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Gone Fishin'

~ …“Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men!”

Gone Fishin'

Monthly Archives: January 2014

BUILDING OUR OWN FAITH!

31 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Spiritual

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Tags

atrophic or developed, determine, distress, evaluate, fake or true, flabby or firm, judge, measure of faith, mustard seed, pain, physical exercise, powerless or powerful, soreness, spiritual exercise, spiritually healthy, spiritually strong, unpleasantness, weak or strong, weather the storms, working out

Build Your Faith

And Jesus, replying, said to them, Have faith in God [constantly].  Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea! and does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him. ~ Mark 11:22-23, AMP

For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him. ~ Romans 12:3, AMP

Therefore, my dear ones, as you have always obeyed [my suggestions], so now, not only [with the enthusiasm you would show] in my presence but much more because I am absent, work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ).  [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight. ~ Philippians 2:12-13, AMP

 

In order to remain spiritually strong and spiritually healthy, we must EXERCISE our individual spiritual Faith muscle! It’s our responsibility to build our own Faith muscle! If our own Faith is weak, flabby, atrophic (wasting away, withering), or false, then it is our own fault – NOT God’s!

It is so sad but so true that most people strongly dislike exercising—they have an acute aversion to physical workouts. Even though they know that physical exercise is “good” for them, because it will strengthen their muscles, strengthen their bones, improve their mental health, improve their mood, control their weight, and etc., they often put off exercising primarily because they know that in order to obtain their goals they first must allot plenty of time and expect to experience much bodily pain.

Now it appears that the abovementioned reasons for why most people put off exercising (too time consuming and too painful) are not only the same reasons why many of God’s children have an intense distaste for physical exercise and, thus, will avoid doing it, but also the reasons why they often have no desire to engage in spiritual exercise. Too many people who say they are followers of Christ Jesus seem to have no desire to devote the time nor any desire to endure the pain it will cost them to do what it takes to increase the strength in or gain more power for their Faith muscle. This, however, is the undeniable truth as to why their spiritual Faith muscle repeatedly fails them in their times of need, and why they repetitively are asking/begging God to give them more Faith or to increase the strength and power levels of their Faith.  

The above-stated physical and spiritual exercise analogy is why this blogger does not understand why so many Christians keep teaching and preaching that WE should ASK God to INCREASE and/or STRENGTHEN our Faith, or give our Faith MORE POWER. The Divine Truth is that God already has given each one of us OUR own measure of Faith (the degree of Faith apportioned by God), which is our individual portion of His Faith! For this reason, He doesn’t need to increase or strengthen or empower our individual Faith any more than He heretofore has done, because He has given us ENOUGH Faith to make us born again believers, to make us victorious saints, and to make us powerful followers of Christ Jesus—powerful enough to literally move mountains, which means that even if our measure of Faith is as small as a grain of mustard seed It still is strong enough and powerful enough to remove a mountain from where it is located on land and throw it into the sea (see Mark 11:22-23 also Matthew 17:20)!

Furthermore, God’s Word tells us that our mountain-moving measure of Faith automatically INCREASES and/or gets STRONGER and becomes more POWERFUL when we put our own measure of Faith to use—when we EXERCISE our own measure of Faith by WORKING OUT our own Salvation (see Philippians 2:12-13), and by evaluating our God-given ability with sober judgment in accordance with our own measure of Faith (see Romans 12:3). Once again, God gave all of us who are His sons and daughters everything we need to live holy, righteous, and victorious lives on this Earth (see 2 Peter 1:3), and that EVERYTHING includes more than enough Faith!

Let there be no doubt about it. It is our responsibility to live out our God-given Faith in Christ Jesus, even more so during the many storms of life that come our way! Unfortunately, it is sad but true that the painfulness we encounter that causes most of us to have an aversion to working out our own Salvation happens every time we EXERCISE our own spiritual muscle of Faith while we are facing the various kinds of storms that frequent our individual lives.

Oddly enough for many believers in Christ Jesus, it is because most of us frequently can’t understand why God didn’t keep us from the soreness, distress, and other unpleasantness we suffered in our past storms that we often stop exercising our Faith, while we are in a present storm. This very poignant and unquestionable truth is why we all need to understand this also very frustrating yet undisputable Truth: God allows us to weather the storms (to be all right in spite of experiencing great difficulties and/or serious problems) that come into our lives so that we realistically can evaluate (judge, appraise, determine) just how fake or true, weak or strong, flabby or firm, atrophic or developed, and/or powerless or powerful our own Faith is in the God we say we love, we obey, and we TRUST! Our evaluation definitely will show us just how spiritually strong and spiritually healthy we are, as well as point out how important it is for us to continue with our Faith’s spiritual workout regime.

 

A word to the wise should be sufficient.  Shalom . . . .

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LAST CHANCE

25 Saturday Jan 2014

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Poetry

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Tags

11th-hour idiom, backslidden, carnal, Day of Vengeance, Days of Lot, Days of Noah, escape, Ichabod Crane, sleepy hollow, Time of Jacob's Trouble, translated, translated/raptured, wayward, wrath of God, Young Goodman Brown

As In The Days Of Noah and Lot

He replied, ‘All right, I agree to what you have asked. I won’t overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Hurry, and escape to that place, because I can’t do anything until you arrive there.’ For this reason the city was named Tzo‘ar [small]. ~ Genesis 19:21-22, CJB (underlined word is this blogger’s emphasis)

Lot went up from Tzo‘ar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, because he was afraid to stay in Tzo‘ar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. ~ Genesis 19:30, CJB

‘So when you see the abomination that causes devastation spoken about through the prophet Dani’el standing in the Holy Place’ (let the reader understand the allusion), ‘that will be the time for those in Y’hudah to escape to the hills.’ ~ Matthew 24:15-17, CJB (underlined word is this blogger’s emphasis)

 

 

 

discipleship offerings spanning two thousand years,

accepters removed, no trace no fears;

raptured without a fight

taken by mysterious thief in the night…

 

centuries’ promised supernatural event

triggers the predicted advent—

those horrific times to follow,

surpassing Ichabod Crane’s sleepy hollow

or

Young Goodman Brown’s evil omen dream—

a time when “life” will be just as it seems…

 

final call to escape the coming nightmare;

this is not a test of truth or dare,

but a hope that eleventh-hour, redeemed delight in David’s dance

rather than reject this proposed last chance….

 

~ from Montage of Poetic Imaginations (composed 2001)

 

 

Note on 11th-hour reference:

 

This blogger uses the 11th-hour idiom to highlight what Christ Jesus Himself means when he says:

Also, at the time of the Son of Man, it will be just as it was at the time of Noach. People ate and drank, and men and women married, right up until the day Noach entered the ark; then the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, as it was in the time of Lot — people ate and drank, bought and sold, planted and built; but the day Lot left S’dom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. That is how it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. ~ Luke 17:26-30, CJB

For the record, the Rapture apostle Paul describes involves the Lord rescuing His Bride so She won’t experience ANY of the Tribulation Period. Thus, just like Enoch is translated/raptured long before the Flood starts, the genuinely faithful, obedient, and righteous Bride, who is walking with God, also will be raptured before the Tribulation Period begins.

Obviously, based on the context of the above Luke 17:26-30 passage, the Lord is not talking about His Bride, for these verses are comparing a faithful and righteous Noah and his family, the participants in a kind of Pre-Wrath 11th hour (at the last possible moment) rescue, who are provided safety from the Flood by being allowed to enter the Ark, with the Tribulation Period’s Jewish elect (a remnant of Holy Spirit led, faithful, and righteous left-behinders). These Jewish 144,000 evangelists (Gospel teachers and preachers) also are going to be rescued via a Rapture—a kind of Ark—right before the Time of Jacob’s Trouble begins. Even though their Rapture is not at the same time as the Rapture of the Bride of Christ, it will be in like manner! More important, during the first half of the Tribulation Period, this remnant neither is harmed by the Antichrist’s wrath nor contaminated by the Antichrist’s rule. The members of this remnant also are not swayed to adhere to the Antichrist’s laws. 

Then too, there’s another predominantly Jewish remnant, one similar to Lot and his family. Unlike Noah, Lot is a wayward, backslidden, carnal believer in God. Lot, thus, represents the end time wayward, backslidden, carnal Jewish and Gentile remnants that are going to experience the satanic Antichrist’s wrath during the first half of the Tribulation Period. However, right before the Time of Jacob’s Trouble starts, the converted righteous believing Jewish remnant is going to find safety from God’s Wrath in a sheltered place He has provided for them. The place where they are going to be safe from the Wrath of God and any additional wrath of the Antichrist is located in the Judean hills—specifically, in Bozrah, which is a region in southwest Jordan. Bozrah is where the ancient fortress city of Petra is found (see Jeremiah 49:13-14; also see Isaiah 63:1-3).

No doubt, because the abovementioned lifestyles in Luke 17:26-30 were practiced during the days of Noah and Lot, AND because they are going to be repeated in the last days and end times, causing God to pour out His Wrath again on a sinful world, this Divine Truth is why the Lord Jesus also tells His true disciples to:

…keep watch on yourselves, or your hearts will become dulled by carousing, drunkenness and the worries of everyday living, and that Day [Lord’s Day of Vengeance] will be sprung upon you suddenly like a trap! For it will close in on everyone, no matter where they live, throughout the whole world. Stay alert, always praying that you will have the strength to escape all the things that will happen and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man. ~ Luke 21:34-36, CJB (inserted bracketed words and the underlined word are this blogger’s emphasis)

A word to the wise should be sufficient. Shalom . . . .

 

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Former…Latter Rains

21 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Poetry

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Tags

best is last, blessing, double outpouring, eleventh hour, Fall Feasts, Former and Latter Rains, Holy Spirit, new wine, physical farming, restoration, spiritual farming, Spring Feasts, wineskins

Latter and Former Rains

Be glad, people of Tziyon!
rejoice in Adonai your God!
For he is giving you
the right amount of rain in the fall,
he makes the rain come down for you,
the fall and spring rains — this is what he does first.
Then the floors will be full of grain
and the vats overflow with wine and olive oil. ~ Joel 2:23-24, CJB

 

 

 

First Jew then Gentile

Then JewGentile, FormerLatter, oneness season is

First month’s outpouring—LatterFormer

Rains Refreshing, Restoring, Renewing

Overflowing Lands, Nations, Souls doubly

Bearing fruit—Multiplying.

First month’s downpour—Former plus Latter

Rains Reclaiming, Renaming, Remembering

Combining Latter with Former, becoming FormerLatter,

Clothing then unifying promises of:  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s God—

Rains reaping what man has not sown—

End-Time Harvest.

 

Day of Pentecost was not so…just a glimpse…

Now, YoungOld—MaleFemale–MenservantsMaidservants

JewGentile 

Same spirit then as now, yet FULLER;

AlphaOmega—FormerLatter—beginningend, endbeginning—

Promised new thing manifestation.

 

Best is last:  Kingdom principle.

FormerLatter pours and

Greater anointing, wisdom, zeal—

Greater dreams, faith, hope—

Greater gifts, visions, visitations follow—

Greater end-time latter rain than former.

FormerLatter:  New wine in new skins for eleventh hour.

 

~ from Montage of Poetic Imaginations (composed in 2001; edited 2014)

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Lost In Translation

15 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen in Spiritual

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Tags

anger, at any moment, bridal chambers, Bride of Christ, Bridegroom, caught up, fierceness, fury, harpazo, Imminency, imminent return, indignation, Orge, paralambano, Philadelphians, Pre-Tribulation Rapture, precedent conditions, rapturo, Thumos, wrath

That's Greek To Me

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ~ Romans 1:18, ESV

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. ~ John 3:36, ESV

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, ESV

From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. ~ Revelation 19:15, ESV

Christ exhausted the cup of God’s wrath. For all who trust in Him there is nothing more in the cup. It is empty. ~ Jerry Bridges

 

I am a Pre-Tribulation Rapture believer (a Pre-Tribulation rapturo – Pre-Tribulation harpazo – Pre-Tribulation “caught up” believer), and I do not apologize for supporting this Divine Truth.  As a Pre-Tribulation Rapture believer, I have confidence that there are NO precedent conditions that must be fulfilled before the Lord comes FOR His Bride—before Christ Jesus, who remains in the air, comes not only to resurrect His dead or sleeping Bride but also to rapture His alive Bride.  

Notice please that in the most specific Rapture verses (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) it is the alive Bride who is being “caught up” to be with both the resurrected dead in Christ (them) and the Lord Jesus the Christ. In other words, the Rapture of the alive Body of Christ is about the Lord coming FOR His Bride before the Tribulation Period ever begins and NOT about the Lord coming WITH His Bride or Host of Heaven on the Day of the Lord!

By the way, there not only are specific Rapture Scriptures but also specific Imminency Scriptures about the Lord’s return FOR His Bride happening “at any moment.” These Imminency Scriptures also tell that the Bride of Christ (Body of Christ, CHURCH) not only should be ready and prepared for Her Groom or Her Lord’s imminent return but also She should be EXPECTING Her Groom or Her Lord to come FOR Her “at any moment”!

It should be evident that the Rapture and Imminency Scriptures are very different from those verses that speak about the Lord coming WITH His Host of Heaven (or with His Bride, Body of Christ, or CHURCH). In truth, only the Pre-Tribulation Rapture belief allows for the Rapture of the Lord’s Bride to be the result of a surprise appearance from Jesus the Christ, which is imminent in its timing. The Lord Himself says that His Rapture return would be like a thief in the night kind of “surprise” (see Matthew 24:42-44).

Put differently, the Lord is saying that He will come for His Bride when most people wouldn’t be expecting Him to come for them, and this surprise coming is why His Bride must stay alert, be prepared and ready, and keep looking for Him to come “at any moment.”  Moreover, that He comes like a thief in the night is the main reason why knowing the “season” and the “signs” of His coming are different from knowing the exact day and exact hour! No one knows the exact day or exact hour of the Bride of Christ’s Rapture, not even Christ Jesus Himself, but once the Tribulation Period begins people will be able to count the days until the abomination of desolation happens at Mid-Tribulation, and people will be able to count the days from this Mid-Tribulation event until Christ’s Second Coming actually happens. In other words, the Lord coming for His Bride would not be imminent—would not be at any moment—for the Pre-Wrath Rapture and Post-Tribulation Rapture believers!

Furthermore, all the Rapture and Imminency Scriptures prove that the Lord’s Bride evidently will have been WITH Him in Heaven before She returns with Him during His Second Coming, which will be on THE Day of the Lord. This biblical Truth is why the Second Coming of Jesus the Christ Scriptures, when every eye will see Him, ONLY refer to His actual bodily return—to the time when His feet touch the Mount of Olives! This Second Coming event, thus, is a very different event than the imminent Rapture of the Bride event! When the alive Bride of Christ is raptured, the Scriptures are very clear that the Lord stays in the air during this event. Indeed, IN THE AIR is where both the resurrected dead in Christ and the raptured alive in Christ Bride meet their Groom, their Lord.

Now, assume, for the sake of argument, that if Jesus Christ is just going to snatch His Bride off of the Earth, slap a white linen robe on Her, and then bring Her right back to the Earth with Him all in a twinkling of an eye moment, then wouldn’t this brief twinkling of an eye moment spent with the Bridegroom in Heaven, before He actually sets His feet upon the Earth where every eye will see Him, mean that Christ Jesus is going to be way less than a Gentleman with His Bride? Taking His Bride off of this Earth and then returning Her back to the Earth, in a twinkling of an eye moment is equivalent to what many humans describe as a “wham bam thank you ma’am” quickie. Thus, it is preposterous to think that the Lord would be this rushed and this crass with His Bride—the Bride He sacrificed His life for and has been waiting thousands of years to be with Her.

The apostle Paul says that Christ Jesus:

…gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present [her] to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.~ Ephesians 5:25b-27, ESV (the inserted bracketed “her” is this blogger’s emphasis)

In other words, the Lord’s Wife (the Bride of Christ) means too much to the Lord, which is why it is only reasonable to expect that He would devote more than a twinkling of an eye moment to honoring Her (presenting Her to Himself in splendor), instead of giving Her what would amount to as a quick “Thank you for your faithfulness and service” compliment, followed by a quick celebration/consummation of marriage event, which He then swiftly would end with something tactless like “we’ve got more important things to do right now than to let you bask in your earned gloriousness”! Indeed, the Scriptures make it clear that the Lord’s Bride is the One with whom He has promised to spend some quality time, so there is no way He will snatch Her off of this Earth just to give Her only a twinkling of an eye moment in Heaven before rushing Her back to the Earth to the Battle of Armageddon! Yet, this horrible insensitive treatment of the Lord’s Bride is exactly what the proponents of a Post-Tribulation Rapture are suggesting!

Moreover, those individuals who accept that the Rapture of the Bride of Christ (Body of Christ or CHURCH) will happen either Mid-Tribulation or later, including a Rapture that takes place just before the Lord returns to battle Israel and God’s enemies, are in essence saying that they believe their Bridegroom is going to allow the Antichrist and Satan to beat the heck out of His Bride, even behead some of them, and then He Himself also will batter, bruise, and/or martyr His Bride via the Wrath of God, before He then takes Her to Himself as the beloved Wife He promised to save—promised to rescue, preserve, and/or keep from the unspeakable hour of testing or trial (see Revelation 3:10) that is yet to come upon this Earth. For sure, if the Bride of Christ is the ELECT Christ Jesus mentions in His Olivet Discourse as the ones who face that terrific tribulation (the harshest ever persecution, testing, sifting), as well as the ones who face some or nearly all of the horrifying Wrath of God, both of which happen during the seven year Tribulation or 70th Week of Daniel, such an experience would mean that there definitely are some precedent conditions that must take place before any Rapture of the Bride of Christ will happen!

These above understandings or interpretations of the Word of God seriously CONTRADICT Jesus the Christ’s promise to take or receive (in the Greek language, paralambano) His own unto Himself (see John 14:3), which alludes to the very act a Jewish bridegroom performs for His Jewish bride. The Lord and His disciples knew about the ancient wedding customs of a Jewish bridegroom, who after having paid the acceptable price for his betrothed then would leave her so that he could prepare a place in his father’s house where the both of them would live. Christ Jesus and His disciples knew that the bridegroom would go away, and that he would be spending that time away on building the bridal chamber in which he and his bride would stay for seven days, where they would consummate their marriage vows, and from where they will exit as the married couple who welcomes their wedding guests to the seven day Wedding Feast. In fact, the prophet Isaiah speaks of the wedding custom that pertains to being hidden away in bridal chambers, when he writes:

Come, my people, enter your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath is past. For see! Adonai emerges from his place to punish those on earth for their sin. Then the earth will reveal the blood shed on it and no longer conceal its slain. ~ Isaiah 26:20-21, CJB

Notice that the prophet Isaiah not only says that God’s people will be hidden away in their “rooms” until the Wrath to come has past but also says that this is the time when God punishes the people on the Earth for their sin. Certainly, hiding His people away from the Wrath to come no doubt is how God will keep His promise to keep His people in perfect peace who trust Him and who keep their minds stayed on Him (see Isaiah 26:3).

Now, the only time God has established for punishing the people on the Earth for their sin, other than the time of the Flood, is the Tribulation Period—Daniel’s 70th Week. Therefore, it should be obvious to New Testament believers that the punished end-time people are not hidden away in the “chambers” the Lord has prepared for His Bride, because they have not been raptured but instead they have been left behind!

For sure, knowing and understanding the Jewish bride and bridegroom’s wedding customs certainly would help all believers in Christ Jesus to realize that in none of the verses before or after Christ Jesus promises to take or receive His disciples to Himself does He ever say: BUT you first have to suffer during the 70th Week of Daniel (suffer during the Tribulation Period)! The reason the Lord never tells His disciples that they will have to suffer during the Tribulation Period is because He knew His Jewish disciples understood His reference to Jewish wedding customs, in particular, to the one about the bridegroom going away to prepare a place for his betrothed. For sure, the Old Testament (the Jewish Tanakh; Hebrew Bible), as well as other Jewish writings and teachings, are replete with prophecies and Jewish idioms about God’s Bride and the Lord’s Bride, about being hidden away in bridal chambers, about the last days and end-time resurrections and/or end-time translations (raptures), and so forth. Thus, telling His disciples that they would first have to suffer during the horrific Tribulation Period, or only the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, before He could come back for them and take them to Himself would have been the most preposterous statement the Lord could ever have made to them.

Likewise, it is preposterous to think that the apostle Paul would assure the Thessalonians that the dead in Christ would rise first and then the alive in Christ would rise (be raptured; “caught up”; taken out of harm’s way; see 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17), as well as preposterous to think that Paul would tell them to comfort and encourage themselves with his Rapture words (see 1 Thessalonians 4:18), if later he only was going to tell them that they were going to experience a dreadful thrashing during the Tribulation Period, and then be raptured. That is why it also is preposterous to think that the apostle Paul is telling the Thessalonians that they will suffer during the Tribulation Period, after explaining to the Thessalonians the difference between the time of their gathering (Rapture) and the time of the Lord’s Second Coming or THE Day of the Lord, and then, in this same context, end with:

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,  comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. ~ 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, ESV

What kind of “eternal comfort” and “good hope” could these Thessalonians, or other believers in Christ Jesus for that matter, expect if they only have to look forward to being beaten, sifted like wheat, starved, beheaded, and so forth, during the future gruesomest time that there ever would be on Earth? If believers in Christ Jesus are taught to expect that their Lord/Bridegroom is coming to get them at any moment (see Matthew 24:42-46;  Philippians 3:20-21; Titus 2:12-14; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 4:17, 5:4-10; and Revelation 22:20), where then is their “eternal comfort” and “good hope” in going through either the first or second half of the coming Tribulation Period (70th week of Daniel)? They already have eternal life. Salvation gave them that, so why would Christ tell His eternally saved believers that they also have an “eternal comfort” and a “good hope” in knowing they are going to be beaten, sifted like wheat, starved, beheaded, and so forth?

Without doubt, by the time the apostle Paul writes 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, he already has made it abundantly clear to these Thessalonians, and by extension to ALL believers in Christ Jesus, that NONE of God’s Wrath is meant to be experienced by His children; that is, NONE of God’s Wrath is meant to be experienced by the Bride of Christ, which includes Messianic Jews. This Wrath of God, which is NOT meant for the Bride of Christ, is the Greek word ORGE.

There are two Greek words used in the New Testament that have been translated in the English versions of the New Testament as either “wrath,” or “anger,” “indignation,” “fierceness,” “fury,” or “vengeance.”  The first Greek word is ORGE, which is used in the New Testament 36 times: 31 times it is translated into English as “wrath”; 3 times as “anger” (see Mark 3:5, Ephesians 4:31, and Colossians 3:8); 1 time as “vengeance” (see Romans 3:5); and 1 time as “indignation” (see Revelation 14:10). The second Greek word is THUMOS or THYMOS, which is used in the New Testament 18 times: 14 times it is translated into English as “wrath,” and 1 time as “wraths”; 2 times as fierceness or fury (see Revelation 16:19 and Revelation 19:15); and 1 time as indignation (see Romans 2:8).

It is important to note here that of all the times Orge and Thumos or Thymos are used in the New Testament, in Revelation 14:10, Revelation 16:19, and Revelation 19:15 God uses both Orge and Thumos in the same verse. In these three mentioned Revelation verses, Thumos is NOT translated as the English word “wrath,” but rather it is translated as God’s “fury” or His “fierceness.” However, in these same mentioned Revelation verses, Orge is the word that is translated as God’s “wrath” or His “indignation”! The reason why it is so important to point out that THUMOS and ORGE are not the same thing in these three verses is because the translators clearly are showing that there is a real distinction between God’s Thumos and His Orge—a distinction that evidently has gotten lost in translation!

The information that countless English translations of the Greek word THUMOS or THYMOS have omitted and therefore LOST in translation is that THUMOS originally refers to very passionate inward feelings that rise swiftly but then recede as quickly as it took them to rise! THUMOS, thus, is a sudden, explosive but short-lived anger (originally, though, it wasn’t translated as “anger”). In many Scriptures, the Greek word THUMOS is used to describe a God who has “rushed along fiercely.”

Now, the Greek word ORGE, which mostly is translated into English as “wrath,” is very different from THUMOS, and here’s why. In most Scriptures, ORGE refers to the judiciary righteous judgment issued against the ungodly. ORGE also refers to retributive wrath carried out by a righteous Judge; in other words, God’s ORGE Wrath is His righteous punishment for committed crimes. More important, ORGE is defined as a smoldering “Wrath”—a “Wrath” that builds up over a very long time and then breaks loose. That’s why, in many Scriptures, the Greek word ORGE is used to portray a holy and righteous God who, after “storing up” His Perfect, Holy, and Just “Wrath” against sin and evil, then unleashes His ORGE Wrath. This is exactly what will happen during the time of the Tribulation Period. God is going to unleash His ORGE Wrath upon the unrighteous, unholy, sinful and evil Tribulation people.

This ORGE Wrath of God also is described in the Scriptures as God’s Nature or natural trait (see Nahum 1:2), as well as described as His state of mind, His righteous indignation, His righteous attitude, and/or, once again, His slow anger that over time manifests as His righteous judgment of sin or evil and His righteous punishment for those people who sin or rebel against Him. ORGE Wrath also is depicted as His slow anger that manifests as His righteous judgment of those people who refuse to accept His Son (Jesus the Christ) as their Lord and Savior. In other words, because God will forever hate sin, His ORGE (His slow to build up Wrath, which has been building for centuries) is eternal, not temporal or short-lived! This Divine Truth is why God’s ORGE (Wrath) doesn’t suddenly reach the boiling point and then explode. Indeed, that is the function or purpose of God’s THUMOS (seething fierceness or fury). It is God’s THUMOS, His inward passion against sin and evil, that rapidly boils over and then diminishes as quickly as it took it to flare-up!

This difference between THUMOS and ORGE, however subtle it might be, is what most people miss when they translate THUMOS as “wrath.” Once again, THUMOS reflects God’s inward passionate emotion, the fierceness or rage that boils up on the inside of God, while ORGE reflects God’s outward righteous expression of that passionate emotion. In other words, ORGE (Wrath) is God’s gradually unleashed THUMOS. For example, during the Tribulation Period, God’s ORGE (Wrath) will be expressed by degrees through the Seal, Trumpets, and Bowl Judgments and Punishments, which increase in frequency and intensity. However, after the 1000 year reign of Christ Jesus, God’s Orge Wrath will be expressed through the sudden and fierce way He consumes those who gathered against the Lord (see Revelation 20:9), and seen again when God throws Satan and every condemned human who ever lived into the eternal Lake of Fire .

Once more, the distinction between God’s ORGE and THUMOS is what has gotten lost in most of the English translations of these two Greek words. For sure, God’s ORGE, which eventually manifests as the expression of His inward THUMOS, is that Wrath to come that John the Baptist warned the people in his day to flee from (see Matthew 3:7). This Wrath (ORGE) to come is the manifestation of God’s ORGE—the kind of WRATH that breaks loose and, according to John the Baptist, burns the chaff (that which has been beaten out) with unquenchable fire (see Matthew 3:12). Ultimately this unquenchable fire will be God’s final Divine eternal ORGE Wrath—the Lake of Fire judgments and punishments (see Revelation 20:11-15), where the centuries of condemned people continually burn ad infinitum—for eternity—after having their chaff, the sin/evil in them, beaten out of them!

Point of clarification: I have said in a couple of blog entries that “Tribulation is the unrighteous persecution of believers by unbelievers…tribulation is persecution directed at believers. In contrast, wrath is the righteous punishment of God poured out on those who reject Him…the Wrath of God is His judgment directed at the unrighteous!” Thus, based on Scriptures, it is obvious that the Wrath (Orge) of God will be God’s judgment of left-behind individuals’ habitual sin or rebellion and punishment for their rejection of Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior. This ORGE wrath will take place during the entire Tribulation Period, either indirectly as the Antichrist and Satan’s “wrath,” or directly as Father God and Christ Jesus’ “Wrath,” which is poured out during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (or the last half of the seven years of Tribulation).

More important, just like God’s THUMOS is temporal, the Antichrist and Satan’s wrath is going to be temporal “persecution” or “tribulation.” During the Tribulation Period, this temporal short-lived wrath can be seen in the Four Horsemen’s Seal judgments and punishments, seen in the rest of the three Seal judgments and punishments, AND seen in all of the trumpet judgments and punishments. That’s right! Without doubt, God’s Wrath is being executed through the Antichrist and Satan’s temporal “persecution” or “tribulation” or their wrath. In other words, their wrath—the Seal and Trumpet horrors—are what God permits. If God permits their “wrath” during the Tribulation Period, then that makes their “wrath” not only a kind of representation of the ORGE Wrath of God, which again is God’s settled displeasure with sin and evil, but also a kind of representation of the THUMOS Wrath of God, which is the sudden unexpected boiled over rage or the blazing forth of the ORGE Wrath of God.

The point here is that whether the Wrath of God is permitted to be poured out by the Antichrist and Satan, or is directly poured out by God or Christ, God’s ORGE and THUMOS actually are combined. This Divine Truth about ORGE and THUMOS being combined is why some translators show in the already mentioned three Revelation Scriptures that ORGE and THUMOS appear in the same verses! Clearly these two Greek words are definitely different in meaning, yet apparently both are needed to describe the horrible destructiveness of God’s Wrath.

Once again, ORGE is an eternal settled disposition that slowly ascends from out of God’s Divine Nature. His ORGE Wrath is aroused ONLY when it is against sin and evil. Indeed, God constantly says in His Word that sin/evil is rebellion against His Divine holy and righteous Nature and Character. In fact the only reason why God would allow His ORGE Wrath to be aroused is because of His Love for holiness, truth, and justice. In other words, because God Loves and commands holiness, truth, and justice He must use His Divine ORGE Wrath as righteous antagonism toward ALL that is unholy!

This is when God’s THUMOS gets involved.  Once again, THUMOS is that inward passion that rapidly seethes, rages, or boils within God’s Nature. God’s THUMOS, thus, not only is the source of His passion but also His passion itself—the seat of His fierceness/fury, or righteous indignation. His THUMOS is a special kind of anger that is intertwined with God’s Love for holiness, truth, and justice. In essence, God’s THUMOS also is about HOLINESS—it is about God fighting against sin and evil. For this reason His THUMOS Wrath, though short-lived, obviously is always destructive.

Since ORGE clearly is God’s Wrath that eventually leads to an expression of His short-lived seething, boiling rage or fierceness/fury (His THUMOS or explosive passion), it is important to note here that His Thumos Wrath not only is always destructive but also always unpredictable and vengeful. For these reasons, it should be clear that this ORGE Wrath of God, this manifested outward expression of His boiled over rage (THUMOS), is very different from His Anger that results in Him disciplining His righteous children. Indeed, God’s Orge Wrath, which will be poured out during the Tribulation Period, is most definitely punishment that is NOT meant to cause corrective behavior in the lives of the truly unrighteous men and women. This last statement is why, based on Scriptures, it also should be obvious that God’s ORGE or Wrath will lead to His final eternal judgment (His final Divine verdict), which He will issue to all unrighteous men and women—the Lake of Fire!

Now, it is important to point out here that the people in the Tribulation Period will see NO ordinary kind of persecution. So many of today’s believers think that because the first-century believers, and other centuries of believers, have suffered tribulation (persecution) that this fact means the last-days believers also are supposed to suffer persecution. Clearly since the apostle Paul is giving many of the first-century believers his assurance that they will not suffer the kind of TESTING that happens when the Wrath to come appears, when the Tribulation Period begins, then today’s believers need to understand that they are not supposed to suffer the Tribulation Period, either. It is important to understand that the apostle Paul considered the tribulation first-century believers had experienced or were encountering is but a “light affliction” compared to that Wrath to come.

Indeed, Christ Jesus Himself promises in Revelation 3:10-11 that the Philadelphians, who are representatives of the Lord’s true Bride, His genuinely faithful, obedient Bride who is living a holy and righteous (spotless without blemish) lifestyle, would NOT SEE the kind of tribulation that will take place during Daniel’s 70th Week or the Tribulation Period.  The Lord promises them that they would be SAVED from the future mandatory TESTING/TRIAL/TRIBULATION, the purpose of which is to expose the unrighteous, unholy rebellious nature of the people who are living on the Earth during the Tribulation Period. Thus, it should be clear that these Tribulation Earth dwellers the Lord speaks about to the Philadelphians are NOT His true Christians—they are NOT members of the Bride of Christ—but rather they are individuals who habitually have rebelled (sinned) against God and/or refused to accept the Divine Truth in God’s Word about the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.

Put differently, those individuals who preach and/or teach the Bride of Christ will be in the Tribulation Period have missed a repeated Divine Truth. The Lord Himself makes it clear, again and again, in many Scriptures, that there indeed will be so-called “Christians” who will face the Tribulation Period. The so-called “Church” people who will receive thrashing, sifting, even a beheading, during the Tribulation Period, are those professed believers who are “Christians” in name ONLY!

Now, once again, God’s Wrath (Orge, or God’s Divine not-so-sudden yet ever-lasting natural disposition, state of mind, righteous indignation, or righteous attitude toward sin) results in His outward Divine judgment and punishment. This Orge (Wrath), which is poured out during the Tribulation Period is God reckoning with (dealing with the unpleasantness of) sin and evil, as well as Him reacting to (expressing how annoyed He’s been with) sin and evil.  In contrast, God’s fierceness or fury (Thumos, or God’s Divine extremely quick yet not an ever-lasting abrupt flare-up), results in His deepest and most intense holy and righteous anger, which rapidly boils up but then hurriedly fades or declines. Both ORGE and THUMOS are in use during the Tribulation Period, and again the point here is that there cannot be any THUMOS without there being ORGE. In other words, God’s THUMOS is linked to His ORGE—they indeed are combined.

Bottom line is that when the apostle Paul says believers are not meant to go through God’s Orge (Wrath), which is a word that is used way more times in the New Testament than Thumos, the apostle Paul means exactly that. God never intended for His righteous sons and daughters to experience His holy and righteous indignation He has toward sin, nor did God intend for His righteous sons and daughters to experience His holy and righteous indignation that He has toward those who have rejected Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Father God allowed His Son to experience His Orge and Thumos, which He poured out against sin and evil—He allowed Jesus the Christ to be beaten beyond recognition, crucified on a Cross, and resurrected from the grave just so that the Lord’s Bride, everyone who not only believes in and accepts Jesus the Christ as his or her personal Savior, but everyone who is allowing God’s Holy Spirit to change him and her from the inside out, until he or she becomes like Christ Jesus, would be SAVED from all of the Wrath (Orge) to come. Now this Orge to come is the final Lake of Fire judgment and punishment, from which Christ’s Bride is saved, because She, as a whole, already has received eternal LIFE. This Orge to come also is the time of testing/trial/tribulation that is coming upon this Earth during Daniel’s 70th Week (the Tribulation and the Great Tribulation or Time of Jacob’s Trouble).

Because of the gift of Salvation, the Bride of Christ believers who have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior have been born again (received a new nature—one that no longer is sinful), have been made righteous (justified; presented to God just as if they had never sinned), and are being purified (sanctified, perfected, which eventually leads to them being glorified at the moment they are Raptured)! Thus, based on so many Scriptures about Salvation and the Bride of Christ, it is clear that the only people who will suffer God’s Divine displeasure against sin, evil, and a refusal to accept His Son, as well as the only people who will suffer His consequent retributive action, are the left-behind people who neither were the resurrected dead in Christ Bride nor the alive in Christ raptured (“caught up”) into the air to meet Christ in the air Bride.

Finally, it is the complete work of Jesus the Christ that keeps His Bride from having to endure God’s eternal long-lasting ever-present Orge Wrath. For certain, the Scriptures are clear about the people who never have accepted the Lord as their Savior being those individuals who already know that the Wrath of God is upon them even now, and will be upon them during the Tribulation Period. God’s Orge and Thumos are sinners’ JUST judgment and punishment. That’s why, because God knew that there was no way that He could NOT pour out His Wrath on everybody, He also knew the kind of Salvation plan He would have to put in place to save His true and faithful believers. In essence, that Salvation plan is the complete work of Christ Jesus. The Lord’s sacrifice was the ONLY way that God could solve this pouring out of His Wrath problem. Again, it is preciously because God foreknew that He would have to pour out His Wrath on all human flesh that He Graciously grants, to anyone who would willingly accept by Faith and from Faith to Faith, His Gracious Gift of His Son’s imputed righteousness (see Romans 3:26).

Here’s the conclusion to the whole matter: The Scriptures have been clear. The people who will be left behind to experience the Tribulation Period are the spiritually blind Jewish people, the 144,000 Sealed Jewish evangelists who will witness to primarily the nation of Israel’s spiritually blind Jews, all of the truly unbelieving individuals, and many so-called “Christians.” These are the people who do not understand, or will not accept, that it is because of Jesus the Christ’s completed work on the Cross that His Bride will not have to go through the Tribulation Period. Because Jesus the Christ agreed to be God’s Divine, Gracious, Holy, and Righteous answer to God’s Orge Wrath dilemma, Jesus the Christ immediately became the Lamb God the Father would send to Earth as the once-and-for-all Sacrifice for the sins of the entire world. By willingly sacrificing Himself, Christ Jesus became THE ONLY viable Substitute for mankind’s sinful lives; thereby, He also became THE ONLY ONE who could redeem the entire world.  Again, Jesus the Christ’s finished work on the Cross is why His Bride will not have to go through the Tribulation Period—these believers are not going to suffer any of the Antichrist and Satan’s “wrath” AND NONE of God and Christ’s ORGE Wrath, which includes some of His THUMOS (fury). As Jerry Bridges says:

Christ exhausted the cup of God’s wrath. For all who trust in Him there is nothing more in the cup. It is empty.

Without a doubt those individuals who profess to be Christians, in name only, will be in the Tribulation Period, but Christ’s Bride will NOT! She will be in Heaven with Her Bridegroom, living in the mansions (Bridal Chambers) He went away to prepare for Her (see John 14:2-3). The Bride of Christ will be in Heaven with Christ the Bridegroom long before the Tribulation Period ever begins, and will remain there during the entire seven years of Tribulation! Any believers who don’t agree with this Pre-Tribulation Rapture belief are suffering from not having the right information about God’s Orge and His Thumos, and perhaps suffering from not having the right information about a few other words like Rapturo or Harpazo, primarily because this information has gotten lost in translation!

Shalom . . . .

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Rev. Nadine Drayton-Keen

Sanctified Child

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