The Rapture: Part II

The Rapture: Part II - by Pete Garcia -

https://rev310.wordpress.com/2018/11/09/the-rapture-part-ii/

 

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord (John 14:1-3), that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.   1st Thess. 4:15-18 (author emphasis added for clarification)

 

Picking up where we left off last week, when Jesus returns for His Church, (since Paul writes his letters for Christian believers) He does not come back as a lowly, helpless infant, swaddled in a manger. Rather, Jesus descends with a victorious shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. He gathers all of the Church unto Himself in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor. 15:52). First, He brings back those whom had already died (these are reunited with their resurrected bodies), and then those who are still alive when this happens (these are translated from mortality into immortality).

 

Some might ask why God would bring back those who have already died just to put them back into their physical bodies.

 

After that first Pentecost (Acts 2) and prior to the Rapture, any believer who dies, immediately goes to heaven as a spirit, while their bodies remain here on earth in the grave to decompose. Paul addressed this and likened it to being naked (2 Cor. 5:1-8), and both he and Peter likened our current bodies as being tents (2 Peter 1:13-15).

 

We were never destined to roam eternity as disembodied spirits. We will have physical, glorified bodies (Romans 8:23) that can eat, be felt, and exist where God does. Our physical state then will be far better than what we currently have, as John discusses here (1 John 3:1-3). Think about it this way...you will still be you, but the perfect, flawless version God had always intended.

 

Nevertheless, if you are of the Post-Trib persuasion, you are likely to refer back to something Jesus stated in the Olivet Discourse as being the same event as 1 Thess 4:13-18, and thus, do not see this as a Pre-Tribulation event. So let us contrast the what and how of the scenario Jesus describes in Matthew 24:31, to that of 1Thessalonians 4.

 

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.       Matthew 24:31

 

In 1 Thessalonians 4, describes Jesus coming alone, only accompanied by a SHOUT, the VOICE of the archangel, and the TRUMPET of God. In Matthew's scenario, only the trumpet is mentioned and Jesus SENDS the angels to gather His elect from the four winds, and from all over heaven. So are these the same event then?

 

A simple comparison of the two passages reveal some noticeable differences, namely, that these events are executed differently. Where is the shout? Where is the voice of the archangel? Why does Jesus gather everyone to Himself in 1 Thess., but has His angels go and gather His elect in Matthew's account? Where is the mention of resurrection and translation in Matthew's account? Again, these are not my opinions, just pointing out what the text states and does not state. Thus, we must conclude, as Jack used to say, things that are different, are not the same. And since these are not the same event, let us review Paul's account and why it is a unique.

 

The Jewish Wedding-the archetype

 

In Paul's description, Jesus does not have the angels gather His Bride, for He gathers them Himself at merely a command (the shout). Building upon that premise, why does Jesus gather His Church to Himself, by Himself? The only logical explanation is in tying it back to the concept of the Jewish wedding (ref. John 14:1-3). Would/does a Jewish groom send his servants to gather his bride for him...or would he do it himself? Clearly, the groom would go himself. What is the cry? Behold, the Bridegroom is coming! The cry is not, behold, the servants of the bridegroom is coming! If Jesus refers to Himself as the Bridegroom, then who is the bride? (Matt. 9:15, 25:1, 10)

 

It is the Church (ekklesia)

 

Responsibility: Jesus stated in Matthew 16 that He would build His church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18-19). Therefore, we read that Jesus sets His ownership over this new body of believers. Not only that, but He claims responsibility over this new organization that He will personally be involved with overseeing. We see that clearly in Revelation 1-3 where Jesus is walking amongst the churches, He is in our midst, and He knows our deeds.

 

Mystery: In the context of the New Testament, the concept of the church was that it was a mystery (something unknown or revealed) until it was given to the Apostle Paul to reveal it (Eph. 5:32). The bride is the joining of Jew and Gentile, into a new class of people, who make up the multi-membered, singular body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-14, Eph. 5:23, Col. 1:18).

 

Silence: The church (ekklesia) is mentioned 19 times from Revelation 1 through chapter 3, but then not again until chapter 22. Not only do we not see their name mentioned anywhere after Rev. 3:22, (which is an argument from silence), but simply reinforces the fact that we get zero guidance from the Apostles elsewhere in the NT on how to navigate through the Tribulation. If the church were destined to go through it, then we should have received instruction on how to survive the Antichrist, Seal, Trumpet, and Bowl judgments.

 

Role: The bride will not enter into that final week of years (any part of it), because we have no function or purpose in it. Daniel 9:24 and Jeremiah 30:7-11 state who and what the 70th Week is for. That is why there are Two Witnesses and the 144,000 Sealed Jewish male virgins (Rev. 7, 11). Not only that, but the church did not exist in the previous 69 weeks of years (all 483 years), why would we exist in the 70th?

 

Overcome: Christ promised His church that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church, yet by the fifth Seal Judgment, we already hear the cry of the martyrs. We read how the Antichrist is given authority to overcome the believers in Rev. 13:7, and over every tribe, tongue, and nation. If the Church (ekklesia) were the same believers as found inside the Tribulation-proper, how could Matthew 16:18-19 be true? God is not the author of confusion. So if the Bible does not give the church clear guidance on how to endure the most terrible period of human history, then it must mean that we are not destined to enter into it ( 1 Thess. 1:10, 5:9, 1 Cor. 14:33, Rev. 3:10).

 

Persecution: Some will point to believers today who are being persecuted as evidence that we will go into the Tribulation. Yet, this persecution is not worldwide. In addition, Christian's have always been persecuted to one degree or another. Persecution is not the evaluation criteria we have to use to determine whether we enter into Daniel's 70th Week. That is like trying to gauge and pinpoint which apostasy 2 Thess. 2:3 is speaking too, because there are just too many. That is not the case inside the Tribulation. God lets loose the restraints, and the world entire is overcome by the Antichrist. Thus, we can conclude that those, whom Revelation 6 and 13 speak of, are believers, but not the Bride.

 

Intent: Paul states that he was tasked with presenting the church as a chaste virgin to the Lord (2 Cor. 11:2). I do not pretend to understand how this all works out, but the symbolism is of the church as a prized possession (Matt. 13:45-46) seems fitting. The symbolism of marriage then is used for our understanding. Just as a husband and wife become one-flesh in marriage, so too is our binding to Christ represented by the institution of marriage (Gen. 2:24, Col. 1:18, Eph. 5:23). Christ died for us, and shed His blood so that we (who are redeemed by grace through faith) could be reconciled back unto God, having been made perfect by the Son. Thus, the concept of the one-flesh is described through the lens of a Jewish wedding.

 

Contrasted with John 14:1-3 are the foolish virgins of Matthew 25 who are left out of the wedding. These represent the unbelieving, who remain left behind (or left out) to experience the horrors of the 70th Week of Daniel (Dan. 9:27).

 

The shout-the Command

 

The three times the New Testament records Jesus shouting, notice what happens in each instance-

 

By perfect faith, one man, Lazarus, was resurrected from the dead (John 11:43)

 

By perfect obedience, many dead saints were resurrected when their tombs are opened at Christ's death (Matt. 27:50-52)

 

By perfect love, millions will be resurrected at the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:16)

 

Christ's verbal command are powerful enough to raise the dead, because Christ, having been died and resurrected, holds the keys to death and hell and is singularly able to command death to obey His voice (Rev. 1:18).

 

The voice of the archangel

 

Daniel 10:21, 12:1, Jude 1:9, and Revelation 12:7 all refer to a powerful Archangel named Michael. In Daniel 12:1, Daniel was told...At that time, Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people.

 

At what time?

 

Well, it only makes sense to see Michael stand guard over Israel when the Restrainer (the Holy Spirit filled Church) is removed from the earth.

 

Who are the sons of your people?

 

Daniel's people were the Jews, so Michael stands watch over the nation of Israel at the time of the Rapture...hence his mention in 1 Thessalonians 4:16.

 

It is my belief, that when God the Father instructs His Son Jesus to go collect His bride the Church, that this signals Michael to stand up and begin actively engaging on Israel's behalf. Since Scripture has mentioned that there are fallen angels who hold their demonic sway over physical locations here on this planet (i.e., the prince of Persia and Grecia), there are also angelic ones.

 

Michael the Archangel, who is arguably the most powerful angel, thus stands guard over Israel. Seeing as how the battle of Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38-39) likely takes place in the aftermath of the chaos the Rapture, Israel will immediately become the sole target of Satan's wrath. Scriptures does not say what Michael has been up to these past 2,000 years, but seeing how the Church has been empowered by God the Holy Spirit, Michael's role as enforcer was likely not necessary until the Rapture.

 

This is just some holy speculation on my part, but at the Rapture, as the Church goes up, Michael's announcement that is shouted from the Heavens, could be to the nation Israel that Daniel's 70th week is about to begin. Or, it could be as Clarence Larkin has suggested that similar to when Michael and Satan contended over the body of Moses (Jude 1:9)...a command is given to the heavenly armies to keep the enemy at bay while the Rapture transpires. According to Paul, Satan is the "prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:1-3) and as would be the case, we would be transitioning right through the heart of enemy territory.

 

The trumpet of God

 

In Leviticus 23:23-25, Moses is explaining the Feast of Trumpets, which would begin on the first day of the seventh month. The first three feasts (in the spring) were literally fulfilled by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fourth spring feast (Shavuot-feast of Weeks or Pentecost), was fulfilled by the supernatural giving of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. Some wonder how Jesus Himself fulfilled this, but if you read John 14:15-18, we see that Christ petitions the Father to send the HS at His departure. We further read in John 15:26-27 that Christ sends the Holy Spirit and again in John 16:7-15, that the Holy Spirit will glorify Christ, guide the believers into all truth, and convict the world for its sins). This is how I believe the Feast of Shavuot has already been fulfilled.

 

Furthermore, if you look at the division of fulfillment, we see that the four spring feasts were fulfilled in rather rapid succession. Then, you have a long wait over the summer until the fall feasts can occur. Since then, we have been waiting two-thousand years for Christ to return. Therefore, if the foreshadowing remains constant, we could anticipate a fall rapture (whenever that finally happens). Again, the Church is not intrinsically tied to any particular feast, however, it would not be surprising if it did transpire on or near a Feast of Trumpets (September).

 

The first trump was blown by God in Exodus 19:12-20, and it gathered the Israelites together at Mt. Sinai for the first time as a nation. When our Trumpet blasts (the second time-i.e., the last trump), it will gather the entire church (dead and alive) together in the air for the first time as a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9). That last trump will not only signal it's time for the Church age to come to an end, but also that we are moving out of this world, assembling in the sky, for the purpose of entering into our eternal Sabbath, which is found in Christ Jesus.

 

The Rapture: Part III (The Season of His Return) - by Pete Garcia- https://rev310.wordpress.com/2018/11/11/the-rapture-part-iii-the-season-of-his-return/

 

The Rapture: Part III (When Will It Happen?)

 

A reader recently asked me something that I had been asked many times over the years. Paraphrasing him for brevity's sake, he asked, what difference does it make which rapture position I hold too? The Rapture will happen when it happens regardless of whether it is Pre-Trib, Pre-Wrath, Post-Trib, or No-Trib. We will get raptured when we get raptured and our hope should be in Christ, not in the Rapture.

 

I get his point, honestly I do. As Christian's, our ultimate hope is (or should be) living a life that is pleasing to Christ. Ultimately, we know God has this all under control and that one day, everything will change for the better. That is what I call the big-picture or macro-view of the Bible, and there isn't anything intrinsically wrong with holding that view.

 

However...

 

...if that is the only view you hold too, then you are missing out on A LOT!

 

If God only wanted us Christians to cling to the big-picture view and nothing else, then our Bibles would only need to be a single page with five words- in the end, God wins. Seeing that as our Bible is more than just a single page, single book, or even single testament, I have to presume that God put all those details in there for a reason.

 

• He wants us to know how it all began
• He wants us to know where we came from
• He wants us to know what has happened in the past
• He wants us to know genealogies (these build credibility and are evidentiary)
• He wants us to know who Jesus was and why He came
• He wants the church to know how we should live

 

He also wants us to know that He has the past, present, and future in His hands by telling us what will happen before it does (Amos 3:7, John 13:19). This foretelling is what we call Bible prophecy. However, not all prophecy deals with the end-times or last days events, since many prophecies have already been fulfilled. Nevertheless, the bulk of Bible prophecy does deal with the last days. This study of last days (or the study of last things) in particular, is known as Christian Eschatology. Bible prophecy then makes up around 1/3 of our Bible, which...

 

 

According to "The Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy" by J. Barton Payne, there are 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies in the New Testament for a total of 1,817. These prophecies are contained in 8,352 of the Bible's verses. Since there are 31,124 verses in the Bible, the 8,352 verses that contain prophecy constitute 26.8 percent of the Bible's volume. (Source: Gracethrufaith)

 

So why study Bible prophecy? Well, Bible prophecy does many important and practical things for the Christian today.

 

1. It helps ground our faith by reassuring us that God has it all under control
2. It fills in the gaps of our understanding about what happened in the past, and what will happen in the future
3. It peaks our interest (we are curious creatures by design) and turns our focus heavenward
4. Bible prophecy distinguishes Christianity from all other religious holy texts through fulfilled prophecy (no one else can do it)
5. It showcases the divine inspiration and supernatural nature of the Bible
6. It serves as a filter (of sorts) to weed out false/errant theologies and hermeneutics (ex. Supersessionism, Hebrew Roots, Preterism, etc.)
7. Our enemy, Satan, takes bible prophecy seriously, so should we (Gen. 3:15)
8. Finally, it gives the believer of every generation hope

 

Another question many sincere believers have regarding the rapture is, if it happens in the twinkling of an eye, and all born-again believers are taken up regardless of their eschatological position, why bother studying it?

 

Part & parcel with the study of Bible prophecy, and eschatology in particular, is the next, big event on God's prophetic calendar, the Rapture of the Church. And while it is true, the rapture will happen so fast that we probably will not have time to process. The study of the rapture isn't so much for our sakes (once we understand it), as it will be for those who are left behind. Is it any coincidence that more information about the Rapture has been generated in the previous two centuries, than has for the entirety of the last two-thousand years?

 

As the old rabbinic idiom says, coincidence is not a kosher word.

 

Assessment

 

I believe that God the Holy Spirit began purposefully stirring up godly men and women in the 19th-century to intentionally and exponentially give greater understanding to Bible prophecy. He did so because the time was right (see also Galatians 4:4). As time began drawing to a close, God wanted us to know what would happen before it happened. Not only that, but He knew deception would quickly intensify as the geopolitical/prophetic picture became clearer. That picture began to become clearer in 1897 with the world's first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland.

 

Two world wars later, the nation of Israel was reborn on May 14, 1948 (Isaiah 66:7-8). While Satan cannot see into the future, he does know bible prophecy (Luke 4:1-9). Satan knows that most Bible prophecy centers around and/or is dependent upon, Israel becoming a nation again. Why do you think he tried so hard to exterminate the Jews during WWII? Why do you think Satan is trying so hard today? Just as he used the Third Reich then, he is using socialists, leftists, and Islamists today to try to erase the Jewish people and the borders of Israel so they can no longer be a nation.

 

Satan thinks if he can do this, he can either delay or disrupt God's plan. Little did Satan know that by committing the holocaust, he was just fulfilling Bible prophecy. By the end of the war, there was just enough world sympathy for the Jews (due to the horror of the holocaust), for the newly founded United Nations to allow Israel to become a nation again.

 

By 1948, everything (technological, geopolitical, military, informational, economic, etc.) began to rapidly intensify in every possible direction. Mankind soon became overwhelmed by the proliferation of information. Things that had long been hidden from man (such as DNA, atomic energy, the Internet, etc.) were now opened like the proverbial Pandora's Box. This was intentional, because Satan had to move quickly and bring man up to speed for what he needed done.

 

Left Behind?

 

So far, everything I have written about has been rehashed stuff I have covered many times. I do not think I have ever written about what I am about to do now. Once the rapture happens, the world will be turned on its head. Honestly, we do not know when the Rapture will happen, but rough estimates (these four converging theories) seem to indicate the Rapture happening within the next 15-20 years. Here is how I come to that conclusion.

 

1. Third-day theory-If a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day (2 Peter 3:8), then Hosea 6:2-3 has to be reckoned with. Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection will hit the two-thousand year mark right around 2030. A site that I highly recommend is Don Koenig's The Prophetic Years, in which he has put a lot of time and energy into sorting through the different windows of time.
2. Day/Age theory-modeling after the days of Creation as found in Genesis 1-2, we would be at the end of the sixth day, which was the day man was created. The seventh-day God rested (which we would point to as the coming Millennial Reign of Christ). Seems to solve the issue of why Jesus rules on the earth for 1,000 years (Rev. 20), as opposed to 500 or 8,040 or some other random amount of time.
3. Church/Age theory-In Revelation 1-3, seven churches are mentioned that were operational when John wrote this in 95AD. These physical churches are no longer there, but the message for each of them from Christ, was for all who had ears to hear. The interesting thing is that because of the order these churches were put in, seems to fit the pattern of the prominent church ages over the past two-thousand years. Given what we see today, we would definitely be in the Laodicean stage of this timeline.
4. The Fig Tree theory-When Jesus stated that the generation who saw all the signs He mentioned in the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24, Mark 13, Luke 21), that that generation would not pass away before they came to completion. One of those signs was the Jews and Jerusalem-

 

And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.     Luke 21:24

 

This first presumes that Jerusalem would be conquered and controlled by Gentile powers (ex. Romans, Muslims, Crusaders, Turks, British, etc.) until some future point in time. That time was fulfilled in 1967, when the Israelis miraculously fought back against overwhelming odds and retook the entire city in the Six Day War.

 

Secondly, while Gentiles still live in Jerusalem and administratively control the Temple Mount, the Jewish people finally have their ancient capital back after 1,897 years. Fast-forward fifty-years and the world's first leader to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, came about through the Presidency of Donald Trump.

 

Granted, Gentiles will continue to trample Jerusalem throughout the coming Tribulation (Daniel's 70th Week), but scripture seems to indicate the Jews never fully lose control of the city again until the mid-point of the Tribulation (see also Zechariah 12:1-3, Ezekiel 38-39, Matthew 24:15-22, Rev. 11:1-14). But two points to consider,

 

• The only people who want a rebuilt Jewish temple, are practicing Jews (Judaism)
• The only way they could rebuild their temple, was if they were back in control of the land of Israel and Jerusalem
• The Jews have just finished forty-years of testing (1977-2017) with the Land for Peace agenda only to see it fall apart again and again. They lacked the political will before, and now I believe that time has come to an end. There will be an earnest an renewed effort to rebuild the temple
• The only way the Antichrist is able to commit the abomination of desolation, is if there is a newly rebuilt Jewish temple (Dan. 9:27, Matt. 24:15, 2 Thess. 2:4)

 

Jesus stated at the outset of the Olivet Discourse, that the temple would be destroyed (Matt. 23:37-24:2) and so it was in 70AD. But then He states that it would be desolated in the last days. All the signs that He gave, He likened to birth pangs, in that while they were always present, there would be a process of intensification that progress through the ages, culminating in one, singular, generation. This generation (the one who sees all this), would not pass away, which means we have a rough-outline for how long this generation would last.

 

Since the definition for generation in the Bible is a little loose (40-100 years), the only metric we have left to measure time with is the length of a man's life. Fortunately, Moses defined this for us in the only Psalm he penned, Psalm 90:10-

 

The days of our lives are seventy years;

And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,

Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow;

For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

 

Seventy-years from 1948 is 2018. Eighty-years from 1948 is 2028

Seventy-years from 1967 is 2037. Eighty-years from 1967 is 2047

 

Therefore, the window of time that Christ could return is from 2018-2047

 

This means that we have about a 29-year window, from which we would subtract at a minimum, seven-years (the 70th Week), for when the Rapture could occur. That leaves us with a 22-year window. Considering all that has to occur in that 70th Week, there is very likely a gap of time between the Rapture and the start of the 70th Week (the Rapture does not directly start the 70th Week, but it primes it).

 

Conclusion

 

My personal theory is that the gap is exactly 3 � years in length, since Christ's ministry was that same length. It just seems to round it out and bring the total to a full seven-year (one week). In that gap, we see the arrival of Elijah and presumably either Moses or Enoch who serve as the Two Witnesses (Malachi 4:4-6, Matt. 17:1-13, Rev. 11) at the conclusion of the battle of Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38-39).

 

Regardless, whatever the length of time the gap actually becomes, we will not be here to find out. Only those who are left behind after the Rapture happens will live to endure it. It is to this point, that we go on and on about the Rapture of the Church. There may be a small window of time before the strong delusion kicks in, that frantic loved ones, friends, and the perplexed will search to find out the truth as to be saved.

 

Prophecy teacher Bill Salus brings up a great point regarding this gap between the Rapture and the start of the Tribulation by highlighting an oft-overlooked point, which the martyrs found in the Fifth Seal, are asking how much longer until they are avenged as if they do not know (Rev. 6:9-11). That brings in a contrasting point that if the martyrs are asking it in the Fifth Seal judgment, that the 70th Week has already officially begun. However, it could also mean that they do not know, because they don't understand prophecy and God hasn't revealed it to them yet. I don't want go down that rabbit trail in this particular article, but let's just agree that our concept of time gets a little fuzzy when bouncing back and forth between our realm and the eternal realm.

 

If we use the 3 � year gap, then our 22-year window has now shrunk to 18 � years. If the gap is longer than 3 � years, then we are in the 15-20 year time frame for the Rapture to occur. Again, this all points us back to the fulcrum of the overall 29-year window, which is around 2030. My good friend Randy Nettles has done a lot of work pertaining how and which Jewish holy days line up in the years to come. His conclusions is that the Rapture happens much sooner than even we anticipate.

 

And I am ok with that.

 

In closing, although we do not know the specific day or hour, we can know without any doubt that we are in the season of the Lord's return. It could be today, tomorrow, or some point in the next few years, but we know it is near, even at the door.

 

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3

 

Even so, Maranatha!

 

 

THIS IS NOT SPAM...CHECK OUT MY BUSINESS.... THIS IS AMAZING!!!

 

I RELAX EVERY NIGHT WITH ESSENTIAL OILS. GO TO WWW.YOUNGLIVING.COM. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, CONTACT ME VIA THIS EMAIL, AND I WILL GIVE MORE DETAILS. I PROMISE YOU THAT YOU WILL ENJOY THIS AS MUCH AS I DO. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED.... CONTACT INFO:
TERRY SEEMAN - DISTRIBUTOR # 16084320