"And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law." - Genesis 19:14; bold type added for emphasis.
When I talk about the end times, warning others about our position in it, I get pretty much the same reaction- that I am "as one who mocks" to the professing body of Christ! Yet to warn others, especially God's people, is my clear duty in the body of Christ. Isn't all of God's Word true? We remember what happened to Sodom, and Lot's sons in law- don't we?
"Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." - Luke 17:28-30; bold, italicized type added to ephasize.
Brethren, we could disagree on numerous issues of non-importance, but the timing of the rapture could have grave consequences if we get it wrong. To believe in an "any moment" rapture, a.k.a. pre-tribulation rapture, is simply NOT the message of scripture! You need to stop, and change course immediately if you have fallen for this lie. I also believed this for a long time, before God graciously revealed to me the plain teaching of His Word. This "pre-trib" rapture message is comforting fable for "itching ears (II Tim. 4:3,4).
Satan wants christians to believe that they will somehow be immune to the various crises coming, but such has never been the lot of God's people. If you fall for this comforting lie (pre-trib rapture), you will not be prepared for the deception of antichrist when he takes charge; you will simply fall in line with the rest of the deceived world, which will believe that the millenium has come.
"And then shall that Wicked be revealed... whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish..." - from II Thess. 2:8-10.
The Lord Jesus Christ showed us what to expect in His Word. While many believers are aware that we cannot know the exact day & hour of Christ's return, few have been shown scripturally the sequence of events which alert us to the time of the end. It amazes me how so many would quote verses like Matt. 24:36, which tells us that we will not know the day or hour of Christ's return; but somehow miss the preceeding verses 32-34, that tell us we will "know that it is near, even at the doors." I am convinced that the day & hour info is a protection for us, enabling us to more easily identify false prophets.
Jesus emphatically tells us to WATCH in these passages about the last days (Matt. 24:42-46, Mark 13:32-37, Luke 12:35-38, 21:34-36). Exactly what are we to look for, if we can have no clue as to the time of His return? One of the "bad fruits" (Matt. 7:16-20) of the pre-trib rapture teaching is that it tells us there is no need to watch! Please don't be offended- this message is not meant to pick on anyone, or to prove me right, and others wrong. The message of this blog is one of genuine concern for first your eternal welfare, and then for your earthly well-being, also.
The letters to the Thessalonians solidify God's message to us concerning the rapture, and the 2nd coming of Christ. I Thess. 4:15-18 is really the key passage from which we take the concept of the rapture. Unfortunately, most teaching stops right there! We need to remember that Thessalonians I & II are complete letters, with chapter and verse #'s added later. Let's look at the continuation of the "rapture" passage as it spills into chapter 5;
"But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of the light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober." - I Thess. 5:1-6; bold type added.
These verses make it clear that we will know the season of the end, and that the people of the earth will think they have achieved peace prior to the Lord's return!
Then when we get to II Thessalonians 2, the Holy Spirit prompts Paul to expound further on this topic; that the young believers may have confidence, and not fear (I John 4:18), concerning the end times.
"Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ... That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled... as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, AND that man of sin be revealed... Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God... And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time." - from II Thess. 2:1-6; bold and italicized type, and the capitalized added.
So we see that christians will be here during the time of antichrist! Are we not plainly shown in places like Daniel 7:15-27, and Rev. 13:7 that the "beast" will make war with the saints, and overcome them? At the point when that "man of sin", a.k.a. "that Wicked" will be revealed, there will be approximately three and one half years until he is through, and Christ then returns. Therefore said "tribulation" period is about 3.5 years, as shown in Daniel 7:25, 12:11, Rev. 11:2, & 13:5. Daniel 12:13 identifies the 1,335th day as the one we should look toward (not that we will exactly have the count).
After this period, then comes the rapture; the "sign" of the Son of man appears in the heavens (see Matt. 24:30,31), and the elect are gathered to the marriage supper of the Lamb. During this time, those left on the Earth will mourn; finally all will be aware that they have been deceived! Some time later, on the same day, Christ leads the armies of heaven (assumed that we believers are among them) to the battle of Armageddon (Rev. 19:7-16). Next up, the millenial reign of Christ.
Parts of this message are not pleasant, and I know it! Martyrdom is the norm for the tribulation saints, but the Lord will help us with "a little help" (Dan. 11:34), and the eternal reward is beyond comparison. Brethren, the time is now fast coming upon us, that we needs live and die that faith which we profess (Luke 9:23). Throw yourselves upon Christ, and seek Him to strengthen you now. Please remember this warning, and carry it with you in your spirit...
"But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer." - I Peter 4:7.
"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." - Rev. 12:11.
(Howdy, Andy. Seen this? Saw this web bit not long ago and want to share it.]
ReplyDeletePRETRIB RAPTURE SECRETS
How can the “rapture” be “imminent”? Acts 3:21 says that Jesus “must” stay in heaven (He's now there with the Father) “until the times of restitution of all things” which includes, says Scofield, “the restoration of the theocracy under David’s Son” which obviously can’t begin before or during Antichrist’s reign. ("The Rapture Question," by the long time No. 1 pretrib authority John Walvoord, didn't dare to even list, in its scripture index, the too-hot-to-handle Acts 3:21!) Since Jesus can’t even leave heaven before the tribulation ends (Acts 2:34,35 echo this), the rapture therefore can't take place before the end of the trib! (The same Acts verses were also too hot for John Darby - the so-called "father of dispensationalism" - to list in the scripture index in his "Letters"!)
Paul explains the “times and the seasons” (I Thess. 5:1) of the catching up (I Thess. 4:17) as the “day of the Lord” (5:2) which FOLLOWS the posttrib sun/moon darkening (Matt. 24:29; Acts 2:20) WHEN “sudden destruction” (5:3) of the wicked occurs! The "rest" for "all them that believe" is tied to such destruction in II Thess. 1:6-10! (If the wicked are destroyed before or during the trib, who'd be left alive to serve the Antichrist?) Paul also ties the change-into-immortality “rapture” (I Cor. 15:52) to the posttrib end of “death” (15:54). (Will death be ended before or during the trib? Of course not! And vs. 54 is also tied to Isa. 25:8 which is Israel's posttrib resurrection!)
Many are unaware that before 1830 all Christians had always viewed I Thess. 4’s “catching up” as an integral part of the final second coming to earth. In 1830 this "rapture" was stretched forward and turned into a separate coming of Christ. To further strengthen their novel view, which the mass of evangelical scholars rejected throughout the 1800s, pretrib teachers in the early 1900s began to stretch forward the “day of the Lord” (what Darby and Scofield never dared to do) and hook it up with their already-stretched-forward “rapture.” Many leading evangelical scholars still weren’t convinced of pretrib, so pretrib teachers then began teaching that the “falling away” of II Thess. 2:3 is really a pretrib rapture (the same as saying that the “rapture” in 2:3 must happen before the “rapture” ["gathering"] in 2:1 can happen – the height of desperation!).
Other Google articles on the 182-year-old pretrib rapture view include "Pretrib Rapture Politics," "Pretrib Rapture Scholar Wannabes," “Famous Rapture Watchers,” "Pretrib Rapture Diehards," “X-Raying Margaret,” "Edward Irving is Unnerving," “Thomas Ice (Bloopers),” "Walvoord Melts Ice," “Wily Jeffrey,” “The Rapture Index (Mad Theology),” “America’s Pretrib Rapture Traffickers,” “Roots of (Warlike) Christian Zionism,” “Scholars Weigh My Research,” “Pretrib Hypocrisy,” "Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thieves' Marketing," "Pretrib Rapture Secrecy," “Deceiving and Being Deceived,” "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty," and "Christ's return is NOT imminent!" – all by the author of the bestselling book “The Rapture Plot” (see Armageddon Books).