Thursday, July 5 th, 2012

Transcription

1 Thursday, July 5 th, 2012 Hello, Michelle. I wanted to develop the issue which we were talking about last night after work, and I wonder if you would take a look at just a few things. First, I don t expect you to change your viewpoint. But let me say that I once held to the pre-tribulation view of the rapture. After I began my relationship with Jesus, I quickly discarded that view as I began to read the Bible. As a child, I was taught the pre-tribulation rapture as a matter of tradition. When the Lord saved me and gave me His Spirit so that I could understand the Bible on my own, I decided to question and investigate everything that I had been taught

2 about the grey areas of the Bible, like the rapture, spiritual gifts, and other things which are not necessary to get right in order to receive salvation. What I began to discover is that pretty often actually, we really are taught church and denominational traditions, when we should be learning the Bible. Take the flood found in Genesis, for example. Most Christians, if you ask them in what manner Moses brought the animals onto the ark, they will reply: Two of each kind, a male and female. Would you agree? First, let me say that such an answer would be wrong, and that the question is partly wrong. Did you catch it? It was Noah who brought the animals onto the ark, not Moses. Secondly, the Bible states quite clearly, that there were to be brought 7 pairs of each clean animal, and 2 pairs of each unclean, for a total of 14 of every clean animal and 4 of every unclean animal. (Genesis 7:2-3) Now, most Christians would laugh me right out of their church if I stated such a thing. And yet, there it is right there in the Bible, staring right at us persistent, unwavering. Perhaps even Joyce Meyer may have gotten that one wrong. Who knows? But my point here is that in American churches, we are taught tradition and we are taught to feel happy before we are taught the Bible. That makes me sad.

3 The truth is that over the centuries, many people have died to ensure that we would have a Bible to read, and yet most of us do not read the Bible as much as we may read the works of a popular Christian icon. But let us look at the rapture. There are really 3 versions of this thing that I know of: The first is the one you subscribe to, the second is the mid-trib rapture, which basically says in the middle of the reign of the antichrist, Jesus comes back for the Church (again, invisibly - much like the pre-trib rapture,) and then takes Christians to heaven, while the antichrist finishes out his time, then Christ returns a second time to execute judgment upon the antichrist and the ungodly. The third is the one I subscribe to, which is often referred to as the post-trib rapture. This view basically says that everything plays out (collapse of the monetary system with the introduction of the mark of the beast as the answer to the economic woes, reign of the antichrist with the world government being established, persecution of those who reject that system, etc.) and once things get really heated up to the point where no Christian would survive if Christ were not to intervene, (see Matthew 24:22) Jesus suddenly returns, and everyone sees it when it happens, both the just and the unjust alike.

4 In this view, Jesus suddenly shows up visibly one day without any prior warning. At precisely the same moment, the world, everything in it, and the stellar bodies in outer space burst into flames in an exquisite explosion of energy, as the atoms of all the matter in the universe are split, because none of it is needed any further. In a split second, (in the twinkling of an eye, Paul wrote,) we will be changed as the world, the ungodly, and the entire universe burns up. Meanwhile, we are rising up to meet Jesus as He is descending to rescue us in this fiery chaos, much like He rescued Meshach, Shadrach, and Abed- Nego from Nebuchadnezzar s fiery furnace. That s a pretty radical view, compared to what most people have been taught, so let s take a look and see if any of that can be forged from Holy Scripture, of if it is all in my imagination.

5 First, let s deal with the one left and one taken reference found in Matthew 24: Those two verses give us a cryptic picture of one group of people being taken, while the other group is left behind. But we want to know who these two groups are. SO let us look to the previous verses, and we will discover that Jesus explains everything for us that we need to know about this event. In the same chapter, we find verses 30 and 31 telling us that everyone will see Jesus as He returns to earth to get His Bride. As this occurs, the angels of heaven gather together the elect of the earth, or Christians. The details to notice here are: 1) Everyone on earth sees Jesus return, 2) quite a few people are very unhappy about that, so this cannot be only Christians seeing His return, 3) the angels of heaven gather the elect of the earth, (Christians) as this all occurs.

6 Let us take a look at this event wherein the angels are gathering. I think we will find that they first gather unbelievers before the Christians are gathered, which would cast some serious problems of doubt upon a pre-tribulation rapture. If we look to Matthew 13:24-30, we will find the parable of the wheat and the tares. In this parable, the wheat represents Christians, while the tares represent unforgiven sinners. What we will find as we finish reading the parable is that the angels FIRST gather the ungodly and burn them with fire, then those whose sins are forgiven in Christ are gathered into heaven, or in this case, the barn. Very difficult to find a pre-tribulation rapture there. What one should also note is a serious problem is the context of Matthew 24. All through the chapter, Jesus addresses the questions of His disciples when they asked what would be the sign of His return and the end of the age. That in itself is not the problem. The problem begins to erupt when Jesus compares the days of Noah with His return. Only 1 way to be saved back then, only 1 way to be saved today. But what should strike the reader is that in Noah s day, he preached by building the ark, when no one had ever seen it rain, let alone, enough to raise an ark from the ground. Yet, what we find when we look at the geology of the earth is that massive amounts of water have erupted from under the earth s crust at many different places on the globe, such as the San Andreas fault and today, there are earthquakes there.

7 Later, a huge lake spilled over an uplift, carving out the Grand Canyon in a short period of time. And most telling is the fact that the earth s crust is composed of layers of mud which later hardened and became rock. We can see all of the creatures and plants which got trapped in all that mud, because now they are fossilized, and we even use some of that stuff to drive our vehicles around and we sometimes invade other countries under the guise of fighting terror to pump the remains of these plants and animals out of the ground.

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9 All of that aside, in Matthew 24, Jesus draws the parallel between the suddenness of the violent eruption of the water from under the earth s crust which caused the flood, and His sudden and violent return with fire as He is riding on the clouds. So, from Jesus perspective, coming back for His Bride is not going to be a secretive and covert event at all. Its instead going to be right out in the open, very alarming, very frightening, and very, very rude. No second chances to accept a Savior Who was willing up until that point to forgive sins. No amount of special pleading at that point would make a difference, because it will be very, very hot, not to mention that the molecular structure of one s physical body would be disintegrated as all the atoms split.

10 This is where 2 nd Peter chapter 3, 2 nd Thessalonians chapter 2, 1 st Thessalonians chapter 4, and 1 st Corinthians chapter 15:51-55 are useful to have read and understood. In 1 st Corinthians chapter 15:51-55, we find that the mortal MUST become immortal to enter into heaven. You will note that Paul mentions that this occurs at Christ s return, for he writes of the last trumpet sounding. This is a clear parallel to the book of Revelation, wherein John writes of the last trumpet sounding and indicates that the dead will be judged after the last trumpet has sounded, and that at that time God should destroy those who destroy the earth. (Rev. 11:15-18)

11 This is a clear indication that when that last trumpet sounds before God s throne in heaven, Christ will go forth into the earth and destroy with fire all of the ungodly while we watch it happen and are instantly transformed so that the wrath of His anger does not destroy us in the same manner as it does them. This is why we MUST be changed if we are alive and remaining in the earth to witness that event. We will be changed because we would have to be in order to survive and event like that. 2 nd Thessalonians compliments this in saying that the man of sin/lawlessness will be destroyed as Christ returns. The KJV terms it this way: And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: (2 nd Thess. 2:8) 2 nd Peter chapter 3 then tells us that the present heavens and earth which were

12 created by God s spoken word are reserved for fire and the judgment of ungodly men. In verses 9 and 10 of that chapter, Paul makes it clear that the promise of the Lord s return is the subject being discussed. For He says that it has not happened because the Lord is being very patient with sinners. Notwithstanding, verse 10 tells us that when Jesus does appear, it will be with fire. And that appearance is in order that He might come down to earth to pick up His Bride in a very heroic and extremely impressive fashion, because Jesus knows how to make an awesome and fashionable entrance. In 1 st Thessalonians chapter 4, we find this same event described, written with some different details. (That is what all of these verses are, by the way. The Holy Spirit is showing us snap-shots of the very same event, written with different details in mind, to more fully explain exactly what will be happening during that event.) In verses 13-17, we find that the Lord descends from heaven once again as in the other verses I ve shown and that He has with Him those who looked forward to His first appearance in the Old Testament, like Abraham and Moses and so forth, and also those who looked back in time to that same event, but had preceded us in death, if in fact, we are not among them but are still living at that time. As in 1 st Corinthians 15 and Revelation 11, we find that this occurs with the trumpet sounding. If we remember back to Revelation 11, this trumpet sound is a signet of judgment and the destruction of the ungodly with fire. This is the final trumpet which signifies an end to the present world and the beginning of the new heaven and earth. This has nothing to do with secretly, covertly, and sneakily taking Christians out of the earth to

13 the bafflement of a bunch of people still remaining on earth and finding empty clothes and crashed planes and vehicles all over the place. The left behind books and movie was probably pretty entertaining, but doesn t have much Bible in it. The Bible declares by the words of Jesus and His prayer that Christians are to remain in the earth to evangelize sinners. The church is also not split into two groups of early birds who get swept up in a pre-trib rapture, and the johnny-come-lately group which comes on board at a later time. We are to be one, just as Jesus and the Father are One. ( See John 17:11; 15; and 20-23) I feel that I have rightly handled the word of truth since the Lord began to teach me some years ago through His Spirit, and you have seen how I am able to connect all of the verses together and make sense out of them. Read the context of the chapters which I pulled these verses from, and find out if I know what I m talking about, or if I do not. I think that you will find that even though I am challenging a view of scripture which you have come to admire and love, it just doesn t work when we look at the context of the chapters in which these verses appear. And now, we know that those who were taken from the field and from the mill are those who were gathered as tares and burned up in the fire. It was those who were left behind who were gathered into the barn. Left Behind gets it backwards. Anyway, I hope this was challenging for you and even fun. I know it was for me. Later!