Editions

 

 Edition 199. March 19^th 2014

More rapture revelations:

More rapture revelations:

Introduction:

For more on the rapture see: Edition: 48 Edition 89 Edition 127 Edition 147 Edition 175 Edition 190

For the purpose of this edition I’ll refer to the pre-tribulation rapture position as “pre-trib” and the post-tribulation rapture position as “post-trib”.

As we go down the river of time, these end-time issues become more important and relevant. I expect that our Lord will reveal more and more as the time approaches.

In this edition I have briefly referred to a few things I have spoken of in previous editions, but I begin each edition from scratch with a blank canvas so to speak. Most of this material is new, and that which is not, has a new slant to it.

A powerful pre-trib verse:

Before we even get into the meat of this edition here is one single verse that speaks volumes. In fact it is shouting loud and clear.

Luke 12:36 (Amp) “Be yourselves like men who are waiting for their master to return from the marriage feast, so that when he shall return from the wedding and comes and knocks, that you may open to him immediately.”

This verse speaks of our Lord returning from a wedding feast to receive others in salvation. These would be the tribulation saints, which includes most of the Jews. But what wedding is He returning from? What marriage feats has He just been to? He is not going to a wedding, but returning from it! Obviously this wedding occurs in heaven, during the tribulation period.

We have not seen God’s wrath in the entire New Covenant time- period:

For the last 2000 years, this world has not seen God’s wrath in action – not once! All of the disasters, both natural and man-made of the last 2000 years are nowhere described as God’s “wrath” in the scriptures.

God’s wrath has been exclusively a part of the Old Covenant. The seven-year tribulation period is the seventieth week of years of Daniel’s seventy weeks. In other words it is the completion of the full seventy year period. The sixty nine weeks of years are all in the Old Covenant. So, we could accurately presume that the seventieth week of years is part of the Old Covenant. It is the close of the Old Covenant.

So, we see the wrath of God in the Old Covenant and in the final closing seven years of the Old Covenant, the tribulation. There is no wrath of God in the Church age or dispensation. The church age is also referred to as the age of grace.

If there is a post tribulation rapture, that means that the Church, the bride of Messiah would be savaged by the wrath of God. If we as believers have the Spirit of the living God dwelling in us, the wrath of God would in fact be against Spirit indwelt people!

There are so many inconsistencies with the post-trib position. There are numerous problem areas in exposition, which are irreconcilable.

Irreconcilable dispensations:

The post tribulation rapture position is easily proved if you reject Bible dispensations!

The pre-tribulation rapture position is easily proved if you accept Bible dispensations!

So now we have an easy problem to solve. All we need to do is establish the truth or not of dispensations.

There are many who claim that dispensations are a modern added doctrine. They speak rubbish. There are also many who claim that there are no dispensational divisions in the Bible. They also speak rubbish.

Believers under the law, exclusively fall into the anti-dispensation camp and the post-trib position.

●Dispensations are in the Bible. ●Dispensations are in the Bible. ●Dispensations are in the Bible.

The original word used for dispensation is “oikonomea” It literally means a division as in a division in a monetary currency. Strong’s brings out that can also mean differing “management of affairs or administration.”

This word dispensation is used in 1Corinthians 9:17, Ephesians 1:10, Ephesians 3:2 and Colossians 1:25 (Hover mouse to read the verses)

Bible dispensations simply mean that God worked in different ways with mankind at different times. Obviously, there are some things that are relevant to all dispensations, but there are also many things which are exclusive to a particular dispensation, which I won’t get into now.

The two diagrams below are very important.

The top diagram represents the normal dispensational view, with the cross occurring just before the end of the Old Covenant. Note that Pentecost and the rapture are within the New Covenant. Note that the Old Covenant is closed by the tribulation period.

In the bottom diagram we have the view of those under the law who reject dispensations. The New Covenant is almost greyed out, because they don’t accept the dispensation division. They place the rapture with the second coming, as the same event. Because they reject dispensations, they have little to no emphasis on the New Covenant epistles.

In many cases there is a spirit behind what people believe. The Bible speaks of the “Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

Those who reject Bible dispensations are in fact rejecting part of God’s word in favour of their own. It’s very interesting that believers under the law (and those trying to bring others under the law) have a universal character type.

They are always objectionable in character, legalistic, full of pride and strife. They have the manners of a pig, are argumentative, condemning and full of hate. They are truly spiritually blind. In fact they are killers if only with their mouths.

John 5:16-18 “My Father has been working, and I have been working (on the Sabbath). Therefore the Jews (Pharisees) sought all the more to kill Him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His father, making Himself equal with God.”

Galatians 3:1-10 “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you...are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect in the flesh? For as many as are under the works of the law are under a curse.”

The verse above is amazingly insightful. The original word for “bewitched” is the same word for witchcraft. This is confirmed in the “curse” generated by believers who come under the law. In other words, we could quite accurately say that believers who come under the law are under the spell of cursed witchcraft. They are most certainly not under grace.

I can’t tell you how many slanderous emails I’ve received from people who claim to be believers, cutting me down, insulting, cursing and condemning me because I reject their view. They can’t handle the fact the others don’t keep their set of laws their way. (Please see edition 196 for more on the “Curse of the Judaisers.”)

These people have given me a great insight into the workings of a curse in believers.

The Bible lists the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5. But just above this it lists the fruits of the flesh, which are a whole lot of rotten fruit.

Have you noticed that those who believe in a pre-tribulation rapture are seldom filled with heavy judgement and condemnation of those who reject their view?

So, we see that one position has the fruits of the flesh and law, while the other has the fruits of the Spirit associated with them.

If I knew nothing at all about the rapture, I would reject one view and receive the other view based simply on one presented in judgement and the other presented in love as a very real hope!

One is presented with rotten fruit and the other with good fruit. That also speaks to the source!

Have you ever wondered why many Rabbis can’t see their Messiah in their own Bible even though He is staring at them from numerous pages? It is because they are blinded by their pride.

If you are part of the bride of Messiah, please divorce the pride in your life!

An unanswerable question for the post-tribulation rapture view:

The Millennium will be a close-to-perfect environment. Satan will be bound, but sin will still exist and there will be sickness and death. (Isaiah 65:20-21, Revelation 20:7-10). But who will these people be who sin, get sick, die, have children, live in homes in the Millennium? It can’t be believers in resurrected glorified bodies can it? It must then be another group of people.

There is almost universal agreement that at the second coming, all unbelievers are removed from this earth in judgement. There are numerous passages of scripture indicating this. The sheep and goat judgement is one. Here the goats are removed and the sheep (those saved in the tribulation, go into the Millennium. Matthew 25:31-34.)

There has to be a clear distinction and separation between tribulation saints who go into the Millennium to re-populate the earth and saints in resurrected, glorified bodies.

Revelation 19:15-18. Unbelievers destroyed at the second coming.

The post trib position would see an empty world, because sinners would have been removed and now only resurrected saints would be on earth in their glorified bodies.

The marriage conundrum:

One of the many characteristics of the eternal resurrected state is that we will not marry. We receive resurrected eternal bodies at the moment of rapture. At the second coming believers (tribulation saints) who go into the Millennium will be able to marry and have children during the Millennium. If there is a post trib rapture, all come back in glorified bodies, sinners are removed, so who is it that will marry and have children?

So, the post tribbers now have a big problem! Can you see it?

An interesting date:

Bible numbers have meanings. In fact the letters and numbers of some languages are alpha-numeric, meaning that a number can have a letter associated with it as well as the number/letter meaning. Bible numerics offer many amazing insights. Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, the original languages of the Bible, are alpha-numeric.

For this exercise I’ll just touch on the wonderful subject.

1=untiy, 2= division, 3=trinity, 4= world, 5= grace, 6=man under sin, =7=spiritual perfection, 8=resurrection, 9=finality.

5775 is the Hebrew year beginning in September this year (Rosh Hashanah / Feast of Trumpets).

There are other Hebrew calandars that are different placing us at the year 6000.

The letters for 5775 spell out the Hebrew word “fly” as in fly away.

Now let’s apply this to dispensations. Could it be that there is significance in the age of grace, God’s perfection, being sandwiched into the dispensation of grace? Could this mean that the age of grace might be coming to an end as 5775 begins? Could it be that we are on the verge of the tribulation start?

►No, I’m not date setting – I’m watching! We will know more as the time approaches.

Enoch:

Perhaps the most important type of the rapture is found in the story of Enoch.

The name Enoch means ‘dedicated.’

Could this have significance? Could it be that only believers who are dedicated will be raptured? It could be. I’m not that sure, but I’m not prepared to gamble with it not being dedicated.

Hebrews 11:5 “By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not see death, and was not found because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”  The word “translated” means transported- to where?

Genesis 5:24 “And Enoch walked with God; and he was not for God took him.”

Enoch’s ministry was to call people out of the world, the ministry of the church.

Jude 14 “Now Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied about these men also saying, Behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints...” When does this occur? It is right at the end of the tribulation period – the Second Coming. And note who it is coming back with our Lord. It is a great company of “His saints.”

Some say that the word “saints” in the above verse means “angels.” The original word used here is never used for angels and is used many times for born-again believers. So, the post-tribbers who use this argument are wrong a hundred times over. If our Lord is returning with all these “saints” how did they get to be with Him before the end of the tribulation? You guessed right.

Enoch was a relative of Noah. He was raptured before the flood.

Some of the post-trib crowd claim that Noah represents believers being protected as they go through the tribulation period. If they want to argue that – fine with me, but there is much more to the story!

Genesis 7:4 says that Noah was brought into the ark seven days before the flood began. That is a type of the rapture at the start of the seven year tribulation. But the most important type is with Enoch as mentioned above.

Some important differences between the rapture and the second coming:

●At the rapture believers meet the Lord in the air in a twinkling of an eye. At the second coming our Lord returns slowly to the Mount of Olives the same way He left, which sees the Mount split.

●At the rapture living believers receive new, miraculous, glorified bodies. At the second coming, living believers remain their same bodies.

●At the rapture believers go to heaven. At the second coming believers in glorified bodies return from heaven to earth.

●At the rapture the world remains unjudged, deteriorating fast. At the second coming the world and judged, sinners removed.

●At the rapture, Satan is left unrestrained and evil intensifies on earth. At the second coming Satan is bound for a thousand years.

If there is no pre-tribulation rapture, God would then be dealing with two covenant people at the same time. (The Jews and the church). Although this is possible with God, it is highly unlikely.

Is the rapture in the Olivet Discourse?

The Olivet discourse is technically still in the Old Covenant time period (before Pentecost.) It therefore relates to the tribulation and the second coming and not the rapture. The Gospels of course relate to both the Jew and the Church. But we can’t say that the tribulation events of the Olivet discourse relate to the Church and not natural Israel. If so then we must say that all of the Gospels relate only to the Church.

The Olivet Discourse offers no identification of the rapture. If so- where is it?

Why the coming tribulation?

The tribulation period is not to purify the saints! It is not to cause them to walk in holiness. That is an Old Covenant idea and not evident in the New.

The soon- coming tribulation has one central reason to it and that is the judgement of the wicked, and to cleanse the earth. Within this, Israel will be brought to repentance and many Gentiles saved. Nowhere does God deal with His own in wrath. Yes, of course many terrible things happen to believers, but Satan is behind all of that. God brings His people to maturity in grace and love by His Spirit, under the law of grace in our hearts.

Today we are in a world of horrifying evil on every front including the church. There is no restraint because there are no consequences. The gospel preached by the majority of ministers today is spineless, has no power, is of the flesh and the world. More and more churches led by blind spirit-less guides are becoming institutions of hell.

The enticement to serve and worship other gods is all around us today. Many things quite harmless have been turned into idols and many things deadly in nature have been accepted by the blind church.

These so-called ministers of God keep their flocks in blindness to all these events of the last days.

The true minister of the Gospel and true prophet will lead you into all truth, while the false will always lead you to other gods on dangerous pathways.

What you must do:

●How can you get ready for the soon- coming of the Lord if you don’t believe it? Get your priorities right!

●You don’t need to have perfect agreement on every detail with the pre-trib position, but don’t be ignorant of the main items of the puzzle.

●Create a “rapture” box! Okay it doesn’t need to be a box, but put together some of your thoughts and testimony on paper, so that the unsaved will have something weighty to turn to and hold to once you are gone.

●Time is short my friends. Don’t waste your life on garbage. Be serious, be diligent and set your heart after our Lord in a new fresh way. Be radical, be a total oddball as far as the world is concerned.

Finally:

Understand that the pre-trib dispensation view is the most logical. Everything adds up and makes sense. Problem verses become clear and fall into place.

Ecclesiastes 8:5 “A wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgement.”

1 Thessalonians 1:10...”He delivers us from the wrath to come.”

Joshua 24:15 “If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served or the gods of the Amorites. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

1 John 3:3 “Those who have this hope in Him purify themselves.

I took this picture of a fish eagle flying off home in the Okakvango Delta, Botswana.

Psalm 8:3-4 “When I consider Your heavens, the work of your fingers; the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him...”

Shalom and grow in grace!