I was a school bus driver for five years. I’ll never forget the day when two of my riders nearly didn’t make it home in one piece. During my second year I was off loading two students on a very busy street. My stop paddle was out and my reds were flashing. As a bus driver you are trained to always be checking your mirrors. Just as my two students were about to step off the bus I caught a glimpse in my right mirror of a car pulling around me. Picking up speed rapidly it drove up onto the shoulder and flew by the bus, just a couple of feet away from the door. If I hadn’t yelled at the two girls to stop they would’ve stepped right into the path of that on coming vehicle. I shudder even now to think of what could’ve happened if I hadn’t been aware of my surroundings. At that moment the lives of those two girls rested in my being an alert and sober driver. And if they hadn’t heeded my warning, the result could have been disastrous as well!
Jesus gives warnings to His followers throughout His instruction of what to do and what to look for prior to the event of His coming with His angels to gather the elect. Before He even begins He says in Matthew 24:4: “See to it that no one misleads you.” He said false Christs and false prophets will come in His name and mislead many. During the time of great persecution that will follow the abomination of desolation He warns that false Christs will try to lure out those believers who have gone into hiding. These false Christs and false prophets will be able to perform great signs and wonders. In verse 25 He says, “Behold, I have told you in advance.” The last verse in the book of Matthew is a command to teach His new disciples - from all nations - not just the Jewish disciples – to observe all He commanded, even what He commanded and warned about in Matthew 24!
We are warned by Paul not to be deceived about the timing of the day of the Lord which is initiated by the church being gathered sometime after Antichrist is revealed. We are warned by the Lord not to be deceived by the false Christs and false prophets who will try to lure believers out of hiding during the time of the great tribulation. Don’t listen to anyone who says Jesus is in the wilderness or in a building. (Mt. 24:26) We are to stay put until the natural lights go out. Luke tells us to be looking up for His coming and he gives us specific things for which to look to know when His return is truly imminent. (Luke 21:25-28)
If my understanding of the timing of the rapture is wrong, when the church is gathered, all I will leave behind are my preparations. If I am right, for those who have heeded the Lord’s warnings and instructions, there will be no confusion as to what is happening. They will not be prone to fall prey to the deceivers who are going to try to lure believers out of safety.
The Lord has given us a roadmap to follow and signs to look for and instructions to survive.
1 Th. 5:4-6: “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.”
7 comments:
There are two stages or pahases within the process of the Second Coming--the Rapture and the Revelation--and these are separated by a seven-year period of time.
The Rapture is the next occurrence on God's calendar and is the literal, visible, and bodily return of Christ in the heavenlies. He shall return as he left (Acts 1:9-11). One can easily know now He departed by studying Luke 24:39. He had a new resurrected body of flesh and bones--a body that could be seen, touched, and fed (vss. 41-43). When He returns in the heavenlies, all believers, dead and living, will also be taken bodily to meet Him in the clouds. We shall be changed as this mortal body puts on immortality and is transformed to be like Jesus' body (I Corinthians 15:51-54; Psalm 17:15; I John 3:2). This happens in a moment, in "the twinkling of an eye."
This event ends the Church Age and ushers in the Tribulation period. The Rapture of the Church involves the resurrection of the Christian dead as well as the exit from earth of all believers living at that time (I Thessalonians 4:13-18). Regarding the Christian dead, the Bible teaches that the body is asleep in one place (the grave) whereas the soul is alive in another place (heaven). To be "absent from the body" is to be present with the Lord (II Corinthians 5:8). When Christ returns at the Rapture, He brings those that sleep (are dead) with Him (I Thessalonian 4:14). How can He bring the dead with Him and still come for the dead (I Thessalonians 4:16)? The dead are in two places! The souls and spirits are with the Lord, but their bodies are in the grave. Hence Christ brings the dead (souls and spirits) with Him so that they may be reunited with their bodies. That is why the dead in Christ rise first.
The return of Christ for His Church is a signless and always imminent event. Even the New Testament writers expected the Lord's return at any moment (Phillipians 3:20). All signs of the Lord's return have to do with the coming of Christ to set up His kingdom. They are only indicators of the approaching Rapture because that event precedes the establishment of the kingdom by seven years...infact, we must be raptured so as to return with Him. The moment the Antichrist signs the seven-year peace pact the Tribulation period will begin and a timetable will be evident. Date-setting will now be conclusive and Christ's return will no longer be imminent. It will be exactly 84 months or 2,520 days until Christ returns to establish His kingdom. The Rapture must precede the Tribulation Hour.
The Church is not to be the recipient of wrath. When one considers God's purpose for the Tribulation, it is difficult to place the Bride of Christ into such a horrendous scene. Why should Christ's Bride suffer the judgment of the seven seals, seven trumpets, and the seven vials found in Revelation 6,8,9,11,15,16, when the Church cannot be found beyond the third chapter of the Book of Revelation? No, the Tribulation Hour is primarily a time of judgment upon a Christ-rejecting, God-rejecting world--both Jew and Gentile (Ezekiel 20:37-38; Micah 5:15). Paul assured the Thessalonian Christians that they would not go through the Tribulation (I Thessalonians 5:9). Although the Church is not all it should be, the world is better because the Church is present. The Holy Spirit, working through Christians, holds back the tide of evil sweeping the world. When His influence in this manner is removed at the Rapture, think of the wickedness that shall follow!
During the Tribulation period on earth, the raptured Christians have an appointment with Christ at the Judgment Seat of Christ (II Corinthians 5:19; Romans 14:10-12).
The word "rapture" does not appear in the Bible. It was coined from the Latin rapio or rapere to portray the experience of being "snatched away." This is what is going to happen one day as soon as the people of God disappear from the earth and immediately meet Christ to stand before the Judgment Seat.
Anonymous,
You say there are two phases to Christ’s second coming, the rapture and the revelation. You say one, the rapture, occurs before D’s 70th Week gets underway, the other, the revelation, at the end of D’s 70th Week.
Paul on the other hand says the dead in Christ and those who are alive and remain are caught up at the parousia of Christ, that is, the event of His presence or coming. (I Th. 4:15) Jesus says His parousia, the event of His presence or coming – when He is revealed - occurs immediately after the great tribulation. (Mt. 24:27-31) Jesus says the great tribulation is cut short by His parousia. (Mt. 24:22) I’ve got to go with what Paul and the Lord say. The rapture and the revelation occur together somewhere between the midpoint of D’s 70th Week and the end.
As you say, the Church is not destined for God’s wrath. (1 Th. 5:9) If Matthew 24 is a rapture passage as the teaching of Christ and Paul support, God’s wrath will begin to fall at some point after Christ’s parousia, the event of His presence or coming. In Matthew 24, just before the gathering of the elect the sign in the sun, moon, and stars occurs. In Rev. 6:12, after the sign in the sun, moon, and stars occurs we see people on the earth cowering in fear. What is it they are fearful of? The wrath of the Lamb! They even use those words and this is the first time the word wrath is even mentioned in Rev. The elect/the Church are gathered after the sign of the sun, moon, and stars in Mt. 24. In Rev. 7:14, after the triple sign is mentioned in Rev. 6 there is this huge multitude seen in heaven from every tongue, tribe, and nation, WITH BODIES. Who is this group? The raptured and resurrected Church! Right where they should be! The elect from the all over the globe are gathered after the triple sign reference in Mt. 24. A great multitude from every tongue, tribe, and nation is seen in heaven after the triple sign reference in Rev. 6. The Church is found after Rev. 3.
Then God’s wrath begins to fall with the first trumpet. Hail and fire mixed with blood and a third of the earth is burned up. (Rev. 8:7) Now that is God’s supernatural day of the Lord’s vengeful judgment and the Church is safely gathered in heaven! (While God’s wrath is falling the Bema seat judgments will occur.) Rev. 19, the appearance of Jesus on a white horse with a robe dipped in blood is not the initial parousia of Christ in Mt. 24. The word parousia isn’t event used in that passage. That already occurred at least five months prior because we know trumpet number five lasts five months. This is His appearance at Armageddon to complete His wrath.
Your turn!
Jesus was talking about the Jews in the future, to flee when they see the abomination of desolation: that Anti-Christ in the temple and declaring himself to be God, and defiling it. (the book of Daniel).This will happen 3 1/2 years into the Great Tribulation. The church will be long gone by then, (Raptured) so "we" (future believers) are not the ones He is talking to, but future Israel.
That is why He said to pray that it didn't happen on the Sabbath. An observant Jew wasn't allowed to walk more than a Sabbath's days journey on the Sabbath. I believe that's only 1 1/2 miles or something like that. The Jews will have temple sacrifices going again in the future, because they will rebuild the temple when the Anti-Christ makes a 7 year treaty with Israel and her enemies. The AC will break that treaty 3 1/2 years into it, and do the things it says in Daniel. Hopefully this will help some.
To understand End Times and the parables - you have to be very well studied in ancient Jewish traditions - something that Americans are NOT!
We will be Jewish believers in Heaven.
While Matthew's audience is largely Jewish, Jesus was speaking to believers. Mark and Luke record the same event and their audiences are Gentile believers. (Mark does not mention the Sabbath.) Again, I point you to what Paul said and Jesus said regarding the Lord's parousia. Paul gives much teaching on end times. To understand the end time passages one just needs to follow a consistent hermeneutic.
A question for you:
Why would Jesus answer the way He did - to believing Jews, regarding the sign of His coming and the end of the age, if the church is gone before the events in Mt. 24?
Believing Jews will be raptured also, right? In other words, in answering their question shouldn't He have said, "My followers, you will be with me but this is what will happen to your people"?
Jesus didn't answer that way because the end of the age will not come to fruition before the AofD is seen and the great tribulation begins. He explains to them the events that will occur to the end of the age. He uses the pronoun "you". In Mt. 13 we learn from one of His parables that it is at the end of the age when the wheat (true believers in the church) are gathered and the tares (the look-alikes, the fake believers) are burned. When does the end of the age occur according to Mt. 24? Immediately after the days of great tribulation - which are cut short by the event of His coming. The days of great tribulation against the elect will begin just after the AofD, the midpoint of D's 70th Week, but will not run the entire latter half of D's 70th Week. Paul says the dead in Christ are raised and those who are alive and remain will be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air at the event of His coming. What Paul teaches lines right up with the Lord's explanation of the parable of the wheat and the tares in Mt. 13.
what I don't get is that you're interpretation is so right - I understand that you firmly believe in your interpretation.
I do not say that I am 100% right. In my years of studying the Bible & Jewish customs & traditions, I have learned how to put the pieces of the puzzles together and understand in the ways of the Jewish - not American. We are not taught the customs of the Jewish - although we should! I like to understand more from Messianic Jews. They are brilliant.
This website - www.gracethrufaith.com - is amazing at breaking down the Jewish customs that we do not understand as a "church" and helps you understand the Bible in a much more intimate way, once you understand the Jewish laws.
The reason I've become so convinced of prewrath is that I can find no contradictions when all the scriptures are placed under its framework. With the other views, there remain problems.
Did you know Marv Rosenthal is a Messianic Jew? He wrote "The Prewrath Rapture of the Church?"
Robert Van Kampen, in the epilogue of "The Sign", ends with a section titled “End Times and Three Jewish Feasts”. He showed how a strong case can be made how three of the Jewish Feasts will tie into D’s 70th Week. He consulted with a friend who is an OT and NT scholar and this friend writes extensively in an evangelical magazine published by an organization whose primary goals are to reach unbelieving Jews. Here is part of the summary of that section on pg. 475.
“The ultimate Yom Kippur for the nation of Israel will be on the last day of the seventieth week when the Israelites have made “an end to sin,” when they have made “atonement for [their] iniquity.
The ultimate Sukkot will occur five days later, two days after the national salvation of Israel, as Christ and His redeemed people ascend Mount Zion singing Ps. 118, praising God for their deliverance from tribulation and their salvation.
Then, seventy-five days following the final Yom Kippur and seventy days after the final Sukkot, a restored and redeemed Israel will celebrate the ultimate and final Hanukkah, when the glory of Christ returns to the temple, after which Christ’s millennial rule over the physical Kingdom of God upon earth will begin.
The significance is clear. We cannot know in advance the exact day or hour that Christ will cut short the great persecution by Antichrist, when He comes to rescue His church and destroy the earth’s wicked. We cannot know in advance the year in which the covenant of death will be signed, initiating the seventieth week. But this author believes that to the degree it is possible to know when Yom Kippur will be celebrated by Israel seven years in the future, a good indication of when the covenant will be signed in the current year can be determined.”
Robert Van Kampen concludes that since Yom Kippur normally falls in late Sept. or early Oct. we very well could see the signing of the covenant occur in late Oct./early Nov. of any given year.
What year? We don’t know! Everything that Scripture says should be in place before “these things” can occur (except for the arrival of AC, incognito) is in place for the first time in over 2,000 years.
For that reason the church should be alert. I know you are. I know you are watching Israel also. I think we should be especially watchful of Israel’s activities during the fall.
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