Much has been made over the nearness of the Rapture and the Tribulation. I concur. We are closer than we were 2,000 years ago..
And though that may seem flippant to you, indeed, many of the signs of the end time prophecies are in place. Time grows short, for the Church and for mankind. Much is made of predictions. The first one I ever heard, was that the Rapture would occur when the Gospel had been preached to all nations. Here is why Matthew 24;3And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? 4And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. False Christs 5For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 8All these are the beginning of sorrows. Witnessing to All Nations (Mark 13:10-13; Luke 21:10-19) 9Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. 13But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. The Abomination of Desolation (Mark 13:14-23; Luke 21:20-24) 15When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: 17Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 19And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 20But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. 23Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 24For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 25Behold, I have told you before. This places the spreading of the Gospel of the Kingdom at the very end of times, through the 144,000, the Two Witnesses, the angels…and betrayal by the Beast, the Antichrist. That this is a message mainly for the Jews, awaiting their Messiah and their Kingdom. though Gentiles will also come to belief during the tribulation. It is not about the message of Grace, or the time of the Church. And although we (The US) have without a doubt, as a nation, helped birth the newly established Israel, and sent missionaries, Bibles, and aid to all parts of the world, the fuller unfolding of the prophecy awaits the end times. The newest rumbling and agreement is on a number, that we if we just keep preaching, the magic number to complete the Church (the Body of Christ, not a denomination) will also complete the Church Age (a parenthesis in time, a people called out of all peoples for the Lord, in contrast to the promises made strictly to Israel) will occur and the Rapture immediately after. Certainly the timing is right, we are over 7 billion now, and rapidly climbing to 9 billion people on earth. This may be half of all the humans who have ever lived; the harvest is indeed ripe. But the church, especially in the West, is failing, unable to stop social change which denigrates God, which encodes sin as appropriate behavior (and that is the change, not that we sin, for we are all, every one of us, sinners, but the acceptance and jubilation over sin), unable to stop wars, unable to even keep to actual faith in the Bible as the written word of God, praise and singing for the glory of God and to uplift the church; instead we seek feelings, an “experience,” a miracle…while in other parts of the world, Christians are slaughtered raped and enslaved,,,and we do nothing. As we cannot know when the Church is complete, as only God knows, and as it is of course logically impossible for the church to continue adding members after the Rapture, and therefore it is a particular number of souls, it is of course to a degree true, but it also surmises perhaps large groups of Christians remaining untaught, unable to have those clothes of righteousness, Though to be a beggar in Heaven is far better than the alternative, it does bring up more questions… Revelation 19:8 …7Let us rejoice and celebrate and give Him the glory. For the mar riage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. 8She was given clothing of fine linen,” linen bright and pure. For the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints. 9Then the angel told me to write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”… That’s quite late, just before the Second coming, The Tribulation saints are also given white robes..distinct from garments of linen….more on that in a few.. Ephesians 5:27 - That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. What did a bride do, in Israel, after the marriage contract was signed? She made herself ready and awaited her groom, He had to prepare a home for her (Jesus said he has done this; that we have a place with Him in heaven.) John 14:2. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. Please note this was said to Jews. As long as they could still respond to the offer of the Messiah He strictly taught Jews. Not until His ascension, and Pentecost, was the idea of a called out body understood. And not until the conversion of Paul, and his bringing Gentiles into the Body also (confirmed by Peter) was the reality of a called out people, separate from the promises to Jews, a reality. And what is the righteousness of the saints? What makes up their clothes? Righteous acts! The rest of our acts are burned up as stubble. If Christ just keeps counting souls and then translates us, there will be no righteous deeds for many Christians. I would say that what Christ has showed us to do, is to keep preaching teaching discipling and leading by example, not to leave our newest brothers and sisters in shock at having found Jesus, but to help make them complete. That our hurry to get people to say words, and not follow up, is a serious mistake, That to think God is done calling people out of this miserable wicked world, that he has removed the Restrainer (He has not. WE know we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit; evil is still restrained, by God the Holy Spirit working through us, as well as of course on His own.) This election cycle shows you how advanced the plans of Satan are. We have a screeching chorus of hate and disbelief deafening all of us. What Satan wants is violence and death. We were within months of possibly being persecuted like our brothers and sisters around the world. I was preparing myself for it, as were many others. It is possible the new government forming will also turn on us; but for now the direct precipice is a little further away. We certainly, as Christians, better not waste our time, our precious breath of air, and become complacent. Can you see the blinded masses, turned over to a reprobate way of thinking, and love them? Can you share truth with them? Jesus lived in terrible times, too, The Romans thought themselves enlightened rulers, yet they taxed the people into starvation, killed dissenters, enslaved millions. Sound familiar? They moved peoples around as they pleased, breaking bonds with land and culture. They sought total destruction of the Jews, Destroying Jerusalem wasn’t enough, Killing anyone of the line of David they could find wasn’t enough,(which is how the second leader of the church in Jerusalem died, as a very old man, Simeon,) They renamed the land to Palestine ( It was Judea before that) Sound familiar? The Tribulation saints are under the altar, not in the realms of Heaven with Jesus, They are a distinct group, and as later they are in the throne room and we also see the 144,000 in Heaven and praising Jesus, with a song only they know, and as the tribulation saints wear robes not garments of linen, we have to conclude they are a separate group of believers, who by their faith in the face of death, come to the Throne room of God, and serve with Jesus also for the thousand years. I suspect this is made up of both Jews and Gentiles. Christ harrowed Hell after His death and preached the Good News; He brought the believers out of all time before that day with him out of Paradise. Christ has since received in Heaven everyone person who believed in Him, at some point this Body of Christ is complete and ready and will be translated to meet Him in the air. He has two more groups with him who arrive during the Tribulation, The 144,000 and the Tribulation saints. After his return to Earth and establishment of His kingdom, in Jerusalem, humans who are allowed to enter His Kingdom, the remnant of Jews who come to believe in Him and Gentiles who survive the sheep and goat judgement ( having never taken the Mark, having aided God’s ministers of the age, the 144,000, having seen Christ return to earth which makes disbelief kind of,,,difficult) and one thousand years of perfect government, restored condition of the planet.a return to Eden, then Satan will be allowed one last time to reveal the hearts of Men, and as we still have the sin nature, some will fall. God will judge every sinner, and not only separates us from those who rebelled, forever, in the flames of Hell, he will create a new heaven and earth. And then the full meaning of the Bride can come to pass, Every believer from Adam on will live in New Jerusalem, God Himself will be the light for us. We will be with God for eternity. Rev 22:12 1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.… We have so much to do and so little time, as we who believe dwindle and dim around the planet. Please be earnestly in prayer often, studying your Bible often, and putting on the whole armor of God. God still has work for us to do. We don’t know all the twists and turns those plans will take, but we know that God is still on the Throne. Rejoice! |
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