We’re
looking at this ‘rapture’ business. It sure sounds fantastic, even incredible
but…we can be sure it WILL happen. When??
We found the promise is: BEFORE God’s wrath is felt on Earth.
Fasten your
seatbelt – this might rattle your cage...even change your whole Christian
mindset!
#6 WHEN? WHEN? WHEN?
You might be
thinking: “Hang about!...didn’t Jesus say in Matthew 24 we have to endure to
the end to be saved? Why should Christians get preferential treatment?”
Preferential
treatment?? The first to face judgment
will be Christians!...at the Bema Seat, the Judgment Seat of Christ. 2 Cor 5:10 ; 1 Peter 4:17
Matthew
obviously wrote for a Jewish readership about this special Jewish rabbi or
prophet - Jesus of Nazareth - who had not been crucified or raised from the
dead when He gave the Olivet Discourse. No, if you get your Christian doctrine
pre-resurrection it will be flawed.
‘Prove it’,
you say??
Matthew presents Jesus as Son
of David, Son of Abraham (1:1), the rightful King of the Jews (2:2) taken to
Egypt just like His ancestors (2:14). He came to fulfil the Law and the
Prophets (5:17), sent to the lost sheep of Israel (15:24). Presented as their
King (21:5) before the Gentiles (27:11) He was mocked (27:29) marched out His city (5:35) and crucified
(27:37-44) so resorted to Galilee in rejection (ch28) – not heaven.
 |
| The Jewish Rabbi instructs His Jewish disciples |
Chapter 24’s Olivet Discourse is the rejected Jewish Messiah teaching the faithful Jewish remnant about the ‘end times’ after His disciples asked: “When? When? When?”…
When
will the temple be destroyed?
When
are you coming back to Jerusalem?
When is the end of the age?
Notice how
Jewish this is!
Godly
Jews will surely realize what has happened by the rapture of Christians: “…one
is taken (paralambano: received near)
and one is left (apheimi: forsaken)” 24:40-41. They will face extreme persecution.
Make no
mistake - this is 'Jacob’s Trouble' (Jeremiah 30:7), Israel’s 70th
week (Daniel 9) when God will put the screws on Israel especially, now that the
true Church is off the scene.
What was the
Lord’s answer to all?
"WATCH!"
Notice how apostle Paul's teaching on the Rapture has been negated using Christ's pre-resurrection teaching in the Olivet Discourse. Not a clever move on the part of today's Christian leaders who seem to have hijacked the Jewish Scriptures with their popular teachings that have destroyed our hope of Christ's imminent return. Satan is very clever!
ReplyDeleteWhat is worse...apostle Paul's teachings on Church discipline have been negated using Christ's Sermon on the Mount: "Judge not that ye be not judged" - said to Jewish individuals. Whoa!...using Christ's teachings to corrupt His Church!