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 first several translation of the Bible from Greek to English and other languages used the word The Departure' when translating 2Thes 2:3. You can take 2 Thess 2:3 as a dual meaning possibly, the 'apostia' is a departing from the faith and the departure of those who belong to Christ before the lawless one can be revealed because He Who retsrains him is in us and until He is taken out of the way in our departure, the man of sin is restrained from release.
1 John 3:9 tells us it is God abiding in us, in our spirit. Thus it is His presence in our spirit which must be remobed from the earth in order for the restrained of the lawless one to be removed. Think: it is the salt bearers which are restraining the unfettered evil upon the Earth.
If traffic in The San Francisco Bay Area is any indication of the rapture, I feel cheated...
It is a beautiful place.
Ah yes,
The rapture.
One of those American born (dispensationalisms - thank you John Darby) ideas in that sea of 10,000 Christian flavors today where without any true traditions or apostolic succession we just reinvent Christianity.
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Well and truly said and every word of it. More Fundy nonsense. Last time I checked the word “rapture” was nowhere to be found in the Bible.
I love the writers at the Babylon Bee.
It has NOTHING to do with water. It is spiritual.
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Should I assume your post is a new revelation, to wit, The Gospel According to smvoice, because I don’t recall ever seeing it in my trusty KJV?
Such a weak and often repeated meme. Trinity is not in the Bible either, yet we can discern the reality of it. If you want to look for the arrival of the lawless one, you can do it for those not ‘in Christ’ will see the revelation of the false savior, antiChrist -if they survive the cataclysms which will happen in places where a large number of Christ’s own have died and are now living.
The meek.
I am thankful for John Darby. The Brethren Movement, Assemblies, Gospel Hall’s, have produced most of the best commentaries on the Bible I have ever read.
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Really? How so?
Don’t need to.
In America we have legions of experts that can tell you all about whatever it is you want to hear. In this country we constantly discover something that no one ever knew before in 2,000 years, not even Jesus or the Apostles. We have enough experts to show us how the Bible is flawed but then claim it’s God inspired and the inerrant word of God.
Yes, in America land of the female pastors, gay marriage, global warming rhetoric from the pulpit and every other contemporary idea, I don’t need to add my 10 cents.
America will accomplish what not even the communists were able to achieve in the atheist Soviet Union and China.
***This country will kill Christianity by commercializing it and turning it into a farce with all these experts and visionaries, loud mouths and showmen that should be on stage in Vegas.
Isn’t it about time for another Joseph Smith to have visions in this country?
Just tell me what flavor you like, I can find you a church that tells you want you want to hear. Do you want black liberation theology? How about a church that uses a gender neutral Bible? Open communion? How about a Christian pastor that doesn’t mention Jesus in a service not to offend other faiths? How about one where your pet goes to heaven or where abortion is acceptable? Want a little bit of socialism as part of your Christianity? Just tell me what you like? I’m sure they all have very moving services where you can feel the spirit, and of course they are all straight from the Bible.
I’m not an expert but I know enough to see that Christianity is made a mockery of in this country.
Have you not read Paul’s Epistles?
So Yeshua will never return to take us all home? That’s what I interpret you as saying. Life will just go on and get worse and worse.
Well, Pastor Bill, I agree with a lot of your threads, but, as a Historic Premillennialist (HP), this is one I can’t.
It is obvious when reading the ECF (Early Church Fathers) that Clement of Rome, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Hermas, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian, Methodius, and Lactantius, were both “post-trib” and premillennialist. Hence, the “Historic” part of Historic Premillennialist. HP’s are “post-trib” as the pretrib rapture was not invented until about 1600 years later.
In none of the above writers from early church history, none of them gave the slightest hint that they had ever even heard of such a thing as a pretrib rapture.
A rapture, yes, but as Jesus said in his Olivet Discourse, it takes place after the great tribulation.
As for the millennial, Origen was the first we have record of to alegorize the millennial, Augustine advancing that idea, it becoming the eschatology of the RCC later.
As all of the ECF writers I mentioned (Justin Martyr, etc.) believed in a premillennial second coming (a post-trib one, premillennialism is the historic view here also.
This is a heresy and when the rapture does not happen people will be scandalized out of their faith. This is terrible and I will pray for those who fall for this error
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Well and truly said and every word of it. Just another of the countless heresies foisted on the gullible by fundamentalist no-nothings!
Oh. And what do you believe is the religion that does Not make a mockery? Please show me your wisdom in matters of God’s word.
What we call churches today are merely the buildings in which we assemble.
WE ARE THE CHURCH. Believers are the Church, not some building or teachings.
Joe Smith’s religion is not Christian / not Christianity. That starwman will not walk.
I see I need to make a few corrections in what I just posted:
Here:
In all of the above writers from early church history, none of them gave the slightest hint that they had ever even heard of such a thing as a pretrib rapture.
And here:
As all of the ECF writers I mentioned (Justin Martyr, etc.) believed in a premillennial second coming (a post-trib one), premillennialism is the historic view here also.
Maybe I should give you a STARTING PLACE
to wit: 1 Cor. 1:17. What does this say?
“How so?” How so - what?
John Nelson Darby, William Kelly, William Lincoln, John Caldwell, John Ritchie, WJ McClure, and many others have written commentaries that any true student of the Bible would benefit from.
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