Posted on 06/19/2017 10:24:21 PM PDT by righttackle44
If and when the Rapture of the Church occurs and Christians are spirited off the face of the earth to Heaven, how will the secular governments and media explain the phenomenon? Millions of people will suddenly be gone from the societies and populations of the earth. Many who thought or said that they were Christians, will still be here.
No born-again Christians will be here.
The Billy Graham article is cited to provide information.
You commented on an article concerning the Rapture. I thought you might find related information of interest.
I examine this subject in detail at “The Rescue of the Bride” http://october-5-2017.com
In my opinion, we do not have sufficient Biblical support to pinpoint the exact date and time of the Rapture. However, we can assign Gregorian calendar dates to certain events described in the Bible. These events allow us to know the date range within which other events, including the Rapture, must occur. We just cannot determine, with certainty, the exact date and time of the Rapture.
The Great Sign of the Woman (Revelation 12:1-2) appears on September 23, 2017 exactly at sunset in Jerusalem - exactly at the end of Rosh Ha Shanah, exactly at the time of the blowing of “the last trump.”
1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Revelation 12:1-2
Even though our Gregorian calendars show that Rosh Ha Shanah will begin at sunset on September 20, I strongly believe that the two (2) day observance of Rosh Ha Shanah will start one day late this year, on September 21.
Rosh Ha Shanah is a two (2) day celebration. It runs Tishrei 1 and Tishrei 2 on the Hebrew calendar. However, traditionally, Tishrei 1 cannot begin unless two reliable witnesses tell the temple priests that they have seen the first sliver of the new moon.
For the year 2017, Hebcal.com shows that Tishrei 1 begins on Wednesday, September 20 at sunset. However, from the following analysis, we can determine that Tishrei 1 will not begin on September 20.
From September 20 at 5:30 UTC (new moon, 0% illuminated) to September 20 at 15:40 UTC (sunset, Jerusalem) the moon’s illumination only grows from 0.00% to 0.75%. During this time, the moon will be in conjunction with the sun. The tiny lighted sliver of moon will be washed out by the sun and hidden by blue sky. The blue mid-day sky and the brightness of the sun will make it impossible to see the moon at all.
Bottom line: There will be no witness to a new moon on September 20, 2017. Tishrei 1 will not begin on Wednesday, September 20. Instead, it will begin the following day, Thursday, September 21, 2017 at sunset.
Remember that Rosh Ha Shanah is a two (2) day celebration. This means that Rosh Ha Shanah will end two (2) days later on Saturday, September 23, 2017 at sunset. Sunset on that day is at 15:36 UTC. This will be the time when the last trumpet will be blown - the “twinkling of an eye” moment. By sunset, the moon will have moved to a position that is at or below the feet of Virgo. This will complete The Great Sign of the Woman (Revelation 12:1-2).
In my opinion, this is a likely “rescue/rapture” date. We see the first evidence that the “rescue/rapture” has occurred when “The Great Multitude in White Robes” [Revelation 7:9ff] appears in the throne room of Yahuah (God) twelve (12) days later on October 5, 2017, just after the opening of the Sixth Seal (Revelation 6:12). These events allow us to tie events in the Bible to the Gregorian calendar and unlock the timeline of the Book of Revelation.
Blessings to you and your loved ones.
Dan :-)
As Christ said.... Prepare as if I will return at any moment... So I try my best, although poorly, to emulate Him.... to worship Him.... to serve others.... repent.... and unceasingly pray to Him....
Come Lord Jesus.... We need ya more than ever.
Dan,
I agree with your analysis — totally. But I’m unclear as to the application of “rescue” in rapture/rescue. I’ve been following Scottie Clarke on this and am a bit disappointed in the Old Guard dispensationalists ignoring it. The greatest offense was when Gary Stearman or Rapture Ready invited Billu Cone on his show to very arrogantly dismiss it.
I have been a student of Scripture for 50 years and have never seen anything as exciting as this. YET, many fundamentalists are not interested. It’s as HamrickCE (YouTube) said, many of the conservative believers do not want their comfortable lives interrupted and don’t want to see a 2017 return.
Give me more info on anything you have on the internet. Scottie Clarke hasn’t put out anything lately so I’m still looking for more.
A different believer, name escapes me, made this great insightful comment on one of his posted videos. When Jesus was discussing His return to the disciples and mentioned the “sign of the Son of Man” in heaven, none of them asked Him “what is that?” The reason is that they knew it from Isaiah 7:14 — a virgin giving birth.
That was my last “ah-hah” moment on this topic. It was exciting though.
At His second coming, Christ's feet shall stand on the mount of Olives after He fights with the nations (Zechariah 14:4). If the saints are always with the Lord, they will be there also.
This will conclude my involvement in this line of discussion. Neither of us will persuade the other. Have a nice life.
Dan — I just saw your link and am VERY interested in spending a lot of time there.
Why, it's in your Latin Vulgate. Have you never deigned to read Jesus' words in the original Latin? /s
So we diligently search the Scriptures, so we masticate the Word, We don’t say bygones will be bygones on something as critical as this. This was a topic the Lord spent a lot of time on — being easily and arbitrarily dismissed by those of Reformed theology.
EliRoom8,
My article, “The Rescue of the Bride” is posted at http://october-5-2017.com
All of my video work is on YouTube at my channel: TheRescueOfTheBride
The article is cross-linked to the videos and vice versa.
The rapture happens at Christ’s return; there’s no need for any explaining.
When Harold Camping announced the rapture in 2011, an acquaintance of mine got caught up in the stampede. I tried to explain to him why it wasn't going to happen but he refused to let me "undermine his faith." Then, I pleaded with him to come see me after the appointed date and he said he'd be in heaven by then.
Of course, after the disappointment, he gave up on Christianity and was no longer interested in talking about it.
I will not extend the same offer to you because I don't know you; I will merely say that on September of this year THERE WON'T BE A RAPTURE!
OMGoodness. I’m looking forward to it. Look up!
They’ll appoint a special counsel - probably an atheist - to see if the Russians had anything to do with it. Then, they’ll blame it on Trump.
A couple missing persons reports, that ought to cover it.
Neutron bomb.
Paul wrote of Christ's coming, "Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep [die], but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:51,52).
Christ said the dead shall be raised at His coming!
When? At His return; at His coming!
The resurrection does not occur until the moment of Christ's VISIBLE, TUMULTUOUS, POWERFUL, EARTH-SHAKING RETURN!
The Resurrection and
the "Catching Up" of the Saints
Now, notice: "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which sleep [are dead] in Jesus will God bring with Him.
"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep [are dead].
"For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
"THEN [and not one second before!] we which are alive [Paul wrote to the church, the saints] and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:14-18).
Notice that the living saints are not to precede the dead in Christ by so much as a second!
WHEN, then, is the resurrection?
Notice! "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the Firstfruits of them that slept.
"For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
"But every man in his own order: Christ the Firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's at His coming [parousia]" (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).
Now, notice another graphic, earth-shaking description of Christ's Second Coming:
"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and true, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war.
"His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself.
"And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God.
"And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
"And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
"And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
"And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;
"That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
"And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army.
"And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
"And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh" (Revelation 19:11-21).
Anyone who believes for one instant there is anything "secretive" about this stupendous series of events is incapable of understanding plain English.
Notice further information about Christ's Second Coming:
"Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
"For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
"Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle.
"And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
"And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
"But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
"And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
"And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name" (Zechariah 14:1-9).
This great earthquake is also mentioned in Revelation 16:17-19, in connection with Christ's coming to smash the power of the ten kings comprising the Beast power (Revelation 17:12-14).
Clearly, the prophecy includes the battle of Armageddon (Daniel 11:40-45; Revelation 16:14-16), and the Second Coming of Christ to destroy these arms gathered against Jerusalem!
The time element is inescapable. "His feet shall stand IN THAT DAY UPON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES" is as plain as the nose on your face!
Christ is not coming in "two phases," first, "for" His saints prior to the Tribulation and Day of the Lord, and then, "with" His saints afterwards!
Clearly, the living saints will not precede those who have died down through the ages; those martyred in the first century, including Peter, James, and Paul! Instead, they are to be either resurrected, or changed, in a moment, in the "twinkling of an eye" AT THE LAST TRUMP!
The last trump is the last of the seven trumpet plagues, at the moment of the great earthquake, and the Second Coming of Christ!
What Difference Does it All Make?
Why should someone who believes in the "rapture" get ANGRY when shown, from the Bible, that the so-called "secret rapture" is a myth?
If Christ is going to redeem the saved; if Christ is coming to catch up His people, including the dead in Christ, and descend with them to the mount of Olives in the same day, then His true followers will be SAVED, will they not?
They will be born of God by a resurrection, or an instantaneous change, will they not? (1 Corinthians 15:50-52).
They will then come down from the clouds, perhaps anywhere from 10 to 40,000 feet above the earth, in this earth's atmosphere, and will be with Christ as He begins to rule this earth with a rod of iron.
What is so wrong with these wondrous promises of your Bible that "pretribulationists" and "secret rapturists" seem to violently object?
It is simply this: Somehow, they cannot bring themselves to believe the "saved" could suffer any harm! For some reason, an insidious false assumption has crept into the minds of millions of people, an assumption which says God would not think of allowing His saints to come to any physical harm! No, any such terrible event is reserved only for the wicked, so they think! What they do not realize is that such a false assumption makes them out to be better than Christ!
Did not Christ say, "If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you also"? Did He not say, "In this world ye shall tribulation"? Did He not say, "The time will come when they that killeth you will think they do God a service"?
Another equation in this false assumption is that martyrdom is reserved for the spiritually weak!
Those who cling to the false notion of "church eras" point out how God will allegedly throw those in the so-called "Laodicean attitude" of lukewarmness into the Great Tribulation, while spiriting away into a desert wilderness the "good" people in the "Philadelphian era."
According to this scenario, those closest to God; those on fire with zeal; those with the most faith, the most works, the most spiritual character, will be PROTECTED from the Tribulation, miraculously "taken to a place of safety."
But those who are less faithful, not so close to God; those without zeal; those who are lukewarm, who have weak spiritual character, will be chosen as God's martyrs!
As they suffer, they will realize how terribly weak, and lukewarm they have been, as the theory goes, and, under torture and eventual death, they will repent!
But WHO did God choose as His martyrs?
Look at the list: Jesus Christ, Peter, James, Paul, Stephen, Antipas, dozens of others in the first century. Read the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, how God's greatest prophets were oftentimes martyred for their faith.
John saw a vision of the witness of two prophets, two human beings who will personally testify against the Beast and the False Prophet! Their Prophecy is to take place during the Tribulation!
"And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
"These are the two olive trees [mentioned in symbol in Zechariah 4:3], and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
"And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
"These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
"And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit [the abyss—a spiritual metaphor] shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
"And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
"And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
"And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts to one another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth.
"And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
"And they heard a great voice out from heaven saying unto them, ‘Come up hither,’ And they ascended to heaven [this earth's atmosphere, where vapors form clouds—not the "third heaven" of God's throne] in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
"And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted: and gave glory to the God of heaven" (Revelation 11:2-13).
These two men are in Jerusalem all during the Tribulation and the Day Of the Lord. Their three and one-half year's testimony coincides exactly with the "time of Jacob's trouble," of three and one-half years; with the "times of the Gentiles" of three and one-half years; with the "treading down of Jerusalem" of three and one-half years!
God gives them power far above that of Moses or Elijah. The plagues they call down upon sinning mankind, upon the Beast and False Prophet, are global in nature, not national, or local, as in the former cases.
These two prophets, the "two witnesses" of the future, are human beings, converted, Spirit-led SAINTS! They are Christ's servants, conducting the last-minute, FINAL phase of God's work on this earth of PERSONALLY witnessing to the Beast and False Prophet in the name of Christ!
What happens to them?
They are martyred!
When the Beast is finally able to "make war" against them, overcome them, and kill them, the Bible does not tell us specifically how they die. You can be sure it will not be pleasant! Yet, after lying dead in the street for three and one-half days, they are obviously resurrected, and will be given eternal life! Are these two great prophets "Laodicean"?
Are they "left behind" when the saints are "raptured," or the so-called "Philadelphia era" goes to a "place of safety"?
Do they suffer a horrible death because they are spiritually inferior?
No, God does not choose the spiritually WEAK, the lukewarm, to be His martyrs!
Instead, He chooses those who are so close to God that they literally count all things in this life "as dung" (Philippians 3:8) in comparison with the Kingdom of God, and eternal life!
"Rapturists," like "survivalists" and "escapists," have their minds on the preservation of this physical life!
Jesus Christ tells them that those who seek to save their lives in this world, who have their minds on physical things, are likely to lose out on salvation!
No, God is NOT going to "rapture" away His saints secretly. The lady with the bumper sticker will not suddenly disappear through her roof, after all!
Let us not trust in false hopes, but in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and God the Father, Who loves us, and Who promises eternal life with Him in His Kingdom to all those who "endure unto the end," whether that means the end of our own physical lives or the end of the Tribulation and the Day of the Lord!
Dan,
I think your sight looks very impressive and I’m definitely looking forward to getting into it. But why hasn’t it come up when I’ve done searches on YouTube under September 23 or the Revelation 12 sign? Is that on my end, YouTube’s, or yours?
EliRoom8,
Thank you for the heads up. I will add September 23 and Revelation 12 to the metadata.
After the Rapture there will be many many people left on earth who always believed they were Christians but unfortunately did not fully understand that being a Christian means confessing that one is a sinner, totally surrendering ones life to God, and fully believing that Christ's resurrection paid in full for our sins. I would add to the above a belief that God's Holy Word, the Bible is 100% literally true, but I suspect that doing the 1st three on the above list will mean that the Holy Spirit entering your life will show you the literal truth of the Bible.
So those left as confused, but wanting to be Christian, will then understand what they were missing and fully repent and believe. It will be too late for them to join in the Rapture, but not too late for salvation, and they will be persecuted by the Godless.
Don’t hold your breath.
I used to have far more patience with these preterits than I do now. But it’s too late in the game to explain the 70 Weeks, etc.
10 the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.
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