THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH
| Pensacola Bay, N.W. Florida - photo by the author. |
A devotional/exhortational
By Gavin Finley MD
endtimepilgrim.org
Will it be a Pre-Tribulation Rapture?
Or will it be a Post-Tribulation Rapture?
For the vast majority of Bible believing evangelicals the answer is a Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Only about 5% of Bible believing Christians believe that there will be a Post-Tribulation Rapture. There is no surprise as to why this is so. Throughout North America the Pre-Tribulation Rapture is what the Christians in the pews and watching Christian television are exposed to. This is what they are being taught.
Of course this is a very popular doctrine and a lucrative line of preaching as well. But later in this article we shall see just how the Pre-Tribulation Rapture scenario has departed from the Holy Scriptures.
Here it is.
There is to be a combined Resurrection-Rapture.
Our scriptural proof of this is comes from the words of our Apostle Paul.
"The dead in Christ shall rise first,All the saints, both the living and the dead, will be glorified into new spiritual bodies together.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up, (raptured), with them
to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord."
1Thes. 4:15-17
The Resurrection of the righteous dead comes at the very end of this evil age.
The Resurrection of those who belong to Messiah comes at the "Last Day".
For absolute, utter, and absolute proof of this let us look at these seven verses in the Gospel of John.
Dear saints, these are the very words of Jesus Himself on this matter.
Jesus repeatedly in one chapter refers to the Resurrection of His Elect.
He said quite clearly that it would happen at the last day.
Jesus says that he will be raising up His covenant people at the "last day".
Then we see from the scripture above that Martha, has her say on the matter.
In conversation with Jesus, Martha repeats the very same message.
Jesus will raise up His covenant people at the "last day".
Dear saints. When a Biblical truth, such as the Resurrection, is set upon by religious blocking spirits we must assume that something very important is being "cloaked" and hidden from us. And indeed when we succeed in answering this highly contested Resurrection question the religious fog begins to clear. Suddenly we begin to get a clear view of the end time and what it is all about.
Let us cut to the chase. The second coming of Christ not only involves the Rapture. At His coming the righteous dead are glorified into new spiritual bodies. All those who are Christ's, saved by His blood, are raised up in the Resurrection. Then, immediately after this, in the very same process comes the Rapture.
Does the Bible does give us a specific timing of the Rapture?
No it does not. It would be nice if it did.
So that is why is this matter of the Resurrection is so important.
And it also explains why and why the timing of the Resurrection has been hidden from us.
We have already established that the Bible teaches a combined Resurrection-Rapture.
So the timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead, (when we find it), will also be the timing of the Rapture!
Well then, does The Bible give us a specific timing for the Resurrection?
Yes, it certainly does!
So then, when is this mysteriously hidden Resurrection of the righteous dead?
Is it a pre-tribulation event or is it a post-tribulation event?
Well, let's find out.
The Bible tells us very plainly.
John 6:39 "This is the will of the Father who sent Me,Is our Lord Jesus trying to get a message to us here? If He saw fit to tell us four times in the one message that He will raise His people up at the "last day" then who would dare contradict Him? His Word should be final. And who would dare tamper with the message the Holy Spirit has so clearly laid out for us in the Holy Scriptures? The Resurrection of the righteous dead will occur at the 'last day". Therefore it must come at the end of the 7 year period of Daniel's 70th week. And therefore the Resurrection must be a Post-Tribulation event, after the Great Tribulation.
that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up at the last day."John 6:40 "And this is the will of Him who sent Me,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life;
and I will raise him up at the last day.""
John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;
and I will raise him up at the last day."John 6:54 "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day."
The Old Testament saints, unlike many of us evangelicals today, had a very good handle on the Resurrection of the righteous dead. And from the testimony of the patriarchs and Job, Daniel etc. they knew when this resurrection of the righteous would occur. Here is Martha's word on the matter and her magnificent confession of the blessed hope of the glorification of the saints at the resurrection. This account is recorded by the Apostle John. As we see here in this scripture below, Martha knew very well when this end-time Resurrection of the righteous dead would occur.
John 11:24 Martha said to Him,This seems pretty plain and straightforward doesn't it?
"I know that he will rise again
in the Resurrection at the last day."
This future instant in time is a 'mystery', a reality we have not yet seen. We cannot yet fully grasp or comprehend it. Nevertheless this magnificent moment, a twinkling of an eye, is out there in the future somewhere.
51. "Behold, I tell you a mystery:
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed--
52. in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound,
and the dead will be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed.
53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption,
and this mortal must put on immortality. - 1Cor.15:51-53
. . / . . / . . / . . / . . ALL THIS CHOPPING AND CHANGING. . / . . / . . / . . / . .
AND THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE DOCTRINE POPS UP ABOUT THE SAME TIME.
Westerners have been "Hellenized" by their passage through the Greek culture 2300 years ago.
We love to divide things up into their parts and by this means seek master a given subject of inquiry.
This works fairly well in the realm of science. But not so well in theology, as we shall discover.
You see, the Bible makes no allowances for chopping and changing, dividing and conquering, or trying to dissect and analyze the covenant people of God. The Bible speaks of one single unified, undivided Chosen People. And God's Word shows them all coming to their ultimate glorification at the end of the age together. As we search the Holy Scriptures we discover that the covenant people of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are a single unified company. As God views them this company of people is an indivisible one.
But rationalistic modern churchmen think otherwise. (Post-modern churchmen do not think about these matters much at all). And so in this study we shall notice a very very curious thing. We shall discover that certain key 19th century Anglo-American churchmen set up an eschatology which did not recognize the Biblically established unity of all the saints. The new dispensational theology they were crafting set forth seven different dispensations.
Are we therefore left to suppose that God lays out seven different covenants for redemption and salvation?
Or are not all saved by grace through faith in the atoning blood of Israel's Sacrifice Lamb?
So these theologians, (if they were theologians), failed to recognize God's covenant people as a single Elect. They refused to acknowledge that the Old Testament saints and New testament saints were all part of one passing parade. Our Apostle Paul calls the children of Israel the "Church in the wilderness". (Acts 7:38) All these were the saints of the most High God, Each one was bringing their witness to the Eternal Covenant as one of the myriad company of Abraham. They were shining lights in their day, even as the stars in the vault of heaven. They were shining brightly throughout the dark passages of the centuries here on earth.
And so we return to our opening issue. These churchmen were dividing up the saints according to their own whims. They failed to recognize the unity of all the saints, from both sides of Calvary. And they refused to look at them as a single Elect in their final glorification in the Resurrection-Rapture at the last day.
So what is going on here?
Why did they do this?
This chopping up of the Resurrection-Rapture is not all that dispensationalists have done. Some of them have also used their Hellenizing, compartmentalizing, Greco-Roman style dispensational approach to theology to arbitrarily chop up holy history into seven ages. They began laying out this dispensational "chop and change" theology over 150 years ago. The Pre-Tribulation Rapture popped up in the middle of it all, about the same time. Most evangelicals are in the dark and completely unaware of all this.
It is important to know that it was the dispensationalists who took over the leadership of the American evangelical family. This was not all bad. One very faithful work they did was lay out Daniel's 70 Weeks prophecy with a true and correct timeline for the first 69 weeks of years terminating on Palm Sunday of the passion year. They correctly teach a future 70th Week, and for this they should be given enormous credit. But their imposing a special early Rapture into the time-line just before that final 70th Week begins is hopelessly flawed. As we shall discover from the Holy Scriptures highlighted in this article, a separate early rapture coming seven years before the "last day" is without any Biblical foundation whatsoever.
Dispensationalists began their dividing asunder of the holy people back in the 19th Century. This was happening just as the machine age was building up a lot of steam and the German theology schools were being set up within the universities and came under the influence of humanistic rationalism. The names Nelson Darby and C.I. Scofield are well known. Both of these men were instrumental in advancing dispensationalist theology in the American Church. The Scofield Reference Bible came out quite early in the 20th century. This Bible has been very popular with American and other English-speaking evangelicals ever since. Even Scofield's footnotes themselves were, (and still are), revered as "Gospel truth". For many Bible readers those Scofield footnotes, like the Jewish Mishna and Talmud commentaries on the Old Testament, have been considered to be virtually inspired.
Who were these men? And what was the agenda behind all this division and splitting of the holy things of God? Why did they consider it necessary to compartmentalize God's covenant people of Grace into seven ages? Is God's house a vaticanized house with a morass of bricked in rooms? By whose authority and by what scriptural basis have these dispensationalists, (and not a few of them rough riding Texas cowboy preachers), herded up the saints into seven corals? Are not all of the saints redeemed by grace through faith in the same atoning blood, the blood of Israel's Sacrifice Lamb, even our Lord Jesus Christ? Will not all of us be sitting down together at one table the Marriage Supper of the Lamb?
Dear saints, we are not to judge people before the time. But we must be responsible and discern the spirits. This, after all, is one of the gifts we are given in the Holy Spirit. Jesus called us to be "as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves".
The facts are plain. These men, or more likely, deceiving religious spirits pulling the strings of compromised Christian men, have craftily disconnected and unhitched the Rapture of the living saints and removed it from its proper place with the Resurrection of the righteous dead.
There is no Biblical basis for doing this. None whatsoever.
So we are left with one conclusion.
The reason it was done must have been for a non-Biblical purpose.
So let us ask ourselves this question. Why was it necessary to separate off the Resurrection from the Rapture and hide it from Christian Bible study and away from Christian conversation? Apparently this "spiriting away" of the Resurrection from the Rapture had become expedient.
Let us look at what happened again. The dividing asunder of the Resurrection-Rapture was job #1. Then this "vanishing act" performed upon the Resurrection of the righteous dead was job #2. This then completes the obfuscation of Biblical truth concerning the combined Resurrection-Rapture at the last day.
And why was it necessary to put the Resurrection of the righteous dead under Tinker Bell's stardust?
It was necessary to do this spiriting away of the Resurrection in order to promote the Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine.
So why was this Resurrection timing issue such a big deal?
Why did it have to "go away"?
Well this is where the plot thickens.
Most sincere Bible believing saints know that the Resurrection comes at the "last day".
So if the Resurrection had not been separated from the Rapture and made to "go away"
there would have been a lot of embarrassing questions.
Like this one.
When is the Resurrection of the righteous dead?
Will it come before the tribulation, (bundled up with a Rapture coming seven years early)?
Or will it come after the tribulation,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . like at the last day?
See also
this article on the Resurrection of the righteous dead by Paul Phelps.
As we shall see from the Scriptures we bring out in this article
these men were not Holy Spirit led in this.
The evidence indicates that they were "purpose driven". That is, they did on purpose and for a purpose.
You will notice that popular Bible prophecy teachers talk unendingly about "The Rapture". But they studiously omit
any reference to the accompanying Resurrection, the raising up of "those who are Christ's". (See
1Cor. 15:20-23)
Please note, we are not sitting in judgment of people here. Only the Master of us all is authorized to do that.
And people are still in the process of learning about themselves and the hidden motives of the heart
and the reality of spiritual seductions and religious witchcraft.
But we are attempting to discern the spirits, spirits that inhabit and energize doctrines and direct human beings
into certain modes of thinking.
There is every reason to believe that the vast majority of Pre-Tribulation Rapture Bible teachers are quite sincere.
Most of them are beloved Bible teachers to who we owe much. And this is what make this matter so strange and surreal.
Their Pre-Tribulation Rapture scenario for the latter days is unquestionably flawed.
But in most cases the other doctrines they teach are Biblically well founded.
But their Pre-Trib Rapture teaching, while it may be the accepted church tradition, is in direct conflict with the Holy Scriptures.
So we are bound to conclude that these Bible teachers are under some sort of spiritual, social, or economic coercion.
In many cases it appears that they are under a spell.
They do not realize that they have been deceived.
And when the Scriptures are laid out in 1Thes. 4:15-17 to show a Resurrection-Rapture
and then Revelation 20:4-6 is opened to show the obviously late Resurrection of the Tribulation martyrs
they still don't "see" it.
They have been drawn into a complicated conflicted web of religious chicanery.
Pre-Trib Rapture teachers always refer to the Rapture to the exclusion of the Resurrection.
Without even realizing it they give the timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead,
(which accompanies and actually precedes the Rapture),
the "silent treatment".
A good indication that the religious spirits are trying to foist a "cover-up" is as follows.
Whenever the truth is pointed out to them they do not respond as the Bereans did and dig into the Scriptures to see if these things are so.
Instead they become uncomfortable and defensive. Sometimes they become angry and strike out against the messenger.
This is well know to those who have been on Bible prophecy forums.
This type of reaction to the unveiling of an uncomfortable truth is also
something that police investigators and psychiatrists are quite familiar with.
This is what is so amazing and disconcerting to see.
Bible prophecy teachers who promote Pre-Tribulation Rapturism always become very uncomfortable when they are asked
about the timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead.
"When will the saints will come up from their graves?
My experience with asking this question was on a national call-in radio show.
I was on the line with some beloved Bible teachers who are among the most Biblically sound Bible scholars on earth.
My experience that evening was truly a revelation.
I was polite but insistent on addressing this question.
But they simply would not answer it. They carefully dodged the question and obfuscated it into a
broad theological categorization of the
concept and scope of "resurrection" beginning with the resurrection of Jesus.
Then they asked to speak with me off the air.
It was surreal. A simple straightforward question.
But instead of an answer in the Light of God's Word I could feel a dark cloak of
disinformation descending down upon the whole discussion.
I was appalled. Dumbstruck would be a better word for it. It was as if I had stepped off the planet and into the Twilight Zone.
It was one of the spookiest experiences of my entire Christian life.
BUT WILL THE HOLY SPIRIT REALLY "WALK OUT" ON HUMANITY DURING
THE 70TH WEEK OF DANIEL?
God forbid that we even think of such a thing!
Is He not still commissioning His disciples today?
Let us take a careful look at this.
(Mat.28:18-20)
Have we taken a close look at our Commissioning Papers?
Now, go ahead and take a deep breath.
Just when does our Commission expire?
Right there in our commissioning papers does not Jesus Himself
declare that He will be with His His covenant people, always, even
right through to the very "end of the age"?
Is there any hint here that our Commission will be expiring earlier than the end of the age?
Of course we must remember that we now live in a democracy. Some even speak of it now becoming a mobocracy.
We also live in a merchant society. Whatever sells goes.
Is this Pre-Tribulation Rapture, (with a smoke-screened ecclesiastically "cloaked" Resurrection),
something that the "middle of the road" Christian crowds wanted.
Are they buying into this just as they would purchase any other thing they fancied?
Thank goodness we no longer live in the 16th century and have to endure domination by the Church of Rome or the Church of King Henry.
But what has replaced the state churches of Europe, the Churches that dominated Christendom in former times?
Is Biblical Christian faith advancing as we have been led to believe that it is?
It seems that the American style religion of the merchants is now in the place of prominence.
Let us consider this dissecting away of the Rapture from the Resurrection.
Was it a necessary compromise? If so what for?
Does the end justify the means?
Was all this done just to present a Pre-Tribulation Rapture?
Do we bend the Holy Scriptures just to tickle the ears of the church-going masses?
Was this merely another ecclesiastical indulgence, a merchandising of popular eschatology for the religious masses?
Was God's Holy Word being reprocessed, sugar coated, and repackaged as a sort of "Eschatology Lite"?
And what are we to say about our Christian writers, Christian film-makers and Christian bookstores?
Are they compromised too, and primarily interested in the "bottom line"?
Have the holy things of God now been brought down low to become just money making entertainment for carnal Christians?
We might wonder about this when we see the huge "success" of the
present day "Left Behind" religious lore.
Do we realize that the doctrine does not exist in China?
(See
Corrie Ten Boom's message to the Western Church).
So who constructed this early escape Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine?
And were these religious leaders just motivated by mammon?
Or was there a political agenda important for the latter days that we are not being told about?
Did these churchmen have Freemason connections?
What was going on here?
When we stand back and have a close look at what dispensational Bible teachers
have done here we cannot help but be impressed with the sheer brashness
of these men. This dividing asunder of the last day glorification of
all the saints was a highly presumptuous act before God.
And why did these theologians find it expedient to divide God's saints
into seven boxes? There was no solid Biblical
basis or reason for doing this.
Did God make seven different deals with His covenant people
which changed abruptly as the centuries and time segments clicked by?
Or did this division into seven ages make it theologically easier
for churchmen to go on and put a cleaver between the
Resurrection of the righteous dead at the Last Day
and their specially crafted early Rapture coming seven years before God wrapped things up?
As we see, there is something happening here.
But the facts are there for all to see.
The Last Day glorification of the saints has been divided asunder.
There is no good Biblical reason for doing this.
But nevertheless, the deed was done, and very deliberately by dispensationalist theologians.
Apparently they had a lot of money to popularize and present their views.
How did this happen?
And Why?
As we begin to look into this matter we can begin to see this.
The last day glorification
of the saints was split in two for a specific purpose.
It was chopped up in order to unhitch the Rapture from the Resurrection
and bring it forward seven years.
We know that the Christian crowds have wanted it this way.
And they are buying it.
There is a huge money trail here
with billions of dollars per year going into the till.
But is there more to the story?
Was the Pre-Tribulation Rapture crafted for another specific "purpose".
Could it be that this was done for political reasons?
So let us pause here and ask this question.
Has a certain quieting of evangelical concerns about the last days become important?
Is it necessary for the sake of civil peace?
Is this syrupy end-time theology part of some secret social engineering?
Was it considered necessary to keep the crowds "quiet" and off the streets.
The crafting of a "seeker friendly" eschatology could well have been a part of all this.
Had this development of a soporific 'feel-good' doctrine of the latter days
become a matter of politico-theological expedience?
This is not a matter to dismiss lightly. And we must not be too hasty to judge.
Disturbed carnal Christians can be among the most dangerous, even deadly, people on earth.
Do we remember the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the terrible Reformation wars?
For those who know Church history this concern of the powers over Christian anger
and Christian ultra-nationalism is very real and quite understandable.
So we are left to answer this question.
Did God, in His sovereign oversight,
allow this Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine, false though it may be,
to be established in the English speaking world?
Was this the lesser of two evils?
Perhaps this was the way it had to be.
The carnal Christian crowds are clearly not preparing themselves for the end-time witness.
They have voted with their feet and wallets.
Apparently their pursuit of happiness and their desire to have a nice day
is their agenda. Someone is knocking at the door.
But they do not want to be disturbed from their comfortable bed of ease.
It seems that they want the Pre-Tribulation Rapture teaching.
But as we shall show, this doctrine of a special early Rapture is not Biblically correct.
But here is the crux of the matter.
And do we not remember what God told the prophet Isaiah in
Isaiah chapter 6?
Of course for committed devoted Christians, (as we have in Indonesia, China, and other places),
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth will do.
These are the people who are right now suffering and dying for the faith.
They make it their business to seek out Biblical truth.
They deserve good information. They can also be trusted to make good their
spiritual preparation against the coming night.
So as we have seen, this dividing asunder of the Biblically united Resurrection-Rapture was very strange.
It was clearly a very deliberate ecclesiastical action.
And as we are beginning to see it is quite contradictory to the Holy Scriptures.
And there must have been a very important reason and a "purpose" behind all this.
Devoted Biblical Christians deserve to know the truth.
So we shall be looking further into these matters as we go on into this article.
Let us stop and consider what we have learned so far from the Holy Scriptures.
Pause and think about that for a moment.
The straight shooting Post-Tribulation Resurrection Rapture, on the other hand, is more simple and elegant.
Dear saints, this is a matter of great concern.
The West is now entering into a serious economic decline. People of the flesh, (and many Christians among them),
are beginning to rage in
Psalm 2 fashion against "the system".
They jealous of their Jewish brethren. Some are starting to say quite openly some harsh and untrue things
concerning the bankers.
Christians have been rambunctious Antisemitic crusaders in these past 1700 years.
Those were some unfortunate and shameful histories. They could repeat themselves in our time if we are not careful.
We must address this bad theology of an "apartheid of the Elect" and correct it, pronto!
So this is now a matter of some urgency.
This dispensational separation and alienation of Israel from "The Church"
presupposes two Elects. This in turn necessitates two Covenants, one being for "The Church" and one for "The Jews".
We might say,
Then someone might quickly answer,
Of course his message on that epic day had grave consequences for many people.
So this matter of two Elects is not just a theological issue for religious nerds.
This doctrine is right now espousing an "apartheid of the Elect".
It makes no allowance for a reconciliation of the two estranged
companies in our Savior Messiah as we come to the climax of the age.
This is bad business. And as is amply demonstrated from Church history an incorrect appreciation of the role of the royal
Jewish House of Judah is a dangerous ideology.
It carries with it a very deadly political "sting".
In times to come this erroneous religious belief could throw up some violent history.
Just like "Replacement Theology" has in the former Spanish, French, and German eras a
flawed doctrine regarding the destiny of
Israel could again
produce some grievous consequences for our Jewish brethren.
All this, if it is not corrected soon, may also prove to be very very
unfortunate for us as evangelicals in the Church as well.
And later on in this article we shall explain precisely why this is so.
Is this true? Are today's evangelicals two-timers?
Just how do we as evangelicals answer that question???
Evangelical Bible teachers, for the most part, have done a lot of things right.
They correctly affirm
a future 70th Week.
And they also teach that the Church and Israel
are both God's people or at least contain God's people and that
He will be dealing with both camps in times to come.
But when it comes to the future massive corporate salvation of Jewish Israel
as we see it in Zechariah 12:7-> they are not impressed by this glorious end-time turn of events.
Nor do they care to look into who the people are who make up the
Commonwealth of Israel.
Our Bible teachers today are silent on these matters and fuzzy with the details.
So here is the main problem that needs to be addressed by today's evangelical leaders.
In their eschatology Bible prophecy teachers seem to say that there will be no reconciliation
between the two feuding camps.
This leads Christians to believe that Israel and "the Church"
will remain separated from each other on
into the last days and on into eternity.
Yes, most evangelicals believe that Israel and "the Church" will go on
separate end-time pathways into two separate destinies, never to find reconciliation,
re-unifification, and restoration in the
Commonwealth or Congregation of Israel.
Is this true? Or isn't it?
Of course Bible teachers do not actually spell out the eventual destiny of the Jewish House of Judah.
Nor do they care to address the mysteries associated with the
lost ten tribes of Israel.
In their dispensational theology they have placed themselves inside "the Church"
which, (as they see it), is forever separate from Israel.
And before those
final seven years open up they pen up the Church to a period of time they call the "Age of Grace".
This Age of Grace, (as they lay it out), ends abruptly seven years before the end of the age.
So as these Bible teachers have it the Jewish camp had better get saved
before the
70th Week of Daniel opens up
and before the final seven years of this age begins.
Because if they don't then they have missed the Age of Grace.
They have missed the train to glory.
Unsaved Jews and other unsaved people will be locked out and have no hope of being saved by grace.
Because when their special Pre-Tribulation Rapture comes the Age of Grace, (as they see it), will
come to a screeching halt. The Jews entering into the 70th Week will be cut off forever
from God's grace.
They will be locked out of this time period and forced to endure the Tribulation,
(which they erroneously identify with God's wrath),
for the full seven years before the end of the age.
No, I am not making all this up.
Dispensationalists teach that the 70th Week is a wrath zone.
As they see there will be no grace, no Holy Spirit, and no Church on earth during that time.
Some Bible teachers when pressed upon this matter respond quite logically.
They say the Jews will missed out on the "Age of Grace".
So to be saved during the future 70th Week the Jews will "have to keep the law" to be saved.
Other evangelicals say that the Jews will have to be martyred, (which they consider "works"), in order to be saved.
Let us pause for a moment and have a closer look at all this.
This just goes to show our woeful inadequacy in handling the doctrine of Israelology in a way that is faithful to the Holy Scriptures
and in a way that is faithful to our yet to be saved Jewish brethren from over in the royal house of Judah.
Today's dispensationalist evangelicals see the Church remaining "the Church" and Israel remaining "Israel" forever!
As they see it the present day ecclesiastically ordained status quo will last for eternity!
Of course there is a serious problem with all this.
The Church and Israel, (as they see them), are
two Chosen peoples. They are on parallel tracks toward the last days of this age. And according to their eschatology
Israel and the Church will never come together as
a single remnant Elect.
Their end-time scenario brings no resolution of this terrible blood feud, this awful dichotomy.
They see no latter day healing of the
Breach of Jeroboam and no true restoration of the nation of Israel as a "royal Priesthood and a holy nation". (1Peter 2:9)
Their Israelology is undeveloped and malformed.
It displays no understanding of Ephesians 2:12-13. They are completely oblivious of the fact that they as
born-again Christians belong to the
Commonwealth of Israel. As such their witness in the latter days is being called for.
But they are not responding.
So in spite of all the "we love Israel" hoopla the Pre-Tribulation Rapture eschatology is really no friend of Israel at all.
It has the Church abandoning their Jewish brethren and being raptured out seven years early in a special Churchy Pre-Tribulation Rapture.
This makes no room for the magnificent last chance latter day salvation of masses of gentiles including the Jews.
This epic end time salvation of the Jewish nation is prophesied and a sure thing. See the prophecy
here in Zechariah 12:7-13:1.
Dispensational theology has very little to say about the promised prophesied restoration of all 12 tribes of Israel
and their restoration to a glorious future together.
The mansions of glory are in the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, a city
of 12 gates each representing the 12 tribes of Israel.
In short dispensationalist theologians have exhibited very little commitment to Israel.
And the specter of the Church deserting the harvest field seven years early is a very shameful and sad state of affairs.
Like
wayward Gomer she has decided to shirk her end-time role and her
bridal witness. She is about to
"walk out" on her true Bridegroom,
to stand Him up, to "cut and run". The Church right now is resolved to
'go AWOL', (absent without leave), just before those important latter day covenant dealings the God of Israel
open up during the
final seven years of this age. Can we warn her and stop her?
The Old Testament poetry is full of prophetic references to this promised
end-time restoration of all of the covenant people of God.
This would have to involve a reunion of
both estranged houses of Israel.
But unfortunately today's dispensationalist evangelicals in the rich nations of the west
continue to teach that God has a two faced policy for his people.
In their minds one policy is for "the Church" and God has another policy for Israel.
They also fail to understand the full scope of Abraham's Seed and how it extends to cover a huge company of people
numbering in the hundreds of millions. This great multitude from every nation, race, and tribe are showcased in
Revelation chapter 7.
This company, myriads of myriads in number, from every nation, race, and tribe,
clearly goes far beyond the 8 million population of Jews worldwide who belong to the royal Jewish House.
Most Christians today continue to insist that Israel is made up primarily of Jews from the House of Judah.
They refuse to even entertain the possibility that the saved people of the
lost ten tribes of the scattered northern Kingdom and heathen gentiles coming into Christ
have a part in the entity our Apostle Paul refers to as the
Commonwealth of Israel.
Evangelical dispensationalists of today are saying that the Church/Israel division is permanent state of affairs.
As they see it this schism is a forever thing.
They say that there are two factions today and that these will always be two factions, in short, two Elects.
So they are teaching a spurious doctrine without Biblical foundation. It teaches a heavenly ordained "Apartheid of the Elect".
And here is the sad situation. In their minds these prophecy teachers see this disconnected state
persisting on into the end-time and on into all eternity.
There is no Biblical basis whatsoever for this notion of separate destinies for the Church and Israel.
Out of the end-time mysteries must come an epic resolution and a restoration of both houses of Israel.
This includes the royal Jewish house in Judah which we can see and the other house which at present time we are not seeing.
The body of evidence from Holy Scripture is overwhelming. There is one Elect. God's covenant people will be restored
before the final
70th Week of Daniel runs out.
Here are some of the twists and turns involved here. Dispensationalists affirm that we are now in the "Church Age".
According to them the Church Age, (a time segment they label as the Age of Grace), began on the year of the crucifixion.
They assert that the Age of Grace will close and slam shut with a nice early Rapture of the Church.
They say this cutoff will occur a full seven years before the end of the age.
So what happens to God's grace during the final seven years of this age?
According to them the Church will be at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb celebrating.
Celebrating what?
They have written off the
70th Week of Daniel
as little more than a "wrath of God" zone.
And yet the Bible clearly shows us that this
final seven year period of this age will showcase the final witness of the saints.
But dispensationalist evangelicals teach that the Church will not be here to take part in this.
Apparently the western Evangelical Church has decided to absent themselves from the family of Abraham, the family of faith.
They have decided not to participate in the final leg of the
relay race of the saints.
So what does that leave for our "Left Behind" Jewish brothers and sisters as they enter the final seven years of this age?
Is this the best that we can expect from the western people of the Gospel?
Is this alienation and
desertion of the Jewish house in the latter days truly "Christian"?
And is this "apartheid of the Elect" really a part of the "Good News"?
Is it a faithful message to our yet to be saved Jewish brethren?
Is this the best we can expect from the people of Grace?
In times to come we, as western evangelicals, shall be weeping over this.
What we are looking at here is another doctrine laying out a replacement and a rejection of Israel.
This is another round of Ecclesiastical alienation of the Jewish people.
Oh no, it is not being perpetrated by skinheads or neo-Nazis.
This end-time doctrine is more subtle than that.
But nevertheless, the "separate destinies for the Church and Israel" doctrine
amounts to a theological alienation by the Church of the Jewish nation.
It is a repeat of the very same rejection of the royal House of Judah we saw 2900 years ago at the
Breach of Jeroboam..
It is being set forth and agreed to by western Evangelicals, Christians of the Bible.
Dear saints, this is a very sad state of affairs.
How about the future political and social repercussions of all this?
If we come into bad economic times it certainly could. It could cause a resurgence of
Church tolerated Antisemitism.
Western Church history is replete with examples of this.
There have been many of these
shameful outrages.
We saw it happen during the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Polish pogroms,
and more recently the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.
Could it happen again?
Pray God the answer is no.
The Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine is very comforting to the flesh
for those who can see that the end of this age might be near.
Could this be a problem? Does the doctrine have a soporific effect on the Western Church?
Oh yes.
Not surprisingly the average church-goer believes that they can sit back and be content.
No preparation of the Gospel of peace is necessary.
Christians believe that they are fine just as they are.
Their "ticket to heaven" is in their pocket.
This coupled with a belief in an imminent Rapture has them believing that they have all but
arrived at the end of the Pilgrim pathway.
They have come to believe that the Church, as we see it today, is as good as it is going to get.
But is this true?
Let us take a closer look here.
Evangelicals have been told that imminently, (that is, at any time now), they could be raptured "outta here".
Holy history, (they have been told), does not await any further significant Church history.
Christian believers, for the most part, believe that an awesome future call to witness may well be coming.
But it will not come to them.
And why not?
So we live in a babel of religious confusion.
Church-goers are bamboozled by it all, and understandably so.
The prophetic jigsaw puzzle has pieces missing, pieces jammed together incorrectly, and pieces separated off
and put into the wrong places.
And yet Christians in the pews continue to depend on "experts" to tell them what the sequence of end-time events will be.
But they forget one important thing. Churches and denominational franchises have become a lot like country clubs.
Rich and influential church members and powerful deacon boards hire and fire and set salaries for their ministers.
And as we know, "he who pays the piper gets to call the tune."
So Christians are hearing from the pulpits and television studios what they, the people, want to hear.
Of course they are told that trials, tribulations, end-time revivals, and apostasies
will all occur. But these trials and tribulations will happen to the other people,
(notably their yet to be saved Jewish brethren).
The Western Church knows from
Zechariah 12 that the Jewish nation will be saved. But they also know that this will be late, toward the end of the age.
So it seems that the Western Church is ready to board
the train to glory right now, right this very minute.
Collectively they have made their decision and their position is clear.
They are not going to sit around and wait for the Great Tribulation
when their Jewish brethren are going to be saved.
Western Christians, (at least as we see them today), are pretty self-centered in their religious outlook.
They are clearly not prepared to assume any responsibility for Israel's total restoration.
Nor are they inclined to remain around for any of these awesome latter day mysteries to unfold.
Here then is the key issue.
The Church in Western Christendom is ready to be glorified NOW!
They are not inclined to assume any bridal responsibilities in matters involving the
Blood Covenant Witness of our Lord Jesus Christ as we come to the climax of this age.
So here we are, approaching the climax of the is age.
We have Christian people who are the quite clearly key witnesses to the resolution of epic global
pivotal end-time covenant issues. And yet they are "out to lunch".
The Western Church is denying any responsibility in these crucial matters.
Oh yes, they are quick to snap up the salvation and all the "blessings of the covenant" of Israel.
But in the end-time covenant matters they are copping out and dumping all the "problems of the covenant" on "the Jews".
Are we expecting them to finish the race on behalf of all the saints.
Are we expecting our Jewish brothers and sisters to bring in the final end time witness all by themselves?
This is very strange thinking for the people of the Gospel.
But Jacob is a shady character before he is transformed in the New Covenant Jeremiah spoke about. (Jeremiah 31-31-33)
The Good News is that God takes care of His covenant people and gives them grace in the trials.
Why are evangelicals living in fear here?
Why are they planning to "cut and run" seven years before the climax of the age?
Today's western Church is clearly demonstrating here a departure from Christian grace.
She is also showing her lack of patience in any anticipated trials and tribulations
involving the
Eternal Covenant. Apparently she favors her own happiness of the flesh
over devotion to Messiah. She shows a distinct aversion to the end time witness and
the true and genuine
blood covenant Christianity we see in the suffering Church abroad.
So it seems that the Church in the West has a problem.
She is still embroiled in bitterness over past hurts.
Well this is where the plot thickens.
It seems that it is not just our Jewish brethren who are in partial blindness.
Both houses of Israel are in partial blindness. (See
Romans 11)and more specifically
Romans 11:25 ).
So where does the partial blindness of Israel come from?
Well the answer is sitting there in the Old Testament. It is in some scripture precious few evangelicals
are reading nowadays. There is an old family blood feud going on in what we will eventually come to appreciate is "Greater Israel".
The split has existed for a very long time. What we are dealing with here, (or refusing to deal with),
is nothing less than a great family divorce.
The break-up occurred nearly three millennia ago.
It happened after the death of King Solomon.
Israel split into two kingdoms, two warring feuding factions.
Israel's Northern Kingdom went into captivity and were scattered by the Assyrians.
Later they regathered in their family groups and drifted west.
Many of people of European descent are descendants of the lost ten tribes.
So that explains their involvement in this continuing blood feud with the Jewish people and
their "problem" with the new nation of Israel emerging in the Middle East.
This matter of the lost ten tribes of Israel has has been researched by Jewish scholar and writer
Yair Davidiy of
Britam.org.
All this is well documented by Yair Davidiy.
Western Christendom have many strong linguistic and historical connections to the
lost ten tribes of Israel as they drifted west in their histories and settled in their geographical locations in the West.
This explains the jealousy, the bad blood, the crusades, the ongoing persecutions of Jews, and the continuing
specter of Church sponsored antiSemitism.
It seems clear that Western Christendom is heavily involved in this infighting with the Jewish House of Judah.
So what is the big drama all about? What is at issue here?
It seems that Western Christendom is still in a huff over a very painful event that happened a full 2900+ years ago.
Christians in the west are yet to realize this and to come to terms with it.
They still harbor jealousy, anger, and bitterness against their Jewish brethren over in the other house,
that being the house of David over in the royal House of Judah.
Why is this so?
Well it seems that the Church in the West is still not secure in their Messiah.
The Church still covenants with secular princes and rages with the heathen gentiles against
the coming rule of Israel's Messiah.
He is the One who enters human hearts and brings in with Him all the fullness of the Godhead.
With His indwelling Presence come all the spiritual character flows of all 12 tribes of Israel.
The Church has also still to address all the the
blood covenant issues of Law and Righteousness championed by Judah
as well as favoring and championing Messiah's issues of mercy and Grace
Crucial issues of "Law and Grace" complement each other.
They should not compete against each other.
Both virtues surround an extremely important past pivotal watershed event in holy history, the
Breach of Jeroboam. The ten Northern tribes went to the King, (King Rehoboam of the royal House of Judah
asking for tax relief or Grace, if you will. The House of Judah responded by laying down the Law.
So the ten tribes split, cursing the House of David as they went.
So with the Church's failure to appreciate this old blood feud and deal with
these deeper blood covenant matters it is not surprising that we are in partial spiritual blindness concerning our roots in Israel.
We live in a babel of religious confusion.
Church-goers are perplexed and bewildered about Bible prophecy and where holy history is taking us.
Christians depend on paid "experts" to tell them of the sequence of end-time events.
And they pay them well to deliver broad assurances that Christian believers are just fine staying as they are and with the status quo.
Christians have been told that there will be trials and tribulations at the end of the age
along with end-time revivals and apostasies.
But they are also told that all these unpleasant, (and sometimes glorious), events will not involve them!
This future Holy History, the Apocalypse the unveiling of Messiah, and the revelation of the mysteries and great hidden secrets,
(they are told),
will not happen to them. It will happen to the other people, (notably their yet to be saved brethren, the Jews).
Evangelicals correctly believe that Israel will be involved in the end-time drama.
But they do not understand that they as members of the true Church, the God of Israel's "ekklesia" or "called out Congregation",
is grafted in to the olive tree. The true Church is part of what we might call the Elect or Greater Israel.
We are not "outta here" until the end of the age. A true bride is not a disinterested concubine. She takes responsibility for covenant matters as all true brides do.
The upshot of all this is obvious.
The Congregation/Church in Israel? How can this be possible?
Of course the secular kings and rulers and the merchants may not like it.
And the principalities and powers of this world typically lean on their churchmen to keep these issues under wraps.
But the fact remains. True Christian believers when they are born again take on a new identity.
They now have dual citizenship.
They have a second passport into the Kingdom of God.
This Kingdom is at present invisible to natural eyes.
True Christian believers actually belong to the
Commonwealth of Israel.
This identity of the true Church in the Commonwealth of Israel, (or citizenship of Israel), was spoken of by our Apostle Paul. (See
Ephesians.2:12-13)
He also said that those who are in Christ find their ultimate blood kinship and identity
in Christ, Israel's Messiah, who is the Seed of Abraham.
See
Galatians 3:26-29)
It seems that Christ, the Seed of Heaven, overlies and supersedes the racial seed of men.
Jews and heathen gentiles are both in need of this great salvation that comes in with the indwelling Messiah.
And the Word of God in the human heart trumps the DNA lineage to set a new and glorious destiny for those who are
"in Christ" among all the families of men.
Bible believing Christians are quite correct that epic events
will unfold during the final seven years of this age. They know about that awesome future
70th Week of Daniel.
But the modern or post-modern Christian has been led to believe that there is no end-time role of witness for him or her to play.
They have been told that no significant events remain to unfold, or at least nothing requiring their presence or their witness.
So in this false assurance the Church in the west sleeps.
She does not seem to want anything or anyone to interrupt her
spiritual slumber.
The result is easy to see, all around us.
Christians are left to engage in their diversions, their television and video voyeurism, their money-making and
shopping, and all that makes up the present day "pursuit of happiness".
They have largely put aside the
Great Commission, missions overseas, and the end-time call to witness.
Many Christians are now concentrating all their efforts on "taking time out for me" and
achieving their "best life now".
But is there more to the end time story?
So here we come to the key question.
It is critically important that every responsible Christian looks into this matter.
Then it happens! The lights begin to go on. And they begin to make their own discoveries for themselves.
This often leads on into a "Eureka!" moment followed by an "Oh my dear God!"
The realization of the deep darkness that they had been living in and accepting as "normal" suddenly hits them in a very profound way.
With that comes a sudden understanding that the "Way of the cross".
The Biblically enlightened saints suddenly realizes that the "fellowship of Christ's sufferings" are not just
for their fellow Christians in places abroad.
This moment of discovery in God then becomes an epiphany.
In these situations it is not unusual for Christian believers to fall down on their knees.
Like the 10 brothers
gathered before Joseph they exclaim,
"I thought that we had already arrived at our spiritual destination", we moan.
When Christian believers begin to realize that they will in fact be here during the
final 7 years of this age they are initially quite shocked, even flabbergasted.
They are absolutely astounded at what they have discovered in the Holy Scriptures.
Of course this new information is more than "just the facts".
God is calling upon us to make a quality decision.
This doctrinal upheaval in our lives involves the high calling in Christ Jesus.
This initiation into the way of wisdom packs a powerful emotional impact.
This new calling to the highway of holiness involves total commitment unto death.
It shakes us to the very depths of our being.
The reason is quite simple. We have had no preparation for this in our country club church life.
And it is not what we have been told!
The Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine puts a blanket over this high calling in Christ.
And so it avoids all this discomfiture. The people want the cheaper version of Christianity.
And that is what they are buying in the book tables and videos for sale in the bazaars of religious Babylon.
The Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine is a multi billion dolar a year religi-business.
Here we have another "indulgence" sold by the Church to a huge company of evangelical "customers".
The doctrine in "easy believism" sets forth a scenario in which the saints do not have to finish the race.
The end-time drama, (the final leg of the relay race), is neatly avoided.
Berean Christians are not so sure about all this. They pick up their Bibles and begin to read.
Soon they begin to see the Post-Tribulation Resurrection-Rapture in the context of this over-arching Biblical truth.
God has an ongoing two-way covenant with the family of faithful Abraham, the saints who have the Seed of Abraham
who is the indwelling Christ. They understand that YHVH-God cannot wrap up holy history
until His witnesses have finished their testimony before kings and rulers.
The end-time drama is destined to be played out before a cloud of witnesses, before men and angels.
Then
an extremely troubling element to the Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine begins to raise its ugly head.
This early departure of the Church, (when we stop and think about it), is escapist in character.
The doctrine of the early pull-out begins to look very much like a carefully concealed cop-out.
Through this religious subterfuge the middle of the road carnal Christian is not offended by the message coming from the pulpit
or the TV screen. So they can "dodge the call". Here is their opportunity. They can "skip out".
This is so sad to see.
The red badge of courage is being amply demonstarted by the saints in China, Indonesia, Burma, and the Muslim world.
But many self-indulgent Western Christians have no intention of facing this challenge to their faith head-on.
No, they have their own more earthy plans.
And so they duck and weave and engage in fantasies of survivalism.
They run away from any consideration of their vital role in the "final witness".
Of course this is a popular move. And as they say, "everyone is doing it".
The comfortable rich western Christian can "go AWOL".
They can "cut and run". They can
avoid responsible action.
But that is OK. Everyone else believes it. So being like sheep we follow the others.
This Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine, after 150 years, is now well established among evangelicals.
This is what is being preached all over America and much of the western world.
But what if the doctrine of a special early secret rapture is scriptural error?
This is an extremely serious matter.
Because there is no doubt about it. This early "special express" Rapture, (cut off from any reference to the Resurrection),
is the politically and ecclesiastically approved end-time scenario.
And the doctrine has the Church going AWOL, "Absent without leave" at the end of the age.
This is the final leg of the relay race.
It is the very time
when the Ancient of Days is holding court and calling for His witnesses.
This escapist doctrine a matter of grave concern.
It normalizes and cloaks a doctrine that for all intents and purposes
is preparing the western Church to be a
'gang of deserters'
The Post Tribulation Resurrection-Rapture is a bitter pill to swallow.
Bt it sets forth a real story of the
true Bride of Christ we see in Holy Scripture.
The true Congregation of the saints, down through time, has never had it easy.
God's covenant people are usually seen under trial and duress as they
enter into great adventure and deep romance in God.
This is "normal" for the saints, and always has been.
And this "grace under pressure" is precisely what we see in the Post-Tribulation Rapture scenario.
But what do we see? Today it is the "Cinderella" of Bible prophecy.
Post-Trib teaching has been "blackballed" and censored out of church pulpits by powerful church members and deacon boards
who hold the purse strings.
And it is expunged from the religious media by the powerful evangelical establishment.
This has been the case since the latter
part of the 19th century.
Why is this so?
When the Internet came along it spawned emails, online Bible study tools, Christian websites, Google searching, and online Bible discussion forums.
These new media sparked an explosion of Bible reading.
Bible discussion forums including Bible prophecy discussion boards began popping up drawing in Christian believers from around the world.
There were hopes among Post Trib Christians that in this new media Biblical truth would prevail.
Many of us thought that in these discussions old established
doctrinal errors would fall by the wayside as the saints "saw the Light" and taking the high road walked on to the higher calling.
But alas, this has not been the case.
Much of the talk has actually been to play down the truth of Holy Scripture.
Yes, there has been a lot of talk and sophistry.
But the Holy Scriptures all too often are twisted to fit the fancy of the majority.
The holy things of God are torn asunder by the mob, aided an abetted by the moderators in many cases.
Christians in the spirit of religious humanism seek to re-engineer Biblical truth according human fancy and using Greek "logic".
Post-Tribulation Rapture Christians discovered that despite their sound Biblical presentations
and their faithful interpretations of Holy Scripture their message not received.
Nor was it considered for Biblical investigation.
They also discovered that they themselves were not welcome on the Bible Prophecy Discussion Forums.
They were in effect Bible prophecy clubs. And the post-tribber in his or her bid for membership was in effect being rejected.
Many times I saw these faithful messengers of Biblical truth unfairly treated and censored.
Often they found themselves locked out of the forum with no explanation given.
This was absolutely astounding to us at the time.
I know. I was there.
Oh yes, we are contented as we attend church on Sunday, pay our respects to God up in heaven,
and then pursue our own personal happiness down here below the rest of the time.
We have our ticket to heaven.
It is right there in our pocket.
Our bags are packed.
And we have been told that the
Glory Train could pick us up at "any time".
Nothing further needs to be attended to.
We believe what we have been told. And that is,
our departure by rapture is
'imminent'.
When the
last trumpet sounds we are, (as the saying goes), "outta here!"
This sounds pretty good. But what if we have been called to attend to some further
Kingdom business before we go? Is there an epic "final witness" of the saints in the 5th seal?
Will the Ancient of Days be calling for His witnesses before the opening of the 6th seal when the son of Man appears in the heavens?
And if so, then who told us that we would not be here?
And where is their Scriptural authority for doing so?
Will saints belonging to the Church, (the wider Congregation of Israel),
be called upon to bring some important testimony at this time?
Or is all this to be done by 144,000 brand new Jewish Christians from just the tribe of Judah
as our popular Bible teachers tell us?
Jesus Himself told His trusted disciples what to expect.
Here is another important matter.
Then there is this matter.
So are we sure that the Bible teaches a special early rapture for the Church?
Does the Bible teach that "the Church" gets a special separate deal?
Is there a separate glorification of Church saints different from Israel's saints?
Is the Church given a
special early express rapture separate from
God's
70th week covenant dealings with Israel?
Does our God, the God of Israel, preside over two Elects or just
one Elect.
Are there two separate salvation deals under heaven?
Does the Holy One of Israel have a down and dirty apartheid policy?
Our Apostle Paul gives us the answer
here in Ephesians 2:12-13.
When Christian believers are saved they come into intimate union with Christ who is the Seed of faithful Abraham.
(See Gal:3:29)
And so they become
'new creatures'.
As new creatures in Christ the Seed of faithful Abraham resides inside them.
In Christ they receive a new national identity
to add to the national identity they already have.
This is imparted to them by the Holy Spirit
This is how Christian believers come into the Commonwealth of Israel.
So unknown to most Christians, they actually own two passports.
Like the British Commonwealth this new citizenship is a sovereign or spiritual impartation.
Citizenship in the Commonwealth of Israel is not directly linked with race or the flows of DNA through the generations.
It is true that the promised Seed of the Woman spoken of in Genesis
has historically tracked along through the bloodlines of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel.
But that was just the beginning of the story.
Israel's Light the nations is shining.
This is that wonder Isaiah spoke about.
(See Isaiah 49:6)
The wells of salvation have sprung up bringing streams in the desert.
Truly, Israel is blessing the nations.
And the Jordan River overflows its banks,
There is only one Eternal Covenant. And that treaty with God is only to be found
by grace through faith in the atoning blood of Israel's Sacrifice Lamb.
After we are saved we eventually come to realize that we are in an eternal covenant with our Jewish Messiah.
But there is more. Now we learn that we belong in the Commonwealth, (or citizenship), of Israel
of all things!
Most Christians are almost completely in the dark about all this.
Why is this so?
But why are our church leaders so subject to these worldly influences?
Surely these churchmen are more than hired religious power brokers.
They cannot be just religious agents for kings, merchants, labor brokers and the greens.
Why the secrecy?
Why shouldn't Christians know about their vital blood covenant Calvary connection with Israel through Messiah?
Is there an "ecclesiastical correctness"? And who is pulling the strings here?
Are we seeing just another part of the wider worldly mosaic of "political correctness"?
Is this "conspiracy of silence" in these vital covenant matters part of the conspiracy of the
heathen nations King David wrote that song about?
Or is it
church sponsored anti-Semitism.
There is no doubt, the worldly powers, angelic and human, loathe and dread the coming of Messiah.
And they rage against Him.
When they cannot rage then they adopt Fabian's stategy.
They quietly camp out against at the city gates of the kingdom they want to bring down.
They conspire against Christ and seek to block out, dilute, and distort word of His Second Coming
using
disinformation.
They angelic rulers are in
stark terror of the Second Coming.
Aand the heathen, the gentile nations, are under those dark angelic principalities and powers.
(See Psalm 2)
The big worldly church and state conspiracy against Messiah would seem to be this.
The "final witness" of the saints will be followed by the 6th seal.
The Book of Revelation is the story of two women.
These are two companies of people who claim to know God.
John saw
the harlot of Revelation 17.
And he also saw
the Woman of Revelation chapter 12 with the 12 stars of Israel upon her crown.
One woman sits as a queen, saying, " I will see no sorrow".
The woman with the diadem of 12 stars is in travail and yet she is clothed in the glory of her Father.
These two are the main players we see on the stage of future holy history.
The Apocalypse is also a heavenly court case.
And in the latter days the Ancient of Days will sit. He will be calling for His witnesses.
Some will turn up. Others will be crusading, "fighting the system" or hiding in caves.
The principalities and powers know all about thios crucial final witness of the saints.
And they know that when this happens it will be their undoing.
So that is why they want to hoodwink Christians. They want to keep them in the dark about
their high calling in Christ.
The prophet Zechariah tells us that there will be a national repentance
and late salvation of the whole Jewish nation at the end of the age.
(See Zech. 12)
As Evangelical Christians we often think of our Jewish brethren.
We wonder about their "partial blindness" to the identity of their Messiah. (Rom.11)
But wait!
If "blindness in part has happened to Israel"
and if we, as Christian believers, are in the Commonwealth or citizenship of Israel (and don't know it)
then what does that say about us?
Why are we not "seeing" our vital connection to Israel?
And why, in spite of all the Biblical evidence, are we as Christians so blind to our Hebrew roots.
Our Hebrew roots are primarily a spiritual reality to be sure. But in the case of many westerners those roots may even
go back to the
Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. For some interesting evidence of this see
the Yair Davidiy interview on YouTube.)
Yes, so what is our problem here?
What does our Christian identification in the Commonwealth of Israel really mean?
It seems a bit "over the top" doesn't it.
Here are the facts concerning western Christendom.
Our western nations always fought and spilled their blood for "God and country".
And for 1700 years the God of western Christendom has not been in question.
He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
So even under persecution and duress, our national allegiance as Christians to our country still stands.
The allegiance of all the nations, heathen and otherwise, is due Him.
So in Christ, the Messiah of Israel, our national identity is not in question here.
In the Church, (the Congregation of Israel), we come to know a greater Sovereign Power than any earthly ruler.
And when we study history we discover that he is the One who lies behind the glory of our nation.
So if our nation under a worldly power summons us to witness and causes us some grief over God's Word
then it will be "good grief".
Our witness to the God of Israel will not be in vain.
Through His witnesses God is in fact calling our nation, (and all the nations), up to a higher level.
And we ourselves, as Christian believers, are being "called out" to
blood covenant commitment.
This is true patriotism, even the higher patriotism to a greater glory.
We are witnesses to a greater king, even the King of kings.
We are speaking here of the latter day "Gospel of the Kingdom" spoken of in the Book of Revelation.
So as Christian believers we are involved with Israel.
What if we come into the fall season
of some future year to find ourselves
waking up one morning to the sound of
trumpets.
How shall we react if we discover that we have gone on
beyond the current protective
umbrella of the
Pax Americana?
What if that seven year "covenant with many" brings us into a
New World Order?
We look around.
We pinch ourselves and say "ouch".
We have not been raptured.
What then?
Are we prepared for this?
Do we have
the oil for our lamps against the coming night?
Have we prepared ourselves in the devotion and in the Holy Spirit
for a late time Post-Tribulation Rapture if that should prove to be the case?
Have we even been given a heads up on this other strong possibility?
Have our ministers given us any inkling at all about these things?
Have we been told that we might do well to prepare our hearts for witness
under some duress at some future time?
Corrie Ten Boom was a woman of faith and commitment to her Jesus.
She knows of God's provision
during the inevitable trials of our faith.
This great woman of God is a lone voice speaking out for scriptural truth
in the present eschatological wilderness.
Corrie Ten Boom has sounded a warning
to American and western Christians.
She has spoken out very specifically about the popular
Pre-Tribulation Rapture teaching abroad today.
Here is
Corrie Ten Boom's warning to the American church.
But are they correct about this early special edition secret Rapture?
The short answer is "No. They do not".
The fact is there is not one single passage of scripture
that gives sound and convincing proof of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Not one!
The doctrine sounds nice and it goes down well with the middle of the road Christian crowds.
And it sells well in the religious marketplaces. Indeed the Pre-Tribulation doctrine
has become entertainment for the masses.
It is a huge multi billion dollar a year religi-business.
But here is the question.
Can the idea of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture stand up to faithful Berean scrutiny?
Or is the doctrine emotionally driven by wishful thinking?
Quite obviously it is a soothing melodramatic eschatology.
The fact that this is now a popular amusement is reason for us to be concerned.
Karl Marx was a very evil man, the father of humanistic state communism.
And he once quite cynically said that "religion was the opiate of the people".
If by "religion" he means an attenuated somewhat twisted
Christianity founded on the traditions of men then was he right?
Do our fancies, even as Christian believers, ride roughshod over
a plain and faithful reading of the Holy Scriptures?
Are we as submitted to the Bible as we suppose we are?
Here is what our Apostle Paul had to say.
4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
4:17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
OK, now here we come to a key question.
Of course such an idea is extremely problematical.
- - - - - - WHEN IS THE RESURRECTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS DEAD?
So here is our question again.
When is the Resurrection of the righteous dead?
Is it here? Or is it here?
This is not rocket science.
Revelation 20 spotlights the Resurrection of the righteous dead.
And we are clearly and unmistakably told by John that this is the 'First Resurrection'.
Quite clearly there is not, nor can there be, an earlier Pre-Tribulation Resurrection of the Elect.
There is no "special separate Church resurrection" coming seven years before this Post Tribulational Resurrection John saw.
No other resurrection can precede this
"First Resurrection" of the Tribulation martyrs we see here in Revelation 20.
The Pre-Trib Resurrection, like Santa Claus and the tooth fairy may loom big in our imaginations.
But it does not exist in reality.
It is a figment of man's fertile fevered imagination.
A "pre-tribulation resurrection" is a crafty piece of work. It is an unscriptural man made hoax.
The thing does not exist. It simply cannot be found anywhere in the Bible.
So Revelation 20 is describing
the Resurrection of the righteous dead, the saints resurrected at the end of this age.
Special mention is being given to a special group of overcomers within the Resurrection company.
They are the end time heroes of the faith, the tribulation martyrs.
These people are a huge embarrassment to those who teach the Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine.
These are the saints who bring in the climactic "final witness" of the 5th seal.
These faithful witnesses who died for the faith will usher in the
6th seal appearance of the sign of the Son of Man in the heavens.
These are the faithful saints we who break the tape to finish the race on behalf of all the saints who have run before us.
The Bible says that these Tribulation martyrs
are in the "First Resurrection", the glorified dead who are raised up out of this evil age at the end of this age. (Rev.20:5)
In fact they head up the Resurrection of all the righteous who have died in the faith, all the saints from both sides of Calvary.
They head up the procession of all the saints as
the Elect, (a single company), ascend up into the mansions of glory.
This "First Resurrection" event clearly comes at the very end of this age, not seven years before!
Now let us focus again on the "catching up", (or Rapture), of the righteous who are alive at the end of this age.
Our Apostle Paul says that "we who are alive and remain" shall be "caught up", or "Raptured".
Here is our scripture again from 1Thes.4:15-17.
4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
4:17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
The Bible tells of one transport into glory, one 'Glory Train'.
Quite clearly, the Rapture cannot and will not precede the Resurrection.
Dear saints, we must face the Holy Scriptures honestly here.
This First Resurrection John mentions does include the Tribulation martyrs.
Quite clearly this Resurrection will come at the end of the Great Tribulation.
It must of necessity follow the
Day of Atonement, the final Day of Reckoning at the end of this age.
John the Beloved calls this Resurrection of the righteous dead the 'First Resurrection".
So we can safely surmise that there will be a Second Resurrection
to wrap up the glorious 1,000 year Millennial Age of Messiah which will follow this present evil age.
So let us make no mistake about this.
So the Resurrection of the righteous dead is the big all inclusive "First Resurrection" of Revelation 20:4-6.
Dear saints, the Bible only speaks of one Resurrection of the righteous dead.
There can be no resurrection to precede this Post Tribulation "First Resurrection".
Here is another strange and mysterious fact.
{f you have noticed, our western Bible prophecy teachers are careful not mention the Resurrection.
Nor do they place it in its proper
scripturally founded position immediately preceding the Rapture.
But the Bible clearly bundles and bonds these two events together as a combined Resurrection-Rapture. (1Thes.4:15-17)
So what is going on here?
Why are we not hearing about this combined Resurrection-Rapture?
Even medieval peasants had some idea of Christ returning for the "quick and the dead".
If God has joined them together in the Holy Scriptures why have modern churchmen divided the Resurrection from the Rapture?
Where are the Bereans? And who has the gumption to stand up and
ask the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Bible teachers about the Resurrection of the righteous dead?
There is a hidden scheme behind the severing the Resurrection from the Rapture.
The pesky event, the Resurrection of the righteous dead is coming at the "last day".
This is an "inconvenient truth". It is too prominent.
So it has to "go away".
The "cloaking" of the Resurrection has been mandated by the angelic religious powers. And why?
This is absolutely essential in order to craft a Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine for the masses.
We should not be too ready to judge here.
Our Bible teachers are most often completely unaware of this.
And they are under enormous duress.
Quite clearly they are being put under enormous pressure by the spirit of the age.
They are teaching under the influence of the very powerful prevailing religious spirits.
Let's cut to the chase.
The powers that be, the angelic rulers, are short timers.
Messiah is coming. They know this. They are deathly afraid of the things to come.
They would very much like to delay the unveiling of Messiah, the Apocalypes, as long as they can.
That is why they are intent on maintaining the status quo.
They want their human underlings, the masses, to stay "quiet".
They are in special dread of the "final witness" of the saints.
They know that it will be their undoing.
The angelic rulers will fall, as the stars of heaven, at the end of this age.
So the powers that be want the Church, (like Sleeping Beauty), to stay asleep.
They want the prospective Bride of Christ to continue to think of herself as "uninvolved" with the
blood covenant witness and other key issues that come to the fore in the Apocalypse.
They want Western Christians to snooze away and continue to think that there will be no bridal witness called for.
So here is job #1 for the principalities and powers, the angelic rulers of this present darkness.
They simply do not want Christians asking questions about the end of the age.
They want to get the Bible teachers to tell the people,
"Yes, a time of trial is coming. But don't concern yourself with it. You will not be there."
This will keep potential Christian witnesses in the dark and asleep.
(The powers hate any sign of revival.)
Like the foolish virgins these Christians will be unprepared.
When the midnight darkness comes many luke warm
Laodicean Christians in the west, (unlike most Chinese and Indonesian Christians),
will be like Rip Van Winkle,
sleeping through the revolution.
They will not even know that they are in a spiritual war.
Like the foolish virgins, these Christians will have neglected their devotion to God.
They will not have searched the scriptures for themselves.
They will not have sought the presence and infilling of the Holy Spirit.
And when the midnight cry comes they will not have the oil to recharge their failing lamps.
They will be coming to that dreadful moment of "burnout".
The
parable of the ten virgins is truly a haunting parable.
So the religious hierarchical powers, angelic and human, have an agenda here.
They are bound and determined to pin the Rapture to the very beginning of the
70th week of Daniel.
This is the final seven years of this age. The seven years are made up of two 3.5 year
periods of trials and tribulations. The first 3.5 years will be under the
harlot.
The latter 3.5 years, or
1260 days will be the Great Tribulation.
The agenda in this merchant system, is to tell the church what the people want to hear.
Their message appeals to the lower carnal nature and so demand and profitability is high.
The Pre-Tribulation rapture genre is lucrative for Bible teachers and revenue positive for churches.
And so for the last 150 years the Church has been given the same message.
They are told that they will not be here for the final witness of the saints.
This means convincing the Church, against the Holy Scriptures, that there will be an early Pre-Tribulation Rapture.
But both the late Resurrection and the combined Resurrection-Rapture are both inconvenient truths that stand in the way.
So in order to present an early pre-tribulation Rapture they must first chop up the Resurrection-Rapture
and divide it up into two parts with a cleaver.
Popular Bible teachers never speak of the Resurrection and the Rapture both together
as it was done in former times such as the Apostle's Creed.
Unfortunately Christians are not reading and studying their Bibles.
They only know what churchmen have told them.
And so eventually people forget about the Apostle's Creed.
They lose sight of the critical Biblical information that the Resurrection-Rapture is a combined event.
So the Rapture is cut loose from its Resurrection moorings.
The next job for these plotters is to
rip the Rapture free of its proper position at the "last day" and pull it forward seven years.
Of course the resurrection is left sitting out there at the end of the age. The Resurrection must "go away".
So they put a cloak over the Resurrection and hide the embarrassing truth of its late Post Tribulation timing.
The Resurrection, (which is clearly a late post tribulation event), is smoke screened.
Of course their spurious Pre-Tribulation Rapture must be presented without its Resurrection companion.
The late Post-Tribulation, end of age Resurrection of the righteous
dead is clearly a huge embarrassment to Pre-Trib. So this Resurrection of the righteous dead is never spoken about or its timing discussed.
They do not even want to speak about the Resurrection of the righteous dead or open up any discussion as to its obvious late timing.
Because the Resurrection of the just comes at the end of the age, after the 70th Week, at the very end
of the
final seven years of this age.
Of course most Bible believing Christians already sense, (or can quite easily find out),
that the Resurrection of the righteous dead comes at the very end of the age.
So in order to engineer a special early Pre-Tribulation Rapture it must be unhinged from
its true Biblical connection to the (Post-Tribulation) Resurrection.
Then the whole issue of Resurrection Day for the saints can be shipped off into a sea of forgetfulness.
This is precisely what has happened. And the Church, like Sleeping Beauty, sleeps on.
Who will awaken her? Which prince?
So here we have the strange matter. The Resurrection of the "those who are in Christ" is being vaporised.
But the Resurrection of the righteous dead is a future glorious event! And the earth and the seas will give up the
righteous dead on one future awesome day.
But what do we see?
The Resurrection is made to vanish away like magic.
Tinker Belle waves her magic wand and it disappears in a sparkling tinkling cloud of stardust.
The Resurrection of the righteous dead is spirited away.
Nowadays it is only remembered at funerals.
I would encourage the reader to try it some time and see.
It is an amazing little exercise, and a bit spooky.
Because most of our Bible teachers are otherwise quite sound.
But if they teach a Pre-Tribulation Rapture they have joined a religious company that has baulked at the end-time witness of the saints.
So they have put themselves under the religious witchcraft that covers that establishment.
They are under a heavy spell.
Such Bible teachers can look at the matter of the Resurrection of the righteous dead.
They can even open their Bibles and they can discuss the Resurrection theologically.
But they do not "see" the Resurrection of the Righteous dead as an awesome epic final one day event.
They just do not "see" it. Nor can they teach it.
And why?
Does this sound far fetched? Are religious spirits at work in Christians, even our evangelical Bible teachers? Oh yes!
Just try it sometime. Ask a popular Bible teacher about the timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead. And watch what happens.
I challenge you, dear reader, to see this strange hypnotic state for yourself.
When the subject of the timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead is raised a glazed look comes over the eyes of
the person being questioned.
The subject is quickly diverted and spirited off into the realm of "theology".
The "First Resurrection" is often obfuscated and blended in with the resurrection of Jesus.
But in 1Cor. 15 we see that the resurrection of Christ, the firstfruits from the dead, our sacred Head,
is quite separate from the resurrection of the Body of Christ, or "those who are Christ's at His coming".
Then we get a dissertation on the ones who came out of their graves when Jesus died on the cross, (people who later went on to die).
This strange spirit of confusion in the face of Biblical truth is classic.
It is evidence of religious spirits doing their work of disinformation.
This is why we need to pray without ceasing.
There is a spiritual war going on here in this matter of the Resurrection of the just.
And all wars are
information wars. The Holy Biblical data is being intercepted, blocked, diverted, twisted, obfuscated etc.
This is why young Biblically well founded men go into seminaries believing in the deity of Christ, the creation account in Genesis,
the virgin birth, the Resurrection of Christ, and the literal bodily return of Christ.
They come out four years later no longer believing in these basic tenets of the faith.
And as Christian parents we wonder why our children are being lost to sex, drugs, rock and roll and the tattoo parlours.
Religious spirits can be and are right now at work among Christians to bring in error even as
religious leaders pretend to discuss the holy things of God.
Spiritual integrity is the issue here and hidden religious humanism is more dangerous to us than the overt much balleyhooed secular humanism.
These religious spirits are most often operating
in and through Christians who popular and running a profitable religious franchise.
But they have put themselves beyond contradiction and so they are being easily deceived.
We live and breathe in an "I'm OK you're OK" world.
So ministers do what their denomination, their deacon board, and evangelical religious tradition calls upon them to do.
And they assume that all is well.
But all is not well. These religious leaders have been subjected to hypnotic entrainment.
They are quite unaware of what is happening to them and through them.
The amazing and somewhat frightening thing about all this
is that these are most often Christian men and women who are otherwise quite Biblically sound.
This is why we need to pray for all our leaders, both spiritual and temporal.
Now remember, we just read in the passages earlier
that the Resurrection immediately precedes
the Rapture.
The Resurrection and the Rapture are a combined event.
So voila,
if we have our timing for the Resurrection at the last day
then we also have
the timing of the Rapture.
We have the Rapture nailed down as
being on the last day as well!
So there we have it.
Here is some additional solid scriptural evidence for this.
So when is this gathering of the Elect?
And yes, Jesus only spoke of
one single unified Elect, not two.
Again, the Bible speaks.
Here are Jesus' own words on this important matter.
30. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven,
and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn,
and they will see the Son of Man
coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other.
30. Then the SIGN of the Son of Man will appear in heaven,
and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn,
and they will see the Son of Man
coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
So at the climax of the age
we see a single triumphant party gathered together as one.
They are gathering together around
the returning Christ.
All of His Elect Congregation spanning 4,000 years plus
are gathered together as one.
They are one united 'called out' company,
the 'ekklesia'/congregation of God.
They are the remnant Church / remnant Israel coming into confluence together
as a 'royal priesthood and a holy nation'. (1Pet.2:9)
The returning Christ will be gathering all who are in Christ.
All who belong to the God of Israel will be there.
At the "great sound of the trumpet"
all the saints will be gathered as a
single Elect.
They are glorified into new bodies from among the living and from among the dead.
They come from all races, from among both the Jews and the Gentiles,
and from both sides of Calvary,
and from all around the world.
Jesus Himself said that He would return to gather His Elect from
"the four winds of heaven", from
across space and time. He gathers His own from across the
racial divides of Israel and out from the clutches of the
heathen gentile nations. He gathers His people
from beyond the gates of Sheol and brings them home.
He draws them out from across the very borders of life and death.
The fact is we are not entirely rational in what we believe.
This question of the timing of the Rapture
is certainly an emotionally charged issue.
Our heart is often cross wired with our rational mind.
And so our minds and loaded with pre-suppositions we have not checkef for accuracy.
But they are what we believe are Biblically well established facts.
But they are not. They are our notions, really just our own fondly held, (and often false, pre-suppositions.
This is why the process of deciding on what we believe can play tricks on us.
We don't want to "hear" some hard truths.
Nor do we want to "see" some things.
We might think we have all the issues in alignment with God and our beliefs about the Rapture are consistent with God's Word.
But there are pied pipers out there, and we have been paying them to play our tune.
So what they tell us is often what we "want to hear".
This is why we have ended up hearing about the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, and believing it.
Of course seeker friendly religious salesmen are just like other salemen.
They are close by our side.
They know what we "want". And like good salesmen they are very keen to sell
us what we want to hear.
The Pre-Tribulation Rapture package is a case in point.
It is just a religious dream, but we love it and buy it.
Dear saints, we must face the brutal truth here.
Jesus said that where our treasure is there will our heart be also.
We as Christians have have opened our pockets here big time.
Christians have made this Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine a multi-billion dollar a year religi-business.
This is an exceedingly difficult matter for us to address.
Bible teachers who teach a Pre-Trib Rapture are usually sound in every other way.
For the most part they are our dear evangelical brothers and sisters.
But the Pre-Tribulation Rapture is now a well a entrenched corporate belief.
There is a huge amount of Pre-Trib traffic on the air waves.
And the peer pressure involved here is past knowing.
When we finally see the error of this Pre-Tribulation Rapture then
it suddenly becomes exceedingly difficult for us. It is hard to accept that we have been entangled
in error and confusion for many years of our Christian lives.
It is also very hard for us to believe that we have been deceived.
We have been deceived by well meaning Bible prophecy teachers.
And we have been self-deceived as well.
We have not done our homework in the Holy Scriptures as we should.
And we are creatures of habit who live and breathe in the status quo.
We also expect the present political situation and American world leadership to last forever.
So why bother about the end-time?
But here is the awful question we must face.
What if we as Christian believers are wrong?
What is our judgment is off?
What if we as Christian believers are still are largely living
on the carnal side of our nature?
Does our lower nature and our ego lord over the spiritual side
of our nature? Our mind is like an iceberg, with the rational part of our being just the tip of the iceberg.
The real workings of our mind is submerged and hidden beneath the surface.
So just what is going on deep down in our subconscious mind?
Are we Holy Spirit led Bible believing overcomers?
Or is the fleshly side of our nature on the throne of our hearts and calling the shots?
Could it really be possible that our carnal religious desires can actually rise up and trump out Biblical truth?
Could this what is happening deep down in our heart with our belief in a false eschatology?
These are awful things to have to consider.
So most of us don't bother. We just drift along with the crowd.
It is not just our teenagers who are giving in to "peer pressure".
It seems our opinion on the timing of the Rapture will not change until the opinion of the crowd and our peers changes first.
Can it really be this bad?
The Bible repeatedly alludes to human beings being like sheep.
A realization of the scriptural
certainty of a Post-Tribulation Resurrection-Rapture
is always a strait and narrow and difficult passage.
It is nearly always a rude awakening. Sometimes the truth really hurts.
We shall always need emotional solace from our God when we go through
these sort of major spiritual transitions.
This was certainly the case for me when I went through the threshold in
my passage from Pre-Trib to Post Trib.
I know others who have had the same experience.
It is a tough initiation into the Way of the Cross. But it is a necessary one
if we really want to be "sold out" for God.
And the Holy Spirit is with us. He is our Comforter
as well as our Guide.
Here is another pointer.
It is quite normal for saints to cry out to God in their distress.
We need His covering in such times.
It is even normal to cry or even become broody or moody for a season.
We can even get angry at God for a time as we pass through these straits.
Anger at God is the real and the hidden cause of depression.
The depression remains until we reach a point of acceptance.
Then we get better.
Don't we often see the same pattern in the Psalms?
The psalmist begins in a cry of distress. "How long, O Lord....?"
Then they remember YHVH/God's great acts of mercy and deliverance in times past.
The psalmist then reminds himself about those times when God was faithful
in trials.
The songwriter then finds himself entering into the glory
and the Psalm ends on a high note.
The psalmist affirms his faith in the
lovingkindness of God. Then he concludes by speaking of the wonderful
future God has planned for His covenant people.
The emotional issue is definitely the main issue for Post-Trib truth.
The scriptural foundation is rock solid.
It is all very simple, elegant, plain, and straightforward.
Pre-Tribbers nowadays prefer not to debate Post-tribbers.
When they are asked to back up their end-time scenario
with chapter and verse of scripture they do not do well.
They have learned that it is best for them to just find some reason to
shut us out of their discussion boards.
If we are allowed into a Bible prophecy forum and encounter Pre-Tribbers
keen to debate the issue of the
timing of the Rapture then the outcome is quite inevitable.
We just bring the scriptures to bear
on any one of a number of relevant issues.
The timing of the Resurrection, for example, is a telling point to raise.
Jesus tells us four times in John 6:39, 6:40, 6:44, and 6:54
that He will be raising His people up at the "last day".
So we know the Resurrection will be after the Great Tribulation.
Revelation 20:4 tells the same story. The "first Resurrection" contains tribulation martyrs.
Clearly the Resurrection of the righteous dead occurs art the very end of the age after the Great Tribulation.
Then we have them.
We show them the combined Resurrection-Rapture in 1Thes.4:15-17.
If the Resurrection is late and the Rapture cannot precede it then the Rapture is late too.
This is a simple uncomplicated logical conclusion any child can draw from
a plain reading of the scriptures.
Soon afterwards we have the Pre- Tribbers pinned down.
They have no place to go
except into Post Trib.
Of course they are usually not emotionally prepared for this.
They refuse. Then they get angry.
All too often, the discussion then becomes acrimonious.
And both sides fall from the high pathway of grace.
This is why we see so few good debating arenas nowadays.
The discussion boards that still remain open see more and more
"rules of engagement" added by moderators. We see,
"No discussion of the timing of the rapture is
allowed on this discussion board". Or,
"Please be aware of Rule #5".
Offenders are typically "warned" and then "banned".
Many times post-tribbers, trying very hard to be gracious
in their presentation of scripture, get too successful at
showing the truth. When they attempt to enter the online
discussion forum the next day they find that they have been locked out.
Emotional issues are the main reason people refuse to
leave the Pre-Tribulation Rapture position.
The "cut and run" eschatology is very popular.
There are peer pressure issues as well.
None of us likes to leave friends or to lose them.
And then too, as sheep, we are gregarious creatures.
No one likes to be a lone voice crying in the wilderness.
Fortunately we serve a gracious God.
He understands what we are going through.
He has promised to lead us
"in Spirit as well as in Truth".
The Shepherd of the sheep is with us.
He does not just hit us with the data.
Nor does He just "sock it to us" with
the cold facts.
He has sent us His Holy Spirit. He is our Comforter
as well as being our Guide.
He empowers us to walk on in God.
The Holy Spirit also helps us to walk in the graces.
He helps us to
wrap up the Truth in the graces of His love, joy, and peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.
Pre-trib is a really quite a mess.
It is a complicated colossus of disharmony and confusion.
Post-Trib, on the other hand, is simple, elegant, orderly and beautiful.
As we proceed on into this Bible study we
shall soon see just how easy it is to use the scriptures to
put the jigsaw puzzle of the end-time together harmoniously.
The timing of the Rapture of the Church
is an important matter to have nailed down.
It must be made clear to the true saints of God.
These essential truths of the revelation/apocalypse/unveiling
of Jesus Christ are not going to remain a mystery forever.
This information relates to the end-time drama.
It is a history for which we need to be prepared.
Epic events will erupt onto
the world stage. They will do so very quickly and forcefully. It may well
happen on some future Jewish new year on the
Feast of Trumpets.
Here is the burden of this writer.
If the saints are not properly warned and adequately informed
and empowered by the Holy Spirit to give themselves to the Redeemer
in a time of peace then what will happen
when they find themselves suddenly thrust into the epic
events of the end-time?
They will be confused. They will be bewildered.
They will be fearful, and perhaps unpredictable in what they might do.
They could be caught unprepared and unready.
The scriptures warn us about this very thing.
The following scripture is time dated to the 'swelling of the Jordan'.
This is a biblical reference to the time of the harvest. - Josh.3:15
The harvest is that time of high intensity of events
as God prepares to reap the earth. - Rev.14:15
He will gather the wicked for destruction
and gather His elect for glorification at the end of the age.
- Mat.13:33
It is a message to us, ...now, ...today.
And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you,
Dear saints, now is the time for us to take a long hard look
at our attitude to Christian witness.
God has given us time for peaceful reflection and
preparation in the Holy Spirit.
And that time is now!
True shepherds know that sheep will only drink from still waters.
God has given us this time of peace for a purpose.
This is a time to leave
our pursuit of pleasure and material things.
Now is the time to allow ourselves
to be led in quietness deeper into the heart of the Shepherd.
Let us get to know His voice. (John 10:3-4)
A dark and cloudy day is coming. (Ezek.34:12)
True believers will need to stay very close to the Shepherd of Israel.
Let us join our Apostle Paul
and affirm our faith to the end.
The highway of holiness leads onwards and upwards;
Grace and shalom to all the saints.
IT COMES TOO LATE TO PRECEDE A SPECIAL EARLY RAPTURE
COMING SEVEN YEARS BEFORE THE 'LAST DAY'.
SO IT HAD TO BE MADE TO "GO AWAY".
Of course these questions concerning the timing of the Resurrection of the righteous dead
would have been very awkward questions for Pre-Tribulation Rapture Bible teachers to answer.
So this separating off of the Resurrection of the righteous dead became quite necessary as
the doctrine of an early Rapture was being crafted and prepared to go public.
This is the most probable reason why the magnificent last day glorification of the saints, the Resurrection-Rapture, has been sliced up.
Dispensationalist theologians have quietly split the glorification of the saints into two disconnected events.
THE FORBIDDEN QUESTION THAT IS TABOO TO ASK.
Proof of this religious deception can be readily elicited.
A sure clue that religious spirits are present and at work
can be readily demonstrated.
Just raise you hand at the next Bible prophecy conference and ask the Bible teacher this question.
WHEN IS THE RESURRECTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS DEAD?
WILL IT COME BEFORE THE TRIBULATION? . . . OR AFTER IT?
And when will the sea give up its dead saints in the Resurrection of the righteous dead?
Will it be before the tribulation?
Or will it be after the tribulation?
DISPENSATIONALIST PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE LORE HAS AN
'AGE OF GRACE' LANDING SEVEN YEARS SHORT OF THE LAST DAY.
THEIR DOCTRINE HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT ABSENTING HIMSELF FROM EARTH.
THEY HAVE HIM DEPARTING THE SCENE FOR FINAL 7 YEARS OF THIS AGE.
WON'T THE SAINTS WILL BE NEEDING THE HOLY SPIRIT THEN?
Here is an important blood covenant issue that calls for our attention.
Who gave dispensationalist splitters the authority to
begin their so called "Age of Grace" or "Age of the Church" at the cross or at Pentecost?
How were the saints in Old Testament times drawn to YHVH-God, if not by the Ruach Hadesh, the Holy Spirit?
And by what right do they then proceed to terminate their "Age of Grace"
seven years before the end of this age? Will God really yank out His Holy Spirit from off the planet during that time period?
He has never exited any part of the cosmos before. According to the Psalmist in Psalm 139
God's Presence is readily accessible throughout the entire universe, even in Hades itself.
Here is what King David declared in his song.
PSALM 139
Does grace "fall short" seven years before the final mark?
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
Will God absent Himself from His creation and His people?
Will He "go AWOL"?
Will the Holy Spirit really desert His yet to be saved end-time Jewish remnant and His Tribulation saints in their time of trial and witness?
AN IMPORTANT LEGAL ISSUE WRITTEN INTO THE
BLOOD COVENANT WE HAVE WITH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Dear saints, we need to be extremely careful of accepting this notion of a seven year "dead zone" or "no responsibility zone"
for the Congregation of Messiah at the end of this age.
When He was departing 2,000 years ago Jesus charged His disciples with
a certain commission, even
the Great Commission.
AND THE EXPIRATION DATE FOR THE GREAT COMMISSION AS WRITTEN THEREIN.
Here below are our
Commissioning Papers!
And be sure of this:
even to the end of the age."
Have we taken Jesus's Holy Word to heart here?
And let us ask ourselves this question.
Is there one scaric of evidence that our Commission terminates seven years before the end of the age?
THE PLOT TO LAY HANDS ON THE RESURRECTION-RAPTURE.
Many Christian investigators are now looking into this question of the sectioning of the Resurrection-Rapture..
Some have begun to piece together what probably happened here.
Who was behind all this? Can we discern the spirits at work here?
AND TO DIVIDE IT ASUNDER.
AND THE HIDDEN AGENDA BEHIND THIS.
But are we lifting up Biblical truth as we claim to be doing?
And what it is is not exactly clear.
A PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE.
Americans sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Deep in their collective psyche Biblical Christians know
that their present day superpower, the Pax Americana,
will probably abut into a New World Order and the last seven years of this age.
IS IT JUST A MARKETING OF SWEET SPIRITUAL "COMFORT FOOD"?
OR IS IT PART OF A POLITICAL AGENDA TO KEEP THE CHRISTIAN CROWDS QUIET?
So even if it is popular it cannot be God's perfect will for His covenant people.
Could this teaching have been His permissive will?
Did God allow it to go out for the middle of the road Christian crowds?
DOES GOD HIDE THE POST-TRIBULATION RAPTURE?
This is an awesome possibility and we should approach it in the fear of God.
Remember what Jesus told His true disciples concerning the hidden information concerning the Kingdom of Heaven?
DOES HE KEEP IT FROM THE CARNAL CHRISTIAN CROWDS INTENTIONALLY?
IS THIS INFORMATION JUST FOR THE COMMITTED DEVOTED CHRISTIANS ONLY?
He said that He spoke in parables so that only His true followers would ponder His words and come to understand.
Click
here to see the passage in Matthew 13.
Here is
the mp3 for your iPod.
And here is
the wma for your Windows Media Player.
So far we have established from God's Holy Word that there is to be a combined Resurrection-Rapture.
Pray God that Biblical Christians come to speak of it and to think of it as the "Resurrection-Rapture"
.
...... instead of just talking glibly about "The Rapture".
THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE.
In this article we shall also discover something else.
AND TWO SECOND COMINGS.
The Pre-Tribulation rapture doctrine is a "two timer".
The doctrine has Jesus coming back twice.
This doctrine arises simply and easily from the Holy Scriptures.
It has Him coming once, at the end of the age.
THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE AND CONCERNS ABOUT THE
In this article we shall also see how Christians today have been slyly taught a very dangerous doctrine.
Christians are being quietly and surreptitiously led to believe that Israel and the Church are two different Elects
and that there will be no resolution of this dichotomy now or in the future or for all eternity.
The logical consequences of this should be quite obvious.
Whilst talking loudly about how wrong "Replacement Theology" is today's Biblical Christians
are being led down the garden path to a very wrong conclusion.
They are being led to believe that the God of Israel, the God who came to us in the flesh as Jesus Christ,
will draw to Himself two separate Chosen peoples and will never resolve the differences in the two in Himself as Messiah.
This is selling our Messiah short because He Himself is the bridge over these troubled waters
and all the promises to restore both houses, and all 12 tribes of Israel are all through the Holy Scriptures
including the beautiful prophetic poetry of the Old Testament.
THEOLOGICAL ALIENATION OF ISRAEL FROM "THE CHURCH".
COULD THIS THEOLOGICAL "US AND THEM" MINDSET SPAWN ANTISEMITIC
CONSEQUENCES IN A FUTURE TIME OF ECONOMIC AND/OR POLITICAL CRISIS?
"Well, who cares? After all, isn't this just "religion" we are talking about here?"
"Yes. But so was the speech of Pope Urban at the Council of Clerment in France in 1095."
It ignited the First Crusade.
What ensued was a huge international tragedy, .....
..... and a Church blighted by blood guiltiness on a massive scale.
EVANGELICALS AND THEIR FAILED DEVELOPMENT OF THE DOCTRINE OF ISRAELOLOGY.
When we stop to think about this for a minute we as evangelicals in the West today have
been taught to be double dealers in the doctrine of Israelology.
In fact Israelology, a critical part of Christian belief, is strangely missing from the curriculum of most Bible schools and seminaries.
So we remain double dealers.
THE UNRESOLVED CHURCH-ISRAEL DICHOTOMY CONTINUES ON AMONG BIBLE BELIEVING CHRISTIANS.
ALL THIS CASTS A THICK FOG OF CONFUSION OVER END-TIME BIBLE PROPHECY.
Apparently so.
This becomes obvious when we try to answer that all important question,
"Who are God's
Chosen people?"
Or a better question might be, who dares to answer that question?
THE TRIBULATION SAINTS AND THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL IN THE LATTER DAYS.
So what do they do with the Tribulation saints we see showcased in Revelation 7?
Who brought them to salvation if it was not the work of the Holy Spirit?
Just how on earth are Jews to be saved inside the 70th Week, the final seven years of this age?
Has anyone ever been saved except by grace through faith in the atoning blood of Israel's promised Sacrifice Lamb?
BOTH OF THESE REMAIN UNEXPLAINED AN UNACCOUNTED FOR BY DISPENSATIONAL THEOLOGY.
THEY REMAIN A SERIOUS EMBARRASSMENT FOR THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE DOCTRINE.
Since when has anybody ever been saved on the basis of "works"?
Please name just one person?
Is there one scaric of scriptural evidence to support such a wild notion?
OUR WILLINGNESS TO FACE OUR RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE END-TIME WITNESS
DRAWS BIBLICAL CHRISTIANS INTO A GRAND ADVENTURE, A DIVINE ROMANCE, AND A SERENDIPITY.
WE DISCOVERY OUR TRUE CHRISTIAN IDENTITY IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF ISRAEL.
Yes, there will be
two witnesses in the latter days.
But one will be in Messiah's Righteous Rule and the other in His Grace.
The two shall be one, not a conflicted royal nation of Israel competing and squabbling with a
holy priesthood Church.
But rather a royal priesthood and a
holy nation.
See the Apostle Peter repeating Moses words in
1Peter 2:9
RESTORED ISRAEL
From
Zechariah Chapter 4
"And so all Israel will be saved".
(Romans 11)
So we must conclude that
all of God's covenant people are destined to come into a glorious reunion at some point.
From cover to cover the Holy Scriptures only attest to
one single Elect. This can be proven very easily with a quick online word search of the words
'Elect' and
'Chosen'.
Dispensationalists with Hellenized Greek-thinking minds have cobbled together this faulty theology.
What results is a hatchet job on that
single Elect we see outlined through the pages of Holy Scriptures.
With this doctrine today's dispensationalist Christians are dismembering God's covenant people.
They are throwing the Church and Israel into two different boxes and nailing down the lids of each box.
They are saying that the factions we see today will always exist
and that the Church and Israel leave this evil age as they are
and go off into two separate destinies.
THE TWO STICKS BECOME ONE
From
Ezekiel 37:15-28
An end-time victory that has not yet occurred?
The answer is "precious little".
With no grace, no Church, no Holy Spirit, and a tribulation period defined by dispensationalists
as "the wrath of God" what hope do they have?
So there we have it.
In their dispensational theology today's western evangelicals are showing themselves to be a
runaway bride.
Clearly this end-time doctrine carries some bad theology concerning the destiny of the Jews.
And this in turn could spawn another upwelling of Christian Anti-Semitism.
We call ourselves Biblical Christians?
Truly, we should know better than this.
Is this Church/Israel dichotomy going to become a problem for Israel?
THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE DOCTRINE.
This doctrine of a special early Church rapture is new. It was not taught by the early Church Fathers.
But it has been a booming success since its beginnings just a bit over 170 years ago.
Even though the doctrine is a relative newcomer it is taught to evangelicals in North America to the exclusion of practically all others.
The
early escape doctrine has been very well received by the "middle of the road" Christian crowds.
Pre-Tribulation Rapturism has become a multi-billion dollar a year religi-business.
NEW AT JUST 170 YEARS OLD.
POPULAR WITH THE CHURCH MASSES.
AND A PROFITABLE LINE OF PREACHING.
They are "the Church".
They have "arrived".
Any future covenant issues or tribulations are for the unsaved, ...... and for the Jews.
THE CHURCH HAS AN EVIL INCLINATION TO REPLACE ISRAEL AND EXPEL THE JEWS FROM CHRISTENDOM.
"The Church" of today is showing her true colors here. The Church is a bit shifty, like we might expect Jacob to be.
Jacob our patriarch was a crafty character before his wrestlings with God and before he is made willing at last to face
up to his hustling godless brother Esau and accept the consequences, come what may.
This is when his character and his name changes.
So there is a happy ending to all this.
The end of Jacob's pilgrimage
will see him emerge as a much better person. The Jacob-Church just like the Jacob Jewish nation
will ultimately come to the end of their trials and tribulations.
In that day they will both come into the depths of Messiah to be restored and revealed as Israel.
The word "Israel" is the key to our understanding of what happens to the saints during the
end-time drama. It means
"He who has struggled and become a prince with God".
THIS IS "REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY" AND IT TIES IN WITH
DOMINION THEOLOGY.
BUT DO WE RECOGNIZE THE ROYAL HOUSE OF DAVID OVER IN THE JEWISH HOUSE OF JUDAH?
AND IF THE CHURCH IS INDEED IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF ISRAEL WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
ARE CHRISTIANS WILLING TO BE IDENTIFIED, (AT LEAST AT FIRST), AS TRICKY
JACOB?
Why are they planning to
desert the ship?
And why are evangelicals
snubbing their brothers and sister over in the royal Jewish House of Judah?
Have they done this before? And just when did it all this feuding start?
We have an answer
here
She has an attitude problem, and with the Jewish house of all people.
Is this why the West joins the pagans in denying Judah his land rights in the land of Israel?
What is going on here?
More specifically the venom is aimed at the Throne of David upon which Messiah will sit and judge the nations.
We are in the loop!
Well fortunately our Apostle Paul lays it all out quite clearly for us.
Through the blood of Christ our Messiah all those who belong to Christ
from any nation, race or tribe, male or female, bond or free, are
saved and "born again" to become "new creatures" in Christ.
Now, by the blood of Christ, they take on a new national identity, a new citizenship in Israel's Messiah.
Will the saints ever emerge from their soporific slumbers and be galvanized to action?
Where are
the charts for the road ahead?
And does the Pilgrim pathway extend out beyond the present
Pax Americana?
Is the battle Hymn of the Republic a prophecy hidden in American literature and lore?
Are there perhaps some things that Christian believers should know about but have not been told?
Is the Pre-Tribulation Rapture doctrine sound?
Is it Biblically well founded?
They must ask that question for themselves, not only Biblically, but honestly, before God Almighty.
A COMFORTABLE DOCTRINE OF AN EARLY DEPARTURE.
This article will concentrate on what the Holy Scriptures have to say on the matter.
Quality Christians are special people.
And not without good reason. They make it their business to learn and know God's Holy Word.
They seek out and listen to what Bible teachers are saying.
Occasionally the saints come to times in their lives when they stop and think.
Then consider what they have been told.
Soon afterwards they begin to ask questions at a deeper level under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
He prompts them on the various issues and the saints, like the good and noble Bereans,
take it upon themselves to check up on what they have been taught as Gospel truth.
In this process they open up their Bibles. But that is not all.
They look up to heaven and personally seek the face of God on the matter.
BUT WHAT SAITH THE SCRIPTURE?
OUR EMOTIONAL REACTION TO THE REALIZATION
THAT WE SHALL BE HERE FOR THE END-TIME WITNESS.
"What is going on here?
Suddenly our cold objective theology starts to wear a bit thin.
Our calling in God starts to get very up front and personal.
Someone is speaking directly to us.
They are calling us "up higher", and in a way that we have never experienced before.
Now we are beginning to understand.
This newe and living Way is drawing us.
The merchant world and the merchant Church is now being left behind.
We are on the highway leading upwards into the realms of true and genuine
blood covenant Christianity.
The summons to be a part of the end-time witness is a bit too awesome for us.
We are on that long pilgrimage as part of the family of Abraham.
And we are being "called out", - again!
What is our God doing with us?"
But there is no mistake about what is happening to us.
We are being summoned to "come up higher".
It is an awesome moment, a time of Godly fear.
We are being brought face to face with the way of the cross.
They go back to check and re-check the relevant passages, most of them quite well known to them.
But there is no denying what they are seeing.
The Biblical truth is sitting right there in front of them.
The specter of the
Runaway Bride hangs over the Western Church.
Image by gracious permission of photographer Dolores Neilson.
Click
here to go to her website.
And what if the modern and post-modern western evangelical Church is being willingly ignorant?
Is the Church, like Gomer, baulking at the dreaded "C" word?
Is the she fearful of total commitment?
Is the Western evangelical Church a
runaway bride?
Just what is going on here?
WE ARE SAVED. WE HAVE OUR TICKET TO HEAVEN.
Western Christians are indulged in the post-modern Church.
They live and breathe and have their being in a merchant world and under the auspices of a rich merchant church.
We are saved and born again very cheaply nowadays, perhaps too cheaply.
Purchasing our salvation in the bargain basement
many of us have been persuaded that "Jesus did it all".
They are saved. They cannot add to Christ's work on the cross.
So the comfortable mindset that grows out of this is that there is nothing further in the eternal covenant
that needs to be addressed by the Church before Jesus returns.
This Second Coming of Christ, (they have been led to believe), will happen twice.
It will happen seven years before the end of this age and then again at the end of
the seven years at the close of this age.
IS THAT ALL THERE IS TO THE CHRISTIAN FAITH?
THE END TIME WITNESS OF CHRISTIANS BEFORE KINGS AND RULERS.
The book of Revelation is an unveiling of future holy history as it breaks forth at the climax of this age.
John was taken up into heaven and transported into a locus in eternity known as "the Day of the Lord".
There before him he saw an astounding sight. He saw a heavenly court case
with the Ancient of Days presiding. The Holy One of Israel is the Sovereign Ruler over our cosmos.
John saw the four horsemen and four earthly political systems finish their run and wrap up their failing attempts to establish
peaceful world rule. These were the first four seals.
Then, at the 5th seal, the Ancient of Days was calling for His witnesses.
This seems to be pretty important.
So why has the Church ignored this? Why is this truth being smoke-screened?
Just what is going on here?
AND OUR HIGH CALLING IN CHRIST AS MESSIAH AND KING OF KINGS.
He laid it out for us in the
Olivet Discourse.
Our Savior has given us good information and His personal charge as well.
Is the Olivet Discourse "just for the Jews" as we are often told by churchmen?
Just when does our Commission in Christ's service actually expire?
Do we need to take the
'Great Commission' document to our lawyer?
Do we need to ask him to tell us when our commission expires?
What if there are some earlier trumps before the
'last trump'?
Do the trumpets begin to sound
seven years before the last trump?
Should we open our Bibles and our minds and check this out personally?
One of them is a mystery, still hidden in the Word of God.
It is a passport they have never seen or appreciated before.
It is their passport into the Kingdom of God.
All the days of the harvest.
POLITICS AND RELIGION AT THE CLOSE OF THE AGE.
Strange isn't it?
AND THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM.
We understand that the angelic principalities and powers put their pressure on the
kings, merchants, bankers, and Hollywood idols.
They and the people of this world do not like Israel.
And kings do not stand for this Israel identity for their subjects one bit.
Naturally they do not want to see their subjects giving their loyalty to any other sovereign.
For them this amounts to disloyalty, even treason.
William Tyndale discovered this as did many other fine saints and martyrs.
The powers want to stop Christians from knowing their identity and responsibility in Israel.
They want to stop Christians from even thinking about testifying before the kings and rulers.
The powers know that the 5th seal witness of the saints will be their undoing.
The sun will turn to darkness and the moon to blood.
The sign of the Son of Man will be seen in the heavens.
Judgment day will have arrived.
Are we as Christians partially blind too?
We say we are Christian Australians, Christian Americans, Christian Dutchmen, Christian Germans etc.?
We know that we are under our Jewish Messiah from the House of David, the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah".
But what about this identification in this "Commonwealth of Israel"?
THE CHURCH, NATIONAL IDENTITY, AND THE COMMONWEALTH OF ISRAEL.
Here then is the related big question.
In identifying ourselves as Christians with Israel are we being unpatriotic?
Our Lord Jesus Christ/Yeshua Hamashiach is our supreme Sovereign, our Messiah.
And remember this. Whenever Handel's Messiah was performed in Europe there was a response.
All the kings and royals stood on their feet!
We are certainly not being called to repeat the bloody shame of the earlier crusades.
Rather, we are being called to the witness of the indwelling Messiah.
This is the essence of the New Covenant of which Jeremiah spoke.
(See Jer. 31:31-33)
Our witness by grace at the climax of this age will testify of His law within the heart.
And our witness in the latter days is the true and genuine
blood covenant Christianity.
FUTURE HISTORY, "CHANGE", AND A NEW EMERGING GLOBAL SOVEREIGNTY.
What if holy history rolls forward and in we see a significant world conflict involving the Middle East.
Will the world powers who divide the spoils divide God's Holy Land?
And will they attempt to divide His Holy City as well?
If nuclear tipped missiles have flown the world will be in a state of panic.
Will our national pride be lambasted as the politics of blood and shame?
And in this atmosphere of fear and anger could the western nations be persuaded to give up their sovereignty?
Are we going to hand our standards over to a
New World Order and a global peacemaker promising "peace and safety"?
THERE COULD BE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS FOR ISRAEL AND FOR THE CHURCH.
WILL THERE BE AN EARLY RAPTURE PERMITTING US TO AVOID ALL THIS?
THE TESTIMONY OF CORRIE TEN BOOM
Corrie Ten Boom was a Christian girl in Holland
during World War 2.
At that time the German Nazis controlled Europe.
She, along with her sister and father
were captured by the Germans.
Their crime? They were sheltering Jews.
For this they were sent
to the camps. Only Corrie survived.
THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE.
Most evangelicals have been taught
the Pre-Tribulation Rapture scenario as established fact.
Few have ever had a chance to hear the Post-Tribulation
Rapture position expounded.
They have been programmed to believe that the Pre-Trib Rapture is
the final and correct biblically correct truth
concerning the closing dramas of this age.
IT IS THE OFFICIAL POSITION OF THE AMERICAN MERCHANT CHURCH.
BUT IS THE DOCTRINE BIBLICALLY SOUND?
Is there any sound scriptural proof of this?
Do they have any solid Biblical evidence for it at all?
Has it been crafted by men to keep the masses amused, - and "quiet".
THE BIBLE SPEAKS OF A COMBINED RESURRECTION-RAPTURE.
So let us go back to the Bible. Here is question number one.
Just how does the Rapture fit in with the sure and
blessed hope of the Resurrection of those
dear saints who have passed on?
1Thessalonians 4:15-17
Here in this passage of scripture we can see that Paul is clearly showing
us a combined Resurrection-Rapture.
4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord,
that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord
will by no means precede those who are asleep.
with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.
And the dead in Christ will rise first.
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
The Rapture will "by no means precede"
the Resurrection, Paul says.
So if we are going to have a Pre-Trib Rapture
then it must be accompanied by a preceding Pre-Tribulation Resurrection.
We must find Biblical proof of a special early Pre-Tribulation Resurrection.
It must be found and time pegged as 3.5 or 7 years before the end of the age.
Does such an animal exist in Holy Scripture?
There is no scripture laying out a special early Resurrection.
The Bible, (as we shall discover in the paragraphs below), is telling us a different story.
The Holy Scriptures in Revelation 20 and John 6 clearly lay out a Post-Tribulation Resurrection.
A COMBINED RESURRECTION-RAPTURE IS LAID OUT IN THE BIBLE.
THEN WE SEE THE MYSTERIOUS CHURCH SPONSORED SMOKESCREEN
OVER THE TIMING OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS DEAD.
WE THEN GO ON TO ASK THE QUESTION THAT IS RARELY ASKED.
As we have seen, the timing of the Rapture is time linked to the timing of the Resurrection.
They are a combined event.
So here in this article, (and I pray in our churches as well), let us dare to stand up and ask the question.
Mysteriously, this is a question that we are apparently hypnotized or intimidated
by religious spirits into not asking. But ask the question we must. And we must then
proceed on to answer it faithfully and
truthfully from the Holy Scriptures.
3.5 years (Rev.17)
3.5 years (Rev.13, Rev. 11)
It is like the game "pin the tail on the donkey".
Only here we seek to "pin the Resurrection of the righteous dead,
on the final seven years of this age."
Can we do it?
REVELATION 20 SHOWS US THE TRIBULATION SAINTS COMING TO THEIR REWARD.
In Revelation 20 John saw the Resurrection of the Tribulation saints.
These saints had rejected the "mark of the Beast" during the Great Tribulation.
They had died for their faith in Christ during his 666 economic regime, the final 3.5 years of this age.
The 666 economic identification system will be
instituted by the Antichrist in his Beast role during the
final 3.5. years of the age, the final half of the
70th Week of Daniel, or the final half of the final 7 years of this age.
Now in Revelation 20 we see the Tribulation saints.
They have come through the Tribulation period victoriously.
John sees the Tribulation martyrs
being raised up after the tribulation. John is clearly telling us that this end-ime Resurrection of the righteous
which wraps up this present evil age is the "First Resurrection".
It is the Resurrection of all the righteous.
And the list of saints here goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden.
And the end time Tribulation saints are there as well.
In fact they get special mention here and lead the procession into the glory.
The Tribulation martyrs are special. They are at the head of the whole Resurrection party!
THESE ARE FAITHFUL CHRISTIAN/MESSIANIC BELIEVERS, AND THEY ARE
SAINTS WHO HAD EARLIER REFUSED TO TAKE THE 666 MARK OF THE BEAST.
CLEARLY THEY DO NOT COME TO THEIR RESURRECTION UNTIL AFTER THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
1Thessalonians 4:15-17
So as we see from this passage above, the Rapture of the righteous living saints
4:15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord,
that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, (that is, our Rapture)
will by no means precede those who are asleep. (That is, the Resurrection of the righteous dead)
with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.
And the dead in Christ will rise first.
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
is fixed, chained, and padlocked to the Resurrection of the righteous dead saints.
Our Apostle Paul tells us that there cannot and will not be a Rapture before the Resurrection.
The single Resurrection and the single Rapture are a combined event.
When all the saints are here the Archangel Michael will get the Word and call out, "All aboard!"
Then Messiah's train will pull out right on schedule, at the very end of this age.
Not one minute before!
. . . . we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord
The Rapture cannot precede
this 'First Resurrection' which John tells us includes
the Tribulation Martyrs. All
the saints are raised up together in a combined Post-Tribulation Resurrection-Rapture
to enter the glory together as one big happy party
at the end of the age.
will by no means precede those who are asleep.
This "First Resurrection" in which the Tribulation Saints get special mention is a very late event!
It occurs "after the (Great) Tribulation".
All saints are gathered at once.
This "First Resurrection" wraps up this present evil age.
And the Bible only speaks of one Resurrection at the end of our age, and only one!
John refers to it as such. So we must not dicker with the Holy Scriptures and presume
to insert a separate resurrection of the just that is earlier than this one.
The warnings against adding to the Bible are given at the end of the Book of Revelation.
Bible teachers, myself included, beware!
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.
It is called the "First Resurrection".
It will come late, at the very end of this age.
We must discount any notion of any other resurrection than this one.
There can be no Pre-Tribulation Resurrection!
THE CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE CONCERNING THE RESURRECTION OF THE RIGHTEOUS.
One thing that Christians do not realize, until it is pointed out to them,
is that the Rapture, (as it is presented by today's popular
Bible prophecy teachers), is strangely isolated from the
Resurrection of the righteous dead. Why is this so?
God the Holy Spirit did not separate them in the Holy Scriptures. (1Thes.4:15-17)
So was this separation crafted by men?
And if so, then why was the Resurrection-Rapture, the glorification of all the saints,
chopped up and divided asunder?
Jesus told us that a time of deep darkness will surely come.
When facing the hour of trial many Christians will be unprepared.
They will not have the
midnight oil.
THE BLOCKING AND TWISTING OF BIBLICAL TRUTH.
Oh yes, the Church is bewitched here. She is under a spell.
She cannot think about or discuss certain subjects.
One of them is that awesome future Resurrection Day.
Any Biblical memory we have of the Resurrection
of the righteous dead is submerged in religion.
Whenever the Resurrection is discussed it is not described as presented as a future epic one day event as it should be.
Instead the Resurrection is stretched out like taffy.
A big confusing wad of vague resurrection theology extending back 2,000 years to the resurrection of Jesus is thrown up.
Very soon we lose sight of the Resurrection as a future one day event.
So we wonder about our dear Aunt who went to be with the Lord years ago.
And we ask the question, "When will she be raised from the dead?
Will she be raised up before the Tribulation or after the Tribulation.
If we ever dare to ask that question we get strange and evasive responses.
FAULTY ESCHATOLOGY IN THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH.
AND THE STRANGE BEWITCHING OF OUR CHRISTIAN BIBLE TEACHERS.
The answer is truly astounding.
It is because they are under a spell.
THE RAPTURE: - IN A TWINKLING OF AN EYE.
We all can agree that the Rapture will occur in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye.
AND THE RESURRECTION TOO: - IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE.
But when we look closely we notice something.
The scripture is also referring to the Resurrection of the righteous dead.
Our Apostle Paul tells us that at a moment in time, in the twinkling of an eye,
. . . ."the trumpet will sound
So why are we stretching out the Resurrection like taffy and making it stretch 2,000 years
when we see here that the Resurrection happens in the twinkling of an eye?
When we begin to see the Resurrection as happening in a twinkling of an eye then we can start to ask ourselves the question.
When will that twinkling of an eye occur!?
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed".
Proof positive of a Post-Tribulation Resurrection-Rapture.
JESUS TELLS US IN THE
OLIVET DISCOURSE THAT HE
We know from scripture above and the
Olivet Discourse
that the Elect will be gathered to the returning Christ
at the Second Coming. In fact the Bible only speaks of one
Second Coming of Christ.
WILL GATHER HIS ELECT
AFTER THE GREAT TRIBULATION.
Will the gathering of the Elect come before the Great Tribulation?
Or will Christ our Messiah be gathering His Elect after the Tribulation?
And Jesus Himself gives us a plain and simple answer.
In the passage below He is talking to His trusted disciples including Peter, James and John.
There on the Mount of Olives Jesus tells them plainly when He will come to gather His Elect.
"IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION....... "
"COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN...."
"WITH THE GREAT SOUND OF A TRUMPET...."
"HE WILL GATHER HIS ELECT..." (singular)
Matthew 24:29-31
29. "Immediately after the tribulation
of those days the sun will be
darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from
heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
JESUS TELLS HIS FOUR CLOSEST DISCIPLES PRIVATELY THAT HE WILL GATHER HIS ELECT
In this same passage Jesus also tells us about the SIGN
of His coming and the timing of that SIGN
which would herald His coming to gather the Elect in
the Resurrection-Rapture.
The SIGN of the Son of Man would be seen in the heavens
in those epic future days that would see the cosmic signs of
a darkened sun, a bloody moon, and stars falling.
IN A SINGLE FINAL HARVEST IN THE DAYS OF THE 6TH SEAL COSMIC SIGNS
OF A DARKENED SUN AND MOON WITH THE STARS FALLING.
Matthew 24:29-31
Then after the coming of these cosmic signs
we have the gathering of the Elect
at the
last trumpet.
29. "Immediately after the tribulation
of those days the sun will be
darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from
heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
31. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other.
The darkened sun and bloody moon are the cosmic signs time linked to
the sixth seal. They occur late in the
70th week, towards the very end.
A nuke will have gone off.
Joel describes the awful scene in poetic language. "Blood, fire, and pillars of smoke"
will go up as a mushroom cloud to fill the atmosphere with smoke.
The sun will be darkened and there will be a bloody moon.
These are the cosmic signs mentioned by the prophet Joel. (Joel 2:31-32)
They are also mentioned by Jesus in the
Olivet Discourse
These are the cosmic disturbances that are
associated with the Battle of Armageddon.
This epic battle will be fought
at the very end of the final 7 years of this age.
These 6th seal cosmic signs indicate that 5th seal witness of the saints is now over.
The Second Coming of Christ is now truly imminent.
THE SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL GATHERS HIS SHEEP
ON A 'DARK AND CLOUDY DAY'.
The prophet Ezekiel saw the same event.
He saw it from another perspective.
He saw the Shepherd of Israel
gathering His lost sheep 'on a cloudy and dark day'.
Ezekiel 34
This will be an awesome scene.
The righteous dead will come out of their graves in
the Resurrection. And then the living saints are gathered in the Rapture.
Something will have happened to the atmosphere around the earth.
And the world is about to be judged.
And yet here at the climax of holy history we are told that there will be
a magnificent rescue of God's covenant people.
Weknow that Messiah will intervene on behalf of His Holy City Jerusalem
in His action at Armageddon. But there is more.
The prophet Isaiah saw Him return and make an appearance at a place of mystery known as Bozrah.
The prophet Micah brings additional information. He speaks of the
Bozrah Deliverance.
12 'As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day
he is among his scattered sheep,
so will I seek out My sheep and
deliver them from all the places where they were
scattered on a cloudy and dark day.'
- Ezek. 34:12
What a magnificent harvest this will be!
THE LATE TIMING OF THE RESURRECTION-RAPTURE AND OUR EMOTIONAL RESPONSE.
Of course there is more to this matter of the timing of
the Resurrection-Rapture than "just the facts".
Each one of us is created by God to be a creature of some emotion.
We have a heart and we have a very powerful "feelings department"
within our soul or psyche.
Those feeling are not particularly subject to reason.
That is a well known fact.
Our "feelings" play a very big part in what we decide is "true", i.e. true (for us).
In other words, it is like we believe in something we might call "my truth".
And what about "my truth"?
Well, this is something I like, - and "it works for me".
The prophet Isaiah said,
Isaiah 53:6
And he was right.
"All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned, everyone of us, to his own way."
The prophet Jeremiah lamented,
Jeremiah 5:31
The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule by their own power;
And My people love to have it so.
But what will you do in the end?
POPULARITY AND MONEY ISSUES WITH POST-TRIB.
For ministers of religion there are financial
and job security issues at stake here as well.
A man has to take care of his family.
So he must learn to please a deacon board.
I know of several cases where ministers have lost their job over
this issue of the timing of the Rapture.
I personally know a fine evangelical
pastor who has been sent a letter banning him from using the
library of a Christian college when they learned that he held to
a Post-Trib rapture view. This is so sad to have to report.
We can be so childish and manipulative at times.
It is truly unfortunate that Christians cannot discuss
such an important matter without being bullied by the
ones who have the money and the power.
The fact of the matter is that most of us are still balking
at Post-Trib truth. And we are not doing it for sound Biblical reasons.
They are doing it for all sorts of carnal,
emotional, non-rational,
and non-scriptural reasons.
AND THE SPECTER OF BEING ALONE AND OSTRACIZED.
BIBLE PROPHECY IS EASY
The scriptures on the end-time are not as complicated as we have been
led to believe. Even a little child
could lead us into the truth here.
This author found it very easy to counter the arguments of
one of the champions of Pre-Tribulationism when he made his challenge
to the Post-Trib position.
Grant Jeffrey came out strongly against Post-Tribulation Rapture position
some years back. Here is
my response to Grant Jeffrey's arguments.
KNOWING THE TIMING OF THE RAPTURE IS IMPORTANT.
IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THE PREPARATION FOR THE COMING NIGHT.
WISE VIRGINS WILL KNOW THE SCORE AND PREPARE.
FOOLISH VIRGINS WILL NOT.
WISE VIRGIN WITH HER OIL
Photo by the author.
Click on the image to go to the article.
God is asking us some questions.
Jer 12:5
Are we listening?
And how shall we answer?
Are we connecting the dots? Or do we just say.
"If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,
then how can you contend with horses?
then how will you do in the swelling of Jordan?"
"That message of warning and exhortation to preparation is for the Jews.
That is Old Testament stuff.
We are in a different dispensation.
We are the New Testamant Church!"
Preparation in God is "works".
We are people of "grace".
"For the which cause I suffer these things,
Nevertheless I am not ashamed,
For I know whom I have believed,
And am persuaded, that He is able,
To keep that which I've committed
Unto Him against that Day". -1Tim.1:12
- towards the gates of splendor.
