Category Archives: Bible Study

Man-Made Holidays Aren’t YeHoVaH’s Moedim

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6 And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors Me with their lips
but their heart is far from Me.
7 And in vain they worship Me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 Having left behind the commandment of [YeHoVaH], you hold on to the tradition of men.” – Mark 7:6-8, TLV; the bracketed word is my emphasis

8 See that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men and the basic principles of the world rather than Messiah. – Colossians 2:8, TLV

As it was in biblical times so has it been in our Common Era. In fact, it would seem that religious leaders have always had a propensity for either inappropriately adding their man-made traditions to the Law of YeHoVaH or completely replacing His Commandments with their own. Moreover, each time they added their own traditions or replaced YeHoVaH’s Commandments, those new man-made customs and replacements made YeHoVaH’s Law of no effect. Now, it should be noted that the word traditions, as used in this blog entry, means that which has been handed down or passed on to others – whether by word of mouth or in writing.

The above-mentioned truth about added traditions of men making YeHoVaH’s Law of no effect have is why Yeshua knew full well that, if He disregarded the seemingly harmless traditions of the religious leaders in His day, His behavior would stir the Pharisees’ righteous indignation. Furthermore, Yeshua not only violated the man-made traditions of the experts in the Law but also taught that these religious leaders’ traditions were dangerous.

Today, believers in Yeshua can see the massive damage that man-made traditions have done to so-called Christians. Because of the often referred to as harmless man-made holidays – many of which have either added to or completely replaced YeHoVaH’s Moedim and other Holy Days (Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Day of First Fruits, Feast of Pentecost,  Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, and the regular Sabbath) – and because of the additions of church programs (orders of worship), gimmicks, man-made holidays, and hierarchies that often are referred to as harmless customs, Christians have essentially developed a lack of personal holiness, an infrequent faith-walk, and a socially acceptable complacency, as well as have effectively blocked most of YeHoVaH’s intended way of life He has wanted His Children to live on earth.

Since this is the Christmas season, showing a sharp contrast between the Law of YeHoVaH and religious leaders’ traditions of men is necessary. Yeshua, Himself, declared that the Jewish religious leaders had “…left behind the commandment of [YeHoVaH]…” (Mark 7:8), had “..set aside the commands of [YeHoVaH], in order that [they] may validate [their] own tradition” (Mark 7:9), and were “making void the word of [YeHoVaH] with [their] tradition that [they’ve] handed down…” (Mark 7:13) by not keeping what “…Moses said…” (Mark 7:10).

Without a doubt, most modern-day Christian religious leaders have continued many of the old traditions of men started by the Roman Catholic Church. Most of those old traditions of men had completely replaced the Moedim (appointed times or holy days) of YeHoVaH with new religious seasons, sacred days, and holidays – like keeping Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath and celebrating Advent, Christmas, Epiphany (Feast of Three Kings), Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Good Friday, and Easter.

For centuries, men have been adding their oral traditions to the written Word of YeHoVaH. Beginning with the written Torah, as dictated by YeHoVaH to Moses who wrote it down and then shared YeHoVaH’s Law with the Israelites, this written Torah was significantly expanded with the oral Torah, which includes The Mishnah, the Talmud, the Tosefta, the Kabbala, and so on and so forth. Each one of these oral traditions became additions to the original written Law of YeHoVaH. They were humans’ interpretations – what men thought YeHoVaH intended to express in Scripture. My point here is that the Roman Bishops and other religious leaders in the early Roman Catholic Church were not the only ones who added to the Word of YeHoVaH.

The problem is that YeHoVaH has warned His Jewish people and, by extension, all of His Children who are saved through Yeshua, about altering His Word. He advised them, and us, about not adding to or subtracting from what He gave to them – and to us via surviving manuscripts. In spite of His clear biblical warning, adding to and subtracting from His Word is exactly what has happened.

At Yeshua’s First Coming, the traditions of men had become the Letter of the Law – completely taking over the Spirit of the Law. As a result, Yeshua repeatedly called the Pharisees hypocrites. Since then, many non-Jewish religious leaders have moved the masses of so-called Christians so far away from, for example, YeHoVaH’s Law, including His established eternal Moedim, by completely replacing them with many seemingly harmless oral traditions. As previously mentioned, the result has been that Christians have essentially developed a lack of personal holiness, an infrequent faith-walk, and a socially acceptable complacency, as well as have effectively blocked most of YeHoVaH’s intended way of life He has wanted His Children to live on earth.

It should be clear that no man-made tradition is better than YeHoVaH’s Law. Even so, the sad truth is that many Christians who keep breaking His Law by adding to or subtracting from YeHoVaH’s Word will hear Yeshua tell them to depart from Him because He knows them not. When Yeshua returns again for His Second Coming and finds left behind Christians continuing, for example, to keep Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath and/or continuing to celebrate Advent, Christmas, Epiphany (Feast of Three Kings), Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Good Friday, and Easter instead of observing YeHoVaH’s commanded Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Day of First Fruits, Feast of Pentecost,  Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, and the regular Sabbath, Yeshua won’t just call these surviving or resurrected Christians hypocrites. He will cast them into the Lake of Fire.

A word to the wise should be sufficient. Shalom!

Yeshua Never Said EVERYTHING We Eat Is Clean

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And He said to them, “Are you then also lacking understanding? Don’t you grasp that whatever goes into the man cannot make him unholy? For it does not enter into the heart but into the stomach, and then goes out into the sewer, cleansing all foods.”

And He continued, “It is what comes out of the man that makes the man unholy. For from within, out of the heart of men, come evil intentions, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustfulness, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and make the man unholy.” – Mark 7:18-23, TLV

Just because in some English translations of Mark 7:19 there is the parenthetical statement  “(In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean),” that doesn’t mean that Yeshua actually said it. If Yeshua said everything we eat is clean, then He would have been contradicting YeHoVaH, His Father, who in Leviticus 11 specifically names certain animals, fowls, seafood, and every creature that creeps on the earth as unclean to eat for dietary purposes.

YeHoVaH’s dietary laws that pertain to the forbidden Unclean Meats are still in effect because the listed unclean meats affect our natural/physical health. However, neither YeHoVaH’s law concerning Unclean Meats nor any of the biblical kosher Food laws (i.e., Kashrut, which refers to the body of Jewish law that deals with the foods Hebrews can and cannot eat and how those foods must be prepared and eaten) has anything to do with YeHoVaH’s Children’s spiritual purification, and this divine truth is the point Yeshua makes in Mark 7:18-23.

Once again, Yeshua does not say EVERYTHING we eat is clean. More important, neither meat nor food laws are what was being questioned in Mark 7:1-23. The topic of discussion is ritual purity – the ritual purity that is based on the religious traditions of the oral law.

What Yeshua says concerns ritual purity. He declares that ritual purity (i.e., ceremonial washing) does not affect what goes into the body (does not affect what we eat). Yeshua makes it clear that NOTHING we eat, whether with clean hands or dirty hands, can make us holy or unholy because what we eat goes into our mouths, down our throats and esophagi, and then into our stomachs. While in our stomachs, the foods we ate are mixed and ground until the proteins, starches, and fats become amino acids, simple sugars, fatty acids, and glycerol.

Next, our liquidy or pasty broken-down foods enter our small intestines where the breaking-down process continues until our bodies are able to absorb the nutrients from our broken-down foods – absorb the nutrients that our bodies need. Our stomachs and small intestines’ digestive processes are our cleansing/purging processes because the wastes from our eaten foods are separated from our needed nutrients. The waste parts of our broken-down foods are what our bodies can’t use and, thus, don’t need. That is why the waste parts leave our bodies as feces.

Everybody’s individual digestive process, then, is why whatever enters each person from outside of him or her cannot defile him or her because everybody’s digestive process has no effect on each person’s heart/spirit or mind. Put differently, the point Yeshua makes is that ceremonial washing is not necessary for spiritual purity or sound spiritual health because unwashed hands do not defile anybody’s “heart”/spirit or mind. It each person’s stinking thinking that spiritually defiles his or her own “heart”/spirit or mind.

The bottom line is that since spiritual purification involves the heart/spirit, ceremonial washings are ineffective and unnecessary in preventing spiritual defilement. Shalom . . . .

Yeshua Never Died on a Good or a Black Friday

01 Sunday Dec 2019

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31 It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was Passover week). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down. – John 19:31, NLT

In this blog article, I am doing what all saints of Yeshua should do. I am setting the record straight about the Black Friday graphic with Yeshua on the cross flanked by two criminals. Many versions of this graphic have been posted for years on Facebook, but, sadly, they all have been posted not only to confirm Yeshua died on a Good Friday but also to confirm that that Good Friday was a black Friday. The truth is that Yeshua never died on any Friday – neither good nor black or otherwise.

To start with, there were three days of preparation during the so-called Holy Week Yeshua was crucified. The one mentioned in the above Scripture was not on Friday – at least not the week Yeshua died.

During the Holy Week, there were two Sabbaths – a High Holy Sabbath and a regular Saturday Sabbath. The Jews prepared for both of these Sabbaths on the days before they took place.

Moreover, the  13th of Nisan – Tuesday – has been called the “preparation day” for the Passover, which included Passover and Unleavened Bread. On Nisan 13, all leaven was removed out of the Hebrews’ homes.

On this 13th day of Nisan, Yeshua had His Disciples prepare for His Passover meal. Yeshua’s Seder meal actually would be eaten after 6:00pm, which would be the beginning of Nisan 14 since, once again, a Jewish day has always been from sunset (evening) to sunset (evening).

Likewise, the 14th day of Nisan – Wednesday – has always been the day of Passover since the Israelites came out of Egypt. They also have always been allowed to work on this day.

During the week Yeshua died, Nisan 14 (Passover) also was the day that the Jewish religious leaders had the Temple’s guards drag Yeshua in front of Pilate’s (the Roman governor’s) residence around 6:00am (see Matthew 27:1-2; John 18:28-29). Additionally, it was on Passover, from noon (the sixth hour) until three in the afternoon (the ninth hour) that Yeshua was crucified. During these hours, darkness came over all the land. Lastly, it was on Passover that the Jewish people in Yeshua’s day prepared for the next day’s High Sabbath.

Yeshua hung on the cross until right before the 15th of Nisan – Thursday – was about to begin. Nisan 15 has always been the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Yeshua was removed from the cross and then placed in a borrowed tomb right at the start of Nisan 15 – a day that otherwise would be very uneventful, except for the holy convocation.

The 16th day of Nisan – Friday – was called “the morrow after” the Sabbath (the day after Nisan 15th’s High Holy Sabbath). Nisan 16 was the day on which the firstfruits of the barley harvest were cut and bundled. During the week Yeshua died, Nisan 16 also was the day of preparation for the regular Saturday Sabbath.

The 17th day of Nisan – Saturday – in the year Yeshua was crucified was the regular 7th-day Sabbath. At the start of this day, Yeshua had been in the grave two nights and two days. By the start of Nisan 18 – Sunday, the first day of the week – Yeshua had fulfilled His prophesied three days and three nights in the grave. His resurrection also made Him the first fruits of the dead, because He rose on the day of First Fruits when the cut barley sheaves were waved before YeHoVaH.

Yeshua rose from the dead right when Sunday evening started. Sunday was the Day of First Fruits. Remember, a Jewish day is from sunset (evening) to sunset (evening). Without a doubt, the above timeline is consistent with Yeshua’s words that He would be dead and in the grave for three days and three nights.

Shalom . . . . .

Traditions of Men

01 Sunday Apr 2018

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Traditions Of Men

 

 

 

Jesus replied, “You are frauds and hypocrites! How accurately did Isaiah prophesy about you phonies when he said:

‘These people honor me with their words
while their hearts run far away from me!
Their worship is nothing more than a charade!
For they continue to insist
that their man-made traditions
are equal to the instructions of God.’

 “You abandon God’s commandments just to keep men’s rituals, such as ceremonially washing utensils, cups, and other things.”

Then he added, “How skillful you’ve become in rejecting God’s law in order to maintain your man-made set of rules. For example, Moses taught us:

‘Honor your father and your mother,’
and,
‘Whoever insults or mistreats his father or
mother must be put to death.’

“But your made-up rules allow a person to say to his parents, ‘I’ve decided to take the support you were counting on from me and make it my holy offering to God, and that will be your blessing instead.’ How convenient! The rules you teach exempt him from providing for his aged parents. Do you really think God will honor your traditions passed down to others, making up these rules that nullify God’s Word? And you’re doing many other things like that.” ~ Mark 7:6-13, TPT

 

Long before the time of Jesus, the Jewish religious leaders frequently added to the Law of Moses their own traditions—the traditions of men—that were their rules they made everyone follow. The reason they added their traditions was because these religious leaders wanted to make the Word of God more convenient to themselves. They also wanted to control the entire Jewish population—to control Israel—and they wanted to take the place of God.

Over the course of time, mostly after the Roman Empire destroyed the Jewish Temple in 70 AD, as well as after the deaths of Jesus Christ’s apostles, the Roman believers in Christ developed their own highly sophisticated theology and organizational structure that was controlled by the papacy. The papacy was nothing like the Ekklesia that began on the Day of Pentecost, which was right after Jesus Christ’s Ascension Day that happened forty days after His Resurrection.

By the way, Jesus Christ was raptured twice. He first was raptured on the Day of First Fruits, when He rose from the grave and then secretly went to Heaven where He was presented before Father God who accepted His Son as the firstfruits of the resurrected dead. Secondly, Jesus Christ was raptured when He ascended to Heaven right in front of His original disciples.

Now, although the Roman Catholic Church has claimed that it is the Church Christ died for, according to the New Testament, the real truth is that the Roman Catholic Church’s beginning was not based on the teachings of Jesus Christ or His original disciples who became apostles. Indeed, for the first 280 years after Jesus Christ established His Ekklesia on the day of Pentecost, the Roman Empire banned believers in Christ and His teachings.

In fact, it wasn’t until after the Roman Emperor Constantine’s alleged “conversion” that the Roman Catholic Church made “Christianity” the ONLY religion of the Roman Empire. As a result, the Roman Empire stopped persecuting and crucifying believers in Christ around 313 AD.

However, even though the Roman Catholic Church has claimed it is the Church Jesus Christ established, nowhere in the New Testament are there any mentions of a papacy; the confession of sin to a Catholic priest for his absolution; the immaculate conception of Mary, the mother of Jesus; the worship of Mary, the mother of Jesus; purgatory; infant baptisms; the petitioning of saints in Heaven for their prayers; calling priests “fathers”; the rosary and its string of prayer beads; Lent; and so many more of the Roman Catholic Church’s traditions of men.

Like the Jewish religious leaders who added their own traditions to the Law of Moses, the Roman Catholic Church added its own traditions to the teachings of Jesus Christ and His disciples—to the New Testament. The Roman Catholic Church did this because it wanted to make the Word of God more convenient to its papacy and the religious leaders under the Pope, and it wanted to combine and control the “Christian” and pagan populations. Moreover, the Roman Catholic Church’s early religious leaders wanted to control the world, to take the place of God, and to give absolute POWER to the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed, even the Roman Catholic Church’s history confirms that many Popes, Bishops, and other religious leaders were wicked, power hungry, and greedy for monetary gain. This description also applies to many of the Jewish High Priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees.

Most important, because the Roman Empire was massive, sprawling, and diverse, the Roman Catholic Church’s religious leaders not only wanted to distance themselves from the Jewish communities that were still celebrating God’s appointed seven annual feasts but also these religious leaders wanted to absorb the pagan feasts, beliefs, and rituals of their non-Christian citizens—feasts, beliefs, and rituals the Roman Emperor Constantine also continued to practice. Thus, the Roman Catholic Church’s religious leaders at the time of Emperor Constantine wanted to absorb the existing paganism so that these religious leaders could get all Roman citizens to embrace the Roman Catholic Church’s religious brand—“Christianity.”

Long story short, it is the Roman Catholic Church’s traditions of men that became the law and the customs the entire Empire had to follow as soon as said religious leaders during Emperor Constantine’s reign “Christianized” their existing pagan rituals and feasts. These traditions of men became the law and customs that most of the world, Protestant believers included, still follow today. A few of these traditions of men are the celebration of Christ’s birth (the annual Christmas holiday), the celebration of Good Friday (the annual celebration of Christ’s death), and the celebration of Easter (the annual celebration of Christ’s resurrection).

The uncomfortable truth is that there is nowhere in the entire Word of God—the Old and the New Testaments—that Father God instructs His Children to celebrate His Son’s birth. Christmas, therefore, is not an annual God-appointed feast day. It is just one of the many pagan feast days and rituals that the Roman Catholic Church absorbed and Christianized.

Likewise, there is nowhere in the entire Word of God that Good Friday is presented as a God-appointed feast (annual holiday). Good Friday is the Roman Catholic Church religious leaders’ attempt at getting rid of Passover—the annual God-appointed feast day that is in the Word of God. Passover is the day of preparation for the Jewish High Sabbath (a sacred day), and Passover is the day the Roman soldiers crucified the Messiah on the Cross.

Then too, there is nowhere in the entire Word of God that Easter is presented as a God-appointed feast (annual holiday). Easter, however, is the Roman Catholic Church religious leaders’ additional attempt at getting rid of Passover, which they did by making Easter fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon that occurred on or after the spring or vernal equinox. These same religious leaders also changed Passover’s name to Good Friday, changed First Fruits’ name to Easter, changed Passover’s significance—Jesus Christ’s crucifixion day—and changed First Fruits’ significance, which was Jesus Christ’s resurrection day. By changing Passover and First Fruits’ dates, names, and significances, the Roman Catholic Church’s religious leaders were able to get rid of three Jewish feasts—Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits. These were Jewish Feast days that many of the Roman Catholic Church’s “Christians” were observing. Having Roman Catholic “Christians” who also celebrated these Jewish Feasts days was causing a big problem in the Empire. Even so, the truths these early Roman Catholic Church religious leaders tried to bury were the Holy Bible’s annual God-appointed feast days of Passover and First Fruits, which were the days when Jesus Christ died and rose from the grave—not Good Friday and Easter.

The bottom line is as follows: If the Roman Catholic Church started with Jesus Christ and His disciples it certainly has done everything in its power to change or remove the Lord and His disciples’ teachings by either altering or replacing them all together with their own traditions of men, all for their own convenience. Out of their own disdain for the Jewish festivals’ traditions that line up with the entire Word of God, and because of their own life of compromise—mixing Christianized pagan feasts and rituals with their “Christianity”—the early Roman Catholic Church’s religious leaders ended up leaving behind an unholy legacy.

Tragically, today’s believers in Christ have inherited from these early Roman religious leaders the same life of compromise and the same disdain for God’s appointed seven annual feast days that begin with Passover and end with Tabernacles. Consequently, way too many of today’s believers in Christ—Roman Catholics and Protestants—still religiously celebrate Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter. They do so as believers in Christ who are ignorant of the following fact: By continuing to celebrate these nonbiblical feasts, they are saying that the Roman Catholic Church’s attempt to change Father God’s prophetic calendar was ordained by God when it wasn’t.

It is evident that Father God foresaw this unfortunate example of the blind leading the blind—not only in the Roman Catholic Church’s celebrations of the wrong feasts but also in ALL the Hebrew and Roman religious leaders’ other traditions of men that have been added to the Word of God. Sadly, every followed tradition of men is why so many believers in Christ who will be living right before the Tribulation Period begins will be so unprepared and unalert that they—carnal believers and natural men and women (unbelievers – Jews and Gentiles)—will miss the Rapture and end up suffering during the Tribulation Period.

May the Lord help them see the errors of their ways before it is too late. Amen.

Who Are Overcomers?

23 Friday Mar 2018

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Overcomers

…I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’ ~ Revelation 21:2-4, NASB

In the above verses, the apostle John describes overcomers’ heavenly state of existence that is achieved only by Christ’s true Bride, who figuratively (metaphorically) is depicted as the New Jerusalem. However, what too many believers fail to understand is that Christ’s Bride is both the New Jerusalem—the place where She will live—and Christ’s adorned Wife who is without spot or blemish.  

Biblically speaking, very often a people and a place are presented as interchangeable. When we consider everything the Word of God says about Christ’s Bride, it becomes obvious that who and what the Holy Spirit inspired apostle John to describe in the above verses is the collective Bride of Christ who is the New Jerusalem, as well as the saints who emanate the eternal features of The Father’s glorious and holy heavenly city. In other words, Christ’s Bride is a sacred place and a sacred people.

Because the whole Word of God depicts the Bride of Christ as both a place and a people, it is time for all believers in Christ not only to comprehend but also to accept the following truths that rarely are taught or preached in modern-day churches. These untaught and unpreached truths, which by no means are all-inclusive, are as follows:

ONLY overcomers are saved AND sanctified reborn believers who conquer the flesh, the world’s systems, and Satan (see 1 John 2:15-17 and 1 John 4:1-4 [present world-system], Romans 7:15-25 and Ephesians 2:1-3 [desires of the flesh], 1 Peter 5:8 and James 4:7-10  [Satan]). Put differently, only true believers in Christ—in whom the Holy Spirit lives, fills (baptizes), and is sanctifying—will be the successful overcomers spoken about in the Word of God. The reason this entire statement is true is because all believers in Christ are promised eternal life BUT believing is more than giving intellectual assent to His Existence or His Redemptive Work. Believing also means Christ’s Ekklesia (His One Body of Believers or One Community of Faith Believers) is His collective Bride who uses everything He gave to Her to help Her become His saintly Overcomers. That is why the Word of God describes Christ’s saintly Overcomers as follows:

 

  1. Overcomers are the saintly believers who receive the right to eat from the Tree of Life in God’s Paradise (Revelation 2:7).

 

  1. Overcomers are the saintly believers who don’t receive the second death or Lake of Fire final judgment (Revelation 2:11).

 

  1. Overcomers are the saintly believers who receive some of the hidden manna (Revelation 2:17).

 

  1. Overcomers are the saintly believers who receive a white stone on which their new names are written—names only overcomers know (Revelation 2:17).

 

  1. Overcomers are the saintly believers who do deeds that please Christ until the end. They receive authority and power to rule over the nations with Christ (Revelation 2:26).

 

  1. Overcomers are the saintly believers whose deeds please Christ until the end. They are the ones who also receive the morning star (Revelation 2:28).

 

  1. Overcomers are the saintly believers who receive white garments, and they are the ones whose names are never erased from The Book of Life (Revelation 3:5).

 

  1. Overcomers are the saintly believers whose names Christ confesses before Father God and before His angels (Revelation 3:5).

 

  1. Overcomers are the saintly believers who become pillars in God’s Temple on which Christ writes The Father’s Name and His new Name (Revelation 3:12).

 

  1. Overcomers are the saintly believers who receive the right to sit with Christ on His Throne (Revelation 3:21).

 

  1. Overcomers are the saintly believers who inherit a world free of sin, diseases, pain, crying, and mourning. They are God’s people whom He lives among (Revelation 21:3-4).

 

 

By now, it should be evident that believers who call themselves Christians, Christ followers, and so on, but are not seeking to obtain the abovementioned overcomers’ heavenly state of existence will not receive everything Christ’s saintly Overcomers are promised. If believers, the ones who call themselves Christians, Christ followers, and so on, are not transforming into The Bride of Christ whose daily saintly living consistently resembles Christ’s lifestyle, they will not receive everything Christ’s saintly Overcomers are promised.  

Put differently, ordinary believers—people who are saved, reborn, and justified but who have not, with the help of the Holy Spirit’s progressive sanctification process, conquered the flesh, the world’s systems, and Satan (which are overcomers’ righteous deeds that please Christ)—will not become Christ’s saintly Bride who is adorned for Him (The Bridegroom).  Instead, they will be the end-time Tribulation’s surviving Wheat who do not receive glorified bodies.

As the end-time Tribulation’s surviving Wheat, these ordinary believers will not be Christ’s saintly Overcomers who are able to eat the fruit from The Tree of Life. They also will never wear white garments, never receive any manna, never receive their individual white stone upon which each overcomer’s new name is written, never sit with Christ in His Throne, never reign with Christ, never have their names confessed before Father God and His angels, never become pillars, never inherit an uncorrupted everlasting world, and never will always be in Father God’s Presence.

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

Two Biblical Proofs Favoring Pre-Tribulation Rapture

04 Thursday Sep 2014

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Proof Positive

Avraham approached and said, ‘Will you actually sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Maybe there are fifty righteous people in the city; will you actually sweep the place away, and not forgive it for the sake of the fifty righteous who are there? Far be it from you to do such a thing — to kill the righteous along with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike! Far be it from you! Shouldn’t the judge of all the earth do what is just?’ ~ Genesis 18:23-25, CJB

For God has not intended that we should experience his fury, but that we should gain deliverance through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who died on our behalf so that whether we are alive or dead, we may live along with him. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10, CJB

In necessary things unity; in uncertain things freedom; in everything compassion. ~ Unknown Author; most often misattributed to Augustine

God help us all who call ourselves Christians, for even in a time such as this we still remain unable to become ONE. We primarily are divided by doctrines, issues, and practices. As a result, we who profess to be Your holy and righteous sons and daughters, joint-heirs with Your only begotten Son (Jesus the Christ), frequently end up treating each other like notorious enemies instead of like venerable brothers and sisters in Your Household of Faith.

There continues to be too much arguing among followers of Christ Jesus over doctrines, issues, and practices that neither are crucial to the Gospel of Christ nor to how anyone obtains eternal life (how someone is saved). Christians’ most commonly debated doctrines, issues, and practices include, but are not limited to: the Rapture, the Millennium, the Earth’s Age, Life on Other Planets, Food and Drink, Female Pastors, Observing the Sabbath vs. Worshipping on Sunday, Speaking in Tongues, Performing Miracles, and various legalistic Do’s and Don’ts (like going to the movies, dancing, smoking, drinking, playing cards, wearing makeup, and so forth).

How horrible our arguing with and our mistreatment of Body of Christ members must look to the unsaved world. No wonder the masses of lost souls in today’s world are not coming to Christ Jesus. Why would any of them want to be a part of this current 21st century body of believers who vehemently disagree with each other? These quarrelsome believers not only refuse to tolerate but also choose not to be civil to their brothers or sisters in Christ Jesus who think differently about things that usually have nothing to do with a person’s salvation nor with the Gospel of Christ!

If we agree on the essentials, yet disagree on the non-essentials, then let us learn how to agree to disagree without becoming/being disagreeable (unloving, compassionless, coldhearted, intolerable, argumentative, hostile, inhospitable, bad-tempered, grouchy, snarky, sarcastic, stubborn, nasty, offensive, unpleasant, unfriendly, rude, legalistic, insulting, disrespectful, and the list goes on). Let us learn how to remain loving, caring, and kind to each other. After all, one of the most crucial lessons Christ Jesus taught is this one: “This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other” (John 13:35, MSG).

Having said that, let me say this: Because I know that the Rapture is one of the most commonly debated doctrines, I would like to share, strictly from a general theological perspective, two biblical proofs favoring a pre-Tribulation Rapture. Not only do I find these proofs to be two of the best but also I agree with them, as do so many theologians, countless other followers of Christ, and even copious churchgoers. For this reason, I am certain that numerous individuals who will read this blog entry probably already know these proofs, and I equally am certain that various other individuals who will read this blog entry neither had read nor had heard of these proofs before now. My hope then is that the end result of having read this article will be that those readers who didn’t believe will have come to believe what so many present-day followers of Christ already accept to be true about the Bride of Christ’s pre-Tribulation Rapture.

Biblical Proof Number One—from the Old Testament:

Anyone who believes that there is a radical and ESSENTIAL difference between the righteous and the wicked should agree that God knows the difference, and  he or she should agree that God is the One who makes the distinction between those who are “righteous” and those who are “wicked.” Additionally, anyone who believes that there is a radical and ESSENTIAL difference between the righteous and the wicked also should agree that righteousness and wickedness are exact opposite spiritual (heavenly vs. hellish) characteristics, which is why God never wanted His righteous children and the world’s wicked persons to mix.

Furthermore, since God knew there would be a nonstop righteous vs. wicked battle taking place on this Earth, that is why He had some undeniable proof of His timeless pattern of Judgment placed in His Word. Biblical proof number one, therefore, is that God does not judge His truly righteous believers with the world’s very wicked unbelievers. This biblical pattern is most noticeable in the Scriptures describing the time of Noah, and it continues to become more evident throughout the rest of the Old Testament. God’s pattern of Judgment also is found in the New Testament, especially in end-times verses. That’s why there really can be no denying that God clearly is represented throughout the Holy Bible as a righteous Judge who pronounces Judgment that always is correct and fair.

For example, in the Old Testament, Abraham, who is one of Noah’s after-the-Flood descendants, knew quite well that God never would judge the righteous with the wicked, and that is why Abraham doesn’t shy away from reminding God of His existing Judgment pattern. Abraham says to God:

…Will you actually sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Maybe there are fifty righteous people in the city; will you actually sweep the place away, and not forgive it for the sake of the fifty righteous who are there? Far be it from you to do such a thing — to kill the righteous along with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike! Far be it from you! Shouldn’t the judge of all the earth do what is just? ~ Genesis 18:23-25, CJB

The point here is that it had been established before Noah’s day that God is a just and righteous Judge who only punishes (pours out His Wrath only upon those whom He has judged as) the wicked, and then only AFTER He has removed (separated) the righteous from mingling with the wicked. Righteous Noah, his sons, and his sons’ wives were saved from God’s 40 days and 40 nights of the falling rain Flood Judgment, while God poured out His promised diluvial Wrath upon all of the Earth’s wicked inhabitants, as well as upon the Earth itself!

As already mentioned, this pattern of God’s Judgment runs all through the Testaments. Of course, there always is an exception, and the exception that must be noted here is that, although there are many New Testament verses that chiefly emphasize God’s Judgment, there is NO mention of God’s Judgment in the New Testament passages considered as Rapture passages. This observation leads to the second biblical proof.

Biblical Proof Number Two—from the New Testament:

Since there is no mention of God’s Judgment in the New Testament’s Rapture verses, then it is decidedly possible that the Rapture of the Bride of Christ happens at a separate time from when God judges and then punishes the Earth and the left-behind wicked, many who are followers of the Antichrist, with His fiery Wrath. The apostle John writes:

Then I saw another sign in heaven, a great and wonderful one — seven angels with the seven plagues that are the final ones; because with them, God’s fury is finished. ~ Revelation 15:1, CJB

Apostle John most assuredly is describing the last Judgments—the last of God’s judiciary righteous Judgments issued against the left-behind ungodly (His Wrath or Fury). The apostle also is describing God’s righteous Punishment for committed crimes His enemies are guilty of (His Wrath or Fury). Without doubt, these seven plagues (seven bowl judgments) are the last of all of God’s promised righteous end-times Punishment (His Wrath or Fury).

All the same, it must be noted here that apostle Paul says when Christ Jesus died on the Cross, His atoning sacrifice not only had made the gift of eternal life (Salvation) available, but also He had saved (rescued, delivered) believers from God’s end-times Judgments and Punishment (outpouring of Wrath). In other words, so that God’s righteous would not experience any of His end-times Wrath, Christ Jesus’ sacrificial dying absorbed it ALL. Thus, biblical proof number two is Christ Jesus already took the Wrath of God in place of God’s Household of Faith believers—bore the FULL brunt of God’s Wrath for the Body of Christ, also known as the Bride of Christ (both saved Christian Jews and Gentiles). Apostle Paul writes:

…you turned to God from idols, to serve the true God, the one who is alive, and to wait for his Son Yeshua, whom he raised from the dead, to appear from heaven and rescue us from the impending fury of God’s judgment. ~ 1 Thessalonians 1:9b-10, CJB

~ and ~

For God has not intended that we should experience his fury, but that we should gain deliverance through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who died on our behalf so that whether we are alive or dead, we may live along with him. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10, CJB

The point here is that it already had been established before Christ Jesus’ day that God still is a just and righteous Judge who only punishes (pours out His Wrath only upon those whom He has judged as) the wicked, and then only AFTER He has removed (separated) the righteous from mingling with the wicked. Therefore, it stands to reason that the Lord’s righteous Bride first will be saved (rescued, delivered) from any part of God’s seven years of the end-times Tribulation Judgments, after which God then will pour out all of His promised fiery Wrath upon all of the Earth’s left-behind inhabitants!

The bottom line is this: As it was in Noah and Abraham’s days, so will it be in these current last days. God will NOT have His spiritually renewed, saved, and reconciled back to Himself sons and daughters endure any of His prophesied end-times Judgments and Punishment that are reserved for His and Israel’s enemies. There is absolutely no way that God could explain or defend why He would let those individuals, whom the beaten and crucified Christ Jesus’ Blood has justified as righteous, and whom the mighty workings of the Holy Spirit completely has sanctified as holy (sinless), go through any of the seven years of the end-times Tribulation. That is why the Bride of Christ will NOT be in the Tribulation Period!

Once again, the two biblical proofs favoring a pre-Tribulation Rapture for the Bride of Christ are that God never would judge His righteous when He judges the wicked, and Christ Jesus already has emptied God’s full cup of Wrath so that born again, saved, justified, and fully sanctified followers of Christ would never have to experience any Wrath of God. AMEN!

For a detailed explanation about God’s Wrath, please read my blog entry Lost In Translation.

Pentecost Sunday, 2014

08 Sunday Jun 2014

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Pentecost Sunday

In the Old Testament Scriptures, God does not assign any dates to His established Feast of First Fruits and Feast of Pentecost (a.k.a., Feast of Weeks and Feast of Harvest)—respectively, God never assigned any Nisan 16 date nor any Sivan 6 date. Like God did with First Fruits, He also does with Pentecost. He made both of these Feasts moveable!  More important, God made it so that both Feasts always fall 50 days apart on the Sundays that follow regular weekly Saturday Sabbaths!

 

 

 

Happy Pentecost Sunday!

 

Let’s celebrate the Bride of Christ’s birthday! Happy Birthday to all of my brothers and sisters in Christ!

 

 

You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord. ~ Leviticus 23:15-16, ESV (see also Exodus 23:16 and Exodus 34:22)

You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. ~ Deuteronomy 16:9-11, ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. ~ Acts 1:8, ESV

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. ~ Acts 2:1-4, ESV

 

Christ’s Elect Is His 144,000 Jewish Evangelists PLUS . . .

01 Thursday Aug 2013

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The Giving of the Seven Bowls of Wrath;The First Six Plagues,Matthias Gerung (1500–1570)

The Giving of the Seven Bowls of Wrath / The First Six Plagues, Matthias Gerung (1500–1570)

And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days. ~ Mark 13:20, KJV

And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. ~ Mark 13:27, KJV

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. ~ Matthew 24:22, KJV

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. ~ Matthew 24:24, KJV

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. ~ Matthew 24:31, KJV

 

 

One of the primary reasons why many followers of Christ Jesus do not believe in a pre-Tribulation Rapture is because they think that Christ Jesus is prophesying about the destiny of His Bride (the Body of Christ; The CHURCH), when He uses in His Olivet Discourse the word “elect.” The English word “elect” actually is eklektos in the Greek language, which is an adjective that means “choice” or “selected.” Therefore, the “elect” Christ Jesus is speaking about in Matthew 24:22, Matthew 24:24, Matthew 24:31, and also in Mark 13:20 and Mark 13:27 clearly refers to the “choice” individuals who will be living on the Earth at the end of the Tribulation Period.

Now “choice” (elect) definitely is a description God uses for His Jewish people, and a description the apostles use for the Bride of Christ. That is why it is important to note here that one of the main reasons why so many believers see the “elect” Christ Jesus speaks of in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 as the Bride of Christ is because they fail to distinguish between God’s plan for Israel and His plan for the Bride of Christ. These believers often forget that at the time Christ Jesus is speaking to His Jewish disciples in the Olivet Discourse that there was no Bride of Christ—no Christians! For sure, the Lord had not yet been crucified and resurrected, and the Holy Spirit had not yet fallen upon His Jewish disciples.

Thus, when believers declare that the “elect” in Matthew 24:22, 24, 31 and Mark 13:20, 27 definitively is the Bride of Christ, they actually have made a colossal interpretive mistake. The huge mistake they’ve made is taking the Olivet Discourse, which is a conversation a Jewish Jesus is having with His Jewish disciples, and then reading back into this conversation the destiny of the Bride of Christ (Body of Christ or The CHURCH). The Book of Acts explains exactly when the Body of Christ/Bride of Christ/The CHURCH/The Ekklesia was established on this Earth, and that was 10 days after the resurrected Jesus ascended to Heaven, when God then sent His Holy Spirit to fill the disciples (see Acts 1-2).

Without doubt, the Lord’s conversation with His Jewish disciples still today is NOT about the Bride of Christ per se. His conversation is about the destruction of the Jewish Temple and the Jewish city of Jerusalem, the signs of the end of the Age, and the sign of His Parousia, as in the sign of His coming (when He will establish His Messianic Kingdom for His Jewish people)!

The clear interpretation is that in the Olivet Discourse the Lord is focusing on Israel—His Jewish people as a whole. Now there are passages in Matthew 24 that have promises in them that the Bride of Christ also will receive. For example, the passages about two men being in the field, with one taken one left; and two women grinding at the mill, with one taken, one left certainly describe the promise of a rapture, so from these passages believers can imagine what The Rapture will be like for Christ Jesus’ Bride, who is raptured before the Tribulation Period begins. However, the images in these passages also depict God’s rapture plan for His Jewish people who, just before the start of and during the seven year Tribulation Period, will come to believe in Christ Jesus, and some of them will be raptured. The same is true of Matthew 25. The image of a Bridegroom coming for His Bride, with some virgins being caught up and some being left behind, can apply to the Bride of Christ (The CHURCH) and to God’s Bride (Israel).

Then too, unlike the many passages in which the apostle Paul calls the Bride of Christ “saints,” or in the verses that the apostle Peter calls Her the “chosen” and the “elect,” the “elect” ones Christ Jesus refers to in Matthew 24:22, Matthew 24:24, Matthew 24:31, the “elect” and “chosen” He refers to in Mark 13:20, and the “elect” in Mark 13:27 are not the Bride of Christ’s saints. The saints, in this case, the ones who survive the Tribulation, are the “elect” and “chosen” the Lord is speaking about in His Olivet Discourse, but they, first and foremost, are those end-time Jewish people the Lord says should flee to the mountains, once they see the prophesied abomination of desolation, because Jacob’s Trouble (cf. Jeremiah 30:7) or the Great Tribulation is about to take place (cf. Matthew 24:21).

As earlier mentioned, in the New Testament, the English word translated as “elect” or “chosen” is the Greek word eklektos, which, once again, is an adjective that actually means “choice” or “selected.” So Matthew 24:22 really should read as: “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the choice [ones’] sake those days shall be shortened.” Then too, a better translation for Matthew 24:24 would be: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very choice [ones].”

Where Matthew 24:31 is concerned, Christ Jesus definitely is making it very clear in this verse that the “elect” He mentions in Matthew 24:22, 24 mainly is the Jews who have gone through the Great Tribulation (Jacob’s Trouble). Borrowing from Isaiah 11:12, the Lord says, “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:31 KJV). Once again, “…his elect…” should read “…his choice [ones]…”

Be that as it may; there can be no doubt in the above quoted verse that Christ Jesus is referencing the gathering of the Jews as prophesied in Isaiah 11:12, which reads this way: “And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (KJV). Put differently, the prophet Isaiah is foretelling of a time when the ten tribes of Israel (the outcasts) and the two tribes of Judah (the dispersed) will be gathered together from the “wings of the Earth” and restored as one whole nation.

Since Christ Jesus is referencing this prophesied gathering of the Jews in Matthew 24:31, which Isaiah 11:12 vividly describes, this is an excellent reason why Matthew 24:31 is not about The Rapture of the Bride of Christ, even though Messianic Jews are included in the Bride of Christ. More accurately, Matthew 24:31 obviously is about the Lord sending out His angels at the end of the Tribulation primarily to gather His now believing entire nation of Israel. Since this is an end of the Age gathering, there no doubt also will be some believing Gentiles out of many nations included, but neither these surviving “elect” Jews nor any of the surviving “elect” Gentiles are the Bride of Christ.

Additionally, the fact that it is the Lord’s angels who are gathering those Tribulation Period’s survivors whom the Lord calls His “elect” should alert believers to the fact that this gathering is not The Rapture of the Bride of Christ, because The Rapture involves the Lord Himself descending from Heaven and snatching away His Bride! Angels have nothing to do with getting the Lord’s Bride together, even though She also is His “elect” or “choice” one!

Next is another verse in which some translators have wrongly used the English words “elect” and “chosen.”  That verse is Mark 13:20. In fact, it really sounds redundant to say, in the KJV of this verse, “for the sake of the elect…whom he has chosen.” For this reason, a better translation would be: “And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the choice [ones’] sake, whom he hath [commissioned], he hath shortened the days.”

Like in the Matthew 24 verses, the English word “elect” in Mark 13:20 really is the Greek adjective eklektos, which once again means “choice” or “selected.” However, the English word “chosen” in this Mark 13 verse is the Greek verb eklegomai, which means “commissioned” or “appointed,” as in having a specific responsibility to fulfill.

Clearly it is the “choice” 144,000 sealed Jewish evangelists who are the ones who will be given the very important as well as specific commission to fulfill during the Tribulation Period, and not the Bride of Christ or THE CHURCH! Beginning in the Old Testament, for the “choice” individuals who qualified for an “appointed” or “commissioned” office or responsibility, such as the judges for Israel, the Temple’s Levitical priests, Joshua’s warriors, and so on, they knew that their office or responsibility was expected to be fulfilled to the best of their ability. The same is true about the New Testament’s “choice” (elect) Jewish people. When they qualified for a commissioned or appointed office or responsibility, they knew it always came with the obligation of fulfilling it to the best of their ability. Therefore, there is no doubt that this fulfill to the best of their ability is the same obligation that comes with the commission to evangelize the end-time world, which is why the 144,000 sealed Jewish evangelists are the only ones who could qualify as Christ Jesus’ “choice” or elect.

The point here is that Christ Jesus NEVER was chosen from among many other possible Sons to be God’s “choice” One, for God appointed Him because Christ Jesus was the ONLY “choice” One (cf. Luke 9:35, KJV) and therefore the only worthy One—the Only begotten One. Similarly the 144,000 sealed Jewish evangelists NEVER will be chosen among many possible Jewish evangelists to convert the lost world during the Tribulation Period. God will commission them, because they will be the ONLY “choice” ones worthy to receive God’s seal. 

Moreover, understanding who really is worthy to be considered the “choice” ones who will be the “elect” Christ Jesus speaks about in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 without doubt is settled in the aphorism “…many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14, KJV). The Lord uses this particular aphorism in the parable of the King’s Wedding Feast (cf. Matthew 22:1-14, KJV). Once again, there is a better translation of Matthew 22:14, and this better translation is “…many are summoned, but few are choice.”

The crux of the parable of the King’s Wedding Feast is that the “choice” ones are not “choice” because the King “chose” them, for in the parable of the King’s Wedding Feast the King (God) didn’t choose anyone. He sent an invitation to one entire group, and after everyone rejected His invitation, the King (God) extended the invitation to every person His servants could find (good and bad). The point here is that the few “choice” (chosen; eklektos) individuals in this parable are “choice” only because it is by the Grace of God they have responded correctly to the King’s invitation or summons. Their ‘right’ response not only is accepting the King’s invitation to the feast, which is done by accepting His Son as Lord and Savior, but also is coming to the feast wearing the appropriate heart clothing—having the right inward attitudes (a born-again spirit), which manifests outwardly in their holy and righteous deeds.

In other words, the parable of the King’s Wedding Feast proves that it always was God’s Plan that, even though He appointed the Jews to be His “choice” people and Israel His “choice nation,” because the Jews, as a whole, failed to fulfill their invitation’s responsibility, God then appointed the Bride of Christ (Jews and Gentiles) to be His new “choice” people (cf. 1 Peter 2:9, KJV). What’s more, after the Bride of Christ is raptured, God then will appoint the 144,000 Jewish men to be His “choice” people. They will be a remnant of the Jews living in the Tribulation Period who will have accepted God’s Grace, will be redeemed and therefore will be blameless (“without fault”) virgins (“without blemish”) who have not been defiled by women, and who will be followers of the Lamb (cf. Revelation 14:3-4).  

Finally, as earlier mentioned, in the Old Testament, God promises that He will save Jacob (both Israel and Judah, or the entire nation of Israel), out of the time of great trouble, Jacob’s Trouble, or the Great Tribulation (cf. Jeremiah 30:7). Then in Jeremiah 30:10-11, God adds the following promises:

Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet I will not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished. ~ KJV

In the above verses, God is confirming that He not only will discipline His Jewish people but also He will rescue them from the Great Tribulation—save them from total annihilation. God also promises to destroy all of His Jewish people’s enemies so that the Jews never will have to fear them again. Additionally, God promises to return His Jewish people to their Promised Land of Israel where they will live in peace. Since God has yet to fulfill these promises, it should be evident that the “elect” that Christ Jesus is speaking about in Matthew 24:22, 24, 31 and Mark 13:20, 27 only can be the Tribulation’s surviving elect (“choice”) Jews. However, some surviving Gentiles also will be the elect (“choice”) ones who are rescued from total destruction.

For sure, both the Tribulation’s “elect” Jews and Gentiles will be those believers in Christ who are sold out for Him, either because of the 144,000 sealed Jewish evangelists/servants’ preaching or the preaching of those once unwatchful and unprepared believers who got left behind. Put differently, the “elect” at the end of the Tribulation will be believers who remain loyal to Christ Jesus, especially when they face death. Clearly, the believers who will face martyrdom in the Tribulation Period definitely would be God’s “choice” ones, but so would the specific remnant of believing Jews who find safety from the Antichrist’s persecution and God’s wrath (God’s judgment on the unbelieving world and His discipline of Israel during the Great Tribulation).

According to the Scriptures, around mid-Tribulation, a remnant of the Tribulation’s Jewish “elect” will be the ones who flee to the hills. Of the numbers of the “elect” Jews and Gentiles who do not hide in the hills, the Scriptures warn that they must be very careful not to be found by the Antichrist, because he either will force them to take the Mark of the Beast, or he will behead them. These “elect” who did not flee to the hills also must be aware of all the false christs and aware of all the other deceptions that are initiated during the Tribulation, because these deceptions could cause them to abandon Christ Jesus. Their goal should be to survive the Great Tribulation and be ready to stand and worthy of standing before Christ Jesus as His wheat/sheep, when the Lord makes His bodily return on the Day of the Lord.

Now, since the Lord’s Second Coming is all about destroying the wicked (wiping them off this Earth), it also should be evident that the Bride of Christ is not Christ Jesus’ “elect” in any of the abovementioned Matthew 24 and Mark 13 verses. The definitive Scriptures that prove the Bride of Christ won’t go through the Tribulation are Isaiah 26:19-21 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18. Not only do these verses prove that the Groom comes for His Bride and raptures Her before the Tribulation Period begins but also these verses have the same order of events, which are: 1. The dead rise first; 2. The alive righteous individuals are snatched away, then hidden behind a shut door; and 3. The Lord comes to punish the world and/or God pours out His wrath.

Then there are the verses in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3. Where 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 is concerned with The Rapture and the HOPE of being rescued from the wrath to come, 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 is concerned with judgment or the wrath of God. That apostle Paul has changed the subject from hope to judgment means he is now speaking about the Day of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3, which is a day that will not include The Rapture!

Instead of being the day of The Rapture, the Day of the Lord is the day Christ Jesus will send His angels out to gather the “elect” or “choice” survivors of the Tribulation Period, primarily the Jews and those left-behind unprepared, unwatchful believers whose lives needed to be sifted like wheat. Now, the only ones the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night for are the Tribulation’s surviving unbelievers, because they are living in darkness, and more likely than not they are not aware of what the Scriptures say about the Day of the Lord. More important, the Day of the Lord is not The Rapture of the Bride of Christ, because the Day of the Lord is mainly about the outpouring of God’s punishment/discipline on Israel and the outpouring of terror and death on Israel’s enemies (chiefly the Arabic nations).

The bottom line, once again, is that the “elect” Christ Jesus speaks of in Matthew 24:22, 24, 31 and Mark 13:20, 27 is not the Bride of Christ. This “elect” is primarily the Tribulation’s surviving Jewish people. As earlier stated, to declare that Christ Jesus definitively is speaking about His Bride in said chapters is a colossal interpretive mistake. Why is that such a huge mistake? Well, it is because the Olivet Discourse is a conversation the Jewish Jesus is having with His Jewish disciples about the destiny of the Jewish Temple, the Jewish city of Jerusalem, and the Jewish people as a whole. Forgetting who the Lord’s audience is and the questions His Jewish disciples ask Him to answer invariably will lead to the usual oversight—mistaking the Bride of Christ for the Tribulation’s “elect.”

The Bride of Christ absolutely is not the Tribulation’s “elect,” because the Scriptures show that it is the spiritually blind Jewish people, the unbelieving Gentile masses, and the unprepared, unwatchful Body of Christ members who are the ones who will experience the Tribulation Period. Where’s the Bride of Christ during the Tribulation Period? She’s in Heaven with Her Groom, because the Bride of Christ (the faithful, obedient, prepared, and watchful Body of Believers) is raptured before the seven year Tribulation Period ever begins! A word to the wise should be sufficient. Amen

The Last Trump: When Our Bodies Are Glorified

28 Sunday Jul 2013

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The Rapture

Look, I will tell you a secret — not all of us will die! But we will all be changed! It will take but a moment, the blink of an eye, at the final shofar. For the shofar will sound, and the dead will be raised to live forever, and we too will be changed. ~ 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

Six days later, Yeshua took Kefa, Ya‘akov and his brother Yochanan and led them up a high mountain privately. As they watched, he began to change form — his face shone like the sun, and his clothing became as white as light. ~ Matthew 17:1-2, CJB

There is nothing in the Holy Bible that is there just to take up space. The entire Holy Bible was given to believers in Christ Jesus so that God’s Holy Spirit could teach them God’s Truths, correct their human errors (including any misunderstandings they might have about biblical passages), convict them, and give them training in right living (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16). Now ALL Scriptures would mean that in order for the Holy Spirit to teach, to correct, to convict, and to train effectively, He must use even those verses that deal with those Jewish traditions, which God Himself established (i.e., Jews’ customs, culture, mandated biblical feasts, and etc.).

Furthermore, it is important to note here that one of the major problems most believers have with understanding, for example, when The Rapture of Christ’s Bride will take place is that they forget the Holy Bible basically is about what happens to God’s chosen Jewish people. That’s right! Most believers forget that the first-century apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers preached the Good News (Gospel) about salvation first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles (cf. Romans 1:16).

Most of today’s believers also have forgotten that God established the Jewish culture; the Jewish nation; the Jewish wedding customs, service, and ceremonies; the Jewish kosher foods, and that includes which food is sold, cooked, and/or when and where that food is eaten; the Jewish/Mosaic Law, which includes, but is not limited to, instructions about Sabbath-day observances and annually mandated seven feasts (cf. Colossians 2:16-17); all of the end-time prophecies concerning Israel and Christ Jesus, and so forth.

Moreover, in what has become the Holy Bible, God inspired mostly Jewish writers to record what thus saith God about His established Jewish customs, culture, commanded feasts, etc. Be that as it may. The sad truth is that more Gentile than Jewish believers do not carefully study Jewish customs, Jewish culture, Jewish history, Jewish feasts, and so on, before they try to understand the meanings of the literal and figurative words (language) used in any given biblical passage. By figurative language, this blogger means the copious figures of speech, such as idioms, imagery, metaphors, similes, symbols, hyperboles, allegories, parables, and so forth, which are used in the Holy Bible to explain or describe spiritual truths, prophetic events, and head-scratching mysteries about God and His chosen biblical men and women.

Case in point, there are so many published Christian and secular prophetic end-time studies, discussions, opinions, interpretations, understandings, and so on, about when The Rapture of Christ Jesus’ Bride will happen. Unfortunately too many of these parabiblical or extra-biblical sources (secondary writings; external commentaries on and paraphrases of the God-breathed, God-inspired Holy Bible) have confused, and continue to confuse, many believers, who consequently end up misunderstanding and misapplying God’s Truths.

For example, there are countless web pages and blog entries devoted to “trying” to prove that the apostle Paul’s last trump (last trumpet), which he mentions in 1 Corinthians 15:52, is the same as apostle John’s seventh trumpet, which he mentions in Revelation 11:15-19. In other words, these individuals do not believe in the pre-tribulation rapture. Instead, they believe that the day of The Rapture AND the Day of the Lord or Christ Jesus’ Second Coming are one in the same. Many if not most of these individuals believe that the Bride of Christ goes through the entire seven years of the Tribulation Period, even though the apostle Paul tells the Thessalonians that God never intended for Christ Jesus’ followers to experience God’s wrath (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:9), and even though apostle John writes that Christ Jesus will keep His faithful, obedient, patient, prepared, and watchful Bride of Christ from the Antichrist’s persecutions and God’s wrath (cf. Revelation 3:10). Without doubt these apostles are saying that the Body of Christ believers who are in Him are inside a kind of Ark that hasn’t been made by human hands, and this Divine Truth is why the Bride of Christ is allowed to escape the Tribulation Period!

For sure, there are many Messianic Jews and Christ-believing Gentiles who agree that the Feast of Trumpets primarily is a picture of The Rapture—the “snatching away” of the alive Bride of Christ. Yet, despite the fact that biblical Scriptures and Jewish traditions are in harmony with each other about the “last trump” or last trumpet being the shofar blast that marks the start of Yom Teruah or the Feast of Trumpets/Rosh HaShanah, many people still want to claim that the “last trump” is the seventh judgment trumpet in Revelation.

Then too, despite the fact that the Holy Spirit guided the many believers who have produced a wealth of parabiblical or extra-biblical sources that clearly show how God uses the Jewish traditions that He established to connect the dots, complete the pictures, of the controversial biblical passages that divide believers, many Christians still seem to gravitate toward only those understandings that are in harmony with theirs instead of toward the understandings that God wants them to have. Some of those controversial biblical passages are the ones that deal with the apostle Paul’s use of the phrase—the last trump.

For the record, according to Father God’s established Jewish traditions, there are three shofar (trumpet) sounds/blasts that indicate three specific days on the Jewish calendar. These three shofar sounds/blasts are called the First Trump, the Last Trump, and the Great Trump.

1. The First Trump is blown on the Feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) [Exodus 19:18-19], when God gave Moses the Law. The First Trump also symbolizes God’s betrothal to His Bride, who is all of the Jewish people. Where the Bride of Christ is concerned, on the Day of Pentecost, Christ Jesus also becomes betrothed to His Bride, who is the Jews and the Gentiles in Christ.

So then, the First Trump signifies the beginning of the betrothal periods for both God’s Bride (Israel, the nation as a whole) and Christ Jesus’ Bride (every believer who will become a member of the Body of Christ, a member of Christ Jesus’ ekklesiai (assemblies), a member of The CHURCH). Indeed, the 6th of Sivan, which is the Feast of Weeks/Feast of Pentecost, pictures the descent of the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the Bride of Christ/Body of Christ/The CHURCH.

2. The Last Trump is blown on the Feast of Trumpets, which is the 1st of Tishri. In fact the Last Trump is synonymous with Rosh HaShanah, as the Last Trump is a Jewish idiom for Rosh HaShanah, which originally was called Yom Teruah (the Hidden Day/the Day of the Awakening Blast/the Day of Shouting (Crying Voice; Loud Noise)/Feast of Trumpets). This feast day came to be called the Feast of Trumpets, thus, primarily because the “Teruah” sound of the Shofar is based on the sound of a cry or shout.

Moreover, the last trumpet blast on Rosh HaShanah, which actually is the last of the blasts made during the 30 days of Teshuvah (calls to repent or calls to return to God) that began in the preceding month of Elul, also is the first blast on Rosh HaShanah that begins the first day of the month of Tishri. Now, because this Last Trump actually is not blown on the last day of Elul, but rather on the first day of Tishri, this is why Rosh HaShanah is called the hidden day—the significance of this day is hidden primarily from Satan, which is why God does not give definitive reasons or detailed observance instructions for the Feast of Trumpets.

Then too, this Last Trump symbolizes the time when the resurrection of the dead will take place. On this day, the apostle Paul declares that the dead in Christ would be resurrected and their bodies would be changed (glorified), and then the alive in Christ believers would be snatched away off of this Earth, receiving their glorified bodies as they travel upwards to meet Christ Jesus and the resurrected dead in Christ believers on the clouds in the air (1 Corinthians 15:51-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Perhaps the above reasons also are why this last trump of the Shofar, on Rosh HaShanah, is meant to jolt Jewish people from their sleep—to awaken them to spiritual maturity, because after the next seven days comes the Day of Atonement. On the Day of Atonement, based on those decisions God made on the Feast of Trumpets, the destiny of every Jewish person, mainly if someone would live or die during the new year, would be sealed! For these reasons, Jewish people see the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh HaShanah as the rehearsal for the resurrection of the righteous dead and The Rapture.

Lastly, according to Jewish traditions, Genesis 22 is part of the Torah reading on Rosh HaShanah. This chapter deals with the Akedah, when Abraham bound Isaac and the ram caught in the thicket. This ram is important because its two horns have come to be called the Shofar’s “first trump” (left horn), and the Shofar’s “last trump” (right horn). Moreover, it is the ram’s horn that becomes the shofar blown on the Feast of Trumpets, which also is why Akedah is associated with Rosh HaShanah.

3. The Great Trump is blown on Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement, and it eventually will herald the coming of the Messiah Yeshua to Earth (cf. Matthew 24:29-31). In Jewish traditions, this literal coming of the Messiah, which we now know is His bodily return or Second Coming, is shown by Christ Jesus to be associated with the Jewish idiom for Yom Kippur. This time in the end times is the Day of the Lord, or the Day of Judgment—the day when judgment would be sealed!

For the Jews, the annual Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement has been a rehearsal for when Satan finally is defeated and bound in the bottomless pit at the end of the seven year Tribulation Period, and a rehearsal for when the Antichrist and his armies are destroyed, with the Antichrist and False Prophet being thrown into the Lake of Fire (their final judgment). The Day of Atonement also is a day of national atonement for the nation of Israel, which is why when the two days to the Feast of Trumpets are added to the seven Days of Awe leading to and including the Day of Atonement, their total (2 + 7 + 1) equals the 10 Days of Awe or the time of “affliction of the soul,” which prophetically seem to point to the last 10 days of the Tribulation’s horror (cf. Revelation 2:10-11)—a time when persecution and the threat of physical death will tempt the Tribulation’s believers to abandon Christ Jesus, out of fear and love for their own lives.

Consider these biblical similarities: There are seven years to the entire Tribulation Period, which ends with the Day of the Lord or Judgment Day (the Second Coming of Christ Jesus). There are seven Days of Awe, after the second day of the Feast of Trumpets, and these seven days lead to the Day of Atonement, which traditionally has been the Day of Judgment/Day of the Lord/Second Coming of Christ.

Additionally, think about this: When a Jewish Bride and Groom united in marriage, it was customary for them to remain in their wedding/bridal chamber for seven days, or 1 week. In the Hebrew language, shavuah is the word for “week,” but shavuah (week) can mean 7 (24-hour) days, 7 months, or 7 years. Therefore, it is very believable that the Bride of Christ would remain in Her bridal chamber with Christ Jesus, Her Jewish Groom, for the seven years of the Tribulation Period—the time of the increased and intensified birth pangs that Christ Jesus prophesies about in Matthew 24:8, 21.

Important to note here is that the wheat/sheep gathered from the four corners of the world are those elect or “choice” Tribulation survivors (Jews and Gentiles) who will enter into the 1,000 years of Christ Jesus’ kingdom reign on Earth, as those humans who repopulate the Earth. They are able to have children, because they do not have glorified bodies!

Those believers who already received their glorified bodies will no longer have the “human” capability to procreate, as the Lord Himself says that in Heaven neither men nor women would marry (cf. Matthew 22:30). Since God’s Law only permits MARRIED men and women to have intercourse, either that or the Holy Spirit overshadows a woman thereby impregnating her with a God-child, it should be clear that glorified individuals will not have children during the Millennium. Their bodies will be like Christ Jesus’ resurrected body (cf. Philippians 3:21), which allowed Him to appear before His disciples, minus Thomas, who out of fear met behind locked doors (cf. John 20:19).

Returning here to apostle Paul’s last trump, it should be noted that as a Jewish Pharisee and a descendant of Pharisees, Paul definitely would have understood that the phrase “last trump” is an idiom for Rosh HaShanah. Be that as it may; there are many Jewish and Gentile scholars who have concluded that the last trump or the Trumpet of God is only mentioned twice in the Holy Bible: 1. at Mount Sinai during the giving of the Law (Exodus 19:13, 19), when God called Moses UP to meet Him on top of the mountain. The Voice in v. 19 means God’s VOICE, which in Hebrew is qowl, a word that means “sound,” and, “like an instrument”; here a trumpet is understood, based on context; and 2. for the Rapture (in 1 Corinthians 15:52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16, as the Last Trump and the Trumpet of God are seen as being the same, since they both are blown right before the dead in Christ rise and receive their glorified bodies. After which the alive in Christ are caught up, and they receive their glorified bodies).

For the above reasons, many Jewish and Gentile scholars do not believe this Last Trump that apostle Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15:52 is the same as the 7th Trumpet of judgment in Revelation 11:15-19, since this 7th Trumpet brings death, and not life! This 7th Trumpet actually is seen as the Great Trump! For sure, if the Rapture’s Last Trump were the 7th Trumpet of Revelation, then that would be a rather peculiar situation for the Bride of Christ, as there would be no way that She could be seen as being delivered, saved, or rescued from the wrath of God at this point, no matter how His wrath is defined. Remember, in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, the apostle says that God did not foreordain Christians to suffer through the “wrath” of God, which primarily is the Great Tribulation or the second half of the seven-year Tribulation. Then too, the 7th Trumpet in Revelation is not even a literal last trumpet to be blown, as throughout the Lord’s reign for 1,000 years, many trumpets will be blown during the celebration of the Feast of Trumpets in the Millennial Temple.

Lastly, notice, too, that in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, there are three loud sounds. In Jewish traditions, these three sounds the apostle Paul speaks of in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 pertain to The Rapture. These three sounds are:

1. Symbolic of the herald who cries out that the Bridegroom is coming, which is confirmed by Jesus the Christ in the Parable of the Ten Virgins (cf. Matthew 25:1-13), is the loud cry heard as the Lord descends from Heaven. This loud cry awakes the sleeping virgins and lets them know it is time for them to get up and get dressed so that they’ll be ready to go, when the Bridegroom gets to their homes. Now the apostle says in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 that the Lord comes with a loud command, or a rousing cry, but he never says that it is the Lord Himself who makes the cry. Perhaps this ambiguity is why, in Jewish traditions, this cry is the equivalent of the awakening Shofar blast blown on the Feasts of Trumpets, which is the first trumpet sound heard on that day, of 100 blasts. Again, the first cry/shout in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 is to get those alive members of the Bride of Christ who have been sleeping to awake, get up, and be ready for the Groom’s return.

2. Symbolic of the voice that resurrects the dead is the shout from the ruling angel, or Archangel. His shout is similar to the same loud VOICE Christ Jesus uses in John 11:43-44 to call Lazarus from the grave. Thus, the second voice/shout is to resurrect the dead in Christ—those believers who are sleeping in their graves, like Christ said Lazarus was doing in his grave (cf. John 11:11). In essence, the voice of the Archangel will be shouting: Live! Arise! Ascend!

3. Symbolic of the last-blast sound of the shofar/trumpet, at the end of 30 days of Teshuvah, which also is the first-blast sound, at the beginning of Rosh HaShanah, calling the Jewish people to the Feasts of Trumpets (to their Wedding Feast), is the Trumpet (VOICE) of God or the Last Trump. The Trumpet (VOICE) of God or the Last Trump, hence, is the opposite of the First Trump. The First Trump signals the time when the Bride of God and the Bride of Christ became betrothed, which again was on the Day of Pentecost or 6 Sivan—Israel to God (cf. Exodus 24:3; Jeremiah 2:2; and Hosea 2:19-20); the Body of Christ to Christ Jesus (the moment each believer accepts Him as his or her Lord and Savior; cf. Romans 10:8-10). In other words, the First Trump sounds on 6 Sivan or the Day of Pentecost to signify the time when Israel, as an entire nation, and when the Body of Christ, with its many members, initially accepted their marriage contracts—said “I do.”

In contrast, the Last Trump sounds on the Feast of Trumpets, or the 1st of Tishri. This Last Trump signals the time when the alive Bride of Christ will be called (invited) to come through the open door of The Rapture in Matthew 25:10—called (invited) to the Wedding of Messiah (after which the open door shuts so that the marriage can be consummated in the bridal chamber, where the Bride and the Groom stay for seven days). The Trumpet (VOICE) of God or the Last Trump, thus, is blown on the day of The Rapture or Rosh HaShanah, which is the day and the hour that no one knows, because it is the day God Himself decides when it will begin. In other words, if He wants to, God will obscure the crescent moon (the sliver of the moon) of Rosh HaShanah from mankind’s view until He is ready for the crescent moon of this New Moon to be seen.

Put differently, it is after the first sliver of the New Moon is seen that the last trump (first blast of the Rosh HaShanah shofar/trumpet) is blown. This truth means that sometimes the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh HaShanah or Yom Teruah) could begin when the day is almost half over. So because the Feast of Trumpets is the only one of the Jewish moedim (holidays) that begins on a New Moon, which falls 29.5 days after the last New Moon, this truth also is why Rosh HaShanah is the hidden day, the day no humans, no angels, and not even Christ Jesus Himself would know when it will begin. In other words, because this New Moon of Tishri comes 29.5 days after the last New Moon, this 29.5 days’ fact is why this New Moon of Tishri could occur on the 29th or 30th day of Elul.

Now the 29th of Elul really is the 28th day of that actual month, and the 30th of Elul really is the 29th day of that same month plus the 1st of Tishri. God designed it that the Jewish season of Teshuvah (a total of 40 days) would start on the last day of Av (1 day of Av + 29 days of Elul = 30 days). The remaining 10 days of Teshuvah are the 10 Days of Awe! Thus, it should be easy to see, then, how the 1st of Tishri truly is a hidden day, as it isn’t the 1st of Tishri until the crescent moon of the New Moon is sighted. For sure, God’s plan of concealment, hiding this day primarily from Satan, is the main reason why nobody knows for sure when Rosh HaShanah would actually begin, which is why Rosh HaShanah, or the Rapture, happens on the first day of the New Moon, which once again is concealed, hidden, covered most of that first day. Remember here too that a Jewish day is from sundown to sundown!

Once again, no man knew for certain when the day of Rosh HaShanah would begin, because the moon is concealed, hidden, covered.  This fact is why in ancient times the Jews had to wait until two witnesses saw the first sliver of the New Moon. Once the Sanhedrin Court leaders received the report from these two witnesses, they then would declare the beginning of the Feast of Trumpets.

The Feast of Trumpets also happens on a very historic date, as the 1st of Tishri is when the 6 days of Creation were completed, when Adam and Eve were created, when Sarah conceived Isaac, and so forth. More important, according to Jewish traditions, it was on Rosh HaShanah that Enoch was raptured—received his glorified body. It also is on this feast day that the Jews believe the day of the resurrection of the righteous dead happens. Perhaps these last two reasons, the day Enoch was translated and the day of the resurrected dead in Christ, are why God doesn’t give any specific reasons for celebrating this Feast of Trumpets, or The Rapture, and why both of these events are supposed to happen on a day and at an hour that no man knows.

Then too, according to rabbinical tradition, Rosh HaShanah is the day that the destiny of the righteous is written in the Book of Life, while the destiny of the wicked is written in the Book of Death. However, scholars say that most of the people’s names aren’t written in either book until Yom Kippur (the day when destinies are sealed), which is 10 days later.

Finally, since Rosh HaShanah is the time of the Messiah’s Wedding and the Day of Concealment (the hidden day), the Trumpet of God or Last Trump, which blows at the time of The Rapture, clearly is God’s VOICE sounding like the last or final shofar blast, or more important the last reminder to the Bride of Christ that She needs to be ready to receive Her glorified immortal body, which happens when She meets Her Lord on the clouds in the air. From there they enter into their Bridal Chamber in Heaven, where they’ll remain for seven years.

The bottom line is that even though God is the only One who knows for certain when the Rapture and every Feast of Trumpets actually begin, He uses plenty of Rosh HaShanah idioms, which clearly depict the same concealed, hidden, covered New Moon images. Thus, the Trumpet of God in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and Last Trump in 1 Corinthians 15:52 are God’s Way of verifying that while no one will know the exact day or the exact hour when The Rapture will happen, the Bride of Christ has been given enough Rosh HaShanah idioms for Her (every member in the Body of Christ) to know that The Rapture of the Bride of Christ will happen on some future Feast of Trumpets or Rosh HaShanah.

Indeed, when Christ Jesus says “…concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Matthew 24:36), He is using a very common Hebrew idiomatic expression that no doubt confirms for His disciples that their Lord will keep His promise to cover/conceal and keep His faithful, obedient, patient, prepared, and watchful Bride safe from the time of wrath that is coming soon upon the Earth. When He also tells His Jewish disciples to “…be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44), Christ Jesus is using just another idiomatic expression that lets them know that He’s coming to “snatch away” His Bride on a future Rosh HaShanah. The Lord left no doubt that He was describing for His disciples the day of Rosh Hashanah, which they knew was the rehearsal for the prophesied Natzal—the resurrection of the righteous dead, the “snatching away” (rapturing) of the Bride, the glorifying of mortal bodies, the Wedding of the Messiah, the consummation of the marriage, and the coronation of the King of kings. Their Jewish traditions clearly helped then to understand that Christ Jesus definitely is referring to the hidden day, which is Rosh HaShanah.

For sure, the Trumpet of God or Last Trump clearly also sets in order the end-time events that remain after The Rapture takes place. These are those prophesied end-time events that pertain to God’s final dealings with mankind on this present Earth. The Trumpet of God or Last Trump, then, is God Himself heralding those days to come that parallel the 7 Days of Awe (the Tribulation Period), which come before the annual Day of Atonement (the Day of the Lord or the Day of Judgment for Israel, and the entire world), and the Feast of Tabernacles (the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, which is organized and hosted by Father God).

Therefore, the meat and potatoes of why knowing Jewish traditions is necessary for understanding difficult and controversial biblical passages would be that not knowing the God established Jewish customs, culture, and mandated annual Feasts is a very big mistake, and an equally huge error is to not seek the Holy Spirit’s help in understanding how said traditions are related to the Holy Bible’s prophetic end-time events. It is obvious that having a working knowledge and understanding of these traditions will help believers, especially Gentile believers, to interpret correctly many if not all of the Holy Bible’s controversial passages that currently have too many different versions to yield any kind of harmony . . . oneness. A word to the wise should be sufficient! Amen!

 

Misunderstandings about ‘Thief in the Night’

19 Friday Jul 2013

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Thief in the Night

But you do know this: had the owner of the house known when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not allowed his house to be broken into. ~ Matthew 24:43, CJB

because you yourselves well know that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:2, CJB

However, the Day of the Lord will come “like a thief.” On that Day the heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will melt and disintegrate, and the earth and everything in it will be burned up. ~ 2 Peter 3:10, CJB

So remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and turn from your sin! For if you don’t wake up, I will come like a thief; and you don’t know at what moment I will come upon you. ~ Revelation 3:3, CJB

Look! I am coming like a thief! How blessed are those who stay alert and keep their clothes clean, so that they won’t be walking naked and be publicly put to shame! ~ Revelation 16:15, CJB

 

There is a common understanding that believers have about the Rapture, when Christ Jesus as the doting Bridegroom comes for His Bride, and about the Day of the Lord, when Christ Jesus as the angry King of kings also comes to destroy all of Israel’s enemies. The most common understanding is that the Rapture and the Day of the Lord both will happen at a time when EVERYONE is not expecting them to happen, just like a thief in the night who would come when no one expects him.

Some believers also see the Rapture as an event that could happen at any moment, because the Rapture supposedly sneaks up on EVERYONE, just like a thief in the night. Likewise, some believers also interpret the Day of the Lord as an event that could happen at any moment, because it too supposedly sneaks up on EVERYONE, just like a thief in the night.

Well, guess what? The Bible neither suggests/states that the Rapture will be unexpected for EVERYONE nor does the Bible suggest/state that the Day of the Lord will be unexpected for EVERYONE. On the contrary, Christ Jesus clearly implies that the Rapture ONLY will come as a thief in the night to the unprepared and unwatchful believers. Likewise, the apostle Paul clearly states that the Day of the Lord ONLY will come as a thief in the night to those individuals who are in “darkness”—to those very surprised ungodly and immoral unbelievers!

Concerning the time of the Rapture, Christ Jesus provides the following prophecy:

But when that day and hour will come, no one knows — not the angels in heaven, not the Son, only the Father. For the Son of Man’s coming will be just as it was in the days of Noach. Back then, before the Flood, people went on eating and drinking, taking wives and becoming wives, right up till the day Noach entered the ark; and they didn’t know what was happening until the Flood came and swept them all away. It will be just like that when the Son of Man comes. Then there will be two men in a field — one will be taken and the other left behind. There will be two women grinding flour at the mill — one will be taken and the other left behind. So stay alert, because you don’t know on what day your Lord will come. But you do know this: had the owner of the house known when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not allowed his house to be broken into.Therefore you too must always be ready, for the Son of Man will come when you are not expecting him. ~ Matthew 24:36-44, CJB

It is important to note here that when Christ Jesus says that “…the Son of Man’s coming will be just as it was in the days of Noach” (Matthew 24:37, CJB), He is not talking about His bodily return or Second Coming, when His feet split the Mount of Olives (see Zechariah 14:3-4, ESV). For sure, there is nowhere in Genesis that God speaks of His Son being physically on the Earth neither before, nor during, or after the time of the Flood, yet many people believe that Christ Jesus is speaking about His bodily return or Second Coming in the above Matthew 24:37 verse.

There is no mention anywhere in Genesis of Christ Jesus appearing in physical form to Adam, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, or Noah. Nevertheless, there still are obvious similarities between Enoch, who was snatched off of this Earth way before God’s Flood Judgment came, and Christ Jesus’ Bride, who will be snatched off of this Earth way before God’s Fire Judgment begins.

Be that as it may; what also is very telling in the above quoted Book of Matthew verses is that Christ Jesus is describing the Rapture, especially when He speaks of one man in the field being taken, while the other man is left behind; and when He speaks of one woman grinding flour at the mill being taken, while the other woman is left behind. More important, after creating these “taken” and left behind images, the Lord says to His disciples:

So stay alert, because you don’t know on what day your Lord will come. But you do know this: had the owner of the house known when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not allowed his house to be broken into. ~ Matthew 24:42-43, CJB

Christ Jesus is making it clear in these above verses that as long as His followers stayed prepared and watchful they would be ready for the Rapture, even though they won’t know for certain on which day the Rapture will happen. For this reason, He compares His alert and prepared followers to a homeowner who knows ahead of time when a thief was going to break into his home. Since the homeowner knows the day the thief plans to burglarize his home, it would be foolish of the homeowner to let the thief break in unexpected. That’s why the Lord says “…he would have stayed awake and not allowed his house to be broken into” (Matthew 24:43b, CJB). Now, since a thief usually likes to break into homes at night, because this is the time of day that most people are not awake and/or not watching over their possessions and family members, the coming like a thief in the night analogy should be easily understood.

For sure, in the “stay alert” verses, Christ Jesus is saying that the minute someone isn’t expecting the Rapture to happen that is when it will take place. This Divine Truth is why His genuinely faithful and obedient Bride will be those individuals who, because they are expecting the Lord to come and rapture them at any moment, will get prepared and stay prepared, as well as be watchful and stay watchful. On the other hand, those individuals who are not watching the signs of the times and who are not spiritually prepared won’t be expecting the Lord. As a result, they will be left behind, because it is to them that the Bridegroom will come as a thief in the night and leave them behind, primarily because they had no oil in their vessels. The five foolish virgins come to mind here.

Consider too what Christ Jesus says to the Messianic Community in Sardis. Apostle John writes:

…I know what you are doing — you have a reputation for being alive, but in fact you are dead! Wake up, and strengthen what remains, before it dies too! For I have found what you are doing incomplete in the sight of my God. So remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and turn from your sin! For if you don’t wake up, I will come like a thief; and you don’t know at what moment I will come upon you. Nevertheless, you do have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; and they will walk with me, clothed in white, because they are worthy. ~ Revelation 3:1b-4, CJB

In the above verses, Christ Jesus is telling His believers in the Messianic Community in Sardis that, if they don’t wake up, keep watch, remember (stick firmly to) and obey what they have received and heard, as well as repent, then to them He will come like a thief in the night. The implication here is that when Christ Jesus comes for His Bride, the members in the Messianic Community in Sardis who are producing “dead works” will miss the Rapture. In other words, these “dead-works” members will experience the Tribulation, as left behinders. The five foolish virgins come to mind here, too.

The point here is that the Rapture will not come as a thief in the night to prepared and watchful believers. The only people that the Rapture will sneak up on who will be those individuals who are not expecting the Rapture to happen before the Tribulation Period begins. These humans will be those people who spiritually are unprepared and unwatchful—not looking for Christ Jesus to be coming in the air on the clouds and/or not paying attention to the signs of end times that are happening in front of their eyes.

If they are unprepared on the day of the Rapture, it will be too late for them to get ready, which is the main reason why the five foolish virgins are left behind. The same reason also must be true for the man in the field and the woman grinding flour at the mill who are left behind (are not “taken”; are not received close or near to the Lord). Once again, the main reason why these left-behinders are not ready and are not watching for the Lord is because they did not work out their own salvation so that they would be prepared to wear their white linen robes of righteousness in Heaven (see Revelation 19:7-8, ESV). As a result, they will NOT walk with Him, clothed in white, because they will be unworthy (cf. Revelation 3:4).

Now, concerning the Day of the Lord coming like a thief in the night, the prophet Zephaniah describes the Day of the Lord the following ways: 

That Day is a Day of fury,

a Day of trouble and distress,

a Day of waste and desolation,

a Day of darkness and gloom,

a Day of clouds and thick fog, ~ Zephaniah 1:15, CJB

In the above verse, the Day of the Lord is referred to as that Day and a Day. However, depending on the English translations of other passages, the Day of the Lord also is called the Day, the Day of God, the Day of the Lord, the Day of the Lord Jesus, and the Day of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the New Testament, when the apostle Paul speaks about the Day of the Lord, at times he not only says that the Day of the Lord is NOT happening at any moment (is not imminent) but also he says that, on the Day of the Lord for some people, Christ Jesus is coming for them like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2, ESV; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, ESV). In other words, the Day of the Lord will be a time of great calamity for many people—primarily a time when the godless will be destroyed.

More important, at least as far as this blog entry is concerned, it should be apparent that the apostle in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 is speaking about two different events. Indeed, in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 the apostle speaks about the coming of their Lord, meaning His Second Coming, which Scriptures prove happens on the Day of the Lord, AND he speaks about them being gathered together, meaning when they meet the Lord in the air, which Scriptures prove is the Rapture. If these events were the same, he either would have said the coming of their Lord when they are gathered together, or he would have said the coming of their Lord OR them being gathered together. He did not say either one, because the Rapture and the Day of the Lord are not the same.

Concerning the Day of the Lord, it is clear that the apostle Paul agrees with the prophet Zephaniah’s description of that Day. However, the apostle is teaching the Thessalonians that the Day of the Lord is a time that ONLY means calamity for unbelievers, and this truth is why he assures the Thessalonians that the persecution they presently are experiencing doesn’t mean they missed the Rapture and, thus, are in the Tribulation. The apostle Paul tells them that “…God has not intended that we [believers in Christ Jesus] should experience his fury, but that we should gain deliverance through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah” (1 Thessalonians 5:9, CJB; the inserted bracketed words are this blogger’s emphasis). In other words, Paul emphatically is declaring that the Day of the Lord is not for the Bride of Christ, and he definitely is declaring to the Thessalonians that before the Day of the Lord could happen there would be the Great Apostasy and the revealed Antichrist.

Without a doubt, the reason why the apostle is saying to the Thessalonians that the Day of the Lord will not happen before the Great Apostasy and the revealed Antichrist happen is because he is making an important point, which is they would be long gone (raptured) before any of these events take place. The reason they will be raptured before these known Tribulation events happen is because God did not plan for His sons and daughters to suffer any of His prophesied wrath. Therefore, apostle Paul, especially in the Book of Thessalonians, obviously speaks about the Rapture and the Day of the Lord as two separate events that happen at different times.

Be that as it may. When it comes to understanding the Rapture of the Bride of Christ, unfortunately, only pre-Trib believers then and now see this event as being imminent—happening at any moment. Indeed, there can be no doubt that, because Christ Jesus knows that the Rapture should be understood as an imminent event, this is why He says to His disciples, “…you too must always be ready, for the Son of Man will come when you are not expecting him” (Matthew 24:44, CJB).

The point here is that for the Rapture to happen at a time when people won’t be expecting it to happen, these people would have to be unprepared and not watching for Him. Put differently, if the Rapture’s imminence isn’t what caused the disciples and first-century believers to get ready for it, then there would not have been any reason for the Lord to tell His first-century disciples, and by extension all believers, to stay prepared for it, as well as to be and to stay alert.

Clearly the Day of the Lord is not the day of the Rapture, because the apostle Paul does not instruct the Thessalonians to get prepared for the Day of the Lord, and he does not urge them to stay prepared for this event. He also does not urge them to stay alert; that is, he does not tell them to watch for the Day of the Lord. Now, while the apostle Paul no doubt knew that the Old Testament Scriptures suggest a near and far fulfillment of the Day of the Lord, he definitely is teaching the Thessalonians that the Day of the Lord happens at a specific point in the end times. For this last reason, the Rapture and the day of the Lord obviously cannot be the same event.

Concerning the identifiable future time of the Day of the Lord, once again, the apostle Paul says: “…For the Day will not come until after the Apostasy has come and the man who separates himself from Torah has been revealed, the one destined for doom” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, CJB). As God would have it, the apostle Paul’s specific time for the Day of the Lord is confirmed in the writings of the apostle John.

According to apostle John, the Antichrist (the man who separates himself from the Torah) won’t be revealed until he proclaims to be God, which happens at the midpoint (3½ years) of the Tribulation Period’s seven years (at the midpoint of Daniel’s 70th week). So then, what should be evident here is that the apostles are saying that the people who are aware of what the Scriptures say about the end times easily can count from the midpoint of the Tribulation Period the number of days that are left, until Christ Jesus’ bodily return or His Second Coming. Put differently, if people can count how many days are left before the Day of the Lord happens, then that would mean that the Day of the Lord not only wouldn’t be imminent but also wouldn’t be “unknown.” People would know the exact day when the Tribulation is scheduled to end, and thus would know when Christ Jesus’ bodily return would happen.

That is why, where the Rapture is concerned, believers must keep in mind that Christ Jesus says a couple of times that no one, except for Father God, would know the exact day or hour (see Matthew 24:36, ESV; Mark 13:32, ESV). It should be obvious that Christ Jesus isn’t speaking about the Day of the Lord or Judgment Day in these verses, but rather He is speaking about the Rapture of His Bride. The fact that Christ Jesus never explicitly says when the Rapture would take place no doubt is why He strongly suggests that His disciples must stay prepared and alert, expecting the Rapture to happen at any moment, just like the homeowner who expects the thief to be breaking into his home at any moment is prepared for the thief, and looking for him (cf. Matthew 24:36-44, ESV).

Now, if the Day of the Lord is the same as the Rapture, then the apostle Paul should have been urging the Thessalonians to stay prepared and alert, expecting the Day of the Lord to happen at any minute. Instead, he specifically tells the Thessalonians, and by extension all believers, that the Day (the Day of the Lord) won’t happened until after the Antichrist is revealed. Once again, it should be obvious that for the apostle Paul the Rapture and the day of the Lord are two separate events.

One of the ways the apostle shows the distinct difference between the Rapture and the Day of the Lord or the Day is when he says “…you, brothers, are not in the dark, so that the Day should take you by surprise like a thief” (1 Thessalonians 5:4, CJB). The apostle is saying here that ONLY those individuals who are in “darkness” instead of in the Light—only those ungodly and immoral individuals who never knew the Lord and/or are unaware of what the Scriptures say about the end of the Tribulation—will be those people who would not be expecting the Day of the Lord. As a result, the Day of the Lord will take these living in “darkness” people by surprise, just like a thief in the night usually would take people by surprise. Once again, the apostle is making it clear here that it is NOT true that EVERYBODY in the Tribulation will not be expecting the Day of the Lord on a specific day—it is not true that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night for EVERYONE.

The bottom line is that the Day of the Lord is not only going to be a Day of Judgment (a day of wrath; a day of vengeance), but also the Day of the Lord is going to be a Day of Deliverance—the time when God will save a remnant of Israel and thereby fulfill His promise that Israel would be saved (cf. Romans 11:26a, ESV). In other words, while the Day of the Lord is more of a time of judgment, the salvation dimension is still present. Indeed, the Day of the Lord also brings salvation to Israel, as a whole nation. However, this salvation comes after God’s enemies utterly are destroyed.

Once again, the severe wrathful part of the Day of the Lord happens at the end of the Tribulation Period, when Christ Jesus returns to Earth with His wondrous power to punish evil. After that, He then begins fulfilling all of God’s other end-times promises, minus the Rapture of the Bride of Christ, because this event already happened before the Tribulation Period (seven years) began! For this last reason, the apostle Paul urges the Thessalonians, and by extension all believers, to be encouraged, because they will not go through the Tribulation Period. This Divine Truth is why they will not be on the Earth when the Day of the Lord finally comes. The apostle writes:

Now, brothers, we want you to know the truth about those who have died; otherwise, you might become sad the way other people do who have nothing to hope for. For since we believe that Yeshua died and rose again, we also believe that in the same way God, through Yeshua, will take with him those who have died. When we say this, we base it on the Lord’s own word: we who remain alive when the Lord comes will certainly not take precedence over those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a rousing cry, with a call from one of the ruling angels, and with God’s shofar; those who died united with the Messiah will be the first to rise; then we who are left still alive will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will always be with the Lord. So encourage each other with these words. ~ 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, CJB

The Rapture surely is the hope believers in Christ Jesus must cling to, and they should use this HOPE to encourage one another.

Lastly, it should be clear by now that the common understanding of the Rapture and the Day of the Lord being the same event is instead a misunderstanding. Likewise, it should be clear by now that the common understanding of the Rapture and the Day of the Lord coming like a thief in the night for EVERYONE also is a misunderstanding. Christ Jesus makes it clear that the Rapture only will come like a thief in the night to those believers who are unprepared and who are unwatchful, and the apostle Paul makes it clear that the Day of the Lord only will come like a thief in the night to those people who live in “darkness.”

A word to the wise should be sufficient. Amen

For additional information about being prepared and alert, and about working out one’s own salvation, please read the following blog entries: Working God’s Perfect Will Out of Us; Being Changed from the Inside Out; and Separating Christ’s Saints from the Ain’ts.