CHAPTER 4 RAPTURE THEORY

CHAPTER 4 RAPTURE THEORY The Rapture Theory is based upon a vision that a young woman had in the early 1800 s. A Jesuit priest in turn capitalized on it. Soon this theory was being taught and is still being taught and received in the church around the world. The theory teaches the church that it will be removed from this world as God executes His wrath on evil. On the contrary the Bible teaches we must be overcomers, good warriors, and help establish the Kingdom of God. We live under Satanic power and rule where every day can be a literal struggle. We must remember, to keep the right frame of mind, that we do live in the midst of Satan s kingdoms and that the tribulations we experience come directly from the enemy and not God. To understand the true meaning of tribulations, let us look at the definition of the word itself. The Greek word thlipsis being translated tribulation means a pressing together, a squeezing, a pinching; used figuratively for distress, tribulation, affliction, trouble and persecution. The word is used strictly in connection with the hardships which Christ s followers would suffer. The following are scriptures that support this statement. 1

Mark 4:17 17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. Tribulation can weed out those that are not rooted into the living waters of truth so we must not believe the false doctrine concerning the rapture. John 16:33 33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Tribulation is something Christians pass through on the road to maturity and in the midst of battle to establish God's Kingdom. Rom 5:3 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 2

Rom 12:12 12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 2 Cor 4:17 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor 2:4 4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you. Rev 7:14 14 And I said to him, "Sir, you know." So he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Here are the end time warriors. they made it through the end time battle by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of their testimony. 3

BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO THE RIGHTEOUS Many times we ask, Why do bad things happen to good people? Often times the church confuses the tribulation of Satan against righteousness with the wrath of God that will eventually come down on those walking in sin. We see in scripture the object of God s wrath in Romans 1:18 and again in Ephesians 5:6. Rom 1:18 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; In other words, the wrath of God will come upon those who know the truth but walk in disobedience against it. Eph 5:6 6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience. 4

We see from these scriptures the punishment is for those that operate through false doctrine and lawlessness. This wrath is against the lukewarm, immoral, compromising and dead to the Word of God church! This confusion leads into the understanding, or rather the misunderstanding of a rapture, whereby the children of God will be retrieved by Christ from the earth to live in Heaven. This is believed because people are not willing to endure trials and tribulations for righteousness sake. They would rather take the easy way out and leave everything behind. They ignore the scripture at 2 Timothy 2:3. 2 Tim 2:3 3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. HOW THE CHURCH IS FOOLED In essence people today are filled with the same ungodly lies and evil thinking that was once in the hearts of the fallen angels. In Genesis 6 we see the angels or sons of God lusted after the daughters of men and took for themselves wives of their choice. They forsook their abode in Heaven and made earth their new home. In Jude, the sixth verse we read of the punishment these angels received. Jude 1:6 5

6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; Now let us reason together, if God was angry that the angels gave up their home in heaven to come to earth, what about teachings that encourage men to want to give up their home on earth to be in heaven? In scripture we can see that the earth was created to be inhabited and that God did indeed give it unto the children of men to possess and have dominion over. Isa 45:18 18 For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD, and there is no other. Ps 115:16 16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD s; But the earth He has given to the children of men. 6

Remember, that Jesus taught on the mountain saying, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5) In Isaiah 49:8 we see clearly that God plans to restore the earth and in fact all that is on it. He will not remove man, but He will preserve them. Isa 49:8 8 Thus says the LORD: In an acceptable time I have heard You And in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You As a covenant to the people (talking to the end time warrior), To restore the earth, To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages; To make another point to correct our thinking, one of the reasons people want to fly out of here is because the religious church has also taught that the earth will be destroyed. We have already seen that God wishes to restore the earth however, and Revelations tells us that God will go so far as to destroy those who destroy the earth. Rev 11:18 18 The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, 7

And should destroy those who destroy the earth. God's people are here at this time of judgment and as we see, the earth will be rid of those that pollute it, but the land itself will be restored not destroyed. DESTROYING FALSE DOCTRINE The confusion does not stop with just wanting to escape trials and tribulations, but it gets worse. In order for man to justify his beliefs, he constantly adjusts his understanding of scripture or the interpretation of scripture to fit his doctrine. For example, it is not enough that they believe and teach this theory, but they have added to it. It now stands that there are three different theories on the one subject, pre tribulation rapture, midtribulation rapture and a post tribulation rapture. Some philosophers teach that God will not allow His people to undergo any hardship from the tribulations and so teach that the church will fly out of here before the tribulation begins. This is what they call Pre tribulation Rapture. Remember what we read in John 16:33? John 16:33 33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the 8

world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Others preach the message that the church will undergo some tribulation but before the big stuff starts God will remove His church (Mid tribulation). Let us turn back to Revelation 7:14 Rev 7:14 14 And I said to him, Sir, you know. So he said to me, These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Others teach that the church will experience all of the tribulation and then will be taken to heaven. Rev 20:4 4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 9

We see in Revelation 20:4 those that come through the tribulation will rule with Christ, be glorified in verses 5 and 6 and we see in verse 9 that all this takes place on earth! Rev 20:5 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. (This is the dead that came up off the streets at Revelation 11:11.) The Scripture at Revelations 20:6 goes on to say: 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. (Where did they reign? See verse 9.) 7 Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. 9 They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. (New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:2) And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. 10

We see from these scriptures that we as the church and God s end time army are going nowhere. Heaven will fight through us and hell will fight through those that are opposed to truth and walk in opposition to it. God s people will remain on earth to manifest the body of Christ and will come against and defeat those manifesting Satan, the Antichrist. By the way...we win! How? Col 1:27 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Matt 19:26 26 But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." We would like to emphasize that this false doctrine, (escape through rapture) and every version of it, is strictly theory. There is no scriptural evidence to support it. What is a theory anyway? Taken from the American Heritage Dictionary, the definition for theory is: Theory (thir e) n. 1. Systematically organized knowledge applicable in a 11

relatively wide variety of circumstances; especially a system of assumptions, accepted principles, and rules of procedure devised to analyze, predict, or otherwise explain the nature or behavior of a specified set of phenomena. 2. Abstract reasoning; speculations. 3. a hypothesis or supposition. These definitions do not at all sound like TRUTH! Truth does not change with every shift of the wind. This theory sounds more like the voice of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil to the discerning ear. In other words, this is man's intellect again without any input from the word of God. Now let us investigate what the word rapture actually means. First of all, it cannot be found anywhere in scripture. It is neither a Hebrew nor a Greek word. Looking at the definition of this word in the American Heritage Dictionary, we see that, rather than being something that takes place, (i.e. an occurrence as in being transported to Heaven, as the religious church teaches), it is an emotion. Rapture (rap cher) n. 1. The state of being transported by a lofty emotion; ecstasy. 2. Often plural. An expression of ecstatic feeling. 3. Rare form. The transporting of a person from one place to another. (This last meaning is a latter definition and put in to accommodate the church.) 12

As anyone can see it was originally based on emotion. It comes from the Latin word raptura, which directly translated is ecstasy! This is important because what the word ecstasy actually means is a state of being overpowered by an emotion. It is what you experience when you are controlled by your emotions. This is in essence the soul or carnal man's emotions taking control. This does not exercise the fruit of the Spirit, which is self control. (Galatians 5:23) And it is the direct opposite of how we are commanded to walk. Gal 5:16 16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We have covered a thorough word study and have brought out scriptures to help you understand this subject. Now we turn to the scriptures that seem to throw everyone off. Let us begin by taking a look at 1 Thessalonians 4:16 17. 1Thess 4:16 17 16 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 13

will rise first. 17 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. This frequently misinterpreted scripture is used to mistakenly support the rapture theory. Upon looking at it through the eyes of discernment and dissecting it through the original Greek language using Strong s Exhaustive Concordance, the proper way to read this scripture would be this way: The Lord Himself through the office of the Chief messenger who speaks for God will sing a song of encouragement and command those who are dead to self (or dead to the Adamic nature) to arise as a banner for the nations to see, that the nations would gather together to the Mountain of God in order to be changed from an undesirable condition as they experience the Feast of Tabernacles. We can see this same thought pattern as we look into the mirror of the Old Testament. First turning to Isaiah 5:26 28, we see that God will raise a banner to the nations from afar. This banner is described in more detail in Zechariah 9:16, when God saves His people and lifts them as a banner over His land. Isa 5:26 28 26 He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar, and will whistle to them 14

from the end of the earth; surely they shall come with speed, swiftly. 27 No one will be weary or stumble among them, no one will slumber or sleep; nor will the belt on their loins be loosed, nor the strap of their sandals be broken; 28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent; their horses' hooves will seem like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. Zech 9:16 16 The LORD their God will save them in that day, as the flock of His people. For they shall be like the jewels of a crown, lifted like a banner over His land These are His chosen ones who have been found faithful and have laid all things down and have separated themselves unto God alone. They are the dead who will be raised first. The scripture goes on to say that He will whistle and they shall come with speed swiftly. This means that once the banner is raised and as God sings, the nations will come running to the Mountain of the Lord in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. When this takes place they shall be changed! Zechariah 10:8 says it this way: I will whistle for them and gather them, for I will redeem them; and they shall increase as they once increased. To be redeemed is to be changed from an undesirable 15

condition. This portion of scripture in Zechariah goes on to say that He will gather them to Gilead and Lebanon, which is no surprise to those who study the scriptures. Gilead and Lebanon are symbolic of the Mountain of God or the government with the Ark of His Testimony, which by the way all takes place on earth. To believe in a snatching away of people to Heaven would directly contradict the very words of Jesus himself in John 17:15. In praying for His disciples, it is important to know that he was praying for the foundation of the church as we know it today. There we see Jesus was not praying them out of the world. Why would the Lord build a foundation here on earth and not a house? To conclude this chapter, we leave you with the words of one that walked with Christ. I John 4:17 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. Notice, on the Day of Judgment, God's people will be found like Him, in this world on that day. In other worlds, there are people, here on earth, that have matured to be like Jesus at the time of Judgment. These people are not 16

heathens, they are the church! 17