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The Rapture

Is it near? Or, is it wishful thinking?

Many Christians believe that the "Rapture" of the Church will kick off the tribulation period.

Many (and I) believe that the Rapture is an "end times" event (aka: "eschatological" event).  We believe the Lord Jesus Christ will return for His Church - and that believers who are "alive and remain shall be caught up together…in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air"....

The word "Rapture" comes from the Latin word "Rapare" which means to take away or to snatch out.  In Christendom, those who believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture are called "Pre-tribs".  Those who believe in a Post-Tribulation Rapture are called "Post-tribs".   Do not confuse the "Rapture" with the Second Coming.  This is an altogether different event.  

WAS IT ISRAEL or JERUSALEM?

Are we in the "End Times"?  Jesus said the generation that would live to see Israel become a nation again would not all pass away before He returned.  Israel became a nation again in 1948.  See the parable of "The Fig Tree".

Or, was it the generation that saw Jerusalem back in Israeli hands --would not pass away before he returns.  Remember, all of Jerusalem finally passed to Israel again in 1967.  Throughout Scripture, it is Jerusalem that has had the main focus on regarding time scales.  So, Bible Probe thinks this refers to Jerusalem (1967) and not Israel (1948).

Jesus promised to return.  And Scripture has Jesus returning to destroy the forces of the Antichrist in this Second Coming; which will have Jesus return exactly as (and where) He disappeared.  Over a month after He rose from the dead Jesus ascended into the clouds from Jerusalem's Mount of Olives, in front of many witnesses.  The angels there said Jesus would return the exact same way (upon the Mt of Olives).

BUT--Although the exact time period is unknown, Jesus will not come in secret.  "As the lightning comes from the east, Jesus will come".  It will be a very noisy and highly visible event. 

Matthew 24:27
For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Revelation 11:19
Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

 

The Apostle Paul warns us in Galatians 1:6-9: 

Warning to Mormons, Muslims and Jehovah Witnesses

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another: but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.  As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than ye have received, let him be accursed." 

Note: That Paul thought this above message was so important--that he repeated it twice.

The first time I can find where anyone ever preached the gospel other than the gospel that the apostles taught was when a British preacher named John Darby did this about a coming "rapture" in 1830.  

Or, was it?  See Mathew 24, Revelation 3:10, Luke 17:36,  Thessalonians 4:13-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 below... Also, read the pronouncement by "Our Lady at Bayside" (NY) below about the Rapture.  These are all pretty strong arguments for a Rapture. 

Darby taught that the church would be raptured before the "falling away" period, probably based on a prophetic "revelation" a 15-year old Scottish girl named Margaret MacDonald is said to have had about a "rapture".  These (Darby & MacDonald) seem to be among those who first started the actual "doctrine" of a rapture. 

Perhaps it was Darby who was just the first to put together all the scriptural "hints" about a coming rapture. Margaret MacDonald's revelation is said to have been about a post-tribulation Rapture. She said that the Holy Spirit would protect the Church through the Tribulation.  Yet, of interest, John Darby was declaring a pre-tribulation Rapture as early as 1827, three years before Macdonald's vision.  Christians should be aware that the Darby/MacDonald theory of a coming rapture ---was never scriptural.  

There is no doubt that the gospel teaches about a coming Anti-Christ, a final war (a tribulation of sorts), and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ as the King of Kings. But I can find no direct teachings by the Apostles about something as important as a "secret Rapture".

AND, Christians never believed or taught about any pre-tribulation "rapture" before that young Scottish (Margaret MacDonald) girl had her "vision" in 1830. I do note that Grant Jeffrey, along with Hal Lindsey (both Christian book writers) both teach a pre-tribulation rapture. Grant also says that an ancient church theologian (373 A.D.) named Ephraem the Syrian taught a pre-tribulation rapture. Both have also sold many books teaching a 7-year tribulation. BUT WAIT! Is there anything about a 7 year tribulation in Scripture at all? Not if you interpret Scripture as early writers wrote it. That was how it effected the ancient Jews and Israel.

In the 1820's a Scottish preacher named John Darby was teaching that the church would be raptured before the "falling away" period. And then in 1830 a prophetic "revelation" by a 15-year old Scottish girl named Margaret MacDonald is said to have had about a "rapture" pushed Darby further along into his "Rapture theory". These (Darby & MacDonald) seem to be among those who first started the actual "doctrine" of a rapture.

Perhaps it was Darby who was just the first to put together all the scriptural "hints" -- like those listed above -- about a coming rapture. Margaret MacDonald's revelation is said to have been about a post-tribulation Rapture. She said that the Holy Spirit would protect the Church through the Tribulation. Yet, of interest, John Darby was declaring a pre-tribulation Rapture as early as 1827, three years before Macdonald's vision.

Christians should be aware that the Darby/MacDonald theory of a coming rapture ---was never scriptural, or ever taught by the Apostles.
 

BUT WAIT!  Is there anything about a 7 year tribulation in Scripture at all?  Not if you interpret Scripture as early writers wrote it.  That was how it effected the ancient Jews and Israel. 

"Omega Code" , and the "Left Behind" books and movies may actually be teaching false theology about some misinterpreted coming tribulation and "secret" rapture.  Darby traveled widely in the 1800's preaching his "secret" rapture.  Can it be that John Darby is the one who convinced southern Protestant Seminaries (who still teach secret rapture) of his new teaching?

The Christian world needs to take a look at the Prophecies of Daniel.  Why should we interpret these as anything other than prophecies of the Jewish Messiah?

Has a 7-year Tribulation been falsely interpreted?
 

The 70th weeks of Daniel Delusion

We at Bible Probe believe that the 70 weeks of the Daniel Prophecy have nothing to do with tribulation and the antichrist. There is no text in the Bible that teaches a 7-year tribulation. Daniel 9:27 speaks of nothing to do with an antichrist, a rebuilt Jewish Temple, or even tribulation. Nothing! That's because it is all about Jesus Christ, the Messiah AND the Jewish people. And it does not speak of an Antichrist making or breaking a covenant. It speaks of Jesus Christ confirming the covenant or "the promises made to the fathers (see Romans 15:8 and Galatians 3:17). Jesus said, this is My blood of the new covenant. During His 3.5  years of ministry Jesus was Himself focused on saving "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 10:6).

This accounts for what we (Gentiles) often think strange --that is that the Lord was adamant in His saying basically ---His work was with/for the Jews who were treating him badly, and not for Non-Jews.

Daniel 9:27 says; "He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease".

We believe that many (especially Evangelicals) have wrongfully applied this somehow to the coming Antichrist, when in reality, Daniel is speaking of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Antichrist is an altogether different matter addressed in Revelation. 

By offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice, Jesus put an end to the Levitical sacrifices --which ceased to be pleasing to God the moment Jesus died on the cross and the veil in the Jewish Temple was torn (Matthew 27:51).

One week refers to seven years in bible time. This seven weeks was 3.5 years given to the Jews during Christ's earthly ministry. and 3.5 years after His crucifixion.

Many Evangelicals and other Christians and Christian book writers are also deluded to think the 70th week of Daniel went on hold for 2000 years. When in fact it happened just like clockwork and ended when Stephen (the first martyr) was "officially" stoned by the direction of the Jewish Sanhedrin at the end of the 70th week (3.5 yrs after Christ's crucifixion).  This is the 7-year period spoken of.

GOSPEL SWITCHES TO THE GENTILES AFTER 70th WEEK OF DANIEL

The second 3.5 years of the "70th week" was also given to the Jews as a second chance (Acts 1-6), but this 7 years of ministry officially ended when the Jewish Sanhedrin (highest Jewish office) rejected Jesus and His Gospel a second time and stoned Stephen. Immediately the 70th week ended, and the Gospel then went to the Gentiles. You will recall also, that the great Jewish man named Paul was "recruited" at the end of this 7 years to minister to the Gentiles. His name was changed from the Jewish Saul to the Gentile Paul (Romans 11:13) which signified the new focus.  Also, at this time God gave Peter a vision indicating it was now time to preach to the Gentiles (Acts 10:1-28)

Regarding the "abomination of desolation". Jesus was speaking of the time in 70 AD when his followers were to flee Jerusalem, because the Roman armies under Titus. In Matthew 24:15 Jesus told His followers, "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by
armies (Roman armies) then know that its desolation is near".  Why did this happen? In Matthew 23-38 Jesus told the Pharisees:  "See! Your house is left to you desolate". That's because of  the "abominations" of the Pharisees.
 

 

Below are some very crucial hints that some Christian ministers use for their "Rapture theory", however.  But, of course Jesus may not have wanted to burden the first century Apostles with signs and times, 2000 years later that they would never understand.  Of note: many "mainline" Christian Churches do not preach a coming rapture.

I think the next time Jesus comes it will be exactly as Scripture says.  And, it will NOT be any "secret" rapture.  In fact, it will be a very, very highly visible and very noisy event.

WE WILL NOT be raptured (Christ descends from heaven and meets TRUE BELIEVERS in the air: 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1) before the Antichrist (Son of Perdition) arrives.

There will be NO rapture/taking up until an apostasy, AND until AFTER the Son of Perdition is revealed. The Son of Perdition will arise in the wake of the "great apostasy" (or falling away).  There are signs of this "falling away" to satan's religion (Islam/Satanists/New Age, etc.) as the world is taking sides right now with satan or the true God.  As to apostasy.  What does one call allowing a homosexual priest or even "bishop" prance about an alter dedicated to Jesus Christ --who calls homosexuality an abomination.

The Apostle Paul told us, Jesus Christ WILL NOT come to gather His people to Himself until after the Great Apostasy (falling away), and until AFTER the Son of Perdition is revealed.

 

Yet

In the tribulation chapters (4-19) of the Revelation to John we find that during the tribulation the Church is participating in a Marriage Supper of the Lamb during a glorious reunion in Heaven with Christ, and all those who have died in faith in earlier generations. 

"But as the days of Noe (Noah) were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

"For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark"

Matthew 24:37,38

"Because thou has kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."  Revelation (3:10)

1 Corinthians 15:51-55 [51] Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed -- [52] in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. [53] For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. [54] When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." [55] "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

 

Why is it that Revelation shows that  the "shift of balance" of power will be to the European Union?  Is it any wonder that "Euro Money" was recently introduced, and that many in the European Union are now calling for a President of Europe?  What about the One World Religion?  Isn't the religion of Babylon what is very popular now (Satanists, idol worshippers, witchcraft, sorcerers, new Age earth/self worshippers, fortune tellers, mediums, star gazers, masons, Islam and its lies)?  What happens to America?  Will America become insignificant when millions of its followers of Christ just disappear one day?

Is there a "bean count" going on in Heaven right now?  Is the Head Angel getting excited as the bean count reaches another million Faithful in Christ?  Does this same Angel get giddy every time another 500 people get saved?  Only God knows the Day--but perhaps this angel is hoping the next significant rise in the tally could be the day.  As soon as the Body of Christ reaches a certain number will the Church be Raptured?

Could this be the reason America doesn't show up in Revelation and instead the balance of power shifts to the European Union, with power centered in Rome?  Rome of all places?  Why not Brussels?  

For those Christians that don't know what "shadows & types" are you should really be looking just beyond the literal to the significance of Jewish Holidays and Feasts, and what turns out to be not just hard to understand true stories about Abraham & Isaac, and others like Joseph and Esther--but in the story structure a future message.  Believers should absolutely take the Bible literally as the Word of God, but also look for an altogether set of hints and truths in shadows and types.  One book you can get a good grounding on "types and shadows" is a book by Chuck Missler called "Cosmic Codes", or John Hagee's book, "Final Dawn Over Jerusalem".

Understand one thing.  Do not for one minute stop studying Israel.  Israel is God's timepiece and who He has chosen to reveal His Word to.

Jesus Christ is coming back to earth in bodily form, just as He went away (Acts 1:11)

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17: "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep 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 them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive 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.".


"One shall be taken and the other left" (Luke 17:36)


The signs of His coming are everywhere. The days of peril are here indeed, with forms of godliness void of the power of God; society and politics corrupted; and people's hearts filled with pride, blasphemies, unholiness, love of evil, and love of pleasures (II Timothy 3:1-13). 

These things, together with multitudes running to and fro, the increase of knowledge (Daniel 12:4), 

the persecution of the Jews and their return to Palestine (Luke 21:24), and scores of other things are starting signs that Jesus' coming is drawing near.


Wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, storms, floods, distress of nations, perplexity, and people's hearts failing them for fear are sounding the solemn alarm that Jesus' coming is at hand (Matthew 24:6; Luke 21:25-28).

"Prepare to meet thy God" (Amos 4:12).

Job 19:26-27 [26] And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; [27] I myself will see him with my own eyes -- I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

On the sixteenth day of A'bib, immediately after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of First fruits commemorates the day Israel went down into the depths of the Red Sea and came out the other side alive.  They marched into a watery grave and God raised them on the other bank a nation of free people.  This was a real happening, but it was also a demonstration of how God would bring salvation.  The Jewish Feast of First fruits is also a "foreshadowing" of the work of both Christ on the Cross and His resurrection on Easter.  It is also a "type" of both the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Saint Paul wrote, "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep (the dead)" I Cor 15:20.

Has the "Body of Christ" ever been called up before?

Yes Bible Probe thinks so!  Did the "Body of Christ" ever rise with Christ before?  Yes I think so!  See these non-canonical reports of thousands of dead seen in and around Jerusalem after the resurrection of Christ here.  These ancient dead probably later ascended into Heaven with Christ.  Did Jesus' ascension from the Mount of Olives probably cast the "shadow" into the future to foretell of the catching away of the Church? 

When did Jesus ascend? Jesus of Nazareth died on Passover (March-April).  He was raised three days later on First fruits; and ascended forty days after that.

But, in keeping with the above, if there will be a rapture couldn't the Rapture of the Faithful occur in a year of His choosing, but forty days after the Feast of First fruits?  Pray there will be a rapture before the Tribulation. 

Jesus Raises a great Multitude from Hell (Hades) on Easter Sunday

The word "Hades" "Sheol" refers to the realm of the dead, a temporary place where they await the resurrection. In the New Testament, the word "spirits" is used to describe angels or demons, not human beings. Souls describes human souls...

Matthew 27:52-53

"and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many."

When Christians recite the Apostles' Creed they affirm their belief that Jesus descended into hell (Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek ). Early church fathers, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Origen, among others, regarded the descent literally....

Is this speaking of a "secret rapture"?  I don't think so!  I think it speaks to the time period when Jesus will return.  Nobody will know.  Like a thief in the night.


1 Thessalonians
5:2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

 

THERE IS a startling revelation that the Church is not even mentioned once in the "tribulation chapters" of Revelation 4-19!  Can it be because true believers are already gone?  There are also hints in by the prophets Micah and Isaiah, as well as by John in Revelation. 

 

The early Byzantine Church theologian
"Ephraem the Syrian" taught the Pre-
tribulation Rapture around 373 A.D.
Ephraem wrote in his "On the Last Times, the Antichrist, and the End of the World".  Ephraem speaks very clearly to early Christians about prophecies concerning the Antichrist, and about Our Lord coming to take his saints home before the coming tribulation.  He was well aware of the horrors of this satanic persecution tribulation period which lasts 7 years and ends at Armageddon.  Ephraem also taught early Christians about the war of Gog and Magog.

Prophecy scholar and author Grant Jeffrey has discovered a sermon by a Greek Orthodox theologian named Ephraem, who died before 400 A.D. Some scholars claim it is not the work of Ephraem, but of a later theologian who was influenced by him, and that it was actually written before 700 A.D.  In either case, it substantially pre-dates the alleged 1830 date. Jeffrey has published an English-language translation in one of his recent books.

 

"The good man is perished (disappeared) out of the earth.. " Michah 7:2

 

"the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their
perplexity" (Micah 7:4)
 
"The righteous perisheth (disappears), and no man layeth it to heart:
and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come" Isaiah 57:1 

Bible Probe believe that many of the Apparitions of Mary are counterfeited by Satan. Many even contain false messages which contradict Scripture.  One recent series of Marian Apparitions, however, stands out with consistent messages that are in line with Scripture.  This was the appearance of our Lady at Bayside, New York.

Here is what was told to the woman Veronica by Our Lady at Bayside about the Rapture:

"I give you great grace of heart, My children, to know that many shall be taken from your earth before the great Chastisement.... Many of your news media's shall state that they have been carried off by flying saucers. Oh no, My children! They were carried off into a supernatural realm of the Eternal Father to await the return of My Son upon earth." - Our Lady, December 7, 1976
Who will be left behind with the wicked and non-believers?
(the 144,000 "sealed" Messianic Jews will)

"And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

"Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads" (Revelation 7:2,3).

At this point, the elect representatives of Israel's Twelve Tribes are "sealed." It is generally agreed that they are sealed for the specific reason that they have work to do. During the dark days of the Tribulation, they are God's chosen spiritual assembly. At this time, the believing Church has been removed from the earth. Someone has to be sent forth among men to achieve God's purposes. These are the chosen.

The 144,000 are seen again in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation. There, they are seen as redeemed and justified before God. Furthermore, they are said to be virgins - a mark of purity and dedication. In this vignette, they are shown singing a victory song that is specific to their work. In other words, they were chosen - sealed - for a specific reason.

"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what
doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with God?" (Micah 6:7-8)
                                                                                              Steve Keohane
                                                                                                 Bible Probe
The School of Rabbi Elijah
(world to last 6,000 years)

Rabbi Elijah (not the prophet) lived approx. 200 years before the birth of Christ. It was taught in the school of Rabbi Elijah: The world will endure 6000 years -- 2,000 years in chaos (without the Torah), 2,000 years with Torah, and 2,000 years will be the days of the Messiah' ('Talmud,' Sanhedrin.97a). This remarkable quotation from the Talmud shows that Rabbi Elijah knew of the 6,000 year plan of God based on the six working days of the week, each day representing a 1,000 years in God's Plan, followed by a 1,000 year Sabbath rest (compare II Peter 3:8-10; Psalm 90:4; Rev. 20:1- 4).

The phrase '2,000 years will be the days of the Messiah' is also remarkable, showing Rabbi Elijah -- knew Christ would come after 4,000 years. Adam and Eve were created in 4004 B.C., and Christ Jesus/Yeshua Moshiach was born literally in 4 B.C. -- after precisely 4,000 years. The implication is that He would be 'preached' for the next 2,000 years, till His second coming, which will be 2,000 years after His first coming -- within the next decade!

Since Adam and Eve sinned after living for seven years in the garden of Eden, according to the book of Jubilees (see the cover article in the June-July issue of Prophecy Flash), the 6,000 years of man's 'work week' actually began in 3997 B.C. This means that very likely the 6,000 years of 'man's work' (6 thousand-year 'days') would terminate in early in the 21st century at Tishri 1 (Rosh Hashanah or Yom Teruah).  How exciting it is that this truth, about the 6,000 year plan of God, was actually taught by Rabbi Elijah and that we are living in the days of the very 'countdown' to His Second Coming!

 DVD Thrillers that teach a "Secret" Rapture:

Left Behind

 

rapture

dvd on rapture

Left Behind

Left Behind II

Vanished

rapture

the rapture

twinkling of an eye

Gone

Apocalypse

3 Christian movies in 1 set
Apocalypse, Revelation and Tribulation

Note: Above movies are available in places such as Amazon.com and ChristianCinema.com

Other Great Links at Bible Probe

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Real Angel Visit to a Muslim in Iran

Read Muhammad, Terrorist of Prophet?

See the Hand of Hope: Abortion

The Exodus Happened
See Chariot Wheels found in the Red Sea