Why the Rapture Can Happen at Any Time

Pastor J.D. reviews the importance of the pre-Tribulation Rapture and why it can happen perhaps today. The stage is being set by world events that are breaking daily. He exhorts all to look up expectantly. This was at Understanding the Times 2017 on October 7.

1 Cor 15
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. 24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.

28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

1 Peter 3
22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

Acts 3:21
Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

When Jesus left here he sat down at the right hand of God where he must remain until the restitution of all things.

Some people obviously believe he comes and goes more than once but that is not what scripture tells us.

Jesus tells us that he will raise us up at the last day

Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

Believers are the kingdom he is talking about, they will be raised after he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

As 1 Thessalonians 4 says

Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to [a]walk and please God (just as you actually do [b]walk), that you excel still more. 2 For you know what commandments we gave you [c]by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from [d]sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to [e]possess his own [f]vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in [g]lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but [h]in sanctification. 8 So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

9 Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 10 for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, 11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, 12 so that you will [i]behave properly toward outsiders and [j]not be in any need.

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep [k]in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive [l]and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a [m]shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive [n]and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

This very clearly REFUTES the fake 19th century secrete pre-trib rapture philosophy

What does this actually teach?

St. Paul wrote to the Thessalnian Christians because they were worried about those who died before Christ's return. Many in the ancient world believed that a person simply ceased to exist upon death. These was a rumor in Thessalonica at the time Paul wrote the letter that the dead Christians had lost out on any chance of a physical resurrection. St.Paul assures them that it was not so. In fact, "the dead in Christ will rise first" to meet Christ

The Thessalonians knew their dead would rise again but apparently feared that they would not find them in Christ’s retinue at the time of his glorious return. St. Paul assures them that their dead will indeed be there; “slept through Jesus,” a unique phrase, equivalent to “the dead who are in Christ” of 15, cf. Rom 14:7-8. “In (the) word of the Lord”

Paul The Thessalonians knew their dead would rise again but apparently feared that they would not find them in Christ’s retinue at the time of his glorious return. St. Paul assures them that their dead will indeed be there; “slept through Jesus,” a unique phrase, equivalent to “the dead who are in Christ” of 15, cf. Rom 14:7-8. “In (the) word of the Lord”

As it is clear from his answer to their second question (5:1-12) that neither he nor anyone else knows the time of the Second Coming, there can be no question here of his either teaching or hinting at the imminence of the Parousia, as many moderns have thought. His utilization of Matthew 24 is conclusive of his conformity with Christ’s own teaching on the Parousia,Rapturists make the mistake of thinking "meet the Lord in the air" is about Christ not actually touching the earth.

The word St. Paul uses for meeting the Lord "in the air" is aer the Greek word for atmosphere

This SAME word is used in Ephesians 2:2

And you [a]were dead [b]in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the [c]course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

yet no one would claim that, because of this word, Satan wouldn't influence people on the earth

A consistent rapturist reading of this wod here would mean that only airplane passengers are influenced by Satan's power

NO, when Christ returns to the earth's atmosphere, He has returned to earth

Rapturists trying to point to the "coming in the clouds" -- but this ignores the symbol of divinity in the clouds

The Bible uses three Greek words interchangeably

parousia - coming
epiphaneia appearing
apokalupsis revelation

Rapturists think that there is a different usage for each, but that is false - parousia is not used just for some fake "rapture" and the others for the 2nd coming

Paul doesn't mention this 19th century rapture idea as occuring before the appearance of the antichrist and before the second coming is simple: it never entered into his mind that anyone would believe Christ would rapture His Church before the final Eschaton

In the apocalypse, that is referred to as the battle with Gog and Magog, Christians will participate in that confrontation because there will be no secret rapture before it. Our comfort rests in Him who will emerge from that confrontation as the Victor.

THAT is the reassurance Paul offers, not the promise of an escape from the great Tribulation.

yes, the whole Left Behind series is bogus

div class="text"> Darby invented the 19th century rapture philosophy

In 1830 Darby met fifteen-year-old Mararet MacDonald, who claimed to have had a private revelation of a secret rapture that would occur shortly

flash alert -- the "secret rapture" didn't occur in 1830 nor in 1870 nor in 1914 nor in 2012 -- but the gullible who persist in believing in the 19thc century creation of secret pre-Trib rapture keep falling for it

Let's go through all of the hilarious rapture fails

Even the great Billy Graham fell for it
- In a 1950 issue of US News and World reportGraham stated "Two years and it's all going to be over." Flash alert: we're past 1952 and still going
- April 1984 Graham proclaimed, "Anybody who's anybody believes that global war is imminent"
- 1995 "When will the end be?.... Every indication is that it will be sooner than we think
Hal lindsey in 1970 The late great planet earth -- with the Rapture idea that the rapture was due before the end of the 1980s - FAIL
1978 Chuck Smith, Evangelical pastor wrote "The Lord is coming before the end of 1981" -- errr.. another fail
Gary Wilburn in Christianity todayin 1979 wrote "The world must end within one generation from the birth of the state of Israel. Any opinion of world affairs that does not dovetail with this prophecy is dismissed" -- Rapturists claim that this means the rapture must occur within forty years of the founding of Israel in 1948 -- FAIL. The year 1988 came and went
in 1988, Edgar Whisenat published and distributed his pamphlet 88 reasons why the rapture will be in 1988 -- He specified September as the month in which Christ would return -- bzzz. RAPTURE-FAIL again.
But the rapture didn't occur in 1988 so Whisenant wrote 89 reasons why the rapture will be in 1989
Then rapture-fails sorry rapturists claim that this 40 year should be counted from 1967 - RAPTURE-FAIL again as 2007 came and went.
Jerry Falwell in 1989 sent out a mass mailing In just a few days we will enter what will be the final decade!
On december 19, 1994, US News and world report stated that 1 in 5 Americans believed the world would end within a few years!

RAPTURE-FAIL once more
Pat Robertson on May 12, 1994 We are talking about the final age of humankind right now... Please call and make a pledge... your dollars may not do any good in give years or so"

Then you got the Rapture-fails of the Left Behind series
the Rapture fail of the "The Bible Code" that all life would be wiped out when a comet crashed into the earth in 2012 -- err.. that didn't happen, another rapture fail

Net - net, this fake 19th century philosophy has been shown to be continuously failing and still rapturists follow it - adding on a few more years each time they fail

2 Peter has Peter specifically describing the days he and his readers were living in as "the last days"

The Millenium is a spiritual reign of Christ that has been present in the community of Christ since Pentecost.

The Bible continually uses the terms Kingdom of God, Kingdom of heaven, Messianic Kingdom and Church interchangeably

Matt 7:21 "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."
Matt 9:35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
Matt 16:13-20: 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Luke 11:20 But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.
The entire bible is amillenial and the Rapturists can only distort Revelation 20:1-6 -- note "distort" to put their 19th century rapture philosophy
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Yet we need to read what the Apostles themselves were taught and what they believed
- Hebrews 1:1-2 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
  2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
- Hebrews 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
- Peter says in Acts 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
Notice that they state that the Apostles and their listeneres were in the last days or the end of the age -- because the Messiah had come
Peter never changed his mind about this - as we read in 1 Pet 1:20 Christ was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake
This is relected in Pauline epistles like 2 Tim 3:1 "In these last days" and Jude 18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
We have been in the last days since that first advent of Christ
Since the Ascension God's plan has entered into its fulfillment. WE are already at 'the last hour'. Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way

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