NOTE: UPDATE 6/26/13 -- BELIEVE THE RAPTURE IS GOING TO HAPPEN ON A FUTURE FEAST OF TRUMPETS (ROSH HASHANA/YOM TERUAH) -- THE YEARS 2013-2016 BEING PRETTY SERIOUS ><>

Art used by permission by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992.
To order prints visit her "Revelation Illustrated" site.  
www.revelationillustrated.com

This is taken from a posting of mine from the Public Forums/Briefing Discussion at www.omegaletter.com on 10/13/07
(revised 1/6/8 & 6/22/08)

I was listening to a John MacArthur cd today called the Abomination of Desolation. Good cd, part of the Jesus is Coming 9 CD Wallet. He was talking about Israel going to lean on someone for peace, and then how the Anti-Christ would betray Israel, and turn on them at the Abomination of Desolation.

This is so true and this is so close to being a reality. Look at the Dynamics in the Middle East and Israel, Israel I think is beside herself in not knowing at all what to do, She is stumped. The Anti-Christ is going to make Her the deal of the century sooner or later, and deliver Israel from all their troubles and grant them peace, however we all know it will be a covenant of death that God says will be annulled.

I know everyone always says about Israel, never again, in referring to the Holocaust, but when Israel makes their peace deal with the Anti-Christ and he enters the new temple in Jerusalem and says he's God (Abomination of Desolation) There is going to be another Holocaust for Israel. It is going to happen again.

As far as the Rapture, I have to tell you, I've always been a bit skeptical about the Rapture, but the last two months I guess I would say, I'm fully convinced it is going to happen.

There is nothing anyone could do I think that could convince me otherwise. For maybe 7 years I've always thought the Rapture to be hard to believe. But with the major fundamental foundation of Daniel's 70 Weeks Prophecy - of knowing the exact time Jesus will return - compared to this verse in Matthew 24:44, "Therefore, be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." (Matthew 24:44) (Rapture)

Here are Two distinct/different Times:
           
            1.  One Return of Jesus is Knowable!!! 7 Exact/knowable/specific/identifiable/countable
                  Years from the Signing of a Peace Deal by The Anti-Christ with Israel.
            2.  One Return of Jesus is Un-Knowable!!! This return of Jesus is likened as to a thief
                  striking, occurring at an Unknown Time! 
                       
- Read of a lot of verses in Watching for Jesus to Return.

And also in comparing the Rapture to Matthew 25 (The Kingdom of Heaven) with the Parable of the Ten Virgins, of whom five virgins (Christians) were waiting for the Bridegroom (Jesus) - Jesus said that no one knows the day and the hour of His Return. This always makes people to go and run and hide and say, "See no one knows when Jesus is going to return, so who cares." However stopping here, and not going further/digging deeper into the Word, is paramount to spiritual suicide.

If we stop right there we would never understand the times, we would never take Jesus Words literally in Matthew 24 when he says, when You see and hear of Wars and rumors or Wars, earthquakes, famines... know that My return is Near - (All these thing increasing with intensity).

Let me paint the most Beautiful gem deep foundation that I can:

Jesus said that no one knows the day and hour of his return, only God knows. This may cause people to possibly to de-rail spiritually speaking of looking for Jesus to return, which is wrong because Jesus says to look for Him to Return.

Digging deep, we look at Matthew 25

The Church/Jesus relation is analogous to a Bride/Bridegroom relationship, in the Parable of the Virgins, in keeping the Bride/Groom relationship between Jesus and the Church, The BrideGroom (Jesus) does not know when He is to go and get His Bride (The Church) to bring to the New Heavenly Holy City Jerusalem I would say, because the Father is the one who would tell the Son when to go and get the Bride. So that is why Jesus said he didn't know when he was going to return, only His Father did. (In The Parable of The Ten Virgins, When the Bridegroom goes to get His Bride at an un-announced time, it is the Father who tells the Son when to go and get the Bride - The Parable is likened to a Jewish Wedding in this is how this happens and this exclaims a Kingdom of Heaven Spiritual Truth)

So this is why the Rapture is totally real, totally important in having the right footing in living life the Christian life. Otherwise the Christian life would just become aimless. We always have to be on the alert, with oil in our lamps, in watching for Jesus to Return "Therefore, be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh." (Matthew 24:44) This is the Rapture.

I can say this with 1000% certainty, Because we know the exact date Jesus is going to return to earth. We know this because God has laid out a specific period of time of working out Israel's Final Restoration which will occur at the end of the 70th Week of Daniel's Prophecy, given to him by the Archangel Gabriel. The 70th Week begins when the Anti-Christ signs a 7 Year Peace Deal with Israel and "The Many" Finishing/Finalizing, Human History/and Israel's Restoration.

7 Years!!!!! That's a specific amount of time, starting right at the signing of a peace deal. Versus being commanded to watch for Jesus to return, and to be ready.

If there's not a Rapture, we can all just sit back and wait for the Anti-Christ to just sign a 7 Year Peace Deal, then we can get out our calendars, and mark off 7 years to the Day, and that will be when Jesus will be back. So we'll definitely know the time of Jesus Return. I think what I'm trying to say is: we shouldn't marginalize the Rapture

From a Spiritual Point of View, The Rapture can't be marginalized, because it is the most vital part of a Christian's walk and life with the Lord, in always keeping loyal and faithful - Jesus could Return at any Moment on any day - and it's a Blessed Hope.

The Rapture also helps us to understand the times and gives us the proper orientation towards Biblical Truth, in knowing that we are definitely living in the end of days - I would even say the end of the end of days, and we are to live always being Ready For Jesus To Return :)

With all the evidence from: Knowledge explosion, to air travel, to earthquakes, to WWI and WWII, And to the Sleeping Giant of them all, - Nuclear Weapons - that can destroy the whole world:

The Teaching of The Rapture keeps the Bible/Bible Prophecy in Proper Focus :)

God's Blessings!
Marantha!
 

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Apart from the above we have this:

Isaiah  26:20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. ²¹ For, behold the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

These two verses seems to be speaking of the Rapture too.  What the above verses give a good indication of saying is this:  God is saying to the People/Jesus Bride, He Just Raptured, Go to Your Mansions in the New Heavenly Holy City Jerusalem, while I judge/destroy the earth for their rebellion/sin and failure to embrace my Son as their Salvation for Eternal Life.

The Rapture is real and it is going to happen!

God's Blessings,

Vic :)
 

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One other cool thing, is that a lot of people may say, well the Rapture is all made up, the word is not even in the Bible.  This is bad scholarship to say this and a bad theological interpretation.

Let's look at where the word Rapture comes from in the Bible:

1Thessalonians 4: 16-18

¹⁶ For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ will rise first:

¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

¹⁸ Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Let me quote Todd from www.raptureready.com from his article, which is linked to on the previous page.

The word “rapture” comes from Paul's "caught up" remark in verse 17. The words “caught up” are translated from the Greek word harpazo, which means "to carry off," "snatch up," or "grasp hastily." The translation from harpazo to “rapture” involved two steps: first, harpazo became the Latin word raptus; second, raptus became the English word “rapture.”

So to be honest we can just translate verse 17 this way:  ¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be Raptured up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.