Posted on 05/08/2020 4:37:58 PM PDT by pastorbillrandles
By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:4-6)
The famous “Faith Chapter” in the book of Hebrews, begins with two Saints, Abel and Enoch as examples of faith which we are to imitate. Faith is the point, for faith is the only way to please God.
I once asked the LORD, ‘Why Faith? Why is that what you require?” I believe I received several answers in the form of scripture and impressions, from the LORD. God requires faith, because we simply cannot save ourselves. Only God can save our souls, no one can redeem themselves, therefore Faith is required, because faith glorifies God and not man.
Another reason for the requirement of faith that came to me, is that our problems began when we quit believing in the goodness of God. Adam and Eve were willing to entertain a false and degraded notion of God, that He was holding something back that would be good for the first couple. The Serpent bore false witness about the LORD, and they believed it.
The way back? It has to be faith. We must repent and believe again in the goodness of God.
The “hall of faith” begins with Abel and Enoch. One Saint who was murdered for his faith, and for bearing witness to God in a hostile world. There would be literally millions upon millions who would follow in his footsteps, being willing to let go of their life rather than deny the truth of God.
The other Saint, Enoch, was a man who lived in a kind of “end times scenario” living in the time leading up to the flood. It was a day of Apostasy, but Enoch walked with God, until God took Him home. He didn’t die , He was raptured. God took him home, to be with himself.
Faith was required of each of them.
I believe that we also live in an end-time. I have no doubt that Jesus is coming, and in our lifetime. What makes us unique is the re-emergence of the nation of Israel, in 1948, in fulfillment of the prophecies about the last of the last days. All of the prophets pre-supposed that there would be a national Israel, and a Jewish occupied city of Jerusalem, as well as a controversy over Judea, (The West bank) which would engulf the whole world.
The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. (Zechariah 12:1-3)
Which brings us back to our two Saints at the beginning of Hebrews 11. One died, He was martyred for his witness to God. The other one did not die. He was Raptured. Both of these Saints lived by Faith and Pleased God.
I believe that this speaks to us in our generation.
No doubt. many of us will end up dying. Perhaps some of us will be given an opportunity to be martyred. We are Saints and love God, but all things being equal, unless the LORD returns, we will die, one way or another.
(Of course, Christians don’t really die, they “go to sleep”) but the real point is that Faith is the only way to please God.
But according to the scriptures, there is a unique end-times event, coming, as I hope I have pointed out in this series, called the Rapture, or “Our gathering together unto Him”, “the Episynagogue” and Jesus coming to “take us where (He)…is, unto himself”. The LORD is coming to snatch us off the earth with a swift and irresistable power”.
To participate in such an event is a rare honor among the countless Millions of Saints who believed in Jesus before us.
But whether we die, or are martyred, o whether we are raptured, the real point is that we must live our lives by Faith,which is the only way to please God.
This is why I do not enter into the countless discussions as to the timing of the Rapture. “Will The Rapture be pre- ,mid , or post Tribulation”?
Honesty, the only things I am sure about the Rapture at all are that it is:
* For God’s Saints only, and the prospect of it is a comfort.
* A Mystery revealed in the New Testament era.
* It occurs before the actual “Wrath ” of God.
* It involves the “dead in Christ” as well as “We who are alive, until the coming of the LORD”.
As far as I know, all else can only be speculation. God doesn’t want us to know the exact timing otherwise it would be clearer. I am glad there is a Rapture, and my prayer has always been that I be involved in it, while alive. But I cannot say with certainty what the timing of it is, so I don’t.
What counts is Faith in Jesus. Not dead works, but a living, vital, infectious faith. Let us have a faith which still moves us to confess and forsake our sins, to Love and seek God. To forgive and love our brothers, and a faith which moves us to share with others what God has shown to us. Is your faith alive? Do you have oil in your lamp? Are you current with God?
We Overcome the World by our faith. “This is the victory that overcometh the World…our faith”. We overcome the Spirit of antiChrist also, by our faith. So also we overcome the sins that so easily beset us, and the Coldness and soul deadening effect of this world, by our Faith.
Of course we want out of here, we can increasingly see that there is nothing in this World for we who believe, but rejection and opposition.I want Jesus to come, and Long for the Rapture. I am either going up in it, or I am gong to die, but one way or another we are leaving.
Either way, the point is Faith. So I will leave the timing of the Rapture to God, and just strive to be counted worthy to attain it, whether ded or alive.
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke 21:35)
The ‘article’ is self contradictoring, so it may be dismissed as confusion not clarifying.
Paul closed that explanation with verse eighteen, 'Wherefore COMFORT one another with this'. Looking for the rise of the Lawless One doesn't seem like such a great comfort for folkswho have the Life of God abiding in their born again spirits. (see 1 John 3:9... God abiding is not a yo-yo reality).
I'm reminded that Jesus did not say to the thief on the cross..... “If you want the truth on this, you follow a certain order”......nor to the disciples at Pentecost that the work of the Holy Spirit depended on if they were pretrib or post trib . You remind me of those who have taken their studies so far they have forgotten the message of Salvation in it's simplicity and therefore keep people from entering...setting down 'requirements' Jesus never taught.
In my opinion, it is far more critical that our “preparation” be the very things we are dealing with here. One must be prepared spiritually first and foremost.
As a former pretribber, I had to get to the bottom of this issue. It took me about a year, it was tough, I had to unlearn almost everything I thought I knew. I was worth every minute. If one will get to the bottom of this issue, he is getting “prepared,” as you say.
And do you do that because you've had a change or heart, or because it's commanded (i.e., works based salvation). It's complicated, but simple for those pure in heart.
...I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the one to come...
...they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
2 Cor. 1:21,22. “Now he that established us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who HATH SEALED us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”.
We were SEALED the moment we believed.
Eph.1:13. “In whom ye also trusted, AFTER that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: In whom also AFTER THAT he BELIEVED, ye WERE SEALED with that Holy Spirit of promise”.
..you may have “forgotten” the wrong things
I’m sorry. I said “forgotten” the “wrong things”.It was “unlearned” the “wrong things” that you said.
Indeed!..and Amen!
I am looking for the arrival IN THE AIR of my Savior and Lord Who has Promised He will come and gather us unto Himself and return to His Father's House where He has been preparing a place for us. (John 14)
The passage where He pormises to gather us unto Himself is preceeded by the reference to a place He is preparing for us in His Father's House, so what follows that revelation is referring to His gathering us to take us to where He has prepared a place for us. [Paul refers to this gathering to Him in 2 Thess 2:1, remember?] There are seven Earth years spent THERE with HIM, then He brings us along to the touchdown event disclosed as the end event to the Great Tribulation.
Paul told you that it is GOD Who is in the spirit of the believer and John (1 John 3:9) further elaborates that God is abiding in the spirit of the born agains ... abiding, not coming and going, ABIDING.
Jesus referred to the Jews as salt who had lost their 'savor' and thus had reached the fail point of being unuseful as salt against lawlessness. Can you point to any message Jesus gave prior to His resurrection that speaks of The Church? Has He used His Body of Believers to restrain the lawless one for two thousand years? Did you know those in Christ will have their spirits placed in a new body and behavior mechanism when He comes to gather us to Himself for the trip back to the Father's House? Have you been under a mistaken notion that God will redeem your behavior mechanism? [ The Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, able to separate soul and spirit, and He is abiding in the spirit, not the soul, the behavior mechanism, for He is going to give His a new behavior mechanism not bent toward sinning ] Fundamental to all of this is the fact that God is pure righteousness and expressing His righteousness with His Love toward those who are His and even the lost. But He is coming to gather unto Himself those in Him by the presences of His Life in their born again spirits.
One last point for pondering: when Jesus left the tomb He took the body into another where/when but came to see His disciples in a six sided room without opening a door or window; He just stepped from that 'other' where/when (hinted at strongly by passages such as Daniel, in palace party central, Babylon) into the where/when of the Disciples. On the day of Pentecost His Spirit made then Apostles, no longer just disciples. He is about to perform a similar event when He removes all of His since the Day of Pentecost when Peter preached the Gospel.
THEN, He will leave the scoffing unbelievers the presence of the unrestrained lawless one while He is at The Father's House with us for seven years. There will be a Bema Seat of rewards judging during that seven years at the Father's House. Will you be there, or on Earth experiencing the lawless one's behavior and the wrath of God increasing upon the unbelievers? { And this time I am referring to unbelievers in the Promises of God, the ones who are shocked into awakening to call upon the Lord. This time I am referring to those who did not believe and get born again before Jesus gathered His unto Himself and return to the Father's House. ]
Pingaling , meant to include you in the above post
Yes, through Christ believers escape God’s wrath—presently, later during the Day of the Lord, and in eternity.
The trouble with modern eschatology is the failure to distinguish the Day of the Lord from the Great Tribulation as well as Daniel’s seventieth week (sometimes referred to as the “tribulation period”).
The Great Tribulation immediately precedes the Day of the Lord.
The tribulation period (Daniel’s seventieth week) begins with worldwide peace and worldwide deception. See Revelation 6:4 and Matthew 24:4-5.
The Great Tribulation begins with the abomination of desolation, in which the antichrist breaks his 7-year peace treaty with Israel by desecrating the third temple. See Matthew 24:15-22.
This event also must precede the Day of the Lord. See 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4
The Day of the Lord does not begin quietly or subtly like Daniel’s seventieth week. Rather it is accompanied by sudden destruction and the outpouring of fire from Heaven by the Holy angels. See 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 and 2 Thessalonians 1:8.
Nor is it a time in which man exalts himself as antichrist does in the ultimate act of pride and rebellion at the abomination of desolation in which he declares himself to be God. See 2 Thessalonians 2:4 and Isaiah 2:12.
An event unique in human history will mark the end of the Great Tribulation and the imminence of the Day of the Lord: a simultaneous eclipse of the sun, moon, and stars. Note that this event comes AFTER the Great Tribulation but BEFORE the Day of the Lord:
Joel 2:31 (NKJV)
The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.
Matthew 24:29 (NKJV)
Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
We take great pride in our divisions nowadays.
Long ago and within our selves now, we broke up and each division now really and truly has its own piece of the Truth, but we are also guessing about the rest with equal certainty.
In somehow coming back together again as one Church, under the One Jesus, our mistakes and errors in understanding could be corrected, but we’re not there yet.
Arrogant certainty blinds us Truth, and thus to our own sins, and even worse, to how we reject God and diss His Holy Spirit nowadays, and all while claiming to be washed clean by the Blood of Jesus.
I hope He knows us or it won’t end well.
And even if He does know us, blasphemy against His Holy Spirit isn’t forgiven or forgotten. What sort of purgatory will moves like that earn for us?
Our guilt is worse when we supposedly know better and do it anyway, right?
+1
Thanks!
There is no such place or behavior mechanism cleanser as purgatory. God did not take flesh and dwell among us to redeem our sin encrusted souls. He focused upon our spirit attached to our soul, and by separating that spirit from that behavior mechanism by the swift slice of His Word, He made a secure place where He has Promised to have His Life abiding unto the day He redeems our spirit by giving it a new body and new soul fit for eternal living in His Presence.
AMEN!! And MARANATHA!
The sky rolls up like a scroll, men hidden in the earth call for it to fall upon them - I don't think there will be any confusion when this day actually arrives. This is when the rapture will occur, IMHO, at or around the opening of the seventh seal, before the trumpets sound, but I could be wrong.
These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
"Who have come out of", literally means out of the midst of the "great" tribulation, before the final aftermath. Exactly when, I'm not too sure.
Whatever sort of cleansing that results from the suffering experienced there is by design, in my ever so humble guess/theory/opinion.
How does the Holy Spirit work today?
Consider what sort of miracles have been done and are being done in our times now vs how they are being received by both the saved and the unsaved?
At what point does our incredulity become blasphemy against His Holy Spirit?
When are those sins forgiven?
What does that sort of sin “look” like on our souls? Our brand new souls?
How does He “see” us?
You’ve yet again brought up the fact you changed your position on the Coming of Christ.....sounds more to me like you struggled with the truth you already determined and were ‘drawn away’ from that to believe otherwise.....
However as you know some of us are steady and convinced fully in what the scriptures tell us and choose not to be drawn away into a belief that ties people up in pretzels trying to defend it.....
Further if we are in Christ we have all we need by and through His spirit in us therefore we are complete in Him and His all sufficiency.......so that when our Lord returns, like a ‘thief in the night’ who comes unexpectedly, we are indeed ready...
However God is faithful and does not want any to perish so he waits for his people to come to him as we present the gospel message and they cry out...”O Lord, will you meet with me!”
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