Jeffress is not one of your fly-by-night conservative evangelical preachers; he's been around the block more that a few times. He is senior pastor of the 11,000-member First Baptist Church, in Dallas, Texas; hosts a daily radio program called "Pathway to Victory" -- which is broadcast on more than 700 hundred stations; and, his weekly television show is seen on 1,200 television stations and cable systems throughout the nation and in 28 countries around the world, including China. He has written more than twenty books, and is a much sought-after speaker at evangelical Christian events, and is a frequent guest on Fox News.

He briefly attracted the attention of the mainstream media when in October 2011, after introducing Texas Governor Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., he told reporters that Mormonism was a "cult" and maintained that Mitt Romney was opposed to Christianity. A day later, after a Sunday morning service, he stood by his statements: "Mormonism is a false religion," he told Reuters. "It was invented 1800 years after the establishment of Christianity."

In a sermon prior to the 2008 presidential campaign, Jeffress said: "Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Even though he talks about Jesus as his Lord and savior, he is not a Christian. Mormonism is not Christianity. Mormonism is a cult."

Jeffress, a man of constant controversy, was a booster of Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day in 2012, has often stated that Islam is a religion that promotes pedophilia, and spearheaded an attempt to remove gay-themed books from public libraries.

During the recent dust-up over anti-gay remarks made by Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson, Jeffress took to CNN to declare his solidarity with the show's patriarch: "He is simply quoting what Paul says in Romans 1. Now, people may not agree with that, they may want to attach some new interpretation to it, but people don't have the right to label Phil or me or tens of millions of evangelical Christians as hateful because we hold to a historical understanding of the Bible."

One thing that separates Jeffress from many of his ranting contemporaries is that he appears to be a kinder, gentler culture warrior. "It would be easy to dislike him if he were a hypocrite or a bigot, if he were an insufferable megalomaniac or the kind of man who preaches out of hate and anger," D Magazine's Michael J. Mooney has written. "But he's none of those things. He's actually delightful to be around. He's not just polite; he earnestly cares about people. He may not believe in evolution, but he really does want to know how your day has been. He may oppose certain rights for gay people, but he genuinely desires for you to be merry on Christmas. If he talks with you, he's attentive and giving. He's curious about you and about the world."

Obama paving the way for the Antichrist

Conservative Christian evangelicals started out by demonizing then-Senator Barack Hussein Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. An assortment of conservative evangelical preachers - most notably Texas Pastor John Hagee -- and conservative writers - especially Jerry Jenkins, co-author, with Tim LaHaye, of the wildly successful Left Behind series of apocalyptic novels -- tried to paint Obama as a warm-up act for the Antichrist.

While Jeffress is not naming Obama the Antichrist, Perfect Ending: Why Your Eternal Future Matters Today, maintains that Obama's support for gay marriage is laying down the conditions for the coming of the Antichrist.

"The Antichrist," Jeffress told the Christian Post, will "usurp people's basic freedoms such as speech, worship and commerce," and will "launch an attack on God's people, and will seek to change God's moral law, according to Daniel 7:25. And, he will be able to accomplish all of these things, with little to no opposition, at least in the beginning."

"For the first time in history a president of our country has openly proposed altering one of society's (not to mention God's) most fundamental laws: that marriage should be between a man and a woman," Jeffress writes, according to an advance copy provided to Religious News Service.
"While I am not suggesting that President Obama is the Antichrist, the fact that he was able to propose such a sweeping change in God's law and still win reelection by a comfortable margin illustrates how a future world leader will be able to oppose God's laws without any repercussions."

After 9/11, Jeffress told the Christian Post, "Americans willingly gave up certain freedoms and rights in order to protect our country. ... We are being taught that we are to surrender our personal rights for a greater good. And, I think in the same way, it will be argued one day, during the days of the Antichrist, that everybody ought to receive a mark, for security purposes, that will allow them to engage in commerce ..."

"A TIME/CNN poll recently revealed that 59 percent of Americans believe the book of Revelation accurately predicts future events. And yet, to many people, the book of Revelation is a mystery. The great amount of space that the Bible devotes to future events means that it's an important topic and one that God does want us to understand," Jeffress told the Christian Post. He said the book would help people recognize prophetic events and hoped that it would allow "people to live in the present with eternity in mind."

"If there is, in fact, going to be rapture one day, in which we leave everything behind, shouldn't that loosen our grip on our material possessions right now?" he asked. "If there is a great white throne judgment in which all unbelievers are going to be judged and sentenced to an eternity in hell, shouldn't that motivate us right now to share Christ with as many people as possible? If we, as Christians, are going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and be rewarded for our obedience to Christ in this life, shouldn't that be a powerful motivation to life a Christ-centered life right now?"

In March of 2013, Jeffress' church opened a $130 million church campus, completing the "largest Protestant church building campaign in modern history."

Although many of Harold Camping's followers loosened their grips on material possessions awaiting the promised Rapture -- selling homes, cars, and just about everything else they owned -- Camping himself never loosened his grip.

Despite his assertions and his advice for dealing with the coming End Times, it is doubtful that Pastor Jeffress will ever "loosen" his grip on the material possessions that he has amassed.