Saturday, November 17, 2012

Is Rapture a Jewish Theology?

The rapture started with the Jews! Well, maybe not the actual word, but the principle. The doctrine is the same!

All of the teachings that I encountered until just a few years ago were unabashedly pretribulation rapture. It's only recently that the opposing viewpoint of posttrib has started to predominate. Now, it might just be that posttrib is a replacement for "replacement" theology, which started within the Catholic Church and teaches that christians have replaced Israel in God's prophesies and affections. Replacement theology said that we are living in the millennium, because the church dominated and man was getting better. The Catholic Church's main body of teaching did not include any rapture or tribulation teaching at all. Two world wars (and Israel's rebirth as a nation) kinda popped that little bubble.  Now posttrib says we are here for the duration and are arrogant to hope for anything better, that we will not be exempted (identifying themselves as Israel still?) This view feeds off of anger and sets christians against the world and their brethren that teach pretrib.

My first observation would be that anger is a poor starting point for clear reasoning and Spirit controlled theology. "The wrath of man does not work the works of God." (James 1:20) "In your anger, do not sin." (Eph. 4:26) Angry people confuse persecution with the wrath of God (much more to be afraid of there). Anger is setting oneself "against the world", instead of letting the world expose it's hatred and sin against us, and by extension, against Him who sent us.

The vetting of any doctrine is the process by which it is approved as correct. The source of that approval needs to be God, and the scriptures are our source, the proving ground, as we already know that they are His Word. (Isaiah 46:9-10) " Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure" (Ecclesiastes 3:15)"That which is has already been, and what is to be has already been and God requires an account of what is past." Those who knew Him before us(The Jews) have told us, from the beginning, of His battle plan. The whole of His Word is a prophetic covenant! We can learn about the rapture from the Tanakh (Old Testament). Only God can tell us the future.

God's people are never a part of the war and calamity that He sends to punish sinners. He does not punish us, He sanctifies us. Christians are called to suffer and die for Him as a testimony to unbelievers(and He is WORTHY!), but He has already taken the burden of our chastisement upon Himself. (Isaiah 53) When the cup of the iniquity of the nations is full, and the days of His patience have ended, when He stirs Himself to answer the cries of His people, first He separates His people "out from among them", the wicked.

Biblical stories are not just historical, they are prophetic. Joseph was a type of Christ, sheltered in the house of the King, with his gentile bride (whose sons were numbered among the tribes of Israel, the church) during the seven years of famine(tribulation). Methuselah was the patience of God, Noah the House of Israel, and Enoch, the church of God, taken from this world before the deluge (trib) which destroyed the known world. Daniel (the church) was conspicuously absent, when his friends (Israel) are cast into the fiery furnace(trib), for not bowing to the image (beast). Lot, living in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, is the church forcibly removed before the fire of brimstone (trib) rains down. The ancient jewish wedding  practices are richly symbolic of the planned agenda of the Father. The Song of Solomon is a story of the Great Shepard King and His bride. When the gentile girl disappears, the daughters of Jerusalem look for her, but she is made strong like chariots, like an army with banners. The whole Song of Solomon is a poetic depiction of Messiah, the church, and Israel. In
Judges, the sons of the tribe of Benjamin come out of hiding, to kidnap wives from the festivities, 
before the grape harvest. (Judges 20)

The feasts of the Lord, the moed (divine appointments), each foretell an event in the plan of redemption. As the church, we know that the Passover was about the death of Jesus on the cross, the Lamb of God who died for the sins of the world. (On the very day of the feast!) The next feast is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, where Christ is in the grave. Leaven is allegorical for sin. Immediately after (another same day coincidence!) comes the feast of First Fruits, when happens the resurrection of the Messiah! We all know that the church was born on Pentecost, the very feast inaugurated to commemorate (before the fact) it's birth!

These feasts are part of the harvest schedule of the nation of Israel, celebrating the harvests of the fruits of the earth. The festivals coincide with the barley (spring feasts), wheat (summer feast), and grape (end of summer/fall) types of harvests.  God calls Israel His vineyard and they are His last
harvest on the schedule. They are represented by the last three feasts, which are still unfulfilled! The fall feasts consist of the feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the feast of Tabernacles, in that  order. The fall feasts are for the end of days, meaning the rapture, after which comes the conversion of the remnant of Israel en masse, and then the millennium!

Here are the verses that speak of rapture before wrath in the old testament!(Please forgive me if I have left any out!) :


1.(Isaiah 26:1-3) "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee."


2.(Isaiah 26:17-21)" Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain,
 and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O Lord. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

3.( Isaiah 56:9-57:2) " All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest. His 
watchmen (christians?) are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.The righteous perisheth, 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.  He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness."


4.(Zephaniah 2:1-3)"Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, 
which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger."

5. (Joel 2:1-2) Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain:(Rapture trumpet) let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. (tribulation) (Joel 2:15-16)Blow the 
trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: (Israel's repentance) Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet(Church and Messiah).

6.( Psalm 27:5) "For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock


7. (Micah 7:1-4)Like the fruit pickers, like the grape gatherers. There is not a cluster of grapes to eat, or a first-ripe fig which I crave. The godly person has perished from the land, And there is no upright person among men. All of them lie in wait for bloodshed; Each of them hunts the other with a net. Concerning evil, both hands do it well. The prince asks, also the judge, for a bribe, And a great man speaks the desire of his soul; So they weave it together. The best of them is like a briar, The most upright like a thorn hedge. The day when you post your watchmen, Your punishment will come. Then their confusion will occur.


8. (Song of Solomon 2:10-14) “My beloved responded and said to me, Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along. ‘For behold, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone. ‘The flowers have already appeared in the land; The time has arrived for pruning the vines, And the voice
of the turtledove has been heard in our land. ‘The fig tree has ripened its figs, and the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance. Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along!' "O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, In the secret place of the steep pathway, let me see your form, let me hear your voice; For your voice is sweet, And your form is lovely.”

9. Malachi 3:17-18  And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

 10. Jeremiah 4:5-6  Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say, Blow the trumpet in the land; Cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.’ “Lift up a 
standard toward Zion! Seek refuge, do not stand still, For I am bringing evil from the north, and great destruction.

11.  Psalm 108:5-9 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered. God has spoken from his sanctuary: “In triumph I will parcel out Shechem and measure off the Valley of Sukkoth. Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah is my scepter. Moab is my washbasin, on Edom I toss my sandal; over Philistia I shout in triumph.”

12. Hosea 9:7-8The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have come. Let Israel recognize it! The prophet is a fool, and the inspired man is insane, because of the magnitude of your guilt and hostility. Ephraim’s watchman is with my God. The prophet encounters a fowler’s snare on all his ways. Hostility is in the house of his God!


13. Jeremiah 8:18 My joy has flown away; grief has settled on me. My heart is sick.
19 Listen—the cry of my dear people from a far away land, “Is the Lord no longer in Zion,
her King not within her?” Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols? 
20  Harvest has passed, summer has ended, but we have not been saved. I am broken by the brokenness of my dear people. I mourn; horror has taken hold of me.  22  Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? So why has the healing of my dear people not come about?


Isaiah 62:8 The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by His strong arm,
“I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies;
Nor will [g]foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored.”
9 But those who garner it will eat it and praise the Lord;
And those who gather it will drink it in the courts of My sanctuary.
10 Go through, go through the gates,
Clear the way [h]for the people;
Build up, build up the highway,
Remove the stones, lift up a standard over the peoples.
11 Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth,
Say to the daughter of Zion, “Lo, your salvation comes;
Behold His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.”
12 And they will call them, “The holy people,
The redeemed of the Lord”; And you will be called, “Sought out, a city not forsaken.”

And for the genetic nation of Israel in the last days! (Hosea 6:11)" Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people." (Hosea 6:1-2) "Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight."

There is a scheduled fulfillment of all of the prophesies at the exact moment God has determined for them. Daniel 9:26-27 speaks of the seventy weeks of years appointed to the Jewish people to finish iniquity and anoint the most holy, the Messiah, as King! Dispensations of time have been given by the Lord to accomplish all of His will and for all of His works to be completed! Those last seven years, after the cutting off of the Messiah, have yet to be fullfilled. Those last seven years are the harvest time appointed to the NATION of Israel, the time of Jacob's trouble, where the Messiah shall "turn again the captivity of my people Israel" from sin to the true face of their Lord, the One who shall deliver them. Those last seven years that the book of Revelations describes are the seven spoken of in Daniel 9. Yeshua will reign, in person, in peace and prosperity, from Zion (yes, Jerusalem, as the Bible says).

We should be careful and reverent to study His word, before we presume to make up our minds about how we think things should be:

(2 Peter 3:2-13) " That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts

4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

(Matthew 24:48-51) "But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."






Saturday, November 10, 2012

Are You a Warrior?

There are soldiers, and then there are warriors. A soldier has a job to do. He is paid by people he does not even know, to perform violence on a third party for the purpose of a political objective. A soldier must be fit to engage in physical confrontation. Anger is encouraged so as to divert him from matters of conscience. It is all very cold and calculating, because truth is not the objective.

A warrior, on the other hand, has an individualized calling. They are called one by one, and qualified, for their calling, in a way unique to each of them. The warrior takes up a part in a conflict because of the overwhelming pressure, the irrefusable conviction, of love. This mission of devotion is not easily shaken or distracted from it's goal.

First and foremost, a warrior's titanic struggle is within himself. He must come to know his Commander and Chief intimately, to know the sound of His voice. He must bring his own nature into submission to the Divine prerogative. God will supply all the resources necessary to achieve this endeavor . "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up." Strength, even strength of will, does not avail here. Physical weakness is actually a bonus, because it takes away from the temptation to act from personal power. The Lord of  hosts is not limited, in His ability to act, by the fragility, of His warrior. Victory coming from weakness demonstrates the Lord's sovereignty.  We can indulge ourselves to only use positive traits and attributes in the battle!

A warrior's calling is to share the truth! No intimidation is required, for He, the Truth, is His own best defense! In the battle of ideas, the Foundation of our existence is at stake! Sharing is caring! "No other foundation can any man lay, than that which is laid: The Man, Jesus Christ!"

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Mission Imperative!

In all the debates and discussions on the rapture doctrine (a yet unfulfilled teaching, as was the resurrection for the Sadducee's) a distinction, a point of debate came up. There are some that teach that only the spiritual christians will be taken, not the carnal ones. I heard about this in it's refutation, but I think this idea misconstrues a very important and oft repeated teaching of the Lord. The discussion made trivial Christ's whole point in what He was teaching!

The admonition, of Jesus, that I am talking about, is the one where He warns us to "watch and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things, and to stand before the son of Man." In another passage with the same theme, He tells us of ten virgins, five of whom were taken, and five who were not. The five who were not, did not have their lamps burning when the bridegroom came. They had already been warned that they were to be "the light of the world." Obviously, they did not take it to heart.

We, the church, are to be the light, the salt, watchmen who give warning, witnesses who make disciples, good servants who invest His Word into our society. We are to "proclaim the feasts of the Lord"(Leviticus 23:4), which are the prophetic announcements of His redemption plan.

The Church lets herself get distracted by mere social concerns, but her calling is to spread the gospel. Her employment is the distinctive mark of her identity. "He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad."(Matthew 12:30) "Every tree that does not bear fruit will be cut down and cast onto the fire."(Luke 3:9) So, our directive could not be more clear than this! Matt 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Saturday, November 3, 2012

He Cried for Me

The world around me burns in flames.
Hate said it's me, that I'm to blame!
No holds barred whether force or fear.
I stood my ground, and now I'm here.

Sold by one that I held dear.
That's why I am imprisoned here.
Lies that cut me, to the ground.
Love's betrayal, is the most profound.

There's nothing but the pain inside.
Instead of this, I should of died!
Beneath the sound, of my crying,
feel the rhythm, of the wild wind sighing.

In the roar, of the water, through the trees,
I can hear, HIM, crying for me.
The moaning storm, echoes my agony.
I tell you now, that He cries for me.

A flood of grief, carries me down,
to this bleak cell, underground.
There's Arms around me, that you can't see!
In the pit of hell, He cries with me!

He too, has seen, hell's darkest day!
It came to destroy, the Love, that was in it's way.
The day that Love, mastered this!
So Love could cry with me, in my black abyss.

Anguish and torment fade from memory,
but I'll never forget, Love cried with me.
Evidence of tender sympathy.
His storm of grief, as He cried for me.