Dear ones, there is much confusion in these troubled times, and much contradiction about what lies ahead. The Bible teaches
- that Christ will appear in the clouds (which event is variously referred to as the Rapture, the Harpazo, or the Parousia) and believers will be caught up to meet Him in the air;
- that there will be a seven-year-long period of terror (the Great Tribulation, the Wrath of God, ending in the great and terrible Day of the Lord); and
- that at the end of this terrible period, Jesus Christ will return in great power (The Day of the LORD) at the head of the armies of heaven, to judge the world and initiate His Millenial Rule.
One point of much contention is the Rapture. There are those who say it's a myth;
others who say it has already happened;
others, that none can know the day or the hour;
others, that there are no signs to warn of its approach;
and still others, that it won't happen until after the Great Tribulation.
I have gleaned a number of texts to aid you in your own contemplation of the matter. Personally, I anticipate the Rapture IMMINENTLY and have been preparing myself and my affairs for over two years now with an ever-increasing sense of urgency, at the Holy Spirit's leading. This sense of URGENCY has now - as of April 29, 2008 - been replaced by a deep sense that the Lord is taking command of His Body the Church (those who are led by the Spirit of God - which should include all of us, dear hearts; are YOU open to His still, small Voice and obedient to His leading?) in a new and different way. The night is almost upon us, dear friends. Don't be caught unawares!
I pray that this page may be a blessing to you, and used by almighty God to His glory. In Jesus' precious Name I pray. Amen.
- Luke 21:25-28, NEB: THE DAY OF THE LORDNote: The Day of the LORD is NOT the Rapture of the Church; it is a totally separate event. - D.E.H.
"(25) Portents will appear in sun, moon and stars. On earth nations will stand helpless, not knowing which way to turn from the roar and surge of the sea;
(26) men will faint with terror at the thought of all that is coming upon the world; for the celestial powers will be shaken.
(27) And then they will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with great power and glory.
(28) When all this begins to happen, stand upright and hold your heads high, because your liberation is near."
- Hebrews 9:22-28; 10: 1-31, NEB: THE NEW COVENANT
("We are not under Law, but under Grace")
(22) According to the Law, it might almost be said, everything is cleansed by blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
(23) If, then, these sacrifices cleanse the copies of heavenly things, those heavenly things themselves require better sacrifices to cleanse them.
(24) For Christ has entered, not that sanctuary made by men's hands, which is only a symbol of the reality, but heaven itself, to appear now before God on our behalf.
(25) Nor is He there to offer Himself again and again, as the high priest enters the sanctuary year by year with blood not his own.
(26) If that were so, He would have had to suffer many times since the world was made. But as it is, He has appeared once and for all at the climax of history to abolish sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
(27) And as it is the lot of men to die once, and after death comes judgement, so Christ was offered once to bear the burden of men's sins,
(28) and will appear a second time, sin done away, to bring salvation to those who are watching for Him.
(10:1) For the law contains but a shadow, and no true image, of the good things which were to come; it provides for the same sacrifices year after year, and with these it can never bring the worshippers to perfection for all time.
(2) If it could, these sacrifices would surely have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, cleansed once for all, would no longer have any sense of sin.
(3) But instead, in these sacrifices year after year sins are brought to mind, because sins can never be removed by the blood of bulls and goats.
(4) That is why, at His coming into the world, He says,
(5) "Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire,
but Thou has prepared a body for me.
(6) Whole-offerings and sin-offerings Thou didst not delight in.
(7) Then I said, 'Here am I: as it is written of Me in the scroll,
I have come, O God, to do Thy will."
(8) First He says, "Sacrifices and offerings, whole-offerings and sin-offerings, Thou didst not desire nor delight in" - although the Law prescribes them -
(9) and then He says, 'I have come to do Thy will.' He thus annuls the former to establish the latter.
(10) And it is by the will of God that we have been consecrated, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.
(11) Every priest stands performing his service daily and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never remove sins.
(12) But Christ offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, and took His seat at the right hand of God,
(13) where He waits henceforth until His enemies are made His footstool.
(14) For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are thus consecrated.
(15) Here we have also the testimony of the Holy Spirit: He first says,
(16) 'This is the covenant which I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will set my laws in their hearts and write them on their understanding';
(17) then He adds, 'and their sins and wicked deeds I will remember no more at all.'
(18) And where these have been forgiven, there are offerings for sin no longer.
(19) So now, my friends, the blood of Jesus makes us free to enter boldly into the sanctuary
(20) by the new, living way which He has opened for us through the curtain, the way of His flesh.
(21) We have, moreover, a great priest set over the household of God;
(22) so let us make our approach in sincerity of heart and full assurance of faith, our guilty hearts sprinkled clean, our bodies washed with pure water.
(23) Let us be firm and unswerving in the confession of our hope, for the Giver of the promise may be trusted.
(24) We ought to see how each of us may best arouse others to love and active goodness, not staying away from our meetings, as some do,
(25) but rather encouraging one another, all the more because you see the Day drawing near.
(26) For if we wilfully persist in sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins remains:
(27) only a terrifying expectation of judgement and fierce fire which will consume God's enemies.
(28) If a man disregards the Law of Moses, he is put to death without pity on the eivdence of two or three witnesses.
(29) Think how much more severe a penalty that man will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was consecrated, and affronted God's gracious Spirit!
(30) For we know who it is that has said, 'Justice is mine: I will repay'; and again, 'The Lord will judge His people.'
(31) It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10, NEB: JESUS DELIVERS BELIEVERS FROM THE TERRORS OF JUDGEMENT:
(6) And you, in your turn, followed the example set by us and by the Lord; the welcome you gave the message meant grave suffering for you, yet you rejoiced in the Holy Spirit;
(7) thus you have become a model for all believers in Macedonia and Achaia.
(8) From Thessalonica the word of the Lord rang out; and not in Macedonia and Achaia alone, but everywhere your faith in God has reached men's ears.
(9) No words of ours are needed, for they themselves spread the news of our visit to you and its effect:
(10) how you turned from idols, to be servants of the living and true God, and to wait expectantly for the appearance from heaven of His Son Jesus, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus our deliverer from the terrors of judgement to come.
- 2 Thessalonians 4:13-18, NEB: DEATH, RESURRECTION, AND THE RAPTURE:
We wish you not to remain in ignorance, brothers, about those who sleep in death; you should not grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again; and so it will be for those who died as Christians; God will bring them to life with Jesus.
For this we tell you as the Lord's word: we who are left alive until the Lord comes shall not forestall those who have died; because at the word of command, at the sound of the archangel's voice and God's trumpet-call, the Lord Himself will descend from heaven; first the Christian dead will rise, then we who are left alive shall join them, caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord. Console one another, then, with these words.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, NEB: DATES AND TIMES:
BELIEVERS WILL NOT BE CAUGHT UNAWARES
About dates and times, my friends, we need not write to you, for you know perfectly well that the Day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. While they are talking of peace and security, all at once calamity is upon them, sudden as the pangs that come upon a woman with child; and there will be no escape. But you, my friends, are not in the dark, that the day should overtake you like a thief. You are all children of light, children of day. We do not belong to night or darkness, and we must not sleep like the rest, but keep awake and sober. Sleepers sleep at night, and drunkards are drunk at night, but we, who belong to daylight, must keep sober, armed with faith and love for coat of mail, and the hope of salvation for helmet. For God has not destined us to the terrors of judgement, but to the full attainment of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that we, awake or asleep, might live in company with Him. Therefore hearten one another, fortify one another - as indeed you do.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, NEB: HAS THE RAPTURE ALREADY HAPPENED, LONG AGO? - NO, NOT AT ALL!
(1) And now, brothers, about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and His gathering of us to Himself:
(2) I beg you, do not suddenly lose your heads or alarm yourselves, whether at some oracular utterance, or pronouncement, or some letter purporting to come from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord is already here.
(3) Let no one deceive you in any way whatever. That day cannot come before the final rebellion against God, when wickedness will be revealed in human form,
(4) the man doomed to perdition. He is the enemy. He rises in his pride against every god, so called, every object of men's worship, and even takes his seat in the temple of God claiming to be a god himself.
(5) You cannot but remember that I told you this while I was still with you;
(6) you must now be aware of the restraining Hand which ensures he shall be revealed only at the proper time.
(7) For already the secret power of wickedness is at work, secret only for the present until the Restrainer disappears from the scene.
(8) And then he will be revealed, that wicked man whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of His mouth, and annihilate by the radiance of His coming.
(9) But the coming of that wicked man is the work of Satan.
(10) It will be attended by all the powerful signs and miracles of the Lie, and all the deception that sinfulness can impose on those doomed to destruction. Destroyed they shall be, because they did not open their minds to love of the truth, so as to find salvation.
(11) Therefore God puts them under a delusion, which works upon them to believe the lie,
(12) so that they may all be brought to judgement, all who do not believe the truth but make sinfulness their deliberate choice.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17: BELIEVERS: CHOSEN TO FIND SALVATION IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH
(13) But we are bound to thank God always for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because from the beginning of time God chose you to find salvation in the Spirit that consecrates you, and in the truth that you believe.
(14) It was for this that He called you through the gospel we brought, so that you might possess for your own the splendour of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(15) Stand firm, then, brothers, and hold fast to the traditions which you have learned from us by word or by letter.
(16) And may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, Who has shown us such love, and in His grace has given us such unfailing encouragement and such bright hopes,
(17) still encourage and fortify you in every good deed and word!
"Not all those who call on the Name of the Lord will be saved, but those who DO the will of their Father Who is in heaven."
- Titus 2:11-14
"For the Grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to ALL men, teaching us that...we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age, and LOOKING FOR the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed AND PURIFY FOR HIMSELF HIS OWN SPECIAL PEOPLE, [who are] zealous for good works."
Guys and dolls, being ready for Christ's Return involves a whole lot more than going to church on Sunday and listening to the sermon! YOU must be actively engaged in preparing for His Return. The end-times signs are all around us! Stay alert and STAY READY!!!
- Titus 3:8b-10
"Those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless. Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned."
I invite you to learn more about why I wholeheartedly trust God and look forward to the Second Coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Enter the OHzone... and yield, to the KING.
Christ is KING, people; praise the Lord!
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