, whatever your
will is, that’s what I wanna do.
I’m gonna present my body a
living sacrifice.”
And we saw your dad turn into
that and, man, he just
went globally.
And we’re still living in
that miracle, Jan.
And the ministry is going
fabulous and, you know, it’s
just a miracle to be
in all of this.
Dave: One of the most
frequently-asked questions we
receive at Endtime Ministries
is, “Why do you guys teach the
Rapture happens after the
Great Tribulation?”
Should we be passively waiting
to be taken at any moment or
actively preparing for the
greatest revival in history?
Paul states plainly it will not
occur until after the man of
sin, the Antichrist, is
revealed, and that will not
happen until God
declares it is time.
I will walk you through a
timeline of the final 7 years.
The Rapture, the marriage supper
of the lamb, and the second
coming of Jesus Christ is one
continuous event.
It’s not an event separated
by 7 years.
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Dave: So once he wrote his book
in 1986, then that led–all the
interviews and different things
that started to happen, that led
to him publishing the–starting
to publish Endtime
magazine bi-monthly.
So what year was that?
Jana: Ninety-one.
So he said that the–he said
that God started really dealing
with him about a magazine the
same way he dealt with him about
the book.
So about–it was early ’90s.
He met with a group of ten men
that were men of God, full of
faith, was all about revival and
he proposed to them his idea of
how he wanted to create a
publication of world events from
a biblical perspective and
create this bi-monthly magazine
and call it Endtime.
Well, all these men, they loved
his enthusiasm, his–he always
had this, “We can do anything.
God’s bigger than any of us
and–” He always had that kind
of attitude.
And so he proposed this to them
and they said, “We believe in
what you’re doing.”
But he said, “I don’t have cash
flow to be able to do it.
I don’t really know what
I’mma do.”
And they all said, “Well,
tell you what.
We’re all gonna give you $1,000
each to help you launch
this magazine.”
And he was like, “Well,
that’s awesome.”
In the meantime, he
was traveling and
getting subscribers.
They were signing up,
paying their $14.95.
And he was putting the money
aside, waiting for the first one
to be published.
Well, 1 year later, he had 1,000
subscribers and he–to start
the magazine.
But the ten men that had
promised him the money, none of
them had come through
on any of it.
And so he got down to pray one
day in our old church on 8th
Street and he said, “God, I have
tried to get subscribers.
I’ve got 1,000, but I don’t have
the cash flow to do this, that
you’re pressing me.”
He said, “I’m just gonna send
these people a letter, refund
their money.
I’m not gonna do it.”
And he said the same voice that
spoke to him about the book was
the voice that spoke to him this
day, and he–the Lord said to
him, “Are you willing to stand
before me on judgment day and
say you were too afraid to take
the leap and do this?
And I’ve called you your whole
life to do this very thing.”
And my dad said, “Well, God,
when you say it like that, I’m
not willing to do that.”
So he got up, he went and talked
to my mom.
They said, “Okay, what can we go
into hawk and still keep our
good name if we go belly up on
this magazine?”
And they decided, “We’re gonna
get $40,000 loan on our house.”
And they–that was the day that
he had the prayer meeting.
He made that decision.
Then he got in his car, went to
the post office, and in the post
office was one letter from one
of the ten men saying, “Brother
Baxter, I’m so sorry that it’s
been a year, but here’s
the $1,000.”
It was a man named JT Pugh
from West Texas.
And so my dad said it was like
God was looking right down.
“Are you willing to take
the step of faith?
You make the decision, and then
I’m gonna show you I’m
with you.”
And that’s how he launched
the magazine.
Dave: Yeah.
So that’s a modern-day miracle.
Nobody sent any money until the
day he prayed, and then he got a
$1,000 check from
Brother JT Pugh.
And, of course, most–many of
our listeners would know Brother
JT Pugh, and I’ve heard him
preach over the years.
But it was God showing your dad
one more time, “Irvin, listen.
I’m in this.
It’s time.”
You know, Jan, and we say a lot
of things–a lot of times that
God didn’t show your
dad these things.
This would have been 1991.
God didn’t start doing all this
because your dad was
any–necessarily any smarter
than men that had gone before
him or any more spiritual.
It’s simply because it was time,
and your dad recognized that
as well.
There were many things that guys
would try to figure out years
before that, but it
wasn’t time yet.
But once–God knew–God’s
timing is perfect.
God gave your dad the
interpretation to the two–the
Berlin Wall coming down, the two
Germanys reuniting, the new
world order in–before 1986,
but he said, “Irvin, you gotta
publish the book now.
Publish the book or I’m not
gonna give you anything else.”
Then the–then it’s
fulfilled in ’89.
Then the magazine, ’91.
That would have been what?
Two years later.
He starts saying, “Irvin,
do a mag.”
He talks to all of his friends.
Boom, they say, “We’ll give you
the money,” didn’t, and then God
performs another miracle and
letting your dad–well, here’s
the deal.
The reason I wanted to do this
program–that we wanted to do it
was we wanted everybody to
know all those miracles.
This is how we’ve lived for 40
years now, and what a
wonderful–I mean, you know, a
lot of people look their whole
life to experience a miracle,
but we’ve lived our life–the
vast majority of our life
personally seeing miracle
after miracle.
So, you know, it gives me–it
helps build our faith.
I know that you and I live by
faith, but it helps build our
faith knowing that what’s coming
in the future I know God’s gonna
take care of it.
I don’t worry about stuff
because I’ve seen all the
miracles God’s done up
to this point.
For me to say–you know,
something come up and then we
say, “Oh, Jan, I don’t know if
God’s gonna be able to take care
of it.
He’s not big enough.”
That never crosses our mind
because of all we’ve seen up to
this point.
Okay.
So I knew this was
gonna go quick.
So another thing that we didn’t
cover, your dad’s fir–what was
your dad’s first big
prophetic discovery?
You remember what that was?
Jana: The United States
in the Bible.
Dave: Exactly.
And I’ve heard a lot of people
say–I heard Mike Huckabee say
one time–we were all in a big
DVD project together and he
said, “I just don’t see United
States in the Bible.”
That’s why your dad knew that
needed to be our first lesson
that we would teach in our
understanding the end time, and
everything was they had to get
the modern nations in the Bible.
That’s what God showed your dad
first because he knew that that
would be the thing that
would be needed.
It–very recognizable, and your
dad started–your dad shi–what
year did he show that
to your dad?
Jana: 1968.
Dave: Yeah, so that’s the
year I was born.
So that’s 57 years ago, and
your dad started teaching.
He started going around saying,
“Well, the United States is in
the Bible.”
And people were like, “What?
Irvin Baxter, United States and
other modern nations in
the Bible?”
He said, “Yeah, they’re
all in there.”
And that’s–and that led up
to–because if you look in this
book, on the front of “A Message
for the President” it actually
says, “For the first time,
absolute proof the United States
is in the Bible.”
So this book was very, very
pivotal in the interpretation of
Bible prophecy years ago.
But this wasn’t really your dad;
this was God showing your dad
what to write, and
that’s what he wrote.
It wasn’t by some kinda private
interpretation and stuff
like that.
God was miraculously moving on
your dad, and God said, “Irvin,
publish this book.”
And that’s what he did,
and that’s what started
the ministry.
So very, very pivotal
book in our lives.
So after the Endtime magazine in
’91, we come to where your
dad–then things started to be,
you know, kinda–we were
originally, like, cassette and
then we went to VHS.
And so your dad said,
“You know what?
We need to start
shooting some videos.”
And so what year did he
do the VHS?
Do you remember that?
Jana: –well, he did the flip
chart in ’95 and got it done
about ’96 and–at the same time
as when they started taping
the VHS.
Dave: Okay.
So let’s cover the flip chart
first because we’ll spend more
time on the flip chart than we
will the VHS.
So with that said, I’ve got
one of the original flip
charts here.
This is the “Understand the
Endtime” flip chart, you
can see.
And my father-in-law–this was
back kind of–this is back when
some of the old “Search for
Truth” charts and things like
that, just black and
white on, like, paper.
But when Irvin Baxter came out
with this–tell the story behind
this flip chart real quick.
Jana: So he decided to create
a ten-lesson series called
“Understanding the Endtime.”
And he took this name out of
Daniel 11, understanding among
the people–those that
understand among the people
shall instruct many.
And he took the name of
that–the Scripture and created
the name of the series
“Understanding the Endtime.”
So he compiled ten lessons, and
we created this in a flip chart.
I’m in there.
You’re in there.
A lot of us were in there.
You were the Antichrist and I
was the harlot, but, I mean–
Dave: So the Antichrist
marries the harlot?
Jana: I guess.
All of our church was in there.
We’ve all played a role.
However, there’s ten lessons in
there, and he created it.
It was a lot of–we had a lot of
demons come against us at
that time.
I know that sounds a little
crazy, but it was true.
People in our church that had
been stable for years started
wigging out and being crazy, and
my dad was like, “I don’t
even know.”
And while he was doing that
chart, while he was doing the
lessons, he actually was shown
the third trumpet while he was
doing this flip chart.
The third trumpet’s not even in
this flip chart because what
happened was he created
ten lessons.
And because God started showing
him other things, we started
doing a supplemental series and
it–at the time it became level
two of “Understanding the
Endtime,” and that’s where the
seven trumpets are whereas right
now, today’s current one, it’s
within the “Understanding
the Endtime.”
But originally it wasn’t even
in there.
God hadn’t shown him the
different trumpets.
He didn’t understand trumpets
one, two, three, or four.
He didn’t understand
the trumpets.
At this time in ’95 God was yet
showing him these things, and
that’s when God showed him the
Chernobyl incident.
Was the very first one he ever
showed him, and then after that
it all started going into place
for him to understand.
But when he was doing this, it
was crazy because we would
get–we got pricing for this
flip chart and for–to do 3,000
of these flip charts, it
was $60,000.
Well, we didn’t have
that cash flow.
We were–you know, it was,
like, minimal.
And so my dad was like, “Oh, can
you finance it for 6 months?”
And nobody would finance
it for 6 months.
And finally, the printer that
said that they would do it and
give us 90 days to pay
the bill, they did it.
They got the first 1,000 done,
bound, printed and they were
like, “You’re never gonna
believe this, but we’ve had
things happen to us on this job
that’s never happened before.
Like, the binder–the whole
binder thing broke down.”
So they said, “We’re gonna give
you 1,000 of these flip charts
and the rest we’ll have to make
as soon as we can get all this
stuff repaired, but we won’t
bill you until we get the other
2,000 finished.”
So we were able to go to San
Antonio, Texas, at a general
conference and sell, sell, sell,
like crazy, those flip charts to
be able to pay our $60,000 bill.
And by the time we got our bill,
it was 6 months, the original
terms he had asked for because
their stuff had broken.
And so it was just like crazy
things that happened.
Dave: That’s more of a miracle.
Jana: I know.
It was crazy things that
happened like that, that God
helped us.
But then after the flip
chart–after he got that all
finished and completed, that’s
when we created the VHS.
Up in South Bend, Indiana, is
where we actually taped those
originally at LeSEA
Broadcasting.
Dave: Yeah.
And so this chart, you know, it
was kind of ahead of its time.
Just a four-color, full glossy
chart, beautiful chart, and we
taught this.
You know, they had the old
“Search for Truth,” but Irvin
Baxter taught from this,
and I taught it.
I mean, we just–it went like
wildfire everywhere, and God
helped us.
It’s just one more miracle in
this 40-year timeline.
♪♪♪